clarity. that is all the time i have for today. i'm going to see you back here next weekend. 6:00 p.m., for more american voices. but for now, i hand it over to mehdi. >> thank you so much for that. have a great rest of your night. tonight on the show, the threat to american democracy. what are senate democrats doing to actually protect it? i'll ask senator padilla. plus, the huge and crucial election in california this tuesday. can democratic governor newsom survive and what happens if he doesn't? and on this 9/11 anniversary weekend, i'll provide a true accounting of the costs of the past 20 years of war. plus, you really need to hear how former president trump marked september the 11th. good evening. you'll be delighted to hear that tomorrow the united states

senate is returning to session after a whole month off. summer vacation and all that. they're now tasked with addressing the multiple national crisis this nation faces. the coronavirus pandemic that's killed over 660,000 americans. a climate that is rapidly getting worse with massive fires burning out of control on the west coast and the hurricane ravaged southeast and east coast. regular viewers of the show will know that democracy itself is also in crisis. just this past week, texas gop governor greg abbott signed new voting restrictions into law. they ban ballot drop boxes, 24 hour voting and give now authority to parties and poll watchers. with all of these urgent crisis demanding their attention, do democrats get it? do they understand what needs to be done? and get that time is running out? well, tonight, i've got good news and bad news. for once, let's start with some good news.

after months of negotiations led in part by joe manchin, nbc news is reporting tonight that senate democrats are close to reaching a compromise on a landmark voting rights bill. manchin has been working closely with senators of georgia, klobuchar and padilla of california. i'll speak to senator padilla in a moment. back in june, voting rights legislation in the form of the for the people act failed to pass through the senate. the gop fill busted it, but a single republican senator was willing to support that bill. even though he did vote in favor of opening debate on it, manchin didn't support that bill either partly because it had blanket republican opposition. manchin believe that is voting reform must be bipartisan. so sweet of him. since november, rolling back voting rights has been the pet project of state republicans across the country. they don't care about bipartisanship, but this new

compromise may have the support of all 50 democrats and senator manchin has been working on bringing republicans along with him. so who have you lined up so far, joe? >> well, we've got senator murkowski. we've been talking to quite a few different republicans who are very interested in doing something that makes sense. >> now, i'm no expert in math, but 50 democratic senators plus alaska republican senator, lisa murkowski, makes 21. that's still nine shy of the 60 votes needed to overcome the filibuster and i hope you'll forgive my skepticism of any of the republicans who are very interested will ever sign on the final bill. just say i wasn't born yesterday. but why, you ask, do democrats continue to need 60 votes? because of senator manchin and his ludicrous insistence on protecting the filibuster. so will he finally get the

message when his republican friends refuse to sign on to this compromise bill, too? this bill that he's worked on? will joe biden, remember him? the president and ex senator, will he start pushing for filibuster reform? well, believe it or not, there's another bit of good news tonight. rolling stone is reporting that president biden is ready to start putting pressure on democrats like manchin to reform the filibuster and pass voting rights. he's going to make calls, it seems. nbc has not independently confirmed this reporting, but if true, it would finally answer the question that so many have been wondering all year. when will joe biden finally do something about the republican assault on democracy? but now, and you knew it was coming. time for the bad news. senator joe manchin is still senator manchin and the democratic party is still the democratic party. here's what i mean. democrats are also working on passing a hugely popular

$3.5 trillion spending plan through the budget reconciliation process that doesn't need more than 51 votes. unfortunately, senator manchin has said he won't support a $3.5 trillion price tag despite his state of west virginia desperately needing some of that. so what number will he support? that's a really good question. >> your party leader schumer says he's moving quote, full speed ahead with this package. >> that's fine. we talked about this. >> let's talk about the dollar sign. >> yeah. >> do you have a specific number in mind? >> here's a number you should be getting to. first of all, i have agreed to get on to the reconciliation. >> what's the number. >> it would be what's going to be competitive in our tax code. >> what's the overall number? >> i think you're going to have to look at it and find out what you're able to do. >> how do you know it's not 3.5?

>> one, 1.5. >> you think ballpark, one, 1.5. do you have a ceiling? >> my ceiling is this. the need of the american people. >> he won't give a specific number. he just doesn't like 3.5 trillion. keep in mind this is all quite the u-turn from what he himself said he was on board with just earlier this year. >> most important thing, do a big infrastructure. spend 2, 3, $4 trillion over a ten-year period on infrastructure. >> spend, 2, 3, $4 trillion. i'm sure it's just a coincidence that his big, corporate donors have come out against it. so, manchin won't accept 3.5 trillion, but won't say what he will accept and here's senator bernie sanders saying what he won't accept when it comes to the bipartisan infrastructure bill. >> i believe we're going to all sit down and work together and come up with a $3.5 trillion

reconciliation bill which deals with the enormously unmet needs of working families. senator manchin worked very hard on what's called the bipartisan infrastructure bill. $550 of new money to rebuild our roads and bridges. what we have worked on is working both of those bills in tandem to go together and would be a really sad state of affairs for the american people for congress if both of those bills went down. >> i'm with bernie. 3.5 trillion over ten years has to be, you can't go below that. remember, democrats do not need republicans to pass any of this. they can go it alone on both infrastructure and the budget reconciliation process. that's what the gop would do. they wouldn't be wasting any time getting their key bills passed if they controlled the senate, but as ever, democrats tend to bring a butter knife to a gunfight while republicans

bring a rocket launcher. earlier, i spoke to california senator alex padilla who's been working with his fellow democrat on a compromised voting rights and is also a fervent critic of the filibuster. senator padilla, thanks so much for joining me on the show tonight. you've been very eloquent, very passionate, about the threat to american democracy that we're facing right now. about the danger from the filibuster, but what is the democratic party, what is your senate democratic caucus actually doing to protect democracy because texas and florida and georgia have passed voter suppression laws and yet a democratic-controlled senate has passed nothing to stop them. >> good to be back with you, mehdi. you're absolutely right. this is the most urgent of crisis that we have before us. we've been talking for a good amount of the year about the jobless voting rights

advancement act, the for the people act. it's not one of the other, we need both of them. we know not a single republican could even begin discussion or debate on the for the people act. we've taken some time prior to this august recess to craft a more targeted proposal that would uphold our fundamental right to vote. and as leader schumer said before, we broke for the august recess. it is a business item number one when we return to washington this week. so there's a lot in the for the people act that we know is important and timely, but we have to bake in at least for the mental access to be able to vote, stay registered to vote and cast your ballot. >> so this targeted version of the for the people act you mentioned, you've been working on i believe with senator manchin and others, where are we with that? is it ready for a vote this week and isn't it still going to be filibustered by the republicans?

>> look, you're absolutely right. it's, that's the question. when will the rubber meet the road? good news is there was a working group convened by leader schumer that included senator manchin, myself, senator cain, klobuchar, others to make sure that we can release a bill that is substantive and meaningful and has the support of all democrats. i think we have done that. we've taken some time during this august recess to appeal to our colleagues on the other side of the aisle. senator manchin keeps reminding everybody how the preference is to work in a bipartisan fashion and when we can, that's great. but our fundamental voting right s are so critical, if we're not successful in getting ten republicans to do the right thing, then we have no choice but to revisit the rules of the senate. some outdated rules of the senate and whether it's abolishing the filibuster as a whole or somehow creating a carve out to allow these

measures to go forward for the sake of our democracy, it's too important. >> it is too important and a lot of what you said have been said before. the only thing that's changed now is you say you've got to new quote unquote targeted piece of legislation that you've been working on in this special group. what i wonder though is you won't get the ten republicans. let's be clear. there are not ten republicans for it. so does joe manchin accept that this bill he's invested in, if this doesn't get his ten republicans on board, that he will go along with changing the filibuster? have you had that conversation? >> we haven't set up that conversation. the whole world knows that's what it comes down to. senator manchin wanted last opportunity to try to appeal to republican members and so we'll hear what he has to say in washington this week. i respect the fact that he keeps trying, but i think you know, it's going to be a decision time sooner rather than later and the vast majority of our caucus i

think is ready to do what we need to do for the sake of protecting our right to vote and getting a measure done. you know, we start this segment acknowledging what's happened in texas. what's happened in georgia. it's not just there. florida, iowa, so many other states that have attacked our fundamental right to vote as an outcome of a 2020 election that they themselves worked fine and so they're being hypocritical. they can't have it both ways and we'll do what we need to do to protect the right to vote. >> so what needs to be done is you have to do something about the filibuster. you've been very vocal and we admire you for that on this show for saying the filibuster has to go, especially for voting rights. one of your predecessors has just come out for filibuster, too, but some not budging. dianne feinstein says he was for filibuster reform earlier this year, now she says she's against it. she said, quote, if democracy

were in jeopardy, i would want to protect it, but i don't see it being in jeopardy right now. do you agree with that? that democracy isn't in jeopardy? >> democracy is clearly in jeopardy and what i can say is i think there's a lot of my colleagues that might have been reluctant earlier in the year to modify a filibuster that continued to see the obstruction by not just mitch mcconnell but, to our republican colleagues across the board. we're also seeing not just the voter suppression laws passed in these states, but the consequence of that. when i was the secretary of state in california, i made it clear throughout california and throughout the country that voter suppression is not just about access to the ballot. if a political party, republicans clearly, can limit who gets a chance to vote, then they can roll back the clock on labor protections. it can roll back the clock on climate protections. equal the i. and choice and oh, my gosh,

isn't that exactly what we're seeing in texas? so my democratic colleagues that may be reluctant, they're seeing the realtime impacts of this agenda and i think that's going to give people the imptous to finally take action. >> well, briefly, because i need to ask about budget reconciliation. have you spoken to senator feinstein? you don't have much leeway over manchin, but surely, she's your california senator. can you get her on board to get rid of the filibuster? >> yes, i think it is becoming increasingly, our democracy is in jeopardy and we'll again, as a caucus, so many of the members that were reluctant earlier in the year have seen the obstruction, the refusal to negotiate and work in good faith and we're going to need to do what we need to do for the sake of our democracy because the 2022 midterms will be here before you know it. >> senator, on the subject of budget reconciliation, you have

joe manchin saying today he will not back $3.5 trillion which effectively kills the bill and you have bernie sanders saying he won't accept less than $3.5 trillion, which effectively kills the bipartisan infrastructure bill. where do you stand on this? to be fair, $3.5 trillion was already a compromise. where do you stand on the final number and budging? >> you took the words right out of my mouth. 3.5 trillion is already a compromise. as a member of the budget committee working alongside senator sanders, closer to the $6 trillion figure that he was proposing earlier in the year. and we know the need for investing in our infrastructure. not just, but especially to address the impacts of climate change. my god. we saw the hurricane in louisiana a couple of weeks ago. we saw the flooding in new york, new jersey and elsewhere this last week. we're seeing wildfires in california. we have no room to deny climate.

climate's having an impact and we need to act boldly. we need to keep a significant investment now. whether the figure gets modified. it might, maybe a little, but equally important is that we're not spending recklessly. we're spending smartly because this infrastructure package is paid for. >> more of my interview with senator padilla after the break including his thoughts on the recall election in california. also still to come as we mourn the victims of 9/11 this weekend, we must also mourn the victims of our endless war on terror. plus, america is now dead last, dead last, in vaccination rates among the g-7. we'll get to how we got to that embarrassing point. stick around. we got to that embarrassing point stick around and one we explore one that's been paved

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california's gubernatorial recall election and polls show governor newsom has a good chance of surviving. the latest polling average shows him with a double digit lead. though the polls have been known to get things wrong in the past. so, how much will a clear cut victory for the democrats in california need when republicans are already crying fraud? right now, former president donald trump and other republicans are laying the ground work to claim the recall election was rigged. this week, larry elder, the leading republican challenger to newsome told reporters he's prepared to file lawsuits. yeah. earlier, i spoke to california senator and newsome ally, alex padilla. >> senator, the polls in california were neck and neck last month and now, governor newsom has a double digit lead over his republican opponents over the idea of him being recalled. i happen to think that's a good thing because the leading

republican candidate is an extremist, is a public health danger, party politics aside. a lot of people are arguing that newsome is winning because of his stance on vaccines, masking, which seems pretty true, but i wonder did he bring this on himself through his own original mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic last year? that's what led them to get this recall on to the ballot back in april in one of the bluest states of the union. him violating his own covid restriction, attending an indoor birthday party at an expensive restaurant? that's how we got here, isn't it? >> i think it's ironic that debate impetus and link to the recall was people frustrated with what i think governor newsom's bold leadership early in the pandemic. the first governor to call for stay at home orders. social distancing and mask mandates and those sorts of things. if that's what frustrated people

to sign on the dotted line to force this recall election and now it's going down hopefully big because people see how real coronavirus is. number two, the vaccines and getting the pandemic behind us and reopening the economy as opposed to what larry elder and some of the others would do away with the covid protections that have been put in place. i think it's pretty ironic, but let's be clear, mehdi, this election is hugely consequential. not just for california, but for the country. the nation's eyes are on california. see what california voters are going to decide and a hope we defeat this recall in a big way and send that strong message going to the 2022 midterms. >> so, senator, let me ask you this. it is a hugely consequential action. california is one of the biggest committees of the world and yet you have an extremist, an unqualified guy like larry elder who was neck and neck with

newsom. why didn't they vote to get rid of this weird, anti-democratic recall option that says elder doesn't have to win a majority, but newsom does. it's such a weird system. >> i think there's going to be a lot of legislative proposals to modify the recall process after this election. >> good. >> that will be the subject in the state capital i'm sure next year. i want to make sure while i have this opportunity, any california voter watching, if you have not returned your ballot, tuesday is the final day to vote. every registered voter received a ballot in the mail some time ago. so fill it out. vote no on the first question. drop it off in the mail. doesn't need a stamp because returned postage is prepaid. you can deliver to any drop box

or go in person to any vote center or your county or vote in person tuesday or beforehand, but it's important to get out and vote. >> senator, you mentioned drop boxes. i'm just thinking about all the republican claims about fraud and drop boxes and everything else. donald trump has said if governor newsom wins tuesday will be because of fraud. surprise. other right wing pundits have laid the groundwork for the challenge of the result. how worried are you that just as republicans didn't accept the results of the presidential election, they're not going to accept the recall result either and what does that mean for california and for american democracy? >> look, it's disheartening to see the voter fraud argument being raised because there's clearly no evidence and proof to that effect. it's an extension of what's happened in arizona and elsewhere. but the more people do participate, the more people i think will have confidence in the electoral process.

so imagine that multiple opportunities to register to vote, stay registered. cast your ballot. even transparency in the ballot tracking system where voters get a notification that their ballot was received and counted. so those who participate have confidence in the system. i think you're going to significantly outnumber the conspiracy theorists. and get this, mehdi, i think this is a good, good sign. the ballot returns up until now are just shy of where they were at this point in the november 2020 election, which was of course a record turnout in california. so people are tuned in. they know the stakes of the recall. i believe they're voting no and in a big way. >> we'll have to leave it there and we'll see what happens on tuesday. senator padilla of california. thank you for your time tonight. >> stay safe. >> up next, accounting for the true cost and consequences of 9/11 and the 20-year war on terror. but first, richard is here with the headlines.

>> good evening to you. some of the stories we're watching this hour. saturday and sunday night, north korea state media claiming they have successfully test fired a new long range cruise missile. the missiles are said to hit targets over 900 miles away. this is the first known testing activity in months underscoring stalemate negotiations with the united states. and the fbi released a newly declassified document saturday. it reveals the hijackers had contact with saudi nationals in the united states who aided them be attacks. no evidence that senior saudi government officials were involved. and university of miami fans used a u.s. flag to save a cat dangling from the upper deck during saturday night's game. the cat was dangling from a banner. dropped safely on to the flag below. miami went on to squeak by appalachian state 25-23. more of the mehdi hasan show

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welcome back. it's time for what i call the 60-second rant. start the clock. it's been 20 years since 9/11 so it's high time we do a proper accounting. we lost 3,000 innocent people to terrorism on 9/11. more than 3,000 children lost a parent that day. but what came afterwards? well, according to brown university's project, almost a million people dead as a direct result of our war on terror since 9/11. 38 million people displaced from their home as part of the many wars we started one of which we just ended in afghanistan, but we started counterterrorism activities in 80 countries around the world. the war on terror cost us a whopping $8 trillion. so yes this a weekend on which to mourn, to grieve, to remember and commemorate. 3,000 innocent souls on 9/11

murdered by al-qaeda, but let's also remember those who died as a consequence and let's please learn the lessons of these past 20 catastrophic years. 9/11 was a tragedy, but so was what came after 9/11. next, we'll tell you why the u.s. should be embarrassed when it comes to its vaccination rate. vaccination rate one, two! one, two, three! only pay for what you need! with customized car insurance from liberty mutual! nothing rhymes with liberty mutual. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ why give your family just ordinary eggs when they can enjoy the best? eggland's best. the only eggs with more fresh and delicious taste.

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here's an embarrassing statistic. as of thursday, within the g-7 club of industrialized nations, the u.s. is now dead last in the race to vaccinate its population. of the g-7, the u.s. officially has the lowest of population that has received at least one dose after being surpassed by japan this week. no wonder president biden felt the need to act in a big way. on thursday, biden used the full force of his presidency to mandate that all companies with more than 100 workers require vaccination or weekly testing and the republican outrage that followed should come as no surprise at this point. they claim to be pro-life, but they don't care about death from covid. "the washington post" found of the 23 states with per capita case totals higher than the national average, 21 swung for trump in 2020. shock. and 16 of those states are among the 17 that have the lowest rates of vaccination in the

country. joining me now to discuss this is dr. angela rasmussen, at the university of saskatchewan. thank you so much for coming back on the show. let's start with these vaccine mandates. right wingers are saying people are going to quit their jobs if they're required to get the vaccine. it doesn't actually work like that in practice. delta airlines said that in of their employees who didn't get vaccinated would have to pay a $200 monthly surcharge for health insurance. two weeks later, employees have gotten the shot. it works. so i just wonder, is it weird for you to see people screaming about vaccines and liberty when we already mandate multiple vaccines in our schools and have done for years? >> yeah, it's very strange and i think that in some ways this was forseeable just because the vaccine effort, vaccination itself has become such a

polarizing topic even before the pandemic, but now it's really supercharged and political and people are taking ideological stances against vaccination rather than one that is driven by science and the best public health recommendations. so it's not surprising, but incredibly frustrating. sars coronavirus doesn't care which political party you advocate for. it's just looking for susceptible people to infect. >> indeed, well put. republicans though are grasping at straws looking for weird comparisons and analogies when it comes to mandating the covid-19 vaccine. have a listen to nebraska governor pete rickets when asked about covid-19 and vaccinating kids. >> we can look at the data specifically around children and see the risks. last year in nebraska, if you were aged 10 to 19, you were 26 times more likely to die in a car accident than you were of

covid-19. >> i mean, car accidents aren't contagious, are they? >> they're not contagious and that's why we also have seat belt laws which i don't see governor rickets or any of the other people who are opposed to vaccine mandates objecting to seat belt laws. i think that one thing that people really need to understand is that sure, you have the freedom to make medical decisions for yourself, but the decision not to get vaccinated is actually not a decision that only affects you. it effects lots of people in your community and household since not everybody is eligible to receive a vaccine at this point. so i don't understand why people who are advocating for rejecting vaccine mandates are understanding this is any different from the mandates we've had for decades. that's how we vanquished polio, measles. this is not something new and it's not an assault on our liberty and freedom.

>> 100% agreed. you mentioned people who weren't eligible for the vaccine. many of us parents are waiting for the fda to give aught riization to under 12. why do you think the process has been so slow on that front and do you think under 12s need to get vaccinated sooner rather than later? >> i do think that under 12s need to be vaccinated sooner rather than later and i really wish that this process would have gone a little faster so parents could get their kids vaccinated before they went back for in-person schooling in the fall, which as you know, many families are already coping with. but the reason why it took so long really is a couple of reasons. first, the way the trials were designed. they're what's called an age deescalation study. you start with the older kids, the 9 to 11-year-olds, once it appears to be safe, then you can go down and down and down until you get to the really young

kids. the reason is because you want to make sure there are no safety signals you're missing in the kids. also because covid-19 doesn't really cause severe disease in most of the kids who get it, that's not to say it doesn't cause severe disease as all. i'm not minimizing this for children, but the vast majority of kids who do get covid-19 won't have really severe symptoms. it makes it hard to evaluate vaccine effectiveness. normally, we would look at measurements that you can take in a lab that basically are surrogates for how well the vaccine is going to protect, but we don't actually have really well defined protection for these vaccines. so that has made the process just take a little longer and then finally, the fda has asked the trials to be designed so that half the children who are participating in the trial have to wait two months after they've had their full vaccination series in the trial to assess safety. to make sure there are no

long-term complications and that just takes time, unfortunately. so now we are at the point where these trials are beginning to read out. we do expect to see pfizer and moderna submitting their applications to the fda for emergency use authorization in the coming weeks. i think it will happen, but i really do wish it had happened sooner. >> yes, same here. i also wonder whether they're taking their time to try and make sure the anti-vaxxers have confidence in the process. they'll just move the goal post again and again and again. thank you for your insights. next, who are the moonies and why are they so closely tied to the republican party and to donald trump? stick around. epublican party ano donald trump stick around try boost® high protein with 20 grams of protein for muscle health. versus 16 grams in ensure high protein. boost® high protein also has key nutrients for immune support. boost® high protein.

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anniversary of the 9/11 attack, donald trump instead cashed in. literally. as a commentator for a fight. he also addressed a conference for the moonies. it's unknown if the ex-president knew his prerecorded message would be used on 9/11, but it was. now, you might be tempted to dismiss that group as the odd cult that marries completely strangers in mass weddings at places like madison square garden, but there are deep ties between the moonies and the extreme right fringe of the republican party. he also used the somber occasion of 9/11 to push the big lie. once again faultily complaining that the election was stolen from him. he just can't help himself. to talk about all this latest craziness, i'm joined my editor at large for the daily beast.

molly, thanks for coming on the show this evening. political rallies, paid appearances, interviews on fox. those seem to be the only things that the donald gets out of bed for these days. did i miss anything? >> well, he did go to this police precinct in midtown that was very close to his apartment in trump tower. so it was about five blocks away. almost felt like an afterthought. like they thought, well, he's going to do this boxing match. he's going to do, we don't know exactly the timing on the moonies video, but it almost felt like they had to sort of drag him to see some police and they found the closest precinct because it's about five blocks and he sort of went in there and he said lots of crazy stuff then he went into the fight. >> yeah. and you have trump reportedly speaking to the moonies yesterday.

we don't know when that tape was recorded. the moonies became infamous for their mass weddings, but these days, it's a church that's 100% maga to the point where the founder of the church has his own splinter group carrying ak 47s on behalf of jesus or the bible or what on earth is a former president doing speaking to these people on 9/11? is trump now just a spiritual leader for all cults, whether it's the moonies, qanon, the anti-vaxxers? >> well, i mean, he likes those people because they're easy marks. and he likes an easy mark. you know, he's also, his schtick isn't very sophisticated so he needs an easy mark. i would say that these -- he kind of owes these guys because, remember, one of the sons was at the january 7th rally and the group was -- i mean, we don't know how involved, but there is certainly reporting saying they were involved with the three percenters and the proud boys.

i mean, he probably got paid because it's trump, but i could also see him thinking that this is his group. these are his people. so either could be. >> i mean, he went out of his way to praise the washington times, the right-wing newspaper that they own, the moonies own, that backs trump. you said his schtick isn't -- what did you say, it wasn't for the very -- >> very sophisticated. >> i think you're being very generous there, molly, with that description. just going back to the police, you had trump meeting with, he then bragged about meeting with police officers and firefighters a few blocks from his apartment. are we just supposed to forget this is the same president who incited an attack on the capitol that led to the death of a police officer, the suicides of four other police officers and hundreds of injured capitol police officers? >> you know, i think trump is really just playing to his base. i don't think he cares what we think because he knows he can't

win over rational people. i think he just thinks his people don't care. and his people are just focused on the grave injustices done to trump. so i think he wants to make a little showing. look, he went to that police precinct for whatever, 15, 20 minutes. it was in the post. so his people got to see in the new york post, which is owned by rupert murdoch. >> good point. >> his people got to see him doing policy stuff on 9/11, and for them, i think his calculus was that's enough. i don't know if it was, but these people tend to just buy whatever he is selling, so i think he thinks he can just do whatever he wants. >> i mean, he famously said it, molly, in 2016. i could shoot someone in the middle of fifth avenue, i wouldn't lose a single voter. to be fair to him, it's one of the truthful, accurate things he's ever said. is he going to run again or is the whole boxing commentator thing yesterday evidence he's

heading back to his reality tv days? >> i think he'll run again because i think there's money to be made. it's like ron paul. i mean, there's no reason to not run because he can make money. he can use it for lawyers' fees. there's a sort of presidential industrial complex which republicans have for a long time run in. so i think i could see that happening. i don't know that he's -- i don't know, we're going have to see what happens in 2024, but if he doesn't run, he will wait until the last minute to drop out. he will make desantis' life horrendous, which will be kind of fun to watch. >> i guess that's the only silver lining, and the fact if he doesn't run, he'll still be a back seat driver in the republican primaries. and in the general elections. we'll have to leave it there, molly, thank you so much for our conversation tonight. i appreciate it. >> emma radacanu, the

18-year-old u.s. open winner made tennis history on saturday, but she isn't the only immigrant we should be celebrating. stick around for my thoughts on all of that, next. with downy infusions, let the scent set the mood. feel the difference with downy. seeing blood when you brush or floss can be a sign of early gum damage. new parodontax active gum repair kills plaque bacteria at the gum line to help keep the gum seal tight. new parodontax active gum repair toothpaste.

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mourning in new york city, british teenager emma raducanu warmed the hearts of millions winning her first grand slam title in the process, becoming the first qualifier in men's or

women's tennis to reach and then triumph at a grand slam final. she's now a hero in the uk, of course, but check out raducanu's bio. london to toronto. she was a british canadian, born in toronto, moved to the uk at age 2, and her father is romanian, her mother is chinese. she's an immigrant and the daughter of immigrants. and as a british american, i'm proud of this british canadian, just as i told you all on the show back in july, how delighted i was to see an england soccer team consisting of immigrants and the children of immigrants united a nation that has been polarized by brexit and vicious arguments over immigration. raducanu is another reminder of how immigrants do amazing thing. even nigel farage, who said he wouldn't want to live next door to romanians and blamed the coronavirus on china is now celebrating this daughter of romanian and chinese immigrants. is jumping on the raducanu

bandwagon. fine, everyone, even the hypocrites, want a piece of her and her sporting success. here's the thing, and it makes my kind of uncomfortable. it's easy to celebrate the immigrants who do amazing things, who turn out to be tennis stars or soccer stars or the founders of google or tesla, but what about the immigrants who aren't spectacular, who aren't winning trophies for their new country? why can't we celebrate immigrants as people who just upped and moved to another country because they wanted a better life for themselves and their families? when did that become a crime? we'll have to leave it there. thanks for watching. we'll be right back here next sunday at 8:00 p.m. eastern, and you can catch me monday through thursday at 7:00 p.m. eastern on the choice, on nbc's streaming channel, peacock. now it's time to turn it over to joshua johnson for the last time as he hosts his final edition of the week before he heads for his new nightly show on nbc news. congratulations and good

evening, joshua. >> that's kind of you. you're going have ayman mohyeldin in this slot, so i'm sure you'll enjoy being neighbors. you'll make a good package on the weekends. >> we'll try. good luck. >> thank you, my friend. much appreciated. hello to you. it's good to be with you, with plenty to talk about. the senate returns from its august recess this week. topping the agenda, voting rights. as senate democrats craft an agreement, how will this new legislation compare to the for the people act? and will it prevent voter suppression in republican-led states with restrictive new laws? u.s. capitol police are bracing for a rally this saturday and for possible violence tied to the january 6th insurrection. we will consider where the fight against domestic terror stands today. >> plus, tuesday is election day in california's gubernatorial recall. president biden heads there tomorrow to campaign for governor gavin newsom. what's at stake? and how did we get here?