← The Beat with Ari Melber
The Beat with Ari Melber
Trump Opposition Hits New High
00:41:40
MS NOW’s Ari Melber reports on President Trump’s plummeting approval ratings amid the Iran war and rising gas prices, and is joined by legendary political strategist James Carville.
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- [00:00]
James Carville
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- [00:31]
John Flannery
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Ari Melber
How can I help?
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LifeLock Customer
The IRS said I filed my return, but I haven't.
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Ari Melber
One in four tax paying Americans has
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LifeLock Narrator
paid the price of identity fraud.
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LifeLock Customer
What do I do?
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John Flannery
My refund though.
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Ari Melber
I'm freaking out. Don't worry, I can fix this.
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LifeLock Customer
I'm so relieved.
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Ari Melber
No problem.
- [00:49]
James Carville
I'll be with you every step of the way.
- [00:51]
LifeLock Narrator
One in four was a fraud paying American.
- [00:54]
Ari Melber
Not anymore.
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- [01:00]
Ari Melber
Welcome to Beat Everyone. We begin with Donald Trump's political crisis. This is a domestic story with international implications. Fox News has a poll. Think about the source. Showing a record 59% of Americans disapprove of Trump's presidency. Now that's the highest across both terms. Among Hispanics, it's far worse. Disapproval surging to 72%. And that's a group that he had actually made up some ground with in the last election. Trump faces scrutiny for failing across the board. It's not one failure like prices. And people say, well, presidents don't have sole control of the economy or just on foreign policy or just on the ICE tactics. It's basically disapproval across the board. On immigration, well, people don't like what they saw, especially over the last few months. Gas prices are now a dollar higher than a month ago. And that is a choice that is a direct result. Donald Trump made the choice to start the Iran war. Very few Americans were prepped for it or thought it was necessary and now they're paying for it, quite literally. White House officials reportedly examining what the continued spike in oil prices means for the broader economy because Bloomberg, a nonpartisan finance outlet, is reporting on how this could lead to a wider recession, which is something that even from a self interested perspective, Trump doesn't want because it would hurt him further in the midterms. As for the war, take a listen.
- [02:26]
James Carville
I won't use the word war because they say if you use the word war, that's maybe not a good thing to do. They don't like the word war because you're supposed to get approval. So I'll use the word military operation, which is really what it is. It's called a military decimation.
- [02:43]
Ari Melber
A verbal or superficial approach to these problems is not very appealing according to the polls. Donald Trump suggesting it's about words or branding. But real Americans are dying over there and using different words for that doesn't change that. Privately we're hearing that Trump still wants a speedy off ramp or an end. The Journal reporting on that. But of course wanting that and actually getting things at least back to the status quo, meaning less bad than after Trump started the war, is a challenge. Republicans are anxious we have an oil problem now because of the war and the problem in the Strait of Hormuz. Take one Alabama Republican who chairs the Armed Services Committee discussing the last Pentagon briefing.
- [03:26]
James Carville
They need to be able to give us more answers and I know, we know they have more, but they're being very tight lipped and, and I think that's being directed. We just wanted them to tell us what's the plan and we didn't get any answers.
- [03:44]
Ari Melber
What's the plan? They have no answers. That's from the hawkish Republican MAGA voice and that's in public. You don't have to be a political expert to imagine what he's really saying in private in that private briefing or when he calls into the White House and says we're doing what we can, but your failed war with high gas prices, that's unpopular, needs an end going into the midterms and it might even be more colorful than that. The point is the outer edge of opposition is already negative from the MAGA side, to say nothing of the broader polling I showed you. Speaker Mike Johnson made up an award to give to the president. Take that for what you will and take a look.
- [04:29]
John Flannery
He is the suitable and fitting recipient of the first ever America first award. We can think of no better title for what that is.
- [04:43]
Ari Melber
That's this beautiful golden statue here. The SNL Cold Open writes itself. We have a president talking about how maybe if he doesn't call his war a war, people won't notice we're at war. They've noticed. And we have the speaker of the House who I'll remind you is a very important position in line of succession to the presidency. Taking time out of running the country or trying to stop the airport madness in lines or reopen the DHS or reform ICE or deal with the war. No, he's taking time away from all that to give out what he admits are made up golden awards. I want to bring in our guest, James Carville. He's a legendary political strategist. He's no nonsense. And I'll tell you, James, right off the bat, I appreciate you being here. We don't have a fake gold statue for you.
- [05:33]
James Carville
Okay, man, Our feelings are hurt. I can't believe you Got to give me something.
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Ari Melber
Got to give you something.
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James Carville
Shift me one out of the night.
- [05:43]
Ari Melber
Can you speak to this contrast? Because these would be bad numbers if we weren't at war. These would be bad numbers if people weren't paying at the pump. But it seems a lot worse.
- [05:52]
James Carville
Well, we have the polling, all right, and it's universal. By the way, the FOX poll in election analysis is actually quite good. I got to give them a little credit. They have a definitive wall there. But I'm looking at polls, I'm looking at election returns and not just the Trump's Mar a Lago district. I'm looking at a state Senate district in Florida. I'm looking at races in Pennsylvania. I'm looking at races all over the country. And you're seeing the same thing in the stunning thing, all right, from a political professional's viewpoint is there's no geographic to it. It's all the same being lose by any between 10 to 14 points. It doesn't matter where it is. And I think that speaks a lot to the really precarious political situation that the Republican Party is in right now. Very, very precarious.
- [06:43]
Ari Melber
You say it's not just Mar a Lago, but it now includes Mar a Lago. We have some of that. Take a look at the reception to that flip. Democrats scored two major victories in yesterday's special elections. They flipped a state House seat in President Trump's home district.
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LifeLock Narrator
That includes Palm beach county, where President Trump's Mar a Lago home is located.
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Ari Melber
It's surprising in the sense that Donald Trump won this district by 11 points in 2024. They're able to win in Donald Trump's win backyard, which is a real kick in the golf balls for Moralardo. James.
- [07:19]
James Carville
No, go ahead. Well, let me we talk about the Mar A Lago seat. There was a state Senate seat that also flipped and Florida. And the significance is it was to fill a vacancy because the governor appointed that state senator to be lieutenant governor. You don't have to be a genius to figure out he was going to appoint somebody to a safe Republican seat. That would be the equivalent of appointing somebody from Indiana to the Senate. You know you're going to win. They lost that seat. And I thought, I think that's even more significant to have the same symbolism.
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Ari Melber
Yeah, let me slow you down because you're, you're so verse. I mean, I don't know how you remember every district in the, in the country. You know, I guess that's what some of the presidents have liked about you on the Democratic side. But you're, you're making the point that they had a choice and they said, okay, we'll do it in a mu, in a red area, that we will automatically win. And you're saying they still lost that.
- [08:13]
James Carville
Right. That he goes and the Republican state sense that cautious a seat, said, great, all right, it's great. We can't lose that district. And then you ended up losing that district, which tells me that we're going to penetrate pretty deep into red areas come November. It's pretty clear that that's happening right now.
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Ari Melber
On the war. You have Americans here about the policy. And look, in contrast to most past wars, there was no presentation to Congress. The public wasn't brief. There wasn't really any civic process. I know I sound old fashioned. So folks have gotten their information on this wherever they get it, including obviously at the pump. 42% of people say this makes us less safe. 20% say no difference, which means not worth it to pay higher prices. Only the 35% that would be sort of the sub maga core says more safe. What does that tell you as a polling and public opinion expert about a war that's only just gotten underway?
- [09:13]
James Carville
Well, at some point, most every war is popular at one time. I mean, even a Vietnam war one time, a golfer talking or something they came up with. The Iraq war was popular. This war has never been popular from the start. I mean, it just started in a bad place. And it's in a bad place. And I had a crusty aunt who was very outspoken and she told me when I was a young man, she said, son, let me tell you something, you know what wars and affairs, you know, they have in common? I said, no, ma'. Am. She said, easy to get into, hard to get out of. You know, I just, people just remember that anybody you can start a war, that's fine, then how do you end it? That's quite another that, that, that's more difficult question. And I suspect he's just going to walk out of there. What you saw, he did today, you know, remember the movie Gone? The guy said, you don't think we're just going to Pull up and walk out of here, do you said, yeah, that's exactly what you're going to do. You can pull up and you're going to walk out of India. And that's exactly what they did. He's just going to walk out of there.
- [10:16]
Baz Luhrmann
Boom.
- [10:17]
Ari Melber
Well, it sounds like you had a wise aunt in the Carvel family. The President. The President, you know, the President has pushed a lot of lies and disinformation, and it, it does seem different in war than other domains. He lied about the available intelligence about whether the US had hit that school in Iran. That's a major thing. He now is lying geostrategically, if you want to say, about the oil over there. I mean, I don't know who he thinks he's fooling, but people know that gas prices are up and people have some understanding of the Mideast has this oil and that's part of the strategic import to the United States. I mean, you know, you don't have to be a news junkie to know that. And yet he's here claiming, oh, well, maybe it's fine and maybe we don't need basically the oil that's coming out of that region. And everybody knows, James. I mean, I rarely speak this broadly, but I think everybody in America knows that if we didn't need any oil over there, we wouldn't be over there at all. So here he is lying about the Strait of Hormuz. Take a look.
- [11:24]
James Carville
The amazing thing is we don't need the Hormuz strain. We don't need it. We don't need it at all. We have so much oil. Our country is not affected by this. We have more. We have twice the amount of oil as Saudi Arabia or Russia, and soon it'll be three times the amount
- [11:45]
Ari Melber
we are affected. A lot of policy planners say we need it. Indeed, it was one of the points, as you know, and there's been plenty of articles about this, that in multiple administrations, James, our best minds, nsa, CIA and Intel, said you can do a lot against Iran from the air, but they have these economic oil countermeasures. My question to you on the presentation on the politics, even if you want to call it that, is, does it work when he lies like this about this?
- [12:13]
James Carville
Well, I'm partly Daniel Yerik, an energy expert, but it's insane. Oil is a world price. So maybe we don't get the oil that comes out of the Persian Gulf, but it affects the price of it, so it ends up at the bank because it's a worldwide commodity of two different things, WTI and Brent. But forget that. When it goes up, it doesn't matter where you get it from. And I actually think he's that stupid that he doesn't understand. I don't think he's just lying to try to save his political self. Of course he's doing that. I think he's too stupid to understand that the price of oil is a worldwide commodity and it's set in world markets. And if it goes up somewhere, it goes up here. It's that simple, right?
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Ari Melber
That it's all, it's, as you said, global supply and demand, interdependent. James, stay with me. We have our shortest break. 90 seconds. And I want to get into some of this. Vote by mail next.
- [13:14]
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- [14:27]
Baz Luhrmann
Make it quick, young man.
- [14:30]
LifeLock Customer
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- [14:33]
James Carville
I think we should call a doctor.
- [14:36]
Ari Melber
Connecting homeowners with skills Skilled pros for over 30 years. Angie the one you trust to find the ones you trust. Find pros for all your home projects@angie.com we're back with James Carville. Donald Trump votes by mail. He also attacks voting by mail. That's hard to square. Take a look.
- [14:57]
James Carville
Tell me about mail in ballots going I I. You mean I use the mail in ballot? You probably said, yeah, I did. You Know what? Because I'm President of the United States and because of the fact that I'm President of the United States, I did a mail in ballot for elections that took place in Florida because I felt I should be here instead of being in the beautiful sunshine taking Palm beach,
- [15:18]
Ari Melber
sir, the last few weekends.
- [15:19]
James Carville
That's right.
- [15:22]
Ari Melber
That's right. James.
- [15:24]
James Carville
You know that he's a hypocrite is hardly news to anybody. I think majority of them voting in like Utah, Colorado, Oregon, there's all kinds of bombs, vote by mail. And what he's really doing is trying to say people, non white people are trying to steal a country from you by voting by mail. But that's, come on, that's that he, he knows that better than that. Everybody knows better than that. That's just, to me, that's just coded racist talk, plain and simple. There's something about that much election fraud in this country and they keep bringing it up and it's just a way that they can say a, a certain word without saying a certain word to me. That's all it is, period.
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Ari Melber
Yeah,
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James Carville
what he's saying, if you're white, you want to vote by mail, that's fine. So I hate to say that, but I really believe it. And that's what I really believe. And I really believe that's what he's trying to tell us. It's okay for you and I, but not for other people.
- [16:26]
Ari Melber
Right. And I know you hate to say it because you hate to make any inference about a, a sitting president trafficking in racism or voter suppression, but he's already admitted that he's posted racist ape videos. We didn't show them on this program, but he's, he's, he's in all that. So it's, I, I, I take you to say patriotically you wish it weren't. So go ahead.
- [16:50]
James Carville
I know, I, I, we know it's true. And you come to the point where you know something is true, but you can't say it and you know it's true. Well, of course you can say it. And let me tell you, there's, I, I don't think there's 5% of the non white people in the country that would disagree with me. And this is what he's really saying. And this is, when they, they put this out, this is what they really mean because the problem of voter fraud in this country is minuscule. And whenever you want to say the word without saying the word, you talk, you talk about voter fraud. And that's his, he, he's that's his coded message to, I don't know, his supporters or whatever you call him. But Barry, you got to understand, 35% of people in this country will believe anything. But the fact that 65 are not fooled is a celebratory number. That's a good number. I like 65 and it makes sense.
- [17:44]
Ari Melber
Although you got to keep in mind 72% of statistics are made up.
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James Carville
You know, I mean, you know, large figure figures lie, but you know, the, if you see the consistency of election returns, they're not made up.
- [18:01]
Ari Melber
And those are the results of the people. And as we see the people, the story doesn't say the same. The people have moved. It's not November 24th. There's a super majority, as I mentioned in this week, against a lot of what Trump's doing. James Carville, on more than one topic. Always good to see you, sir.
- [18:17]
James Carville
Thank you. I enjoy. Remember this, inflation is supposed to go to 4.2%. If that happens, the Republicans are going to fall under 42%.
- [18:26]
Ari Melber
There you go. It's the inflation, stupid. Thank you, James. Appreciate it. Coming up, John Flannery is here on Donald Trump's losing streak, which has him lashing out against judges. There's also outrage over the million dollar plus payout of your taxpayer dollars to Michael Flynn who pled guilty in that Mueller probe. And by the end of the hour, we have something special for you tonight. The acclaimed director Baz Luhrmann makes his Beat debut. He's worked with some of the top Hollywood stars. Elvis Gray, Gatsby. We're excited to have him.
- [18:56]
James Carville
Bring that bass up, Jerry. I wish to promote you, Mr. Presley. I believe I can be great. Some people wanted to put me in jail. It's the whales movie. I will tell you God's truth, God's truth about myself.
- [19:16]
John Flannery
But I had the uneasy feeling that
- [19:18]
Ari Melber
he was guarding secrets.
- [19:27]
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- [19:58]
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- [20:57]
Ari Melber
Donald Trump is losing a lot in court, even though he's made the DOJ more partisan this term than during his first term, when he had an attorney general who actually followed the binding DOJ rules that led to the appointment of Special Counsel Mueller, for example, who just passed away last weekend. The end of a legal era. That's relevant because the current DOJ and FBI leaders blatantly break rules. AG Bondi accused of breaking the Epstein Law, of lying to the public, of misleading Congress. The FBI director you see there, his behavior kind of speaks for itself. So she and the FBI are going after Trump's enemies list, probing and indicting the people that Trump publicly demands. You can see the results here. Now that can be illegal itself, but they've done it so incompetently that they keep losing. The green stamps show cases that have already fallen apart and been tossed. Trump's DOJ has had these cases stumble at early stages, lose sometimes. Bondi's chosen prosecutors actually fail so badly they've lost their own entire DOJ jobs in the process, courts disqualifying them because they didn't get the required Senate approval to hold the job permanently. That's bad. DOJ keeps losing. They should be chastened. They should follow the rulings and the law. But instead, AJ Bondi has been going full aaliyah. If at first DOJ don't succeed, dust yourself off and try again, try again. Bondi is trying again on the losing quest to convict former FBI Director Comey. The news tonight is I've ginned up a new subpoena that's after Trump's current AG and FBI director failed to bill a valid case against him before, let alone win it. Keep in mind the current FBI director under Trump is literally trying to jail the former FBI director on thin, sometimes meaningless, baseless charges. Ditto for New York Attorney General James. The Fed's trying again Aaliyah style, after their last case was dismissed. At the start, evidence suggests these cases are illegal. Selective prosecution. And it's not just this Lane. Trump is also losing cases on policy. His signature tariffs, of course, smacked down by the Supreme Court. That included his own appointees ruling that he was powerless under law to do that kind of trade war without Congress. That's just the law. Trump responding by saying he's, quote, sickened by those judges, independents, basically. That because they're doing a judicial job, what they're supposed to do, rather than being his blind partisans, that's a problem. And he falsely claims the judges have become some kind of criminal if they rule against him.
- [23:42]
James Carville
We got rogue judges that are criminals. They're criminals. What they do to our country, the decisions that they hand down and hurt our country. And not that it matters, does it matter at all, but two of the people that voted for that I appointed and they sicken me.
- [24:04]
Ari Melber
Doesn't matter at all. But he's giving a speech about it. It doesn't matter, but he's sickened. You're seeing failure and loss in public from someone who's, for all of his vaunted PR tactics, employees, he's currently maybe not very disciplined or effective at holding back the conflicting message, the anger, the loss. Now he's gone beyond just that complaint. He's pitching an actual bill that would try to target what he calls rogue judges. While Bondi's deputy blames judges for their losses and admits plans to try to move cases to more friendly MAGA areas, we see our most activist judges that
- [24:46]
James Carville
we lose to every single day
- [24:50]
Ari Melber
are without a doubt nothing more than an extension of the partisan arm of which they came from. There's a lot of ways that we can work within that to get some of our cases where we want them to be, where we're going to have a judge that we know is going to be fair. So he admits they're losing and they want a judge shot. The DOJ is also now paying former defendants from the Mueller probe. Mueller, of course, back in the news this past week with his passing, they are handing over a million dollars to a Trump vet. You might recall Michael Flynn claiming that Mueller wrongly prosecuted him over false statements. Of course, Flynn was a grown up and he pled guilty in that very case. The payment, an extraordinary effort of relief for Trump allies, the New York Times notes. Now, does Trump really suddenly care about getting some money to a former aide. It's your taxpayer money, by the way. But we're talking about someone, Donald Trump, who's long stiffed his own employees and aides when it comes to money. Or is this more about setting a precedent to enrich himself to get that kind of payment to himself? We keep track of this, even if sometimes it's all a little bit of a blizzard. So let me remind you, to his great shame and loss, Donald Trump tried and failed to ram through a plan to PILFER A whopping $230 million of taxpayer money. This term, using a similar format as this brand new Flynn payment that the DOJ should reimburse him for his own mistakes that led to those probes. Now, Trump failed to get that done so far. Even his partisan DOJ opposed approving something that was a legal conflict of interest that judges might quickly block. Experts, if you're curious, also said that the federal law they were citing actually bans that kind of large punitive damage payment, if you're keeping track. And Republicans viewed it as a kind of political suicide to take that much money from the public and put it in Trump's pocket while he's the sitting president. No president's ever done that. And yet now the Trump DOJ seems oddly interested again in pushing a similar maga enriching legal theory. Dust yourself off and try again, if you will. So when will the people be mad enough that they don't take it anymore, as the old saying goes? We will ask veteran prosecutor John Flannery next. Why is there objection to sending ICE officers to polling places?
- [27:18]
James Carville
Illegals can't vote.
- [27:23]
Ari Melber
It doesn't make any sense. Why? Why is there. Well, they. They can vote. They just shouldn't vote. Right?
- [27:29]
James Carville
That's.
- [27:29]
Ari Melber
Amen. That's right. I mean, listen. Why? What is the objection? Your deputy attorney general using what in law school they call the Socratic method, but in this case is just kind of a BS straw man question to suggest that maybe he will allow something that is barred by federal law. ICE agents doing voter suppression. I want to bring in former federal prosecutor and congressional counsel John Flannery. I just walked through how Trump is losing a lot in court, but lashing out and then floating new payments to Mike Flynn after he failed to get himself paid. How do you see all of those losses and sort of outrageous complaints tying together from Trump?
- [28:13]
John Flannery
Well, I think your presentation was excellent. And the question is, how do you synthesize it? But there are common themes that exist. We just saw a deputy attorney general who has a Bar license, supposedly railing against justices of the court, two associate justices appointed by his boss, the President Trump. And he thinks that he can just ignore that fact and say that the judges are wrong and rogue when he's taken an oath to respect the law and he knows the avenues by which you test the law. And he. He's not doing that. The simplest way I think I can describe it is that we have an injustice system with the current battery of people coming down from Trump, who is flailing and is flailing about what he can say and should say. And I think we have an amazing situation in which we have. Justice has become a coincidence of the system, not a consequence of it. One of my heroes, Justice Breyer, spoke strongly in various books and speeches that he gave. And he says the law in America is dependent upon the people trusting the decisions we make to be right. Trump every day gives us reason to know they're not right, that they're wrong, that they're selective of certain people. And it's not just to hurt those people. He also goes after the function of that office. But who does he get to do it? He gets a deputy attorney general that apparently can't find the law on his hindquarters. And we have these people going into court who have no idea how to present a case. They just are going to do the bidding of a president who's outside the court. The conflicts are just amazing. When Trump says, I am your retribution, he's talking about everybody. And retribution suggests that there's something that happened that was wrong to him. Everything that's happened to him has been lawful, just as was true of Flynn. What happened to him was lawful. And so you have a president perhaps paving the way to get money himself by giving money to this fella who doesn't deserve it, who, as you said, pleaded guilty in the case. Yeah.
- [30:28]
Ari Melber
Again, we have to look at the evidence we have. There's no record of Donald Trump being concerned about getting money to his aides, government or private professional employees. So that's an aberration. Then you add to that that people might forget that when he tried to get 200m, he couldn't even get that out of the very partisan leadership at doj. And then you add all the court losses, so the volume is high. And they almost want people to think it's not going as badly as it is. But here are more headlines. Judge sides with New York Times against the Pentagon under Trump. Supreme Court on the tariffs I mentioned US Must allow those deported Venezuelans to return for hearings. Trump ban on wind energy actually was unlawful. You know, people can understandably be busy living their lives and worrying about gas prices that they don't realize or know that while there are many problems, and I don't minimize them on this in this reporting, this is the greatest string of losses in just over a year of a president that we've seen.
- [31:32]
James Carville
Right.
- [31:33]
John Flannery
And the.
- [31:34]
James Carville
The.
- [31:34]
John Flannery
One of the clearest examples that I think the people can understand well, is because they've seen it, that the head of the reserve is going to be brought into an investigation about funds spent on upgrading the buildings in which they exist. And the judge, when dismissing the subpoenas, said there was no evidence of the underlying offense, which is the predicate for the grand jury subpoenas. That says several things. It says, we started with a frivolous case. We did a selective prosecution for political reasons, not for any other reason. And we hoped that we would succeed at it and we'll probably try again. The same with the attorney general from New York. The same with Comey. The same with all of these people. I mean, it's hard to believe that Fauci is still listed among the people that's compromised for what he did that was good for America to squeeze him at his advanced age. This is an administration that believes in the power of the fist, and with that fist, they hope to scare anybody who's not already named of the 467 different approaches. So all different people that have schools, the law firms, you name it, they're everywhere. And all the people who have been, if you will, platforms for resisting a government that is autocratic and tending toward monarchy and a government that's going into wars and affecting us in a military sense, in a domestic sense, at home as well, with how we take care of the airports, how we take care of the election day. And so the question is, do the people get it? Watch this Saturday, millions of people are going to come out again. They know what's happening. Look at the polls. Those are real numbers, by the way. Those are people who vote on those things, who say, this is not working. The people of America are better than our government, and at some point, we're going to hit the breaking point. And when you are attacking Garrett and Gorsuch because you don't like their decision, you no longer have the people on your side, from your view, who will give up their judgment and do whatever you want and play the fool. And that's where we are. So I think America is pivoting. And the question is, will our, quote, president get so desperate that he'll put us at more risk than we already are because of his misconduct in office.
- [33:54]
Ari Melber
Well, and you're bringing it to the fundamentals for the people, by the people and up to the people, which, as you say, is part of what people are going to do exercising their rights this weekend. John Flannery, always good to see you. I want to tell folks what's coming up because we are going to look at how you can overcome fear. The beat debut of a great artist, Baz Luhrmann next.
- [34:16]
LifeLock Customer
Then have my lips the sin that
- [34:17]
Baz Luhrmann
they have took Sin from my lips.
- [34:20]
James Carville
O trespass sweetly urged.
- [34:21]
Ari Melber
Give me my sin again. You kiss by the book, you see,
- [34:28]
Baz Luhrmann
I've forgotten if the green of the blue.
- [34:41]
Ari Melber
My next guest is an auteur at the summit of his field. Considered one of the great living filmmakers. Baz Luhrmann is the Australian director, writer and producer who's done it all. He's worked with legendary stars across film, music, tv, fashion worlds as well. He's considered the most commercially successful Australian director, if you're keeping track by country. Two time Oscar nominee, Golden Globe winner with iconic films and a signature style you recognize immediately.
- [35:08]
LifeLock Customer
A thousand times good night.
- [35:10]
James Carville
Thousand times the worst.
- [35:11]
Baz Luhrmann
To want thy light.
- [35:18]
Ari Melber
I'm gatsby. Baz Luhrmann, I love you. Thank you for believing in me in those moments that I didn't even believe in myself.
- [35:33]
James Carville
It was the greatest carnival attraction I'd ever seen.
- [35:52]
Ari Melber
His new project, Elvis in Concert, out now, features new discovered footage that came from the process of the 2022 legend film. Baz Luhrmann is here. Welcome. And I'm gonna let people behind the curtain. You just went into our control room to direct our opening. So let's. Let's get into that.
- [36:11]
Baz Luhrmann
I couldn't help it. All right? I just walking by, I see a crew, I start waving my hands around and things happen. It's not my fault.
- [36:17]
Ari Melber
And you wanted a close up of the Elvis.
- [36:19]
Baz Luhrmann
Well, I thought we started like an issue here. Pull back nice and slow. Good. Like, let's get tight. Let's get tight. A little tighter, a little tighter. Tighten up, tighten up. We went in here. This is good.
- [36:28]
Ari Melber
Even tighter. You want really tight.
- [36:30]
Baz Luhrmann
Let's go. Ecu.
- [36:31]
Ari Melber
Yeah, yeah.
- [36:31]
Baz Luhrmann
Tighten up. Tight. Get a all black, all black kick. Tight, tight and holding simple. Pulling back real fast. Now jam back and let's do an epic slam back pan right.
- [36:41]
Ari Melber
Go on to Ari.
- [36:41]
John Flannery
All right.
- [36:42]
Baz Luhrmann
Pick it up and go too.
- [36:43]
Ari Melber
Okay, See, that's how it's done. I love it. Welcome on this new project you started in a salt mine.
- [36:51]
Baz Luhrmann
It's an accidental film because I was working on Elvis the movie. I'd heard from a guy called Ernst Jorgenstein about this mythical one reel of the showroom in Vegas that I thought I might use in the film. He'd be able to go down, send someone down the salt mine and go down. And it's a bit like Raiders of the Lost Ark, you know, da da da da. Bang. Doors open, dust. And there were 65 boxes, some with material missing, some misnamed, but 65 boxes of Elvis in his prime. This one audio take of Elvis, really unusual, talking about his life unguarded. And that was the light bulb to say, what if we made a film where Elvis just tells you his life story and then sings about it as well? That's kind of how it came about.
- [37:41]
Ari Melber
And then you say, actually now I've got what is essentially a documentary or a concert film. You'll tell us more. Let's take a look though, at Elvis coming out on stage.
- [37:53]
James Carville
I see people of all different ages and things, things out there. You know, if I do something good, they let me know. If I don't, they let me know that whether it's 6 or 6,000, it doesn't really matter. It's just they, they bring it out of me, the ham.
- [38:08]
Ari Melber
Elvis was a myth maker. He came out and embodied his fantasy. Yeah. And then people put their projections onto him.
- [38:15]
John Flannery
For sure.
- [38:16]
Ari Melber
You brought him back and to a new generation. One could argue it's happening with a fictional film.
- [38:21]
Baz Luhrmann
Yeah.
- [38:22]
Ari Melber
And now you're back to the real Elvis. How do you keep track and what's different about the image versus the man?
- [38:28]
Baz Luhrmann
Yeah. Well, I'm glad you bring it up. You said it really well. He says it. He says, well, it's very hard to live up to an image. Right. The image is one thing and the man is another.
- [38:38]
Ari Melber
Does being sensitive make you a better artist?
- [38:41]
Baz Luhrmann
I think all artists in some way or other are kind of self medicating through something that is inside them, something that is problematic. That comes from childhood.
- [38:55]
Ari Melber
When we sat down, we were talking about your work with Jay Z and I had to almost stop you just to get the camera rolling. I want to show a little bit this Gatsby. I want to show Gatsby where again, you mix. It's not even right for me to say you mix the old and new. It's more than that. You draw on both to show us the appreciation. Let's just look a little bit of Gatsby Carter, New Kennedy. No ordinary joke.
- [39:19]
James Carville
You will remember me when it comes to Jesus.
- [39:21]
Ari Melber
Well, I'm the lobster.
- [39:22]
James Carville
It's decorated with truffles and fine herbs.
- [39:24]
Ari Melber
No prohibition from a coalition. I need a hundred bricks on them. Hundred bucks. I got A hundred drops, 100 cops. A hundred dollar bill real.
- [39:33]
Baz Luhrmann
I see you got the. You got the, you know, the hov Did.
- [39:36]
Ari Melber
Yeah. Yes, sir.
- [39:37]
Baz Luhrmann
Yeah. Jay was amazing because I went to him, I said, look, Fitzgerald put in the text a black street music called jazz. And at that time, it was so radical and edgy and people were like, why are you doing that? It's just gonna be a fad now. I love jazz, but it is kind of charming. You know, it's hard to get people to feel. What was that like? And I said to Jay, you know, like, that would be like your music, rap music, you know, you make that kind of music. And he didn't even. I didn't even show him the tape. I think I might have shown him. He just said, we're doing this. It was a two second conversation. We are doing this. And that journey with Jay on translating, that's what it is. I'm translating a classical text. It's not just what it was, but what did it feel like?
- [40:28]
Ari Melber
Tell me. You correct me accordingly. But is it that you're saying, by weaving modern, what some people consider modern, rebellious sounds into this older story, we now can see the characters as they were in their moment.
- [40:41]
Baz Luhrmann
That's right. It's exact. Exactly what I'm saying.
- [40:43]
James Carville
It's exact.
- [40:43]
Baz Luhrmann
Well, it's not what I'm saying.
- [40:44]
Ari Melber
It's what you're doing. Yeah, doing.
- [40:46]
Baz Luhrmann
It's my job. My job is to take like, you know, classical material. It's interesting to talk about what's classical. I would say the Beatles are now
- [40:55]
Ari Melber
classical, which is funny, right?
- [40:57]
Baz Luhrmann
In a sense.
- [40:57]
James Carville
Right.
- [40:57]
Baz Luhrmann
But they are. They're so great. They've moved through time and geography so much that we can now say that that music is eternal. Some of that music they wrote, from the moment you hear Blackbird, you know, you go, oh, you know, hasn't that been around forever?
- [41:11]
Ari Melber
I find you very high energy. It's almost contagious. I read that someone said you make coffee nervous. And now I'm getting it.
- [41:19]
Baz Luhrmann
I do drink a lot of coffee.
- [41:20]
Ari Melber
That doesn't surprise me either.
- [41:22]
Baz Luhrmann
I think coffee makes me nervous.
- [41:23]
Ari Melber
You look at these big hits and some people, I guess with Elvis, they say, oh, you've discovered someone. But when you look at Tom Hanks and Leo and Nicole and people Want to do these kind of shows with you. What. What are you doing behind the scenes to make that happen or it's natural.
- [41:38]
Baz Luhrmann
I mean, we. I. It's a really good question, Ari, and I'll try and explain it simply. I don't work in a traditional way. I mean, even from finding the actors, I do workshops. I don't do auditions. I actually say, what can I learn with you in my room? My job is to get you this role no matter what anyone thinks. And what can I learn from this scene? I have a privilege of having you in my room. Let's work for three hours. Let's work for a day. What can we find out about this scene? Forget whether we do it or not. That's one thing. Second thing is to be that free to play. It's called play. Acting a screenplay. We play an instrument. Children play brilliantly, but if they're frightened, they can't play. So I create a world around the movie where fear is kept away and we can play. So I keep fear out of the room and I build a world with the actors and we build it together and we share it. And I'm kind of captain of the storytelling. But I'm not fearful of anything once I know the story so well that if an actor is free to play, I say, yep, let's do that.
- [42:40]
Ari Melber
The final round here is going to be easy for you, but also hard for you. It's a lightning round.
- [42:46]
Baz Luhrmann
I should try to be fast.
- [42:47]
Ari Melber
It's in a sentence.
- [42:49]
Baz Luhrmann
Okay.
- [42:50]
Ari Melber
Okay.
- [42:50]
Baz Luhrmann
Uh huh.
- [42:52]
Ari Melber
Tom Hanks is.
- [42:54]
Baz Luhrmann
Oh. The finest human being and actor one could wish to be around. Elvis means humanity, heart, empathy, kindness, decency, and a voice like Orpheus and a body that shakes a building.
- [43:20]
Ari Melber
America or Australia?
- [43:22]
Baz Luhrmann
Well, I say dream in Paris, have fun in London. If you have money, dance in Brazil, get lost in Japan. Australia is home. Work in LA now and then, but kind of live in New York.
- [43:36]
Ari Melber
Writing or directing?
- [43:37]
Baz Luhrmann
Since you do both, There is no writing, directing, editing. It's all just one act in the act of telling a story.
- [43:48]
Ari Melber
Best advice you've gotten,
- [43:52]
Baz Luhrmann
don't wait for permission, get on and do it.
- [43:55]
Ari Melber
Failure means
- [43:59]
Baz Luhrmann
that after the pain, you will grow.
- [44:05]
Ari Melber
Success means
- [44:10]
Baz Luhrmann
if you think you have success, you probably don't.
- [44:18]
Ari Melber
We've dubbed you a maverick here in esteemed company. Thank you, series.
- [44:23]
Baz Luhrmann
Am I being knighted?
- [44:24]
Ari Melber
You were being knighted.
- [44:25]
Baz Luhrmann
Yeah.
- [44:25]
James Carville
Yeah.
- [44:26]
Ari Melber
It's. The thing about live television or television news is, you know, we just say it. We don't have any ceremony, then we're done. It's faster that way.
- [44:33]
Baz Luhrmann
That's beautiful.
- [44:34]
Ari Melber
You've been knighted.
- [44:35]
Baz Luhrmann
I I, I'm actually genuinely on it.
- [44:37]
Ari Melber
I think a lot of people could both be inspired by and learn from how you've done your work and your art. So thank you for being here.
- [44:43]
Baz Luhrmann
I really enjoyed it, man.
- [44:44]
Ari Melber
Me too, man.
- [44:44]
Baz Luhrmann
And I love your merch. I love some extra merch. Thank you.
- [44:50]
Ari Melber
Baz can take all the merch he wants. You can see more at Ms. Now. Ari. We'll be right back. We don't always get to show you inside our MSNow control rooms, but take a look because when you have a director who demands to come inside, well, we let him. And Baz lman was as intense and serious as he looks right there, along with some members of our team. As you can see, there's a wider shot. That's the news screens and Baz of course gave a little advanced prep and then if you saw the last segment we did it, he zoomed in and shot it more dramatically than we sometimes get to do on the news. So that was fun. If you want to check out more of the interview, go to ms.dot now. Ari or go on Social and we'll have clips we really enjoyed hosting. Baz. That's our time.
- [45:41]
LifeLock Narrator
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