Trump Aide Peter Navarro on "The Beat"

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0:41Start with five samples for just$10 today to see them in your own light and match to your decor. Plus, get$50 toward any rug of your choice. Visit Ernesta.com today. That's E-R-N-E-S-T-A dot com. Welcome to The Beat. I'm Ari Melber. We're going to get right to it because we have a lot cooking tonight. We begin with one of those political parties that people don't want to go to. Donald Trump is doing something that cuts against all known history, precedent and pattern for a second term, midterm race, where often presidents want to give space and get away from it just being a referendum on a perhaps unpopular incumbent.

1:21But here right now this week, he is holding what they're calling this unusual midterm convention in Dallas. War and inflation has made him more unpopular than most second term presidents. All the reason that you would want to avoid what he's doing. Indeed, there are people who are Trump critics, liberals, Democrats who are kind of hoping the thing you see on your screen, which we will be keeping an eye on, we'll be reporting on it like we report on, of course, both sides of all campaigns. but there are liberals who think the more reporting that goes on about this and reminds everyone in the fall that this is a Trump election, the worse it is for Republicans.

1:53Politico says the vibes are very bad. Dems, as I mentioned, quote, salivating. No one motivated to vote. They're on the right. One hope is that no one watches it since it's competing versus NFL opening games is how one Republican is described as discussing this in playbook, continuing, quote, hopefully nobody notices the embarrassing show. So that's just the view of the impact. Then you have the fact that people vote with their feet. Remember that expression? And a lot of Republicans hoping to withstand what could become a blue wave think the best way to do that is to risk upsetting Trump, show that they're not with Trump, and skip this Trump idea of an event.

2:36The midterm convention in Dallas is being called Trumpapalooza. Will you be there? I had stuff already planned in my congressional district. Some Republicans aren't going or they're unhappy because they have to pay$25 ,000 per House member, per Republican going to attend. Is that normal from your experience? I've never heard of anything like that myself. Dozens of your Republican colleagues decided not to attend. At least 45 of them are skipping out. What message does that send to voters? Members had things planned. They had events. There's parades. There's all types of gatherings that take place.

3:10It is honestly hard to take any of that seriously, right? This is the, I guess, the phase of the slow-moving kind of distancing between Trump and the Republican Party where we're hearing that people had plans. Next, they're going to be telling us they had to wash their hair that night and every night of the convention. It is very obvious they want to get away from Trump. It doesn't help that, true to form, he's made this all about himself, and he has the lowest approval yet in a new Financial Times poll as we are now in the real geared up core of the midterms, right? Ballots being sent out, seven weeks to go.

3:46Iran war unpopular, oil prices at$100 a barrel. And then Trump this week dialing up the trade war with Canada. Over on Fox, there are reports about Republicans' political gravity and they've changed their projections for several House races towards Democrats. Democrats, Republicans openly discussing the fact that they think if they lose badly, and as I'll always remind you, this is the news. We don't have any news yet on this race. You're going to have to go out and decide how to participate, whether people vote. But Republicans, as a political matter, talking up the idea that if they are wiped out in a blue wave, it's because of Trump.

4:26I'm a little bit nervous about it because, look, we're in the final stages of the campaign. I'd be more comfortable if this had been held in June or July and set a thematic that could be pursued for four months or five months rather than for 56 days. When you go to the grocery store and it's so expensive. Even my wife tells me, I can't believe how much I spent at the grocery store. Yes, I know they're high. I know they're at the highest level. They've been at Labor Day. The Senate, I'm really worried. Republicans in large part supported President Trump because he wasn't going to put us in forever wars.

4:55North Carolina, the numbers are rough. Georgia, the numbers are rough. The American people are still wondering, why is it that we're doing this? Our leadoff guests tonight, like many other Republicans in Congress, are not at the convention. Reverend Al Sharpton hosts Politics Nation, which has celebrated its 15th anniversary on MSNOW. Of course, National Action Network president, Molly Jong-Fast from the New York Times, host of the Fast Politics podcast. And we do have, of course, reporters there on the ground, and we'll get to that. But yes, you, Rev, have as much in common with many Republican candidates as anyone else who's not deciding this is worth your time or interest to go to this convention right now.

5:35I think that clearly there is a real statement with 45 elected Republicans not going to the convention. You must remember this is a man that these people would have jumped over oceans to be next to. And this is how he also thinks. Aside from the politics for a moment, think of the way he is taking this personal. You mean people don't want to be with me? This ultimate narcissist is now being rejected by 45 members of his party publicly that's given nonsensical excuses. And if anybody believes they're nonsensical, it's Donald Trump. So He's not having a good day. But on top of that, the message it sends to Republican voters around the country that are facing higher gas prices, that are seeing oil going up per barrel, that's dealing with groceries.

6:34They're saying that people are leaving the party or at least not going to the party. I'm suffering. We're in a war that no one knows what's going to happen. and we're fighting with Canada, either I can't vote with this anymore or maybe I just won't vote at all. Either way, the Democrats benefit from it. Yeah. I mean, look, you showed a video of Karl Rove before this. I mean, Karl Rove worked for George W. Bush, right? And Bush, even Bush said, Bush, Clinton, Biden, all said, if you need to distance yourself in the midterm to protect your job, to protect your incumbency, go for it. Donald Trump, you're getting the absolute opposite message, right?

7:15He's yoking these candidates to him. And that means that these candidates are being attached to the most unpopular, historically unpopular president. And when affordability is the issue and you look at him escalating a trade war with Canada this week, I mean, you can't see this as anything other than someone who is laser focused not on affordability. Yeah. And Rev, if you look, I mentioned this. Here's a headline. The Trump midterm convention is about himself. Democrats delighted. He wants to air more ads about himself, a million dollars on commercials that show his face and his voice. He's told his supporters to vote as though he were on the ballot.

7:56Well, I think the fact that he's saying vote as if he was on the ballot has already shown that's not going to help a lot of these candidates. When you look in North Carolina, when you look at Texas, you're looking at states that were never at play for decades that are now at play. And for him to not come with a reality check that I'm dragging down the party, we definitely probably seem to be losing the House, may lose the Senate, largely because of me. Let me step back and secure my legacy. His legacy is going to be that he ruined the party and he's put a face on it. He wants to build an ark for himself.

8:40Everything is named after him. Well, this impending Republican disaster, the face of it will be Donald Trump. Who has a two-day convention and there to speak are both knights. I know revival preachers in the Pentecostal church that I grew up in that didn't say that. I mean, he's going to speak both nights. So not only is it unprecedented for you to have a midterm convention, it's unprecedented in any convention for the president to speak both nights. It's a great point. You say a revival convention. And I remember, and this might call my musical taste into question. But years ago, I went to one of these outdoor festivals in Washington State, Meltdown.

9:23Right. And they say they're going to have all these acts. And you look at the poster. You know this from Working With James Brown. You see like eight acts. And then they say more to be announced. And it was a little light on the headliner, but it was two nights. And we said, we'll give it a go. It's been fun. First night we go, a band that I don't love, no disrespect, String Cheese Incident, a jam band was headlining. And we said, OK. And then you camp out, you know, it's fun. And then the next night, Rev, you see where the story's going. The second night headliner of the two day music festival was String Cheese Incident again.

9:53We were not Molly. We were not happy fans. We felt like I don't care how much you love this jam band. They can't do a double header of a festival, maybe if it was just for their hardcore fans. And so I take Rev's point, whether it's preaching or political conventions or music, you can't really just keep going back to back unless the people are selling out the crowd. And Trump wouldn't be selling out the garden tonight. And I would like to add that Donald Trump 2016 is not Donald Trump 2026. He is not the speaker he once was. He is string cheese incident times 10. Right. He's not he just is not as he's not as able to read the crowd as he was 10 years ago.

10:35And that's why you have him saying things like affordability is a hoax, where you have him sort of going off the prompter into weird things about his ballroom or his reflecting pool. And when people are so angry about inflation and you promise them a bunch of things like you're going to lower prices and you're going to end foreign wars and then you've delivered them the opposite, you have a real problem. Yeah. And, Rev, I mean, again, we don't torture metaphors and stories around here. That's not what we do. But String Cheese Incident never struck me as a great band name. And you got to wonder whether affordability is a hoax is kind of the String Cheese Incident of midterm messaging.

11:15You sort of say, and he said recently, hey, deal with it. It's worth paying higher gas prices for this war. And the problem with that is while some presidents have summoned a sense of sacrifice for the right causes, the polling shows 70 percent of the public, including Republicans, don't think this war is the right cause. And they're paying for it. The public does not know what the cause is, first of all. Right. Why are we there? Right or the wrong cause. Respect. What is the cause? What's the cause? Why are we there? And he did not prepare. You've had presidents, as you said, that have said we've got to make sacrifices and prepare the nation for it.

11:54And the ends justify the means. We must do this. He didn't prepare. So he said he'd be in there a week or 10 days. He promised that we weren't going in a war at all. So we're in a war. He said he'd never do. Then he said we'd be out in 10 days. We're now there how many months? And we still don't know why we're there. And we're paying the cost. And I'll tell you what I'll do to make you feel better. I'll pick a fight with Canada. Exactly. Well, our star panel stays. I mentioned we've got great reporters there, including our friend and colleague MSNOW's Chris Janssen. Live at the convention in Dallas, Chris, of course, has covered so many political activities for us over the years.

12:32And this is a bit different. So let's start with what are you seeing at the kind of unusual midterm convention? Well, it's not a convention. OK, the production values kind of like a convention. But when I look out over those flags of states, no one is actually a delegate because it's not a convention. And actually, I was at the Donald Trump big rally before the 2024 election at Madison Square Garden. Can you hear the polite applause? This is a very different vibe. Now, there are ways in which it seems like a convention. We've seen some familiar faces. Newt Gingrich is here. Mike Waller is here.

13:12Right beneath me, we saw the former Superman, Dean Cain, getting pictures taken, getting some selfies done. He did not charge$88 ,000, I might point out. But look, I think it's the reaction of the crowd that mimics what I'm used to in actual conventions. For example, when they bring up the name Abdul El-Sayed, people boo. And then there was a whole long video of anti-trans rights. And that's important here in Texas because it's a place where there have been 200, I think the legislature has proposed 200 pieces of anti-trans legislation. It is where Ken Paxton is very, very different from James Tallarico, who has defended trans rights.

13:59And I think there's one more point that he would want to make. And I talked to him earlier today, and that is they're missing the point with going after the culture wars. This election is going to be about the economy. Let me play for you a little bit of my conversation just a few hours ago with James Tallarico, who, of course, is running for Senate. Donald Trump is speaking tonight. Will you watch him? And tonight and tomorrow, being here in Texas, can it rev up his base? Well, we're going to be doing what we've done for the past year. That is meeting with Texans, listening to their needs. This is not about Donald Trump.

14:36This is about the people of Texas and how we can take back power for them, how we can structure this economy so that it rewards work instead of wealth, so that a family that's working two jobs can get ahead. Right now, that's not possible. People are drowning in this economy. And so I'm going to keep focused on that. I'm not going to get distracted by the circus across the street. I'm going to focus on the needs of Texans and proposing ideas to make their lives easier and better and less stressful. Well, I'm not sure you can see what's in the background. Those are piles of food that are collected by volunteers all across the state.

15:1620 ,000 pounds of food in a state where, like many places across America, people are not able to keep up with just putting food on the table and food banks are overwhelmed. So for him, this is a study in contrast. While folks are here paying 20,$25 ,000 to be here, he was there with the folks who volunteered and helped collect 20 ,000 pounds of food. Now, tonight, in addition to Donald Trump, his opponent, Ken Paxton, is going to take this stage within the next hour. So absolutely not prime time. He is sandwiched, I should tell you, Ari, in between the president of a Border Patrol organization and what they are calling a musical interlude.

16:01Having said that, Donald Trump did give$10 million to his campaign. But can we just stop for a minute and I'll wrap with this? Ten million dollars in the closing of a campaign for Senate for the Republican in Texas. That's why James Tallarico is feeling good about his chances here. Yeah, it's a great point because you're talking about what we can measure, what they're feeling and where they're spending. And Chris, appreciate your reporting there. We'll be checking back with you tonight across MSNOW tomorrow. Thanks again. Thanks. Appreciate it. we're going to fit in our 90 second break. And then I have more, a reaction to what we just heard from Alan Molling.

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18:15Or someone who held the position, what do you make of that? It's unprecedented and it's disgraceful. Attorneys generally don't talk about political things. You shouldn't be there. former attorney general eric holder there someone you know well i've interviewed uh rev uh also blasting the current attorney general going to the midterm convention chris jansing we saw reporting from there she talked a little bit about how it's it's mimicking something that it's not and that's not unique to the gop we've seen that at other conventions because the delegates themselves are not choosing the nominee anymore in a presidential year but she sort of gave us that how it felt uh on the ground there what were your observations when you look at the fact that you are dealing with the attorney general of the United States that deals with justice and deals with investigations and prosecutions and so forth.

19:04And he's at a political convention, not in Washington, taking care of the duties of justice and openly being partisan. It feeds right into the charge that many people have said that they politicize the Justice Department. And it's almost like, oh, you think we have? Well, let me show you. I'm going to the political convention. And for, I mean, to think, to realize how outrageous this is, imagine if Barack Obama was supporting someone like Paxton and had his attorney general at the convention when you have a man with Paxton's legal baggage that is being shared tonight. Right. What is Attorney General Blanche going to do when Paxton gets up there that has any number of documented bangs against him and charges against him from law enforcement under Republicans?

20:05You had to remember a lot that was done to Paxton was done by Republicans in the state of Texas. How's the Attorney General clap for that? Yeah. And and Todd Blanche, I think, said it best during those hearings when he said and he slipped up, but he said, I'm the president's personal lawyer. And that was what he was brought in for. And that is what he is serving as. And it's ironic because the his job is supposed to be the people's lawyer. And it's but I would say the other thing that I got from what Chris was saying was she talked about the sort of tepid applause. And if you think about this moment, like we don't see the kind of MAGA signage we saw just a couple of years ago.

20:46Like, it's just not there's not the same enthusiasm for him. Now, it can be any number of reasons. The polls could be wrong. But signs tend to really, really tell a story. Right. And you're seeing that in how many problems there are in the Republicans running away. And then the general feeling out there, which is even though some folks in a presidential year might not become hard left and they might complain about what they see as problems in the Democratic Party field, there's no enthusiasm to say more Trump. And they might like him. I mean, this is why we see sometimes in polling people want divided government.

21:16They might like him slowed down the Congress if it's going to be ICE murdering people and more tariffs. So, again, I want to thank our leadoff guests, Reverend Sharpton and Molly Jong-Fast. And tell folks what's coming up. We are going to look at a story that could also matter a lot in the midterms. The Clash and MAGA Civil War between Fox News and the White House, next.

21:47Turning to a development splitting, Fox News and this Trump White House, famously GOP-friendly network, is in a dramatic spat that has just spilled into public view, reportedly leading to the ousting of longtime host and MAGA voice Maria Bartiromo. She's out after 12 years. She defended Trump on election lies and some extreme claims where he lost other Republicans, even some other Fox anchors, using her show to not only report on, but often promote false election claims. And that put her, among others, at the center of Fox's costly defamation case. It also revealed her contact with some Trump aides and lawyers that read like she was at Times on their team, secretly telling Rudy Giuliani, I want you to overturn this.

22:34As Trump's loss first resonated in that November 2020 race, pleading with another Trump lawyer, the later convicted Sidney Powell, please, please overturn this. And onward. That kind of evidence ultimately helped lead Fox to settle for$787 million, rocking the network's bottom line. Soon, Tucker Carlson was out, Lou Dobbs out, voices who were tied to some of that coverage. Now, Bartiromo's sudden exit is news. Fox did not offer public reasons. Others are talking, though. A Trump aide saying that she shared private editorial guidance from her Fox bosses instructing anchors to stay away from covering some of Trump's election claims, including in that recent address he gave, internal guidance that she then shared with Trump White House aide Peter Navarro.

23:26He reacted by recounting some of those dealings with her. And this is more than a media story. It's about democracy and the line for guarding elections and potential defamation in service of overthrowing elections or even that 2021 now convicted sedition. That capital crime spree came after some claims that were so indefensible Fox settled rather than try to continue to defend them in court. They tried to cheat in the 2020 election behind the guise of COVID. The irregularities in this year's election are not just fraud, electoral or voter. They are another attempt to overthrow the president of the United States.

24:11The 2020 presidential election was not fair. No honest person would claim that it was fair. On many levels, the system was rigged against one candidate and in favor of another. President Trump pardoning a list of high-profile officials who were part of the efforts to challenge the 2020 election. We don't know if they were wrong, by the way, with all those mail-in ballots. The 2020 results, including the mail-in ballots, were right and valid. The Supreme Court, which had a majority of Republican appointees, rejected Trump's several efforts to challenge those results, including on the mail ballot and other claims.

24:48Now, as for her part, I should report Bartiromo's lawyer states that she was not fired and is technically a Fox employee right now. President Trump attacking Fox for ousting her. A decision that came, as mentioned after Trump aide Peter Navarro says that he shared her seemingly private leak about that internal guidance from Fox executives, and he's circulated it within the White House. That led to a big call and a clash with Fox leadership. Navarro now going public with some attacks on Fox for what he says is a plot to muzzle her. And also, he says, to censor Trump and allies who speak on his behalf.

25:31MAGA is next. Now, this is a high-stakes clash between Trump and the conservative network that has been so critical to both what Republicans think and sometimes turning out their vote. And it's not over some side issue. It is over the core issue of election integrity right now heading into these midterms, raising big questions like, why is the White House escalating this fight? Will Fox face the hardball tactics that the Trump administration's used on other critics, including in the press? And what is White House advisor Peter Navarro trying to achieve? he's clearly at the center of this. Nobody disputes that.

26:11It would be interesting to ask him. And he's agreed to join me tonight on this newsworthy topic. White House advisor Peter Navarro on the beat next.

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