Trump adds to burden of disaster emergency response with lies, misinformation
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was previously only on my calendar for one reason, which is that it is Vladimir Putin's birthday. He's 72 today. Congratulations. But now, for me and for you and for everybody, the date October 7th is its own unforgettable, indelible thing. The same way that 9-11 is an unforgettable, indelible date for us forever now, too. On October 7th, Israel lost 1,200 people in the Hamas attack.

October 7th, 2023, one year ago today. That's 1,200 people. And if you sort of extrapolate that, given the relative size of the population of our two countries, an attack of that size in our country, that would have been the equivalent of us losing more than 35,000 people. We lost 3,000 Americans on 9-11. They lost, relative to their population, the equivalent of 35,000 people on October 7th.

And, you know, they didn't lose them by, you know, crashing planes or crashing planes into buildings. Those people were all killed face to face, person to person, by hand, one by one. After 9-11, our country started wars in Afghanistan and then in Iraq. Those stretched out into America's longest ever wars. Those wars killed hundreds of thousands of people.

After October 7th, Israel's year of war has spread from Gaza and the West Bank, now into Lebanon. It has even started to include some significant military exchanges with Iran. In Gaza alone, the death toll from the past year is said to be roughly 42,000. And again, if you extrapolate in the same way, given the population of Gaza overall compared with ours, that would be the equivalent of us losing over 6 million people in a single year.

more than the population of Missouri or Maryland or Wisconsin. But on it goes. And even today, there are still 97 Israeli hostages who are still thought to be held by Hamas. Today, for them, marks one year of their captivity. But on it goes. We have been watching all day today memorials and vigils and protests marking one year since the October 7th Hamas attack and since the start of the ensuing war in Gaza.

We've seen President Biden here in this country, also both of our presidential candidates in this country, take part in commemorative events marking October 7th. Oddly, this anniversary today has also been a slightly unsettling reminder of one of the sort of unremarked upon oddities in this presidential contest.

All major party presidential candidates for years now have been given intelligence briefings by U.S. intelligence agencies during the campaign. And they do that not just as a compliment, they do that so that presidential candidates of major parties, people who have a real shot of getting in the White House,

If they're briefed by the intelligence agencies during the campaign, I think the thinking is they'll be better prepared for the transition, for taking power if they're ultimately elected, but also, presumably, so that they're aware of the implications of their statements as a presidential candidate while they are running and campaigning.

Presidential candidates get intelligence briefings. So do former presidents. Donald Trump, normally, as a former president, would also qualify and be entitled to ongoing intelligence briefings. All former intelligence, excuse me, all former presidents generally get them.

That said, after Trump incited the January 6th violent attack on Congress to try to stay in power, President Biden decided that maybe it's time to break that precedent. Maybe this particular former president shouldn't get the courtesy of post office intelligence briefings.

That decision looked pretty good in retrospect when Trump was ultimately brought up on federal criminal charges for mishandling the classified information that he illegally took with him in huge quantities to his house in Florida when he left the White House after his presidency was over. When the Republican Party, in its infinite wisdom, nevertheless decided this past year that they would make Trump their presidential candidate again,

That was this interesting scenario in terms of intelligence briefings, because it meant that even if he wasn't getting intelligence briefings as a former president, because it was decided that he sort of couldn't be trusted with them, well, as a presidential candidate, he should have been able to start getting them again. Not because of his status as a former president, but because he's a candidate for office once again. And here is a strange and mostly unremarked upon thing in the presidential campaign that nevertheless came roaring back to the fore today.

Even though the U.S. government says and President Biden says that Trump is now entitled to official U.S. intelligence briefings because he's a presidential candidate, you're not allowed to get them as a former president. We can't. That's a bridge too far, given how you behaved at the end of your presidency. But OK, you're a major party candidate for president. OK, you can get the briefings. He nevertheless is not getting them because he decided he didn't want them.

Trump said he would only be accused of leaking the information he was given in the intelligence briefings, so he didn't want the briefings. He doesn't want to have heard the information in the first place. And he has since been refusing all intelligence briefings from the U.S. intelligence community. So now here we are on the anniversary of the October 7th attack, and Trump is publicly demanding that Israel should launch a large-scale bombing campaign against Iran.

And hey, who knows? Maybe you think that's a good idea. I don't know. But it's worth remembering that he is making that kind of radical and bombastic demand, not just while that whole region is already teetering on the edge of the abyss and in some ways is already over it, but he is making that demand while he is simultaneously deliberately choosing to not know, to not hear what the U.S. government thinks might happen if anybody decides to follow his advice.

refusing intelligence briefings and nevertheless demanding that one of our most potent allies in the world already engaged in a war on multiple fronts should scale up a big bombing campaign against Iran. What could possibly go wrong? Oh, something might go wrong? I don't want to hear it. Responsibility, competence, sanity. Yeah.

We've also got our eyes tonight on the absolutely massive new hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico that is heading right now toward the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico before it heads here toward the state of Florida. It's Hurricane Milton. It is a Category 5 hurricane. It is, in fact, one of the top five strongest Atlantic hurricanes in recorded history.

You might have seen this today, an emotional report from the NBC Miami meteorologist and hurricane specialist John Morales. He was being interviewed live today when the news crossed that the storm had grown explosively into a Category 5. Watch. We want to begin with hurricane specialist John Morales. John, now this monster of a hurricane is a Category 5?

Yes, that news just came out right now and it's certainly, it's just an incredible, incredible, incredible hurricane. It has dropped 50 millibars in 10 hours. I apologize, this is just horrific. Maximum sustained winds are 160 miles per hour.

And it is just gaining strength in the Gulf of Mexico where you can imagine the winds, I mean the seas are just so incredibly, incredibly hot, record hot as you might imagine. You know what's driving that. I don't need to tell you. Global warming, climate change leading to this and becoming an increasing threat.

An emotional John Morales at NBC6 in Miami just flabbergasted by the size and the explosive growth of that mega storm. It is as yet unclear what the impact of Hurricane Martin may be in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, but current tracks have it coming here afterwards as a category three or four storm.

when it heads toward landfall on the west side of Florida on Wednesday, on the day after tomorrow. I'll show you just one more thing here. This is in print, not on tape, but I think it nevertheless conveys the same level of upset and worry and alarm

This is the latest from the NBC News Climate Unit. I'll just read it to you directly. This is what they said. This is the headline. Category 5 Hurricane Milton shatters records. Landfall near Tampa likely with a catastrophic storm surge never before seen in this area. Quote, Milton went through an astonishing period of extreme rapid intensification, jumping from a Category 1 to Category 5 hurricane in 18 hours. Again, Cat 1 to Cat 5.

In 18 hours, quote, landfall expected very late Wednesday slash early Thursday as a borderline category three or four hurricane between Clearwater and Fort Myers in Florida. While Milton is expected to weaken, it will grow in size, which will maximize the storm surge potential despite having a lower category of winds.

Risk of a direct hit on Tampa continues to grow, raising concerns for catastrophic and historic storm surge. Life-threatening flash flooding possible for a large portion of Florida, with highest rainfall totals most likely to occur along or near the I-4 corridor. Widespread power outages looking more likely along the entire I-4 corridor, outages that could last weeks.

Milton is another climate change-fueled hurricane expected to go through extreme, rapid intensification fueled by Gulf of Mexico waters that remain two to four degrees above average. These intense, even emotional warnings about the possible impact of Hurricane Milton come, of course, just a week and a half after Hurricane Helene banged into Florida's Big Bend region and then preceded

up and inland, where it caused just shockingly widespread and profound destruction in parts of Georgia and South Carolina and North Carolina and Virginia and Tennessee. And recovery efforts in those states continue. But one of the other things that people in these states are having to contend with, which is insane, is on top of everything else, a tidal wave of disinformation and conspiracy theories.

Designed to maximize the chaos and turn people against each other and reap whatever political points can be wrung out of it. I mean, amid everything else, here is the front page of the Winston-Salem Journal in North Carolina. Their front page, all columns above the fold headline, fighting misinformation. It's the last thing you think they'd have to be dealing with given everything else they're dealing with. Hurricane Helene triggers misinformation surge.

In Charlotte, North Carolina, here's the editorial board of the Charlotte Observer. Shame on Donald Trump for worsening North Carolina's Helene tragedy with political lies. FEMA has had to make a whole section of its website devoted to debunking false conspiracy theories and disinformation about the hurricane and the response that have been spread among other people by the Republican candidate for president of the United States.

The North Carolina Department of Public Safety, again, with everything else they have to deal with, they have also had to make a fact versus rumor new website to help people sort through the trash that is being promoted for political benefit.

Back in reality, among people actually involved in the response, North Carolina's governor has called the federal response to Helene, quote, unprecedented. North Carolina Republican Senator Tom Tillis says he's impressed with the federal response. He says he is proud of the response effort, that they're doing a great job. A Republican state senator in North Carolina who represents Western North Carolina, he's posted a public plea, quote, friends, can I ask a small favor? Will you all help stop

this conspiracy theory junk that's floating all over Facebook and the internet about the floods in Western North Carolina. Example, FEMA is stealing money from donations. Body bags ordered, but government has denied. Bodies not being buried. Government is controlling the weather from Antarctica. Government is trying to get lithium from Western North Carolina. Stacks of bodies left at hospitals and on and on and on. He says, quote,

please help stop this junk. It is just a distraction to people trying to do their job. Folks, this is a catastrophic event of which this country has never known. It is the largest crisis event in the history of North Carolina. The state is working nonstop. DOT has deployed workers from all over the state. Duke Power has 10,000 workers on this. FEMA is here. The National Guard is here in large numbers. And he goes on.

Even some of the most partisan actors, Florida governor, Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, even he says his state has received all the federal help that it's asked for. But in the Trump campaign, the federal government is denying anybody any help. Right. And the Trump campaign and on Elon Musk's Twitter, they have decided it's better to mess with people and turn people against each other and lie about the response and see what they can stir up and see if Trump can benefit from it.

I mean, here, for example, is the 9-11 truther, self-proclaimed white advocate, conspiracy theorist who Trump brought with him to the 9-11 commemoration last month in Manhattan. Quote, the people in Appalachia should not comply with FEMA. This is a matter of survival. Do not comply with FEMA. This is what they're doing for political benefit.

Sure, six different states coping with devastation from a hurricane less than two weeks ago. And another storm on the way that is so large and terrifying, it is bringing meteorologists to tears.

Trump campaign sees that and thinks, "What better time than to mess with people? What better time is there than this?" Because maybe we'll benefit from it. Maybe if people are pushed into the most extreme circumstances possible, maybe we'll benefit from things being as bad as they can possibly be. The Harris campaign just tonight has released a new ad pushing back at the lies that Trump and his campaign have been trafficking in about the hurricane response.

Also reminding the country that this was not exactly his strong suit while he was in the White House in charge of efforts like this. Here it is again. This ad has just come out tonight. I worked in the Trump administration. Never in a million years did I ever think that I'd be working in the White House with a president that didn't care about the American people.

He would suggest not giving disaster relief to states that hadn't voted for him. I remember one time after a wildfire in California, he wouldn't send relief because it was a Democratic state. So we went as far as looking up how many votes he got in those impacted areas to show him these are people who voted for you. This isn't normal. The job of the president is to protect Americans.

regardless of politics. If Trump's elected again, there'll be no one to stop his worst instincts. You'll have yes men help him implement Project 2025's agenda. Unchecked power, no guardrails. They will be serving one man. I am voting for Kamala Harris because she will put the safety and security of every American first, whether they voted for her or not.

Again, that is just released tonight from the Harris campaign in the wake of even Republican officials in multiple states affected by Hurricane Colleen starting to beg Trump and his campaign to stop lying about the response, to stop spreading disinformation and conspiracy theories among people who rather desperately need real and reliable information and real help. We're less than a month now from Election Day.

Early voting has already started in many places. A bunch of states are starting to hit their deadlines in terms of when's the last day you can register to vote. Today, for example, today is the deadline by which you need to be registered to vote in all of these states. In Georgia, Arizona, Florida, Kentucky, Indiana, Texas, Tennessee, Arkansas, Ohio. All of those states have voter registration deadlines of today.

So if you've been thinking that it might be a good time for you to volunteer, right? If you're already registered to vote, you're thinking, what else should I do? Maybe this is an election that's important enough that I should do something. Maybe you've been thinking you should do some phone banking or canvassing door-to-door. Maybe you've been thinking, I can't really do that, but maybe I should donate. Now is the time. It's less than a month left. It won't do much good if you wait much longer. People are already voting.

Now is the time, no matter who your candidate is or what the issue is that you want to work on, it is time to go. It is time to do it. And with time getting this short and the election as close as it is, at this point, honestly, everything matters. I mean, Trump is telling people at his rallies that the Biden administration is refusing to help people affected by the hurricane because it's taken all the disaster money and given all the money to immigrants instead.

And that's not even the tiniest bit true. But Trump is making anything and everything in his campaign relate back to immigration, where he is getting darker and darker and darker in the way that he talks about immigrants in order to try to stir up maximum emotion, maximum division among people who are listening to him.

Having previously translated from the original German, a nice little phrase about how immigrants are poisoning the blood of our country, Trump now is telling people, he recently told the conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, that immigrants have, quote, bad genes. A little riff that he was doing about immigrants being murderers. He said it's because, quote, I believe this. It's in their genes. And we got a lot of bad genes in our country right now.

No pushback on this pronouncement at all during the interview, which is unsettling in itself. But now I guess we have to wait and see if this is going to become a regular riff for Trump, right? Where he talks about what he's going to do to get rid of all the bad genes that we have in this country, right? The people with bad genetics. Is he going to clean that up in our country? Our bad genetics? How many people are we talking about being cleansed for their bad genetics here? J.D. Vance did an interview just earlier this year, 2024.

February this year, where he said that he believes, quote, 10% of the population of the United States is, quote, illegal aliens. That means he thinks 33 million people in this country are here illegally. And that's not all. He then said immediately, probably 10% of our population is illegal aliens and another 15%, another 15% are in an irregular situation with the law.

Think about that for a second. Another 15%. So that means he thinks that 25% of the population of the United States shouldn't be here. They're either straight up illegal or they are in an irregular situation with the law. This is what J.D. Vance describes as America's, quote, terrible migration crisis.

33 million people in America who he says are flat out illegal, and another 50 million who he describes as in an irregular situation with the law. This is the group that Trump says, his running mate says, has bad genes, gives us bad genes in this country. It's 83 million people that J.D. Vance is putting in this category. One out of every four people in this country that what, got to go?

that you think have bad genetics? One out of every four people in America is 83 million people. And 83 million people are the crisis that you guys are going to clean up? 83 million people, really? Is it starting to sound like maybe it's too much from these guys? Maybe they're overplaying their hand a little bit here? With time this short and the election as close as it is, everything matters.

Here's something else: Donald Trump has not withdrawn his endorsement for the North Carolina Republican candidate for governor, who called himself a "Nazi" in an online porn forum, who praised slavery, and who has yet to offer any substantive explanation for what appear to be his other many, many, many, many lurid, unquotable, prolific posts on porn forums. Trump's endorsement of Mark Robinson stands.

Here was Trump's running mate's response. Here was J.D. Vance's response when he was asked about Mark Robinson.

Are you comfortable with Mark Robinson as the Republican nominee for governor in North Carolina? Well, the allegations are pretty far out there, of course, but I know the allegations aren't necessarily reality. And what I'd say is it's ultimately up to Mark Robinson in North Carolina whether he's going to be their governor. Do you believe him that those were not his posts? I don't not believe him. I don't believe him. I just think that you have to let these things sometimes play out in the court of public opinion. He's going to make whatever arguments he wants to make.

I don't not believe him. I don't believe him. This will just play out. I got called himself a Nazi, praised Mein Kampf, praised slavery. Not exactly courageous, strong stuff from J.D. Vance there on the I am a black Nazi porn site governor candidate, especially given J.D. Vance's strong public position in favor of banning pornography altogether.

This is something that got him a little bit of attention earlier in his career, as you see from this headline. Also this Ohio headline during a Senate campaign. Watch out, J.D. Vance is coming for your porn. Or this one, J.D. Vance is firmly against banning guns, but he's keen on banning porn.

J.D. Vance is not alone in this crusade, of course, in the forward to Project 2025. They put it right there in black and white as a priority for as soon as Republicans get back in power. It says, quote, pornography should be outlawed. The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned. Telecommunications and technology firms that facilitate its spread should be shuttered. Remember, they're the free speech party.

But like I said, with time this short, the election as close as it is, everything matters. Now, for example, the porn industry is pushing back in a way that really only they can. They have started a Hands Off My Porn campaign, which includes video ads that roll before the porn does on adult video providing websites. And they're running these ads, again, pre-rolls on porn videos

And they're going to run these on adult content websites in all the swing states for the next month until the election. Now, what is the likely impact of that in those swing states in the last month before the election? Everybody looking at online porn in those states being told right then and there when they're thinking about that, that J.D. Vance and Donald Trump will make porn a criminal offense if they get into office. What is the likely effect of that on, say, I don't know, the gender gap among voters in the swing states? I don't know.

But with time this short and the race this close, honestly, everything matters. We've got a lot to get to this hour. There is some new crazy stuff going on in some of the closest Senate races in the country. There were a ton of developments today, including just one stunning piece of tape that emerged today on what is the hottest issue driving Democratic turnout in elections up and down the ballot. Like I said, time is short. Everything matters. Lots to get to. Stay with us.

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Sally Field, you know her from her legendary acting career. She's just done something. She's just given a statement of sorts. That is one of the most remarkable things I have seen from a public figure ahead of a presidential election. Watch. I feel still very shamed about it because I was raised in the 50s and, you know, it's ingrained in me. And I was 17.

I had no choices in my life. I didn't have a lot of family support in any way or finances. I graduated from high school, but no one ever said, "Go, how about college?" How about, you know, nothing. I didn't know what was going to be. And then I found out I was pregnant.

Luckily, I had a family doctor who was a friend of the family, and he drove me and his wife and my mother in their brand new Cadillac.

Ay, ay, ay, to Tijuana. And we parked on a really scrunchy looking street, scary. And he parked about three blocks away and said, see that building down there? And he gave me an envelope with money and with cash. And I was to walk into that building and give them the cash and then come right back to him. And I guess he thought if I were dying, maybe he could...

Help me. And it was it was beyond hideous and and, you know, life altering. I had no anesthetic. There was a technician giving me a few puffs of ether, but he would then take it away. So it just made my arms and legs feel numb and weird. But I felt everything, how much pain I was in. And then I realized that the technician was actually molesting me.

So I had to figure out how can I make my arms move to push him away. And, you know, so it was just, you know, this absolute pit of shame. And and I then when it was finished, they said, go, go, go, go, go. Like like the building was on fire and they didn't want me there. You know, it was horrible.

it was illegal. And my doctor, I'm sure his generosity and his bravery was,

Because he would have lost his license, you know, if anyone had found out and more probably because I was too naive to know anything. I had never been out of the state. I'd never been on an airplane. And these are the things that women are going through now when they're trying to get to another state. They don't have the money. They don't have the means that they don't know where they're going. And it.

It's beyond how you can go back to that and do that to our little girls and our young women and not have respect and regard for their health and their own decisions about whether they feel they're able to give birth to a child at that time. It's

We can't go back. We can't go back. We have to all stand up and fight. And that was that lovely story. Actress Sally Field. Today, the Supreme Court said that Texas is allowed to ban doctors in that state from doing abortions, even in emergency situations to save a woman's life or to prevent serious harm to a woman's health.

Also today, the state Supreme Court in Georgia reinstated a ban on essentially all abortions in that state. In Louisiana, as of last week, the two pills required for a medication abortion are now classified as controlled substances, which means possessing those abortion pills without a prescription is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

It's been more than two years now since Roe versus Wade fell. It's less than a month until the next national election. The legal landscape for abortion access has gotten precipitously worse over the past two years. The political stakes, of course, keep getting higher and higher and higher. Joining us now is Minnie Timuraju. She's president and CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All. Minnie, thanks very much for being here. I appreciate your time. Absolutely. Happy to be here. So we're watching...

Marginal changes in states that are having their abortion bans temporarily set back and then reinstated and temporarily set back and then reinstated in innovative approaches like they're taking in Louisiana, essentially declaring medications that are used in abortions to be

illicit drugs. What's your big picture take on the relationship between how profoundly damaged reproductive rights are in this country and what Americans are going to say about it less than 30 days from now when we get the election results?

So I've been traveling all over the country. It's go time. I'm actually in Orange County about to hit doors for some pivotal house races that we know are going to be key for us winning back the House. I was in Montana talking to reproductive rights advocates who have a ballot measure, but also have to fight back against Tim Sheehy, who was just on the record, just tape was revealed where he was really derogatory about how young people feel about abortion, particularly young women.

Look, what we've seen is a trend line with the Supreme Court. I'll start there. The Supreme Court has really essentially punted all major decisions on reproductive rights until after this election. Really plan almost like a placeholder for Donald Trump and J.D. Vance to come back and to institute Project 2025. And that's terrifying. In the meantime, you have activists, you have politicians,

Everyone from independents and republicans in 10 states with ballot measures crossing partisan lines, getting activated and fighting back. And then you have these really damaging efforts in places like Georgia and Louisiana where they're really trying to do everything they can to restrict abortion access even further than it already is. Louisiana basically has a total ban. So classifying mithypristone and misoprostol as controlled substances is just making it even more

for doctors to provide basic life-saving miscarriage care. I think all of this illustrates that we are in this incredibly tumultuous time and

where there's a single solution. And that single solution is we've got to elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, and we have to flip the House and hold the Senate. If we get this federal trifecta, we will be able to pass federal protections for abortion access and start fixing the damage that has been caused by Trump and his abortion bans. It's that simple.

- Mindy, you mentioned Republican Senate candidate Tim Sheehy in Montana and some comments that he recently made really sort of derogatory and derisive toward women caring, particularly young women caring about reproductive rights. Montana's one of the states where abortion is gonna be on the ballot directly. There's a lot of ballot measures in a lot of states, including a lot of red states and a lot of swing states, where people are gonna get the opportunity to vote directly on abortion rights. And every time Americans have had that chance

Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, we have seen Americans, even in red states, vote for reproductive rights. Do you expect that that trend will continue right through November and that these measures will pass pretty much everywhere that Americans have the chance to vote on them?

Some of them are harder than others. But right now, all the polling looks really, really favorable for these ballot measures. You know, the thresholds are different in Montana. It's a 50 percent threshold. And while the ballot measures polling above that, it all comes down to turnout. Right. And whether there's infrastructure in the state. The good news is in Montana, they've done a great job of organizing. I mean, I was in the flatlands and we had hundreds of women showing up and men and allies showing up.

to talk to candidates up and down the ballot and to rally around the ballot measure. You know, Florida is another one to watch really closely, you know, based on the geography of the country and all these bans we just talked about in these Southern states, Florida is a critical place for us to make sure we can win our rights back because it's an access point for so many women in the South.

So they, however, have a 60 percent threshold. Again, right now, the ballot measure is pulling really well, but that's a tough threshold to make. And it's not an accident that Governor DeSantis is now really going after the ballot measure. You know, they're trying to challenge advertising on air in favor of the ballot measure. They're intimidating folks who've signed the petitions. They know how popular this issue is and they will do everything they can to cheat and stop it.

Many to Maraju, president and CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All on the road as we speak, working on this issue. Like you said, it's go time. Many. Thank you very much. Appreciate having you here. All right. Stay with us. We'll be right back. UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, responds to emergencies and provides long term solutions for refugees in more than 130 countries, including Ukraine, Syria and Afghanistan. UNHCR supports people forced to flee from war, violence and persecution at their greatest moment of need.

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Some unexpected stuff going on in some U.S. Senate races right now. I mean, first of all, just the fact that incumbent Republicans in both Florida and Texas, these safe red states, are facing actual honest-to-goodness fights to keep their seats. Ted Cruz in Texas and Rick Scott in Florida. Rick Scott in Florida is buying another $10 million of TV ads for the final weeks of the race, shelling out his own money.

Then there's Pennsylvania, where the Republican Senate candidate this weekend decided to campaign outside a cheesesteak shop in North Philly. That event ended with the manager of the cheesesteak shop saying that Republican Dave McCormick is, quote, not welcome back. You're not welcome back.

Then Dave McCormick crossed the street to a local Baptist church where the pastor there asked McCormick and his entourage to leave because he didn't, among other things, want photos of his church's members to be used by McCormick's campaign. The pastor said, quote, you can Photoshop. You can make things seem like they aren't. Maybe they're going to post we're eating dogs or cats like in Ohio. Forgive me if I'm wrong. I don't trust these people.

So that went great for the Republican Senate candidate in Pennsylvania. Then there's Montana, where the Republican Senate candidate there is on tape repeatedly making really over-the-top, flagrantly racist, derogatory remarks about Montana's Native Americans in a state where Native Americans make up fully 6% of the population.

Republican candidate Tim Sheehy first tried to claim that the recordings had somehow been deceptively edited before he was forced to admit that they are real and not at all deceptively edited. He still refused to apologize for them, though. There's also the kind of unbelievable ongoing lack of a resolution over that same Republican candidate, Tim Sheehy, saying a bullet in his arm was from him shooting himself accidentally when he dropped a gun in a national park.

But then he said the same gunshot wound was actually from him serving in Afghanistan. It can't be both. He's refused to release any information that would clarify either way, even as the disputed gunshot wound has been a huge part of his campaign, which just seems completely untenable as we get closer to election day. But yet here we are. And oh wait, there's more. The newest just bizarre thing to happen to a top tier, totally tied Senate race is

is not only one of the strangest scandals of all, it's one that potentially has a criminal element to it. And that story has just broken, and we've got it here for you next.

If you turned into a Florida man, if you were retiring from someplace cold like Michigan, you could do worse than this $1.6 million estate in Cape Coral, Florida. You can see it has beautiful views. It has a very nice pool. This home, it's called an estate in its real estate listings. It was purchased just two years ago in the summer of 2022. It was purchased by Michigan Republican Congressman Mike Rogers.

He served seven terms in Congress. He spent six years in the Michigan State Senate before that, all before he decided to pitch it all in and retire to Florida to live in his dream house. I mean, between D.C. and Michigan, I guess, I don't know, you can blame him for wanting a taste of exceptional waterfront living in a much warmer location. The problem is just six months after Mike Rogers bought his new dream home in Florida, an even more prime piece of real estate opened up.

Michigan Democratic U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow announced that she was retiring from the U.S. Senate. And this new Florida resident, Mike Rogers, he really wanted to run for that Michigan U.S. Senate seat. But unfortunately, that would mean he'd have to move back to Michigan.

Well, Mike Rogers decided he would buy this lovely little house in White Lake Township, Michigan. He bought it, then immediately knocked it down. This photo was taken by local reporter John King of the Michigan Advance on April 30th. It shows an empty plot of land where the house Mike Rogers bought used to be. This picture, I think, redefines exceptional waterfront living.

Two months after this picture was taken, Mike Rogers registered to vote using that property as his home address. Then one month after that, he voted for himself in the Republican primary for that U.S. Senate seat using that address as his voter registration location.

Now, all this is turning out to be a problem for U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers. According to the Detroit Free Press, the house that Mike Rogers is still building on that spot isn't done. It, quote, did not, at the time he voted and does not now, have a certificate of occupancy, which means Mike Rogers could not legally live there. Quote, and if he didn't live there, he may have broken the law by using that address to vote.

Joining me now is ML Elric. He's a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter, currently a columnist for the Detroit Free Press. He broke this story in his column this week. He's also the host of ML's Soul of Detroit podcast. Mr. Elric, thanks very much for being here. Thanks for having me, Rachel. Did I misunderstand any of that or did I pretty much get it the right way around?

No, I think the only misunderstanding and the Rogers campaign won't help us out with it is where does Mike Rogers actually lay his head? You know, Michigan's residency laws are very loose. We're set up so that if you leave temporarily, if you go to college, if you become a veteran or you're serving overseas, you can vote at your old address. The problem for Mike Rogers is we have no indication that he's ever actually lived at this address. And while they say you can't go home again, if you're never there in the first place, is it really your home?

He previously had said that he was registered at his brother's home in Michigan. And as I understand it from your reporting, you sort of spent some time hanging out around his brother's home, asking neighbors, asking people who lived in the area if they had ever seen him. It seems like, from your reporting at least, that his registration at his brother's home may also have been a bit of a ruse.

Yeah, I think anybody who's running for office, particularly in such a close race like this, doesn't spend a lot of nights at home. We're a big state. We have 83 counties and you want to get to all of them. But you would think a former congressman who's living in your neighborhood will at least come by and say hi and say, can I get your vote? The fact that his neighbors have not seen him.

is pretty surprising to me. But the campaign assures us that at some point he really did stay there, which just means that he and his brother get along a lot better than me and my brother.

Both them and their spouses in a house with one and a half bedrooms. Let me ask you about one point. I'm just going to read to you from your column on this matter. There's still the question of whether Rogers committed a misdemeanor by using a home he could not occupy to register to vote, whether he committed a felony by voting in the August 6th primary, and whether he can even legally vote for himself.

in the November 5th election, right? You can't legally reside somewhere where there's no certificate of occupancy. If you don't legally reside somewhere, hard to say that you can register to vote there. Are Democrats as political opponents, good government groups, watchdogs, anybody pursuing this as a legal matter involving Mr. Rogers and potentially his ability to even vote for himself, the question of whether or not he might have broken the law by doing so in the past?

Yeah, we just broke this story on Sunday. So I think the fallout is still kind of cascading through the Michigan political landscape. But frankly, given how Republicans are so worried about voter fraud and people voting illegally, if anybody's going to raise a red flag on this, I would think it'd be the Republican Party. But then again, he is the Republican candidate. So maybe some other folks are going to say he's

And unless he moves into that place before November 5th, there's always the chance that when he goes to vote, somebody's going to say, excuse me, I'm challenging this gentleman's right to cast a ballot, presumably for himself. Wow. M.L. Elric, columnist for the Detroit Free Press. Thank you for helping us understand the story. I appreciate your time. My pleasure. All right. We'll be right back. Stay with us.

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