thank you, as always, for spending part of your wednesday with us. we are so very grateful. the beat with ari melber starts right now. high, ari. >> hi, alecia. i'm ari melber back with you after getting vacation time. we are hitting the ground running because we are learning new information about the man special counsel jack smith identified as trump employee 5 in the classified documents indictment of defendant trump. that witness, number 5, is my special guest tonight. he will be speaking out live about jack smith's classified

documents probe, about his own testimony, his involvement and his now indicted former colleagues and boss. this is the man who moved some boxes, who observed the alleged coverup, who has a lot to share and we're back here with you on this newsy night. i can tell you, we have that newsy guest coming up. we will get to that interview. while our top story is this 2024 campaign in high gear. we know that republicans voted in five of those primaries this week. a shift in the format because trump is, of course, the presumptive nominee. these are races that are not designed at the presidential level to pick a nominee anymore. they do still function to test a party's unity, its strength and we're not talking about some random states here. we are talking about some of the key and large states that donald trump or any republican would need to win in order to get the white house this november. we're talking ohio, florida, arizona. you may remember these states

bandied about this week. while the headlines from republican voters in key places, especially as people crunch the numbers these days, as we make sense of it all, shows something that wasn't automatic, meaning once nikki haley dropped out, waiting for more states to vote, you say, oh, we're going to ciaco a less sense, we're going to see unity or not. what we're seeing and everyone crunches the same publicly available data, what the voters are doing in the primary states, states that trump needs like ohio, we're seeing deep concern about him as a nominee. donald trump's not exactly recruiting or uniting the opponents in the party that nikki hailey's campaign revealed. >> no republican is running against donald trump anymore but a notable number of republicans are still voting against him in primaries. >> it is a divided party. he doesn't have 100% of the party. it is about a 65/35 split as

we've seen throughout this process. >> while his candidate did win big in ohio, there are clear warning signs from the former president heading into november. >> that's how it's playing out. that's straight up nonpartisan reaction. republicans not trying to sugar coat it are privately concerned. they know trump is the presumptive nominee, former president. this is exactly the time when you've lost all the other major competitors when a party is supposed to rally. ohio and florida, 18% of the republicans rejecting trump. red kansas, 21%. the republicans who turned out, many are saying they don't like trump as the nominee. they obviously have gotten to know him over these years and they have concluded, about 1/5 of them, that he still lax the temperament to be president again. they're not going to back him in

november, four out of five. this is an indicator of the ongoing rift in the gop. now that is worse than some republicans were hoping for with, again, nikki haley getting out and the message being whatever you think. if you want to beat the democrats, that's what most republican party members want to do, the argument would be it's time to coalesce. none of it means it can't be fixed because it looks worse than they thought. ragan patched things up to unite the party, all smiles after a lot of debating and fighting, but it took a kind of outreach that ragan was able to do that trump is not doing, certainly not to nikki haley herself, not to her voters. in fact, it is the biden campaign and its high powered allies right now that are courting some of haley's trump foes. they are taking donors off the table to corner trump as he faces this cash crunch.

there is fatigue, hesitation reported by the donors who have been giving to trump for years but now as cnbc reports have had it. and there is a context for that. donald trump has diverted tens of millions of his donors' money into efforts that don't have anything to do with winning campaigns in the future. that includes the history of those futile attacks on the election he lost led by now indicted giuliani funding extreme efforts to complain about it, push conspiracy theories, diverting money to cover donald trump's personal legal bills. that went on for years. that fatigue took time but it has landed amongst some republicans. all of that is before the latest money problems as he loses the fraud and defamation cases. then you had this week's confession from trump's lawyers, turns out he doesn't have the money required under law to appeal that massive fraud loss. dozens of bond companies won't back him. msnbc has been reporting on that, along with other outlets,

and the issue, of course, is that the properties trump might put up as collateral, may not have enough value to secure the bond. so here we are. problems i mentioned on unity and the financial problems. what does it look like when donald trump's personal legal deshts and campaign cash crunch combine? i'm about to show you because donald trump is now essentially admitting in m public he could actually lose his properties if he doesn't get the kind of maga political welfare from his fans. a man who claims to be a billionaire is asking people who live check to check to send their money to him so that as the fundraising email puts it, the government will keep its hands off trump tower. the former president and apparently indebted defendant calling on, quote, one million pro trump patriots to bail him out. so where are we tonight? i was off on vacation. i came back. covered the news with you. you're probably pretty caught

up. i'll tell you where i think we're at. donald trump has already reached the go fund me stage of this campaign, and we have seven months left and maybe some trials left. remember, trump's lawyers were offering better terms to banks or lenders than to his own fans. to the bond companies, the trump lawyers said, hey, give us this money and trump will put up the collateral, those buildings he may partly own, then once we get through this thing, trump would pay back those lenders with interest. that was the pitch. to the trump fans though, no. they don't get that kind of favorable deal from their leader or guru or candidate or former president. the pitch was trump would take their money, never give any of it back and you could forget about interest. so i want to point something out here that's kind of straightforward or obvious but bears noting with regard to the hypocrisy and where we are in

our civic process. donald trump is offering capitalism for the banks because he has no other choice but socialism and handouts for himself when he swipes from his own fans. it serves as a reminder that as a factual matter, this trump project that so many people are living through in america, it does not run on populism, it does not run on policies to address economic anxiety. it runs on a transfer of wealth from the have nots who get these maga fundraising email and most of them are nowhere near his wealth. and transfer them to the haves. now the banks have wised up sooner than the so-called little guys and that's usually how it goes. some of trump's small dollar donors, these are people who give 20, 30, 50, 1100 bucks by

email, those are people who do watch fox where trump's debts and his known refusal to pay up are now being covered as a fact of life. >> if he can't get to the supreme court, will you loan him the 460 million? >> you know -- >> just to help -- in order to protect america's name. think of it that way. >> get the bond. he was able to get the 90 plus million from chubb. i don't know of a bond more than 90 million. >> generally donald doesn't have a great record of paying back banks over the years. >> true. that's how they're discussing it there. what you heard was the sound of a former trump adviser, larry kudlow who would cover the tab. as you noticed, the answer was not forthcoming, not a yes. here we are, the billionaire can't actually pay his debts. the law and order candidate actually is a defendant in some cases civilly convicted if you want to call it civilly liable.

the republican who inspires so much party loyalty can't close the deal with his own primary voters this week when he's the only name left on the ballot. those are some contradictions. you could take it all in and say it is backwards or you could take it all in and say, well, it's actually starting to make sense because if, however slowly, it looks like the lies and the deshts are failing to work, that accountability is catching up, which is why we are treated to the most oxymoronic position one could claim in modern capitalism, a true contradiction in oxymoron. we are covering the so-called plight of the broke billionaire. so which way are things headed? governor howard dean is here and we will discuss when we're back together in just 60 seconds.

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dean. welcome back. good to see you. i closed there in our presentation by looking at these tensions, these contradictions. that's a nice, diplomatic way to say it, howard, that how can you be broke if you're a billionaire? how can you not cover debts? how can you not get a lender? as you know, there are complex financial situations where very wealthy people work with financing institutions, but because of their great wealth it's very easy for most of them to get all kinds of credit because they have the documentation to prove the underlying assets. it would appear he has bigger problems than that and the campaign has a cash crunch. how do you see all of this coming together right now? >> trump has the reputation of being a con man as long as he's worked in new york, and i have spoken to what we would call little guys, plumbing contractors who trump didn't pay after he -- then worked and their staff and so forth built the plumbing in his atlantic

city casinos. it's not a surprise to me that trump can't get lending from these companies because they don't want to get burned. what is a surprise to me is how long the point you were trying to make earlier, is how long his own supporters will go for this. his own supporters are his supporters because trump is really good at playing grievance politics. these people have grievances. some have real grievances, they're not doing well and donald trump, the odd things about all of this, he's exactly the embodiment of the people who have screwed his supporters over for years and they're going to get screwed over by donald trump if he becomes the next president. >> campaigns cost money, howard. you've run some yourself. you won some to become the top official in your state. you didn't win the presidential primary but you've been around that at dnc. as you know, when the money runs out, it doesn't matter how strong people say you are or how

good you are at politics, there are some actual infrastructural aspects of it. on one hand trump, the republican party, which -- presumably they'll have enough money to get through the general election, but will it matter if he keeps having to divert 50, 100, 150 million if as the reporting shows there's fatigue, could that affect this year's contest? >> yeah. and in an interesting way. the one thing trump is really good at, because i think it's part of his illness, is getting attention. so, you know, he goes to these court hearings and everybody covers them because they want to see the plane crash, which is basically donald trump is a political plane crash. that happens again and again. he's been playing that game for years and years and years. he could survive getting press with his base for a long time because the media loves to see plane crashes. they keep playing this stuff. and trump is very, very good at

that. the problem for him is going to be in the numbers that you showed earlier in the show, is the 20% of the people who actually take the time to vote in a republican primary after trump has already clinched the nomination that can't bring themselves to vote for trump. there are smart people who are going to see through all of this and going to say, no, and that number is growing. i think if this continues, i think trump's in a lot of trouble. you know, we'll see. people have written him off before and that turned out to be a mistake. >> sure. >> how do you read those states because it is a funny thing. i mean, we hear so much about polls. i told viewers, for example, on this program we don't use national polls to cover the race because there's no national election, as you know. >> right. >> why would we keep referring to a number that doesn't correspond to the outcome of the thing we're covering. i don't understand but, you know, that's just me. >> right. >> the state polls offer a hint. many are within the margin of error, so they seem to reflect

here every number you see is technically a slight trump edges, but a pollster, within the margin of error means it could easily swing the ore way. what do you see in that even after biden had by many of the accounts a good state of the union, i want to put it charitably, i was out for part of the discussion, howard, after the state of the union, there were some people who felt the republicans did not have as effective a response to the state of the union. >> that's extremely charitable, ari. >> there was that sort of reaction. at best it's within margin of error in some of those key states. >> yeah. i mean, you know, again, seven months to go to the election, a little more, actually. these polls are relatively meaningless. one thing i thought was very good news for the democrats was yesterday's election in ohio where they elected a far right extremist to try to take on sherod brown. sherod is going to win that

race. the electorate in ohio still leans conservative. the referendum on abortion this past summer and the constitutional amendment that followed is pretty clear that relatively conservative voters in ohio see through trump. if he loses ohio, he's not going to win. i don't care what else he wins, he's not going to win the nomination. your point is incredibly well taken about the -- not using national polls, they're meaningless. even the state polls, when you're within two points, again, i just refuse to panic. i did think that biden had a fantastic state of the union address, and it's true that he -- his numbers didn't go up the next day through the roof but, you know, that all takes time. people -- people that watch the state of the union address are people like us who are political junkies and, you know, he got a decent audience out of that. i think it put to rest this notion that he's a feeble olds

man with whatever the prosecutor said. >> you said people like us, howard. that brings us to our first song of the night. dune what i'm thinking of? >> no. >> david bird, talking heads, "people like us, like to talk about. ♪♪ on the telephone, we don't want money, we just want someone to love, or a country to love, as it were. >> yeah. well, that's going to be trump's undoing at the end. i'm still convinced biden is going to win this reasonably handily. i think it's because all of those people who are voting for nikki haley now in the republican primary where she doesn't have a chance, those are people who are not going to be able to vote for donald trump. they'll either stay home or vote for biden. as we get closer and closer to the election, i think they're going to decide they have to vote for biden. a vote for nobody is a vote for zblump that's interesting. i used the l word, love. we have enough data that we know they do not love biden because they do not love the democratic

party -- >> right. >> -- for various reasons, their information filter, but they absolutely think, some of them, we've shown one out of five, opposing trump because of the love for country or the patriotic concern of what that would do. i'm over on time but you get the last word. >> the business about the bloodbath was a disaster. there are a lot of patriotic conservatives in the country. they are not going to want to support a president who talks like that under any circumstances. >> that is the last word on an important point. howard dean, good to see you. the trump employee number 5, a term coined by the doj and jack smith in the indictment of donald trump in that documents case. it's his first time on msnbc. he's recently broke his silence. he is our guest next. it's all the things that keep this world turning. it's the go-tos that keep us going. the places we cheer.

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they all choose the advanced network solutions and round the clock partnership from comcast business. see why comcast business powers more small businesses than anyone else. get started for $49.99 a month plus ask how to get up to an $800 prepaid card. don't wait- call today. donald trump is trying to fend off or delay several trials as he goes towards this election day. they are awaiting a scheduled trial date in the mar-a-lago classified documents case. an essential witness in the investigation has just emerged. one of these individuals that was not named according to federal practice, he was only identified initially in jack smith's trump indictment as, quote, trump employee number 5 and referred to as a valet at the mar-a-lago club. his name is brian buttler. >> former mar-a-lago employee is publicly describing how he

helped move materials. >> trump employee number 51 a man named brian butler. >> a central figure in the mar-a-lago classified documents case. >> extraordinary firsthand look. >> brian butler's name could become a matter of public record sooner than we think. >> this type of witness is gold for prosecutors. >> butler is an insider's insider. he first visited there over 20 years ago and had close relationships with the former president and the former president's co-defendant, a property manager named carlos. now mr. butler is revealed, which is new. he spoke to federal prosecutors. he has the testimony that jack smith and his investigators think is relevant to prosecuting and possibly incarcerating former president trump, and brian butler is our special guest appearing on msnbc for the first time tonight. thank you for being here. >> thank you, ari. >> appreciate it. you know a lot of things that

people are interested in. let's start with you. why are you choosing to come forward and speak out now? >> so, you know, it weighed on me. it was march 8th, i believe, of 2023 when investigators first came to talk to me. i was not home. i was out with carlos at the time, and, you know, it's been up and down since then. so i did not plan on speaking out publicly, and then about three, four weeks ago i was reading the news, reading the court filings and they were going to release the witness list for all the witnesses. so at that point i said, oh. so, you know, ultimately i said, let me jump in front of this. i thought it would be better to tell my side than it just coming out in the news publicly, you know, without me having to say or anything into it. >> right. and you've been around some of this process probably with other people's experiences or watched

donald trump over the last few years up close more than many. so they contact you, the doj, in march. did you immediately cooperate? would you describe your interactions with them as full cooperation? >> yeah. i mean, i had actually reached out to an attorney before they had ever came to talk to me. so, you know, i didn't hire him at the time but i had his number on speed dial, i guess you could say, if i was contacted. >> did you arrange immunity or get the perception from them that you were not a target? >> i don't believe i was ever a target. i didn't receive any deals. i didn't ask for a deal. i know since i spoke out last week, i mean, that's one of the reasons i agreed to come on today is a lot of misinformation has been said. i received no deal. i received no money. i received -- for speaking out, nothing. >> who was pushing that

misinformation in your view? >> you know, it's a lot of the former president's followers from what i see. >> right. so you view them -- some people as trying to impugn some aspect of what you're doing and your point is you say you told the truth and you didn't get a deal for it? >> i had no reason to ask for a deal in my opinion. >> yeah. so how would you describe your interactions with the doj team? obviously there may be some things you can't get into, i get that and we respect that, but did you talk to them for hours, days? what were their questions like? >> you know, i was very forthcoming. they asked the questions. i answered honestly. i think four or five meetings over the course of a few months and, you know, i -- i told them what i knew and i answered their questions honestly. i had nothing to hide. >> right. four or five meetings, does that

count speaking before the grand jury members? >> i believe so. probably about five times including the grand jury, the time i testified in front of the grand jury. >> that's a good chunk of time. when you were in front of the grand jury, what were the type of things they were focused on? they wanted to prove what? >> so we talked about, you know, june 3rd obviously. the moving of boxes, luggage to the plane. i talked about, you know, the conversations with carlos, you know, over june and july, august. you know, all the way up until just prior to his tooimt. i mean, we were in constant contact. we were friends. we talked about a couple meetings, i mean, some phone calls that i received asking about him but, i mean, i answered everything honestly. >> one of the allegations or complaints by the former president, as you know, is that

these prosecutors are somehow partisan, they have an agenda, they're not interested in the truth. based strictly on your interactions, did you find them to fit any of that characterization or did you find them to be sort of factual or on the level? >> look, i think they were just doing their jobs that they had been tasked to do. they took a sworn oath, you know, to uphold the laws of the united states. i do not see this being a witch hunt. around i think the former president, if he thinks he did nothing wrong, he should -- he should -- he should have cooperated from the beginning on this. >> fair. i just want to play because there is his perspective what he is saying. you worked for him for a long time. what he's saying about jack smith and this type of probe. take a look. >> they're breaking every law to persecute us. it's been one witch hunt and phony investigation after another. these are ridiculous

indictments. the single greatest witch hunt of all time. it's all run by the doj. it's crooked stuff. they're crooked people. deranged jack smith. they had no -- i got four indictments. >> is he right or wrong? >> i mean, the way i see it, if these were his personal -- personal documents and -- or he's allowed to have these by the pra, why would you need to ask questions about video footage? why would you possibly move the documents when they are coming to retrieve them? to me it just doesn't make any sense. on top of that, why would you put two lower level employees in the position they're in if you did nothing wrong and these are your own -- these are your personal documents? >> so you're saying that in the way that he acted, trying to

hide, and the people that he brought into it, you think you observed part of a coverup? >> i -- i -- i think it's very possible from what i saw, the questions -- you know, why would they ask about video footage? how long it's deleted for? those are conversations, you know, carlos told me he was tasked with finding out prior to walt's arrival on a secret trip. >> how different was that than usual? in other words, you described -- you're getting to an important point. you described secrets operations and while trump and his lawyers are talking to the fbi before things had fully heated up, other boxes are being moved off the premises. how usual or unusual was that approach? >> well, i mean, i didn't know anything -- what was going on at the time. like i had said before, it was like a puzzle and little pieces over the course of, you know,

six months kind of -- i realized something was going on. >> yeah. let me put up something we built based on the publicly available evidence and now we get to talk to you. you could probably build a way better chart than this, brian, but this was the time line in part that emerges from the evidence. and one of the key points is that they gave back some boxes, then the government had the impression that it wasn't full. and the doj asked for more documents, what they thought was the missing documents. then trump says, oh, we have these other 38. they returned that and then continuing, these are the red arrows on our screen, you lived this, they continued to hide these other documents. then the doj finds them, kind of caught red handed, and then you get the charges. does that match what you experienced? and now sitting where you are, dune why trump didn't just give it all back in which case he

probably never would have been charged? >> it's -- your chart seems to match up. you know, at the time i knew nothing about -- the only time i knew about boxes, and there may be something going on, was probably late june, early july when i received a phone call from the corporate head of security and he asked, why didn't you tell me carlos moved boxes. so at that point is when he had -- they had received -- trump organization had received some type of subpoena for video footage. so that's when i first realized, boxes. >> so you had the impression from the people around that trump knew the things that went down were bad or illegal and he didn't want that on video? >> absolutely. i mean, why else would you have needed to know the video footage and then why were they calling and asking me, hey, why didn't you tell me this guy was on video moving boxes?

>> it's interesting. i'm skipping ahead in evidence, in the notes i have here. we have something where trump tells news max as recently as last week and told megyn kelly a very different version than what you're saying you observed. basically that nothing was a coverup because he thinks he's always had the right to all of this. so this is news max and megyn kelly. take a look. >> i took them very legally and i wasn't hiding them. i had the right to do it. my opinion and my lawyer's opinion and everything else. >> i'm allowed to take these documents, classified or not classified, and frankly, when i have them, they become unclassified. people think you have to go through a ritual. you don't. >> did he actually always act like he was not hiding them? and what would you tell a jury if asked on that question? >> well, i mean, none of that makes sense to me from what i went through, and i believe from what carlos and walt went

through, if they were so -- if he really believed those were his documents, you know, why was i vouching for carlos in a signal -- first by phone to walt telling walt that, hey, you can trust carlos. you know, when walt calls me and asks me, somebody wants to make sure he's good. >> loyal, yeah. >> and i'm vouching for -- and i'm vouching for carlos on his loyalty and that he would never do anything to affect his relationship with the boss -- >> so let's put that up on the screen. we only got your name recently. two weeks after the fbi discovers the classified documents jack smith's brief writes nauta called you and said someone just wants to make sure carlos is good, what you just referenced, and you said he was loyal. the same day trump tells de oliveira he would get him an

attorney. what did loyalty mean then? >> well, i mean, to me it means whatever was going on with him, with carlos, walt and the former president, was that he wasn't going to say anything to affect what was going on at the time, whether it's the boxes -- >> to potentially commit -- potentially another trump staffer committing a new crime of misleading or lying to federal investigators. >> that -- that sounds correct. but moments after that phone call with walt and then i confirmed in the chat -- in a chat group with who i now know -- well, i knew at the time susie wiels, which i don't even remember talking to her before, then i'm telling her in a chat message how loyal carlos is. >> were they using signal because they thought it wouldn't get caught? the fact it's in jack smith's indictment means it got caught. >> i'm -- i'm not sure.

i guess that's their messenger app of choice for obvious reasons. >> so, again, with a jury, if trump's defense is largely, hey, i thought i wasn't doing anything wrong, so at best there's a misunderstanding over paperwork, and jack smith asks you in front of a jury, was that your observation? is that what you saw then? your answer is what? >> well, i mean, i -- i think there's obviously some type of obstruction but that's not my -- you know, i'm not an attorney. >> sure, but you say, hey, it's all good. you saw him hiding -- >> oh, absolutely not. i mean, moments after the signal -- i confirmed that, he received a call from the former president right in front of me. >> why did you quit after all those years? >> it was just time. look, i spent 20 years there. i had other opportunities. i -- i just think it was time.

the plals changed dramatically once he became president and it just wasn't the fun place that, you know, a lot of us -- we had a really good camaraderie with a lot of his staff and it was just time to go. >> your name only became public recently. have you heard from the president or his representatives since that time? >> no, i have not. >> you haven't seen him attack you in public. why do you think that is? because you said you wanted to go first, meaning others may come second. why do you think he hasn't addressed from what you said from, say, last week? >> the i'm not sure. i mean, i'm -- i'm speaking truthfully so i think it's harder to attack truth, in my opinion, but i -- i -- i don't know. >> did you vote for donald trump in 2016? >> i did. >> did you vote for him in 2020?

>> what was that? >> did you vote for him in 2020? >> correct. yes. >> you voted for him both times? >> i did. >> would you vote for him again now that he's running this november? >> i would not. >> brian butler, really interesting to get your firsthand account of what you've been through, both originally in this set of incidents and then with the special counsel's office and i know you are in demand. i appreciate you coming on the beat tonight, sir. >> thank you for having me. >> appreciate it. brian butler, the trump witness as mentioned, our special guest. we'll be right back with reaction from joyce vance.

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we just heard for the first time from one of special counsel jack smith's key witnesses, trump employee number five, brian butler. we are joined by federal prosecutor joyce vance. what do you think prosecutors will be most interested in using from him now that we hear from mr. butler. >> when prosecutors build a case, they don't rely on any one witness. they layer witnesses and evidence on top of each other to make a case. this is a fact witness to obstruction of justice. butler testifies both to his personal involvement, his movement of boxes, but ari the most important thing i heard you illicit from him is this testimony that he's asked to vouch for one of the other

employees, one of trump's co-defendants, carlos de oliveira. after he vouches this witness, this defendant, mr. de oliveira receives a phone call from president trump. this is mob level loyalty behavior and i think it will be telling in front of a jury. >> that idea of, oh, hey, we know we messed up, now we're trying to cover it up, is that more important from jack smith's perspective because you can get obstruction charges or that it goes to the original criminal intent that for a president who says, hey, i used to be able to handle this stuff, right? i used to be able to drop nukes. i don't have that power anymore? no, you don't. i used to be able to handle this material. does it go to the original intent? >> it does. this is one of the advantages of charging obstruction of justice here. it's a separate crime but it also not only helps to show the original retention charges. it gives the jury a margin of comfort that it wasn't an

accident, it wasn't unintentional, it was criminal because as mr. butler says, otherwise, why would they have taken the steps to cover it up. >> what did you think of his demeanor as a potential witness? everyone goes through things, but prosecutors have to assess what a jury will relate to. >> so, look, as a prosecutor, you get nervous any time one of your witnesses is out in public talking on the media about what -- >> you don't think jack smith liked this interview? >> i've got to believe mr. smith isn't super happy with his witness, and here's the reason. it's not that prosecutors are trying to play hide the ball, it's that this is now a prior statement by the witness that he can be cross examined about, right? >> sure. >> and that can be effective fodder for the defense. this is a man who i think comes across as credible. he's a long-time trump employee. two-time trump voter and he says, i became uncomfortable and here's the facts. here's what i observed. because he did not want to be caught up in criminal activity.

>> as you said, that's extra point, not legal, but might go to a florida voter. he's a '16 maga voter, joyce, thank you so much. appreciate having you. >> thanks, ari. >> real time reaction. my first time commenting on mr. peter navarro reporting to prison yesterday. so you can get back to your monster to-do list. -really? -get a quote at progresivecommercial.com. ♪♪ we're building a better postal service. all parts working in sync to move your business forward. with a streamlined shipping network. and new, high-speed processing and delivery centers. for more value. more reliability. and more on-time deliveries. the united states postal service is built for how you business. and how you business is with simple, affordable and reliable shipping.

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he did a tremendous job with respect to china and trade and they treated him very badly. >> those new comments from donald trump about peter navarro, which goes to the big question we hear a lot, will they get away with it? many people who attacked the capitol for trump have now been charged, tried and sent to prison. some of their allies and ore parts of the effort to steal the election are facing their own consequences like trump white house aides who touted their plots in the open and then defied lawful subpoenas, like the aforementioned peter navarro. >> the remedy was for vice president pence, the quarterback in the green bay sweep, to remand those votes back to the six battleground states. we had over 100 congressmen and senators on capitol hill ready to implement -- >> do you realize you're describing a coup? >> no. >> mr. navarro would continue to insist that his so-called sweep was lawful but he also refused to respond to a subpoena

lawfully orchestrated and presented to him that sought information about what he was discussing there. it came from congress in response to that interview. navarro ultimately was charged, tried and convicted. today, he woke up in a federal prison for the first time after exhausting his legally-allowed appeals. yesterday he reported to serve a four-month prison sentence. >> when i walk in that prison today, the justice system, such as it is, will have done a crippling blow to the constitutional separation of powers and executive privilege. i will gather strength from this, donald john trump is the nominee for the republican presidential campaign. >> that is mr. navarro's perspective. he has every right to speak out there as he has done throughout this legal process. his path was unique in several ways. as a precedent, though, he is now the first trump white house official to serve prison time

for anything related to january 6th and those efforts to stage a coup, to steal the election. many other trump veterans have gone to prison for other matters, some of them later pardoned. navarro's sentence, which he began officially yesterday, waking up today, will be complete before the coming election. so he will serve this in full regardless of whether donald trump were to win and return to office when he would again have that pardon power. navarro may not be the last trump veteran in this position. steve bannon convicted for that same defiance of a january 6th related subpoena and ban nonwas convicted, got a four-month prison sentence. he is appealing it as well. now since the insurrection, over 1,000 people have been charged. most get convicted in the process. they either plead or go to jail. over 460 have been sentenced to serve time. others simply await the process. of the over 200 felony sentences, the average is several years.

3.5 years, other convictions for sedition and very serious violent felonies have gone north of a decade. now you take it all together, what you see here is that the process is at times slow. it is at times as i mentioned uneven. but the notion in america that none of this is being dealt with is a bit of a misnomer. for many, many people at the level of mr. navarro, white house veteran or the others i showed you, justice, however, slowly, does arrive. we'll be right back. arrive. wel 'lbe right back. (man) excuse me, would you mind taking a picture of us? (tony) oh, no problem. (man) thanks. (tony) yes, problem. you need verizon. trade-in that old thing and get a new iphone 15 pro with tons of storage. so you can take all the pics! so many selfies. a preposterous amount of pano! that means panoramic. and as many portraits of me as your heart desires. (woman) how about none? (boy) none. (man) yea none feels right. (vo) trade-in any iphone in any condition and get a new iphone 15 pro and an ipad and apple watch se all on us. only on verizon.

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if you think about it. and some of my favorite moments throughout my life are watching sports with my dad. now, i work at comcast as part of the team that created our ai highlights technology, which uses ai to detect the major plays in a sports game. giving millions of fans, like my dad and me, new ways of catching up on their favorite sport. it's been great being back with you here on "the beat." our time is up tonight. i'll see you tomorrow right here at 6:00 p.m. eastern. "the reidout" starts right now. ♪♪ tonight on "the reidout" -- >> right now the safest and most appropriate treatment for me and the treatment i choose is abortion. i will never try to force someone to have an abortion.

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