tv Ayman MSNBC August 4, 2024 4:00pm-5:00pm PDT
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tonight on ayman, the final test. outside the home of vice president harris with her announcement of a running mate do any moment, as one of the contenders posts a cryptic message on x, and then delete separate and do vp pics even matter? donald trump says they do not, which jd vance is wearing his badge of honor. plus, how to buy a president point while one is flying under the radar, another unfolds in plain sight. i am stan stein in for ayman, let's do it. >> [ music ] all right, decision day is upon us. at any moment between now and tuesday, the first big decision of kamala harris is presidential campaign and of her presidency, possibly, it will be announced, it will be prematurely leaked.
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nbc news has confirmed that vice president harris had in person meetings scheduled with three bp contenders today. tim walz, josh shapiro, and mark kelly, who just sparked speculation onyx about that meeting, which we will get to in a moments. but all of this is going down as a new and head-to-head cbs poll of likely voters show harris leading donald trump by one point nationally, while they are deadlocked in battleground states. so, with the race essentially tied, which direction will vice president harris choose to take? what attributes is she prioritizing and a running mate? and what will the choice reveal about harris and her leadership style? live outside the president's residence at the naval observatory, is where we find allie raffa. what is going on? in the last hour, senator kelly posts on x, "my background is a bit different than most politicians.
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i spent my life serving in the navy and at nasa, where the mission always comes first. now, my mission is serving arizonans." he has now deleted it. does he not know we are all sort of reading every single sign? what is happening here? >> reporter: yeah, sam, just to prove to you how much attention is on everything these top contenders say and do, that post on x in which he said his mission is to serve arizonans immediately field questions, speculations over this was a veiled announcement that kelly was not in the running to be a vp running mate, the pick for vice president harris anymore. that tweet was deleted moments later, then kelly posted a second post on x, showing him with two men in army uniforms, with the caption: when your country asks you to serve, you can always answer the call. so, just showing the spotlight
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that is on these contenders, really in the home stretch here, as harris prepares to make this critical decision, and we know that kelly was one of three top contenders that vice president harris met with in person today here at the naval observatory. those other candidates of the minnesota governor tim walz and pennsylvania governor josh shapiro. that ability to meet with them in person obviously giving her an opportunity to give her a sense of their character, their personality, see whether she connects with them on a personal level before she has to make this decision, and the timeline for that is getting tighter and tighter. she is expected to appear for the first time with her cake on tuesday when she is going to appear at a rally in philadelphia before she embarks on this major battleground tour, hitting states like georgia, nevada, arizona, and michigan, and given that timeline, this increasingly historically fast vetting process that usually takes a month, that she has had to squeeze into two weeks, we expect her to use every minute that she has for making this decision, which of course has to be made before tuesday, sam.
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>> yeah, some poor social media staff are is going to get a yelling at or maybe it was all cryptic for a reason. nbc's allie raffa, thank you very much, really appreciate it. joining me now, msnbc political analyst and special correspondent at vanity fair, and michael, nbc political analyst and columbia university professor. thank you both for being here. basil, i mean, we are reading little bits of information that we can get our fingertips on, but what do you make of this since deleted post from senator kelly? >> yeah, i feel for the social media staff are there, if it was indeed an accident. because you know, we have all been in similar situations where we make a little mistake like that and you unfortunately set off a whole set of media engagement. but you know, if it was something that was somewhat
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intentional, i think it might be a good thing to keep everybody guessing. but you know, kelly is a man of impeccable service to his country, and i think he just wants to reinforce that as he is having these conversations, it may show that arizonans don't feel he is leaving her behind, and whether he joins the ticket or not, the goal is for him to convey to them that he always has her best interest in mind, i think that is what that tweet did get across, but with all the speculation, they should know not to put something out there and then take it back and no one talk about it. >> for all we know, it could have been a scheduled tweet that they forgot to on schedule. molly, i mentioned that cbs poll today, it shows the races to statistically in a dead heat. according to cbs, the reason that this race is now a toss-up
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is because harris has seen a boost in democratic excitement. how does that impact or how should it impact them i should say, how her team goes about this a vp selection process? obviously, you don't want to put a wet blanket over that excitement. at the same time, maybe you're looking a bit down the road and saying we need to appeal to more centrist, independent electorate once we get to officially the general election season. >> well, harris has only been in the race for two weeks, which is kind of incredible, and she has raised hundreds of millions of dollars, and the rollout has been, i think, as seamless as anyone could have hoped. and so, i think she has a really good team, and you know, i have interviewed her and written about her a lot as vice president, and i think her team has gotten really, really good. and you know, biden also had this kind of amazing apparatus,
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and so now, they are sort of unleashed and you see this on their social media. they are kind of exciting, and you know, there is a certain kind of galvanized force. i am not worried about who she picks. historically, while this is a meaningful thing and biden was like a good example of this, he was quite a good vp pick for obama, i think that it doesn't totally matter, though i do think it is important to point out, she did want someone who had executive experience of governor and she has some really good governors to choose from, including -- i would not sleep on tim walz. >> yeah, tim walz is the candidate, it appears, of the progressive electorate. basil, i want to talk to about the candidate -- let's talk about the one who seems to be occupying more middle lane, which is josh shapiro, pennsylvania governor.
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a few headlines that have come out recently about him. " shapiro faces scrutiny over sexual harassment complaint against eta." "he supports school vouchers" there is an interesting one, "john fetterman has concerns about shapiro for vp, aides tell harris's team." okay, this happens. obviously, as you get to this critical juncture. but on a meta point, do all these critical headlines about shapiro just affirm that he is the front runner? or is it affirming that he is the riskiest candidate for harris, or both? >> you know, i think both things can be true. if you listened to him speak in these rallies, he is incredibly energetic, he knows how to push back, he knows how to hit hard, and in some ways, you know, i think that is going to be an asset should he ever be chosen
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to the harris ticket, because there are going to be so many knives coming at her, there already are. so, he would have this opportunity and he has proven that he has had this ability to really be sharp and be able to push back forcefully. on the other hand, you know, one of the key sort of points you want to keep in mind is that this pick should do no harm. and as molly talked about, she has had this incredible two weeks, she is going to have to have a near flawless 10 weeks or whatever the case is going forward. and they are going to have to be really careful. i am sure they can do it, but the last thing you want to do is have to respond to certain constituencies and the media about something your vp pick has done, because your point earlier, that does tend to slow things down and tamped down on that energy. >> we should note, shapiro just
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returned home, did not answer questions about his meeting with harris i want to kind of delve on that federman story. the two have a history. according to politico, federman's advisers adjusting to harris's team that the center believes shapiro is very focused on his own personal ambitions. first of all, welcome to politics, right? but secondly, should that be a concern? i mean, you want loyalty, obviously. you want someone who you can trust. this is not just sort of a vanity project, this is not just an election project, it is a governing project, right? you are presumably going to win. molly, is that something you think is problematic? i guess a secondary component of this is do you think progressives will ultimately get in line and be excited about the ticket if shapiro is the choice? >> i would say two things, criticizing a politician for being too ambitious is pretty wild. i mean, isn't that what they do?
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and i would think actually being ambitious is kind of a good thing for a politician. i just want to say, back to tim walz for one second here, he is the only one of these people who has significant military experience, so, even though he may be a progressive choice because of his work with school breakfast and he was an educator, i still think of him as someone who might sort of -- you know, he has actually served in the military, he was an enlisted man, so i think that is quite relevant and important. and i think, look, so far, harris has really gotten progressives excited in a way that biden did not. she has become a really gifted or a tour, sort of obama level excitement here, so i think she could probably do -- you know, it is the vice president, it is not the president, but i do think what basil is talking about when he says do no harm, she has so much to deal with
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and the stakes here are so high that i think both democrats and her team realized that she has to be careful. >> right, well, there is do no harm, but there is also let's dial it up to 11, right? the case for tim walz is basically you have got all this progressive enthusiasm, this democratic enthusiasm, here is a guy who can just amplify it. he may not have a critical state like pennsylvania, but he has got the message. basil, let's talk about this guy. midwestern governor, military veteran, football coach, legislative experience in washington, that can come with some complications, but still. now some interesting headlines about him. apparently, nancy pelosi thinks highly of him. and bernie sanders quoted this weekend saying that walz would speak up for working people as vp. look, he doesn't bring you pennsylvania, that is the most
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important state, but he does add a lot of interesting components to the ticket. talk about what he could bring to the harris campaign. >> well, you know, i have been hearing a lot more about him over the last few days, so if he is doing his own outreach and trying to build support for his own candidacy, he has done a really great job. got a wonderful resume as well. and i will tell you, there have been many ways -- you know, we think in terms of conventional wisdom, should the vp bring you a state or a region? you can also think about it in terms of bringing you a whole constituency. so, it could be progressive voters, it could be suburban voters or independent voters. i think he hits all of those marks. you know, i wonder how much young voters are going to respond, but you know, he was a coach. if he talks in those terms, if he talks about the kind of relationship he has with young people, you know, i think that certainly resonates. but as far as i can see, i have been a bit agnostic on the choice, but if he were to be
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the choice, i do think he resonates with a lot of constituencies that even if you don't get the region, you can get the turnout in blue states, for example, in a healthy down ballot. that's right, well, this is truly the silliest of silly seasons and political reporting. i will say, we have late- breaking news on ex. senator kelly sconce director treating -- tweeting this: this is not news, go back to your sundays, everybody. noted. although we do have another hour and 45 minutes of the show, so don't go back to your sundays to quickly produce the ground, including you, molly and basil. we will have more from you later in the show, because we have to talk about trump snubbing his own vp pick. why jd vance sees it as a badge of honor. that and more after the break. >> [ music ] >> [ music ] it removes 99% of grease and grime in half the time. it cleans so well,
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for donald trump, it is cleanup on aisle 47 with his historically unpopular running mate, jd vance, who continues to get hit by a series of seemingly never-ending revelations from his past. just listen to trump's low- energy pitch to supporters in atlanta: >> they go after jd, you know why? he is for the worker. he has done great, he has done great. he has been everything we could have expected and much more, so jd, thank you very much. >> didn't really seem into that one producer, trump may be blaming others for attacking his running mate, but in reality, no one undermines vance more than vance. but trump has really helped either. take trump's highly criticized interview at the national association of black journalists conference last week when he said this about vance's impact on the upcoming election: >> historically, the vice president, in terms of the election, does not have any impact. i mean, virtually no impact. you are voting for the president and you could have a
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vice president who is outstanding in every way, but you are not voting that way, you are voting for the president, you are voting for me. >> and even more baffling now, i guess he has to do it because trump said it, is how vance himself is downplaying his own relevance. >> [ inaudible ] it doesn't really matter, as much as this is a hit to my ego, people are going to vote primarily for donald trump or kamala harris, that's the way these things go. >> even fox, fox is asking vance if trump made a mistake picking him. >> some people are saying you were the wrong pick for trump's running mate, what are you doing about it? >> i actually take their criticism as a badge of honor. >> all right, my panel is back with me now. basil, trump can try and make the case for jd, he can all he wants, does not change the fact that they both undermine jd vance's importance on the race,
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in the last few days saying he doesn't even matter. what do you make of this? is this like cutting the basically? >> that's how it certainly comes across, and i feel that way. it is true that voters tend to pay more attention to the top of the ticket, but the person you choose as the vice president is going to show your leadership style. now, if you are the top of the ticket, donald trump in this case, has to constantly apologize for or talk about your running mate and not what you are going to do, then that in and of itself is a loss. the old adage is if you are explaining, you're losing. and jd vance is explaining a lot about himself and his past. donald trump seems to be in a position to have to explain them away in many instances. and look, [ inaudible ] the
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campaign in many ways is flailing. they have to go after kamala harris and they don't know how to. i mean, nothing they are doing is sticking, it is not working, and this is sort of the result, they're spending most of their time talking about jd vance. >> right. well, i want to actually talk about the idea of whether vp pics actually matter. in recent history, let's just go through a couple. i would argue that mike pence really did help trump reached evangelical voters in a way that he couldn't, at least in 2016. that is wholly different now, we will get to that in a second. i would argue that jill biden helped barack obama sort of flesh out the ticket by giving him a little bit of senior statesmen gravitas and former policy experience in a way that obama lacked. sarah palin was objectively a disaster for the mccain pick. i think that mccain veterans have said as much. so, molly, look, are we at a place with trump that everyone knows who he is, you either hate him or you love him and it
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doesn't matter? or is this a missed opportunity, or could it possibly hurt him the way that vance pick has been sort of unveiled this way? >> well, i want to go back to what you were saying before about mike pence, because mike pence was actually an incredibly important pick for donald trump. he did give a permission structure for evangelicals to support him, and pence was a red state governor, an old- school guy, he had been a conservative radio host, he had this kind of real -- kind of cried with these evangelicals, which really did give them the permission to support him. so, i think it's interesting that trump is so negative on his vice president now, and you have to wonder. but yeah, i mean, i think that it does matter. you know, look, if elections are as tight as they have been previously, then everything matters, right? there is no -- nothing you want
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to throw off. what state and who the person is and who they excite, those are all important. so, i think you are right, and i think a good pick balances the ticket, so yeah, i think i totally agree with that. >> basil, let me pressed you the same sort of question, which is there is a case to be made that opinions on trump are just so cemented at this juncture that it really doesn't actually matter who he picks. you either love the guy or you hate the guy, you're not going to win over new voters because you picked a marco rubio or doug burgum and you are not going to lose because you picked jd vance. do you think there is something tangible with this pick? >> actually go to molly's point because it is a very important one. when voters want sure about who donald trump was and what he would bring to an actual presidency, mike pence definitely gave him that permission structure. i don't know what you get --
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what he gets from jd vance, frankly. and i think he is realizing that right now. he is not exactly sure what he is getting from jd vance. >> he is getting headaches. >> if you are explaining, you're losing. and right now, campaigns should be additive. you have got to add constituencies, add voters, add regions, add geography, builder base, build on your base, don't subtract from it. and i think what the trump campaign is realizing, that all of the games that they thought they had or were going to get, are now starting to whittle away. >> molly, let's take a look at how vance is acting on the trail, he is not really doing himself any favors. take a look at the remarks he made on the trail, as he did last night in atlanta for the rally, take a watch: >> she wants to take away your
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gas stoves, she even wants to take away your ability to eat red meat. we think it's weird that democrats want to put sexually explicit books in toddlers libraries. we think it is weird that the far left wants to allow biological males to beat the living crap out of women in boxing. >> so, is he not proving the point sort of by just focusing on the "weird" things and the culture war stuff that he is kind of obsessed about that stuff and almost weirdly obsessed about that stuff? >> i don't know what is in his head, but i do remember the gas stoves and the take away your hamburgers from previous pac's, and this has been something that trump has run on, and it hasn't been super successful, right? nobody really thinks conservatives are going to take away gas stoves. you know, the green new deal, remember when they were so mad about the green new deal and hamburgers? i think this is not -- it doesn't seem valiant to me, and
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there are ways in which -- you know, that they can make more of a case for themselves. but again, i would harken back to a lot of these republican policies like abortion are not super popular. you know, they're just trying to figure out what to run on, and it is not abundantly clear. >> yeah. well, molly, basil, really appreciate it, great conversation, we will be following all the tweets from vice presidential candidates and their comes directors all night. [ music ] [ music ] what makes it possible is unmatched connectivity and 5g solutions from t-mobile for business. t-mobile connects 100,000 delta airlines employees. powers tractor supply stores nationwide with reliable 5g business internet. and helps red bull revolutionize coverage of live events.
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just tons of flavor. the best barbecue beef is only a togo's. try one today. meet the jennifers. each planning their future through the chase mobile app. hellooo new apartment. one bank for now. for later. for life. chase. make more of what's yours. throughout donald trump's 2016 election campaign, he had a bunch of questionable friends, but there is one in
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particular that many do not understand, especially after months of vitriolic anti-muslim rhetoric from trump. >> he is a fantastic guy, took control of egypt, and he really took control of it, and i thought it was a great meeting. we met for a long time actually, we had a long meeting. there was a good chemistry. you know when you have good chemistry with people, there was very good chemistry, good feeling between us. >> trump was referring to the egyptian president. his comments came at a time when he needed a critical financial boost to his election funds, and about a month later, trump made a personal donation to his own presidential campaign. >> another check for $10 million, i am spending money like crazy. >> a new investigation by the washington post is shedding some light on the potential source of this money. it reveals new details about a secret hope by the justice department that looked into whether money moved from cairo to trump, which would be an illegal move. and if a contribution from the
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egyptian president factored into trump's decision to pour his own money into the campaign. in the final years of trump's presidency, the case died a slow death because of a key ally or key allies in the administration, including the attorney general bill. joining me now to help make sense of all of this is the washington post investigative reporter, erin davis, he is the author, coauthor of this amazing piece of journalism. thank you for joining us. even though the post was not able to conclude whether the transaction actually occurred, what do the new details tell us about the likelihood that it did? >> well, they tell us a couple of really interesting things. we were able to find that there was not just talk of this, there was actually nearly $10 million that left a bank in cairo five days before donald trump was inaugurated.
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this was a transaction that actually, the information about this, the inkling of this had come to the u.s. government, the intelligence community, and they had an informant providing information that such a transaction was underway. they also had -- the cia had corroborating information that the egyptian president wanted this transaction to donald trump to take place. and with that information at hand, the former special counsel's team went looking for this transaction, fought the bank of egypt for these records, and low and behold, when they did find them, found a withdrawal, not just any $10 million withdrawal, one in cash. specifically $100 bills in u.s. currency, weighing some 200 pounds, that was carried out of the bank by four men five days before the election. so, this was a lot of smoke. everybody involved with this investigation thought there was far more information than you
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usually have to go on on a money-laundering case, and what we found is that they basically, over the course of a couple years, really backpedaled this investigation. bill barr [ inaudible ], questioned whether there was evidence to go forward and keep looking at this. >> well, let me start from the trump perspective. this would've been a huge risk for trump to do, it is against federal law, and if his team did receive the money, what was there to gain? how desperate was he for cash at that point? >> well, we do know from the interviews that the special counsel's team did, that steve bannon, michael flynn, jared kushner, were all seeing different pieces of just how short the campaign was on cash. one of the 302's from the fbi at the time said they were
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really pressing him for $50 million, they couldn't get 50, they couldn't get 25. eventually, they kept pressing him for 10 million, and he only agreed to do it on a condition that it was a long, that he could be repaid for this $10 million. remember, at that point in time, though he did win the election, it didn't look like he was going to win the election, and everyone around him believed he was no longer willing to put any more money into his campaign. >> you know, it's funny -- it's not funny, i shouldn't say that. i do recall at the time, special counsel robert mueller leading this russia interference probe, he is also leading this investigation or looking into this interference case. the public does not know about the egyptian one, it is hyper focused on the russia investigation. trump is out there saying, oh, it is all a witchhunt. from a strictly political lens, was this almost a benefit to trump that so much attention was being paid to a more complicated esoteric russia
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probe, and that the simple sort of financial transaction from egypt went completely unrecognized? >> it's an interesting question. you know, this one was, in the eyes of many people around it, familiar with it, that we have spoken to, this was the one that seemed to many really the red-hot one. they had $20 million, it was a much clearer case to look at, and it broke down because the robert mueller team did go forward and pulled from trump's bank records from 2016, analyzed those, didn't see any money from egypt, but then just as the team is closing down, they finally realized this money had actually come in in early 2017, and it really was unfortunate timing for this investigation, because politically aside, investigation structure really was changing and was going back under the normal doj process where bill barr, people trump had appointed were the ones who
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would make the final decision about it. >> aaron, just quickly, we only have a minute left, but it is my understanding that president biden and the current doj could have reopened this case, why haven't they? >> well, there was a comment by the former acting u.s. attorney who closed the case, saying that if there was a problem here, he could have reopened the case. you do have to remember that the new administration was coming into january 6, hundreds of cases. the hallway that merrick garland came in and wanted to change the way the justice department was working was to not be the political appointee saying you should investigate this, you shouldn't investigate that. let it bubble up from the bottom. we understand that no one even brought it to him, no one is aware of bill barr's direct involvement in this case. >> remarkable. aaron davis, incredible bit of journalism that you have in the post, thank you very much.
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for anyone following the media industry, you know it has been a pretty volatile time. the regular story about layoffs, consolidation, a very uncertain future ahead. which makes the story of a media company trading on the nasdaq stock exchange under the name dj t quite notable. despite operating at a staggering loss, losing 327 million dollars in the first quarter of 2024, despite having a small user base, and despite most wall street analysts thinking that the stock is pretty much worthless, this past week, djt was trading at close to $30 per share. that put the company at a roughly $6 billion evaluation. all right, so, what exactly is this company doing right? are they industry geniuses who
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figured out a way to build a modern and sophisticated and profitable media company? not exactly. the letters djt stanford donald john trump, and that symbol represents his company. trump media and technology group, whose sole product is then not exactly popular social media site, truth social. so, what's going on here? new york magazine took a deep dive into the company this week and concluded two things. first, that donald trump's media company is basically a $6 billion means stock, like a game stop, amc, and others before it. these are related to the actual strength of the company, but two vibes. and unlike a game stop and amc, the value of this company is completely tied, completely, to the perceived power of one man, you guessed it, donald trump.
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and as a presidential candidate, that makes this stock an unprecedented opportunity for corruption. donald trump is the largest shareholder in this company, controlling an almost 60% stake. so, anyone looking to curry favor with trump could in theory just by advertising on truth social at inflated prices or they could buy lots of shares of the stock. basically filtering cash into donald trump's pockets and boosting his net worth, incurring his favor. trump is temporarily barred from selling his shares, but that restriction expires in september, so, come september, trump can begin to turn his paper gains into real ones. but there is another way [ inaudible ]. propublica reported last month that trump media has quietly entered into a deal with a company run by an energy magnet and a large republican donor named james davison.
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they note that davison owns a major stake and genesis energy. it is a large oil pipeline and mining firm. davison's family also has a stake in a regional bank and owns a small defense contractor. and here is the catch, some of these companies already lobbied the first trump administration for tax breaks. what might they do, what might they want if trump gets a second term? when we come back, i will be joined by the author of new york magazine's how to buy a president, david friedlander. >> [ music ] >> [ music ] that's why he switched to dovato. dovato is a complete hiv treatment for some adults. no other complete hiv pill uses fewer medicines to help keep you undetectable than dovato. detect this: leo learned that most hiv pills contain 3 or 4 medicines. dovato is as effective with just 2. if you have hepatitis b, don't stop dovato without talking to your doctor. don't take dovato if you're allergic to its ingredients or taking dofetilide. this can cause serious or life-threatening side effects.
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before the break, i told you about how donald trump's publicly traded media company should be raising huge red flags. as a new york magazine puts it: donald trump joke of a media company is also is $6 billion meme stock, and unprecedented opportunity for corruption. well, joining me now is the author of that piece, david friedlander. thank you for joining us, appreciate it.
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this is a fascinating and somewhat troubling story, as with so many things trump related, you write about how this new meme stock might not have happened if it wasn't for the apprentice, can you elaborate on that? >> yeah, it is kind of an odd story. in order to figure out why donald trump was about to get a major payoff, you would have to go back to season two of the apprentice, where two of the contestants who were fired really because they screwed up putting together a blue jean catalog, donald trump thought that they had not included enough but shots in the catalog they put together, so he like cut them off right there, that was the end of them. but they kind of stayed in the larger trump network. and you know, if you haven't been paying attention the last 15 years, the guy who thought
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the but shots were missing from the catalog, he then became president of the united states and then got kicked off social media for inspiring a riot of the capitol, and these guys came back into his life and said, we have an idea for a social media company, and trump was interested. >> classic shakespearean drama there. [ laughter ] yeah, just such a classic political story. so, you do write how other meme stocks, the ups and downs of this one aren't actually related to any perceived business strength, it is mostly vibes, and in this case, it seems like when trump is in a good political moment, it goes up, and when he is in a bad one, it goes down. i want to show you this amazing headline from a few days ago. "trump media shares closed out more than 30% after assassination attempts. one estimate said that the value of trump's steak
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ballooned by $1.2 billion, putting his stake at $4.7 billion." you know, obviously, the reason it went up is because they thought he was going to get elected or more likely to be elected after the assassination attempt. my question is the inverse, though, what happens to the company if he starts to look like he is going to be a loser, or if he does lose, does the stock just bottom out? x yeah, i think the stock probably starts bottoming out a little bit. i mean, there is no real business here. if someone were to think of the kind of fast food franchise nearest their home, that has roughly the revenue of truth social. if anyone has ever been on truth social, you get pretty bored pretty quickly, just because there is really nothing on it. they talked about sort of expanding it into other areas, you know, video-on-demand component and things like that, but there is no real underlying business here, so i think should trump's political fortunes start to tank, i think his stock would tank. and you would imagine he would
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start to look to sell at that point. we are kind of nearing the end of the lockout.. >> september is the end of the lockout period, it could all come crashing down, explain how this is a vehicle for corruption, or could be potentially, because it is a worthless stock, the company loses a ton of money, and yet it is valued at $6 billion. is that just people who want to create favor with trump dropping it up esther mark >> i think there are a bunch of trump super fans out there. if you sort of had bought all that mad at hats and the sneakers, this is probably another place to show your enthusiasm for donald trump, right? so, there is that group of sort of like people buying shares, and then there are another group of people who i think you do want to influence the next president, and you talked about that great propublica story,
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you know, there are all sorts of people -- it is a great way to put money in trump's pocket. there has actually probably never been a better way to put money in trump's pocket than this vehicle. it is better than the club in florida, better than the hotel in washington. just goes right into his pocket. then i think there are some people who are aware of the fact that there are those two groups, figure maybe there aren't people buying these shares, let's sort of capitalize on that. that's right, unlike mar-a-lago, anyone can buy this stock. it is not like you need to apply for a membership and put up the initiation fee, you can just buy the stock. let's circle back and close the story, the two dudes who didn't have enough but shots in the magazine, where are they now, how are they running the business, should we expect anything materially different about this business? are they going to try to maybe prop it up a little bit, juice it up a little bit, or is it just going to be an avenue for trump to post whatever comes to
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his mind? >> i mean, the thing about this story here is that it almost immediately, as soon as it began, came in competently run and a hive of corruption, with all sorts of bad actors involvement. most of the guys have been iced out. i think there has been at least three or four people who have either been found guilty or admitted to insider trading early on. it's a whole mess of a business story. >> yeah, sounds about right. all right, david friedlander, thank you so much, appreciate it. a new hour of ayman is coming up right after this. >> [ music ] >> [ music ] you'd like to be. farxiga can cause serious side effects, including ketoacidosis that may be fatal, dehydration, urinary tract, or genital yeast infections, and low blood sugar. a rare, life-threatening bacterial infection in the skin of the perineum could occur. stop taking farxiga and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of this infection, an allergic reaction, or ketoacidosis.
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on this new hour of ayman, democrats got it together in the end. but, how long can they keep it? we examine the new ticket that will soon be expanded. plus, debate dodger, how long can the former president scarf off the woman whose calling his bluff in front of the entire world? high count accountability, the president has a plan to keep the supreme court in line. congresswoman melanie stansbury, tonight, on how to implement. let's do it. believe it or not, it's only been about one month since president biden's deba
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