Six states vote in high-stakes primaries

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Donald Trump demanded these red state gerrymanders to rig the maps in his favor and his party come November. It's part of this larger scheme, you know, by the president to January 6th, the midterm elections. In other words, to undermine free and fair elections and to retain power for his party by any means necessary. And the president, who is near singularly focused on his voter suppression bill, he calls it the Save Act, He's not exactly being shy about his disdain for our democracy. Let me put an idea in your head, okay? Because it's so hard to get the Senate to do anything. Now they're on recess. They don't get anything done if they never get the Save America Act done. You have the right to declare a national security emergency for elections. And the Supreme Court ruled in 1983 under Reagan. that INS versus Shata, that if you declare a national security emergency as the President of the United States, they can't challenge it. It can only be overturned by a two-thirds vote of both houses of Congress. So if you do this in the next month, we will get photo ID, proof of citizenship, and a limit to mail-in ballots. Let me just say the stranger things happened. Okay, I'll leave it at that. Whoa. Stranger things have happened. Like Trump, goading an armed insurrectionist mob, which stormed the Capitol and attempted to overturn an election that he lost. And as I saw up close, sending military troops and armed mass federal agents to the streets of America's cities. So tonight, as Americans, as you practice your constitutional right to vote, let us not lose sight of how little this president respects that process. But the process is still unfolding as we speak tonight. It is election night once again. And on nights like these, there is... Only one dude we turn to to break it all down. MS now chief data reporter Ali Velshi, who is at the big board. And I am so jealous. that you are not wearing a suit at night. He's still my clothes, dude. You're wearing a ton of time. This has never happened. I'm getting a rash. But what's happening in South Carolina right now? South Carolina is one of the few places that we've got votes in that we can actually see. This is the weird situation. They had a primary already. Lindsey Graham won that primary. Although not decisively, he got under 57%, which is unusual for a senator who was on Trump's side. Anyway, he passes away. His sister Darlene Graham is appointed to the position. We've got her down as an incumbent, but it's not really technically the case. She's filling the position. And they have gone to a special primary. tonight. Now, this being the South, it's a runoff, which means someone's got to get more than 50% of the vote. Right now, she's in the lead with 31%. It's not a big lead. It's five and a half thousand, almost 6,000 votes, 28% in. Now, what will happen here is, if you look at the way the vote is splitting, 31 here, Russell Fry's got about 26%. Ralph Norman, the congressman, 21.6%. And Mark Sanford, the former governor, 14%. Not likely anybody's getting to 15% tonight. So what is likely to happen is this will advance to a runoff, probably.

Darlene Graham will advance. We don't know that yet. And then one of these other candidates will advance. They're all doing well in the places they're from, by the way. This is where Russell Fry is from. This is where Mark Sanford is from in Charleston. You've got Ralph Norman in this area. So this is to be expected, but it's an unusually tight race. We'll see what happens. Now, whoever wins tonight or whoever advances, there'll be another runoff in two weeks, and that person will then be the candidate for... the senatorial election. It's such an interesting race because while the president of the United States has backed Darlene Graham, it doesn't seem like there is any particular candidate who is walking in lockstep with the president. Is that part of the reason that this runoff might happen? There was an understanding that Russell Fry was probably going to get the endorsement. And then Darlene Graham comes in and she was just kind of sort of fill in. And then she decided she was going to stay. And Donald Trump then said she should run. And it was, it wasn't the most robust endorsement, but she got Trump's endorsement. And you're seeing that reflected. But yeah, look at these numbers. They're pretty strong. And again, people are voting for their hometown candidate at this point. So that'll be interesting to see. And again, the the. The Democratic candidate, because they already had their primaries, is polling, was polling very close to where Lindsey Graham was. So this, it's not one of our toss-up states, but it's definitely something to keep an eye on. And Alabama's closed. Do we know anything out of Alabama? Alabama is closed and we... We've only got stuff from the first district right now. Jerry Carl is decisively in the lead, but look at that. This is all advanced vote. We don't have any day of vote. We got like 125. Far too early to tell exactly what's going on here. Clyde Jay Jones is obviously uncontested in Alabama won. So it'll be a little while before we get stuff there. The great Ali Valshiker, we're going to be checking in with you, I'm sure, all night long. Good luck tonight. Drink a lot of coffee. Thanks, buddy. See you, my friend. Ben Wickler is the former chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party. Alex Wagner is an MS. now senior political analyst and the host of the Runaway Country podcast on Crooked Media, and they both join me now. First of all, hello to both of you. Ben, I want to start with you. Your expectations, nobody knows Wisconsin better. What are you thinking about what's going to happen tonight? Well. Wisconsin's primary season has been the kind of poster child for twists and turns in the political system. So the thing I can confidently predict after the primary is that Democrats in the state will unite with a common message around affordability and fighting back against one of the most extreme Republican nominees that the country has ever seen. We have a guy named Tom Tiffany who tried to overturn the 2020 election. He's not as interesting as Mike Lindell, but he is every bit as dedicated to thwarting democracy and doing whatever Donald Trump wants to do. So I think we're going to have, you know, it might be an early night, it might be a late night, but tomorrow morning, the unity tour begins and the fight in a toss-up state is going to be well underway. Yeah, Tom Tiffany, I think, is one of, I think, dozens is maybe an understatement to say election deniers that are running in the midterms all across the country this year. And I want to talk more about that in a second, but.

Alex, the Minnesota Senate race, it doesn't seem to be getting the same kind of attention as Michigan last week. But, you know, I was there. It seems like there's a lot of the same dynamics between Flanagan and Craig, as there were between Abdul El-Sayed and Stevens, right? Yeah, some of the same dynamics, the difference being there is not a Muslim American running for office and who is the target of Islamophobic attacks from both the broader Republican Party and this very racist, very Islamophobic president. Yeah, I mean, the dynamic is similar insofar as Angie Craig is a more moderate, centrist Democrat who has the backing of the establishment. She is outspent Peggy Flanagan, the lieutenant governor by, I think, 4 to 1. Some of that money is presumably from APAC, which has been a backer of her traditionally and this year. They're litigating some of the same concerns relating to Medicare for All and Israel, Gaza, basic issues of affordability and whether or not it's time for wholesale broad change within the party or whether. whether it's more about incremental steps forward. And I think, you know, yes, I think there will be broader lessons drawn about the future of the Democratic policy platform after we get the results in Minnesota. But you can't take away the other thing that all these progressives have in common, which is they're running really exciting, very insurgent grassroots campaigns. They are doing shoe leather campaigning in the most traditional sense of the word. And they've thrown out a lot of the old playbook that says you win only on the air. And I know you've seen it too. The energy is ridiculous when you go out there and you go to not just the events, but people who, when you meet them on the street, talking about all these folks. And Francesca Hong Ben is one of those people. And I was reading this political report that says she's preparing. And I was surprised, actually, to shake up her campaign staff. It's not exactly something you want to leak on primary day. What do we know about that? I think what's interesting is that it was kind of seen as newsworthy. It is a totally normal thing. Campaigns pretty much always bulk out, expand, retune for the general election. And in Wisconsin, we've built at the Democratic Party of Wisconsin this really election-winning machine, a whole bunch of extraordinary folks. The Hong campaign has come kind of out of nowhere, done this massive organizing push that... meshes, I think, really beautifully with the massive grassroots organizing machine at the state party. So, you know, I'm sure there's going to be a whole bunch of talent flocking into the campaign to join the team that's already been really blowing people's minds with what they've been able to do. And then it's onward to the general election with this kind of, you know, expanded machine. That's if Hong wins, if Crowley wins or another candidate wins, I'd expect... The same thing. More people joining up an expanded effort. That is a part of the recipe for why Democrats have won 17 out of the last 21 statewide elections in Wisconsin. Yeah. What's happening to Hong seems like what was happening to Abdul El-Sayed at the end of that race. And you can see a lot of those strategies actually on election night there. Alex put Francesca Hong, if you might, in the larger context of the progressive millennial insurgent candidates that we're seeing this cycle. How do you see your fitting in? Listen, I think. I think part of the reason they're also telegraphing they're going to do a change of staffing is because Francesca Hong has not had the smoothest primary season. And she's, you know, her articulation of why she wants to be governor has been.

complicated complicated by past statements. She is not the same joyful warrior that I think even Abdul El-Sayed was. Now, Abdul El-Sayed is an incredible communicator. He was a former podcaster at my network. So, you know, he has a background in communications that is fairly unusual for a candidate. But at the same time, you know, she has been dogged by past controversy that's not just about policy, but also about, you know, sort of personal preferences around holidays and the like. I'm not going to get into all of that. But I think. think they do need to signal that they're ready for prime time if in fact she does get the nomination. If you're talking about her place within the broader progressive landscape, you know. Again, this is when someone who was fueled by an army of volunteers, I think she had 7,000 volunteers for her campaign and was out there after the No King's rallies. She was having her volunteers were door knocking. She was making the case in person using networks that preexisted any kind of political campaign. And I think that's a difference maker. And to be honest, I think a lot of these were lessons learned from the Zohran Mamdani campaign in New York City. You know, it really reinforced how. essential person-to-person campaigning is. And that's something she's certainly learned. And it's, I think, the reason why she's the frontrunner today. Yeah, there's no doubt. Tom Tiffany, Ben, you mentioned him. And I said at the top, he's an election denier. There are so many of them. This one is in Wisconsin. So is Mike Lindell Pillow, as they call him on this broadcast next door in Minnesota. You and I talked about on my show about your book and about the playbook for Democrats in the 2028 midterms as it relates to the idea of stealing elections. What is your level of concern at this point about the Republicans laying the groundwork to? to overturn or overtake the 2028 elections? Well, as they say, what do you call a failed coup? It's practice. And this is someone who practiced overturning elections when he was in the U.S. House and voted to reject the electoral college votes of his own constituents of Wisconsinites. This is someone who, if he gets in the governor's mansion in Wisconsin... could be part of a plot to try to subvert the next presidential election, which is why the stakes are so high. Now, the other interesting thing is that, as I argue in my book, and you can see play out in races across the country, the number one issue on voters' minds is the cost of living. It's affordability. And Tom Tiffany has sided with Trump on everything that has sent the cost of gas and groceries. through the roof. This is a guy who couldn't be bothered to vote for the housing bill, that Donald Trump couldn't be bothered to sign. This is somebody who has supported the war in Iran. He said he was against it. Then he voted against the Iran War Powers Act. So there's a direct connection between the cost that Wisconsinites pay when they fill up their gas pump, when they fill up their grocery cart, and Tom Tiffany's votes in Congress. That is going to be a giant...

anchor around his neck, which makes it harder for him to subvert future presidential elections, especially given that Democrats are running so intensely on things that matter for folks' pocketbooks. Alex, Donald Trump's saying, what do they say? Stranger things have happened when he was asked about the national elections emergency is both nuts but totally plausible given the things that have happened just in the last year or so. We saw all the strange things that happened, like the president sending armed troops to occupy blue cities. I saw it. Let me play some of what all these governors said to me at the time when troops were walking around on their streets. If the president invokes the Insurrection Act, you said you use every tool of your disposal to stop the deployment of federal troops on the streets of Chicago and throughout your state. Are you willing to direct the state police to arrest any federal officials for what they're doing here? Look, we don't break the law here in Illinois. I'm not going to direct our state police to break the law the way that Donald Trump direct people to break the law. He's now saying, this is a quote, it's only a question of time before he does it again, perhaps in a much different and stronger form. Yeah. which I assume he's implying the Insurrection Act, which would give him carte Todd Blanche to be able to do it. I mean, look, he's just winding up. You invoke the Insurrection Act, and my opinion on this, that's the end of your presidency. So you better understand why you're using it, and you better assume that that's going to get you the outcome you want. He hasn't just done it once. He's done at least three times in all of these states. How likely do you think he has to do it again? I mean, if only anybody could predict what Donald Trump was going to do about anything. I think everybody should be on high alert. To be honest, my concern is not so much in the streets' insurrection. It's more... using sort of bad actors like Tom Tiffany who voted not to, who didn't want to certify the election results in Arizona and Pennsylvania on January 6th of 2021. It's about the folks inside the government whose job is to certify the election, including all of the House leadership and the people at the state level that have, that are election deniers that Trump has installed. It's my concern is that inside the machinery of democracy, there are bad actors who will do anything Donald Trump wants them to do. And that is less seen by the public, but no less. dangerous. Yeah, I think there's already 25 or so election deniers in some of these offices that are overseeing elections as we all speak tonight. We will continue to follow this, and we've got a big election night ahead. Ben Wickler and Alex Wagner, thank you both so much. Thank you. Thanks. You can catch much more, by the way, of Alex on Crooked on MS now. Saturdays 9 p.m. Eastern. Don't miss that. And coming up, the wild, wild new reporting about how Donald Trump used a plane full of journalists and his secretary of state as a decoy. That's coming up next.

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Wow, there he is popping out of the Air Force One. He was quietly spirited back on board the old Air Force One so he could be seen getting off of it, walking down the steps, all to avoid a reported Iranian assassination attempt or a threat at least. Right after telling journalists that the war was, I think he said, a tremendous success and that Iran's Air Force is gone and they want to do a deal. Details about that threat remain unknown, but some of the journalists who rode Air Force One as decoys to protect Trump without their own knowledge, say, obviously, understandably, the stunt crossed a new line. There was a journalist who told the Washington Post, quote, reporters take risks as part of the job, but not on behalf of the president. David Rode is an MS now. He is our senior national security reporter, and he joins me now. Wow, this whole thing is, it's quite remarkable. How wild was it to you? I just want to say first that like... President Trump has faced enormous threats. There have been two assassination attempts, and I think the Secret Service should strive to protect him. It would be a disaster for this country if anything happened. Right. Obviously, they thought it was credible enough to hatch this whole plan. Yes. And I just, like any president of any party, and we were such so divided as a country, so I'm glad he's safe. It's extraordinary that President Trump did this. There have been in past efforts as we were just talking about off-camera. President Clinton was flying from India to Pakistan, and he actually got in a small private jet. The difference there was that the head of the White House press court at that point, Susan Page, who many people have seen now as a commentator on different shows. She was told about it beforehand. So the press was trusted. Am I right also? They didn't try to keep it a secret as well after they landed? Yes. The funny little detail is that Air Force one lands in a secret service agent who looks like Clinton. I guess he was kind of tall. Wow. And then out of the smaller plane comes Clinton. And then fast forward, George W. Bush. He's, you know, the Secret Service. The public is told he's in Texas for the Thanksgiving holiday. He gets on Air Force One. He flies all the way to Iraq. But again, there was no decoy use of journalists or White House staffers at that point. And they announced it publicly. And then again, President Obama, same thing. You know, they publicly said he was in Camp David. He flew secretly secretly to Afghanistan. I think this wasn't made public. because the specifics of it, hiding in a catering truck. Unfattering to Trump? Again, he's this rhetoric about we've destroyed their Air Force and we've totally dominated Iran. The President of the United States cowering in a catering truck because of an Iranian assassination threat, I don't think that's the image Trump wants out there. But it is unbelievable that he put all of these journalists and his own Secretary of State in the position.

that he did. The post reporting is so good. And it also notes the exchange between Trump and the press corps at the time, which feels kind of, I mean, it's ominous at least. It says, hours after landing, a reporter peppered Trump with questions about whether there was a security threat to Air Force One that warranted the shades closed. So what he says is, well, I have a threat all the time. I'm number one on their list before you, Trump responded. But if I go, you go, right? Perhaps someday you'll want to change professions. What do you say to that. What's nuts about this is it's not if I go, you go. If they think I'm going, you're going. He is number one. There's no question. But they would have been, if they had shot down the old Air Force one, the baby blue one, it would have been those journalists. And it's new, I didn't realize it as of this evening that Secretary of State Marco Rubio was on that plane as well. This is all happening as he, you and I've talked so many times on my show, and it feels like deja vu, about his attempts to end the war. And he was asked by reporters today about all that. Let's watch some of that. I'm reading today that we've kind of changed our strategy. It's not going to be bum, bomb, bomb. It's going to be just starve them out at this point with a naval blockade. I don't talk about strategy. Why should I talk so? Maybe. But we have two very powerful strategy. We can just keep it alone and they're going to fail. We can just keep, you know, doing sort of just like nice and easy, relax. Like I said, I'm sort of negotiating. You see, they're very devious negotiators. I said reporter, but Wayne Allen Root is a very, very friendly interviewer. What did you hear there? I heard A, that Wayne Allen Root was talking about starvation. That's a war crime. But it's false. We have blocked ships going into the Strait of Ramos to Iran. They have borders with multiple other countries. There's plenty of food coming into Iran. The economy is terrible. This is a horrible regime. Inflation is running at about 80 percent, and they're rationing food. But the feeling is that the Iranians, you know, they don't have elections, can wait this out. They've been under sanctions for years. And so this tactic, it's the latest shift back and forth by the president. It's not going to work. They're not immediately going to, you know, cave into the president's demands. And most of all, they know the midterm elections are coming. They see that as Trump's weakness. And I think they're going to hold on until then. He seemed there to pivot away from the strikes today. And is that because... He understands that there's just diminishing returns domestically on the strategy, or is it because, you know, we're running out of missiles, which is, which seems to also be obviously affecting what the military is doing at this point. Yes, we are running out of missiles. They've tried to keep that low, and that's just, like, malpractice for military planning. You have to think through worst-case scenarios. The war has gone off for six months. Secretary Higset should have planned that we run low on missiles. And essentially, and then the president himself has just failed again by going back and forth. He doesn't... When he threatens to bomb, it just doesn't intimidate the Iranians. So this is an astonishing mess at this point, six months into this war. Nobody I'd rather talk to. David Rhodes, thank you so much for being here. Thank you. Appreciate it. Still ahead, the fallout from Donald Trump's dangerous new plan that will make it much more difficult for children to get vaccinated. That's coming up next on All In.

Donald Trump was furious that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.. was not doing enough to draw a connection between vaccines and autism, of which, by the way, we need to be clear, there is no link. But Donald Trump demanded Robert F. Kennedy Jr.. step it up, despite the White House political advisors telling Robert F. Kennedy Jr., quote, to tone down his vaccine efforts ahead of the midterms. So before appearing to take a snoozeroo in the Oval Office yesterday, I think while Stephen Miller was talking, Trump took matters into his own hands, spouting dangerous and irresponsible lies about the measles, mumps, and rebella vaccine. And he signed an executive order that recommends breaking up that safe and effective shot into three separate jabs. He also wants to remove vaccinations for hepatitis A and B and flu and COVID-19 and others from the recommended list and ordered, quote, States and territories are advised to review the gold standard childhood vaccine recommendations and consider updating relevant laws and regulations such as school enrollment and attendance based on the scientific assessment and best practices from peer developed countries. While that part, peer developed countries, is not spelled out. It does seem like it is a nod to Denmark, which has less recommended vaccinations, but as the New York Times points out, also has a population the size of Wisconsin. and universal health care. This is Donald Trump once again asserting his will on the apparatus of the American government. Claire McCaskill served as a Democratic senator from Missouri, and she joins me now. Wow. Janine Piro got this special Donald Trump treatment because she did not prosecute this gentleman over at the Reflecting Pool, and she seems to now be hanging on by a thread. Are you, what do you see of Robert F. Kennedy Jr..'s future? Yeah, I think that Trump is, you know, he's so weird, right? Weirdest. I mean, he's so weird because he thinks having Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in his cabinet somehow elevates him to him a lot. Or, you know, some BS like that. So I think the last name helps Robert F. Kennedy Jr. a lot more than anything he's going to do in office. But the thing that kills me about this, Jacob, there are 20 members of Congress that are doctors. Yeah. There are 20 members of Congress that know better. 13 of them are Republicans. Bill Cassidy. We have four Republican doctors in the Senate. Bill Cassidy, who got beat, spoke up and has said, this is wrong. It is terrible. I mean, this is terrible. Kids are going to die. Now, where are the other doctors in the Senate? Where is Roger Marshall, who, by the way, has got a race on his hands now? And where is, you know, Barrasso, who's in leadership? Where is Rand Paul, the guy who likes to fight with his neighbors? You know, where are these senators? Why aren't we doing a bipartisan press conference with the doctors in Congress?

the seven Democrats, the 13 Republicans, and talk about the science that is real, which is vaccines save lives. To say this could literally kill, literally kill our constituents. Let me read what Bill Cassidy posted on social media. He said, this executive order is wrong. The president does not have the expertise to make these changes. Vaccines are overwhelmingly safe. Vaccines are effective. Vaccines do not cause autism. Parents should listen to their child's pediatrician about vaccines, yada, yada, yada, yada. This is so wrong. Why is it not breaking through with Republicans? Well, I think they're so used to being afraid of him because of primaries. And honestly, they are all, there is a little bit of a syndrome where they like to talk about Trump derangement syndrome. Well, I've got the, we've been the need of Trump syndrome going on in the Republican Party that they just can't seem to break through. It is fascinating to me that we're also not talking about access to these vaccines. I mean, one of the biggest problems we have in our country right now when you talk to public health professionals, Jacob, is that there are so many parents that have difficulty accessing vaccines. Now they're going from two visits. to as many as six to eight visits. It's crazy. Now, people in rural communities, people who don't have insurance, people who don't have a pediatrician. The access to vaccines now has gone down even further, which means more and more unhealthy people. And guess who picks up the bill for people who aren't insured when they get sick? It's taxpayers to pick up the bill. All the rest of us. Because they show up in the emergency zero. Exactly. In the Oval Office, one of the things that he said, he actually went beyond falsely linking vaccines with autism. And the word did he use, he said that the safe MMR vaccine lethal was the word that he used. How can, why are, I mean, there is no good answer to this question, but they continue to let him push this stuff that is so detrimental to public health. And it's lies. You know, the only thing we can do, really, is just continue to stress to everyone. You know, trust the person who went to medical school. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. did not go to medical school. Donald Trump certainly didn't go to medical school. Nope. So trust your pediatrician, trust your doctor, trust your friends that are doctors or acquaintances. Maybe you know somebody in your kid's Little League that's a doctor, their father, or their mother. Talk to them. Get your information from people who understand the science behind vaccines, not these clowns. The thing that's so infuriating about the Bill Cassidy situation is, though, he let Robert F. Kennedy Jr.. sail through and voted to confirm him. How did he do that? Why did he do that? Yeah. Well, it's, you know, he could have stopped it. Yeah. His vote would have stopped it. Yeah. And he didn't do it. By the way, his vote probably could have stopped Todd Blanche, too, who, how many cabinet members can I name where just one or two Republicans could have stopped really incompetent people from doing really serious damage? Despite the fact that the president himself campaigned against him and compelled him to lose the primary in Louisiana. Yeah. And by the way, he's not exactly been kind to many other Republicans that you think at this point would stand up to him. I think his approval rating today, and in the latest poll I saw was at 38? I haven't seen a poll where he's above 42 in a while. So what kind of power does he have politically that they're so afraid of once they're past their primaries? He's not even listening to what people say. There's a UGO poll that says 65% of Americans agreed that school should require vaccinations. It's politically...

popular and a good idea to allow people to have access to these vaccines. Yeah. And they've given this wonderful man who's running in Kansas, who's a minister, Adam Hamilton, they've given him a real issue to use against a doctor in Kansas who's not standing up for the kids in his state that need these vaccines. There are, though, in Pennsylvania and Maine and Connecticut and Illinois. the governors of those states are accusing him of playing politics with the lives of our kids, and they're pledging to follow the vaccine signs. Is there anything that he can do? Can this executive order actually override the governors of these states when it comes to giving medicine to children? No, the governors can, they have some power here. But the really interesting thing is, who's telling him to do this that this is popular? I mean, who is this guy listening to at this point? That's what's really an enigma to me. Is there somebody saying, this is really good for you politically, to wipe out the vaccine regimen in the United States of America? I see Katie Miller, Steve Miller's wife, who, as a side notice, the one who invited me into the facilities to look at the families that are being separated and the children that they were harming at the time, have Jenny McCarthy on her podcast and talk about vaccinations. Perhaps it could be Ms. Miller? Yeah, maybe. Her husband certainly has more power than he deserves. Although Donald Trump falls asleep while he's talking in the Oval Office. Claire McCaskill, thank you so much for being here. You bet. Thanks. All right, everybody, still to come. Speaking of Todd Blanche, Senator Chris Van Hollen on the ominous first day for Donald Trump's former defense attorney, that's coming up next.

The colonel's cooked up a new $10 bucket of the day just for you. Monday, 24 nuggets for $10. Tuesday, eight-piece fried chicken for $10. Wednesday, 10 wings for $10. Thursday, eight tenders for $10. Friday, 24 nuggets for... Oh, you guessed it, didn't you? $10. The $10 bucket of the day deal. Every weekday, only at KFC, it's finger-licking good. Prices and participation vary while supplies last. Not available on third-party ordering platforms, tax extra. The Serta Labor Day sales event is here. It's the unofficial end of summer, which means shorter days and longer nights. So fill them with perfect sleep night after night. Save up to $800 on Serta Perfect Sleper X mattresses and adjustable base sets. See how the Q4 support system helps relieve aches and back pain. Limited time offer. Visit Serta.com to find a retailer near you. Perfect sleeper, perfect sleep night after night. Hi, I'm Angie Hicks, co-founder of Angie. When you use Angie for your home projects, you know all your jobs will be done well. Roof repair? Done well. Kitchen sink install? Done well. Deck upgrades? Done well. Electrical upgrade, done well. Angie's been connecting homeowners with skilled pros for nearly 30 years, so we know the difference between done and done well. Angie, the one you trust to find the ones you trust. Find a pro for your project at Angie.com. If you were worried that the guy who became Attorney General of the United States after the narrowest confirmation vote in U.S. history, might be the wrong person to helm the Justice Department. He is already proving you right. Just hours. Hours after Todd Blanche was sworn in the Department of Justice issued a memo expanding Trump's use of executive privilege to protect Trump and his advisors from Democratic probes. Trump knows that if Democrats win control of the House in November, investigations and subpoenas will follow, including of private companies and individuals, too, who have helped Trump and his family rake in literally billions of dollars in profit. while he's been in office. The new Justice Department memo seeks to shield them from all of that by declaring that Trump can withhold from Congress communications, not just with his staff, but also with basically anybody that he decides to call private advisors. Do you remember when Todd Blanche slipped and told Congress he is Donald Trump's lawyer? Seems like he was telling the truth. Senator Chris Van Hollen is a Democrat from Maryland. He joins me. Now, Senator, thanks for being here.

Good to be here, Jacob. What's your take on the new memo? Well, when Todd Blanche had the title of acting attorney general, he was still acting in his old job as Donald Trump's personal attorney. And now that he is attorney general, that's exactly what he's doing. I mean, this is all about protecting Donald Trump, not the rule of law. He's still being his personal attorney and doing his bidding. And this is an effort, as you know, to expand executive privilege in a way to... prevent the American people from getting a sense of what's happening to cut down on transparency and therefore accountability. And it's all in preparation, as you indicated, about what apparently they judge to be a very good chance that Congress will be in Democratic hands. I was going to say unbelievably, but very believably, actually. The Wall Street Journal is also now reporting that the White House is pushing the Justice Department to consider a new prosecution on the reflecting pool. I had Norm Eisen here last night after Janine Piro declined to prosecute in the case that Trump obviously wanted her to prosecute. What are your thoughts on this? Well, this is outrageous. I mean, this should scare every American, right, that you have a U.S. attorney, Piro, who was, you know, told by Trump to look into this case. She looked into this case. She found that there was no evidence. And then when the president blasted out a tweet and ordered her to come to the White House, he sent up a follow-up tweet saying, you know, we hope you're going to come after him again. David Hearn is a constituent of mine in Maryland, and no American should be treated. this way, it would be really a sick sign that our Justice Department has completely disappeared if they proceed with this. And by the way, back to Todd Blanche. I mean, Todd Blanche has the authority over a U.S. attorney. So this is another example of where he could show that he's just not following Trump's orders at every juncture. And these election monitors. You know, I saw when I was in Michigan last week, they had sent more than a handful of election monitors throughout the state, including I think they showed up at three places in West Detroit and two in East or maybe have the other way around. Now, the Hill is saying that the Justice Department is sending, or it sent 20 election monitors to observe Minnesota's primary elections. What is this about in your view? This is about voter intimidation. This is not about anything else. And as I think all your listeners know, when it comes to elections, states have jurisdiction over these elections. And so what this is is Donald Trump trying to take over the election process. He would like to federalize the entire process. I just ask people to imagine if he got to count the votes at the White House.

what would have been the outcome of some of the past presidential elections. After all, he ordered the folks in Georgia to come up with, what was it, 6,000 plus votes for him. So this is the danger of federalizing these elections, and they're just trying to intimidate people. And that is why, exactly as you said, elections are designed and set we have an ununited states of voting on purpose when it comes to elections. And there are so many jurisdictions, not just state, but local, county, city. And it's designed that way so that the federal government doesn't have his hands all over the way day. We administer our elections. And now Minnesota is the latest state, which, by the way, you were there a few days ago, campaigning with Peggy Flanagan, if I'm not mistaken, who's running for Senate. And she's running against another. another Democrat, Congresswoman Angie Craig. Why are we seeing so many primaries, do you think, pitting progressives against establishment Democrats, particularly in this moment? Because, Jacob, I think there's a real hunger among Democrats to have representatives in Washington who are not only going to take on a lawless Trump administration, all of us should be doing that, but also to shake up a broken status quo in Washington and in our politics. And what we're seeing in Minnesota is Peggy Flanagan is the candidate that's generated a lot of... excitement at the grassroots level. Her opponent in the primary is raking in lots of money from outside special interest groups, including some of those that we witnessed in in Michigan just last week, including crypto and APAC and others. So I think Democrats are really looking for. senators who are going to stand up and do their bidding, the bidding of the people, and not essentially the bidding of these outside special interests. How worried are you that these splits that we're seeing are fissures that would not heal by, you know, come November? If you look at Michigan, I think it's really remarkable how quickly everybody's come together. And I want to really salute all the parties, all the candidates who were part of that election. And the national Democratic parties come together quickly. That was even more of a divisive primary than the one we're seen in Minnesota. So I do believe Democrats recognize that the differences among us are much smaller than the differences we have between. different Democratic candidates and Republicans who were running, who were guaranteed to be another rubber stamp for Donald Trump. That's true of Mike Rogers in Michigan. It's true of the candidates in Minnesota. It's true across the board.

I want to ask, you know, you've been working so hard on the immigration issue as well, you know, including at the very beginning, working to Free Kilmar. Now this whole TPS ordeal is going on. We're seeing footage of Haitians in Ohio specifically, literally break down crying because they have to go and get ankle monitors on, Syrian folks too, who have lost temporary protected status. You have a bill to restore those protections. Will you tell us a little bit about that? Yeah, it's called the Secure Act. And the idea is that these individuals should not live in constant fear of being deported. These are individuals, Jacob, that are here with legal status, right? They have work permits. They're some of the most vetted people in the country. Every year they show up and get a background check. And they're trying to send them back to countries where... it's obvious they would be put into imminent danger of their lives. I mean, if you look at Haiti, for example, if you go to the State Department website, it says to Americans, don't travel to Haiti. It's dangerous. And yet they want to take people who've been part of our communities for a very long time and put them back into certain danger. It's a really disgusting what they're doing. It is preposterous. As someone who has gone to Haiti and reported from Haiti, when the previous administration, the Biden administration, was sending them back to need, for sure, danger, if not death. Stephen Miller is saying, it's safe there for Haitians today. Give me a break. Senator Chris Van Hollen, thank you so much for being here. Appreciate it. It's great to be with you. Thanks, Jacob. Thanks. Stay tuned, everybody, because Jen Saki will have full coverage as polls closed in Minnesota and Wisconsin. We'll be right back.

All right, that's all in on this Tuesday night. You can always catch my show. Connect weekend mornings at 10 a.m. Eastern, 7 a.m. out on the West Coast. Hi, I'm Angie Hicks, co-founder of Angie. From roof repair to emergency plumbing and more. When you use Angie for your home projects, you know all your jobs will be done well. Angie, the one you trust to find the ones you trust. Find a pro for your project at Angie.com.