effort, as will follow after that. we will come back to that in just a moment.

donald trump said he only hires the quote, best people. it started as a line on the campaign trail in june of 2015, far before he took over the

republican party. donald trump said this. >> i know the best people. i know the best managers. i know the best dealmakers. i know people that will make us -- i know guys that are so good. >> a line that stuck, it fit within the outsider appeal that carried him to a shocking 2016 win. the government suits are corrupt or -- and he will replace him with the best. upon entering the white house, different story line emerged, the idea that trumps cabinet would resemble the word rims of his old reality show, the apprentice. what we ended up with was closer to an episode of survivor. let's start with the big picture, donald trump's white salt -- white house saw a higher turnover of staff, cabinet secretaries and single -- since at least ronald reagan according to brookings institute data that goes back to 1980. are cabinet officials left their post on our donald trump than under president clinton,

george w. bush, obama and biden combined. and donald trump is not one for amicable breakup. is first attorney general jeff sessions was the first senator to endorse trump in 2016 but recused himself from the department of justice investigation into russian collusion and trump, who thinks the attorney general is his lawyer, not the country, never forgave him. after a year of tweeting his dissatisfaction with sessions, trump finally fired him. and trump tapped rex tillerson to be secretary of state he said to listen was quote, among the most accomplished business leaders and international dealmakers in the world. that was december, 2016. two years later after firing to listen, via twitter, trump said to listen quote, didn't have the mental capacity needed because he was dumb as a rock and couldn't get rid of him fast enough. he was lazy as hell, end quote. we know trump will take the opportunity to bash somebody quote fired like a dog but it is not a one-way street. some of the most vocal critics right now are the same people who once saw him run the

country up close. former trump national security adviser john bolton, who was fired, also by tweet in 2019, and former secretary of defense mark esper who was fired, also by tweet in 2020, have both called trump unfit to serve. of course trumps vice president mike pence, who refused to carry out trumps order to overturn the 2020 election and his life was threatened on january 6, he now says he cannot in good conscious endorse trump. and then there were also the grifters, trumps choice to run health and human services, tom price lasted less than a year in the job after spending $400,000 of the government's money on chartered flights. his interior secretary ryan zinke resigned in 2018 after federal investigations were launched into travel habits and his conflict of interest. and is epa cheap scott pruitt quit when he became the subject of 13 different ethics investigations, but not before demanding an a to try to buy a

used mattress for him from the trump international hotel. at some point trump got sick of the lengthy appointment process for new cabinet officials in order to avoid the senate approval after every fired by tweet, donald trump began appointing acting secretaries all over the government. who required no senate confirmation and carried with him and or of replace ability with which trump had been tweeting his cabinet secretaries anyway. in february of 2019 interview, here is how trump defended this. >> you have an acting ag -- acting defense secretary, acting chief of staff, acting interior secretary. >> it is easier to make moves when they are acting. >> so you're going to shake up? >> some are doing a fantastic job. i really like acting because i can move likely. get some more flexibility. >> it is worth noting that project 2025 encourages the next trump administration to make

this tactic explicit policy. it unraveled more, if it could, after joe biden was declared winner of the 2020 election, as donald trump scoured for ways to deny that loss, he was for the -- was desperate for yes- men before the inauguration. according to the washington post, in those final days, trump turned to diehard named john mackin t, this guy, to purge disloyal staffers. he was 30 years old and held a security clearance at the white house in 2018. he had no policy experience was given permission to clean house. you would hand slips to officials, firing some and demanding others refuse to medicate with biden's team. he ran the office of presidential personnel to trump's wishes and in accordance with the suggestions and project 2025. purge disloyal, remind everyone who they are working for and reward obedience. and by the way, mcentee is a

senior adviser for project 2025 , in charge of presidential personnel, to prevent provincial staffers for the next trump administration, should there be one. so and trump tells you, and shows you how he's going to run the government and who is going to hire, believe him the first time. time. do your dry eyes still feel gritty, rough, or tired? with miebo, eyes can feel ♪ miebo ohh yeah ♪ miebo is the only prescription dry eye drop that forms a protective layer for the number one cause of dry eye: too much tear evaporation. for relief that's ♪ miebo ohh yeah ♪ remove contact lenses before using miebo. wait at least 30 minutes before putting them back in. eye redness and blurred vision may occur. what does treating dry eye differently feel like? ♪ miebo ohh yeah ♪ for relief that feels ♪ miebo ohh yeah ♪

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i'm in arizona, 16 days from election day. came to see what the campaign look like on the ground in this crucial swing state. in conversation with six arizona voters from across the political divide, i learned one thing that is on all their minds. the darkness and cruelty of our politics today is part of my conversation with a bipartisan group of arizona voters were trying to find a way to come together as a community. >> you were talking about one of the things that is bothering you and we have all sort of mentioned the black of civility

and the lengths to which you are still surprised at where we have gone in politics. that is something going on in your state as well. you've got people running for office, who are elected and they go somewhere that we are not used to seeing. >> that's right, we are seeing candidates try to out bombast each other, so to speak. it used to be more civil. you can talk to people of differing mines and it was an easy conversation have and now, not just the candidates but neighbors and friends and family, it is everything seems more tight, more ready to be wound up, so to speak. >> it is a difficult thing to reconcile with friends, especially with family. how can the divide be that far with people you care about, or people who have similar background, and honestly, i don't have an answer. i wish i did and if i did, i

would write the book probably with it. i feel like there is such a run to a tribal eyes corner on everything and in some places, it is almost become like sporting fandom -- where people cannot articulate necessarily why they are holding the views they are holding but it is a red team, go blue team and we are going to run to where our site is at, even if we don't have an understanding of the topic at hand.'s -- hand. it is frustrating when you try to talk to someone who doesn't have context. >> that is a lot of what gets lost in the selection, is the civility and i think that is what we forget about in election season, is that really, after it is over we are all part of the same community and so, are we voting for

things that are going to help our community, are we voting for things that are going to better our country, are we going to vote for things that are going to help us be just a better society altogether. are we trying to up one another and other each other. what is it really going to be, and i think part of it is, we have more in common, and i think with each other, even if we are registered as different parties, we have more in common with each other as humans. >> i think you are right, we would go back after an election and would be neighbors and it seems impossible now because of that division and polarization. and i feel like arizona even lays claim to some of that because i feel like the cruelty is the point, that sort of became a prevalent movement when we had joe arpaio, making worldwide headlines about cruelty here. and what he saw, his people

started looking at him and sending him money and he started getting more clout, started getting hits on all these shows. and i feel that is what everybody does now. everyone is like, the more outrageous i can be, the more people i can other, the more cruelty i can inflict, the more pain i can apply, the more attention i'm going to get. the more donations i'm going to get. the more someone is going to throw me on fox news or bright art and that is what it's become, like an attention economy and the cruelty economy. >> you mentioned joe arpaio. let's talk about that. immigration, is an issue in the state. it is an issue and i actually think sometimes in the state, people understand the complexity of the issue more than they do in washington or political circles. what is your sense of what success should look like for the people of this country, for whom immigration, for better or worse is the main issue?

>> obviously securing the border has been the big conversation topic for decades, at this point. when you live in arizona, the conversation of immigration is so common. you have people who live 20 minutes down the road for them. so many people in your neighborhood, like we keep talking about, your community that are immigrants, that are children of immigrants. this country is built on that. the rhetoric we have been seeing, that every single person, that is not a nativeborn american is evil, has been very dangerous and some people in washington, d.c., the states that will never see an actual border in their life, they just hear what they see in the media and think that is what they will roll with the rest of their life. but when you're actually in the country and you are in the state, you understand that that is so much more complex. there are many people i know personally in my life that are immigrants and have contributed so much to this country. and obviously to these people on the east coast, the north side of the country, the need is to understand. at the end of it it is not just numbers, it is real people

behind those numbers. >> ronald reagan, famously granted amnesty for people who are here illegally and in the 1980s, today, what would the face of the party say about that. they wouldn't be in favor of it. there's a famous clip circulating the emigrant of -- internet of george w. bush and -- the question of illegal immigration came up and they gave such a response that not just included solutions but also to talk about the family component of it and how it affects people. >> the fact of the matter is, and any of the complex issues we can hold two truths. why are we a society of having to be right and absolute, i don't know when we ever got there, of being absolute about any of these complex issues. so we can hold the two truths that we are able to secure the border and certainly we need to apply resources and technology. but we can also be kind and

humane to people who are coming here, looking for work and if you talk to most of the industries, in our home state, whether it is homebuilding, whether it is farming, we still have quite a bit of agriculture , hotel and hospitality, every single one of those industry titans will tell you, we cannot do what we need to do in commerce, with just domestic help. we have to have help from someplace else, as well. so these layers, it is good for our economy, to be kind to people, to be sure that they are trained and there's a pathway to be a good citizen. >> more on that conversation in the next hour but i want to go to georgia outside of atlanta, where vice president kamala harris is speaking at an event prior to his soul to the polls boating event. >> we are reminded of the ties that bind us to each other. and the importance of community , the importance of community.

that is what i know new birth church provides to so many people across atlanta and beyond. so pastor brian, thank you for your words and for your vision and in this election season, i think you for the time you have spent traveling our country to encourage people to register and to vote. because, you know, and we all know, your parents who gave so much and let such an honorable life and including of course, among the leaders upon whose broad shoulders we stand, congressman john lewis, they all knew. and by their example, they taught us that faith and good works go hand-in-hand. and that is especially true when it comes to protecting our sacred right to vote and getting full so the polls and i think everyone for all you are doing in that regard.

and i am truly honored to be in the presence of so many extra ordinary leaders including my pastor reverend dr. amos brown of third baptist church of san francisco, who you heard from earlier. there he is. and whose wisdom, dr. brown has guided me and has been a source of comfort and solace for so many years. and i am especially glad to be here on pink sunday. as some of you may know, my mother was a breast cancer researcher. she was one of the very few women, and fewer even women of color, engaged in studying breast cancer. and she had goals in her life to raise her two daughters and to end breast cancer. it was her life's work. and so

today of course, it has personal significance for me as i know it does for pastor brian and so many of you. and to everyone here today, who knows what it means to support a loved one, through a cancer diagnosis and treatment and to those of you fighting your own battles, i am holding you close in my heart and in my prayers and i thank you for your courage and your strength. so all of this is to say, it is good to be here with everyone today and to worship with you. and on this day, i am reminded with everything that we reflect on, on the parable from the gospel of luke. so in the gospel, we are told of a man who traveled from the road from jerusalem to jericho. and while traveling, he was attacked by robbers.

we remember, he was beaten. he was bloodied. they left him for dead. he was someone that should be passed by, maybe with a glance of pity, but not more. so one person passed by, sees the man lying in his path and walks around him. not wanting to be bothered. or obstructed on the path he decided to walk. a second man, does the same. but then, a samaritan walks by. he sees the man and he stops. the samaritan bandages the stranger's wounds, he brings him to an inn, gives him shelter and a hot meal. and he saves the man's life. this parable, the parable of

the good samaritan, teaches us to love thy neighbor as thyself. these words are simple. we know them well. it is an essential tenant, and a pillar of our faith. and that of so many others. however, one must ask, are all people of faith living those words? are all people of faith expressing those words in their actions? do we have leaders in place, who understand that in the face of a stranger, one should see a neighbor? and i will tell you,

i grew up in a church that took those words to heart. is a little girl on sundays, my sister and i would go to 23rd avenue church of god in oakland, california where we sang in the children's choir, we attended sunday school and after church we would go to the basement and eat food prepared by loving hands. and where i first learned the teachings of the bible and my earliest memories of those teachings are about a loving god. a loving god. a god who asks us to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves. and to defend the rights of the poor and the needy. and for me, like for so many of us, church is a place of growth and belonging, and community. a place we are reminded of the

incredible power of faith and fellowship and in moments of difficulty and uncertainty, when the way is not clear, it is our faith that guides us forward. faith in what we often cannot see, but we know to be true. faith and what we cannot see. but know to be true. and i say that, because in this moment across our nation, what we do see, are some who try to deepen division among us. spread hate, so fear, and cause chaos. there are those who suggest the measure of the strength of a leader is based on the beat down instead of what we know, which is the true measure of the strength of a leader is based on you lift up.

and this moment, in our nation, must be about so much more than partisan politics. it must be about looking inward and being guided by our faith. to know, what brings hope and what is truly the best expression of our strength, in the way we reach out to each other with kindness and with love. and with sincerity in that approach. this is a moment that is challenging us of faith, to reflect on this moment in the context of our future. we just applauded the young leaders who are here this morning. and i think so much of this moment and the context of them, are young leaders, and what they have a right to expect and

what their faith teaches them, that gives them rightly, a sense of hope about where they belong, who they are and what they can be. and so, this is a moment that is challenging, i think our fundamental values and challenging us as americans and as people of faith. and as the good samaritan reminds us, it is not enough to preach the values of compassion and respect. we must live them. >> [ applause ] >> faith is a verb. faith is a verb. we show it in action, in our deeds and in our service. here in georgia, we have seen it , playing out in real time in just the last many weeks, where communities have come together in the wake of hurricane helene . right in the atlanta area, i

saw a story of a reporter who was outside covering the storm, live on television when he heard screams. -- waited into chest deep water to rescue a woman in her car, carrying her on his back to safety. in a town a few hours from here, one mother and her children lost power for days. and as soon as it was restored, they started a relief drive, distributing food, water and supplies. and opened their home to neighbors in need of laundry or a hot shower. on a visit recently to augusta, i met people who themselves, had experienced extraordinary loss and devastation. many, who did not have electricity or running water. you every day, they left their homes to go to relief centers tell