Summary
Senate Dems prepare to pass landmark climate & tax bill. Senate GOP pledges to delay or sink legislation. Jobs growth soars in July, defying expectations. Jury orders Alex Jones to pay $45m more to Sandy Hook parents. Russia `ready to discuss` prisoner swap after Brittney Griner sentencing. China fires missiles near Taiwan in drills after Pelosi visit. Conspiracy theories take center stage at CPAC.
Transcript
STEPHANIE RUHLE, MSNBC HOST: Tonight, just hours after those eye opening jobs numbers, the first votes on that big inflation fighting package are expected to begin, what the bill means for corporate America and how the GOP wants to get in the way of some big wins for the Biden White House.
Alex Jones now on the hook for almost $50 million for his lies, and his legal and financial troubles may have just begun. Then conspiracy theories take center stage at the gathering of conservatives in Dallas. We`ll get a health check on democracy from one of our very favorite historians, as THE 11TH HOUR gets underway on this Friday night.
Good evening, once again, I`m Stephanie Ruhle. And after a week of very big wins, President Biden is on the verge of another significant victory, as Senate Democrats prepare to work through the weekend to pass a major tax climate and health care bill after almost a year of negotiations. The first votes expected to begin tomorrow afternoon. Today, the Senate`s top Democrat laid out key parts of the bill.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER, (D) NEW YORK MAJORITY LEADER: This is a very, very, very big deal, including reducing prescription drug costs, fighting climate change, closing tax loopholes exploited by big corporations and the wealthy and reducing the deficit. I believe we will have 50 votes to pass this legislation at the end of the day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RUHLE: As Senator Schumer said, this bill includes some significant ways to make corporate America more accountable, and I want to point them out. Finally, finally imposing a corporate minimum tax, and another a tax on companies doing stock buybacks. This is a common practice when they`ve got extra cash, and they choose not to spend it on employees or research and development. Instead, they buy back stock to boost its price and hook up their shareholders. Now, if they choose to do that, should this bill pass there`ll be hit with a little tax. Not surprisingly, Senate Republican leaders will try to delay change or even kill the package by offering endless amendments during the process known as the vote-a-rama.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, (R) SOUTH CAROLINA: What will vote-a-rama be like, it`d be like hell. They deserve this as much as I admire Joe Manchin and Sinema for standing up to the radical left at times, they`re empowering legislation that will make the average person`s life more difficult.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are there any specific topics or amendments that you think could put Democrats in a tough spot?
SEN. JOHN BARRASSO, (R) WYOMING: Energy, inflation, the border and crime expect to see amendments on all of those things?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RUHLE: This bill is a major part of Biden`s economic agenda and it is heading to vote in the Senate, just hours after that blockbuster report on the American economy. I am talking the jobs report, employers added an unexpected 528,000 jobs last month. That means the country has regained all of the jobs lost during the pandemic. Unemployment is now down to just 3.5%. And this afternoon, President Biden took a victory lap.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, (D) U.S. PRESIDENT: Almost 10 million jobs since I took office. That`s the fastest job growth in history. Today, we also match the lowest unemployment rate in America in the last 50 years. 3.5% I know people will hear today`s extraordinary jobs report and say they don`t see it. They don`t feel it in their own lives. That`s why I`m doing everything in my power to lower the cost for families. You know, we see some progress, gas prices are coming down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RUHLE: As we mentioned the economic news caps a week of wins for the White House. It began with the killing of the leader of al-Qaeda, and included the passage of bills to fund veteran`s health care and boost U.S. computer chip production.
The week also saw the start of accountability for Alex Jones` lies. Yesterday a jury in Austin, Texas offered -- ordered him to pay $4 million in compensation to the parents of a six-year-old child who was killed in the Sandy Hook shooting. For years, Jones has claimed broadcast and spread that the shooting was a hoax. Today the jury ordered him to pay the parents another $45.2 million in punitive damages. And that is just the beginning. Jones faces two more trials for his lies a second in Texas and another in Connecticut in the months ahead.
With that let`s get smarter with the help of our lead off Friday night panel, Peter Baker, Chief White House Correspondent for The New York Times. Justin Wolfers, a Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the University of Michigan, Luke Broadwater, Pulitzer Prize Winning Congressional Reporter for the New York Times, and Chuck Rosenberg is with us, a former U.S. attorney and former Senior FBI official.
Mr. Baker, let`s start with this Inflation Reduction Act, it could be approved in the next couple of days, how big of a deal is it?
[23:05:04]
PETER BAKER, THE NEW YORK TIMES CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well it is a big deal, of course, because President Biden had been, you know, paralyzed in his efforts to get through his domestic agenda now for months, really, almost a year. And I think that this is a way of him salvaging the best he can look, it`s not anywhere close to what he originally proposed last year. But it`s a heck of a lot better than what he had a couple of weeks ago, which was backwards, zero, you know, he wanted climate, he wanted prescription drugs, he wanted, you know, Obamacare subsidies, but he also wanted a lot more that he can`t get in there. But these are pretty important thing to Democrats, they`re going to celebrate this win and show that or make the case to the American public that it shows that Democrats can get done the things that he promised get done after a period where it looked like he was frustrated in achieving his agenda Timing in that sense, couldn`t be better, because heading into the fall election, he wants to turn around the narrative that he has not been a successful president, this will help him make that argument.
RUHLE: And, of course, the infrastructure bill was signed into law months ago, but let`s talk about the politics. Put your Donny Deutsch branding hat on, and the branding of even calling it, Peter, the Inflation Reduction Act. We know inflation is one of the top issues for the American people for weeks, if not months, people have been asking this White House, what are you going to do? Now, they`ll be able to say we pass this major legislation, and Republicans will have to say, what did we do on inflation reduction? We voted against it.
BAKER: Yeah, I mean, that`s a point that they`ll make no question about it. But it`s kind of a clever naming, right? The real purpose of this bill is not to reduce inflation says to spend on climate, which is a priority for Democrats and a lot of Republicans for that matter to, if they want to spend on health care, they want to have a minimum tax for corporations that have been getting away with not paying any taxes, these are all big priorities, the President`s had long before inflation became an issue. It`s not like inflation suddenly caused them to want to do these things, and then making the argument that will help curb inflation, the argument about that. Some of the economists out there saying well, maybe not that much. So I don`t think this is really aimed at inflation as his primary goal, even if they can make the argument that it will have some, you know, beneficial impact on that.
RUHLE: Luke, walk us through technically what is about to happen tomorrow in the Senate and how this vote -- what`s going to -- what are we going to expect in this vote-a-rama?
LUKE BROADWATER, THE NEW YORK TIMES CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: Well, vote-a- rama is everybody`s least favorite part of the reconciliation process. It takes forever, all sorts of silly and sometimes crazy amendments are introduced. There will -- it basically be hours and hours of got you votes, where the Republicans will be trying to force the Democrats to take votes that could be used as sound bites, or for political ads for the upcoming elections. Only one vote really matters. And that`s when they vote to move the bill as a whole. And they wouldn`t be just the 50 Democrats to do that. But they will have to go through hours and hours of hell, as Lindsey Graham said, and they`re going to, you know, they`ll try to attack on amendments about the border, about crime, about things completely unrelated to the legislation. This happens every time there`s a reconciliation bill, nobody likes it. You know, neither party enjoys it. But this is the process.
In fact, there`s usually an amendment to ban vote-a-rama at the vote-a- rama, so we should -- we`ll probably expect to see that too.
RUHLE: Nobody likes it, but as far as Democrats having the votes locked down, there`s a very slim chance that anything`s going to change during the vote-a-rama, isn`t that the case?
BROADWATER: Yes, that`s correct. Now, occasionally, the Republicans will put Democrats in a weird situation where they`ll get an amendment or two and that`s what they`re hoping for. And occasionally the vote-a-rama does produce some real revelations. There was a vote in vote-a-rama two or three cycles ago, that showed that the Democrats did not actually have the votes for the $15 minimum wage, they had seven Democrats vote with the Republicans against that, so it can produce some real news.
The key is, though, at the end of it, if the Democrats all stick together, they can move the bill probably Sunday morning, maybe Monday, depending how long it takes. And then Steny Hoyer will call the House back on Friday, and it can pass both chambers. So that`s the plan, but it`s going to be a long, tough weekend for the Senate Democrats.
RUHLE: Justin, let`s talk about these super strong jobs numbers at the same time gas prices, which are a huge contributor to inflation numbers, they`re going down. How much does this start to deflate the fears that we`ve seen of a recession? We know it`s going to come at some point but people have been panicked over the last couple of months.
JUSTIN WOLFERS, PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS & PUBLIC POLICY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: Listen, all this talk of recession, it`s over. Any claim the U.S. economy is currently in a recession. It`s just been proven absolutely wrong. So it`s time to retire the word, we`re going to see people retire the word as well and this is just unabashedly good news.
[23:10:09]
I`m just going to come back, Stephanie, one moment say I told you so, last time I was on the show, I told you and your viewers, the U.S. economy was motoring along. And well, we got confirmation of that today.
RUHLE: Justin Wolfers got a good haircut and made a good call on the economy. Congratulations to you on both.
Chuck, as all of this is going on, Trump`s legal team is reportedly talking to the Department of Justice, this is a headline, this is a fact that cannot get lost in the shuffle. How big of a deal is this?
CHUCK ROSENBERG, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY: Well, Stephanie, it depends in part on what they`re talking about. I imagine part of the conversation right now are attempts by Trump`s lawyers to preclude some testimony from some witnesses, where the former president might claim executive privilege.
By the way, I don`t think that`s going to fly. Now, if you were to tell me that they were talking about resolving Trump`s criminal liability with a guilty plea, I`d agree with you that would be monumental. But I don`t think we`re anywhere close to that yet. And so I think these are preliminary skirmishes that you see sometimes in the -- in criminal investigations. And I don`t think if Trump is arguing that he still retains an executive privilege that would no pun intended, Trump the right of a grand jury to get information and the criminal investigation is going to lose that.
RUHLE: We also heard from January 6, Committee Chair Liz Cheney last night, and I want to share a bit of that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. LIZ CHENEY, (R) WYOMING GOP CONFERENCE CHAIR: We`re going to continue to follow the facts, I think the Department justice will do that. But they have to make decisions about prosecution, understanding what it means if the facts and the evidence are there, and they decide not to prosecute.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RUHLE: Chuck, help us understand this, because we can all sit in our home screaming and yelling what the Department of Justice should do. But we don`t know how the process works. What goes into making the decision whether or not to prosecute?
ROSENBERG: Yeah, so I think what the congresswoman is talking about, Stephanie, are really two very big, very difficult and very important decisions that someone`s going to have to make and that someone has Merrick Garland at some point. The first one is could, in other words, does the Department of Justice have the evidence? Or will they get the evidence where they could prove a criminal case against Donald Trump beyond a reasonable doubt to a unanimous jury? The "could" question is really hard. There`s a harder question, and that "should," if they could prove the case, ought they bring it, should they bring it? And what are the ramifications for our country, for our democracy, right for our body politic, if a former president is on trial for crimes that he committed, and so Garland has to answer both of those questions, presumably, and they`re really, really difficult, much more difficult than those of us sitting at home shouting at the television set might imagine.
RUHLE: Justin, let`s go back to the installation bill, because as infuriating as it is, to see the carried loophole -- carried interest loophole still intact, right, again, the private equity industry is going to get hooked up. Ridiculous, but it is true. Let`s talk about what they are doing. And it is estimated that this 1% tax on stock buybacks, that`s going to bring in at least $73 billion and putting this minimum corporate tax, that`s huge, put into context for us what this means?
WOLFERS: Yeah, so Democrats have been excited to talk about the spending side of the bill, everyone likes that. But it`s really important to focus on the tax side. And there`s three really big things, close the loophole, that means that these private equity millionaires are skating by with almost no taxes, fund the IRS so we can get the tax cheats and pass this global minimum tax, which means corporations can`t all just race to the lowest tax jurisdiction around the world. And if you`re a company paying under 15%, well, it`s time to start paying a little more. Those are things that are going to pull pretty well, I reckon. So, look, and the other thing we`re seeing the scale campaign from the Republicans is saying this is terrible. There`s a tax rise here. Well, for most of your viewers, if you`re not a tax cheat, if you`re not a private equity guy, and if you`re not a corporation paying less than 15% in tax, there`s no tax hike here coming at all. Manchin, push the Democrats to the center, and this is going to be a very popular part of the Inflation Reduction Act.
RUHLE: And for private equity guys, they`re not going to touch carried interest. So again, they`re going to skate by on this one. Peter, the President has had a very good week, I mentioned it before, gas prices still dropping. But at the same time, democratic donors are said to be worried that President Biden is still vulnerable. How does this White House convert these big six successes into political momentum going into November?
[23:15:03]
BAKER: Well it has been a good week, obviously, a good couple of weeks actually both legislatively, as Luke can talk about economically, as you can talk about, Justin can talk about, but also internationally, obviously, the raid they got, the drone strike they got, so it`s a big deal as well.
Now, that doesn`t necessarily translate immediately into popular support. We`ve seen the last few years is that popularity numbers, approval numbers are so relatively immune to events that didn`t used to be the case, it used to be they would go up and down, depending on how a president did. But our country has been so polarized over the last two or three presidencies, that basically people are locked into place no matter what is happening around them. And so that`s the real challenge for the Biden White House, can they transform these -- translate these victories, as you put it into something more sustainable heading into the fall when the Democrats can really use a president with stronger numbers. You know, the history shows that a president as low as President Biden is or even not even quite as low as he is, there party does particularly badly in these members up in order to help his party lift all boats, if you will, in the House election, Senate rush right now. But the White House and the House Democrats in particular, are focused on seeing if they can`t, you know, lift the president up a little bit. He`s got an argument to make. Now, the question is whether he can get out there and make it.
One of the challenges in that, he still has COVID. He can`t get out there on the trail as he like you`d like to do, two weeks later that he would like to be out there, campaigning, making the case to the American public, giving speeches and all that. We`ll see this weekend, whether he gets a negative test and can begin to get out there.
RUHLE: Luke, who is Joe Manchin now to the Democratic Party? Before a week ago, he is someone other Democrats from other states, love to complain about for all sorts of reasons, but the fact that he could be delivering this major win, is this going to change his position?
BROADWATER: Yeah, I mean, you know, most of the Senate Democrats have come to live with the idea that Joe Manchin is the only person, the only Democrat that can be elected to the Senate from West Virginia. And so he has this unique power in the Senate because of that unique ability and that unique position. And I think what you saw from many of his colleagues was a renewed appreciation for Joe Manchin, after he and Chuck Schumer announced this deal, because what they did was, if you look back over for the last several months, it looked like Mitch McConnell was getting the upper hand of these negotiations. He had essentially pulled out the infrastructure stuff from the larger package that Joe Biden had put forward. And they had passed that. They were getting the bipartisan deals that Mitch McConnell approved, thought, but much of the Biden agenda was still sitting on the shelf.
And then Joe Manchin after they had passed, the bipartisan bills announced this deal with Chuck Schumer. And it pulled the rug out from Mitch McConnell and from everyone. And now it looks like Chuck Schumer and Joe Manchin have won this negotiation, really this sort of battle on Capitol Hill. And so I think you`re seeing a lot of renewed appreciation for Joe Manchin among the Democrats in the Senate right now.
RUHLE: Chuck, Alex Jones now has to pay almost $50 million in damages to the Sandy Hook parents, it`s just one family. Is this the start of true accountability for those who have gotten away with spewing disinformation for so long? I mean, Alex Jones alone, there are 20 other families that could be suing him. And there`s a whole lot of other conspiracy theorists out there who every day spread very dangerous, and horrible information about people.
ROSENBERG: True. You know, Stephanie, liars lie, but they`re not always held accountable for their lies. And so it`s nice to see that a court in Texas has held Mr. Jones accountable. And you`re right, there are other lawsuits pending. So there`s going to be other civil liability, and more money damages. And that`s just on the civil side.
If you want to talk about other ways to hold people like this accountable, remember, there are ongoing criminal investigations. It looks like a whole bunch of his emails are -- and text messages, I should say, are going to go to federal prosecutors, something he probably didn`t intend. And so there`s likely another way to hold him accountable for what he`s done. I hope the message gets out. You`re right, there`s too much of this garbage coming out of the mouths of people who wouldn`t know the truth, if that hit him in the side of their head, and holding them accountable civilly and criminally, is a way to stop it. Will it work, I don`t know. But it`s nice to see it in this case, Stephanie. You can`t always say the justice is done, but it seems to have been done in a Texas courtroom.
RUHLE: And those families certainly deserve justice. Chuck, always good to see you, thank you. Luke, thank you for joining, Justin as well. Peter Baker, not letting you leave just yet.
[23:20:01]
When we come back, Russia signals it wants to talk while the U.S.-China relationship is getting testy. And later, with conservatives down in Dallas cheering on the pillow selling leaders of the crazy conspiracy world, we`re going to ask one of our favorite historians just how close we are to democracy crisis. THE 11TH HOUR just getting underway on a busy Friday night.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[23:25:05]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will you give us a comment on Brittney Griner, sir?
BIDEN: I`m hopeful, we`re working hard.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RUHLE: Moscow now says it is ready to discuss a prisoner swap that would free WNBA Star Brittney Griner, who has been sentenced to nine years in prison for carrying less than a gram of cannabis oil through a Moscow Airport. The White House has offered the release of Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, in exchange for Griner and fellow American Paul Whelan.
The administration also dealing with China`s fury over Speaker Nancy Pelosi`s visit to Taiwan earlier this week. Beijing has responded with missile launches and stepped up military exercises off the coast of Taiwan. It`s also sanctioned Pelosi, and canceled upcoming talks with Washington. In response, China`s ambassador was summoned to the White House.
Peter Baker back with us to help make sense of all of this global news. He spent years as the Moscow Bureau Chief for The Washington Post. So Peter, let`s start there in Russia. Is it a good sign that Russia wants to talk? Did they need to get Griner`s conviction and sentencing out of the way first? Why now?
BAKER: Yeah, that`s exactly right, Steph. I mean, in other words, it seems counterintuitive to say her conviction is a good thing. But for her potential for release, it probably is because history shows that when Russia wants to do one of these trades, when it wants to make an exchange, it wants to first get through the legal process, and at least demonstrating their view that this is a legitimate prosecution, that she`s really a criminal. She`s not a political hostage, which is, of course, the way she looks to everybody here in the West, and by convicting or they say, you know, it`s not that we`ve done anything wrong, it`s the she`d done something wrong, but now we can show forgiveness, we can be above -- you know, we can show the high road and effects. So that`s their modus operandi.
So the fact that she was convicted does suggest that they`re ready to have serious talks about a deal. It`s a tough deal to make for the Americans, of course, because Viktor Bout is a pretty notorious thud. But this is -- they just -- this isn`t already that it`s worth it in order to get an innocent woman home.
RUHLE: And Viktor Bout might not be enough, it`s reported that the Kremlin`s might want an additional prisoner in this swap.
BAKER: I`m talking about somebody convicted, I think a murderer held in Germany, the American side looks at that as kind of a joke or a provocation away at Russia kind of, you know, jabbing them, not a serious offer, not something that they`re really going to discuss, something that they wouldn`t even think of. So we`ll see whether that`s something they continue to push for, or whether it`s just a negotiating ploy.
RUHLE: Let`s talk about the tensions with the other U.S. adversary China. How concerning is all this saber rattling, especially since Beijing has now cut off talks with U.S. about military operations in the Pacific?
BAKER: It is concerning, it`s concerning on a couple levels. One, obviously, nobody wants to see missiles flying and chips and air craft in close proximity. We`ve seen enough of that, frankly, in the last few months anyway, with China. And it`s not that they think that anybody`s going to actually declare an actual military or offensive against Taiwan. But this has a potential for accidents, for misunderstanding, for something spiraling out of control. And that`s one thing that you hear concerned about the White House.
The other thing that they`re concerned about is the idea that China will drift away from the United States when it comes to Russia, when it comes to Ukraine, because first of all, United States didn`t want to have to be fighting to geopolitical conflicts at the same time. But secondly, China, while they ostensibly are supportive, Russia had been quietly not providing Russia a lot of the equipment that they want. That`s why Russia is going to Iran looking for drone because China will sell it to them. That`s something that could change after China really is angry at the United States over this visit,, what you hear in the White House is concerned that China might become more of a full throated and more, you know, willing to deliver hardware to Russia in this one.
RUHLE: What`s China`s response to Pelosi`s visit more intense than what our White House expected it would be?
BAKER: It`s not more intense than what they expected. In fact, they even made a point of highlighting before she landed that these are the kinds of things they expected to see and to do, even though they asked China not to, they warn China, not to, saying there`s no reason to. But here`s basically what they were expecting. There`s the playbook that China has shown in the past, but it is an escalation. We haven`t seen anything quite like this, I think arguably since the 1990s, when there was a real standoff in the middle of the 1990s that came very close to triggering one of these, you know, unintended conflicts, so they`re nervous about this, even though they think they`d hoped that can be managed.
RUHLE: Peter Baker, you always make us smarter, thank you for joining us tonight.
When we come back the conservative view of democracy on display in Dallas this week, historian Michael Beschloss will join us and try to help us figure out just what we are witnessing when they live in power continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[23:34:33]
RUHLE: Just one day after cheering on a Hungarian autocrat, the ultra- conservative crowd down at the CPAC gathering in Dallas spent today listening to even more anti-Democratic conspiracy theory rhetoric coming from some all too familiar faces.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE LINDELL, CEO, MY PILLOW: Over 54 countries have now been taken by the machines, if we don`t get rid of them by the fall all of them we`re going to have -- everybody`s going to go vote these great candidates like Kari Lake and override the machines and we`re going to get rid of them eventually all of them.
[23:35:06]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Congressman, when if Republicans take the House, will there be an investigation of the January 6 committee?
REP. ANDY BIGGS, (R) ARIZONA: Yeah, I believe so.
REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE, (R) GEORGIA: Somebody like Alex Jones, who did say some things. But yet he is being politically persecuted right now and being forced to pay out millions and millions of dollars. I`d like to know when the Democrats and the liars in the media and the people that canceled all of you and me on big tech, what are they going to pay all of us millions of dollars, right?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RUHLE: Alex Jones said some things, he called the Sandy Hook massacre a hoax. What she just said right there is absolute nonsense.
Let`s bring in celebrated author, presidential historian and friend of this hour, Michael Beschloss. His latest work in a bookshelf full of national treasures is presidents of war. Michael, just watching that, to me is just stunning. Put it into historical context, is there any time in U.S. political history, where we saw things like what we are witnessing at CPAC?
MICHAEL BESCHLOSS, NBC NEWS PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: What we began to see things like this in the late 1930s Father Coughlin, the radio priests from Detroit, who had millions of people listening to his radio show once a week, which was unusual in those days was anti-Semitic, he was semi fascistic, he would have rallies and people would get into fistfights so that by 1940, there were some people in the United States who wondered whether we would lose our democracy and that America would go in the direction of fascism.
What we`re seeing now, Stephanie, 2022, puts the late 1930s in the shade. This is going much further. CPAC, you know, it`s a conservative audience once a year, you know, you have a sense of where American so called conservatism is. It`s now I don`t think conservatism because that implies protecting democratic small, big institutions, it`s radicalism.
What was Orban doing there? This Hungarian dictator, goes up before CPAC and says, globalists can go to hell? Well, many people think that the word globalist is a synonym for Jewish people, a negative one, and he comes out against race mixing. And he says that the press maybe didn`t say it yesterday, but he is devoted to the idea that the press in a society are the enemies of the people. One Orban`s aids resigned in the last 24 hours, because he thought that Orban had given such a Nazi speech to CPAC.
Now, CPAC for years has been saying, we`ve got Jewish members. We`ve got presumably Muslim members, black members, Latino members, Asian Americans, did they walk out? Was there any apology from CPAC saying that this language goes way beyond what we tolerate in our American democracy, not a word beware it shows where the society is in danger of going.
RUHLE: Then why is it that we`re barely batting an eyelash at an autocratic leader attending CPAC, we just accept, well, this is where we are?
BESCHLOSS: I`m not accepting it, you`re not accepting it, and no one should accept it. But the whole idea is, you do something that`s this shocking. And you get people not to bat an eyelash and normalize it, then you do something that`s even more outrageous. In the 1930s in Nazi Germany, beginning of the 1930s, the Jewish people were quite warmly embraced by enlarge, then there was criticism of German Jews, then there was discrimination, then there were pogroms in the streets, then people were beaten up and moved to different areas of the cities. And finally, they were killed 6 million of them in the Holocaust. I`m not predicting that. But what I`m saying is when a society is going in this radical, fascistic authoritarian direction, you have to watch every single change. If Orban had spoken to CPAC, five years ago, probably half the audience would have walked out at what he said.
RUHLE: Well, not all Republicans are OK with this, not all are staying silent. I want you to watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DICK CHENEY: And our nation`s 246 year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump. He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him. He is a coward. A real man wouldn`t lie to his supporters. He lost his election and he lost big. I know it, he knows it and deep down I think most Republicans know him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[23:40:00]
RUHLE: So five years ago, half the CPAC audience would have walked out and five years ago half of our audience would have turned this TV off if they saw Dick Cheney speaking. You heard what he said, most Republicans know the truth. Why aren`t they saying what she has?
BESCHLOSS: Because there is a big lie. And the lie is that Donald Trump supposedly won this election and it`d be a card carrying member of the majority of the Republican Party now is to suspend disbelief and go along with this lie. Even people just as Cheney was saying, who know better and know that that was not so, this is a very scary thing in a democracy when you have people who are too afraid to tell the truth or are so eager to suspend disbelief. They can suspend disbelief about a lot of worst things that could happen in the society, and that may have happened to.
RUHLE: Fact check since President Trump -- former President Trump was elected, Republicans lost the house, they lost the Senate and in the last presidential election, he himself lost, fair and square. Those are the facts.
Michael is staying with us. We`re going to take a quick break. When we come back, you`d think the early days of August will be slow news days, but history says otherwise. Some reminders from Mr. Beschloss when THE 11TH HOUR continues.
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[23:46:00]
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RUHLE: Happiness is Nixon 1972. But by August 1974, the one`s beloved Republican president was cast out by his own party, forced to resign. Just one example of how even in the dog days of summer history can be made.
Still with us Presidential Historian Michael Beschloss. Michael, earlier today you asked on Twitter for memories about Nixon`s resignation, and my colleague Joe Scarborough said this, "I was in upstate New York and heard the news with my parents on the car radio. My dad voted for Nixon twice, and initially thought Watergate was an East Coast establishment getting back at him. Dad shed no tears. If -- he said, `If he did half of what they accused him of, he should resign.`" Fast forward, think about the modern day MAGA Republican Party, a former president who said he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue, and no one would care. How much has the party changed since then?
BESCHLOSS: It`s changed in our society, has changed, you know, when I read that, from our friend, Joe, I almost choked up to think how much things have changed since 1974. Here Donald Trump has is required, obviously at the center of a blueprint to take over the capital, attack the Congress, probably a coup d`etat against the United States and claiming against all logic that he won the presidency in 2020 with anyone who is saying, we all know that that`s not true. Yet, in this subculture nowadays, because of Fox News and other conservative news organizations, that did not exist in 1974, many of those organizations, perhaps not Fox News of the moment, it provided Donald Trump with cover, and essentially reinforced all of his claims.
If you don`t have a media culture, as we did in 1974, where everyone at least gets the same facts as they did in those days, three TV channels, couple of newspapers that were widely read some magazines, they all said Nixon violated his oath, Nixon should go, that will never happen in 2022, because you`ve got people who were much too eager to justify someone like Donald Trump.
RUHLE: They also had a whole lot of local news outlets then --
BESCHLOSS: Wide also.
RUHLE: -- something we solely miss today.
BESCHLOSS: That`s for sure.
RUHLE: You also shared this incredible, almost unbelievable cartoon, a cartoon from 1947, the height of the Red Scare, and it shows what could happen, it`s on our screen right now. If communism came to America, that crowd attacking the U.S. Capitol, just think about that?
BESCHLOSS: Yeah, well, during the Cold War, there was a much too early for you to remember this, Stephanie. But I remember it and that is that there was always a fear that Soviet communists would take over this country. And this comes from a comic book, as you`re saying 1947 that says, how does the attack on our society from communists begin? It begins with an attack by Ruthenians on the United States Capitol, and the Congress, almost makes you wonder who around Donald Trump was looking at comic books like this a few years ago.
RUHLE: I do want to ask about something maybe more joyful, things that brought us together that we`re proud of, because you posted other historical events of early August LBJ signing the Voting Rights Act into law in 1965. And this may sound like a silly one, but it`s also a kind of a beautiful Americana moment, JFK surprising swimmers in Santa Monica 60 years ago this month.
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When you look at those sorts of beautiful American moments, do you feel like we can get them back? Could you see them appearing today?
BESCHLOSS: I wish we could. But I don`t think it`s going to happen during our lifetime sadly, for all sorts of reasons. The Secret Service, probably in retrospect, given what happened to John Kennedy, the following year in 1963, when he was murdered was probably being a little bit lacks with them. But the reason they were being so easy is that Kennedy was wildly popular, and they knew that no one in the crowd was likely to do him harm or even say something that was insulting. And they didn`t. That`s an America that`s lost. It was 60 years ago.
Right now we`re fighting for our democracy. And I`m not necessarily betting that we`re going to win or not. It is possible that 50 years from now in a story and look -- might look back on some things in 2022, and not be allowed to write or publish about them. Because a lot of our rights have been taken away by a repressive regime. It`s all of our responsibility to make sure that that doesn`t happen. And I should say, I have a lot of hope that the roughly two thirds majority of Americans who are grossly against any reduction in our rights and taking away of our democracy, I believe they`ll prevail in the end, watch this space as our friend Rachel would say.
RUHLE: And Michael, when something is lost, that means there is an opportunity for it to be found.
BESCHLOSS: Absolutely.
RUHLE: Michael Beschloss, thank you so much for joining us. I really, really appreciate it.
BESCHLOSS: I loved it. Thank you.
RUHLE: And be sure to catch Michael`s latest episode of Fireside History, available right now on MSNBC on Peacock.
Coming up, despite a brutal week of lethal extreme weather, we managed to find a glimmer, a glimmer of good environmental news when THE 11TH HOUR continues.
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RUHLE: The last thing before we go tonight, nature`s extremes I probably don`t need to tell you this, this summer across the country from the north, to the south, to the east, to the west has been one thing hot, hot, hot. And tonight many parts of the country are sweating through yet another heat wave. NBC News Correspondent Sam Brock has more on that and the storms that come with these extreme conditions.
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SAM BROCK, NBC NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The grueling heat that`s gripped the country is showing little sign of letting up.
(On camera): Central air is key.
(Voice-over): More than 60 million people tonight again sweltering under heat alert, with cities in the Northeast seeing their warmest temperatures in a decade, Dallas has now topped triple digits 40 times this year, almost doubling the annual average. Then there`s the storms. Earth cam video from the Washington Monument showing lightning strikes around the same time four people were struck across from the White House killing three, including a couple in their 70s.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was just in a state of shock. I just couldn`t believe it.
BROCK: The ramp and cruelty of a changing climate fell deeply on the Isle de Jean Charles about 90 minutes outside of New Orleans. This signs are everywhere, figuratively and literally for the Native American groups who`ve lived here for generations.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are standing with one foot in the water and one foot on land.
BROCK: Chris Birney (ph) has spent all 57 years of his life on this land now is shocked our nation is part of an unprecedented relocation receiving nearly $50 million in a federal grant to help around 100 people seek higher ground.
CHRIS BIRNEY (ph): You`d being forced because if erosion and hurricanes to move inland.
BROCK: The move is completely voluntary, but Mother Nature is clearly closing in, the island transforming from 22,000 acres in 1963 to just 300 by 2017.
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RUHLE: Stunning, our thanks to our colleague Sam Brock, and do not worry, we are not letting you go into this beautiful August weekend without a little bit of good nature news. And when there is ever positive news about the ocean, you better bet we`re going to share it. It concerns a coral comeback of sorts, about two-thirds of Australia`s Great Barrier Reef an early victim of climate change and warning ocean temperatures is now showing signs of some recovery, with the highest coral cover they have seen in over 36 years. Scientists are warning that the reef remains very much at risk of bleaching and coral loss in the future, but they point out some good news right now.
These latest results demonstrate the reef can still recover in periods that are free of intense disturbances and that is what we`ve experienced over the last couple of years. So that is some good news and we will take it.
And that very good note, I wish you a very good and very safe night. Have a fabulous weekend. From all of our colleagues across the networks of NBC News, thank you for staying up late with us, I will see you at the end of Monday.