Trump Approval Crashes Amid Mistakes

0:00I'm Lindsay, and even before my diagnosis, my hands were full as a mom and an investigator. After treating my HR-positive, HER2-negative early breast cancer, I wanted to do everything I could to try to keep it from coming back. So I talked to my doctor about a treatment plan that included Cascali. Cascali Ribocyclibs 200-mg tablets with an aromatase inhibitor is for adults with HR-positive, HER2-negative, stage 2 or 3 early breast cancer with a high risk of coming back. Cascali may cause serious skin reactions, liver problems, and low white blood cell counts that may result in serious infections.

0:32Life-threatening lung problems and abnormal heartbeats can occur. Your doctor should test your heart and blood before and during treatment. Tell your doctor if you have new or worsening cough, chest pain, or dizziness. Before taking Cascali, tell your doctor all your medical conditions, medicines you take, and if you're breastfeeding, pregnant, or planning to be, as it can harm an unborn baby. Common side effects include nausea, headache, and tiredness. Lindsay is a real patient compensated for her time. Learn more at Cascali.com. Yo, it's Jay Uso from WWE. And I'm Jimmy Uso. Chumba Casino and WWE are hyped for the biggest event of the summer, SummerSlam.

1:07I know, I can't wait. There's nothing better to do while we're waiting than playing Chumba Casino. Sign up today and you can win a VIP experience. With Chumba Casino and with WWE for SummerSlam. So what are you waiting for? Play Chumbo Casino and enter for your chance to win. Let's Chumbo. Only available in permitted states. No purchase necessary. See terms and conditions for details. BGW Group. Void or prohibited by law. 21 plus. Sponsored by Chumbo Casino. Welcome to The Beat. I'm Ari Melber. And we are tracking a lot. We have Marty Baron, the Washington Post executive editor with so much experience discussing these failed attempts to put reporters in the grand jury by the Trump DOJ.

1:43It's an important story. We're staying on these type of stories. We have that coming up. And by the end of the hour, the funniest man in Hollywood, comedic actor Danny McBride makes his beat debut. I am so psyched to welcome him. So as we try to do around here when we can, we will get you up to speed on culture soon enough. But we begin, you hear the music with another primary election night in America. And this has got some big ones. You got New York, of course, with some really big races, including in the House, South Carolina, Maryland, Utah. We are getting more and more data points tonight about what Republicans see as a problem.

2:20So great, they have some top longtime Republicans jumping ship before the midterms. I'll tell you about that tonight. Trump still facing the blowback from Epstein to the war to the rising prices late this afternoon. We can report something that you might not have heard about yet because this is really a late developing story. The Senate rejecting Trump's war powers. I repeat, the United States Senate doing that, which it had not done in several prior votes. And this is an effort to tell Donald Trump, you need to get your act together. You're failing in Iran and you need to either get congressional approval or get out of there for good.

2:54For Republicans joining Democrats, it is a striking break, as The Time puts it, for the GOP-led Congress. Remember, this is basically something that can't happen without Republicans rejecting Trump. The resolution technically is non-binding, but it is building support to basically corner the president as he already retreats on what has been by many accounts a failed war policy. New signs also show that voters are excited for the Democratic Party. In the 2026 primaries, turnout is way up, and that includes in Republican districts, which is exactly the kind of blinking red light that has Republicans and their allies nervous.

3:28Washington Post crunched those numbers. Democrats have cast 12.6 million ballots in all the primaries so far. And to be clear, we're talking about everything up until today, not including the numbers we'll get later tonight. As you can see, it's not even close where Republicans are lagging at 8.6 million. And then there are the defections. Whatever you think of Tucker Carlson, do you find him consistent? Do you find him honest? Do you find him ethical with the way that he has been attacking black and brown people and Jewish Americans repeatedly and quite directly? You might find him to be, for all those reasons, not someone you look to as a North Star on ethics.

4:06He certainly has been quite the bigot online. Having said all that, he is a very prominent Republican Trump supporter. Until recently, he broke with Trump, citing a range of issues. Well, tonight, we have more news. This man who makes his living nowadays not on Fox News or selling books, but primarily online talking to people that he thinks are right-leaning, has decided those right-leaning people don't want to hear any advertisements for the Republican Party. And going into a midterms where some people think the Republicans are going to lose, Tucker, who is selling content to these people online, has decided now is the time to tell them he's not backing Republicans in the midterms anymore.

4:48I would not support the Republican Party. There's no chance I would support the Republican Party. I've been a consistent defender for 35 years of the Republican Party. I mean, very consistent defender. But there's no defending this because it's immoral. So, no, I'm out. And if I'm out, then I think a lot of other people are out. you could hear the beginning of a tell at the end of that little clip because he says he's out, but then a lot of other people are out, which he must know because maybe he thinks his audience is out. He is spinning this like he did the Trump defection as about his morals, whatever they may be.

5:21I'm going to ask my panelists tonight, including Reverend Sharpton and Molly Jong Fast, about whether there's more to this, whether he's just kind of his own kind of polymarket poll for the Republicans declining favor, which you can see in the polling as Trump crashes to a new low of 30%. Meanwhile, Trump is showing what his priorities are. The vanity projects that have stumbled and drawn all kinds of ridicule continue to have problems. And then he has the losses in court. Donald Trump was powerless to keep his name up on the Kennedy Center, which on the one hand is a smaller issue compared to everything we're dealing with.

5:56But on the other, he has gone to great lengths to deny the public a chance to see what you have here, a photo obtained by the Post that shows that the administration did what you have to do, which is follow judicial orders. In this case, removing a kind of petty, hackish effort to put his name on the affirmation Kennedy Center. The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool continues to be a kind of green algae mess. The blue lining floating in chunks,$14 million spent, or depending on who you ask, wasted on that little project. Trump has floated all kinds of conspiracy theories for why this happened. he also boasted at one point that the lining couldn't be cut anyway.

6:39This will last for at least 50 years and you'll never have a leak. It's very strong. You couldn't, if you had a knife, I don't want to give anybody ideas. If you had a knife, you can't even cut it. So strong. Do we have a, I think, 290, 300 foot slit right through it? Probably a box cutter or a knife of some kind.

7:01As the saying goes, what are we doing here? Late night, having fun with it. Some people like to spend the summer hanging out at the pool. Some prefer relaxing in the lush green countryside. While President Trump was like, why not both? Did they replace the water with Mountain Dew? What is... Too bad he didn't hire the Blue Man Group. Then he would have... Shout out to an old Blue Man Group, reverence. If you are a New York Hollywood fan, you might get that one. New York Broadway fan, I should say. Reverend Al Sharpton, as promised, is here the host of Politics Nation on MSNOW, President of the National Action Network.

7:38He's been busy today as well, keeping his eye on these New York primaries. Molly Jong-Fast, New York Times contributing writer, political analyst for us. Welcome to both of you. We'll get to the primaries, but, Rev, I'm curious what you think of Tucker Carlson after all this time now saying he's done with Republicans. I really, as I took note, Tucker Carlson's very influential in far right circles. There are even those that have suggested that he may be thinking of running for president himself. And if he does, that would, in my opinion, be very beneficial to the Democrat, whoever that may be, to have a Republican nominee.

8:19And Tucker, who you could not underestimate, would get a lot of the far right guys and ladies that agree with that. You know, I know Tucker. He's a very strange guy. 20 years ago, I went and had a delegation in Africa, and he covered it for Esquire. So I spent some time with him and time after. And he really believes a lot of what he's saying. I think a lot of what he's saying is bizarre, but I do not think he's a hypocrite or a liar. He believes that stuff, which means he can sell it. But do you think he'd be saying this if he thought the Republicans were going to remain popular? No, I do not think he would say it if he felt they would remain popular.

8:59If he felt that they were in a position to do some of the things he believed, he wouldn't be saying it. Or if he had faith that this president and his successor was going to do things and win, I think he would save his bet. I think that he sees them going over the cliff and he's not going over with them. That's what I was observing. And Molly, I'm curious. We've all heard of Polly Market. They run the future bets. This looks to me like Tucker Market. We didn't hear about this, you know, his crisis of conscience about any particular issue or even the Iran war as a reason. And now, as we get really close to midterms, Tucker suddenly says, hey, I'm not with those guys.

9:37Well, I think Tucker has he's watching Ben Shapiro and Ben Shapiro's numbers have been cratering as he's gone further and further pro war. So I do think he sees that this war really did split MAGA. And remember, he's saying similar stuff that Marjorie Taylor Greene is saying, that Megyn Kelly is saying. You know, these people are as much thought leaders as their thought followers. So they are hearing from their people. They're seeing the posts on social media. They're getting the vibes. And so you can see that he is reflecting this poor polling. Thought follower, yeah. I think that he is absolutely reflecting it.

10:16And I think that the other advantage he has is the White House has had their head in the sand ignoring it because rather than regroup and try to retool their message, they're going ahead. I mean, Kennedy Center one day, reflective pool another. I mean, they just keep going, going, going while Iran is blowing up in their face. and for Tucker and anyone that deals with optics for a living, they're saying this is not going to get better. Yeah. Molly, I'm curious about the wider Trump crash. You know, they have the old cliche, oh, you're fighting the last battle. And so many people seemed affected, even politically traumatized by Trump's comeback that they don't seem to realize we're not in a 50-50 nation.

11:04We're in a 60-30 nation when it comes to Trump. Doesn't mean people love Democrats or they automatically get a win. But on the question of this Trump's second term, it is a very clear verdict. We have another indicator, and it's a cuter one. Why can't we talk about cute things? What's the cutest thing in the world, Molly? I know that's an unfair question. My new rescue dog. My little puppy. Cuter. Inky. Think about a little animal, but a little human animal. Babies. Babies. Yeah, babies. It wasn't supposed to be a hard one. Babies are cute. And people look at their babies and they don't name them Donald anymore.

11:42Okay? Naming your kid Donald has never been as unpopular as it is now. The lowest point in history, according to Social Security data. On the one hand, Molly, what are we talking about? Rev says that sometimes when things go off. Right? Is that fair? Absolutely. Yeah. And I must mention our dog Milo. Otherwise, I won't be able to get in there. So sometimes Rev says, what are we talking about? But what we're talking about is a different type of indicator, not for the political junkies and the news junkies, but just regular people, which includes conservatives and Republicans who are part of the data set to go.

12:16That cute little baby, don't name it Donald. Right. It's vibes based, but it's still relevant. And remember, this is a point where sometimes the polls are inaccurate. Trump was able to get these ones and twos, these low frequency voters out to vote for him. And he did it by getting into the culture. So this stuff is actually really relevant in a weird way. And I do think it is an indicator. I think that is absolutely right. And you have to couple that on top of the fact. You have all the optics of their failing with their negotiations in Iran. And at the same time, President Obama opens this center.

12:53Republicans and Democrats, they're Bush, Clinton, and Biden. So when you have the contrast of what we had in the White House for presidents and him, It doesn't help them with messaging at all. And the, you know, the Obama gathering was also one of these times where you see how norms have shifted. You know, in first term year one, people said, well, it's the president. You know, we have to include the president in this or that. The tradition has been to include the president. The Obamas did not invite him because they made a judgment that he's not up to behaving like a respectful fellow president in that scenario, that he would either make it about himself or he would sabotage it or he might be late night tweeting.

13:34And I wonder what you think about that, Rev, that we've sort of seen a shift even among the traditional elites. You know, same with attending the thing. I mean, Obama did make a point and Bush, they attended President Trump's inaugural. But there is a kind of a growing awareness that you can't pretend these things are normal if they're not. Now, that, I think, is the key point to not normalize this. You know, I was there. I was seated up front so I could watch everybody. And you must have the clear sight on this. George Bush and the rest decided to come despite the fact they knew Trump was not being invited.

14:12So it wasn't even like if we don't invite Trump, do we offend other presidents? Do we put them in an awkward position? They all came but him, which makes him even more abnormal. I heard you had better seats than Molly. I had no seats. You know, Rev is powerful. You know that. He's not going to say it. He gets very good seats at these things. No, he does. And honestly, he deserves that. And you know what? You deserve good seats, too. I don't want people to mishear me. No. We all love each other here. But I think the important part is that the Iranians actually made one of these propaganda videos laughing at Trump.

14:46And the idea, again, is this idea that the world is laughing at him. And we see this. I mean, we even saw the negotiation stuff with J.D. Vance overseas where he wasn't being taken seriously. The optics were bad. I mean, this is not a great moment for. I think you both make the point. Well, that's the paradox. It's really about our system of government. Right. England is ousting their current leader because they have a system that can do that. Right. Because if somebody is failing enough, they don't use a system that says, well, you've got to finish all four years in this case, eight across with a break.

15:18But this is our system. It's very clear if there were a parliamentary system with a no confidence vote, 60 percent Trump wouldn't have it. But here we are with over two years left on that clock. I wanted to, as promised, get into the midterms. You were out there today. Rev and Molly are back with us in just 90 seconds. I'm Lindsay. And even before my diagnosis, my hands were full as a mom and an investigator. After treating my HR-positive, HER2-negative early breast cancer, I wanted to do everything I could to try to keep it from coming back. So I talked to my doctor about a treatment plan that included Cascali.

15:55Cascali Ribocyclibs 200-milligram tablets with an aromatase inhibitor is for adults with HR-positive, HER2-negative, stage 2 or 3 early breast cancer with a high risk of coming back. Cascali may cause serious skin reactions, liver problems, and low white blood cell counts that may result in serious infections. life-threatening lung problems, and abnormal heartbeats can occur. Your doctor should test your heart and blood before and during treatment. Tell your doctor if you have new or worsening cough, chest pain, or dizziness. Before taking Cascali, tell your doctor all your medical conditions, medicines you take, and if you're breastfeeding, pregnant, or planning to be, as it can harm an unborn baby.

16:28Common side effects include nausea, headache, and tiredness. Lindsay is a real patient, compensated for her time. Learn more at Cascali.com. Tyler Reddick and Chumba Casino a winning combination another checkered flag for Tyler Reddick in 2311 Racing this time at Coda in the Chumba Casino Toyota Camry that's three wins this season talk about a lucky streak Chumba Casino, proud partner of Tyler Reddick and 2311 Racing play for free at ChumbaCasino.com let's Chumba no purchase necessary VGW Group Voidware prohibited by law CT &C's 21 Plus sponsored by Chumba Casino a BetterHelp ad summer can feel like a sprint kids home, trips to plan, routines flipped upside down it's easy to slip into survival mode just trying to get through it then suddenly it's over and you're wishing you enjoyed the days just a little bit more therapy can help you slow down and actually be present for the moments that matter with BetterHelp you can connect with a licensed therapist from anywhere on your schedule don't just survive this summer, thrive visit BetterHelp.com We're back with Reverend Al Mollijong Fast.

17:40The primaries today include New York, where you have been very active. You've met with, of course, many of the candidates. Tell us what you're seeing tonight. Well, New York so far has been a lower turnout than the last year's primary, which means that probably the incumbents running in at least three of the congressional races is to their advantage. Unless there's a surge tonight, polls don't close until nine. uh, Maryland, uh, and, uh, uh, the, uh, South Carolina, I think, uh, and it is, uh, I'm getting reports that theirs is pretty even. So I think that it's going to be not a night that we're going to get a lot of shockers.

18:20Yeah. I mean, I think New York will tell us a lot of stuff, right? It will tell us the power of incumbency. It will tell us, uh, what the DSA, you know, there are a couple races where, I mean, there's. OK, so there's a there are there's new there's a race that isn't that is sort of the lower part of Manhattan where the incumbent Dan Goldman is probably going to lose his seat and spills over to Brooklyn. Right. And so that will show I mean, that's a very interesting race. I think I think the district is more liberal than the than the congressman who represents it at this moment. And so that will be meaningful.

18:57And this goes to Democrats' intramural primary issues, which include Israel and Mideast policy. Yes. And then there's this very expensive New York 12 district, which is a sort of four-way, five-way race. And really, it's going to, I think, ultimately come down to this guy called Michael Lasher, who is this sort of heir apparent of Jerry Nadler. Yeah. Matt Lashley has everybody supporting him. He's the quote establishment candidate. But I think that in the Brooklyn Queens race. Right. Let's not forget, not only is Brad Lander more to the left. Yeah. He was the city controller. So the voters are used to his name.

19:40It's not like he's a guy out of nowhere taking on an incumbent. And he also did partner with the mayor. He did. And he sort of endorsed him as. Before it was cool. Right. He was an early, early moral endorser. He was. And I think that what we will see, though, is that if it lands this way, all of the energy now is going to be toward November nationwide for the Democrats to take the House. And a lot of what people are going to decide on is how they take the House and how Hakeem Jeffries can balance his party and become the speaker. And whether he has the unity that the Republicans have struggled with, because when especially if it's tight in this era, we've seen how much that matters across two blocks.

20:24Reverend Charpton, Molly Jong Fast, babies are cute. They're not named Donald. And we'll be watching the primaries tonight. Good to have you both. Thank you. By the end of the hour, Danny McBride, the very funny comedic actor, is here with his new book and lessons on masculinity. First, the Trump DOJ trying to harass reporters with some serious pushback from outlets that's working. I have that story. It involves The Washington Post's current reporters and the longtime Washington Post executive editor, Marty Barron. One of the champions of the First Amendment is our special guest on this newsworthy topic next.

21:02The Trump administration is testing all sorts of ways to use or abuse government power for censorship and harassment. That brings us to a concerning story where Trump's DOJ took the very rare step of issuing subpoenas to four different journalists from The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, which is a generally more conservative market paper that has been in lawsuits with Trump, and trying to force them to give basically secret testimony before a grand jury. Now, that is something that is generally hard to do unless there were really good reasons to simplify. And the DOJ apparently didn't have them because it retreated, withdrawing the subpoenas because both outlets fought.

21:43Post reporting on this, this kind of rare subpoena could be used to try to get a reporter to reveal sources or, and this is not out of bounds to question, could be a kind of harassment tactic because the administration has already indicted a reporter and Don Lemon and tried to sort of issue these threats and warnings and just make it harder for people to do their reporting jobs. Now, when this has happened, it's rare. Over 20 years ago, the Post reported there was an instance of this. Journalists and lawyers often talk about the so-called chilling effect here, where if you can get away with this up to a point, other people and reporters, including at outlets that might not have the lawyers and backing of the two that I mentioned, will kind of pull back a little bit.

22:27Over the past half year, the administration has also, we should note, searched one reporter's home, threatened news broadcasters over their war coverage, barred reporters from the Pentagon press office, and more widely, threatened comedians and other artists and dissidents simply for expressing their views. And that's not all. Although Trump says many things that he doesn't always do, we should note that ABC, which has already settled a prior Trump lawsuit for millions of dollars, is now facing more threats from Trump to sue them because caving rarely works with this kind of thing. Trump says he is concerned about their coverage of the reflecting pool, as if that is a matter worth making a federal case.

23:10And then, in a very kind of Trumpian troll. He says, I like their money, a reference to the fact that he knows they were quick to cave last time. Organizations that have also been targeted by Trump's FCC include basically going after, as mentioned, not only Jimmy Kimmel, but The View. They ordered a review of ABC's local stations using a pretext to basically try to punish them or censor them for what everyone knows are First Amendment protected programs that may criticize or make fun of Donald Trump. Now, there's a twist tonight. ABC, having settled in the past, says they're fighting back, even tapping their big audience.

23:51They have a campaign that encourages viewers to weigh in, running this public service announcement on the Trump-targeted show, The View. I had this idea for a show. Different women, different points of view. The View has welcomed your favorite guests and covered the issues you care about for nearly 30 years. Now, the FCC wants to control who is allowed to appear on the show. Viewers, use your voice. Scan this QR code you have until July 6th. What you are hearing is the sound of some corporate executives waking up from their political slumber or their very sad fetal positions of the many, many years we've been living through this.

24:39And if you as a citizen or a viewer are watching going, wait, now they figured out they could tap their millions and millions of viewers to actually show in a democracy that they have support. Well, yes, you might have figured it out before then. But the president, who did not take their settlement as a chance to enjoy a compromise or regroup, but took it as bullies take these type of things, as weakness that he would exploit again, while that president is now finding that even ABC, apparently, no shade, has found its breaking point. With that and the Washington Post issues on the front burner right now, we have a perfect guest to get into this with.

25:18The executive editor of the Washington Post, Marty Barron, joins me next.