Kentucky governor to McConnell: Prove you can serve or ‘resign’

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Good evening from New York. I'm Chris Hayes. We are now 98 days out for the midterm elections. Right now, the projection is that this is going to be very, very close. And a big reason for that, particularly on the Senate side, is that Donald Trump is just very, very unpopular. Look at any poll over the last few weeks, even the last month. But look at this poll today from you gov. It shows Donald Trump at just 34% approval. That's the lowest he's ever been in either term in that poll. That's real, real bad. While the president works to basically enrich himself or play with his various toys, the Republican-controlled Congress knows he's weaker because it's defying him more and more as lawmakers sprint to the August recess. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party, despite facing a lot of headwinds, well chronicled, I think, particularly over the last week or so, including a national party, a DNC that's effectively broke, some very intense coalitional conflicts that continue to play out, has more or less gotten its act together enough to field a bunch of really strong candidates, changing several races Republicans expected to win easily into toss-ups. Last night, we spoke with the new Maine Democratic Senate nominee, Troy Jackson, the guy he raised about $2 million in just the two days after securing the party's nomination. A poll taken just before the nominating convention found Jackson favored over incumbent Republican Susan Collins by three points. Remember, Graham Platner was pulling like five points behind before he dropped out. But this is the key. He has a plus five favorability rating in that matchup, outmatching Susan Collins minus 18. Another seat that's currently looking surprisingly good for Democrats, in some ways, I think the surprise of the cycle is Georgia. I mean, a year or two ago, right, the idea that Jon Ossoff would cruise to re-election seemed ridiculous. If he was going to win, it was going to be an uphill battle and he was going to have to grind it out. It's a state that, let's remember, Republicans swept statewide and the presidential in 2024 with Trump at the top of the ticket. But a recent survey of Georgia voters found Al-Assaf up by nine points over his Republican opponent Mike Collins. He is also outraising Susan Collins by a ton. He pulled in $20 million in the second quarter. He's got $42 million in the bank. And compare that to Susan Collins' campaign, raising just $2.1 million with about the same amount on hand. Now remember, we live in the super PAC era, right? So there's a whole bunch of big money that can pouring in from those super PACs and corporate interests and big wealthy billionaire donors. But if that does pour in, Asaf has also been on message about Trump's corruption, as well as highlighting Susan Collins' son-in-law, who has, quote, a history of amplifying white supremacist social media accounts and echoing anti-Semitic tropes online. You should go read that piece. There's some really nasty stuff. And this is how Ahsoff's campaigning on the ground, tying Susan Collins to the most unpopular aspects of the Trump agenda. So what has Mike done for Georgian families and workers? People like you and me? A whole lot of nothing. From the grocery store to the gas pump, Mike has made life more expensive for all of us. He supported and voted to protect Trump's tariffs, fueling record inflation while cutting taxes for the ultra rich. You see, Mike's not a working trucker. He's a man who rode his daddy's name from business to Congress, a politician who voted to hike our health care costs and defund rural hospitals so he could take care of billionaires and himself. A lackey who's in lockstep with all of Trump's chaos.

Now, it's notable there, right? George's a state Trump carried in 2024, right? Swing state. Asa of his running ads calling him a lackey, right, who facilitates Trump's chaos. So you've got the affordability, the ultra-rich, and Trump chaos. We're seeing that message everywhere. Again, even in states Trump carried. In Ohio, former Senator Sherrod Brown is trying to unseat Senator John Houston. A recent pair of polls show they're basically in a dead heat. Now, Brown has the benefit in this race of being a very known quantity in the state, obviously. He served as senator in that state for three terms. And it's shaping up to be fairly favorable environment for Democrats, particularly as issues like inflation and data centers weighed out of Republican incumbents, something that Brown highlighted in a recent ad. He's been called the face of data centers in Ohio. Why? Because John Hustead spent years aggressively recruiting data centers to the state, cutting sweetheart tax deals and fast-tracking approvals, while ordinary residents watch their electricity bills explode. We are here with Ohio Senator John Husted, be a lot of experience with something called data centers. John Hustadt, who's you really working for? That ad jumped out to me because it's not the only one this cycle. In fact, that's something that is popping up all across the country. It's one of those issues. It's a rare issue that Americans are in broad bipartisan agreement on, at least for now, that they are against data centers. We've seen opposition bubbling up in all sorts of areas. Another raise to watch, a pickup the Democrats have to have if they're going to take back the Senate is, of course, North Carolina. That's where former Governor Roy Cooper is consistently pulling ahead of Trump-backed Michael Whatley. And then there's Texas. New poll out today found Democrat James Talarico up by five points over state attorney general Ken Paxton. This is an interesting development, given what we know historically about Texas. First of all, James Talarico has raised $30 million in the second quarter. Back in 2018, when Beto O'Rourke built this fundraising juggernaut, he brought in a total of $80 million. He came up short of unseating center crews by two points. But it was the best electoral performance by a Texas Democrat in a generation. He got within spitting distance. But here's the thing. Throughout that race, which was the closest Democrats have come, Beto O'Rourke only led one poll in September that year, and even then it was just by two points. Since Ken Paxton won the Republican primary runoff in May, James Talarico has led in three polls, Ken Paxton has led in three, and one of them had them tied. That looks like a dead heat. Another factor working against O'Rourke was that Ted Cruz was an incumbent, as unpopular as Ted Cruz may be, was, still is. But Ken Paxton's even less popular. I mean, the polling bears us out. He is a genuinely toxic person. And while James Talarico has highlighted Ken Paxton's failings, like most of the Democratic candidates, he is also hitting the affordability issue that's being felt across the country. Too many Texans feel like they're drowning, the cost of groceries, gas, health care. I'm James Talarico. In the State House, I brought both parties together to make life more affordable, capping the cost of insulin, cutting taxes for small businesses, and passing the largest property tax cut in Texas history. In the Senate, I'll take on corruption and keep fighting to lower your costs. I approve this message because it shouldn't be this hard to keep your head above water.

I got to editorialize here for a second. If you're going to be a Democrat who's going to be the first statewide Democrat to win in Texas in 30 years, that's basically the campaign you got to run, right? That's the message. So after Texas, you've got two more states to watch. Again, it's a very wide playing board right now. Alaska has a jungle primary on August 18th. It does seem in reach for Democratic flip because Democrat Mary Peltola, who's won statewide in Alaska before. She was a lone member of Congress, is polling just two points behind incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan. The other race that is going to be a big one and make a big difference is Michigan. That's where Abdul El-Sayed and Haley Stevens are the last two Democratic candidate standing. That primary is exactly a week from today, August 4th. We're going to have special live coverage on that night. Whoever wins that primal will be the Democratic candidate to take on Republican Mike Rogers. We're 98 days out. Trump is very, very unpopular. Things look close. Also maybe reachable for Democrats looking to take back a Senate majority. Something that, again, two years ago seemed impossible. A year ago seemed like a real stretch. And, as we've learned in politics, a whole lot could happen in the next 98 days. Usually, midterms come down to a referendum on the president's party and how voters think things are going. Right now, there are just big majorities that are very unhappy with votes. Claire McCaskill is a former Democratic Senator from Missouri with experience in flipping a seat in a red state. Cornell Belcher, veteran Democratic strategist, and they both join me now. Let me start with you, Cornell, just on how you sort of view the polling signals. We went through some of the individual races. You know. There's always going to be a relationship between individual races and national environment, and then you'll have sort of under and overperformers. You know, I think Jon Ossoff right now is sort of overperforming, if you look at the polling. What's your general read about where things stand right now, 98 days out? Well, where things stand is that Democrats have an expanded playing field for the Senate. But let's level set for a minute. Chris, and you know this, and I know Senator knows this, no Democrat is going to have a cakewalk in Georgia, right? He may have a lead now. But the end, you know, if a Democrat wins Georgia by one or two points, that is a really big deal. So look, the polls are going to shrink. But one of the things that we've been talking about time and time again, this is where Trump actually does impact it is. He's underwater in so many of these states, right? He's underwater in Ohio. He's under water in Iowa. And what does that mean? What does that really mean in terms of his approval and where it meets the...

Robert meets the road for election is that we know the vast majority, whether a Democrat or Republican, the vast majority of voters who disapprove or the president, they vote against the president's party. And those who strongly disapprove, you know, upwards of 70% vote against the president's party. So when you see a lot of these states coming online, there's absolutely a Trump factor in that. And when you get underneath it, he's losing support among... key groups of voters that were big for Republicans in the last couple of elections. And the Fox poll right now, Chris, he's he's underwater with white men, and he's underwater with non-college white voters. And look, we know those are a bit, those are voters that he, groups that he carried by 20 plus points, and he's now underwater with. So I think it's expanding and opening up the map. But also Democrats have, to your point that you were making, it's good candidates. who fit these seats, right? Is Trump, is good candidates, and there's issues. And if you look at the issue playing field from data centers to affordability, Democrats do have an advantage on the issues. Claire, you know, I was thinking about that 2018 race, which was where The Democrats took the House, but Trump made, Republicans made gains in the Senate, obviously, as you know. And a lot of that had to do with the sort of structural factors, right? There was this realignment happening that continued to move in certain directions, particularly among rural counties in your state of Missouri. We saw it in Montana. We saw it all over the country, right? One thing I think now is that that realignment has, it feels like he is juiced as much juice as you can get out of it. And there's a real question now, right? Like at a certain point, you can't run margins up in rural counties above 90%, right? You'd like the realignment stuff is all, he's gotten those voters. You kind of come back to some of the swing voters that have determined these elections before that it seems to me opens up some space for, say, Sherrod Brown in Ohio or Josh Turrick and Iowa, which were states that were looking like they had kind of moved so resolutely into that column. Yeah. First of all, I will push back a little bit on the premise that it's not happening in rural America because it is. I've driven through Missouri recently in very rural areas. And I remember what it felt like when I drove through those areas during election season back not too long ago. And there were Trump flags. There were Trump signs. There was just a sense that everything had gone very passionately towards Donald Trump. They're gone now. And the farmers are mad. They're mad. They've lost a market that they work to get for decades. Their input costs are skyrocketing. Rural hospitals are on life support. It is not a bed of roses for Donald Trump in rural America right now. And that's why the DSCC.

has now sent out $40 million, not to five states, not to six states, not to eight states, but to 10 states, including Iowa and Florida, and frankly, Mississippi. I mean, we've got a chance in places we haven't had a chance in in a long, long time. And even Montana is at play if we can somehow get the anti-Republican candidates down to one instead of two. Yeah, and let me just say, I totally agree with you. My point was that the sort of juicing of those rural margins has sort of come back on the rubber band, right? Correct. It was still sort of moving in his direction back in 2018, the kind of arrow of that. And you get to a certain point where it's not, there's nothing left there. It's coming back. I think objectively, partly just, you know, trends and stuff. And that does put, that does put states in play. I mean. Let's talk about you talked about Montana. You talked about Iowa. I want to show this Montana polling because I do think it's interesting. There's there's an independent who's running and there's a Democrat who I think the Democrats want to not run because they want the independent to take on the Republican. But as a sort of, again, as a kind of window where the electorate is, we've got polling today that shows Seth Bodenar, the sort of independent, who I think would probably caucus with Democrats or be a more amenable vote in the Republican, is polling up in that race if you had the Democrat drop out. She says she's not going to. I think that's probably right. But that number, to me, Cornell says it is a pretty flashing sign about where things are just generally in the country and the electorate. Yeah, and to that point that the senator was making, look, it's also seeing in the data where he ran up big scores among rural voters in the last couple elections and Republicans have as well. But if you look inside the polling right now, in rural areas, that has come down. And if you look at the suburbs and quite frankly urban areas, and the suburbs where a lot of these, you can't squeeze any more out of the rural areas and suburbs become a swing area, they're breaking for the Democrat. And look, in the Washington Post poll, you know, Democrats are carrying, you know, the generic horse race by 20 points among independents. And so that's real collapse among the middle, moderate, nonpartisan part of this is a big deal. One thing about Texas is also interesting really quickly is that what you're seeing is that supposed sort of realignment or move of Hispanic voters to the right for Republicans. You're seeing in Texas that was not. That was not solidified, and you see it moving back, which puts Texas in real play. And one quick thing about the money by the DSEC, I love, and I know the senator will love this too, is they're not dumping that money for television. They're dumping it for on the ground touches and communications and grassroots and get out the vote efforts. Claire, if you're a Democrat trying to win in a state like Iowa or Ohio or as you were in Missouri, right? You've got to find things to separate yourself, A, from the National Party, B, that you can sort of make hay with against your opponent in the environment you're in. And that's why the Sherrod Brown Data Center ad was so interesting to me. And I'm curious just how it struck you as someone who, again, had to win elections in sort of uphill terrain, you know, twice.

Yeah, I think the data centers are very, very important. And I think, frankly, I mean, there's a lot of signs in this cycle that remind me of 18, but in reverse, because of the Iranian war. I won in 06 because of the Iraq War. That is how I beat a sitting Republican in the United States Senate from Missouri. And we have the same issue now. And the reason it has... More power this time, I think, is because people are seeing it every time they fill up their gas tank. And they know it's because Donald Trump went into a war of choice that wasn't well thought out. They know they're paying the price. So if you combine the data centers and you combine gas prices, it's a powerful, powerful message for anybody who's not a Republican. Yeah. Yeah, that's a great point about that. It was a, well, you were there. You did it. But yes, that was a, the rack was really front and center in that round. Claire McCaskill, Cornell, Belcher. Thank you both. That was great. Coming up, Senator Mitch McConnell is still out of the office. What does that mean for the voters of Kentucky? What it can mean for the Democratic Party and the future of the Senate? That's next. Normally in these ads, you expect somebody to ask you to buy something. But this is something different. I'm Julian Barnes, and I'm a reporter for the New York Times. I'm a national security reporter, and that means I'm reporting on military operations. These are fast-paced, quickly-moving situations. What exactly is happening on the ground is often shrouded in mystery. But we turn to trusted sources, satellite imagery, and expertise built up over years in order to ferret out the facts that wouldn't otherwise come to light. I'm here to ask you to seek out a news source that does firsthand fact-based reporting. If it's your local paper, great. If it's the Times, thank you. Because where you go for your information matters.

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It's bizarre, and there's something wrong with the Senate. It's dysfunctional that they're not figuring this out. The Constitution says we're in charge of the rules surrounding our own members. And I do want to say this. You know, I don't want people to think I'm being partisan when Senator Feinstein was ill, and she had missed so many votes. I called her, and I said, Diane, please, you've got such a wonderful record. You shouldn't stay there. I left. It's great. You can get to speak. She was angry at me. So there's a certain thing that's happening here. Now, remember in the Senate, the median age is 65. That means half of them are less than 65, and half of them are older than 65. So this is an issue that has to be addressed. The last thing I'll say here to you is this. We get elected by the people. The people are the boss. I think Andy Beshear is showing great restraint and respect in what he's saying. And basically, you know, we work for the federal government. So today I looked at the rules for a normal federal employee, quote unquote, I say normal, not elected. And they get 13 days a year of paid leave. 13 days. You can carry it over. But you have to discuss it with, you know, H.R. This is wrong. And Mitch McConnell this started. I looked it up back in 2023, where he missed 29 votes due to his fall. 2024, it continued. He missed 31 votes. 2025, 73 votes. And now in 26, he's missed 27 percent of votes, 56 votes. So this is wrong. You know, it's hard. You know, we talked about Tom Keene, who was a member of the House Republican incumbent who disappeared for a while. And he kept saying, I'll let you know when I come back. And we talked about this. And he said, you know, you've got to be transparent. And obviously, you know, health issues can happen to anyone at any age, right? There's obviously an age component in all this, it being the Senate, but it happened to anyone in any age. And it's no one who loves to talk about what's going on with their health, particularly if they're, you know, in a rehab facility. But I mean, the general thing here that you do need some disclosure and transparency. It's weird how much that seems to have been abandoned. Like, it is, like, people do have to say what's up with what their health condition is when they are a publicly elected leader who currently does not have the capacity to represent the voters in Kentucky. You have to tell your boss what's wrong. If you're in the private sector and you don't show up, right? Day after day after day, you're not going to take a photo. If you're a boss, you're not going to take a photo from the husband or wife of the person you need to. work. This is so obvious. And I think, you know, I was chair of the Ethics Committee for a long time. It's a very bipartisan place. They ought to take a look at this. Is it really ethical? What's happening? I don't think it is. So there's a lot of work that needs to be done. And I think you start by looking at how most federal employees are treated and take it from there.

We should also note that in his long career, Mitch McConnell has voted against paid leave, you know, numerous times, I think dozens of times, including, you know, bills that would provide paid leave for six weeks for everyone in the country, things like that. There is a wrinkle here that I want to get your feedback on, too, because I've seen people, there's been some sort of anger directed at Andy Beshear that he's not doing more. But in terms of how this cashes out in a partisan sense. Right now, you have a pretty narrow Republican majority, and one of those senators is occupying one of those positions and can't make any votes, which is not the worst thing for Democrats, which is something that Governor Andy Beshear actually pointed out today. Take a listen. A lot of those that are pushing this are online and I think are under the impression that a Democrat in Kentucky might be able to win that election. It's been since 1992 that we have had a Democratic senator in Kentucky. A vacancy, not having Mitch McConnell show up isn't necessarily a bad thing. So, I mean, there is a, there is a degree in sheer partisan terms that this does hamstring of already thin Republican majority. Governor Andy Beshear is being so honest. I mean, another governor might sort of dance around that, and I so appreciate it. But the people who are calling for him to do more, he's not a grant standard. He shouldn't be. He knows what the law is. And by the way, the law in Kentucky is extremely confusing, as I'm sure you know, because the Constitution says, right, the governor appoints, but a law passed said, no, the governor doesn't appoint. It is a Republican state. So it's, you know, be careful what you wish for on either side. But the point is, it's bigger than Mitch McConnell. I know that everyone's focused here. But it's about the Senate. It's about the House. They had a woman, a Congresswoman, who was in a nursing home for months. She got paid. She was, she had dementia. I mean, this is, you know, I'm not a comedian, but, you know, leads itself into that direction. And when. Congressman Keane came back, frankly, I thought he was, he missed the mark. He should have apologized. He didn't apologize. And so I think the rules have to change. People aren't going to stand for it. I think you're probably right about that. We're going to see how this continues to play up. Our boxer, always a pleasure. Thank you. Thanks. Still ahead, a Republican congressman accused of just unspeakable acts. Why is Max Miller still a member of Congress? That's next. In a Republican House caucus, it has a lot of powerful, scandal-ridden figures. The member of possibly the most serious allegations swirling around him is also one of the least known. The pressure is now building on Ohio Congressman Max Miller.

This month, Mother Jay Jones Magazine obtained 2,000 pages of court filings and police reports related to Miller, records detailing allegations of drug use by Miller, misogyny, and verbal abuse, and violent behavior against multiple women, including his ex-wife, Emily Moreno. She's the daughter of Ohio Republican Senator Bernie Moreno. Last February, the document show, Marino took her and Miller's two-year-old daughter to the ER with a broken collarbone. According to Mother Jay Jones, police records show that Moreno told detectives that Miller had previously thrown hot water at her, shoved her, and held a gun to her head. Therefore, she couldn't rule out that Miller caused their daughter's fracture. A child protection specialist reviewing the case said the bruising around the fracture resembled a handprint. Moreno never filed a police report. Miller said the bruises might have come from a seatbelt. The investigation found insufficient evidence of a crime. But Moreno did tell the text of something she said her daughter told her, quote, Daddy's house is scary. A spokesman from Miller referred Mother Jay Jones to previous statements denying Miller has ever committed violence against women. Moreno's lawyer declined Mother Jay Jones request for comment. Now, Miller has represented Ohio's heavily Republican 7th District since 2023 after first holding several jobs in Donald Trump's first administration. Trump called him a great guy, supported his campaign for Congress. But multiple sources at the time told political that Miller's prior romantic relationship with former Trump press secretary Stephanie Grisham, remember her, ended when he pushed her against her wall and slapped her in the face in his Washington apartment. Miller denies those allegations. But in a column for the Washington Post, Grisham wrote that she had told Donald and Melania Trump she was abused by a fellow White House staffer and they didn't act on the information. To the contrary, she wrote in this column, knowing what he knows, Trump has endorsed my ex's bid for Congress. Now as Miller runs for re-election, Republican lawmakers remain largely silent about these shocking allegations of violence. Nikki McCann Ramirez is a politics reporter at Rolling Stone, who took a look at this week and how Republicans are sidestepping questions about Miller's alleged conduct, and she joined me now. I gotta say, you know, I want to be very careful about what is and isn't established here, what are allegations. Again, he denies ever being violent towards women. But just to start on the last thing I said was Stephanie Grisham part, where... I mean, just to start with, you have essentially, and she doesn't say his name, but she points the arrows at him, you know, you have a former staffer who is on the record saying that she was abused and that she told Donald and Melania Trump about it, and they did nothing and instead endorsed it. Yeah, and I think it's important to point out that even though these are allegations, Max Miller kind of identified himself as the person Grisham was talking about in that memoir by countersuing. And later now, in the current dispute he's in with his ex-wife, once again, bringing up the claims made by Grisham and alleging that he had evidence that it had been made up. But I really want to stress, and I encourage everyone to read the Mother Jay Jones piece, which is incredibly in-depth.

These are not just allegations dating back to Grisham. The piece establishes a pattern of accusations dating back to when Miller was in high school. This is a very established figure and a very established problem that this member of Congress has had, not just in the last couple months, but over the last few years, as these allegations resurface and regain traction in the context of this race, there is now a clip circulating of fellow disgraced congressman George Santos telling him on the floor of the house, you're a wife beater. So again, allegedly, but in that instance, it was a bit of, you know, the fraudster calling the kettle an abuser. But it seems like Republicans throughout the caucus have known for years that these allegations are out there and have kind of chosen to ignore them. Because as of now, there is no active ethics committee investigation. There is no really and real response from leadership about why this person has been allowed to remain a voting member of the caucus when other members have been removed for similar allegations. I also just want to just to emphasize the other allegations coming from his ex-wife. I mean, first of all, this is not that it should matter either way, but this is the wife of a sitting Republican senator in the same state of Ohio, right? It's a fairly connected person. And the context of those police reports, this is not her talking a reporter. It's not her making public. This is a private conversation she is having with the police. when she is in the context of bringing her daughter with a broken collarbone to the hospital in which he says that he pointed a gun in her head, threw her into a wall, and threw hot water on her. I mean, that, again, this is, it doesn't mean it's true. These are allegations, but this is, in a context in which this is not a person who is, you know, attempting to destroy the reputation or publicly coming out with this. This is in the sort of most private, urgent possible context. Absolutely. And especially when there's a child in the mix that is at risk. And I think the response House Majority Leader Mike Johnson gave last week was incredibly instructive because we've seen Johnson in the past sort of deflected questions about allegations related to members of his caucus by simply saying, oh, I haven't heard of that. As we were just discussing, this is something that is very well known within the Republican House caucus. Johnson essentially dismissed these reports by saying, oh, well, they're allegations. We've seen over the course of the last year two members of the Republican House caucus be removed not via criminal convictions, but allegations of misconduct. Most recently Tony Gonzalez and then, of course, Matt Bill Gates, a very infamous case. I think the thing here that we need to remember is that members of Congress are not entitled to their seats. The conduct you display in your home, allegedly to your ex-wife, to your children, that is not separate.

from your ability to serve in Congress. If you are allegedly committing abuse at home, especially within a party that claims to value the safety of women, children, and girls, and this is a story that is hanging over your head. It's not only that you're accountable to the voters that are going to cast their ballots in November, in the midterms, you are accountable to the fellow members of your Congress, to your family, to the people who you have misled through your character. I want to note, obviously, I misspoke before his daughter, Emily Marino's daughter, not wife. I think I misspoke briefly. I want to just play what Mike Johnson said, because you've been reporting about the sort of sidestepping here, which I think is pretty disingenuous. Johnson was confronted to this after the sort of Graham Platner story, and there's been some really upsetting. abuse allegations at Cory Mills, who you're going to hear about here in this clip, just to set it up. He's a Republican in Florida. He denies those allegations. He's also faced them. But take a listen to how Johnson tries to get out of it here. These past two weeks, Democrats ditched their ballot after sexual assault auditions. Two members of the conference, Max Miller, and Hortnell's face domestic violence allegations. Why would do Republicans keep them in the conference, whereas Democrats are dropping somebody accuses criminally because of sexual harassment? Well, the key word there is allegation. We have a process here. The House Ethics Committee works on those things. If allegations are made, they work through a process. So I'm not in the business of commenting on investigations as they're in process. And we'll see how that shakes out. But am I right that there's no process right now for Miller, right? Yeah, no. As far as I can see, there is no ethics committee investigation currently taking place. And this is something we have seen Johnson do several times when he doesn't want to make a decision about a member of his caucus who's been accused of misconduct, of fraud, of financial mismanagement. He kind of just differs to the ethics committee, which can stall investigations for a very long time. Right. Yes, it's a really, really good point. It's been a useful thing for him to have in his back pocket. Nikki McCann Ramirez, thanks for joining us. Still to come, Donald Trump's new feud with his old buddy, Beebe, in town today. That's next. Every bold journey starts with a decision to go. And if you're ready, the Defender is too. This is a vehicle built for more, whether you're heading off the grid or just getting out of town for the weekend. Defender is a true icon reimagined for a new generation. Its rugged exterior is built from durable materials and tested in the toughest conditions. Inside, it's modern, functional, and refined with smart storage and premium touches that keep you comfortable wherever the road leads.

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The funeral for Senator Lindsey Graham was held today in Washington, D.C. and among the attendees who showed up to pay their respects are the two world leaders he spent his last year's advocating for. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, both of whom also visited the White House for separate closed-door meetings with Donald Trump today. For Benjamin Netanyahu, it was his first meeting with Trump since February prior to the joint war that the two men launched on Iran. Earlier this month, Benjamin Netanyahu had asked to meet with Trump but didn't get an appointment. Instead, he postponed his trip to Washington once Graham's wake had been postponed. But Benjamin Netanyahu never turned away, got his White House meeting today in typical Benjamin Netanyahu fashion. He boasts about it on social media. Just prior to the meeting, Trump phoned into Fox where he got a little snippy towards the Israeli prime minister. There are reports now that Benjamin Netanyahu is going to talk to you about ongoing excavation at Pickax Mountain, construction vehicles entering and exiting tunnels, paving new access roads. Satellite imagery and intel indicates that Iran is actively constructing and fortifying Pickax Mountain. How will we respond? Well, I don't need Benjamin Netanyahu to tell me that. Benjamin Netanyahu's telling me that because he wants me to stay involved. I heard Benjamin Netanyahu announced that. I said, why didn't you just tell it to me? Why do you have to announce it to the world? I know exactly what's going on at pickax. It's not a big problem. There's something sort of almost fitting about it. Here you have two men trying to figure out how to navigate a disastrous war that Lindsey Graham helped advocate for and are now stuck with the consequences and a reality far from what they had both envisioned. Joining me now, David Remneck, award-winning journalist, Netter the New Yorker, just wrote a piece on how Benjamin Netanyahu's top general is now challenging him in the upcoming Israeli election. You know, the thing with Benjamin Netanyahu, and it's also sort of true, Lindsey Graham, Both men sort of criticized, both sort of written off politically in some ways. I mean, people thought it's sort of Lindsey Graham's neo-conservatism was a dead end. The Republican Party is moving the opposite direction. Benjamin Netanyahu's political obituary has been written many times, and yet here we are. This project, this policy project for both men. Lindsey Graham now deceased and Benjamin Netanyahu Yanu has been brought to fruition, despite all the criticism and all the ups and downs of their political careers, and now we are living with. Well, since the Bush administration, George W. Bush administration, Benjamin Netanyahu has been telling American presidents that the planes are ready to go. We're two seconds away from Iran becoming nuclear ready, and it's time to invade. And finally, he found a president to go for it. And a war that was promised to be a matter of weeks and a matter of simplicity and obliteration of the nuclear arsenal. is now into its, what, we're now a half year into this with no end in sight. And we've emboldened the Iranian leadership. And by all stretches, you have to think that Iran now its impulse to become the possessor of a nuclear weapon is far greater than it ever was, like North Korea is. So strategic genius all around.

The Benjamin Netanyahu has always sort of, he's been a remarkable political figure in his ability to sort of pull a rab out of a hat, to escape near certain political death time and time and time again. And you write about this a little bit in the piece. I wonder how much the rift between the U.S. and Israel, at the level of public opinion. is factoring into the perceptions of him politically domestically in Israel. Because it just, when you look at the polling on favorability towards Israel, on arresting Benjamin Netanyahu, which is at 49% in a recent poll. I mean, it's... It is moving so quickly, and it does seem to have a lot to do with both him and the actions that the government took in Gaza. And I wonder whether that matters to an Israeli public or whether they just sort of think, look, we have our own issues to deal with, and the Americans can think what they think. Well, of course it matters to Israelis. I was just there. This is my fifth trip. to Israel since October 7, 2023. And here's the great dilemma when it comes to Iran, especially we can talk about public opinion in a second. It's in Benjamin Netanyahu's political interest, according to the polls, to prolong this war as long as possible. Right. In other words, he's seen ironically, and let's factor in all the ironies here, he's seen as Mr. Security, even though he's presided over the biggest collapse of security in the history of the state. And for President Trump, he wants to get out of this war as quickly as he can because the price of oil remains very high because of what we know is straight to four moves. And he's facing a midterm election. And if we're still at war, his popularity, which is already abysmal, will either remain so or get worse. So they are now at loggerheads in their raw political interests. And you started off by saying that Benjamin Netanyahu is, You know, his obituary has been written many times. You're 100% right. I started covering this guy 20 years ago. He's been prime minister on and off for 19 years. And he's a master at assembling coalitions that keep his backside in office. And right now, the coalition that he presides over is the most by leaps, the most extreme in the history of Israel. And it includes ministers like Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, whom you've heard a lot about, whose politics straight up include annexing the West Bank of possible and ethnic cleansing Gaza and possibly the West Bank. This is dire. And so, yes, Gaza is the, I think the major factor in why support for Israel has cratered in this country. But it also has to do with violence of settlers in the West Bank, which goes on every single day. And just the sheer...

racism that we see coming out of the mouths of his close ministers. These are not people who are his enemies or thereby sheer convenience. They are his allies in politics and will remain so if he wins at the end of October. And I think he has a good chance of winning, although I think it's far from a given. Yeah, it's an excellent piece in the New Yorker profiling, the man who's his sort of most formidable opponent who served in the IDF was the highest levels for 30 years. Just on this point of tension, you know, there's this kind of eternal recurrence that keeps happening, right? Because there was tension between Benjamin Netanyahu and Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu kind of got his way there. There's been tension here. You can see Trump getting snippy and passive aggressive on the phone today, right? But in the end, He does seem to manage to win those standoffs time and time again. Right. Yes, exactly. I agree. And last week in the New Yorker, my colleague David Kirkpatrick published an astonishing report on just how, month by month, Benjamin Netanyahu was able to fend off the all too weak attempts by the Biden administration to get him to slow down, to back off, to ceasefire and all the rest. And the next thing you know, well over 70,000 Palestinians, including more than 20,000 children, were dead. And those numbers may go up as more, forgive me, but more remains are excavated from buildings all around the Gaza Strip. Yeah, I think that the question of what happens next is very unclear. I should say, as far as the piece I published, it's a profile also of Gadi Eisencott, who I think in many ways appeals to Israelis not just because his son died in the war, and he's seen to many people as more honest and straightforward than Benjamin Netanyahu is seen as anything but. But as somebody who would have a more positive influence on the democratic internal issues, judiciary reforms, maybe on West Bank violence, but you shouldn't be deluded in thinking that Gadiazincott is in any way campaigning on the basis of two states for two people and such things. That is very much not on the boards here. And people should understand the limits as well as the possibilities of that kind of change. It's a great piece. I learned a lot from it, David Remnick. Always a pleasure, sir. Thank you very much. That does it for All In. You can catch us every weeknight at 8 o'clock on MS now. Don't forget to like us on Facebook. That's facebook.com slash all on with Chris. Walmart shoppers, meet the debit card design with you in mind. The Walmart Money Card offers up to $75 cash back on purchases at Walmart each year, early direct deposit, overdraft protection, and so much more. When Walmart is your everyday store, you need a card to match. That's the Walmart Money Card. Open your account today. The Walmart Money Card is issued by green dot bank, member FDIC. Fees, terms, and conditions apply. Visit WalmartMoneycard.com to learn more.