← The Beat with Ari Melber
The Beat with Ari Melber
Trump on Defense from Iran, Inflation, Epstein
00:41:21
New polling shows President Trump is losing support over his handling of multiple issues, including the Iran war, the Epstein scandal and inflation. MS NOW's Ari Melber is joined by Jason Johnson to discuss.
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- [00:00]
Narrator/Commercial Announcer
Watch Disclosure Day at home now with exclusive bonus features. If you found out we weren't alone, if someone showed you, proved it to you, would that frighten you? Well, now the truth belongs to 7 billion people in an original event film directed by Steven Spielberg, from a screenplay by David Koepp, starring Emily Blunt, Josh o', Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson and Colman Domingo. Find Disclosure Day on major digital platforms now with no subscription required. Also in theaters.
- [00:31]
Monday.com User/Advertiser
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Ari Melber
I absolutely love it.
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Ari Melber
Monday.com welcome to the beat, everyone. I'm Ari Melber. As we come on the air to start the week, we are exactly 99 days away from the election. You might say Donald Trump has 99 problems, and the midterms are one of them. And that's even according to his own advisors and allies. I'm going to show you some of the new numbers, including a special look at why both parties agree on one thing. If the elections were held tonight, Democrats would be in the lead position to retake power. So on the one hand, 99 days is still an eternity in politics, but on the other hand, both parties, their candidates, even some Trump advisors are absorbing that reality and reacting. Now, we begin, though, with the related fact that Donald Trump continues to bleed support from his own base. This is different. I'll just tell you from the midterm projections because that has to do with who will actually turn out and what else will happen. And we're going to get to that with some very special guests tonight. But our lead story is the toxic combination of Donald Trump's ongoing governing problems. The high prices he has in stemmed an Epstein scandal that won't go away even with Republicans controlling subpoena power. And now a war that continues long after Donald Trump said it would be done. Here's the new polling. Majorities disapprove of Trump's handling of many top issues. 65% on this economy, a higher 71%. When you ask just about the high prices and inflation that he has not only failed to stem, but the war has, of course, noticeably exacerbated. And then the War itself, that is the policy, not just how it's affecting your gas prices and pocketbook. Another 63% disapproving there. Ms. Now has reporting with sources saying that Trump's own advisers have basically conceded that things are so bad they must or at least are allowing Republican candidates to distance themselves from Trump. An operative saying you're not going to have candidates running out to defend the president's handling of the economy or the war. Republican insiders nervous about what some call a downright scary enthusiasm gap with conservatives just not excited to turn out for Donald Trump. That's Washington Post's reporting. The apathy reaching deep into the Republicans base, spreading to the party's, quote, most consistent voters. Now this is a real thing. If you've been watching our coverage here in the summer, which is a time period where sometimes people understandably take a break from politics or news or look away, I have shared a point that was as true last week as is true this week. As we start a new political week. There are certain things that Donald Trump can spin. Lord knows that he has had success telling his voters and his base all sorts of spin myths, sometimes outright lies about things and they seem to kind of go along with it. And then there are things over in reality, obviously, I just showed you some the reaction to the gas prices and the inflation, another Mideast forever war which he promised he wouldn't start. And in the reality side of the equation, it's much harder for Trump to just lie his way through. And so take some groups that have been predisposed to give Trump a chance and liked some of the things he said to them even. They, like young male conservative leaning voters, are turning away. And you don't just have to look at the polling I mentioned or our reporting tonight. This is a reality issue that's gotten to the point that they talk about it openly over on Fox where Tomi Lahren said young men are turning on MAGA and Trump.
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Monday.com Advertiser
I think you're gonna see especially some, maybe some young men who are frustrated that things are costing a lot. Maybe they can't get a high paying job. Again. There's a lot of issues that Republicans have yet to address. I think that they, but you have to answer something with something. You can't answer something with nothing. And you're gonna see a lot of people that are not happy with the status quo.
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Ari Melber
That's how it sounds over there. This disconnect. Politico also reporting that a quarter of people who voted for Trump believe the working class got substantial breaks from Trump's tax law, which Politico writes that signals how low public opinion is of the bill among his own base. That's to say nothing of the independent economists who warned about the cost and the deficit or liberals, progressives, labor, households and who say it just continues to widen the Wall street gap at a time when people need real support. Another poll found I should say that about a fifth of Republicans, 18%, say they're just financially worse off since Trump returned to office. Now, that may sound like a small portion, but if that fifth of Republicans doesn't want to vote for more of this more of the same, well, that's a huge midterm problem. Another humiliation coming out of that White House correspondents dinner where Trump gave his big speech. We're not going to show you much of that. But then he also had to sit through and watch as Wall Street Journal reporters were fed it and awarded for their past independent no holds bar journalism and coverage of the Epstein scandal, including the links to Trump. The footage you have here is how the president had to sit through that, all dressed up, all ready to have his big night. And then either he or his aides didn't get around to figuring out that this moment was coming as he tried to kind of laugh off and shrug off the fact that he was sitting listening to awards for the journalists who covered and documented that Trump signed this letter to Epstein for his birthday. That reporting was part of the onslaught that led to the release and the pressure of the Epstein files. I can mention that Donald Trump has vociferously denied being the author of that letter. They even sued the Journal over it. But the award and the legal status thus far has fallen much more on the verified side of the Journal's reporting and not the president's denial of his links and apparent praise of Epstein on his birthday. I want to bring in Jason Johnson, politics professor with Morgan State University, Mississippi, now political analyst as we start the week. Welcome back.
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Jason Johnson
Good to be here, Ari.
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Ari Melber
Great to have you. I mentioned this gap because the reality seems to keep catching up with him. And even over the weekend in that sort of event, he had his agenda, the speech that we didn't find super newsworthy. So we're not playing much of it here on this program. But he still had to sit through again, reality, the Wall Street Journal, owned by Rupert Murdoch, winning in court thus far to vindicate their reporting about him and Epstein, your view on the reality of all this?
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Jason Johnson
Well, the reality of all this is that, you know, whatever metaphor you want to use, Donald Trump is not as popular as he once was. He's not able to bring back the old hits. He's not able to intimidate people either in the press or in politics or even voters the way that he used to. He's not coming back for some big reunion tour over the summer. So him having to sit and not only hear people report on his misdeeds and his association with misdeeds and get awarded for it, but also having his own party members not back him up and not stand for him is an indicator of how weakened he is with only 99 days before the election.
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Ari Melber
99 as you know, special number to many of us. I want to put up more of this Fox polling, Jason, because you really see where the preferences fall. And this is not the automatic for the Democrats. They had struggled in 24 to get out their message on some of these issues. So when you see the trust going towards the Dems or perhaps you can tell us if you think it's also a rejection of Trump, but inequality, 20 plus edge, healthcare, inflation, a 10 edge, the economy, if you just say it writ large, it starts to shrink a little bit. Trump has had people who think that he's a businessman on that foreign policy. If you ask it that way, it kind of doesn't bring up the war plus seven. And then you get to the areas where security and crime, Trump is holding, but holding an edge that's far less than he used to have. What do you see in these current numbers from Fox?
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Jason Johnson
What I see is Donald Trump's inability to continue communicating with voters. Remember, we've talked about this already for several months to continue with the metaphor. Whenever Trump is asked about the economy, whenever he's talked about gas prices or inflation, he's basically saying, you know, hey, if you're having gas problems, I feel bad for you, son, because he doesn't really care. You look at what happened this weekend after giving a speech where again, he doesn't get a lot of laughs. The White House correspondents doesn't get a tremendous amount of attention. What is he doing today? He's posting Rick and Morty memes on his social media. Right? This is someone who has lost their ability to deliver messages to voters. And when that happens, people are just going to vote and they're going to do polls based on their lived experience. And their lived experience is completely separate from what they're hearing from the Republican Party. And Donald Trump can no longer control the narrative.
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Ari Melber
Rick and Morty, a great cartoon, but in the world of that cartoon as well, as its creator, Dan Harmon is pretty critical of Trump greed, right wing excess. I mean, it's not a political cartoon in its frame, but it's just funny. He's not exactly reaching for a Kid Rock meme. It's the problem he's had with a lot of other creatives and artists where he tries to say, oh, maybe I'm cool like them and I want to be in that conversation, just like with FIFA and soccer. And then he's tempting them to punch back. We'll watch for that. But it brings me to the next thing I wanted to show you, which is Larry Kudlow is a longtime economic politico. He worked for Trump. Talking about the charisma, or riz, as they say, that's lacking. Here's what he observes.
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Larry Kudlow
Call it swag, swagger, riz, aura, or just plain messaging, but the GOP doesn't have it. You're bungling everything. Nothing is getting done. Your messaging is non existent. You've lost your swag, your swagger, your riz, or whatever the young people say. No one knows what the heck you're doing, sir. They have no idea,
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Ari Melber
Jason.
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Jason Johnson
And that's Larry Kudlow. And here's the thing, Ari. I went in preparation for tonight, I went back and actually looked at the Republican party platform from 2024 right there in the first opening section that talks about how wars are a bad idea. Trump was going to end unnecessary wars because wars lead to inflation. In their own words, the Republicans are not following their own party platform. So if it's one thing, if your leadership is a little bit off, let Trump be Trump has been their attitude for 15 years now, but they can't even go back to what they put down in pen and paper in order to demonstrate to the people that they know what they're doing. It's common to have legislation sort of slow down during a campaign year, but it's completely different to have a Congress that can do nothing. They can't pass anything because when they try, Trump undermines it. They can't pass anything because when they try and sell it, Trump undermines it. This is a party in disarray. Regardless of what the New York Times wants to say about Democrats, the Republicans are the party in disarray 99 days out.
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John Delavole
Hmm.
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Ari Melber
Jason Johnson, good to have you lead us off. Thank you very much, sir. I'll tell folks what's coming up. We look at the details on that road to the midterms, and we have special guests on that. And new reporting on the jet corruption and by the end of the hour. We start the week here with your update on all the news and politics. But then we will get out to Media mogul Byron Allen is making his Beat debut. Interesting guy. We'll hear from him tonight. And I'll be back with you in 90 seconds.
- [12:30]
Narrator/Commercial Announcer
Watch disclosure Day at home now with exclusive bonus features. If you found out we weren't alone, if someone showed you, proved it to you, would that frighten you? Well, now the truth belongs to 7 billion people in an original event film directed by Steven Spielberg from a screenplay by David Koepp starring Emily Blunt, Josh o', Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson and Colman Domingo. Find Disclosure Day on major digital platforms now with no subscription required. Also in theaters.
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Monday.com Advertiser
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- [13:16]
Ms. Now Promoter
Join Ms. Now live in Texas for our biggest event yet with Rachel Maddow, Jen Psaki, Michael Steele and more. Mississippi now live together in Texas September 26th. Get tickets today at Ms. Now together.
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Ari Melber
99 days until the midterms. Democrats are hitting affordability Democratic leader Jeffries was campaigning in Pennsylvania. This was just yesterday. Contrasting what he says Trump's priorities for the country are with the financial struggles of most American people.
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Jason Johnson
MAGA Republicans can find money for Donald Trump's reckless war of choice in Iran. They can find money for his king like ballroom. They can find money to unleash ice brutality on American citizens and law abiding immigrant families. But when it comes to making your life more affordable, the cookie jar is empty.
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Ari Melber
That's the Democrats message. You'll know. It sort of sweeps up what's worked in some of these earlier races, including Mayor Mamdani's affordability push in New York and tries to make it very clear it is anti Trump but it's not obsessed with Trump personality, his attacks on the rule of law and democracy, all important issues that Democrats have hit before. This is laser focused on how it's too expensive to live in Trump's America and voters, some of them seem to agree.
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Narrator/Commercial Announcer
People are feeling the impact. Maybe they don't understand NATO, but they know their gas prices are high. They know that they're having trouble paying for things so that affects them.
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Ari Melber
Voters have a clear idea of how we got here. Half of the public sees the gas prices as at this point, financial hardship. A whopping 78% says the Trump administration just isn't focused on lowering prices, meaning they've paid attention and the public, overwhelmingly including Republicans, just doesn't think this is what he cares about. Now, Trump has demanded loyalty, but as I mentioned, this is new reporting that he is really changing it up. And this is a sign of perhaps weakness or flexibility. Whatever word you want to use, the reporting is that the sort of Republican mothership is saying yes. If candidates need to distance themselves from Trump and his policies to try to eke out a victory in these midterms, they can do it. Now, is that too little, too late? Well, take a listen. In Maine, a state that has been in the bullseye for Democrats precisely because Susan Collins has proven to be much more conservative and MAGA friendly and pro life than she ran on. We've been reporting on that. It's a must win state, really. And here's what we're hearing out there.
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Linda Killian
Susan Collins has voted with Donald Trump 96% of the time. She stood with Donald Trump. She stood with ice. My 83 year old neighbor has vote for, voted for Susan Collins her entire career. He said to me two days ago, he said, I'm done with her. She's too much in Trump's, in Trump's back pocket. So that is what this election is about.
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Ari Melber
If Susan Collins were voting as independently as she did earlier in her career, we checked and at one point it was about 60% with her party and 40% against, then she might have an accurate or logical message to those voters, hey, you could stick with her and still be against Trump. But she, like so much of the magnified Republican Party, can't land that as a true message with any voters who've been paying attention. And that's why these midterms are harder for the Republicans. Because while Trump did stage a big comeback in 24 and his numbers were higher and people wanted to run with him, he has completely squandered that political capital, that support and that polling in a rush. I mean, very quickly in the beginning of his second term. And that means a midterm that becomes a referendum on him is bad news for the Republicans. Now we've got two special guests on these latest numbers. When we come back. 99 days to the midterms, we're joined by our special guest that we booked just for this COUNTDOWN segment. John Delavole is director of polling at Harvard's Institute of Politics and Ms. Now contributor. And Linda Killian, historian, journalist, the author of the Swing Vote, the Untapped Power of Independence, who has come to us with both an independent perspective and an expertise on those independents who can matter so much. Welcome to both of you. John, what do you see as the state of play here 99 days out?
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John Delavole
So, a few things, Ari, and I know you talked earlier about the generic ballot. I'm not sure that's a story as good as a generic ballot looks today for Democrats plus 5 plus 7, plus 14, I think with independents. Linda can fill us in on that. But Democrats are also leading among important groups like younger voters, like women, about tied with men. But I think the bigger dynamic is this is an election based upon people's experiences.
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MLK Speech Narrator
Okay.
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John Delavole
Just like there was in 2024. Their experience is obviously driven by the lack of affordability and prices in the grocery store and gas, healthcare and of course, housing. More important, I think is a concern that two thirds, according to several recent polls, show that the economy in this system is rigged. But when you dig one step deeper and you ask which party is more aligned with the elites right now, the party that was supposed to be for the working class person in 2024, which is the Republican Party, is seen as significantly more aligned the elites today than Democrats. And I think that is the key to this election. Democrats are in a strong position right now and I think they could potentially be even stronger as the message moves from Washington D.C. to the individual states that are part of the battleground.
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Ari Melber
Yeah. And that populism is something that both parties have fought over. I mean, Trump was trying to hit a different message in 24, aware apparently of those feelings and now has sort of lost the traction there. One more quote for you, John, and then we'll bring Linda in. But on your point, I'm reading here from reporting where Republicans are scared. Here's a former Trump voter who says, we voted for Trump and he did the opposite of what he said he was gonna do. This is lance Silentic, a 56 year old retiree who spoke to the Post. Gas prices were going to be $2, food was going to be cheaper, energy prices were going to be in half. We were going to get two rebate checks to the American people. We weren't going to have any new wars. It goes on to say we were going to build a wall and deport 30 million illegal aliens. And then referring to Trump, he did none of it. Silentik telling the Post he'd either sit out this year's election or vote for Democrats. John, I picked that quote because it shows a person who listened to Trump who can tick off the campaign promises, remembers them and apparently has a report card that he's 0 for 5. Your thoughts on that?
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John Delavole
Yeah, Listen, Ari, we talk, I talk and listen to regular voters every single night of the week. I hear that time and time again. The coalition is narrowing by the day. I'll give you one other sad story I heard just last week. There's a former army an army veteran who hurt himself in his family restaurant, had to get stitches. He told me he had to choose between getting anesthesia and his rents because Donald Trump promised more affordability, promised he'd have more opportunity. Instead had to what he said raw dog the stitches, which cost $800 and had rather than foregoing Rex, these are the choices that millions of Americans are making and they tie it back to the failed promises of Donald Trump. A lot of people voted outside of their political values because they thought he'd be deliver on some of these things. And that's what I think the story of this election so far.
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Ari Melber
Linda?
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Linda Killian
Well, I assume you want me to talk about independents and where they stand in terms of this election. And I wanted to say the number of independents are creeping up. Gallup in January had the number at 45%. A CNN poll last month says 47% of voters say they are either independent or have no party affiliation. That's the largest voting group in the country and is almost the combined total of Republicans and Democrats in 10 states. Independents are the largest group of voters, including Arizona, Nevada and North Carolina. So these are important swing states. Now, what will they do in the election? Joe Manchin, a former Democratic senator from West Virginia, just last week announced he's creating something called the Independent Leadership Council along with his daughter Heather to support independent candidates around the country. Now, it's late in the game to recruit, train and support independent candidates, but there are already some running for the US Senate in Montana, Idaho and Nebraska and for governor of Maine and Maine, like you mentioned, Maine, it's super important state this time. Like Alaska, it has ranked choice voting, which makes it easier for independent candidates to succeed. And Angus King is an independent, so they're used to voting for independents. But young people and independents have an extremely negative view of both political parties. According to a recent Pew poll, Democrats have a 13% advantage with independent voters over Republicans and independents think the Republican Party is too extreme, but they're also undecided and they aren't sold on the Democrats. The Democrats have to close the deal. And just like those disaffected Republicans that you were talking about, it's a much harder sell to vote for Democrats than to just stay home. Probably a lot of those Republican voters will just stay home. The independents don't turn out in the midterms like the core party voters do. So they have to be excited to turn out.
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Ari Melber
And Linda, what do you see with younger people either who could be independents or are just a little more up for grabs and sporadic? Because we heard so much about younger men and Trump's advances there, and some of the new polling suggests that either they're lapsed MAGA or they're just not feeling it to. Linda.
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Linda Killian
Yeah, that's right. The MAGA young men may stay home or they might. I don't know. Maine is a great example. You talked about Maine and Susan Collins. There's been a lot of disarray up there. You know, they had the candidate, Graham Platner, and he withdrew after allegations of sexual assault. He was considered, I don't know, sort of a macho guy. That would appeal to those kind of voters. On Saturday, Maine Democrats picked Troy Jackson, an economic populist from northern Maine who worked on Bernie Sanders presidential campaign. He will challenge Collins. He may appeal to those kind of voters. He has sort of a working class demeanor. He's from northern Maine. And, and Trump has never been popular in Maine. Collins has hung on. But Trump has never carried Maine in three presidential elections.
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John Delavole
Yeah, John, I think, I think your point about younger people is important. Younger people, I think I study them at the Institute of Politics, are the key to this election. They were the key to Trump's failure in the 2018 midterms where 75% of young people who voted supported House Democrats. Okay. I don't think it's going to be that high and that we had record turnout among younger people. Twice as many young people voted in the 2008 midterm as in any midterm the previous 40 years. Okay. So I don't see that historic level of participation. But that's the difference, I think, between a good and a great night. For Democrats, it's essentially a toss up ari among Gen Xers and baby boomers. Okay. And it's a 10, 15 point lead among Gen zers and millennials. And the degree to which they're enthusiastic, they feel some agency that their vote can matter. That could be the tipping point in a lot of these battleground states.
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Ari Melber
Yeah, but Democrats excite.
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Byron Allen
Linda.
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Ari Melber
I'm running over, but I'll give you the last word.
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Linda Killian
Just like independents, Democrats have to excite these young voters. And it hasn't been done yet. They, they haven't done it yet.
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Young Student (Clip)
Hmm.
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Ari Melber
Exactly. Yeah, that's an exactly like where we are. You can see the disaffection with both sides there in that sense. John and Linda, thanks to both of you. We wanted to spend some time here as the countdown gets us closer to those midterms. We appreciate it. Later in the show, we look at MLK's economic message, how that's actually resonating today. But next, the Crypto Grift special. Look at that when we come back. The presidency is a full time job. That's one of those things you hear in the news and in movies, and it's a job that travels with you and it's 247 and all the pressure and all the work. And yet, one of the strangest things in the second term of Donald Trump's presidency is he is the first president in history to insist on doing other jobs on an ongoing basis. And these aren't, it turns out, small jobs. They have led to self enrichment and profiteering during his presidency of over a billion dollars already. And that's suspicious because he is supposed to be spending his time and energy on the job that he asked for and the American public gave him, which is the public service of running the country. And yet these disclosures, which are a reminder that some rules still work, have revealed about $2 billion in profits in his first year in office. And a firm tied to the UAE government getting able to buy basically half of a stake in one of Trump's companies. They spent about $500 million for a 49% stake. There's over a billion dollars in federal financing to develop a mineral venture in Kazakhstan, which might not be of great interest to Trump or the American public, except for when you find out that Donald Trump's adult children, his sons, are investors there. And then there's the jet that he took from the government of Qatar for $400 million of value. That is far more than anything the taxpayers are giving him, which raises the very real question of who he works for and whether these side jobs and side hustles and constant enrichment not only mean he's less focused on doing the job he asked, for, which I showed you polling earlier in the hour that suggests he's certainly, according to many people, not focused on lowering prices, but whether he has conflicts that actually betray the national security of the United States. None of this is normal and shouldn't be normalized. He's also pushing and promoting companies that he benefits from, which is a conflict of interest as well. World Liberty Financial is the Trump family's crypto Venture. It brought in hundreds of millions of dollars. A major investor alleges fraud. Eric Trump responded to those allegations by saying they're ridiculous and there's a suit going back and forth there. So by no means is that legally resol resolve. But the conflict isn't even in doubt. The president insists on making this kind of money and having these kind of conflicts while being president. He insists on these side jobs, these hustles. And remember, he told the public he was so rich he wouldn't need to worry about money. Like others in the swamp now, he has become the swampiest. An ethics expert says no president I can think of has ever exploited the office this way for their own personal monetary gain. Trump has also tried to use the office to protect various investments. He's got an executive order that basically tells the financial regulators to go soft on crypto, something he used to call a scam, but now he makes money off of over a billion dollars in crypto earnings last year. And if you want to look at it politically, the conflict is just a problem for the whole country. But it's Trump fans and his own supporters who have been ripped off the most. Buying his meme coin. John Oliver, the comic making some points that are really deadly serious.
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John Oliver
Maybe just assume that if you see the Trump family engaging in the future in a major crypto deal, probably with an embarrassingly unimaginative name, some shady is likely going down. Because if after hearing all this, you truly believe that everyone funneling money to Trump through crypto, including the spy shake, expects nothing in return and is just making a sound, rational business decision. And frankly, I have got a $6.2 million banana that I would like to sell you.
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Ari Melber
Oliver. Joking about people who would spend money on that kind of artistic rip off. They really did sell a banana as art for a lot of money. But of course, the point is we're all being ripped off and we're not crypto or art investors. And I will tell you, we always report these stories out. The White House is saying in a statement about this that neither the President nor his family has engaged or will engage in conflicts of interest. That's the kind of denial that reminds you they still need to hold up some pretense here. And some of this stuff is funneled through Trump's children instead of himself. But whether it's all one pot and how they share it is an open question. Republicans have a bill that would regulate aspects of crypto, but Democrats say it includes an odd Trump blessed provision at the doj where basically you can't trust the DOJ to deal with this under Trump. And they think at least the Democrats criticize this as a kind of an exemption for Trump. New York Times reports that in election years, corruption does not rank among the top issues that voters are concerned about. And so this is one of those things that matters a lot and we'll keep reporting on that shouldn't be normal, even if Trump apparently thinks this is the least of his many problems. Heading in to the midterms now I mentioned we've got some bigger stuff as we broaden our aperture on a Monday, we're going to look at economics and civil rights. When I come back, We are in a very rapidly shifting media landscape with the streamers battling it out, the media mergers drawing tons of attention, and a huge figure in all of this is a media mogul who is involved in much of the media you consume, whether you've seen him or not. Byron Allen actually began as a teenage comic making it big. His Allen Media Group owns dozens of well known brands and he's our Beat debut guest in a special conversation here. He's run the Weather Channel and now just acquired buzzfeed.
- [32:38]
Narrator/Commercial Announcer
The Hollywood Reporter says he's on pat of global domination.
- [32:43]
Byron Allen
Byron Allen, where are we? So this is our studio where we shoot our sitcoms and our game shows and our court shows.
- [32:52]
Jason Johnson
You're always bidding on something, Byron.
- [32:54]
Ari Melber
So you're in the market to purchase an NFL team. Allen made waves this year when he acquired the weather channel for $300 million.
- [33:02]
Larry Kudlow
You're buying everything you bought. Buzzfeed.
- [33:06]
Jason Johnson
His career is rooted in black ownership, media power and controlling the narrative from boardroom, not just the camera.
- [33:16]
Ari Melber
Byron Allen joins the Beat as part of our summit series. Byron Allen, thanks for being here.
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Byron Allen
Are you kidding me? First of all, I watch you all the time. I just want to say, Ari, I am totally flattered that you shaved for this interview. You were a clean shaven today. I watched your show. I go, did he just come back from camping? But no, today you shave for me. And I have to tell you, I am just honored.
- [33:47]
Ari Melber
So we're going to get to all the reasons you've been in the news, including the way you're building business in media, which is really interesting at a time of great shifts. But with where you started, you started out on stage as what they call the talent. How did that inform how you've built your own business to become an owner?
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Byron Allen
You know, I quickly learned that it's business show, not show business. You don't want to be out here and people, you know, deciding what you're good for, not good for. You're good enough, not good enough. And I just always appreciated the business side as much as the show side. And I knew that if I learned the business side, I can do as many shows as I wanted. And I was fortunate enough to start that, you know, when I was 18, 19 years old, that put me on the path to where I am today.
- [34:34]
Ari Melber
Yeah, you mentioned that. Age, really young. We pulled it. Let's take a look at you. 1979.
- [34:40]
Young Student (Clip)
Tonight's show favorite class is algebra.
- [34:43]
Ari Melber
Oh.
- [34:44]
Young Student (Clip)
See, because I have a real hip teacher, gives us problems we can relate to. It's like if Bob has a hundred
- [34:52]
Ari Melber
Hostess Twinkies,
- [34:56]
Young Student (Clip)
eats 87 of them. How many joints did he smoke? Study Thomas Jefferson and Guy wrote the Declaration of Independence. It's like, all men are created equal. While he was writing, he had three slaves in the background going, yes'm.
- [35:10]
MLK Speech Narrator
Uh huh. Uh huh.
- [35:11]
Young Student (Clip)
That's right.
- [35:15]
Ari Melber
Tell us about the confidence, what today they sometimes call the swagger. To just be out there that young on that kind of intimidating stage. And what do you know that that young guy might not have.
- [35:27]
Byron Allen
Oh, wow. You know, I was 18 at the time. It was something. I started doing standup when I was 14, and I never stopped doing standup. And it's just something I said, I'll do this for free for the rest of my life. And so when I got on that show with Johnny Carson, it was a dream come true. I'll never forget standing behind the curtain waiting to walk out there. And he stuck his head behind the curtain and said, kid, don't worry, you're going to be great. And the two guys who opened the curtain for you said, we've been opening this curtain for him for years and we've never seen him get up from his chair and say anything to anybody. And I said, wow.
- [36:07]
Ari Melber
And part of what you've emphasized, both in walking the walk, but also explaining what you're doing, what you're building, is challenging what has been a very white dominant market and capitalist system inside the United States. You've been very direct about that. You recently told the Breakfast Club, I saw you think it's important that, quote, black people are in the publicly traded markets. That's where you create great wealth. And that the greatest trade deficit is actually between what you call white corporate America and black America. Go ahead. What does that mean to you? What are you doing through your own work on that?
- [36:43]
Byron Allen
Well, thank you for asking me that question. You know, when Martin Luther King was assassinated in April of 68. I was 7 years old, and it was devastating for the nation and quite frankly, the world. And I've never seen my mom and my grandmother be in such emotional pain. And it was a mark in my life that will always remain. And I made it a point to get to know Coretta Scott King, Martin's widow, and to look at Martin through her eyes as only she could share. And I learned so much by getting to know her. And she said to me, you know, Byron, as black people in America, we've had four major challenges. Number one, end slavery. Number two, end Jim Crow. Number three, achieve civil rights, which I was born without. And number four, and she choked up and she said, the real reason they killed my Martin, achieve economic inclusion. She said, byron, they didn't kill my Martin over the I have a Dream speech or civil rights. They killed him over the speech he gave in February of 68 at Stanford University, the Other America. And in that speech, the other America, he said, there are two Americas. One America has access to opportunity, economic inclusion and education, and the other America does not.
- [38:16]
Ari Melber
Let me jump in and show a little bit of that for your exposition, since you say you watch the V. You know, we try to do our homework, and I know that address interests you. So let's take a look at the exact MLK speech that Byron's mentioning.
- [38:30]
MLK Speech Narrator
There's a great deal that the Negro must do and can do to amass political and economic power. But it is a cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps. And that is a great deal that the society can and must do if the Negro is to gain the economic security that he needs.
- [38:55]
Ari Melber
It's become very common these days in certain circles to say, well, things are a lot better, or we're basically past that. We'll just let the numbers show and you'll respond. Forbes looked at the 400 richest Americans. There's only four black people on that list, 12% of the country. But on that list, that's not 5%, 1%. It's. It's.01%, Byron.
- [39:19]
Byron Allen
Yeah, I mean, it's not, it's, you know, the Forbes 400 list. I mean, that's one indicator. But you can just look at the average household income for black America versus white America. You know, the. There's a huge gap, especially in the education gap, and we have to close that gap first. We have to make sure. And I've always said, look, you know, black America. They're killing us in the schoolroom by making sure we don't get a proper education. They're killing us in the boardroom by making sure we don't have real economic inclusion. They're killing us in the hospital room by making sure we don't have real access to good health care. And they're killing us in the courtroom by making sure we don't have equal justice law before they kill us in the streets.
- [40:13]
Ari Melber
I brought you some bars. Okay. On the point of black equity. This is from hov. You know hov?
- [40:21]
Byron Allen
Yes.
- [40:22]
Ari Melber
This is from what's Free. And his point is to draw the link that I think you've drawn between the original civil rights struggle and actually having black ownership and success today. He says, in the land of the free, were the blacks enslaved? Three fifths of a man, I believe is the phrase. And then he talks about what he's owned. I'm 50% of Doucet and it's debt free. 100% of Aces Fades worth half a B Roc Nation, half of that. That's my piece. 100% of title to bust it up with my GS. And then he has this lament. Most of us won't ever work together. You run a checkup, but they never give you leverage. And he says, we started without food in our mouth. They gave us pork and pig intestines. What you discarded, we ingested, made the project away. You came back reinvested and gentrified. It took our sense of pride. How's that free all them people that stole the soul and hit artists with 360s? I ain't got a billion streams, I got a billion dollars. What does that mean to you? And what's the leadership of building up ownership so you don't have to ask someone to come meet with you or do whatever because you're now in a different position.
- [41:32]
Monday.com User/Advertiser
Yeah.
- [41:32]
Byron Allen
You know, I love Jay Z, and that is pure genius, the way he expressed it. And that's why I love him so much. And it's perfectly stated, you know, that's the difference in ownership.
- [41:46]
Ari Melber
I'm going to turn to our lightning round. You should be good at this because you've been in media your whole life. Politicians struggle with it, but this will be in a word or a sentence. Buzzfeed.
- [41:59]
Byron Allen
Brilliant.
- [42:00]
Ari Melber
Johnny Carson, the greatest. Stephen Colbert,
- [42:07]
Byron Allen
Magnificent.
- [42:09]
Ari Melber
Finish this sentence. And this is where people want to learn from you. The most important thing in negotiating is balance. Being broke means
- [42:21]
Byron Allen
temporary mindset.
- [42:22]
Ari Melber
It Success means
- [42:26]
Byron Allen
pursuing your dreams with 1000% of your passion.
- [42:31]
Ari Melber
And reaching the summit means
- [42:35]
Byron Allen
never reaching it and always setting new goals and going higher.
- [42:39]
Ari Melber
From the business tips to equity to of course, the shaving tips. Appreciate you spending time with us tonight. Thank you, Byron.
- [42:50]
Byron Allen
Ari, keep shaving. Keep shaving, man.
- [42:55]
Monday.com User/Advertiser
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- [42:58]
Ari Melber
and I absolutely love it.
- [42:59]
Monday.com User/Advertiser
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- [43:09]
Ms. Now Promoter
on Monday.com join Ms. Now live in Texas for our biggest event yet with Rachel Maddow, Jen Psaki, Michael Steele and more, Mississippi now live together in Texas September 26th. Get tickets today at Ms. Now Together.
- [43:32]
Ari Melber
Thanks for spending time with us. Sometimes people ask me what's a good way to connect and I will tell you. Instagram is something we've been using a lot. So if you have an Instagram account you can go Ari Melber Follow me there. Send us messages. You can tell us what you thought about everything Byron Allen said tonight or the midterm chances. That's Remelbert on Instagram where you can see the other platforms. Thanks for spending time with us. I'll see you tomorrow night.
- [43:54]
Ms. Now Promoter
Listen to your favorite Ms. Now shows anytime as a podcast. Enjoy new episodes of Morning Joe, Deadline, White House and the Rachel Maddow Show.
- [44:04]
Byron Allen
Every small d Democratic muscle that we
- [44:07]
Ms. Now Promoter
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