Republicans wrap up "midterm convention" in Dallas

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 11th hour starts now. And it is Thursday, September the 10th,

1:0154 days until the midterm elections and the second night of the Republican party's midterm convention. So called Trump a Paloza. It's just wrapped up in Dallas in the last few minutes. Donald Trump said that he would give a brief speech in the last 25 minutes, which is I guess different than the hour and 45 minutes from last night. And I'm just gonna say together with my team, you don't all see this, right? You see me every night. But you don't see is that my team spends a lot of time, many hours crafting this show, working together to find exactly the right words and the best way to explain the events of the day. But this Republican event in Dallas kind of defies words, or maybe we're just not capable of writing the right words about it. Not just Trump himself, but every other baggage laden Republican who's on this ride with him and everyone who's tried to explain away the increasingly unhinged ideas that he's peddling. But we'll start with the president, and this truly astonishing moment in American history.

2:04Please raise your right hand. I pledge to the greatest president in the history of the United States that loves us so much, he can't even breathe. But I will go out with my family, my friends. I'll do it anyway. I don't care if I'm registered or not, I'm gonna try and cheat like hell like they do. They've never been bigger cheaters and I'm gonna go out and I'm gonna get my friends my family. And we are going to vote on November 3rd or we are going to vote before that. You know what happens if you don't vote? You go to hell, you know that, okay? You go to hell.

3:04My word, joining me is John Fuglesan, comedian, a serious ex-semin host, New York Times best-selling author, and joining us as well as Republican, former Republican Congressman from Pennsylvania, Charlie Dent who's got an expression on his face that I haven't seen in a long time because this was some crazy stuff. This is some crazy stuff. And I'm looking, as a favorite of my beloved viewers, you're not getting to watch the whole thing. But John, I'm gonna start with you because it's not even really comedy. I don't know what that was. I mean, I thought from a first second because I'm still able to be deluded that when he said please raise your right hand, I thought he might do something that actually represents the Pledge of Allegiance. But it was really, it was a pledge to Donald Trump. Can you imagine the Pledge of Obediance? The Pledge of Obediance. Of course. Can you imagine if someone else had tried that? What? I don't know. They say that about seven times a day. Yeah, Ali. Pledge yourself. Yeah, look, I think you're looking at it all wrong. It's great that this man is able to serve as president on an outpatient basis. And that crowd behind him, you notice the crowd behind him. That was the same crowd for diversity night.

4:06They were really excited because they were very excited. They're not worried about gas prices. They're getting their $5,000 dividend check very soon to go with their tariff check and their doge refund check. So Donald Trump has really won the crowd over by finally promising to deliver socialism handouts for American citizens. Well, you know why? He just blew up the entire GOP argument. If he can do it, we can do it too, Charlie. I'm sorry you're not here, Charlie, but I'm going to do this first one. I'm going to make it out to you. Charlie? This is a very important, impressive prop, Congressman. He gets his $5,000 check. I'm not quite sure how to spell fuel saying it. We're going to try it. Okay. F-U-G. Anything beginning with that? This is a, and Charles W. A $5,000 check for Charlie. $5,000 check for John. And while we're at it, I'm going to make a $5,000 check for me. Charlie, Dad, you spent a day or two in government. Can you explain this thing to me? This $5,000 check, because Fox News asked Donald Trump about it. Said, well, why did you give it to him now?

5:07Like if you, if you're the, I mean, you control both houses of Congress. Why didn't you just give it to him now? And he said, no, we can't. The Democrats won't let us. Well, the Democrats got a better chance of letting you do it now when they're not in control of Congress than when they are. Well, yeah, if it's a good idea, yeah, you should put it on the floor next week and pass it. But look, this is one of those ideas it had, you know, had a Democratic president suggested such an absurd idea. Republicans would have been ridiculing it and deservedly so. And I think this is really, it's hypocritical too, because many Republicans, including Donald Trump, are very critical of Democratic stimulus during COVID that it was too much. Now, this is another form of stimulus, some might call it a bribe, it's a paid a vote. But it's a form of stimulus at a time of inflation, which makes no sense at all. Of course, it's profiligate because there's no way to pay for this and they've already spent the tariff revenue three different ways a Sunday. And that's that money's already being refunded because of the court orders. So I'm not so, this is like, this is one of those bad ideas.

6:09It's not going anywhere. It's absurd. And I think if you talk to most Republicans, they're offended by the proposal because I just think it's profiligate and wasteful. I will say, I don't know if I've actually got this thing that he said, but he's talking about $21 trillion. I think he gives saying tariffs are his favorite word, which is just weird, right? Like that's the kind of thing that somebody doesn't use a lot of rights. The same thing. Yeah, tariffs are my favorite word. So here's what I want to tell you about John. He's saying $21 trillion dollars is what he's taken and that's what's going to pay for the check, right? So again, Charlie and John, you both have different experiences. You can tell me about this. Let me just put up, do we have the screen, Rebecca, of what the 20, okay, let me put this up. Donald Trump said, and I actually said 22. I guess they are earlier than he said 21. So now we got up to 22. When he first started talking about this, it was 18 that it was 20. So his claim is that there's been $22 trillion in revenue because of tariffs. Okay, the White House, if you go to the White House website itself to try and find this 22 trillion, you won't find it. You will see that's my error by the way I wrote this.

7:12It's $9.6 trillion. The White House says it's $9.6 trillion investment. So less than half of what Donald Trump is claiming. Bloomberg checked it and found that it was $7 trillion. But here's the thing where you can help me, Charlie. It's not $7 trillion in tariffs. It's $7 trillion in foreign investment into the United States, which Donald Trump claims is tariff revenue because he was going to put all these tariffs on the Japanese, for instance, and then he took the tariffs down. So the Japanese decided to invest $550 million in a particular plant or a few hundred million here. It's not $7 trillion in tariff revenue. The tariff revenue, depending on how you estimate it, different government agencies say, was between $195 and $287 billion with a B over the last 12 months or so. I mean, this is just, I can't swear because we don't like to do that on this. But Charlie, it's not, it's, it's, it's, find another word, but it's like, it's nonsense. Well, yeah, and that, and that tariff number you just showed, I don't know if that's also accounting for the tariff revenue that has to be refunded because of the court ruling

8:17on the, on the, on the, on the, I, I eat the tariffs. So that's, there's that. And the far end, the, the, the, the wrecked foreign investment in the United States, that's, that's wonderful. But some of that money though, you know, I, I think they, they inflate a lot of numbers and things can change quickly. You may remember Foxconn and the previous Trump administration. They made a big pledge and a big to do and I don't think that's really panned out. So a lot of these numbers get thrown out. Some of these, this foreign direct investment was already planned. Some of it is new. But, but again, it's not because of the tariffs. It's because of, it's something else. You can take pride in the fact that you attracted foreign direct investment, but you're right. Because they go and they sign these deals for so many planes or whatever's like they, they were planning to buy the planes, but they saved the announcement for while you were there and doing that. Many events tried to explain away the five, this is going to be number four that I'm looking for from my control room, tried to explain away the $5,000 checks on Fox. Let's listen to this attempt.

9:17I 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 place. So how do you answer those criticisms? I say first of all, what the President is talking about is fundamentally a dividend for American workers. What the President is just saying is, if you keep it going to the American people, if you keep us in power and allow us to continue to do these things, then you're going to share in some of the benefit of this incredible wealth that we're creating in the United States of America. I don't think it's a controversial idea. John, so it's metaphorical. Oh, indeed, yes. Don't take it so literally. That was the perfect, give me your checks back. I kept them here. You don't get your checks. That's it, right? I'm ready for you, buddy. He's amplifying it already. He's already trying to qualify it in ways that the Mag of Faithful won't appreciate.

10:20I mean, that's the American 24 hours into this thing and he's taken the check. Already, already he's got it. Again, it's a cult of selfishness and all they all care about is their own careers and JD Vance is only trying to think about how he can be elected president, which will never happen with Maga. He might be America's most amoral eyeliner model, but he does not have the Riz to get the Mag of Faithful on Riz. Charlie, part of the issue is that the reason anybody be interested in five down or any kind of check and this administration has a lot of promises about a lot of checks. I'm so waiting for my dose check. It's like a lot of checks. But part of the reason people want this is because cost living is high, gas prices are up. What an interesting thing if Donald Trump were to come up with a way to say, hey, I'm going to actually work on something that's going to stop all that stuff. But instead, he mentioned it again. What do you call the straight of hormones to Trump's straight? He referred to that as a Trump straight now because apparently we're in full control of that in the same way that the war was over several weeks ago when he said mission accomplished. Well, you know, look, if we really want to help Americans with costs, let's repeal the tariffs.

11:20You know, bring the Iranian war to a close and reopen the straight. That would help put downward pressure on gasoline prices and fertilize prices and other things. So I mean, do things that lower Americans costs. Don't just don't raise tariff revenue and say, I'm going to rebate it back to you, give you the money back. I mean, that's just absurd. And it's destructive. It impede economic growth. There's all kinds of reasons why these shouldn't be doing that stuff. So why does he worry about work on lowering cost for Americans? That's what this, this midterm election is all about, frankly. So I think the wrong way to do it. This is not a Republican answer. By the way, Republicans would have gone crazy a few years ago. I had something like this proposed by a Democratic president. Guys, hang on for a second. We got to pay the bills because around here we actually do have to pay the bills. But we're going to come back and continue our conversation with Charlie Dent. Ken Paxton, the very controversial Republican nominee for Senate wants you to know that he is just like Donald Trump. Just not in the way you're probably thinking about. We'll be right back.

12:21Ever since I was young, I've watched people working hard, chasing opportunity, making sacrifices, doing everything that Ken 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. I'm the line with Alicia Menendez, weekdays at 12 p.m. Eastern on MS now. Well, look, when you're fighting, they come after you. Look at Donald Trump. He had many more indictments I did, had two impeachments. I went through a very similar process as him. When you go after things that protect the people of your state, they come after you. I've even credit to one of my producers, Mora Daley, who after identifying that comment said, that's not quite the flex you think it is. Charlie Dent talking about the fact that Donald Trump had many more indictments than I

13:24had. So we're both, you know, he should vote for us. Yeah, and we should also point out too that Ken Paxen was impeached by a Republican house of representatives and taxes, not a Democrat. So no, not a particularly good argument. This is why Ken Paxen has put Texas at great risk for Republicans. I mean, he can actually lose this seat just because there are so many Republicans that were turned off by him and who may not pull the lever form. And that's making this race, you know, with Haloriko, Ken, win this race. I'm saying you will, but because of all this, he's a deeply, this guy, Paxen is a deeply flawed candidate for a whole host of reasons. And I think Republicans are finding that out now. He can't raise money. And if Trump wants to help Paxen, the best thing you do is probably drop $80 million or that $400 million in the state of Texas. Well, let's talk about that because Donald Trump did think about helping Ken Paxen. Tonight, in fact, there's a lot of people who think that's a big part of the reason why this event's actually happening in Texas. The Texas is not a state that you would necessarily think Democrats, Republicans would need to

14:25spend a lot of money thinking about. So Donald Trump started talking about Ken Paxen tonight. And in typical Donald Trump fashion, he doesn't start where you expect him to start. He started with Ken Paxen in his audience. Oh, good. Let's listen to this. I said, I don't like the way Ken dresses. Although I also said he looked really sharp in that suit yesterday, I think. Spiffy. And then I said, I don't really like the way Ken talks. And then I said something that they really hated. Please, sir, don't say it, sir. So I'm not going to say it, but I'll tell you what I was thinking about, sir. I said, I don't really like the way he looks. I don't like it. I don't like it. Uh, as you yell for review, Paxen, yeah, I don't, I think I don't get what is that?

15:27Is that an endorsement? I don't understand what was that? That's the same speech he gave last week. Just be liddling the man. I mean, when you shift John Corning to get this guy at the job and then can't stop insulting this guy. And it's I thought Ken looked actually looked quite life like tonight. That wasn't fair at all. Charlie, I mean, it's weird, right? Because he did have a guy, John Corning, who in the pantheon of Republicans these days is a pretty sane fellow, voted with Trump all the time. Good fundraiser. Good fundraiser. But he put the thumb on the scale for Ken Paxen. And now he's got Ken Paxen. Telleriko might or might not be a really good candidate. This is an interesting guy. But he's got, he's running against Ken Paxen, which is telleriko's single biggest advantage. Well, yeah, well, Donald Trump, you know, he bought Ken Paxen. The center Republicans didn't have money available. They weren't planning to spend a whole lot of money in Texas because they knew John Corning would probably prevail. And he's John Corning's a very good honorable mainstream kind of guy. But Paxen is a liability. And so they need all kinds of money for this guy Paxen.

16:28And that's why this whole idea of, you know, with Trump sitting on $400 million, I thought that was coming off a Trump's leisure to pay for this Paxen race. And money might not do the trick here, by the way, because of all the other baggage that you've already discussed. I don't get it. And by the way, the belittling of Paxen's looks, I saw him tonight. It looked pretty normal to me. I mean, there's appearance, but I just don't understand the obsession with his looks where he's wearing and how he presents himself. Yeah, this is just, I guess that's just Trump thing. He just likes talking about people. At least 101. I just love to know where these sentences are going, where this is going. He's on the way. Look, what are you talking about? You are, people don't know this, but you actually, you know what, you have a lot of religion in you. I do. The therapist says I'm coming along fine. So Ted Cruz decided that he was going to lean into religion tonight, but in an interesting way, it wasn't exactly what I expected. It wasn't to what Ted Cruz had to say. Here me now. Sharia law has no place in America.

17:32Sharia law is fundamentally inconsistent with the Constitution, and we need to stand together and stop it now. We have a rendezvous with destiny. Together we must stand and fight for the Constitution. We must stand and fight for freedom. We must stand and defeat the Communist. We must stand and defeat the Islamists. Put a lot in there. My one beef, of course, is that Sharia is law. So Sharia law is kind of saying like non-bred and chit-tee and tuna fish. But that said, Sharia and Communists and all this, this has become, John, it's become quite a thing in Texas. This Islamic threat thing has become a huge thing that they talk about all the time. I don't know if you've been to Texas lately, but the whole thing is one big Islamic place.

18:34They really, really care about a separation of mosque and state. That's important. This is the essence of fundamentalism. Look, it's the right wing of every religion that's ruining every religion. It is the extreme fundamentalist Muslims and Jews and Christians that are ruining the brand of Islam, Judaism and Christianity. It's not the liberal and moderate Christians, Muslims and Jews. They're doing just fine, going to schools together. Come to New Orleans. Come to New Orleans. Come to New Orleans. Come to New Orleans. Come to New Orleans. Come to New Orleans. Come to New Orleans. Come to New Orleans. Having the sexing ups, thinking violence is okay if my side doesn't. Ted said one thing true. Sharia law is illegal because of that separation of church and state that they so despised. Yes. Of course, they really want to have what I call Scalila, which is extreme fundamentalist conservative Christian government. But at the end of the day, Ted gave another part of the speech where he was talking about Al-Sayed and talking about Bhamdani and Al-Ariko. Ted the crowd began chanting to commit acts of violence against these people.

19:38Is it the one year anniversary, Mr. Kirk? Yeah. And they were calling merrily for violence against people, two Muslims, one Christian. I'm writing my next book about the history of revoltingly fake Christianity. The formula is this. Step one, you use Jesus' name to get power. Step two, with that power, you do the opposite of what Jesus teaches. And step three, if someone points out, step two, you screen persecution. James Talariko is someone who is saying Christians should follow the teachings of Christ. Ken Paxton is biting the heads off of live screaming bleeding angels. And this is the test before Christians of Texas. You don't need to believe in the Bible as literal fact to say, if you're a Christian, the teachings of Christ are not compatible with the modern Republican movement. Guys, I appreciate you being here tonight. John Fugel saying, you can hear it, you can have your check. I love my check, thank you for being here for your five bells. No, I'm not going to need my dough to stay out as well. Charlie, you know what to mean? Your check is in the mail, Charlie.

20:40Thank you. But just to be clear, so that no one comes looking for me, these are photocopies. There's fakes. I'm not writing government checks because it's 2026 and anything can happen. On here for the prop comedy. There you go. Nice to see you both. I get it. Thank you. Thank you, thank you. Series X-7, host and comedian, Charlie Dent, former Congressman from Pennsylvania. All right, coming up, the White House has been uncharacteristically quiet about plans sanctions on settlements in the Occupied West Bank by U.S. allies. We'll tell you why that silence actually speaks volumes. And Republicans must be worried about an election when they named drop their Democratic opponent 10 times. We're going to talk to North Carolina, Democrat, who has never lost an election. Home to the Rachel Maddo Show. Morning Joe, the briefing with Jen Socky and more voices you know and trust. MS now is your source for news, opinion and the world.

21:41Learn more at MS.Now. This week, a dozen Western countries led by Britain jointly announced new sanctions on Israeli settlements in the Occupied West Bank. The announcement was made by the British Foreign Minister Ed Milliband, who also noted that he is, quote, a proud British Jew whose Holocaust survivor grandmother found a home in Israel. The British government agrees that there is ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas of the West Bank, perpetrated by settler terrorists. And all too often, the Israeli government has turned a blind eye to this, and worse members of it have made statements and taken actions to support the false displacement of Palestinians.

22:52And so this may be more of a symbolic move than a substantial economic blow, but it is nonetheless highly notable coming from these Western, mostly European nations that have historically been incredibly strong allies of Israel. It's also been met with a sharp response from Israel's leadership. Israel's government responded to the sanctions by shutting down the British consulate in East Jerusalem, which fundamentally is there to work with Palestinians. Israel's far right finance minister, Bezalol Smotrich, wrote, quote, we will not be a doormat for an anti-Semitic government in a country occupied by radical Islam that is trying to escape economic and social collapse by attacking Jews and the state of Israel. And, quote, in case you're missing the context here, he's talking about the United Kingdom in his comments. Meanwhile, Axios is reporting that the Trump White House chose not to push back on the new British led sanctions on Israel settlements, one anonymous US official told Politico that Washington is, quote, staying out of it.

23:54This could signal Trump is losing patience with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on this issue, just as Netanyahu is in the political fight of his life. Israel's elections are next month just before US elections, and Netanyahu is not just trying to remain in power, but he's trying to remain a free man because he's facing an ongoing trial on corruption charges. Do you know anything now is Aaron David Miller, former Arab-Israeli negotiator at the US Department of State, he's a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Aaron, thank you for being with us. A few things coming together here, let's start with this message from the United Kingdom. A couple of things. One is, it's not a huge number. The amount of stuff that comes out of the West Bank is not big, but Milliband statement was very strong. Also it becomes a little hard to call him anti-Semitic as Smotrished did. Yeah, I mean, look, only the context here I think is very important. We're talking about an Israeli government that over the last four years has approved 104 settlements.

24:54When every Israeli government from 1996 until the current Israeli government came into being in 2022, approved only one. We're talking about an Israeli government, the business of Los Motchic and each of our Ben Gavir, racist supremists, who basically have committed themselves to fundamentally lean the groundwork if not for, if not the annexation of the West Bank. You're talking about a degree of settler violence. My cock can be called the settler terrorism in certain cases. That's precisely what it is that has become a prominent feature. Not a bug, but a structural reality in the West Bank. So the Brits and the other countries impose sanctions on imports. It won't affect the overall relationship between the EU and the Israelis in terms of trade. But it will affect, it could affect imports from specific settlements. These sanctions also, I'll even go into effect anywhere from six to nine months.

25:57So what you're going to see happen maybe October 27th, Nithanyahu is facing a critically important election right now. Neither he nor the opposition has enough seats to form a government. But if in fact the government does change, Nithanyahu, government Israel for 15 to laugh 17 years is out of power. I think that part of the European concern about Israeli settlements, not all of it, is going to be ameliorate. Trump administration, I think your point is exactly right. Donald Trump has been offered at least five opportunities to endorse Benjamin Nithanyahu. He has the most recent thing he said is I may endorse someone, I don't want to get involved in his selection. So it's clear his relationship with Nithanyahu is waning. He doesn't like losers and he may well believe that this is the end of the road for this Israeli prime minister. Yeah, and this is interesting because one of Nithanyahu's strongest selling points

27:01as a candidate is I am the Israeli prime minister who was able to bring the Americans along to fight with us either in the war with Gaza or in the war with Iran. There was a point at which Nithanyahu had posters up with him and Trump. This is now waning. He doesn't seem to be able to hang on to that as clearly. Yeah, that was Trump 1.0, Hollywood, where a number of goodies, the administration of the president personally bestowed on the Israelis, including declaring Goll-On-Hite sovereign Israeli territory. And we have seen it in settlement activity and other deliverables for the Israelis. That's not what you're seeing in Trump 2.0. I think the president has not publicly talked about this frustration with the way this war is going. He has not blamed it on Benjamin Nithanyahu, but he can't be happy that the Israelis oversold regime change in Iran and got him into this fix. Even though this is not just Nithanyahu's war, Ali, it's Trump's as well.

28:04So I think all of this is combining to create a situation where this senior junior partner may be evolving. And it may well be that Donald Trump has reached the conclusion. Again, he doesn't like losers backing losers. May have reached the conclusion that the final two years of his presidency, if in fact he's going to make the situation Gaza better. Even in fact, he's going to add to his favorite enterprise, which is the Abraham Accord countries, or go after the ultimate prize is really starting normalization. He cannot do it with Benjamin Nithanyahu. We'll see October 27. There's still time for the president to endorse him. But I suspect that Trump may well be prepared just to let the chips fall where they may. And this time around 15 to the last 17 years, Benjamin Nithanyahu has been the most competent, the most ruthless politician in Israeli politics. We'll see if his string has finally played out. I want to ask you one quick question. We don't usually delve into this, but there's all sorts of talk in America about sentiment

29:07toward the government of Israel, not Israelis and Israel, but the government of Israel and how it shifted. You have been involved in this war decades. What do you make of that? All right, I have to say I've never seen the US's early relationship under more stress than it is now. The foundational supports common values, common interests, and a strong basis of bipartisan, sustainable, domestic, political support in Israel is is under enormous stress. There used to be a time only not too long ago where being good on Israel was an advantage to American politicians. This time around, it seems to me, particularly in the Democratic Party, being critical of Israel, is the scene of Kwanan for adding to your support, not subtracting to it. So again, I'm not predicting the end of this relationship. You need a new, frankly, having worked and voted for Congress and Democrats, I'll say

30:10this without hesitation reservation. You need a new Israeli prime minister, Ali, and you need a new American president. Thank you, my friend. It's always good to hear your sage, your wisdom on this. Aaron David Miller is a senior fellow in the current again, downman for International Peace. I'm pleasure. He's a former Arab Israeli negotiator at the Department of State. All right, coming up, Democrats are feeling confident about being able to pick up a Senate seat in North Carolina this fall with a candidate who has never lost an election, but Roy Cooper says voters should not take his expected victory for granted. As Democrats fight to flip the Senate, one of the key races they're counting on is North Carolina, where two candidates are competing to replace the retiring Republican Tom Tilles. The state's former Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, is facing off against the former chair

31:11of the Republican National Committee, Michael Wattley. Cooper's ahead in most polling with an average 8.3 point lead against Wattley across multiple polls. And joining me now is the Democratic candidate for the United States Senate from North Carolina, the former governor, Roy Cooper. Governor, nice to see you again. Thank you for joining us. Sure, I'd be here. You were pretty popular last night. Your name was mentioned ten times in a speech at this Trump of Paloza in Texas by your opponent, Michael Wattley. In fact, let me do this. Let me play a little of the sound. I'm sure you've heard it already, but our viewers may not have. Listen to what your opponent said about you. Under President Trump's leadership, Republicans passed the working family's tax cuts and put thousands of dollars back into the hands of families and seniors. My opponent, Roy Cooper, opposed this bill. This is the radical Democrats playbook.

32:12The raise costs on our families to impose a reckless tax and spend agenda. The American dream and families all across our nation are under assault today thanks to the radical extreme policies of Democrats like Roy Cooper. Okay, you radicals at there for a second while I talked to you about Frank Brute's column on you that I read the other day. Which I thought was really interesting, but he says the title of the column is this, is this Democrat too good for his own good. And the thrust of Frank Brute's column is that you're not actually a radical. You're a pretty moderate guy in an election in which people are looking for various different things across the political spectrum and various different degrees of fight that people have in you. Would you like to address Michael Wattley's allegation that you are a radical extremist? Well, what do you expect when you have a campaign that's based on lies like like his campaign is?

33:12I think they need to take a hard look in the mirror when they're talking about cost to families in North Carolina. They are the ones who passed this big betrayal bill that ended up doubling healthcare premiums. There were the ones that passed this bill that ended up ripping healthcare away from people under the Affordable Care Act because they pulled the rug out from under them with the subsidies that they were getting before. They're the ones that passed this bill that's going to cut Medicaid after the election. And in fact, the current Republican Senator sitting at this seat that I'm running for Tom Tillest stood up on the floor of the Senate and said, I can't vote for this bill. Because I don't know what I tell the people in North Carolina who have healthcare now because we came together in a bipartisan agreement to expand Medicaid to get 735,000 people health insurance. They're the ones that passed this bill that gave the tax breaks to the billionaires and the very wealthiest and pennies to everybody else.

34:15Look, stuff just costs too much right now. And instead of being in Dallas with his DC insider friends, he ought to be back in North Carolina hearing the stories that I am hearing on my make-up cost list to tour across our state. It's tough on families out there right now. I want to read to you from Frank Bruney's article because there's another point that he raises which I think is actually interesting for you. He says, Cooper's enormous strength is his greatest weakness and his campaign aids fret not that the water is choppy, but rather that the sailing is too smooth. It's dangerously possible that many Democratic donors and North Carolina voters take Cooper's victory for granted and don't do what they should, which is pony up generously and cast ballots enthusiastically. And I'll say we fall victim to this because when you look at our map of the Democratic path to control of the Senate, we sort of skip over you. We sort of say, well, you know, North Carolina Roy Cooper's looking pretty good there. That's an interesting talk for media.

35:18Probably not all that helpful to you. No, it's not. And if you look at the history of North Carolina, it's very difficult for a Democrat to get elected to the United States Senate. Our last Democrat was elected almost two decades ago and we've only had two Democrats elected in almost 40 years and both of those are one-termers. And we've seen two outside Republican groups purchase about $100 million worth of attack ads deceptive as they are. They've been effective in narrowing the polling gap and we've seen time after time Democrats in North Carolina be ahead in the summertime and be behind in the fall. On top of that, this recent Supreme Court case that allows these joint committees that are now going to get this lowest unit charge because of the Supreme Court. They can get an ad that is two to 16 times cheaper than they normally would be able to get it under the law as it should be.

36:20So yeah, I'm concerned. And in fact, this new law that the Supreme Court has allowed is taking power away from everyday people, those grassroots people who are helping us with the five and ten and hundred dollar contributions. This gives the billionaires and the big corporations and the big donors more power. We're asking people to go to Rory Cooper.com, sign up to volunteer for the campaign, help us out financially if you can because this race is going to be close. It's going to be a one to three point race regardless of what you're seeing these polls now. We know a lot of undecided voters in North Carolina, lean Republican. That's what's happened so many times before. We're not going to let it happen this time, but we need people's help to make sure that we get across the finish line because we can't flip the Senate without North Carolina. That's right. Governor, good to see you again. Thank you for joining us tonight. We appreciate your time. Thanks a lot. Even though you're an extremist radical.

37:22Quick call of the leaders. Yeah, that's good evening, sir. Democratic candidate for the United States Senate from North Carolina, the former governor, Mike Cooper. All right. Coming up on the eve of the 25th anniversary of 9-11, we'll share the story of the Canadian town that took in thousands of stranded Americans in this country's darkest hours. Tomorrow will be 25 years since the September 11th terrorist attacks, and there will of course be commemorations here in New York and Washington DC across the country, but there will also be a commemoration in Gander, Newfoundland, Canada. Thousands of airline passengers were diverted to Gander's tiny airport following the attacks and the town opened itself up. Remarkable friendships were formed. A hit musical was inspired by the events of the five-day layover born in crisis.

38:24MSNOW, Senior Transportation Reporter Josh Eininger has more. Newfoundland, Canada. The vast island wilderness jutting into the North Atlantic, at home to the town of Gander, population less than 10,000. But 25 years ago, on September 11th, Gander would be front and center in the race to clear the airspace over an America under attack. And it started out as such a normal day. I mean, it was exceptionally beautiful. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, not a bump in the road. Beverly Bass had already made history as the first female captain at American Airlines. That day, she was cruising from Paris to Dallas when the pilot ahead of her keyed up his radio with some astonishing news. He said an airplane that's hit the world tried tower. And then about 20 minutes later, that said, the second tower has been hit. Gander calls us, America, 49, land your airplane immediately, and Gander, Newfoundland.

39:28When you rolled out and Gander, and you saw those planes, what did you think? Well, I couldn't believe it. Seeing that many airplanes, they're on every taxiway, and I'm looking around thinking, where am I going to park this thing? 38 wide body jets would cram onto Gander's tarmac that morning. 7,000 strangers out of the blue. If I could compare, it's like Costco on a Saturday. Except they're all jumbo jets. Now retired, Grant Smith was a Royal Canadian Mountie test with keeping everyone calm. You turn on the TVs and you head the buildings collapsing, the twin towers and things like that. And we got 7,000 people. No, it's Barcloth. They called them the plane people, and no one knew how long they'd be stranded. But there was a more pressing concern.

40:29So many people landed in Gander on 9-11. They just didn't have enough places to put them all. And so in many cases, people found themselves getting driven hours away into the Newfoundland countryside. So we really didn't know where our next meal was coming from, whether we'd be sleeping in a chair. The Supercudelia and Marine Murray had been heading home to New Jersey after a European vacation. And after 9 hours on the tarmac, they deplained to find a whole welcome mat laid out before them. I just remember there were tables that were lined with food. Apples, sandwiches, bottled water. And it's like we knew what Gander was busy doing during the time that we were on the plane. They were busy preparing for this influx of passengers. Your carry on was checked, okay, and your passport. They were also then head to wait for a school bus to take them. Our first bus came after midnight. Four plane loads wound up at Gander Academy, a local elementary school where Diane Davis

41:32was a third grade teacher. More than 700 people would sleep on the gym floor. And so it was just water wall people. Walled wall people, these were our deluxe suites. We had television set up. And passengers would come in and they hadn't seen it. So when a flight would come in, they would gather. And they would watch it. And every time the plane struck, it was like seeing it again for the first time. Day and night, the town dropped everything to take care of their guests. Three meals a day, clothing, medicine. It didn't matter if you were cooking food for somebody or if you were inviting someone to your house for a shower. But Molle was going up the driveway. There was a guy coming out of the door with a shaving kit. And then when I went into the door, there was another guy in the shower. And our darkest moments, which it was for us, kindness was everything.

42:34And as soon as they never stopped for five days. Five days of waiting. And then, that suddenly as it began, it was over. Airspace reopened over North America. And it was time, finally, to go home. You could see I'm in the middle there. But first thoughts is how well we pulled it off. That's one of most proud of. When we landed, it was emotional. For really all three of us in the cockpit. But I think that was the first time that we were able to let our guard down. Tears were running down our faces for sure. You can watch Josh's full report, 25 years after 9-11, the Canadian town that became a safe haven on YouTube. Tonight's 11th hour is done. Tomorrow starts right now. For me, being a part of this place has always been about the people, not about the politics.

43:43From 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.