>> what they have, it they'll have. it >> reporter: that was his philosophy during the campaign to. he worked to convince voters that did not vote in his own race. >> i did not feel accountable voting for myself. at the it was kind of narcissistic, so i did not. >> reporter: his one vote would have made a difference. >> you have no changes to the results. >> reporter: the final tally, brought, to 47, green, 2:46. >> looks like mr. roth officially is leading, and it will become official this afternoon at 4:00, after the board meeting. >> all right, thank you guys for your time, appreciate it. that's awesome. you know? i am going to have a nice steak dinner. >> councilman elect roth assesses he is cripple his wife made him vote. candidate greene says he has no regrets about not voting in the race. the last time that there was a tie in the county election, it was decided by a coin toss. in olympia, drew mickelson, nbc

five news. >> that is right, you heard that correctly. one of the candidates did not even vote, so remember, we've got to believe in yourself, if you want others to follow suit. it's confidence, not narcissism. because every single voter counts, and here is the thing, it might just come back to yours. and on that note, i wish you a very good night. from all of our colleagues across the networks of nbc news, thank you for staying up late with me. i'll see you at the end of tomorrow. ow >> i want to start off tonight with cynthia playboy magazine, just an article, so did not worry, this is still a family program. in 1990, donald trump did a sit-down interview with playboy. he teased a future in american politics. there is something he said back then that we all probably should have taken a bit more seriously. it was just a year

after the chinese government used a massive amount of military force to violently crackdown on pro democracy student protesters who had been occupying tiananmen square in beijing. the chinese government declared martial law, and massacred hundreds of civilians. here was donald trump's take on that incident, one year later, and the pages of playboy. when the students poured into tiananmen square, the chinese government almost blew it. then they were vicious, they were horrible, but they put it down with strength. that shows you the power of strength. our country is, right now, perceived as weak. okay, at this point, people can be forgiven for not believing a lot of things donald trump says. they don't think he actually means what comes out of his mouth. yes, this interview was in playboy, which i know some people read expressly just for the articles. still, it is hard to take playboy that seriously. now that donald trump has

denied the outcome of one democratic election, and urged his supporters to commit insurrection on his behalf, and somehow remains the front runner on his party's presidential ticket, given all of that, maybe it is time to start taking trump's comments, the ones praising authoritarian regimes, and their leaders, maybe it is time to take them seriously. >> the man who looks like a piece of granite, right? he is strong like granite, he is strong, i know him very well, president xi of china, he runs 1.4 billion people with an iron hand. >> president xi, top of his game. president putin, smart, very smart people. one of the strongest leaders, viktor orban, from hungary. he's very strong man, strong, powerful man, one of the most respected leaders of the world. tough, no games,

right? hungary. >> hungary is not playing games! hungary, for the record, is one of the most anti-democratic countries in the world. hungary is the city on a hill for donald trump, it is a well run country. hungary. trump has not been shy about his love for strong men or for his strongman like plans for our very own country, if he wins in 2024. he wants to stop all investigations into his wrongdoings, and he wants to open investigations into joe biden, and other political opponents using the justice department to go after his political enemies. it now appears trump is ready to clean house within the federal government itself, getting rid of as many career employees as he can, and installing an army of loyalists. mckay coppins writes in the atlantic, of conservative groups get their way, the next republican president will sign an executive order relating service civil protections for up to 50,000 federal workers, effectively making the people in these roles political

appointees. the people whose names are being floated for senior positions in a potential second trump white house, they are not being shy about what they would do with that newfound power either. >> there is a couple people you could put in positions like that, you know? we talk about micah davis as attorney general. >> fire a lot of people in the executive branch, the deep state. we are going to indict joe biden and hunter biden, and james biden, and any other scramble, sleaze ball biden. >> cash. i know you are going to head the cia, but do you believe you could deliver the goods on this? in the pretty short order of a first couple months we get rolling on prosecutions. >> yes. we will go out and find the conspirators, not just in government, but in the media, yes. we're going to come after the people in the media who lied about american citizens, who helped joe biden rigged presidential elections. we're going to come after you.

>> we're going to come after you. that is the sales pitch here. former republican congresswoman liz cheney, this week, is warning that america's sleepwalking into a dictatorship in the united states. in the past few days, washington post, new york times, and atlantic all published stories referencing the potential for a trump dictatorship. republicans in the senate, however, it clearly don't subscribe to any of those publications, or they don't read them. republican senator j.d. vance tweeted all of these articles calling trump a dictator are about one thing, legitimizing illegal and violent conduct as we get closer to the election. everyone needs to take a chill pill. republicans in the house have turned the alarm on its head. congressman wesley hunt claimed the left has gone full panic mode, and said that, another trump term would mean

the end of dictators in america, not the beginning. that's four house republican leadership today, speaker of the house mcdonald's that he plans to vote to formalize an impeachment inquiry into president biden as soon as next week. he also clarified that, before he can release 44,000 hours of january 6th footage to the public, the speaker's team needs to do just one thing. >> as you know, we have to blur some of the faces of persons participated in the events of that day because we don't want them to be retaliated against, and charged by the doj. >> give the insurrectionist cover from the doj? so said the speaker of the house. if you are waiting for republicans in congress to stop the slide towards autocracy, do not hold your breath. the most exhaustive accounting of the exact nature of this potential autocracy is in this week's atlantic. over 24 essays athletic fathers carefully examine what is hyperbole, what is a bad joke, and what should

really have us worried. together, these pieces make what atlantic editor-in-chief jeffrey goldberg calls a convincingly dispositive case that both trump and trumpism pose an existential threat to america, and to the ideas that animated. the country, he writes, survive the first trump term, they're not without sustaining serious damage. a second term, if there is one, will be much worse. joining me now, the atlantic magazine's editor-in-chief jeffrey goldberg, and staff writer at the atlantic mckay coppins. he is the author of the recently released romney, a reckoning. gentlemen, thank you both for being here. jeff, i'd love to know, what about this moment brought on this spate in particular, this publication from the atlantic, these stories detailing what the trump dictatorship might look like? i will quote something from robert kagan in the post who says, barring some miracle, trump will soon be the nominee. when that happens, there will be a swift and dramatic shift in the political power dynamic

in his favor. until now, republicans and conservatives have enjoyed relative freedom to express anti trump sentiments, to speak openly and positively about alternative candidates. all of this will and once trump wins super tuesday. is there a feeling that the window is closing to alarm the american people? >> i mean, that's an interesting question because -- hi, alex, nice to see you. it is an interesting question because a lot of us think that we've had seven or eight years of knowledge of what trump is capable of doing, but, yeah, you know, he doesn't have the nomination yet. as you know,

our interest at the atlantic, generally, is not endorsing or pecking favorites in a partisan way. we believe that a strong, liberal party, a strong, conservative party are prerequisites for a healthy american democracy. what you have now is not a healthy conservative party. you have a cult of personality in the republican party built around this person. from a technical standpoint, it's not too late for the republican party to pick someone else. nikki haley, ron desantis, chris christie, so on. so, i thought, were not too late to remind people, and to pull together in one place, right? that's the idea. to pull it altogether. we have a lot of great experts on the atlantic stuff, on different areas, from immigration, national security, to the supreme court, and so on. it is not too late to pull them all together, and have them outline exactly what they think will happen. they do that based on looking at the four years of the first trump term,

right? and, i think you were alluding to this in your program, they are just listening to what he's saying now, and what his supporters are saying now. i wanted it all in one place. at the very least, what i told our staff, you know, we may not convince people that trumpism is a very bad idea, but at least we will have tried to stop what i see as a disaster in the making. >> yeah, at least we will have tried seems to be, kind of, the distress call amongst those who know and care. mckay, i want to ask you, in the context, not just of trump, but the republican party at large, the last few weeks, they felt trump's minions charge the hill, and they may have taken it. by the hill, i mean capitol hill, right? we have the retirement of mitt romney, which you have

beautifully chronicled in your book. you have liz cheney, who is no longer in congress, out with her book this week, saying many of the same things that are echoed in the pages of the atlantic. there was the oster of kevin mccarthy who, by no means, was a normal republican, but was slightly tethered to reality. the emphasis on slightly. the elevation of mike johnson, very much a trump lackey, patrick mchenry, a kind of, sort of, normally republican, by no means a moderate. he announced his retirement today as well. i wonder what you make of the party that stands around trump, and, specifically, the members of congress who, in some ways, are supposed to be a check on trump's power, whether he has fully overtaken the party on the hill. >> it's a great question. one of the most significant victories trump has had in the years since he left the white house was holding on to and consolidating his support in congress among republicans, right? the last several years, and you can go back to his presidency, but really, the last few years have seen an exodus of the handful of dissidents within the republican party who were willing to routinely call out

trump for his excesses, outrageous, his anti democratic behavior, and what has happened is the culture of fear, of speaking out against trump, has, kind of, calcified, you know? it is very hard these days to find a republican who is willing, on the hill, to say anything critical of donald trump. you know, we are in the middle. it's important to remember, you talked about, it we are in the middle of a republican presidential primary. typically, during a moment like this, you would find a lot of different republicans who have their own favorite candidates that, you know, they would be engaged in sir gusty, and robust debate

over who should be the nominee. instead, what you see, a culture of silence and fear, and republicans who have, basically, consigned themselves to the reality trump will be their nominee. even as, you know, not a single vote has been cast. >> and i think, furthermore, jeff, there is a question of whether they even whisper about what they'd like to do, whether there is even a sense that there is a chasm between what is good for democracy, and what they're doing. the revisionism, for example, around something like january six, is so profound. i was struck by the fact the speaker of the house has openly said, we've got to where the faces of the insurrectionists so doj doesn't charge them. that is the legislative branch, i won't say open warfare, but openly hostile to the work of the department -- >> it's astonishing, it's astonishing. >> astonishing! today, i think, jim jordan announced the investigation into fani willis, colluding with the january 6th committee, that is going to be an investigation led by the

oversight chair. they have revised the nature of that insurrection to the degree it appears they almost believe what they're saying. they are getting high on their own supply, jeff. >> right. you know, what is interesting here, to me, people talked about, well, the country survived the first trump term. this is not going to be -- if he wins, it is not the first trump term. mckay has a good piece on this in the atlantic. no more grown-ups, as we referred to them. the jim mattis, bill barr, john kelly, all these people who came in, mainstream conservative republicans, people who believed in the rule of law, where there, and they checked trump's worst impulses. now, it's going to be true believers all the way down, right? loyalists all the way down. they are going to -- david inner issue refers to the possibility of a second trump term as the revenge presidency. it's all about punishing enemies. remember, these are people who believe the insurrectionists were right,

and the people who were criticizing them, that liz cheney, adam kinzinger, mitt romney, they are the traitors, you know? we are in the upside down, right? if we get there, if trump becomes president again, it is -- i hate to sound dramatic, right? i don't like to do the drama thing, but it is not going to be the country we know anymore. it is going to be hungary in a lot of ways. >> to that, not the hungary piece, but the pc wrote, mckay, in the magazine, you mentioned some of the loyalists jeff eludes to. stephen miller, rick grenell, kash patel, mike davis, jeffrey clark, vivek ramaswamy, maybe even ted cruz having cabinet-level positions. you bring up the point that requires senate confirmation.

how worried do you think the country really needs to be about kash patel running the cia? how feasible is that? >> so, it's a good question. i asked a number of people in trump's orbit about this. some of the names that are being floated for these positions seem pretty unpalatable to, you know, senate confirmation process. what they told me was, look, maybe that is true. if we can't get stephen miller, for example, confirmed as head of department of homeland security, we can just install him as white house chief of staff, and he can take over a lot of the same rules that he would have in that role. they're already gaming out ways to get around the challenge of confirmation to ensure that the people who are most loyal to trump, most obedient to trump, are the ones who will have the power. you're going to see a pretty broad restructuring of government in a second term. you mentioned this at the top, alex, this isn't just about the cabinet-level positions. this is about the rank and file government bureaucrats. there's

an effort underway to ensure that up to 50,000 federal workers will be reclassified, essentially, as political appointees, that the president can fire at will. what that means, for example, at the justice department, maybe you have jeffrey clark, or ted cruz, or josh hawley as attorney general, but you also have the rank-and-file eure's who are in charge of filing subpoenas, putting together lawsuits, all of them will be replaced, or it could be replaced with hyper loyalists. in fact, paul dance of the heritage foundation, who worked as the trump office of personnel, had during the first term, had told me that they're already putting together a long list of people who've been

vetted by, then who would make a great member of the administration at that level. one thing he told me, that i think is really chilling, and i quote this in the piece, he said, the whole notion of an independent justice department needs to be consigned to the history. he basically is saying, the justice department will be used by the president to pursue his vendettas, and revenge against his political opponents and enemies, and that is as it should be. that speaks to the ethos of a second trump term. >> mckay coppins, jeffrey goldberg, it is all in one place thanks to you, and mckay, and many other talented writers at the atlantic. thank you, gentlemen, for your time tonight. i really appreciate it. the latest issue on new stands now is entitled, "if trump wins". we have much more ahead this evening as potential jurors in trump's first federal criminal case to go to trial, as they get something special in their mailboxes. â plus, all alarm bells ring with us

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trump dictatorship is increasingly inevitable. we should stop pretending. that is an opinion piece by washington post editor at large robert kagan. he continues, with those who balked at resisting trump when the risk was merely political oblivion suddenly discover their courage when the cost might be the ruin of oneself and one's family? we are closer to that point today than we have ever been, yet we continue to drift toward dictatorship, still hoping for some intervention that will allow us to escape the consequences of our collective cowardice, our complacent, willful ignorance, and, above all, our lack of any deep commitment to liberal democracy. kagan's editorial is

part of a series of alarms that are nearing a crescendo ahead of the 2024 election. judge michael luttig, one of the most prominent conservative voices written an opposition to donald trump, arguing it's not too late. he is leading the american bar association's task force to american democracy alongside jeh johnson, president obama's security, secretary of homeland security. the goal here is to outline meaningful steps that could be taken to preserve and protect our democratic institutions. joining me now is jeh johnson, former secretary of homeland security under president obama, now co-chair of the aba's task force for american democracy. secretary johnson, thank you for joining me for what i hope could be somewhat positive, optimistic, or at least uplifting conversation. >> thanks for having me, alex. >> thanks for coming on the set. first, tell me about the fact the american bar association is getting involved

in an effort to preserve democracy. what, legally speaking, can and should be done ahead of the next election? >> first of all, it is not just the aba, it is state bar associations who have thrown in with us, and the task force we have assembled or not just lawyers, they are historians, people ranging from mark morial, head of the urban league, bill kristol, the servant of commentator, all about the future of our democracy. our task force is underway, we are due to report in august of 2024, just before the election. that will make recommendations both long term and short term. in the meantime, what we've been doing is trying to reiterate around the country the importance of a democracy. we are concerned that americans, many americans, have lost sight of the value of a democratic

nation as opposed to an autocracy. we are losing side of the virtues of having a voice in selecting leaders. >> beyond the obvious it would be better to live in a democracy than an autocracy, how do you make americans re-prioritize something that we have seemed to taken for granted as a nation? >> we have taken it for granted. when i see things like the editorial you read, i am reminded of what martin luther king used to always say. our generation will have to repent, not just for the bad people, but for the good people who knew better, stood by in silence, and enabled it, and let it happen. there are far too many in congress, far too many in political life who are allowing, frankly, donald trump to get the nomination, and come perilously close to a second term as president, and, you know, those on this show previous to you today keep saying, the sum around, the guardrails will be off. there will be no john kelly, who succeeds me as dhs secretary, now jim mattis, secretary of defense, know dan coats because

they don't want to serve, and trump won't want them to serve. stephen miller will assemble a team that, first of all, can't get senate confirmation, but will be appointed in acting roles -- >> so they don't have to have confirmation? >> he's reportedly begging people already to be general counsel of the department of defense, my old job before dhs secretary, and general counsel of dhs. those are two positions, legal positions, that matter to try and effectuate that type of government donald trump seems to want. >> i've got to ask, you as you bring up your physician serving under president obama, how secure do you believe the next election will be, both in terms

of domestic interference, or uprising, and, also, international interference? if i am russia, and i'm looking -- they're busy, granted, with the war in ukraine, but if i look at how fractured the american public is, the way in which social media is entertaining, if not deplatforming lies, including, and especially acts, i feel like it is a moment that is right for anyone who wants to mess around with american democracy. >> two answers. one, i have a lot of confidence in our election infrastructure -- >> right. >> polling places, reporting of election results, there are those who have challenged it, but i have a lot of confidence. you look at the 2020 election, the midst of covid, we had this huge, huge turnout. the great unknown, as you point out, is social media. the extent to which foreign or domestic actors may infiltrate social media with fake news, alarmist attitudes, extremist views, that is the great unknown in our democracy. free speech, free society is both our greatest virtue and our greatest weakness. so, it's going to be incumbent upon people like yourself, and others, to continually be truth tellers to the american public. those of us who have a voice, those of us who commanded microphone, have to continually

-- alert in washington, you have to repeat things 18 times before anyone will listen to you. we have to continually point out of the falsehoods, point out the fake news. so many americans now are prone to relieving fiction, bad fiction, evil fiction, because they read it on social media, and they don't scrutinize, they don't fact check. they just accepted, wholesale. that's a dangerous place to be right now. >> you have to do the work. i've got to ask you, before we go, the courts. i know you are a man with a legal background, and how confident are you in that part of the system holding? it was critical in 2020, and yet you look at what's happening right now, with judge cannon down feeling with mar-a-lago documents case, judge chutkan dealing with the federal election interference case, study in contrasts, to

potentially very different outcomes for the same defendant. are you confident in the court system, the center will hold? >> i will answer it this way. i believe that our judiciary could be the last best hope in terms of a branch of government that saves our democracy. the courts, thus far, at the district court level, the appellate level, and even at the level of supreme court, i believe, have stood up for our democracy, our democratic norms, our constitution. at the end of the day, they may be the ones that step in and save us traditionally. the courts have deferred to the executive branch of government. they have deferred on immigration enforcement, and policy. they deferred on issues of national security, and how we spend our money. in my observation as the judiciary she is the executive branch overreaching, and legislative branches sitting back polarized, they become more involved in areas where they traditionally have not been involved because it's a political question, or because

it's national security. we defer them to the military. the judiciary is getting more and more involved. a lot of these controversial policies we here are being contemplated, and in a possible trump administration, i am sure it's going to be litigation over each and every one of them, and very often, the result depends upon the venue. where you go, which judge is selected to hear the case -- >> and a skilled team of lawyers, says the man who is part of the fifth aba's task force. secretary jeh johnson, thank you for your time, thank you for your words of mostly uplift, and reminding us the work needs to be done, and we are part of the project. we have much more ahead this evening. if you are in washington, d.c., tonight, check your mailbox. you probably didn't win publishers clearing house sweepstakes, but you might have just got in the very first sign that jury selection for donald trump's federal election interference trial has just begun. that is next.

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washington, d.c., received a cryptic letter in their mailboxes. dear perspective juror, this pre-screening form is being sent to you to determine your ability to serve as a juror for a trial. the trial begins on friday, march 4th, 2024, and the trial may last approximately three months after jury selection is completed. now, we don't know which federal trial those letters are referring to, but march 4th is the scheduled start date for donald trump's federal criminal trial for 2020 election interference, putting on what is very loose fitting sherlock holmes hat here, the three month timeframe mentioned in that letter suggests it will be an important trial. the letter also tells prospective jurors to be available to fill

out a juror questionnaire on february 9th of next year, which is the exact date judge tanya chutkan has set for jury questionnaires in trump's case. while they can't say it for sure, it definitely looks like the jury selection process for, maybe, the most important trial in our lifetimes has officially begun. boy, selecting a jury for this case is going to be a monumental task. the jury questionnaire will likely try to assess whether jurors have any sort of bias concerning one of the most polarizing, public figures of our time, which means a lot of skillful, intense vetting will be going on here. the same cannot be said for another trump related questionnaire. different, but also having to do with, potentially, overturning the will of the american people. the new york times has been reporting on a questionnaire crafted by trump's allies to determine who would be a suitable candidate for a second trump administration. that document confirms the hair

raising reporting about who trump wants to surround himself with, should he take power again. it asked potential candidates for key government positions, whether the u.s. has the right to select immigrants based on country of origin, or whether a life has a right to legal protection from conception to natural death. perhaps, the most telling prompt is this one, the president should be able to advance his or her agenda through the bureaucracy without hindrance from unelected federalists echelons. agree, or disagree. it is a job application to find an elective federal officials who are willing to let trump do whatever he wants. as the d.c. court begin surveying potential trump jurors, trump's allies are serving a new class of trump's offense, and what we have here is a tale of two questionnaires. one, people who are seeking to deliver justice, and another for the people seeking to subvert it. the question is, can those seeking justice managed to make questions about a second trump presidency obsolete? we have new developments on all of that coming up next, with neal katyal. katyal. he hits his mark —center stage—and is crushed by a baby grand piano.

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country, in fact one of the prides of this country is a peaceful transition of power and no matter how hard fought campaign is that at the end of the campaign, the loser concedes to the winner. are you are saying they were not prepared now to -- >> what i am saying is that i will tell you at the time. i will keep you in suspense. >> donald trump's unwillingness to commit to the peaceful

transition of power was clear even before he became president. that little soft shoe is from the presidential debate in 2016. that moment was highlighted in a new d. c. court filing by special counsel jack smith. from that document it appears that smith is building his case by pointing to trump's extended history of casting doubt on election outcomes, even elections he wasn't running in. by way of an example, the special counsel points to this tweet from election 2020 trial, where trump falsely claimed that voting machines had switched votes from mitt romney to barack obama. joining me now is neal katyal, former u.s. acting solicitor general. neal, thank you for being. here i'm eager to hear your perspective on how meaningful it is the jackson is asking to bring in moments from 2012 and 2016, which fire predate the 2020 election. >> i do think it is meaningful. this finally details basically

the evidence of criminal defendant donald trump's bad acts and his conduct the jack smith, the prosecutor, wants to present to the jury. and frankly, given donald trump's history, i'm surprised it was only nine pages long, this filing. i'm sure they could've filled a war and peace sized book they want to do. but i think what smith is doing here is intentionally tipping his hand, alex. he is saying here is the kind of evidence i have against donald trump. prosecutors, of course, turn over all their evidence, exculpatory and inculpatory, as part of the supreme court decision under brady versus maryland, you have to turn over everything. but he rejects vita saying my narrative is going to include evidence of these bad actors. >> the indictment itself is pretty narrow, but it feels like, for example, on this ruling, that smith is decidedly more aggressive if that is the term to, use in terms of the evidence he wants to bring in and the argument he looks like he's going to make. do you think that's a fair assessment? >> yes and no.

you are right the indictment is narrower and then a filing like this about what is called faux or for vietnam's is going to be broader. but that's true in any criminal case. because indictment is a kind of short plane statement of what the crimes are, and what he is doing now is saying okay, first heroin goyne to prove a top, and a lot has all sorts of restrictions when you use evidence about bad acts. most importantly you can't use evidence if you're a prosecutor of someone's bad acts to prove in the past, to prove they committed another bad act now. jack smith is not saying oh, trump in 2012 or in 2016 in that clip, you basically signals that you wanted to

contest an election no matter how fair that election was. he is not saying oh, that means that you committed a bad act in 2020. rather what he is saying is, i'm going to use that evidence to show motive, to show, basically, you have this plot all along, and that is evidence that goes to your state of mind but not to the bad act itself. >> neal, further in the filing today, there is news of an unindicted coconspirator. the filing mentions an orchestrated riot at the tee cf center in detroit where votes were being counted after the election in november of 2020. an unindicted coconspirator who apparently word for the trump campaign who tried to coordinate that riot with a trump campaign lawyer is a vote

counts started trending towards joe biden. this seems like an explosive revelation here. i want to know if you have thoughts on its inclusion in this filing and also who that unindicted coconspirator might be. >> i don't, alex, and i don't want to speculate because i'd be far too out on my skis. i think we should let that wait. there's another one, though. that we can talk about. in this filing today, jack smith said he wants to introduce evidence of donald trump after january 6th standing up and defending the proud boys and others who were convicted of the january 6th attack. what smith is basically asking is, look, if you ditch donald trump intend this operation on the capitol, why are you calling them freedom fighters? as a lawyer, if donald trump or my client, which of course he never would be, but if he were i would advise my clients to keep your trap shot because of your generating precisely this kind of evidence. lo and behold, that's what donald trump has done, generate more evidence against himself.

the founder said you have a privilege against self incrimination, but donald trump is masterfully using it to incriminate himself even further, and that is what the filing today says. >> continuing to play their soundtrack and calling them hostages. neal katyal, always great to have you make sense of things. >> thank you. >> we have one more story this evening. president biden made a sort of surprising revelation today. he's only running for reelection because of one thing. that thing is coming up next. that thing is coming up next. and ask your healthcare provider about the number one prescribed h-i-v treatment, biktarvy. biktarvy is a complete, one-pill, once-a-day treatment used for h-i-v in many people whether you're 18 or 80. with one small pill, biktarvy fights h-i-v to help you get to undetectable—and stay there whether you're just starting or replacing your current treatment. research shows that taking h-i-v treatment as prescribed and getting to and staying undetectable prevents transmitting h-i-v through sex. serious side effects can occur, including kidney problems and kidney failure. rare, life-threatening side effects include a buildup of lactic acid and liver problems. do not take biktarvy if you take dofetilide or rifampin. tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines and supplements you take,

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campaigning in boston today, where the print journalists in the room took note of this comment from him. if trump wasn't running, i am not sure sure i would be running, but we can't let him win. that is a pretty big statement for a sitting president with approval numbers that have some democrats questioning whether biden even if the person to beat donald trump in 2024. complicating that picture, maybe greatly, or not so greatly, robert f. kennedy junior, jill stein, and potentially west virginia senator joe manchin. and now, as of this week, former republican congresswoman

liz cheney. >> where it's really unprecedented moment where our system for so long has meant that we've got republican candidate democratic candidate and contemplating any kind of a third party run was something that most of us would never do. i think this is a different moment. but i'm not going to take any steps certainly that will help him. >> joining us is jaime harrison, chairman of the national democratic committee. let me just first get your reaction to president biden saying of trump wasn't running i'm not sure i'd be running, but we can't let him win. is that raising the stakes or is that, does the president need to make a better case for why he should be reelected? >> you remember just a few years ago, in 2020, the president got in the race because he said that he wanted

to battle for the soul of this nation. he wanted to protect the soul of this nation. it was because of the threat of donald trump, and we saw what four years of donald trump man. we saw how devastating this country was because of trump. we saw see the don't trump's not learned a lesson from that time. he still wants to go after the rights of women to protect their own bodies and to make decisions about their own bodies. he still wants to go after voting rights in this country. he wants to gut the freedoms. he does not believe in democracy. he believes in revenge and so the president understands that we cannot allow, odds are, trump is gonna be the nominee for the republican party. we cannot allow donald trump to destroy america. president biden is going to stand in that gap like he did before and so yeah, we don't care about the polls on all of the like, it's about making

sure that we have the right leader, fighting for the decency and the freedoms of all americans. i wonder, given the stakes that you've so articulately outline here in that we have talked about at length, what do you make of the potential candidacies of congresswoman liz cheney, senator joe manchin, rfk junior, who is polling, i know you're not worrying about the polls but is garnering some legitimate support nationally, and of course jill stein. does that matter here, as you think about the race next year? >> all of that is a fighter and you run your race based on who is in the race. but we know, in 2020, joe biden got 80 million votes. no person on this planet, no person in history of this nation has ever gotten that many votes. and it really doesn't matter who's on the ballot.

my grandmother used to tell me, jaime, control what you can control. we can control what we can do with the dnc, what we can do to support this president. that is making sure we get a message out to make sure we educate folks, that we register folks, that we mobilize some, reach out to, them and we protect them once they get to the polls. we have shown, even when the polls said in 2022, the polls said that we're going to have this huge red wave, we saw red tiers. so where focused on doing what we have to do. and we have a good track record of showing that even when the polls say one thing, the only poll that matters is what happens on election day. >> red tiers. like blood?

now, i'm kidding. i know we are going with that. a lot of people credit the issue of abortion and a fight over basic reproductive freedoms as giving the democrats the stronger showing in the midterms. is president biden the right interlocutor to make the case for what democrats would do in terms of women's bodily freedoms? >> again, we have the midterms, we just had a series of elections in november in which reproductive freedom was on the ballot in kentucky. >> it was clearly important. and we know where the republicans are, from nikki haley to ron desantis to donald trump himself, they are all believe that there should be a national abortion ban. they'll have a track record of fighting against reproductive