← Deadline: White House
Deadline: White House
"Trump’s war against voter fraud"
00:41:37
Donald Trump’s war against voter fraud and mail-in voting makes no sense.
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- [00:00]
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- [00:29]
Sierra Miller
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- [01:05]
Michael Feinberg
I think it's ironic that we control the House, the Senate, the Supreme Court and the White House and we're yelling election fraud. I mean, we won all the damn elections and we're in charge and what are we doing with it? We're bankrupting the country. We're starting new wars. We're violating the Constitution. We're not cracking down on the fraud. The problem is not the elections. We won the damn elections. The problem is we're wasting our opportunity that the voters gave us.
- [01:35]
Nicole Wallace
Hi again everybody. It is remarkable. Stop the press's news when the truth comes spilling out the mouth of a Republican. It's five o' clock in the east and it's sad that that's news, but it takes a Republican who lost his primary to a Trump backed candidate to utter the truth. The Republicans won everything. They control all three branches of government. And he's right, the elections aren't the problem. Unfortunately, they're a different problem. Right. Trump's war against voter fraud and mail in voting makes no sense politically or structurally. But that's for a reason. That's by design. And that's because the fight was never about fraud, which there are so few instances of actual fraud. We have ways to deal with them. It's a crime if you cheat. But it's about the perception that the election results can't be trusted because it's about what's going to happen in the future. It's not about the elections they won in the past. It's about stoking fear and making voters Afraid that future elections could be hijacked so they'll hand over authority to adjudicate the outcome to Donald Trump and the executive branch of government. It's what he tried to do with an executive order targeting mail in voting was dealt a major legal blow. We covered that on this program yesterday. We told you about the federal judge who ruled that the Trump administration has no business interfering in how elections are administered, that that is solely the job of the states. The Constitution says so. The judge's ruling declared sections of Trump's order now legally void. This week we also saw the flat out admission by Donald Trump that he asked DOJ to look into California's primaries. Listen to that.
- [03:14]
Michael Feinberg
I called up the very powerful, very good U.S. attorney in California and I said, do me a favor, take a look. They're trying to steal that election, too.
- [03:24]
Nicole Wallace
So of that confession, Democracy docket says this, quote, it's the clearest evidence yet of Trump's weaponization of the department to interfere in our elections. It's a flashing red warning sign to all Americans about what Trump is planning, what he is actively putting in place to do in November. The ongoing fight to protect our democracy is where we begin the hour with some of our favorite experts and friends. Voting rights attorney, founder of Democracy docket at the end of a big week in his world. Mark Elias is back with us. Also back with us, former assistant special agent in charge at the FBI and national security and intelligence analyst Michael Feinberg is back with us. So, Mark Elias, you're always very generous in giving us credit for covering these stories, but I think that it's clear we failed to put them all together, Right? So I think this week Pulte settled in at odni. Judge after judge knocked down as unconstitutional and illegal. Trump's attempts to use the postal service and take states voter rolls, problems we've identified as overreach, but decisions we covered as sort of judicial developments. And you've got Massie and others saying what used to be sort of described as the quiet part out loud lectures are the problems. Republic Republicans ran the tables. They won all the elections. If they're fraudulent, they were fraudulent and rigged in their favor. Focusing anyone who's paying attention on Trump's very, very astute read of the polls, which is that he's heading for an electoral wipeout. What are they doing?
- [05:04]
Mark Elias
So this is what's so dangerous about it, Nicole, is that he's not trying to become more popular. Right? He actually announced that he was going to veto a bipartisan housing bill while the Republicans were holding a press conferen announcing their passage of a bipartisan housing bill. Right. Like, the thing that is flashing such a red light for me right now is not that Donald Trump is lying about elections. It is not that his Department of Justice is suing in court. They are losing like, like crazy. They are now.09 in efforts to get the voter files. They lost the first case. We won our first case before a court of appeals at the 6th Circuit on that. Right. It's not, it's not their litigation what has me most concerned. And the reason why I think we all need to be connecting the pieces, as you say, is because Donald Trump isn't acting like a politician who thinks any of the popularity measures of the presidency matter. He's not acting like someone who's trying to make the Republican candidate's job of running in free and fair elections easier. You know, we've all had instances in the past in which one party accuses the other of, in an election year doing popular things is, you know, releasing oil from the Strategic National Reserve or cutting taxes. Donald Trump's not doing any of that. What he's doing is saying we're gonna win this election by falsely claiming fraud and perhaps seizing ballots, perhaps just taking over certification, perhaps, who knows what. But it is not because he's going to try to run candidates to win fair and square.
- [06:34]
Nicole Wallace
So what do we do? I mean, I don't disagree with you. I struggle with it because I think he's still capable of a pivot. I think he's so insulated from reality. This new book has this aide that prints love letters. I don't know if she writes them or finds them on the Internet. He really is deluded by design, but I feel like it's not beyond him to cut $1,000 check for every registered MAGA voter. But I'll take your theory. How do we protect against what he's going to do in the absence of acting like a political actor?
- [07:08]
Molly Jong-Fast
Yeah.
- [07:08]
Mark Elias
So it's a multi pronged strategy. Right. I mean, the first is we do need to educate the public. And so I do think that the work that you do on this program, it's why I come on at every opportunity, is vitally important because it is informing people about what's happening in advance so that when they see it, they recognize it early and can and can debunk it. The second is obviously, as a lawyer, you know, we had a great week in court and we are continuing litigate. We, you know, I'm my law firm and I We are in 83 cases in 41 states. We won the 6th Circuit case today. I'm sorry, this week. We won the Maryland case this week. And we saw victories, you know, other places. And next week, we're waiting on the Supreme Court to rule in a couple of important cases. So the courts have a role to play here. But finally, individual voters, the most important thing you can do is make it not close elections, like register to vote, have a plan to vote, volunteer for a campaign, volunteer for an organization that does voter turnout, like get engaged in the electoral process. Because ultimately, Donald Trump has a easier chance to try to steal elections if they're close than if they're not close. So that is what we do.
- [08:23]
Nicole Wallace
Michael Feinberg. The overlay of the national security agencies is one of the more opaque parts of whatever they're doing. Until he thrust Bill Pulte into this job as odni, what are your sort of theories or questions or concerns about where the friction is between this. This blatantly, flagrantly, openly political actor, now a top odni?
- [08:46]
Michael Feinberg
If we went through all my concerns, we'd be here longer than a marathon viewing of every Lord in the Rings film. So I'm going to just highlight the main one I have, which is I agree with everything that Mark just said, and I hope that not just in the run up to the midterms, but on the election night itself, we have armies of lawyers ready to file for injunctive relief. Because I have zero doubt that this Justice Department and this administration is going to do everything they can to throw Sands in the gears of the electoral process. The problem that we still cannot fight against, even with that assistance, is that there is very little recourse for people to push back on national security information. And what I mean by that is Bill Pulte could very well take an actual bona fide intelligence report and declassify just enough of it to make it look like something suspicious has happened, but not declassify the parts that explain why we don't actually need to worry. And if he does that, anyone who attempts to correct the record by telling the public about what is actually going on is going to be violating laws against mishandling classified information. The minute Bill Pulte walked into that office, the needle signifying danger, like went through the black, into the red and off the dial, um, Congress needs to get its act together. I don't have much faith that they will. And make sure that long before the midterms occur, Bill Pulte is nowhere near that office. And I should have, yeah. Jay Clayton, getting there, given that he has made completely unfounded assertions about the California primaries, which is not even anywhere remotely near his jurisdiction, and doesn't really fill me with confidence that he'll be an honest broker either. So, you know, to the extent there are Republicans like Massie who have found their conscience and their backbone, now that they don't have to worry about a primary, now is the time to speak up. A lot of them were courageous. In the hours after January 6th, that courage evaporated as winter turned to spring. We can't afford to have that sort of milquetoast patriotism that only exhibits itself when convenient. We need people to stand for principles.
- [11:40]
Nicole Wallace
Michael, let me just ask you to explain what you mean about what, what Bill Pulte would, would, could do. I mean, after Russia attacked our elections in 2016, the Obama administration came out and talked about it. They, they, they released, I think through the Department of Homeland Security information, but they also released information saying that it, they knew they had investigated and they hadn't gotten into any voting machines, they hadn't changed the outcome of any elections. Is that the kind of, sort of contextualized intel and your concern is that half of that gets released without the other half or what is just, just give us an example based on history or something hypothetical.
- [12:22]
Michael Feinberg
I could actually give you a hypothetical one and a real one. The hypothetical one would be Bill Pulte and ODNI release information about a massive investigation they've overseen into the integrity of voting machines and foreign influence on US Elections. And that they are doing this because there is a very real concern that people who should not be voting or making political contributions are doing so. That could be the introduction to an intelligence product. And Bill Pulte could, could declassify that introduction and release it to the public. And if there are 45 pages of analysis disproving the theory that follow that introduction, that he chooses not to declassify. All that the public knows is that the intelligence community saw a huge risk of illegal votes and foreign influence. A more an actual example would be, you know, the Republicans since Trump's election released a document that argued the Russians were somehow conspiring with the Clintons to make it look like Donald Trump was working for them. And that was the genesis of the crossfire. Hurricane Mueller, special counsel office, various investigations that so bedeviled Trump in his first term. Now, John Durham saw that same document and in his report concluded that it was a fake. It was something the Russians did to undermine public belief in Crossfire hurricane and in Mueller's probe. But when the Republicans re released it, they didn't include it include that disclaimer. So they just put documents out into the wild, completely free of context, in order to make people believe what is diametrically opposed to the truth. And it is very difficult to push back against that.
- [14:41]
Nicole Wallace
Marco Elias, what are your concerns? I mean, they haven't won a case, you and your firm, without the assistance or infrastructure, a big law, something we've talked about a lot here over the last two years, have batted a thousand. What are your concerns, if any, about what the Supreme Court will see in this? I think it's a mail in ballot case. Right. That made its way to the Supreme Court.
- [15:10]
Molly Jong-Fast
Yeah.
- [15:10]
Mark Elias
So the Supreme Court's got eight cases left to decide this term and there is obviously several that have captured the national attention. The birthright citizenship case, a couple of cases involving his ability to fire people, one at the ftc, one at the Fed. But the biggest case that I think is left on the docket is a case out of Mississippi. It is Watson versus rnc. And in this case, the Republican National Committee is trying to say that states may not count ballots if they are postmarked by election Day, but are received a couple of days afterwards. So the idea is if a voter votes, you know, a week or 10 days in advance of the election and the absentee ballot gets gets postmarked and it arrives, but it doesn't get to the election office till the Wednesday rather than on the Tuesday of election, the RNC says that ballot has to be thrown in the garbage. And just to give people a sense of the scale here, we're not talking about a few hundred ballots or thousands of ballots or tens of thousands of ballots. We're talking about hundreds of thousands of ballots. Every election wind up in this category. And the Republican National Committee has brought this case because they believe it benefits them politically, like literally in the math, because you can see whose ballot comes in when on a voter file. And the RNC has come to the conclusion that Democrats tend to vote more by mail and young voters who tend to vote Democratic tend to vote later. So these ballots are disproportionately Democratic. So this case is before the Supreme Court. My law firm and I, we intervened at the trial court to defend this case as well as in the Supreme Court. So we're waiting on a decision. And if we win, then, you know, it's business as usual. If we lose, then we are going to see this effort to not just disenfranchise these voters. But mark my words, they will go after early voting next. They will go after ballots that are counted after the election because they've been cured. I mean, the Republican Party is going to attack every aspect of voting with absolute impunity if they win here. So we're waiting on that decision. Next round comes out on Monday morning and I will be sitting by the computer waiting.
- [17:24]
Nicole Wallace
It's amazing, though, and I'm dating myself. But Republicans used to be the big vote by mail people. I mean, do Republicans not vote by mail anymore?
- [17:36]
Mark Elias
So here's the deal. You are exactly right. You know, I always remind people that in 2010, Colorado instituted voting by mail. And what happened? A Democratic senator lost his election to Cory Gardner, a Republican senator. You look at the history of elections in Florida, where you used to have Democratic senators and Democratic governors, what happened? Republicans invested in voting by mail and they flipped that state on vote by mail. You look at Arizona, right? How did Republicans gain such a dominance in Arizona? Because Arizona moved to more voting by mail. So historically, you're exactly right that voting by mail had very little partisan pull. But Republicans actually invested more in those programs. And so that was a place in which their superior spending and organization mattered. Donald Trump came along, though, in 2020 and just out of the blue decided we don't like voting by mail anymore. And a bunch of lemmings and sycophants were like, okay, I guess we don't like voting by mail anymore. And they've been attacking it ever since. So now it is more Democrats vote by mail and Republicans vote more in person on Election Day.
- [18:38]
Nicole Wallace
It's crazy. It's just absolutely crazy. All right, I need both of you to stick around a little bit longer. When we come back, there are more alarm bells going off after federal agents came after an election worker at a polling place in upstate New York this week. We'll bring you that reporting next. Also ahead, apart from his gilded ballroom, his massive arch is busted up reflecting pool. High on Donald Trump's list of obsessions these days is former President Barack Obama and all of his success. What Obama is saying about Trump's unnatural and unhealthy fixation on him. We'll bring you that later in the hour. And we're following some breaking news out of Iran. U.S. central Command forces just conducted strikes. They're in response to Iran's attack yesterday on a commercial container ship in the Strait of Hormuz. In a social media post this afternoon, Donald Trump called Iran's attack a quote, foolish violation of the already fragile ceasefire between the US and Iran. It's not clear how or whether the US was going to respond. It wasn't. At least until now. Deadline White House continues after a quick break.
- [19:52]
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- [20:22]
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- [20:52]
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- [21:00]
Mark Elias
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- [21:27]
Nicole Wallace
Some alarming reporting to tell you about today. The scene unfolded in Syracuse, New York this week. Federal agents confronted a poll worker on Election Day. Here's a video of that worker, Paige Lyn Gagne. She posted it to Instagram. According to reporting from syracuse.com, she was working Tuesday afternoon at the Central Library when agents called to meet with her. She said she invited them in. She said she did not want to meet them outside alone. She said this quote, I've seen the news, especially in Minnesota, and I didn't want anything to happen to me at all. The reporting adds this quote, the agents handed Gagne a form letter that says they are investigating threats made against ICE personnel. The form says the agents had identified an Instagram account that they believe breaks federal law. What Gagne assumes they're talking about was an Instagram post she posted back in January where she named the ICE officer who killed Renee Nicole Good. She cited the Minnesota Star Tribune reporting when she stated his name in her post. Gagne said this quote, for ICE to come to me over a social media post just feels very 1984 to me. They definitely should have known better to not go to a polling place, even if I said it was okay. We're back with Mark and Michael. Michael Feinberg, your thoughts?
- [22:48]
Michael Feinberg
What they did is patently illegal and punishable by up to five years in prison. In the aftermath of a long history in the Jim Crow south and in the Reconstruction era before it of armed personnel being used to dissuade minorities from voting, Congress passed 18 USC 592, which explicitly prohibits armed federal agents or military personnel from operating in a polling place unless they are repelling armed invaders of the United States. This is not a gray area in federal law. During my 16 years in the FBI, I was repeatedly admonished, even when I went to vote as a private citizen, ensure that nobody could see my badge, weapon, or identify me as federal law enforcement because our presence in that capacity in a polling place was not just inappropriate according to the norms of democracy, but entirely illegal. The fact that ICE wouldn't think twice before doing something this egregious speaks volumes about their lack of professionalism, their lack of constitutional rigor, and I can only assume their lack of training. And the fact that they were doing it after Todd Blanche said in public that he thinks there's nothing wrong with armed agents being at the polls is yet one more reason every senator who takes seriously his or oath to the Constitution should not be confirming him for Attorney General.
- [24:32]
Nicole Wallace
You know, there's such a lack of understanding of the laws about this. I mean, I cover this every day, and I don't know that I would have known how black and white this is. Marcos.
- [24:42]
Mark Elias
Yeah, look, I mean, what we have is an administration that acts with impunity, that has now spread that impunity downstream. So the President breaks the law and doesn't have any consequences. Supreme Court says he's immune. Next thing you know it, we see the activities of ICE agents in Minneapolis, many of whom acting as if the law doesn't apply to them. And they act with impunity, figuring they're fine because the Department of Justice will never prosecute them. And so you have an Attorney General nominee who acts with impunity. So is it any surprise that you have these ICE agents now at the polls. And let me add, Nicole, think about what it is they went to investigate her over. She posted on social media that she thinks that an agent in Minneapolis who was identified by the media should be indicted. It is a crime, they're saying, to say that I think someone should be indicted. I mean, we got sort of desensitized around this, I think a bit around Minnesota. And then we had the seashells nonsense, and everyone thought, well, maybe that's just because he hates James Comey. No, I actually think they think that, like putting pictures of seashells or saying your opinion that you think someone should be indicted if it's someone in Donald Trump's circle or who he likes, should be a crime. And so to me, before you even get to where they showed up at, and I totally agree with what was said, but before you even show up, what are federal agents doing going up to private citizens saying that they expressing opinions about who should be indicted or not is somehow appropriate.
- [26:20]
Nicole Wallace
Yeah. I mean, Michael Feinberg, I've been covering Donald Trump's assault on the rule of law since the transition after he won the first time since his sort of horrible start with Jeff Sessions, who I was never a fan of, but the way that he seemed to want to put Jeff Sessions and Rod Rosenstein and, and Comey under his wing until Comey was fired and then McKay. I mean, it's a story that's been going on so long, even people that have sort of been staring at the trees in the forest so long that the pine needles are indented on, on their face lose focus of the fact that the whole reason law enforcement was, with the whole reason this citizen was on the radar of law enforcement was because she was posted something that was in the newspaper. What does it say about how they're surveilling public citizens?
- [27:15]
Michael Feinberg
Nothing good. And it's obviously a cause for concern for everybody. And if you're a conservative who's not concerned by this, just try and imagine how you would have felt if the same thing happened under the Biden or Obama administrations. You know, I think all three of us are roughly the same generation. And when we were kids, there was a big scare about teenage drug use and a lot of frankly, cheesy and probably ineffective commercials to dissuade people from trying marijuana. And in one of them, a father angrily confronts his son. He's found a dime bag or something in the kid's drawer and proceeds to lecture him and then says, where on earth did you learn this? And, you know, in the shocking twist, the kid says, I learned it from watching you, dad. And that's basically what's happened with the Republican Party and federal law enforcement that has fallen under the sway of Trump is they've seen Trump repeatedly break the law, repeatedly get indicted in multiple jurisdictions at the federal and state level and with the connivance of the Supreme Court and the timing of the election, escape from all of it scot free. And the lesson they've internalized is that it's not so much whether you break a law that matters. It matters whether you could get away with it. The act itself isn't a moral transgression. The only thing you could fail at is escaping judgment. And that's a really dangerous lesson for anybody who carries a badge and gun in the implicit power of the state to have internalized.
- [29:06]
Nicole Wallace
Yeah, when you went to war on drugs, I went to the the eggs. Right? This is your brain. This is the brain. Isn't that the frying eggs?
- [29:14]
Michael Feinberg
Yep.
- [29:15]
Nicole Wallace
Those are seared in my brain. I still don't eat fried eggs. Mark Elias, Michael Feinberg. That was a lesson I got right. And it wasn't about drugs. It was about eggs. That's for another day. Thank you both for starting us off. When we come back, maybe it's jealousy then. A deeply umpire popular president is completely obsessed on his highly popular, deeply respected predecessor from two times ago. What former President Barack Obama makes of Donald Trump's obsession with him still, what it says about Donald Trump, that's next.
- [29:57]
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- [30:27]
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- [31:33]
Michael Feinberg
Obama did you see Barack Hussein Obama last night? D Barack Hussein Obama Catastrophe. It's really like the Barack Hussein Obama 1 in Chicago in not a good location. A gentleman name is Barack Hussein Obama. He said, what do you think of President Obama's speech? You go, Barack Hussein Obama.
- [32:01]
Mark Elias
Barack Obama.
- [32:03]
Michael Feinberg
I watched him speak today. Barack Hussein Obama.
- [32:06]
Mark Elias
Have you ever heard of him?
- [32:10]
Nicole Wallace
Problem for Trump is that everyone's heard the name and they still like him much more than they've ever liked Trump. But unfortunately for our ears and our sanity and because our kids are listening for the sake of our country and our standing around the world, that garbage still happens. It's going on a decade since former President Obama left office and he still lives completely rent free inside Donald Trump's head. It's an unprecedented and deeply unhealthy obsession on Trump's part. It's the most public display of inferiority and insecurity about the superior job that President Obama did and the real serious presidential focus and dedication and high job approval rating numbers and enduring likability and absence of scandal or any crimes ever committed. This week, President Obama actually responded with a very elegant jab, jab ish comment back and a whole lot of wisdom about why the story matters.
- [33:15]
Mark Elias
Look, you gotta ask him what it is that.
- [33:19]
Michael Feinberg
The obsession. The obsession.
- [33:21]
Molly Jong-Fast
I know what it is. Yeah. I obviously have a room in his hand rent free.
- [33:26]
Mark Elias
You do everything with grace. A sweet
- [33:30]
Molly Jong-Fast
in his head. But the thing about it is that
- [33:33]
Mark Elias
was always clear to me. Look, first of all, when I was president, the last thing I had time
- [33:39]
Molly Jong-Fast
to do was worry about what somebody said somebody said or what my predecessor did.
- [33:45]
Mark Elias
They're gone.
- [33:46]
Molly Jong-Fast
I've got work to do. You locked in.
- [33:48]
Mark Elias
It's hard to describe how if you're
- [33:50]
Molly Jong-Fast
doing the job right every day you've got five, 10 things that
- [33:57]
Michael Feinberg
are real
- [33:59]
Mark Elias
hard and you have to be constantly focused.
- [34:03]
Molly Jong-Fast
It shows me somebody who's not focused
- [34:06]
Michael Feinberg
on the American people and the job they're supposed to do.
- [34:11]
Nicole Wallace
Just putting it lightly. Can't even fix the reflecting pole. Joining our conversation is the host of Politics Nation, the president of the National Action Network, the Reverend Al Sharpton, and the host of Fast Politics, contributing writer for the New York Times, Molly Jong. Fast is here. Rev. It's the closest I've seen President Obama come to acknowledging that he knows what we all see, which is that Trump is totally obsessed with him.
- [34:40]
Molly Jong-Fast
He acknowledged it. And what was striking to me as I watched the tape is I've been around him as much as anybody outside of, you know, his inner circle and all in and out for years, including last week at the opening. We spent a couple minutes talking. He never brings Trump up. He's never brought up around me. And I think that the focus that he talked about he had as president, he's focused on now. He talks about the center he's building. He talks about world affairs, even in small talk, or he'll talk about his family, which is striking in terms of how it is the opposite of Trump. When you're around Trump, and I used to know Trump, Trump is always talking about someone else in the most derogatory term. Not only does he obsess on President Obama, who's everything he's not, I can't remember him being very complimentary of anyone. So I think it's his deep insecurity, and I think that Obama brings it out more than most because he's everything that Trump is not. He's well groomed, well educated, just has a graceful personality, and he's extremely successful. And he's black. And it's the kind of stuff that keeps Donald Trump up at night.
- [36:12]
Nicole Wallace
Molly the obsession on Trump's part with the person who isn't even his predecessor this time. Right. Was his predecessor the first time he was there is made more feeble by something else that President Obama says there, which is that they see each other. I mean, they've sat next to each other at funerals. And Trump went in and met with Obama in the Oval Office when he won the first time. Trump never says these things to his face. He doesn't have the, you know, what's to ever say anything to his face. They're just smears that he launches on his own social media platform. And inside the Oval Office behind the desk, they're like a cartoonish. They're like the Lego Joker attacking the Lego Batman.
- [36:58]
Reverend Al Sharpton
Yeah. And I think what's important to remember here is that Donald Trump ran for office. He came into politics on the Racist lie. That was birtherism. And, and I think what's really important here is it didn't work, right? It didn't work. It didn't even work a little. And if you look at, you know, I was just looking at this Gallup poll from 2025, which had Americans opinions of living presidents, and Obama is number one. Like birtherism did not work at all. And any, if anything, like what, Donald Trump's presidency, the first one and the second one have just made Obama more popular. And that's because when you look at him and when you hear him, you hear a person who is very thoughtful and took the presidency very seriously, and that we saw that, and that was what the American people saw. So I think that Donald Trump has this kind of adjective because none of these attacks worked even a little.
- [38:03]
Nicole Wallace
They do have consequences, though, and I have to sneak in a break, but they do. And I think Michelle Obama's written about this. I mean, they do make it important for them to worry about their safety. And there's some old, retired, foolish ex lawyer investigating them right now down in South Florida. So we'll talk about that on the other side of a short break. Don't go anymore.
- [38:39]
Molly Jong-Fast
If this, whoever you were talking about
- [38:42]
Michael Feinberg
was in front of me,
- [38:45]
Molly Jong-Fast
which has
- [38:46]
Mark Elias
happened a couple times.
- [38:46]
Michael Feinberg
He don't talk like that because he knows better.
- [38:51]
Molly Jong-Fast
It ain't never. And I think there is a.
- [38:55]
Mark Elias
That filter of the phone creates a situation both where people just say kind
- [39:00]
Molly Jong-Fast
of crazy stuff that they would never
- [39:02]
Mark Elias
say to your face with no consequences.
- [39:07]
Nicole Wallace
We're back with the Rev and Molly Rev. This is something that President Obama talked about in his convention speech, I guess, two years ago now. You know, the worst version of anyone, but especially Donald Trump, comes out behind a screen. It's just an interesting phenomenon to see amplified by President of the United States.
- [39:29]
Molly Jong-Fast
It's interesting because it also reflects how most people that express some kind of bigotry, some kind of feeling against people based on their race or gender or sexuality are really dealing with their own insecurities. So when you're dealing from a base of insecurity, you need the screen because you're really not that secure about yourself. And Trump has expressed that not only in what he says about President Obama or anyone else, he's expressed that with his constant need to be reaffirmed by people, to constantly need the need for people to kind of tell them, yeah, you're the greatest and all. And he never gets enough. I mean, here's a man that wants to put his name on every building in Washington, D.C. how many times do you need to see your name? But if you know him as I did in New York, he would manage buildings and put his name across the building like he owned them all of the west side Highway. So here's a guy that is screaming for some kind of recognition and confirmation by people that he's all right, and he's not all right.
- [40:45]
Nicole Wallace
I just have to put up the polls. Trump's approval rating is at 34%. 64% of Americans disapprove. You mentioned President Obama's standing as the most popular former president. His current favorability is 57%. Donald Trump's is 34%. I mean, he's almost twice as popular as Donald Trump. And Donald Trump has, as the Rev is saying, not just all the trappings of the office. He's literally muzzled half of the media organizations, only approved deals to put them under his political donor and friend, the Ellison family. And President Obama is still twice as popular as he is.
- [41:31]
Reverend Al Sharpton
Yeah, because President Obama created Obamacare. I mean, remember, before President Obama, people did not have health care. People. I mean, we still.
- [41:41]
Nicole Wallace
It's still not a perfect system.
- [41:42]
Reverend Al Sharpton
There's still a lot that should happen. But, you know, we have this option that we didn't have. I mean, I'm old enough to remember before that where there was, you know, people just would go to the emergency room. There was not this. You know, I think there's. There's certainly a place to go for it. You know, there. There's more to do with healthcare, certainly, and Democrats talk about that. But we, it's been. That's been a huge success, and there's been all sorts of successes. And, you know, he has a, you know, profound legacy as a president. And, you know, one of the things that, when you hear him talk about, you know, the decisions that you had to make as president and how serious they were and how heavy they were. And by the time, you know, he has this amazing quote where he says, by the time things have got, you know, got to. I'm butchering it. But, you know, by the time things got to my desk, they were, you know, unsolvable problems. I mean, this, you know, the way he treated the presidency and the. The gravitas that he brought to it are serious things that I think Americans appreciate. And certainly now at a moment where Donald Trump promised a ton of different things, and those things have not happened. He has not made things cheaper. We are still very much. This war with Iran is not solved. It's just to look back on someone who took it so seriously and whose word was their bond, it's really striking.
- [43:10]
Nicole Wallace
Who had no scandals, who did not breed algae in any of our monuments, who did not attack our allies, who did not start wars that he brought. I mean, the comparisons go on and on and I'm sure that's what drives Trump so nuts. Rev. We'll be watching you this weekend on Politics Nation, the Reverend Al Sharpton and Molly Zhang fast. Thank you for spending some time with us today on this quick break for us. We'll be right back. My guest on the newest episode of the Best People podcast is a familiar face to viewers of this program. Eddie Glad is someone I turn to in major moments of tragedy, triumph, big political moments, national emergencies, really anything. So naturally, with July 4th and the 250th anniversary of the country's founding coming up, we thought we should check in with Eddie and his new book. Here's his advice on how we might celebrate this year.
- [44:15]
Michael Feinberg
If our feet stand on solid ground in this moment, something's wrong. I want on July 4th, they're going to tell a host of lies. They're going to claim the country as theirs and theirs alone. And they want the rest of us to shut up, up, be grateful and disappear. I want us to show our that's what I want. And that could be with barbecues, it could be dance lines, it could be no kings marches. I want the full diversity of the country because the power of America has never been in the symbol, in the abstraction. The power of America has always been in its people. We just need to get clear on who those people are.
- [45:06]
Nicole Wallace
You can listen to the whole episode right now if you want to. It's available to premium subscribers starting today. You just scan the QR code to sign up for full access. The episode will be released to everyone on Monday with nothing bleeped out. I don't think One more break for us. We'll be right back. Thank you so much for letting us into your homes for another week of shows. We are always grateful. In the US there's a break in every 26 seconds. But when intruders step near Simplisafe home security steps up.
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