Summary
Today, a room full of Republicans gave Hungary`s authoritarian leader, Viktor Orban a standing ovation. In many ways, Donald Trump normalized racism and the Republican Party has embraced it and continued to cultivate it with their rhetoric and policies. The country and, really, the entire world, is now living with two simultaneous pandemics. Today the White House declared the monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency in the United States. The moves comes almost two weeks after the World Health Organization declared monkeypox a global health emergency. Today, after being detained for 168 days in Russia, the WNBA star Brittney Griner was sentenced to nine years in a Russian prison on charges of possessing and smuggling cannabis. CNN is reporting that former President Trump`s legal team is in communication with the DOJ.
Transcript
ZERLINA MAXWELL, MSNBC HOST: Thanks, Ali.
One week before Russia invaded Ukraine, Russian officials arrested American Olympic gold medalist and pro basketball player Brittney Griner. And today, after being detained for 168 days in Russia, the WNBA star was sentenced to nine years in a Russian prison on charges of possessing and smuggling cannabis. It was nearly the maximum sentence for bringing less than one gram of cannabis oil into the country.
Brittney Griner pleaded guilty last month to having cannabis infused vape cartridges in her possession when she arrived in Moscow`s airport in February. But she told the court that bringing them into Russia was an honest mistake after she packed in a hurry. Before the sentencing today, an emotional Brittney Griner apologized, saying she never intended to break any laws in a final plea for leniency.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRITTNEY GRINER, WNBA BASKETBALL PLAYER: I never meant to hurt anybody. I never meant to put in jeopardy the Russian population. I never meant to break any laws here. I made an honest mistake. And I hope that, in your ruling, that it doesn`t end my life here. I know everybody keeps talking about political pawn and politics. But I hope that that is far from this courtroom.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MAXWELL: But the judge didn`t grant her any leniency. The lawyers called the verdict absolutely unreasonable and plan to appeal, saying the court ignored the defense is evidence.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARIA BLAGOVOLINA, BRITTNEY GRINER`S LAWYER: She was very upset. Very upset, very stressed. And she can hardly talk, honestly. So, it`s a difficult time for her.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MAXWELL: President Biden today called a conviction unacceptable and one more reminder of what the world already knew, Russia is wrongfully detaining Brittney. He urged Russia to release her immediately and vowed his administration would pursue every avenue to secure her release.
Today`s verdict adding new pressure on the United States to make a deal with Moscow amid tense relations between the two countries over Russia`s invasion of Ukraine. The Biden administration propose the prisoner swap with Russia back in June to exchange Brittney Griner and detain American businessman Paul Whelan for Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout.
But a U.S. official tells NBC News, Russia has not responded substantively to that offer demanding that a Russian spy jailed in Germany for murder be added before they will agree to the exchange.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN KIRBY, NSC SPOKESMAN: We interpreted that the leaks about that, from the Russian side, as just a bad faith attempt to avoid and crowd out and distract everybody, from what is an actually serious proposal that we made. And we made weeks ago, Andrea. This isn`t something that just popped up. We have been working on this for weeks. And we think this is a bad faith attempt by the Russians, knowing that it`s not a serious counter offer, just to cloud up the waters, make things money and to avoid having to make what is a consequential and serious decision here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MAXWELL: Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov are set to meet tonight in a trip to Cambodia. But they`re actually not expected to talk about a prisoner swap. In the statement earlier, Secretary Blinken emphasize bringing Brittney Griner home as an absolute priority, adding the verdict, quote, puts a spotlight on our significant concerns with Russia`s legal system and the Russian government`s use of wrongful detentions to advance its own agenda, using individuals as political pawns. U.S. officials are not expecting rapid movement in the effort to get Griner released, but we`ll keep pressing the issue, a U.S. official told NBC News.
But her family, her friends and her teammates, they are not giving up hope. Brittney Griner`s WNBA team, the Phoenix mercury, said today they have faith the Biden administration will bring Brittney, adding, quote, while we knew it was never the legal process that was going to bring our friend home, today`s verdict is a sobering milestone in the 168 day nightmare being endured by our sister BG.
[22:05:04]
We remain grateful to and confident in the public servants working every day to return her to her family and us.
Leading off our discussion is Terri Jackson. She`s executive director of the Women`s National Basketball Players Association.
Thank you so much for being here today.
TERRI JACKSON, WNBPA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Thank you, Zerlina. I appreciate -- I appreciate the time to talk with you and your audience once again.
MAXWELL: What is your reaction to today sentence?
JACKSON: Oh, my goodness. As much as we remind ourselves that this day was coming, as much as we try to prepare, we probably were not prepared, we probably were not ready, not for this. Nine years, from what, exactly? Less than one gram of cannabis oil?
But here is where we are. The verdict was guilty, the sentence was nine years, there`s an urgency in this moment. There is an urgency in now.
We must ensure most immediately that BG`s health from head to toe, her mental health, her physical health I will supported, because right now, with this verdict, with this sentence, this was a blow. This was a blow to her, we are certain. This is a blow to us, as we stand by her side, and by the side of Cherelle, her family.
And we do believe that her mental and physical health are in jeopardy right now. It is just a blow that shakes us to our core, that is our reaction. That is how I would sum it up.
MAXWELL: In what ways are you concerned about her mental and physical, even her spiritual health right now?
JACKSON: All of that, all of that. Again, we knew this was coming. In a lot of ways, this was the end of this long road, this process that we needed to see to ensure that the next steps in the legal process still carrying out, we understand from her team that they are going to appeal this. That`s it happened. We understand that, we support that.
And then on the diplomatic side, what needs to be happening across the Biden administration behind the scenes to work, to get her rapid release, because, while there are some who may not be expecting, that that`s what we are. But in so many ways, just seeing our sister, this beautiful woman caged, handcuffed -- I mean, we don`t have to be there to know that she is in jeopardy. And we need to ensure that she is going to be okay.
I was thinking about this earlier, when asked earlier, what are we hopeful for? We are hopeful that where she will be next will be someplace where her team and Russia can get to her and see her and monitor her. We heard she was poised and showed such composure earlier. But we heard her shaking.
We hear the struggle. It is real. And we are concerned. We are.
MAXWELL: You can really hear in her voice there, during her apology today the emotion.
When we have talked about this before, recently, when it was announced that there was going to be potentially a prisoner swap, at least the offer was official from the United States government to the Russian government -- are you still hopeful that that is a pathway that is possible at this point to get Brittney Griner home and back to her family and friends safely?
JACKSON: Absolutely. Absolutely, I am hopeful for that. Absolutely, that`s my expectation.
You know, we understand that this is a very real, very serious geopolitical situation. And I am a strong believer in that words matter. And so I look to choose my words very carefully.
But it is telling to us that this administration uses language like, they`re never should have been a trial, that she is wrongfully detained, she and Paul Whelan are wrongfully detained. It is telling that the administration shared very publicly that it has offered with a call substantial proposal. And that a substantial proposal is on the table.
So we are hopeful, absolutely. We remain hopeful. Somebody asked me a little earlier, what is next? What does it look like?
Momentum has intensified across women`s basketball. At least, that`s what I say. That`s my prediction. It will intensify across women`s basketball community. It will continue to build across the global sports community and human rights organizations.
And that is exactly what is happening in the minutes and hours after we heard the verdict and the sentence there was an outpouring of support. And so my expectation is that that will continue. My expectation is that the Biden administration will hear the noise, feel the noise and the pressure and the support from us and our allies and will continue to press on.
I don`t know if folks saw it earlier or if members of your audience all the games, the WNBA games, the Phoenix mercury and the Connecticut son played a game. But before that game, they met at center court and had a very powerful moment for 42 seconds, BG`s jersey number. The Dallas Wings and the Las Vegas Aces have the same powerful moment before their game. We will not stop until we see our sister come home.
MAXWELL: I`m not going to stop talking about it until I see BG home. It is said to see that this season games start without an eight-time all-star. If that were happening in any other league, I can`t even imagine. But she has the support of her lead and her teammates and her family. And you.
And I`m so grateful for you for starting us off tonight, thank you so much, Terri Jackson, for being here. Please stay safe.
Joining us now is Joe Cirincione, nuclear and national security expert and former member of the House Armed Services Committee.
Brittney`s agent released a statement earlier today saying today`s sentencing of Brittney Griner was severe by Russian legal standards and goes to prove what we have known all along, that Brittney is being used as a political pawn.
So, Joe, we have talked previously about the potential for this severe sentencing, nine years in a penal colony. Can you actually tell us what`s that mean? I`m not actually familiar with what a penal colony in Russia is actually like? Tell us.
JOE CIRINCIONE, NUCLEAR AND NATIONAL SECURITY EXPERT: Most of the prisons in Russia are actually penal colonies, over 600 colonies -- they`ve all from just on forced labor camps. Prisoners there are no longer have to break rocks, do mining, but they do manual labor, making uniforms, for example.
It is a harsh environment but not a brutal one. They do get decent food and is a fair amount of accessibility to them. They are harassed by guards, so Brittney Griner can expect to have guards harassing her, trying to provoke, or trying to commit camp infractions that could be used to increase her sentence or at least deny her parole.
So this is not in any way going to be a pleasant stay for Brittney Griner, the longer she is there, the longer it`s likely to get.
MAXWELL: Which is why you heard Terri talking about the urgency that so many of her family and friends and teammates have bring pressure on and attention on the Biden administration to try to speed this up.
We have talked about the potential for prisoner swap. The Nicolas Cage`s character in "Lord of War". What Russia has proposed on their side is, they have added another prisoner. And that`s a Russian jailed for murder in Germany.
John Kirby said today he wouldn`t go so far as to call it a counteroffer. What is your take on that development in light of the official offer we made to swap her -- swap her and Paul Whelan for Viktor Bout?
CIRINCIONE: Completely predictable. This is Putin`s game. She`s not just a political pawn. She`s a hostage. When she walked through that Moscow airport, she didn`t know Moscow was about to invade Ukraine. But Putin did. And he wanted some chicks to play with it.
And in this case, he scored a major hostage. And the sentence today, this nine year sentence for a trace amount of cannabis, about one tenth the amount of cannabis you can find an every day edible, that people can buy here in Massachusetts, legally, over the counter -- this is outrageous sentence. And the purpose of that sentence is to increase the value of Brittney Griner and make her more valuable for exactly the kind of swap that Putin has in mind.
In particular, he has his eyes on Viktor Bout, a notorious arms merchant serving about 11 year so far, a 25-year sentence for arms smuggling, a close contact of Putin. It wouldn`t be surprised if Putin or the Russian government, at least, had cooperated with Viktor Bout.
He wants him out. He is the highest ranking, the most prestigious Russian prisoner held by U.S. prisons. And now he`s playing the game, can he get more than Viktor Bout?
[22:15:01]
Can he get some of this other close contacts that were released? Can he play this game well enough to trade her -- and maybe Paul Whelan -- for two, three prisoners? That is why I wouldn`t expect an early end to this drama. I would expect this to play out for several more months at least.
MAXWELL: Joe Cirincione, thank you so much for your expertise. Please stay safe.
We have some breaking election news, NBC news projects Kari Like has won the Republican nomination for governor in Arizona. The Trump endorsed election denier and take on Democrat Katie Hobbs in November.
Coming up, former Attorney General Eric Holder goes there, saying the words Donald Trump does not want to hear together in a single sentence, former president and indicted. You will hear it coming up next.
And later on in the show, conservatives welcome an autocrat to their convention. Then they give him a standing ovation.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:20:36]
MAXWELL: Breaking news in the Justice Department`s grand jury investigation into Donald Trump`s actions during the lead up to the January 6th insurrection. CNN is reporting that former President Trump`s legal team is in communication with the DOJ.
According to CNN, the conversations are, quote, focused mostly on whether any communications of witnesses from the Trump West Wing had with the former president can be kept from a federal criminal grand jury under Trump`s claims of executive privilege. Concerns among Team Trump over executive privilege likely spiked when it was reported last week that to a former Vice President Mike Pence`s top aides had already appeared before a grand jury.
Both Pence aides were present at a series of meetings in the lead-up to the January 6 attack where Donald Trump and his attorney John Eastman tried to get the vice president to go along with their plan to reject Joe Biden`s Electoral College victory. During the meetings, Eastman admitted that his plan would lose 9 to 0 at the Supreme Court. And earlier this year, a federal judge concluded that Trump and Eastman likely committed crimes in their attempts to overturn the election.
Despite all of that and despite Trump`s legal teams reportedly warning him if indictments from the grand jury are actually possible, CNN is reporting today that the former president has expressed a heavy dose of skepticism that he will be indicted. One of the forces sources familiar with the matter said.
Trump may not want to believe his attorneys but they certainly are not alone in their opinion. That`s an indictment could be coming. Here is what former Attorney General Eric Holder told my Sirius XM colleague Joe Madison.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
ERIC HOLDER, FORMER ATTORNEY GENERAL: I think that what is going to happen here is that more evidence is going to be elicited. You will see people start to cut deals. My guess is that by the end of this process, you`re going to see the indictments and high level people of the White House, you`re going to indictments against people outside the White House who are advising them, with regard to the attempts to steal the election. And I think ultimately you are probably going to see former president of the United States indicted as well.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
MAXWELL: Joining us now, Jill Wine-Banks, who served as assistant Watergate prosecutor. She`s an MSNBC legal analyst. We`re also joined by Tim O`Brien, senior executive editor for Bloomberg Opinion, author of Trump Nation. He is the MSNBC political analyst.
Jill, let me get your reaction to this new reporting that Trump`s legal team is talking to the Department of Justice officials over issues of executive privilege. How would you expect this conversation to go, especially considering that Trump isn`t the president anymore, he doesn`t really have a claim of executive privilege anymore?
JILL WINE-BANKS, MSNBC LEGAL ANALYST: There is a very long list of reasons why those conversations will go nowhere. The Department of Justice has all the cards on this. You have Nixon from the Watergate era, which basically said, grand jury need trumps anything else. And I use that word carefully. That starts it.
But here is a case where it is the former president and we know that the current president is not invoking the privilege. We know there is a crime fraud exception. And this would certainly involve crime fraud.
So I think, on every possible ground, there will be no privilege allowed to anyone. So, it is going to be a bad day. There is a lot of people who are going to be coming in. And I think your introduction is absolutely correct. Once we start getting people like Cassidy Hutchinson testify and then you start subpoenaing Pat Cipollone, and Philbin and others, many others are going to realize that the best deals they can get are the sooner they get in.
And so they are going to start coming in and they`re going to want to test them. And they will also feel supported by the group action. So I think there is going to be a lot of testimony that will make even clearer than what is shown us in the January 6th hearings, which I think was very clear. I think we are going to see a lot more and that there will be enough indictments on any one of the many tentacles of this big conspiracy.
MAXWELL: And, Tim, I mentioned that the president`s reaction to this news was, basically, Kanye shrug.
[22:25:05]
I mean, essentially, he doesn`t care because he is concerned about the 2022 midterms and running for president again. I want to read you this reporting from CNN. It says: One person close to Trump said he is noticeably more engaged when you`re traveling with friends and advisers about the 2022 midterms and his possible presidential campaign in 2024 than he has been during briefings on legal strategy. This person described the former president as dismissive in conversations about his legal troubles, often repeating his witch hunt mantra as he claims the various probes he`s facing are plainly driven by political opponents.
So, Tim, does it sound to you at all like he is hoping to hide from this investigation and potential criminal liability by running for president again?
TIM O`BRIEN, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, Zerlina, I want to steal that one line, Kanye shrug from you. I`m going to use that going forward form now. You know, I think, another new version of that is he puts a reality distortion field around himself on when he doesn`t like the circumstances daring him right in the face. He`s done it for decade when he`s been behind the eight ball and business, when he`s been the subject of public criticism, when he`s been the subject of prior investigations before.
He pretends that he disdains them. But this is easily the most serious investigation that has ever landed. The consequences are monumental. And if he doesn`t think that -- he simply fooling himself. And, of course, he thinks that if he runs for the presidency again, that may offer him a measure, potentially. I think keeping his name in play for 2024 has other attractions to him.
He`s essentially a media addict. So, the people will continue to pay attention to him. He has been able to monetize his post-presidency. He is raising money off of gullible contributors. That is attractive to him.
But I also think at the end of the day that he thinks that the presidency will shield him from prosecution. And that`s why this moment has so deeply important historically and legally. Because the system, our Constitution, our country has to show that no one is above the law, including the president.
And I think that the Justice Department has finally shown evidence, public evidence, that they are doing more than just nothing around this. They are starting to take concrete, prosecutorial action that looks like it will lead to an indictment. I don`t think the issue anymore is whether Donald Trump committed a crime. It appears -- whether not the DOJ will take action. It`s whether or not -- can bring this or convicting former president of a crime.
And we get into issues about the jury pool in those sorts of things. But those are atmospheric and strategic. They are not legal and institutional. And I think that the fact that the DOJ is pounding on Trump`s doorstep is very, very important.
MAXWELL: That`s a really important point, Tim. I think people talk way too much about all of the political implications and a backlash. I`m like, just talk about the law on the facts. And then we can decide whether to prosecute based on that. The other stuff is all ancillary.
O`BRIEN: It is.
MAXWELL: It`s not really important as the facts and the law. It`s noise exactly.
Jill Wine-Banks and Tim O`Brien, thank you so much for being here. Please stay safe.
First, Republicans found their love of autocrats when Donald Trump embraced Vladimir Putin and the GOP followed. Now, today, Tucker Carlson`s favorite autocrat, Hungary`s Viktor Orban, recently condemned mixed race societies as being embraced by conservatives at CPAC. That`s next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:33:20]
ZERLINA MAXWELL, MSNBC HOST: Today, a room full of Republicans gave Hungary`s authoritarian leader, Viktor Orban a standing ovation for saying this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VIKTOR ORBAN, HUNGARIAN PRIME MINISTER: Family ties shall be based on the marriage or the relationship between parents and children. To sum up, the mother is a woman, the father is a man, and leave our kids alone -- full stop, end of discussion.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MAXWELL: Conservatives welcomed Viktor Orban`s racist, anti immigrant, and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric with open arms at CPAC in Dallas, Texas, where he kicked off the conservative conference giving a 30-minute speech titled, "How we fight".
Orban has become a familiar face to conservatives and Fox News viewers ever since Tucker Carlson traveled all the way to Hungary to interview the Hungarian prime minister and to help spread his ultranationalist views.
Orban speech at CPAC comes nearly two weeks after saying, quote, "This is why we have always fought, we are willing to mix with one another but we do not want to become peoples of mixed race." And that speech led one of Orban`s closest advisers to write that the speech was quote, "pure Nazi", adding quote, "I don`t know how you didn`t notice that your speech you delivered is a purely Nazi diatribe worthy of Joseph Goebbels."
Just days later, Donald Trump welcomed Viktor Orban to his New Jersey golf course, calling him a friend.
[22:34:50]
MAXWELL: Joining us now is Peter Beinart, professor of journalism and political science at the City University of New York. He`s also an MSNBC political analyst.
So Peter, Ruth Ben-Ghiat expert Strongmen writes quote, "Orban`s embrace of ethnonationalism, Hungary for the Hungarians, anti-Semitism anchored in his obsession to destroy his former friend George Soros and defense of Christendom and white European heritage have made him a beacon of the far right and Budapest into a hub for a new generation of extremists. So have his, quote, pro family and anti-LGBTQ plus policies and back in 2018, he banned gender studies from higher education. And in 2020, ended the legal recognition of transgender and intersex people."
And today, Viktor Orban said this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ORBAN: Progressive liberals didn`t want me to be here because they knew what I would tell you. Because I`m here to tell you that we should unite our forces."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MAXWELL: So where are we right now in the Republican Party? What does it say that they are willing to align outline themselves with Viktor Orban and this rhetoric? And what does it say about the state of the party in 2022, post insurrection?
PETER BEINART, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: It says that the party is less conservative than it is just white Christian nationalist. It`s interesting. This is the Conservative Political Action Committee. There are other conservative leaders around the world.
South Korea is a more important country than Hungary. They just elected a very conservative government -- pro-businesses, small taxes, hawkish. They could -- these guys could have thought of inviting Volodymyr Zelenskyy, right. I mean, you talk about someone who embodies supposed conservative values, defending your country, defending its sovereignty.
Now, they went to the leader of Hungary, not that important a country. Why? Because Orban represents white Christian nationalist values. The values are, if you are not white and Christian, we will keep you out of our country. And if you do happen to be in our country, you will be legally subordinate, just as you will be if you are a woman or if you are LGBTQ.
That is the vision that the CPAC and much of the Republican Party wants in the United States.
MAXWELL: One of the things I don`t necessarily understand, Peter, is how the relationship is beneficial to Viktor Orban within his country. Like, why is he palling around with media figures on the conservative right? Does that boost his influence within his own country?
BEINART: Well look, Orban is -- I think that Hungary is the 17th largest economy just in Europe, right. Hungary is not a very powerful country. So I think what it gives Orban is the ability to feel like he is a global leader who is shaping things in the United States, the most powerful country in the world.
And remember, there is not a free political system in Hungary now. He has done to the Hungarian political system what Donald Trump is trying to do to the American political system.
So whether what he is doing is particularly popular in Hungary or not, he doesn`t have to worry about it all that much because he has rigged the rules of the game just like so many Republicans are trying to do here.
MAXWELL: That is a really helpful explanation. Because before the segment, I was like, I don`t understand why this is a bromance.
Peter Beinart, thank you so much for helping us understand it. Please stay safe.
Coming up, we will have more on the conservatives` embrace of Hungary`s autocratic leader at CPAC for saying things like this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ORBAN: Hungary shall protect the institution of marriage as the union of one man and one woman. The mother is a woman. The father is a man.
My government is devoted to law and order without compromise. We decided we don`t need more genders, we need more rangers. Less drag queens and more Chuck Norris.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MAXWELL: Kirk Bardella and Christina Greer join us next.
[22:39:06]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ORBAN: I am an old-fashioned freedom fighter. We have to be brave enough to address even the most sensitive questions -- migration, gender and the clash of civilizations. Don`t worry, a Christian politician cannot be racist.
All it takes, my friend, are not enough. This war is a culture war.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MAXWELL: This is what Donald Trump has wrought in modern American politics. And we`ve known this since he first became a candidate when the official newspaper of the Ku Klux Klan endorsed him for president because of his endless attacks on immigrants.
We saw it in 2017, when President Donald Trump called the white supremacists in Charlottesville "very fine people". Donald Trump`s embrace of racism and the racist idea of white replacement has motivated the conservative base of the Republican Party.
In many ways, Donald Trump normalized racism and the Republican Party has embraced it and continued to cultivate it with their rhetoric and policies.
[22:44:47]
MAXWELL: And that`s why we saw confederate flags at the Capitol January 6. And that`s why we saw members of the Trump mob wearing Camp Auschwitz T- shirts at the Capitol attack. And that`s why we saw mass murders in Pittsburgh, El Paso, and three months ago in Buffalo, New York, where the suspect was grieved (ph) about white replacement.
Politicians like Donald Trump and Viktor Orban are stoking this kind of existential animus towards anyone who isn`t white or Christian and conservatives, they are eating it up.
Joining us now Kurt Bardella, adviser to the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Also Professor Christina Greer, associate professor of political science at Fordham University.
So Kurt, why is the question I have. Why do conservatives embrace these types of dictators.
KURT BARDELLA, ADVISER, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE AND DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE: Because they are the role models at this point, Zerlina. I mean they are not really trying to hide this at this point. That they look at these autocrats, these dictators like people, these white supremacist leaders as role models. That is what they`re trying to remake this country. When they say, let`s make America great again, what they mean by that is to take us back to a place where people who looked like you and me are devalued. Where people are not seen as equal. Where women don`t have the same rights. Where people of color are less than their white counterparts.
That`s what they mean by going back. And you know, they`re not even trying to hide it. When you give a standing ovation at a major political conference to someone like this, you might as well just -- you know, you are basically taking your hood off for everybody to see. This is who you are. And they are being very, very blunt about it.
And I think it`s time that we talk about the Republican Party. We cannot divorce them now from the white nationalist racist elements that are overrunning them.
MAXWELL: Christina, do you think this is a consequence of, basically, Donald Trump normalizing racism and bigotry? And just making it perfectly ok and acceptable in mainstream spaces to be overtly racist?
CHRISTINA GREER, PROFESSOR, FORDHAM UNIVERSITY: Absolutely, Zerlina. He excavated what has always been a factor in this country. Don`t forget I mean we are bounded on white supremacy and anti-black racism, (INAUDIBLE) and patriarchy. And Donald Trump (ph) has always told us. So what Donald Trump has done is just brought it to the surface and made it ok for people to say, you know what, actually, I don`t want actually people of color in my schools and my neighborhoods. I don`t want women, you know, as leaders.
And you know, there are so many mediocre people who have been able to excel in this country for centuries. And now that there is a modicum of competition, now all of a sudden seems like an (INAUDIBLE). And so Donald Trump has made it such that this is, you know, the party of victimhood. This is a party of people who feel as though they are aggrieved.
And so as he has people marching in Charlottesville and they said they`re very fine people, we must remember that this is a man who came down a gold- plated escalator and said that Mexicans are rapists. And there were what -- 75 million people who are just trying to vote for him, to say, oh, it`s the tax breaks. I don`t really think that racism is real.
Well it`s actually real. And we see that time and time again, we`ve got enough of years and enough instances of Donald Trump and his ilk doubling down on racism and white supremacy.
So, if you are Republican, you can no longer hide behind the tax breaks. You are in for opinion, in for a pound and you now support the party of white supremacists. That is plain and simple. That`s where we are.
Yes, I don`t know where we got this idea that if you vote for a candidate that says racist things that somehow you don`t own that. You don`t get to accept any responsibility for that decision that you made to support that person.
And Kurt, to that point Christina just made about the changing demographics and the feeling that some white Americans have that they are losing something, in his book, "No Way Out: A Way Out Of No Way", excuse me, Senator Raphael Warnock rights, that former president`s continued claims of widespread voter fraud are just his way of saying that the votes of certain people don`t count, can`t count, and can`t be real because the election outcome was not consistent with the myth of white supremacy.
So Kurt, talk about that, talk about the fact that, basically, this is the result of the changing demographics and the fact that white voters, eventually, will be a minority of the voters.
BARDELLA: You know, towards the end of the Obama administration, the Census Bureau came out and said that by 2035, we are going to be a minority- majority country, in this country. And that really terrified the Republican Party. They realized that their years of attacking minorities, their years of anti immigrant policies, their years of suppressing and demoralizing anyone who didn`t look like them -- that was an electoral defeat. That was going to be baked into the demographics.
So they came up with a plan and that plan is simple. What if we don`t let those people vote? What if we make it harder for them to vote? What if we do everything we can to discourage them from participating in the democratic process? Because they know that when the playing field is equal and all things are level they lose. They lost in 2018, they lost in 2020, they lost in the Georgia special elections.
So, what did they do after having the most fair and the most open and the most recounted election in recent memory? They went out and passed a budget bunch of anti-voter suppression laws. They went out and made it harder for people to participate in a democratic process.
[22:50:00]
BARDELL: And the people that they made it harder for, they weren`t the white people, they were people who looked like you and me. They`re people that they`re trying to disenfranchise and make sure that they don`t get to participate in the process.
That`s why I say over and over, this November, this November election, this midterm auction would very well be the last free and fair election we have in America.
MAXWELL: Christina, in terms of marginalizing these voices, how do we go about doing that? How do you remove the racists, the bigots, the xenophobes, the folks that are espousing this type of rhetoric from our mainstream political space and conversations?
GREER: Zerlina, I`m not exactly sure. Because, you know, if we build on what Kurt has just said, you also realize that, you know -- you don`t need white people for white supremacy anymore. You`re saying what you don`t need you know, just mend that patriarchy. We see women upholding quite, paging Amy Coney Barrett and her friend. So you know, what the Republicans have been willing to doing is not only disfranchising -- people of color marginalized groups across the country but they are really starting to use their white supremacist rhetoric and chip away at certain Latino Asian and Black populations across the country.
You`re seeing, you know, Latinos and Arizona in Texas, Asians in New York and white folks in the south, you know, voting in pockets but in particular elections, with the Republican Party, because they are buying into this isolation rhetoric. They are buying into this nationalist rhetoric that means something for someone else that they`re taking up away from something from you. And that is actually the most dangerous part of the Republican Party right now.
MAXWELL: Kurt Bardella and Professor Christina Greer, thank you so much for being here tonight. Please stay safe.
Coming up, are we seeing the start of a second simultaneous pandemic? The truth about monkeypox and what you need to know about the virus. That`s up next.
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MAXWELL: The country and, really, the entire world, is now living with two simultaneous pandemics. Today the White House declared the monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency in the United States. The moves comes almost two weeks after the World Health Organization declared monkeypox a global health emergency.
In practical terms the declaration of a public health emergency frees up government resources to make vaccines, testing and treatment more available.
Health officials in New York, California and over in Illinois declared states of emergency earlier this week and many health experts are wondering, what took the White House so long for their declaration?
Administration officials acknowledge they are now playing a little bit of catch-up as case numbers go faster than they initially expected. According to an NBC News analysis of CDC data, the seven-day average of reporter new cases increased from 45 on July 11th to 214 just two weeks later.
Joining us now to discuss, Dr. Syra Madad, an infectious disease epidemiologist and senior director of the Special Pathogens Program at the New York City Health and Hospital System.
So Dr. Madad, tell us what we need to know about monkeypox. I think there`s a lot of confusion about how it spreads, who can be infected with monkeypox. So, break it down for us.
DR. SYRA MADAD, INFECTIOUS DISEASE EPIDEMIOLOGIST: Yes, that`s an excellent question. Certainly, you know, with today`s news, I`m sure all Americans are (INAUDIBLE) what is the threat to me.
And so I think first it`s important to understand that monkeypox is circulating in many communities in the United States. We are seeing, you know, (INAUDIBLE) seeing a doubling of cases in a little over a week`s time. Just imagine, you know, in three days, we have seen over a thousand cases.
So this is certainly circulating in our communities. And what we are seeing in terms of the epidemiological data is that majority of these cases, a, are being reported in individuals that, you know, are male. When we look at additional risk factors they are men who have sex with men and have multiple sexual partners.
And right now transmission is largely being driven by skin to skin contact or intimate contact. So through anal and oral sex, kissing, hugging, massaging of individuals that are infected.
But there are other modes of transmission of monkeypox. This can include, you know, non direct contact with these lesions. So, through contaminated objects, through droplets, you know, respiratory secretions and post prolonged contact.
So these are less defined ways of how this virus is transmitting but majority is being driven by, you know, skin to skin contact through sexual -- you know, sexual activities.
MAXWELL: So in terms of transmission, that also includes fomites (ph), right? Touching things. So help us understand, what are the steps of mitigation we need, in the last few minutes here, to protect ourselves from monkeypox? Are they the same as COVID?
DR. MADAD: Yes, so that`s a really great question. First, monkeypox and COVID are two very different viruses and there are quite two very different responses, if you will.
The basic foundation is the same when it comes to (INAUDIBLE) response. But when we talk about fomite transmission, especially with monkeypox, certainly there is a theoretical risk. But a lot needs to happen when an infected individual has obviously been touching, you know, a surface contaminating it, another person that is not infected picks up that virus.
But if you pick up that virus, you need to have enough viral dose to cause infection. And you have to have an opening where this virus can get into. And it has to be a replicating, live virus.
So, certainly it`s a possibility. But that`s not what is driving this epidemic that we`ve seen, certainly here in the United States and in many countries that are reporting these bad cases.
MAXWELL: Really helpful to understand all of that, Dr. Syra Madad, thank you so much for your time tonight.
That is tonight`s LAST WORD.
"THE 11TH HOUR WITH STEPHANIE RUHLE" starts right now.
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STEPHANIE RUHLE, MSNBC HOST: Tonight, a ton of major legal headlines. The verdicts in the Alex Jones and Brittney Griner trials. And new federal charges for the officers involved in that fatal raid at Breonna Taylor`s apartment.
Then breaking news on Capitol Hill.