a very good afternoon to all of you. i'm alex witt in for chris jansing hear at msnbc world headquarters in new york city. vanishing in smoke and haze,

shocking images coming out of the midwest right now where detroit and chicago have some of the worst air quality in the world as smoke from canadian wildfires smothers cities. cars vanishing into white clouds in michigan as they move across this bridge. you can barely see them there. in chicago, the skyline today is almost completely blurred out. more big cities now in the path of the smoke. and in fact, right now president biden has just walked up to the podium in chicago to sell his economic agenda, a vision aides have branded as bidenomics, we're going to bring those comments to you live. also this hour, new developments in multiple cases tied to former president donald trump as he denies showing off classified material in that potentially damning audio saying, quote, yeah, it was bravado. it comes just as georgia's secretary of state brad raffensperger just finished meeting with the special counsel team. but we're going to begin the hour with extreme weather affecting this nation in several ways from multiple directions.

thick clouds of wildfire haze, they are once again descending from canada now enveloping the midwest. people in chicago masking up, in fact, to combat health risks from the smoke, and severe storms have stranded thousands of travelers in airports from georgia to new york. dozens sleeping on terminal floors with more than 9,000 flights canceled or delayed in just the last 48 hours. a barrage of lightning, flash floods and high powered winds bringing down trees crashing across this country, demolishing homes, blocking roads and crushing vehicles. in detroit, we're going to show you a car that was entirely flattened right there by an overnight storm, and then spreading north right now, a record heat wave that already has 40 million folks on alert in the south, and so there you have it, we're going to get you a weather picture in just a bit. we're going to go right now to chicago and take a listen to president biden, certainly the economy's on many people's minds. here you got bidenomics, take a listen. >> it's a belief we should

shrink public investment on infrastructure and public education, shrink it, and we should let good jobs ship overseas. and we actually have a tax policy that encouraging them to go overseas to save money. we should let big corporations amass more power while making it harder to join a union. i meant what i said when i said i'm going to be the most pro-union president in american history, and i make no apologies for it. [ applause ] my predecessor, if my mom were here, god bless his soul, my predecessor enacted the latest iteration of the failed theory, tax cuts if the wealthy. it wasn't paid for and the estimated cost of his tax cut was $2 trillion. $2 trillion. now republicans are at it again pushing tax cuts for large corporations and wealthy and adding trillions of dollars to the deficit. trillions. folks, let me say this as

clearly as i can, the trickle down approach failed the middle class. it failed america. it blew up the deficit, it increased inequity and weakened our infrastructure. it stripped the dignity, pride, and hope out of communities one after another particularly through the midwest, western pennsylvania and west. people working as hard as ever couldn't get ahead because it's harder to buy a home, pay for college education, start a business, retire with dignity. the first time in a generation the path of the middle class seemed out of reach. i don't think it's hyperbole. i think it's a fact, no matter whether you're a democrat, republican or independent. i knew we couldn't go back to the same failed policies when i ran. i came in office determined to change the economic direction of this country, to move from trickle down economics to what everyone on wall street journal and financial times began to call bidenomics, i didn't come

up with the name. i really didn't. i now claim it, but they're the ones that used it first. i got asked if by a press person this morning getting on a helicopter, why when i asked about biden omices a long time ago, you said you didn't know what it was. i didn't name it bidenomics but i think it's a plan i'm happy to call bidenomics. and guess what -- [ applause ] bidenomics is working. when i took office, the pandemic was raging and our economy was reeling. supply chains were broken. millions of people unemployed, hundreds of thousands of small businesses on the verge of closing after so many had already closed. literally hundreds of thousands on the verge of closing. today the u.s. has the highest economic growth rate leading the world economy since the pandemic. the highest in the world. [ applause ]

>> 13.4 million new jobs, more jobs in two years than any president has ever made in four. [ applause ] in two. and folks, it's no accident. that's bidenomics in action. bidenomics is about building an economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down. and there are three fundamental changes that we decided to make with the help of congress and have been able to do it. first, making smart investments in america. second, educating and empowering american workers to grow the middle class. and third, promoting competition to lower costs to help small businesses. here's what i mean by all this, under trickle down economics, it doesn't matter whether you made things as long as you helped the company's bottom line. even if that meant seeing jobs and industries go overseas for cheaper labor. supply chains and key products moved overseas like china and much of asia. the entire towns and communities

from where i live all the way out through the midwest were shut down, hollowed out. i mean, literally hollowed out. all over the country parents have to say -- and many of you all elected officials heard people tell you this, had to say to their children, honey, i lost my job. we can't live here anymore. we got to move. trickle down also meant slashing public investment on things that help drive long-term growth and helped america lead the world in innovation. we used to invest 2% of our gross domestic product in research and development. by the time i came to office, that was down to 0.7%. we used to be number one in the world in research and development. that's what we're known for. now we rank number nine in the world. china decades ago was number eight in the world. now it's number two in the world, and other nations are closing in fast. we used to have the best

infrastructure in the world, roads, bridges, et cetera. but then we fell to rated 13th best investment in infrastructure. 2 to 13. how can you have the best economy in the world without the best infrastructure in the world? how do you get product from one place to another? i was out in pittsburgh recently, the city of bridges. bridges collapsing all over the nation. you've seen on television railroad bridges collapsing. bidenomics is turning this around. we're supporting targeted investments. we're strengthening america's economic security, our national security, our energy security, and our climate security. i design and we signed a bipartisan infrastructure law. it's already announced. i heard some of the speakers before touting some of it. starting out 35,000 projects across the country. think of it this way, near lay century ago franklin roosevelt's

rural electrification act brought electricity to millions of americans in rural america. 70 years ago dwight eisenhower launched the interstate highway system, the largest infrastructure project to date in history. that's what the bipartisan infrastructure law does. it will be for our kids and grandkids, only bigger. since last week, we announced our plan to bring affordable high speed internet to end a decade of unaffordable and inaccessible internet to every home in america, every small business in america. to no one's surprise -- [ applause ] to no one's surprise, it's bringing along some converts, people strenuously opposed voting against it when we had this going on. this was going to bankrupt america. well, there's a guy named tuberville, senator from alabama who announced he strongly

opposed the legislation. now he's hailing its passage. it's great to see alabama receive critical funds to boost ongoing broadband efforts. [ laughter ] replacing every single lead pipe in this country and putting our children's health back directly, 400,000 schools, 10 million homes. we're fixing crumbling bridges, upgrading our power grid, renovating our airports and ports. and one of you talked about that, how important that is for the great lakes as well. last week we reopened i-95 back where i live, and you go up the east coast, it's one of the most important links in the entire east coast. well, guess what, less than -- a guy driving a truck, anyway, he knocked down a whole bridge and the whole four lanes of the

highway. i went up there, and i said we're going to get this the number one project and get it done. within one week of my being there, two weeks of it happening, tanker trucks that crashed and caused this overpass that has 150,000 vehicles travel on it every day and 14,000 trucks, critical to our economy. we did it with union workers. we closed all the loopholes. [ applause ] we used all american products. all american materials. we used federal infrastructure projects. made in america. made in america. not a slogan. it's actually happening. you know, when roosevelt passed the legislation in the '30s about unions being able to be engaged, everything thinks you just legalize unions. they said we should encourage unions. there's a little provision there that very few presidents paid attention to. it said by america. that meant that if a president

was given money by the congress to build, say, new decadent aircraft carrier, whatever it was, he or she was supposed to use 100% american labor and 100% american products. it hardly happened. it got exceptions down to 30%. i changed all that. we're now investing in key industries of the future making targeted investments to promote domestic production of semiconductors, batteries, electric cars, clean energy. under the trickle down economic theory was that public investment would discourage private investment. give me a break. we went to see a whole lot of major corporations that said, are you more or less likely to invest if the government invests. overwhelmingly they said we're more likely to invest if the government invests. public investment declined here at home. industries that we invented started to move overseas like semiconductors.

i want to remind you america invented these chips. small computer chips the size of the tip of your finger that affect nearly everything in your life from whether your cell phone functions, your automobiles can be built, refrigerators work. it goes on and on into sophisticated weapons systems. it's all in that little -- without that computer chip, we got a real problem. but over time we went from producing 40% of those world chips down to 10%. not anymore. biden economics means the industries of the future is going to grow right here at home. at home. [ applause ] i mean it. not a joke. [ applause ] under bidenomics we've already had over $490 billion in private investment commitments, 490 billion. from u.s. companies and companies around the world coming to the united states of america. working with our global

partners, americans' investments in clean energy technology are going to reduce carbon emissions, continue to lower the cost of wind. you talked about the wind farm you're talking about, you know, it's already cheaper. wind and solar are already significantly cheaper than coal and oil. you're not going to see anybody building a new coal-fired plant in america. not just because i'd like to pass a law to say that, it's too expensive. it doesn't work anymore. solar power is not just mere but around the world, and we used to be the center of building these solar panels. we're coming back and doing it again. america's going to lead again. [ applause ] look, it is a win for the united states and a win for the world that builds on my decision to rejoin the paris climate agreement on the first day i came to office. [ applause ] first day. and by the way, my predecessor

talked a lot about increasing manufacturing. remember infrastructure week? infrastructure week became infrastructure week and week and week and week and week. it never happened. we got infrastructure decade done right off the bat. but in reality, construction of manufacturing facilities here on u.s. soil grow only 2% on my predecessor's watch in four years. 2%. on my watch it's grown nearly 100% in two years. 100%. [ applause ] with the help of all the members of congress, and i'm not being solicitous. look, west virginia, where a steel mill closed in the beginning of this century in 2001 or 2 in that range. it employed thousands, it had thousands of good-paying jobs that were lost. but today with the help of the inflation reduction act, the new plant's being built, building iron air batteries, which are

going to help store energy and these batteries are going to help store energy, and it's being built on the same exact site bringing back 750 good paying jobs, bringing back a sense of pride and hope for the future for all the people in surrounding areas. i believe every american willing to work hard should be able to say where they grew up and stay with they grew up. that's bidenomics. you know, my dad used to have an expression, joey, and i give my word as you say, my dad was a well-read guy, never got to go to college and a hardworking gentleman. we had dinner at -- where we incidentally had conversation and incidentally ate. my dad used to say, remember, a job's about a lot more than a paycheck. i mean this, a job's a lot more than a paycheck, joey. it's about your dignity. it's about pride. it's about being able to look your kid in the eye and say, honey, it's going to be okay. think about it, i mean, literal

sense. think about that, it's about your dignity, how you're treated, and being able to make a living you can tell your kids is going to be okay. the second big part of bidenomics is empowering american workers. when i took office, unemployment was over 6%. with the american rescue plan we provided relief and support directly to working class families. our economy came roaring back, unemployment dipped below 4% by the end of my first year in office. now it's been below 4% for the longest stretch in 50 years of american history. i must admit i concentrated now that we've seen with the help of jesse jackson's legacy and a lot of other people here. we've seen record low unemployment for african americans, record low unemployment for african americans and hispanic workers with disabilities. the lowest unemployment rate in

70 years for american women and you make up half the economy and probably two-thirds of the brains. no, really, think about it. [ cheers and applause ] when i was trying to get -- name me a time when you thought any democratic would get the endorsement within a week, every single environmental group out there. the aflcio, the women's groups, i mean, here's the deal, when i sat with the aflcio, when i sat with the ibw starting when i ran last time, i said here's the deal, though. i'm going to be the most pro-american, most pro-union president in history, but you've got to employ more women. you've got to attract more african americans and you've got to attract more minorities. they have. and every industry from --

anyway, i go to these sites where they're training -- by the way, the other thing i've told labor guys, you got to brag a little bit more about what you do. you realize to get a -- to be an electrician in this town or any other, you have to go through four years of college, you have to go through an apprenticeship that takes four years or five or you can't get a job. you get paid a little bit, but you can't get your license to be a labor electrician until that happens. full employment means workers, especially low wage workers have more bargaining power to demand good pay, secure good jobs, and this is the thing that's inconsistent with whether people think we're moving in the right direction. job satisfaction based on every poll is at a 36-year high. more people are satisfied with their jobs than any time in 36 years, and the shame of working

age americans in the work force, the share of them is the highest it's been in 20 years. remember what they were saying, biden policy isn't working, he's just paying people not to work. people on the sidelines. well, guess what? every single day in four years before i took office, you may remember, i took a lot of criticism of my presidency, were encouraging people to stay home, not work. they were wrong. the evidence is clear, americans are back to work. we're going to continue this progress and make sure every american has the training and education to participate in this new economy. we've increased pell grants, made landmark investments in historic black universities. we've invested more in register apprenticeships and career technology education programs than any previous administration in american history. because of this new economy, we don't need everyone to have a

four-year degree. it's great if you can get one. we're trying to make it easy for you to get one, but you don't need it to get a good-paying job anymore. think of this, how many of you remember going back to high school and they had shop class, and they had classes where people could learn if they were interested in working with their hands. they don't have them very much anymore anywhere around the country. my wife teaches at a community college full-time still, she has an expression. she said any country that out educates us will out compete us. we're not going to let that happen. that's why we're investing significantly in education. i'm determined to keep fighting for universal pre-k and free community college. we're also fighting to make -- [ applause ] we're also fighting to make child care more affordable because we know one benefit is that it opens up significant opportunities for parents to be able to go back and join the work force.

[ applause ] we're also making it easier to empower workers by making it easier to join a union. as i've said, i promised to be the most pro-union president in history. i tell businesses all the time, our union workers are the best in the world. it takes four to five years to get that apprenticeship. it's like going to college. they'll do the right job on time. long-term cost for business is less. addressing a four-year decline in unionization by supporting collective bargaining prevailing wage loss, that's the reason today american support of unions is higher than it's been in 60 years. 60 years. [ applause ] by the way, i met with the business round table, they said why am i so pro-union? i said because it helps you. it really does. think about it. the total cost of a major project goes down when you have the best workers in the world doing it. not a joke. it's true. it lasts longer. you don't have to worry about

whether that socket's going to work. look, young people are organizing new companies and industries. you know, i've indicated to labor leaders, they must expand their ranks. i said more women, more minorities, that's what you've got to do. the third part of biden economics is promoting competition. when companies have to compete on level playing field, they have to work harder to attract customers and recruit and retain workers. some of you business people in here know that well. but under the trickle down economic theory, 3/4 of u.s. industries -- excuse me consecrated. i'm thinking i didn't go to mass. [ laughter ] they were moving to diminish competition. well, that may have been -- made

things easier for big corporations, but for everybody else it made it harder, more expensive. it got harder for small businesses to compete. it stifled integration, it reduced wages for workers and it made our supply chains more vulnerable. so folks, that's been the republican plan so far. good for big business, bad for everyone else. it's not even that good for big business anymore. i came to office with a very different plan. a limited concentration of power at the expense of consumers. the cops are back in the beat enforcing antitrust laws my . my administration is working to crack down on noncompete agreements. getting 5 bucks more a week or 10 bucks more a week, noncompete agreements? it's one thing to have noncompete agreements if you're dealing with trade secrets, it's

another thing when you're doing the same thing flipping a hamburger and you get $0.05 more by walking across the street to a different place. we also are supporting small businesses. vice president harris has prioritized providing support and capital for small business owners including for rural minorities and women, entrepreneurs including through a brand new program that's already helping deliver billions of dollars in growth capital to small businesses in every state. we've seen a record 10.5 million applications, 10.5 million applications, folks looking to start a small business just in the last two years, 10.5. every one of these applications is an application to hope. hope. competition also means lowering costs for consumers. bringing down inflation remains one of my top priorities. today inflation is less than half of what it was a year ago, and that inflation caused by russia and by the war in ukraine

and by what's going on. but we knew we had to do more. there's more than one way to bring down costs. another expression my dad used to use for real, he'd say, joey, he said at the end of the month, the question is after you pay all your bills, do you have just a little left for breathing room. just a little left for breathing room. all your bills paid, do you have anything left. well, inflation eats into that obviously. but guess what, bringing down the cost of medication goes a long way to giving you a little more. that's why through the inflation reduction act, we finally gave medicare the power to negotiate lower prescription drug prices like the v.a. does. we've been trying to get this done for decades in the senate. this time we finally beat big pharma for the first time. [ applause ]

you know, same drug made by the same american company sold in chicago is more expensive than that same drug sold in toronto, great britain, france, germany, any city you can name. for real. now seniors on medicare are paying as much as 400 less -- who were paying $400 a months for insulin last year are now paying $35 a month. [ applause ] because guess what, you know how much it costs to make that insulin? ten, t-e-n dollars. pack it maybe 12 total. a guy who invented insulin didn't even ask for a patent because he wanted everybody to have access to it. we're just finishing the first round of negotiating drug prices, and we'll save the taxpayers this year $160 billion. [ applause ] that's like a tax cut. lowers the cost of producing

drugs and lowers the federal deficit as well. we're expanding health care coverage building on barack's affordable care act. saving average families $800 a year on their health care premiums. we're also fighting junk fees. most people don't think of it that way. here's what a junk fee is, they can add up to hundreds of dollars a month for families. like that extra fee when you say i want my child to sit next to me when i take him to see grand pop on the west coast. they're listing it now. hotel resort fees, you don't realize, you're not told -- you know that ad in television, mine is $200, his is $180. or guess what, the one that bothers me the most is overdraft fees for banks. the banks made $7.7 billion a

year on overdraft fees. you overdraft, you get a penalty. it's one of the leading bank presidents, god love him he's passed away, but he had a yacht. the name of the yacht was overdraft. swear to god. well, guess what, there are going to be no more overdraft fees. [ applause ] folks, we're doing this, doing all this, reducing the deficit at the same time. just in my first two years in office, my team and i have reduced the deficit by $1.7 trillion. just in two years. and the budget agreement i negotiated without having to give away anything of consequence reduced the deficit by another trillion dollars. reversing 40 years of republican

trickle down economics that helped few but hurt the middle class is going to take some time. we're in a place where some big pieces, and we're moving in a direction where we can get some more done and people will see it. what i'm doing and i knew i'd have to do this, all those major legislations we passed, people go that's great, but it takes time to get it out in the field. takes time for them to see it. i'm not here to declare victory on the economy. i'm here to say we have a plan that's turning things around incredibly quickly. we have more work to do. for example, does anyone here think the federal tax system is fair? raise your hand. no matter how much money you make. we're going to make it fair by eliminating loopholes for crypto traders, hedge fund managers. big oil made $200 billion last year and got a $30,000 tax break -- $30 billion tax break. we're going to get billionaires to pay up a little bit at least the minimum tax. you know, when we began there were 750 before the pandemic,

750 billionaires in america. now there are a thousand. you know how much their average tax is, they pay in federal tax? 8% taxes. no billionaire should pay lower tax rate than a school teacher, a firefighter, a cop. i mean, this is -- [ applause ] i'm talking about a fair shot. if they just paid the top tax rate that exists now, which is 30%, we'd raise billions and billions of dollars lowering the deficit, allowing us to pay for so much more we have to do. that's the next phase of this fight. making the tax code fair for everyone, making the wealthy, the super wealthy and big corporations begin to pay their fair share without raising taxes at all on the middle class. i made a commitment when i got elected, no one in america

making under $400,000 would ever have to pay a single penny more in federal taxes as long as i'm president. [ applause ] >> and i've kept that promise. and $400,000 is a lot of money where i come from. let me close with this, when i came to office, i had a fundamental decision to make. we're going to continue to trickle down economics as a policy. it's failed time and again. grew inequality, it saw jobs go overseas. it saw -- and you've seen it out here -- towns hollowed out. i ran in the promise i was going to end this and that i'd begin to build an economy from the middle out and the bottom up. we're not going to continue down the trickle down path as long as i'm president. this is the moment we're finally going to make or break and move away from an economy that has existed in a fundamentally

different direction. here's the simple truth about trickle down economics, it didn't represent the best of american capitalism, let alone americans. it represented a moment we walked away and how many in this country from how this country was built, how this city was built. bidenomics is about the future. bidenomics is just another way of saying restore the american dream because it worked before. it's what we've always worked best at in this country, investing in america, investing in americans, because when we invest in our people, we strengthen the middle class. we see the economy grow. that benefits all americans. that's the american dream. 40 years of trickle down limited that dream for those -- except for those at the top. too many for too long have seemingly suggested that it's only available if you have a four-year college degree. you can work at a tech center.

these new factories that are opening, these fabs that are opening for semiconductors, without a college degree you're going to make 100 to $130,000 a year. 100 to $130,000 a year. [ applause ] i believe that every american willing to work hard should be able to get a job no matter where they are, in the heartland, in small towns in every part of this country to raise their kids on a good paycheck and keep their roots where they group. that's bidenomics. i think the economic philosophy is not going to restore the american dream that we have now, that philosophy, but this new one will. i think we're going to help lessen the division in this country by bringing us back together. it makes it awful hard to demagogue something when it's working, although they do it all the time. i've long said -- and i mean this -- i was on the tibetan plateau with xi jinping, i

traveled 17,000 miles with him. i've spoken with him more than any other head of state. it started when i was vice president, and president who was president and he was the vice president. it was inappropriate for barack to spend that time with him, but i met alone with him just he and i and a simultaneous interpreter, 68 times, 68 hours, 68 times, more than 68 hours. by the way, i turned in all my notes. [ laughter ] [ applause ] we're on the tibetan plateau, and he asked me, can you define america for me? i said, yes, in one word, and i meant it, possibilities. possibilities. we're a land of possibilities, and i told him, i said it's never been a good bet to bet against america. never. [ applause ] and i can honestly -- i can

honestly say i've never been more optimistic about america's future. i swear to god. i've never been more optimistic. just remember who we are. we're the united states of america. there is nothing, nothing beyond our capacity if we work together. so god bless you all and may god protect our troops. thank you, thank you, thank you. [ applause ] ♪♪ >> president biden there saying he's never been more optimistic about american. he's going to restore the american dream and to do so, he will invest in americans and our infrastructure. he has just delivered a major address on what the white house is calling bidenomics. it's a clear sign that the president intends to go all in on his economic message tieing his name and his 2024 political fortunes to what critics and voters have signaled is a potentially tough issue for the president.

despite falling inflation and historically low unemployment, just 34% of americans approve of the president's handling of the economy. this is according to a new ap poll just released today. nbc's mike memoli is traveling with the president in chicago. also joining us, alencia johnson, former senior adviser on the president's 2020 campaign. alencia, give me a sense of what you made of the speech. did it land for you? >> oh, i thought this was a very strong speech, and the president laid out all of the policies that the american people are actually enjoying. to be honest, you know, it is frustrating to see the poll numbers as you just showed around his approval rating when more than 70% of americans do say that they support the bipartisan inflation reduction act. they are supportive of a lot of the president's policies when it comes to chips. they are supportive of the fact that insulin has now been capped at $35 and the list goes on and

on and on. people are, you know, we're seeing a record number of job satisfaction among workers. we are seeing record lows on unemployment, especially among black americans and women who the president said, too, make up half the economy. and so i think we're going to see as the president as well as this administration and so many of his surrogates continue to go out and talk about the key pieces of his policies that are not only working but are popular so that people can connect the dots, that this is under president obama. -- this is under president biden, excuse me, this is under president biden's leadership with a bipartisan way forward, and so i think this is a strong start, and we'll only continue to see more of it. >> so you're talking about the economics here, but you can't overlook the political. republicans have been criticized biden on the economy, what, for two years, something that's only going to increase as we get closer to november of 2024, but according to "politico," some

democrats also see this move as a potential unforced error. one democratic strategist saying bidenomics sounds like bad math, like when my parents tell me something costs $2 and it's $20. do you see any risk in this strategy? >> well, i think here's the thing, when i have worked on several presidential campaigns, i have worked for several advocacy groups, and sometimes, you know, the message has to be delivered by different messengers. right before the show you had the lieutenant governor of new york on here talking about the importance of biden's economic agenda. you have several different people talking about the portion of this economic agenda. even in his speech, though, he was talking about some things that many people don't think about but other people do, that is, you know, the junk fees. these fees that people have to pay, and they realize at the end of the year, they spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, these overdraft fees that make a difference for the american people. but then if you're talking to a group of small business owners, that message will work with them. i think what you're going to

continue to see is this administration understand their audience and who they're talking to. listen, what's going to work for me is going to be different than my parents, but there are policies that will work for all people, and i think you're going to continue to see the president, his administration, a lot of the surrogates really distill down on those key pieces of legislation that work for the american people, whether you're in rural counties or big cities, whether you're college students, whether you're retiring, whether you're low income or middle class, a business owner or a corporate executive. there's a message and a policy that will actually benefit all of those. >> i want to ask you, mike, about the way the president intends to talk about the economy going forward. is this what we're going to see touting his accomplishments, and at the same time doing something he did here, which was to call out, you know, right wing senator tommy tuberville who at first was saying terrible idea, terrible idea, yet goes back to his constituents and says look

what i'm bringing you as a result of things like the infrastructure act. >> yeah, the president singling senator tuperville out on twitter. this is the most fulsome effort we've seen to date, what the white house sees as a significant record of legislative accomplishments, what they've seen in economic data about strong jobs records. with the fact that our own nbc poll shows that the president's own approval ratings are still under water and americans have a very negative view of this direction of the country right now. so the president was trying to do in one place here what he's been doing sort of piece by piece over the course of the last year, which is highlighting some of those specific legislative accomplishments, trying to explain why they have sort of his own middle sensibility at their heart. so yes, they are rebuilding new roads, new bridges. they're doing so by prioritizing american-made materials and labor unions in the process. that he's, yes, expanding the work force through the chips and

science act, advanced manufacturing and creating jobs that don't require college degrees, something that the president's very proud of, and acknowledging that, yes, inflation is a real challenge that he's been able to take steps to reduce it, but he also is doing so in a way that lowers americans' costs, especially as it relates to prescription drugs. so when you hear the term bidenomics, the president has been joking about it. not something he came up with, something that economists and other journalists have, but they're now embracing, it invites the comparison to reaganomics, 40 years that the president characterized as trickle down. the president not talking about ronald reagan today. i thought it was interesting he invited that comparison to donald trump, not by name, but comparing their two records together what he's inherited and what he's been doing since. >> he referred to him as his predecessor, we know exactly who he's talking about. appreciate you both. tonight stephanie ruhle sits down with treasury secretary janet yellen in an exclusive

interview to discuss president biden's economic agenda. you can watch that tonight at 11:00 p.m. eastern here on msnbc. meantime, still ahead for you, he's georgia election official who faced big time pressure from donald trump to find the votes. >> i just want to find 11,780 votes. >> well, now brad raffensperger is sitting down with the special counsel's team. that's next. okay everyone, our mission is complete balanced nutrition. together we provide nutrients to support immune, muscle, bone, and heart health. everyone: woo hoo! ensure with 25 vitamins and minerals. enter the $10,000 nourishing moments giveaway.

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just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state and flipping the state is a great testament to our country. >> the other development we are following, former president trump now responding to newly released audio that could be critical evidence in the classified documents case claiming, quote, it was bravado and that he wasn't actually holding up sensitive documents in that recorded meeting. so take a listen for yourself. >> except it is highly confidential, secret. this is secret information. [ laughter ] >> look at this. >> let's bring in nbc news justice reporter ryan reilly. also with us former federal prosecutor and msnbc legal analyst glenn kirschner. this is raffensperger's first interview as we understand it, with doj officials. what does it tell you about where they are in their case

looking into january 6th? >> i think it tells us, for one, that there's a lot of publicly available evidence already that the grand jury could be drawing from because, of course, you know, that recording was widely available. so you know, pretty much everyone knows the story of what happens. and obviously, even a recording of that phone call is much more valuable evidence than would be testimony of someone, what they remembered two and a half years ago. so i think that they can just sort of bank on that. i think maybe glenn would have a better idea of what the special counsel is thinking in terms of this meeting, what they could be talking about going forward, maybe talking about where they could potentially need him. in any case, that may come to fruition or what his role could be in that -- in the future, but you know, obviously his testimony is pretty well-known to americans. they can draw, of course, on his testimony before the january 6th committee as well. there's just a lot of evidence that they can point to publicly that sort of tells this tale of

donald trump trying to, quote, unquote, find those over 11,000 votes. >> yeah, very curious to know what was said there when he was talking with the doj, and we'll find out perhaps at some point. but glenn, to you, we now have former president trump's response to this audiotape and it could be critical in the trial tied to the classified documents information. he says it was, quote, bravado. have you ever heard that as a legal defense? is that going to work? >> you know, i actually -- i've heard it put more bluntly and more directly. i've heard defense attorneys say my client was lying when he admitted to certain things. so bravado is kind of a nice word for donald trump trying to say, well, i was lying. i didn't really have a document prepared by general milley and the defense department involving a possible military attack on iran because that's what he told the people in his office at bedminster he was holding in his hands. he said these are the papers

that were prepared by milley and the defense department. so now he's trying to say, well, it was bravado. in other words, i made it up. i was lying about it, but, alex, you know, some of the lies he told in that bravado statement included things like, well, if i mentioned plans, they weren't military plans. they were -- oh, they were plans to build a golf course. yeah, that's the ticket. they were plans to build a golf course, and here's the thing about a statement like that. that's a prosecutor's dream because when you have such a juvenile lie, such a transparent lie, what it proves -- this is how i would argue it to a jury -- is consciousness of guilt. donald trump knew he had been caught red handed or perhaps red voiced on that audio recording talking about classified documents that he admitted he hadn't declassified and he couldn't declassify now because this meeting was six months after he left the presidency.

so he has to come up with another explanation and the fact that he's claiming these were plans for a building or a golf course is so transparently laughable that it proves his consciousness of guilt. he's trying to cover up his earlier crime. >> it was kind of funny, right in the wake of him having said that on the tape, the person he was speaking with saying now we're going to have some trouble. that journalist knew immediately there was trouble as well, ask acknowledged it to him. let me ask you about his legal team, though, glenn, because they're also trying to move the trump hush money case to federal the judge is already voicing some skepticism here, first of all, how likely is that to happen, and secondly, what would it mean for the case? >> you know, extremely unlikely. i think the presiding judge on the motion, the federal judge, alvin hellestein has already indicated he's extremely critical of trump's defense team trying to, you know, jump this

case over into federal court. i do think the smart money is riding on the judge denying the motion and this case remaining in new york state court, and being prosecuted there. you know, and it's an interesting question. what would happen if the judge did agree that it should be tried in federal court. you know, it would still be a state case. it would still be prosecuted in violation of state laws. it would still be prosecuted by alvin bragg's prosecutors so it doesn't really become a federal case, it remains a state case, albeit one that would be tried in federal court. >> ryan reilly, glenn kershner, thank you so much. key details of who inside russia may have known about the armed rebellion before it happened. a key russian general had advanced knowledge of yevgeny prigozhin's plans. this comes as western officials

tell the "wall street journal" that the mercenary leader planned to capture russia's military leadership as part of last weekend's mutiny. and then as belarus president aleksandr lukashenko confirms, prigozhin has arrived in the country, he's saying that putin raised the possibility of killing the mercenary chief, and lukashenko urged against it, according to his own account that's been reported in belarusian state media. joining me, marc polymeropoulos, now a nonresident senior fellow at the atlantic council, also an nbc national security analyst, always good to have you. marc. president biden was asked about how the fallout of this rebellion has impacted president putin. let's take a listen. >> he has become a bit of a pariah around the world. it's not just nato. it's not just the european

union. it's japan. it's 40 nations. >> do you think vladimir putin is weaker today than he was before all of those events? >> i know he was. >> do you agree? is he right? is he weaker? as prigozhin was exiled and spared, what does that mean? how does that affect putin's power? >> so, sure. of course he's been weakened. he has problems under his own roof. the reporting over the last 24 hours over various media outlets is extraordinary. not only does it show that prigozhin did have support within the russian security app -- apparatus, but some of the russian officials may have known about this and didn't tell putin. what you're likely going to see is purges in the russian security services. there's going to be distrust, dissension within the ranks, everyone is going to be looking over their shoulder, and ultimately, when ukraine is, you know, fighting their surviving or having the russians

preoccupied, both the russian military and security services, you know, with kind of all of this mess back home, that's good for ukraine. so president biden is absolutely correct. >> as we look at that "new york times" report that a russian general knew about prigozhin's plans, the times is pointing out it is prompting questions about what kind of support the mercenary leader actually had inside the top ranks. and earlier today, retired admiral, james stavridis told msnbc that putin has come out of this situation with intelligence on all of those around him. take a listen to what he said. >> the generals who apparently didn't try to stop prigozhin, the intelligence services, how diligent were they in reporting to them on this, how many of the oligarchs jumped on their private jets and went flying away. how many actually stuck around and tried to support it. putin has gathered a lot of intelligence. >> so what happens next with all

of this information. what are the chances that we see putin take out those who displeased him? >> sure, and of course i agree with my fellow greek american, admiral stavridis, part of the greek mafia on msnbc. i think we're certainly going to see a lot of internal chaos and dissension within the russian establishment. putin is not someone who's going to lay down and take this. he sees russians in terms of two camps, traitors and patriots. the traitors have to be punished. i expect this in the days and weeks ahead. as we saw american officials in fact, seemingly leak some of this intelligence to u.s. media outlets, you know, this is catnip for an intelligence service. what do we want to do here, both us, our partners in day toe, we want to sow that dissension. our top priority is helping ukraine. one other key point on that, i think this shatters the myth

that putin can outlast us in the west. you know, that has been the conventional wisdom that the counter offensive is so important, the u.s. might recess, you know, putin could outlast all of us. that's not true anymore. i think that's really important as of course we watch the counter offensive and plan for not only this month, next month, but years ahead, and the nato summit is in two weeks. i think you're going to see a lot more nato, western resolve, and perhaps finally, we'll get the attack of missiles from the ukrainians. >> we shall see. thank you to our great greek american friend, marc polymeropoulos, good to see you. for all of you coming up, we have still ahead in our next hour, trouble in the air in more ways than one. you've got severe storms. they're creating a travel nightmare while wildfire smoke forces many americans to mask up. stay right there. many american up stay right there one aleve works all day so i can keep working my magic. just one aleve.

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