As we just heard in Laura's report, President Biden is calling Maga
Republicans a direct threat to democracy. Court filings reveal more
details about the Justice Department's investigation into former
President Trump's handling of top secret documents and an upset in
Alaska shakes up midterm forecast. It is all fodder for the analysis
of Brooks and K part
That's New York Times columnist David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart,
associate editor for The Washington Post. It's good to have you both
back together again in person in the studio. Welcome back together
back together. Welcome to both of you. Let's just pick up Jonathan,
where we left off with Laura's report the president's speech last
night. He says, This is an inflection point. He went hard after the
what he calls Maga Republicans. What did you make of it? Yes, this
is an inflection point. I do agree with your
Characterization that he did go hard at the Republicans.
But but the theme of his speech and what he was saying. It's something
he's been saying since he launched his campaign for president in
2019, that campaign video, where he spoke to the nation about Charlottesville
and then President Trump's reaction to Charlottesville and how the
soul of the nation was at stake. And that's why he was running for
president. He came back to those themes again on January 6th of this
year.
When on to mark the one year anniversary of the excuse me of the
of the insurrection. We've seen it in other speeches here and there,
for instance, in Atlanta when he gave that voting rights speech,
talking about the fundamental need to protect the right to vote.
What made yes, Last night's speech different was the toughness and
the directness in of his language, making, drawing a clear contrast
between
What he's doing as president and and the mega wing of the Republican
Party. And the last point I'll make is Joe Biden is never more animated,
clear, focused and determined. Then when he's talking about the fight
for the soul of the nation, What did you make of it? There's a lot.
There's a lot of criticism as we heard from have a little of actually,
you know, I think he's right that this is a special time in American
history. This is not normal.
The threat to democracy is real, and the president Michael Beschloss
said, should be speaking about the real threats to the country, so
I have no problem with him giving this speech.
I went. I read the text. I was a little disappointed one. He should
have mentioned his own party to spend $44 million supporting the
Maga wing in the Republican Party in Republican primaries and used
to call that his own party for doing that. If it's such a threat
to 30% of Trump voters in 2020 have shown some openness to not voting
for Donald Trump again.
Those are the key people in this country. They need to peel away
and I thought it was a little too much of a Democrat Republican speech
and would have the effect of putting those 30% back in the trump
camp, which I think is dangerous. And then finally, when he talked
about the solar country in 2020, I thought it was a beautiful phrase
because it captured not just what's happening there. In politics.
It captured Charlottesville captured the record hate crimes captured
the deaths of despair.
The declining life expectancy in this country. It captured the social
relational and I would say spiritual crisis, which is at the heart
of a lot of our problems, and Maga is an epic phenomenon of that
comes out of that crisis, and so to reduce it only the politics.
I think Rob's that phrase the soul of America of its key power.
Which is to capture the depth of the problem we face which is not
just politics, but deep down in our relationships and the social
fabric of the country. What about David's point? I take your points.
Um, I do think the president should have when he was talking about
the accomplishments and the things that he's doing to push the nation
forward, but also to bring the nation together.
He should have talked about how a lot of the legislation that was
passed was passed with Republicans. He was some of them were bipartisan
bipartisan deals. Um, but that being said, we are at a point in this
country and the president talked about this, and this might be viewed
as partisan. We're talking about a woman's right to choose or being
able to marry, Marry. Who, you love. For some people, you can have
disagreements on that.
But those rights are being are have either been taken away or are
under threat. And there are people who are Republicans who are you
know, either. L g b T Q. Or, um, you know, are women who want to
seek might have to seek reproductive health care and can't because
they live in states where it is now outlawed. So I do think.
I just quibble with you a little bit, David, that I do think he didn't
say it in the way that you wanted him to say it, But I do think he
touched on he touched on some of those issues. And
I don't I don't fault him for having a Democratic campaign rally
if you want to go and have a Democratic campaign rally and defend
abortion rights and all the other stuff.
God bless you. But this, I think was an occasion that prime time
presidential address to not have a campaign rally and to say democracy
is something we all believe in. And it's under extraordinary threat.
But from a small or I don't know how small minority of Americans
and this is something we can all rally around. And so I would have
preferred a tone that was less partisan. Less fed drifted. It started
out
Sort of nonpartisan and drifted into campaign rally. In my view,
that's a little a little harsh, David, but that gives me an opportunity
to talk about a speech that came that happened about 90 minutes before
the president spoke.
House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy gave his own speech in in Pennsylvania,
which I immediately dubbed American Carnage. Two point Oh, it was
dark. It was dystopian. Everything was Biden's fault. Everything
was a Democrat's fault. And if you and if you don't put Republicans
in charge, all hell is going to break loose. It was it was an exercise
in projection. A lot of the things he was saying he was saying in
that speech as a prebuttal to what the president was going to say.
Things that
We've been talking about around this table for four months now. And
so I think we have to. Also when talking about the president's speech.
We have to pay attention to what the Republicans are saying on the
other side, and Kevin McCarthy, House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy
fully expects to be the next speaker of the house. And if you haven't
read the speech or watch the speech do so.
And then get back to me about your concerns about what the president
said. Yeah, it's not a race.
You don't want to talk about that in the same in the same in the
same sense, David. The other thing I do certainly want to raise is
the Justice Department putting out these filings as much as they
can show of what they found when they went tomorrow, Lago and, um,
it was it was clearly there's clearly some classified material looking
at the picture that was released. Um, your
You're looking at documents and then today we learned that there
were
Empty folders labeled Classified. Um, what do you What do you take
away from this object to the carpeting, But, uh, you know, the the
empty folders is is, I think new, I think as each memo or indictment
or whatever comes down, Um, it gets worse and worse for Donald Trump.
And so we learn new things. And so those empty folders did he take
out? Do we really believe he took out empty folders that said, classified
when their documents inside. That seems kind of hard to believe for
me, And so where are those documents
and so and then how much effect has it had on our sources around
the world?
And how much damage has he done? And so there's just an escalating
peril for Donald Trump. The more we learn, and just, you know, taking
classified documents, and apparently, they were mixed in with boxes
of newspaper clippings. Um, it just seems like not only sloppiness,
but sloppiness to a lethal degree is this Is this likely to be? I
mean, how damaging is this for for former president? We've We've
seen a lot, so add this in how damaging is it?
It will. It should be damaging. It should be very damaging. But we're
talking about Donald Trump, who takes every damaging piece of information
and uses it that would that damages him in the court of law and then
takes it to the court of public opinion, where it a nurse to his
benefit, at least in the short term, which
We know when it comes to Donald Trump. He is all about the short
term, not about the long term, but to add on to what David was talking
about, just in terms of how bad this is getting. One of the pieces
of information among many in that filing that left out at me was
the fact that you have federal investigators. FBI investigators,
DOJ investigators who are part of this investigation.
Who had to get additional security clearances in order to look at
the papers some of the papers to review some of the papers they took
from Mar a Lago.
What I mean.
What did he have?
And to David's How damaging is it to not only to the country but
to our national security? He should be in trouble. And, of course,
among his explanations is that he had already personally declassified
some of these. Some of these documents were waiting to see waiting
to see actually a process for that. So David, the other thing is
is the midterm elections. We got a little more interesting data this
week in Alaska.
Of all places a statesman represented by a Republican in Congress
for 50 years, almost elected choosing a Democrat. Now it's a special
election is Mary Pell Tola. She beat out Sarah Palin and another
Republican. This and some other reassessments realignments by the
folks who look really closely at these elections in the Democrats
favor. What do you What do you take Alaska? The That race was conducted
by rank choice voting, which I am a fan of
And the idea behind rank chose avoided voting is that it makes the
parties and the ideological extremes less powerful and gives people
a chance to cross over. And that's exactly what happened. The Republican
who lost under Sarah Palin, this guy Nick Begich, a lot of his voters,
I think like, 30% said, I don't want Palin as my second choice. I
want built solos my second choice, and that's why she won.
And so that's what ranked choice Voting was designed to do, and it
it's done it, So it's to me it's a victory for ranked choice voting.
It gives you a lane for people in the middle. As for the larger,
um, climate, it's been pretty clear for a month or two. Now, you
know that we've had two special elections in New York and here Democrats
have won them both. They're outperforming in this race. Alaska's
like 15 points more Republican than the median American
And she won by three. So that's a she went, plus 18 over where Alaska
should be. And so that's a pretty big sweep. It's not to say it can't
sweep back, but abortion is a real issue.
Democrats are moving moving out. People are happier with Biden and
they were. There's clearly been this summer tied on the Democratic
side. She's stressed in her interview with me yesterday, Jonathan
that the Alaska voters don't like partisanship that they are looking
for politicians who talk about the issues and and clearly that is
the case because she won and I think we're going to find out in November.
Whether that is the case across the country. There are a couple of
hurdles in the way of Democrat of Democrats, sort of repeating nation.
Wide. Um what Miss Pole Tola did in Alaska. I mean, there's
Gerrymandering.
Which is going to make it really super tough. But then there's also
history, and it's going to take a lot for the miracle in Alaska and
the miracle in New York congressional District 19 to make it possible
for Democrats to hold onto the house, But I guarantee you if you
were to talk to a democratic operative today.
They like their prospects much better now than they did say in March
and feeling better about the Senate. Still thinking that the house
is a real reach out of reach, but but the Senate you're hearing more
optimism. Those who know what they're talking about. Charlie Cook
and our friend Amy Walter have moved it from less of a 30 have seat
gain for the Republicans more to like 10, so they would still be
taking back.
But and then in the Senate side for Republicans are having this bitter
feud between Mitch McConnell and Senator Rick Scott over how good
their candidates are. And that you don't want to be that party right
of you know what you're talking about, right? I mean, that's why
we have you here. David Brooks. Jonathan Capehart. Thank you Both.