Lawrence: Republicans boycott Trump’s pretend convention as Democratic campaigns find new strength

0:00Can I just quickly say hello to you? For me, being a part of this place has always been about the people, not about the politics. Why are you holding this sign? You've ever been to a protest before? He's safe. People that we cover who allow us to enter their lives. How's everybody doing? Everybody doing okay? How long has been in line? I love human beings to spend time connecting with them is the biggest blessing that I could ask for. From the field to the studio, Jacob is finding the heart of the story, connect with Jacob Soberov. We can set 10 a.m. Eastern on MS now. The last of Northeastern Donald starts right now. Hey, Lawrence. Hey, Jen. Hey, Jen, just getting rid of my cough drop there. So you are, you're sitting at home and you're thinking, hey, let's have a pretend convention. And you pick a date, and it's not a pretend date, it's a real date, which happens to be the first time, a so-called national political convention, is going against an NFL game on TV in primetime television.

1:06Not just any NFL game, the first game of the season, and it's a rematch of the Super Bowl teams from seven months ago. How stupid do you have to be to say, we're going to have our pretend political convention on that night when we will get wiped out in the TV ratings by the NFL, by the New England Patriots and the Seattle sea hugs. Unless you are hoping nobody watches it, I suppose, which would be a really, the other thing they've done, Lawrence, as you know, well, is charge candidates to fly themselves, to Texas, to be seen with a president who has in the low 30s approval rating, and they can't be self-diped to be there. So there's a lot of things about this that are not actually set up for success. It is as crazy as you would expect a convention conceived by Donald Trump to be. Well said.

2:06Thanks, Jen. Thanks, Lawrence. Well, it is election night, tonight in Rhode Island, where former CBS executive Helena folks has defeated incumbent governor, Dan McKee, in the Democratic primary for governor, 62 to 38, a major upset, a major win in a rematch of the same primary race that governor McKee narrowly won four years ago. He now becomes the first incumbent governor of Rhode Island to lose a primary in over 30 years. Light of folks now having very strong momentum going into the November general election in Rhode Island. Donald Trump is speaking tonight at what might be the last political convention he is ever invited to. Donald Trump is the head of the Republican party tonight. But as soon as there is a Republican nominee for president two years from now,

3:10that nominee will become the head of the Republican party. And that nominee will decide who is invited to the Republican convention. And it is possible that two years from now with Donald Trump's war still raging in Iran and Donald Trump's trade war still raging around the world, especially in Canada, that Donald Trump will be even less popular than he is tonight. And it is possible that two years from now, Donald Trump could be so politically toxic that he will not be invited to speak at the next Republican national convention. And so this, this thing tonight could be Donald Trump's last hurrah on a convention stage or a pretend convention stage. It could be his last outburst of pure madness from a convention stage. Having a pretend convention for a midterm election is of course a profoundly stupid idea.

4:14It is Donald Trump's idea. Donald Trump has convinced himself and no one else in the Republican party that what voters really want to hear now is more lies from Donald Trump. Right after the election, because they'd like to have it that way, but right after the election, oil prices are going to be tumbling downward. They're going to be tumbling down and we'll get them down. I think for gasoline, we'll get them below $2 a gallon. But not until after the midterm. I think it's going to take a little bit longer than the midterm. That's Donald Trump today on the way to his pretend convention. And that is the same problem, as I mean exactly the same promise Donald Trump made two years ago. Energy is going to bring us back. That means we're going down and getting gasoline below $2 a gallon. Bring down the price of everything from electricity rates to groceries,

5:15airfares and housing costs. That was two years ago in September before the presidential election. The same promise he made today, which he also made again at his little convention tonight, that he would get the price of gasoline below $2 a gallon. And now Donald Trump has gotten the price of gasoline up to $4.22 a gallon as a national average price today. That's an average price, which means some of you, many of you, may be lucky enough to pay less than $4.22 a gallon. But in some states, people are paying much, much more. The average price for gas in Alaska today is $5.03. And that might be why. Republican Senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska, who is running for reelection against our first guest tonight, is boycotting Donald Trump's self-worshipping convention in Texas tonight.

6:16The Washington Post reports this about the Alaska Senate race. Democrats have a strong candidate, and former Congresswoman Mary Peltola, who outperformed the party baseline vote in both 2022 and 2024. This year, Peltola finished first in the state's all-party primary with nearly 50% of the vote. Today, the Mayor of Times offered this assessment of Donald Trump's presidency on the first day of Donald Trump's pretend convention celebrating Donald Trump. The consequences of the President's agenda were on full display. A trade war he initiated with Canada appeared headed toward another escalation, while the new outbreak of fighting in Iran sent oil prices above $100 per barrel for the first time since July. Both developments threatened to unleash even higher costs on American families and businesses, which have already been stung by years of unchecked inflation that Mr. Trump

7:19has pledged to tame. We already have proof that when Donald Trump makes a promise about what is going to happen after an election, Donald Trump is lying. And here is one of Donald Trump's predictions today about what will happen with his war in Iran after the election. I wanted to make a deal. We're so far down the line. They have very little country left right down, so we're not looking for it. Yes, a negotiation could possibly happen, but it's not something we're looking at. This war will end immediately after our election. So there could be negotiations, but we don't care. We're not looking at it. The lost and coherent 80-year-old man who started the war with Iran said today that he is doing nothing to try to win or end his war. He said, we're not looking for it. It's not something

8:20we're looking at. That's a public declaration by the person who holds the title commander in chief during wartime that he did nothing today about his war in Iran, nothing. And he doesn't know what to do. And then after saying he's doing absolutely nothing, we're not looking for it. It's not something we're looking at. He then said, quote, this war will end immediately after our election. End quote. Donald Trump thinks that his voters, that those people he got to go get into that convention, Holland, Texas, and his voters around the country and all Republican voters are so deeply stupid that they will believe that. Donald Trump thinks that Republican voters who oppose his war are so stupid that they will vote for Republican candidates who support his war on the belief that Donald Trump's war, quote, will end immediately after our election.

9:25Donald Trump, who promised his war would be over six months ago, keeps proving beyond a reasonable doubt that he has no control over his war, that he has no idea when or how his war is going to end. Meanwhile, the New York Times reports today, Erise leadership believes that now may be the best moment to raise the stakes ahead of the U.S. midterm elections in November when an unpopular war could hurt Mr. Trump and the Republican Party. So Donald Trump, the worst war strategist in the history of the American presidency, which has had to endure some terrible war strategists, never dreamed that his war would still be raging by the beginning of summer of this year. Donald Trump never dreamed his war would still be happening on Memorial Day or on the 4th of July or on Labor Day. And now Donald Trump is admitting that it will continue right through election day.

10:29Something that Donald Trump knows is harmful to him and the Republican Party. But Donald Trump also seems to know that Iran appears to be in control of the continuation of this war. Iran, whose military Donald Trump has claimed repeatedly to have completely destroyed proves what a lie that is every time Iran launches another attack in this war that prolongs this war. So now Donald Trump is admitting that Iran is in control of the war. Because if Donald Trump was in control of the war, he'd end it right now. Today, Donald Trump is admitting that Iran is capable of keeping this war going right through election day and beyond. And here is what Donald Trump told his pretend convention tonight. I'm asking you to pretend that I'm on the ballot. I'm on the ballot. I'm on the ballot. Just one more time.

11:34Donald, as soon as we win the war with Iran, which is taking place right now, we'll win it. We'll win it. We control the Hormone straight. I think we should call the Hormone straight. We should call it the Trump straight. I should get something out of it. The Trump straight. It's going to be called Ladies and Gentlemen. I'll have an announcement. We'll call it the Trump straight. And I'm sure the Iranian leadership will be thrilled with that. A deranged man has a pretend convention in Texas where he talks about renaming a body of water he had never heard of before Iran took control of it. With 55 days left before election day, the campaign by Democrats to win control the United States Senate

12:35seems to find new strength every week with states coming within reach for Democratic candidates that no one thought possible at the beginning of this year. The reason Donald Trump is holding his convention in Texas is because James Tallerico is running such a strong campaign as the Democratic candidate for Senate in Texas and Donald Trump is afraid of Republicans losing a Texas Senate seat. James Tallerico has been in the lead in the polls in Texas. And the reason Alaska's Republican Senator Dan Sullivan, who is running for reelection, is boycotting Donald Trump. And boycotting Donald Trump's convention in Texas is because the Democrat. Mary Peltola is running such a strong campaign in Alaska, another state that was not on the possible win list for Democrats at the beginning of this year. I listed in the Army, I took an oath to serve our country and I still live that oath

13:38today. That's why I just can't stomach Dan Sullivan getting rich while he's supposed to be serving Alaska, taking cash for trawlers and siding with them against the Alaska fishermen and while Alaska's struggle to afford the basics devoted to slash our health care, Dan Sullivan has betrayed us and Alaska pays the price. I'm Mary Peltola and I approve this message. Ladies and gentlemen, Ladies and gentlemen, I'm Mary Peltola of Alaska. She is the Democratic candidate for the United States Senate in Alaska. Thank you very much for joining us tonight and what I believe is your first national television interview since you won the nomination. You saw this as a possible win for Democrats from the start. Are you now getting Democratic Party support now that you've shown this, this Alaska can be a win? I'm getting broad-based support across Alaska. Lawrence,

14:38thank you so much for having me this evening. I'm very encouraged by this race in 2026. We have over 15,000 Alaskans signed up to volunteer for us this cycle. In 24, we just had 1,000 Alaskans signed up and I meet people every day who say I've never participated in a campaign before. I'm now a recurring donor every month. I met a woman in Palmer the other week who said she'd never participated in a campaign except to vote and she had walked her neighborhoods for me 12 times. So I'm very encouraged by the turnout this year. So you have a price of gas. You're always in Alaska. You're watching the national news talking about the average price for gas in the 50 states knowing that in Alaska, it's about a dollar more than that average price. You're over $5 now. To voters understand how that price got to where it is. Voters in Alaska are very

15:42sophisticated and deeply understand the relationship that prices have with the straight-of-har moves. And, you know, I really appreciated that you all put the price, the average price in Anchorage is just slightly over $5. And that's our biggest city. But we have remote, remote communities like Shungnack outside of Katsubu. They're going to be paying 26, 82 a gallon throughout the entire winter until their spring barge comes. Again, $26.82 a gallon for gasoline. But even in larger communities hubs like Dillingham, out in Bristol Bay, they'll be paying $9 a gallon for gas. Okay. So you're changing my calculations about how we get to an average price of gas in America. I have never before this bomb had heard of $26 gas. But I understand it. I understand how remote that location is and what the delivery system must be to get it there. Hawaii, as we know, has very

16:43high gas prices, but nothing like that. So what are the other things about life in Alaska that have become more difficult during these last two years? Well, like you say, Alaska really is at the end of the supply chain, the logistics supply chain. And we are often paying much more than Hawaii is for their commodities. As another good example, and this is a price from two years ago. So I'll be interested to see how the price has gone up. But in Cactovic, a community outside of Utkiyahubik in the North Slope, a 60 tablet container of Advil with $68. So every single thing that we buy is impacted by the price of fuel. 82% of our communities, you can only get to by error. If we were our own country, we would be the 18th largest country in the world. We are huge. At low tide, you could fit three Texases within Alaska's parameters. We have more coastline than even the lower 48.

17:50But it's very expensive to travel here. And we really are tied to the price of petroleum. And we're being priced out of petroleum at this point. This is definitely the best geography lesson I have gotten on this show. Three Texases at low tide fit into the map of Alaska. So what has you know, you've got to campaign ads that are hitting Dan Sullivan for not doing what Alaska needs during this time. He has not opposed Donald Trump's war. He's been given opportunities in the United States Senate to vote against it. He has voted to support it every single time. The same thing with the Trump tariffs and the Trump tariffs in relation to Canada, which are a big problem for neighboring Alaska. What are some of the other things that you see as Dan Sullivan's failings in the United States? Well, like you say, Lawrence, Dan Sullivan has voted more than 10 times

18:52to support this war in Iran. Dan Sullivan has voted more than 10 times to jack up the prices for all Alaskans. And he has the audacity to refer to this situation as an externality, a campaign externality when he was asked about energy prices. He said, well, I don't think that they're good anywhere. And every campaign has externalities. We don't really even know what that means in Alaska. This is an everyday issue for us while Dan Sullivan has tripled his own personal wealth in the last 12 years doing prolific amounts of stock trades. The rest of us in Alaska have been going backwards financially. We are living very hand-to-mouth. And it's even more so now. It, you know, last winter was a really cold winter, long, sustained weeks of below zero temperatures throughout Alaska. A lot of snow in May when I went to some of the villages, I would talk to folks

19:55who would say, this winter, I'm so, I've been so worried about my kids and my grandkids. Every day they have to choose between heat and food. And I hear this over and over in Alaska were very concerned about the upcoming winter and how people are going to afford to heat their homes and pay for groceries and pay for health care. We pay the highest price for health care in Alaska across the United States, which means we pay the highest price in the world for health care. Mary Peltola, Democratic candidate for Senate in Alaska. Thank you so much for joining us tonight. Thank you so much for teaching me so much tonight about Alaska. Please come back and join us whenever you can. Please go to MaryPeltola.com to contribute to my campaign. Thanks so much, Lawrence. Thank you. And coming up last night, the Democrats chose their Senate candidate in New Hampshire. Karsvin Chris Papis, who will join us next and later Andrew Weissman, will discuss Donald Trump's

20:57cash payments and the legality or possible illegality of those cash payments to Natalie Harp. Hey everybody, it's Rachel Maddo here. I wanted to tell you that more than a dozen of us from MSNOW are going to be in Texas on Saturday, September 26th. I'm going to be there. Lauren Sodon will be there, so we'll Jen Socky. A whole bunch of us are all going to be there in Texas. Tickets started just over 30 bucks each and if you buy a ticket, you will get access to our new MSNOW membership free for a year. Tickets for Texas are on sale now. You can learn more at ms.nail slash together. Hope to see you in Texas. On Monday in New Hampshire, Senator Mark Kelly, the vice chair of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, said this about Congressman Chris Papis, who won New Hampshire's Democratic

22:00Domination for Senate the next day. Losing Gene Shaheen in the United States Senate, Senate is not going to be the same. Her service, I mean, was just incredible over decades to this state in this country. But we got to make sure that we don't wind up with a Donald Trump yes man in the United States Senate. So we've got elect Chris Papis, who stands for Granite State values, who understands hard working people who has been fighting in the U.S. House of Representatives every day for working families. And when he won the Democratic Domination for Senate last night, Chris Papis said this. Folks, it is time to turn the page in America to a better day. On Donald Trump's, we got to turn the page on Donald Trump's reckless leadership on corruption,

23:04on the rigged economy and on costs. And this is not the time to turn it back to a failed politician from the past. So let's go out folks. Let's win this race. Let's put our state and our country on a better path for the future. Let's save American democracy. Let's stand up to a reckless out of touch president and his handpicked candidate, John Sonunu, and let's win this for New Hampshire. Thank you all so much. Thank you. Joining us now is Democratic Congressman Chris Papis of New Hampshire. He is now the Democratic nominee for United States Senate in New Hampshire. Thank you very much for joining us tonight. Congratulations on last night's win. What do you see as the number one issue in this campaign? Thanks for having me on Lawrence. The number one issue in this campaign is who's fighting for New Hampshire? Who's going to build a fair economy, fight to lower costs and stand up to the recklessness of this administration? So that's what I'm hearing all across the state. And the fact is

24:06Donald Trump, Elon Musk, the corporate special interests, they're coming in heavy for John Sonunu because they know he's going to be another vote for their agenda. He was before when he was our US Senator back in the early 2000s where he voted for forever wars, voted for big oil and the insurance companies, voted against a woman's right to choose, was the architect of the plan to privatize social security. So he was out of step with New Hampshire then. He is today. The last thing New Hampshire needs is another rubber stamp for an agenda that's raising costs and making life more expensive and is hurting our small business community here in New Hampshire. So we're fighting for fairness. We're fighting to lower costs and fighting for New Hampshire. And this seed matters in terms of the overall Senate math. So if folks are interested in protecting this Senate seed and taking taking back the majority, go to chrispapis.org and help us change things in Washington. So Donald Trump's argument to Republican voters tonight at his pretend convention was stick with us, stick with the Republicans because Donald Trump's war in Iran will end

25:11after the election and the price of gas will come down after the election. What's your response to that? People cannot wait. They've been waiting far too long to have an economy that's affordable. He promised this in his last campaign, right? He was going to bring about world peace. He was going to end inflation and lower costs on day one. Well, we're well beyond day one right now. We are over a year and a half into his presidency. And everyone observes that this president is so out of touch. He says affordability is a hoax. He says he shouldn't have to worry about things like childcare. He's pushed the biggest cuts to health care in our nation's history. That has real world impacts for folks. You know, I was up north in New Hampshire talking with small businesses. Not only are they paying more for gas and they have been for seven months, but this trade war with Canada has resulted in fewer Canadian visitors coming across the border spending money. And has been totally unpredictable and costly for our small business community. So this is incompetence.

26:16It is just a lack of leadership. We've got to bring this war to a close and protect our service members and get energy costs back down. And we need a reality check in this election. I think that's a little bit about what we're going to see in November. And this cuts across the usual party coalitions. I'm hearing the same feedback from independents and Republicans as I am from Democratic voters out there. And so I think we have a chance to really assemble a broad coalition of folks that know we can do better, that don't trust this president's leadership, that don't want someone who's going to rubber stamp this agenda. And we're going to vote for change. So Democratic leadership in the Senate led by Chuck Schumer have forced votes on Donald Trump's war. Republican senators voting overwhelmingly in favor of Donald Trump's war every single time, 10 times they've been given that opportunity by Chuck Schumer. Same thing with Donald Trump's tariffs. Republican senators voting to support Donald Trump's tariffs. Democratic senators voting

27:16to pull them back. As we go forward, is that the kind of thing? You know, the reason they do that in the Senate, as you know, as a House member, is to try to make this visible to voters out there who are voting in Senate races this year. Have those votes penetrated in New Hampshire? Do people know about those votes? People think that Washington is so out of touch and that there's no courage right now. And you see it from Republicans, right? Occasionally, very occasionally, you get some concern expressed from Republicans, but you never get any follow-through. And that's the kind of Republican that John Isanunu is. That's who he was when he was joined at the hip with George W. Bush voting for forever wars, including the war in Iraq. And he's a champion of this war too, and stands with Trump on this just reckless use of military force that has a huge cost associated with it. So we need people that are going to stand up and do the right thing. And if Republicans

28:17aren't going to show courage like John McCain once did, turning a thumbs down to the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, then we need accountability for these guys at the polls. We need to be voting in folks that are in touch with reality, understand the values of their constituents, and are going to repair our democracy and the checks and balances that just don't exist right now. When Congress views itself as just part of the team, part of the Trump team, and not a co-equal branch of government where they're not protecting their prerogative and standing up to do the work of the American people, then we need a course correction. New Hampshire has newly nominated Democratic Senate candidate Chris Papas. Thank you very much for joining us tonight. Thanks, Lords. And coming up, Senator Mark Kelly has the job as vice chair of the Democratic Senate Toriel Campaign Committee of leading the national strategy for Democrats to win back control of the United States Senate. Senator Kelly joins us next.

29:18Hey everybody, it's Rachel Maddo here. I wanted to tell you that more than a dozen of us from MSNOW are going to be in Texas on Saturday, September 26th. I'm going to be there. Lauren Soudon will be there. So we'll Jen Socky. A whole bunch of us are all going to be there in Texas. Tickets started just over 30 bucks each, and if you buy a ticket, you will get access to our new MSNOW membership free for a year. Tickets for Texas are on sale now. You can learn more at ms.nail slash together. Hope to see you in Texas. Campaigns surging across the country. I worry about that, you know, for sure. I'm a realist,

30:23and I just think you I don't ever try and sugarcoat things. I think it's a competitive environment. So that was Republican Senate leader John Thune, not sugarcoating things the way Donald Trump is trying to do in Texas tonight. And that's why John Thune got booed at Donald Trump's convention tonight. John Thune is here for the Senate. Where's John? Where's John? John is John is working hard. He's got great opposition. He's got great opposition from the Democrat Schumer and these guys are terrible. He's got great opposition. He's working very hard. He's going to have he's going to have great success. You watch. We are going to have great great success with our Republican senators. So that's a compliment, right? He's got great opposition. Chuck Schumer is great opposition. I guess that's a compliment for the Democrats.

31:24New spending evidence shows just how worried Donald Trump is about losing control of the United States Senate now. The New York Times reports Trump's political operations behind a mysterious new super PAC that began reserving at least $49 million in advertisements to aid Republicans in half a dozen key battleground races. The spending on Senate races includes $14.9 million in Michigan, $11.1 million in Ohio, according to ad impact. The group also reserved $10.6 million in New Hampshire and $7.7 million in Alaska, less populist states where advertising spending generally goes a longer way. The group dedicated smaller amounts to Senate races in North Carolina and Georgia. Democrats need to flip four seats to gain control of the Senate and six races now. Lane Democratic or our toss ups in states currently controlled by Republicans. Joining us now

32:28is Democratic Senator Mark Kelly. Varizona, he is the vice chair of the Democratic Senateorial Campaign Committee. And Senator Kelly, I guess that was some kind of compliment from Donald Trump. After John Thun got booed, Donald Trump telling his convention that the Democrats are great opposition. That Chuck Schumer is great opposition to John Thun in the Senate. Did that sound like a compliment to you? Yeah, I don't know. I mean, Donald Trump is I guess he's excited about this two-day tribute to him when the American people are just suffering. Can't afford their lives. Gas, health care, everything costs too much. Trump, I think, he's flailing right now. He's not even trying to do the job of President of the United States. And because of that, people are struggling. People can't make ends meet. They can't afford their lives. He's out there naming stuff after himself, Lake. You know, he wants to change the name of Lake

33:31Ontario and New Mexico. This is, I mean, Lauren, did you ever imagine we'd be in a situation with a president that is so out of touch with the American people as this guy is? We obviously, everything about him is unimaginable, including tonight from that podium, claiming that he's going to rename the Straight of Hermos after himself a body of water that we know he'd never heard of before Iran sees control of it. Hey, Laurence, I got an idea for you here. So he's building this ballroom. It'll likely get built. How about we name the ballroom felony hall? Seems like it's an appropriate name for a Donald Trump built facility. So as we go forward now, are you seeing the formation of a kind of Senate campaign across the country that could lead to democratic control of the Senate? I've been traveling all across the

34:34country. I was in Ohio, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Georgia. Recently, I was in New Hampshire just two days ago with Chris Papis. There he's a great candidate. He's got a shot at winning Mary Paltola, who you just had on. We've got like six races. I think you said we're toss-ups. I think that is real. We've got real opportunities. But Laurence, here's the thing. I mean, the American people have to understand that these are going to be close elections. And that's why they're calling in the billionaires that fund these superpacks. They're calling in their supporters because this system that they built works for them. So of course, they want to keep it. Big tax cuts for billionaires, peanuts for the rest of America. So these are going to be tough races. And that's why between now and election day, I think we got like 53 days or so. I'm going to be out there fighting every step of the way with all these candidates. Well, what we're seeing in the Trump

35:36spending pattern now in the Senate races is he obviously thinks Ohio is very much at risk, Texas is at risk. He's putting money in there. He sees in his spending pattern the possibility of you picking up the number of seats that you need. Yeah, I think we can. I mean, if we keep up the momentum that we have today and we have some, these things change. I mean, the American people have half of the country right now is having a hard time affording food. Young people can afford places to live, can afford health care. I was flying from Boston to Phoenix today and a 25-year-old left a note on a napkin for me on my seat when I came out of the restroom. It was there. It wasn't signed. And he was pleading with me to just do something because he doesn't see any time in the future that he's going to afford a place to live or afford health care, be able to have a family or even kids. There's a lot of anxiety out there. I see it in my own kids as well. It's not the same.

36:44I mean, the concentration of wealth with the richest Americans just continues to go up. And the rest of America is just left behind. And that's the system that Donald Trump wants. And it's the system that these billionaires that fund him would like to continue. Senator Markelli, thank you very much for joining us tonight. And I hope that person who was on that flight with you heard you acknowledge that communication that it got through. Thank you. Look at my Twitter account, Laurence. I posted the napkin. Take a look at it. Oh, great. Okay. We'll do that. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Joining us, Senator. Thank you. You're welcome. Coming up. New Washington Post reporting today revealed that Donald Trump gave a cash gift of $45,000 to his racist social media helper, Natalie Harp. Something a former White House ethics lawyer says is illegal. Andrew Weissman joins us next.

37:50Washington Post is reporting on White House financial disclosure forms showing that Donald Trump gave $45,000 cash gifts to his executive assistant, Natalie Harp and two of his other young loyal White House employees on their disclosure forms, which were released publicly late last week, the free women described the payments as cash gift for holidays. The gifts amount to about one third of the $150,000 salaries they each earned from their White House positions according to an annual report to Congress. While not the director of Oval Office Operations reported a $20,000 gift from the president. Now it is who earns $175,000 also accompanied Trump on the catering truck in Turkey. Walt Nowder also was indicted with Donald Trump by a grand jury hearing evidence presented

38:51by Special Pressure to Jack Smith about classified documents. Donald Trump illegally kept in his floor to resort. Former White House ethics attorney Richard Panctor said on social media that the Trump cash gifts to those women, quote, may violate section 209 of Title 18 of the U.S. Code, a federal criminal statute that prohibits supplementing the salaries of government employees. The White House issued a statement saying, quote, the gifts that issue here have nothing to do with any of these individuals official government duties and therefore are entirely permissible under relevant legal and ethical standards. Also today a federal appeals court allowed the State of Missouri to use a Republican-drawn congressional map in the November election the appeals court did not rule on the legality of the map itself, but said, quote, the motion for a state pending appeal is denied because we either lacked jurisdiction over the appeal or based on

39:57the briefing we have so far, the state factors have not been met. The New York Times reports, the redrawn Missouri map adopted by the state legislature in September 2025 divided the core of Kansas City, Missouri, the state's largest city into several districts in an attempt to unseat a manual cleaver. One of two Democrats in the state's congressional delegation, the new map was drawn outside the usual redistricting cycle at Mr. Trump's request. As part of an effort to improve the Republican Party's chances of holding the House in the 2026 midterms, joining us now is Andrew Weissman, former FDI, General Counsel, and an MS now legal analyst. He is the author of the best-selling book, Lyre's Kingdom, How to Stop Trump's Deceit and Save America. Andrew, we turn to you once again for the perennial question of the Trump presidency. Is it legal? Is it legal to hand Natalie Harp 45,000

40:57dollars in cash? This is one where I think a lot of people listening to this will be, well, what's the big deal here? Why is this something we should care about when we've seen so many really, truly horrendous things and life and death batters, not just things that have to do with money. And here's why you should care about this. When you are a federal employee, your loyalty is to the American people. You are paid as salary. You don't take that job to get rich. You have a stated salary. Your loyalty is to all of the American people. You are not allowed to accept outside money, except in unusual circumstances not related here. You are also not allowed to give money if you are the president to people like that. And there is really good reasons

41:58that this is regulated. So the bottom line answer is that everything that this looks like to me appears to be illegal. It would be federally illegal, which means that the Department of Justice would be in charge of bringing that case. And Todd Blanche, as sure as we are on the air discussing this, will not do so. But this is a case that could live on as a possible investigation in the next Justice Department if we have a Democratic president three years from now. Absolutely. This is one, along with many other things, that the statute of limitations, the time period in which you have to bring a case will still be in effect when Donald Trump leaves office. There are also state crimes that can be prosecuted. And the one thing that it is

43:02worth people remembering is that the president does have the pardon power. And the reason I'm raising that is that with respect to federal charges, I think we should very much anticipate the kind of abusive use of the federal pardon power that we saw at the beginning of this particular administration. Yeah, we've had reports that Donald Trump intends to pardon everyone working in the White House. So that would certainly include Natalie Hart. Absolutely. Now, the one issue that Supreme Court has not had to address, fortunately, in this country is whether a president can pardon himself. And so that is an open issue, but we may very well see a president who tries to do that. And we where we have that case going up. But I say, say, it is fortunate that this country has never had to deal with that issue before.

44:02Andrew Weissman, thank you very much for joining us once again tonight. You're welcome. Thank you. And as of today, you can join our MSNOW membership, which lets you connect with your favorite MSNOW hosts and analysts, including Andrew Weissman. MSNOW members can watch Andrew's exclusive weekly series, answers with Andrew Weissman, where he'll discuss legal cases and developments. And he will answer your questions just like he answers my questions. Stand the QR code on your screen or go to MS.now slash membership to become a member. And you can ask Andrew Weissman, is it legal? We'll be right back. That is tonight's last word. There's a lot of news to cover. Money Time for the business, all eyes on the new Fed chair,

45:04the economic fallout from the war. Is it temporary? Power. The president is now a major crypto industry operator. Is this White House for sale? Politics. Is there an energy to respond to this aggressive gerrymandering? It has never been more important to be informed and engaged. Money powered politics with Stephanie Rule weekdays at 9 a.m. Eastern on MSNOW and find more on the MSNOW app.