kudos for jeb bush, eugene. >> kudos for jeb bush, but why in the world hasn't every other republican, prominent or otherwise, said the same thing? why are we not hearing that same thing from mitch mcconnell and from marco rubio and from rand paul, from everybody? this is complete looney bin. and it's totally dangerous. it's really dangerous, because people will get hurt as a result of this qanon crazy obsession that some people have. and it should be denounced and, you know, we should call it for what it is. it is utter lunacy. but the president won't do that. and it's just astounding. you know, you have to go back to what president obama said last night and reread that speech. i mean, he kind of laid it out. that's what we have now. that's where we are, and this is a challenge for november 3. >> and before we leave this, kristen, i just want to make the point, you've followed this so closely. president obama spent the first 3 1/2 years at least trying to be respectful and not respond to every one of the attacks from president trump. but he let loose first at john lewis' funeral, and

the one the democrats ran the same with jeb and bush and gore and since i am outspoken and frank and tart i feel perfectly free to say no question in my mind that george one florida. [applause] i don't think i put this in my book but in my heart, when the dnc chairman and you can all throw stuff at me if you want, announced in 2002 there was one goal to beat jeb bush come i think he won by 14 percent. [applause] i will say goodbye. [applause] i'm not supposed to be politica political. i just want you to know what i think. >> [inaudible] >> i don't like that if it is revisionist. but i'm worried very much about the internet because i can put something on internet and act like it's the truth and people will then go in as research. for instance there is a big article about me recently in newsweek because they bought the rights to do that from my book publisher and i spent a lovely day with a really nice girl and about the fourth page of my book she has my mother, her mother mildred pierce my mother's name was pauline robinson peers. mildred was joan crawford in the movie. [laughter] tha

jeb bush and ben sasse the most prominent.s there any regret behind the scenes being expressed by the way the president handled your question yesterday? >> the best i can tell you is this is not what the campaign and trump advisers wanted to be talking about 11 weeks out from the election. we've talked about a war with the post office between the post office and the white house this week. qanon. now deceisteve bannon's arrest. there's still ten news cycles left for another controversy to come into play. not where the campaign wanted the focus to be especially going into their big convention next week when they're at a deficit to biden and they want the focus to be on biden and their attacks there. will this qanon story persist? this is one day they lose in the messaging war they wanted to be waging. >> shannon pettypiece, and before that, pete williams, getting us started with the news this morning. thank you. >>> joining us now for a deeper dive into qanon is nbc's ben collins, our resident expert on the conspiracy theory. al

after the bush presidency and the iraq war and the financial and the financial crisis of 20082009 jeb bush who was the lead get t. the eric to that party. trump pushed aside that party had sort of ceased to exist and trump appealed. to base instincts that had always been there in the country. without the dog whistle without the codewords he was and what appealed to those people was precisely the harshness and roughness of it against what they perceived as cosmopolitan ainley who they hated all of this goes back to the transformation radicalization of the republican party a process of decades that went back to its co-optation the king of the constituency and campaign george. wallace in the 18th in the 1960 s. and ninety's early 1970 s. when he ran a racist campaigns and the southern strategy to co-opt that movement in the republican party led to its being in effect taken over by it and now ironically in a way this new york real estate. failure bankrupt who is nothing but a veneer. of city of photo success him as. has taken over essentially what is and base a modernized dixiecrat party and t

. >> tim miller, your candidate jeb bush who promised that donald trump would usher in chaos, he called him the chaos candidate. i don't know if jeb bush could have predicted the chaos that donald trump is ceding around the cape paacity or incapable ad the results. >> yeah, i think that when we talk about the chaos president, i don't think we imagined banned from traveling from other countries, delaying the election, having the russians interfere. it's beyond the worst case scenario. i have a little bit of ptsd from 2016, there's no doubt that joe biden is in a good position right now. but i look at that map, i see arizona in the blue column, one of my hats with the republican voters against trump is a super pac and we did an internal poll last week and those states are tied based on our numbers. >> tell me those states again. >> north carolina and arizona. >> okay. there's still a path, still have biden winning but much more narr narrowly. >> let's do one more, i have ptsd. >> flip florida or pennsylvania. democrats felt good about florida in 2018, you saw ron desantis squeak out a one

he has worked on campaigns for everyone from john mccain to jeb bush and also with us mark mckinnon, co-host of showtime's "the circus" and former george w. bush advisor. tim, the president has said he doesn't want the prerecorded speeches. he told sean hannity he thinks that's boring. we just saw this week he was willing to hold events with few masks and no social distancing. even though we are now in the middle of this pandemic, what do you think we're going to see? >> well, i think the president has had a pretty big problem over the past six months and it's the fact that he gets bored very easily. he's like an adhd child who's been spending his time complaining about joe scarborough and making up conspiracy theories and defending q t. what the nation is looking for is what joe biden has to offer. how are we going to fix this pandemic and fix this economy? so i think it's a good sign for democrats that the president is concerned about the boringness of the convention. honestly the best thing that trump could have is a boring convention where he talked about how he was going to fix

presidents the 43rd and jeb bush, the 43rd of florida. e of her six children was diagnosed with dyslexia, she focused on literacy, calling it the most important issue we have , and later starting the barbara bush literacy foundation. [applause] >> thank you very, very much. thank you very, very much. thank you, lee, and thank you all for that warm welcome. before i start, i just what to say how proud i am of my very good friend, marilyn quayle -- [cheers and applause] i want to thank her very much for those really nice overly for those really nice overly generous words and tell her what a great speech she gave. so thank you very much -- [cheers and applause] i also would like to say that whoever arranged for me to speak after those fabulous points of light is fired -- [laughter.] -- [laughter] they made me really proud to be an american -- [cheers and applause] you're a really tough audience -- [laughter] -- but what a thrilling welcome. you make me feel wonderful, but then i always feel wonderful when i get to talk about the strongest, th

tim miller, political director of republican voters against trump, a communications director for jeb bush's016 campaign. thanks for staying up with us. >> hey, ari. anytime. >> here we are late night, an echo of last week. your view of who has the better side of that argument i mentioned. >> well, i think that having ronna mcdaniel make the unity argument leaves a little bit to be desired seeing as how she had to change her maiden name so as to not offend the president about the fact there's a sitting senator who is her uncle. that is not -- that is a republican that's not in good graces within the party. look, i think that her point is taken, that yes, donald trump has a stronghold on probably about 75% of the party, really. i think 40% are passionate red hat trump supporters, another 30% are tacit supporters. but here's the deal. hillary clinton won over about 4% of republicans last night. if joe biden moves it to 6% or 8%, this is a landslide election in his favor. and i think that is what they're missing and i think that is why the stronger side of the arguement is on our side of republ

krish vignarasha and matt gorman, worked on jeb bush and mitt romney's presidential campaigns. thank you very much for joining us. you know kamala harris very well. have you had a chance to speak to her since she was tapped to be biden's running mate and tell me what you think about how thee did on her debut on the ticket. she's obviously very familiar on the big stage. she's been there many times before but this one obviously has a different feel to it. >> yes, most likely. we have exchanged text messages. i congratulated her and emphasized how historical this moment is. the world got to see what we know most about kamala harris yesterday. she is a champion for the people. she was able to showcase that yesterday on the stage and everyone gets to see how great of a ticket she and vice president biden will be. >> krish, we were talking about energy and enthusiasm. one metric for that is the money game. the campaign saying it raised $26 million in 24 hours. we do know how campaigns were traditionally be spending that money but this year it's a different climate, given the fact th

was a real civil war and the republican party that the establishment of republicans represented by jeb bush and others did not get the nomination, did not get the support of the other people, those revolutionary donald trump, the democrats are going to the same thing right now, they're having a civil war in their party, is it going to be the traditional democrats, is it going to be some outsider, socialist, i think that is indicative and the fact that it just doesn't work, the stop that is worked in the last 40 years in the united states to govern the people has not kept up with the country, i guess at the end of this book that i realized after long. then i went into the wilderness to figure it out as america goes to the divisive periods roughly every 40 years, why, it's because were very dynamic country, demographically, geographically, socially, economically, we are constantly reinventing ourselves, not just as individuals but as a nation and government aisle which might make this intriguing, but certainly the more productive conversation that we can have in this teenage are based on comm

reporter: absolutely a crackpot group and we have heard criticism of that kind from everyone from jeb bushorida, former presidential candidate to republican members of congress calling on the president to distance himself but look. as rich lowrie our colleague at national review wrote a couple weeks ago, the president weakened the antibodies within the republican party against this crackpot in part because he circulates the material himself. we did hear from the white house press secretary yesterday insisting that the president wasn't all that aware of the details. take a listen. >> he's talking about his supporters. he believes they're good, hard working people that love this country. he's not in the business of basket of deplorable politics. >> does he want the support of that group? >> he's not looked into qanon is. >> reporter: but, of course, the president as you indicated at the top has one test for whether or not he's going to associate himself with people and that is how do they feel about him? do they advance his cause? we heard that this morning from the former dhs chief of staff

miller, political director of republican voters against trump, former communications director for jeb bush'sbulwart. we heard voter after voter say he might not have done anything for me but makes me feel more comfortable. somebody said i like he's not in it for himself like those swampy democrats. what do you think when you watch that? >> well, i'm upset that i'm not doing this interview from the pool, steph, but here is what the reality is about florida, which is that joe biden is doing much better on seniors than hillary clinton was doing. he isn't going to win 100% of the vote. donald trump has a good hold on people in that community like pasco county. here is what we've seen. since march, donald trump has lost about 8% of the people who voted for him last time. and about 4% go in the other direction. this convention is about clawing some of those people back. we'll see if he's successful in that. right now his handling of the coronavirus, his handling of the economy, his handling of the prote protes protests has put biden in a good position for now. >> first lady melania trump is gettin

conservative writers, including some who are normally very defensive of the country defend this, jeb bushinzinger, others have directly come out. yet the president keeps saying it. and now the question is as we head into the republican party, will the party as a whole have the courage to condemn what the fbi says is a dangerous fringe group? >> may i remind everyone that it's not just theoretical. a guy from north carolina showed up with a gun and shot up a washington, d.c. pizza parlor because he believed in these theories, in this satanic, pedophile ring. and he got four years in prison. and he then said it was an incredibly ill-advised decision to do that, to have read those conspiracy theories and to have acted on them. it's not just that they talk about it, it's that it does translate to violence and action. we've already seen it. >> and the president of the united states validated it, praised it, and now maybe has inspired it. and they see it. all night long, they've been writing about it, jumping up and down for join that the president did this. >>> meanwhile, as schools across the

and tim miller, republican strategist who worked on jeb bush's 2016 campaign, the political director of republican voters against trump. adrian, i'll begin with you, as the daughter of immigrants, first black woman and what do you think the her impact will be? >> i think we're already seeing it. the level of excitement that i'm seeing both in conversations that i'm having with people, obviously all over twitter, the text messages that i'm getting, just about not only excitement about this historic moment, and it is really important, we just came out of the week that saw the anniversary of -- the 55th anniversary of the voting rights act, we're going into the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment, and then we have this amazing historic announcement with senator harris becoming the running mate. so i think people are incredibly excited. i think people see this as an opportunity to really think about and envision and imagine the multiracial democracy that people know that we can get to, we talk about a more perfect union, this ticket allows us to believe that that is possible. and the

try to get some more support in addition to jeb bush not employing him to the next few days and we can't ignore the timing of this of course a this diplomatic push does come in the middle of a rather divisive presidential campaign and this must also come into the thinking of the arab nations. are trying to courts do you think countries like bahrain like oman for example are likely to. take this timing into consideration or do you think many arab states will be likely to wait until november to see how much progress they should actually be making. i did say i think this is more of an election campaign that i'm really trying to make peace in the middle east for example i was so that. significant into this coalition that it's being marketed as building a coalition against the i'm so that has no role to play in an equalization against the same thing you know their militia should with this has been practically immobilized a long time ago i mean there is no hostility between saddam and his are so secure that it won't be you he is trying to get some to make some just some 2 election campaign suc

party stands, i am joined by cornell belcher and tim moore, former communications director for jeb bush's political campaign. now, for republican voters against trump. tim, let me start with you. you know, two stipulations here. one, is that lord knows what could happen in the next few months. we -- we have learned our lesson that fate can intervene. and number two, there's a certain kind of regression towards the tightening that you see in elections as they go down the stretch. and i would anticipate something similar here. but it does seem to me, the republican party, en masse, is increasingly acting like a party expecting to lose. is that a fair assessment? >> oh, they're expecting to lose. and you know, i wrote about this for "rolling stone." where i talked to a lot of my old republican consultant buddies and they said as much. they're worried about jon cornyn losing texas. forget some of those states you mentioned. your first caveat is really important. with republican voters against trump, we were polling last week. and, you know, some of these swing states, particularly if you are

he has been in contact with the trump campaign and then jeb bush, no friend of the president's, but alsong the president should have certainly stood up and said this is crazy. i don't endorse this. >> shannon, ben, thank you. >>> don't go far. you're going to want to hear this breaking news. right now steve bannon, former adviser to president trump has just been indicted by federal prosecutors here in manhattan. nbc's investigations correspondent tom winter joins us on the phone. what in the world is going on? >> stephanie, i've just learned from a spokesperson for the u.s. attorney's office for the southern district of new york that steve bannon is in federal custody in new york city at this time. he's been charged in an dim indictment with four other people alleging fraud for their role in the rebuild the wall. this has been a fund that's raised more than $25 million. it's part of a crowd funding campaign. essentially what federal prosecutors here say, what the u.s. attorney says, the acting u.s. attorney audrey strauss says, the defendants defrauded hundreds of thousands of donors to

there was a real civil war in the republican party at the establishment republicans represented by jeb bush and others get the nomination, didn't get the support of the american people who got it, it was the revolutionary donald trump. the democrats are doing the same thing right now, they're having a civil war about is it going to be the traditional democrats, is it going to be some outsider western mark is going to be a socialist but that's indicative of the fact that washington just doesn't work, the stuff that's worked for the past 40 years to govern the people haven't kept up with the country and at the end of this book i realized after a long period of thoughtfulness and i went into the wilderness trying to figure it out is that america goes through these divisive period roughly of late 40 years. why? because we are a dynamic country. demographically, geographically, socially, economically and were constantly reinventing ourselves not just as individuals but as a nation and government by its nature is stuck. it's a status quo institution . we're always going to do this thing and it's

would think that this would seem worse to ordinary voters than a standard issue political elite jeb bush or hillary clinton. but the political elites did in part create their own problem. over the past for generations, the hallmark of the political elites has been the expansion of the political power. political power has expanded in size and extent. one third of the world's gdp is now spent by the politicians in the government arounandthe gove. one out of every three things to make is grabbed by governments. if your cat has three kitchens, one of them is a government agent. [laughter] political power is expanded in scope. politics cast its net over every little aspect of life. nothing is so private that it isn't tangled up in politics. transgender bathrooms. we know politics is crap and now we find out that where we take one is political issue. [laughter] and i have to say to the political elites, when are you going to realize that politics is just, it's a two-way street. street. street. delete politicians have spen spt for generations creating a powerful, huge, heavy, unstoppable monste

with jeb bush in '94, and he was seen as the crazy bush.ght. and now here we find ourselves in 2020, and what is defined as being conservative, what is being defined as being far too right doesn't even register on the scale of how -- you know, what we believe conservativism was our entire lives. >> if donald trump loses and his enables in the senate experience the education that comes from pain, we have a chance to renew a center right party worthy of the name. i'm speaking to you this morning from the canadian province of ontario with an approval rating of over 66%. much higher than the national liberals of justin trudeau. why? because they handled the pandemic competently. not perfectly but competently and demonstrating they have concern ask care for the people who are sick and suffering. it can -- you can have a normal conservative party again. we are seeing the consequences of bad choices and the way we get out of this is through good choices. so i think we're going to rediscover in the next few years why right side of parties are neces

think this would seem worse to ordinary voters than a mere standard issue political elitism of the jeb bush or hillary clinton but the political elites did in part create their own problem. over the past four generations the homework of the political elites has been the expansion of political power. political power is expand in size and expense. one-third of the world gdp is now spent by the politicians in governments around the world. one out of every three things you make is grabbed by governments. if your cat has three kittens, one of them is a government agent. political power has expanded in scope. politics casts its net over every little aspect of life. nothing is so private that it isn't tangled up in politics. transgender bathrooms come we knew politics was crap and that we find it where we take what is a political issue. and i and i have to say to the political elites when you guys going to realize, guys and going to realize that politics is a two-way street. the elite politicians have spent for generations creating a powerful, huge, heavy, unstoppable, monster truck of a governmen

very few republicans are speaking out about it as senator flake just reaction in '16 both around jeb bush and hillary clinton that americans were wary of dynastic american political families. did the trump family miss those stories, or did they just decide that their family were only people they could count on to show up this week? >> i think the trump family feels like that trend, that historical trend in our country of being against monarchies may not apply to them. because this week at the republican national convention is entirely the trump show. this is a party presenting itself completely in donald j. trump's image. he is going to be participating each night in the prime-time programming. his family members are going to be speaking. the political speakers who are going to be speaking are those who are the most enthusiastic trump supporters. people like senator tim scott, who has defended and advocated for this president repeatedly. senator joni ernst of iowa. congresswoman elise stefanick, one of his fiercest defenders in the impeachment proceedings late last year. this is the trump

globe" and michael steele, former press secretary for john boehner and former senior advisor to jeb bush. michael, let me start with you because we ended on that clip of the republican president essentially questioning mail-in balloting and the tweet from him suggesting that the election be delayed. one of the few instances that i can recall where there was broad and quick widespread condemnation among republicans of that idea. what was the reaction behind the scenes among republicans who are fighting to re-elect other senators and members of the house and not just the president of the united states? >> look, one the broad picture which is important. two, i was proud and happy to see how quickly across the board republican officials said no way, not going to happen. third, this is not the sign of a confident president. this is not the sign of a man fighting to win the re-election. this is a sign of a man who is fighting to make it close enough to claim he was cheated and escape the judgment of history if he loses badly to the former vice president. >> to that point, kimberly atkins, i wa

i think you covered tim miller's career, he worked for jeb bush and is now running one of the most effectiveoriented campaigns for joe biden and against donald trump. and he writes this -- he says, quote, the rnc taken what the party's worst critics had to say about them and decided to wear it as a patch of pride, the orange man badge, of political platforms, we're trumpists we believe in nothing, love it or leave it. could you think there's any shame to feel about that. bu rr is dealing with his own dell challenges, but anyone left not okay with that? portman is obviously fine to let this become his legacy. is there anyone in the mold of paul ryan, i remember all the careful reporting if your book about his policy-heartbreaking. as trump came in and was obviously ignorant and indifferent to all those conservative principles that paul ryan adhere to but are there any paul ryans left? anyone who cares? >> you know, nicole, i'll say this, it's not an accident that paul ryan retired after 2018 as i reported about at the time and wrote about in the book, he talked to people around him plainly an

and national i'm start to rise, the rise of "breitbart" and other outlets and the belief that the jeb bushes world could bring together a coalition to keep power. but there was an acceptance building in 2014, that the base was in control as much as they wanted to deny it. so when donald trump effectively took control in 2015 of the party they were in a position to accept that reality. and five years later here we are, the culmination of that process, the republicans accepting their reality. they don't know how to control or guide their party so they're going along, those who remain, with president trump. >> they're going along for the ride. very few, though, are actually going to speak at the convention who are in tight senate races. i think joanie ernst may be one of the only ones. let's look at the polls, there's a poll that was out and not really notable, it's still a 10-point lead for joe biden. and, of course, the national polls are national polls. so certainly the old republican me would remind everybody that a rising tide lifts all boats. so biden being up by ten actually means he's p

we're not going to engage, as jeb bush would say, in the soft bigotry of low expectations. we're going to treat kamala harris, a black woman, just like we're going to treat mike pence, a white man, just like we're going fog treat anybody white. and when she screws up, we're going to call her out, not because she's a black woman, but because she's running for vice president of the united states. and can you speak to that, reverend al? first of all, i've got to say, yesterday was a landmark day. you had a black national candidate and i didn't hear one person talk about how she was, quote, articulate, which, poor barack obama had to hear about a thousand times during the 2008 campaign. oh, he's so articulate. and i'm sitting there looking at these people going, what are you talking about? i did not hear "articulate" once yesterday. so, we've moved past a certain landmark. but can you just talk about that? as we move through this campaign process, the best thing for kamala harris, the best thing for black women is that she is treated like everybody else and the woke latte liber

nobody wants to talk about jeb bush now. very few want to talk about george w. bush now.s what, here we are two decades later. and i'd be shocked -- if republicans don't win texas this year too bad they're never going to win it again because starting in 2024 i think that's going to shift to the democratic column. you have shifts that are going to blow the ultra nationalist party to pieces. and a lot of formerly respected journalists who have been playing the antiantitrump card are exposed and are going to be more exposed in the future. you look at the editorial pages of some of these papers that used to be respected, and it is. they try to find the latest outrage on table news tv. they try to find the latest outrage, the latest stupid thing that a left wing academic said, the latest stupid thing that a late night economic said. the latest thing that an anarchist in the streets of portland have said and it's all anti-anti-trumpism. they're not focussing on their political world that is burning down in front of them right now. there is no future for a republican party that