Updated
Summary
Detailed list of evidence seized at Mar-a-Lago unsealed. Barr suggest Trump deceived government over docs. Biden, Trump prepare for dueling events in Pennsylvania. 150,000 without clean water for 5 days in Jackson, MS. Biden calls on Americans to resist threats to democracy.
Transcript
ALI VELSHI, MSNBC HOST: I hope you`ll join us tomorrow morning. THE 11TH HOUR with Stephanie Ruhle begins now.
JONATHAN CAPEHART, MSNBC HOST: Tonight, new details about what the FBI sees from the former president`s speech home, folders marked classified found empty. And Bill Barr`s critical response to Trump`s handling of these documents. And what Barr says is a red herring response.
Then, the political showdown in the Keystone State, competing events this weekend by the current and the former president after President Biden`s dire warnings for democracy last night.
Plus, the ongoing water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi. The National Guard is deployed as residents are urged to keep their mouths closed while showering. The systemic failures that led to this emergency as THE 11TH HOUR gets underway on this Friday night.
Good evening, I`m Jonathan Capehart, in for Stephanie Ruhle. Tonight, a newly unsealed inventory reveals the most details yet about what the FBI sees during its search of former President Trump`s Florida home last month. Days after the Justice Department revealed that federal agents retrieved more than 100 classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. A federal judge released an itemized list with new information about what those documents were and where they were found. NBC`s Kelly O`Donnell has more.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY O`DONNELL, NBC NEWS SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: 48 folders with classified markings inside the former president`s office and storage area were empty when the FBI searched, another 42 empty folders indicated the contents had to be returned to a military aid. Where are the government secrets that might have been inside, unknown.
The FBI did seize 103 classified records up to top secret level found inside the office and storage room. The inventory notes the highly restricted documents had been mixed in with ordinary things, magazines, gifts and clothing. For the first time, the Department of Justice revealed that more than 11,000 unclassified government owned papers and photographs were also seized.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAPEHART: In another court filing unsealed today the DOJ said “seized materials will continue to be used to further the government`s investigation, which prosecutors described as active.”
A spokesman for Donald Trump responded to the inventories released with a Twitter post saying it showed the FBI search was, “not some surgical confined search. It was a smash and grab.”
Meanwhile, the judge who released that inventory has yet to decide on Trump`s request to have a special master and independent third party to review the record sees that his home. Earlier today, Trump`s former Attorney General Bill Barr sided with the Biden DOJ and throw cold water on that that idea.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL BARR, FORMER ATTORNEY GENERAL: I think the whole idea of a special master is a bit of a red herring. The only documents that have been taken, it seems to me that there`s a legitimate concern about keeping away from the government and insulating the government from would be documents relating to his private lawyer communications him as an individual and as outside lawyers. If there`s stuff like that, fine, identify it. If it doesn`t appear to be much of it, I`m not sure you need a special master to identify it. But what people are missing is that all the other documents taken, even if they claim to be executive privilege, either belong to the government because their government records, even if they`re classified, even if they`re subject to executive privilege, they still belong to the government and go to the archives.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAPEHART: Barr also said he couldn`t think of a legitimate reason why the documents should have been taken away from the government if they`re classified. This was taking place today as two other former Trump White House officials testified in another DOJ investigation.
Today, ex-White House Counsel`s Pat Cipollone and Patrick Philbin both appeared before a federal grand jury looking into the efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
With that, let`s get smarter with the help of our leadoff panel, Peter Baker, Chief White House Correspondent for The New York Times. Barbara McQuade, a veteran federal prosecutor and former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan. She worked with the DOJ during the Biden transition and is a Professor at the University of Michigan`s Law School. And MSNBC Political Contributor Matthew Dowd, he`s also a former George W. Bush Strategist and Founder of, “Country Over Party.”
[23:05:00]
Barbara, I`m going to start with you. There could be many explanations for the empty folders with classified or other special markings but this still looks bad for Trump, doesn`t it?
BARBARA MCQUADE, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY: It does, Jonathan. I mean, I suppose the most generous explanation is that the documents were simply removed from the folders and were strewn about among all the personal belongings in the documents. But the worst-case scenario is that they`re gone. They`ve been destroyed or lost or in some other way disposed of. And that is really dangerous, you know, just red alert for the intelligence community to not know whether secrets have been lost. And to not have the documents, to not know what the contents were, they will have to go back and try to figure out and recreate what was the document that was in there? And is that now out there and has that information been compromised? And so, this is, you know, just red alert stuff for the intelligence community.
CAPEHART: Yeah, red alert indeed.
Peter, just wondering, Trump`s lawyers pushed for this inventory to be released. But does this help them?
PETER BAKER, THE NEW YORK TIMES CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It`s hard to see how it helps them. No, of course not. It doesn`t look good. And obviously raises more questions than answers and doesn`t actually, you know, call into question, the FBI`s conduct so much as it calls into question the former president`s conduct.
And this is the really interesting thing, Jonathan, you know, what we`ve heard from Mar-a-Lago and from Trump Tower consistently is, this was political, the FBI is, is being partisan and going after him. It`s all persecution, witch hunt, all that kind of stuff. What we haven`t heard is an explanation. What was he doing with? What did he want them for? Why are these folders empty? What was the purpose of all this? He has given no explanation whatsoever? And so — and that, I think remains the unanswered question, what was going on here that President Trump doesn`t want us to know about? Because if you had a simple explanation, if he had, you know, some sort of reason for why he wanted these that would appeal to most people, he would have told us by now, and we don`t know what that answer is.
CAPEHART: And Matt, I would love to get your thoughts on this, because Trump supporters have been complaining about President Biden`s speech last night, but we still don`t seem to be hearing too much about this classified document controversy from them?
MATTHEW DOWD, MSNBC POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I you know, I tweeted this out earlier. I mean, I think they`re in a situation I think if they`re — if this is a strategy on the GOP`s part of engaging in this conversation, they`re losing. They`re making this election, which for the first six months of this year was a referendum on Joe Biden, it`s now become a referendum on Donald Trump, and everything related to it, all of this, and also the January 6 Commission and everything and it`s a referendum on Donald Trump tied to the candidates who have — were are off the deep end, that he`s gotten nominated in state after state after state.
And so, I don`t actually think there`s some grand strategy here. I think Donald Trump, as we`ve always known, says stuff and he`s left to his own devices. And then what`s happened is the Republican Party backs him up. Something simultaneously has happened over the last three weeks in this and Republicans were all outraged when the FBI did this. And Donald Trump`s numbers went up among Republicans, he solidified Republicans, but simultaneously to that, Jonathan, his numbers among the general election voters dropped. And if continued to drop as that goes up. So, he solidifies his base, which is about 25% or 30% of the country solidifies his base in this outrage, but he`s losing more and more and more voters among the general election of people they`re going to vote in the midterm.
CAPEHART: Barbara, the there is a Republican we are hearing from and that`s Bill Barr, here`s what he said about Trump`s claims about declassifying the documents.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARR: I, frankly, am skeptical of this claim that I declassified everything, you know, because frankly, I think it`s highly improbable. And second, if in fact, he sort of stood over scores of boxes, not really knowing what was in them and said, I hereby declassify everything in here, that would be such an abuse. That shows such recklessness, that it`s almost worse than taking the documents.
How long is the government going to try to get that back? You know, they draw bone for a year. They were deceived on the voluntary actions taken. They then went and got a subpoena. They were deceived on that. They feel and the record — the facts are starting to show that they were being jerked around. And so how long, you know, how long do they wait?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAPEHART: So, I mean, are you surprised by Barr support of the DOJ?
MCQUADE: I am. You know, everything he says I agree with 100%, it`s accurate, it`s right, it`s a correct assessment of the law and of the facts but it is stunning to hear William Barr say these things, you know, this is the person who distorted the findings of Robert Mueller to advance the interests of Donald Trump. He repeatedly did things in Trump`s self- interest, dismissing charges against Michael Flynn, reducing the sentence for Roger Stone.
[23:10:20]
And so, to see him now really adhere to the rule of law and say that the emperor has no clothes is actually really quite refreshing. He`s absolutely right in everything he`s saying. And I really think that it could have an important impact on, you know, people who don`t really know what to think about this, have not worked in government, have not handled classified documents to hear the former attorney general who was a staunch Republican and great defender of Donald Trump say these things, I think is likely to be very persuasive to somebody.
CAPEHART: Matt, let me get you in on this. What do you make of this take from Bill Barr?
DOWD: I mean, I think we`ve seen this pattern of law — people that became law — I mean, first of all, I think Bill Barr lost his soul when he got associated with Donald Trump and then in on the exit, he somehow rediscovered — he has rediscovered, which I think there are many people do, the proximity to Donald Trump seems to corrupt people, the distance from Donald Trump, they seem to find their integrity again. And that`s to me, that`s what all. I mean, William Barr is no friend of Donald Trump anymore. Donald Trump`s have gone out of his way to criticize him in this. But it is such a tale, a psychological tale is the closer you get to the Donald Trump, the more you lose your soul, the further away you get from Donald Trump, the more you gain it back.
CAPEHART: Barbara, we still haven`t heard from this judge about a special master. What should we expect next?
MCQUADE: Well, it`s interesting, you know, it could be a matter of days. Could be tomorrow, when she issued this decision. She did seem to be somewhat persuaded by Donald Trump`s request. It seems that one thing that she could do here that would be sort of a compromise, and maybe give Donald Trump an opportunity to declare victory and fend off the angry mob is to give a very limited, special masters simply to focus on materials that might be protected by the attorney client privilege, in this idea that executive privilege applies here, when this is the government`s own documents is really just utter nonsense. And to allow the government to continue with its damage assessment, and it`s investigation of all the other materials, so that there is no harm to those things. That seems to me like a compromise that the government could live with. And so that`s the solution that I`m looking for. But of course, it`s her decision. So, anything goes.
CAPEHART: Peter, we still haven`t heard a real explanation from Trump, about why he took the documents but your colleagues at the Times, write this, several former officials who remembered Mr. Trump occasionally taking a document from a classified briefing or requesting a document from the National Security Council staff said the material he collected in those instances could not have added up to the hundreds of pages and dozens of boxes retrieved by the government from Mar-a-Lago. So, Peter, what kind of intelligence was he really interested in? What did he want to know?
BAKER: Well, in general while he president, I mean, he wants to know a number of things, one he – yes, you know, interesting, the salacious, he wants to know about foreign leaders, you know, private lives, he wanted to know — I mean, a lot of presidents might want to know that kind of thing. He wanted to have, you know, sort of an insight into the dark secrets of the government. He was particularly though, of course, obsessed with operation crossfire hurricane, or excuse me, the crossfire hurricane investigation, which was the FBI investigation into Russian interference in the election.
But all of that shouldn`t add up to this much. I think that`s the important point here. Remember, 11,000 documents they`re saying where there, not all classified, but a total of 11,000 government documents. That`s a lot of government documents to have in your house, right? To have in your home and takes a lot of work to get 11,000 documents from Washington D.C. down to Mar-a-Lago, and that just raises all sorts of questions about what was going on, and why. What do you hope to get out of this and, what was the purpose of it and why he resisted so much when the government came knocking on his door saying, hey, these aren`t yours. They`re ours, give them back.
CAPEHART: You know, Peter, you`ve also been reporting on what appears to be shaping up to be a Biden Trump rematch. We saw the beginning of it last night, what`s Biden`s larger strategy here?
BAKER: Well, look, you know, we`re having a midterm election with neither Biden or Trump are on the ballot. But in effect, what Biden is trying to do here, I think, is to re remind the coalition that backed him two years ago, that the fight is over, right?
Most Americans don`t support Donald Trump. But that doesn`t mean that Republicans can`t win in the fall. Historically, the party out of power does pretty well in these kinds of midterms. But Biden is trying to do is say to the Democrats, and the independents and the disaffected republicans who voted for him two years ago is you need to come out now because even if you`re disappointed me even if you`re mad about inflation even if you don`t think I`ve done as much as you want me to do, the people who would take power if you don`t come out and vote for Democrats will be Trump`s Republicans, the MAGA Republicans as he calls them.
[23:15:14]
He`s trying to steal a little fear in the part of the electorate that is open to him. He`s not trying to talk to the Trump Republicans. He doesn`t think they`re open to listening. He`s trying to galvanize the people who might come out and vote and give them a reason to come out and vote, which is to stop Trump from coming back to power through his surrogates in the Congress.
CAPEHART: And that`s what the President is doing. But man, I`m just wondering, will the Trump investigation — we`ll all this, the talk about Mar-a-Lago, will that have any impact on the midterms?
DOWD: First, I want to say I think Joe Biden actually fundamentally believes that our democracy is at stake, and it`s a real problem. So, there`s a political equation here, obviously, but I think he believes deep down that there are serious problems in our democracy, mainly caused by MAGA Republicans.
Second, I think it`s already had an effect. I think we`ve seen all of the numbers, not only special elections, but all of the balloting numbers, including a slight rise in Joe Biden`s approval rating. Now, still not great. It`s better than it was a month ago, we`ve seen generic ballot go from plus four or five Republican to plus one or two Democrat. We`ve seen Democrats overperform in every special election since June by five, six or seven or eight points. And so, I think it`s already had an effect.
If this election which is looks like it will go be headed towards is becomes a choice election between what the Democrats stand for and what they want to do and what the moderate Republicans stand for. That`s where the Democrats want to be in an off-year midterm election. If that`s the case — I`m not saying it guarantees Democrats take the House or take the Senate, but it puts them in a way better position, which they`ve already moved in, in the last eight weeks.
CAPEHART: Matthew Dowd, Barbara McQuade, Peter Baker, thank you all very much.
Coming up, President Biden and the former guy will both visit the midterm battleground of Pennsylvania this holiday weekend. Our political experts break down what`s at stake with only 67 days to go until Election Day.
And later Jackson, Mississippi where the water remains unsafe to drink. We`ll bring you an update on the dire situation facing residents there. THE 11TH HOUR just getting underway on a Friday night.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[23:22:02]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN FETTERMAN (D), PENNSYLVANIA SENATE CANDIDATE: I think people also understand really what`s at stake in this at this selection right now. And now with Dr. Oz now just being caught saying that, you know, every abortion is murder. And right now, there`s a stark choice between us right now, too. And people I think understand that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAPEHART: Pennsylvania`s Senate candidate John Fetterman talking about his race against Trump-backed to Dr. Oz. This Labor Day weekend, President Biden and the former guy will visit the Keystone State. Donald Trump will hold a rally in Wilkes-Barre for Dr. Oz and Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano on Saturday. And President Biden will visit Pittsburgh on Labor Day. Pennsylvania is of course a major battleground in the upcoming midterm elections.
So, with us for more John Micek, a longtime Pennsylvania Reporter and the editor-in-chief of the Pennsylvania Capitol Star, and Victoria DeFrancesco Soto, MSNBC Political Analyst and Dean of the Clinton School of Public Service at the University of Arkansas.
Thank you both for being here. John, I`ll start with you. President Biden is traveling to your state three times in one week. Do voters there realize just how important they are?
JOHN MICEK, PENNSYLVANIA CAPITAL-STAR EDITOR IN CHIEF: Jonathan, voters in Keystone State could be forgiven for thinking that the President has moved back to his former home state. This week, he`s been in quite often, as you said. I think at this point, Pennsylvania has been under the National microscope so often under these last four or six years that they`re fully aware of have their place in the national dialogue. And, you know, you don`t have to wander far to find people who are talking about this midterm campaign.
CAPEHART: And Victoria, that`s great to hear what you just said, John, which makes me wonder, Victoria, will Trump campaigning in Pennsylvania help or hurt Republican candidates there?
VICTORIA DEFRANCESCO SOTO, DEAN, UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS, CLINTON SCHOOL OF PUBLIC SERVICE: It is not good for the Republican candidate there. I mean, the truth is, I`m in political sciences, you run to the extremes in the primary, and then as quick as you can you run back to the center to get those voters in the middle. And with Trump coming to Pennsylvania, any of the advances that Dr. Oz was making with that middle, the moderate Republicans, Independents, suburban women, is going to be erased. So, this is terrible news. for Republican candidates in a swing state.
If we`re talking about a deep red state, it`d be a different story. We`d be seeing a mobilization of the base. But at the end of the day, Jonathan, this isn`t about the Republican Senate candidate or the governor`s candidate. It`s about Trump himself, and really taking his story to the court of public opinion, and also just mapping out his next step. So, it is really about him. And the candidates to me are, you know, backburner.
[23:25:00]
CAPEHART: John, you wrote about President Biden speech last night and how everyone has to step up to protect democracy. Will the President`s speech motivate voters there?
MICEK: Yeah. You know, Jonathan, judging by the traffic in my email inbox this morning, you know, the partisan divisions are about as pronounced as you would think. I heard from Trump loyalists who were concerned about the optics of sort of the blood red lighting and the U.S. Marines in the background. Conversely, I heard from Biden supporters and progressives who are who are energized by the message yet, the President talked a lot in Philadelphia and I wrote about this morning, about the city being the birthplace of democracy.
But the message worked on another level as well, those mainstream Republicans, Jonathan, the President was reaching out to lived literally within a 25- or 30-minute drive of where he was standing in Bucks County in Montgomery County and Delaware in Chester County, particularly college educated women who are going to be so determinative in this campaign. And when you look at the numbers, particularly when it comes to the toppling of Roe v. Wade, you see, Pennsylvania voters, mirroring the trends that we`re seeing nationwide, with nearly 9 in 10, saying that it should be illegal under most circumstances, and nearly 6 in 10 voters saying they`re opposed to Republican authored amendment that would try to wipe the right to constitute — would try to wipe the right front abortion from the state constitution.
CAPEHART: Victoria, let`s talk about undecided voters in states, like Pennsylvania, how could they respond to President Biden`s message against MAGA and Trump?
DEFRANCESCO SOTO: Jonathan, I think in this day and age, we see your traditional chunk of undecideds and, you know, over the decades, that get smaller and smaller. But I think that what`s parallel to that, and what`s really so interesting is what about your moderate Republicans? What about your George W. Bush Republicans? What are they going to do? Are they going to sit this one out? Are they going to hold their nose like some of them did in 2016 and 2020? Or are they actually going to cross party lines? So, for me, that is the demographic I`m most interested in. We can see that what we`re just talking about suburban women, Latinos are another key swing demographic. Those are inching a little bit more toward Biden, but what are those moderate Republicans going to do?
CAPEHART: And you know, John, I`m wondering, what are you looking for? From this weekend`s big political events?
MICEK: Sure. The question to Victoria`s point, I mean, we saw some establishment Republicans come out this week, at least in the race for Governor, former Congressman Charlie Dent, former Congressman Jim Greenwood, who endorsed Josh Shapiro, the Democrat running for governor against the Trump loyalists, Doug Mastriano. So, what we`re seeing now, Jonathan, some of that cross pollenization going on in the race for governor.
In terms of what are you looking for this weekend, you know, you look at the polling and the issues that are stopping voters list of concerns our jobs and the economy. And it`s particularly poignant, I think, on Labor Day for the President to come into Pittsburgh, a very heavily unionized city where we`re seeing sort of this resurgence of organized labor that Robert Rice was talking about earlier in your program. So, you have all of these sort of factors coming together in Pittsburgh on Monday when the President comes to town.
CAPEHART: And Victoria real fast, what`s the one race beyond Pennsylvania, you`re watching that could determine control of Congress?
DEFRANCESCO SOTO: All right to Arizona because that bait and switch was so extreme. And I think that test the limits every 10 seconds. Georgia, Jonathan, because we`ve seen very small uptick in black voter turnout or preference for Donald Trump. So, I think it`s going to be interesting to see if we see another micro growth in African Americans support for the MAGA Republican.
CAPEHART: African Americans support but more specifically, black men, right?
DEFRANCESCO SOTO: Black men, exactly. Exactly, yes.
CAPEHART: OK, just —
DEFRANCESCO SOTO: — still prevail, yes.
CAPEHART: Yeah, because black women would be like, no.
John Micek and Victoria DeFrancesco Soto, thank you.
Coming up, the new warning from officials in Jackson, Mississippi, where the water remains unsafe to drink. What we`re hearing from the mayor tonight, when THE 11TH HOUR continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[23:34:15]
CAPEHART: It`s been five days since the already struggling water treatment plant in the city of Jackson, Mississippi failed. Residents are now heading into a hot holiday weekend without a reliable source of water to drink, bathe in or even flush toilets. The National Guard has been deployed to hand out water but this is a crisis-decades in the making. NBC News Correspondent Morgan Chesky has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MORGAN CHESKY, NBC NEWS CORRESPONDENT: In Jackson, this now a frustrating part of the daily routine.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That`s really affecting us pretty badly. That`s why we`re stocking up on water.
CHESKY: In barely 24 hours, the state says it`s handed down more than 500 pallets of water nearly all loaded in cars for those lucky enough to have one.
[23:35:00]
This Jackson resident trying to get enough water for the weekend, stressing this problem isn`t new.
(On camera): You haven`t trusted the water coming out of your faucet for how long now?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 25 years.
CHESKY: 25 years.
(Voice-over): Today at the beleaguered treatment plant, though the water itself is still not safe, a temporary pump is helping restore pressure. A slight improvement officials warned could create a potential new problem.
CHOKWE ANTAR LUMUMBA, MAYOR OF JACKSON MISSISSIPPI: As they`re able to increase the pressure at the plant to levels that it has not seen in many years, the challenge then becomes whether we have pipes that rupture across the city.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I mean, it`s hard. It`s hard on everybody.
CHESKY: That Bravo Italian restaurant the five-gallon jugs disappeared just as fast as they come in. The business paying for bottled water to stay open. After no water pressure, shut them down all week.
TANYA BURNS, BRAVO ITALIAN RESTAURANT MANAGER: Was my heart incredibly heavy when I looked at my staff and had to send them home? Absolutely it was, until look at them and say you can`t work today. And I know you need to, it`s very disappointing.
CHESKY: For now, they work knowing what comes out of a foster here is anything but guarantee. Morgan Chesky, NBC News, Jackson.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAPEHART: Earlier tonight my friend Joy Reid had a chance to speak with the mayor of Jackson, Mississippi Chokwe Antar Lumumba.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTAR LUMUMBA: The boil water notice, we have to, you know, go through a bit of history, because we had a boil water notice in effect, prior to the flood, that boil water notice was due to a high turbidity reading, which could be bacterial, it could be a high lime content. But the issue of that turbidity was resolved in that instance, within a 24-hour period of time. But then it took consecutive days of testing, which proved to be challenging, not only because we`re having to have out of 120 samples, clear test for all of the 120 for two consecutive days, we would have one or two come up back poor. And then we contend with the persistent rain even before the flood. And you can`t test in the rain and we had flash floods that were happening. And then we had the flood itself.
And then due to the flood, that led to a bad chemistry of water coming into the plant, which meant that they could not push out that water due to their concern over that. And it dropped pressure levels across the city.
And so, until the pressure can be restored, then the OK to start testing again, can`t take place. All of this is part and parcel of a water treatment facility that simply is just not as loyal to our residents as the people who work there.
We have worked there diligently, who are, you know, looking over various components of failure, whether it`s the raw water screens, whether it`s the raw water pumps, whether it`s the U.V. light that is, you know, obsolete, whether it`s distribution lines into the water treatment facility, conventional side or membrane side. All of these things have had an impact on our water treatment facility at given periods of time, and all of it has amounted to a challenge for our residents.
JOY REID, MSNBC HOST: Another challenge you have is your Governor, Paul Krugman wrote the following about your governor. Back in April Governor Tate Reeves, a Republican, announced that he was making an investment in Mississippians, by an investment he meant a tax cut, rather than spending on say education or infrastructure. There are no easy answers to the problem of left behind regions. But one thing is for sure, imagining that tax cuts will bring prosperity to a poorly educated state that can`t even provide its capital with running water, it`s just delusional.
And I wonder if you would comment on Tate Reeves, because under his administration, you`ve also had all of these vast sums of money going to wealthy athletes to wealthy people, just giving them money to make speeches, and, you know, for volleyball facility. I believe it was the previous administration that gave them that monies that might have been not been Tate Reeves. But what do you make of the statewide government, not just this governor, but the previous one, spending lots of money on wealthy people and lots of money on tax cuts, but not any money on infrastructure?
ANTAR LUMUMBA: Well, as your package suggested, this has been a problem in the making for decades, not simply years, these have been problems, that when I moved here in 1988, as a little boy, I remember the freeze of 1989 that debilitated our system. And there are far too many occurrences to recount of how many — of how we`ve dealt with a challenge with water in Jackson.
And so, you know, I have been, you know, less than bashful and I have been on the record of lifting up and speaking to the leadership and their necessity to act. And so, you know, my record is clear in saying and lifting these things up. But I do want people to appreciate the circumstance that I`m in today, all right. Today where my residents don`t have water. Today where I`ve cried out for the state support and today when there is a coalition that is on the ground, right? That is where my immediate concern has to be.
[23:40:10]
Now, I do believe that, you know, there is a time that we return and talk about why it took us so long to get here that we returned to the question of, you know, the fact that Jackson residents are worthy, they are worthy of this support, and that`s what I want to lift up is that my residents are worthy to not be, you know, dealing with the challenges that they have become accustomed to. This is their way of life. This is what they know. And that is unacceptable on every end.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAPEHART: And over this long holiday weekend, Jackson`s mayor says officials there will be keeping a close eye on the city`s aging pipes as the water pressure slowly returns.
Coming up, inspiration for last night`s Biden speech may have come from the historians he huddled with last month. One of them joins us next, when THE 11TH HOUR continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[23:45:40]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, (D) U.S. PRESIDENT: It`s sickening to see the new attacks on the FBI, threatened in life as law enforcement agents and their families for simply carrying out the law and doing their job. There`s no place in this country no place, for endangering the lives of law enforcement.
You turn on a television and see senior senators and congressmen saying, if such and such happens, there`ll be blood in the street. Where the hell are we?
As I stand here tonight, a quality and democracy are under assault. We do ourselves no favor to pretend otherwise. Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represented an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAPEHART: President Biden has been pulling no punches these last few weeks and he certainly didn`t last night. With Independence Hall as his backdrop, Biden warned about the threat to democracy posed by Trump and his MAGA movement, just two hours after the former president suggested he would pardon January 6 rioters if given the chance.
Back with us tonight, author and historian — Presidential Historian Michael Beschloss. His latest work is Presidents of War. Michael, great to see you as one of the historians who warned President Biden about a teetering democracy. How do you do last night?
MICHAEL BESCHLOSS, NBC NEWS PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: I think he did. Great. And by the way, I should mention we historians were not asked to give political advice. This was a month ago, we were asked to come and talk to the President about democracy, which four or five of us did for about two hours. And what President Biden I think did last night is it`s one of the highest callings that a president can follow. And that is to warn Americans when their democracy is in danger. That`s what Abraham Lincoln did in 1860 on the eve of the Civil War. That`s what Franklin Roosevelt did in the 1930s when there were fascists like father Charles Coughlin, the radio priest, who was preaching the need for a Christian Republic, he was saying that there should be boycotts of Jewish businesses that you didn`t need elections. Roosevelt was saying fascism is a bad thing. Sometimes people don`t like to hear what a president says.
But President Biden has seen everything that we`ve seen in the last couple of years, all the warning signs that have led our NBC poll to say that the biggest issue facing voters is threats to democracy.
CAPEHART: And, you know, Michael, the thing that I found interesting about the speech last night is that this is part of a continuing message that Biden has been giving, since he announced his run for president in 2019. And I bring that up, because I just wonder he brought you in to talk about democracy. But it strikes me that he was an eager and willing student, was he trying to figure out his place in history when it comes to fighting for democracy?
BESCHLOSS: I think not as self-consciously as that. I think, you know, if there — and I don`t know how he used this meeting. But I can tell you what the meeting was, was very bleak and saying that democracy is much in danger at this moment, as it was in 1860 and 1940. I certainly believe that further.
And if you did to have a president saying to Americans, look, we`ve got some big problems, big issues, inflation, you know, all sorts of things, health care, taxes. But overwhelmingly, if we don`t have a democracy in two years, we can`t do anything about any of this.
CAPEHART: Right. You know, my colleagues at The Washington Post`s Eugene Robinson wrote, Biden chose the perfect stage. But the President`s critics called the event dark and divisive. How did last night speech compare to those of past presidents?
BESCHLOSS: Well, perfect question, Jonathan. I think anyone who would have heard Lincoln in 1858, saying that this nation is a house divided, half slave and half free. You can`t get very much more divisive than that. Or Franklin Roosevelt in the late 30s saying that there are fascists among us who are dangerous or a 1940s saying we Americans have to choose whether or not to arm ourselves to fight Hitler and the Imperial Japanese, pretty divisive, but that`s part of the job.
CAPEHART: You know, I want to get you on the classified documents controversy, you tweeted those empty folders are ominous. What else has you worried right now?
BESCHLOSS: Well, the first thing that has me worried is, you know, just as you`re saying, Jonathan, those empty folders, where are those documents? This was, you know, let`s just think of the worst. And there`s no evidence for this yet. But let`s say that the ex-president was selling them or handing them to our enemies, or even to our friends who should not have had those. He could have done that without giving the physical documents. So, what makes this ominous is not only the fact that our — some of our most classified national secrets have very possibly gotten into the wrong hands. But what was going on here that the documents have just disappeared? One of the things a great nation does is keep control of its secrets. The United States of America is a great nation, why is this so reckless and sloppy as if it`s amateur hour or worse?
CAPEHART: And Michael, it`s the Labor Day weekend before the midterms, what are you watching for in the weeks ahead?
BESCHLOSS: Well, we`re going to see a campaign, which I think to some extent, because of what President Biden said last night, is going to be focused on the biggest issue that we face. You know, if you and I, Jonathan were historians from the future, and we came back to 2022, we`d say that the big question is, is America going to be a democracy anymore? I can`t give you the answer. I wish we could. But if a president does not confront that as directly as Lincoln did in 1860, or Roosevelt in 1940, we`ve got a president who is not giving us the best of leadership, but I think he did last night.
CAPEHART: Michael Beschloss, it is always great to see you. You are always a great way to end the week. Thank you for coming to THE 11TH HOUR.
BESCHLOSS: Thanks so much, Jonathan. Be well.
CAPEHART: Coming up, what does it say when traditional military symbolism is weaponized on the political battlefield? Turning the table on optics? When THE 11TH HOUR continues.
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STEPHEN MILLER, FORMER SENIOR ADVISOR TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: President Biden tonight gave the speech of a dictator in the style of a dictator in the visual of a dictator using the words of a dictator.
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CAPEHART: The last thing before we go tonight, isn`t it ironic that critics trashing President Biden`s speech last night consisted of all the usual suspects congregating on their favorite fake news channel. But our good friends at the Recount notice the words they were using to describe and critique the current president. Well, they sounded a lot more like a description of the previous one. So as an experiment, they replaced the B- roll footage of Joe Biden with that of the former guy. Let`s see if this seems a bit more appropriate.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In what was one of the most divisive and disgusting speeches ever.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He used those Marines as a political prop.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was guilty of lazy stereotyping of everyone who doesn`t agree with him, smearing people.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: None of the major networks took the comments from the President.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If he wanted to speak out against extremism, he would have called out extremism on both sides of the aisle.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I just can`t imagine anything more divisive and more dangerous coming from a president.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s an angry old man yelling at the camera.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And when you don`t have a record to run on, then you`ve got to — you`ve got to scare individuals and you got to scare the American people.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think he is doing everything he can to gin up something so that people do get out of hand.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And to put the military into a political speech.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And his demagoguery is almost always along racial lines. This is why he is so bitterly divisive.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m very disappointed that the President would call people who don`t agree with him. Those kinds of names.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Having Marines standing behind them in which he`s engaging in political attack.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Easily the most disgraceful speech from a president in recent decades.
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CAPEHART: Disgraceful. That pretty much sums it up. Before we go, I wanted to let you know I`ll be talking with White House Press Secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE this weekend about President Biden`s Student Loan Forgiveness Plan, the water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi, COVID booster shots and more.
So please be sure to tune into The Sunday Show with Jonathan Capehart. That that is me Sunday morning at 10 a.m. Eastern right here on MSNBC.
And on that note, I wish you a good night. And from all of our colleagues across networks of NBC News, thank you for staying up late. I`ll see you Sunday morning. Have a great weekend. Great Labor Day weekend.