Trump Aide Peter Navarro on "The Beat"

0:00Can I just quickly say hello to you? For me, being a part of this place has always been about the people, not about the politics. Why are you holding this sign? You've ever been to a protest before? He's safe. People that we cover who allow us to enter their lives. How's everybody doing? Everybody doing okay? How long has been in line? I love human beings to spend time connecting with them is the biggest blessing that I could ask for. From the field to the studio, Jacob is finding the heart of the story, connect with Jacob Soberov. We can set 10 a.m. Eastern on MS now. Welcome to the beat on Mari Melville. We're going to get right to it because we have a lot cooking tonight. We begin with one of those political parties that people don't want to go to. Donald Trump is doing something that cuts against all known history, precedent, and pattern for a second term, midterm race. Where often presidents want to give space and get away from it just being a referendum on a perhaps unpopular incumbent. But here right now, this week, he is holding what they're calling this unusual midterm convention in Dallas.

1:01Warren inflation has made him more unpopular than most second term presidents. All the reason that you would want to avoid what he's doing. Indeed, there are people who are Trump critics, liberals, Democrats who are kind of hoping the thing you see on your screen, which we will be keeping an eye on will be reporting on it like we report on, of course, both sides of all campaigns, with there are liberals who think the more reporting that goes on about this and reminds everyone in the fall that this is a Trump election, the worse it is, the Republicans. Politico says the vibes are very bad. Dems, as I mentioned, quote, salivating, no one motivated to vote. They're on the right. One hope is that no one watches it since it's competing versus NFL opening games is how one Republican is described as discussing this in playbook, continuing quote, hopefully nobody notices the embarrassing show. So that's just the view of the impact. Then you have the fact that people vote with their feet. Remember that expression? And a lot of Republicans hoping to withstand what could become a blue wave, think the best way to do that

2:02is to risk upsetting Trump, show that they're not with Trump and skip this Trump idea of an event. The midterm convention in Dallas is being called at Trump of Paloosa. Will you be there? I had stuff already planned in my congressional district. Some Republicans aren't going or they're unhappy because they have to pay $25,000 per House member per Republican going to attend. Is that normal from your experience? I've never heard of anything like that myself. Dozens of your Republican colleagues decided not to attend, at least 45 of them are skipping out. What message does that send to voters? Members had things planned, they had events, there's parades, there's all types of gatherings that take place. It is honestly hard to take any of that seriously, right? This is the, I guess the phase of the slow moving kind of distancing between Trump and the Republican Party where we're hearing that people had plans. Next they're going to be telling us they had to wash their hair that night and every night of the convention.

3:02It is very obvious they want to get away from Trump. It doesn't help that true to form. He's made this all about himself and he has the lowest approval yet in a new financial times poll as we are now in the real geared up core of the midterms, right? Ballots being sent out seven weeks to go. The Rand War on popular oil prices at 100 of barrel and then Trump this week, dialing up the trade war with Canada. Over on Fox, there are reports about Republicans' political gravity and they've changed their projections for several house races towards Democrats. Republicans openly discussing the fact that they think if they lose badly and as I'll always remind you, this is the news. We don't have any news yet on this race. You're gonna have to go out and decide how to participate, whether people vote, but Republicans is a political matter, talking up the idea that if they are wiped out in a blue wave, it's because of Trump. I'm a little bit nervous about it

4:02because look, we're in the final stages of campaign. I'd be more comfortable if this had been held in June or July and set a thematic that could be pursued for four months or five months rather than for 56 days. It's where you go to the grocery store and it's so expensive. Even my wife, Tal's my eye, can't believe how much I spend the groceries with. Yes, I know they're high and know they're at their highest level. They've been a labor day. The Senate, I'm really worried. Republicans in large parts supported President Trump because he didn't, he went to get to put us in forever wars. North Carolina, the numbers are rough, Georgia, the numbers are rough. The American people are still wondering why is it that we're doing this? Arlidov, guests tonight, like many other Republicans in Congress are not at the convention, Reverend Al Sharpton, host politics nation, which is celebrated since 15th anniversary on MSNOW. Course national action network president, Molly John Fass from the New York Times, host to the Fass Politics podcast. And we do have of course reporters there on the ground and we'll get to that. But yes, you rev have as much in common with many Republican candidates

5:05as anyone else who's not deciding this is worth your time or interest to go to this convention right now. I think that clearly there is a real statement with 45 elected Republicans not going to a convention. You must remember this is a man that these people would have jumped over oceans to be next to. And this is how he also thinks. Aside from the politics for a moment, think of the way he has taken this personal. You mean people don't want to be with me? This ultimate narcissist is now being rejected by 45 members of his party publicly that's given nonsensical excuses. And if anybody believes their nonsensical is Donald Trump. So he's not having a good day. But on top of that, the message it sends to Republican voters around the country that are facing higher gas prices that are seeing oil going up

6:06for barrel or that's dealing with groceries. They're saying that people are leaving the party but at least not going to the party. I'm suffering in a war that no one knows what's gonna happen and we're fighting with Canada. Either I can't vote with this anymore or maybe I just won't vote at all. Either way, the Democrats benefit from it. Yeah, I mean, look, you showed a video of Karl Rove before this. Karl Rove worked for George W. Bush, right? And Bush, even Bush said Bush Clinton Biden all said if you need to distance yourself in the midterm to protect your job, to protect your income and see, go for it. Donald Trump, you're getting the absolute opposite message, right? He's yoking these candidates to him. And that means that these candidates are being attached to the most unpopular, historically unpopular president. And one affordability is the issue. And you look at him escalating a trade war with Canada this week.

7:07I mean, you can't see this as anything other than someone who is laser focused not on affordability. Yeah. And rather, if you look, I mentioned this, here's the headline that Trump midterm convention is about himself. Democrats delighted. He wants to air more ads about himself, a million dollars on commercials that show his face and his voice. He's told the supporters to vote as though he were on the ballot. Well, I think the fact that he's saying, but as if he was on the ballot has already shown that's not gonna help a lot of these candidates. When you look in North Carolina, when you look at Texas, when you're looking at states that were never at play for decades, that are not at play. And for him to not come with a reality check that I'm dragging down the party, we definitely probably seem to seem to be losing the house, may lose the Senate largely because of me. Let me step back and secure my legacy.

8:07His legacy is going to be that he ruined the party and he's put a face on it. He's not, he wants to bill it off for himself. He everything is named after him. Well, this impending Republican disaster, the face of it will be Donald Trump. Who has a two day convention and they had to speak of both nights? I know revival preachers in the Pentecostum Church that I grew up in that didn't say that. I mean, he's gonna speak both nights. So not only is it unprecedented for you to have a midterm convention, it's unprecedented in any convention for the president to speak both nights. It's a great point. You say a revival convention. And I remember, and this might call my musical taste into question, but years ago I went to one of these outdoor festivals in the Washington state, meltdown. And they say they're gonna have all these actions. You look at the poster, you know this red from working with James Brown. And you see like eight acts and then they say more to be announced. And it was a little light on the headliner, but it was two nights and we said,

9:08we'll give it a go. It has to be fun. First night we go, a band that I don't love, no disrespect, String Cheese Incident, a jam band was headlining and we said, okay. And then you camp out, you know it's fun. And then the next night rev, you see where the stories go. The second night headliner of the two day music festival was String Cheese Incident again. We were not Molly, we were not happy fifths. We felt like, I don't care how much you love this jam band. They can't do a double header of a festival. Maybe if it was just for their hardcore pants. And so I take Rev's point, whether it's preaching or political conventions or music, you can't really just keep going back to back unless the people are selling out the crowd. And Trump wouldn't be selling out the garden tonight. And I would like to add that Donald Trump 2016 is not Donald Trump 2026. He is not the speaker he once was. He is String Cheese Incident times 10, right? He just is not as, he's not as able to read the crowd as he was 10 years ago.

10:09And that's why you have him saying things like affordability is a hoax, where you have him sort of going off the prompter into weird things about his ballroom or his reflecting pool. And when people are so angry about inflation and you promise them a bunch of things like you're gonna lower prices and you're gonna end foreign wars. And then you've delivered them the opposite. You have a real problem. Yeah, and Rev, I mean, again, we don't torture metaphors and stories around here. That's not what we do. But String Cheese Incident never struck me as a great band name. And you gotta wonder whether affordability is a hoax is kind of the string cheese incident of midterm messaging. You sort of say, and he said recently, hey, deal with it. It's worth paying higher gas prices for this war. And the problem with that is while some presidents have summoned a sense of sacrifice for the right causes, the polling shows, 70% of the public, including Republicans, don't think this war is the right cause and they're paying for it.

11:10The public does not know what the cause is, first of all. You can't, well, why are we right on the wrong cause? Respect. What is the cause? What's the cause? Why are we there? And he did not prepare. You've had presidents, as you said, that have said we've got to make sacrifices and prepare the nation for it. And the ends justify the means we must do this. He didn't prepare for it. He said he'd be in there a week or 10 days. He promised that we weren't going in a war at all. So we're in a war he said he'd never do. Then he said we'd be out in 10 days. We're not there how many months. And we still don't know why we're there. And we're paying the cause. And I'll tell you what I'll do to make you feel better. I'll pick a fight with Canada. Exactly. Well, our star panel stays, I mentioned we've got great reporters there, including our friend and calling MSNOW's quiz. Jansing, live at the convention in Dallas, Chris, of course, has covered so many political activities for us over the years. And this is a bit different. So let's start with what are you seeing

12:10at the kind of unusual midterm convention? Louis, not a convention, okay? The production values kind of like a convention. But when I look out over those flags of states, no one is actually a delegate because it's not a convention. And actually I was at the Donald Trump big rally before the 2024 election at Madison Square Garden. Can you hear the polite applause? This is a very different vibe. Now there are ways in which it seems like a convention. We've seen some familiar faces, Newt Gingrich is here, Mike Valer is here. Right beneath me, we saw the first Superman, Dean Kane, getting pictures taken, getting some selfies done he did not charge $88,000. I might point out, but look, I think it's the reaction of the crowd that mimics what I'm used to in actual conventions. For example, when they bring up the name, I'll do L. Syed, people boo. And then there was a whole long video of anti-trans rights.

13:15And that's important here in Texas because it's a place where there have been 200, I think, the legislature has proposed 200 pieces of anti-trans legislation. It is where Ken Paxson is very, very different from James Talleriko who has defended trans rights. And I think there's one more point that he would wanna make. And I talked to him earlier today and that is they're missing the point with going after the culture wars. This election is going to be about the economy. Let me play for you a little bit of my conversation just a few hours ago with James Talleriko, who of course is running for Senate. Mala. Donald Trump is speaking tonight. Will you watch him and tonight and tomorrow being here in Texas, can it rev up his base? Well, we're gonna be doing what we've done for the past year that is meeting with Texans, listening to their needs. This is not about Donald Trump. This is about the people of Texas and how we can take back power for them,

14:16how we can structure this economy so that it rewards work instead of wealth, so that a family that's working two jobs can get ahead. Right now that's not possible. People are drowning in this economy. And so I'm gonna keep focused on that. I'm not gonna get distracted by the circus across the street. I'm gonna focus on the needs of Texans and proposing ideas to make their lives easier and better and less stressful. Well, I'm gonna say that, Bob, I'm not sure you can see what's in the background. Those are piles of food that are collected by volunteers all across the state, 20,000 pounds of food in a state where like many places across America, people are not able to keep up with just putting food on the table and food banks are overwhelmed. So for him, this is a study and contrast. While folks are here paying $20,000, $25,000 to be here, he was there with the folks who volunteered and helped collect 20,000 pounds of food. Now, tonight, in addition to Donald Trump, his opponent,

15:19Ken Paxson is gonna take this stage within the next hour. So absolutely not prime time. He has sandwiched, I should tell you, Ari in between the president of a border patrol organization and what they are calling a musical interlude. Having said that, Donald Trump did give $10 million to his campaign, but can we just stop for a minute and I'll wrap with this $10 million in the closing of a campaign for Senate for the Republican and Texas? That's why James Tallerico is feeling done about his chances here. And he angsted. Yeah, it's a great point because you're talking about what we can measure, what they're feeling, and where they're spending. And Chris, appreciate your reporting there. We'll be checking back with you tonight across MSNOW tomorrow. Thanks again. Thanks. Appreciate it. We're gonna fit in our 90 second break and then I have more a reaction to what we just heard from Alan Molly.

16:20Ever since I was young, I've watched people working hard, chasing opportunity, making sacrifices, doing everything they can to build a better life. And now we're shining a light on what matters most. Our economy, our national identity, our democracy, our future. The stakes have never been higher. It's all on the line. I'm the line with Alicia Menendez, weekdays at 12 PM Eastern on MSNOW. I was someone who held the position. What do you make of that? It's unprecedented and it's disgrace. Attorney's General, don't talk about political fence. He shouldn't be there. Well, my turn General Eric Holder there. Someone you know well, I've interviewed Rev. Also blasting the current attorney general going to the midterm convention. Chris Jancing, we saw reporting from there. She talked a little bit about how it's mimicking something that it's not and that's not unique to the GOP. We've seen that at other conventions

17:21because the delegates themselves are not choosing the nominee anymore in a presidential year. But she sort of gave us that, how it felt on the ground there. What were your observations? When you look at the fact that you are dealing with the attorney general of the United States that deals with justice and deals with our investigations and prosecutions and so forth. And he's at a political convention not in Washington taking care of the duties of justice and openly being partisan. It feeds right into the charge that many people have said that they politicize the justice department. And it's almost like, oh, you think we have? Well, let me show you. I'm going to the political convention. And for, I mean to think, I'm at the, to realize how outrageous this is. Imagine if a Barack Obama was supporting someone like Paxton and had his attorney general at the convention

18:23when you have a man with Paxton's legal baggage that is being shared tonight. What is attorney general Blanche gonna do when Paxton gets up there? There has any number of documented or banks against him and charges against him. From law enforcement, under Republicans, you had to remember a lot that was done to Paxton was done by Republicans in the state of Texas. How's the attorney general clapped for that? Mm. Yeah. And Todd Blanche, I think, said it best during those hearings when he said, and he slipped up, but he said, I'm the president's personal lawyer. And that was what he was brought in for. And that is what he's serving as. And it's ironic, because the, his job is supposed to be the people's lawyer. And it's, but I would say the other thing that I got from what Chris was saying was she talked about the sort of tepid applause. And if you think about this moment, like we don't see the kind of MAGA signage we saw just a couple of years ago.

19:24Like it's just not, there's not the same enthusiasm for him. Now, it can be any number of reasons the polls could be wrong, but science tend to really not really tell a story. Right. And you're seeing that in how many problems there are in the Republicans running away. And then the general feeling out there, which is even though some folks in a presidential, you might not become hard left. And they might complain about what they see as problems in the Democratic Party field. There's no enthusiasm to say more Trump. And they might like him. I mean, this is why we see sometimes in polling people want to divide a government. They might like him slow down the Congress if it's going to be ice-murdering people and more tariffs. Yeah. Again, I want to thank our lead-off guests, Reverend Sharpton and Molly John Fast, and tell folks what's coming up. We are going to look at a story that could also matter a lot in the midterms, the clash and MAGA Civil War between Fox News and the White House next. Turn you to a development splitting, Fox News,

20:28and this Trump White House, famously GOP-friendly network, is in a dramatic spat that has just spilled into public view, reportedly leading to the ousting of longtime host and MAGA voice, Maria Bareromo. She's out after 12 years. Now, she defended Trump on election lies in some extreme claims where he lost other Republicans, even some other Fox anchors, using her show to not only report on, but often promote false election claims. Now that put her, among others, at the center of Fox's costly defamation case, it also revealed her contact with some Trump aides and lawyers that read like she was at times on their team, secretly telling Rudy Giuliani, I want you to overturn this, as Trump's loss first resonated in that November 2020 race, pleading with another Trump lawyer, the later convicted Sidney Powell, please, please overturn this. And onward, that kind of evidence ultimately helped lead Fox to settle for $787 million,

21:32rocking the network's bottom line soon, Tucker Carlson was out, Lou Dobbs out, voices who were tied to some of that coverage. Bareromo's sudden exit is news, Fox did not offer public reasons, others are talking though. A Trump aides saying that she shared private editorial guidance from her Fox bosses, instructing anchors to stay away from covering some of Trump's election claims, including in that recent address he gave, internal guidance that she then shared with Trump White House aide Peter Navarro. He reacted by recounting some of those dealings with her, and this is more than a media story. It's about democracy and the line for guarding elections and potential defamation in service of overthrowing elections or even that 2021 now convicted sedition. That Capitol crime spree came after some claims that were so indefensible, Fox settled rather than try to continue to defend them in court.

22:34They tried to cheat in the 2020 election behind the guise of COVID. The irregularities in this year's election are not just fraud, electoral or voter. They are another attempt to overthrow the president of the United States. The 2020 presidential election was not fair. No honest person would claim that it was fair. On many levels, the system was rigged against one candidate and in favor of another. President Trump pardoning a list of high profile officials who were part of the efforts to challenge the 2020 election. We don't know if they were wrong, by the way, those mail-in ballots. The 2020 results, including the mail-in ballots, were right and valid. The Supreme Court, which had a majority of Republican appointees, rejected Trump's several efforts to challenge those results, including on the mail ballot and other claims. Now, as for her part, I should report Bartiroma's lawyer states that she was not fired and is technically a Fox employee right now.

23:36President Trump attacking Fox for ousting her. And decision that came, as mentioned after Trump made Peter Navarro says that he shared her seemingly private leak about that internal guidance from Fox executives and he circulated it within the White House. That led to a big call and a clash with Fox leadership. Navarro now going public with some attacks on Fox for what he says is a plot to muzzle her. And also, he says to censor Trump and allies who speak on his behalf, Maga is next. Now, this is a high stakes clash between Trump and the conservative network that has been so critical to both what Republicans think and sometimes turning out their vote. And it's not over some side issue. It is over the core issue of election integrity right now heading into these midterms. Raising big questions like, why is the White House escalating this fight? Will Fox face the hardball tactics

24:37that the Trump administration's used on other critics, including in the press? And what is White House advisor, Peter Navarro, trying to achieve? He's clearly at the center of this. Nobody disputes that. It would be interesting to ask him. And he's agreed to join me tonight on this newsworthy topic. White House advisor, Peter Navarro, on the beat, next. The economic fallout from the war. Is it temporary power? Is this White House for sale? Politics. What is your message to the country right now? Money-powered politics with Stephanie Rule. We gaze at 9 a.m. Eastern on FS now. And find more on the MSNow app. We are back and joining me now is Peter Navarro, Trump White House trade advisor. He has a book coming out about Anthony Fauci coming next month. He's a big fan of the American economy. Coming out about Anthony Fauci coming next month. And he has a new piece that says Fox News is trying to quote muzzle Maria Barromo and discussing their contact

25:37which has been in the news. Welcome back, Mr. Navarro. Good to see you, Ari. Good to have you. Let's start with what happened here. It was leaks. She allegedly sends you Fox's internal guidance. That goes through the Trump White House from you. You've said that. And then they kind of leak it back to other people at Fox and have this whole clash. When she sent this to you, was there expectation that it would be confidential? All right, here's what happened here. What happened here was President Trump scheduled a major prime time address. I don't know if you know this, but you only get about one, maybe two of those a year over the last decade. Generally, it is the convention historically for those to be televised across the TV networks, cable and main broadcasting. And what we had was a situation where Fox internally

26:39decided to do two things. Initially, it wasn't going to even live stream it, but more importantly, Ari, it sent out from Ralph Geardano's executive producer, a dictate basically, don't cover it, don't talk about it, we're not covering it. That's, let me show that. I'll let you continue. Sentorship. So that's, well, let me show you're the, okay, so you're the source of this. Let me show it for viewers. It's a big story. Quote, we don't want to promote it. That's the president's address you're mentioning or push to the speech at all. We don't want to do 20, 20 election segments at all Thursday or Friday, as described by you. And so I am asking, because I think it's relevant, did she think that was going to be kept confidential by you and what did you do with that? There was no expectation, a confidentiality. There was an expectation that the White House would be informed and that we would lodge our protests. Now, what should have happened then, the woman in question here is the CEO of Fox,

27:39the same one who fired a number of other people. It basically, what Suzanne Scott should have done when the White House contractor was apologizing and acknowledged that it was disrespectful to the president and to the people of this country, not to have that network even talk about the address. I mean, Morning Joe had a lot more to say about it than Fox and friends and Fox and friends had nothing to say the following morning. So that's part of the story. It's partly a retaliation story. But the bigger picture here also is, I think, the misdirection, the misconception of Fox news being somehow a conservative network as you described it. We can get to that. Let me slow you down. We can get to that. But just on the fact pattern that you're sharing and you were in the center of this, working with you. What did you hope to achieve by this string of events because she ended up getting ousted. So did you kind of fail at the effort to support her within Fox?

28:42What I'm hoping to achieve is to have Fox news, cover the news correctly with integrity and to do so in a short run going into this election and over the long run. There's this misconception among viewers on the right and left that somehow that Fox is a conservative messenger and supports Donald Trump and Maga and this and the other thing. I mean, Fox, in a heartbeat, we'll tell you about transgender stuff and illegal aliens raping and killing as well they should. But there's certain guardrails they put up, election integrity was one that you mentioned. Big pharma issues is certainly another and they're basically hostile to the president's trade agenda because a lot of their advertisers are the same corporations that offshore their jobs for the last 25 years. So what I'm hoping to achieve is raise awareness

29:43exactly about what Fox is going on. It's like, yeah, look, all right, when people watch MS now, when they watch CNN, they know what they're getting and they get what they think they're getting. With Fox, it's not that way. I let you lodge that point. So as you lodge that and that's... Go ahead. I let you lodge that point and I hear you and you're telling viewers that you see Fox differently than its reputation may have been. What's hanging over this, of course, is that Fox reach a point where the lies and other falsehoods that they platformed, including from some Trump ally guests and from their own anchors cost them $700 million plus dollars. I'm just gonna read to you from the New York Times with coverage and let you respond that after amplifying social assertions by Trump's allies, Fox paid an extraordinary $787 million defamation settlement. In 2020, Bartolomo had made her show a central stop for proponents of the present selection theories

30:44and she canceled, this is where you come into it. Navarro's appearance shared the text with Navarro who promptly sent it quote up the chain at the White House. That sequence of events would bring an abrupt end to Bartolomo's on air career at the network. And so here we are, you are putting forth an idea that this is why Fox is that way. But the Times is reporting and Fox's own people went through this very, very costly thing because they basically lied to or aired lies to an illegal degree to a civilly liable degree. Don't you think that also is a big part of this and isn't that relevant to the midterms because if people want to lie to a defamation level on Fox or elsewhere, they're in a world now where these executives are on notice and they don't wanna pay another $700 million and Peter, you're an economics guy, doesn't that make sense? Well, the dirty little secret here, it's commonly understood, Ari, is the reason they settle that suit is they didn't want to put Rubin Murdock on the stand, full stop.

31:45That's it and it alone, they had a very good chance of winning that suit, but let me, I don't wanna relit again. I'll let you finish, but what's your sourcing for that? Is that something that you've been told by people inside Fox? Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's, that's, I'm surprised you don't know that. That's the common refrain that Rupert didn't wanna get on the stand and so, I'll let you finish, but I've heard that alluded to as, but let me, I'll let you finish, but just as respond. I've heard that alluded to, but usually because the underlying evidence and facts were bad for Mr. Murdock, he's a tough guy, he's been around a bunch of cases, but that if he was gonna be pressed on it, they might end up losing more costly a court. Go ahead. I don't, yeah, no, I reject that, but in that, you look, you and I don't wanna litigate the election again, you believe there, it was a fair one, I believe it was stolen, let's not go there, but let's go here now, that prime time address, let's see if we can agree on this.

32:45All the president did that night was released previously on classified documents, which basically from the intelligence community said that leading into the 2020 election, communist China had vast capabilities to alter that election. They didn't say it did, but they identified things like 220 million voter files taken all sorts of social media, shenanigans and things like that. And I think the importance of that, address that night was to simply inform the American people that we've got a communist China problem when it comes to our election, just like we have a communist China problem when it comes to hacking all our financial networks and our consumer games. And people couldn't listen to make up their mind, but Peter, but you're a claim, Peter, your claim is that it was that. Let me just finish the thought, just one second. Finish the thought. The reason why that address was important was to get that information to the American people. And the reason why Fox's censorship was important

33:47is because it didn't wanna talk about that. So I reject that. Well, let's, again, we're having a back and forth here. That's your claim and it's newsworthy and the times was quoting you and everybody's looking at your claim, but the speech was aired on Fox. If I tell you a speech is censored, doesn't that imply that part or all of the speech was censored? This speech was aired, not censored. Well, but let me, let me finish. Let me give you a little bit more news there. My understanding from pretty good sources is that the only reason why it aired is because Sean Hannity, who's the bravest one at Fox, pushed hard to have it done. And it actually was in his time slot. But think about it, Ari, what's more important, the speech itself? Yeah, that's really important. But it's also the discussion in the days afterward. It's like the analysis where our Melbourne comes on and who else, and Fox, shut down. I agree with you. And that is Shane. Here's the short question.

34:47The Northay excuse for that is Suzanne Scott. She's the one that should be fired. She's the one that should be fired. So here we go. Let's talk about it. Let's talk about it. Let's talk about it. Okay. And let's talk about it, Peter. You're saying your understanding is, and you're an insider, that Hannity had to use the leverage he might have had in his time slot to get it on air. They didn't even want to air it. Now you're saying that the leader of this news organization or media company, whatever we call it, should be fired. Yes. You're speaking from the government. Do you want to live in? And I'm asking quite seriously, you work at the White House. You are very close to President Trump. We've talked before at our reporting. Do you want to live in a country really, Peter, where the government is deciding what's on the air, what's not on the air, who runs the company and who speaks on the company? Is that the America that you and the Trump administration are pitching? See, you're extrapolating a whole lot from the fact that me as an individual think that Suzanne Scott

35:48should be out of the air. You're just calling for her to be fired tonight. I'm not doing it as the White House. I'm doing it as me, but let me, let me give you a little back. Explain that to me. Wait, go ahead, explain that to me. Explain that to me. I know this woman going back, going back to 2020. Are you set on? I'm taking you seriously, Peter. Are you saying that you're not representing the Trump administration, the White House? You are in this dispute because you work for the president and you did call for her to be fired. Now you're saying that's not the view of the president Trump? Well, I'm saying, when I'm saying, look, let's be clear. When I'm saying she should be fired, that's my personal opinion full stop. Okay? And the problem I have with Suzanne Scott is I've seen her nefarious work for the better part of eight years. This shadow banning thing, Ari, you know how this goes? She's got a whole cadre of producers that she orders not to engage in certain types of stories, not to engage in certain types of guests.

36:50And as a private corporation, you might disagree with her. Are viewers might disagree with her, but isn't that her call not the government's call? Isn't that the news is on call and not the federal government's call? I think what's important here is that what I'm trying to do for the American people is to explain what goes on behind the scenes at Fox, you know how the sauce as she's made. And it's made in a very different way than people think. What we have is Suzanne Scott is the CEO dictating programming based not on what programming should be, but rather on what pleases the advertisers and how much they can kind of put over and hoodwink the viewers. The viewers see the extent that they think they're getting the conservative MAGA Trump kind of interpretation of the news, whatever it is. That's not what's going on. It's not what's going on. And so, and you've been able to make that point.

37:52And that's a kind of a good time address. Suzanne Scott, let me ask you censorship. So that's a fireable offense. Not what Maria Barbaromo did. If Maria Barbaromo can get fired for calling that out, Suzanne Scott can get fired for doing it. That's the point. And Fox is doing this Roku streaming acquisition. Do you think that the Trump DOJ should be looking closely at that if they're not changing their tune? No, that's not my lane at all. I see where you're going with that, but that's not where I'm coming from. I'm coming from a place where I know Suzanne Scott really well. I've just seen her nefarious work and firing Maria Barbaromo, who is a fierce journalist. I mean, one of the things, all right, let's see if you disagree with me on this. I mean, 2020 April, okay? I go on Maria's show on the Sunday show, which is the highest rated show on Sundays. And I say that by Occam's razor,

38:53it is highly likely that that virus came from the Wuhan lab, okay? Has exploded. She had the curses say it. I had the curses say it. And it took over a year before that became the conventional wisdom. And she took a lot of crap from Suzanne Scott on down. I took a lot of crap from a lot of people, but anybody who doesn't think that virus is from the Wuhan lab now hasn't been looking and listening to people like Bob Redfield and others. So let me respond. You kind of gave me time. Peter, I gave you time. You were saying that there should be, we're having a dialogue. We're having the dialogue. You're saying that there should be a way to discuss these issues, including controversial issues. And there is a lab leak theory. And there are supporters of that. And there are people inside the United States government who've looked at that possibility. I am familiar with what you're talking about. But the problem that I think you and the Trump administration have when you make these attacks is, you say there's censorship about a speech that wasn't censored.

39:55You say there's muscling and crackdown about a time when you were, let me finish. Let me finish. We're, let me finish. Where you were on Fox News saying the thing. Now, whether there was feedback, yes, this is America. There's going to be public feedback. It should be, of course, legal and peaceful. But being criticized after you say stuff when you work in government and politics is part of how it works. And so I think, and I'd love for you to try to address this tonight, for people listening saying, well, Donald Trump gets his speeches carried. He gets his message out. He is the sitting president. But he and some of the people on this team seem to want to pick what we hear. The government wants to control who owns CNN. They want to decide whether this or that comic can tell this or that joke. And not from a left or right view, but from a constitutional view, they say, what kind of America is this? Well, are you? Let's not sweep beneath the rug, the kind of stuff that 60 minutes did, the kind of stuff that ABC and CBS did, that was dirty pool. But put that aside, I just want to say,

40:56stay with what happened. Major prime time speech. This happens a little more than once in a year for the last 10 years. It's a big deal. Hannity had to push to get it covered. They covered it good for them, but they did so under duress. But more importantly, they didn't cover any of the analytics of it by Suzanne Scots and Ralph Geodonism. I think you made that point. And it said what they did was they fired Maria Bartoromo for protesting that. Now, that doesn't make sense to me. That's not good journalism. That's my opinion here. You made that. Talking to Ari Melmer. And I'm just asking you, what do you think of this? I mean, it looked, you're a journalist, put yourself in Maria's shoes. If you're at MSN now and you get a directive, oh, don't talk about the president's speech tomorrow. Okay, that's off limits, right? That's the president of the United States,

41:58our president, the nation's president, who got elected by a majority. And your network is basically gonna shut him up. Is it, I mean, put yourself in Maria's shoes. How would you feel, Ari? What would you say? What would you do? I understand what you're saying. And it is interesting that the government, as represented by you and others who discussed this, went to Fox about that, and then they ousted her. So that's the situation where, and I understand your point that things should be widely covered and discussed. Now I got a pivot, because you are also an important economic official, and with a little bit of time I have left, I did want to get you on new candidates. This is a sheriff's pivot here. Go ahead. Well, I got you here, but new candidates. Okay, yeah, let's talk. Yes, new candidates, tariffs. I'll just show you some headlines. Yes. They could threaten economists say, even higher prices, tariff cost being passed on to consumers, the world economic forum, which is of course quite credible and quite pro business, says the tariffs are back, and they could have a big cost to living bite.

42:59So we have some of these headlines we might put up there. I want to remind you, as we go into the midterms, we started out before the war. People were paying three bucks a gallon. Yep, those are those headlines. Now it's over four bucks. My question to you, as folks watch this, and you are in these meetings at the White House, when do gas prices come down? Why should someone vote to give Republicans another shot when this is the economic outlook? Well, first of all, the gas prices being up has nothing to do with tariffs. So let's not combing the issues. And all those people saying that tariffs are gonna cause inflation to been saying that since 2018, and they haven't caused inflation. The issue with Canada is very simple. I want your viewers to understand one thing in like three parts. You can't buy American alcohol anywhere in Canada. When we try to sell them autos, right, they give favorable treatment to the Japanese,

44:00the Koreans, and the Germans. That's discriminatory. And they're dairy tariffs, and we got a lot of dairy farmers. They're dairy tariffs are in the triple digits. So we have very legitimate concerns, which we've expressed repeatedly to the Canadians. And they have not responded in an appropriate way and said what they've done is pivot. I only got a minute. They seem to be pushing back. I'm trying to believe it. China, and they're trying to admit it. One of the Americans gets against us. I got a minute. What do Americans get out of upping this tariff war with Canada now? They're gonna get lower tariffs from Canada because Canada can't win this thing. It's like, they're coming at us like a robot, a robot, and we're an aircraft carrier. Their economy is heavily dependent on ours. We're not dependent on them virtually at all. So you're saying you'll win this thing. You're pitching, you'll win this thing. If it goes back and forth, you guys will win it. And finally, America can win. Let's be clear.

45:00When will you win it? It's, let's see what happens as the boss says, but we've made our position clear. But people need to understand, Canada has been screwing the American people, not the Canadian people, but their leaders for many, many years. Going back to NAFTA, the Canadians out negotiating our folks back then, nothing to do with the Trump world. It was 1996. And that was part of the shaft of NAFTA. And they have had their way with us. We're just trying to have fair trade for the American people. And by the way, we're doing a great job creating manufacturing jobs right now. Manufacturing is taking off. And I happen to be the director of the office of manufacturing and trade. So I'm a little happy about that, all right? But it's been a good conversation. And I go, it's been a good conversation. Yeah. We're at the end of my hours, you know, Peter Navarro from the Trump White House. We invite you and your colleagues. We take all comers here and folks can listen and make up their mind. I do appreciate you making time to come back on.

46:02Okay, my friend. We take care. All right, Peter Navarro from Trump White House, we will be right back. We try to keep up with a lot of news tonight, including the headlines coming out of the White House where you had Peter Navarro, who was just here moments ago, going after Fox News in very direct terms, saying that they muzzled Maria of Arteromo, that Maga is next, that the network is not the pro-magga conservative outlet that it claims to be. Mr. Navarro had time to make those arguments here and have a back and forth with fact checking and pushback. You can always see those kind of interviews and the other highlights from the program on our YouTube channel. You just go to ms.now slash a r i. Tonight, if you said, oh, I want to watch that back or share with someone within the hour. And the Varro interview will be up there ms.now slash a r i. You can book market to always keep up with our show. I'll see you tomorrow.

47:03Join ms now live in Texas for our biggest event yet with Rachel Maddo, Chen Zaki, Michael Steele, and more ms now live together in Texas, September 26th. Get tickets today at ms.now slash together.