joining me now is robert draper contributor to the new york times magazine and author the brand-new booklost nine. robert, congratulations on the. book thank you for waiting in. interesting thing about the book is that it is not dial, and as the when. you are literally there on january six. you like many other people would have thought, hey, the average republican or elected republican on congress might look at that and say, all right, this has gone way too far but in fact, for many republicans january six was there a moment to go from obscurity and the fringes of the republican party into what has become the center of it. >> that is very true, ali. it did not become a point of shame or a moment for reflection but instead they kind of opportunity and ultimately a badge of honor. and what's resulted is a kind of hardening of the republican party where trump remains the center of gravity in the party. trump isn't in the party, instead of becoming patented i guess you it's after january the six has instead become angry or, more offensive, more performative and more delusional. in the sense

robert draper joins me now.eks from the midterms, polling show the republicans have the momentum. how do you square that with the misinformation embraced up and down the ballot by many of their candidates? >> yeah, anderson, as you have likely seen, "the new york times" did a survey which they came to the conclusion that the majority of republican office seekers for high office have all said the election was stolen. so it's out there. it's pretty plain. but the reality is, as public opinion polls also show, the matter of the fate of our democracy is not in their minds. inflation and the economy are numbers one and two. so it's not likely a factor that you can expect that democrat also do all they can to make a margorie taylor greene to be the poster child of the republican party. but it's very difficult, particularly in an off-year where the party in power tends to lose seats. that's what is likely to occur here. >> we were talking earlier about herschel walker, another controversial republican in georgia. margo

robert draper, new book out. it's called weapons of mass solution, where the republican party lost its. maya thank you robert, appreciate it. >> my pleasure chris. >> coming up. we know the consequences of a republican victory in the midterms could be far reaching, but just three weeks till election day, where things stand? the one and only steve kornacki's mere feet away from me and he'll be mere feet away from me right after this break. ♪♪ voltaren. the joy of movement. ♪♪ host: tell me the... mom: chimichanga! name the device... the telephone! turns out moms are always right, and it turns out the general is a quality insurance company that's been saving people money for nearly 60 years. for a great low rate, and nearly 60 years of quality coverage - go with the general. i'm jonathan lawson here to tell you about life insuranceverage - through the colonial penn program. if you're age 50 to 85, and looking to buy life insurance on a fixed budget, remember the three ps. what are the three ps? the three ps of life

robert draper, new book out. today it's called weapons of mass solution, where the republican party lost its. maya thank you robert, appreciated. >> my pleasure chris. >> coming up. we know the consequences of a republican victory in the midterms could be far reaching, but just three weeks till election day, where things stand? steve kornacki's mere feet away from me and he'll be mere feet away from me right after this break. fter thi break. i just couldn't find my way out of it. the lows of bipolar depression can take you to a dark place. latuda could make a real difference in your symptoms. latuda was proven to significantly reduce bipolar depression symptoms. and in clinical studies, had no substantial impact on weight. this is where i want to be. call your doctor about sudden behavior changes or suicidal thoughts. antidepressants can increase these in children and young adults. elderly dementia patients have increased risk of death or stroke. report fever, confusion, stiff or uncontrollable muscle movements, w

we now know, thanks to robert draper's reporting, that behind closed doors, he also braided the gop congresswomanome details of that conversation he had with trump on the sixth. according to draper, mccarthy yelled, quote, after all the work i've done for you, you should have come to me! why did you go to the press? this is no way to thank me! in a private meeting last summer with two police officers -- the mother of the officer who died after 16, mccarthy claimed he had no idea supporters were carrying out the attack. >> we were watching tv -- >> he knew what was going on. he knew what was going on. people were fighting for hours and hours and hours. this doesn't make any sense to me. >> i'm just telling you -- i don't know that he did know that. >> former officer michael fanone secretly recorded that audio. he will join my colleague alex wagner in the next hour. be sure to stick around for that. now, what all this makes clear is that kevin mccarthy was well aware that the january 6th mob was not a group of tourists or patriots, or just people in the wrong place at the wrong time. it is also a r

joining us now is "new york times" magazine writer at large robert draper.new book called "weapons of mass delusion" and follows the rise of greene and other members of congress from the trump right. it is out today. so you can pick that up. this is an interesting moment here because she's talking about the future. should republicans win over the house, which obviously they stand a big chance of doing. what does that look like and what would a potential impeachment, what would that be for? >> let's stipulate, first of all, that marjorie taylor greene has been offering articles of impeachment against biden since literally his first whole day in office. for various unsundry things. what is clear is the republican party, should they retake the house, will be essentially the party of retribution, they will conduct investigations, they will strip democrats of their committee seats, as much as greene herself was stripped and paul gosar as well and there will be investigations ranging from hunter biden's laptop to whatever malfeasances they believe that various cab

what robert, draper the author of weapons of mass delusions, when the republican party lost his mind. he's also a writer at large for the new york times magazine. don't go anywhere, there's still plenty more to come on the special michigan edition of velshi across america. straight ahead, we will discuss what is at stake in the upcoming midterms with the attorney kearny general. i will give you, hunt it is democracy itself. plus, much more for my illuminating panel with a group of six michiganders. another hour of velshi, live, in detroit michigan, begins now. >> we were just looking at a life house on the north shore of the detroit. river i am on an island in the middle of the. river that is detroit, believe it or not to my north. that is canada believe it or not to myself. when you are in detroit and you look at canada you're actually looking south to word windsor but i love being here partly because i can swim to my home country. it is saturday october the 22nd. that is the renaissance center, the home to general motors. from electability you're just looking at a detroit it is 9 am

guest: that came through in a talk with my colleague robert draper who did a year of reporting in arizona and some reporting i have done. i went to an event called trumpstock, woodstock for trump fans in arizona. what i found there is people were willing to openly say that if the election did not go they way they wanted in terms of donald trump being reelected that they planned to commit violence in the name of saving america. these are people who end up at the capitol on january 6. what we are fighting is since that's in the last two years, public kids, particularly in a state like arizona, have doubled and tripled down on this to which you have candidates down ballot who are not only saying and defending the actions of figures attacking joe biden as a democratic president but are saying democracy itself is not a core american value. that we are a republic and not a democracy and majority rule is actually tyranny. these are open words from the candidates that we were able to highlight. that is something we were trying to bring out as a counterbalance to the speech joe biden gave to kick

joining us now, contributing writer at "new york times" magazine, robert draper.ook out this week entitled "weapons of mass delusion, when the republican party lost its mind." >> robert, thank you so much for being with us. dr. brzezinski was a trail blazer in the field of comparative communism. you can't look at the soviet bloc all the same, hungary is different than poland, than east germany, you need to understand the nuances. i think we should talk about comparative republicanism because my theory has been there are three parties in america. you've got the democratic party, the senate republicans, and the house republicans. and yes, the senate republicans are very conservative even by historical standards but the house republicans, i think it's who you're talking about more here, the house republicans are election deniers, they're conspiracy theorists. you have people that have been qanon advocates who are going to be in very powerful positions if the republicans take the house back over, which they likely are. talk about those different -- talk about comparat

and robert draper, author of the new book, weapons of mass delusion, when the republican party lost its

. >> i spent the last week reading robert draper's book, a maddening and detailed takedown where thecan party is these days. i put the book down and used curse words and pick it back up and use more curse words and details systematically why what we see is not just a problem in washington d.c. but in state parties, in county parties on the precinct level and it takes a top down and bottom up solution, which is really hard to do. >> but you see these structures working in a place like alaska where lisa masaid anybody could vote for anyone. >> really interest. stick around, please. we have a lot more to talk about. president obama back on the trail tonight in georgia. we'll tell you what he's saying about the attack on speaker pelosi's husband and his thoughts on herschel walker. that's next. pantene's pro-vitamin formula repairs hair. as well as the leading l luxury bonding treatment. for r softness and resilience, without the price tag. if you know... you know it's pantene. opportunities are all about timing. it's time to take advantage of a plan that gives you more for your medicare

and robert draper, author of the new book, weapons of mass delusion, when the republican party lost its mind. gentlemen, thanks so much for being here, great to have you in studio. robert, you talk about this in your book. can you paint a picture for us? what will it look like? what will happen for the next two years in this country if the republicans win back congress? >> the first things that will happen is that marjorie taylor greene told me, there's going to be a lot of investigation. so, you can expect the gop to take a kind of punitive form. it will be a party of payback. they will be stripping people of their committee assignments to weigh marjorie taylor greene and paul gosar were. they there will certainly be articles of impeachment advanced -- >> -- >> against biden, yeah, and perhaps some of his cabinet members. i think what will be more interesting is to see how the republicans deal with the debt ceiling and whether they will try to use social wedge issues attached to the debt ceiling to attract certain concessions from the president. kevin mccarthy did that of course when h

robert draper is the author of that piece as well as -- chronicling the changing face of the republicanion: when the republican party lost its mind. he joins me now. robert, thanks for being with us. where three weeks out from the midterms, polls suggest republicans have momentum in their direction. how do you square that with the purse phase of miss information -- embraced by a lot of it candidates? >> yeah, anderson. as you've likely seen, the new york times did a survey in which they statistically came to the conclusion that the majority of republican office seekers for high office of all said that the election was stolen. so it's out there, it's pretty plain. but the reality is that as public opinion polls also shown, the matter of the faith of our democracy is not uppermost in their minds. inflation in the economy are numbers two and one, i believe. and so, it's not likely to be affected. you can certainly expect that democrats will do all they can to make marjorie taylor greene be the poster child of the republican party, but it's difficult, particularly in an off year where the p

but robert draper's book sounds like just another assault on the gop, but he is actually very fair accordinger and her top staff, and his conclusion is that she's going to have substantial influence in a republican house, and that's gotten a lot of play. it seems to have changedded the media debate. >> it has because i think the idea that you can take this national brand that you were talking about that she's developed and that aoc has adopted -- developed and be able to rise in power and make those issues that are really appealing to those small donors as you talk about and make the gop actually fulfill their campaign promises. because we see this a lot in the gop primaries, that candidates go right because they want that distinction between their primary candidates, then the general election they go back to more center or left. and i think mtg's success at this is similar to aoc where people are going to continue to ask these candidates what, where they stand. are they actually going to do what they say with these investigations that she's calling for if the republicans are able to take co

so as we watch this zigzag, we turn to "new york times" robert draper, the author of the new book "weaponshe republican party lost its mind," hi robert. >> hey there, thanks for having me on. >> absolutely. what do you think of what i think of your brief is, some of the law, but the zigzag of people like graham, others and the naming of mr. perry in the new materials here because apparently trump had help. >> well, yeah, and that's particularly interesting, ari, because the january 6th committee has generally been reluctant to go after sitting members of congress. and scott perry therefore sticks out like a sore thumb, and i know has been a subject of interest for the committee for many months now. and principally because of the jeffrey clark connection. but, yeah, you know, the other thing i want to say relating to trump and the subpoena is i understand the legal arguments against trump doing it, but please do not underestimate the ability of trump to frustrate his own attorneys at every turn. there is some possibility that he will simply be unable to resist the prospect of being on natio

joining us now, "new york times" magazine writer robert draper. arizona is just emblematic of the fringe candidates embraced by trump and most of them are leading in the polls in their races. there are some 200 election deniers on the ballot. >> yeah, yeah, so it's -- yeah, so it's not just that, but it's also worth pointing out that those people who have stood up for the truth in the republican party have paid dearly for it. liz cheney's at the top of that list. kari lake is exhibit a, i think, of someone who is, you know, a political performance artist on the right, but also very charismatic, spewing lies stands an excellent chance of being the next governor of arizona. >> you spoke to marjorie taylor green about her conversations with kevin mccarthy if he becomes speaker. let me just quote from the book. i think that to be the best speaker of the house and to please the base, he's going to give me a lot of power and a lot of leeway, and if he doesn't, they're going to be very unhappy about it. and that's not in any way a threat at all. i just t

. >>> joining us now, contributing writer at new york magazine, robert draper. delusion, when the republican party lost its mind," it's officially out tomorrow, and in it robert argues a new breed of republicans are intentionally weaponizing the politics of hysteria for personal advancement, sometimes resulting in violence. >> robert, thank you so much for being with us. and it's important we talk about the devolution, 2008, sarah palin saying i won the race, the race is rigged. 2016, trump, you talk to clinton people, and they will tell you, they thought they were going to win, but they actually thought their first couple of weeks would be batting back some of these lies. they thought donald trump was going to spew about the race being stolen from them. he won the race and he still was spewing lies about the race. we devolve to 2020, and here we are in 2022, where you have one republican after another saying if i don't win, i'm not going to recognize the results. democracy in the balance. >> right. yeah, joe, i mean, it's interesting to hear my old friend mckin

in a brand new book called "weapons of mass delusion," marjorie taylor greene tells robert draper thatr writes this, in greene's view as speaker mccarthy would have little choice but toed a don't greene's a not more aggressive approach toward punishing biden and his fellow democrats for what she sees as policy derelictions. and quote, i think that to be the best speaker of the house and to please the base he will give me a lot of power and a lot of leeway she predicted in a flat unemotional voice. and if he doesn't, they will be very unhappy about it. i think that is the best way to read it. and that is not in any way a threat, i just think that is reality. back with donna and michael. it is indeed a threat. she is the pipeline to the most violent and extreme elements of the republican party. and giving her any power at all puts you in correct culpability for a all that she ushers in. >> yeah, marjorie taylor greene was kicked off her committee assignments i think just a month after she took her oath of office. so she was on he outside and the void that nobody wanted to identify with.

guest: that came through in a talk with my colleague robert draper who did a year of reporting in arizonaing i have done. i went to an event called trumpstock, woodstock for trump fans in arizona. what i found there is people were willing to openly say that if the election did not go they way they wanted in terms of donald trump being reelected that they planned to commit violence in the name of saving america. these are people who end up at the capitol on january 6. what we are fighting is since that's in the last two years, public kids, particularly in a state like arizona, have doubled and tripled down on this to which you have candidates down ballot who are not only saying and defending the actions of figures attacking joe biden as a democratic president but are saying democracy itself is not a core american value. that we are a republic and not a democracy and majority rule is actually tyranny. these are open words from the candidates that we were able to highlight. that is something we were trying to bring out as a counterbalance to the speech joe biden gave to kick off this midterm

guest: that came through in a talk with my colleague robert draper who did a year of reporting in arizonag i have done. i went to an event called trumpstock, woodstock for trump fans in arizona. what i found there is people were willing to openly say that if the election did not go they way they wanted in terms of donald trump being reelected that they planned to commit violence in the name of saving america. these are people who end up at the capitol on january 6. what we are fighting is since that's in the last two years, public kids, particularly in a state like arizona, have doubled and tripled down on this to which you have candidates down ballot who are not only saying and defending the actions of figures attacking joe biden as a democratic president but are saying democracy itself is not a core american value. that we are a republic and not a democracy and majority rule is actually tyranny. these are open words from the candidates that we were able to highlight. that is something we were trying to bring out as a counterbalance to the speech joe biden gave to kick off this midterms.