john harwood, john avlon, dr. reiner, thank you. >>> more audiotapes, president trump in his own words telling bob woodward about -- listen to this, a secret u.s. nuclear program. that's next. >>> stunning allegations from a whistle-blower who says president trump's top official at the department of homeland security ordered staff to alter intel assessments to suit president trump's personal agenda. downplaying russia interfering in the election. >>> netflix's ceo doesn't like his team working from home. his answer might surprise you, that's ahead. ♪ ♪ for all the moments you've missed and all the moments you haven't "hi" love, can't wait -"got the ring!" -"yes!" and with jared it doesn't have to ♪ we're all finding ways to keep moving. but how do we make sure the direction we're headed is forward? at fidelity, you'll get the planning and advice to prepare you for the future, without sacrificing the things that are important to you today. we'll help you plan for healthcare costs, taxes and any other uncertainties

john avlon. you. >> hey, man. >> so put aside how callous it is to talk about loss of life like that. has america ever had a sitting president be so openly hostile to parts of the country that he views as his political opponents? >> no. no because, look, it's the only job in our politics where a person has the responsibility to represent all the people. but one of the tells is that this president's re-election campaign is predicated, not on winning a majority of votes. he really sees himself as the president of red states. so that was a real tell. and by the way, it was wrong. you know, we still have 11% of the deaths, if you only count quote/unquote red states but it's the opposite of the way a president should think. there are no red states. there are no blue states. what biden said tonight. you know, i'm a democrat but i'll be the president for all people. and donald trump seems unable to imagine himself in that role. >> well, today is constitution day, john, commemorating the signing of the co

i want to bring in senior political analyst john avlon. fect, john, of having the hhs spokesman attacking the cdc here? >> it's the opposite of helpful at a time when our country is facing a pandemic. this guy is a right-wing political hack with no health experience. he got called out on attempts to interfere with the data being put forward to the american people. and then he goes off and says what a lot of these folks say privately. let's be clear, this isn't a difference of opinion. this is the paranoid style of american politics. he accuses scientists of committing sedition, talks about a second civil war and his salary is being paid by the taxpayers. let's not buy into the new normal because it's a donald trump appointee echoing the president's talking points. this is a dereliction of duty. he's not a victim. he is stirring and inciting some of the sickness in our country, and not doing his job, which is dealing with the real pandemic. >> i want to talk about a tweet that the president retweeted. it's despicable. what it does, it basica

john avlon will explain next.) some may wonder how apartments-dot-com has helped more renters find their place than any other site. by digitally upgrading every one of our employees...physically. now, everybody at apartments.com can, and does, give one hundred and ten percent. [rapid typing and clicking] apartments-dot-com. the most popular place to find a place. >>> president trump has not denounced violence coming from the right, sticking only to the left. why? john avlon with a reality check. >> let's not get numb to this. the president of the united states refused to condemn a killer. this isn't presidential or law and order, but part of a pattern. back in 2016 white supremacist david duke called trump a great recruiting tool. so when jake tapper to him to denounce david duke -- >> i don't know anything about david duke. >> he condemned him as a bigot back in 2000. >> i think there's blame on both sides. people that were very fine people on both sides. >> to this day, some trumpers will argue that he didn't sa

john avlon with a reality check. >> it's happening again. talking points in an online disinformation campaign designed to help donald trump. but this time the trump administration is in power and it's trying to hide evidence of that influence operation from you, the american people. now witness the revelation that the department of homeland security suppressed an intelligence document in july showing that with high confidence, russia was pushing allegations about the poor mental health of 2020 presidential candidate joe biden. now this came in the wake of trump campaign ads arguing the exact same thing. the line of tack they've only ramped up since. it hit kind of a snag after trump bragged about passing a mental fitness test. >> you go person, woman, man, camera, tv. they say that's amazing. >> but pay attention to the apparently conscious parallelism of the russian and republican attacks, because we've seen this before in 2016, when russian trolls and the trump campaign both tried to suppress black turnout. in october of 2016 the trump cam

ron brownstein and john avlon. gentlemen, good evening. nt you, john, or both of you, to listen to what the president said at his rally tonight. apparently, before knowing about the death of rbg. >> i am putting ted cruz as one of the people for the supreme court. right? and you know why i did it? you know why i did it? because i wanted to make sure that i had somebody on the list -- we have about 45 unbelievable people. un -- the smartest. the best. the absolute creme de la creme, right? the best minds in the country. conservative. they believe in the constitution. okay? you know, little things. little things like that. but i said, you know, i have to have somebody that we're going to make sure we get approved. and the only one i could think of is ted. >> so, you know, he didn't jkno, john, about her death apparently. but he knows nothing fires up his voters like his record on judges. >> yeah. and look. trump's record on judges has been the rationalization that conservatives have used when they've been offended by how donald trump undercut

this is serious stuff. >> john avlon, margaret hoover, as always, good to have you. i'm glad you found your voice again, john. >> it's always in here somewhere. >> really appreciate you guys. have a great weekend. up next, as health experts work to quickly make and approve a coronavirus vaccine, a new poll finds just one in five americans would actually get the vaccine as soon as possible if it was available this year with no cost. so if that's the case, how effective would a vaccine be at ending the pandemic? we'll discuss next. you're live in the cramer krfrm. "cnn newsroom." have hr stuck ben employees and their data. entering data. changing data. more and more sensitive, personal data. and it doesn't just drag hr down. it drags the entire business down -- with inefficiency, errors and waste. it's ridiculous. so ridiculous. with paycom, employees enter and manage their own data in a single, easy to use software. visit paycom.com, and schedule your demo today. that selling carsarvana, 100% online wouldn't work. but we went to work. building an experience that lets y

cnn's john avlon, who was working for rudy giuliani at that time, has a reality check about all of thisoday marks 19 years since 9/11. we see a president who likes to talk tough about radical islamic terrorism, resultly insulting the courage of the soldiers and generals who have been fighting the war on terror ever since. so let's look back to see what donald trump was doing on 9/11, after the first responders ran into the fire. >> 40 wall street actually was the second tallest building in downtown manhattan. now it's the tallest. >> yes, he managed to use a tragic terrorist attack in realtime to pump up the size of his skyscraper. years later, trump bragged about being on the rubble of ground zero. >> everyone who helped clear the rubble, and i was there, and i watched, and i helped a little bit, you didn't know what was going to come down on all of us. >> there's no record of donald trump being at the pile at ground zero, but maybe he's conflating himself with people who work for him. it's a common rich guy mistake. but even that claim, that trump paid hundreds of guys to search throu

and here to talk more about tomorrow's debate is cnn political analyst john avlon.esident's taxes will no doubt be featured in this debate. now that we have sufficiech an explosive report, how do you think this will play out? >> the biden team is going to prosecute the issue of fundamental fairness. donald trump, a self-styled billionaire paid less in real dollars in taxes, $750 a year than average working folks, nurses, doctors, farmers, cops, firefighters, teachers, and that's just a reality, and i think it will speak to the real rigged system that we're dealing with, which benefits the super rich that can lose millions of dollars a year, and never pay a real penalty versus folks who get squeezed by the system every day. they'll hit the fundamental fairness of it, but a lot of donald trump supporters will simply do what they do and say it doesn't matter. it shows that he manipulated the system well. but that's a kind of denial because i think when the rubber meets the road, there's a lot of folks who are working class and middle class in this country are going to

john avlon with the reality chec check. >> donald trump is desperate to get re-elected.erate that he's willing to threaten the peaceful transfer of power. but "the new york times" report revealing insights from two decades of his tax returns might shed some light on why trump is ready to shred every democratic norm to hold on to power. as university of chicago law professor daniel hamill wrote in "the washington post," the stakes for trump this fall are far greater than past presidents seeking re-election. for him, a loss would not mean only the loss of a political career, but also, potentially, personal and financial ruin. the first reaction for many was fury at the fact that a self-styled populist billionaire paid less in federal income tax than an unmarried full-time worker making just $9 an hour. that's a rigged system. and it's got to get fixed. but here's what former doj inspector michael r. brownwhich said. if he loses the election, he faces federal and state prosecution for bank fraud, tax fraud, wire fraud, and mail fraud. no loc memo will spare him. that's seri

john avlon has taken a look.ng on here. ♪ police coming straight from the underground ♪ >> now, do you think joe biden would play nwa at a campaign rally? not a chance, but that clip was retweeted twice by president trump. it's part of a clear pattern to push fake, doctored videos to reinforce campaign narratives in the absence of facts. >> do you know what disinformation is? >> we sure do, mr. president. it's what you and your staffers have been doing on overdrive lately. unreal! that's what eric trump said when retweeting this doctored video yesterday. and for once, he was right. but not in the way he wanted to be. because it was unreal. the manipulated video falsely alleged that joe biden used a teleprompter in an interview with teletelemundo. or dan scavino pushing a fake clip from his government account purporting to show biden falling asleep, with audible snoring added. or this which reported to show biden complete botching the pledge of allegiance. here's what biden was actually saying. >> i don't pledge a

john avlon. gentlemen, good to see both of you. , you cannot overstate how much is at stake here. a potential fight over the election outcome. a woman's right to choose. the affordable care act. talk about the impact of another conservative justice. >> i mean, it's almost incalculable. for conservatives this is the number one issue always. it's been the way they've been able to excuse so much of what donald trump does that privately sickens their stomachs, because they're getting judges. and for conservatives judges are a bulwark against demographic change that they don't agree with. so that's why there's this enormous focus. the 6-3 majority is enormous. it means donald trump would have three supreme court nominees in one term. as opposed to two during the eight years of obama, for example. it's seismic. it cannot be overstated. that's why they're willing to ignore all ethics or questions of honor. the lying has been normalized. situational ethics have been weaponized. this is about the supreme court. and they're basically saying n

context, but tonight we are seeing history play out in real time right now, senior political analyst john avlon with perspective. good evening to you, douglas, what is, listen, this is, she already made history, and now, her had death may impact the course of history. correct? >> well, absolutely. and i realize, you know, this is the jewish holiday right now, rashashan, and we need to reflect on her life and legacy. and the politics are like niagra falls right now. i would caution the idea of joe biden going out and saying if i don't get what i want, i will expand the supreme court. fdr did that after he won in 1936 and did not like what the court was doing and he went and tried to sell it to have 15 justices on the supreme court and it was not republicans were saying that it was not constitutional. . biden would be starting his presidency in an awful position if he tried this. i think we have to see what the reality is. donald trump very well in the next days may pick who he thinks is, should be the justice and you are going to have mitch mcconnell start trying to sell it on capitol hill. don'

john avlon has more in your reality check. >> you know, his debate performance almost seemed designede confidence in the democratic process. >> this going to be a fraud like you have never seen. >> all right. that was trump on mail-in voting which has a 0.0025 fraud rate over the last two elections according to a study of three vote by mail states. >> take a look at west virginia, mail-in. they're being sold. they're being dumped in rivers. >> all right. west virginia mailman did caught changing five democratic primary ballots to republican. look, trump is trying to gin up anxiety about a free and fair election. and when chris wallace asked him to clearly condemn white supremacist militia violence he couldn't. >> proud boys stand back and stand by, but i'll tell you what, i'll tell you what, somebody's got to do something about antifa and the left. >> that ignores his own fbi director saying white nationalist violence is a pervasive threat and antifa is more of an ideology than an organization. just what is trump asking his supporters to be ready for? >> will you urge your supporters

john avlon with a reality check. >> more than six months into the pandemic, with nearly 200,000 americans health care anxiety is getting very real for most americans. 68% of voters say health care will be very important to their vote. but there's a lot of smoke and mirrors clouding the debate. president trump keeps touting a phantom health care plan, one that will magically cover more people for way less money but it seems to be within -- >> two weeks. four weeks, two weeks what do you think? >> in july he made a slow of an executive order he said would slash drug prices but his administration refused to release the actual text. then of course there's the constant pay no attention to the man behind the curtain promise to protect people with pre-existing conditions. while trump's own doj is actively trying to kill the law that actually does that. when it comes to americans' health care, he's all show and no go. dangerous during a pandemic. so let's start at the ground floor. there is no trump health care plan, period. i don't know how many times will fall for the lucy and the football rout

cnn's john avlon has our reality check. >> that's the understatement of the century. >> i know!really is. i'm shocked. shocked! >> shocked that there's gambling at this gin joint. let's try to separate the signal from the noise around health care and covid-19. >> you have never in these four years come up with a plan, a comprehensive plan to replace obamacare. >> of course i have. >> okay, repealing the individual mandate is not a plan! president trump has never put forward a comprehensive health care plan. >> there's 100 million people that have pre-existing conditions. and they'll be taken away, as well. >> there aren't 100 million people with pre-existing conditions. i don't want know where you gotta number. >> okay. estimates with americans with pre-existing conditions range from 50 million to 190 million, but many people with pre-existing conditions will be denied if trump gets his way on constitutional nominations, which brings us to amy coney barrett. >> she's written before she went on the bench, which is her right, that she thinks the affordable care act is not constitu

president trump still denies climate change and john avlon has our reality check. >> if you're still climate change is real, you ought to have your head examined. or you might be president trump. there are at least 87 wildfires burning across the western united states, consuming more than 4.7 million acres to date. phoenix has seen a record 50 consecutive days over 110 degrees, while the skies over san francisco have been choked with orange smoke, making it look like a dystopian sci-fi film. but it's all too real. with the northwest now containing three cities with the worst air quality on earth, which shows you why comments like this -- >> i believe in clean air, immaculate air, i believe in clean water. all of those things. i am not a believer in climate change. >> reporter: -- are dangerous nonsense. but of course, president trump doubled down while visiting fire-ravaged california this week. >> it will start getting cooler. >> i wish -- >> you just watch. >> i wish science agreed with you. >> well, i don't think science knows, actually. >> science does know, mr. president. so doe

john avlon with much nor a reality check. >> question.re in federal knack tax than president trump? answer. basically every american that works hard and plays by the rules. because according to the times, trump paid no federal income taxes 10 out of 15 years starting in 2000. and get this, during his campaign in the first year of his presidency, "the times" says that donald trump paid only $750. that's not a typo. but it is evidence of a broken system. because it means that donald trump with a tower on fifth avenue and an estate in palm beach paid less in taxes than the average household in america that makes just shy of $69,000 a year. in fact, trump paid less in federal income taxes than the average single grade school teacher, nurse, cop, farmer, firefighter and truck driver. and trump's $750,000 in federa income taxes is less than the monthly rent that families pay in pennsylvania, florida, wisconsin. this is real man of the people stuff here. and just to make it more relatable, "the times" reported that trump claimed more than $70,00

context, but tonight we are seeing history play out in real time right now, senior political analyst john avlonith perspective. good evening to you, douglas, what is, listen, this is, she already made history, and now, her had death may impact the course of history. correct? >> well, absolutely. and i realize, you know, this is the jewish holiday right now, rashashan, and we need to reflect on her life and legacy. and the politics are like niagra falls right now. i would caution the idea of joe biden going out and saying if i don't get what i want, i will expand the supreme court. fdr did that after he won in 1936 and did not like what the court was doing and he went and tried to sell it to have 15 justices on the supreme court and it was not republicans were saying that it was not constitutional. . biden would be starting his presidency in an awful position if he tried this. i think we have to see what the reality is. donald trump very well in the next days may pick who he thinks is, should be the justice and you are going to have mitch mcconnell start trying to sell it on capitol hill. don't

. >> joining us now, cnn senior political analyst john avlon and cnn political commentator post of "firing line" on pbs, margaret hoover. the next presidential debate is just a couple days away. is he going to have to have a better answer come tuesday night than this is just fake news or my tax returns are under audit, you can't see them? >> i think most obviously, yes. the answer is, yes. he's going to have to take questions from joe biden and from, a rigorous questioner, chris wallace. yeah. it's not enough. fake news is not enough. the story just hit tonight and multiple stories will follow. this is a developing story and i think we're going to be learning a lot more. >> look, he's going to stonewall and call it fake news but as usual it's trump versus the facts. here's why this is so damning. for this guy who's been campaigning as populist billionaire, to be revealed as a fundamental fraud when it comes to his businesses. more importantly, that he in the, living in the white house and ran for president, paid $750 in federal taxes, that's less than hard-working middle-class families, wo

john avlon has a reality check on this horrible milestone. >> this defines grim milestone.americans have now died from coronavirus. this is the nightmare scenario that while unimaginable, many health care experts saw as inevitable. but we're in danger of becoming numb to the daily death tolls. and covid-19 denial still somehow exists. but that is hugely disrespectful to the dead and their families. so i want to take a second to put america's covid death toll in perspective. in less than seven months, we have lost nearly four times the number of americans who died in battle during the first world w war. two-thirds the number of americans we lost in the second world war. nearly six times the number of american soldiers killed in korea. and we've lost almost three and a half times more of our fellow americans than the total lost in vietnam. this is obviously a very different kind of war. no one's been drafted, no one's volunteered, but we all find ourselves on the front lines. in the past, americans were asked to make real sacrifices to protect our fellow citizens. now some fo