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tv   Alex Wagner Tonight  MSNBC  December 15, 2023 1:00am-2:00am PST

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we are international humanitarian agency specializing in conflict. you cannot specialize in conflict unless you specialize in climate, and adapt into the climate crisis. essentially, what is happening, is the states most vulnerable to the climate crisis are also conflict states, and they are responsible for about 60% in the world's the countries that are most vulnerable to climate change have contributed and recalculated 16 countries 2% of global emissions have come from those countries they have the bad luck to be suffering the greatest needs. we've got to tackle it because if we don't tackle it, it's not going to stay in those
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countries. >> always a great pleasure to have you. that is "all in" on this thursday night. >> thank you, my friend, for an essential conversation with a very important voice. >> thanks. >> and thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. it is a three-bedroom, three bathroom apartment with a living room, a dining room -- a dining room that allegedly seats 40 people. i don't know about that. but a library, a dining alcove, a butler's pantry, a staff room, a kitchen, and laundry in unit. it's on the upper east side of manhattan, one block from central park. and it is current lay on the market with an asking price of $6.1 million. this luxury slice of real estate is owned currently by former new york city mayor rudy giuliani. but that property or the money
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from that property, to be more specific, may soon be in the hands of former fulton county election workers ruby freeman and shaye moss. you likely remember ruby freeman and shaye moss for their incredible emotional testimony before the house january 6th committee. that's when they described how a conspiracy theory about them somehow altering votes in the 2020 election and amplified by giuliani and fed to trump who amplified td even more, they described how that conspiracy theory turned the wrath of trump supporters against the two women and ruined their lives. today the jury in ruby freeman and shaye moss' civil defamation case against rudy giuliani, that jury started deliberating. in august the judge overseeing the case awarded a default judgment to freeman and moss on the actual issue of defamation. so that part has already been decided. giuliani did defame ruby freeman and shaye moss.
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what the jury has to decide in the coming days is how much money rudy giuliani should have to pay these two women for that defamation. today in his closing statement freeman and moss' attorney asked the jurors to award the women $24 million each. and that is just in damages for their injuries. their attorney is also asking the jury to award punitive damages of whatever they think is appropriate in order to send a message to rudy giuliani. now, in this trial we have gotten even more detail about the threats freeman and moss faced because of giuliani's conspiracy. we heard a voice mail left on ruby freeman's answering machine threatening to burn her store down. people left messages saying she should be lynched. they described how they fantasized about hearing the sound of her neck snapped. and they found her and they
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intimidated her in her home. shaye moss was so afraid of trump's riled up supporters that in late 2020 she changed her hairstyle from this to this so that strangers wouldn't recognize her in public. it has since changed again if you were wondering. ruby freeman started going by fake names and wearing a mask and sunglasses in public. rudy giuliani's conspiracy theory about ms. freeman and ms. moss altering votes in 2020 has been debunked over and over again. and the damage that conspiracy theory has done is a matter of public record at this point. and yet here is mr. giuliani on monday outside of court for his defamation trial potentially defaming these same two women again. >> whatever happened to them, which is it's unfortunate for people overreacting, but the thing i said about them is true.
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>> do you regret what you did to -- >> of course i don't regret. i told the truth. they were engaged in changing votes. >> there's no proof of that. >> you're damn right there is. stay tuned. >> stay tuned. for a week now rudy giuliani has been hyping he would reveal some big truth that would exonerate him and show ms. freeman and ms. moss really did alter the results of the 2020 election. he has been saying that that truth would come when he took the stand himself in this defamation case. and then today on the final day of this trial rudy giuliani did not take the stand. but maybe don't be too shocked that when it came time to present evidence rudy giuliani came up yet again empty-handed. maybe don't be too shocked about that. now, i didn't just play that video of rudy potentially defaming ruby and shaye moss again on monday because it's
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almost comical how much the man overpromises and underdelivers, it seems here rudy giuliani continuing to lie about ruby and shaye is substantive. last month the accounting firm giuliani used to value his assets for that divorce settlement also sued rudy giuliani alleging he did not pay his bills. giuliani was even sued this year by one of his own former lawyers for allegedly not paying his own lawyers bills either. so rudy giuliani claims he is real broke. and this defamation suit could cost him tens of millions more unless he is hiding a few more luxury new york city apartments he can sell, this is all likely to hurt him financially a lot. and despite these financial
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straights giuliani continues to open himself up to more potential defamation suits like the one on monday. giuliani is making the decision to gravely antagonize two women who could potentially be witnesses in jack smith's federal criminal election interference case against donald trump in which rudy giuliani is unindicted coconspiratorter number one. he is a lawyer, yes, but maybe not so much a legal scholar. joining me now is andrew wiseman, a senior member of special counsel robert mueller's investigative team and now co-host of indispensable podcast, prosecuting donald trump. that's how firmly i believe in the essentialness of your podcast. andrew, number one, in terms of rudy giuliani here, is it -- i mean how likely is it that ruby freeman and shaye moss are called as witnesses in jack smith's federal criminal case should that go to trial?
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>> highly likely. >> highly, right? >> yeah, they are witnesses highly likely in the federal case as well as in the georgia state case. in fact, in the georgia state case there are charges really all about the harassment and what happened to them. but that's also true in the federal case, and there's good reason. it helps prove the case. it also helps make the case a little less abstract. and i think it's because as serious as that case is, it is an attempt and a conspiracy case. but with ruby freeman and shaye moss, it happened. like the evidence said i think in that case about the capitol police, this is not abstract. there are people who suffered. one thing i wanted today note in your intro about rudy giuliani is the reason he's in the position he's in now in court,
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of course the judge found he did this is he did not participate in the discovery process over and over again. this is civil case. the judge issued orders about both sides needing to give discovery back and forth. and he basically said see ya, not doing it. he repeatedly did not do that. so it's clear the judge was saying you're hiding something. i don't know what it is. i don't know if it's because of your other civil problems, i don't know if it's criminal problems, but if you keep on just being contemptuous, this is what's going to happen. and she had to keep on taking steps of financial penalties. that's why there was a default judgment. he was not allowed to actually say to the jury i can't afford to pay "x," "y," and "z," why because he refused to turn over any documents about his financial condition. it's important to remember this is someone the former mayor, a
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senior member of the department of justice and an emblem of what this country has become or at least a part of what this country has become. >> absolutely. and what acolytes of donald trump have become no matter what their backgrounds are in terms of justice. i do wonder, you know, there's a financial implication for rudy. there's a bad outcome in the civil case. you know, the lawyers are asking for 24 million a piece plus, plus. but what are the implications as this case kind of foreshadows the jack smith federal case? how closely do you think the feds are going to be looking at the outcome here in terms of both the jury pool and then also public opinion and then in terms of the sort of the criminal aspect of it all? >> well, i don't think it's terribly connected. and, you know, we could expect a result of, you know, $10 million or $50 million. who knows. but i think the issue is not
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just sort of damages these plaintiffs are clearly deserved because they've been harmed. and yes, punitive damages with respect to rudy giuliani. but the message is not just to rudy giuliani. it is -- it's a little like the dominion case, which is that the message is to enablers of donald trump if you engage in this conduct this is what can happen. while it doesn't involve jail time, it is a question of there being some legal accountability and deterrence for engaging in this kind of activity. in terms of the -- the criminal case, if i were jack smith or on his team, i would mostly be looking to see how did ruby freeman and shaye moss do on the stand. you know, you have some sense of that from the congressional testimony which you played. and, you know, by all accounts even what -- they were victimized. and that is something that i think is like any juror, like we
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are reacting to it saying this is just completely senseless. and it's like what mr. sperling said in the georgia case, which is this is the violence that's going to happen if donald trump and his enablers continue engaging in this kind of conduct. >> but the jury that is going to be deciding on all this is based in washington, d.c., and there is a lot of sort of concern on the part of trump about who is going to sit on a jury if he has this federal case unfold beginning of march. if the jury's very sympathetic to the case of ms. freeman and ms. moss, does that not bode well for jack smith who's going to have pull people from the same selection of individuals? >> yeah, i mean i do think prosecutors and defense attorneys look at the venue and sort of worry about it the way jack smith may be worried about a florida jury. because, again, it only takes one in a criminal case to be a
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hung jury. but i do think that jurors by and large rise to the occasion. and, you know, i keep on telling this story of the one juror who spoke in the manafort trial, which was in the eastern district of virginia, which is sort of a mixed district. and she said she was a maga republican, and she literally said she left her maga hat in the car. and again, that's a great image that she acted out of principle in the same way millions of americans do and jurors do every day and judges and prosecutors and journalists and every ordinary citizens do. i think there's no reason to think or sort of have these racist views i think donald trump and some of his allies would have because of the make-up of the d.c. jury pool that they're not going to have
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the same ability to be completely neutral and fair and impartial. >> arbiters of justice. we spend some time in the intro to this segment talking about rudy giuliani's financial straits which are considerable. everyone is suing him including his ex-wife, who is not involved with him in a professional capacity. usually they become good cooperators, but do you think that's even a question in jack smith's mind? rudy giuliani is an unindicted coconspiratorter. he knows a lot about what trump was doing and thinking around january 6th. fani willis has taken a lot of those options off the table. do you think jack smith toys with this idea? >> not at this point. you played the clip on monday
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rudy giuliani announcing stay tuned i've got evidence, and i standby what i said, which there's no evidence of that. it is really impossible to put that person on the stand. there's certain witnesses -- and i've been in this situation as a prosecutor where you're like, you know what? this person would have to be so corroborated on every single thing they said that it's not worth it. i'd rather just use the corroboration. i don't need the baggage of a rudy giuliani. and also remember that if you allow someone to corroborate, it's a tradeoff because, yes, they are convicted. yes, they admit what they did, but they are going to get credit with the judge in terms of the sentence they get. so, you know, do you really want to be doing that with somebody who had every advantage that can be afforded to somebody in this world and squandered it in this
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way. >> and as you point out so rightly, knew better -- just knew better. all the learning -- had all the information and did what he did allegedly. anyway, andrew weissman, thank you for being here as always. we have a lot more ahead this morning including the potential conflicts of interest held by one supreme court justice and what that means for the question of accountability. but first president biden is change his position on israel's war publicly and especially privately. we'll have more details on all that coming up next. stay with us. ll that coming up next. stay with us
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you're probably not easily persuaded to switch mobile providers for your business. but what if we told you it's possible that comcast business mobile can save you up to 75% a year on your wireless bill versus the big three carriers? did we peak your interest? you can get two unlimited lines for just $30 each a month. there are no term contracts or line activation fees. and you can bring your own device. oh, and all on the most reliable 5g mobile network nationwide. wireless that works for you. it's not just possible, it's happening. according to one u.n. official since the start of the israel-hamas war life inside gaza has become a living hell. gaza health officials say more
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than 18,700 palestinians have been killed, 70% of them women and children. shelters have been flooded by winter rains. people have resorted to drinking contaminated water. aid agencies describe children and families roaming the streets unable to find food and with nowhere to go. after nearly 10 weeks of fighting, the sheer scale of death and suffering in gaza has finally begun shifting the american approach to israel and its offensive. this was president biden speaking to reporters today. >> one thing we focus on is how to save civilian lives, not to stop going after hamas. >> privately biden is more pointed. on tuesday the president told supporters at a fund-raiser in the discriminate bombing in gaza is beginning to cost israel support around the world. today the white house told the
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israeli government it want it to end the large scale ground campaign in gaza and transition to a more targeted phase of its war against hamas. joining me now is my msnbc colleague medhi hassan. first, i wonder what you make of the slight discrepancy between what biden is saying publicly and privately and sort of the reasonening behind that and the shift in drumroll and what you make of it. >> it's a great question. and i think no one quite knows what's going on. i suspect a lot of people around biden is wondering what's going on, because he's been front and center when it comes to the strategy on israel. from the very beginning of this conflict he was kind of scribbling his own notes into speeches and we know we has a propensity sometimes to gaff. what he said at the fund-raiser on the one hand he says israel is losing support
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internationally and killing so many civilians. he says they're doing indiscriminate bombing which is an admission israel is committing war crimes. it's a big thing for the president to say, but in those same remarks, alex, he said at the end of the day we're going to protect israel, that's what we're going to do no matter what else happens. there is this real disconnect publicly and privately but between his words and actions. ultimately they getting the weapons they need for us. over the weekend he bypassed congress to expedite the sale of tank shells i believe 14,000 tank shells. when donald trump did that during the yemen war to saudi arabia and bypassed congress democrats were up in arm. this time around i wish we could see more people saying hold on, let's have congress scrutinize this stuff, state department scrutinize whether major weapons are being used in alleged war crimes because that's against american law. >> well, when you talk about the
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sort of ongoing campaign in gaza for lack of a better term, the war and the war crimes potentially, i wonder -- i do wonder if you can make sense of the fact that biden is saying publicly -- the white house is saying we want this all to end in three weeks at the end of the war, and then the israel defense minister, now this is before we laid out that time line america did, he said the war against hamas would last more than several months, right? >> yeah. >> it feels as if there is is sort of if not a direct tit for tat, a back and forth here that is not indicative of an israel that is necessarily listening to america's prescriptions. do you think that is just sort of israel paving its own path, or do you think there is actually some actual currency to be gained in going up against a democratic president who's up for re-election in 2024? >> very much so.
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and benjamin netanyahu's own political future is in trouble and deeply unpopular in israel because of the massive security failure on his watch. so he can do that for domestic consumption. he can say, look, we need more months to defeat hamas, which they haven't done yet but they've killed a lot of innocent people in the process. the problem becomes is the u.s. government willing to do anything about it. in the game of chicken joe biden tells people at his fund-raiser i disagree with bye-bye, but i i love the man. israel will do its own thing. let's be real, the american president, joe biden could end this war which you pointed out has killed 18,000 people, he could end that war with a single
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phone call. he's done it before in 2021 in and the president rang netanyahu and said we're out of runway, you've got to end this, and he did. ronald reagan in 1982 said i'm watching the holocaust on my screens, you've got to stop this. in 20 minutes the israelis stopped bombing beirut. >> it's a good question to ask because there's some reporting out there netanyahu and his conservative allies in israel would much rather see a trump presidency. i mean not only are america and israel's interests not aligned around -- there's the basic political reality that it might behoove netanyahu and his goals do not have joe biden in the white house. do you think that something the white house recognizes? it does not seem like it -- it
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seems like a feature, not a bug here. >> i suspect the white house in terms of the political operation does recognize it. the question is does joe biden? biden has this decades long friendship with bb. the problem is netanyahu gets along with republican presidents. democratic presidents have never gotten along with netanyahu. bill clinton famously came out affmeeting and said who's the super power here. now you have biden here who could use the presidential election because of this war and netanyahu is like i win either way because i get trump back and a blank check according to reporting this week. >> i do wonder, medhi, if you think anyone has an idea how this will end. when you hear what is going on in terms of how israel is thinking about this not only the time line but the suggestion they have no interest in a two-state solution and the reality that there's some research out there that palestinians are not in full
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support of hamas but their overall support for hamas has gone up since october 7th. that suggests hamas is not going anywhere. >> sadly the greatest recruiting sergeant for hamas has been benjamin netanyahu and his war in gaza just like after 9/11 after george bush and we're repeating history. and joe biden gets that, let's not repeat the mistakes we made after 9/11. i just wish he would act on those words. >> thank you for being here tonight and thank you for your time tonight. i appreciate it. much more ahead tonight including more pregnant women suing red states to have an abortion. but first every single lawyer prosecuting a case against donald trump say they're after one thing and one thing only. we're going to tell you what that one thing is and when might stand in their way coming up next. s and when might stand in their way coming up next
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if you violate the law, you have to be held accountable. >> since the attack on our capitol, the department of justice has remained committed to ensuring accountability for those criminally responsible for what happened that day. this case is brought consist with that commitment. >> accountability. accountability, that is what every produce kurt who has charged donald trump for his attempts to overturn the 2020 election says they are seeking, accountability. and right now their pursuit of
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accountability increasingly depends on the nine justices of the supreme court. just yesterday the court agreed to hear an appeal brought by a man charged with obstructing an official proceeding on january 6th. that is the very same proceeding jack smith charged donald trump with obstructing, the certification of biden's win. and the supreme court's decision to weigh in here could impact trump's own d.c. trial on whether it happens on schedule. also before the supreme court right now is trump's argument that presidential immunity shields him from prosecution in the special counsel's case. in taking up that case, the supreme court will also consider trump's argument that the constitution's double jeopardy clause shields him from prosecution as well since congressa already impeached trump for trying to overturn the 2020 election. mr. trump has thrown a lot of spaghetti at the wall here in a pursuit of a stay out of jail free card, and now the nine justices of the supreme court
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will be the arbiters of the which arguments actually stick. so their opinions matter as always. but especially their opinions as it pertains to what happened on january 6th. and one of those justices has a wife who pressed lawmakers in swing states to overturn the 2020 election results, who cheered on trump supporters the morning of january 6th before things turned into a full-scale assault, writing on facebook, love maga people. and a wife who exchanged at least 29 text messages with former white house chief of staff mark meadows urging him to help overturn the 2020 election. the author of those texts was ginni thomas, wife of jti clarence thomas. now jinny thomas has sworn her right-wing activism does not influence her husband's work. when she was called before the january 6th committee last year she told them it's laughable for anyone to know my husband to
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think i could influence his jurisprudence. the man is independent and stubborn with strong character traits of independence and integrity. and, yeah, this is a couple that reportedly shares a brain. in a 2011 speech justice thomas himself said that his wife, we are equally yoked and we love being with each other because we love the same things. we believe in the same things. and so this week senate judiciary chair dick durbin and other democrats have begun calling for justice thomas to recuse himself from the january 6th case. senator durbin told the hill this week there are so many unanswered questions about the justice and his family with the trump administration that i think in the interest of justice, thomas should recuse himself. now, whether justice thomas heeds these calls is very much an open question. justice thomas has only recused
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himself from one january 6th case. that's when the supreme court rejected a petition from john eastman who happens to be both thomas' former law clerk and one of trump's codefendants in georgia. other than that thomas hasn't felt the need to step away from anything related to january 6th. and whether he decides his wife who was not simply a believer but a propone nlt of the big lie is sufficient enough conflict to step aside here, that will have meaningful impact on whether there is accountability or not. coming up, more pregnant women are talking about why they need abortions, and republicans would very much like to hit the mute button. more on that after this. n that .
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kate is going big and going home for the holidays. that's the plan. at michaels she got everything to make cookies
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that were anything but cutter. turn ideas into i-did-its. ♪ (holiday music) ♪ since the supreme court have overturned roe v. wade women have been coming forward with harrowing stories. in the past week we learned about a woman in kentucky who is now suing the state for access to an abortion. jane doe is approximately 8 weeks pregnant and wants to terminate but cannot because of the state's new total abortion ban. we don't know much about her pregnancy, but her attorney says her embryo no longer has cardiac activity. dough has filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of herself i any other person who is pregnant or could become pregnant in the state of kentucky.
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now, that lawsuit was filed a few days before texas' supreme court ruled that another woman, kate cox, who sued to terminate a nonviable and life threatening pregnancy did not qualify for a medical exception to the state's extreme abortion ban. now, these clearly shifting the conservative narrative about who seeks abortions and why. so it is not exactly a surprise that republicans do not want to have anything to do with it. >> senator, are you supportive of the texas supreme court's ruling in the kate cox case that prevented her from getting an abortion after she learned her fetus was not viable? >> just call the press office. >> i actually have two days now and i still haven't received an answer. >> thank you. >> joining me now is jessica valenti, author and writer of the abortion every day newsletter. thank you for being here. initially when i was told there was a sound bite of ted cruz refusing to answer the question, i thought it was one from
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earlier in the week. but, no, it's still the guy's position days later when he'd had time to think about how he would answer this question. and to me it's so indicative of either a right wing that never considered women who would want to be mothers would have to deal with abortions or they just never thought women would come forward with deeply personal stories. i wonder how you sort of assess this current position. #. >> it is really interesting. they've had 50 years to prepare for this moment. they knew that these were going going to be the consequences of their lawsch and yet when face would the actual consequences they're literally running -- literally running from facing questions. and i think most importantly from facing the women behind these stories, right? there is a reason that republicans right now are talking so much about democratic extremists, about the abortion industry, they don't want to own up to the fact that their
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political enemy right now is individual women -- individual women and their families. it's not a good look. >> yeah, and i mean also from a political strategy standpoint, putting forth an abstract idea against a deeply visceral, personal, emotional story against an individual that could be your own mother and neighbor or sister, you know which one trumps in the end in terms of the court of public opinion. it's not just abortions. it's now states like texas are trying to restrict intrastate travel which like in case of kate cox is the last option to terminate a pregnancy they wanted but cannot go through because it posed a risk to their own lives. in ireland i think it was 2012 a woman died of sepsis because she could not terminate a pregnancy
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that was nonviable. that changed irish public opinion and effectively overturned one of the strictest abortion bans in the eu. and i wonder how you think these individual stories both the ones like kate cox and jane doe and the ones inevitably forthcoming when they're women that cannot leave the state are going to change our national dynamic over this issue. >> i really think they already are, and that's why you see republicans running from them. and i don't think that the women behind these stories, the women who were able to come forward, right, it takes a certain amount of privilege to be able to share your story with the world and be open to harassment and all sorts of things. these women are not going to let them ignore them, and i spoke a couple of months ago to a young woman, a 21-year-old in texas whose fetus had developed not at all above the neck, it developed without a head. and she was still denied an abortion, she traveled to
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mexico, was too afraid to tell any of her friends, her family. and what she said to me -- i get emotional thinking about it. she said i just want ken paxton to look me in the eye -- 21 years old. i just want ken paxton to look me in the eye and tell me why i had to go through this. they're not going to get these people forget. >> yeah, the suffering effectively these republican men are putting women through is so piercing and so deeply felt i think by people who are, you know, across the country. which is why, jessica, in florida there's a push to get an abortion ballot amendment in the state of florida, right? it has according to the florida abortion rights group that's sort of organizing this effort 150,000 republicans have signed a petition. i have got to imagine that the more you hear these stories -- and they're not stopping anytime soon, right? in all likelihood they're likely to get even more horrific and more gutting as time goes on. the more you're going to have
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republicans stand up and say what we did here is wrong. and the question is at what point ted cruz or john cornyn or any of the other republicans who just say call my press office will actually acknowledge it. i just wonder is it this year, is it next year, is it next month? do you have a thought on how quickly this is all changing? >> i think they're going to continue to ignore it as long as they can. you're talking about florida. over ahalf of republicans polled in florida said they would vote for that ballot measure tomorrow, and that is why they're keeping ballot measures away from voters. because they know once that goes to voters, they've lost. and so i think what's becoming clearer and clearer is that they don't care what voters want. and even if they're republican voters. >> yeah, what is -- it shouldn't surprise me, but their desire to fall on their swords at the cost of women's lives, peoples' lives across the country just in the name of sort of political
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championship is really a staggering thing. jessica valenti, the indispensable newsletter that we all read with great regularity "abortion every day," thank you for your time tonight. >> thanks. coming up hunter biden is punching back, and we're going to discuss that with one of the architects of that new strategy, congressman eric swalwell. that's next. n eric swalwell. that's next.
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i'm here today to make sure that the house committee's illegitimate investigations of my family do not proceed on distortions, manipulated evidence, and lies. but i'm also here today to correct how the maga right has portrayed me for their political purposes. there is no fairness or decency in what these republicans are doing. >> hunter biden told axios today he feels it's one of his responsibilities to now defend his father and to call out republican lies as loud and as often as possible going forward. which is why he made those remarks just outside the capitol yesterday. and he did so with the support of california congressman eric swalwell, who reserved the spot so that hunter biden could speak to the press. joining me now is congressman eric swalwell, democrat of california. he's also a member of the judiciary committee and served as a house manager during the
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second impeachment of donald trump. congressman swalwell, thanks for being here. to the extent that you are able to, could you help us understand a little bit of the deliberations that led to that moment yesterday outside the capitol? was there any reluctance on the part of mr. biden to speak to the public about an issue that is so fraught for his family? >> he's eager to tell his story publicly. and in fact he was asked by chairman comer, the republican chairman, to testify publicly. multiple times comer said you could do it privately or publicly, and hunter recognized they were distorting the private testimony that was taking place and that republicans would rather have the mystery and the speculation of a closed door hearing than the truth come out and come to light in a public hearing. and so yesterday was hunter saying and raising his hand and saying i'm here, i'm not perfect, i've made mistakes in the past.
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but what you think happened, never happened. and he wanted to bring that to light publicly. >> do you think this is going to be an ongoing strategy? are we going to hear more from hunter biden? because republicans are certainly not letting this go anytime soon. does that mean hunter biden is going to be in front of the microphone for the next few months? >> i hope his story is told pause republicans have nothing. in fact, what you will see the more you learn is that hunter biden just like millions of americans was an addicted person who made mistakes in his personal life, had a father and mother who loved him very, very much and loved him and he's been clean for many, many years. but what's sick and perverse about this is that republicans would weaponize his addiction because they have never accepted his father as a legitimate president of the united states. and so it's time to play on the republican side of the field and say if you want to talk about this, let's have a public hearing and talk about this, but that's not what they want
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because they have nothing. and so they will continue whether it was through a violent insurrection to overturn the election or now through this impeachment inquiry or through the speculation around the president's son, they'll use every weapon in government to try and throw out joe biden because they've never accepted he's the lawful president of our country. >> there is some reporting i think in axios that there's tension around the strategy of addressing the issue head on and publicly, and that talking about it, you know, personally and publicly risks giving more oxygen to a fantasy that republicans can talk to that somehow president biden is implicated in all this and has committed impeachable offenses. do you think there is any merit in that wisdom to talk about it gives it more oxygen? >> no, zero. i see a good and decent man in joe biden uniting the country. and all the evidence has shown that he loved his son. his son was on hard time and he
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bought his son a truck and his son paid him back. he loaned his brother money, and his brother paid him back. joe biden is just a decent american who fought magaism and is seeing them use it against him as i say in this sick and perverse way. we also should just contrast, by the way, that while joe biden was helping his addicted son, donald trump in the white house with his daughter ivanka who was getting patents granted to her from the chinese or trademarks granted to her from the chinese while he was president and his son-in-law jared kushner was striking deals over the in gulf worth billions of dollars having people stay at his hotel just a block away from the white house and making money, so it's just absurd we would do anything but lean-in on this and show one decent man and one very corrupt twice impeached 91-felony count charged individual. i'll take that contrast any day.
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>> yeah, i wonder if you can talk about that in sort of the broader context in how democrats deal with republicans in this day and age. on one hand there's this strategy embraced by governor gavin newsom of california effectively -- use my own colorful language punch him in the face. go to where they are, talk to desantis, put up the bill boards, and then there's the strategy that's been embraced in previous years. again, i'm paraphrasing a little bit, but when they go into the muck, we rise above. when they go low, we go high. and i wonder if you think those two are compatible in this day and age or whether democrats need to choose between one and the other. >> no, i think we have a story to tell, and we can't be too damn modest in telling it. we don't have to lie or make things up about them. what they want to do to a woman and her right to make their own health care decisions, to a kid and their right to read what
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they want to read in the classroom, or to your children to go home safely after school and not be killed by gun violence, we have a story to tell but we're too modest sometimes and stand on this false virtue sometimes as democrats. what i'm proposing is too much is at stake in this upcoming election to let them beat up on the president's formerly addicted son and not tell the story about how decent of a father he had to help save him from that addiction. >> so the suggestion here is that democrats re-claim the narrative and say aloud i suppose. congressman eric swalwell -- what's that? >> don't hide under the bed. >> don't hide under the bed. you heard it there. thank you for your time tonight, sir. i appreciate it. >> my pleasure. >> that is our show for tonight. "way too early" with jonathan lemire is coming up next. the senate will return on monday. that will give negotiators from the

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