When you see President Xi of China,
when you see Kim Jong Un of North Korea,
when you see Putin and you see all of these
people,
they're, they're at the top of their game,
whether you like it or not.
And they can't believe that this has happened to the
United States.
We have lost respect all over the world.
Moments ago, Donald Trump's reverence for autocrats of the world
was on full display in the city where he stands
trial in the New York City borough of the Bronx,
one of the most deeply blue counties in the nation.
The Bronx, which boasts a Hispanic and Black majority,
might seem like an odd choice for a man who
echoes Hitler on immigration and whose Truth Social boasted about
a unified Reich.
But it's just the icing on what's been a topsy
turvy week in American politics.
Already this week, Trump accused President Biden of trying to
kill him and then floated but then unconvincingly walked back
the idea that he was open to states restricting access
to birth control. The once grand old Party,
of course, has totally caved.
The latest being former presidential candidate Nikki Haley,
who once again who once said that she felt no
need to kiss the ring,
only to kiss the ring in public remarks when saying
she plans to vote for Donald Trump.
Meanwhile, the actual president is getting actual things done.
On Wednesday, President Biden announced the cancellation of an additional
7.7 billion with AB dollars in student loans for
160 thousand Americans. He also reached an historic milestone of
appointing more than 200 federal judges,
the majority of them women and people of color.
Joining me now is Charles Blow,
MSNBC political analyst and columnist for the New York Times,
and Molly Jong Fast, Vanity Fair special correspondent and MSNBC
contributor.
Let me play for you all to enjoy Nikki
Haley's a bit of her speech
juxtapose with some of the facts to Fact Check it.
Here it is.
As a voter,
I put my priorities
on a president who's going to have the backs of
our allies.
But NATO, you take a look at NATO,
every deal is horrible. I've never,
I haven't seen any deals that are like good deals
and hold our enemies to account.
I think Putin's been a very strong leader for Russia
who would secure the border.
No more excuses. Nikki Haley has been in the pocket
of the open borders establishment donors her entire career,
and she's a globalist. You know she likes the globe.
Trump would be smart to reach out to the millions
of people who voted for me and continue to support
me.
People behind Nikki Haley are pro amnesty,
pro China, pro open borders,
pro war, pro deep state,
and pro Biden. That's not too good.
Make it makes sense. Why is she endorsing him?
Oh, maybe we knew she was right.
I think she would. Look,
she's not a person with a lot of a lot
of moral courage,
and she has never been.
She served in that admin.
I thought maybe she'd be smart and have an eye
towards democracy.
That is not how it works.
And look, all these Republicans have fallen in line except
Mike Pence.
Yeah, his former Christie, Right,
Chris Christie. But Mike Pence was his former vice president.
And he, again, Trump did a lot of terrible stuff
to him,
but he did actually say,
I'm not going to vote for him,
which I think is a meaningful.
And by the way, a lot of people in Trump's
administration have also come out against Trump,
just not Nikki Hill. Let me play really quick what
she said about kissing the ring.
He's gotten more unstable and unhinged.
He spends more time in courtrooms than he does on
the campaign trail.
Many of the same politicians who now publicly embrace Trump
privately dread him. I feel no need to kiss the
ring.
Those who embrace Trump privately dread him.
Charles Blow. There is a thing in autocracy where everyone
has to take the knee.
Everyone must do it. It's just not on Game of
Thrones.
They're all doing it to an end.
Listen, Nikki Haley is smart.
She's articulate. She's very accomplished.
She's also a person who lacks any integrity whatsoever.
And it's always been the case.
She has always been one of the most transactional politicians
that we have in this country,
and she continues to show us that that is who
Nikki Haley is.
You know, I was really kind of blown away during
the Republican primaries when people kept saying,
oh, she's different. It's a different kind of Republican.
You know,
this is a viable alternative.
No, This is always who Nikki Haley has been.
This is always who Nikki Haley will be.
I covered the taking down of the Confederate flag,
which he falsely took credit for.
It was really Democratic lawmakers who did it.
And she was as transactional as she could because she
was for that flag.
Let me stay with you for just one moment.
Charles Blow. What would be the point of Donald Trump
going to the Bronx and digging up Putin,
Xi Jinping and Kim Jong Un in in in,
in a place he could never win?
The Bronx is full of black and Latino folk,
and he's not fond of those,
right? But you said it yourself in your question,
He's not going to win New York.
He's not going to win the Bronx.
But that that audience is not the Bronx.
The audience is everyone else in states that he could
possibly win.
And what he tries to do,
and there's no downside for him to do this,
by the way. What he's trying to do is to
signal to other people,
signal to people in swing states who are white,
who don't want to be thought of as voting for
racists,
to soften the ground there and say,
well, maybe he's not such a racist.
Also to maybe shave off a couple of percentage points
among
blacks and Hispanics. Also people who look at it and
say I don't want to vote for a racist,
and they say, well, maybe he's not as racist as
they say that he is.
This is signaling to other people.
Has nothing to do with New York,
has nothing to do with the Bronx.
Yeah, the unified Reich thing.
He just says things like that it's Trump,
but that that's what they want us to be.
He's unified Reich is like a thing.
It's like an actual Google it.