Watch The Beat with Ari Melber Highlights: June 27

when we begin now with major news on these Rising anti-democratic forces in America from the Voting Rights crackdowns and a sale assorted government plots to the big lie attacks on election results that can Stoke actual insurrections now we know the U.S has faced many different types of crises before but this era has been a perfect storm of right-wing demagogues weaponized propaganda from the internet to the Fox News defamation we covered and this is key The Perfect Storm includes a high-powered Elite driven effort to mainstream attacks on democracy and try to write them into our rules and that part of the effort is not let's be clear criminal activity like January 6th it's not something people are going to go to jail for it is what at least lawyers and others call arguably legal attacks that are still designed to hijack democracy from within and this is our top story right now tonight because this brings us to efforts to bend or break current laws and rules to try to Foster more anti-democratic outcomes that would be technically legal if these people get their way I'm talking about a world where politicians pick their voters instead of the other way around and I want to be clear there have been times where both parties have abused certain tactics like distorting and gerrymandering districts and if you believe in democracy it's wrong period no matter who does it at the same time I want to tell you what's happening the big push right now is that specifically radical republican effort on the right and it's been trying to get basically what they think are their allies the Trump fans that are on the Supreme Court he did get three justices on there along with other Republican appointees to try to endorse an attack on voting trying to give States the kind of unreviewable authority that those 2020 coup plotters wish they had and then distort or even override the vote if it doesn't go their way which in this case means if it doesn't go Republican it is a legal effort that has started to draw major warnings a high stakes case on voting Laws states have the primary authority to establish Election law it's kind of an Arcane Theory we're going to find out if in fact the Constitution tells us that state legislatures are the exclusive and ultimate Arbiter of election rules many analysts say the outcome could potentially quote damage American democracy and that's huge it is huge and it can be damaging so let's look at how this works specifically take North Carolina which went about 50 for Trump in the last election but the state's Republican politicians abused their powers over map drawing to try to hand their own party 71 of their delegation you see there that's if you count about 40 percent more voting power than they won from the voters that is a huge difference it's self-dealing it's distortive it's not democratic now when you look at that example that's one of many but that example that effort was so Brazen judges just threw out that attempted map then Republicans took that appeal to the Supreme Court to try to keep the map and also along the way they were trying to get the endorsement of a anti-democracy theory that might allow the kind of state-driven coups I mentioned that Trump wanted in 2020. so what's the Supreme Court going to do well you're watching the news I have the news for you today the Supreme Court ruled against Republicans in North Carolina dealing a blow to these Maga allies and opposing that type of partisan gerrymander plus what I mentioned the efforts to try to supersize State coup Powers through this Fringe Theory so that is a big deal and a big loss for them as for the court Republican appointee chief justice Roberts wrote the 6-3 ruling joined by two other Republican appointees and this comes after Roberts who has undercut MLK's Voting Rights Act in the past LED other recent rulings that draw at least a line to protect some basic voting rights including in southern states with a long history of racist attacks on black and brown voting rights so here we have a ruling that fortifies some voting rights a basic standard and adds another rebuke to the coup plotters like Trump lawyer John Eastman was actually facing other setbacks this week as California considers yanking his law license so when I tell you tonight this is a big story out of the Supreme Court that's because it's national news if you hadn't heard about this case that much well it's one of those times where believe me if it went the other way you'd be hearing about it for years because it would have rewired our democracy and so this for some people seems like a victory it definitely had a bipartisan Coalition for others it's a warning and for others still it's a reminder of something we've talked about on this program and heard from our experts about that the fight for democracy in America is not something that is over that is complete nor is America if we define democracy as a place where we all get to vote a very old democracy at best we're a young democracy and we need coalitions of people who are willing to fight for everyone's rights not just some people's rights and not just go with the elections when they like the outcome Donald Trump is facing his Watergate moment caught on tape admitting actions that could send him to prison driving damning headlines today about how he acknowledged he had these confidential documents on the tape and that's the heart of the case we did know of this tape because its Key Parts had already been transcribed in the dod enjoyment that got Trump arraigned just two weeks ago today and a detailed on Trump was at his golf club talking to a writer and people who had no security clearances but he showed them that plan of attack which he admitted was Secret so that's damning written evidence but hearing the defendant on tape can be more gripping than a transcript Richard Nixon's tapes showed that he of course had previously faced all kinds of witnesses and allegations but his real problems came with the tapes indeed as one Washington Post account explained across all of Watergate the most Sensational Revelation was that Nixon had a secret taping system when Nixon refused to release those tapes prosecutors issued subpoenas tapes can change everything if you've been near a TV lately you've probably seen how this actual audio broke as big news here on MSNBC last night and across the entire news ecosystem because hearing is different and that is what a jury will hear if this case goes to trial they'll hear what you are about to hear right now Trump in his own voice admitting but he has the confidential secret information which wouldn't apply to a newspaper article or other defenses it's Trump on tape talk and secret War plans and so now with our breakdown here is part one of the new tape well with Millie uh let me see that I'll show you an example he said that I wanted to attack Iran isn't it amazing to have a big pile of papers this thing just came off look this was him they presented me this is off the Record but they presented me this this was him this was the defense department in him we looked at some this was him this wasn't done by me this was him and all sorts of stuff it's pages long wait a minute let's see here okay yeah I just found isn't that amazing this totally wins my case you know except it is like highly confidential there's a secret look look at this you attack and Hillary would print that out all the time I should send it to Anthony Weiner um by the way is that incredible yeah I was just saying because we're talking about it and you know he said he wanted to attack Iran and what these were the papers you can hear the shuffling you can see what he's saying and hear everything he admits to now Jack Smith is using that tape as criminal evidence and here's how that works we can show you tonight the basic elements of the crime is across these three rows in the FBI we know found the illegal material in the Mar-A-Lago search tonight what's new and what the jury would hear is a tape which has the audio of the Criminal Intent Trump admitting he has highly confidential secret information so the doj argues that the beginning of the tape which I just played you proves those two elements right there you have the underlying evidence you have him saying that and then the next part shows Trump's knowledge at the time that he could have Declassified it but now he can't so as you consider this criminal chart this is literally how this actually works in the law you can now hear the second part of the new tape this was done by the military given to me um I think we can probably see yeah no I can't you know but this isn't that interesting yeah it's so cool I mean it's so I'm look we hear and I haven't and you probably almost didn't believe me but now you believe me no it's incredible right no they bring some bring some Cokes in please no it is classified you hear him saying it's basically too late to declassify because it doesn't have that legal Authority anymore and even exercise it when he did so again with the legal chart the lower right corner did the defendant willfully do it right not some honest mistake or mix up but we don't have the right mental intent this is what completes the required elements of the crime the doj arguing that Trump shows on tape that he knew that the confession there is as president I could have Declassified it now I can't a confession is one of the most damning ways to show that the defendant knew something that is why all of this is called Criminal Intent so the tape is a key path to getting an Espionage Act conviction now juries are instructed to weigh the facts not spin not grievances not the what about ISM where somebody says Hey other people did this in politics you hear that all the time but you can't tell a jury you did it but so did other people and they should go after those other people because the jury is under strict instructions under the force of law to only assess the facts about you what you did your Criminal Intent indeed there's reporting out there that this tape was a key driver for those nonpartisan prosecutors to decide that this was not some storage mix up that there was the deliberate crime and one where they had the proof with the defendant was knowingly intentionally deliberately committing that crime Jack Smith is ready to prove up all of this with the tape and other supporting material cooperation from the people who were in that room who may add Visual and other details well beyond the audio Smith got his hands on it and well someone else is presumably out there leaking it now because it's out there this is what the evidence sounds like Andre kosarev was Russia's foreign minister under Boris Yeltsin you can see him there the last elected leader before Putin he has been critical of this current regime and is the author of The Firebird The elusive fate of Russian democracy I appreciate you making time for us again how are you thank you so so are looking to Moscow and looking to what happens in my motherland yeah that does that give you a good mood you know right not a good mood and again as with all uh foreign coverage we have to only imagine for for a moment if it was our homeland if we were there and if there's many people we mentioned this whether it's Russia China or Iran there's tons of innocent people living their lives but under this type of government as we try to make sense of the question I just mentioned what what should we understand about how this started and what the pullback meant well uh you started actually showing my comment uh when we met before and you know I meant and I I think you meant uh the real kind of opposition opposition inside uh probably uh they put in structure of government a position from uh I thought patriotically minded though however military people but patriotically minded officers I met a lot of them actually in my constituency when I was alerted a representative of movements where the major naval military base is situated and they've voted for me despite my pro-american foreign policy at that time so um there are patriotic reminder but this situation now with precaution it's a different it's just a fight inside a gangster group you know one gangster Pope gangster that is putting he created a precaution um to to do some kind of dirty job and a robbery actually in Africa and later in Ukraine and they pretended that it's independent today putting despite of his previous protestations are admitted that the whole thing the whole organization was financed directly from the state budget from the state assets and uh so they kind of use State that's the problem that's a a major pain for all of us who watched what happens in Russia is that the state became an instrument of the again rule it's again ruling to this state and losing State assets of finance and all other for for their uh totally illegal even from the point of view of Russian Constitution yeah totally illegal actions well as you say for people to understand it's sort of like you're saying well Putin holds out this gangster approach and it's what you can call someone to do your dirty work or a kleptocracy or corrupt and then it's sort of biting back on him I'm curious if you can then explain to us from there whether any of this would bring out his potential Putin's potential opponents within government Kremlin or otherwise as this weakened him as some have heard or in your experience no well apparently this particular situation did not weaken him seriously a big probably even uh opposite will happen he might strengthen his power because presurging precaution is a very uh you know absurd kind of figure and he is known a criminal and he is speaking this kind of obscene lamp which which is usual in Russia but not for someone who wants to challenge to be on the door yet it still can be I mean it all depends on a brutal force who and who our folks whom and call poisons probably even a home of those two so yes there is always and it's not the end of the story even if the precautions um kind of reward um would be um completely destroyed and defeated there will be others that's again the problem you know the gangsters they always fight for for power it's like a wolf's pack there is an alpha wolf but other wolves wants to be at this place you know so that and but but what is important though that we saw that Putin could be challenged with force and he will backtrack not uh stay on the so-called Red Line but he will backtrack he will escape and after humiliated even by temporary defeat uh like in rostov he will what he will negotiate yeah foreign [Music]

Channel: MSNBC

Views: 292,634

Keywords: msnbc, MSNBC, Specials

Id: 3os95A39xvM

Length: 18min 19sec (1099 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 28 2023