Updated
Summary
Witnesses included 11-year-old Miah Cerrillo who survived the Uvalde school massacre by pretending to be dead. GOP lawmaker on voting against background checks and red flag laws to curb gun violence, and on the insurrection debate heading into hearings on Capitol Hill. The world`s richest person Elon Musk, made political waves with that deal to buy Twitter, proclaiming he would make the platform more open to free speech, restore Donald Trump on it, and help conservatives.
Transcript
NICOLLE WALLACE, MSNBC HOST: The package of gun safety measures in response to the horrific mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde. One other story, we learned about late this afternoon Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump will indeed have to testify in the ongoing investigation into Trump and his businesses being conducted by New York`s Attorney General Letitia James. That`s coming up on July 15th.
Thanks to all of you for being here with us today. THE BEAT WITH ARI MELBER starts right now.
Hi, Ari.
ARI MELBER, MSNBC HOST: Hi, Nicolle. Thank you very much.
Welcome to THE BEAT. I am Ari Melber. And we are doing a big show for you tonight with some of the stories Nicolle was just mentioning, we`re going to touch on that, as well as the trouble facing Trump allies as we are now at the eve, tonight, of the January 6th hearings. Also this special report tonight for you. It`s about who controls information and why so many right- wingers find themselves on the wrong side of Elon Musk`s billionaire quest to buy Twitter because, well, the billionaire is worried about losing money. He`s waffling. He`s weak. And I will walk through the evidence, just the facts, for you tonight. It`s an important special report where a lot of people looked wronged.
But we begin with a very serious story. A story that we continue to cover as the nation continues to reel from what we all see and live through, the epidemic of gun violence. This is important. But I will tell what you it is so you know what you`re about to deal with because it`s gut-wrenching. New testimony out of Washington and it`s from victims` families out of Buffalo and Uvalde including an 11-year-old survivor`s stunning video.
Miah Cerrillo describes in detail how the gunman murdered her teacher and her classmates right in front of her and how she had to survive by covering doing what she figured in the moment might save her young life, covering herself in blood to pretend she was dead.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIAH CERRILLO, 11-YEAR-OLD SURVIVOR OF THE UVALDE SHOOTING: We were just watching a movie, and then she got an e-mail and then she went to go lock the door and he was in the hallway and they made eye contact. And then he went back in the other classroom and then he went — there`s a door between our classrooms and he went through there and shot my teacher and killed my teacher, and shot her in the head. And then he shot some of my classmates. I thought he was going to come back to the room. So I covered myself with blood, put it all over me, and then I got my teacher`s phone and called 911.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: That`s some of video testimony there from a survivor. Congress is also hearing from the only pediatrician in Uvalde describing the hospital on the day of the shooting. And there`s a lot of talk about whether the government will or won`t act in response to these events and the power to legislate and regulate and pass laws is part of Congress` power and many are calling or that action.
But I want to be clear with you before I show you something that is, a warning, graphic. This is also part of Congress` power and in history we know at times it has made a difference. There are times when something seemed intractable and Congress summoning its power to gather evidence to make people testify, to bear witness as a nation, that has mattered. So we`re about to hear what is this graphic testimony that this Congress, in the House led by Democrats, says the nation should face.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ROY GUERRERO, TREATED UVALDE VICTIMS: What I did find was something no prayer will ever relieve. Two children whose bodies have been pulverized by bullets fired at them, decapitated, whose flesh have been ripped apart, that the only clue to their identities was a blood splattered cartoon clothes still clinging to them.
My oath as a doctor means that I signed up to save lives. I do my job. I guess it turns out that I am here to plead, to beg, to please, please, do yours.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: That`s some of the testimony about Texas. Then of course there was the racist terror attack in Buffalo where a mother of a survivor described the wounds her son is still facing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ZENETA EVERHART, MOTHER OF BUFFALO SURVIVOR: To the lawmakers who feel that we do not need stricter gun laws, let me paint a picture for you. My son Zaire has a whole in the right side of his neck, two on his back and another on his left leg, caused by an exploding bullet from an AR-15. As I clean his wounds, I can feel pieces of that bullet inside his back. Shrapnel will be left inside of his body for the rest of his life.
I invite you to my home to help me clean Zaire`s wounds so that you may see up close the damage that has been caused to my son.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: Some in Congress are acting tonight. House lawmakers are working on these bills that could reduce gun violence, after testimony that has been pretty much as emotional and angry as we`ve seen in the modern era.
[18:05:07]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REBECCA PRINGLE, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION: I am frustrated. I am heartbroken. I am angry.
KIMBERLY RUBIO, MOTHER OF UVALDE MASSACRE VICTIM LEXI RUBIO: I left my daughter at that school and that decision will haunt me for the rest of my life.
GUERRERO: We are bleeding out and you are not there.
PRINGLE: Virginia Tech. Sandy Hook. Marjory Stoneman Douglas. And now Robb Elementary.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Semiautomatic rifle. These are unique threats. There`s a reason why they are used in mass shootings because those shooters want to inflict maximum damage.
MAYOR ERIC ADAMS (D), NEW YORK: Time to decide if we are going to be a nation of laws or a confederation of chaos.
EVERHART: Hear me clearly. This is exactly who we are.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: We`re joined now by Governor Howard Dean and Jeannie She, a Maryland high school student and member of Students Demand Action. She was one of the students at that rally on Monday.
And given that this affects young people, we wanted to include you. Thank you for joining us. I`m going to go to the governor and then to you.
On the policy side, Governor, what do you see in what Congress is considering there today, and what is the power, even in a cynical environment, of hearing and bearing witness to this?
HOWARD DEAN (D), FORMER VERMONT GOVERNOR: The power remains among the public. The politicians are not going to fix this. And I — you know, if they can do some things, that`s great, that`s better than nothing. There is no other nation on earth which permits its citizens to have weapons, as individuals. Not law enforcement, just ordinary citizens, that can destroy tens and tens and even a hundred people in an attack like this.
And that`s what they`ve done again and again. And politicians have done nothing about it. So the only people that can fix this are voters. So if you`re out there, if you want your children to end up like the children in Uvalde or some of these other places, going all the way back to Newtown and before that, that`s what you`re voting on. You`re not voting about the individual right to bear arms, there`s plenty of arms that people can bear.
Look, I come from a hunting state. Nobody needs an AK-47 to shoot a deer and it`s time we stop pretending that`s a sign of masculinity. It`s a sign of mental disturbance.
MELBER: And Governor, on the flip side, this is what Republicans are claiming. Here was one of the members of their leadership who has faced I should gun violence, Congressman Scalise.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. STEVE SCALISE (R-LA): You had AR-15s in the 1960s. We didn`t have those mass school shootings. Now I know it`s something that some people don`t want to talk about. We actually had prayer in school during those days.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: Governor?
DEAN: First of all, the average citizen did not have AR-15s in the 1950s. That`s just — look, this is the Trumpian lie. When the Republicans are afraid of their base, they just lie. And that was a lie. In fact there were no AK-47s owned by large numbers of civilians. And furthermore, there was a period of 10 years, I think — I`ve forgotten under which president this was, but it eventually expired, where people weren`t allowed to own AK-47s who were private citizens. There is no reason we have to do it.
MELBER: Yes. `94 to — yes.
DEAN: There is no other country on earth that allows this and there is no other country on earth which loses as many children`s lives because its citizens and its politicians are unwilling to do anything about it.
MELBER: Yes, and you mentioned, again, to fact check the statement, clearly Congressman Scalise, and again, I mentioned I respect what he`s been through, but on the facts, he is misleading the public when he says that, as you mentioned, Governor, from `94 to `04 you had some of those types of weapons banned. The Sunset Provision, which is what made it naturally or automatically expired was part of the negotiation to get it in there.
And so you`ve had periods where the gun — and we`ve reported this on THE BEAT, where the gun access was different. So the fact that he needs to lie about that might suggest that he`s worried that people will know the truth, that this is potentially somewhat regulatable, which doesn`t mean you`d solve all of it but you might cut some of it.
Jeannie, I want to turn to you and I want to be very, you know, open and candid about how we do this. A lot of times in the news, you know, we`re talking about things that affect students and young people in schools. We don`t always hear from them as much directly. Given that this is now something that is going at our nation`s youth, we did want to hear from you directly.
So just, you know, in your own words, tell us how you got involved and what you see here, are students out there growing up in this generation, are they scared about getting shot at school?
JEANNIE SHE, STUDENTS DEMAND ACTION NATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER: Thank you so much. I can definitely, definitely answer yes to that question. I joined the gun violence prevention movement after exactly three years and eight days ago my family became gun violence survivors. My dad survived a mass shooting that happened at his workplace in Virginia Beach, Virginia, on May 31st, 2019.
[18:10:05]
And hearing all the testimony given earlier today by survivors of gun violence reminded me of what my dad told me, of my dad`s story, of him telling me the graphic details of what he encountered that day at work. And what pains me most is knowing that the 12 killed victims of that shooting and the four severely injured, many of them were my dad`s colleagues. Many of them he was in a meeting with earlier, just hours before the shooting started.
And because of that, that is why I am passionate about this movement. And yes, gun violence is the leading cause of death for children and teens in America. This is unacceptable. And this is exactly why so many students like myself have been standing up time and time again, day in and day out, fighting to end gun violence.
MELBER: Yes. And Jeannie, what do you say to officials like Ted Cruz who represents Texas, where there was this horrific shooting, and others who say, well, one solution is to just have better locking doors, restrict the schools better, arm teachers, sort of all these things that avoid dealing with the access to guns. Well, we have heard that, but you`re in the situation, you`re coming out of these schools. I`m just curious what you think of that.
SHE: I think that this issue needs to be addressed at the root. And it`s very clear to us that there`s no one magic wand or one single policy that will immediately prevent all the shootings in all their different forms in America. And however the inaction that we have seen from our government is completely unacceptable. And survivors are gaining the courage every single day to come out and share their story. And for these lawmakers to not pay attention to what the issue is at its roots is absolutely disrespectful.
MELBER: Yes. I really appreciate, you know, your candor, your work on this. As I mentioned, it`s tricky. I mean, we cover stories that sometimes you`re not going to get a guest on, right, if we cover something about toddlers, Governor, I don`t usually go there and interview the toddler, right. I mean, we have limits. But this is something that in all reality is younger people, Jeannie is just reminding us, and I hope our viewers are listening to you, Jeannie, there are a lot of different issues for sure.
And we talk about inflation and jobs and pandemic, but like, young people, this is the world they`re coming up in. And as we`ve seen, it doesn`t matter where you live, it doesn`t matter what your school might be organized like, this is hitting every part of America and it is what this generation is coming up with. So hearing it directly from you, we appreciate, Jeannie She, and Governor Dean, thanks to both of you.
DEAN: Thank you.
SHE: Thank you.
MELBER: Appreciate it.
Coming up — thank you. Two Trump allies struggling here on the eve of those hearings. We`re going to get into that and my special report for you tonight. You know, we work on these, we cook these up as a team. Why Elon Musk is not only wrong but has a lot of people over at FOX News with egg on their face. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:12:54]
MELBER: We are on the eve of the first live primetime January 6th Committee hearings and it will break through to tens of millions of Americans. You can see it across all networks, news channels, except for FOX which has ditched the hearing on its news channel and then said they may cover it as warranted on FOX Business.
All this comes as Peter Navarro`s arrest has made waves because he was resisting cooperating with this committee that we`ll hear from tomorrow night. Today he`s speaking out on why he does not have a lawyer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARTHA MACCALLUM, FOX NEWS HOST: Why don`t you have a legal team?
PETER NAVARRO, FORMER TRUMP AIDE: Well, this is going to cost a half a million dollars from what I`m being told. And I have a choice to make about, you know, that`s going to basically wipe out my retirement savings, and I`ll be eating dog food if I stay out of jail. And so I`m trying to grapple with that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: Navarro has repeatedly been on FOX since his indictment. He says he faces these hurdles. Of course as discussed, there is a way that he could also negotiate compliance and avoid the legal fees. Meanwhile, a judge has ruled that a Trump coup planner, the lawyer John Eastman, who pushed for the Jan. 6th plan, must turn over even more documents to the committee, another victory as they amass evidence.
So there is a lot going on in Washington. I have to tell you we have a very special guest making his BEAT debut tonight. Republican Congressman Byron Daniels. He was at the Capitol. He objected to the certification. He`s a new member of this Republican caucus. And we`re going to hear from him directly and his ideas when we`re back in one minute.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:20:35]
MELBER: We are back with Republican Congressman Byron Donalds. And he`s going to join me in a moment. New to Congress last year, new to THE BEAT. So here`s where you stand, sir, on some issues.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. BYRON DONALDS (R-FL): What is being discussed on Capitol Hill right now would not have stopped the shootings in Uvalde and it wouldn`t have stopped the shootings in Buffalo. The Democrats in Congress just want to implement their agenda. They do not care who they have to lie to, they do not care what agencies they need to create.
Right now I`m walking into the Capitol about to sign the objection forms to object to the certification of the electoral college.
I voted against red flag laws. I voted against raising the age to buy a shotgun and a rifle.
The issue is much more about mental health than it is about the ability to acquire firearms.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: And Congressman Donalds is here as my guest. Welcome, thanks for doing this.
DONALDS: It`s good to be with you. Thanks for having me on.
MELBER: Absolutely. Let`s start with this national debate over gun violence. A very serious issue. We saw those moving hearings. We showed some of that at the top of the show tonight. When you look at something that doesn`t necessarily take guns out of circulation but might help make sure the wrong, dangerous people don`t get them, like background checks, we looked, you voted against background checks last year.
Why not have some sort of check on who can get guns if that might save lives?
DONALDS: Well, a couple of things. Number one, I think the misconception is we already have a very large and wide background check system in the United States. If you look at the people that acquired these guns before these tragedies, they actually went through the FBI background check system. And so that`s one of the things that we have to make sure that`s clear.
The agenda from the Democrats, the policy position from them, is to go to this, quote-unquote, “universal background check system” which actually has private people individually, if I`m selling to you or you`re selling to your sister or whoever, that they have to go through a federal background check system in an intrastate transaction. That`s the only addition. And so the reality is it`s an interstate transaction, there`s no real ability for individuals to go to the FBI to get that background check done.
So are we going to criminalize citizens who pass a gun from one citizen to another? That typically is a transaction that does not take place. And if you look at these mass shootings that have occurred, the perpetrators typically don`t get their firearms either through a federally firearms dealer and pass the background check or like in the case of Sandy Hook, that that shooter killed his mother and took her guns.
MELBER: Well, when you walk through it that way, Congressman, isn`t that what proponents are saying, that if it is this easy to get a gun under the current system, that`s why you have to strengthen it? I mean, if people are getting murder weapons from, as you say, intrastate, why wouldn`t you want to help make sure the wrong people, criminals, et cetera, don`t get them?
DONALDS: Well, see, that`s the key thing there. If you look at the data, that`s actually not how these perpetrators are getting their guns. Straw purchases are actually banned under federal law. That is illegal. You`re not allowed to go buy a firearm and pass it to another individual. That`s illegal. Again, if you look at the mass shooting events that have occurred, especially the ones in our schools, the perpetrators went through the federal firearms background check system. Now, if you want to talk about things like red flag laws, New York state has a red flag law. But the shooter in New York, that heinous person, that person, there were actually flags that were there but nobody ever reported on that person. And so —
MELBER: Yes. But let me —
DONALDS: These things are tragic to our country.
MELBER: Let me jump in.
DONALDS: But we have to look at the facts.
MELBER: Let me jump in. And we`re talking policy and there`s more than one way to look at it so I appreciate us getting into it because it`s an important issue. But we can put on the screen, I mean, the flag laws when you were in Florida, you voted against the red flag law. You`re mentioning red flag laws don`t stop all shootings.
I`ll say you to, Congressman, fact check, true, that there has not been policies that we`ve seen that stop everything. But 20 states that do require the expanded background checks, I`ll put this on the screen, you said let`s deal in facts, have these background checks. They`ve been ruled constitutional. They`ve been ruled to be effective. And so I guess the question becomes, and then I want to move on to one other topic while I have you, but given that it can work sometimes, let`s stipulate that you said sometimes it doesn`t work, true.
[18:25:03]
But if it can work sometimes, why not try it? I mean, help us balance that against these kids who are getting murdered if it does work sometimes.
DONALDS: Well, here`s the difference. If you`re talking about a state that has decided to do expanded checks, that`s an intrastate transaction. That is directly within the confines of state powers and state law. But the federal government does not have the ability to regulate intrastate transactions. That`s actually —
MELBER: But you voted —
DONALDS: Hold on. But that`s the power that the state —
MELBER: I feel you, but you voted against it at the state — we`ll put it back on the screen, I think we have it. You voted against it at the state level. How about that?
DONALDS: Well, actually in Florida there was not a provision in the school safety law with respect to intrastate background checks. What it was about was red flag laws, risk protection orders, and raising the age from 18 to 21. There are serious Fifth Amendment constitutional issues with red flag laws because essentially you would be giving — your property can be taken from you by a court of law without you being able to defend yourself in said court of law. Those are the constitutional issues that exist with red flag laws.
MELBER: I understand that concern. I mean, Justice Scalia, who went farther than anyone on the federal level of backing the right to bear arms, he said those rights, even in doing so, are not without limitation, not a right to keep and carry a weapon whatsoever in any manner for whatever purpose. So I just want to get that in there on the law. But I appreciate the back and forth.
Turning to these hearings tomorrow night which as you know are a big deal, there was this insurrection, this violent attack on the Capitol by Trump fans. I want to play just a little bit of what we saw that day as we go into these hearings. Here is what it looked like.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: Shield wall. Sheild wall.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: Hang Mike Pence. Hang Mike Pence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: Was it wrong for those Trump fans to do all that? Was it an insurrection? And knowing what we know now, if the purpose is to go forward, should Trump and those other people who sent them down to the Capitol have acted differently?
DONALDS: Well, first things first. I was on the floor that day. It was a tragedy for the nation. Nobody is allowed to breach a federal building. And I mean nobody. It doesn`t matter what side of politics you`re on. And I`ve been crystal clear on that from day one, from that very day. Number two and more importantly is this. One of the things that this January 6th Committee, whether they are finding out or they leaked it to the media, I don`t know, but we found out in the Oversight Committee was that Donald Trump authorized 10,000 National Guard troops to be at the Capitol on January 6th.
He authorized those troops on January 4th. The real question is what did Nancy Pelosi know about these troops and what did Muriel Bowser, the mayor of D.C., do with the National Guard troops that were in in D.C. on the 6th? I can tell you right now, they weren`t at the Capitol. That`s still a question that House Republicans have with respect to the January 6th investigation.
MELBER: Was it an insurrection?
DONALDS: Was it an insurrection? No, because look, the reality is, people came into the Capitol, they tried to stop an official proceeding. We continued our business for hours later that day and then this peaceful transition of power continued. I think if you`re going to go towards the level of insurrection or sedition, that`s actually a finding the Department of Justice needs to have through a thorough investigation.
What I see coming from the January 6th Committee just seems to be more politics, more leaking, because, to be frank, the Democratic agenda has failed Americans all across the country and they know it.
MELBER: Well, the sedition part, as you say, that is federal law. We can put that up, the leaders that Donald Trump name checked, including the Proud Boys, are currently awaiting trial. They`re legally presumed innocent. But that`s the conspiracy to overthrow the government as the sedition set at trial there. And there is evidence on that.
As for the insurrection, I mean, Mitch McConnell himself declared it an insurrection that night. Other people that I know are leaders in your party have done so. And so before I lose you, because it feels like this has moved, and I appreciate you coming on the show to talk about it.
DONALDS: Sure.
MELBER: It feels like the party has sort of changed its position. Here`s what we were hearing around the 6th about how bad this was.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): Tension is too high. The country is too crazy. I do not want to look back and think we caused something or we missed something and someone got hurt.
REP. LIZ CHENEY (R-WY): This is hurting all of us. He is destroying his legacy, Laura Ingraham wrote. He`s got to condemn this (EXPLETIVE DELETED) ASAP, Donald Trump Jr. texted.
SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY): Chaos, anarchy. The violence today was wrong and un- American.
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): We will not be kept out of this chamber by thugs, mobs, or threats.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: So, Congressman, I don`t mean to make the last question potentially the hardest, but really, when it`s all out in the open like that, who do you agree with? Do you agree with McConnell and Rand Paul, and some of those FOX people and the president`s son, what they said then, or do you agree with them now? Because you said let`s deal in facts, they`ve obviously completely reversed themselves.
[18:30:00]
DONALDS: Listen, with the audio you just played, everybody condemned the violence on that day and when it happened, and we still condemn it today. Like I said, you are not allowed to breach a federal building. If you do, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Many people are being prosecuted. There are some questions about the detainees and their constitutional rights with respect to a speedy trial.
But the reality is, is that it was heinous for our country, and it should never be tolerated. The only thing I would say is that if we`re going to discuss the facts surrounding January 6th, let`s discuss them all and claims including what happened to the National Guard troops that were authorized by President Trump on January 4th.
MELBER: And now our viewers have had the benefit of hearing your views and the back and forth so we appreciate that. Congressman Donalds, your first time on THE BEAT. I hope you`ll come back.
DONALDS: Oh, anytime. It was fun.
MELBER: OK, thank you, sir. I`m going to fit in a break and let me tell you what`s coming up. The Murdochs with egg on their face. Ted Cruz, not getting the savior treatment he wanted from Elon Musk. It`s our special report next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:35:42]
MELBER: The world`s richest person Elon Musk, made political waves with that deal to buy Twitter, proclaiming he would make the platform more open to free speech, restore Donald Trump on it, and help conservatives. From Fox News to right-wing Twitter. Many conservatives spent weeks cheering Musk. They believed his claims that he was on this mission to help them. And they were wrong. They were wrong because Musk was wrong.
And because he was misleading. All of this offers a key lesson in how to deal with billionaires. Both right now and going forward. And it brings us to my special report for you right now. The evidence shows Musk`s agenda is to make money and consolidate power. That`s legal. It`s guided his pursuit of Twitter from the start.
But like a politician or like a canny billionaire, his P.R. pitch was a different message, claiming he wanted to fix Twitter and advance true free speech. And many Republicans believe that pitch and even rallied around it. Believing that this business deal was about free speech and not about well, business. Now corporations can mix business with some ideology on the margins, but business will come first. That`s how it works.
That`s also the law of fiduciary duty is a duty to profits. And if you`re in a party that touts free markets all the time. Well, you might want to remember that`s what they are about. So, all of this was pretty clear back before this week`s news, which I`ll get to, that Musk is now waffling on buying Twitter at all.
But when this news first broke, and when conservatives were cheering this as Musk`s altruism and his help for the conservative movement. Well, we reported back then that money would trounce any of Musk`s talk of free speech.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MELBER: Business and profit is his motivation and his skill, and it will continue to be what he is about. He has a fiduciary duty to the investors that I told you tonight. He`s pursuing right now. He must maximize profits for them. Even if he takes the company private. That`s a fact.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MELBER: And that`s what`s happening, which is proving some of Musk`s Republican fans wrong. They believed his pitch and ignored some of the business reality. The issues with Twitter have not changed in the past month, Trump is still banned. Its content moderation is still clumsy at best. But the markets have changed.
Tech stocks tanking making Musk`s very expensive price for buying Twitter then, even more, costly right now. His own company Tesla losing $500 billion in value, and he himself sees super bad signs in the wider economy as tech continues to slump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY EVANS, HOST, CNBC: Tech stocks are getting hit hard as bond yields climb. The NASDAQ pacing for its worst day since March.
JUDY CARLINE WOODRUFF HOST PBS NEWSHOUR: The sell-off hit Wall Street as big tech stocks fell sharply.
ANDREW ROSS SORKIN, HOST, CNBC: Tech taking it on the chin yesterday. And basically, the past two weeks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s definitely been a bloodbath for the last two months, especially.
BRIAN SOZZI, HOST, YAHOO FINANCE LIVE: Tech mega-caps have shed more than $1 trillion dollars in value over just three trading sessions —
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: A trillion dollars down in three days. What does that even mean? The top five tech companies alone have lost so much money this year, that it`s actually more like an entire economy than a hit to corporations. Think about England, one of the wealthiest countries in the world. Just to put this in context. This year alone, the tech loss as I just showed you reach $2.7 trillion, about the annual gross domestic product of Britain as the Times pointed out.
So that`s quite a haircut. And that`s why Musk now says there`s something more important in his grand plans to save free speech online. What could be more important than that? His money. The richest man in the world is worried about losing money, even though he literally has more of it than anyone.
And that`s why he`s now gone soft, weak, hesitant, waffling on the deal he negotiated and touted with so much bravado, formally putting talks with his investors on ice and throwing out excuses that he will need more internal data from Twitter to move forward. Of course, he already reached the deal to move forward.
And when he did say that in public, well, it was rebutted by a company expert. And that factual rebuttal was too much for Musk. At a loss for words, he started posting poop emojis.
[18:40:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Elon Musk says he`s putting his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter on hold until the company can back its estimate of how many bots are on the platform.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we saw CEO Parag Agrawal from Twitter. Kind of going back and forth with Elon today, trying to explain, hey, here`s how we measure bots and Elon replied with a poop emoji.
CASEY NEWTON, EDITOR, PLATFORMER: That`s right, every day, a new twist to the story, and it just might involve a poop emoji.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: Ha, ha, ha. It`s not even a little bit funny. And believe me, I know a thing or two about unfunny jokes. The emojis relate to something more important that I`m going to get into right now. They are just a blunt, dumber version of what he was doing before with the politics deflection going into the deal. Distract, deflect, emotionalize the issues, sabotage any sober public discussion accountability.
Gosh, it`s almost like he`s done stuff like this before. Now, putting a platform like Twitter, under one person`s control raises huge challenges about power over speech, democracy. The company`s current shortcomings and free speech, which we`ve covered would mostly be worsened by a monopoly. And as we`ve reported, they have current issues.
Now Musk tried to obscure that with this whole political free speech pitch on the way in. So, this is more misdirection on the way out. Some experts say he`s outright lying to bolt on the deal, finding a way to try to duck the billion-dollar fee that he himself recently agreed to if he exited. This is bigger than Twitter. This is what a certain brand of billionaire monopoly-style capitalism looks like.
Believe the billionaire at your own peril. Remember, he expects the rules to control you, not him. That`s not fair. Nor is it law and order are classically conservative. If you want to get into the politics. In the billionaire model here. He operates on the premise that he`s better than you. And he`s smarter than you. They`ll get away with it. That`s what he thinks.
So, the conservatives who signed on to this agenda are finding themselves in a tough spot. They`re not getting any of those political benefits Musk pledged and they naively believed. In fact, when we first aired a report making this exact point, some conservatives responded by insisting Musk would fix Twitter and he would restore Trump. Just wait, just wait.
Others falsely claimed that Musk`s critics were concerned. Musk would abuse Twitter`s moderation powers and just flip it and target some other set of perceived opponents. And I don`t mean this was just you know, people talking on Twitter. An editorial in Rupert Murdoch`s conservative Wall Street Journal cited THE BEAT and claimed critics were hilariously wailing at Elon Musk, and that the critics must oppose free speech.
Because that guy`s smiling on your screen. He`s not about money. He`s about free speech, said the journal, which is supposed to know about money. Well, that age poorly. It was dumb, then. Sorry, but it was. It`s wrong, now. What`s actually hilarious is taking Musk at his word like the journal did, didn`t work out.
Or like all these right-wing Republicans and Twitter trolls did. Because they thought Musk would do what he said that he has so much money, he didn`t have to worry about money. And he would use his money and power to help them. To help Trump get back on their platform in time for the next election.
Well, to paraphrase Kendrick Lamar, for the Republicans, you might look up to Elon, but he is not your savior. And now, over in other parts of the right-wing, some of that blind cheering has turned into a kind of skepticism. So, we`re going to show you then and now with the evolution as Musk has shown his colors again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETE HEGSETH, HOST, FOX NEWS: For once, this isn`t about power and money. Musk is doing it to save free speech.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He`s all over the place these days. I think some people are getting a little annoyed with him for these constant tweets, which throw everybody into confusion.
GERALDO RIVERA, HOST, FOX NEWS: The five people at this table all are fans of Elon Musk, I don`t think that I —
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m not giving you a lot of advice. But if I was, I wouldn`t be talking about people`s jobs and people`s livelihoods via Twitter.
GREG GUTFELD, HOST, FOX NEWS: He`s our Edison. This is our Thomas Edison. This is our DaVinci of our generations —
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Announcement that nearly 10 percent of the company`s workforce would be laid off over a super bad feeling about the economy. Liz, what the heck is going on?
[18:45:00]
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: No need to criticize you if you are completely embarrassing yourself. So, what is going on? As the Fox anchor asked. Billionaires going to billionaire, they`re about profit. That`s how they got to be billionaires. And in social media, there are also perverse profit incentives that have been documented. Google`s former CEO, Eric Schmidt, recently told us about this in one of our series about business and tech here on THE BEAT.
And notice what you`re going to hear, he refers to the same duty to pursue profits that I mentioned, both in our original reporting tonight, and talks about how that has just completely spiraled into manipulative outrage. Which is why at a core level, some of these sites like Facebook and Twitter, distort our politics.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The issue with social media is roughly the following. Social media hack their leisure businesses and their job is to maximize shareholder return and revenue. And the best way to maximize revenue is to maximize engagement. And the best way to maximize engagement in social media is with outrage. Literally, outrage on the left or the right.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: Musk gets that. He`s an effective businessman who uses Twitter already for outrage and trolling. And deflecting and distracting as I showed a lot of people who think they understand what`s going on. And he`s used his business skills and creativity to improve the transportation auto markets and do some other very impactful things.
None of these facts tonight take away from that record. But when it comes to shaping people`s minds, let alone the discourse in our entire democracy. The facts matter. And Musk also, by the way, had some support for his deal beyond just the right-wing, which I showed you earlier. That`s important because we want to be accurate with you and show you why you may have heard even from people who aren`t.
Right-wing Twitter obsessives why this they heard was a good idea for tech or business. Twitter`s own founder declared Musk was the best person to take over the company. Take that for what you will. But if you want to understand that, remember what I said about facts. When you also want to know that without Musk`s inflated offer price, which he`s now trying to run from.
That same founder I mentioned, Jack Dorsey would stand to lose hundreds of millions of dollars. If the deal goes through, that founder, Dorsey gets paid way more than Twitter is currently worth on the market. And more than it was worth on the market when the deal was first made, he would get about $978 million dollars. Take that for what you will when you see him talking and saying Musk is the only one who can do this.
Is he saying that with some disinterested independent view? Or might he be affected by that other billion coming his way? You forget everything else that I`m telling you tonight. Remember, billionaires going to billionaire. Now, some versions of Musk`s offer could still go through to get Twitter, they`re all fighting that out. But there`s a hard lesson here for the hard, right.
You`re not above being used by a billionaire, even if you had that naive privilege sense that you were, that he would be on your side for real. And that`s just the recent history, the much wider lesson is even more important, and it goes way beyond politics. This is the most unequal time in the global economy in the history of the world.
Tax policies, pro-corporate policies, and a lot of help from both parties in the United States have made that a big, enduring problem. So, we got to deal with billionaires who can come in and forget complaining about the press, they could just buy it, or bankrupt it, or buy social media, or buy social media and kick people off the platforms, which is something I mentioned in the first report.
Because if companies do that the wrong way, they should be held accountable. And if one person doesn`t know monopoly, they should be held accountable. But that`ll be harder. So be wary of billionaires claiming to be altruists, it`s not really what they`re known for, especially if they`re claiming in the middle of a business deal.
And let`s be clear about the difference in tone and mood which, to be fair, some of the later critical coverage on fox that I showed you did mention because people`s livelihoods and jobs are on the line. To the billionaire, this may feel like a game, a move. Another clash with high stakes for everyone but themselves kind of like another succession plotline.
Musk knows there`s a billion-dollar fee for bailing. But what`s a billion to him? And he fully expects to use his money and power to duck partner all of that billion-dollar fee just like a former president is known for stiffing bills and if you can get away with it, then they don`t feel as much like bills. But most people don`t get away with it. For everyone else, it`s not a game. It`s not a move it`s real-life, real jobs.
[18:50:00]
And if any of this at times has sounded technical or techie, believe me, we`re not interested in the hardware here or the algorithm on its own. We`re interested in how people with this much power, use their power in ways that can affect you in our democracy. So, here`s a concrete real example offline from Musk`s history along the same lines.
Did you know he once did a P.R. stunt where he was trying to push the sale of flame throwers. Delivering these rockets out to people. It drew outrage drew understandable safety concerns and pushback from none other than Joe Rogan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELON MUSK, CEO, TESLA MOTORS: Does anybody tell you know.
JOE ROGAN, PODCASTER: What kind of unhinged, people are going to be buying a flame thrower, in the first place, do we really want to connect ourselves to all these potential arsonists?
MUSK: Yes, it`s terrible idea. Terrible. You shouldn`t buy one.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: That`s a terrible idea. You shouldn`t buy one. Again. Ha, ha, ha. But who`s the joke on? Well, with the billionaire most of the time, even if he says the opposite. It`s on you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:55:38]
MELBER: Turn to news update. A man with gun and ammunition arrested for threatening to murder Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh 26-year-old from California. He was charged with attempted murder after being arrested outside Kavanaugh`s home.
The suspect told investigators he believed that he was worried that the justice would weaken gun laws and also overturn Roe. We will keep an eye on that important story given the context and the threat. “THE REIDOUT” with Joy Reid is up after this short break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOY REID, MSNBC HOST: Tonight on “THE REIDOUT.”
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KIMBERLY RUBIO, MOTHER OF UVALDE SHOOTING VICTIM ALEXANDRIA RUBIO: I left my daughter at that school and that decision will haunt me for the rest of my life. Soon after we received the news that our daughter was among the 19 students and two teachers that died as a result of gun violence.