Scott, what are they doing?

Well, let me call your attention to the lead story in today's Long Beach, California newspaper.

I'm just going to bet you haven't read it yet.

You were going to, but here's what I got for you.

It profiles the truck driver who has the most expensive fill-up in U.S. history.

$8.44 a gallon for diesel in Long Beach.

It cost him $1,300 for two fill-ups, and he's making clear this is all coming your way.

Scott, what is Roger Marshall doing in the Senate right now?

Mm-hmm.

You saw Tom Tiffany.

They weren't calling Trump out by name.

They're just saying the war should end soon.

We saw Roger Marshall, the Kansas senator who's in a tough re-election fight, distance himself with Trump on immigration issues.

But he didn't name check Trump.

This is not a moment for subtlety if you're trying to draw a divide between you and an embattled president.

Mm-hmm.

Can you hear me?

All right.

I got a speaker and a microphone worked on.

I can't hear you, but let me just unfurl some reporting for you, if you could hear me okay.

In court today, 40 minutes of arguments over this White House press ban.

I swear it's a bizarro world.

What the lawyers for Trump argued is not at all what Trump's been saying.

Who was there? Other journalists?

And Congress, Scott, as you well know, not holding this administration accountable.

And the president doesn't have surrogates in Congress defending this media ban.

If they are, they're awfully quiet about it.

And that tells the tale.

One thing that jumped out at me, though, Katie, when the White House issued a press release, a political statement in support of this ban, they argued with that type of Trumpy and random capitalization that the radical left – is infiltrating the media or that the media is doing the bidding of the radical left and that there's a 95% bias rate in media reporting on Trump.

Dubious numbers to be sure.

That's not what they put in their legal argument.

Why are we fighting it again?

And how culpable is the press for facilitating his rise by not adequately informing the public about the danger?

Media is very, very culpable for some of what's happening now by platforming conspiracy theories, by platforming lies, and by sane washing, by just acting as if this is normal times and that norms that have been built over generations haven't been shattered.

So a few questions you asked there, let me just go one at a time.

Here's the first issue.

A lot of journalists seem reticent to call this stuff out, to push back in a different kind of way.

I think they fear losing access.

At least some of them do.

Where would you suggest listeners, watchers now pay attention in the coming months?

So are they doing anything, Scott?

The vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee tells me he met with two AI leaders this weekend.

They're that concerned about national security that the Intelligence Committee is now taking these meetings, and both the vice chairman of that committee and several members of the House say they need to move this week, if not this month, on some type of forward-moving plan in Congress for AI regulation.

This can't just be done by the Trump administration.

Congress has to get their hands in the batter, and they recognize that.

But Katie, [laughs] you want Congress to move quickly, you're asking for a miracle.

They're designed to move slowly.

Um, i- are there moves being made around the president of the United States? I mean, should we not take the president's word on this? Should we look under the hood to see what's happening behind the scenes?

So are they doing anything, Scott?

The vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee tells me he met with two AI leaders this weekend.

They're that concerned about national security that the intelligence committee is now taking these meetings, and both the vice chairman of that committee and several members of the House say they need to move this week, if not this month, on some type of forward-moving plan in Congress for AI regulation.

This can't just be done by the Trump administration.

Congress has to get their hands in the batter, and they recognize that.

But Katie, [laughs] you want Congress to move quickly, you're asking for a miracle.

They're designed to move slowly.

Um, i- are there moves being made around the president of the United States? I mean, should we not take the president's word on this? Should we look under the hood to see what's happening behind the scenes?

Are they planning on watching? If they are, what do they want to hear?

One Democratic campaign operative told me, Katie, this is an event that is hidden in plain sight.

Football is only part of the problem, though it's an enormous counter-programming issue for this event.

You don't be putting things on the schedule the week after Labor Day and expect to get away with it.

That's what I'm told at home.

Don't add things to the September calendar without checking with me first.

According to Mrs. McFarland, it's a busy time of year.

Do Republicans feel like Epstein is still a vulnerability for them?

Is it happening anywhere else?

The Republicans who are in dogfights trying to win reelection are not banging the drum about this.

It's just not in line where the voters' priorities are.

Those who may have particularly safe seats, even in a wave election, they can be a surrogate on this, and to a degree they have been.

But for those who have those frontline races in front of them, not going to be talking about baseless claims or lies about the 2020 election or fraud being pervasive.

It's just not meeting the voters where they are.

I could tell you, though, that the local elections officials, both Democrats and Republicans, some nonpartisan, they're tabletop exercising or wargaming for this.

Is there a concern that when you're throwing out whole batches of ballots, you're going to throw out some Republican votes as well as some Democratic votes?

So even though I don't love this, I'm still going in the lane I always go in.

Local issues are always going to transcend national issues in congressional elections.

The old saying in Washington is I love my congressman, but I hate the Congress, which means as long as the parochial things are taken care of, I'm good with the dysfunction, stalemate, and chaos of Washington, D.C. Data centers has that way of being local.

In addition to national, I mean, it's about your community, your electric bill, your water bill, the availability of water at your home, the environmental impact on your region, whether they'll create jobs or help give the tax base a boost for local schools.

It is the ultimate local issue, even though it's being argued at the state or federal level.

That's why everybody's talking about it.

I think everybody's now keen to this.

What is the significance of it and why Dallas?

But how much do the issues matter? really matter? If it's about your candidate and your party winning, does a stance on an issue really carry weight when it's time to vote?

You're going to take a large subsection of voters and say, candidate A, whoever it is in your party, is going to get your vote.

Trump has a way of mobilizing people, both for him and against him, that is unique in our lifetimes.

People have very passionate and inflexible opinions on Trump.

So there's any number of people in Milwaukee who are going to crawl over broken glass to either vote for Trump's endorsed nominee or vote against Trump's endorsed nominee, no matter who is on the ballot.

So let's start with that.

Wisconsin, of course, is beautiful because it's the state, perhaps the most relevant state, where the other people decide things, the people who are not in category A or category B.

So even though I don't love this, I'm still going in the lane I always go in.

How do people feel about Pete Hegseth and his leadership?

He's doing something remarkable.

Pete Hegseth and the Pentagon simultaneously stumbling and stepping on rakes at the same time.

Didn't think that was possible when it comes to media control.

Mark Kelly says the problem with the Pentagon right now is sometimes you have an idiot running things.

Mark Kelly's words.

How are they stumbling trying to control the information flow? Well, they're trying to control Stars and Stripes, the independent news source, and they've gotten themselves sued.

Scott, what happens in Congress if Democrats retake control and the war is still ongoing? What will we see from Democrats looking to get answers from the Pentagon?

What are Democrats doing to heed those calls?

I talked to one of the organizers at the event today.

Tyleek McMillan is a 2019 graduate from North Carolina A&T in Greensboro.

He says it's not just about rallying.

It's about organizing.

They're doing voter registration help there.

They're trying to get people to volunteer, to be door knockers, to go back home and bring this effort with them.

Is that a fair guess to make about that, Scott?

So, Scott, do these Republicans on the campaign trail want the president around or they just make believing that he's helpful?

Well, first of all, let's celebrate the land of make-believe.

I know my buddy Sam Stein remembers Mr. Rogers, the red trolley, the little music.

The land of make-believe was a place where joy was in unending demand.

This seems to be make-believe, this concept of Trump joining Trump.

endangered Republicans in battleground districts.

We have not seen him in the Michigan 7th District or the New Jersey 7th District, nor have we seen him in the four Pennsylvania Republican-held U.S. House districts where Democrats think they can flip them.

Why in the world would Jared Kushner be meeting with Hakeem Jeffrey, Scott?

Does Congress come into this at all, Scott?

They do.

In fact, I've talked to three different members of Congressional intelligence committees, and their aides today.

They wanna strip money from the Director of National Intelligence until they produce these reports, the 2024 report that Vaughn mentioned and, oh, by the way, the 2026 foreign interference report was due 105 days ago.

They're late on their work with that, too.

So Congress has got concerns.

They also can see what's going on here.

So where's Congress, Scott?

I drink them both, but they're not bad.

I spent time on the campaign trail without Celsius in Michigan and in Pennsylvania.

I tell you about the Pennsylvania and Michigan 10th congressional districts.

You have two Democratic candidates there trying to synthesize these things.

Trump's paying for a ballroom.

We can't pay for basic needs in this country.

And they're doing a good job synthesizing those messages.

Going forward for Democrats, because you were just in Michigan and ran through some of the more effective messaging that you've heard, I'm wondering who else you think is doing a good job at sort of marrying these corruption, war, affordability topics into politics? Again, a more coherent and accessible conversation for voters and and how you think Democrats can maybe be capitalizing on that even more.

But it's that instinct, to tie it back to the other half of this story, that instinct towards secrecy, Scott, and how it's playing out with this administration in Congress, especially regarding the defense secretary in the Pentagon refusing to brief Democrats.

The political reporting that Democrats have been boxed out of some of the military briefings is part of the story here, Katie.

But there's other parts of the story.

Democrats who are in some of the briefings that do exist say those briefings are a hot mess.

I talked to three Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee today.

in advance of speaking with you, Katie, and they use the following terms to describe the briefings they've gotten from the Defense Department about Iran.

Useless, empty calories, laughable, and an inability to answer basic questions about readiness and about strategy.

Is there a chance Democrats, maybe even a Republican or two, might scuttle this budget?

What is the reaction today?

even more so than they were a week ago i mean how bad can polling miss and still underwrite the future of polling what are we doing when the polling is this far off a lot of that's national poll firms not local poll firms and i think part of the the sleight of hand here was that people were being misled by what they thought was going to happen and not getting a good feel for where the voters were i think one of the reasons why i'm particularly keen on watching this is because This really does potentially change the trajectory of that very important U.S. House race in western Wisconsin.

We've talked before about how incumbent Derek Van Orden is endangered.

The Democrats think they have a very good chance at winning his seat.

A lot of that, though, could be impacted by the top of the ticket.

The people of western Wisconsin, are they more likely to go and vote the party line if it's David Crowley versus Francesca Hong? I think we can't understate the importance down ballot of the outcome of these primaries.

But now how damaging is this loss for future politicians who might view themselves or want to identify as a democratic socialist? It

depends where you are, though.

Given what we just heard from the soon to be officially attorney general, Scott, can you help me understand where Bill Cassidy is getting that confidence about the elections?

Joe Cassidy made this defeatist argument that ain't nobody can push back successfully against Trump on all these things, potentially including elections.

So Todd Blanche is as good as we can get.

A real... mushy and respectfully weak positioning by Bill Cassidy.

Here's the thing, though, and there's no way around this, Katie.

In the next few days, there are two or three different inflection points where Todd Blanche has to put a filing before a court and either stand true to what he told senators or fight more for Trump.

He's got to make a filing on the slush fund.

Why isn't Max Miller resigning despite all the pressure?

Like, what did he do?

So he was the last man standing.

He ultimately, because of the way the other votes fell, was the person who was going to decide singularly if Todd Blanch gets confirmed or if Todd Blanch gets rejected.

A disproportionately huge statement against President Trump because this is a top-line cabinet position, and obviously Trump's made this a priority of his through the start and middle of this administration.

Bill Cassidy was one of the few remaining candidates senators who voted to convict donald trump at his impeachment trial after january 6th bill cassidy surprised us all five years ago and he said you know what i watched this trial i think he's guilty i think he should be convicted i didn't think that walking in but i think that walking out that vote has dogged him politically with Trump over the last five years.

Trump will cut you off once you cross him.

And Cassidy could not survive his primary earlier this year because Trump endorsed the competitor because Trump's still sore about that impeachment conviction.

on

Is this a way for the president to give Blanch some leeway to get nominated? And then we'll just kind of wait and see about whether they reinstate this anti-weaponization fund.

Based on the Senate aides with whom I'm speaking, they think this is a fig leaf by Todd Bleach, a way to get through tomorrow and the Senate Judiciary Committee consideration of his nomination with the prospect of somehow the administration bringing this slush fund back in the coming months, if not the coming weeks after the confirmation process.

Not to mention the IRS sweetheart immunity deal is not signed by the parties to the settlement.

But I want to emphasize something.

President Trump answering those great questions from Jake.

was making misleading claims, if not lies, about January 6th.

He said that the people who were prosecuted were treated very unfairly.

Are senators on Capitol Hill or I should just say lawmakers on Capitol Hill concerned that we may see this resurrected, that this is yet again in the conversation as we head into the midterms?

What is

the point? Quoted this morning here in Washington, Greg, is a White House journalist who said anonymously, nobody wants this thing except Trump and the White House Correspondents Association.

People are going as a chore because they're expected to be there and there's some level of professional networking one must undertake.

don't think it's going to have the attention the one in april was going to have i'm not sure who's going to watch c-span tonight um from 6 p.m to 10 p.m to watch this event although if you did you'd see me on c-span tonight they brought me in as their expert analyst to talk about i don't know i'm going to shout out who are you wearing um and uh nice Who made the shoes? They're going to have me on to talk about whatever happens at this event.

But here's the undeniable truth, and I think you both recognize this.

In the time between April, when the first event was halted because of a gunman approaching a metal detector and opening fire, and now, there were federal agents with subpoenas on the doorsteps of journalists with the New York Times sent by the Trump administration's Department of Justice.

There has been more... hectoring some would characterize it as menacing of members of the media there's been some misogynistic name calling of members of the media by trump and so there are 500 plus journalists who've sent this memo to the white house correspondence association encouraging the speakers tonight to call it out to denounce the erosion of the first amendment while trump's in the room and has no choice but to hear it let's watch tonight if that happens

Why the need then for $67 billion more? And how did he address that question, which was repeated over and over and over again, seeking an answer?

Scott, explain to us what he was looking for.

Well, there was a violent attack on the Capitol that was a component, a component of his criminal case against Donald Trump.

But the bigger component of Jack Smith's case was that there was an attempt to conspiracy, he alleged, to put fake electors on the floor of the Congress on January 6th, 2021.

That was the real meat of the case.

And they were members of Congress who were some component of the process.

They weren't co-conspirators, but they were somehow in the continuum of events.

So it's been important to Jack Smith to figure out who was corresponding with whom in the Capitol.

Give me a little bit more on Jim Jordan's track record, what he's there to do in House Judiciary, Scott.

What do we know about what his plans are? Why is he addressing the nation?

Well, he's teasing it, kind of tantalizing, saying it's gonna be big, it's gonna be big, but he's not being specific at all.

Um, the latest reporting we have is it's gonna involve some type of claims about the 2020 election.

This is obviously not the first time Trump has made claims about the 2020 election.

He's still, he's still arguing it was rigged.

It's a lie that he perpetuates.

But I'm not sure whose mind's gonna change at this point.

So what's the significance of this confirmation hearing with Lindsey Graham, of course, now having passed, leaving that open seat?

... to know when a president potentially cuts corners.

The national security interests here are clear.

You know, the safety, the wellbeing of Air Force One and the President is beyond question.

But the tactic being used here to f- suss out leaks, well, that's questionable in so many ways.

You know, our mutual friend Barbara McQuade and I were talking about this on air this morning, and Barb said, "You use these subpoenas of reporters as a last ditch effort to get information about leaks inside your administration.

There are many other tools at your disposal to do your own internal reviews to try to find this kind of information out." And if this is an attempt, if this is an attempt, Katie, to chill reporters in the future, they have wildly miscalculated how reporters work.

This does not serve as a disincentive.

Do you expect to see this in Todd Blanche's confirmation hearing on Wednesday?