'A strike at the heart of democracy': Why billionaires are flocking back to Trump

Molly, let's start looking at the numbers game, the fundraising game, what do you think about that? What I would say is the most important thing here is that Trump said he has raised $50 million, which is about double what Biden raised two weeks ago and I want to point out that Page Six republished an article that the New York Post has a lot of connections to Trump World that said Trump was jealous of Biden's event with the other two presidents and you'll notice that you never see Trump, you don't. George W. Bush says let's do events with Trump, if anything, he's the complete opposite so you can see where this could go to Trump Radio City Music Hall, other presidents and a lot of money, so John Paulson, who is the big Republican Trump donor, decides it's Let's put this together now, the numbers may be huge, I mean, that number, 800,000, will be the maximum, so you'll be able to, those people will be able to donate packages to Trump, but they won't be .

We can give the Trump campaign what you see with Biden's numbers is that that number is not the correct maximum, so the $220,000 ticket or the $500,000 ticket is a lot, but there is still more money for Max and remember that This is the longest presidential campaign in the world. we have six, it's March, yeah, so if you're paying for the catch up game now, that's interesting, but I wouldn't do TR. What I am, the main line is that I just wouldn't take Trump in his world in his world, ultimately we will. look at this Joanne Freeman's numbers.

I have to say that I remember a lot of the conversation that you and I had in the days after January 6th where we were talking about violence and you know, I almost joke that someone like you in your specialty uh really relevant when the musical came out Hamilton uh I hoped it would never be relevant again, but the idea of ​​the presence of violence and the way politicians were dealing with it seems to have been forgotten now that everyone has forgotten that this man was at the

heart

of a violent insurrection In this country, we expected the

billionaires

or at least the business community to still stand their ground, but now everyone is kowtowing to Donald Trump.

I think there's kind of a normalization bias where I think a lot of these

billionaires

assume I don't have a clue what authoritarianism is, maybe I don't fully understand what

democracy

is and I don't understand what an authoritarian president would be like, so I think they are supposed to be rich people and want to do things. that will help rich people and therefore they will side with Trump because they will improve their wealth with Trump. I'm sure some of them will go along with some of your other suggestions, and right now, to a large extent, overall, your campaign is hate-driven, but regardless of why they're there, I think there's a normalization bias where people think yeah, whatever there is rhetoric, there is politics, whatever we are, it's a normal campaign, it's like M said, it's the longest campaign, but I still think it's all supposed to be everything is going to be okay and I wish people could understand the many ways in which Trump points out that this will not be a normal presidency and that it will in many ways be a plunge into a kind of dictatorship where one man is important and where individual rights are not are important where free and fair elections are not important where the rule of law is not important and those three things free and fair elections the rule of law um and I just forgot that someone is above the law, some already know that the president is more important than everyone else, my point is that my point is that this is a blow to all those things, a blow to all three things and that is the

heart

of

democracy

, so Molly, this is where the conversation becomes problematic because we see it. he says he's going to do it uh and people say he's not really going to do it he's just playing with things the reason everything didn't work out last time is because his team wasn't good enough and he didn't He was smart enough. but we know about the 2025 project, we now know that everyone is lined up behind this Company to make sure that they don't pay higher taxes and that there is no more regulation and, for Joan's Point, people, consciously or unconsciously, are not making the connection between its lowest level. taxes and their end of democracy, yes, I mean, look, the problem is that there is usually a bias, the problem is the conventional framework for a normal political world that we used to live in before Donald Trump, where Republican candidates They wanted to reduce their taxes, but maybe do some things.

We didn't necessarily like that what it does when you do conventional framing like that is elevate the autocrat, say these candidates are the same, you know, this guy wants to give you free healthcare and this guy wants to take down democracy, you know? Isn't that interesting and that's why this frame can't be used? You have to understand it and I understand it and I think over and over again, we just have to say that none of this is normal, right, a president saying that a certain group of people are vermin. that says, I mean, you've got cash, Patel saying he's going after the president's enemies.

I mean, that's not how this is all supposed to work and you know, I think there's a lot of anxiety in the mainstream media about being called partisan. but it's worth it, it's not partisan to be pro-democracy, it's not partisan to say that Trump has been lying about things this whole time, so taking his word for it might be dubious at best and I think We have to be brave here and We realize that this is what we have to know, democracy has to be job one here and that may end up being taking risks as journalists, but I think we have to do it because the end, you know , the ending could be very bad for everyone.

Let's examine this a little more, Joanne, because Tim Snider was also having this conversation about how journalists should behave in this whole mix, several of my colleagues here at MSNBC over the past few weeks have articulated this Chuck Todd. said it uh Rachel mat said it that we are supporters of democracy democracy works because the press works and vice versa a free press works in a democracy so we have to treat this like a murder or like a hurricane we are fine saying that we are no, no We're good about this, we don't like hurricanes because they kill people, we don't like homicide, we don't like people who work against democracy and that's not partisan in the traditional sense, it's not everyday Republican Democrat partisan. .

Democrats and all Republicans should absolutely be in favor of democracy in America, so along with the normal bias, there's also a kind of both-sides bias where you have to say, well, this side says X and this side says Y, and that's where we are now. the campaign and I know at this point it's said so often it's almost a cliché that this is not a normal campaign leading up to what might not be a normal presidency if Trump were to win, but you really know the press must not fall. Back to the familiar, which really goes both ways, here's A, here's B, go ahead and decide that the press should really point out these are the fundamentals of what democracy needs, here's where this campaign stands with her, this is where that campaign with her, right?

It would be nice if there was an evaluation of what both campaigns are saying and just a basic discussion about how they align or don't align with what democracy really is. I'm writing this as you say it because we're going to get through this. with that, let's do it, let's say, let's talk about what these campaigns promise to do and not an assessment of whether you like this policy better, but where they align with what we believe are democratic values. Thanks for that good guidance. I always learn something from you two. Thank you. Hello everyone. MSNBC has a new and improved app.

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