Later in the day, a Harris event began in Atlanta, where she was joined by yet another singer, Usher, who already gave a speech at the vice president's campaign rally. Donald Trump, Harris' Republican opponent in the election, is currently speaking in Pennsylvania, not far from where a man attempted to shoot the ex-president several months ago.
Donald Trump has taken the stage at a rally in Pennsylvania, where the former president will court swing-state voters in the last days of the presidential election.
Trump's rally competes with one by Vice President Kamala Harris, who is rallying at the same time in the state of Georgia. Harris will reportedly be joined by Usher, and the singer is also set to speak at the rally.
For his part, Trump is holding his rally not far from where a shooter tried to kill the ex-president just months ago.
Donald Trump's recent interview cancellations and no-shows might be hinting at more than just fatigue, according to Alexi McCammond, who serves as an opinion editor focusing on the 2024 election for the Washington Post.
McCammond appeared on MSNBC Saturday alongside Eugene Daniels, MSNBC political contributor and Politico White House correspondent, who recently reported that Trump's team said he was too "exhausted" to go forward with a planned interview on a podcast on which Vice President Kamala Harris did appear.
For his part, Daniels told the show's host, Alex Witt, that the report "pricked up some ears" from voters who wondered if Trump is still fit for office.
"Interviews come up and come down all the time. There was never a set date. But the fact that the Trump adviser told the Shade Room that he was exhausted did perk some ears, including mine," Daniels said. "And when you tie that to the rally he had this week, or what was supposed to be a town hall, and for 39 minutes he listened to music and kind of bounced around, and some of his speeches, even some Republicans would tell us that they feel like they are becoming less coherent when he is in front of the public, it does make voters and strategists, most importantly, ask the question of what is going on there, and whether or not he is fit for office, or his mental acuity."
Daniels added that Trump also "looks angrier than he ever has."
McCammond further added that "the anger should be alarming to voters, just as his mental acuity and apparent cognitive decline should be apparent and concerning to voters."
"When I launched my podcast last month, the first episode tackled this very question, which has become the central question of the 2024 election," she said. "Is Donald Trump okay? Is he mentally fit to be President of the United States?"
She continued:
"The anger, I would argue, is not just an extension of cognitive fatigue, but I would imagine this man has untreated PTSD after two apparent assassination attempts. It is no secret that that would be a traumatic event for anyone, but the symptoms and side effects of untreated PTSD include but are not limited to fatigue, not sleeping well, and being angry and having outbursts in their interpersonal relationships."
She added, "I think we are seeing textbook examples of those things from Donald Trump on the trail."
Donald Trump's former White House advisers worry that, if he's elected again, he could misuse a dangerous "doomsday book" to hurt his personal enemies and enhance his own power, an expert said Saturday.
TIME magazine senior White House correspondent Brian Bennett, who conducted more than a dozen interviews with current and former national security officials about the so-called "doomsday book," appeared on MSNBC over the weekend to discuss his findings. He said that Trump's own aides worried that the former president might discover his powers under the book, including suspending judicial rights under habeas corpus, putting parts of the country under military control, and restricting Americans' travel rights.
MSNBC host Alex Witt said national security officials are "sounding the alarm" over Trump's potential use of the "extraordinary emergency powers" outlined in the book, and asked Bennett what he found.
"People who worked for Donald Trump in the national security arena when he was president, they are concerned about him learning the specifics of the extraordinary presidential powers that are available to him under extreme circumstances like the event of a major catastrophe or nuclear attack, for example," Bennett said. "These powers are outlined in a secret book inside the White House known as a doomsday book."
He noted that the "technical term" for the doomsday book is the "Presidential emergency action documents," and that it's "a stack of papers kept in a secure location on the White House grounds."
"It has taken 40 years of legal review and legal opinions to look at what powers the president has based on the Constitution and what laws have passed to keep the government going under extreme circumstances, like congress gets completely wiped out or there is a nuclear attack on a major city," he added. "There is concern Trump, if he becomes president again, would exaggerate a catastrophe and try to turn to these powers in order to extract revenge against rivals or exercise presidential power in an extraordinary and unusual way."
A Republican voter who resides in battleground Arizona provided MSNBC host Ali Velshi with a very detailed and brutal explanation why she is may abandon her party and why she will be voting for Vice President Kamala Harris.
Velshi explained to his MSNBC colleague Alex Witt that he convened a panel of Democrats and Republicans to talk about the upcoming election in November that pits Harris against Donald Trump, and then shared a clip of one unidentified woman who claimed the Republican Party today is unrecognizable to her.
In the clip she began, "I am heartbroken about it and I don't really know if I am going to remain a Republican."
"I would also say I am in no man's land, but now I am in women's land because I am a Harris supporter," she continued. "I just don't know if I will be able to stay with the party and the Republican party I joined was the Republican party that really respected the patriotism of the other."
"Remember, small government and not overreaching into your life or your life or your life whether it is how you want to present or your identity or it's your economic background or it is your race, your culture, your faith?" she elaborated. "I was attracted to the Republican party because it was less government; we were supposed to be getting out of people's lives and respecting how they choose to live and respecting that in harmony. And we have become the overreach, we have become precisely the opposite."
Following the clip, MSNBC's Velshi revealed the 6 person panel was made up of both Democrats and Republicans and that all of them admitted they would be voting for Harris.
After admitting that the legal proceedings against Donald Trump being heard in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Tanya Chutkan is progressing exceeding slowly, a former U.S. attorney suggested the former president is not on a path to defending himself successfully.
Speaking with MSNBC host Katie Phang, former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance made the case that Chutkan is on the right path by allowing filings from special counsel Jack Smith to become public as he pursues Trump for attempting to interfere with the 2020 election results.
Contrary to the former president's constant complaints that the prosecution by Smith is "election interference," the former DOJ official pointed out it would be election interference if Chutkan kept the information secret before voters go to the polls.
"I think that while there are legitimate criticisms that the Justice Department moves slowly in this regard, this case is now in front of the court," she told host Phang. "There are some procedural hooks, like this entitlement that Trump has to take appeals all the way to the Supreme Court on immunity issues, and of course, there is a unique concern here. Because Donald Trump, if he regains the White House, could, in fact, put an attorney general in place who would dismiss the prosecution against him."
"But, the reality is that we need to focus more on the reality of what is in front of Donald Trump right now, this prospect of prosecution, and less on the ways he might avoid it," she suggested. "I think that is a narrative trap that we have fallen into, this idea that Trump always wins. Guess what? Trump is not winning in a federal courtroom in Washington, D.C. Instead, a judge is treating him fairly."
"This week she [Chutkan] ruled in his favor on some requests for additional discovery, but she also ruled against him on issues that any other criminal defendant would lose on," she told the host. "Jack Smith will get a fair trial. The American people will get a fair trial. Donald Trump will get a fair trial if this case is permitted to proceed."
Speaking with host Katie Phang, the Texas Democrat said the former president was "dog-walked" by Harris before a massive television audience and he hasn't recovered.
"We know that, well, there was a debate and, while there were dogs that were mentioned, it seemed like the only person that got dog-walked was him," she joked. "And he got dog-walked to the extent that he did not want to be walked anymore."
"And so, we know that he is skipping out on all of his interviews," she elaborated. "He won't show up to '60 Minutes,' he won't show up to CNBC, he won't show up to really to anything."
"So, to me, for anyone that questions who has strength and who is weak, it is very clear. There is only one person that has decided she will go into the belly of the beast, including Fox News, to make sure that she will make her point," she added.
A CNN panel went briefly off the rails on Saturday morning with technology reporter and podcast host Kara Swisher lashing out at her conservative counterpart for ignoring Donald Trump's increasingly erratic behavior and comments.
With host Chris Wallace sitting in the middle, Swisher praised Vice President Kamala Harris for appearing on Fox News in an interview that quickly turned hostile, while noting the razor's edge a female candidate has to tread so as not to alienate easily bothered voters.
"I think because she doesn't have a y chromosome and doesn't get credit for things more than other people," Swisher told the panel. "I think she if she goes too far in attacking Biden or other people, she looks strident; they use words like strident or bossy or whatever."
Conservative commentator Reihan Salam weighed in with, "She hasn't actually said, look, there are folks in the immigrant rights movement who've gone too far."
"Donald Trump can't even complete a sentence," Swisher interrupted.
"The immigration movement has gone too far," Salam persisted. "She's basically saying my values haven't changed. She's trying to make this pivot without actually saying ..."
"Meanwhile, over on the other side Donald Trump is talking about Harvey Weinstein 'got schlonged.' I was shocked by that. Come on, stop it," Swisher shot back.
After praising Vice President Kamala Harris for deftly handling an interview with a combative Bret Baier on Fox News earlier in the week, a tongue-in-cheek Michael Steele extended an invitation to Donald Trump to appear on his MSNBC "The Weekend" show with a tantalizing offer.
After noting that Trump insiders have admitted that the former president has been canceling interviews and appearances because he is "exhausted," the MSNBC host and former RNC chair stated he would go out of his way to make Trump "comfortable."
After stating he thought the millions of viewers who watched Harris on Fox News "...gave her a lot of street credit for sitting down in a hostile environment, politically, and handling it," Steele turned to her opponent for the presidency.
Turning to the camera, he stated, "Donald Trump, I extend the invitation again: come to MSNBC, come to NBC News. Baby, we will make it real comfortable for you. We will give you your favorite drink, some cookies..."
"A towel," co-host Symone Sanders Townsend joked.
"A towel," Steele repeated. "Whatever. Right? But he is not showing up."
Reacting to reports out of Donald Trump's own inner circle admitting that he is "exhausted" by his third bid for the Oval Office, which has led to a flurry of appearance cancellations, a Boston Globe columnist suggested that is why the GOP is trying to lay in a stock of Trump-like candidates like Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) which she called a worrisome turn of events.
Appearing on MSNBC's "The Weekend," columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr suggested that Vance in particular poses a greater threat than his running mate at the top of the ticket.
As she explained, "For the Republicans, clearly, he [Trump] has been the leader of that party now for almost a decade so they don't really have anywhere to go. You see them trying to back-up the bench with more Trumpian people like J.D. Vance, so perhaps there is a comfort level where if Donald Trump fails, well at least they have J.D. Vance waiting right there in the wings."
"And that is okay for them and I think it should be alarming for a lot of other people," she added. "Because in many ways I can tell you he is more dangerous than Donald Trump."
"Because he actually has an ideology," co-host Alicia Menendez interjected.
"Absolutely," Atkins Stohr agreed. "He has the mental acuity and the vigor to actually carry it out."
In the non-broadcast portion of Bill Maher's "Real Time" on HBO posted to YouTube, the host and guests Joe Scarborough and Mark Cuban called out Donald Trump's MAGA supporters who have been – and continue to be – ripe targets for Russian President Vladimir Putin's propaganda.
As Cuban pointed out, fans of Trump are pinning their election hopes on a wave of betting on the former president winning re-election based upon a flood of bets on Polymarket before noting that the only people who can make wagers on that site are foreigners. He then joked that Putin was likely using it to beef up support for Trump.
That led Scarborough and Maher to single out supporters of Trump who believe accusations of Russian collusion in the 2016 election was a hoax –– with both adding that it wasn't.
In the "Overtime" segment, Maher told his guests, "They influence our elections in many ways... I think the biggest hoax going is the idea that the Russian collusion was a hoax."
"It's not a hoax there was collusion," he added. "Just because [special counsel] Bob Mueller was bad at proving it –– there was definitely collusion!"
"That's one of the more maddening things, " Scarborough interjected. "I still read the Wall Street Journal editorial page and the op-eds and it is sort of my go-to in the morning. And it is maddening to see people on there talking about a Russian hoax. And you just want to say: read the Mueller report."
"Read everything that has happened and ask yourself why time and time again Donald Trump is doing things that make no sense," he added. "Why did he say in Helsinki in 2018 regarding Russia, I trust Vladimir Putin more than my intel agencies?"
"It's more dangerous than that," Maher replied. "Because they use it as a jumping-off point to say, 'Well since Russia was a hoax then...' But Russia wasn't a hoax and once you get them to believe that, then anything goes."
A co-host of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" unloaded on former President Donald Trump and his defenders on HBO's "Real Time" with host Bill Maher.
Joe Scarborough, a former Republican Florida congressman who ditched the party in 2017 and has become an outspoken critic of Trump, delivered a vicious takedown of those who say Trump wouldn't follow through on his authoritarian rhetoric.
When Maher repeated a Republican talking point that Trump could've "locked up" former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, but didn't, Scarborough shot back, "He tried to do it."
"He went to two attorneys general and both of them said, 'We have nothing to bring charges against her,'" said Scarborough. "People don't remember, two weeks before the election in 2020 he was pressuring [Bill] Barr, his attorney general, to arrest Joe Biden."
Scarborough said he wishes Americans would listen to Trump in his own words, rather than what he or Maher or others repeat. he pointed to Trump's comments this week that he wants to use military force to arrest political opponents.
"He was asked if he would back off of that," said Scarborough, "and he said, 'No.' In fact he doubled down."
"He said he was going to execute the chairman of the joint chief of staff because he was disloyal to him," said Scarborough. "He told another chief of staff who was a general, 'I wish my generals were like Hitler's generals.'"
Scarborough lamented that people hear his words and deny he said them. When they see the clip, they say he didn't mean them.
"He does mean them!" Scarborough said.
He added: "'I'm going to get Liz Cheney in a military tribunal,' his people have said. They're going to arrest my producers. He said he was going to shut down CBS because he didn't like how they edited a package in '60 minutes!' He's out of control! His words!"
" Nikki Haley and I fought and I beat her by 50, 60, 90 points!" he boasted. "I beat her in her own state by numbers that nobody's ever been beaten by! I beat Nikki badly! I beat everyone else too badly! I mean, frankly, I set records, both in speed and in the magnitude of the win... I beat everybody by numbers that has never happened before and they keep talking about Nikki, Nikki."
Trump then emphasized, "Nikki is in, Nikki is helping us already."
Rocha said Trump had a "great strategic opportunity" that "as a strategist, he really whiffed on."
"There's somebody watching Fox News and that's Nikki Haley voters," he said. "And they literally served him up a softball to say something nice about Nikki Haley and he could not help himself. And he went down the rabbit hole of how he whupped her in the primaries and she's no good."
Haley received 76,000 votes in Wisconsin, noted Rocha, and President Joe Biden only won the state by fewer than 20,000.
"Every one of those votes are like gold," he said. "As a strategist, they vote like it's their job. If they vote in the primary, I promise you they're coming back to vote in the general."
