Alex Wagner Tonight : MSNBCW : August 30, 2024 1:00am-2:00am PDT : Free Borrow & Streaming : Internet Archive (2024)

judiciary. in arizona they tried to refused to certify election results and we sued them and we won't go. counties in pennsylvania tried to not certify results. there's a lot made about the courts and i understand the grave challenges of the current state of the judiciary, but i want to say in 2020, the courts held. right now in courtrooms around america, democracy -- in front of judges him judges are doing the right thing more often than not. >> marc elias, thank you for your time. that is all in. alex wagner starts right now with katie phang. atie phang. marc. i appreciate that. and donald trump ati arlington national cemetery this week was a very transparent attempt for

him to re-claim the spotlight he's beenm missing now that kamala harris during the u.s. withdrawal from.s afghanistan. but trump and his campaign also used this occasion and this hallowed space to make a not so subtle dig at the biden-harris administration. hisha campaign manager calling e image the photo that shook the world and reminded america who the real commander in chief is. that was what donald trump wanted his narrative to be

about, but over the lastra coup ofe days he's lost control of that narrative. and now everyone is talking about is this -- how donald trump andis members of his campaign staff sended up in section 60 of arlington nationa cemetery, the final resting place of service members who died ince iraq and afghanistan d in violation of the cemetery's rules. and hee ce used video of that hallowed space as part of a partisan photo-op. and how his team physically pusheds a cemetery staff membe who tried to stop them after warning them that they were prohibited from taking pictures and recording video at that part of the burial ground. for days the trump campaign denied that a scuffle even happened and went so far as to disparage that employee saying that she was, quote, suffering from a mental health episode and also calling her, quote, despicable. trump's campaign also promised to release video that would corroborate their side of the

story, video that has yet to materialize. today the u.s. army confirmed that a trump aide did indeed push an arlington national cemetery employee as she tried to enforce the rules, making this the latest gaffe in donald trump's long and horrific record of disrespect towards u.s. troops and veterans. that includes saying that john mccain who spent five years in captivity as a p.o.w. was no war hero because, quote, he was captured. calling americans who died in wars suckers and losers, minimizing the traumatic brain injuries troops suffered in a missile strike as headaches, and saying thats the medal of freedom, a civilian award, is much better than the medal of honor because service members who receive this top military honor are often gravely wounded or dead. today when asked about his role in this a week's incident at arlington national cemetery and

his campaign capitalizing on the images of section 60, trump tried to re-claim the narrative yet again, but it didn't go so well. >> should yourdn campaign have t out those videos and photos? >> well, we have a lot of people. we have tiktok people. we're leading the internet, that was the other thing. we're so far above her on the internet. >> but on that hallowed ground. >> well, i don't know what the rules and d regulations are. it could have been them. >> it was your campaign's tiktok that put out -- >> i don't know anything about it. all i did was stood there and said if you'd like toth have a picture, we can have a picture. this was a setup by the people in the administration that, oh, trump is coming to arlington, that looks so bad. >> wait, trump is now saying that his campaign's photo-op was a setup? joining me now is msnbc pentagon correspondent courtney kube. courtney, thanks so much for

getting us started this evening. you obtained the rules and regulations r arlington nationa cemetery put forth to be able to be present there and specifically dealing with sectionsp 60. i mean it seems pretty clear that there was aem violation of those rules. >> yeah. i mean the rules are simple. it is that, number one, there is nonu allowance -- you are never allowed to have a campaign event or any kind of campaign partisan event that happens on arlington national cemetery ground. it's simply not allowed. now, this is where this got a little bit gray, katie, and that is the fact that former president trump was invited to this wreath laying event by the families of several of the service members who were killed at abbey gate three years ago, and he was there in his capacity as the former president of the united states. now, for that reason he was allowed today be there to participate with the families in the memorial event.

he was allowed to have official photographers and videographers at the tomb of the unknown soldier. you frequently see videos and photos of that. that part is not at issue here. after that event, katie, they moved onto section 60. the motorcade and several of the familyse members of those falle service members, and that's where this incident occurred. now, the rules are very clear. you are not allowed to have videographers or photographers at section 60 collecting any kind of images, but not just that. you cannot -- anything that anyone does there, whether it's the staff for former president trump, none of the video or content that they collect is allowed to then be used in the capacity of his campaign. that's also very clearly written into the rules. but the issue here is that's very difficult to enforce at the

time. so what we've t learned in the last 48 hours or so is that that was where this incident occurred. when some of the staff got out of the trump motorcade to take photos and videos, one of the trump staff members when he was confronted by theer arlington national cemetery employee telling them he could not take photos and videos, the staff member then pushed that arlington national cemetery employee. now, the armyon put out a statement today that is frankly more forceful than we tend to hear from them, and it was clearly in defense of this arlington staff member saying she actedar professionally, reay defending herpr actions here, a saying what she did, was to maintain the dignity and respect of those hallowed grounds as she called them, katie. >> there's something special about section 60. can you briefly describe why this area is of note and why there's a physical altercation

that happened there. >> section 60 is -- i don't mean to imply that any part of arlington cemetery is not consideredn hallowed ground, b it's the place where many of the servicehe members who have diedr bip killed in the recent conflicts are buried. that's why one of the service members that we see one of the photos ofof former president trp stand at is one of the service members killed in afghanistan in 2021. so it has taken on even more of a -- there are even stricter rules there for taking photos and videos. and just so our audience understands exactly why that is, the staff at arlington cemetery and the department of the army in general, they want to make sure people aren't there taking photos of mourners. they want to protect the dignity and the privacy of people who might be there who are still in a very real mourning situation, who may have lost loved ones in recent years. and they want to make sure they are not in any way exploited. so it's not just campaigns or

anything, it's media. media restrictions about what you can and can't take video and photos of in section 60 are extremely strict, and they are very strongly enforced, and they have been forfo some time. that's one of the reasons this has really had so much outcry, because of the fact they were standing on the graves of individuals who had been killed or died in very recent years. again, people are still very actively mourning these service members there, and then some of those photos were then released on social media. and as you mentioned there was even some video released in a tiktok video for the campaign, katie. >> very quickly before i let you go, though, we have not received any reporting that trump himself or the trump campaign has reprimanded or said anything about that trump aide who physically assaulted an arlington cemetery employee, correct? >> correct. and we do know that the military police were called right as soon

after that incident, the pushing occurred. and they came to the scene. they did take statements from at least one -- more likely several of the arlington cemetery staffers who were there, who saw what happened, including the individual involved. they did approach some of the trump staff members, but there was no formal statement given. and i will sayat in that statemt we gotll from the department of the army today, they said that the staff member s has decided t to press charges, and they consider this matter closed, katie. >> msnbc pentagon correspondent courtney kube, i really appreciate you taking the time to explain everything what happened at arlington and with donald trump and your time tonight. thank you for beingti here. joining me now is patrick murphy, former acting secretary of the army, and a vet of the iraq war. congressman, i want to startaq thanking you as always for your service, to you and all veterans. and i have to ask you how offensive is it?

notfe just because you are a veteran and ast former acting secretary of the nachby, but to have witnessed and to hear what donald trump did at arlington national cemetery? >> what courtney said, it's really donald trump had complete disregard for our brothers and sisters and veterans. i served in iraq. i was with the 82nd airborne division, and our brothers and sisters who gave, the ultimate sacrifice from iraq and afghanistan are buried in section 60. it is a solemn ground. former president trump and his aides knew better. they didn't just disregard the rules, regulations, and the law. they pushed aside a woman who was doing her job, part of our army team for a campaign commercial, for a tiktok campaign commercial. i mean, how low can it get? vietnam veterans gave the ultimate sacrifice in vietnam,

and it just -- not just breaks my heart, it makes my blood boil because we have someone who thinks he's still above the law. we have someone who doesn't care about our veterans. when it was his time to serve in vietnam he got five deferments for a bone spur he doesn't even know what foot it was on. he calls our brother and sister veterans losers and suckers. he called two different marine generals, disparages them general mattis and general kelly. general kelly lost his son in combat. he dishonors gold star families, he attacks people. and that's why thisho army civilian -- this woman who was just doing her job, who was pushed aside doesn't want to give a statement because she's worried about s retaliation. well, let me tell you something, there's 900 veterans, 900,000

veterans in my00 state of pennsylvania. and there's about 20 million veterans liacross america whose voices will be heard on november 5th who say no one's above the law in our country, especially a 34-time convicted felon in donald j. trump. >> you know, congressman, you talk a lot about how donald trump puts himself first and how he wants to make sure that he's going to get that photo-op no matter what it takes to be able to get that. a fellow veteran that is currently out doing and stumping totl be able to right the wrong fromgh a trump administration includes your former roommate, governor tim walz. there's been a lot of hay made from republicansha including j. vance, who's also a veteran, by the way, who never saw combat. but there's been a lot of hay made from republicans about governor walz's service in the military.

you guys like i say not only a roommate ofon his, but you guys shared federal time together behind the prying eye of the public when you were in congress together. you got to know him really well. share with our viewers whether there is any type of falsity in the way that tim walz views his time in his many years of service as a member of the military here in the united states. >> yeah. as veterans are, we honor our brother and sister veterans. when j.d. vance was nominated, i'm awa democrat, i'm a proud democrat. i didn't attack hism service. i said, listen, you served in iraq, a marine is on the ticket. when tim walz was nominated to be the vice president, it's a different standard. the republicans attack, attack, attack. they did it to john kerry 20 years ago, they were trying to do it again withoh tim walz. tim walz, katie, served honorably for 24 years. we have asked less than 1% of

our nation who served the longest wars in american history. after 20 years tim walz could have got t out. heve could have got out of the military. he did two decades. but he realized it and deploys with his unit after 9/11, his artillery unit overseas, leaves his wife, leaves his kids, leaves his job, goes over there as an assistant soldier, serves honorably, comes home, retires after 24 years, and what did these jokersrs on the other sid do? theyr attack his service time d time again and they try to be cute by t half. oh, we're notcu attacking the service. tim walz is a great american. i was so proud to be a member of congress. and when i was going to orientation i met tim walz and we said, hey, we're both army brothers, we'vebo got a cheap apartment because his family is back in minnesota, mine was back in bucks county, pennsylvania. and for these jokers to attack

from donald trump who got five deferments, to attack someone like tim walz, it's despicable. it's just like he did this week, his w modus operandi, his whole life selfish, shallow, and gutless. >> i want to thank you and your fellow veterans for service to country. thank you so much. >> thanks. and god bless america. coming up this hour donald trump shared a violent sexist attack against kamala harris who has millions of social media followers thatal has left many wondering just how low is he willing to go? but first the surge in enthusiasm for kamala harris you've been hearing about, it was on full display today as she capped her two-day bus tour through southeast georgia with that packedth rally you're seei on your screen in savannah. more on that right after the break. n savannah more on that right after the break.

announcer what if you could whiten your teeth by simply brushing your teeth? now you can with smileactives, the teeth whitening breakthrough that safely gets your teeth white and keeps them white every day just by brushing your teeth. christine i never thought that whitening my teeth could be so easy. i just put the gel on the brush, the toothpaste on it, brush and i can see my white teeth. announcer simply add smileactives to any toothpaste, and our patented polyclean technology activates into a powerful micro foam that penetrates into the enamel surface to safely lift and remove stains. robert you need a simple way to withen your teeth without strips, without trays, without going to the dentist. and it was about time that a product was developed that you would be able

to do that with just brushing. announcer and now smileactives is even better. with new pro whitening gel with 33% greater whitening power. clinically shown to whiten teeth faster up to eight shades. 100% of users saw whiter teeth on food stains, coffee and wine stains, even on veneers, crowns and dentures. paul i eat the blueberries, i drink the coffee and i know that smileactives will keep my teeth white every day. janell if you could do something so easy like smileactives to take yellow teeth to white teeth, why wouldn't you? announcer why spend hundreds of dollars for whitening treatments at the dentist, when now you can whiten your teeth with new smileactives pro whitening gel every time you brush your teeth. call or go to smileactives.com and for a limited time get new pro whitening gel for just $24.95. order in the next 5 minutes and buy one get one absolutely free for just $24.95. that's two for one and save 58%. we■ll even include free shipping. get your teeth whiter,

guaranteed, or return it within 60 days for your money back. i smile every day now. the difference is literally night and day. so now i'm always smiling or cheesing because now my teeth are much wither. announcer this offer is not available in stores, so call or click now before the special buy one, get one free offer goes away. pete g. writes, before the special buy one, “my tween wants a new phone. how do i not break the bank?" we gotcha, pete. xfinity mobile was designed to save you money and gives you access to wifi speeds up to a gig.

so you get high speeds for low prices. better than getting low speeds for high prices. right, bruce? jealous? yeah, look at that. honestly, someone get a helmet on this guy. get a free unlimited line for a year when you buy one unlimited line. plus, get up to $800 off google pixel 9 phones. switch today!

you sent president biden and me to the white house. you showed up, you knocked on doors, you registered folks to vote, and you made it happen. you did that. you did that. and so now we are asking you to do it again. >> vice president kamala harris wrapping up a two-day bus tour through southeast georgia today with a huge and enthusiastic rally in savannah, a city emblematic of georgia's political divide. well, if the city itself a democratic strong hold, the harris-walz bus tour reflects democrats broader strategy to reach voters beyond blue metro atlanta because to win georgia kamala harris must bridge that divide between urban centers and

republican leaning rural areas, a challenge that also extends to nearby north carolina. while harris' running mate, minnesota governor tim walz, joined kamala harris for the first leg of the georgia tour, today he traveled to the tar hill state for a campaign event. this marks the second visit by the democratic ticket to the state since harris replaced joe biden. north carolina, mind you, is a state democrats haven't won since 2008. so what's the strategy that's at play here? i've got the perfect people to ask. joining me now is former democratic congressman from louisiana and former senior advisor to president biden, cedric richmond. he's now cochair of the harris-walz campaign. i'm also joined by my good friend, political reporter for the atlanta journal constitution. i want to thank you both of you gentlemen for being here tonight. my boots on the ground in georgia as always. how significant is it that we're seeing kamala harris and tim walz in that critical

battleground state of georgia just 67 days away from election day, and talk briefly a lil bit, greg, about how this looks different than other democratic tours you've seen? >> yeah, katie, not so long democrats didn't bother campaigning in georgia period, it was such a republican lock. that started a change a few years ago with president biden. it's more than half the state's population, but vice president harris is sending a signal she intends to compete throughout the state. there's a lot of votes beyond metro atlanta particularly in smaller communities and cities like savannah but also in rural areas around there. this bus tour wept to savannah and those areas but also went to liberty county, which is a democratic leaning county. there's a lot of people there who haven't been energized, a lot of people who stayed home for elections, and she's trying to wipeout the apathy in those places. this is not your typical

campaign rally at all. there's people lining up for hours before the event. there's people who stayed outside lining up at the campaign rally in savannah because people are excited about the fact no democratic presidential nominee has been to savannah for a campaign rally in decades. >> you know, cedric, this bus tour with kamala harris and tim walz is being compared today that '92 bus tour that bill clinton did. we talk about areas that are republican leaning. how palpable is that energy? you can feel it through the tv screens. how spur suasive is it to get that foot in the door to have that conversation and get that messaging across to some republicans who might be rethinking donald trump? >> i think it's critical. and i think that it shows what type of president that kamala harris wants to be. she said that there's room in this democratic party for

republicans and independents, and she's going to court their votes. and so i think that her being in savannah and the tour of albany, forsyth, i think the message is clear in georgia we're going to every community, ask for your vote, tell you what's in it for you. we're going to talk to you about kamala harris' new way forward and what that means for you. so i believe it's not just georgia we will do that in. we will do that in all the battleground states. we'll do it in the sun belt states. but it's what her big message is to everyone in the country, and that is we can all rise together. we don't have to pit urban and rural against each other, suburban, urban. it doesn't matter where you're from, we can all rise together, and i think that that is the overwhelming message that this bus tour cept, and we're not going to leave any neighborhood

out. we're not going to concede any vote. we'll go into any community to talk about how the policy she advocates for will help the people who live in that community. >> greg, you and i have spent a lot of time together covering trump. i feel like i'm an honorary georgian with the amount of time i've felt in fulton county. governor kemp i've seen brad raffensperger and other officials, gabe sterling as well, kind of standing their ground and saying i'm not going to take the knee to donald trump. brian kemp just got excoriated by trump the other day, donald trump went after him, and yet there's going to be an event where kemp is going to be honored. is this why we're seeing governor kemp not really stopping the state georgia election board that's doing these crazy rules about election certification and voter suppression moves? >> katie, you're exactly right.

governor kemp is trying to navigate this extremely tricky balance, right? on one hand his voice is very influential and trying to moderate some of the far-right efforts to, for instance, overturn georgia's lection. on the other hand, even after donald trump denigrated him, his wife, called him a poor governor, a bad guy all these names we haven't heard him call governor kemp for years, the governor still saying, hey, i'm going to back up. and literally just a few minutes ago wrapped up appearing at a trump fund raiser that the former president was wasn't there but a number of top allies was there along with senator kelly lefler in atlanta to demonstrate his loyalty to the former president. >> senator, we also have to talk about north carolina. we mentioned at the beginning of this block that we have tim walz spending time there as well. talk about why roy cooper -- he shared at the dnc and in other moments there's an optimism north carolina can actually be carried and be blue for purposes

of this upcoming election. how valuable is north carolina for the harris-walz campaign? >> i think it's very valuable. we're building that coalition to win the state, and we're taking our message there. look, if -- and you just referred to it. donald trump is a fundamentally flawed candidate. he's a fundamentally flawed person, and i think people are starting to see that. and so if you look at north carolina, the gubernatorial nominee on the republican side is someone that's very unpopular, that people see unfit to be governor of the tar hill state. all of those things are starting to come into play. and i think as we get closer and closer to election day people have a choice to make, and it's going to be crystal clear. you have donald trump on one hand who wakes up every day only thinking about himself, and then you have a harris-walz ticket that will keep articulating how they want to help you, how they want to bring this country together. and i think that people are just gravitating to the positive energy and the joy of the

campaign as we go in a new direction. and i think that that is something that is resonating with people, and it's something that i think a lot of people underestimated. and i will tell you that i am even shocked to some extent about the importance of joy and happiness, and the fact that people are looking forward to better days ahead. and of course, that means tackling the challenges that the vice president articulated she would start tackling from day one -- the economy and inflation and health care costs, and all of those things. but i don't think we should underestimate the positive nature of her campaign in contrast to the revenge and retribution that's coming from donald trump and his republican allies. >> cedric richmond and greg bluestein, thank you both for making the time to spend it with us tonight. i appreciate you both. and still ahead tonight,

what were you doing wednesday morning between 8:02 and 8:32 a.m., were you heading into work, getting your kids ready for school? well, donald trump was on truth social reposting 30 posts in 30 minutes. one of those posts about vice president kamala harris was so crude that it rivals the most sexist moment of his 2016 campaign. that's next. 6 campaign that's next. to duckduckgo on all your devie

duckduckgo comes with a built-n engine, like google, but it's r and doesn't spy on your searchs and duckduckgo lets you browsel but it blocks cookies and creepy ads that follow youa and other companies. and there's no catch. it's fre. we make money from ads, but they don't follow you aroud join the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today.

just one month before election day 2016 the infamous "access hollywood" tape was leaked, a shocking and despicable 70-second video that will surely have its own wing in the future donald j. trump museum of sexism. in the wake of that offensive hot mic audio, panic talks ensued to replace donald trump at the tom of the republican ticket. at that moment the gop had the chance to do the right thing, replace trump as the nominee. but of course that didn't happen, and he eventually became the president of the united states. this turn of events sent a very depressing reminder to women across america even someone as lewd and misauj nestic as trump can rise to the highest office

in our country. in other words, sexism is acceptable. now in 2024 donald trump is once again running for president. his opponent is once again a woman, and his gross sexism is once again in overdrive and on full display. on wednesday trump wept on a truth social ram page reposting qanon slogans, altered images and calls to jail his political rivals. in a period of 30 minutes he reposted 30 times, and women are the emotional ones? and in the midst of this vaumitous social media spew trump retweeted this photo of two of the most arguably politicians in america, the caption was unspeakably vile suggesting that the vice president of the united states slept her way to the top. a trump campaign senior advisor laughably tried to defend the former president earlier today by suggesting that trump had not read the caption.

and that's just the latest example of trump's sexism in this election cycle. he and his supporters have been making gender-based attacks on kamala harris for weeks now. >> how would they consider a harris presidency? >> i think they'll walk all over her. i think they'll look at her. i think they'll walk all over her. she'll be so easy for them. she'll be like a play toy. they look at her and they'll say we can't believe we got so lucky. they're going to walk all over her. and i don't want to say as to why, but a lot of people understand it. >> when leaders sit across the table from kamala harris, they smell fear. they know her tells. are you going to gamble our country away on a frightened woman? >> people are going to say you're cup shaming, and i don't care. she leapt her way to the top. >> she's going to get paralyzed in the situation room while the generals have their way with

her. right now -- >> jesse, i don't like that. take it back. >> have their way with her, control her, not in a sexual way. >> and all of that is in addition to the racist attacks trump and fox news have made about vice president harris' mixed race identity including calling her a dei hire. there's also the fact that just last year a jury of trump's peers found him liable for the sexual abuse of e. jean carroll. we have a moment to redo that moment from 2016. back then despite trump's sexism and misogyny, he still became president. now in 2024 we have a chance to show in america sexism will not be tolerated. we're better than that, we're better than trump. we'll talk more about this with angela rye, co-host of the native podcast next. , co-host oe native podcast next.

why do couples choose a sleep number smart bed? i need it a little cool and i need it a lot of cool. we're both cool like that. sleep number does that. actively cools and warms on each side. the queen sleep number c2 smart bed is only $999. plus get free delivery when you add any base. before apoquel chewable for allergic itch. giving dogs pills was a battle of wits. oh, maria, i'm wise to your foolish game. is it gone? totally gone. itch relief just got easier. apoquel. the trusted number one treatment for allergic itch is now available in a tasty chewable that works in a day.

do not use in dogs with serious infections. may cause worsening of existing parasitic skin infestations or preexisting cancers and serious infections. new neoplasias have been observed. do not use in dogs less than 12 months old. ask your vet for apoquel chewable. do it! ever since vice president kamala harris ascended to the top of the democratic presidential ticket last month, donald trump's supporters have called her a jezebel and someone who slept her way to the top. at a rally trump's running mate, j.d. vance, insinuated harris was some sort of welfare queen. and today vance posted this video from a 2008 miss teen usa pageant with the caption "i have

gotten a hold of the full kamala harris cnn interview." not to be outdone donald trump amplified the racist, sexist attacks this week reposting this photo, which features kamala harris, hillary clinton, and a lewd caption not suitable for this program. joining me now is angela rye, co-host of the fantastic native land podcast. angela, i'm so glad to have you here. this is such an important conversation. we talk about misogyny and sexism all the time. we talk about it in the context of donald trump, but let's be frank. when it comes to a woman of color there's a particular vitriol saved for women of color by people like j.d. vance, donald trump, and other republicans. >> yeah. i think it's not even restricted to party, katie. i think you as a woman of color, as an attorney of color, you certainly have seen it.

across the aisle, both sides of the aisle, it is a nonpartisan issue, racism and sexism in this country. that is the reason why kimberley crenshaw could coin a term intersectionality and it be resinate. despite that many of them didn't earn it either. they earned it on our backs and off of trust funds and off of legacy admissions and all of the things that help to level a playing field on a field they should never be able to play on themselves. and what we also know about kamala harris in particular is she is by far the most qualified person to ever run for president. if folks have some facts to hand to us, to show us what i'm saying isn't true, i'd love to see them. this is someone who won her district attorney's race. this is someone who won her

state attorney general race in the state of california. this is someone who ran statewide in california. she won that. and she didn't win her 2020 election bid, but she was so great of a candidate that joe biden couldn't find a better running mate. and so what we have to come to terms with is the fact in this country the demographics will continue to change, and there are people who have had to fight for everything they've ever obtained in this life. and because they've had to fight in that way, they are formidable opponents. the only thing that donald trump and j.d. vance can attack is kamala harris' appearance, by questioning how she got to the top. it was by winning and fighting. everything about her is questioned because they can't go for qualifications. so instead they go to character, go to appearance, and go to promiscuity, which is textbook

sexism. >> to talk about this compare and contrast. in 2016 when donald trump when he got busted for that "access hollywood" video he was like it's just locker room talk. interestingly, we actually have a coach, a former football coach who spent years in a locker room in tim walz, and he's not talking about women. he's not talking about women like that at all. this has to resonate, doesn't it, angela, not just for the women of the united states, but the men who are allies and advocates and speak for us in rooms we're not in. this has to resonate to see there's an option available to americans in november where we don't have to have the disgusting pig of donald trump back in the oval office. >> yeah, i think what is most important is for people to have the opportunity to check themselves, check their language, check how they're thinking even if they don't it out loud. whether we're talking about a coach tim walz, now vp candidate

tim walz or we're talking about folks who know, again, potty mouths are not a partisan issue, katie. i think we cannot lie to the american people about that. we have people probably in our respective who say, hey, you probably don't want to say that. sometimes i have to say, angela, you might not want to say that. there are moments we've got to be clear about is there's no place for the types of language, for the types of imagery, for the types of caricature making in our political process, there's way too much on the line. we should not let donald trump and j.d. vance trivialize this process. if you've got daughters at home, nieces, god daughters, little cousins, sisters, nieces, a mom, we've all got moms, don't let speak about women in this way, right? if you have a queen in your life, make sure if we're all standing together, there should be a certain way we treat the women in our lives, and it

should not look or be reflected in the way in which donald trump has spoken about women. this is not new for them. he's been doing this long before he ever ran for office in 2016. it wasn't hillary clinton that brought it out of him. this is how he's been treating women his entire adult life, like property. and that is something that he learned from i believe his elders and the folks -- his ancestors, right? this is what they believe, that women were chattel, that black people were chattel, and that's what he's doing. >> angela rye, thank you. it's a bigger problem and a symptom of a bigger problem, so thanks for being here and having this conversation. >> thank you. coming up, a stunning admission revealed in an anti-trust case involving two of the country's largest grocery chains is shattering a key republican claim about inflation. more on that next.

more on that next. flation. more on that next. e gutters. you think you've raised them right and then— she didn't know. you have to call leaffilter. leaffilter's patented filter technology keeps debris out of your gutters for good. parenthood is such a wild ride. it's a lot easier with leaffilter. join millions of satisfied homeowners. call 833 leaffilter today or visit leaffilter.com

craig here pays too much for verizon wireless. so he sublet half his real estate office... call 833 leaffilter today [ bird squawks loudly ] to a pet shop.

meg's moving company uses t-mobile. so she scaled down her fleet to save money. and don's paying so much for at&t, he's been waiting to update his equipment! there's a smarter way to save. comcast business mobile. you could save up to 70% on your wireless bill. so you don't have to compromise. powering smarter savings. powering possibilities.

they've been saying that the cause of inflation september their mad ball spending program, it's corporate greed and price gouging. this is just preposterous rhetoric. >> folks, this inflation crisis is the frankenstein monster of biden and harris. >> biden blaming corporations for inflation is like looking into a mirror on a bad hair day and screaming at the mirror. it's not the mirror's fault, it's a reflection of you. >> if you watch fox news or fox business or you read rupert murder dock's wall street journal, you've likely heard this refrain the past few years. quote, don't blame corporate greed for inflation, blame the democrats. meanwhile, the reality is the biden-harris administration has been working overtime on behalf of all americans regardless of political party to curb inflation in part by taking direct aim at corporate price

gouging. even just yesterday the biden-harris administration was in court trying to block a merger between two major grocery store chains, kroger, and albertsons. the administration argued this would mean less competition between grocery stores in turn would mean less competition for consumers allowing grocery stores to set prices as high as it wants. during that hearing the senior director for kroger admitted during sworn testimony when it came to products like milk and eggs, krogers raised prices more than it needed to, also known as price gouging. so, yes, corporations really are raising prices on consumers more than they have to, and the only reason we would know about it is because the biden-harris administration is working to hold them to account. joining us now faz shakir, former and director of a more perfect union and campaign manager for bernie sander's 2020

presidential campaign. explain to the viewers why this biden-harris administration move to block this merger is so important for all americans regardless of their political party. >> well, we know competition is the lifeblood of the economy, katie. and when we have competition, it tends to create small businesses who are entrepreneurial. it means you've got better quality products. and if you don't have that competition, what happens? you have a bunch of, you know, autocratic corporate leaders who will just try to be greedy and take as much as they can get, and that's what you have with the kroger albertson's merger. they want to drive out competition in so many towns and cities across america, jack up the prices for basic items. and the testimony revealed by their own director of pricing reveals their strategy. they want to crush all competition. and most people sitting at home say what do you do about it? thankfully we have a

biden-harris administration going at price-fixing trying to break up places like ticket master, apple, google, large conglomerates so that small businesses can thrive. as a result, if we stay on this track, harris has pledged in her presidency she'll continue on the price gouging, and there's so much more to investigate and go after. >> and faz, i'm glad you brought it up again. there's this e-mail we saw during the hearing. the head of pricing at kroger said, quote, on milk and eggs retail inflation has been significantly higher than cost inflation. translation, we raised prices more than we needed to, but then a kroger spokesperson told bloomberg, quote, this cherry picked e-mail covers a specific period and does not reflect kroger's decades long business model to lower costs for customers by reducing its margins. faz, it's no secret corporations took advantage of the pandemic and created greed-flation.

but now this is like one of those smoking gun mem random we sometimes don't get to see unless pressed -- corporations are pressed by things like the biden-harris administration to show their hands. >> right, to testify in court. and it's not just kroger. so in the last few months alone the doj, anti- trust division has brought a suit against a company called real page that sets algorithmic pricing for corporate landlords so they price maximize. and through that case we found that the landlords love the product because it quote-unquote allows us to do price-fixing. that's what we find through the doj anti- trust case. and through another ftc investigation, they went after a big oil company called pioneer whose ceo scott sheffield we find was colluding with opec overseas to set the price of oil high during the pandemic, so people would pay more in gas. how did we find this out? because ftc and doj are on the case. they were learning more about the price-fixing going on.

in just the past two years we've learned chicken producers from the washington's attorney general were conspiring to raise the price of chicken. we learned one of the producers of eggs in this country were found guilty by a jury of price-fixing. it is rampant in our economy, and the only way you take it on is make sure there's competition and you have cops on the beat in the government who do something about it. >> let's kind of disabuse people that are freaking out especially republicans about it being some type of marxism or communism by having kamala harris suggest she's going to combat and get rid of price gouging. let's be clear, kamala harris is not saying she's going to randomly pick prices to further chickens and for their eggs and whatever. what she's going to do is make sure there's administrative agencies -- but administrative agencies are going to be checking this and making sure and gate keeping so that corporations aren't allowed to

just set the prices or whatever the heck they want to, and that american consumers are protected, right? >> all correct. and i would add the government has always played a role in price negotiation so you can't just get away with exorbitant price abuse. and we see this in electric markets and water markets. how do you think the rates are set? because the government plays a role in them. how does the department of defense purchase things? they negotiate prices. how is medicare now negotiating prices with pharma. this is good thing. this is how we prevent us from being gouged. >> faz shakir, it is good to see you, and i appreciate you taking the time to clarify and analyze this d analyze this . and that is our show for tonight. you can catch me back here on saturdays at noon eastern for the katie phang show. "way too early" with jonathan lemire. that's coming up next. i think, sadly, in the

tv

Alex Wagner brings years of reporting experience and insight to covering the news of the day, politics and the cultural trends shaping the United States and American lives, giving viewers a better understanding of the rapidly changing world.

Notes

This material may be protected by copyright law (Title 17 U.S. Code).

info Stream Only