Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / WaPo reports Trump's ads were funded with money meant for slain officers' funerals

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WaPo reports Trump's ads were funded with money meant for slain officers' funerals · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Lots to discuss with Morgan State University professor and MSNOW
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: political contributor Jason Johnson, staff writer for The New Republic,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Perry Bacon, our reporter Alex Tabet talking to voters in Battleground, Alaska,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: and Democratic strategist and senior advisor for Try and Stop Us,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Mally Smith, is here on set with me.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Jason, I'm going to go first to you.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: I think it's hard to think of a more blatant
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: example of Trump doing the opposite of what he promised
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: his supporters than taking money away from border security and
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: using it for these basically pro-Trump hype reels instead.
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: I'm searching around for it. I have visited Texas. You
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: see that wall? I haven't seen that wall. I think
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: that wall was promised during the first Trump administration, and
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: it still wasn't built. And then I think at this
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: particular point, Mexican President Pena Nieto was supposed to pay
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: for it, and that didn't happen either.
• 0:44
  Speaker 4: Look.
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  Speaker 5: I do remember.
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: Trump lying about his policies is kind of baked into
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  Speaker 3: the cake. It doesn't have much of an impact on
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: the people who are already going to vote for him.
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: It doesn't have much of an impact on the people
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: who are going to vote against him. But what does
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: matter is, Ali, this speaks into the larger thing of
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: all of these frustrated and angry independents. This just becomes
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: one more lie on top of the other things that
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: he didn't do about the economy and affordability and everything
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: else like that. And if you're a smart Democrat at
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: this particular point, you can look at all the walls,
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: you can look at the other issues, but you just
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: point out Money for wounded soldiers and officers is going
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: to campaign ads.
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  Speaker 2: That alone is devastating.
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  Speaker 3: And the kind of thing that could really hurt Trump
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: in critical red states where there are Senate races like
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  Speaker 3: Texas and Florida.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: So we're going to leave you in the glass case
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: of emotion that you were just in for a quick
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: moment while I go to Perry and just sort of
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: ask about the bad PR thing that Trump is now
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: using as both a midterm pitch and also an excuse
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: for where his party is right now. I mean, I
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: was struck by even in that Time magazine interview, he's
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: being asked about how he thinks the party is going
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: to fare in these midterms. And he says, well, I
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: think it'll be OK as long as I'm out there
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  Speaker 1: carrying the message. Is that how Republicans should count on
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  Speaker 1: winning voters this late in the game?
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  Speaker 5: No.
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  Speaker 6: I mean, if your president is in the mid 30s
• 2:00
  Speaker 6: and approval rating, that person is not going to be
• 2:01
  Speaker 6: helpful to you. We saw this with George Bush in
• 2:03
  Speaker 6: 2006 and Trump himself in 2018. He's the reason they're unpopular.
• 2:09
  Speaker 6: He's the problem. Him campaigning in Alabama, I guess, might help.
• 2:12
  Speaker 6: But I assume they want to win states like Ohio, Florida, Georgia,
• 2:17
  Speaker 6: actual swing states and so on. It could be the
• 2:20
  Speaker 6: case that two things are true. Trump is unpopular, one.
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  Speaker 6: And also, I would argue right now he is doing
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  Speaker 6: bad public relations, true social posts, his interviews. There's a
• 2:30
  Speaker 6: way to be a mature president that might help your
• 2:33
  Speaker 6: approval ratings, that might help your party. And he is
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  Speaker 6: not doing that either right now.
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  Speaker 2: His public relations moves are bad.
• 2:40
  Speaker 6: It is to do his policies and politics being bad, too.
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  Speaker 1: I have to say I'm also almost surprised by the
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: Republican strategists who are out there saying, well, if only
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: he would be disciplined, because I felt like we abandoned
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: this idea of discipline and message back in 2016 when
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: I was still on the campaign trail with him in
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  Speaker 1: the first presidential contest. But we'll leave that aside and
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: bring in some new evidence that we got today from
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: today's lackluster jobs report showed the U.S. economy adding only
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: twenty nine thousand jobs in September. That's well below the forecast.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: The prior two months were revised down by sixty thousand jobs.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: And I think, Mally, one of the points that is
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: so salient when you look at the way voters are
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: reacting to this most recent turn of the Trump presidency
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: is the ways that he was always formidable in their
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: minds on the economy. And yet that is one of
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: the key places that he seems to have really been
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  Speaker 1: bleeding support right now.
• 3:30
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, he has squandered an advantage on the
• 3:32
  Speaker 5: economy he had in his first term because, let's be clear,
• 3:36
  Speaker 5: he campaigned on ending inflation on day one, but his
• 3:39
  Speaker 5: policies brought inflation up. It was 2.9% when he started
• 3:43
  Speaker 5: this administration. It is 3.4% now, and that's because of
• 3:46
  Speaker 5: a war of choice in Iran, tariffs, and health care cuts.
• 3:49
  Speaker 5: And he knows and Republicans know they are unpopular. And
• 3:53
  Speaker 5: that's why you see them do things not to convince
• 3:56
  Speaker 5: voters that their policies are right. You see them trying
• 3:59
  Speaker 5: to make voting harder or intimidating Americans out of voting.
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  Speaker 5: Everything from Trump-threatening policies ICE agents at the polls, to
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  Speaker 5: raids in Ohio on voter registration groups, to completely fictitious
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  Speaker 5: non-citizen voting numbers in states like Nevada. They are trying
• 4:18
  Speaker 5: to scare Americans into not voting. And what Americans need
• 4:21
  Speaker 5: to remember is Trump is a sore loser. And if
• 4:23
  Speaker 5: we have a good midterms, which I think we will,
• 4:26
  Speaker 5: he is going to claim fraud. It's B.S., And we've
• 4:29
  Speaker 5: seen this before. And he will try to run the
• 4:31
  Speaker 5: same playbook he did in 2020. And Americans need to
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  Speaker 5: know that it's not true and that they should vote.
• 4:38
  Speaker 5: And the biggest thing that they need to worry about
• 4:40
  Speaker 5: is apathy or confusion. None of these intimidation tactics.
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  Speaker 1: And we're going to dig into some of those confusion methods,
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  Speaker 1: especially a new one that we're tracking out of Georgia
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: a little bit later in the show. But I want
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  Speaker 1: to go to the ground where Alex Tabet is in Alaska,
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  Speaker 1: part of this great new series, POTUS Promise Check. You've
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: also got a great state to check off your list.
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  Speaker 1: Alaska was a tough one for me to check off.
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  Speaker 1: So good job for you. But you're asking voters who
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: voted for Trump three times whether they think that Trump
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  Speaker 1: has kept his campaign promises to lower prices. And I
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  Speaker 1: want to take a look at what they told you.
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  Speaker 4: I want to show you something.
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  Speaker 2: We will bring prices down. Yeah, I know all that.
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  Speaker 2: That's why I voted for him. Because he was saying
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: all that stuff. And now it's totally different.
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  Speaker 6: I think that's the way it is for all politicians.
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  Speaker 6: They say something, get elected, and then once they're in office.
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  Speaker 5: They're totally different.
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  Speaker 2: Do you regret your vote at all?
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  Speaker 7: Um.
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  Speaker 8: A little bit if you notice the price is not
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  Speaker 8: very high relatively speaking you don't want to have them
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  Speaker 8: have their weapons so remember that when you have to
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  Speaker 8: pay a little bit more you're at four dollars it's
• 5:49
  Speaker 8: okay i mean it's uh i'm not i'll never apologize
• 5:52
  Speaker 8: i did the right thing he.
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: Talks a lot but i haven't seen anything come to
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: fruition yet you know um Of course, I understand they
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: don't need nukes, but I mean, I need to live
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: and not be able to spend all my money on gas.
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: How does it make you feel watching all those campaign promises?
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  Speaker 2: Like he's just lying.
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  Speaker 8: Gas prices have come down today.
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  Speaker 2: Have you looked? Not accurate.
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  Speaker 5: I would just say I'm disappointed in him.
• 6:12
  Speaker 6: You know, Americans expected so much more and what he
• 6:15
  Speaker 6: promised isn't happening. Right after the election, oil prices are
• 6:19
  Speaker 6: going to be tumbling downward.
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: He say he's going to finish with winning, but everybody's
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: waiting for that.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: Alex, I see your great reporting. I hear it from
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: voters when I'm on the trail myself. But the question
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: I think a lot of people, Republicans and Democrats that
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: I talk to, are grappling with is, does it mean
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: that these folks are willing to vote for a Democrat,
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: whether it's in Alaska or another battleground state?
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: Well, for the Democratic Senate candidate here, Mary Peltola, she
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: better hope so. And that's because Republicans outnumber Democrats here
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  Speaker 4: two to one. Granted, the vast majority of voters here
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  Speaker 4: are independents. If you want to look at Peltola's strategy,
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  Speaker 4: you don't need to look any further than her latest
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  Speaker 4: campaign ad where. She touts her A rating from the NRA.
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  Speaker 4: She says she took on President Biden during her time
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  Speaker 4: in Congress. And she urges Alaskan voters not to vote
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  Speaker 4: necessarily with their party. Now, that frustration that you heard
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: from those voters, that was in Anchorage. But right now,
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  Speaker 4: we're in Dillingham. It's a remote town where that frustration
• 7:19
  Speaker 4: is so much more acute. This town is off the
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  Speaker 4: electrical grid of the state. That means it's got its
• 7:26
  Speaker 4: own microgrid, which means that they have to use diesel
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: fuel to use everyday electrical appliances. They have to use
• 7:34
  Speaker 4: heating fuel to keep themselves warm. The people here are
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: spending 500 bucks a month minimum to keep themselves warm.
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: heading into a frigid winter. Now, Paltola is actually going
• 7:46
  Speaker 4: to be in Dillingham tonight. And the question that we've
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: been hearing varying answers from voters is how much of
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: this frustration do they feel towards President Trump? Are they
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  Speaker 4: assigning to the incumbent Senator Dan Sullivan?
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  Speaker 2: That remains to be seen.
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  Speaker 4: That's what we'll find out in November.
• 8:03
  Speaker 5: Allie.
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  Speaker 1: Alex, you're doing such great reporting and that backdrop behind
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  Speaker 1: you is beautiful. I think, Jason, the politics that underlies
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: the conversations that Alex is having both in Alaska and
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  Speaker 1: across the map is what does it look like for
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  Speaker 1: this MAGA coalition to be splintering? I mean, we hear
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: various portions of it. talking about young men being disillusioned,
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: talking about Hispanic voters being disillusioned. Certainly, that's true on
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: the question of an economy that they feel is not
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: working for them. But, Jason, what parts of this coalition
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: are you looking at that were tenuous in 2024, but
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: that might not carry with Republicans in 2026 now?
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  Speaker 2: I think it really depends on what state you're talking about.
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  Speaker 3: If you're talking about Texas, you're talking about young men
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  Speaker 3: under the age of 30. And I pointed this out.
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  Speaker 3: Hispanic men under the age of 35 had the longest
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: commutes in America.
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  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 3: And therefore, gas prices hit that particular community in a very,
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: very specific way. Between that and ICE, as Paulo Ramos
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: has talked about several times on the network, that is
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: a community that is probably not going to be supporting
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: Trump or Republican candidates in 2024.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: But you're looking at a different group of people.
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: If you're looking at, say, Roy Cooper's success in North Carolina,
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: there you've got large numbers of government employees who are
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: often African-American, who are often white suburban voters who happen
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: to be in their 40s and 50s, who've seen government
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: gobs and government contracts.
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  Speaker 2: Just disappear under Doge.
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  Speaker 3: So I think a lot of the coalition that Republicans
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: were depending on, whether it was the suburbs, white, black, Hispanic,
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: Latino men, it's all crumbling across the country. They can't
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: put their thumb in all the different holes in the
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: dam right now. And that's why you see these sorts
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: of desperate advertising and Trump blaming everything but himself because
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: they can't fix the flood that they're probably going to.
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: Face in November.
• 9:50
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• 10:03
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• 10:07
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• 10:12
  Speaker 2: Thanks.