Summary
The politics of King Charles and how he is likely to change the monarchy are examined, as the mourning for Queen Elizabeth continues. Are Republicans feeling the full force of the abortion backlash? Who has the edge in the Senate race in Ohio? The judge who approved a special master in the Mar-a-Lago case is discussed.
Transcript
ARI MELBER, MSNBC HOST: Or you can always DVR "THE BEAT" to make sure you catch it, or you can find it on YouTube. So, we wanted to give you that heads-up.
You can find me at AriMelber.com. Go to AriMelber.com right now. And that`s always the best way to connect with me. If you have questions or ideas about anything we talked about tonight or Bill Gates, let me know.
That does it for us. I wish you a great weekend.
THE REIDOUT starts now.
JOY REID, MSNBC HOST: Tonight on THE REIDOUT:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KING CHARLES III, UNITED KINGDOM: Queen Elizabeth`s was a life well-lived, a promise with destiny kept. And she is mourned most deeply in her passing. That promise of lifelong service, I renew to you all today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: After seven years in waiting, the job is now his.
Tonight, a look at the politics of King Charles and how he is likely to change the institution.
Plus, we are just weeks away from the midterms and Republicans are feeling the full force of the abortion backlash.
And we will take a closer look at the Senate race in Ohio, which Republican J.D. Vance was supposed to have all sewn up by now. Well, instead, he`s losing.
But we begin tonight across the pond, as the world mourns the death of Queen Elizabeth.
Today, for the first time, we heard from the new king of England. Charles III addressed the nation, paying tribute to his mother and ushering in a new era.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KING CHARLES III: As the queen herself did with such unswerving devotion, I too now solemnly pledge myself, throughout the remaining time God grants me, to uphold the constitutional principles at the heart of our nation.
And wherever you may live in the United Kingdom or in the realms and territories across the world, and whatever may be your background or beliefs, I shall endeavor to serve you with loyalty, respect and love.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: Earlier in the day, the new monarch was greeted at Buckingham Palace by a crowd gathered to pay their respects with cheers and cries of a phrase most Brits aren`t used to saying, "God save the king."
Gun salutes took place in Hyde Park and at the Tower of London; 96 rounds were fired, one for each year of Elizabeth`s life, while church bells at St. Paul`s Cathedral in Westminster Abbey rang out at noon.
The next 10 days of mourning will consist of elaborate plans to honor the queen in accordance with tradition. Changes will be made to the country`s postage and currency.
Charles` ascension to the throne comes at a tumultuous time for England politically and economically, with the country facing spiraling energy costs and inflation, Russia`s war in Ukraine and the aftermath of the country`s exit from the European Union, not to mention the new king has enormous shoes to fill.
The theme of Charles` life has essentially been that he is forever overshadowed, first by the queen, who dazzled not only Great Britain, but here in America with her endearing, yet resolute demeanor, then by Princess Diana, the people`s princess, who was universally beloved and transformed the way the public view the British monarchy.
Now he faces the daunting task as -- of emerging as his own man at the age of 73. It`s a moment he has been waiting for literally his entire life. But the question that remains to be seen is, what kind of monarch will he be?
Joining me now is NBC senior international correspondent Keir Simmons at Buckingham Palace in London, Tim Ewart, MSNBC royal commentator, and Michelle Tauber, editorial director and senior editor overseeing royals coverage at "People."
Thank you all for being here.
Keir, I`m going to start with you.
Your coverage has been exceptional, so I have been coveting every other show that has had you on.
KEIR SIMMONS, NBC SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, bless you. Thank you.
REID: So, I`m grateful that you`re here.
But let me just ask you. We saw those images of Charles greeting the public today and sort of finally kind of sort of stepping into his own. But we still have another, what, 10 days of mourning for the queen. And it struck me as I was watching those scenes that he remains, in a sense, in her shadow.
To what extent on the ground are people turning their attention toward him?
SIMMONS: Well, you have to pinch yourself, don`t you? And we certainly felt that way when we saw him outside Buckingham Palace there, that you are not looking at Prince Charles, a man that you have seen for decades.
You`re looking at the King Charles. It still hasn`t really sunk in. He`s been waiting for this role for so long. And now it all seems to be happening so fast. I think, in that moment, you saw -- well, you saw the public figure doing his duty, doing his public -- determined to do his duty.
And then you saw the private man at the same time, because he went to see the flowers, a person who is grieving. And when he went inside Buckingham Palace there, Joy, and that was the first time that a new monarch had walked into Buckingham Palace for 70 years, and recorded that televised message, you really saw how he felt about his mom in that messaging.
[19:05:00]
But, as we have said before, when it comes to royals, such -- there is such a mix of different aspects to this. So, at the time that he is privately grieving, he`s also very much got his eye on the politics, because you better believe that the folks in that building behind me there are political.
And the political message, really, of him stepping out of his -- of that car today there and stepping into history and then walking over to greet people was to say, I want to be a king for the people. I want to connect with the people. I don`t want you to think that I am a distant king. And he knows how important that is
His mom managed to achieve it. And that`s what he wants. He wants to follow in her footsteps, not just in terms of being the one who is stable, the one who is a rock, the way that she was, and the one who brings small amounts of change, change that people can handle, if you like -- it`s a very conservative institution, the royal family.
REID: Yes.
SIMMONS: But also, I think, just ensuring that he has the consent of the people, because, in the end, that is what royalty is built on.
And it`s interesting.
Michelle Tauber, welcome to the show.
MICHELLE TAUBER, "PEOPLE": Thank you.
REID: And, in his message, he talked about, wherever you live in the world, et cetera, and sort of trying to bring in everyone, right, and sort of -- and sort of bring people in. But he is different, in a sense, right?
I mean, he`s got to follow his former wife, Princess Diana, who did just what Keir is talking about, and did it really brilliantly...
TAUBER: Right.
REID: ... and really made the monarchy seem accessible, particularly to Americans.
And so I wonder how American audiences are perceiving this man, who in many ways was the villain in that story, he and his now queen consort?
TAUBER: Absolutely.
He has had a real arc, quite a dramatic arc, particularly in the eyes of Americans, who, as you say, very much remember him from the scandal years with Diana, and remain really devoted to Diana and to what she stood for.
And we know how overshadowed he felt by Diana during those years. And I think, in that speech and as well as when you saw him meeting the public, you really saw the effort to connect. And you heard many more personal notes in that speech than we usually do from a monarch, including calling Camilla his darling wife, and saying -- officially naming her his queen consort, and, say, expressing his love for his son Harry and his wife, Meghan, and also officially naming Prince William as prince of Wales and princess Kate as princess of Wales.
So those were some very personal touches, and very intentional.
REID: And, Tim, you are -- thank you, and welcome to the show as well.
Talk a little bit about that, because Charles, King Charles III, is presiding over a very different royal family. And he is a liberal in the small-L sense of the word, in the sense that he did push forward and say, I`m going to marry the woman I would like to marry, and we`re going to have her be queen. There`s not going to be any controversy about that. We`re going to do that.
And he is presiding over this young -- set of younger royals, his heir, who is a more traditional royal, but also Harry and Meghan, who have had some trauma from the British press. And so embracing all of that, the sort of multicultural, multiracial family, how do you think he ends up managing all of that and not getting overshadowed by them?
TIM EWART, MSNBC ROYAL COMMENTATOR: With a lot of difficulty, Joy.
This is a -- and has been for a long time, a divided family. There`s been a lot of personal troubles in the royal family, as we all know. We have talked about the Diana years and so forth. When Charles talked tonight and made a reference to Harry and Meghan, he was extending a very public olive branch to them, expression of his own personal love, because he`s been deeply distressed by their departure, the way that they have been talking about the royal family, the criticisms of the royal family.
Now, whether or not what he said today will heal the rift, whether or not, over the next few days, as we await the queen`s funeral -- and William and Harry are living in Windsor almost side by side -- whether they will actually talk to each other, whether this rift will be healed, we just don`t know.
But my sense is, if there is ever a time for it to happen, if there is ever a time for this family to get together and bury the hatchet, if you like, it`s now. And I`m sure that that`s going to be a big priority for the new king. And it`s important for him too to win over the public, because we have a skeptical public in this country.
He`s not the most popular royal figure. He`s got a lot of work to do.
REID: Yes, I mean, not the most popular by far. I mean, there are polls that show that he`s the least popular royal figure; 11 percent of those surveyed in the "New York Times" story, that 11 percent of those surveyed have a favorable view of him, trailing the queen, William and his wife, Kate, Harry and Meghan, Princess Anne, Prince Philip, and any of the queen`s great-grandchild.
[19:10:06]
He has a lot to deal with, Keir, I mean, in addition to the Prince Andrew business, which his mom really, really kept a lid on. But it feels like -- like, sort of the things that she was able to cover over with her own grace and her own popularity, he now has to confront them all, including the Harry and Meghan situation, including whether that rift happens...
SIMMONS: Yes.
REID: ... including this funeral. I mean, another network was literally suggesting in all seriousness that perhaps President Biden might invite Donald Trump, who might be indicted soon for stealing classified documents to go with him, because the president gets to invite people to go with him.
He -- there`s so much that has to be navigated. That would be incredibly awkward, I`m sure. So, is -- does he show signs, Charles, of being somebody that`s got this sort of aplomb that his mother did to handle all of this?
SIMMONS: Well, when you talk about the international politics side -- and that`s what it is when it comes to U.S. presidents, of course -- I mean, they`re pass masters at this in there. That`s not really the difficult part.
The hard part really is, as Tim was suggesting -- and he has such long experience with looking at the royal family and being around the royal family. Where you`re looking at that, those issues within the family, that`s where it gets really difficult.
Joy, I know, so many folks watching your show love politics. And the politics of the royal family really is politics distilled down, because they don`t have any power.
REID: Yes.
SIMMONS: All they have is their messaging.
And just think about that moment that happened here outside Buckingham Palace for the queen`s jubilee, when little Prince Louis came and bounced on Charles` lap. And what you saw there was a very personal moment. There`s no question that that was a grandfather enjoying his grandson.
But it also sent a message that was useful for Prince Charles, just the same as the message that he was trying to send when he came to greet the crowds here. And that`s what being a royal is about. The personal, the political, the public and the private are intermixed. These are people who live in the goldfish bowl. Charles has lived in that goldfish bowl all his life.
REID: Yes.
SIMMONS: He knows how to navigate it. But, but the trouble is, is that, in the end, as I mentioned, public opinion is everything.
They depend on public opinion, just as royals have for hundreds of years. And that is where the challenge is -- challenge is, as Tim was suggesting.
REID: Indeed.
Ms. Tauber, very quickly to you, because, right, on that point, the family, the younger members of the family have been really close to a lot of American presidents. The Obamas famously hung out with William and the family and little Prince George, and he`s in his little bathrobe, and hang -- and is friends. President Obama`s friends with Harry.
And there was a -- that went away, sort of, when Trump came along, and his kids tried to come up and sort of do the same thing, and they weren`t really into it. So they have ways of sort of sending messages of sort of friendship and everything to the U.S.
But talk a little bit about Charles in particular, because, on things like climate change, he has been a little more political. He can`t really do that now, right, as king.
TAUBER: That`s right.
And we heard him allude to that in his speech today. He said that he -- now, as monarch, will be stepping back from some of the causes and charities that he has held dear up until this point.
And I think, reading between the lines, the subtext there is, something like climate change, you will see him step away from. But he also has already passed the torch on that to the next generation, as you mentioned. Prince William has taken up that cause as his own, has launched his Earthshot Prize, with a goal of effecting climate change action in the next decade.
So I think this family has worked in particularly the past years to set up the next generation for this moment.
REID: Yes.
TAUBER: So -- knowing that Charles would be stepping away from some of that.
REID: Indeed.
And last point to you, Mr. Ewart, the big sort of elephant in the room has been the question of colonialism. It`s sort of hung over all of these events over the last 24 hours. And he did make some references to it sort of subtly in his statement. King Charles did.
Jamaica and other Caribbean countries are stepping way back. Kenya`s minority leader said some things that were pretty rough. How does Charles, in your view, handle some of those questions, even Australia making noises about wanting to back out of the commonwealth? What does that look like going forward?
EWART: Well, you mentioned Australia. They had a referendum back in 1999. And they voted to stick with the monarchy, but things have changed since then.
Charles is particularly unpopular among a lot of people in Australia. I think the monarchy`s view to that is, look, it`s going to happen. We can`t be the head of state of all these countries forever. That`s just days gone by.
And I think Charles is pretty pragmatic about that, and that they can`t affect it, they can`t stop it. All they can do is go graciously to these countries as the Union Flag is hauled down, and give their best wishes.
[19:15:09]
What is important, though, is maintaining Britain`s image abroad, Britain`s influence abroad. The queen wasn`t political, but she certainly carried a lot of weight when it came to wooing other foreign leaders.
REID: Yes.
EWART: And that`s something that Charles is going to find more difficult, I think, than she did.
REID: Yes.
It is a fascinating sort of time. As somebody who -- my mother was from Guyana, which used to be called British Guyana. And she grew up singing "God Save the Queen." And she taught us to sing "God Save the Queen" as kids. It`s odd to say "God save the king" just where I come from. Everyone`s so used to it being the queen. So, it is a different era.
Keir Simmons, Tim Ewart, and Michelle Tauber, thank you all very much. Have a great weekend.
And up next on THE REIDOUT: The special master case is not the first time that Donald Trump has gone shopping for a sympathetic judge. In fact, it`s not the first time he asked for this specific judge.
THE REIDOUT continues after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:20:38]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAM BARR, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Will the government be able to make out a technical case? Will they have evidence by which that would -- that they could indict somebody on, including him?
And I -- that`s the first question. And I think they`re getting very close to that point, frankly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: That was Donald Trump`s former attorney general/consigliere, William Barr, saying that the DOJ is close to having the evidence that they need to indict his former boss, all part of Barr`s reputation rehab tour, as damning revelations from former federal prosecutor Geoffrey Berman`s book hit the news.
Now, the problem, though, at this moment is that the key evidence to make such a case would seem to involve the high declassified documents the FBI seized from Mar-a-Lago last month. And those documents are not available to the DOJ, thanks to the unprecedented decision by a judge Trump appointed in the waning months of his presidency to make those documents inaccessible, until a special master can take a look at them for some incoherent claims of executive privilege by Trump.
The DOJ appealed that ruling yesterday, arguing that they should be allowed to continue to use those documents, which are not the property of any president, let alone Trump. Judge Aileen Cannon is giving Trump`s legal team until Monday morning to respond to the DOJ`s motion.
And today was the deadline for both the DOJ and the Trump legal team to provide their list of potential candidates for a special master. This charade has put an unusual spotlight on Judge Cannon, who Trump has tried to get other cases in front of before.
Apparently, she is just the kind of friendly ear on the bench that he thinks he needs. Last night, another Florida judge, Donald Middlebrooks, dismissed a separate Trump lawsuit that claimed Hillary Clinton and other perceived political enemies of Trump engaged in a racketeering conspiracy to falsely accuse him of colluding with Russia, Russia, Russia to gain support in the 2016 presidential election.
Back in April, Trump asked the judge to recuse himself because the judge was appointed by President Bill Clinton. In his response denying that request, the judge wrote -- quote -- "I note that plaintiff filed this lawsuit in the Fort Pierce division of this district, where only one federal judge sits, Judge Aileen Cannon, who plaintiff appointed in 2020. Despite the odds, this case landed with me instead. And when plaintiff is a litigant before a judge that he himself appointed, he does not tend to advance these same sorts of bias concerns" -- unquote.
Joining me now, Glenn Kirschner, MSNBC legal analyst and former federal prosecutor and friend of the show.
Glenn, forgive me, if I`m incredibly skeptical of this judge. It`s weird for me that she was appointed when Trump already lost the election, waning months of his -- he`s a lame-duck at this point, appoints her.
Apparently, Marco Rubio was one of her big supporters to get on the bench. He, of course, is laying down on the tracks for Trump on this document, what did he call it, a storage issue of having other countries` nuclear secrets. And now she seems to be the only judge he wants to get cases in front of.
Are you as suspicious as I am?
GLENN KIRSCHNER, MSNBC LEGAL ANALYST: You know, it seems like a pretty transparent attempt to find a friendly judge.
And you`re right, Joy. Judge Cannon was confirmed by Mitch McConnell`s Senate after Donald Trump lost the election. And it sure feels like he picked her to do precisely what she`s doing, because the ruling that she issued, I actually think legal scholars left, right and center look at it and shake their head, because it`s so poorly reasoned and so unsupported by the law and the facts.
And the Department of Justice, somewhat generously, in its most recent filing, gave her an off-ramp and kind of tried to split the baby and not embarrass her too much. But they very pointedly said, we will be appealing everything, and we need you to suspend your ruling that says we cannot investigate these stolen classified documents that have the capacity to do real national security damage.
So I have to say, Joy, if she cares about her reputation -- I mean, she`s been appointed with life tenure -- she`s going to be on the bench a long time, we can assume -- and it she`s an honest broker of the law, she has to be persuaded by that blockbuster filing that DOJ just provided to her.
[19:25:10]
Let`s see if she thinks better about her earlier decision and reverses course.
REID: You know, let`s talk about -- because, I mean, even Barr is coming out and being like, well, he might go down for this stuff. It`s looking bad for him.
I am -- I have always been suspicious of Barr. I never think that -- there`s never any time when he`s not the villain. Let`s just be clear.
And I have always wonder, well, why is he suddenly all trying to be all on the right side of history when it comes to Trump, when it comes to January 6, whether he lost the election, saying it`s bullshit, of course, he lost the election, and now coming out saying, hey, he might get indicted.
This new Berman book is damning. It looks like it`s going to be damning, just per "The New York Times"` reporting. He was fixing stuff inside the DOJ to go after Trump`s enemies. Trump wanted everyone from John Kerry, anyone else he perceived as a problem for him, to be gone after.
And it definitely feels like Barr was willing to do it. Do you feel like this might be reputation maintenance in advance?
KIRSCHNER: Yes, Bill Barr is on his reputation rehabilitation tour.
And, frankly, any time I have somebody who committed a whole bunch of crimes, and they have never been held accountable for those crimes, and then they start to say a whole lot of good stuff about the crimes of others, and they`re all about accountability, I will tell you, as a prosecutor, I never wanted to hear anything they had to say, unless and until they took responsibility for their own crimes.
Typically, what that looked like is pleading guilty and becoming a cooperating witness. Then I`m prepared to listen to you. But before Bill Barr is held accountable for his -- until he`s held accountable for his crimes, I`m not that interested or persuaded in anything he now says that seems to be damaging to Donald Trump.
And I do think the Geoffrey Berman book confirms what we all know, that Donald Trump and Bill Barr weaponized and corrupted the Department of Justice to punish Donald Trump`s critics. Nobody knows that better than a guy like Michael Cohen...
REID: Yes.
KIRSCHNER: ... who, when he said he was about to criticize the president, he was put back into prison by Bill Barr`s Department of Justice. And he successfully filed the great writ, the writ of habeas corpus, and a federal judge in New York said, you were just punished by your government for your First Amendment free speech rights.
That is horrific.
REID: And just there`s all these concentric circles of sort of chicanery around Trump, right?
So, you have got Barr, who auditioned in a memo saying, please, sir, put me in, coach. I will make sure I take care of you as A.G. Then Trump puts him in, and he does take care of him.
Then you have got Bannon, who`s running the ultimate grift on Trump supporters, basically treating them like marks. They clearly have no respect for these people, stealing their money to fake-build a wall. And then you have got Trump doing the same thing.
This is a new "New York Times" piece. "A federal grand jury in Washington is examining the formation of and spending by a fund-raising operation created by Donald J. Trump after his loss in the 2020 election, as he was soliciting millions of dollars by baselessly asserting that the results had been marred by widespread voting fraud."
So-called Stop the Steal was a giant grift, just like everything Bannon did and just like everything Trump. Does Trump go the way of Bannon for doing the self-same thing?
KIRSCHNER: You know, maybe, Joy.
And this might sound surprising coming from a former career prosecutor. Sometimes, I want to scream, enough with the new investigations. I mean, yes, we have to investigate all of the crimes of Donald Trump. But this new investigation, his -- the big ripoff, as Representative Lofgren labeled it, with respect to basically stealing money courtesy of his PAC, is that going to distract us from the investigation into his theft of classified documents...
REID: There you go.
KIRSCHNER: ... which seems to have distracted us from his launching an armed insurrection against the Capitol, which seems to have distracted us from his election fraud in Georgia, find the 11,780 votes?
And all of that, Joy, certainly distracted us from his bribery and extortion of President Zelenskyy, his 10 counts of obstruction of justice, as documented in the Trump-Russia report, his campaign finance crimes with Michael Cohen at the beginning of it all that he used to steal the presidency.
At some point, Joy, can we tell the Department of Justice to just finish what you started?
(CROSSTALK)
REID: ... one, yes.
KIRSCHNER: Just return one indictment against somebody who has been criming in the harsh light of day.
So, is there frustration that Donald Trump has had not one minute of accountability? You bet there is.
REID: He`s like a Russian nesting doll of crime and corruption. At this point, pick something, DOJ. Pick anything.
Glenn Kirschner, you speak for so many of us right now, including me. Thank you very much, my friend. Have a great weekend.
All right, still ahead: Yes, Republicans messed around with women`s reproductive rights, and now they`re about to find out.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:34:40]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Republicans don`t have a clue about the power of women, not a clue.
Let me tell you something. They`re about to find out. They`re about to find out. I mean it.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: Quite the predicament, ain`t it, Republicans having to face the consequences of trying to eradicate women`s autonomy, as rage looms over the midterm elections, where abortion is literally on the ballot.
[19:35:03]
In November, Michigan voters will decide whether to enshrine abortion rights in their state`s Constitution, after the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that an abortion access initiative must be included on that ballot.
Meanwhile, in South Carolina, senators rejected a ban on nearly all abortions after five Republicans, including all, all of the chamber`s women refused to support it. One of those women, state Senator Katrina Shealy, a Republican, who has previously proposed anti-abortion legislation herself, had this to say to her Republican colleagues for trying to pass an abortion bill that would eliminate exceptions for rape and incest.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STATE SEN. KATRINA SHEALY (R-SC): Yes, I`m pro-life.
I`m also pro-life of the mother, the life she has with her children who are already born. I care about the children who are forced into adulthood that was made up by a legislature full of men, so they can make -- take a victory lap and feel good about it.
You want children raising children, who will most likely suffered domestic violence and live in poverty. But you don`t care, because you have done your job, and you will forget about them once they are born. You will fight my legislation on foster homes and adoption. You will fight -- not support legislation to stop sex trafficking and pornography.
You will not support my legislation for free meals for all children in schools. You`re not going to help me on that. If you want to believe that God is wanting you to push a bill through with no exception that kills mothers and ruins the lives of children, lets mothers bring home babies to bury them, then I think you`re miscommunicating with God. Or maybe you`re just not communicating with the middle.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: Wow.
Joining me now, Michelle Goldberg, "New York Times" columnist and MSNBC political analyst.
And I rarely, rarely want to give a politician an amen and a hallelujah, let alone a Republican politician an amen and a . But amen and hallelujah. She said every -- all the words.
What do you make of the fact that that is a Republican, anti-abortion Republican legislator speaking, and she said all of those things?
MICHELLE GOLDBERG, MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I don`t think she speaks for most Republican women, but I think she speaks for a slice of them.
That`s why you have things like the really lopsided and surprising referendum results in Kansas recently. I mean, one of the things that`s interesting is that, according to pollsters I was talking to in Kansas, most Kansans approved of the Dobbs decision, right.
REID: Yes.
GOLDBERG: So there`s some sliver of people who approved of the Dobbs decision, but nevertheless have been repelled by -- frankly, by the consequences of that decision, right?
They have seen what some of these total abortion bans look like in practice, and they`re horrified.
REID: I mean, you look at a state like Michigan, where Republicans literally went to court to stop a referendum that had been approved by petition, which is the way you get a referendum in, to try to kill it, because they knew that it would doom them, because once people are voting there, that might draw more people who would vote for Democrats.
They understand, I think, finally, belatedly, Republicans, at least the ones who have to get elected and reelected do, that this is doom for them, this is bad.
And I wonder if you think that ends up changing the way they legislate, because they have been real aggressive about trying to make forced birth even as harsh as they can all across this country.
GOLDBERG: Well, I think they`re in something of a predicament, because there is a significant part of their base and of the anti-abortion movement that won`t accept any exceptions, and that has been waiting for this day to pass all of this legislation, and that will be outraged if they`re not able to do that.
But I think that -- I feel like I sound like a broken record on this, but what this points to in this realm, as in so many others, is that, because the Republican agenda is so unpopular, the Republican -- the conservatives can basically change their policies or they can change who`s allowed to vote.
And they have been trying the latter. So you see the kind of right-wing subversion of democracy that`s been an ongoing story. One place where it`s really important for them is in reproductive rights. It`s the only way that they can pass the agenda that many of them are so dedicated to.
One of the reasons that -- or the reason that the court in Michigan had to decide on whether or not this initiative was going to be on the ballot is because a board tossed it out because of some spacing issues, right?
REID: Yes.
GOLDBERG: So, you see already the way that these kinds of -- these Trumpist figures who are determined to subvert the electoral process are already working against -- against abortion rights and against women`s rights.
[19:40:04]
And I believe there`s some things on that ballot initiative that are also going to make it easier to vote, which I think that -- which makes your point, that they want to make it as hard as possible to vote, so they can impose this on women.
Let me play with the vice president of the United States, Kamala Harris, had to say. She was interviewed by Chuck Todd. This is what she said about the court, the Supreme Court, that has made all this possible.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHUCK TODD, MSNBC HOST: How much confidence do you have in the Supreme Court?
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think this is an activist court.
TODD: What does that mean?
HARRIS: It means that we had an established right for almost half-a- century, which is the right of women to make decisions about their own body, as an extension of what we have decided to be the privacy rights to which all people are entitled, and this court took that constitutional right away.
And we are suffering as a nation because of it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: Just to make the vice president`s point, in South Carolina, a rapes 12-year-old, a South Carolina representative said: "Well, they could just take an ambulance to Walmart for Plan B. She had choices. The morning-after pill was available. That`s available at Walmart."
So there`s no compassion. And then there`s this compulsion by the Supreme Court of the United States.
Does that wind up being a voting issue for women voters in November, the court itself?
GOLDBERG: I think that we`re already -- I think that we`re already seeing that it is.
I can`t remember who said this, but it was so smart. They said that there`s typically a thermostatic reaction against the party in power. But, right now, what we`re seeing is that the party in power in the United States is the conservative Supreme Court, right? They`re making really substantial changes, against the will of the American people, to the fabric of American life.
REID: Absolutely. That`s a brilliant -- brilliantly said.
Michelle Goldberg, thank you very much. Have a great weekend.
And up next: Is right-wing Republican Senate candidate J.D. Vance quietly quitting his own campaign? A lot of people would love to ask him, if they could only find him.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:46:57]
REID: President Biden is leaning hard into the midterms.
Today, he made his third visit to a battleground state just this week. Biden was in Columbus, Ohio, where he celebrated the groundbreaking of a new semiconductor plant made possible by legislation that he signed into law.
Ohio, which has turned more red in recent years, voting overwhelmingly for the Republican in the past two presidential elections, is now host to a surprisingly close Senate race to fill the vacancy left by retiring Republican Senator Rob Portman.
J.D. Vance, the venture capitalist with a law degree from Yale, has run one of the more bizarre campaigns and has been largely missing an action. When he does emerge, he`s telling women that things were better for the family when they stuck it out in violence and unhappy marriages.
The Associated Press also recently reported that a charity organization Vance setup to combat the opioid epidemic hired a drug consultant with ties to Purdue Pharma, a company reviled for its role in fueling America`s opioid addiction.
Vance`s Democratic challenger, Tim Ryan, has taken Vance to task for that in this new ad.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right after Joe had turned 15, that`s when he was prescribed OxyContin. Months later, he was addicted.
We used his college savings to pay for treatment. But the Oxy had such a hold on him. It was devastating. It was crushing. It`s not just that J.D. Vance pretended to help kids like Joe. He brought in a woman funded by the drug companies for their own benefit.
I don`t have words for how betrayed I felt.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: Joining me now is Maria Teresa Kumar, president and CEO of Voto Latino, and former Republican Congressman Carlos Curbelo, who is now an MSNBC political analyst.
Thank you both for being here.
Carlos, I got to tell I guess because he`s rich, J.D. Vance could afford to sell his soul to Donald Trump for a nickel. But this thing here with this opioid epidemic, and essentially -- this messaging, to me, is damning, that he got in bed with a big pharma company that was responsible for the opioid epidemic, and then made a PAC.
What do you make of his campaign?
CARLOS CURBELO, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: Joy, this is just another example of the train wreck that Senate Republicans are facing ahead of the November election and the train wreck that`s been this whole primary cycle, with so many poor-quality candidates winning.
And J.D. Vance is an example of that, someone who, in some ways, has already shown himself to be a phony, because he was a major critic of Donald Trump. Now he wants to be a U.S. senator, wanted to win a Republican primary, and sold his soul to him for maybe a nickel. Maybe that might be too much.
But, yes, this is just another example of why Democrats are poised, at least in the Senate, to defy political gravity this cycle, because Republicans have some pretty challenged candidates.
REID: And, MTK, look, I mean, Ohio used to be considered like a swing state, right? They do have one Democratic senator, Sherrod Brown, so it`s not like Democrats can`t win statewide. And it definitely feels like Tim Ryan is running a very wise, smart campaign.
[19:50:00]
And J.D. Vance is saying things like this. This is -- this is not new video, but this was VICE News` clip of Vance saying the following -- I mentioned it in the setup -- about when women were better off. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
J.D. VANCE (R), OHIO SENATORIAL CANDIDATE: This is one of the great tricks that I think the sexual revolution pulled on the American populace, which is this idea that like, well, OK, these marriages were fundamentally -- they were -- they were maybe even violent, but, certainly, they were unhappy.
And so getting rid of them and making it easier for people to shift spouses like they change their underwear, that`s going to make people happier in the long term. And maybe it worked out for the moms and dads, though I`m skeptical, but it really didn`t work out for the kids.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: Do they teach something at, like, hedge fund school to say something that stupid out loud and think that you`re then going to be elected by any woman to be the United States senator from -- I don`t understand his whole campaign ethos.
Do you?
MARIA TERESA KUMAR, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, the challenge is that, if you read his biography, "Hillbilly Elegy," he actually tackles all these issues, from opioid epidemic, to being in broken homes and all of that.
And it`s like he has divorced himself from his own roots, and has now gone completely to the MAGA Republicans for short times -- for short-timed little sound bites. And, as a result, the implications of the policy he`s trying to promote, the culture war that he`s trying to promote is actually part of the problem.
The fact that he doesn`t want to provide and actually talk to individuals who are part of that opioid epidemic, for example, that`s painful, because we know that Ohio`s having one of the hardest times in the country.
REID: Yes.
KUMAR: The same thing when it comes to this idea that a woman cannot choose who they should be married to is right up there a long -- right a long line with the choice of abortion and your agency of your body.
And so one of the things that we`re seeing on the Trump candidates is that MAGA Trumps are not -- MAGA Republicans are not doing well, because there are even Republicans who recognize that that is not the country they want. They want their old party back, where they can talk more about fiscal issues, not about culture wars that are taking the rights of women.
And I think that is where J.D. Vance -- that`s one of the reasons why he is MIA. He doesn`t want to talk about the issues that will actually swing his voters, but he`s too afraid to divorce himself from Donald Trump.
REID: And I don`t understand why they just don`t do it then, Carlos.
I mean, you have got Dr. Oz, who`s a joke at this point, who`s talking about crudites. You have got Herschel Walker, who I have no idea what he`s talking about. We have too many trees or whatever he`s saying at any given moment.
It feels like Republicans lash themselves to MAGA candidates because they`re terrified of their base. But they must know, when they talk off the side, maybe to you, that this is madness, that the people they have picked are inadequate.
Do they say behind the scenes, oh, we have picked a bunch of losers?
CURBELO: Yes, Joy.
And I wish all Americans could hear what many Republicans say quietly or privately about Donald Trump, about Republican primaries, about all of the really challenging things that have happened in our country over the last few years.
And I think this is one of the reasons why this movement, this MAGA movement, is unsustainable, because most of the people leading it are fake. They don`t believe in it. They know it`s untrue. They know it`s a fraud.
So that kind of comes through eventually. People can sniff out someone who`s being hypocritical or not telling the truth. And I think that`s what`s happening to a lot of these candidates.
REID: Yes, it`s embarrassing.
What did Lindsey Graham say? If we nominate Donald Trump, we will get destroyed, and we will deserve it, one -- that`s the one thing that man has ever said.
Don`t go anywhere, you all, because "Who Won the Week?" is coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:58:15]
REID: It was a week so monumental, there is now a new king. And that`s not the only thing.
It is now time to play "Who Won the Week?" Here we go.
(LAUGHTER)
REID: I said it too early. "Who Won the Week?"
Maria Teresa Kumar, Carlos Curbelo are back with me.
Carlos, who won the week?
CURBELO: Well, Joy, I`m going to give someone a little credit on your show who never gets any credit.
And that`s Mitch McConnell.
(LAUGHTER)
CURBELO: Because by inviting Donald Trump to invest in the campaigns of these horrible Senate Republican candidates, he is going to expose him as one of the most selfish people, no, no, no, the most selfish person ever to participate in American politics, because I guarantee you, Donald Trump will not give any of these candidates a penny of his money.
REID: A dime.
Well, and he`s like begging Peter Thiel for money. Like, please just give us $1. Just give us $1.
OK, MTK, who won the week?
KUMAR: I would say President Biden.
I think that he`s finally been able to tell people that he`s delivering on the American people, and he`s bringing jobs back to America. He was in Ohio today, and he was able to break ground with Intel, saying manufacturing back -- jobs are back, and this is what you do when you vote for us.
So he`s actually delivering on his campaign promises.
REID: And, also, he`s got his cool Ray-Bans back. He`s Bidening again.
Like Biden, is best when he`s fully Bidening and he`s got the Ray-Bans on, and he`s going, come on, man. Come on, man. Grandpa Finnegan wouldn`t like that, man. Come on, man.
(LAUGHTER)
REID: All right, I`m going to now play two back-to-back clips of my "Who Won the Week?" choice.
And roll them.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I want to thank Sharon Sprung for capturing everything I love about Michelle, her grace, her intelligence, and the fact that she`s fine.
(LAUGHTER)
(APPLAUSE)
MICHELLE OBAMA, FORMER FIRST LADY: Because as Barack said, if the two of us can end up on the walls of the most famous address in the world, then, again, it is so important for every young kid who is doubting themselves to believe that they can too.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: Braids, dress, compliment from yo man, portraits. Michelle Obama, boom, she won the week.
Maria Teresa Kumar, former Congressman Carlos Curbelo, thank you both, my friends.
That is tonight`s REIDOUT.
She won the week, you all, big time.
"ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES" starts now.