hi there, everyone. it is 4:00 in the east. a resounding win at the ballot box for democrats yesterday calls into question the big gop bet on sacrificing democracy in service of the disgraced ex-president thatten cited an inrecollection. the landslide win for melanie stansbury in new mexico provides clear evidence of a biden effect. it turns out being on the side of economic recovery, pandemic relief, vaccines and protecting democracy might be a winner with voters. she defeated the republican opponent who ran on crime and tried to paint her as soft on law and order. more than 20 points. and while the decisive victory of course cannot be extram

lated, politico reports that it's enough to ease the party's fears of a closer result that could have protended a brutal midterm next year. added this, democrats hailed the comfortable win that the base enthusiasm did not wane and that the gop's doubling down on defunning the police attacks backfired. one of the central arguments on policy that the gop tested as a strategy is the attack after attack against biden and his agenda. it's fallen flat in the polls. the atempts to kneecap this president and the party are especially evident in a new round of public opinion polling. the poll also shows president biden pulling above 50% on every major issue voters were asked about. 70% of voters approve of the coronavirus response. 62% approve of his performance on the economy and stimulation

of job. 61% approve the approach to governing with the essential job function there and issues essential to republicans attacks against biden and down ballot democrats light dealing with violence and crime. 56% of those polled approved of president biden. it's not an accident as white house chief of staff klain aknowledged on this program last friday. the job he promised the american people he would do, repair the divisions, govern and get work done in washington. just in the last hour meeting one on one with republican senator capito to talk infrastructure, what the the white house sees as the surest path to save the democracy from the clutches of the gop. and politically it is hardly surprising that's the strategy.

biden and the work and the policies overwhelmingly embraced by the vast majority of the country with republicans failing repeatedly to coalesce around a line of attack on policy. the best hope they may have left is to cheat, rewrite the rules and make it harder to vote. to scheme to way to a victory that's increasingly difficult to win based on hearts and minds. this is where we start with some of our favorite reporters and friends. white house reporter jonathan lami ree is here, charlie sykes and donna edwards is here. donna edwards, both parties tend to extrapolate too much from a win or a loss but this size of her win seems to be a sure sign as if we needed another that the republican attacks just aren't landing. >> i think that's true and also

i think if you look at special elections it is particularly hard to get voters to turn out in a special election. i ran in one in a summer and it is like pulling teeth to get voters to the polls so i think democrats are heartened not only did they have the right message, they had momentum and able to raise resources that it took to turn voters out and then a candidate in stansbury who ran closely woven to the biden agenda which as it turns out is popular with the american people. and republicans just had nothing really to throw up against it except a tired old worn-out defund the police strategy that just didn't work in this special election so i think that bodes well for the way that democrats need to run in the fall and the president demonstrated not only

is he willing to go on the road but selling the agenda to the american people buying it and wrapping themselves up with a popular president they can beat the odds of the upcoming election. >> jonathan, this white house is so discipline and so loathe to get sucked in to inside the beltway debates, whether it was keeping the head down during the second impeachment trial of the ex-president, really speaking using the president i think to weigh in yesterday on voting rights, brewing for many weeks now and they have the polls to point to. they have something that ab stoddard mentioned at the beginning of february that what this president and the white house would have would be a needling in the arm. a check in the account. tangible outputs. i want to read reporting about

the stimulus checks. a survey argue that is the two latest round of aid improved the ability to buy food and pay household bills and reduce depression with the largest benefits to the poorest households and those with children. reports of food shortages fell 42% from january through april. a broader gauge of economic instability fell 43%. depression fell by more than 20%. one of the most i think startling signs really in the pandemic were the cars lined up at food banks. this white house went right into the belly of the beast that was the depair of the pandemic and the economy and seems to have significant and notable and noticeable outputs already. >> yeah. there's a striking contrast to be made for president obama when joe biden was his vice president, when he took office

in 2009 after the great recession, the stock market meltdown, he and his team also had a giant stimulus package and worked to resuscitate the economy but it was very slow going and as former obama aides said to me more than once what they did worked but it was still hard to show the american people. it was more like instead of we fixed things but we stopped it from get worse and then a slow recovery and took months and years before results of things are better and helped cost the democrats during the midterm elections in 2010. this white house has a different scenario. they were able to show tangible results right away. first of all, here's the vaccine and the country seems to spring back to life in the last couple of weeks once the mandate of the mask was changed by the cdc and seeing the stimulus checks and

the hopeful signs about the market. but these are positive developments. the white house is selling. and reaping the benefit just this president is very popular. up in the 50s and some polls in the low 60s. a mark that president trump certainly never reached when he was in office so they feel like they're delivering for the people and the best argument to buck the historical trends that the party in power loses seats at the midterm election and wouldn't take many for the democrats to lose control of the house but they have a long way to go and thornier issues are ahead. >> charlie, one of the times about history bucked when i worked in the white house in '02 and an unprecedented period after 9/11, a crisis, i think experienced in a way -- in some way that is parallels the crisis

of the pandemic. every aspect of life changed. we spend a lot of time sort of down the right wing rabbit hole justifiably because right wing extremism is a national security threat but the politics of what they are doing to me is less important but just as confounding. they seem to be on a shipping ship politically and phillip bump writes this. the republican party declined to actually form late a policy platform. one result is that the party almost necessarily remains beholden to that same vague aim. last month i noted the increasing frequency of candidates that don't articulate a platform besides the left is bad, a tenet of trumpism. not running on anything has some

benefits. you can shoot from the hip why when you run against a president who has a plurality of support on the economy and foreign affairs, crime and violence, immigration, you are in a historical hole i think as a republican party. no? >> well right. you mentioned 2002, 1998. relatively recent examples where the pattern was broken. could i mention the contrast of what you talk about -- having a moment of contrast today where you have the successes of the biden administration where the economy is coming back, you have the needles in the arms and down in the orange versailles in mar-a-lago the president canceled has just canceled his blog because apparently so upset that he was mocked because no one was reading it so it's a moment. i would say this. despite the good news that you have mentioned it is still

early. there's advantages that republicans are counting on including reapportionment and some things that i think that the democrats need to keep an eye. there are some challenges coming for the biden administration. keeping inflation in check. whether we're going to see a continued uptick in crime, particularly urban murder rates. i certainly would caution democrats not to underestimate the impact of the defund the police issue in swing districts. may not have mattered in the new mexico district but it might play differently in the swing district that is will determine control and then the big challenge of gridlock and whether or not democrats will grow frustrated if in fact you don't get action on voting rights, on the infrastructure and on other issues like that. so even though right now i think that joe biden continues to enjoy an extended honeymoon

there are some real challenges ahead and they may come from both the right and the left. >> what's your advice, charlie sykes? >> get it right. deliver. ron klain is right. they will be judged. focus on the pandemic, on the economy. try to get things done. and i think that those are the kinds of things that are within his control. what's not is how crazy the republicans get and the analogy to 2002 is really important to focus on because it is possible that republicans are counting so much on the midterm elections to win that they're down playing the fact that they are doubling down on the crazy, they are indulging the most lunatic elements of their party and are putting up candidates who may be potent in a primary but the

disaster in a general election. if republicans continue to behave the way they are, and there's no indication that they're showing any sort of willingness to break with donald trump who, by the way, becomes more deranged almost by the day. >> donna edwards, look, i don't have a crystal ball. after 2016 i stopped making predictions so i have no idea what will happen but the parallels to 2002 also include the threat of terrorism. sadly tragically this time it's domestic violent extremism and the fbi director said it's tied to white supremacy but the republican party is at best indifferent to that threat so there's also a security question about whether this republican party is interested in protecting the american people. >> we know that a majority of the american people, not a majority of republicans, really

do believe that january 6 signaled a real threat, a domestic terrorism threat. they believe that it's real. we don't know what will happen between now and then. we wish everyone safety, the american people's safety. but these people are out of control and they're not being held at baby republicans. but i think the strategy for president biden and he's been very good keeping the eye on the ball, doing what he needs to do and as charlie says what is in his control. and republicans -- i don't know how long they continue with the crazy. maybe it's right up through the midterms when they lose that they finally try to regroup but joe biden is not going to play that game. he's going to keep a lookout for the american people here. he is going to look to re-establish america's place in the world. and he is going to continue to focus on things that the

american people want. i think that this negotiation that he's in now with shelly moore capito, she is a straight shooter, she knows infrastructure and he's going to demonstrate that he wants to try to work with republicans and you know what? if they reject that, then the american people will see it and i think for joe biden it will give him a window into what those next steps might be which might leave republicans completely out of pocket. >> yeah. jonathan, i think don in's talking about bipartisan in the spirit of which the president views bipartisanship. it is worthwhile to him. i think as someone that just believes in his bones that there should always be an effort to govern in a bipartisan matter. and good for him politically. charlie's talking about swing districts where some issues may help republicans why what voters

typically want is bipartisanship. and so this president is really sort of laying brick after brick after brick of being someone who is not this socialist that fox news tries to paint him as in their evening hours. more days than you would imagine. it's someone who genuinely is seeking bipartisanship governing which really is a bull work against the weirdest attacks and i think part of why they're not working. >> i think that's right. this president has a lot of motives to try to be bipartisan. number one is he is someone that present three plus decades in the senate. worked across the aisle. the senate he's so familiar is not the senate we have today. far less cooperation. but he still believes and campaigned that he is work with republicans and believes in the institution of the federal government so that's number one.

number two, obviously they did -- things with easier at 60. you don't need a path for reconciliation. just like a hard infrastructure program. bridges, highways, broadbands. the president is meeting with senator and just ended and we'll learn what was discussed and it is politically beneficial to look like he is bipartisan. voters like that. americans especially in those swing districts want you to try to look like you work across the aisle. and then lastly dealing with moderates in the party, manchin and sinema reluctant to work via reconciliation and want a good faith effort on bipartisanship. the president can say i can't work with the republicans. they won't go for the january 6

commission. how can we work on voting rights? perhaps that satisfies the moderate democrats that say he tried. we will have to go it alone. >> charlie, do you still think that the old rules about a big tent apply to politics? it certainly is part of how president biden became president is part of how he won in november. but there's so much focus, including on programs like this one of the extremes of both parties. do you think he sees something that we miss in the daily political conversations? >> i think he does see that and the possibility of a coalition of the decent being able to align people who are politically homeless. maybe he is naive dealing with the united states senate. we'll find out but i think that jonathan is absolutely right. he wants to get caught trying to do that. what is certain is that the republicans have given up on the

idea of the big tent and you saw that by the expulsion of liz cheney and dramatic way as possible telling republicans that cared about the rule of law and constitutionalism they didn't have a place in the republican party so can joe biden make them feel comfortable enough to at least temporarily align with democrats in the midterm elections and in 2024 and it is a huge challenge given the polarization of the politics and the fact that he's been successful keeping progressives in line. a question i have is if he did strike a compromise with senator capito on the infrastructure, would other democrats feel that he's caved in? would he have the support of his own party? would it be seen as a sign of weakness? i think it would be a huge political triumph to get a

bipartisan vote on that but he has to be looking over his shoulder and i think there's a possibility of a big tent but it is more difficult with each passing year. >> donna, i will say that the progressives are in on the joke. they understand that if democrats lose control of the house and senate not one of the policy aims is achievable. i give you the last word on this question. >> they do understand. i was there when we lost that gavel. people understand losing the chairmanships and the ability to shape legislation. it's very near and present. i think there are a lot of progressive who is are pragmatic about this. they want a deal struck that they can support. i think, for example, try to move some of these things around that i feel strongly about into reconciliation and sticking with

a broad enough infrastructure package is not going to run the ire of progressives who understand what it means to lose power and don't want to be in the minority again. >> charlie, donna, thank you for starting us off today. it is great to hear from both of you. jonathan is sticking around. whatever it takes. president biden calling june a month of action getting help from just about everywhere to make sure 70% of adults will be vaccinated. that help from beer makers, churches, celebrities and social influencers. another cyber attack to the u.s. russia sets out to exploit the divisions and vulnerabilities. plus, is the growing right wing extremism here at home contributing to this slow march toward autocracy abroad?

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mirror. if you're thinking that the side effects from the shot are worse than the covid or that you can't just take a chance -- you're just dead wrong. do it for yourself. do it to protect those more vulnerable than you. please. do your part. give it your all through july fourth. let's reach the 70% goal. let's go into the summer freer

and safer. >> that was president biden today outlining plans for increased outreach, education and access designed to boost vaccinations in this country this month as part of a national month of action. the president announcing that his vice president, vice president harris will lead a national tour to encourage people to take the shots and 24-hour vaccination sites. an initiative for black owned barbershops and salon owners to be advocates and free drop-in child care for parents getting the vaccine. plus president biden along with anheuser-busch announcing free beer if we reach the july fourth goal of 70% of all u.s. adults at least partially vaccinate jd the number is at 63%. joining the conversation dr. osterholm at the university of minnesota. jonathan lemire is still with us. doctor, how are you feeling

about the progress and where things stand in this country and whether it's sort of safe to stop feeling scared of resurgence? >> first of all i have to say that i never imagined in my lifetime talking about the vaccinator in chief. you must give him credit to deliver the doses of vaccine they have but not giving up on getting people vaccinated even when the numbers are coming down so from that standpoint i appreciate the leadership. as far as where we're at in this country we are in a sense somewhat of a tale of two cities. for the vast majority of us vaccinated the numbers are coming way, way down and this is incredible news. on the other hand if you look at those people not vaccinated, and in a very wonderful piece down by "the washington post" a little over a week ago they showed that among unvaccinated individuals these are the ones still keeping the numbers up

there and still seeing 500 deaths a day, 20,000 cases a day. it speaks to the fact that we have to continue to push getting people vaccinated. we have eight states right now in this country that are less than 40% of the population is even received a single dose so we have to really concentrate on those areas and that's going to keep us from seeing regional surges. >> i have talked to this white house a lot about their theory of the case on vaccine hesitancy, not being hard core anti-vaxxers and believe it's sort a sphere of influence. i believe that's behind the initiative. what do you think gets us to the final 70% and beyond that would be a protective level of vaccinations to protect or ward against a variant making the way here again? >> as we know, those that wanted

vaccine early on did everything they could to get it. now we have the remaining individuals that haven't been vaccinated and there's not one reason why. there are pregnant women concerned of what will be the impact on the unborn child. there are those that think about operation warp speed and the fact it is not an approved vaccine. there are those that are convinced that you'll have more harm to yourself by getting the vaccine. so i think you have to take on every one of the groups one by one by one and answer the questions. the fact that they will be fully licensed and i think this is beginning to help us. finally just the data is so compelling about the protection among those vaccinated and the safety and starting to see melting right now of that

vaccine hesitancy. i'm actually more confident now that we are going to see the numbers continue to creep up over the weeks and months ahead. >> do you see the vaccines being approved for emergency use for children before the end of the summer? >> i do. i guess i don't know end of the summer. we heard from the companies they expect to submit information to the fda for 2-year-olds and older by september. and potentially shortly after that for 6 months to 2-year-olds. i'm optimistic that we will have vaccine for everyone going to school and largely going to day care and will help us a great deal and then at that point to vaccinating the kids it even becomes more compelling why everyone else in the family should be vaccinated. where do you come down on vaccine passports?

we have a patchwork of different states with different political philosophies on them. what's the best science on vaccine passports? >> let me just take a step back and tell you i come from the state of minnesota and the first to enlist nonsmoking locations in restaurants and bars and at the time everyone said they will go under. in fact the 70% of people that didn't smoke didn't go to bars and restaurants because of the smoke and once those restaurants basically were made nonsmoking there's an overwhelming response and people flocked to the bars and restaurants. i can tell you i talked to many friends and colleagues saying man would i love to go to a restaurant or bar or theater where i knew everyone in there had been vaccinated. not trying to say to people not vaccinated you have to have a different life. you don't have to get vaccinated but make it safe to go to the

places and the vaccinations are highly effective. i do want to go to a place where others have also been vaccinated. i think you're going to see more public pressure over time for where that will happen. people want to go on the a cruise. everybody's been vaccinated. they want to fly on an airplane. be in a plane where everybody's vaccinated. i think the 70% or more vaccinated will start to drive public policy in ways we haven't seen happen yet. >> jonathan, the white house has been so focused on depoliticizing the covid policies and all of its pronouncements. passport seems like the next front that republican governors are politicizing. is there an idea to enhance -- you can make it noncommercial to

not have the information in some places but is this an area to stay out of? >> it was last week, secretary mayorkas spoke positively of an idea of a vaccine passport used by the administration and caught people's attention. it was so different and we pressed white house press secretary jen psaki immediately afterward and the white house reiterated that's not the case, not something that the administration was looking to do, at least not now, but private organizations are doing so. we know that the nba playoffs are up right now and the games are offering sections for the vaccinated and major league baseball and we also have seen the numbers tick up for the first shot in recent weeks once the cdc changed the mask guidelines and there was even though at the time not seen as we'll change the mask guidelines

so more people get vaccinated as an incentive but some have chosen to do so. the white house is happy to hear that and of course looking to broaden and creative ways incentives for people to be vaccinated by allowing you to say you were vaccinated or on a dating site or a free beer thanks to the promotion by anheuser-busch today. they're willing to pull out a stop to get more shots in arms. >> doctor, i want to switch gears completely. michael gordon of "the wall street journal" last week talked about the investigative journalism. how important is it to this president's mission to take the politics out of the pandemic period to turn the intelligence communities to get the answers and making them public to the country and the world?

>> let me provide perspective. i served on the board for federal organization to oversee laboratory safety from 2005 to 2014. and i actually was one of the individual that is called into question some of the research with influenza viruses and potentially making them dangerous and would they leak out of the labs so i come at this from a natural inclination to think lab accidents can and do happen. but having said that i think that what we are seeing happen right now is not new information. it's basically weaponizing in a sense old information that's very incomplete with the idea that more people in the science world speak out because a year ago to speak out meant that you were supporting the president in this approach so i saw scientists backing off of that issue. still unclear whether or not there's a potential laboratory leak from the wuhan lab.

i can say with certainty that this is not an engineered virus that's man-made efforts to make it worse or was something that emerged from the animals? remember how the virus is already not just jumped to humans but look at how many animals we have infected. dogs, cats, gorillas, ferrets, rabbits. this is good at jumping so i think the verdict is still out. i don't know if we'll ever find out and to me it doesn't really matter other than the fact we have to understand laboratory safety for all viruses is huge but also is the fact that the animal kingdom is out there today. we're seeing new influenza viruses emerge right now. most people don't realize the fact that right now we have upwards of over 32 billion chickens on the face of the earth. half of all the body weight of

birds in the world is a chicken. 390 million pigs. all on the phase of the earth to feed the population and all comingled and spill viruses like flu as it could be the next pandemic. so i think we have to take both laboratory safety and the potential for a natural spillover very seriously and this is the wakeup call for that. >> and guarantees to continue to turn to you for expertise why thank you so much for making time for us today. >> thank you. next hour, dr. fauci will join us for more. what comes next in the fight to defeat covid and prevent another pandemic? breaking news from israel which could put an end to benjamin netanyahu's 12-year run as prime minister there. more on that next. more on that next.

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a potentially historic moment right now in israel where opposition parties reach add deal to form a government and oust prime minister netanyahu. the coalition which consists of anti-netanyahu party from the right and left and expected to take power in the next few day just putting an end to net nets's tenure as israel's longest serving leader. he held the post of prime minister for 12 years.

joining us now is ben rhodes. an author of "after the fall." jonathan lemire is still with us. ben rhodes, your reaction first to the breaking news out of israel? >> it's a fascinating moment to just put this in context. israel had four elections after which people were not able to form a coalition. finally this group succeeded. it is a very ek electric group in the sense that you are lapid who's the leader of the separatist who's a centrist, more secular israeli. he agreed to sacrifice the prime ministership to bennett who's a more hard line right wing figure who's not favored a two-state solution, used to be an ally with netanyahu and broke when gym lapid to be prime minister after bennett and only got over the hurdle with the support of

an islam coalition. this will be a fragile government. possible it doesn't reach the end of the man date and israel has to turn to another election some point but the headline is that netanyahu's tenure is over. clearly he united a degree of the israeli political spectrum against him and he faces corruption charges and one of the forces behind this coalition government was the belief that netanyahu is using the prime ministership to shield himself from prosecution under corruption charges but i think netanyahu exiting the stage is going to open up israeli politics in new and interesting ways and at the same time he's going to continue to be a figure there but contend like the very close friend and ally drmpb is in the united states with the criminal indictment he is under. >> talk about how this changes

israel's relationship with the world, including the u.s. >> i think the reality is it's unlikely that there are going to be big changes on things like the iran nuclear issue because bennett is a right wing figure. but also because this is a very tenuous government. right? not a strong majority that can make big movers like something on the palestinian issue. so i think this will be a government that probably focuses more on israel's domestic issues and have the building tension that we have seen around the palestinian issue and an american government in joe biden's administration seeking a reentry into the iran nuclear agreement. if bennett is not a fan of that agreement, netanyahu made a policy that he opposed that

diplomacy and likely easier for the biden team on that issue but this is a transitional moment in israel away from a netanyahu dominated era and we have to wait and see what the future looks like, lapid's centralism and bennett's more hard line approach which is a continuation of what we have seen under netanyahu. >> jonathan, is there any reaction from the biden white house yet? and two, it's made clear to me that the president navigated the conflict there with a relationship with netanyahu. any reporting on his relationship with the new leadership team? >> no reaction yet from the white house. officials were pressed repeatedly as to weigh in on the situation and chose to say

they'd wait for the results and coming soon as well as we'll soon learn about the relationship that president biden has with his new counter part in israel and beneficial to step back and we saw how the president handled a crisis in israel. the violence with hamas and in gaza. where he knew because of the relationship with netanyahu and the understanding of the situation to give them some time, couldn't immediately call for a cease-fire. he had to say that israel was exhibiting the right to defend itself after being rockets rained down from hamas on israeli buildings and citizens. that he had to give them time to do that and then steadily mostly behind the scenes ramped up the pressure saying this is time to end. you are losing support internationally. only so much longer i can cover for you and an example of as they the white house aides say

quiet, intense diplomacy and an interesting new chapter and one that ben can speak to as we saw that the biden predecessor donald trump couldn't align himself more closely with israel and netanyahu in particular. so this is going to be certain lay new moment for relations between the two long time allies. >> we'll all watch it together. ben and jonathan aren't going anywhere because ben has written a haunting and brilliant new book about whether or not he thinks the united states has played a role in the assault on democracies seen around the world. we'll tell you about it when we come back. ack.

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ties it with right-wing extremism right here at home, writgt -- america helped shape of world beforejf descending in the trump years.fá and a hughes swal oft( american sole, or q aknownxd conspiracy÷ theories,çó positing, that it's- at precisely the time that progress i have forces were underfá siege, it absented itse from the siege, it absented itse from the i want to read many, manylp pagó and i want to start with this. this is about president biden. where you think -- here was a fundamentally decent man whose main message qr

america was bet4" message he clearly believed deeply. but because there was noçó obam while trump and republicans across thee1( and tried to make9 it moreñi difficult to volesh with tacticá that too many americans refutesedt(

and literally, you know, with texting before he went bac tohe russia, knowing he would b thrown in prison, he need exactly what he was walking into. it was quite emotional, finishes this book around the time of the election. you could sense what i write ini that passage, that this is the work of, all of us, and the mistake we sometimes make in ak politics, media, is we become s focused on the persoson at the t top, whether it's barack obama or donald trump, or joe biden, that we forget that america is about doing the work, and there is, an a gap between the realit

america and the ideals that we aspire to, but the only way we close that gap, it's by having the civil society that just insists that we're not going to do this. to that to me was so inspired about the election, how many people did the work. >> you write this. this unkut anden patriotic and misogynistic and ran the country, that underneath it sita a country sort ofth addicted to disinformation, and hellbent on

sort of the things that divide us. can wedivide fix it with half o country addicted to disinformation and am bivalent about democracy? >> not quickly, nicolle.uick the places i look at in hungary that mirrors -- and deeply entrenched. with the putin regime that's taking the tools of american social media and used them to with the of deciding us and polar icing us and helping the radical right wing in terms of radicalizing -- we have to acknowledge that this is is going to beat with us for a lon time. january 6th, for many of us, an that's when we thought we had hit bottom. but look at the actions -- that's not how the majority of r

the people in this country around theis world want to liveo people have higher expectations, and people are aware of this trend that's impacting people everywhere, and looking squarely at where we've gone wrong shoulr compel us to love what america is supposed to be, and that multie neck democrat sick that the world needs us to be. t they need ano example that we n set. because we have kind of fallen, we're recognizable. we're battling the same demoning that people are battling. if we can overcome them, i think we'll be able to set once again a very powful example, and, you know, nicolle, you were focus on this is so important. we can debate the finer points of policy, and pay attention to

the political controversy oftt e day. this is the one thing we can't afford to get wrong. i'm glad you have remained very focused on it yourself. >> no. i mean, it's a conversation all three of us will continue to th have. if you believe recovery starts withie admitting you have a adm problem, you have to read this book to understand and really appreciate the scope of the problem we have.lem we ben rhodes, congratulations on the book. it's, as i said, haunting is the best word i can come up for it. jonathan, thank you for spending the whole hour with me. ben's book is out now. we will continue to talk about it. the next hour of "deadline: white house" starts after a quick break.ick don't go anywhere. we are getting started. t go any. we are getting started

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♪♪ this right is under assault with incredible intensity like i have never seen. i urgew3 voting rights groups t begin now to register and educate

voters. i'm asking vice president harris to help these efforts and lead them.ok with her leadership and your again, i promise you, but it will take a hell of a lot of work. >> hi again, everyone. president biden yet addressing the ward onñr democracy being waged by reps who are passing votert( suppression laws,okçó bn the lie in the 2020 election. there was no fraud,fá just wani enthusiasm of the candidate for president.t(c republicansñi erecting blocks. it's on track to far exceed er of that year, 19 restrictive lawróxd we enacted in 14 states. this year, the country hase1 already reached that level, and

thef÷3 texas bill temporarily marked by democrats ,hm weekend lowers the bar for allegations of fraud and the georgia law swingslp power to theñi partisa legislature inr scenarios. max boot describes the aim of these laws this waytwdw3 -- whi government efforts are aimed, the first impact will be 2022. this will be tougher still because of republican-driven voter suppression, ñi reapportionment and gerrymandering.qi] republicans willq have full authority to redraw districts.t( he estimates that redistricting

in just four states -- texas, fl%r°ñ georgia, andñi north carolina -- could be enough to deliver the house to republican cross. this brings us to a nightmare scenario, a republican-controlled congress, overturns the 2024 presidential election results to install trump or a trumpñi mini-me in t white house. theokw3çó most leet( lethal thr one man. heçó tweeted thist( last night s of tonight my team has sued six states to blockt(jf voter suppression laws. i promiseñi we will continue to fight, but we need help. tell congress to protect voting rights byokw3ñi passing hr-1. or democracy is at stake. it -- democraticokt( senator manchin, who joe biden singled

out t(yesterday, looks with kyrstin sinema. >> i hear people sake becausee1 biden only hack]iñq f votes, with two members oflpr senate who$9cut more with my republican friends. >> the fate of democracy in america, is where weçó start toá with the founder of the democracy docket. thank you so much for making my first question is,]iñ did yo hear from the president or vice president this week?ñiñir [ laughter ] >> you lpkn busy like you said, filing a lawsuit in kansas and keepingxdp with the shenanigans we saw go late into the evening on friday that's what i've been up to. so that's a no? >> i have not, no.t(r

>> senator schumer reached out to, though, to brief senate democrats about the legislation. has that been scheduled? >> sor reported that i addressed the senate democratic caucus last week, i think it was, and so, look, the message i deliver to senators is the same messageñi would deliver to anyone in thep, the bestú the best way that is available to us to protect voting rights is forko congress to pass hr 1/1 the for the people act.

democrats maybe overshadow what the law will reference pass. is that right? they were able to it on friday night, finally voted on o at 6:00 a.m. on saturday n morning, butsa when it came to to the statehouse in texas,

which is more closely divided than the state senate on a mart san basis, it ran into a series of points of order, and then finally democrats left and denied a quorum, which meant there weren't enough members present to passn' the bill. the session expired, and so democracy was saves for a shorte period of time, but it was only a short period of time, because what will o likely happen next h theap governor will call a specl session. e governor will call a l session.

yeah. i think they're doing two things. it's important to keep them separate, because they're both really, to intimidate it, so it's a whole bunch by helping people to vote, information, sending out absentee ballot applications. you're doing a whole bunch of stuff to basically try to

intimidate election officials from being voter centric and being helpful in the process. the second, though, is what you point to. they're also looking to change who is the -- so they're replacing people who are either nonpartisan or bipartisan, with people who are very part san. so they're replacing nonpartisan or bipartisan aboard, with strict part sans in the hope that if they could intimate daylight all the rest of the local level, they can ultimately replace them with someone up above, who will have a disenfranchising and thumb on the scale. >> and if all of these laws had been in place in november, could you see a scenario where the result would not -- we didn't have a peaceful transfer of power, but ultimately a transfer of power. would these laws have made that

an impossibility or at least a question mark if they had been in place last november? >> again, i think there are two pieces of it. first is the voter suppression laws, would it have changed enough or dissuaded enough voters? i don't know that we know the answer to that in any particular election. i can tell you close elections are decided by matters of centimeters, not even inches, and certainly not feet and yards. in these close elections, every time you change the rules, make it harder for a group to vote or make it less likely ballots count, you affect outcomes of elections, but the second point you make is who certifies elections, who administration the election can make a big difference. one of the facts that i always point out is that on -- on december 7th, texas sued in the u.s. supreme court four states to try to throw out their

election results, and 126 members of the house, republicans signed onto that brief. the evening of january 6th, after the insurrection, after the violence, 139 republican members of the house sought to not certify the election results. we weren't even going in the right trend between before the insurrection and the night of the insurrection. it's certainly the case we are not going in the right trend moving forward. >> well, and just to pick up your thread s. i spent time in republican politics. this is existential to them. too the laws will become more aggressive. i know you filed laws in six states. there are 400 bills. i mean,çó ir said mark elias is suing,r said, is that the whole 4-a(dem?

>> look, i've been very, very clear. clear. hinking that iíw3 or for that matter me and other lawyers are going ut protect democracy by ourselves misunderstands the threat. this is not a question of a bad law here or añiríábd law there, where we can turn to lawyers and to the cords to try toñi fixçó . what we have right now is an avalanche ofu/pt( voter suppres going on in state after state after state.ñi the only way to deal with]-j th kind of state-sponsored disenfranchisement and t( state-sponsored voter suppressione1 is to pass federa legislation. in q1965, no oner lawyers alone were going to go to courtçó and deal withw3 jim . well, no one should think that's going to be true in 2021, either.

we needed the voting rights act of 1965 at that time tow3 stop i disenfranchisement that was going on, and we need thexd qfoe people act in and out in lp2021. lawyers can do a lot. i tried to play that i part, buó anyone tells you we have the full solution doesn't understand dtqi rñ and president biden is feeling the?o spoke pretty frankly about itr yesterday. heñixd appointed the vice presi to spearhead this andt( surpris her first call isn't to you. hopefully your phone will ring once weñi get off the air. i wonder if you feel they're taking it seriously enough, if the white house understands the importance of this very populará president, all of hise1 agenda items are even more popular than that. d/@=u

it was an excellent bill. and i can thinkçóxd of nook bet person toñi leadçó this chargel thrilled she's been given this ( task. as you know, i represented her presidential campaign.ñiçó

i think she's a spectacular ok choice. >> she and the president, both former senators, what do you think they shouldq do, urge publicly and privately about the filibuster, if that'se1 the pedimentlp to having thg3x legislation passed? >> what i said is this, i don't know the right mechanism.e1 here ist( what i know. wexd cannot have a country in whichqfáe1çóe1 voting rights ist age i don't evening like the constitutional e1xdprovision, in literally the rules on[the senate they're not a suicide pact for our democracy. if that's what they have become, frankly they need to yield. the good news is that president biden and vice president harris are both former senators. they know exactly the righte1 levers to push and pullñr took

brings the democratic caucus to a place that they pass the for the people act. how they do that with respect to changes or reformingçó the rule i'll leave to them. point.sfá certainly an importan- i appreciate your candor and yoáki%qe on that./5 abandoning the filibuster to stack the courts was the >> notc individually, no. like i said, i can say behalf it was publicly reported already, but i addressed the caucus, but not -- youu

>> thank you.3w >> thank you.3w■ when we return, we willñi pk up onçó mark's last point on th political battle to protect the right to vote and what the president and tl vice president can doó[ in the face oft( e1e1 republicans' unprecedented andg unrelenting assault on 6q). faucixd is next.

he says it's still too soon toç declare victory. how is it that the publisher of "the national enquirer" got fined forq-9 payingñr hush mone while donald trump escaped without anything punishment. don't go anywhere. punishment. don't go anywhere. give it a shot. [ grunts, exhales deeply ] -did you hear that? -yeah. it's a constant battle. we're gonna open a pdf. who's next? progressive can't save you from becoming your parents, but we can save you money when you bundle home and auto with us. no fussin', no cussin', and no -- hearing is important to living life to the fullest. that's why inside every miracle-ear store, you'll find better cheers with your favorite fans. you'll find a better life is in store at miracle-ear, when you experience the exclusive miracle-ear advantage. our team is devoted to your care, with free service adjustments and cleaning of your miracle-ear hearing aids for life.

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people understand how precarious this moment is, a)q texas]iñ statehouse democrats who stopped thate1 vor

suppression bill, bought us a window of time. we may have theñiçóçó month of within which tots the for the people act, and that would put as end to what they're doing in states across the country. >> bet oo'rourke advocating for something we talk about this afternoon.çó it will be a critical market of vice president harris, if sheñi picks up the torch just curb what is happening in texas. lawmakers could return in a special session and take anothe( shot. negotiated qbehindt( closed doo the sectiont( limitingi] early have a e1disproportion

affect on -- souls to the polls followingçóe1 church qssoices.jf aok texas lawyers said it was actually a typo, it should have read 11:00 a.m. and they plan to fix it, butxd as "thet( texas tribune" lpnotes, no republican raised an issue with the debate. one of them even defended it. joiningok us ist( michaelñrñre1. luck fore1 you both msnbc contributors. i want to start with you. i made some calls yesterday about theé@ filibuster. to his appointed that a rule -- and it's not in the constitution, not event( a law, and a rulee1r cro crowd. >> to be honest, i don't know what the democrats see.

it's hazy and murky. their lack@'áf ae1 political strategy to deal with bigw3 pieq of legislation related to the biden to me is stunning. they've had not had the come to jesus conversationñi with their caucus in the house and senate, to say to the oksinemas and others, you've got to get on board with this one, but that's not my call. so thet( political strategy is little befuddling to me. it's clear and obvious what the democrats are up again and what republicans are doing. i think it's also -- t,ç conversation you just had about mark, if youxd can put that on reel and replay it for people to really understand what's at stake here,xd you dug into thatn ao clair and focus tofá what we ne

to be concentrating in terms of strategy, but in tradition. it's one of the distinctions to keep the senate from sort of plays itself out like the house, where the minority typically becomes irrele,9q1ñ but i think there are tweaks in that process, and in that rule that willw3 allow for big important national legislation to be exe"med somehow. at least that's the argument the democrats should be qmaking, as they move to blow that thing up. they move to blow that thing up. nicolle, this is not new s)ñ for us.çó harry reid dispensedr

filibuster toht obtain the objectives of the biden administration andok hisçó cabi3 appointments, and lowerxd court federal appointments. mitch mcconnell did the exact same thing, all of a t(sudden, u can dispense with the filibuster republican okcaucus, and on supreme courtxd nominations, et ceteraçóçóñrzv sook here we arem >> erin hayes, i'm putting this on democrats, because up republican party isr itself to be a force forú-6 >> yeah, i'mú >> yeah.

it inoculatesokú bills currently making their way through state legislatures. to michael's point, there is a battle underway to those trying to curtail andlp trying to expa parents and5 live through a time like this. their children already reading about this time. what is5a happening now is nothg

less than5a historic.çó listening to mark elias, he outlines the state of play here. people like himq fighting in thh courts, people w3lplike, you kn the texas democrats org;÷hñ sta abrams andñi?; latashaxdp, brow were can't to get more people?; registered and turned okout, ev if the face ofok voter suppression,q this is what you havewo#r you know, kind of these legislative protections that used to beñiu that's a partisan process withñ partisan results. >> yeah. the other thing, michaele1 steele, it's based on a b.s. lp lie. it's the worst thingçó'c about s that it just isn't partisan, but predicated on the law of fraud.i

there wasr a republican called me and said you're so harsh on these laws, what is reasonable to you??; i said nov looking for a problem that doesn't existlp is reasonable t me. this isn't about find something decent voter suppression ó[aw. if there's no fraud, there's no need toñi make any of these law. obviously my feedback was not ku ñ how do you push against a force based on a?;ylie, michael t(ste? >> you continue toq call out th i have to shore up thei] ground for the r you just ?;do, as you h#n1ñ you know, leaders, sycophants,ó[ former presidents chipping away at that. every citizen who gives a demand about democracy has to shore this thing up, has to come to the table, has to stand against

this push against, you know, up against our votingr come back and say this is not the country you want to be. we have xd400q years in the mak struggling on this. what's reasonable to me is axd voting rights act that applying to every state in the union, not just the ones who gotw3 caughtç with their pants down in the lp south, right? every state in the union, every territory where we vote, there should be no question.'cçó'c no state should just be able to act with impunity against the ñi of everyok citizen who lives within their judds, that should be our standards,ñr the clarion call t the congress to get their heads out of their you knowokw3eai wh focus on movingr forward. sb-1 and hr-1. you can always find something you don't like, but we know

fundamentally what's at stakew3 yn# what it's trying to fádo. so move in that direction to get thisñi done. waiting for you to get your act t(ñitogether. arizona is not waiting for you to get your act together. you're going to come on the 5z side of this when it becomes eyçó states areñi starting toq çódo,t(ñr to

it's sacred inr isn't.ñi >>çó what do you thinkw3xd happr when donald trump startsw3w3ñi.

>> that's what we need to understand, because it doesn't get better if wet( dñ >> thank you both for spending time with us today. when we return, despite all of our success against ñicovid,r dr. anthony fauciñrxnis warning against spiking the football now. don't go anywhere. spiking the fl now. don't go anywhere. or that her grandpa's dog tags would be left behind. but that one call got her a tow and rental... ...paid her claim... ...and we even pulled a few strings. making it easy to make things right: that's what we're made for.

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d". fauci is or guest.ok as well asi] the chief medical adviser to this president, president joe biden. dr. fauci, i know it's a complicated answer, but this sort ofñr head into this push tt the president announced today in june so that we can realize his statedñi goal for july 4thó[. what should we feel, are we out >> well, wemyt(jfó[ definitely g in the right ó[direction. you showed the number of people

theçó numbers are r they're not whereñrfá we ultima want them to be. one of the thingsó[ we get concerned about at theñr public health sector is that we're seeing the numbers come down as you just showed on your chart. that's really good news, but we don't want people to look atok those numbers and say we're out we're not. that's what i mean by making sure that we don't declare victory prematurely, because you want to reach the goal of the president of ó[0% of adults havw." at least one dose by july 4th, but we want to exceed that. we want to get as many people vaccinated as we possibly can, because even though the average for the entire country are the data you showed, there are some states, some regions in which the vaccination or the numbers and percentage of people who are vaccinated are considerably

lower than theq national averag. ( m in those areas as you pull back prematurely. the a=uju to all of this is to continue to get people vaccinated as quickly and asxd effectively as we possibly can. we know as a fact there are things we don't know ñiabout, wt to expect, but there are things that are facts. the fact ist( the more peopleçó get vaccinated, the lower the risk of there being infection dynamics whereçó you get blips infection.ó[ even though we are clearly going in the right direction, it isn't over yet. . i think this question about the durable of thew3ñi numbers wew3 today, ifxd you take a my and rl aboutt( what's happening in the

worse, as are you concerned about new variants coming here at a new level that rbprculate the virus? >>w3 well, there are two elemen of that concern. the firsti] is thatqok weok kno we have variants that other countries are giving them problems. we have them here in the united states. we have them ató[ añi lowçó lev. the dominant variant for us is[ the one we originallyxdçcalledw b.1.1.7, that seemed to originated or at least beçó fir recognized in the uk. fortunately for us, the vaccines being distrirá to us in this country wors( extremely well%s@% against that b.1.1.7. we have[ç the other t(variants. the one that isñi dominantok in south africa, the one inw3çó br,

we just need or people to take it, a, for their own protection, mainly you will inadvertently or innocently transmit it to someone else, who will then transmit it to someone else.ó[yi i don't think anyone would intentionally want to be part oñ a transmission chain. you want to be a dead-end to the

virus, sook when the virus getso you,xd you stop it, you don'tçó allow it to use you asxd thet( steppingstone to the next person. those are the things we ask people torndi@ñconsider, not on your own health, but your societal responsibilityñi toú really knock this epidemic out in thisxd country. everybody wants to get back to normal. we can get back to normal much more quickly, if you getxd more tfáçó w3çóxdvaccinated. and, you know, become partr the solution off transmission side, i've often wondered withx younger people ifçó that might i read through your e-mails that were released. i just want to read one of them. there were a lot of inquiries

about your public profile. this very conversation was much longer to haveñr under theçó ex-president. this was your response to one about whether or not your áu wrote -- yikes, that be four days in a row without a press conference. i wonder if you feel like you'r% still makingt( upçó some of tha lost ground from many months under the lastw3administration, of not j-s5 noxd information, b disinformation being out there.

you guessó that's understandabl that they didn't understand it is that science is axd dynamic process. so something you knowok injf jay you make a recommendation or a c/&lent about okit, but as you 1 mnbp'c and more w3information, information leadsw3 you to chan, because that's what science is. it's a self-correcting process. so when you hear someone say something at one point, and two or three months later, if yout( stick with what you said at the originalr of data that you have now, i think that would beok appropriate. it's appropriate, though sometimes it's difficult for people to understand, as you learn more and more, you've got to continuew3 to evolve with th

data. that's whatok i was trying to d always tell theó7! tr! based on the data, and it wasxd never4 p the kbfsident. if you look at myt( e-mails, i anything derogatory about president trump.çóçóçó >>}ok the true mark of someouh you look good even when their personal e-mails come out. thank you, doctor, for spending time withñi us. we're always grateful for some of your time.fá fec walklp while punishing "the national enquirer"? that story is next. enquirer" that story is next

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♪ yeah, it's time for grilled cheese. ♪ ♪ after we make grilled cheese, ♪ ♪ then we're eating grilled cheese. ♪ ♪ because it's time. ♪ ♪ yeah. ♪ ♪ time for grilled cheese. ♪ this is wealth. ♪ ♪ ♪h. ♪ this is worth. that takes wealth. but this is worth. and that - that's actually worth more than you think. don't open that. wealth is important, and we can help you build it. but it's what you do with it, that makes life worth living. principal. for all it's worth. one of the main tabloid publishers that has consistently supported and protected the disgraced ex-president is now being forced to pay up. american media inc which

publishings the inquirer will pay $187,500 to the f.e.c. for its trump hush money payment. the story came to light during michael cohen's federal trial in 2018. while the inquirer is being penalized, the same can't be said for the president. trump faces no further investigation after the f.e.c. did not have enough votes to investigate trump any further. dare i say, a bit of an expert in this space. jim, we covered this and you covered it and we covered your coverage of all this. this was such a -- i mean, this was sort of the light flashing red. this was in michael cohen's sentencing papers. this is where this conspiracy to

commit campaign finance violations occurred. why no teeth from the commission in terms of investigating the ex-president. >> well, nicole, the f.e.c. has been a toothless commission. it's so ineffective. and shockingly this wasn't a bigger story during 2020, but it didn't have enough appointed members during most of the campaign year to have any sort of action. the only reason they brought action in this case is american media, the owner of the tabloid, had already told federal prosecutors in criminal actions that it had admitted it illegally paid off karen dougle to help president trump in the campaign. in that case, there were all sorts of allegations that the president himself directed these payments. michael cohen has said as much. but the f.e.c. stopped short of going beyond ami because the

next step would be the one they called individual one in prosecution papers many years ago when common cause first brought this case to the f.e.c. >> did the michael cohen prosecution have any impact on how they treat trump stories? do you have any reporting on that? >> on how ami treats trump stories or -- >> yeah. >> yeah. well, this is fascinating. again, it is one of those stories that slipped past us all because so much was going on in 2020. but ami in 2016 was -- the "national enquirer" was this incredible billboard. at every single check-out across the country advocating for trump. they were gone from the scene. they abandoned ship. they're running for their lives. they were worried about further prosecution. so they got out of the business. i would maintain this. people were in grocery stores

less because of the pandemic, but ami, the "national enquirer" was one of the things, one of the tools that former president trump did not have at his disposal because of that prosecution. >> and, jim, do you think this fine of less than $200,000, is it a slap on the wrist to a company like ami? is it pro forma? why even take the step? >> it is a slap on the wrist. in fact, you could say that they're getting off with $130,000 discount because michael cohen -- >> right. >> -- arranged to pay to stormy daniels. while ami was not the recipient of that, they had been in the mix of that as well. it is sort of a bargain basement effort here. and, again, the f.e.c. finally did something. but had they not done something in this case where you have so many people admitting wrongdoing, it really would have been absurd. >> i mean, my last question is a weird one. did michael cohen get taken off

the playing field force a break-up between trump and ami? we would have the tape. cnn procured some tapes and you could hear he was the go between. allen weisselberg is notably mentioned, too. but that relationship dissolve once michael cohen was gone? >> well, yes and no. david pecker, the giant chief of the enquirer and ami, the giant in that he was the driving force behind the tabloids, he and trump had their own relationship. it began to sour. cohen had promised that certain things would be paid back to the enquirer. that didn't happen. once ami stuck what's called a nonprosecution agreement admitting it had knowingly operated to protect trump in the campaign, undercutting trump's denials, that really, really hurt their relationship, obviously. if that didn't, nothing would. so there was a lot going on in

this sorted, sorted time. >> there was a time when this was like the dark underbelly of the trump story. i guess in post-insurrection america it's no longer the case. but it is good to revisit this with you. thank you for spending some time with us on this today. thank all of you for being with us today. "the beat" with ari melber starts after a very short break. don't go anywhere. stressed? no stress. exercise. but no days off! easy, no? no. no. no. no. but with freestyle libre 14 day, you can take the mystery out of your diabetes. now you know. sir, do you know what you want to order? yes. freestyle libre 14 day. try it for free.

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welcome to "the beat." i'm ari melber, and we have a big show tonight. a special report on the manhattan da who is driving the

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