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tv   Alex Wagner Tonight  MSNBC  September 15, 2023 1:00am-2:01am PDT

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make them more and more desperate. that is the kind of greed and arrogance that the uaw and unions all over this country are standing up to. by i applaud, them i would hope that all of us, as americans, stand with the uawat all of us,s stand with the uaw country are standing up to i would hope all americans stand with uaw in their struggle >> we'll be monitoring that announcement tonight and see what happens tomorrow. thank you very much. i appreciate it. >> thank you, chris. >> i also had a fascinating discussion with alex press she's a phenomenal reporter who's been covering it you can scan the qr code to listen wherever you get your good evening, alex. >> thanks, chris. fascinating time to talk about labor as it intersects with a lot of other priorities i guess we'll call them in american society. i will check out a the podcast. and thanks to you at home for
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joining me this evening. we are finally getting a picture of how the racketeering and conspiracy case against donald trump and 18 other codefendants, finally getting a picture as to how that might play out in court in fulton county, georgia. and boy, oh, boy, is it a complicated picture. as you may know, two of trump's codefendants in all this, sidney powell, and kenneth chesebro, each asked for their trials to go ahead of everybody else's trials, and today scott mcafee officially separated ms. powell'sep and chesebro's trial from the rest of the people in the case. the judge wrote in his order separating these o trials is a procedural and logistical inevitably and additional separation of the 17 defendants may be required. so we may get to see this case broken up into more smaller
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groups of cases, which sounds easy and sounds reasonable, and happens to be unbelievably convoluted. it is literally the most head spinning version of trial tetterous you have ever seen.se here are the 19 defendants in this case. kenneth chesebro and sidney powell will be tried officially together and separate from everyone else. as for the other 17 john eastman, jeffrey clark and voter fraud conspiritist robert chile, they want their cases split-off. rudy giuliani, meanwhile, doesn't want to be tried alongside chesebro and powell andon looks like he's going to t his wish. fommer chief of staff mark meadows want to be tried by himself in federal court. mr. scott hall wants to be tried
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separately from all the defendants who were notly accus of crimes related to the alleged voting machine breach in coffey county. harrison floyd wants to be tried only with the other people accused of harassing elections worker ruby freeman. two of the remaining three codefendants have not yet filed any motions to sever their cases, but ray smith, a former lawyer for the trump campaign, has told the court he thinks the codefendants should all be tried in, quote, manageable groups, whatever that means. it is like the seating arrangement from hell only the stakes are of course astronomically higher. for now what we can say for sure is that kenneth chesebro and sidney powell look like they'll be the first cocop spirators in this case to face justice in a courtroom. the judge said today that he expects the jury in this case to be selected by november 3rd, which means lawyers could start presenting arguments to that jury well before the end of
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2023, and we are getting a look at what that might be like as well. today lawyers for ms. powell and mr. chesebro were in court arguing what kind of evidence they'll be allowed to use in this case, and there was a lot of disagreement. so much e so at one point the judge had to admonish chesebro's attorney after he accused the prosecution of defaming the defense. >> soin the fact she got up her and lied -- lied to the court. >> all right, we've been down that road. >> she lied to the court and she defamed -- >> i said it's over. >> all right. >> multiply all of that, that kind of tense exchange, multipl it times 17 defendants all at once in the same courtroom, and you have a window into how untenable a trial for the remaining 17 defendants happens to be. it is not tenable, but we're not
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sure exactly what happens next. what we do know is that two of the 19 codefendants are going to trial october 23rd. according to the prosecution it is going to take four months to try that case. trump himself still does not have a court date, but the judge has set a hard and fast deadline of december 1st for the 17 other defendants including donald trump to submit any pretrial motions. judge mcafee has made very clear he is not going to slow walk this case. he does not appear ready to let donald trump push this case into the distant future, which means that 2024 is going to be a very, very busy year. buckle up. joining me now is neil katyal, former acting solicitor-general for the obama administration, and christie greenberg, a former federal prosecutor in the southern district of new york. christie, it just seems inevitable the 17 others are
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going to be 1 divided up, but a we pointed out through the extensive and may i say sophisticated graphics department on this program, tw dividing up the 17 is tetris hell. >> when i prosecuted large cases having 20 to 30 people in the case, usually the judge will ask for some input about the groupings of defendants, say if the evidence is all related to the coffey county scheme, for example, would it make sense to try allma those defendants together so you're getting an overlap in the accounts and evidence the jury is going to be hearing, same for other schemes. you've got very discreet schemes even though it's all big one rico conspiracy. the judge also signaled he wants to hear what the pretrial
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motions are, and maybe depending on those defenses, that could affect the groupings as well. >> neil, throughout this process the prosecution has said we wan to keep everyone together, no matter who the defendant is we're goingtt to have the same witnesses and call the same evidence. is that a bluff? because if that's true, then it's four months per trial which could take us into, oh, i don't know 2025, 2026 depending on how many groups there are. >> yeah, i don't think it was a bluff, alex. i think the prosecutor here, fani willis, genuinely wanted to have a prosecution of all 19 at once. but i don't think it was realistic. and, you know, kristy is a federal prosecutor so i would defer to her on this. today's decision to sever the two chesebro and powell from the remaining 17 i thought was quite
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predictable. and the question is what's it going to look like now? to me the million dollar question is when is the trial of donald trump? we've been waiting years and years for this. it's now we know not going to be october but is it going to be right after this trial or are we going have to wait even longer? and here's where i hope the judge and prosecution really do respond to these defense delay tactics that trump is known for and make sure this trial gets on the road. >> given how explicit donald trump has been, like a cornerstone of his defense is pushing this into the future as long as possible. how much does a judge take that into consideration as he tries to figure out, okay, is donald trump in a group with other people, is trump by himself? how do you figure out the trump of it all if you're a judge? >> so i think the judge also has to be mindful of the calender. there's the march 4th trial in
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d.c., and i think that's going to stick. i don't see her moving that unless there's a very compelling reason to do so. you also have the manhattan d.a. case in late march, which may get move. i think the two federal cases here really would take precedence. so i can see if there were groupings donald trump may be looking ats spring and may be looking at fall 2024 depending how this all plays out, if the judge is going to be more deferential to these other trials already on the calender. >> it would seem the judges are going to talk to each other at some point, right? >> and judge chutkan already said she was going do that, so you have to figure all these judges are talking and trying to figure out the schedule. it when you just said the fall of 2024, i don't know if you could see my eyeballs pop like an inch out of my head because that's obviously the pen ultimate months leading to a
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presidential election if trump is indeed the republican nominee. is there any acquiescence to the reality this person is theoretically going to be in the throws of a presidential campaign when scheduling something like that so close to an election? >> no, it's true. and i think the realities of this are going to be explicitly stated. that will take youxp at least f the next group to look at some time then spring and the next group some time in the fall. you figure a number of defendants fall out because they take pleas, some may cooperate. you're probably looking at depending how many you have left about twoe additional trials, d that schedule may make sense. >> how many jurors are you going
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to need from fulton county if you have multiple trials, and does that process concern you given how difficult -- even in the grand jury's indictment there was one grand juror who consistently voted for donald trump, and the stakes in an election for all this might be outrageously high given the fact you're going to have multiple jury pools, how's that going work? >> jury selection i think you're absolutely right to put your finger on the issue. even though this is hot button case everyone knows about, we face this in and you can first question them, alex, in a kind of group setting and an individual one, and even
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something people feel passionate about, it's not that hard to get 12 people who say they want to listen to the evidence with an open mind. i certainly think that's possible in fulton county. i don't think it's going to take months and months for each jury to be impanelled, but i could imagine very much like something wee saw in minnesota and takes couple of weeks to impanel a jury, and the stakes on the other side, if you get that wrong if a juror is seated who's got bias is obviously catastrophic so it's worth that investment of time. >> the other piece is the judges, right, neil? judge mcafee suggested other judges were willing and ready to answer the call to go to trial with some of these other cases, but how practically would that work? there's a lot of business the fulton county court has to take up. >> right, you've got that problem and g also simultaneous
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trials on the same issues might itself create legal problems because any of those defendants could say, hey, i couldn't mopter what was going on in the other trial because i have my own trial, but it turns out the evidence in that trial was inconsistent. so multiple simultaneous trials, but they are really discreet like the fake electors, just break off, maybe it's possible, i don't know. i think it's more likely than not we'll have the same judge decide these cases one after the other and in trials one after the other. >>te that's an unenviable positn in my humble opinion, kristy. the assumption is whatever happens to meadows on that count is going to be applicable to anybody else who wants to have their case removed, right? does the same thing hold true
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for example sidney powell and ken chesebro they want access to thees grand jury investigation itself. if they arega granted access, ds that mean everybody else in the case iser granted access? >> yeah, so, the judge said there where there are trial witnesses, individuals, where the prosecution said we're going to make these witnesses testify at trial, the defense would be entitled to their testimony before the special grand jury, and that makes sense. so they'd be entitled to that information. the question is, you know, how much. she hasno said she's got up to 0 witnesses for a trial, fani willis. and then the special grand jury report there were 75 according to that t witnesses that went before the special grand jury.ci so is there an overlap? were they the same? so i'm not sure how much of an argument there's going to be.
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but it does stand to reason whatever rulings are made on that issue that presumably other defendants would have as well would hold for the other t defendants, too. >> otherwise we'll never be done with this. is this unusually nightmarish seeming to you because it seems incredibly thorny to me? >> not necessarily. these cases where you have multi-defendant cases where there are 30, 40 defendants, they're a lot to handle. but usually you don't end up with that many defendants towardst the end. i think you're going to see now that discovery is being produced, she has 8 terabytes of discovery. one alone i think it's like 6 million or so documents for 1 terabyte. you're going to start to see
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people plead out. >> how many terabytes does it take to secure a plea deal? that's the question. neil katyal, kristy, thank you for your time tonight. we have a lot more to get to tonight including accusing the adult son of the president while ignoring the adult son of a different president. adult son different president.
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so in the house of representatives, a motion to vacate is a vote to remove the speaker, and in this house, it is an ax that has been hanging over speaker mccarthy's head and has been since the day he took up the gavel. but today speaker mccarthy apparently finally had enough. in closed door meetings this
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morning he told his fellow republicans if you want to file a motion to vacate, then file the effing motion. in all likelihood the f bomb was directed to florida congressman matt gaetz who's not been exactly shy about his dislike for speaker mccarthy. congressman gaetz responded in a way only he can with a tweet reading pull yourself together, kevin. but can kevin pull himself together? it is an exasperating job catering to the unsatiable, and nothing kevin mccarthy has done to appease his conference has so far worked, not even ordering the impeachment inquiry into president biden, but so far there is no exit from this devil's spark. and even especially as critical funding bills get held up and the government inches closer to a potential shutdown. based on the current schedule there are nine legislative days
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left to avoid that outcome. joining me now is washington congresswoman pramila jayapal. thank you for being here. is it a forgone conclusion we're going to have a government shutdown? how is that in your mind avoided right now? >> alex, it's great to see you. look, i think this is a real challenge that is before us because this republican majority, this speaker has turned his gavel over to the extreme right wing of his party who are making demands that are absolutely unattainable. so they have not been able to pass 11 of the 12 spending appropriations bills that are just a basic task of governing. instead kevin mccarthy is trying to keep his speakership by dangling this shina new object of impeachment of joe biden, absolutely baseless and absurd
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impeachment of joe biden before the caucus, trying to keep that and at the same time distracting from the work that needs to be done. so i think what we need to do is look to the senate because in the senate a democratically controlled senate has worked with republicans to pass all of their appropriations spending bills with significant bipartisan majorities. they can take those bills and pass -- send them over to the house. they can take a clean, continuing resolution to give us a little bit more time because at the end of the day speaker mccarthy's going to have to decide if he wants to be a speaker or if he is just essentially handing the gavel over to margery taylor greene. they can't pass their own appropriations bills because they're trying to pass a nationwide abortion ban. they are trying to completely eliminate public education. they are trying to make sure that the wealthiest tax cheats don't have to pay taxes. those are the things that they're trying to pass in these
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appropriations bills as policy writers. it's not going to fly. >> help me understand the democratic calculus here, though. if kevin mccarthy worked across the aisle yooget anything done in a bipartisan fashion, it would basically drive a nail into his coffin as speaker. and i guess my question to you is is it worth it? the devil you know better than the devil you don't know? >> look, they're just showing republicans can't govern. and whether it's kevin mccarthy or the next speaker, unless they recognize they are just one of three chambers that are needed to pass bills, and they have to work in a bipartisan fashion, we are going to be in republican chaos, republican shutdown land until 2024. this is not going to bode well for them for the elections.
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i think for democrats if kevin mccarthy needs us to bail him out, it's going to be difficult with some power share arrangement. and we haven't gotten to the point we're talking about this, but i don't think he should count on democratic votes to bail him out. i think republicans have to show the country they go how to govern, otherwise they're going to have to deal with the consequences of that and all of us, the american people are going to have deal with the consequences of that. >> in the meantime kevin mccarthy is giving away whatever the maga caucus wants the including the impeachment inquiry. it feels democrats, there's more of a concerted strategy to push back on the impeachment boondoggle. can you give us any insight to the gravity democrats feel is in front of them in terms of an impeachment situation, if you will? >> well, i think that the gravity is because it's baseless
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and absurd. i don't think that we -- listen, i've been through an impeachment inquiry. as you know i sit on the judiciary committee. one, he was essentially trying to hold zelenskyy hostage in order to get military aid from the united states. and the second where he incited an insurrection. there is nothing in the republican investigations that they've been taking on for over a year into president biden. there really is nothing there, and that's part of their problem, so how are we handling it? we're taking it seriously. we're pushing back on it. we are making the very clear comparison between president biden where there's nothing, no evidence at all and donald trump who's now been indicted as you covered many times on your program of 91 felony counts, and
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this is very serious national security and election interference. so we're taking it seriously, but i'm also trying to make sure people understand this is distracting from the real work. you said in your opening we've got nine legislative days left. that careens us to a shutdown if they don't start doing their day. >> nine days, mark it on your calender and see what happens next. congresswoman pramila jayapal, thank you for your time. it's great to see you. >> great to see you, alex. we are lots more in store this evening. what to do if you're president biden and looking at a possible strike by auto workers that could also threaten your climate agenda, and a potential criminal trial for hunter biden in the middle of a presidential election. a lot on his plate. all of that is coming up next. stay with us. l of that is comin. stay with us there is a better way to manage diabetes. the dexcom g7 continuous glucose monitoring system eliminates painful finger sticks,
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goli, taste your goals. just six months after leaving his job at the white house where he was a senior advisor to the president, donald trump's son-in-law, jared kushner's brand new private equity firm scored a $2 billion investment from saudi arabia's sovereign wealth fund. according to documents obtained by "the new york times" before making that massive investment, the saudi sovereign welt fund had a panel of experts screen
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jared kushner's proposed deal and they did not like it at all. in fact, they called it unsatisfactory in all aspects. the panel objected to what they called the inexperience of the fund's management and the possibility the kingdom would be responsible for the bulk of the investment and risk. the panel voted unanimously against agreeing to the deal, so pretty clear, right? not going to happen, sorry, mr. kushner, this just isn't the right fit for us. not so fast because days later the fund itself led by saudi crown prince, mbs, overruled. they went ahead against the unanimous advice of a panel of their own experts and invested with jared kushner. so that is all shady on its own. where it gets really bad is where you look back on things kushner did while inside the white house, things that saudi arabia and mbs in particular seemed to really, really
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appreciate. very early on in trump's administration in march of 2017, kushner arranged a white house visit for mbs that treated the crown prince as if he was a head of state well before he actually was. it was a significant breach of diplomatic protocol and an even bigger deal given the internal struggle about who would be saudi arabia's next leader. and trump made the unprecedented decision to make saudi arabia the site of his first trip as a foreign president. the egyptian president and the saudi king and donald trump all weirdly touching that strange, glowing orb? in his memoir kushner claims that trip was his idea and that he had to fight secretary of state rex tillerson over it, which makes sense. that same month kushner helped negotiate a $110 million weapons sale to saudi arabia. then in october kushner took an announced trip to saudi arabia. here he reportedly stayed up until nearly 4:00 a.m. with the
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crown prince, and he stayed up until 4:00 a.m. on multiple nights swapping stories and planning some sort of strategy. the very next week the crown prince started rounding up hundreds of saudi arabia's most powerful people including his own direct competitors for the throne. and they were held some of them for years as prisoners in the rihad ritz-carlton. as nice as being trapped in a rits may sound at first, associates of those detained at the rits said they were sed to torture during their hotel imprisonment. but that does not appear to have changed mr. kushner's view of the crown prince, no. and then of course there was the brutal murder of "the washington post" columnist jamal khashoggi, well after the cia had reported mbs had personally ordered khashoggi killed, well after
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that made it a disaster for the crown presence on the world stage, jared kushner was still defending him saying things like, yes, the crown prince made a few missteps but he's a good ally. now, i wanted to stick a pin in that incredibly sketchy $2 billion deal by former president trump's adult son-in-law, jared kushner, who was actually an official in trump's administration influencing policy directly. i wanted to stick a pin in that before getting into the new charges filed today against president biden's adult son who has never been a government official of any kind, hunter biden. former senator claire mccaskill joins me to talk about that coming up next. to talk about t coming up next ♪ you can make it happen ♪ ♪ yeah oh ♪ now, try new dietary supplements from voltaren for healthy joints.
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president joe biden's son, hunter biden, was indicted today in connection with a gun he purchased back in 2018. and he's now facing three charges. two counts of making false statements in order to buy the gun and a third charge for possessing the gun while addicted to drugs. while this is the first time the son of a silting u.s. president has been federally charged, it may not be the last. the special counsel overseeing this case, a trump appointee named david weiss, is considering bringing additional tax charges against hunter biden. we're just not sure when. now, from the beginning of all this hunter biden admitted he paid his taxes late, and he was expected to plead guilty. but the gun charge is a whole different story. that charge was supposed to be
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dropped as part of a deal biden's lawyers reached with the government prosecutors, but it seemed to be impacted by republicans in congress and ultimately appeared to fall apart in court. now, even though congressional republicans have been pushing for hunter biden to be indicted, today's charges are far from satisfying them, and this is why. >> that's one of about a dozen crimes hunter biden's committed. and ironically that's the one crime that he committed that you cannot tie joe biden into. >> joining me now is former u.s. senator and msnbc political analyst claire mccaskill. claire, cites so good to see you both as a former senator and a lawyer. i'm trying to understand what the point of this indictment is, given the rarity of prosecutors seeking federal indictments for these kind of gun violations especially when there's no serious crime involved. democrats obviously hate it. republicans are unsatisfied with it. is this merrick garland's doj
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trying to make a point? what do you think it is? >> i don't think merrick garland is making the calls here. i think this is all the special counsel who is deciding -- i think the special counsel has bent to the pressure that was put on him around the plea deal that he had agreed to. and by the way the irony of this is this -- these charges in my state the republicans don't think the federal government should have any say when you buy a gun. they pass laws saying that we should ignore all federal gun laws. so in missouri they think that hunter biden didn't do anything wrong if they were republican, and that's really true across this country. there is an irony that it's a gun charge. this case will be decided in court as it should be. there may be other cases that will be decided in court as they should be. but, alex, there's one thing we can't escape. donald trump made money off being president of the united
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states. donald trump's kids all made money off being president of the united states. hunter biden appears to have made money because his father was vice president. they all did it. it's not illegal. even hunter biden's own partner said joe biden did nothing other than say some hellos and acknowledge peoples existence but was never involved in this. and that's why this is so bad because the white house has to fight back on this. they can't ignore it. >> yeah, i don't know if you saw -- you probably did not because i'm sure you were doing other things, but right before the segment, we had a long sort of explanation about the incredibly unsavory things that were happening with jared kushner and mohamed bin salman, that may have ended a $2 million
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investment to the saudi welt fund. the asymmetry of this apparent corruption there with someone who's addicted to drugs owning by his lawyer's attestation an unloaded gun for 11 days, the asymmetry is mind-boggling. it is staggering. i also wonder, claire, whether, you know, the more joe biden has to talk about his son who is an addict, who made a bad decision on the gun charge specifically, in a way it reminds people of the tragedy and the darkness that joe biden has had to live through, that his family has been through. i'm not sure it does what republicans think it's going to do in terms of character assassination. >> i think you're right. i think it would be helpful if the president were to acknowledge that his son did things that were not in good judgment and that were inappropriate but that he loves him. i think it's important to
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remember too how potentially joe biden was afraid for his son and was in his life. as you know the gun was thrown away by someone who cared about hunter biden because she was afraid he was going to kill himself with it. clearly there's some deeply difficult tragedies around hunter biden and around all of joe biden's children all of whom have passed away with the exception of hunter biden. that doesn't excuse hunter biden's conduct, but it explains maybe why the president is so reluctant to say what i think a lot of americans wanted to say, which is i love my son, i will always love my son, but he showed really poor judgment in the way he tried to use my position to leverage his own personal money. >> yeah, i absolutely agree with you on that. the tragedy that is inherent in all this, the amount of disappointment that a father
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must feel when his son is paraded like this and his sins, for lack of a better word, are on full display in the glaring klieg lights of the media is really wrenching. do you think this has the intended effect as far as republicans are concerned of creating a false equivalency between missteps on the part of the bidens and the 91 felony counts on the indictment of donald trump? does that change opinions in terms of independents and moderates? >> i'll tell you what, i'm old enough to remember swift vote in john kerry. yes, he disagreed with the war but nobody's going to believe that. and then her e-mails. for months on end they were just ignored. the issue was just ignored, and it took root. and i actually believe this has taken root now, that they are successfully muddying the waters with a lot of americans who
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aren't paying close attention and saying, well, you know, yes, i'm sure he knew what his son was doing or i'm sure he knew his son was benefitting. that's why i'm saying they cannot assume this is going to go they way they wanted to go. they need to stand up tall and be definitive about why they were using a pseudo main e-mail, why hunter was copied on that e-mail, be willing to talk about the fact he absolutely made no money off anything hunter was doing. i think they need to take it more seriously because they are -- it's not fair, it's not right, but it's real people are beginning to feel there must be something wrong here. it's like boxing shadows, but unfortunately i think the president has to box them. >> claire mccaskill offering
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important advice to the biden campaign. thank you, my friend. and some news, claire has teamed up with jen palmieri. that is double trouble. i love that pairing. get it now. we have one more story for you tonight. workers at detroit's big three auto makers could strike as soon as tonight. we're going to get into the threat that poses to the economy and political alliances and even the president's climate agenda. we're going to have more on that after the break. stay with us. after the break. stay with us to duckduckgo on all your devie
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summer may be over, at least unofficially, but the summer of
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strikes decidedly is not. the united auto workers union, the uaw representing nearly 150,000 people is poised to launch a coordinated strike at midnight tonight after contract talks for stalled with the big three auto makers. that would be general motors, ford, and stellantis, which owns chrysler. according to abc news it would be the first time in the union's 80-plus year history that it struck all three companies at the same time. now, this kind of strike would be challenging for any president, but it is a particular challenge for joe biden. he has frequently proclaimed himself the most pro-union president in american history, but biden has also made electric vehicles a cornerstone of his climate agenda, and auto makers want to use nonunion factories to make batteries for those cars, and that is a major sticking point in those contract negotiations, and it's also a major issue for president biden. joining us now to discuss is the former campaign manager of
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bernie sanders. great to see you. there's literally no one else i'd rather to talk about this and i wonder if you think this is attention the president needs to resolve publicly and privately between the clean energy agenda and organized unionized labor. >> let's take those in turn, alex. let's talk about clean energy for a second, ev jobs. you and i, we're supporters of ev jobs. i would venture to say a lot of people watching this show, you and i would agree when we hear the words ev, we think jobs of the future, clean energy, climate friendly, science oriented. while i'll deposit to you while those are all true, what donald trump and some of the right knows for those workers when they hear ev, they also hear worst paid, like harder and fewer jobs. and so i think when you wrestle with this what we're fighting for is that those jobs of the future, that these clean energy
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jobs are good paying middle class jobs. that is not the case. a lot of these jobs you're paid 16, 17, $18 an hour as a temp worker to do them. so if these are going to be the job of the future, the fight is make sure they're damn good jobs. if you worked in the big three auto plants and you're getting 22, $24 an hour why can't the ev jobs be similar? let's save an industry and save workers who are going to be the future of this industry. >> it is pretty clear we know sort of anecdotally about the issue liberals, democrats, blue staters have when it comes to courting union votes or, sorry, white collar and to some degree blue collar votes. union labor is no exception to that, right? if you look at the numbers i think 2020 exit polls, 56% of voters in union households nationwide backed biden, but 40% of them backed donald trump.
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and the uaw estimates that one-third of its members voted for trump in both 2020 and 2016. this is a big concern, and i think it's more than just this particular negotiation. it's about the sort of -- the narrative that democrats present to -- to organized labor and how much of that hinges on what happens right now. >> we're going to own -- you and i would agree this is a hard challenge for the president, right? it's not easy, but i think you make your name in hard moments. and this is a hard moment. when workers go on strike, it's one of those clarifying moments. whose side are you on? so you're saying you're going to take errors, the corporate propaganda is going to tell you the economy is going to be terrible, everything is going to go to hell and all because of these workers. and what the assumption is there we can't go any higher than this
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number. they can't move beyond a, you know, 15% pay rise. really? come on, we know you can. it's just a matter of policy choices. you can give $9 million back to stock or share buy back dividends. you can't go above a 15% raise for workers. you can. it's leaning into making the workers side of the argument. it's saying they know what they're after. you just want a decent middle class lifestyle which you can afford. you're not broke, you're not poor. let's get the economy right for these workers who are all feeling this pain. people on the other side of this argument they know corporate america has largely screwed them and tightened wages at the bottom particularly for auto workers who during 2008 and 2009 were told to make the sacrifices. here we are a decade later, you can't tell me you don't have enough profits to make sure they're holding solid middle
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class jobs? of course you can. >> the profits, if you look at what the ceos of the big three auto makers made last year, ford's ceo $21 million. stellantis ceo $24.8 million. >> in the last four years that increase has gone up 40% for those ceos. the same number that shaun fain is asking for workers. not unfair. let's have an honest conversation. don't be wrapped into a fear mongering debate about, oh, the sky is going to fall because workers are asking for something unreasonable. they are not. but it is these moments where no pain, no gain. if you go on strike, yes there might be some short-term pain, but we're owning there's going to be long-term gain. what are you shooting for? you're shooting for an industry standard where workers can benefit from an economy where
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billionaire companies are making incredible profits. we've got to just share that. share that in a way where workers deliver those products, deliver that productivity feel they're being honored with a decent lifestyle. >> keep your eyes on the clock. could happen as soon as tonight. thank you for your time tonight. that is our show for this evening. "way too early" with jonathan lemire is coming up next. this is our generation's defining moment. the money is there. the cause is righteous, the world is watching, and the uaw is ready to stand up. this is our defining moment. >> a historic strike is under way this morning for the first time ever. united auto workers are taking on detroit's big three all at the same time. we'll get into that. also ahead we'll break down the new federal charges for hunter biden and bring you the response from the white house, plus what donald trump had to

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