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tv   Alex Wagner Tonight  MSNBC  October 8, 2024 9:00pm-10:00pm PDT

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. i am just going to say it. i had a great time tonight that does it for us. for all of my colleagues across the network on nbc news, thank you for staying up late with me, see you at the end of tomorrow. the end of tomorrow.
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. more than 5 1/2 million people are under voluntary or mandatory evacuation orders in florida tonight as the state braces for the impact of hurricane milton. tolls were waived, highway shoulders were open to try to ease clogging as florida residents took to the roads to get out of this storm's way. hurricane milton is expected to make landfall in florida late tomorrow night or early thursday morning. and, well, anything could change in the next 24 hours, milton is expected to drive straight through central florida. the first direct strike by a hurricane in areas of tampa in more than a century. the mayor of tampa issued this stark warning to residents. if you choose to stay in one of these evacuation areas you are going to die. now, even in less extreme circumstances preparing for a
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natural disaster is always a challenge. the government has to coordinate between state and local and federal agencies, those agencies then not only have to prepare for the physical impacts of the disaster but they have to communicate to the media and to the public how they should prepare and respond. so, coordinating all of that is a really, really challenging task. and now thanks to donald trump, that task has gotten even harder. we are barely a week passed the destruction that hurricane hele nerks brought in 6 states across the country destroying thousands of homes and killing 223 people. and already donald trump is lying about it. here is how trump's narrative about hurricane helen and the federal response to that hurricane compares to what republican leader in those impacted states what they are saying. >> this is the worst response
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to a storm or a catastrophe or a hurricane that we have ever seen ever. >> as of today what has been the ongoing federal assistance for south carolina? >> it has been superb. >> they have not seen anyone from the federal government yet. the federal government is not there. >> i appreciate the rapid response and the cooperation from the federal team of fema >> i lived in north carolina for almost 30 years. i have seen a lot of storms come through the state. i am actually impressed with how much attention was paid to a region that was not likely to have experienced the impact that they did. >> they are doing nothing. they abandoned them. >> so, i just spoke -- the president just called me yesterday afternoon. i messaged him and called him right back. he just said what do you need? i told him, you know, we got what we need, we will work through the federal process.
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he offered other things that we need to call him directly. i appreciate that. >> those are all republicans. the truth of the matter is that as of today nearly 7,000 federal personnel deployed to respond to hurricane helene. fema shipped over 16 million meals, 14 million litters of water, over 200 generators and more than 500,000 tarps. in just a little over a week the for government has spent more than $286 million to help people impacted by helene. you will not hear about any of that from the republican nominee for president. the man who, may one day oversee that same federal agency. instead trump is lying about fema about disaster aid. the agency diverted its funding
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to the border. than trump actually did when he was in office. though lies are not bad because they are lies coming from someone running for president they are bad because the lies are having an impact on the actual recovery efforts. >> swirling vortex of disinformation is beginning to effect people there on the ground. i had an officer come up to me and say, why are they saying we are not doing anything? in fact, this is demoralizing to all of the people who are working so hard. those first responders who went into people's homes and pulled them out of windows in swirling waters. people who are working around- the-clock to get oxygen bottles and insulin to people in the remote rugged areas of the mountains and you are also making some people weary of applying for aid and relief.
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because you have these crazy stories about fema coming in and taking people's land and stopping donations from coming in. and, it is very frustrating when you are on the groundworking hard. >> with multiple states still reeling from the destruction of hurricane helene and the state of florida bracing for impact of milton. trump's misinformation is not just irresponsible it is dangerous. today on "the view" vice president harris was asked what she makes of trump's lying, here was her response. >> it is just the height of irresponsibility and calesness. lives are at stake right now. the idea that someone would be playing political games for the sake of himself, this is so consistent of donald trump. he puts himself before the needs of others. i fear that he really lacks
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empathy. a very basic level to care about the suffering of other people and then understand the role of a leader is not to beat people down it is to lift people up. >> absolutely >> especially in a time of crisis. >> trump has a history of playing political games with disasters. you don't have to take my word on that. here are two trump staffers in a new kamala harris campaign ad talking about how trump handles disaster relief when he was in office. >> i worked in the trump administration. >> never in a million years did i think i would be working in the white house with a president that did not care about the american people. >> he would suggest not giving disaster relief to states that had not voted for him. >> i remember one time after a wildfire in california he would not send relief because it is a democratic state. we went as far as looking up how many votes he got in the
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impacted areas to show him, these are people who voted for you. this is not normal. the job of the president is to protect americans. regardless of politics. >> if trump is selected again there will be no one to stop him. you will have yes men putting through 2025, unchecked power, no guardrails >> they will be serving one man. i am voting for kamala harris because she will put the safety and security of every american first. if they voted for her or not. >> joining me now is one of the people in that ad. olivia troy she worked as a homeland security advisory to mike pence during the trump administration. she since endorsed kamala harris. great to have you on the show. your perspective is so essential right now as we try to sort through what a second trump administration is like. i know in the ad that you say
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that you believe trump, you realize he did not care about the american. can you talk to me about that and how it dubbed you with what we are seeing in and around disaster aid? >> reporter: sure, what was disturbing to me and many others in the national security community living it first hand was moments of true crisis that were happening throughout the trump administration were disregarded at times. putting aside the greater good of the american people because trump was playing partisan politics. in situations where normally we would be united in a country supporting americans in need. what we saw was donald trump, at times, he would have disaster, major disaster declarations sitting on his desk for days and we would have to strategize how to get the relief to communities. i point this out alex because people need to understand the
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president is solely responsible for approving it. the governor of the state can request them and it goes through a process of the fema regional office and makes it through the process up. ultimately it is the president that signs off on them. i am telling you, numerous times i got phone calls from the head of fema, the head of dhs, congress men, people on the hill asking where is that relief? where is that disaster declaration? when is he going to sign it? i would go to mike pence and say hey, we need your help, we meade to weigh in on this. i am -- need to weigh in on this. we got to do the right thing for the american people. >> what you see on display seems even a notch more cruel than what the public has witnessed so far. it is never excusable what state got disaster if they were red or blue or if the counties were red or blue. now you are seeing it, today,
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the former president basically undermined recovery efforts in parts of of the country that did vote for him just because it does not suit his antigovernment political agenda. i wonder sort of what you think about this brazen calculation to throw people -- [dropped audio ] >> and he knows better. he is fully aware of the types of things that happen in the aftermath. words matter. especially when you are a person that is running for the precedency, once again, and you once were the president of the united states. it is underminding of our government institution. something that trump has a long habit of doing if it is the military undermining them, if
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it is the intelligence community. now he undermine the public health community during the covid, i was firsthand once it that sitting in the covid task force meetings and he was spreading misinformation from the pressroom and the white house. to do this right now it is so dangerous. right? americans are scared, they are in the pathway of another potential storm that is about to hit them and you have donald trump, who is showing just complete and utter recklessness as a leader. he could be doing the opposite. he could be uniting us and actually standing strong together in these communities. he is not. i think it is important to watch his actions because he has a history of doing this for those of us like myself who saw him do it in the white house and now doubling down on it and creating fear. it also, just undermining of the disaster relief response. leading to confusion, right? and that is the last thing that fema and all of these emergency management responders on the
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ground need right now. you don't need that doubt. >> you know you are doing something wrong when all of the republican governors of the effected red states saying that is not true what that guy is aing in terms of fema assistance. i do wonder how you think that the climate of misinformation, disinformation may be more, shall we say, poisonous this time around? just because you have someone like elon musk. the man that owns twitter, now x, helping spread this disinformation, that is say new, that is a new factor. an x-factor if you will in all of this. i wonder about your level of concern given that information on the internet is, it the wild west then you have someone that controls the levers of power in that sort of unbrightelled atmosphere walking in lockstep with trump. they walk the parade of lies to be heavy-handed with a metaphor >> it is irresponsible.
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he has a large platform. millions of followers, millions of people are seeing what he is sharing, retweeting out, reposting. it is dangerous. it is undermining of the response that is happening on the ground. undermining of the leaders on the ground in the communities that are already being, they are suffering so much. i have been on the ground in fema. i was there for hurricane katrina response, i have been side by side with those people. it was a challenging time when i was on the ground and extremely rewarding to see this agency and these people that come together with all of these, you know, people that come together and they are in the trenches, side by side in a nonpartisan way. that does not cross our mind. now we have social media working against them, right? where people are getting mixed information, fema, already in the hot seat. having to do their jobs. what are they doing something having to put out videos and post on their own social media to refute some of these conspiracy theories and these
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things that are false information. now, they are sending energy on that. it is the environment here and the combination of it and especially with people like elon musk who are just as selfish as donald trump is, and don't care about the well being and welfare of americans as long as it gives them a boost and gives them an in with donald trump. it goes to show the irresponsibility of these leaders and the, you know, i would say the friendships and the ties that they have when they are so reckless and don't care about the greater good of the country. >> yeah, i mean, the fact that fema has to dedicate space on a landing fig rebut misinformation spread by a person who is trying to in turn run the agency is a level of irony. and sickness that i can not calculate. olivia troy, thank you for your time tonight. >> thank you, alex. we have a lot more to get
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to tonight. i will sit down -- excuse me, to discuss the war on the middle east and how it figures in the new book "the message." but first, remember when donald trump would complain kamala harris was hiding from the press? what does he think of the three interviewed she did today? the one before the day before that and the day before that? what does it will us about her strategy and her campaign less than a month before the election? dan and tim join me on that coming up next join me on that coming up next
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. i saw the governor of arkansas that said my kids keep me humble. unfortunately kamala harris does not have anything keeping her humble. >> i don't think she understands that there are a whole lot of women out here who one, are not aspiring to be humble. >> this is not the 1950s anymore. families come in all kinds of shapes and forms and they are family nonetheless. >> that was vice president harris in the middle of a week- long press blitz. speaking about ambitious women on the "call her daddy" podcast. the podcast with the biggest listener inship on spotifiy among women, maybe ambitious women. last week she appeared on the
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podcast "all the smoke. hosted by former nba members. today on "the view" she talked about expanding med air to cover home care for seniors. an issue that effects women who may also be raising young children. the so-called sandwich generation. and that happen to be the core audience for that and then howard stern where she attacked trump on canceling his 60 minutes interview to sending covid tests to putin. and then the vice president wrapped the day on the late show where she drank a miller highlife with stephen colbert. >> remember when trump used to criticize harris for not doing media? joining me now, former white house senior advisory to president barack obama and tim miller, writer at large and host of the bull work podcast. great to have you on the show. dan, a little birdie told me you were the mad genius behind president barack obama's appearance on the zach show
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between two ferns. independent of zach being one of my favorite comedians it appeared there was a utility to having him go on that media. i wonder if you can explain to me the theory of the case of putting these candidates or in his case, sitting presidents, in alt-media situations and who the intended audience is? >> i can not take full credit. a lot of people involved. i had to brief barack obama for that. that was an interesting experience. he was going on from the guy with "the hangover" we did that, we did that, at the exact time we were trying to get people to sign up for the affordable care act, the group of people who were most maybe the most delayed in doing so, pushing it to the deadline as they often are were young men. this was an audience between two ferns had audience of largely young men, in that
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event in that interview went viral. and increased traffic by 40% on that day. >> going to where the voters are. now, it is different now harder to reach people now, doing things like the tim and mia podcast or watching cable news, they are watching or listened to podcasts or howard stern, go out there and meet them where they are. not about dodging the quote unquote traditional press or anything like that. it is going and speaking to voters which you can not do through a lot of the old ways we used to do communications. >> yeah. tim, i wonder what you think about that? because, listen, i think it is great to drink miller highlife. i do it myself. doing it with colbert seeps like a super fun time. there is having a robust back and forth to articulate your
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views that you are not going to get with alex cooper, much respect to "call her daddy" podcast. is it a larger problem for american politics or in this election win at any cost if you have to do a million between two fern appearances so be it? >> yes to both. [ laughter ] it is a larger problem for american politics and also, it is an imperative that kamala harris wins this election and she should do whatever necessary within the norms and laws and her integrity to win this election. and everything that they have done has been in line with that. and, you know, i think it is great that dan was ahead of the curve with between two ferns, smart thing to do. it is imperative now. not just a smart thing or a tactic something they should do, they have to do this. the critical group of voters, there are a couple of them out there. one of the main group of voters that is a swing voter in this election are people who are
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just not engaged and don't watch political news at all. that is a group that traditionally been good for democrats, lower information voters, especially during the obama years. they need to find people who are not engaged in politics, this is a way to do it. absolutely has to do that, more is more, i love that of all of the different interviews. keep doing that all throughout the election. my only disagreement with dan is she should do our politics i will ask her questions from a republican standpoint and the designer and back and forth and we can have a viral moment, too. viral moments on politics. >> very ernest, dan. i have to ask, though, in terms of the state of the race. i was in michigan, i did ask, undecided young men in unions what they thought of donald
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trumps blitz on the plan-o- verse podcast. they had no idea what i was talking about. tiers of voters, voters watching this, listening to pop culture podcasts and a group of voters who are like not consuming any of it. it feels like increasingly those are the ones that need to be chased. i will draw your attention to this stark reality outlined in "time magazine." in the last four years democratic registrations in the state of pennsylvania have gone from a safe seven point advantage to now hanging ahead by fewer than four points. polling in the state shows harris leading trump by a lonely point while the democratic senate nominee runs ahead by five. this is the part that is controversial, dan, i wonder if you have thoughts, biden a decision to insist for so long running for a second term is a reason democrats lost ground in voter registrations, is that a fair assessment do you think, dan? >> it is impossible to know the
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counterfactual. there is where we are. this is the race we have. hair sis our candidate, running an incredible race for four months, these states are close. i was in michigan on saturday and in philadelphia with bob casey and josh shapiro, everyone in those states know it is as close as if close as 2020. there is work to do. there are people not consuming even something call her daddy or howard stern. here is how you reach people. clip, one 30 second, 60 second clip from these interviews. pumped into the tiktok or stain gram or youtube and shown to voters. no candidate his to work harder to breakthrough than these candidates. you may not get a call her daddy listener in, every person with that interview but those clips are going voy ral and everyone is seeing them. that is why tim is right, more
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is more, do everything, be everywhere all at once. local tv, do our podcast, tim's podcast, 60 minutes, do it all. >> can i ask a follow up on that. trump is not doing it all. again, in terms of that, you know, blanket the airwaves strategy you just outlined that is not what trump is pursuing. i wonder if you have a thought on what might be behind that. two reasons behind it. he is old, mentally declining and lazy. that is the first reason. the second is, republicans have something democrats don't. they have a massive media operation between fox news, daily wire, all of these people. we don't have that yet. we have to work harder to do that. trump has massive maga phones pushing the message so people see it. so, that is the main reason. we have to work harder than they do. he is being lazy and leaving a lot of votes on the table with his work every few days, call
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and whine for 20 minutes strategy. >> and lie about fema every second day. tim, one person that kamala harris can not count on as a booster is mitt romney. today, he announced he will not endorse harris, saying i am made it clear that i don't want trump to be the next president of the united states adding i want to continue to have a voice in the republican party following this election. i think there is a good chance that the party is going to need to be rebuilt or reoriented presumably with mitt romney in the mix. what do you think about that tim? >> it made me mad when i first read it. i calmed down for the show, which is good. i don't know. i am feeling a little dumb and dumberrish. i am saying there is a chance that he will come around for kamala harris. if you watch that video he seems very uncomfortable. >> natural position to be uncomfortable. >> that is true. well, kind of. he also at times, dan saw it in 2012, he can be forceful at
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times. you know, and it was not a forceful answer. i think if he wants to get there for the vice president i really do. no inside info on that. just reading the tea leafs and he wants trump to lose. the logic of his rational is obvious. the notion that i want to help rebuild the republican party so i will do nothing. you can't rebuild the republican party if donald trump is the president. so, in order to have any hope for rebuilding the republican party the first obligation is to elect kamala harris. that might be uncomfortable for some people that is just the reality. i am hoping senator romney gets there. >> dan and tim good luck to you booking vice president harris for your podcasts if you do, please ask a ernest question on my behalf. thank you for your time tonight. >> i will. coming up, donald trump is tripling down on his vow to secret bugs against his political enemies in the second term. even fox news can not seem to
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do anything about it. first, ta nehisi talks about his book. he joins me here in studio after the break me here in stuo after the break my daughter and i finally had that conversation. oh, no, not about that. about what comes next in life. for her. i may not be in perfect health, but i want to stay in my home, where my family visits often and where my memories are. i can do it with help from a prep cook, wardrobe assistant and stylist, someone to help me live right at home. life's good. when you have a plan. ♪ ♪ (man) look at this silly little sailboat... these men of means with their silver spoons, eating up the financial favors of the 1%. what would become of them when they discover robinhood gold allows others to earn
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. today, the associated press released a new poll of black registered voters. it shows each candidate's strengths and weaknesses on key issues. over 70% of black voters trust kamala harris to handle health care and abortion policy. 67% trust her to address gun violence and climate change. but on the war between israel and hamas, harris support among black registered voters dropped to 46%. over the past year multiple surveyed shown the war in gaza is a divisive issue for democrats and one that black democrats in particular feel a connection to. that connection between the struggle of black people in the united states and the struggle of palestinians in the middle east is something that bestselling author ta-nehisi coats talks about. he talks about the occupied territories to report on what he witnessed firsthand. he writes for as sure as my ancestors were born into a
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country where none of them was the equal of any white man, israel was revealing itself to be a country where no palestinian is ever the equal of any jewish person anywhere. joining me now is "new york times" bestselling author, winner of the 2015 book award and mcarthur fellow. >> thank you, nice to be here. >> there is a lot of discussion about this book this week at this moment, but for context, talk to me and people watching right now about how you first thought of israel in a civil rights context back in the days of the case where you wrote the article in "the atlantic." >> the honest answer was i did not think much about it. now i think there was a default zionism. probably all around me within, you know, the profession,
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within my, other reporters within my editors. certainly it was not and talk of palestinian rights or anything like that around me. i just did not think about it. i had a vague skepticism. i talk about that in the book. but it just, i mean, there is the greatest sin of all. it was erased in my mind, you know, as a kind of issue. when the case of reparations came out it was immediately brought to my attention it was a problem and regularly brought to my attention after. and it was convincing. >> the critique being your mention of reparations paid to israel by the german government that was spoke about in a fashion that was not critical and the case for . >> not critical it was not curious. there was no curiosity about what those reparations brought. it was important, the case was not just about money it was a moral case. so, you really have to ask the
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question, is this the best example? and to understand that question you have to be curious about what it brought. and that was my sin. >> so you decided to make a trip, covid happens, you make a trip delayed. you finally go over to see occupied territories, you are in the west bank, i will read from what you saw when you were there. "i walked out to buy goods from a shopkeeper. before i get there a soldier walked out and blocked the path and told me to state my religion. i told him i did not have one and asked my parents, i said he they were not religious. then asked about my grandparents when i told him they were christian he let me pass." >> that was not do you accept christ as your savior, you are asking about my mother and
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grandmother, what people criticize it as racist that is what it means. definitely. i will add into, that soldier was black. and, you know, i say all of the time in my work life and said in the past. race is a social construct. this is where i saw it, it is, it really, really is. alex it was an intense 10 days, i was not prepared for it. i knew i was going to see something. i would be beyond, you know, what, but, i did not expect to feel myself thrown back into the world of my parents and my grandparents. >> do you think it is such a emotional content here in what you saw and then you see the way that the struggle of the palestinians echoed so pro foundly among black americans here in the united states. can you talk more about the
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intersectionality? it is sort of said woke left but you see it in polling, right? >> right. >> black registered voters, right? no subsec. but black americans see something in the palestinian struggle. i wonder if you can talk about it. >> what they see is -- i want to be very, very explicit. when i am on the west bank there are sets of roads for palestinians, these roads are not equal by which i mean it takes longer to traverse if you are on a road for palestinians, there are checkpoints along the way. the criminal justice system is different if you are israeli settler there, you are subject to the civil justice system with all of rights we get in the civil justice system, palestinian you are subject to the military justice system it means you can be arrested and nobody has to tell you why you are arrested. nobody has to tell your family where you are.
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you can be effectively be disappeared. i will never forget i was standing on a farm with one family and there was a road through it. and the gentleman's whole, all of his land was around. i looked across the road and all of the other land was green. he said settlers over here, this is us. that is because he does not control the access to his water even though he is living on the land, he is equal as a human being his rights are not the same. black folks know that. >> they understand that. >> yes. >> i saw it. it was immediately clear to me what was going on. and what i was left with and what i tried to tackle in the book is how it can be that our organs of story telling from film, tv, down to journalism failed so much to tell this story as it actually is, drained of moral content, drained of any sense of values in a land that prides itself as the oldest democracy in the
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world. >> i know that there has been some criticism and critical interviews you have done in the media. you write, this is not a book that you think that the point of view that is pro-israel view has enough speakers. >> it had its hearing. >> this is about specifically the palestinian story as it intersects with the black american story and you have this quote that i want to read. i want to tell you, this is to those that talk about victim, i want to tell you that your oppression will not save you, that being a victim will not enlighten you that it can just as easily deceive you. those are powerful. they are applicable not just to this conflict but so many others. and i wonder what you think about the concept of grievance and victim hood in american life today? >> i think there is wisdom in if you take it.
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the minute you feel it gives you something that is bone deep that prevents you from committing other sins that prevents you from the feeding the same thing against other people you are in deep trouble. that is a human error, not a jewish error or zionist error. it just happens to where i went somewhere that the error was compiled in the state, laws and policies, there are lessons there for humanity, really dark ones i don't think we want to face. >> ta-nehisi coates. something happens in the world when you put a book out. a lot of people have thoughts on it. it is an essential read right now. it is great to have you writing nonfiction again. but it is great to have you on the program >> hopefully we will get more palestinian voices and you will not need me to do this. i will be happy to give it up. >> the wheel turns slowly, my friend, until then you are
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great for the cause. thank you for your time tonight >> thank you, alex. >> still to come tonight, when donald trump tells you the second term will be all about retribution, believe him, that is next all about retribution, believe him, that is next the first time you try bounce, it hits you. your laundry feels way fresher, softer. so you start to wonder. if i put a sheet of bounce on the finance guy, will it make him softer? bounce can't do it all but for better laundry, ♪ put a sheet on it with bounce. ♪ sleep more deeply and wake up rejuvenated. purple mattresses exclusive gel flex grid draws away heat, bounce can't do it all but for better laundry, relieves pressure, and instantly adapts. sleep better. live purple. right now buy more, save more. up to $600 off. visit purple.com or a store near you
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you know you have a problem when even your allies feel like they need to save you from yourself. case in point, donald trump and let fox news hosts, who keeps throwing him lifelines. here was trump with laura ingram talking about political retribution. >> how will you restore faith in our justice system? a lot of people will say, "well, he's just going to do to them what he did, they did to him." >> a lot of people will say that's what should happen. >> well, but i think, i think, you know, you know, putatively using government institutions is what got us in this mess in the first place. our town hall that we did back in february, one of the lines that resonated with people is when you said "my revenge is going to be my success." >> i do believe that. they have started a terrible accident. >> you can almost see the pain in laura ingram's eyes as she tries to cajole trump into saying he won't seek
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retribution against his political enemies. it is largely an unsuccessful effort until trump says something ambiguous enough to not sound entirely unhinged. this was not the first time a fox news host tried and basically failed to get donald trump to denounce political retribution. remember this moment with sean hannity? >> under no circumstances you are promising america tonight, he would never abuse power as a retribution against anybody >> except on day one. >> meaning? >> i want to close the border and i want to drill, drill, drill. >> that's not retribution. >> i'm going to be, i'm going to be. he keeps, i love this guy. he says we are not going to be a dictator, are you? i say no, no, no, other than day one. >> joining me is michael smith, "the new york times" investigative reporter, who has been reporting this evening about the efforts trump made while president to seek political retribution. michael, can you talk a little
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bit about how the past may be president? >> this is talked about as "if he comes back," then this is what could happen. but, it already happened. and, it happened in a greater, more substantial way than even i, someone who has covered this issue, appreciated. when we went back and looked at what trump wanted, what he said publicly, or tried to put pressure on the justice department to do privately, and what actually happened, in the powers of the government trump wanted sixth on them actually were used against them. >> that included not just the department of justice, which we have seen as weaponized under trump, but the irs. can you talk a little bit about that? >> donald trump had fired, he
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fired james comey. they were both the subject of the same highly unusual, invasive audit. this is an audit that just a few thousand americans are picked to undergo a year. it is called an autopsy without the benefit of death. these two individuals were chosen for it. in the months after we learned that, we learned that behind closed doors, in 2018, trump was going to john kelly seguin "we really need to get the irs on james comey and andy mccabe and other fbi officials." the irs inspector general has cleared of wrongdoing but it is a very difficult as a reporter to avert your gaze from a fact like that when you have a president who not only wanted to weaponized the government, but certainly on the justice department and fbi side, oftentimes had these people investigated. >> you have reporting of the
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white house counsel, don mcgann, trying to talk trump off the ledge in terms of retribution and then these lawyers from the white house making note of the efforts they had to stop the president from weaponized and the government, so that if something happened, they would have a written record of the ways in which they tried to uphold the constitution. >> when we published a story on this, we ran thousands and thousands of words from draft memos, of a memo that was ultimately given to trump about why he should not use the powers of government against his enemies. we were able to see those memos because lawyers in the white house smuggled them off the white house complex in the weeks after the memo was given to trump because they were so concerned about what trump was going to do. this was not in late 2020 that this happened, this was in
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2018. there was a deep concern in 2018 that he was going to weaponized them government. there is an even more unshackled trump in the final weeks of his presidency. >> cycles are not accident if there is a second term. michael schmidt, it is important reporting but especially in this moment in time, when he can't hide his desire for retribution in interviews, public interviews and legacy media. uncle schmidt, "the new york times", thank you for your time and reporting, sir. we will be right back. only purple's gel flex grid passes the raw egg test. no other mattress cradles your body and simultaneously supports your spine. memory foam doesn't come close. get your best sleep guaranteed. buy more, save more. up to $600 off. visit purple.com or a store near you. (man) these men of means with their silver spoons.
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