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you sign up at greenlight.com/podcast. Thanks

0:28

to you at home for joining us this hour. It's

0:30

really good for you to be here. I'm going to

0:32

show you something, but I'm going to tell you what

0:34

you're going to see in advance. I'm

0:37

going to tell you in advance, but even

0:39

so, I'm going to venture

0:41

a guess that you

0:45

knowing in advance what's coming, you

0:47

having me tell you in advance what you're

0:49

about to see is not going to make

0:51

it make any more sense. But

0:54

let me just describe it ahead of time so you can get your

0:56

head around it. Okay? It's going to

0:58

start with, I think

1:00

it's like a bracelet, a

1:02

decorated bracelet hitting the

1:04

floor. It's possible that it's like a mouth guard

1:06

or something, but that's so gross. I don't even

1:09

want to think about it. We're just going to

1:11

call it a bracelet. A decorated bracelet hits the

1:13

floor. Then there's a guy with

1:15

fake fire, and that guy

1:18

then shows off that he's got teeth like

1:20

this, like the James Bond villain,

1:22

the giant guy who had the metal teeth, his

1:25

teeth like that. And then after

1:27

we see the teeth like that,

1:29

then next there's a guy who

1:31

breaks a window with his head.

1:33

And then there's a guy who points.

1:38

It goes on from there, but let's just, that's enough.

1:40

Let's just watch that part now and then we'll do

1:42

the next part. So start with the bracelet

1:44

thing. Watch this. See,

1:59

it's just like Like I said, bracelet,

2:02

fake fire, metal teeth,

2:04

head through the window, and then the

2:06

guy who points. I

2:10

mean, eugh, theoretically, eugh,

2:13

it should help to know in advance what's coming in

2:15

this sequence, but it doesn't help. It's still just as

2:17

weird. But it keeps going.

2:19

After the pointing guy, we then get

2:21

a guy motioning like he's going to

2:23

cut himself in the neck. Then

2:26

you get a guy who kicks the air. Then

2:28

inexplicably, you get the highlight. You get a

2:30

guy with vampire teeth. And

2:33

then the guy with the big fake vampire

2:35

teeth punches the fake fire. Then

2:37

two other guys do punchy things and then

2:39

it gets really funny. I can't even describe

2:41

it. There's an audio component. And

2:43

then there's Donald Trump. So,

2:47

start it, roll it right from where the guy just

2:49

points. I will

2:52

say these are tough looking

2:54

guys. I

3:15

asked one of them, how long would I last? You know, I'm

3:17

tough. People are all tough. And

3:20

he looked at me like I was kidding. That wasn't even

3:22

nice. But it's an honor to have

3:24

you in Trump Tower. I think affliction's gonna do really

3:26

well. I

3:29

just wanna say that we

3:31

did not edit this and cut

3:33

in a different goofy voice where it

3:36

was supposed to be a tough guy voice. Just,

3:38

this is how it came out. Play the actual

3:40

announcement part again. Just listen to the voice here.

3:45

Affliction Band, July 19th, The

3:48

Honda Center, Anaheim, California, live on

3:50

pay-per-view. Affliction

3:54

Band. They apparently did not spring

3:56

for the expensive announcer guy. They

3:58

just had the internet. do it. This

4:03

is a thing that Donald

4:05

Trump failed at in business.

4:08

I did not know that this was another one of his

4:10

failed business ventures until New York Magazine wrote

4:13

about it yesterday in

4:15

reference to Donald Trump saying at a rally

4:17

this weekend that he wants to force immigrants

4:21

into fighting for entertainment. He wants

4:23

a migrant cage match

4:25

fighting league because

4:28

you know sure maybe the lions are all

4:30

full from all the Christians so time for

4:32

new entertainments for him and his followers.

4:35

But in reference to that

4:37

bizarre proposal that he made

4:40

at a political rally, this

4:42

weekend New York Magazine noted

4:44

that Trump in 2008 formed

4:46

his own mixed martial

4:48

arts league with

4:50

the vampire teeth and all the rest of

4:53

it. I

4:55

think affliction is going to do really well. Spoiler

4:58

alert, affliction did not

5:00

do very well. Trump was

5:03

the face of it. He was the

5:05

promoter. Michael Cohen was the COO. Trump's

5:08

mixed martial arts league hosted

5:11

precisely two events and

5:13

then it failed. Then it it it folded. Another

5:16

in a long line of illustrious Trump business

5:18

ventures. This one was new to me but

5:22

he was he was operating the the vampire

5:24

teeth break windows with your head thing which

5:27

failed at the same time that he

5:29

was operating Trump University which was

5:32

shut down as a scam, as a fraud

5:34

in a settlement that required Trump to pay 25 million

5:37

dollars to the people who had been

5:39

ripped off by his supposed university. He

5:41

was operating both the vampire teeth thing

5:43

and the Trump University scam at the

5:45

same time he was also operating the

5:48

Trump Foundation which was also shut down

5:50

as a scam. It was dissolved by

5:52

court order and its assets were ordered

5:54

to be redistributed to actual charities while

5:57

Trump had to pay millions of dollars

5:59

in restitution. He was operating

6:01

all of those at the same time

6:03

he was of course running the Trump Organization,

6:05

the family business that was built by

6:07

his father. Under Donald Trump's

6:09

leadership, that business of course was found

6:12

guilty of criminal fraud. Its

6:14

CFO is now in prison and Trump himself

6:16

will be sentenced in a couple of weeks,

6:18

possibly sentenced to prison after he was convicted

6:20

of 34 felonies for using

6:22

that same business to launder illegal

6:24

campaign payments. And

6:28

with a record like that, naturally

6:30

he is luxuriating in support from

6:33

the business world now. Because

6:36

wow, what a businessman. Can't

6:39

believe the boxer with the

6:42

vampire teeth thing didn't work. Seems like such

6:44

a sure bet for a sport that is

6:46

based on all sorts of you know, punching

6:48

and kicking and grappling, but not at all

6:51

on biting. Definitely get

6:53

yourself a vampire teeth guy. That'll

6:56

work. The

6:59

first presidential debate is hap- that is a

7:01

real thing. It's like really,

7:04

sorry, affliction. Definitely

7:09

make it sound like it's something that you might

7:11

catch and then ask people

7:14

to come together in a big collective

7:16

space to catch the affliction.

7:20

I'm sorry. The

7:23

first presidential debate is happening this week, which is

7:25

weird because it's June. I

7:27

can't speak to whatever advantage the two

7:29

campaigns see in having their

7:31

candidates debate now nearly five months before

7:33

the election. But

7:35

it means that we're all getting set

7:37

this week for this face off between

7:39

the two candidates. And we've got very

7:41

different metrics to look at than

7:44

we would usually have by the time a presidential

7:46

debate rolled around well into the fall. Polls

7:49

don't really mean much at this time of

7:51

the year. Polls don't really mean much five

7:53

months before voting. Most likely voters won't even

7:55

be paying attention to the race until well

7:57

into the fall when debates used to normally

7:59

be scheduled. But

8:02

as they head into this weird, very

8:04

early debate, the relative strength

8:06

of their campaigns is

8:09

something that we have to assess by

8:11

sort of indirect measures. And

8:14

one of the things that people have been using

8:16

heading into this debate to contrast

8:18

the candidates, to measure the strength

8:20

of each of their campaigns, to

8:23

sort of handicap their chances at who's

8:26

going to win the presidency. One of the things people have

8:28

been using, you might have seen a lot about this in

8:30

the press in the last couple of weeks, is

8:33

the issue of fundraising. You

8:35

have likely seen a lot of headlines and

8:37

a lot of attention to the overall financial

8:40

contest between these two candidates. And if you

8:42

have been paying attention to those headlines, you

8:44

have likely seen that the financial race between

8:46

the two candidates used to favor Biden, but

8:48

now Trump has reportedly caught up. And

8:54

along with that sort of bottom

8:56

line comparison of the two candidates,

8:59

you're also seeing really outsized attention now

9:01

to the very, very, very, very, very

9:03

rich people of America, the kind of

9:05

people who can donate 10, 20, 30,

9:09

50 million dollars in one check without

9:11

breaking a sweat and thereby potentially change

9:13

the nature of the race. And

9:15

very, very, very rich people like that have started

9:18

to write those kinds of checks. There's

9:20

a rich man named Timothy Mellon who

9:22

earned this headline in 2020 when he donated tens

9:26

of millions of dollars to help Trump

9:28

and Republicans four years ago. The headline

9:30

in Bloomberg quote, Timothy Mellon leads 2020

9:33

GOP donors, comma, defends use

9:36

of racial stereotypes. That

9:39

was four years ago. Now this year he's giving

9:41

even more. He has made

9:43

multi-million dollar donations to both Robert F.

9:46

Kennedy Jr. and to Trump in this

9:48

election. The accumulating nature

9:50

of his donations to Trump, in fact,

9:52

mark him as one of the largest

9:55

political donors in U.S. history at this

9:57

point. And

10:00

this comes on the heels of

10:02

high profile gazillion dollar fundraisers for

10:04

Trump hosted by right wing tech

10:06

billionaires in California. And

10:09

of course, it comes on the

10:11

heels of months of high profile

10:13

Trump support from from Tesla billionaire

10:15

Elon Musk, who used

10:17

to be thought of as a quirky

10:19

business billionaire as an eccentric inventor type.

10:22

But now he's basically this guy.

10:25

If this guy also had the resources to

10:28

buy Twitter and then destroy it while also

10:30

inexplicably being allowed by the US government to

10:32

operate crucial national security assets that he has

10:34

used to help Russia's war against Ukraine. So

10:39

this has been getting outsized attention in

10:41

part because of the extremist beliefs of

10:43

some of these very, very, very rich

10:46

people who are now making a big

10:48

show out of supporting Donald Trump. But

10:51

it's also getting outsized attention because it's

10:53

one of the few metrics we have

10:56

to assess the relative strength of these

10:58

two candidates and their campaigns as they

11:00

head into this very early, very weird

11:02

first debate this week. It's

11:06

also getting attention, though, the preferences

11:10

of the business class and the

11:13

donor donation behavior of the

11:15

the uber wealthy is getting

11:18

attention also right now, not just because of

11:21

its effect on sort of the odds in the

11:23

race, the the likelihood of each of these candidates

11:25

to win. I think it's

11:27

also getting attention because of the substance of

11:30

it, because on what

11:32

basis are these business folks and these

11:34

very, very, very rich people

11:36

making these decisions? Because

11:39

the Biden record and the Trump record

11:41

are real things that business people can

11:43

look at and presumably make rational decisions

11:45

about if they are in fact making

11:47

decisions about this election for economic and

11:49

business reasons, which is what the press

11:51

keeps telling us. Right,

11:54

we have an incumbent president and somebody who

11:56

was the last president, so they both have

11:59

a term in the book. office that we

12:01

can look at,

12:03

that we can measure against one

12:05

another. But they've both got observable records.

12:09

Why would business people be turning against Joe Biden

12:11

on the basis of his record, which is what

12:13

we keep being told in the press heading into

12:16

this debate? I

12:18

mean, this is something where there, again, is

12:20

an observable truth here. Under

12:22

Joe Biden, we just had the best year

12:24

of American job creation in the 21st century.

12:28

The last time we had a streak this long of

12:30

unemployment below 4%, it was the early 1960s. Under

12:35

Joe Biden, the U.S. has the

12:37

best economy in the world, literally

12:40

the envy of the world. In

12:43

fact, the World Bank just said that

12:45

the U.S. economy is so good, it's

12:47

actually stabilizing the whole world economy. The

12:50

U.S. stock market keeps hitting new records and then

12:52

breaking those records and then hitting new ones that

12:55

are even higher. Time

12:57

is at 50-year lows. We just have

13:00

the largest single-year drop in the murder rate

13:02

that we have ever recorded. And

13:05

President Biden keeps passing, keeps signing big

13:07

legislation that's good for the economy, that's

13:09

good for the business climate. And he

13:11

has been able to do it, miracle

13:13

of all miracles, with bipartisan

13:16

support. And that includes the big

13:18

infrastructure bill and domestic manufacturing of

13:20

computer trips and all of these

13:22

other things. I

13:25

mean, this is the

13:28

kind of business landscape hellscape business

13:30

leaders have been suffering through under

13:32

Joe Biden. Headlines like

13:34

these, corporate profits hit record high

13:36

as economy boomed in fourth quarter

13:38

of 2023. Or this

13:41

one, U.S. corporate profits soar with

13:43

margins at widest since 1950. Or

13:46

this one, Money Watch, U.S. companies

13:48

just had their best years since

13:50

before most of us

13:52

were born. Oh,

13:55

the poor business guys. They really need Trump

13:57

back, don't they? And

14:01

even if they want to say, oh, it's not

14:03

about the business climate, it's about being fiscally responsible,

14:05

it's just that we're so worried about the debt

14:07

and the deficit and that's why we want to

14:09

go back to Trump and get rid of Joe

14:11

Biden. I mean, tell me what the

14:13

rationale is there in

14:16

reality. Tell me what the rationale is because

14:19

the Committee for a Responsible Federal

14:21

Budget, one of these nonpartisan fiscal

14:23

watchdog groups, put this

14:25

out today, which kind of puts a fine

14:27

point on it. That's

14:29

who added what to the debt when

14:32

you compare Trump's term in office with Joe

14:34

Biden's term in office. And no, you can't

14:37

blame COVID. They actually break out the COVID

14:39

spending. That's the bit in the lighter red

14:41

color there. So yes, Donald

14:43

Trump and Joe Biden both spent on

14:45

the pandemic. They had to,

14:47

but even if you wipe that out,

14:49

Trump added trillions more to the debt

14:51

and the deficit than Biden did, regardless

14:54

of COVID. And

14:57

maybe you don't particularly care about the deficit

14:59

and the debt, but business guys almost always

15:01

say they do. And

15:04

so what's the rationale along those lines

15:06

for supporting Trump over Biden? As

15:11

we head into this weird early debate this week,

15:14

supporters of this

15:16

business genius created

15:19

an impression that Trump's gotten advantage of

15:21

heading into the debate at this point

15:23

in the campaign because his business record,

15:26

right? He's so appealing to all the

15:28

other rich business guys who so appreciate

15:30

how smart you need to be to

15:32

book a guy with vampire teeth for

15:34

your cage match business. They

15:37

are trying to create an impression that

15:40

there is support for Trump in the

15:42

business world because there's economic

15:44

and business reasons to support someone who

15:46

himself is so good at business. In

15:49

reality, the actual stakes in this election,

15:51

the comparative record of these two candidates

15:54

on the economy and business, those, it does. in

16:00

favor of the failed promoter of

16:02

the Affliction Mixed Martial Arts League,

16:04

which promoted exactly two bouts before

16:06

it folded. And the

16:09

man whose surviving company was convicted on

16:11

multiple felony fraud counts and was named

16:13

in his own felony criminal trial for

16:15

falsification of business records, and by the

16:17

way, his CFO is currently doing his

16:19

second stint in prison. Weirdly,

16:22

his business record, his business environment

16:25

record, his job creation record, his

16:27

economic and fiscal record on

16:30

the facts, doesn't

16:32

support the idea that he should be winning

16:34

support from people who prioritize those things. Despite

16:38

the massive spin generated by

16:41

all these high profile, ideological,

16:43

Trumpy billionaires, we're

16:46

starting now, finally, as of today, I

16:48

think, to see a corrective in that

16:50

narrative about what's really happening. This

16:52

is the front page of the New York Times

16:55

tonight. Quote, CEOs are frustrated. That

16:57

doesn't mean they that

16:59

doesn't mean they embrace Trump. Quote, a

17:01

number of prominent figures in Silicon Valley

17:03

and on Wall Street have grown increasingly

17:05

vocal in their criticism of Mr. Biden,

17:07

their praise of former President Donald J.

17:10

Trump, or both. Still,

17:12

that shift mostly reflects

17:14

movement among executives who

17:16

already supported Republican politicians.

17:19

Quote, there is little evidence of a

17:21

major shift in allegiance among executives

17:23

away from Biden and toward Trump.

17:27

It's on the front page. This is on the

17:29

op-ed page today. Quote, recent headlines suggest that

17:32

our nation's business leaders are embracing

17:34

the presidential candidate, Donald Trump. His

17:36

campaign would have you believe that

17:38

our nation's top chief executives are

17:40

returning to support Trump for president,

17:42

touting declarations of support from some

17:44

prominent financiers. It

17:47

is far from the truth, though. They

17:49

didn't flock to him before, and they

17:51

certainly aren't flocking to him now. Quote,

17:53

Trump continues to suffer from the lowest

17:55

level of corporate support in the history

17:57

of the Republican Party. Quote, not a

17:59

single. Fortune 100 chief executive has

18:01

donated to Trump so far this

18:03

year, which indicates a major break

18:05

from the overwhelming business and executive

18:08

support for Republican presidential candidates that

18:10

dates back over a century. Trump

18:12

received a quote, frigid reception when he

18:15

spoke to the Business Roundtable this

18:17

month with no noticeable applause at

18:19

any point during his quote,

18:21

remarkably meandering remarks, according

18:24

to CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin. And

18:26

with Trump assuming a subdued, if

18:28

not hostile posture, chief

18:30

executives are not protectionist, isolationist

18:33

or xenophobic, and they believe

18:35

in investing where there is the rule

18:37

of law, not the law of

18:39

rulers. Whether

18:43

or not business support is going to make

18:45

the difference for either one of these candidates

18:47

in November. Heading into

18:49

this debate this week, there has been

18:51

a concerted effort to create a perception,

18:53

a false perception, that Trump has the

18:55

whole business world lining up behind him.

18:59

And that's because his time in

19:01

office compared favorably with President Biden,

19:04

which is not true on fiscal issues. It is not

19:06

true in the overall business climate. It is not true

19:09

on jobs. And it is not

19:11

true in terms of business leaders lining up

19:13

behind these two candidates. But

19:15

that kind of false perception itself has political

19:17

consequences. And heading into this debate and all

19:19

the attention it's going to get about the

19:21

well of the relative strengths of these two

19:24

candidates and what they have to offer, more

19:26

than ever, it is worth

19:31

getting these things right. Joining

19:33

us now is my dear friend and

19:36

colleague, Stephanie Ruhl. She's host to the

19:38

11th Hour here at MSNBC. She's a

19:40

senior business analyst for NBC News. She

19:42

is joining us live from beautiful Aspen,

19:44

Colorado, because of course she is, because

19:46

she's speaking at the Aspen Ideas Festival,

19:48

which is a gathering of highfalutin leaders

19:50

and thinkers from all over the world.

19:52

Full disclosure, I ask Steph to

19:54

be here tonight because she is the only person I

19:56

know who speaks to CEOs.

20:00

Stephanie Ruhl, thank you so much for totally

20:02

screwing up your show prep schedule and being here

20:04

tonight. I know it's a really busy night for you Thank

20:07

you for having me. I'm in awe

20:09

of your lead-in You have laid out

20:11

exactly the sort of economic landscape of

20:13

what we're looking like here And one

20:16

of the main reasons you're seeing sort

20:18

of this Trump narrative that all these

20:20

business leaders are backing me because remember

20:22

the number one thing they want to

20:24

try to push and convince people of

20:26

is that the Economy is terrible and

20:29

while inflation is a persistent problem Business

20:31

leaders are not standing with Donald

20:34

Trump and that business roundtable meeting

20:36

It's really important for our audience

20:38

to understand Trump would have

20:40

you believe Corporate America invited me

20:42

in they wanted me to speak to them

20:45

It was their normal meeting that they

20:47

have every year and they invited both

20:49

candidates President Biden could not attend because

20:51

he was because he was at the

20:53

g7 and his chief of staff Jeff

20:56

Zients was there and Donald Trump has

20:58

said since then they were clapping for

21:01

me at the end they were because

21:03

it was at the end of a

21:05

presidential candidate's remarks and that is what

21:07

a room does who's Marginally courteous, but

21:09

you just mentioned the reporting from Andrew

21:12

Ross Orkin I spoke to other people

21:14

who basically said this thing was all

21:16

over the place and it is a

21:18

break Pre Donald Trump the

21:20

business community sort of the

21:22

C-suite class was with the

21:24

Republican Party You remember that

21:27

Al Smith dinner years ago when George

21:29

H.W. Bush kind of jokingly Looked out

21:31

at the room of business leaders in

21:33

New York and said you're my base.

21:35

That's not the case anymore It

21:37

was after Charlottesville You saw the

21:39

first business counsel in in American

21:41

history break from a president and

21:43

say I can't even be associated

21:46

with him anymore Steph

21:48

one of the reasons that I think this is

21:51

important heading into the debate is because I'm

21:53

not a person who knows a ton about the

21:55

business world I definitely don't think of myself as

21:57

sharing all the same values as as CEOs and

22:00

people on Wall Street and people who

22:02

think of, you know, who read the

22:04

business section first and maybe don't even

22:06

read the politics page. I don't think

22:08

of myself that way, but I also

22:10

know politics reasonably well. And I feel

22:12

like the perceptions of who the business

22:14

community is with is an

22:16

important thing even for people who aren't themselves

22:18

in the business world, right? Because you start

22:20

to think, oh, well, these business people are

22:22

smart. They must know who's going to be

22:25

economically better for the country. And

22:27

that's, I believe, why they're trying to create this perception.

22:29

And that's why it's important for us to report

22:31

if that perception is false. Rachel,

22:34

it's especially important this year because we've

22:36

had this division, right? All of the

22:38

positive economic data that you just laid

22:40

out is disconnected from how

22:43

people feel because people haven't been feeling

22:45

good about the economy because they're coming

22:47

off of COVID because of persistent inflation.

22:50

So when you keep pushing this narrative that the

22:52

business community is standing with Donald Trump, it

22:55

convinces people, well, maybe bad news is coming,

22:57

but here's what's important. There

22:59

is sort of a subgroup of sort

23:02

of very, very successful Wall Street

23:04

financiers. There's Elon Musk

23:06

and kind of Elon Musk backup dancers

23:08

who have been very pro and outspoken

23:10

Trump, pro Trump in the last

23:13

few weeks. And I want to explain why. They

23:15

know how good the economy is. Elon

23:17

Musk and all that Joe Biden has

23:19

done for electric vehicles, he certainly knows

23:21

how good the economy is. He knows

23:23

how good the stock market is. However,

23:26

they know that Donald Trump is

23:28

transactional. They know that if they

23:30

stand with Donald Trump now, if they're throwing

23:32

fundraisers for him, that if in fact he

23:34

becomes the president, they're gonna have

23:37

a direct line into the Oval Office.

23:39

So it's as though they're trying to

23:41

recreate kind of a Putin's oligarchs here.

23:43

If they help Trump now, he will take their

23:45

call and give them the quote unquote, get out

23:48

of jail free pass six months from now. Now

23:50

that is not the Fortune 100 CEOs out there

23:53

that have all of these constituents, but

23:55

this small Wall Street universe, the Nelson

23:58

pelts, the Bill Ackmans of the. They're

24:00

putting on the Trump Show because they would love to

24:02

have his kind of power and him in their back

24:04

pocket if he were to Win yeah,

24:07

and the problem with a transactional Leader

24:10

like that with that form of corruption is that

24:12

yeah You may get what you want when you've

24:14

thrown the last Fundraiser when

24:16

you've given him the last million dollars

24:18

But then somebody else comes along gives him

24:21

two million dollars or does a bigger fundraiser

24:23

for him and because it's totally transactional You

24:26

have no legitimate principled buy-in on

24:28

anything It's just who's willing to

24:30

pay for it most recently and

24:32

in largest to the largest effect

24:34

That's why the rule of law usually is a better

24:36

idea for the business world than the

24:38

law of rulers Certainly in the medium term

24:41

and certainly in the long term Steph

24:43

roll. Thank you so much. I know that I'm screwing up

24:45

your show. Thank you for joining me for mass ban I

24:47

appreciate it. My friend. Thanks. Thank you All

24:51

right. We've got much more to come tonight We've

24:53

got a hugely busy week this week with all

24:55

sorts of stuff screwing up my calendar

24:57

and yours We're gonna talk about that coming up.

25:00

Stay with us Today

25:03

and every day planned parenthood is committed

25:06

to ensuring that everyone has the information

25:08

and resources They need to make their

25:10

own decisions about their bodies including abortion

25:12

care Lawmakers who oppose abortion

25:14

are attacking planned parenthood which means affordable

25:17

high quality basic health care for more

25:19

than two million people Is at stake

25:21

the right to control our bodies and

25:23

get the health care we need has

25:25

been stolen from us and now Politicians

25:28

in nearly every state have introduced bills

25:30

that would block people from getting the

25:32

sexual and reproductive care They need planned

25:34

parenthood believes everyone deserves health care. It's

25:36

a human right That's why

25:38

they fight every day to push for common-sense

25:41

policies that protect our right to control our

25:43

own bodies and against Policies that

25:45

interfere with decisions between patients and

25:47

their doctor planned parenthood needs

25:50

your support now more than ever With

25:52

supporters like you we can reclaim our

25:55

rights and protect and expand access to

25:57

abortion care visit planned parenthood org future.

26:00

That's Planned parenthood.org/future.

26:07

All right, get your calendars out. Cancel

26:10

all the plans you kind of wanted to cancel

26:12

anyway, but you didn't have a good excuse. Now

26:14

you have a good excuse because I'm

26:16

here to tell you that the rest of this week

26:18

is going to be bananas. First

26:21

of all, tomorrow is election day in

26:23

New York, Utah, Colorado and

26:25

South Carolina. This is going to be one

26:27

of the most interesting, most consequential,

26:29

most newsworthy primary and election days

26:31

we've had all this year. In

26:34

New York, there's that very high profile

26:37

race where Democratic Congressman Jamal Bowman

26:39

is being primaried by a challenger

26:41

named George Latimer. That race is

26:43

now officially the most expensive house

26:45

primary race in American history, nearly

26:48

$25 million spent on

26:50

political ads in that race. In

26:52

Utah, it's a US Senate primary. This

26:55

is the seat that's being vacated by

26:57

retiring Senator Mitt Romney. Republican voters will

26:59

get to pick their nominee for that

27:02

seat. Longtime Republican Utah Congressman John Curtis

27:04

is supposed to be the favorite

27:06

to win that race, but he has had to

27:08

fight to even get his name on the ballot

27:10

to keep his name on the ballot after he

27:13

lost his party's official

27:15

convention endorsement to

27:17

a Trump backed MAGA candidate instead.

27:20

In South Carolina,

27:22

tomorrow Republicans are going to vote in

27:24

a runoff election to choose between a

27:26

candidate named Sherri Biggs, who

27:28

has the backing of South Carolina's Republican

27:31

governor. It'll be her or a televangelist

27:34

named Mark Burns, who is backed by

27:36

Donald Trump, who

27:38

incidentally has said that he

27:40

wants to execute public school

27:42

teachers for treason. That's nice. All

27:46

of that is just what's happening tomorrow.

27:48

Then the day after tomorrow on Wednesday,

27:50

we enter a whole new kind of

27:52

crazy because Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, all

27:54

three of those days, the Supreme Court

27:57

of the United States is scheduled

27:59

to hand down more. decisions and they

28:01

have a ton left including

28:03

another really big important very

28:05

consequential reproductive rights decision.

28:09

They've got a huge decision dealing with the

28:11

government's fundamental ability to regulate things everything

28:13

from the food we eat to the

28:15

air we breathe. That's not even counting

28:17

the long delayed decision which we are

28:19

still waiting for in the

28:22

outrageous Donald Trump immunity from

28:24

the law case. We

28:26

could get any or all of those

28:28

between Wednesday and Friday. And

28:31

then on Thursday right in the middle of

28:33

all that there is this presidential debate which

28:35

is bizarre. This is the earliest presidential debate

28:37

in modern history. It is so weird that

28:39

this is happening five months before

28:41

the election in June but hey why

28:43

not. That

28:46

debate is going to be hosted by our friends at

28:48

CNN but this is important. Even

28:50

though it's being hosted by CNN it's

28:52

going to air live on all the

28:54

networks including this one. So

28:56

yes hosted by CNN you'll see CNN

28:58

hosts as moderators but you

29:00

can watch the whole thing here live

29:02

in real time with us

29:05

on MSNBC. I will be here with

29:07

the whole MSNBC team for live special

29:09

coverage both before and after that debate.

29:11

Our coverage is going to start 7

29:14

p.m. on Thursday. Again you're going

29:16

to be able to watch this anywhere on all

29:18

the networks. We hope that you'll watch it with

29:20

us. We promise to I don't

29:23

know if we'll make it fun. We'll at least make

29:25

it our own MSNBC brand of weird. I

29:29

also have one other big announcement to add to

29:31

that. Today MSNBC has just announced a

29:33

new live event and

29:36

we have never really done anything like this before but we

29:38

are giving it a try sort of by popular

29:40

demand. It's a live

29:42

event. You can buy tickets. You can come to

29:44

it in person. It's not going to be on

29:46

TV. It's just an in-person event. It's going to

29:48

include a whole bunch of MSNBC hosts including me.

29:51

It's called MSNBC live democracy

29:53

2024. It's going to happen

29:56

on September 7th, Saturday September 7th.

30:00

in Brooklyn, New York. We're all gonna be there. It's

30:02

a whole day long event. You're gonna be able to

30:04

see all of us and also see

30:06

the premiere of an MSNBC movie that we're not

30:08

saying anything about yet, or it's gonna premiere at

30:10

that event. Anyway, if you wanna

30:12

meet all of us Goobers in person, you can buy

30:15

tickets for this event. It's a live event. The tickets

30:17

just went on sale today. We've never done anything like

30:19

this before. Tickets are

30:21

on sale at msnbc.com/

30:24

democracy2024. I

30:27

told you, it's a lot. If

30:29

you wanna cancel stuff that you didn't wanna do anyway, blame

30:31

me. I'll send you a doctor's note. We'll

30:34

be right back. Hey

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at ashley.com. Ashley, for the love of

31:38

home. It

31:42

started in Kansas. Less than two months

31:45

after the Supreme Court overturned Roe, after they

31:47

overturned the constitutional right to an abortion, voters

31:50

in red, red, red state Kansas

31:52

resoundingly stood up for abortion rights

31:55

in their state. 59%

31:57

of Kansans voting that abortion

31:59

rights abortion should stay legal in

32:01

that state. A few weeks

32:03

later, Democrats won a special election for an

32:05

open congressional seat in a swing district in

32:08

upstate New York with a candidate who made

32:10

the loss of abortion rights the centerpiece of

32:12

his campaign. A week after

32:14

that, in Alaska, another Democrat won another

32:17

special election in the House, this time

32:19

flipping a seat from red to blue,

32:22

also running on a pro-abortion

32:24

rights platform. I should

32:26

mention, only 12% of Alaska

32:28

voters are Democrats. But the

32:30

Democrat won that seat. Then

32:33

a few months later, in November 2022, we

32:35

had the first big nationwide elections

32:37

since they overturned Roe. And

32:40

more Democrats ran aggressive campaigns focused

32:42

on reproductive rights. And in

32:44

those elections in November 2022, Republicans

32:47

suffered historically poor results, the

32:49

worst for an opposition party

32:51

in decades. Beyond

32:54

the congressional races that day, there

32:56

were five more states that put

32:58

abortion directly on the ballot. And

33:00

in all five of those states,

33:02

voters moved toward abortion rights

33:05

and away from abortion restrictions.

33:08

The reproductive rights victories continued the

33:10

following year, affecting the

33:12

race for a seat on the Wisconsin

33:15

Supreme Court, and

33:19

the race for the Kentucky governorship, and the race

33:21

for control of the legislature in Virginia.

33:25

Also, the state constitution in Ohio,

33:28

where voters chose to enshrine the right

33:30

to have an abortion in the

33:32

Ohio State Constitution. Since

33:36

the fall of Roe two years ago today,

33:39

the political impact has been indelible

33:41

and stark and remarkably consistent.

33:45

And that has been bolstered by what

33:47

the overturning of Roe has changed in

33:49

the minds of the American people. It's

33:53

a new understanding that the question of

33:55

reproductive rights is not just about

33:57

accessing abortion, it is about what happens.

33:59

happens if you have a

34:02

miscarriage or you go into septic shock

34:04

during pregnancy or you have any other

34:06

dangerous form of complication and you can't

34:09

access healthcare because the state you live

34:11

in has banned abortion. One

34:14

pollster telling the New York Times today that

34:16

before Roe fell, the percentage of the public

34:18

that considered abortion personally relevant to them was

34:20

as low as about 15 percent. But

34:23

in the post Roe landscape that we

34:26

live in now, that has changed. Her

34:28

more recent polling asked independent voters about

34:30

the stories of women almost dying because

34:32

they live in states that have banned

34:34

abortion. Of independent voters she

34:36

polled who support abortion rights, the number who

34:39

said those stories will affect how they will

34:41

vote in upcoming elections is

34:43

73 percent. The pollster

34:45

tells the New York Times, quote, now

34:47

it's about pregnancy and everybody

34:50

knows someone who had a baby or wants to

34:52

have a baby or might get pregnant.

34:54

It is profoundly personal to a

34:56

majority of the public. Joining

35:00

us now is Amy Klobuchar, Democratic senator from

35:02

the great state of Minnesota. She's a member of the

35:04

Judiciary Committee. Senator Klobuchar, it's really nice to

35:06

see you. Thank you so much for making time to be here. Thanks

35:10

Rachel, it's great to be on again. So

35:13

today is the two year anniversary

35:15

since Roe was overturned. We know

35:17

a lot about the human cost.

35:20

We know about, for example, new

35:23

research just published in the Journal of

35:25

the American Medical Association, which says that

35:28

it has adversely and seriously

35:30

affected infant mortality in that

35:32

state with its profound abortion

35:34

ban. What

35:36

do you think is most important for the American

35:38

public to understand on this two year anniversary since

35:40

the decision was made for the country? I

35:44

think everyone remembers where they were

35:46

when this thought to

35:48

be leaked opinion was you found out it

35:50

was a real opinion. I was at the

35:52

getting my hair cut and there was a

35:54

line of four women at the hairdressers and

35:57

everyone in the place said that just can't be

35:59

true. And two years later,

36:01

oh, we know how true it is. 50

36:04

years of freedom's just thrown out

36:06

the window. You've got IVF affected.

36:08

Eight million babies were born that

36:10

way. You've got contraception affected. You

36:12

have got a doctor's

36:14

in fear of criminal prosecution.

36:17

You've got women bleeding out in parking

36:19

lots because they are told in an

36:21

emergency room, hey, you gotta be more

36:23

serious. We know you're in bad health,

36:25

but we've gotta be kinda near death

36:27

to be able to get the kinda

36:29

treatment you need. One in

36:31

three women are now living in a state

36:34

with an extreme abortion ban. That

36:36

is our current reality, Rachel, but it

36:38

does not have to be our future.

36:41

And that's what you see in these

36:43

states all across the country with people

36:45

turning out and the prairies, people

36:47

turning out for referendums and for governors

36:50

races and US Senate races and of

36:52

course the presidency. Because it is

36:54

so clear, and you're gonna hear this on that

36:57

debate stage, when one

36:59

of the candidates, Donald Trump said he

37:01

is proud to be the person responsible

37:03

for overturning Roe, and

37:05

then you've got Joe Biden vowing

37:07

to codify Roe v. Wade into law

37:10

so long as we elect these candidates

37:12

and we know we need to take

37:14

back the House and win these Senate

37:16

races. That is what is at stake

37:18

in this election. I

37:21

think that a lot of people who

37:23

are strongly for abortion rights, whether they

37:25

were before this decision or they newly

37:27

are strongly for abortion rights,

37:29

worry that this is something that the

37:32

Supreme Court has taken on, that

37:34

Republican legislatures have taken on,

37:36

and they've effectively taken it out of the

37:38

hands of somebody like Joe

37:40

Biden who supports abortion rights, that when he

37:43

talks about codifying Roe v. Wade, I'm not

37:45

sure people know what that means in

37:47

terms of what it would do in all

37:49

of these states where state laws, where Republican

37:52

legislators and Republican governors have enforced these bans.

37:55

Well, we know it is time to have

37:58

a national statement. standard, which

38:00

is Roe v. Wade. That will

38:02

guarantee our freedoms, because what Trump has now

38:05

said is that he wants

38:07

to return it to the states. What does that mean? Look

38:09

at what these states are doing.

38:11

One state, Texas, with that Trump-appointed

38:13

judge—and, yes, the judges are on

38:16

the line here—the Trump-appointed judge banning

38:18

Mifapristo. You've got another state

38:20

where they're going to criminally prosecute doctors,

38:22

another state so they don't want

38:24

to have people cross lines to

38:26

get their reproductive healthcare. State

38:29

by state by state, you saw governors

38:31

racing to their statehouse to see how

38:33

draconian they could be to kiss the

38:35

ring of Donald Trump. That

38:37

is what is going on right now.

38:39

So that is a clear difference. I

38:41

think, as you show with your proof

38:43

points from across the country, people do

38:46

see the difference. They know

38:48

that there is one person who's going to stand

38:50

up for them, and then there's Donald Trump, who

38:52

has vowed over the years

38:55

everything he has said from, yes,

38:57

he'd prosecute doctors

38:59

to, yes, he would look at a

39:01

national ban to, yes, most recently, hey,

39:03

let's give it back to the states.

39:06

Look at the patchwork of laws that we have

39:08

had that have hurt the women of this country.

39:12

Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, thank you so

39:14

much for your time tonight. It's the

39:16

anniversary now, but we're also in this

39:19

very, very, very acute political moment. I

39:21

think people are really focusing in on how much this

39:23

is tied to what happens next, these

39:25

next political decisions we make as a country.

39:27

Thanks for helping us understand it. Exactly. Thanks,

39:31

Rachel. All right. We'll be right

39:33

back. Stay with us. The

39:38

Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana

39:40

Islands. It's a territory

39:42

of the United States, but it is very,

39:44

very, very, very far from the mainland US.

39:48

I think we can show you on a map here. This

39:50

is the United States. You see over there

39:52

on the right side of the map. That's the Pacific Coast

39:55

side of the American mainland. You

39:57

see the state of Hawaii way out there in the

40:00

Pacific. ocean and then way, way, way, way,

40:02

way, way, way, way, way further out in the Pacific

40:04

from Hawaii, you find the Northern Mariana Islands.

40:06

They are way out there. They are

40:09

way closer to, say, Australia than they

40:11

are to the United States. And

40:14

that's important. That proximity plays a crucial part

40:16

in a big story that just broke this

40:18

evening as we were getting on the air.

40:21

Because at 9 a.m. Wednesday morning, local

40:24

time in the Northern Mariana Islands in

40:26

a U.S. federal courthouse in the capital

40:28

of Saipan, Julian

40:31

Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks,

40:33

is expected to appear and to

40:36

plead guilty to a single felony

40:38

count of illegally obtaining and disclosing

40:40

national security material. And

40:42

the really huge news here is that after

40:45

he pleads guilty in that federal courthouse in

40:47

the Northern Mariana Islands, after

40:49

he pleads guilty there, he will be

40:52

allowed to fly home to his native

40:54

Australia as a free man. For

40:57

the last five years, Julian Assange has been

40:59

in prison in Britain. He

41:01

has been fighting attempts to extradite him

41:03

to the United States to stand trial

41:05

on more than a dozen charges that

41:08

he illegally obtained and disseminated classified information

41:10

on his WikiLeaks website. Even

41:12

once he and the United States Department

41:14

of Justice reached an agreement under which he

41:17

would plead guilty to one count, essentially be

41:19

sentenced to time served and released from prison

41:21

in Britain, there was still one last hang

41:23

up that needed to be sorted out. Defendants,

41:26

if they're going to plead guilty to

41:28

a felony, they have to do it

41:31

in person. Julian Assange has always adamantly

41:33

refused to set foot in the mainland

41:35

United States. And

41:37

so that's where this compromise came from. The

41:41

Northern Mariana Islands, that is where he

41:43

will enter his plea. Julian

41:46

Assange first made a name for

41:48

himself, leaking volumes of classified information

41:51

on America's wars in Afghanistan and

41:53

Iraq through the site WikiLeaks. He

41:56

then in 2016. leaked

42:00

material the Russian intelligence

42:02

services had hacked from the Democratic party.

42:06

Russian military intelligence stole the

42:08

material, then they used

42:10

WikiLeaks. They disseminated the material through

42:12

WikiLeaks in a specific effort to

42:15

hurt Hillary Clinton's campaign and help

42:17

Donald Trump's campaign. Donald

42:19

Trump, you will remember, happily accepted the

42:21

help. He cited WikiLeaks nearly 150 times

42:23

during the campaign, at

42:26

one point just flat out crowing, I

42:29

love WikiLeaks. Three

42:31

years later, when Trump's Justice Department indicted

42:33

Julian Assange, Trump claimed that he knew

42:35

nothing about this organization. The

42:39

Biden administration is the third U.S.

42:41

administration to try to figure out what to do with

42:43

Julian Assange. The Obama Justice Department

42:46

ultimately decided that the First Amendment

42:48

issues were basically

42:50

too thorny. When the Trump Justice

42:52

Department indicted Assange in 2019, many

42:54

people feared it would have a

42:56

chilling effect on the ability of

42:58

journalists to report on national security

43:00

and classified information. That

43:03

said, lots of other people argued that what Julian

43:05

Assange was doing was something other than

43:07

journalism. But when it

43:09

came to the Biden administration, it seems, they just wanted

43:11

to figure out a way to put this case to

43:13

bed and they have figured something

43:16

out. And so on Wednesday, in a

43:18

very unlikely spot in the middle of

43:20

the Pacific, the long

43:22

saga of Julian Assange versus the

43:24

United States and the United States

43:26

versus Julian Assange looks like it

43:28

is set to come to an end. At

43:31

least that's what it looks like from here. But

43:34

watch this space. Wanna

43:41

see me screw something up? It's

43:43

on tape. All right, look at this. On

43:46

the left side of the screen there,

43:48

that's supervising producer Kelsey Desiderio, who is

43:50

a genius of everything we

43:52

do, the regular show and special coverage

43:54

and podcasts and everything. Kelsey's fantastic. On

43:57

the right, the person whose face you cannot see and

43:59

the... dumpy gray sweatshirt, that's

44:01

me. And I am trying

44:04

to record the latest episode of

44:06

Rachel Manto Presents Ultra, and I'm

44:08

not doing all that well at it. Podcasts

44:11

are very humbling. They are more difficult than you

44:13

would think, at least they are for me. Fortunately,

44:16

Kelsey and I had help that day

44:19

from Orzo, who is

44:21

a cat. But

44:25

then, while they were mulling the

44:27

desperation of their circumstances in Landsberg

44:29

Prison, they got a bit

44:31

of, they got some good news. A

44:34

new lawyer. But

44:38

then, while they were mulling

44:40

the desperation of their circumstances in

44:42

Landsberg Prison, they got

44:44

some good news. A new

44:46

lawyer who wanted to try to

44:49

reopen their case. It's

44:52

no wonder Orzo the cat came over

44:54

to help. I don't think this

44:56

was photo bombing by cat. I think this was

44:58

encouragement by cat. I think this was get it

45:00

right, Maddow. Come on, spit it out. You can

45:02

do it. Spit it out. How many

45:04

times you're going to restart this sentence? Thanks

45:07

to Kelsey and the rest of the

45:09

podcast team, and most definitely Orzo, the

45:11

producer cat, episode three of Ultra was

45:14

finally spat out by me. It is

45:16

available now for free wherever you get

45:18

your podcast. There's eight episodes of the

45:20

podcast altogether. This is three. It is

45:22

a banger episode. If I don't say

45:24

so myself, you can take

45:26

it from me or you can take it from producer

45:28

cat Orzo, who is a very, very good boy.

45:31

All right, that does it for us tonight. Hey,

45:33

parents, Greenlight is here to take one

45:35

big thing off your to-do list, teaching

45:37

your kids about money. With

45:39

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45:42

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