tonight on "the reidout" -- >> i would not have done what mike pence did. i don't think that was the right approach. it was unconstitutional overreach in states like pennsylvania. it's very important we continue to stand up for the constitution and have legal and secure elections which we did not have in 2020. >> elise stefanik knows going full election denier will boost her chances of winning the apprentice autocracy season one with the dubious prize of becoming trump's running maim, hang mike pence not withstanding. her absurd comments kept a week of republican embarrassments which included knifing the border bill they demanded and a failed impeachment attempt.

also, tonight, president biden calls israel's military response to hamas over the top, as prime minister netanyahu signals a ground invasion of rafah could be imminent. plus, the right wing supreme court has been a big supporter of states' rights in cases involving reproductive rights and control over women's bodies but not so much when it came time to decide whether states can kick a proven insurrectionist with the last name trump off the ballot. but we begin tonight with special counsel robert third's report about president biden's mishandling of classified documents. having had a day to digest the nearly 400-page report, i can comfortably say this is one of the most nonsensical, absurd, and outrageous documents i have seen since then fbi director james comey's hit job on hillary clinton and her email server 11 days before election day in 2016. in both cases the conclusion of

the prosecutors was the same, no charges were deemed warranted, and no crimes committed. that didn't stop comey or herr from ladling on superfluous, political and personal attacks on what was supposed to be a simple fact based report answering one question, is the justice department going to indict? that's it, that's all the public wanted or needed to know. instead, herr begins what could only be described as a political diatribe designed for fox news like a script for the five on the very first page. appearing to call out biden as an egotist by writing, quote, mr. biden has long seen himself as a historic figure. well, yeah, man, he probably does see himself as a historic figure. joe biden is a president of the united states. there have only been 46 people in all of america's 248-year history who served in that role. and not for nothing, he was the vice president to the first black president in u.s. history,

so that kind of makes him an his toring figure, don't you think, mr. herr? then on page six, he claims that a reason he wouldn't bring charges against the president for whom he found no crime is that biden is an elderly man with a poor memory going as far as to say his memory was so poor that biden couldn't even remember when his son beau died. despite the untimely death of beau biden from cancer being a thing that joe biden talks about literally all the time. last night, biden did not hold back in his response. >> i was very honored as a man, viktor orban, he's the leader of -- right, the leader of turkey. by the way, they never report the crowd on january 6th. you know, nikki haley, nikki haley -- nikki haley was in charge of security. we offered her 10,000 people. soldiers, national guard, whatever they want. they turned it down. they don't want to talk about that. >> you saw that guy?

biden didn't respond. we're going to play that in a moment. we're going to go with what we got on the scene. it was news to me as i read the report that being old and having a poor memory is an excuse for not being prosecuted. somebody should update the defense lawyers out there. now, i think we're going to play biden. no, okay. that's okay. trump, who cannot tell the difference between nancy pelosi and nikki haley and who often thinks he ran for president against barack obama and who statistically is just as old as joe biden has been indicted on 91 criminal counts. nobody said he should be off the hook because of his age or mental infirmity, and the same could be said for rudy giuliani. how to explain both of them being prosecuted? both men are elderly and their memories are shot. it's simple. because whether to prosecute someone is not about age or infirmity or whether they can remember things. it's about facts and evidence.

why did it take so many pages just to say you're not going to prosecute joe biden and why all the personal attacks? let's remember, mike pence was investigated recently for the exact same reason and it led to the exact same result. no prosecution, but i don't remember any personal or political vitriol aimed at mike pence as they cleared him. and while the special counsel felt it necessary to include that very partisan sounding fodder, it was attorney general merrick garland's final decision to allow the herr report to release entirely unedited. nbc news has learned garland felt he was not in a position to withhold or edit any information for fear of being compared with trump's attorney general, bill barr, and how he handled the mueller report, by quoting selectively from it and dishonestly from it before it was available for the public to read for themselves. but barr did nat to cover up the fact that trump did indeed do what he was being investigated for. i mean, russia did try to help him become president.

in biden's case, editing the memo wouldn't have reversed the conclusion. it would have preserved the dignity of the department of justice by not allowing it to look like a department of fox. in fact, it appears that in trying to look nonpartisan, garland overcorrected, according to former obama attorney general eric holder. who says the report contains way too many gratuitous remarks and is flatly inconsistent with long standing doj traditions. had this report been subject to a normer doj review, these remarks would undoubtedly been excised. herr, long time republican who clerked for justice rehnquist and other right wing justices left conservatives with something they could use when the facts didn't play out in their favor. in other words, herr did exactly what bill barr did, and merrick garland let him. and then, there's the contrast. in biden's case. he didn't attempt to withhold classified documents from their rightful owner, namely the

federal government. with trump, it's the opposite. and it's not just that trump took classified documents, which he did, or that he refused to turn them over to the government, which he wouldn't. he also directed his staff to hide those documents and then to destroy the evident of those acts. add to that, he lied to his own lawyers about the documents putting them in legal jeopardy for then lying to the government. while trump was rightfy indicted for his actions, there's still a question of whether he may be able to riggle out of any accountability given the trump appointed judge assigned to the case, aileen cannon, has been slow walking bringing the case to trial. yesterday, judge cannon was called out by special counsel jack smith for making a, quote, clear error in the case that could reveal the identities of potential witnesses and expose them to threats from trump supporters. joining me now is david plouffe, former obama campaign manager and white house senior adviser, mary mccord, former attorney general for national security and cohost of the prosecuting

donald trump podcast, and jill wine banks, former assistant watergate prosecutor. jill, i'm going to go to you because you have the experience of writing a report about a potential criminal actions by an american president. how did it strike you when you read the herr report, which did it strike you as odd? >> it struck me as a violation of everything the department of justice stands for. it was against every policy, the attorney general called it traditions but i would say it's much more than traditions. the way that herr went out of his way to put in a knife and twist it was worse than comey redux. it was really terrible. all of the things you quoted so very eloquently, i would say you have a new job as a prosecutor presenting the evidence to a jury from how you did that. it was just really unnecessary,

obscene, and to say he's a historic figure, he's the president of the united states, when you're talking to him. of course he's a historic person. and all that that report should have said is we did not find evidence beyond a reasonable doubt, and so there will be no indictment. and the other thing that i thought was really terrible was the explanation that, well, we need to talk about his poor memory because he wouldn't come across to a jury as someone that should be punished for that. he's not a witness. he's the defendant. all you need is evidence that will come in through prosecution witnesses, and there is no excuse for commenting on what you think his mental capacity is, except if you're going for a job in trump administration number two. and so it was wrong on every level. >> and you know, mary, that's how it struck me too. i'm not a lawyer, but now, i have read a lot of indictments

because donald trump just keeps on getting indicted because he keeps criming. i read nothing in the jack smith indictments of donald trump, and there have been four of them, that commented on donald trump's appearance, the way he speaks, the way he talks, the things he says. there's a part in this document where it says joe biden took contemporaneous notes of his meetings with president obama. then it says some of those notes contained classified information. then it says, well, he shared his notes with his ghost writer. and then it says, you know, we don't have any evidence he shared the classified parts with his ghost writer and none of the classified material appeared in the book. why did you tell me thing one if thing three is none of that matters. i have to say, i couldn't get past page one because starting off by saying this guy thinks he's historic. i was like, well, yeah. he's the president. your thoughts. >> so i think that there are parts of this, and i have not

read the full 300-plus, nearly 400-page document. i have read the executive summary and selected parts. and part of this read to me like what we would normally see in -- not normally, but what would be included in a prosecution memo that is purely an internal department of justice document that is created when a prosecutor is finished with an investigation and it's either recommending yes, we're going to seek an indictment, or we're going to decline to seek an indictment. in that memo, you would set out the evidence that could be used to support the elements of the crime, but then you would set out all of the evidence that doesn't support the elements of crime. all of the vulnerabilities and weaknesses in the case, and you might even point out things like the defendant could appear sympathetic, which would also mean i'm going to have a more difficult time proving my case at trial. but the thing about a prosecution memo, it's not a public document. it's purely to memorialize the

investigation decision making within the department of justice. and robert herr knew because he was operating under the special counsel regulations which provide for there to be a report that the attorney general will then decide whether it will be made public, and garland, you know, i think has long said i'm going to make this report public. robert he, r knew, had every reason to believe this would be made public and still included a level of detail well beyond anything even that you would see in a prosecution memo, and certainly knowing it would be made public knowing we're just months out. we're in the midst of primaries. months away from a general election. these kind of information is the kind of information that will be directly used in campaigning. it will be directly used against joe biden in this election. even though the bottom line is no criminal culpability. >> exactly, and it was 400 some odd pages. if you as brilliant as you aren't going to read the whole

thing, and they know 99% of the media aren't going to another. i have read the executive summary, this is 400-some odd pages to answer one question, are we indicting him, and the answer is no. let's go back to james comey. he described hillary clinton as being extremely careless in using her private email server, described putting together her email service like removing the frame and dumping the pieces on the floor. stuff he didn't have to say. the only thing that herr didn't do that comey did was do it 11 days before the election. i want to get your comment on the fact that it does appear that this person was trying to give fodder to donald trump's -- i mean, to joe biden's political enemies in a report that was clearing him. >> well, joy, i think that clearly is the case. and i agree with everything you said and the guests have said. this is kind of historically egregious. but it's a political problem, no question about that, because there are existing voter concerns about joe biden's age. and i think there's going to be

two ways for him to handle that. one is to make sure, you know, this is a contrast because donald trump is giving up every day that this guy is in severe mental decline in addition to the damage he would do to the country. as joe biden often says, don't compare me to the almighty, compare me to the alternative. he just has to be out there a lot more. in basketball if you make one shot and miss it, it gets magnified. if you go 7 for 9, you know, it's good game. so i think that's the best way. the way i think about it, this is simple but there's two major aspects. the stuff behind the scenes, the calls with world leaders, the discussions with members of congress, the meetings in the situation room. i think by all evidence, joe biden has thrived at that. he's been a superior president. then there's the public performative aspects where he would be the first to say yeah, he's not as he might have been 30 years ago. none of us are. so but i think if he's out there mixing it up, doing a lot of

interviews, you know, out there with the people, he's done a lot more of that, i think that will go a long way. at the end of the day, this is a choice the american people have to make. yeah, so the behavior was egregious. that doesn't mitigate the fact that it's now upped a degree of difficulty for biden that already existed. >> one thing that he has been doing for 30 years is gaffing. we actually made this because it's not like he's not the gaffe guy. when president obama chose him as a running mate, they were like, the gaffe guy? >> the man i'm proud to call my friend, a man who will be the next president of the united states, barack america. >> his mom lived in long island for ten years or so. god rest her soul. and although -- wait, your mom is still alive. it was your dad who passed. god bless her soul. >> john's last-minute economic

plan does nothing to tackle the number one job facing the middle class, and it happens to be as barack says a three-letter word , jobs. >> i mean, this is like his brand. it's kind of the reason people kind of dig him, right? he's bidening all the time, in 2018, he said i am a gaffe machine, but my god, what a wonderful thing compared to being a guy who can't tell the truth. and at least he knows who nikki haley is versus nancy pelosi. >> first, those are great memories. i grew up in delaware, so i have been with this for decades. not just when we chose him as vp. i think people know this about joe biden. and like many people, but he not just as he got older, you know, sometimes he will mangle things but what he doesn't mangle is his values and principles and the job he's done for the american people. this was always going to have to be a searing contrast against

donald trump for joe biden to win. that's even more of the case today than it was yesterday. i have every confidence that a case he can prosecute. the truth is joe biden likes people, people like him. the more he's out there mixing it up and raising the stakes of this election, the better he'll be. i expect to see more of that in the days and weeks to come. >> he should do that super bowl interview, too. he should not turn that down. jill, let me ask you, what should happen normally? this feels like misconduct almost by herr, because there's nothing in what he wrote that advances the legal argument one way or another. it just seems gratuitous. is there any consequence for doing that? >> unfortunately, the damage is already done. so whatever punishment would be imposed on him won't undo the damage. and i really don't think there is. i also, i'm going to say something that won't make me popular, but i think that merrick garland deserves some of the blame for this. >> some?

ma'am, yes. go. >> okay, so the real me says a lot of the blame. because he was in charge, and should have said that keep this to what's relevant. and you also have inconsistencies where it says there is -- he did willfully retain documents. and then at the end, it says 200 pages later, well, there isn't evidence of that. and so there are innocent explanations that we cannot refute. so that needs to be up front, not 200 pages in, because as you have noticed, most people aren't reading it. i have read a significant part of it, and i have skimmed all of it. and it's appalling to me to read the stuff. >> absolutely. there's a reason that writers have eeditors and a reason we pay a whole attorney general to do the job. if you're too scared politically to do your job, get a different job. mr. attorney general. david, mary, jill, thank you all

very much. who won the week is still ahead, but you know who did not win the week? did you guess the republicans? you don't know the half of it. that's next as "the reidout" continues. ve struggled with generalized myasthenia gravis. but the picture started changing when i started on vyvgart. ♪♪ vyvgart is for adults with generalized myasthenia gravis who are anti-achr antibody positive. ♪♪ in a clinical trial, vyvgart significantly improved most participants' ability to do daily activities when added to their current gmg treatment. most participants taking vyvgart also had less muscle weakness. and your vyvgart treatment schedule is designed just for you. in a clinical study, the most common side effects included urinary and respiratory tract infections, and headache. vyvgart may increase the risk of infection. tell your doctor if you have a history of infections or symptoms of an infection. vyvgart can cause allergic reactions. available as vyvgart for iv infusion

and also as vyvgart hytrulo for subcutaneous injection. additional side effects for vyvgart hytrulo may include injection site reactions. talk to your neurologist about vyvgart. ♪♪

is it possible to count on my internet talk to your neurologist about vyvgart. like my customers count on me? it is with comcast business. keeping you up and running with 99.9% network reliability. and security that helps outsmart threats to your data. moaire dida twoo? your data, too. there's even round-the- clock customer support. so you can be there for your customers. hey billy, how you doin?

with comcast business, reliability isn't just possible. thanks. it's happening. get started for $49.99 a month. plus, ask how to get up to a $1000 prepaid card with a qualifying internet package. don't wait, call and switch today! i'm daniel lurie and i've spent my career fighting poverty, helping people right here in san francisco. i'm also a father raising two kids in the city. deeply concerned that city hall is allowing crime and lawlessness to spread. now we can do something about it by voting yes on prop e. a common sense solution that ensures we use community safety cameras to catch repeat offenders and hold them accountable. vote yes on e. you can save republican senators decided they don't want a bipartisan bill to fix the border. what they actually want is chaos. because that's what donald trump

says he wants. what the hell just happened? >> i have a very clear message for anyone using the southern border for staged political events. don't come to arizona. take your political theater to texas. >> you can do a partisan bill in the house. but in the senate, we have to look at each other across the aisle and then figure out a way to be able to solve this. >> those were the three senate negotiators, democrat, independent, and republican, on the foreign aid package with immigration changes that's now on life support in the senate. this week, republicans proved democratic senator chris murphy was 100% correct when he said that all they want is chaos, because donald trump says so. the senate is voting on a procedural motion to move forward with a pared down version of the package, aid for ukraine and israel, but none of the border provisions. senate republicans officially blocked a version with border

changes on wednesday. but that was only half of the embarrassing nonsense from republicans in congress. where the words of the week were dysfunction and chaos. over in the house, it was all about failure. failure to legislate by declaring the immigration package dead on arrival and failure to do a thing they have been talking about for a year, impeach alejandro mayorkas. they'll give that nugget another try next week. joining me is jasmine crockett of texas. jasmine crockett from the great state of texas, where apparently there is an abject crisis at your border, so why are republicans blocking the bill they have been demanding to meet this crisis? >> why are you acting as if you don't know? you know that they're unserious people, and what's really very frustrating and i know that we're going to hear it, is that, well, y'all got money to send overseas and y'all can't take care of us right here at home. all of these cities that are in

need of desperate dollars. like y'all aren't going to take care of us. no, right now, the republicans have said we don't want to do that. in fact, one of our republican colleagues said something about, you know, the american people need to feel the pain. they literally are trying to inflict pain on the very people that they say they want to represent. that's what we're dealing with right now. we're dealing with distractions and dysfunction. and it's really time that the american people say enough is enough. we need people that are going to look out for us domestically as well as internationally. >> and you're absolutely right because people who were saying that -- accusing congress of sending money overseas instead of to the streets in the hood here, no, they're not sending money anywhere. they're not sending money anywhere. they're literally sitting around screaming, what is it donald trump wants us to do and how quickly can we do it. trump said jump, we need to jump. i guess this is the new thing is

the apprentice. elise stefanik seems to believe she has the best chance of being donald trump's new hang mike pence. here she is auditioning. >> i would not have done what mike pence did. i don't think that was the right approach. i specifically stand by what i said on the house floor. and i stand by my statement, which was there was unconstitutional overreach in states like pennsylvania. and i think it's very important that we continue to stand up for the constitution and have legal and secure elections which we did not have in 2020. and the tens of millions of americans agree with me. >> congresswoman, when asked in a follow-up, well then fine, can vice president harris ignore the election and say, declare joe biden to be the president? she didn't answer that. can you explain what is going on with this woman? i mean, does she in your mind believe the things she says? >> i need y'all to understand what republicans are telling y'all.

they're playing in your face. it was unconstitutional what happened in pennsylvania? remember, it was philly they had a problem with. it's also quote/unquote unconstitutional. it was unconstitutional in georgia where he has charged pending against him, and what was his big complaint, fulton county. it's always unconstitutional when it comes to republicans and black folk deciding they're going to show up to the polls and not vote for racist folk such as elise stefanik. that is what the definition of unconstitutional is to these people. i need people to stop trying to act like there is some big deep thought to be had. the republicans have made their agenda clear. they are constantly palling around with the likes of the proud boys. these people are saying forget affirmative action, forget dei. they're constantly spitting in our face and telling us it's raining and people are thinking, you know what, maybe they are the ones for us. no, they're not, period. they're not. >> at the end of the day, and i think you said it so

brilliantly, unconstitutional and woke mean the same thing. and if you don't know what i mean it means, the congresswoman is wearing the color it means. they mean that. for those of you who are pretending that maga is your friend. that's what it means. final question here. do you see, just in your community, in texas, people waking up to the fact that that is the case. because you do see a lot of people saying, maybe trump is the answer, which makes no sense to me at all. but are you -- are people starting to realize that oh, this is a war against our communities? >> i'm going to be honest and tell you that i live in a bubble, a nice blue bubble. i really do. my district is as blue as they come. and my district is good with me and how i govern. so i don't really run into that. i do run into a lack of enthusiasm overall for politics. i do hear things like, we need,

you know, more politicians that are willing to hit back and hit back hard because the democrats are right. so i run into a lack of enthusiasm, but i have not run into too many people that have completely given up and said we're going the other way. again, i am their congresswoman. i am going to make sure that they know that i am bringing home money and where did this money come from? it came from the biden/harris administration. who cares about environmental injustice and the fact they're dumping in our black communities? it's this administration. i'm going to bring y'all these millions of dollars to start doing cleanup on aisle nine, like i make sure i educate my district on where the dollars are coming from and i make sure i am pulling down every chance i get. >> not every person is lucky to have a congresswoman like jasmine crockett so your constituents are very lucky. thank you for being here. and over the top, that is how president joe biden describes israel's assault on gaza as israel prepared for a

fresh assault on rafah which is already packed with refugees. we'll be right back. when c aroline has a cough, she takes robitussin. so, she can have those one on ones again. hey jim! can we talk about casual fridays? oh sure. what's up? get fast, powerful cough relief with robitussin, and find your voice. ♪robitussin♪

i still love to surf, snowboard, and find your voice. and, of course, skate. so, i take qunol magnesium to support my muscle and bone health. qunol's extra strength, high absorption magnesium helps me get the full benefits of magnesium. qunol, the brand i trust. growing up, my parents wanted me to become a doctor or an engineer. those are good careers! but i chose a different path. first, as mayor and then in the legislature. i enshrined abortion rights in our california constitution. in the face of trump, i strengthened hate crime laws and lowered the costs for the middle class. now i'm running to bring the fight to congress. you were always stubborn. and on that note, i'm evan low,

and i approve this message. you want to see who we are as americans? i'm peter dixon and in kenya... we built a hospital that provides maternal care. as a marine... we fought against the taliban and their crimes against women. and in hillary clinton's state department... we took on gender-based violence in the congo. now extremists are banning abortion and contraception right here at home. so, i'm running for congress to help stop them. for your family... and mine. i approved this message because this is who we are. i'm of the view, as you know, that the conduct of the response in gaza -- in the gaza

strip, has been over the top. i have been pushing really hard, really hard to get humanitarian assistance in to gaza. there are a lot of innocent people who are starving, a lot of innocent people who are in trouble and dying. it's got to stop. >> as president biden made his sharpest criticism to date on the horrors in gaza, the u.s. state department said it would not support an israeli military operation in rafah without serious planning around the displaced civilians crammed into the city. time is running out. israeli air strikes have pounded rafah in recent days. as that's happened, prime minister netanyahu has ordered the israeli military to come up with a plan for civilians to evacuate before an expected ground assault. the 4.1 million people there are seeking shelter and facing a dire humanitarian situation. there is simply nowhere else for them to go. the norwegian refugee council

sent a stark warning saying rafah could soon turn into a zone of bloodshed can destruction that people won't be able to escape. joining me is congressman ro khanna of california who serves in the house armed services committee. you have been early out there calling for a cease-fire. were you surprised by president biden's tone last night? it did seem to be markedly different in that he did center the suffering of palestinian women and children in a way that i had not heard him do before. >> joy, i was pleased by what the president has said in private, he has expressed to some of us his concern about what netanyahu is doing, and i'm glad that he made that statement publicly. the reality is, what netanyahu is planning in rafah is unconscionable. you have 1.4 million people who are living in that city. they have been told to go there, that's one of the only places they could escape the bombing. they're facing possible starvation, facing a lack of

drinking water. the united states is saying do not attack rafah. our country is saying that the international community is saying that, and netanyahu in blatant defiance of the united states of america, of our president, our military, is considering going in, launching strikes which could be a humanitarian catastrophe. >> what does that say about our leverage? you had south africa take israel to the international court, to the u.n. court. and that did not slow them down at all. in fact, all that's happened since then is that the u.s. and europe have defunded unra, which is for a lot of palestinians the only way they get aid. you see blockades of aid going into gaza by protesters saying they want to shut down all aid to go in. that seems to be effective. what leverage do we have, and at some point, isn't the leverage the money we're sending and the bombs we're sending? >> well, it is. i think you see the president reaching the end of his

patience, to say that israel has been over the top and ultimately the president has enormous leverage. when president reagan told them to stop in lebanon, within hours he stopped. when president biden in the past told netanyahu your runway is over in 2021, netanyahu stopped. i think the more israel continues to do things like go into rafah, the more they're going to lose the support of the administration. and the vote in the house where the overwhelming majority of democrats voted against a blank check to the israeli government should be a wake-up call. >> one would think so. antony blinken, the secretary of state, is in the region. he met with netanyahu. do you think that behind closed doors that threat is being made, that if the defiance of essentially the person paying the bills here for this war, if it continues that the sending of

weapons, including bypassing congress to send weapons, will stop? >> yes, i don't think it's a threat. i think it's just a statement of fact. look, the administration went out of their way, spent enormous political capital to support israel with an understandable after october 7th, there was a right to get the hamas perpetrators. there needs to be a release of all the hostages, and the president went out of his way to do that. but their expectation was that netanyahu would then minimize civilian casualties, would listen to the united states government, and here's the reality. netanyahu has defied this president. how dare ben guveer, israel's foreign minister, have the audacity to criticize joe biden, the audacity to criticize the american people. i think that's rubbing a lot of people the wrong way. in this country, you have respect for the american people, the american president, and netanyahu is showing no respect

for the american president. >> in congress, you had some democrats join in condemning formally congresswoman rashida tlaib for her comments about her own people, her relatives, in gaza -- i'm sorry, in the palestinian territories. is there a shift inside of the caucus to say, wait a minute, maybe, you know, yourself and others who have been for a cease-fire might have been on the right side? >> there is, joy, now there are almost 63 members of congress who have called for a permanent cease-fire and a release of all the hostages, including people like jamie raskin and that number is growing. there is an increasing concern about the humanitarian situation in gaza. i mean, 400,000 people according to the united nations face starvation. children are going without food and water. and i do think that this is

something that many members of congress are now deeply concerned about on the democratic side. >> we will watch what continues to happen. congressman ro khanna, thank you for your time. and still ahead, yesterday's historic oral arguments before the supreme court provide insights into conservatives' appallingly flexible stance on states' rights. we're back after this.

(♪♪) there's two things a young man wanna be - a cowboy or a gangster. and a gangster's outta style. i got back to my roots... we come from a long line of cowboys. my grandfather, my great-grandfather, my aunt even rode horses. when i see all of us out here on this ranch, i see how far our legacy can go. (♪♪)

i don't know about you, but this little thing popped in my head yesterday when i was listening to the oral arguments before the supreme court. that little thing was irony, because conservative justices went to town questioning a state's ability to decide who's on their ballot. they were all hot and bothered because colorado was saying they have the right to decide their own election rules. fancy that. which is weird, right, given how the majority of those conservative justices are always telling us that states can gerrymander maps or make voting hard because of states' rights. it's even weirder when you realize in march, those same justices will hear arguments about how it's totally cool for one judge in texas who is an anti-abortion zealot to decide for every single woman in america that they can't get mifepristone, the abortion drug that has been widely used in the united states since it was first approved 24 years ago. here's the real kicker. just two years ago, those same conservative justices told us every single woman in america has no constitutional right to

bodily autonomy and states have the right to decide what's best for them. the icing on the cake about yesterday's arguments was that the guy defending trump was the same guy who helped deprive 14 million texas women of access to reproductive health care. yep, jonathan mitchell is the man who wrote the sadistic abortion bounty hunter law. and oh, he's not done. mitchell has been pushing for the enforcement of the comstock act, a nearly two centuries old anti-obscenity law which would effectively ban abortion nationwide, and guess who is the key to making sure that happens. donald trump. maybe that's why, and helps explain why mitchell wants to make sure the guy who overturned roe remains on the ballot. joining me is elie mystal. do you find that stuff ironic too? >> it's almost like the states rights argument was invented by white supremacist patriarchs to

allow the states to keep black people and women under control and that's the only thing the argument is good for, because when we try to use it for something else, apparently it doesn't matter. it's almost like that's what we're seeing, isn't it? >> it's almost. >> the irony is rife here. when we talk about elections, you're absolutely right to bring up abortion and mitchell and his kind of torturous role through all of this. he's the through line through all of this hypocrisy, but when we talk about elections specifically, let us not forget that it is the conservative justices who consistently tell us that the states have the right to restrict voting access, restrict early voting access, keep felons off the ballot, that every state has the right to keep people from accessing the ballot, but now, yesterday, they turned around and said that the states don't have the right to decide who is on their own ballot. john roberts literally acted

like it couldn't possibly be his job to know, because if he might have to make one ruling for colorado and a whole different ruling for texas, how could he limit it when he's literally the same guy who says that texas gets to gerrymander however it wants and colorado gets to gerrymander however it wants and new jersey gets to gerrymander however it wants. so the hypocrisy was deep and, yes, ironic but also troubling. and also again, just shows the intellectual pausety of the entire conservative argument here. >> and the on the team that decided florida gets to decide who the president was in 2000. let's not forget that either. the other thing they were trying to argue is that the states can't decide who can be on their ballots, there has to be some sort of congressional action that makes implementing legislation. okay, that's the 14th amendment. not the 15th amendment.

15th amendment says you can't be denied the right to vote based on race or a former servitude. isn't the voting rights at the implementing legislation? because they keep chipping away at that, to. >> there are some ways this argument could have gone, and instead it when the dumbest possible white. one aspect -- that people kept breaking up was there were a lot of constitutional lawyers keeping people off the ballots. you can't pay 35, you have to be at least 35. you have to be a natural born citizen. neil gorsuch has a case where he kicks a man off the ballot because he is a natural light citizen, and neil gorsuch says we have to be naturally borne. what's the difference? clear as i can tell, the man who wants to run for president in colorado that neil gorsuch kicked off was arab, whereas that meant neil gorsuch wants to keep on the ballot is orange. that's the difference as far as i can see. the liberals did this, to.

the liberals said the states don't have this power. and while i disagree with kagan or jackson's seemingly opinion there, at least give them created for intellectual consistency, right? because ilana kagan doesn't think colorado can kick trump off the ballot because she doesn't think texas can take the pellets away from black people or poor people, right? ketanji brown jackson doesn't think colorado -- trump can be kicked off the ballot and colorado because she doesn't believe felons can be prohibited from exit the ballot in florida. right? so there is intellectual -- i disagree with the outcome in this case, but there is intellectual consistency from the liberals. what is gorsuch is excuse? what is kavanaugh's excuse? what is it clarence thomas excuse for, first of all, just being the following this case with his presence in the first place? and certainly what is his excuse for going against his alleged states rights people? that's his real people.

instead of applying the 14th amendment is written to donald trump? >> i would love to see what would happen if ginni thomas ran for president. could she be kicked off at the appellate? she is for sure and insurrectionist, but i guess we'll never know. elie mystal sticking around to play who won the week? that's next. eek? that's next.

xfinity rewards presents: '1st and 10gs.' xfinity is giving away ten grand to a new lucky winner for every first and ten during the big game. enter daily through february 9th for a chance to win 10gs.

with the ultimate speed, power, and reliability the xfinity 10g network is made for streaming live sports. because it's only live once. join xfinity rewards on the xfinity app or go to xfinity1stand10gs.com for your chance to win. well, friends, we have made it to the end of another week.

that means it's time to play our favorite game. who won the week? back with me is the greats elie mystal. elie mystal, our salute player today. one of the week? >> representative outgrowing, i believe, julie, that the real moses, the one who they got time for a false profits and fake christians like mike johnson, who is scheduled votes while people were in surgery. i believe the real moses rose elk rain up out of his hospital bed so he could be shepherded to the chamber to defeat the impeachment of secretary mayorkas. al grain, in a hospital bed, with no shoes on, won the week. >> and every time you say his name you think -- >> hey was amazing. >> oh my god, look. >> republicans, hate was amazing, and that republicans can't do math. >> they sure can't. >> it was a perfect circle right there. >> i love it. in his interview, he said, i was born for this moment.

i'm getting out of this bag -- that is an excellent answer. my answer is somebody that had their peak moment people thought was in the 80s. but no, it turned out to the peak moment for miss tracey chapman is this year. tracy chapman, at the grammys, moisturized and chilling. she had all the shape butter on her face. and her hit song fast car is a hit again. number one again on billboard. she has come back in a whole another era. her song was remade by a country artist and became number one. so tracey chapman. we are excited for your rebirth as an icon of that music business. tracey chapman won the week. before we go, elie, we have got to talk a little super bowl. super bowls coming up this week. do you have a favorite? >> those two, that tests of old teams, no. i'm like -- i'm rooting for the media to come through and wipe it out and maybe get a good

doritos commercial. those are two unlikable teams from where i sit. >> patrick mahomes, he's obviously great. neither of them are the teams i'm rooting for. i'm not interested in the game. but what do you make of all the drama around it? we were just showing kelsey -- this whole taylor swift and her man thing has become, like, it's become a thing. i almost said who won the week was the nfl. because there are going to have so much more listeners between the swifties and the offense of ashore, they might have won the week. >> they have turned me into a swiftie. because all that happens right now, every time taylor swift gets on the screen, i get to hear that whining from weak men who, like, these involuntary whatever man who could never be around taylor swift. i drink it in my coffee. >> we love it. i

apprecia