Morning Joe - Morning Joe 3/18/24

Episode Date: March 18, 2024

Trump warns of a 'bloodbath' for America if he loses

You see the spirit from the hostages and that's what they are, is hostages. They've been treated terribly and very unfairly. And you know that and everybody knows that. And we're going to be working on that soon. The first day we get into office, we're going to save our country. We're going to work with the people to treat those unbelievable patriots. And they were unbelievable patriots and are. Well, I think it's very unfortunate at a time that there are American hostages being held

in Gaza that the president or any other leaders would refer to people that are moving through our justice system as hostages. And it's just unacceptable. I was there on January 6th. I have no doubt in my mind, Margaret, that some people were caught up in the moment and that entered the Capitol. And they're certainly entitled to due process of law for any nonviolent activities that day. But the assaults on police officers, ultimately an environment that claimed lives, is something that I think was tragic that day, and I'll never diminish it. Mike Pence once again taking a stand against his former boss. He also refused to

endorse Trump for president. Those comments from Donald Trump came during a stump speech for a Senate candidate in Ohio. But Trump was more focused on his personal grievances, giving more incendiary remarks. Meanwhile, the former president has so far refused to condemn Vladimir Putin for the death of Alexei Navalny. But for the first time publicly, Putin addressed the death of his chief rival. Also ahead, we'll show you the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu's response to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer after the highest ranking Jewish elected official in the U.S. called for new elections in Israel. So we're looking at news here and around the world.

But Donald Trump, again, the Republican front runner, who's basically clinched the nomination. Right. Addressing one of the first things he'll do in office is free the, and I say this in quote, hostages. It's beyond twisted for him to use that word. Not surprised, but as disturbed as we'll ever be. And what if you were an American family with hostages still being held in tunnels underneath Gaza?

People who actually are hostages who are doing nothing but being in their home or at a music festival, minding their own business when Hamas terrorists came and seized them and beat them, raped them, abused them, took them underground. And Donald Trump comparing those people in name to others that drove from across the country, came to the Capitol, used bear spray on police officers, beat the hell out of cops, beat the hell out of other people who got in their way, wanted to hang Mike Pence, were looking for Nancy Pelosi, destroyed a lot of offices, defecated in the United States Capitol, and again, jammed cops' heads in doors to try to hurt as many people as they could.

And Jonathan Lemire, you know, Donald Trump. I remember the day after Donald Trump and members of his family getting in trouble for calling these rioters patri. And they backed off. Some of them backed off. Donald Trump now just going straight, weighing straight in, saying that these people were patriots and that, you know, others saying that this wasn't a bloodbath.

I would just suggest that you talk to the wives, sons and daughters of those police officers who lost their lives as a result of January 6th. And they will tell you that that their loved ones lost their lives as a result of January 6th. And Donald Trump continues to praise these people. And he says he says everybody knows that they're patriots. No,

everybody doesn't. In fact, you have to be twisted and demented in your head. If you could look at the rioting, if you could look at people beating the hell out of American cops, out of out of police officers with American flags and trying to kill them and call them hostages after they went through the court system. That is a sickness and a twistness, twistedness. And to continue, you have people continuing to try to apologize for this behavior, starting with Donald Trump, trying to minimize what happened on January the 6th. And, you know, for those who say, why do you talk about Donald Trump? We talk about Donald Trump because, yes, democracy is on the line. When Donald Trump says this is normal political behavior,

the RNC, of course, said it was normal political behavior. Donald Trump says it. And he says those people abusing police officers are patriots. And those that got sent to jail for trying to overrun the U.S. Capitol and for beating the hell out of cops are hostages. There's nothing normal about this. And for for those weak, need wimps that say we should never mention Donald Trump's name and just turn our faces from this and talk about something else. I would suggest there are a lot of Germans who tried that with Hitler. Didn't turn out well.

Just look at this. Just look at this footage Just look at this footage. Look at this footage. These are rioters with flagpoles, with hockey sticks, with spears trying to attack cops. We just saw footage there. A cop being crushed in a door, being tasered with their own weapons, being assaulted with their own guns. This is by any definition, people, patriots. This by any definition is a bloodbath.

And I know there's a lot of debate this weekend about Trump's use of bloodbath at that Ohio rally. We'll get into that. But let's take a second back and just note how he started that rally in Ohio. They played the January 6th convict choir, their version of the national anthem. These convicts. These convicts. These convicts here. These rioters. And Donald Trump, first of all, said they were hostages and said that on day one were he to be elected.

Mind you, he also said on day one he'd be a dictator on day one. He's also saying now on day one he would try to free these hostages. But more than that, Donald Trump was a former commander in chief of this nation. And he saluted, he held up his hand and saluted at his temple, this version of the national anthem, the convict choir's version of the national anthem. And in that image, even as much as any of his rhetoric shows you what he wants to bring to this nation again, were he to take office. Well, let's let's look at that moment, Jonathan, because, again, you know, people are so numbed by Donald Trump right now. We have Ed Luce that we're going to be bringing in a little bit.

Ed did what I think a lot of a lot of us should do, what a lot of journalists should do. And that is instead of trying to figure out the totality of the chaos, Ed said, let me just tell you what happened over the past five days and just focus on that and understand that if any candidate from any other time had done one of these, the multitude of things that he did over five days, they would forever be eliminated from American political discussion. That doesn't happen here and it doesn't happen. And so, yeah, that's a real problem, including, again, pledging allegiance to a convict choir's version of the national anthem take a look ladies and gentlemen please rise for the horribly and unfairly treated january 6th hostages Yeah, I mean, it's again, these people, these people, I guess it's a call.

I don't know. Maybe they're brainwashed into it. But I'm sorry. I'm sorry. No apologies. No apologies. There are a lot of people. I am going to travel out of Manhattan where I've lived my entire life, and drive into Pennsylvania and

try to understand a bit better these. No, you don't have to really drive from the Upper East Side to Scranton to figure out these are people that want an autocrat. These are people who don't like American democracy the way it is because they understand that they lose a fair fight. They don't want a fair fight. They don't want a fair political fight. They just they want to accept election results when they win and they want to start a revolution when they lose. And they're still embracing it here. It is it is sick, Mika. It's sick. And, you know, I swear to God, I swear to God, I the press has got to wake up and start saying, let's try to understand who these people are. It's pretty obvious they have the video.

They see the cops that are getting the hell beaten out of them, and they're calling these people hostages. They're lying day in and day out about what happened on January the 6th. They're lying and say, oh, nobody tried to hurt Mike Pence. Nobody tried to hurt Nancy Pelosi. And yet you talk to the security detail. They were calling home. They were calling home to say goodbye to their loved ones like it was on 9-11 because they thought they were going to get caught by Donald Trump supporters and killed.

So, please. I mean, trying to understand this seriously is like trying to understand a poisonous snake that's about to bite you. And it's American democracy that that's at risk over the next six months. And I swear to God, the fact that this race is even close speaks volumes about what Donald Trump has done to this country. With us today, U.S. special correspondent for BBC News, Katty Kay. And as Joe mentioned, U.S. national editor at The Financial Times, Ed Luce is with us. Also with us this morning, former Supreme Allied commander of NATO, retired four-star Navy Admiral James Stavridis. He is chief international analyst for NBC News. Good to have you all this morning.

We're going to get to that Ohio rally in a second. But I want to start with you, Admiral, as a man who's dedicated your entire life and also taking young men and young women across the world, defending, protecting and defending America, the Constitution, our national interest. Your thoughts on these opening moments of this rally, opening moments of Donald Trump talking about how these people that use the American flag, that brave men and women like you have taken into battle over the past 230, 40 years, that that American flag that was used to bludgeon cops. I'm curious your thoughts on what you've heard. You know, Joe, I spent a fair amount of time in uniform trying to rescue hostages, particularly when I was commander, for example, of U.S. Southern Command. We had hostages being held by terrorists in Colombia. When I was commander of the NATO mission in

Afghanistan, we had handfuls of hostages who were held. Those truly are hostages. Point being, I know what a hostage is, and that prison choir is not a bunch of hostages. Point two, I think I know what a patriot is. A patriot is someone who swears to defend the Constitution of the United States. That's the oath that every volunteer in the armed forces takes. It is not an oath to the commander in chief. It's an oath to the Constitution. Those are patriots. So, yeah, I know hostages, not a prison choir. I know patriots. I served alongside millions of them. And I'll close with this. The correct term for

the prison choir convicted felons. Yeah. Bottom line. You know, following the saluting of the January 6th choir for the next hour and a half, Trump spoke very little about the Republican candidate. He was there in support of instead. he aired a long list of grievances and painted a bleak picture of America's future that included this warning, which came while he was discussing Chinese made cars being imported to the U.S. from Mexico. We're going to put a 100 percent tariff on every single car that comes across the line. And you're not going to be able to sell those cars if I get elected. Now, if I don't get elected, it's going to be a bloodbath for the whole. That's going to be the least of it. It's going to be a bloodbath for the country.

That'll be the least of it. Shortly after the speech, the Trump campaign tried to clean up those comments, insisting in a statement to NBC News, the former president was only talking about a bloodbath for the auto industry and auto workers. unfortunately endure because we're constantly shocked by what he says. But don't let that shock. Don't let that trauma let you forget what you're hearing. Well, believe him. Well, well, and Jonathan will mirror back to you because you're reporting on this. You know, it was a distinction without a difference. He was talking about the auto industry. Then he pivots. He goes, it's going to be a difference. He was talking about the auto industry. Then he pivots. He goes, it's going to be a bloodbath.

So, OK, maybe if I don't get elected, it's going to be a bloodbath. OK, maybe you can connect that to the auto industry. Maybe you can. OK. But again, I've never really heard people discuss macroeconomics in terms of bloodbaths. But maybe, maybe so. But let's just say for argument's sake. But then he says, and that's going to be the least of it. That's going to be the least of it. If you think there's going to be a bloodbath in the auto industry, even if

you take that argument at face value, which, again, given the tone of the rest of the speech, bloodbath, I'm not so sure he's talking about the niceties of international trade. But let's just take that argument as is. Then he goes on and he says, that's going to be the least of it and repeats it. It's going to be the least of it. Obviously, he's talking about a bloodbath for America. It's laid out in the terms of it. And these idiots on Twitter, these idiots on cable news, these idiots on Sunday shows, well, our president, you know, he was talking only about the auto industry. And this is one more. It's just bullshit. Let me say that at 615 a.m. It's just bullshit. He knew what he was doing. We're not stupid. Americans aren't stupid.

He was talking about. A bloodbath, sometimes a bloodbath means a bloodbath. And when he finishes by saying and that's just going to be the least of it. Seriously, these people may be stupid. We're not. No, it is clear what he meant. And one of Trump's sort of rhetorical gifts, if you will, is he speaks just vaguely enough and just circuitously enough that people can kind of read into different meanings. He allows himself a little wiggle room and a little out every time. And we saw this in the aftermath of what became a firestorm about his bloodbath comments,

because rightly, it was the headline that came out of that rally in Ohio. It was reported all over the place. And immediately you saw, we showed the statement already, the Trump campaign within minutes put something out because they recognized. They knew he had screwed up. They knew he had screwed up. And they do have some professionals on their team. And they immediately realized it was a problem.

And they tried to clarify it with that comment. But what happened then was there was a snowball effect on cable news and particularly on social media. Voices in the right wing, including some very prominent voices on the right wing, really pushed back against this, claiming the media was taking out of context, that we were biased against Trump, that we were misconstruing what he said, etc., etc. And as you say, Joe, yes, his comments about bloodbath came shortly after he was talking about the automotive industry. But again, that'll be the least of it. That's the tell. And also, it's that sort of violent language that was peppered throughout his speech, a speech that, again, mind you, began with the former commander in chief saluting the version of the national anthem being performed by January 6th convicts. So in that, Ed Luce is, you know, where if you if you think you shouldn't take this seriously, one should believe him.

At this point, the violence of January 6th is something that he talks about in a wistful way. He wants to help these people, these people who have committed crimes. And we look at global threats around the world, and it seems that the threat of violence within, I'm reading a lot lately about people concerned about more violence here in the U.S. promulgated by Donald Trump. And when he does that, you can see that he's serious about it. Yeah, I don't really need much context to understand what he's saying. I know that I know that people have been going over and over his words. It's very clear what the use of the

word bloodbath and that subclause when he says, oh, and by the way, if I don't get elected means, as Joe said, you know, auto analysts don't usually use terms like bloodbath when it comes to upturns or downturns in the auto industry. It's very clear what he's saying. And the context is, you know, it eludes people like Elon Musk,

who apparently thinks this was an auto commentary, but is absolutely plain to anybody listening to that. And you only need to listen to it once and you don't need a language expert to know what he's saying. And he's not just saying, I'll pardon the hostages, as he calls them, the criminals who were put away for January the 6th.

He's signaling that future such acts have a green light from him. So this isn't just a commentary on the past on the January 6th convicts. This is an enabling statement about people who are going to help him this coming election. So the bloodbath comment, I think, is absolutely unequivocal. There's no need to pass this. Yeah, I mean, you're right, because he also... Go ahead, Joe. No, I'm sorry, Ken. Go ahead. Yeah, I mean, he also puts this, Trump, in the context of this will happen to the country more broadly. I went back this weekend. It's worth in this moment, I think, looking at the work of Rachel Kleinfeld, who's written about what happens when democracies descend into violence and abandon the rule of law. And she said that two things need

to happen. One is the normalization of political violence, which we hear from Donald Trump again and again and his supporters, and the dehumanization of his opponents and people he sees as others. Well, we heard that again over the course of this weekend, where he called some immigrants coming into the country not even human. Those, according to Kleinfeld, are the two conditions that you need for democracies to lose their democracy and become countries that are prone to political violence and have political violence.

It's exactly the pattern that you're seeing here. I mean, it's what we have seen all through January the 6th. And that bloodbath comment doesn't come in a vacuum. It comes in the context of those January the 6th images. And you only need to replay those again and again to see the kind of political amnesia that's set in in America over the last two years. All of the polls showing us that right after January the 6th, a majority of Republicans, even Trump supporters, thought that what happened was a disgrace. And yet over the course of two years, people have forgotten and now they've normalized it. Now, now the polls show that a majority of MAGA supporters think that it was OK what happened on January the 6th. And the kind of ultimate conclusion of that is Donald Trump getting up and saluting the people who've been convicted of violence on that day, convicted four years because of things like January the 6th and

because of the kind of political violence and the normalization of a violent language that we're hearing at the moment. Well, and of course, people will say when you bring up January 6th, Americans have grown numb to it. You've grown numb to that. You've grown numb to the fact that the guy that's running for president now and praising rioters and calling rioters patriots who used American flags to bludgeon the hell out of cops? You think that's OK? You've got you've grown numb to that. You think we should move on from that? No, because he hasn't moved on from it. He starts his rallies pledging allegiance to to these rioters, to these these cop killers. And and again, you talk to the families of the police officers who died after 9-11 And they will tell you that's exactly what they are. They'll tell you that. And and Katty is exactly right about what he said about immigrants. And

of course, he was talking about immigrants that commit crimes and and and and call them subhumans. Yeah. Not even humans. And and and Trump said, well, he's talking about immigrants who come. Yeah. You don't hear him going around talking about white people that way. No. Whether they committed crimes or not. So, again, it's very selective. It's to ring a bell. It's to do what Hitler did. And yeah, I'll use the word and I'll say the name. And that is to take a group of people and and and turn them into nonhumans. That's what he's doing. And as for January 6th, those cops who died. There's also a lot of cops and people who were there who are still living with very serious injuries from that day. The trauma of that day and their lives have been changed irreparably, in some cases destroyed.

Still ahead on Morning Joe, we'll go live to Moscow as Vladimir Putin extends his rule over Russia for another six years. NBC's Keir Simmons joins us after questioning Putin about the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, plus the latest from Tel Aviv, as the White House weighs how to respond if Israel launches a military invasion of Rafah without a credible plan to protect civilians there. You're watching Morning Joe. We'll be right back. Multiple tons of food were offloaded for the first food aid ship docked off the coast of Gaza on Saturday. The operation was coordinated by the U.S. charity World Central Kitchen, working with the United Arab Emirates. Meanwhile, several sources tell NBC News the White House is considering what a response might look like

if Israel presses into Rafah without plans to protect civilians. That's according to one former and three current U.S. officials. On Friday, top Biden administration officials indicated they had not seen plans for an operation in Rafah that Prime Minister Netanyahu approved. So far, administration officials have been advising the Israeli government to forego a large operation in Rafah and instead consider smaller, more targeted counterterrorism missions. That comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's comments last week

in which he called for an election in Israel and called Netanyahu a major obstacle to peace. Here's what Netanyahu said in an interview yesterday with CNN. I think what he said is totally inappropriate. It's inappropriate for, to go to a sister democracy and try to replace the elected leadership there. That's something that the Israeli public does on its own, and we're not a banana republic. The majority of Israelis support the policies that we're leading. Go into Rafah, destroy the remaining Hamas terrorist battalions, make sure that we don't put into Gaza, instead of Hamas, the Palestinian Authority that educates their children towards terrorism and the annihilation of Israel. The majority of Israelis support the policies of my government. It's not a fringe government. It represents the policies supported

by the majority of the people. If Senator Schumer opposes these policies, he's not opposing me. He's opposing the people of Israel. President Biden is a self-described Zionist. Even he is starting to distance himself from the way you are handling the war. He called what Schumer said a good speech. He said that he shared the concern of many Americans. They aren't criticizing Israel. They're criticizing you and your right-wing coalition. Donna, there is a fallacy that is being perpetrated here. And you should take polls, you'll have your own polls, and check whether the people of

Israel support the policies that I'm being criticized for. And to present that as something that is, I'm an outlier, it doesn't represent the majority of the people of Israel, is simply a fallacy. There were other polls in Israel, three major Israeli television stations that said what Israelis also support are early elections. That's what I really want to focus on here is Senator Schumer not calling to sort of topple the government, but specifically says when the war winds down, will you commit to calling new elections? That's my question. Will you? Dana, two thirds. First of all, what you said is wrong. The vast majority of Israelis oppose early elections until the war doesn't end. We've just had many polls on that. Look, a lot of the polls are, you know, are twisted.

Channel 12 says 64% of Israelis support early elections. But all polls show that's not. No, I'm afraid that they asked him the question, do you support it during the war? And they said, no. But that's not what Schumer is calling for. He's calling for new elections when the war winds down. Well, we'll see when we win the war.

Will you commit to new elections when the war winds down? Everything that we hold dear together. Will you commit to new elections when the war winds down? I think that's something for the Israeli public to decide. But it's not something—look, that's something for the Israeli people to decide. I think it's not it's not something. No, it's look, that's something for the Israeli people to decide. I think it's ridiculous to talk about it. Well, it actually doesn't seem ridiculous at all to stay out of jail and the indictments that you think it's ridiculous to talk about it because you don't want people trying to figure out why it took you seven, eight, 10, 12 hours to rescue people that were being raped, beaten, killed to act.

You don't want early elections or any discussion of it because you don't want to have to face the music, not only to your alleged crimes, but also to the fact that you had, your government had Hamas's terrorist plans for a year and did nothing about it. Your government was warned the day before, the morning of, of what was coming, and you did nothing about it. You knew how Hamas was being funded with illicit funds as early as 2018. And you and Donald Trump did nothing about it. You knew that Hamas was asking your government, not Hamas, I'm sorry, Qatar, was asking your government weeks before the October 7th terror attacks whether Hamas should continue to be funded by Qatar. And you said yes. You keep thinking that you can drag the war out indefinitely and you're not going to have to face any of the music. And then you lie when faced with a poll and you say, oh, that's not what the people run over the face with you. You just run over it. So, yeah, I mean, it's, you know, this idea, this idea that a thrice

indicted prime minister who tore the country to pieces, declaring war against the rule of law. And he's the worst prime minister in Israel's history. Worst prime minister since 1948. If you look what he did to actually make Hamas's attacks possible with the green light for the funding from from Qatar, the green light and not going after Hamas's illicit funds. You look at all of that. This is a guy. Of course, he doesn't doesn't want to face the voters because he knows he'll be routed because he's extraordinarily unpopular. So, Admiral Stravitas, the question is to you. I mean, the United States government finds itself in a very difficult position, wanting to support Israel, but not

wanting to support Bibi Netanyahu's just desperate attempt to stay in power at any cost because he knows once he's out of power, there's a chance he'll be going to jail. Yeah. Yeah. I, for one, found Senator Schumer's comments incredibly appropriate. And yeah, we're not voters in Israel, but we're friends of Israel and friends give friends advice when we see friends headed in a bad direction. And particularly because our weapons systems are being employed here, it's entirely appropriate, my view, for Senator Schumer, who's kind of uniquely positioned to do it as, if you will, the senior person of Jewish faith in the in the in the government of the United States. So as I look at it, to kind of pick up the points you hit a moment ago, if the Netanyahu government continues on its current course, four things are going to happen, none of them good. Let's do it from the inside out. Inside Israel, there's going to be more turbulence, more anger. Look at January 6th type of events. Number two, you're creating another generation

of terrorists by what is amounting to a great deal of indiscriminate killing in Gaza. Now, those numbers over 30,000, pretty credible, half of them under the age of 18. Number three, you're damaging the relationship with the United States. And that's prima facie. When you have someone like Senator Schumer, a lifelong friend of Israel, someone like me, I went to Israel at first time as a lieutenant junior grade in 1978. But it is time for friends to criticize friends when necessary. And then finally, the informationongyang, Caracas. It's being repackaged. It does damage to Israel and therefore damage to the cause of democracy

globally. And I would say as we look at what's happening as friends of Israel. We need to tell them what they need to do next. And it is not go in heavy in a in a massive ground campaign in Rafah. Well, and again, you know, they can try to turn friends into enemies. Benjamin Netanyahu supporters and right wing extremists in the United States can try to turn Israel's lifelong friends into enemies. I mean, I'm a lifelong friend of Israel. I have been my entire life. I was in Congress. I have been. APAC would have me go give speeches to help the cause. And I did that through the years. And I have always supported Israel, but I don't support Benjamin Netanyahu's reign in the midst of just the worst attack against Israel in the history.

He's turning the tide of international support. Well, he's under, you know, friends don't let friends drive drunk, as they say. And friends also don't let friends have a leader destroy their country standing on the globe in the shadow of the worst attack against Jews since the Holocaust. And we're supposed to just stand by here as we watch somebody like Netanyahu desperately cling to power when what he's doing is not in the best interest of Israel. And the lie that Hamas is ever going to reconstitute and run Gaza again is a lie. And he knows that.

And Admiral, we're going to get back to this in a second because we have Keir Simmons that we need to go to in Moscow. But I want to get back to this because that's the lie right now that you hear that, oh, if if they don't go in and kill another 10,000 civilians, Hamas is going to come back to power. It is a lie. Hamas will never regain power in Gaza ever. That's over. And we'll be right back on that thought. Vladimir Putin will remain in power until at least 2030. This is after the Russian president overwhelmingly won a fifth term in the country's election over the weekend. Putin's victory comes just weeks after the death of Russian opposition leader

Alexei Navalny in a remote Arctic prison. NBC News chief international correspondent Keir Simmons joins us live from Moscow. Keir, you spoke with Putin earlier. What did you hear from him? That's right, Mika. At a late night news conference after his election last night, in response to a question from NBC News, President Putin described the death of Alexei Navalny as an unfortunate incident. The results, according to Russian officials, of this election is that President Putin has been elected with 87 percent of the votes after a turnout of 77 percent. Those are historic numbers and they are going to be

questioned by many Russia watchers and critics from around the world. After a weekend of protests where we saw arson attacks on polling stations die, dropped into ballot boxes and even drone attacks blamed on Ukrainians, the election still went ahead, despite the fact that opposition politicians like Boris Nadiushin, who's against the war in Ukraine, were not allowed to stand. NBC News was the first international news organization to question President Putin after those election results. Take a listen. Mr. President, journalist Evan Gershkovich spent this election in prison. Boris Nadiashdin, who opposes your war in Ukraine, да, он ушел из жизни.

Это всегда печальные события. У нас и были другие случаи, когда люди в местах лишения свободы уходили из жизни. А разве в Соединённых Штатах такого не бывало? Б это будет так неожиданно, за несколько дней до ухода господина Навального из жизни, мне некоторые коллеги сказали, и не сотрудники администрации, некоторые люди сказали, что есть идея обменять господина Навального на некоторых людей, которые находятся в местах лишения свободы в западных странах. Вы можете мне поверить, можете нет. Человек, который со мной говорил, ещё фразу не закончил. Я сказал, я согласен. Но, к сожалению, вот случилось то, что случилось. Только при одном условии. Я сказал, что мы его поменяем чтобы он не возвращался пускай там сидит вот и все но это случается ничего здесь с этим не поделаешь тоже настаивал news conference in which President Putin did make news in that answer by apparently confirming reports that he had agreed to some kind of a deal where Alexei Navalny would be released from prison, while not explaining how just days later, according to his account, Alexei Navalny ended up dead. Alexei Navalny's wife yesterday took part in protests in Berlin. And after that news conference, I got to the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov to ask him about Yulia Navalny's call for global leaders not to recognise this election. Take a listen. What do you say to leaders around the world who won't believe this election, who won't believe this election,

who won't believe the results that you're announcing tonight? Well, listen, actually, well, around 87% after 24 years in power. It's extremely unprecedented result. If 80% is accurate, if 87% is right. It is right. It is right. Everything is extremely transparent. The whole election system is quite transparent in our country. And there was a chance for every observer who had an intention to observe these elections, to be here and to observe.

But for certain organizations that are unwelcomed here anymore, because we don't want anyone to keep interfering in our internal affairs. So, but, well, again, this unbelievable level of support of the population. This is the best sign that all speculations about illegal elections is actually ungrounded. And as I mentioned, I did ask him also about Yulia Navalny's call for global leaders not to recognise the election. And he suggested that her voice didn't count because she wasn't in Russia. But we are hearing this morning a kind of split screen, if you like, countries that you'd expect congratulating President Putin, North Korea, China, Iran, Venezuela, and then Western democracies talking about this as not free and fair, including the Biden administration and leaders in Western European capitals.

Yeah, well, of course, Donald Trump's not president of the United States. So of course, the United States didn't congratulate him as he used to congratulate other other people that would have these sort of rigged elections. But let me ask you, Keir, a quick question. That was fascinating. Yeah, just absolutely fascinating. So. So, yes, you you you read in America, you read 87 percent of Russians support Vladimir Putin and you're going to be skeptical and it's going to be a rigged election. And of course, he keeps a lot of his competitors out right now is fairly popular by historic standards in Russia? Of course, this is a country that is also turned back to sort of the hero worshipping of Joseph Stalin. So a guy who killed 20 to 30 million Russians and Ukrainians. So so this is not anything to laud him for, but just explaining that there are quite a lot of Russians who support the direction he's taking the country.

Yeah, look, all the evidence from the independent polling that is available, and it's not much, and also from our own experience here in Russia, is that President Putin is popular among many Russians here. And on the other hand, this was a stage-managed election in which candidates weren't allowed to run, as I mentioned, including Boris Nadezhdin, who we caught up with yesterday, who signed his initials into the ballot paper, he has been against the war in Ukraine. He wasn't allowed to run. So it's both those things, both at once. What the Kremlin will be doing now, and what they're already doing,

is trying to describe this as a sign that Russia is unified and unified in President Putin's aims of his so-called special military operation. The reality, I think, is that there are lots of Russians that would like to see negotiations, but they don't want, according to, again, the best that we can see, they don't want those negotiations to look like a capitulation. They want those negotiations to be on Russia's terms. That's where I think largely Russia is right now, the people, although, of course, there are many calling out the war and criticising it and questioning it. That's, I think, largely where the country is.

And I think all of this means, with President Putin now looking at another six years and with at the same time, of course, President Zelensky saying he's prepared to negotiate. But on his terms, I think ultimately all of this means that the conflict is likely to continue for some time. NBC's Keir Simmons live from Moscow. Thank you very much for bringing that reporting. Wow. So in an interview that on Fox News that aired yesterday, Donald Trump was asked by if he believed, as President Biden does, that Putin is responsible for Navalny's sudden death in a prison last month. Listen to his response.

The media, as you know, blame Putin. Joe Biden blames Putin. Much of the civilized world blames Putin. Do you believe Vladimir Putin has some responsibility for the death of Alexei Navalny? I don't know, but perhaps. I mean, possibly I could say probably. I don't know. He's a young man, so statistically he'd be alive for a long time. If you go by the insurance numbers, he'd be alive for another 40 years. So something happened that was unusual. Obviously, he survived a poisoning attempt by the Kremlin and barely lived, went back, got jailed. And then suddenly he keels over. They don't release the body. I mean, how could anything like that happen without Putin and high ranking Kremlin officials

sanctioning it? Well, I don't know. You certainly can't say for sure, but certainly that would look like something very bad happened. Right. At least he just he can't bring himself to state the obvious when it has to do. Well, with with so many things, but especially when it has to do with Vladimir Putin. He's so weak. Yeah, he is. I mean, I'm waiting his we're awaiting his statement of congratulations on Putin's victory. I guess that's going to happen today. It's inevitable it will happen. He was caught on a hot mic in the last day or two praising Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, as having the respect of his people, his people stand up for him. And that's what I want from my people.

Trump's absolute worship of these people is an envy, basically. It's an expression of his desire. It's a projection of what he wants. absolute worship of these people and is an envy, basically. It's an expression of his desire. It's a projection of what he wants. And I think with Navalny, you know, I mean, it's obvious what happened. He was in an Arctic gulag and they killed him. And he can't bring himself to concede that. But his envy for Putin is just going to go up another notch today. Eighty seven percent. Can you believe it? And I expect his statement anytime soon.

And Katie Kay, it really is. It is remarkable how much he he praises dictators and that that that quote that Ed was talking about that resurfaced this week. And that quote that Ed was talking about, that resurfaced this week. And that actually was from 2018. But it could be said this week. It's been said this year. His opinions have not changed. He constantly praises Kim Jong-un and talks about love letters. He praises President Xi as being brilliant, very smart, praises Vladimir Putin as being brilliant for his invasion of Ukraine, goes on and on. And here, of course, he can't bring himself to say anything bad about Vladimir Putin, even when we talk about the death of Navalny. Yeah, it was interesting the way he kind of slightly squirmed around that.

He didn't want to deny that something bad had happened to Alexei Navalny, said that it was very unfortunate, but couldn't actually say Vladimir Putin, as Joe Biden has said, bears the responsibility for this. I was just drawing up the list of the strongmen that Donald Trump has said nice things about. It's Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Viktor Orban, Hitler, even Xi Jinping, Saddam Hussein, Kim Jong-un, Vladimir Putin. They have all of those people have been praised by Donald Trump at one point in particular. And I think it's particularly this issue of when he was in the White House, that the fact that that Kim Jong-il comment comes from 2018 is indicative. It was when he got into the White House and he perhaps didn't have that much understanding

of the way that governments worked and his advisors around him have since said he didn't really understand the workings of American government. And he realized the limitations on himself as the chief executives, the things he could not do as president of the United States. And then he looked to people like Erdogan in Turkey and realized what Erdogan could do because he wasn't restricted by the constitution of the U.S., because he wasn't restricted by Congress or by the rule of law. And that's where the kind of envy factor came in. And he said it quite openly, as he did in that hot mic moment. He has the adoration. He can do things I can't do and I wish that I could do. Sir Admiral Stravitas, there was a protest movement during the weekend's elections in

Russia at noon on Sunday. There were thousands of people who lined up in various cities to say they stood against Vladimir Putin. It was an organized effort. But we should be clear, Putin, not only he won, but polls suggest, even independent polls suggest, he is pretty popular at home, even if this was a sham election. And let's get your take here. He has to be watching the political discourse in the United States and the praise he gets from Donald Trump, momentum he has on the battlefield in Ukraine. There's no reason for him not to wait this out to November, is there? Oh, 100 percent. There is zero incentive for him to make any kind of negotiation, despite the fact that he's lost probably a million young men from a Russian population of 150 million, a million young men. So one in 75 young men is

either dead in this war, grievously wounded, or has departed the country to avoid the draft. Those cracks are going to eventually pull the machine apart, I think, in Russia. But for the moment, he's firmly in control. He really has been firmly in control going back to when he put down Evgeny Progozhin, his former chef, private army, all of that. When Progozhin was executed by blowing up his private jet, I think that's the moment you got kind of peak Putin. That's what gave him the confidence to take out Navalny. He sees Donald Trump as a potential supporter, and therefore, he's going to wait till the end of the year. Final thought, all the more reason, how do we stop this?

We passed the bill for the $60 billion in aid to Ukraine, which has strong support on both sides of the aisle in Congress, but can't get through because the speaker of the House refuses it to bring it to the floor. If we did that, gave the aid, strengthen the Ukrainians, that would be a way to pierce Putin's armor. We should do it. Well, that's what the Biden administration has been hoping for for some time. They want that aid to get to Ukraine. They believe that's the best chance to getting both sides to the negotiating table and at least get a ceasefire that would be acceptable for the Ukrainians and perhaps Putin to stop two plus years of fighting. It's now basically devolved into a World War I style shootout.

Ed Lewis, before we go, I wanted to circle back and have you weigh in because you've written so much about the Middle East, about Israel, about Gaza. Circle back to the argument made by Benjamin Netanyahu this weekend and made by right wing extreme websites in America and other outlets who make the argument you either support Benjamin Netanyahu or you hate Israel. Saying that, by the way, to lifetime supporters of Israel. Yeah, I mean, there is no American political figure who's been a more stalwart and loyal and consistent defender of Israel than Chuck Schumer

or a more regular speaker at AIPAC conventions than Chuck Schumer. And the point he was making is absolutely correct that Israel is becoming a pariah. And obviously that's not good for Israel. So it's a pro-Israeli point that he was making and that Biden, to some extent, echoed that whilst this continues, Israel's security is undermined. You cannot, as Netanyahu has spent his career doing, you cannot snuff out all the nonviolent Palestinian voices,

the Palestinian Authority, Palestinian civil rights groups, and build up Hamas, as Netanyahu has been doing, and expect that Israel's security is going to be enhanced. So what Schumer was saying was something that, you know, everybody has been thinking. I think it's surprising to me how long he took to say it. And clearly some of this was directed at a damage limitation with a democratic base. But it's an absolutely correct point. And the final thing I'd say is that Netanyahu basically endorsed Mitt Romney against Obama in 2012. Netanyahu behind Obama's back spoke to Congress, breaking all diplomatic protocol against Obama's Iran nuclear deal. Netanyahu is intimately involved all the time

in American politics. So it's the height of sort of chutzpah for him to say you can't interfere in Israeli politics. It's chutzpah squared. By the way, Donald Trump, to let you know how intimately he's involved in American politics and media, Donald Trump attacked Morning Joe when he was president. Benjamin Netanyahu retweeted it. So here's a guy, oh, stay away from Israel. Oh, let us run. No, he's attacking

Democratic presidents. He's choosing sides. He's actually retweeting, you know, little skirmishes that the president is having with media outlets. It really, really is a joke. And again, for those of us who love Israel, it's sad to see this happen. It's sad to see how desperate Benjamin Netanyahu becomes actually when it looks like he's going to have to ultimately pay for his continued funding and support of Hamas through the years. U.S. National Editor at Financial Times, Ed Luce, thank you so much. And retired four-star Admiral James Trevitas, thank you so much as well. And we are forever grateful for your service to our republic. And of course, he's a co-author of the new book titled 2054, a novel.