Basil A. Smikle

Dallas, Texas, Youngstown, Ohio, Mobile, Alabama, San Antonio, Texas, Trump rallies out there conspicuously not full.

Joining us, Washington Post White House reporter, Natalie Allison, Punchbowl News co-founder and MS Now political contributor, Jake Sherman, policy editor at The Bulwark and host of the Mona Charen Show podcast, Mona Charen, and MS Now political analyst, Democratic strategist, and former executive director of the New York State Democratic Party, Basil Smikle.

Full-blown panic mode, Jake.

What's going [laughs] on?

Um, a new poll from The Washington Post found eight in 10 voters were against the execution of the Fort Hood shooter.

Did that sway him? Joining us, anchor of State of Play and MS Now chief, chief national reporter Peter Alexander, Hofstra University law professor and author of Who Decides Who Decides on Substack, James Sample.

Basil Smikle still with us.

Um, w- why did the president change his mind on this?

I wanna bring in Nikki McCann Ramirez, the Rolling Stone political reporter who got that new audio.

Also with me, Basil Smikle, MSNBC political analyst and Democratic strategist, and Charlie Sykes, author of the Substack newsletter To the Contrary.

Help me understand why there's so much leaked audio.

[laughs]

Oof.

Joining me from Atlanta is MSNBC reporter Namdi Iguanu.

Charlie Sykes and Basil Smikle are still with me.

Have you ever prepared a candidate for a debate? You don't actively bring up-

It's about representing the truth and explaining to the press what's actually happening with this administration.

So let's bring in Basil Smikle, Democratic strategist and former executive director of the New York State Democratic Party.

John Avlon is here, journalist and host of the Bulwark Podcast, How to Fix It with John Avlon.

His new book, Theodore Roosevelt's Guide to Life: The True Story of the Man in the Arena.

All right.

More Money, Power, Politics in 90 seconds [air whooshing].

[air whooshing] Basil Shan and Ambassador Shan Patrick, Ba- Ambassador Shan Patrick Maloney, Basil Smikle, John Avlon still here.

Ambassador and former congressman.

Former advisor to both President George W. Bush and Senator John McCain, Mark McKinnon, is here.

Also with us, political analyst and Columbia University professor Basil Smikle is here, and Princeton University professor, MSNBC political analyst Eddie Glaude is with me at the table.

Mark McKinnon, I wanna just pick up on that interview we were watching with Steve Bannon, that his best pitch in the final days of this campaign is if Democrats are in power, they're going to hold this administration accountable.

That may be red meat for the base.

Mm.

Some big numbers.

Mark McKinnon, Basil Smikle, thank you both so much for getting us started.

Eddie, you're staying with me.

But the reality is a lot more complicated.

Joining us, senior national correspondent at The Bulwark, Jonathan Cohn, and MS Now political analyst and former executive director of the New York State Democratic Party, Basil Smikle.

So Jonathan, this $500, where is it coming from?

Yeah, so look, when they created the Affordable Care Act, you know, they knew they were creating these new insurance market.

MS Now political contributor and professor at Morgan State University, Dr. Jason Johnson.

And MS Now political analyst, former executive director of the New York Democratic Party, Basil Smikle.

Jim, um, this scenario was avoidable for Republicans.

They could have distanced themselves from Trump well in advance of these midterm elections.

In that role, he has slashed billions of dollars in federal funding, fired tens of thousands of federal workers, and brought agencies to a standstill.

He has also echo- echoed Trump's false claims of election fraud in 2020.

Last October, ProPublica dubbed him, quote, "The Shadow President." So what great things exactly could he be doing? Jim Acosta, Jason Johnson, and Basil Smikle are all back with us.

Okay, here's the thing, Jason Johnson.

When we return, we're gonna enter the group chat.

Basil Smikle, Charlie Sykes, Anthony Fisher, and Adam Mockler are all standing by, and they have a lot to say.

Keep it here.

[upbeat music]

With me at the table, political analyst and staff writer at The Atlantic, Ashley Parker, is here with us.

Also here with us, political analyst and Columbia University professor, Basil Smikle is here.

Um, Ashley, I start with you.

Uh, i- i- I think if you're staring at the trees, it feels like an endless forest of mayhem that had to, you know, that you had to drive by before you got to this picture of, um, winnable races being lost because of Trump's failures.