Lawrence: Not one person who heard Trump's $5,000 election offer believes he means it

0:00Hey everybody, it's Rachel Maddo here. Forgive me popping in deer feed like this, but I want to tell you that more than a dozen of us from MSNOW are gonna be in Texas on Saturday, September 26th. I'm gonna be there. Lauren Soudon will be there. So will Jen Saki and Stephanie Rool and Ali Velshi and Chris Hayes and Jacob Soberoff and Simone Sanders Townsend and and and a whole bunch of us are all gonna be there in Texas. Tickets started just over 30 bucks each. It's in Arlington just outside Dallas. There's a ton to do there. If you come you'll get to meet all of us. You'll also get to meet everybody else there. All these other great people from our great MSNOW community. We'd love to see you. And if you buy a ticket to the Texas event, you will get access to our new MSNOW membership free for a year. We're really excited about it. It launches later this summer. You'll be able to talk with me, talk with some of the other hosts, but tickets for Texas are on sale now. You can learn more at ms.nail slash together. Hope to see you in Texas. The last word with Lawrence O'Donnell starts right now.

1:00Hey Lawrence. Hey Jen, we are going to be joined tonight by the biggest winner in our smallest state last night. Helena folks who in an amazing upset one, the Democratic primary for governor defeating an incumbent governor, something that hasn't happened in 30 years in Rhode Island. And it wasn't a squeaker just 62% of the vote to the challenger. To the challenger. Yeah. That's so, I'm so excited to hear what she has to say, because it wasn't even, it wasn't an ideological battle. It was just people looking for something different. She obviously ran a great campaign. Good on her. And now it's going to be exciting to watch her moving forward. She's going to join us in this hour. Sounds great. Look forward to watching. Thanks, Jen. Thanks, Jen. Stupidity takes teamwork in the Trump White House, very much including the Trump speech writers, the stupidest speech writers in the history of speech writing.

2:03The best political speech writers of our lifetimes wrote for the best political speaker of our lifetimes, President Barack Obama. Those brilliant young Obama speech writers had a wonderful way with words, but they also had the tremendous advantage of handing their work to an even better writer, Barack Obama, who also happens to be the best political speech writer, speech maker, speech deliverer of our lifetimes. You can study the speeches of candidate Barack Obama, of Senator Barack Obama, of President Barack Obama, and not find a single stupid line. You can study the Obama speeches and not find a single insult to the intelligence of American voters. And the modern presidency, it is, in fact, difficult to find a stupid line written for a president to say, until Donald Trump's speech writers went to work for Donald Trump.

3:09It is true that the most ragingly insane things Donald Trump says are not written. The stupidest and craziest things Donald Trump says are spoken by him ex-temperaneously, without any script at all. And so he alone is to blame for the lies and the ranks, stupidity in most of what he says. But the stupidest thing he said last night was written for him by his speech writers and put in his teleprompter. And Donald Trump delivered it in that painful, Trumpian version of straining to read a teleprompter where he dare not move his eyes away from the teleprompter because he clearly has no idea what's coming in that teleprompter. These are not his words in that teleprompter. He usually looks like he's reading those words for the very first time as he did last night. But he is certainly standing by the stupidest thing he said last night and not one Republican

4:11in Washington, not one member of the most cowardly political party in history has said no to what was immediately labeled bribery, including by the conservative national review and the Wall Street Journal. If the Republicans win the House of Representatives and the United States Senate, both of them, because of our economic, tremendous economic success like in history we've never had anything like what's happening. But because of our tremendous strength and success economically, I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000. The conservative national reviews headline said, quote, Trump breaks glass joins socialists and braces bribery.

5:12The Wall Street Journal editorial board said, quote, Mr. Trump's cynical genius is that his political bribery is running naked in the street. Elect my party get a check. It was written. It was in his teleprompter. A team of people knew that he was going to say that. The most incompetent White House chief of staff in history knew that that insanity was in Donald Trump's teleprompter and he was going to say it. They knew that Donald Trump was going to insult his voters once again with a lie that even they cannot believe at this point. After all the times Donald Trump has promised to hand them money and actually given them nothing. Donald Trump has taken things away from them. He has taken their health insurance away in many cases. But he has not given them the $2500 rebate that he personally promised them for his tariffs because the price increases that they have faced

6:13because of Donald Trump's illegal and unconstitutional tariffs. Donald Trump promised Americans $2500 each to compensate us for what his tariffs which are sales taxes have cost us and he gave us nothing. Donald Trump told the lie again last night that the tariff money the United States has collected from his tariffs has been paid by people outside of the United States. When in fact every penny collected by the United States treasury in the form of Trump tariffs has been paid by an American company and American citizens and it has been paid here in the United States. Not one penny has come into the United States from a foreign country because of Donald Trump's tariffs. And so at the very same time Donald Trump is under a Supreme Court order administered by Judge Richard Eaton at the Court of International Trade, forcing Donald Trump to refund the illegal tariff money

7:14he collected Donald Trump suddenly promises to give each one of us $5,000. There isn't one person in America who's thinking tonight about what he or she will do with the $5,000 they are going to get from Donald Trump. They know it's never going to happen. Meanwhile Donald Trump is sending up some very big checks. He really is sending out some big checks. $2.9 billion to Walmart to refund Trump tariff money illegally collected from the American company Walmart an American company based in Arkansas, $2.9 billion going back to Arkansas where it was taken from. Donald Trump is refunding $2.2 billion to Apple as a refund for the illegal Trump tariffs that Apple, an American company, was forced to pay. Apple is of course based in California.

8:16That's where that $2.2 billion is going to California. Apple is an American company, Walmart, an American company and thousands of other American companies, including some very small companies had to pay the illegal Trump tariffs. And now they have to be refunded and they are being refunded because the United States Supreme Court ordered Donald Trump to refund that money. Immediately after his ridiculous lying speech last night Donald Trump was asked about his $5,000 payment to and each one of these words is very important, quote, every adult citizen in the United States. Why don't you just give the money now? If you have the money, why don't you give it now? Of course they can, I'll tell you what, because the Democrats can't do it because with them it's negative growth. With us it's so positive. So we're taking in $21 trillion. Nobody, no country's ever taken in anywhere near that. It's four five times higher than the next one.

9:18Well because of that beautiful word that you and I love more than most others tariffs. I wanted you to hear every word of that response because not one word he said was an answer to the question, why not just give it now? Donald Trump didn't come close to answering that question. The words he said right after the question were because the Democrats can't do it. What do the Democrats have to do with this? The House of Representatives is run by a majority of Republicans. The United States said it is run by a majority of Republicans. They have legislated before a four Donald Trump with zero democratic votes. So Donald Trump had absolutely no answer to why not just give it now? That is one of the reasons the word bribery keeps appearing in the news coverage of this because Donald Trump told voters last night he will only do this if they vote for Republicans in November. The Vice President of the United States could not defend

10:20what his president said when he was asked about it last night. So Mr. Vice President I heard the Trump dividend raised some eyebrows $5,000 for every adult citizen if the House wins. Wait, it raised my eyebrows. The folks hands went up at the same time. But if the Republicans win the House, the American middle class. But if your Republicans win the House $5,000 for every adult citizen. So you do the quick math. That's about $1.3 trillion. I can hear the critics heads exploded. They're saying out loud, I guarantee you. President is bribing voters to vote for Republicans to take over the House. And then he's bankrupting the country because the deficit and debt is huge. And inflation would come back if this comes into play. So how do you answer those criticism? Well, I say first of all, what the President is talking about is fundamentally a dividend for American workers. No, he's not. That's not what he was talking about. James Day of Advance had to lie about what Donald Trump said

11:23in his failed attempt to defend what Donald Trump said. JD Vance had to invent a means test suddenly right there in the spot for the $5,000. That's what he was doing when he said to Sean Hannity and Brett Bayer, you guys don't need it. This is for the American middle class. No, it's not. It is for every adult citizen in the United States of America. Those are the words Donald Trump spoke, reading carefully from the teleprompter. Donald Trump did not say for every adult citizen who makes less than a billion dollars a year. Donald Trump said Elon Musk is getting one of these checks. Brett Bayer is getting one of these checks. Sean Hannity is getting one of these checks. Donald Trump is going to get one of these checks. That's what every adult citizen in the United States of America means every adult citizen. First you lie. That is the rule of defending Donald Trump publicly. First you lie.

12:24A local TV reporter in Texas gave Donald Trump an intelligence test today, which Donald Trump immediately failed. Last night you proposed Trump dividends giving every American $5,000 American citizen if they have adult citizen $5,000 and I'm wondering would Congress need to approve that? Well, we think not. I think they will do it if we needed it, but we think not. The country is doing so well. We've taken in trillions of dollars in tariffs and other things. It is of course impossible for President to simply spend $1.3 trillion. Congress would have to authorize that spending. So Donald Trump is wrong about that. It's impossible to tell if he's lying about that because he is provably stupid enough to not know that he cannot do that. And he's also lying about, quote, taking in trillions of dollars in tariffs. Again, every penny of the tariff money that the United States Treasury receives is collected

13:29inside the United States of America from Americans only. No foreign country has ever paid one penny of the Trump tariffs and never will. That is not how tariffs work. When the Supreme Court of the United States ruled Donald Trump's tariffs at legal and unconstitutional chief Justice John Roberts said, quote, a tariff after all is a tax levied on imported goods and services. Attacks paid by Americans and ordered by the Supreme Court to be paid back to those Americans. But Donald Trump believes that his voters are stupid enough to believe him about taking in trillions of dollars in tariffs. Donald Trump went to Texas to hold a pretend convention or he told voters to pretend that he's on the ballot, November. And he's also asking them to pretend that we are taking in trillions of dollars in tariffs

14:29now that he's asking them to pretend that he will send them checks for five thousand dollars if they just vote for Republicans. And he's pretending that Congress would not have to authorize those checks. When asked about Republican senators being willing to vote to give five thousand dollars to every American citizen, including the richest people in the world. Senator John Thune, the Republican majority leader who got booed at Donald Trump's pretend convention last night said, quote, we will cross that bridge when we come to a John Thune nose, we will never come to that bridge. There will never be a vote in the United States Senate or the House of Representatives to give every American citizen, including the richest people in the world, a check for five thousand dollars. Donald Trump went to Texas to have a convention to save the Republicans from disaster in the coming election. And that's what he came up with. Sending a check for five thousand dollars to every American citizen, including the richest

15:33people in the country and the world, as well as the poorest people in the country and everyone in between. Sending a check for five thousand dollars to one of the million and a half American citizens in prison tonight. That's what every adult citizen in the United States of America means. That's what he said. And not one person who heard him say it believes he means it, including his own vice president, who immediately pretended that Donald Trump said something else. And so the president who does not know how to end the war that he started, the president who does not know how to reduce inflation and does not know how to win votes has decided to try to buy votes with an offer. That no one believes. Lidding off our coverage tonight is Democratic Congressman James Walkinshoff, Virginia. He's a member of the House Oversight Committee. So, as Donald Trump approached his pretend convention,

16:33how worried were you that he was going to pull off something even though he was trying to do it against an NFL game that was crushing him in the ratings. But he was going to pull off something helpful to his party. Did you think they might have something? They might come up with something. Well, one thing Donald Trump said that I agreed with at the convention. He said, act like I'm on the ballot. And I think voters across the country want them to do that. That's right. I want them to do that. Donald Trump is on the ballot in November. His tariffs are on the ballot. His reckless war of choice in Iran is on the ballot and his lies, including this five thousand lies on the ballot. And I agree with you. I don't think there's a single American who believes this. If there is someone out there who believes this five thousand dollar lie, they also probably believe he's the club champion at all of his golf choices. It ain't going to happen. He's just not going to happen. So, when you get to the Trump on the ballot issue, it does seem he is more on the ballot than any midterm president has ever been. And now he's asking voters to think of him as being

17:39on the ballot. But it's true. I mean, every Republican Senator supports him. Every Republican House member supports him. And when you vote for a Republican for the House or for the Senate, you are voting for someone to go there and help Donald Trump because none of them have any agenda of their own. It's just whatever Donald Trump says. That's right. Look, I come from the commonwealth of Virginia. We have five Republicans in our delegation. Virginians have been hit harder than anyone by Donald Trump's policies. Doge, the health care cuts, closing down rural hospitals. Those five Virginia Republicans lock stock and barrel for the Trump agenda. 100% down the line. Whatever Trump says, they bobble their head. Yes, that's why Trump's on the ballot. He can't help himself. He has to be the main character. But Republicans in Congress refuse to create any separation with them. They won't do it. So as you go forward in this campaign, are you harvesting things from

18:40this convention to be used against Donald Trump in his imaginary position on the ballot? Yeah, looking, I think the $5,000 lie is a great one. And what I say to the American people is even if Trump and the Republicans fulfill this promise he made, you're still in the hole. $2,500 for tariffs. Hundreds in some cases, thousands of dollars for gas prices, thousands, tens of thousands of dollars if you lost your health care because of the health care cuts, even if you got the $5,000 from Donald Trump, which you're not, you're still in the hole in many cases. That's what's happened to the American people because of Trump and the Republican policies. And so this sounds like Donald Trump's answer to the affordable affordability crisis that people have been facing. Look, I think he's desperate. And when Donald Trump gets desperate, he starts throwing out wilder and wilder ideas to pull out all the stops now. We see the attack on mail and balloting. We see the Department of Justice sending so-called observers to polling locations across the country. And now we

19:41see this attempted bribery. They are desperate. They're running scared. They know they're going to lose in November. And I think between now and November, they're going to ratchet up this insanity. So what is the, what is the counter argument to what you're hearing in Texas? If there were a Democratic convention of this sort going on, what would be the major points we'd be hearing? What would be the top issue? Very simple. Our platform is this. If you work hard and you play by the rules in this country, you should be able to live the American dream. That means you can afford to buy a home, you can afford health care, you can afford to go to college or a trade school. If you want to, and Donald Trump's policies every single day are taking us farther and farther away from that vision. You put Democrats in charge. We're going to be focused every single day on delivering that for the American people, the American dream. Is corruption an important element of your campaign strategy, the party's campaign strategy? Absolutely. The day-to-day financial struggles the American people are facing is because of the corruption in this administration.

20:41While the American people are struggling to pay for groceries, pay for gas, put food on the table, put their kids in the college. Donald Trump is spending a $1.6 billion tax payer money to support his son's tungsten mining investment in Kazakhstan. So they're lining their pockets and your pockets are dry. Christopher James-Walkertrow, thank you very much for joining us. And coming up, you will meet the biggest winner of election night last night in our smallest state, the Democrat who defeated an incumbent governor with an astonishing 62% of the vote. That's next.

21:46MS now premium on Apple podcasts. Last night for the first time in 30 years an incumbent Rhode Island governor lost in the Democratic primary. It was an overwhelming win for challenger, Helena folks, a former CVS executive who won 62% to 38% and her victory speech included an immediate outreach to voters who didn't vote for her. The kind of outreach Donald Trump has never done. We may have won the Democratic primary for governor, but let me be clear about what happens next. You will have a governor for everyone. There is so much work to be done and we need to do this together and for everyone. Not a governor for one party, not a governor for one neighborhood, one industry or one zip code. I know a lot of people are worn out by politics right now and who

22:53can blame them. It can feel less like it's about the issues people are actually struggling with and more about noise and division. That's not how we're going to lead. This is not how Rhode Islanders deserve to be governed. We're not always going to agree. That's okay. What's not okay is letting disagreement decide who deserves our help because there is something more fundamental that can unite us as Rhode Islanders. We help each other. We do help each other. We don't ask how someone voted before we offer a hand and right now our neighbors need us. Too many people in this state are struggling with the cost of just getting by and that struggle doesn't care what party you belong to. In the months ahead, I am going to work really, really hard to earn the support of every person in this state. The people who voted for me tonight and the people who didn't. I'm going

23:56to show up in every corner of Rhode Island. Listen to every concern and prove that this campaign means what it says that we governed for everyone. So thank you Rhode Island. We have work to do. Are you ready? Yeah. Thank you so much Rhode Island. I love you. Thank you. Yeah. Jerry Snow is Helena folks. She is the Democratic nominee for Governor of Rhode Island. Thank you very much for joining us tonight. I have to tell you that I was so struck in listening to your speech last night saying with lines like we don't ask how someone voted before we offer a hand and this message about governing for everyone and it really struck me just how sharply that contrasts with the national experience that voters have listening to Donald Trump who very clearly does ask who someone voted for before offering any kind of help. Was the Trump contrast in mind when you were

25:03delivering that speech? Well, thanks for having me on Lawrence. I think people are really hurting because of Trump. Definitely. There's a level of stress that people have that's very painful and I wanted people to know that I really care deeply about them. I've been listening to Rhode Islanders all across the state for four years. I know they're hurting and I really want this to be a state where at some level the new form of resistance to Trump is that we're making state government work for everyone. That this is a state where people can live a good life. I care so much about making sure people's families can live a good life. Their children, their grandchildren and so that's the kind of thing that motivates me and that I've been hearing from Rhode Islanders all across the state. So this was a democratic primary which means the policy differences were not so great. It seemed that your argument was about effective administration of government more than very significant conceptual

26:10policy differences. Yes, exactly. I'll give you an example. I would say the most important one to people in Rhode Island right now is the cost of housing. We don't have a single city or town in Rhode Island where a family making a hundred thousand dollars a year could afford to buy a home. And so people are feeling priced out and squeezed out and that's really about making government work. We have spent hundreds of millions of dollars and still nothing feels different to people. So I want to bring a fresh perspective where we say to people, state government can work for you. Federal government can work too, but I'm focused on the state of Rhode Island and making sure we really deliver for everyone. So now you know what it feels like to win and you know what it feels like to lose. And I'm wondering about I think there's a life lesson in your last five years, which includes losing this very same campaign four years ago. You could have decided, okay, I didn't succeed at that.

27:10Moving on, instead you said, I'm going to get up, I'm going to do it again. I'm going to get back up and do it again. And talk about just for a moment that decision and what that's like because there's a lesson in that for kids, for everyone, for all of us who have setbacks. And when you decide, I'm going to keep going, I'm going to try to get. Yeah, well listen, it's very hard to lose a race. I poured my soul into that last one four years ago. I won on election day, but I lost by 3,000 votes. And it took me, you know, a few days really to get over it. But I have a very close friend and he called me up and he said to me, Helena, be the winner you are. And that really hit me because his point was I made a difference just by being in the race and having the conversation. But I also knew I could learn a lot from that experience. And every time in my life, I've not achieved what I wanted to or I went through a loss. I've always felt that a new door opened. I got better in the

28:13last four years. I had so much time to listen to people all over the state, really understand their stories, understand what they aspire to. And so I think that I became a better candidate, which led to last night's big win. But more importantly, I'll, I think I'll be a better governor as a result. And so sometimes we don't get what we want, but there is a way that that can turn into something that is a really good thing. And that's been my experience in life. We're riding this Democratic nominee for governor, Helena folks. Thank you very much for joining us tonight. Thank you so much. You coming up Donald Trump's candidate for Congress in West Texas has an internet history that includes, according to Politico, quote, jokes about the Holocaust and boasts about his 1939 edition of mine comp. That's next. Now you can watch Ali Velchi five nights a week in prime time on MS now as he takes command of

29:15the 11th hour. The Justice Department is facing its own legal obstacles over this case, putting today's stories in perspective. This one is perhaps one of the more interesting surprises. And tomorrow's headlines in focus. Economists are warning that American consumers are soon going to feel the hurt. The 11th hour with Ali Velchi week nights at 11 PM Easter not MS now. Donald Trump's candidate for a Congressional seat in West Texas, Brendan Herrera, has four million followers on his pro-gun YouTube channel where he attacks women in an echo of the way Donald Trump attacks women reporters who ask him questions. So what a blue hair on the news says that a semi-automatic air 15 is an assault rifle. She is both fat and wrong. His noggin appears to already have arrived empty and is instead full of mush, much like the average Austin feminist. Politico reports, quote, past videos in which he mimics

30:24a Nazi march to Nazi music, jokes about the Holocaust, and boasts about his 1939 edition of Mine Combs. That is Donald Trump's candidate for the House of Representatives in West Texas. The Guardian reports in 2024 during a run for Congress, Herrera said, I am not, nor have I ever been a neo-Nazi after describing a Nazi ear and gun as the original ghetto blaster, the Republican Jewish coalition condemned him at the time as a goose-stepping extremist. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee added this district to its list of competitive congressional districts in November, the Democratic candidate in the district is our next guest, Katie Padilla Stout. I'm the daughter of a migrant farmer who became a lawyer and I was raised by a single mom who never quit on a better future. So neither did I. I became a public schoolteacher and an attorney

31:26who fights for kids and families we know one else will. Now I'm writing for Congress because I know we can have lower costs safer schools and something better for all our families but we've got to come together to do it. So Texas let's do this. John is now Katie Padilla Stout, Democratic nominee for Texas 23rd Congressional District. Thank you very much for joining us tonight. Donald Trump has come to Texas to try to defeat you in this race along with everyone else challenging Republicans in Texas. Do you find that Texas voters are watching Donald Trump's convention instead of these two NFL games this week? I don't believe so. I don't think that there's a lot of enthusiasm regarding this in the term convention for them. As you proceed in this campaign, you've got two things going on here. You've got this person you're running against who has an astonishing record of anti-semitism and

32:32horrible things he has said about women. You've got that to contend with. You've got your case to make to voters about what the issues. How do you balance those two things? I think we do it the best that we can and that's having genuine conversations with people connecting with them, really listening to what their concerns are and letting them know that we are offering them a choice that they can choose someone who will listen to them, someone who represent them in this district and the values that we uphold here in Texas. So you have the challenge obviously having to appeal to Trump voters. It'll be impossible for you to win this district without some Trump voters coming over to vote for you in this. What is your message specifically to them? I think we have a problem with our feed here on this interview. Can we get, can we, we lost our completely? Okay. Well, we're going to try to get her back. We're going to see what

33:36we can possibly do to reconnect this. We're going to go to commercial break now. When we do come back, we're going to go to the fact that Donald Trump promised last night to send Elon Musk and every other American citizen, including every American billionaire, a check for $5,000 while the poorest children in the world continue to die after Elon Musk dismantled the United States Agency for international development. That's next. After Donald Trump and Elon Musk's dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development, the New York Times reports this about the current relief efforts in Nepal after last month's deadly floods. USAID is conspicuous by its absence, non-profit groups in Nepal

34:41that were funded by the American aid agency said they have had to shut down some of their programs since the Trump administration gutted it early last year, making it harder for them to support relief and rescue efforts. The New York Times reports this week more than 3,000 people have died of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the fastest spreading outbreak of the virus ever recorded, according to health officials. Aid cuts, including the closure last year of the US Agency for International Development, have hampered the international response. Early surveillance and testing failed to identify the outbreak and fighting in Eastern Congo has displaced millions of people, making it harder to trace the spread of the virus. Joining us now is Dr. Atul Gwande, former Assistant Administrator for Global Health at the US Agency for International Development. Thank you very much for joining us tonight, Dr. Gwande. You know, when I hear we're scheduled to talk about this even before Donald Trump talked about

35:45the $1.3 trillion he wants to send out in $5,000 checks to everyone in this country. And I was just wondering for someone who knows what Donald Trump and Elon Musk has taken away from the poorest people in the world and the poorest children in the world, tiny amounts of money that was sustaining lives around the world. What was it like for you to hear that idea proposed by Donald Trump after he and Elon Musk decided that the budget of USAID was simply too much for the United States to spend. Yeah, understand what they did when they shut down USAID was cut off funds that were amounted to $22 per American taxpayer per year for global health and say that that was a waste of money. This is now $5,000 per American when we are in the same year that they're asking for $1.5 trillion for the military.

36:51I think it goes hand in hand that we walked away from programs that provide help, helping hands to countries around the world rather than showing a fist and trying to rule by dominance, which has turned out to be extraordinarily expensive, harmful, and dangerous to American security not to mention bad for the world. Let's talk about what's happened in Nepal and how it would have been different if USAID had still been up and running. Well, I'll just give you one example. Nepal was a place where USAID partnered with NASA to have forecasting of flooding through satellite monitoring, advanced satellite monitoring. When USAID was shut down, the contract that partnered with NASA was terminated for countries around the world. This was the forecasting that was regularly providing warnings to villages and communities and places like Nepal about floods coming,

37:53including monitoring specifically the glacial lakes in Nepal, which are precarious after climate change. We know that the very problem that it was monitoring was what happened when climate change and warming ended up leading to a major part of a glacier caving off and causing sudden floods. That's just one of the ways USAID was partnered with countries like Nepal around the world. Then, of course, you had the disaster response teams where in previous floods, you'd have well over 100 people being able to arrive off for expertise, assistance, and immediately move into humanitarian support. You use the word humanitarian there, which is what this is. The idea that a humanitarian choice has to somehow be justified as beneficial to us. That seems to be what infected a certain kind of

38:55thinking about USAID. What does it do for us? Sure, we give them free AIDS medicine, but what does that do for the United States? That question removes the humanitarianism. Yeah, here's the point of it. We always had expectations and accountability, but it was about getting good results from what we were doing for the country and the world. That's very different from a predatory approach that says, I'm going to hold your HIV funds hostage in Zambia. That was HIV funds, TB funds, helping more than a million people until you give us your critical mineral rights in other countries like SWATINI, Equatorial Guinea, humanitarian funds were hinge on taking deportees from the United States, third country nationals, and being put in their jails

39:55to instead of getting due process in the United States. That kind of, it's not transactionalism where you might say, this is, I'm holding accountability in some way. This is extraction, this is predatory, and it does the opposite of helping. You are stepping back from basic goals. Are we going to try to eliminate HIV in the world? We were on track to near it to ending it as a public health threat by 2030. Those kinds of efforts are sacrificed along the way. What does the Ebola outbreak now tell us? What have we learned about it? And what it means to how to be facing it without USAID? Well, in many ways, it's just the classic finding when you step away from prevention, undermine response. You are end up with a situation where we are now in the fastest growing Ebola crisis in the world. It's on its way to being the worst Ebola epidemic ever.

41:04I'll point to a couple of examples. In DRC, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, we supported prevention and response efforts to catch problems like this early to the tune of about $5 million to $7 million a year. That provided us with early monitoring. It allowed us to help and support emergency response and train frontline workers to recognize diseases when they break out. We took away those funds, including in the very province where this broke out. We took out surveillance and training programs there and then got an explosion of Ebola. Instead of getting response in 48 hours or less, which was when I led global health, we were able to achieve in DRC. This is far from the first Ebola outbreak that happened. Instead, we got months without response. Now we have spent half a billion dollars already by this administration. More than we spent in prevention and surveillance around the world. Dr. Tugal, go ahead and thank you

42:08very much for joining us again tonight. Thank you. As of today, you can join our MSNOW membership, it's a new program which lets you connect with your favorite MSNOW hosts and analysts. Every Friday, you can watch a new edition of what we're calling the very last word. For MSNOW members, we will take you behind the scenes of this program and sometimes discuss stories we didn't have time to get to because of the sheer volume of Trump madness that comes our way and will answer some of your questions there as well. Can scan the QR code on your screen or go to MS.Now slash membership to become a member. We'll be right back with tonight's last word about the day before 9-11, 25 years ago. September 11, 2001 was a day like no other in our history. Everyone who lived through it remembers

43:13exactly where we were and what we were doing when we heard about the terrorist attack that was unfolding on multiple targets in the United States. But few of us remember what we were doing the day before. Few of us remember September 10. The day before 9-11, 25 years ago Senator Joe Biden was explaining what he thought was wrong with President George W. Bush's massive new spending on missile defense. Senator Biden argued that the president was preparing to defend the United States against the wrong kind of attack and instead Senator Biden announced a schedule of hearings on how to defend the country against terrorist attacks. Sure, we'll do all we can to defend ourselves against any threat. Nobody denies that. But even the joint chief says that a strategic

44:14nuclear attack is less likely than a regional conflict, a major state or war, terrorist attacks at home or abroad are any number of other real issues. We'll have to burn it all that money to address the least likely threat while the real threat comes to this country in the hold of a ship, the belly of a plane, or smuggled into a city in the middle of the night in a vile in a backpack. The real threat arrived the next morning with hijacked planes turned into unstoppable missiles. Joe Biden gets tonight's last word. Ever since I was young, I've watched people working hard, chasing opportunity, making sacrifices, doing everything they can to build a better life. And now we're shining a light on what matters most. Our economy, our national identity, our democracy, our future. The stakes have never been higher. It's all on the line.

45:16I'm the line with O'Veasea Menendez, weekdays at 12 p.m. Eastern on MS now.