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Reid: “Let me show you the — this is one of the reasons that people have this sort of thinking. Here’s the three cable networks reporting on this. Our banner said, ‘Soon Biden announces legal protections for undocumented spouses of citizens.’ CNN’s banner said, ‘Biden announces new protections for some undocumented spouses.’ Here’s FOX’s banner: ‘Migrant arrested for raping 13-year-old New York City girl.’” Jayapal: “(Laughs) Yes.” Reid: “So I think that’s part of the problem, right, is that you have a lot of fear-mongering.” Jayapal: “Exactly. And we know that when people have economic insecurity, when they’re facing high childcare costs, when they’re facing high housing costs, they are concerned for themselves. So anybody who comes into a space of that economic insecurity and says, ‘Hey, you know, why are these people getting something that you’re not getting,’ it does turn people against those people, whether they agree or don’t agree that they have — that they’re helping the country. I mean, the economics of immigration are absolutely — you can’t argue with it. You know, we have brought in so much money through immigration, and the surge in immigration has already brought in so much money and will continue to do so.” Reid: “Absolutely. Without migrants, our economy would collapse.” Jayapal: “That’s right.” Reid: “We would have a recession immediately.” Jayapal: “Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, congratulations. The head of the Progressive Caucus getting some progressive stuff done through the White House.”

BAIER: “You know, senator, this is an evolution. And I know you have been asked about this before, about past comments that you have made about Donald Trump. You said, ‘I’m a never Trump guy.’ ‘Never liked him’. ‘Terrible candidate.’ ‘Idiot if you voted for him.’ ‘Might be America’s Hitler.’ ‘Might be a cynical a-hole.’ ‘Cultural heroin.’ ‘Noxious and reprehensible.’ Those are things that the left is going to come after you and they’ll probably put in ads should you be chosen as the VP pick. How do you deal with them now?” Vance: “Yeah, well, I think the simple answer is, you have got to respect the American people enough to just level with them. Look, I was wrong about Donald Trump. I didn’t think he was going to be a good president, Bret. He was a great president. It’s one of the reasons why I’m working so hard to make sure he gets a second term. I think you should, when you are wrong about something, you should change your mind and be honest with people about that fact. And I actually think, again, whether this is running as his running mate or running and supporting him as a United States senator, Bret, I think it actually presents a real opportunity to talk to the American people, because a lot of people didn’t think Trump was going to be a good president and a lot of people were happy to be proven wrong. And I think it presents an opportunity for me to make the case to the American people that, look, we have two very different sets of results: four years of Joe Biden, four years of Donald Trump. We know the Trump record is one of success, the Biden record is one of failure. I came around to Donald Trump and I think that a lot of Americans will do the exact same thing.”

BREED: “I’d like to ask Mark a question. You were at the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club and couldn’t name any LGBT advisers to your campaign. You were at the debate last week and couldn’t name any drag queens on your own. I was wondering if you could — this is an opportunity to redeem yourself, and if you could name three LGBTQ advisors for your campaign and three drag queens in San Francisco.” FARRELL: “So, we’re not gonna — we’re not gonna revise the drag queen question from last week. But what I will say is, I am incredibly of the support that I have from our LGBTQ+ community here in the San Francisco.” MODERATOR: [inaudible] FARRELL: “Thank you. I have a member — a former member of the board of supervisors, Jeff Sheehy, who’s a close friend and supporter of my campaign. I have a member of my staff — two members of my staff from the queer community here in the city of San Francisco that I won’t dignify [inaudible] by actually naming exactly who they are. But what I will do is stand by my record in supporting our queer community here in the city of San Francisco. When I was a member of the board of supervisors, as a straight white male, I was the one who authored legislation to make sure that same sex couples that work for the city of San Francisco, they will be taxed by a federal government for their health care benefits before same sex-marriage was legalized. I was the one who authored the legislation to make sure the city of San Francisco reimbursed the same-sex couples, so they are treated equally in the eyes of San Francisco residents, equally in the eyes of San Francisco City Hall. I will stand by my record of that and I look forward to the continued support from our queer community throughout the city of San Francisco. Thank you for that question.” MODERATOR: “[inaudible]. Mr. Lurie, your turn.” LURIE: “I’ll give you a softball, mayor. Three nonprofits that you have cut because they weren’t performing well.” BREED: “I feel bad about it. I feel bad. I don’t — I don’t know if — I don’t wanna throw some of these organizations under the bus.” LURIE: “No names.” BREED: “I will just say, sadly, one of the organizations was involved in some issues at the Bay View Hunters Point community. Another one tragically had done some inappropriate things with family shelter. And then unfortunately, there was one program that didn’t necessarily spend money appropriately to provide the appropriate tutor programs. It’s more than three, but, you know, I, just — I don’t wanna do that to these organizations. And let me just — matter of fact, let me just say, since I got like 90 seconds, you know, we have a lot of nonprofit organizations doing a lot of important work, and sadly, some of them had made some tremendous mistakes. It wasn’t as easy just to walk away from an organization that was responsible. For example, one of our family shelters. They had staff that was responsible for overseeing this project, but they did some things inappropriately so — and we had to make some adjustments with another nonprofit that was in good standing to make a transition. It’s not as simple as you can stop something from happening and throw these people under the bus. They have employees, there’s work that needs to be done in those transitions. And there’s more than three that we’ve had to cut funding for, and, in fact, right now, many of them are very upset and they’re going to the budget hearings to protest to get their money back. But, you know, I can probably provide you a list of examples. I just don’t wanna do it right here today.” MODERATOR: “Thank you, mayor.”

Biden: “We can both secure the border and provide a legal pathway to citizenship. But we have to acknowledge that the patience and goodwill of the American people is being tested by their fears at the border. They don’t understand a lot of it.”

Nixon: “Hello? Hi. I’m looking for Vanessa Sivadge.” UNKNOWN 1: “Okay. Yeah. Who are you? Can I see?” Nixon: “Paul Nixon, FBI.” UNKNOWN 1: “Okay.” Nixon: “This is Agent McBride, David McBride.” MCBRIDE: “Nice to meet you, sir.” Nixon: “[inaudible]” UNKNOWN 1: “Okay, alright.” UNKNOWN 2: “Hi.” Nixon: “Hi, how are you? She snuck up on you there. Are we interrupting dinner? I’m really sorry.” UNKNOWN 2: “That’s alright. What’s going on?” Nixon: “Let me start at the beginning. So, I’m sure you’re aware of some of the things have been going on at your work lately.” UNKNOWN 2: “With regards to?” Nixon: “Yeah. So, I got to ask that. Can I — can we sit down for a minute, let me do my song and dance —“

LEMIRE: “To follow that question, we now head into a moment where, because of that divisiveness, it’s become a political issue. Like, vaccinations in particular have become a political issue where you have not just Donald Trump but other Republicans saying, ‘No, no, don’t take theCovid vaccine.’ We had other prominent figures saying, no, you should not take other vaccines as well, for other things that have become standard, that everyone has received for decades.’ So with this much of disinformation and anger and just flat out vaccine hesitancy, how nervous are you about our ability to handle the next pandemic, whatever it might be?” Fauci: “I’m very concerned about that, because the misinformation and disinformation about absolutely scientifically proven life-saving interventions, it’s astonishing to me that so many people, by political ideology, will make a decision that would actually endanger their lives. I mean, the facts are — and as a physician and a scientist, this is very painful to me — that if you look at red states versus blue states, because of people getting less vaccinated, because you’re a Republican versus a Democrat, there are more deaths and hospitalizations in red states versus blue states. That’s horrible that that happens, that people suffer and die because of misinformation that’s related to a political ideology.”

HAWLEY: “Dr. Garry, you were part of this propaganda effort. I mean, you are right at the center of it. It’s astounding. You wrote this piece, this ‘Nature’ magazine piece or whatever it was that we’ve heard testimony here today. ‘Nature Medicine,’ March 17th, 2020. We’ve heard testimony here today from other scientists on the panel that it’s basically an opinion piece. You said at the time, that definitively SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct, is not a laboratory construct. Of course, our own government key agencies have concluded otherwise. And on the basis of this, Dr. Fauci and others cited this — this piece and went out to use it to mobilize our own government to censor people who asked questions about it. People lost their jobs because of this. They lost their jobs, they lost their standing, they were kicked off Facebook, they were kicked off Twitter. Do you regret being part of this effort, this propaganda effort?” GARRY: “Sir, I — I was — I was simply just writing a paper about our scientific opinions about where this virus came from.” HAWLEY: “Oh, no, you weren’t. You said in an email that we now have, that you tried to withhold that the we have, February 2nd 2020, you wrote, ‘I really can’t think of a plausible, natural scenario where you can get from the bat virus, or one very similar to it, to this.’ I’m quoting you, ‘I just can’t figure out how this gets accomplished in nature. It’s stunning.’ Of course, in the lab, it would be easy.”“ GARRY: “Of course. And I actually figured it out. That’s the whole point of that.” HAWLEY: “You figured it out. You — you wrote this while you were writing your propaganda piece, while you were writing the paper.” GARRY: “I wrote that somewhere around February 2nd.” HAWLEY: “Yeah, it was exactly February 2nd, and you’ve testified that you were writing your proximal origin paper in early February. So you’re saying that what? Did it come to you overnight?” GARRY: “There was new data that came —” HAWLEY: “Like a — a revelation from God.” GARRY: “No. [crosstalk]” HAWLEY: “Overnight, you concluded, I got it. I got it. I figured it out. I’ve figured it out. And now I can definitively rule out. It’s amazing. Is that what happened?” GARRY: “It’s just the scientific method —” HAWLEY: “Oh it’s just — oh it’s the scientific method that happened at lightning speed, and then was used to propagandize and lie to and shut down. As a scientist who’s supposed to follow facts, do you regret the fact that your work was used to censor your fellow scientists? It was used to censor ordinary Americans who ask questions about the virus. Do you — do you regret that?” GARRY: “Yeah. When — when you write a paper, I mean, you get it in the journal. We can’t control what happens after — [crosstalk]” HAWLEY: “Oh, I see. So you’re not responsible at all. This is — it’s amazing. Nobody who was involved in any of this is responsible. Never. They’re not responsible. People have lost their jobs.” GARRY: “Yeah.” HAWLEY: “People have lost probably their healthcare associated with their jobs. People have been run out of public, available and polite society. You can’t show your face because my gosh, you question —” GARRY: “Yeah.” HAWLEY: “— but you, you don’t have anything to do with it. Why have so many of your papers, your other papers been retracted or subjected to formal expressions of concern?” GARRY: “Yeah. Well —” HAWLEY: “Why is that?” GARRY: “— there — there’s a long story behind that. Those — those —” HAWLEY: “Four of them, right. I mean, you’ve — you’ve had in — in July 26th 2021, Virology retracted a paper of yours. Also in 2021, the Journal of General Virology retracted another of your papers. In March of 2022 an expression of concern was added by an editor of yet another journal to another of your papers. In April 4th of 2024 a third scientific paper of yours was retracted from the Journal of Medical Virology.” GARRY: “Yeah.” HAWLEY: “Is this normal?” GARRY: “Those papers didn’t come from my lab. But you know, I’m certainly helping —” HAWLEY: “They’re not yours?” GARRY: “They’re not mine. Yeah.” HAWLEY: “So — so your — your work is —” GARRY: “I’m on the paper but they did not come from my lab.” HAWLEY: “The work that — that God gave you and a flash of inspiration remains absolutely unimpeachable. Unimpeached.” GARRY: “We stand by that.” HAWLEY: “Do you stand by your — your assertion in your nature piece that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct? Could not be. [crosstalk]” GARRY: “We do. And that’s exactly the same —” HAWLEY: “Couldn’t possibly be.” GARRY: “— conclusion that the intelligence community came to.” HAWLEY: “Oh, no, that is a lie. Let’s stop right there. That is a lie. I have read the intelligence — the intelligence community did not come to that conclusion. Multiple intelligence community agents and components have concluded it was likely a lab leak. And they concluded that at the same time that you and your people were propagandizing the American public and using the channels and influence of the American government to censor ordinary Americans. That is the truth. I’m not going to sit here and allow you to lie any further.” GARRY: “I’m not —” HAWLEY: “Dr. Garry —” GARRY: “— I’m not lying, sir.” HAWLEY: “— you have disgracefully participated in shameful propaganda that has been one of the worst chapters in this country’s history with the government propagandizing its own people. And you know what? You may be right about the lab — I’m not a scientist, I don’t know. But what I do know is — what I do know is, it is wrong, it is wrong to censor and lie to the American public. It is wrong to withhold critical information from them. And it is wrong to countenance that and to say, ‘Oh, I just had nothing to do with it. Gee, I wish we could have done better.’ You should have done better, sir. You should have done better. And because you didn’t people have suffered. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.”

SCARBOROUGH: “Michael Steele, I disagree. They will have a chance. In fact, if you look at Donald Trump’s track record, and Donald Trump’s Republican Party, over the last seven years, they’re 0-7. So, yeah, maybe the Biden team’s gonna have to work harder, maybe the Democrats are gonna have to work harder. Maybe people who actually like American democracy will work harder, but they just have to work harder and get the word out that these people are lying. Not only is the RNC lying, but also mainstream media outlets are now all in on the lies.”

UNKNOWN PERSON 1: “What are you trying to do?” UNKNOWN PERSON 2: “Get the hell away from me!” UNKNOWN PERSON 1: “What are you trying to do, man? Get out of here! You’re a loser, get out of here! What’s wrong with you? Look at you! Look at you! Now you’re scared! Now you’re scared!” UNKNOWN PERSON 2: “Go!” UNKNOWN PERSON 1: “Leave! Leave! Oh, you’re smiling? Congratulations. Get out of here!” UNKNOWN PERSON 3: “Free Palestine!” UNKNOWN PERSON 1: “What do you — how do you free Palestine right now? All you’re doing is harassing people. Get out! Go! Leave! No one’s gonna do anything to you, just leave. Get out of here!” UNKNOWN PERSON 2: “Give me a big smile.” UNKNOWN PERSON: “Free Palestine.”

BRZEZINSKI: “Well, and also, I think when those on the right try and make it look like Biden is out of his mind, The Wall Street Journal does a front-page piece saying Biden is completely slipping and they don’t notice, at the very same time that they’re covering Biden in this way that is misleading, Donald Trump is on stage talking about sharks and batteries and really looks like he’s slipping.” SCARBOROUGH: “Yeah. Well, I think, Jonathan Lemire, the thing that is so — so — I don’t know if ‘surprising’ is the right word, but I’ll just say, so concerning in the middle of a presidential election is, it’s a tabloid, I understand it’s a tabloid, but the New York Post, the same guy who owns the New York Post owns The Wall Street Journal, owns, you know, Fox News, owns The Times of London, let’s just go down the list. But the front of their paper deliberately lying about — about — this is what Howie Kurtz was talking about over on Fox News, deliberately lying about Joe Biden while he was giving the thumbs up to parachuters. Of course, this media ecosystem, it seems more and more focused on just spreading misleading or out right false stories about Joe Biden. And The Wall Street Journal, who I praised in this space for their new editor, I really like the changes over at The Wall Street Journal, but even their paper week ago or so, in a story that just made absolutely no sense, we talked about it on the show already a couple of times, you know, they get Kevin McCarthy to lie on the record when there were reports months in the making that Kevin McCarthy always lies on the record about Joe Biden’s mental acuity and then he says the completely opposite thing, either on the record to other publications or to his own staff, about just how good Joe Biden is in negotiations.” LEMIRE: “Yeah, one wonders if their order’s coming from on high about tilting the media coverage here — “ SCARBOROUGH: “Yes, exactly.” LEMIRE: “ — from these outlets. The New York Post, let’s just take that as an example, they knew better. It had been hour — a full day earlier, in the aftermath of that moment in Normandy, it was completely debunked, there’s videos from other angles, not just put up by the Biden campaign but put out by independent observers saying, no, no, President Biden was not meandering off. He was going to salute to one of the other parachutists, and then he came back to take — the prime minister signaled him and he came back to take that a photograph. For hours, that was a done story and the New York Post put it on the front page anyway the following morning and tried to turn it into something it was not. Yesterday we had White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre call out these cheap fakes, in particular the one Twitter account associated with the RNC, the Republican National Committee, which puts out a lot of these misleading videos, and then it’s amplified by others on the right, and the RNC Research’s account simply said, ‘Nope, we’re going to keep doing it.’ Just flat out said, ‘We don’t care.’ And that’s the problem here that the Biden campaign, but also those of us in the media are gonna have to grapple with between now and November, because the speed of these fakes only is increasing.” SCARBOROUGH: “Well, and, you know, it’s — Jonathan’s right, you have to start asking are these coming on high when you have the same news organization doing what Jonathan just said, deliberately lying about a shot, cropping it in the way they know they’re lying to the readers, right? And that comes about a week after a Wall Street Journal story that they know is misleading. No reasonable person could not know it’s misleading. And again, why we bring this up, we bring it up just to say this: We’ve now just expanded far out from just deep fakes on Twitter/X, other social media, TikTok, to now deep fakes, or cheap fakes even, in the New York Post and other publications.” BRZEZINSKI: “Yeah. So, we will have a lot more on this coming up.”

RUSH TRANSCRIPT: Have been made against you by the Trump movement and by the kinds of members of Congress who are shouting at you the other day in that hearing. They have accused you of creating the Covid vaccine. They have accused you of covering up the real story that the virus was essentially deliberately or at least accidentally created. Could you respond to those claims? >> They’re preposterous because we don’t know what the origin of this virus is. Either somehow came out of a lab where Chinese scientists went into the environment and got infected and played with it and came out, or it was a natural spillover from an animal to a human in the Wuhan market. I keep a completely open mind. The viral augical experts favor a natural occurrence. Since it isn’t definitive, I keep an open mind. What they say that is incorrect is the NIH funted a grant in China, an indirect grant from a firm in New York that did a subaward to do some surveillance studies on what is out there, which is a perfectly appropriate thing to do, in fact, I would probably be held as being incompetent if I didn’t, if we didn’t do that, as it turns out, the viruses that were being studied under the NIH grant are evolutionarily so distant from sars-cov-2 that there’s no chance in the world somebody could turn it into sars-cov-2. So this attack is preposterous and anybody who knows anything about virology will say it’s so distant that the precursor virus could not possibly turn in even if you tried. >> You mean looking at it moleculare, this virus understudy, with in terms of NIH having any involvement, is so dissimilar to the virus that caused the pandemic that there’s no chance. >> Even if you tried. Even if you tried to do it. But that still doesn’t rule out the possibility that somewhere in China, out of a lab came the virus. That’s why I always say over and over again, even though the evidence strongly weighs towards it being a natural occurrence, I keep an open mind that we still don’t know what the origin is. >> I have so much more to ask you. Can you stay?

RUSH TRANSCRIPT: >> Greg: that is the dark underbelly of democratic politics. You got the check and shower and the money at the perfect time, and they shall out the vote. Did they run out of money spending it on electric charges? >> Judge jeanine: I don’t know if the Democrats spend their money on. I suspect a lot of us are being told what they spend their money on beer and I want to talk about the fact that this election is really when you see Donald Trump in a black church and church and you see Joe Biden with all the celebrities, it is like the difference between taking a vote for granted and earning a vote. Joe Biden comes out, and he says, if you don’t vote for me, you ain’t black. Donald Trump goes to the black community and says, this is when I’m gonna do for you. This is how I’m going to help you. This is what I’ve done. This election is also about criminal justice and the difference between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Joe Biden was the one who pushed the omnibus crime control act of 1994 and put a generation of blacks and called them predators and put them into prison weird when Donald Trump was president, he passed them into the first step act that allowed for the reduction in sentencing as well as earning good credit, making that statutory and giving Social Security cards, drivers licenses so the African Americans coming out of prison could get jobs. Joe Biden gives the illegals the licenses and all the other stuff stuff. When Trump needs money — I have to give his daughter-in-law credit. There is someone at this table, no one here now. What does she know about raising money? That are in c is killing it. So is Lara Trump. It’s difference between Mar-a-Lago because he is the entertainment and Joe Biden having to bring in George Clooney and Julia Roberts and Obama and Jack Black. You know, what people want more than anything is the minority community to at least be addressed and respected. That is not being done by the Democrats. >> Harold: Democrats I went back 90% of the black vote. I think it’s going to happen again. We will see. The main thing is you can’t take voters for granted. Why do you rob banks? That is where the money is. Democrats go to Hollywood, because that is where the money is. Republicans — they go down some Mar-a-Lago. A bunch of billionaires show up around the table. I give President Trump great credit for being able to do that. This is the thing that will really be the decisive factor at this early point in the campaign. This is the longest campaign we have seen for president and every day. It keeps getting longer. June 27th will be one of the demarcation dates to understand where the guys stand on the critical issues. It can very well be if President Biden does not perform well in June 27th, there will be louder voices in the Democratic Party say maybe we need a different candidate. If he performs well, the same thing could be set on the other side. Probably not likely but it put Biden in a stronger position than today. >> Greg: Obama never went to the hood. We are going to leave it at that. Never went to the hood.

RUSH TRANSCRIPT: You have been campaigning all across Pennsylvania. You have been talking about it. One of the things you talk about a lot of the economy, great. The inflation, what people are seeing in that light. When we look at the polls, the data is very good on the economy but it does not show on the poles that people are necessarily feeling it or giving the president or even the Democrats credit. What do voters say when you talk to them about the economy and how they are feeling and how they are renting? >> A good part of that is high prices. We know that even after these huge national corporations copies record tax cuts, tax cuts we had rarely seen in recent American history, they got these huge tax breaks. They used most of that new revenue they had to have stock buybacks and they Jack up their prices. The price of food, household items area people not only feel it every week but I think they know what it is and it is great. I have talked a lot about the present as well. The shrinking the size of the product, not shrinking the price. >> Not enough chips in the bag. >> The larger question is basic. When they can Jack up prices on food and laugh all the way to the bank. We have to take action against that. When I talk about not just pointing it out for voters to focus on, but also when I talk about taking action, that is where you get people’s attention. People want us to pass a so they can go after these and hold them accountable. I think they also want us to vote to roll back the big corporate tax breaks because obviously, these big companies as they are jacking up their prices. >> Clearly, you know who’s going to keep them.

MELBER: “They’re going to look up and realize, oh my God, here’s the debate. So I want to mention that for folks, we got the new rules. This is next week. It will be different. No opening statements, two minutes to answer each question, red lights visible to candidate when time expires. And a big win for the Biden campaign, given that Trump is a rule-breaker, the other candidate who’s not speaking will be muted when it’s not their turn. Now, that in theory applies to both of them. But of course, more practically, having to wait your turn to speak is something that will affect Trump’s style of debate, if you want to call it that. There were a lot of interruptions last time.” [Clip starts] Biden: “I’m not going to answer the question.” Trump: “Why wouldn’t you answer that question?” Biden: “Because the question is —“ Trump: “You want to put a lot of new Supreme Court justices, radical left.” Biden: “Will you shut up, man?” [Clip ends] MELBER: “You know, something he might have wanted to say for a long time, a lot of people wanted to say, that was then speaking to at the time the president. They did get progress on these rules. Will that matter or what will matter next week?” CARVILLE: “Well, if I was a gambler — and actually, I am a gambler — I’d take even money that Trump doesn’t show up.” MELBER: “Ha!” CARVILLE: “I just think —“ MELBER: “You don’t think Trump’s coming next week?” CARVILLE: “I mean, I don’t know, but if I was — I think he’s going to wake up and decide, just like he said he was going to testify at his defense in his trial. He didn’t even put on a defense. Let him show up. I wouldn’t be shocked, but I certainly would not be surprised if you gave me even money, I’d say he’s a no-show. He’ll just get up in the morning, say I’m just not going to do it.”

Reporter: “We’re clearing up misconceptions today. I do want to give you a chance to talk about Milwaukee. A lot of rumors this week, half truths. What did he say? What didn’t he say? When it comes to Milwaukee, home to the GOP convention next month, what are your thoughts on the all-important swing state, Wisconsin?” Trump: “Well, I put out a Truth just now because I heard the Democrats lie. That’s all they can do. They have bad policies, open borders, bad military. The whole thing, everything they do is bad. All electric cars, they want to have everyone driving an electric car. All made in China. Don’t go far enough. As you know, they don’t go far and they cost a lot of money. The whole thing is ridiculous. Now they’re talking about your washing machines. They want to give them no water. Dishwashing machines, every day they have something new. They have no policy, but all they do is lie. They make up stories. That’s a totally made-up story. I picked Milwaukee. I had a lot of choices. A lot of places wanted it, obviously, with the money that it brings and the economics and the economic development even that it brings. I had a lot of choices. I picked Milwaukee. Never said anything bad about Milwaukee other than something I say about a lot of cities, especially Democrat-run cities, is that we want to keep the vote honest. And I hope that Milwaukee is going to keep the vote honest. And if they do, I’m going to really love it. But I was the one that picked Milwaukee and it’s just another lie. They lied about soldiers. They lied about just about everything, because when you have a candidate like Biden that doesn’t know he’s around, that doesn’t know is he still living — I mean, you — I saw the mess in Europe, that mess, I’ve never seen anything like it, where he doesn’t even know where the hell he is. They have to lie because frankly, if they don’t, they have no chance of getting elected. And it’s a shame, frankly, when I hear a story like that. Milwaukee bothered me because when you’re the one that picked it and we have great spirit going into Milwaukee and the people of Wisconsin, as you know, we’re leading in the polls, so what do they do? They lie and they make up a story that I said something bad about Milwaukee. And I just ask you this, who would do that? Who would say something bad about a place that you want to win, you want to win over? The only thing I say is I want to keep this election nice and honest, and if we do that, I’m going to be very happy. But I love Milwaukee, and that’s why I picked it.”

Wallace: “There’s a growing and insidious trend in right-wing media, broadcast, print and social media. It is to take highly misleading and selectively edited videos of President Biden directly from Republican National Committee social media accounts, and then use those videos to spread messages virally to cast doubt on President Biden’s fitness for office. Here is this headline from the New York Post: ‘Biden appears to freeze up, has to be led off stage by Obama at mega-bucks L.A. fundraiser.’ The full video posted by Biden finance chair on Twitter shows something entirely different, Biden reacting to applause and then walking off stage with former President Obama. It comes less than one week after the New York Post made a cover out of another piece of deceptively edited tape calling him ‘Meander in Chief’ due to what they claim was Biden walking away during a skydiving demonstration during the G7 summit last week. The only problem is that the full video, which emerged almost instantly, shows Biden was going over to congratulate one of the skydivers who’s cropped out of the video entirely. But the articles are based on cheap fakes, videos of real events that are intentionally manipulated to fool viewers, released on an RNC opposition research social media account with zero independent fact-checking by these so-called journalists and spread throughout the right-wing ecosystem. We would take the hand-wringing by right-wing media about Biden’s mental fitness and videos intentionally manipulated to make him look unfit maybe a little more seriously if they weren’t radio silent about the repeated glaring and real mental lapses happening behind podiums and on camera on the part of Donald Trump.”

Harris: “And it starts, of course, with awareness and acknowledgment. We must speak truth about the prevalence of conflict-related sexual violence against women and girls, and men and boys. All of these crimes are too often ignored. The UN estimates that for each rape documented in connection with a conflict, there are 10 to 20 cases that go undocumented. Conflict-related sexual violence must be condemned unequivocally wherever and whenever it occurs.”

Reporter: “There seems to be a sort of rash of videos that have been edited to make the president appear especially frail or mentally confused. I’m wondering if the White House is especially worried about the fact that this appears to be a pattern that we’re seeing more broadly?” Jean-Pierre: “Yeah, we — and I think you all have called this ‘the cheap fakes video,’ and that’s exactly what they are. They are cheap fakes video. They are done in bad faith. And — and some of your news organization have been very clear, have stressed that these right-wing — the right-wing critics of the president have a credibility problem because the fact-checkers have repeatedly caught them pushing misinformation, disinformation. And so we see this, and this is something coming from — from your part of the world, calling them cheap fakes and misinformation. And I’ll quote The Washington Post where they wrote — they wrote about this and they said how Republican use misleading videos to attack Biden in a 24-hour period. And to their credit, we have a conservative Washington Examiner did call them out as well, calling out the New York Post. Ironically, several recent cheap fakes actually attacked the president for thanking troops, for thanking troops — that is what they are attacking the president for — both in Normandy this happen, and again in Italy. And I think that it tells you everything that we need to know about how — how desperate, how desperate Republicans are here. And instead of talking about the president’s performance in office — and what I mean by that is his legislative wins, what he’s been able to do for the American people across the country — we’re seeing these deep fakes, these manipulated videos, and it is, again, done in bad faith.”

GUTHRIE: “I mean, kids are already hooked. Frankly, parents are hooked too, it’s not a fair fight. OK. I have a 7 and 9-year-old, so I guess I’m asking for a friend, you have 6 and a 7-year-old. When do you think is the right age to give a smartphone, and when is the right age to allow social media?” MURTHY: “Well, here’s — here’s how we’re approaching it for our kids. My kids are young and we’re starting to have these discussions actually among parents in our school as well. But I would delay the use of social media for kids until at least after Middle School. I would also if your children are on social media, I would create tech free zones in their day to protect sleep, in-person interaction, and physical activity, that could look like not allowing technology at the dinner table, when you’re eating together. It could look like taking technology away one hour before bedtime, and then giving it back to kids in the morning. But we need to do this. It’s not easy. And trust me, I know this, because many parents kind of come up to me and say, ‘Look, my child is saying to me that they’re the only one not on social media.’ And they don’t want to be left out and they want an account. Well, this is why as parents, we need to start talking about this more openly partnering with each other and helping one another because when we make pacts to actually enforce these kinds of rules together, it’s easier. And right now too many parents are struggling alone, feeling ashamed, feeling like they’re failing as parents, and not realizing that all of us are struggling with the same questions.” GUTHRIE: “We are indeed. Well, Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, we could talk for a long time about this. Hope we’ll speak again about it. Thank you for being here. Appreciate it.”

SCARBOROUGH: “Al, we got the breaking news this weekend when Donald Trump spoke in a black church filled mainly with white people that some of his best friends are black.” BRZEZINSKI: “Mm-hmm.” SCARBOROUGH: “What say you?” Sharpton: “I say that I’ve probably all of my life heard every bigot I’ve ever talked to say that, that’s usually the opening line, that some of my best friends are black. And you say that being defensive because it shouldn’t be given that you have friends that are black, the fact that you have to say it tells us that you really do have some bias tendencies, if not an outright bigot. I also think that it takes real effort to go to a black church and have mostly whites in the audience. I mean, in Detroit —“ BRZEZINSKI: “What is that.” Sharpton: “— I’ve never — I’ve never heard it. I’ve been preaching all my life and I’ve never seen a black church in Detroit, where the majority of the people in the audience are white. And then you leave there and you go to a real right-wing conference, which draws a white supremacists. So I think Donald Trump more defined —“ SCARBOROUGH: “Yeah.” Sharpton: “— himself to black voters this weekend that he was able to —“ BRZEZINSKI: “Yeah.” Sharpton: “— appeal to them.” SCARBOROUGH: “You know —“ BRZEZINSKI: “And to — to be clear, a black church full of white people, is a black church full of white people.” SCARBOROUGH: “Yes, it is. (Laughter) To be clear, when Martin Luther King said the most segregated hour in America every week is the hour that people worship at church. Well, he was foreseeing the white audience at Donald Trump’s black church event.” BRZEZINSKI: “Oh, my God. OK.” SCARBOROUGH: “Molly?” Jong-Fast: “Yes, for sure. I mean, I think some of this is Trump trying to get — give a permission structure to try to prove — to prove or to pretend to more mainstream —“ BRZEZINSKI: “Yeah.” Jong-Fast: “— voters that he’s not racist, so that they will vote for him. I don’t think that he actually believes — and again, the rev can speak to this much better than I can — that he can actually win black voters.”

GAY: “I wish I could sit in on the debate prep. I mean, I don’t know who is playing Donald Trump, but there is a lot of theater at play and a lot of work that’s going to be done. I mean, I actually think that the rules do favor the audience, most importantly, to get the best sense for Americans of where these two men stand and what their differences are. It’s really important that this stage —“ BRZEZINSKI: “Yeah.” GAY: “— is not used as — as an actual stage for Donald Trump for one of his rallies, that he’s able — you know, he shouldn’t be able to go on like that. I actually, I have a background in tabloids and I think sometimes we forget that it can be very damaging if a candidate doesn’t have a quick and good and clear answer and isn’t able to deliver that in a short amount of time. So I don’t know that Donald Trump is going to — that this is going to favor Donald Trump. I think it — it may —“ BRZEZINSKI: “Yeah.” GAY: “— actually show that he doesn’t have answers for the American people that are serious. He’s not policy-based. So people who are watching these debates are going to be looking for that, not red meat.” BRZEZINSKI: “Right.”

JIMENEZ: “President Biden touts his reelection campaign as a fight to preserve democracy. But if you ask some Trump supporters, the former president is not a threat to democracy because the United States is not a democracy. CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan spoke to some of those supporters.” [Clip starts] O’SULLIVAN: “What happens if Trump loses?” UNIDENTIFIED MALE 1: “I don’t see him losing.” UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE 1: “I don’t think he lost the last election, to be honest.” O’SULLIVAN: “Do you think he’s going to win?” UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE 2: “Yes.” UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE 3: “Yes. Without a doubt.” UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE 2: “No doubt.” O’SULLIVAN: “What if he doesn’t this time? What happens to the country? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE 2: “We’re done.” UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE 3: “We’re in big trouble.” UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE 2: “Biden talks about democracy, you know, saving democracy. They’re the ones that are killing democracy.” O’SULLIVAN: “Obviously, there’s a lot of criticisms of Trump, that he is bad for democracy, that he’s bad for American democracy — “ UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE 1: “Can I say something? We’re a republic.” UNIDENTIFIED MALE 1: “We’re a republic.” UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE 1: “We are not a democracy.” UNIDENTIFIED MALE 1: “We are representative Republican. We’re not a democracy.” O’SULLIVAN (voice-over): “One thing we’ve been hearing at Trump rallies like this over the past few months is that America isn’t really a democracy.” UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE 4: “America’s not a democracy, it’s a republic.” UNIDENTIFIED MALE 2: “It’s not a democracy. OK? Democracy is actually not as good as you think it is.” O’SULLIVAN (voice-over): “But for centuries, America has celebrated its democracy.” Reagan: “Democracy is worth dying for.” BUSH: “Democracy remains the definition of political legitimacy.” O’SULLIVAN (voice-over): “But some Republicans and pro-Trump media are pushing the idea that America is not a democracy.” CAIN: “the United States of America is not a democracy. We are a constitutional republic.” Johnson: “United States of America is not a democracy. You don’t want to be in a democracy.” HEGSETH: “We are not a democracy. We are a republic.” O’SULLIVAN: “Is America a democracy?” APPLEBAUM: “America is a democracy. It was founded as a democracy.” O’SULLIVAN: “I’ve heard a lot of conspiracy theories. I hear a lot of things out on the road. But to hear Americans, people who would describe themselves as patriots say that America is not a democracy. That stopped me in my tracks.” APPLEBAUM: “You are hearing people say America is not a democracy because there are people around Trump who want them to be saying that, who’ve been planting that narrative.” O’SULLIVAN: “Is America a democracy?” UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE 2: “No.” UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE 3: “No. I don’t — I think — we’re a republic.” UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: “Well, not really, but yes, we’re a republic.” O’SULLIVAN: “What’s the difference?” UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE 3: “I feel like democracy — let me think this through. That it’s government-controlled. I don’t see freedom in democracy. I see freedom in the republic.” APPLEBAUM: “Honestly, the word ‘democracy’ and the word ‘republic’ have often been used interchangeably. There isn’t a meaningful difference between them.” O’SULLIVAN: “So much of the warnings and criticism about Trump is that he is a threat to democracy, that he is anti-democratic. APPLEBAUM: “Absolutely. If they can convince people that we don’t have a democracy, then it’s okay that Trump is attacking democracy, because it doesn’t really matter.” O’SULLIVAN: “So why, like, why has democracy become a bad word?” UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE 5: Because it’s being used in a way to change the flavor of our country, which is a republic.” APPLEBAUM: “These words were used in different ways in the 18th century, and it’s true, the Founders didn’t want direct democracy, by which they meant people gathering on the town square. They wanted representative democracy. But I think the reason why this conversation about language has risen now is because there is a part of the Republican Party that would like to rule as a minority and they need an excuse for why that’s okay. And so they have begun to say, we’re not a democracy, we’re a republic. And it’s not 100 percent clear what that means, but I think they mean, ‘We want Donald Trump to be able to do whatever he wants.’” O’SULLIVAN: “Some people I’ve been speaking to at Trump events recently — “ UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE 6: “Yes?” O’SULLIVAN: “ — have been saying, America is not a democracy, it’s a republic.” UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE 6: “We’ve always been in a democracy. First of all — “ O’SULLIVAN (on-camera): “Yes.” UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE 6: “ — I mean, we used to have freedom of speech, freedom of religion. We used to have that too. Now they’re picking on the Christians and the Jewish people. I mean, how — how much more can we take?” O’SULLIVAN: “Are you concerned if Trump loses — “ UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE 6: “Yes.” O’SULLIVAN (on-camera): — that there will be another January 6th?” UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE 6: “No, I think there will be a civil war. That’s what I think will happen.” [Clip ends] O’SULLIVAN: “And Omar, look, there is, of course, a legitimate debate discussion to be had on what form of democracy we have here in the United States, direct democracy, representative democracy, in fact, constitutional republic, which you heard people mentioned in that piece, that is a form of democracy. But look, this is not actually a debate about government, about democracy. It’s an attack on democracy. People have heard the warnings that Trump is a danger to democracy, and therefore you have people trying to convince others that, well, the United States isn’t a democracy in the first place, and therefore Trump can’t be a threat. Omar?” JIMENEZ: “Donie, appreciate the reporting, as always, always insightful.”

SIDNER: “Mitch, it sounds like this is going to be a big theme as you would expect it to be during a presidential debate. I do want to ask you about polling. We heard from — from President Biden when he was talking to our Erin Burnett, that he doesn’t really believe the political polls, he was talking specifically about the economy. Let’s listen to what he said.” [Clip starts] Biden: “The polling data has been wrong all along. (...) When I started this administration, people were saying there’s going to be a collapse of the economy. We have the strongest economy in the world. Let me say it again, in the world.” [Clip ends] SIDNER: “All right. So he talked about that. And then we have some — some polling that has come out that our data Reporter Harry Enten pointed out that for the black vote, President Biden they’re showing — you know, he’s losing support, according to the pollsters, that Donald Trump could get 21 percent of the black vote. Are — is that being ignored? Is the campaign ignoring that? Are you worried about it?” LANDRIEU: “Well, first of all, it’s going to be a very close election. Every one of — every one of them is. Secondly, there’s no — there’s no universe in which Donald Trump is going to get 21 percent of the black vote, that’s never going to happen. And so it’s not that we’re not worried about that but we’re fighting very, very hard for every vote. And the — and the — the — the records of each of these men is clear in this regard. Polling is always important, but it is true, and I think you guys have to recognize that it has been vastly wrong for a lot of time, especially in the — in the recent past. So it’s not that you don’t care about it. The second thing is this. President Biden has in fact created 15 million jobs since he has been in office, Donald Trump lost 2.5 million jobs, the greatest loss of jobs in the history of the country for any president except Herbert Hoover. And so we’re going to continue to tell that truth because it is the strongest economy in the world. However, prices are still too high. And that is why the president is really working hard to fight corporations, to really make sure that we bring down costs for prescription drugs and to do the work that is necessary to give every American a little bit of breathing room. That is a message that we have to take to the American people, and we’re not going to stop talking about how — how well America is doing in this particular time. I don’t know why Donald Trump keeps tearing down America. Everything he says about this country would make you believe that we’re going through a hellhole. All you need to do is travel around this country and see the unbelievable things that are going on. That’s not to say that we don’t have problems and we have challenges. That’s why the person who sits in the Oval Office is important. And that’s why wisdom, character, and judgment are necessary. Because if you’re the kind of guy that make decisions in the dark that only help you and hurt everybody else, that’s not the kind of guy you want sitting behind the resolute desk.”

SIDNER: “Mitch, I just have to ask you, I know I’ve been wrapped but I have to ask you about what Trump challenged Joe Biden on, which was, he wants him to take a cognitive test. And we have a very short bit of time, but he did, he tried to remember the name of his own doctor Donald Trump, and he messed that up while he’s challenging —“ LANDRIEU: “Yeah, exactly.” SIDNER: “— Mr. Biden. What do you make of that?” LANDRIEU: “I think Donald Trump is a joke. I mean, when this guy — when his lips are moving, he’s lying. And then when he tries to confuse — when he tries to go to accuse somebody else’s of speaking improperly, he can’t keep two thoughts in his mind. I want to encourage Americans to go listen to Donald Trump’s full speeches and try to put that word spaghetti together. And I wonder why anybody is questioning Joe Biden’s mental acuity. Donald Trump can’t string two sentences together. I mean, this is the biggest joke in the world. My president is going to show up on time, on task, and he is going to give it to Donald Trump next week. He shows up, he’s doing his job. You just saw him criss crossed the continent three times with world leaders and he’s back home getting the work of America now because that’s what he does every day. And the proof is in the pudding. We have the receipts, 15.5 million jobs, 56,000 projects going on and economy that’s stronger than any other economy in the world, and taking it to big corporate America to reduce their prices because inflation has come down from 9 percent to 3 percent.”

ALEXANDER: “And new this morning, multiple sources familiar with the White House’s plans tell NBC News that President Biden is set to take executive action as early as Tuesday to protect hundreds of thousands of undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens from deportation.”