Skip to main content

tv   Chris Jansing Reports  MSNBC  February 22, 2024 11:00am-12:00pm PST

11:00 am
right where you need them. that's wall-to-wall wifi on the xfinity 10g network. here's why you should switch fo to duckduckgo on all your devie duckduckgo comes with a built-n engine like google, but it's pi and doesn't spy on your searchs and duckduckgo lets you browse like chrome, but it blocks cooi and creepy ads that follow youa from google and other companie. and there's no catch. it's fre. we make money from ads, but they don't follow you aroud join the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today.
11:01 am
welcome back to another hour of "chris jansing reports." ahead for us, testimony begins in the manslaughter trial of the movie armorer who loaded a gun for alec baldwin before a cinematographer lost her life. what prosecutors are revealing about the chaos and drama on set in the hours leading up to the tragedy. a block buster allegation in the biden impeachment inquiry. were republicans warned there were problems with a now indicted fbi informant but still used his claims anyway? a boyfriend's desperate plea, what he wants the world to
11:02 am
know about the ballerina now facing charges for treason in russia. and a black student suspended for his hair style takes his fight against his school all the way to court. we'll tell you what a judge just decided. our nbc news reporters are following all of the latest developments. we begin in santa fe with that highly anticipated trial in the "rust" movie set shooting. dana, what have we heard so far? >> reporter: we have heard a lot of evidence that's already being presented by the prosecution in their opening statements. they say that this was an act of negligence on behalf of hannah gutierrez-reed, the defendant. they say she's the one who contributed to the death of cinematographer ha lena hutchins and the live rounds that wound up on the set of the movie. we saw images of alec baldwin removing his gun from his holster. after lunch, they came back, they were doing something called
11:03 am
blocking, and alec baldwin didn't need a gun. and hannah gutierrez-reed cleaned the gun. it had five rounds, loaded a sixth round, handed it to the assistant director, and handed that gun to alec baldwin and during that practice, that's when the cinematographer was shot. the defense says that this was on alec baldwin. he pulled that trigger, and he should not have pointed that gun toward crew members. he says that's rule number one. you don't pull out a gun unless you intend to use it. listen to what else we have heard from the prosecution and the defense. >> these witnesses are going to describe the defendant's conduct as unprofessional and sloppy. you will hear testimony that she routinely left guns and ammunition lying around the set unattended and that her gun safe and ammo cart were constantly disorganized. i do want to leave you with one final statement, and this is a statement that ms. gutierrez made when she was being
11:04 am
interviewed on the day of the shooting. i don't know, i wish i would have checked it more, and so do we. >> just because there was a tragedy does not mean that a crime was committed. production and the state have both very early on sought to make hannah gutierrez-reed a scapegoat. >> reporter: the defense adds that hannah gutierrez-reed sent an e-mail to her production managers complaining that she had to do two jobs and that she felt overwhelmed and couldn't keep up with her job making sure that the gun was checked and that she was checking those rounds that were inside the weapon. the prosecution says she should have checked those rounds. that was part of her job. therefore she is responsible. moments ago, the judge sent the jury to lunch early because there were technical difficulties watching a body camera video. we hope to watch that when we get back from lunch. chris. >> dana griffin, thank you. let's go to capitol hill
11:05 am
where a republican congressman is claiming that his colleagues were warned an fbi informant at the center of the biden impeachment inquiry may have credibility issues. nbc's julie tsirkin is on capitol hill. what exactly did republicans know about this informant? >> reporter: well, chris, republicans knew from the very beginning when they were trying to get this document known as a 1023 form from the fbi that the witness, the guy who gave them this information in the form, then, we didn't know his name, may be uncredible, may be unverified in terms of the information he was sharing. i remember standing outside of a closed-door briefing, were trying to read this document. it was a redacted version but it alleged that joe biden and his family had a foreign bribery scream with the ukrainian government. those allegations, of course we know now in terms of smirnov being charged with getting this information from russian officials, there's really mud in the water here, essentially, but
11:06 am
james comer who's the oversight chairman continues to say that not only was this not the pinnacle, the crux of the investigation, now he's saying they have other things to point towards. watch this. >> this is a very crucial piece of our investigation. >> at the end of the day, he wasn't an important part of this investigation because i didn't even know who he was. all i knew is there was a 1023 that alleged bribery. >> reporter: so now you hear comer saying he was a part of the investigation back in may when they first got this reacted document. now he's saying this doesn't change their investigation. he's not alone. jim jordan yesterday told us that this fundamentally does not change the direction their investigation is going in. we saw that by them sitting down with james biden, the brother of the president. we are continuing to see that with the closed-door deposition of hunter biden next week. certainly republicans are not slowing down, but that republican you referred to at the top of this hit, chris, ken buck, from colorado. he's retiring. he has no skin in the game.
11:07 am
he voted against formalizing the impeachment inquiry. they still need to take a vote, regardless of the next steps, whether to formalize this impeachment inquiry, to send the bills to the senate. they continue to have no information and no proof in this evidence they're trying to connect. >> julie tsirkin thank you so much. the boyfriend of a ballerina arrested in russia for treason says she was only there to visit her grandmother. nbc's gabe gutierrez joins me now. what else do we know about this? >> reporter: hi there, chris. good afternoon. what we heard from white house national security spokesperson john kirby who said just a few moments ago that the biden administration is watching this case very closely, but it is limited in what it can say due to privacy concerns. but as you said, chris, we're now hearing from the boyfriend of the duel national who was
11:08 am
arrested in russia. her boyfriend says they spent new year's together in turkey. he flew back to the united states. she flew to russia. and she had her cell phone confiscated when she got to russia. she was then released and for several weeks, she communicated with him through her mother's cell phone, until january 27th. that's when he last heard from her. take a listen to what he had to say about what happened next! >> it was nighttime. i said, okay, i'll speak to you tomorrow because i'm going to go to bed, and that was the last we spoke. that morning when i reached out, hello, good morning, and no reply, and then a couple of hours later, immediately i could understand by the look, oh, something's wrong. i don't know any logistics of the case. i am equally as surprised as anyone else. her fight is out of my hands,
11:09 am
and i feel powerless. >> reporter: again, that was ksenia karelina's boyfriend, speaking for the first time to our los angeles station, kwnbc. the biden administration, we heard from a spokesperson saying that the white house and the state department has been asking for consular access to karolina, it's often the case that russia does not recognize duel nationals. it considers them russian citizens. again, according to her employer, she's accused of treason fordonating just $51.80 to a ukrainian charity. >> gabe gutierrez, thank you. let's go to texas where a judge just ruled in a case about a black student's fight to keep his hair style. morgan chesky is live in dallas. the student has been out of the classroom for the better part of a year now. what was the decision?
11:10 am
>> reporter: yeah, chris, i want to read you the judge's words exactly here saying that the district's policy, that being barber hill district outside of houston does not prohibit or discrimination against male students who wear braids, locks or twists, adding that the crown act does not render unlawful those portions of the dress code. those were the judge's words earlier today, just a short time ago, in fact. in the case of daryl george, this 18-year-old high school junior who hasn't been able to sit in class with the rest of his classmates because the district says even though he wears his hair up in locks, if it's let down, it would violate the school's policy and so in turn, he is now suspended, and the judge siding with the district saying that their stance on that does not violate texas's crown act, which was enacted back in september of 2023 to try and prevent race-based hair discrimination t. 20 other states have adopted similar policies and the family,
11:11 am
we have heard from them, chris, they do plan to appeal. we have not heard directly from them on camera, but we know that a texas state rep supporting them today had this to say following that judge's ruling. take a listen. >> i think we've got to remember that this is about daryl and to see that young man crying. he didn't understand. we couldn't explain it to him. we tried to explain it to him. he just wants to learn, and he just wants to be normal. his mom was so physically shaken. like i was worried about her, are you okay, do i need to get you some water. please pray for this family. >> reporter: and we did have a chance to hear from that 18-year-old prior to today's
11:12 am
court hearing where he shared that he was angry that this fight has to continue on despite policies such as the crown act being enacted as recently as last fall. again, the family says they plan to appeal, but no date has been set on when this ongoing legal saga will resume here. chris. >> morgan chesky, thank you. in 60 seconds, the major hospital suspending ivf treatments for fear of getting sued or charged after a court rules frozen embryos are children protected by law. nice cruise will sort you right out. when i'm riding, i'm not even thinking about my painful cavity. well, you shouldn't ignore that. and every time i get stressed about having to pay my bills, i just hop on the bike, man. oh, come on, man, you got to pay your bills. you don't have to worry about anything when you're protected by america's number-one motorcycle insurer. well, you definitely do. those things aren't related, so... ah, yee! oh, that is a vibrating pain. with so many choices on booking.com
11:13 am
there are so many tina feys i could be. so i hired body doubles. 30,000 followers tina in a boutique hotel. or 30,000 steps tina in a mountain cabin. ooh! booking.com booking.yeah there's nothing better than a subway series footlong. except when you add a new footlong sidekick. like the ultimate bmt with the new footlong pretzel. nothing like a sidekick that steps up in crunch time. [laughing] not cool man. every epic footlong deserves the perfect sidekick. moments ago, and for the first time, president biden reacting forcefully to the alabama supreme court ruling that defined as embryo as a child. biden's statement says, quote, the disregard for women's ability to make these decisions for themselves and their families is outrageous and
11:14 am
unacceptable. but this is the newest front in one of the most emotional and consequence political battles of the last half century. the question on the right of when life begins. it started with abortion, and roe v. wade 51 years ago, and has now expanded into ivf. last week's unprecedented alabama ruling is creating new pain and widespread uncertainty for couples facing infertility. alabama's largest hospital has suspended all ivf treatments and at least two other clinics have followed suit with experts predicting more to come. this is also complicating messaging strategies for politicians, some of whom have used ifv to build their own families. nbc's ali vitali is covering the nikki haley campaign on the ground in south carolina. tara setmayer, and here in studio, msnbc legal analyst, lisa rubin. before we get into the legal questions, i want to play a
11:15 am
little bit of an interview that our colleague, laura jarrett, did with an ivf patient at that alabama hospital where now plans are in limbo. let's listen. >> my rage knows no bounds. i just want to be a mom, and, yeah, it's wild to me. it's wild to me that the state i have called home has more say over that than i do right now. i have no clue if it means that i need to move to another state in order to have children. >> i mean, just to be clear, this didn't start as the fight over whether ivf could or could not be performed. this was a worker who dropped frozen embryos when they were being moved, they became unusable, and that led to a suit over the question of wrongful death. right? >> yes. >> so that's why the hospital, the university of alabama hospital and these other places are so nervous, right, because
11:16 am
this could expand far beyond the original issue. >> absolutely. and it could involve situations like embryo transfer as wechlt -- as well. looking at the video interview that laura jarrett conducted with the patient in alabama talking about having to move to another state. it's not at all clear to me that she can transfer the embryos she has right now. what the university is afraid of is that they will be held responsible for any damage to embryos, whether in purposeful transfer or not. that anything that were to happen to the embryos could be considered wrongful death after this ruling. it's the perversity of the fetal person hood movement boomeranging on itself. the people who want to have children and are least able to have them through natural means are the ones being punished here. >> and you did that interview with nikki haley yesterday. it aired first on this show. by the time i got home, there were headlines about it
11:17 am
everywhere. it touched off a fire storm. i want to remind people a little bit of what nikki haley said about the alabama court ruling. >> the supreme court there said that embryos created through ivf are considered children and are offered those same protections. do you agree? >> i mean, i think embryos to me are babies. >> even though created through ivf? >> i mean, i had artificial insemination. that's how i had my son. >> as you know, she, her campaign felt she this to clarify that statement, which shows just how fraught this is for republicans. talk about that. >> yeah, look, we have watched republicans over the course of this entire election cycle struggle when it comes to talking about reproductive health care. of course when it comes to abortion but now as we watch different states continue to walk into aspects of reproductive care, the way republican politicians struggle to talk about it. in the case of nikki haley, we
11:18 am
watched the way she said it to me. i asked her directly about the view of the alabama supreme court, i asked if she agreed with that. she said that embryos to her are babies. listen to the way she's now trying to clarify her statement. watch what she said last night. >> i didn't say that i agreed with the alabama ruling. the question that i was asked is do i believe an embryo is a baby. i do think that if you look in the definition, an embryo is considered an unborn baby. our goal is to always do what the parents want with their embryo, it is theirs. so any physician that is in control of those embryos, they owe it to those people to make sure they protect that embryo, and that they do with that embryo what those parents want done with that embryo. that is the way we should look at that situation. >> reporter: and, chris, we listened to the exchange that started all of this when i asked her directly about the view of the alabama supreme court and if she agreed.
11:19 am
so that is the question that she was asked and the one that she answered. we got a little bit deeper into it when i asked haley if she worried about this having a chilling effect on folks who want to use ivf to start a family. she made clear it was a sensitive and nuanced topic, needed to have consistent conversations with doctors, but of course the things we have seen consistently, pre the dobbs decision and post, is that a lot of those conversations that patients might want to have with their doctors become that much more fraught when legislation and courts and the government overall begin creating rules and regulations that start to govern how those conversations can be had and whether or not those conversations about health care can be had at all. this continues to be a tricky issue. i think you referenced the fact that this really did spread everywhere after we aired it on your show. the fact that governors on the republican side of the aisle, senators, lawmakers have been asked this question now, makes
11:20 am
this yet another litmus test in the larger landscape of reproductive health care in the 2024 election. >> plenty of republicans like nikki haley have grown their families through ivf. that includes former vp mike pence who said last year that ivf needs to be protected and he's one of the most vehement proponents of abortion restrictions. have republicans backed themselves into a corner with this? what went through my mind when i was hearing the interview yesterday, republicans on the campaign trail have had 50 years to think about what they're going to say about abortion. some handle it better than others. but they've had 50 years to think about it. here, should you just be able to say what is true to what you believe? what are you expecting now from republicans who get asked about this, tara? >> this issue is kryptonite for republicans. politically. and they know it. it's the dog that caught the
11:21 am
car, as you said, it's been 50 years leading up to this moment, and i don't think anyone one on the republican side really thought that they would be in this position where dobbs would be the new law of the land and roe was overturned and now we're talking about ivf. this is something that people warned about. starting with dobbs, that it would move to more and more restrictions on women, reproductive rights, and what women can do with their bodies, and at this point right now, i can tell you that in swing states, this issue is something republicans do not want to talk about. you're talking about states like arizona, michigan, nevada, where the constituency there is over 60% pro choice. you are looking at a state like wisconsin where you have hundreds of thousands of women who deal with infertility. 6 million women in this country deal with infertility. one in eight couples deal with infertility. this is a huge issue for people
11:22 am
trying to have families in this country. it's another example of republicans interfering in private decisions. if democrats were smart, they would use this as a freedom issue. that's something that republicans used to run on all the time, freedom of the individual choice, and you're moving into an area where you're getting into people making decisions about their families. republicans recognize that this is politically difficult for them. when you have three republican governors that came out immediately, sununu, lee in tennessee, and there was a third one, kemp in georgia, another important state, they all came out right away in support of ivf, recognizing the importance of this. not only does it impact women, but men who are trying to have families when they're dealing with infertility with their wives. the last thing republicans want to talk about is this issue, and i think you're going to see them skirt around it and not give a direct answer the way nikki haley has. you can't have it both ways.
11:23 am
they talk about, you know, you want to be pro life but then they're stopping people from the ability to have families who struggle with these difficulties, and it's scientifically proven to be helpful. so i think republicans, this is the last thing they want. we have seen what their agenda is, and if this is going to go starting with alabama, how many other states are going to cascade and go this route with it. they didn't think it would happen with abortion. and now it's happening with ivf. >> we just heard from the vice president, kamala harris. of course she's been on the forefront of the administration's messaging on abortion, which was so powerful for them in 2022. here's what she had to say about the alabama ruling. literally just minutes ago. >> putting access to ivf at risk. think about that. individuals, couples who want to start a family are now being deprived of access to what can
11:24 am
help them start a family. so on the one hand, the proponents are saying that an individual doesn't have a right to end an unwanted pregnancy, and on the other hand, the individual does not have a right to start a family. >> there is, tara, so this is, i think, part of a complexity for a lot of republicans who may be against abortion, this is a case where people want to have children. they want to build or grow a family. they are trying to bring new life into the world. right? it's the exact opposite. >> yeah, which is it? they can't have both sides of this issue, and it's just another example of the absolute extreme position that republicans have backed themselves into a corner on, where they've allowed the extremists on this issue in the republican party to dominate. and like i said, it's
11:25 am
politically perilous for them. and if women weren't already inspired to go out and vote because our rights are directly under threat here, this is another example of where your vote matters. and who you put in office matters. and i think that republicans are going to rue the day that they decided to go after women and their rights, particularly on this issue. >> lisa, in the closing seconds, what happens next legally? >> i think you see some people in alabama, in particular, trying to undo this. we have already seen the chairman of the health care committee and the alabama senate introduce a bill that would only grant embryos the right to be seen as unborn children, and therefore covered under this bill. once they are implanted in a woman's uterus. that's a recognition that embryo owes shouldn't be given the treatment that the alabama supreme court gave them and therefore overturn the ivf regime as we understand it
11:26 am
because infertility knows no political party, chris. >> lisa rubin, ali vitali, and tara setmayer, thank you. a heart wrenching story of captivity in gaza and fears for her husband still being held in hamas. hamas. and better. downy. breathe life into your laundry. rsv can seriously impact breathing, even for the best performer. protect yourself with pfizer's abrysvo... ...a vaccine to prevent lower respiratory disease from rsv in people 60 years and older. it's not for everyone and may not protect all who receive it. don't get abrysvo if you've had an allergic reaction to its ingredients. a weakened immune system may decrease your response. most common side effects are tiredness, headache, injection-site pain and muscle pain. ask your pharmacist or doctor about abrysvo today. ♪ ♪ ask your pharmacist or doctor
11:27 am
gwen: hi, we've both got a big birthday coming up. so we have a lot of questions about medicare plans. anne: we've got a lot of answers. how can i help? fran: well for starters, do you include hearing benefits? anne: how about a plan with dental, vision and hearing benefits? gwen: i sure like the sound of that! anne: then how does a zero dollar monthly plan premium sound? gwen & fran: ooooooooh! [laughs]
11:28 am
avo: if you're new to medicare, call 1-888-65-aetna. we'll walk you through all your coverage and benefit options to help find the right plan for you. - i got the cabin for three days. it's gonna be sweet! what? i'm 12 hours short. - have a fun weekend. - ♪ unnecessary action hero! unnecessary. ♪ - was that necessary? - no. neither is a blown weekend. with paycom, employees do their own payroll so you can fix problems before they become problems. - hmm! get paycom and make the unnecessary, unnecessary. - see you down the line. do you have a life insurance policy you no longer need? now you can sell your policy - even a term policy - for an immediate cash payment. we thought we had planned carefully for our retirement. but we quickly realized we needed a way to supplement our income. if you have $100,000 or more of life insurance, you may qualify to sell your policy. don't cancel or let your policy lapse without finding out what it's worth.
11:29 am
visit coventrydirect.com to find out if your policy qualifies. or call the number on your screen. coventry direct, redefining to duckduckgo on all your devie duckduckgo comes with a built-n engine like google, but it's pi and doesn't spy on your searchs and duckduckgo lets you browse like chrome, but it blocks cooi and creepy ads that follow youa from google and other companie. and there's no catch. it's fre. we make money from ads, but they don't follow you aroud
11:30 am
join the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today. we have breaking news to tell you about. a person familiar tells nbc news that president biden is going to
11:31 am
meet with alexei navalny's wife and daughter today in california. this story being broken by nbc's andrea mitchell who joins me now. what more can you tell us, andrea? >> well, this has been very carefully arranged, sensitively arranged. as you know, yulia spoke hours after her husband died. it was an electrifying moment. she said to the audience that she wanted to be with her daughter, with her family at that horrible moment but she thought to herself, what would alexei do, and that's why she was there so memorably, electrifying the audience, as they say, and in the days since, of course, this has become more controversial in the campaign because of the comments by donald trump. never condemning vladimir putin for what happened and, in fact, comparing what he has suffered, he says from the prosecutors, from the courts, here in the u.s., comparing that to what happened to alexei navalny who
11:32 am
was tortured for two years, tortured in prison, went back to russia after an assassination attempt, tortured in prison, sent to a gu lag, in isolation, and died after 24 hours earlier appearing on video looking relatively healthy. also today, as you know, his mother finally was able to see his body, but the russian authorities told her, according to their spokesperson, according to the navalny spokes people, she was told she could not have a funeral. they wanted to avoid any public warning, and it was in a threatening way that she would have some repercussions f she tried to bury him in a public way. they also told her he had died of natural causes. in the interim there was suspicion something might have been done to his body. whether it was novichok, this
11:33 am
russian toxic, you know, nerve gas that had been used against them previously and that has been used in other assassinationings, whether that was the case and they were trying to wait long enough so it was no longer in his body or whether he had also been tortured and abused. we don't know. chris, i also talked to one of his closest friends, the director of the documentary, navalny, that won the oscar for best documentary. they had had a recent communication through a letter, and his concern from his experience working on the documentary and knowing alexei, he says he hopes it's novichok that killed him, because he hopes he was not beaten to death. >> this is obviously a mother and a daughter who are having to mourn in a very public way, and as you point out, without a body, not being able to hold a traditional funeral, but also
11:34 am
wanting to keep up the work that alexei died for, that he believed so deeply and in so, you know, you think about this president who is -- can be extremely empathetic, understandably empathetic in these situations, who has very often been a consoler in chief, but one has to think this is also going to be a conversation about what the united states can do. she just tweeted today just a few hours ago, putin killed alexei. what will the president be able to tell her from your conversations, andrea, about the state department, about the white house, what they're doing, what kind of pressure they're putting on, and so on. >> well, what we do understand from all of our reporting, the white house has said that these are going to be very robust sanctions announced tomorrow, and frankly, the sanctions against putin have leaked,
11:35 am
treasury trying to manage this as best they can, but there are a lot of ways around these sanctions and a lot of money is flowing from china, from iran, and most notably, we have new evidence that our colleague, victor cha has come up with of more weapons going to vladimir putin, and he is now at a pivotal moment as we approach the beginning of the third year of this war, where without having the weapons from the united states that was in the supplemental, at least anytime soon until congress comes back and slugs that one out, they're getting more and more weapons from north korea and drones from iran, as you know. so the money, the weapons all flowing from america's adversaries, and propping up putin who doesn't seem to mind that he has lost by our own intelligence estimates, according to u.s. intelligence that have shared with some of us, more than 360,000 troops. and richard engel being on the front lines and reporting so memorably today on nbc and
11:36 am
msnbc. you know, just the terrible condition of the troops, and how they need air defenses. i covered zelenskyy in munich this weekend. he needs air defenses. he still hasn't gotten the f 16s. courtney kube reporting the atacms are going to be approved. so all of this is coming together. getting back to your question and the sanction,s, they're going to try to target areas of navalny's strength, so areas of his interest, his groups, the kinds of things that he was pressing for, freedom of information, and also the prison officials who were probably responsible for his immediate death, carrying out whatever orders they had from the kremlin. individual sanctions as well as collective sanctions. again, we don't know how well they're going to be enforced. that is a much more complicated question, but they say it's going to be a robust group of
11:37 am
sanctions, and one other thing, there is a push afoot among the senators and house members i spoke with in munich, and i was traveling with them skprk -- and talking to them, and especially estonia. and the germans, they want to see action to unfreeze more than $300 billion in russian assets that have been frozen, and unfreeze them and turn them over to ukraine for weapons and for reconstruction. now, there's opposition to this. some people, i understand, in the administration, the treasury are concerned about the precedent. the state department has been looking into it. it's down the road. it will be discussed at the g7 meetings in the spring or may or june. it hasn't happened yet. there's opposition from belgium, which holds 80% of the assets, as well as the swiss, as well as japan, so whether it is a collective or an individual decision, there is push among some senators to do something
11:38 am
through legislation, repo legislation, to at least unfreeze whatever portion, maybe 10% of the 300 plus billion dollars is held by the u.s. and u.s. banks, u.s. treasuries, and that is another very powerful weapon to use against vladimir putin. andrea mitchell, with the breaking news that president biden who is in california for fundraising is going to meet with alexei navalny's wife, yulia, his daughter dasha who is a student at stanford. thank you for bringing that breaking news. much appreciated. 139 horrible days. that's how long hamas has held hostages, and now nbc news has an exclusive interview with a former israeli hostage whose husband is still held captive in gaza. kidnapped from a kibbutz in southern israel on october 7th. 51 days later she was among the 105 hostages released during the
11:39 am
november truth. but for keith, an american israeli born and raised in the u.s. and everyone who loves him, there is no relief. molly hunter spoke with aviva, and she joins me mow. what did she tell you about her experience in captivity and her efforts unrelenting to free her husband? >> reporter: unrelenting is exactly right. aviva seigle has been working every day to advocate for the release of all the hostages and for her husband's. and what we spoke about today was the frustration, the growing frustration with the seigle family, with the families of other american hostages with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu on his focus to continue the war effort for what they say is his political survival and not prioritizing the survival of their loved ones. now, they think on the flip side, chris, that the biden administration sees them and hears them, and so when u.s. middle east envoy brett mcgurk was in town meeting with benjamin netanyahu and other
11:40 am
israeli officials he also met with the families of the american hostages. now she described her harrowing 51 days. she talked about the hell that she endured and she talked about what keith is still enduring. take a listen. >> can you describe that day when you were walked down to a tunnel? stairs, ladder. >> it was dark, and we were very scared. we didn't know where they're going to take us. we went down 40 meters down. lots and lots of steps. it took us quite a while walking there. feeling that there's no air for us to breathe. >> pitch black. >> pitch black, no air. there was a toilet with no water. we couldn't even wash our hands, with hardly no food at all, and no water at all, with no oxygen. one of the days after four days, one of the hamas persons came down while he could hardly
11:41 am
breathe because they didn't stay with us. >> they left you in the tunnel? >> they just left us in the tunnel. and they just left us there to die because that's what we felt. >> reporter: she talks about how they were held aboveground, below ground, very little food, very little water. they were moved 13 times, and mostly held together. she also told me about a moment which she says will stick with her forever, a young girl she was held with came out of the bathroom one day, and approached aviva, and told her that he, their armed captor touched me, and she described this girl as being too young to have ever been touched before. you were showing these pictures earlier, has testified about sexual violence in front of the israeli knesset. this is something she is very worried about for the girls and women who are still there. she is unrelentingly working every day to convince the israeli government to act and start prioritizing the freeing and release of keith and the
11:42 am
other hostages. chris. >> no one can speak more powerfully to it than those who have been there. molly hunter, thank you for that. for hostages like keith seigle and the millions of palestinians inside gaza, the situation deteriorates by the second. the top world health organization official calls gaza a death zone. rafah, where more than half the population is sheltering saw more attacks today. and one man whose brother and family were killed in them told reuters, quote, they took the people i love. they took a piece of my heart. i want to bring in karen hus ter, helping coordinate the medical infrastructure for doctors without borders. thank you so much for being with us. i know you have seen and felt the pain, the heart ache up close, the violence. and you are no stranger to war zones. what can you tell us about what you witnessed in rafah? >> yeah, thank you for having me. first of all.
11:43 am
and i do want to acknowledge the pain of this former hostage and just to be, you know, sure, we do -- we have been completely horrified by what was happening, what happened on october 7th. what i was able to see during my five weeks in rafah were also scenes that were absolutely heartbreaking. first of all, at the beginning, at the early, at the start, i was able to see scores of people moving in trucks, donkeys by foot moving from the north and from the middle area to rafah because that is where israelis asked everybody to go to. but as the weeks went on, more
11:44 am
and more attacks have been happening on rafah. i witnessed several. and definitely every night we heard a lot of war sounds, explosions, tanks, apache helicopters. and what we are now seeing is a movement of people leaving rafah because they are so scared that rafah is no longer a safe place for them to be. so, you know, this is what we can see in rafah unfortunately. >> you describe gaza as hell on earth, the people who are there that journalists have been able to talk to tell harrowing stories. by one estimate, just as an example, nearly 20,000 babies have been born in that war zone. last month, the word was 180
11:45 am
each day, and one expectant mother in rafah said the hospital told her if she wants to give birth in the ward, she needs to bring her own mattress. she needs to bring her own pillow, and here's what she told the u.n., let me play this for you. for you. there are no clothes for the baby. what has she done to be born in to this situation. what can be done for these women? what options do they have for having their babies? what option does anyone have who's in a city where they were told to go to stay safe and attacks are coming? >> i think the first option is pretty darn simple, and it is to have a cease fire. and from there, maybe, hopefully, we can start having
11:46 am
meaningful humanitarian response so that we can provide this woman with not just the diapers, not just the mattress, but just even the time for her to be able to rest a little bit before going to her shelter, her plastic tent. you know, today i'm sure your listeners are familiar, but a woman who has delivered, you know, has had a regular delivery will be staying in the hospital between one and four hours, and then she will be asked to go home. home being, again, you know, a tent, a piece of plastic, with no means of privacy. no adequate toilets. nothing along those lines. if you have a c section, it's between, you know, 4 and 12 hours you're going to be able to stay. and then you'll be asked to go home. these are the conditions, yes,
11:47 am
that women in gaza are subjected to today. it's absolutely distressing. as well, two hospitals, there's just one hospital right now, that provides in rafah, care for maternity, and delivering. the other hospitals have been destroyed by the idf. and when they did that, there were reports of women who had just delivered, just given birth, less than an hour before, who were asked to walk and leave the facilities. so yeah. it's -- i will describe this as inhuman. and a serious fire would be, you know, allowing us to provide
11:48 am
that humanitarian response that today is, again, i repeat, completely inadequate. nobody has been able to do enough to help the gazans. we are not able to go to the north. nobody knows what is happening in the north. we are all suspecting and all very worried about the malnutrition situation. people are starving more than likely. we are not able to bring trucks. wfp has paused any trucks going north. we're not able to provide adequate medical care because we are not able to bring the supplies that we need in. kids, i've seen personally, i've seen this several times in the emergency room of the hospital that we work in kids that came in after bombings. massive injuries, on the floor. because there were no beds. there were no mattresses for
11:49 am
sure, and there were no drugs either for them to get any relief from the pain that they were getting. i can tell you that i'm the mom of two kids. they're grown by now, and i have seen war, and i did not see something like this. the lack of just basic decency is staggering. and it's unrelenting. >> karin huster, and to all of your colleagues, doctors without borders who do extraordinary work under the most inhuman circumstances, thank you, we appreciate it. and we'll be right back. >> thank you so much.
11:50 am
feeling claritin clear is like... ♪♪ is she? playing with the confidence of a pro and getting all up in that grass as if she doesn't have allergies? yeah. nice.
11:51 am
11:52 am
democrats agree. conservative republican yeah steve garvey is the wrong choice for the senate. ...our republican opponent here on this stage has voted for donald trump twice. mr. garvey, you voted for him twice... as your own man, what is your decision? garvey is wrong for california. but garvey's surging in the polls. fox news says garvey would be a boost to republican control of the senate. stop garvey. adam schiff for senate. i'm adam schiff, and i approve this message. the my pillow guy has been ordered to pay up after offering $5 million to anyone who could disprove his claim of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. it's just the latest in a long
11:53 am
line of cases, financial and criminal tied to election denialism. mike lindell plans to appeal the federal decision, today he's in his element at the annual cpac gathering. once a must stop for gop power brokers, but now a stomping ground for magaism and conspiracy theorists, and it begs the question, given the lin dell judgment and the fact that election deniers have lost pretty much every single 2020 legal case, why are people still denying biden won and are there more legal losses to come. joining us michael steele, cohost of "the weekend" and charles coleman, civil rights attorney and msnbc legal analyst. charles, break down this judgment against mike lindell, and what it might mean or what message maybe it sends to other election deniers? >> what it simply says is mike lindell and others like him
11:54 am
cannot use a good faith basis and did not have a good faith basis for the claims. and they are responsible for the damage incurred. ultimately what we're talking about here is greater implications, and i want to focus on the translation as it pertains to the former president and legal entanglements he's dealing with. a decision like this only further cements the ability for prosecutors like jack smith and fani willis to go after donald trump with respect to the election interference claims, and the reason for that is because part of what donald trump has assessed or tried to assert is that he had a good faith basis for trying to uphold the integrity of the 2020 election. the fact that each and every one of these election denier decisions have gone against the election deniers, further cements the point that you had no good faith basis. whereas mike lindell is now in $5 million worth of trouble, the bigger implications politically are that donald trump should be very concerned about what this
11:55 am
means around the two cases he has, one in dc with jack smith and the other in fulton county against fani willis. >> the other implications is there are a lot of folks who are fed up who have decided they're going to quit congress. our capitol hill team notes just this month, not one but three republican committee chairmen, members in their prime who had not yet hit party term limits for their posts announced in rapid succession that they are calling it quits. we have heard some let's call it moderation in messaging from some candidates. they don't say the 2020 election was stolen. they say they're concerned about election integrity but has anything changed? >> no, nothing has changed and the reality is very much as charles lays it out there. look, there's stark realities now, that are getting baked into the system both economically as well as politically. with a strong legal undercurrent that kind of drives both of those narratives.
11:56 am
you put up or shut up. that's basically where, you know, lindell finds himself. well, you know what, he didn't shut up, so now he's got to put up. and the reality for a lot of other folks serving in congress is we just don't want to put up any longer with this crazy. a lot of these individuals came to washington, believe it or not, to govern, to try to get some things done. that's not what the house caucus is about now. i give you the whole investigation into, you know, biden and the crime family that doesn't exist. the impeachments, the unnecessary impeachments that are taking place. none of this has to do with the looming realities around the nation's budget, around the nation's foreign policy as we see in both israel and overseas in europe with putin acting the way he is, and so a lot of this has become very frustrating for
11:57 am
members. and i suspect you may see more before it's all said and done, decide, you know what, i'm better off leaving this circus than getting trapped by it. >> you know, we are expecting to hear from mike lindell at c pac along with donald trump and some of his biggest supporters this weekend. how is it changed since when you were rnc chair from the time when i started going to cpac. what's its role now, michael? >> it's a clown show. it has no role. it serves no purpose other than to, you know, put in play the grift. you know, this was a space that up and coming candidates for office around the country, certainly for the presidency, would come and make the case to young conservatives from around the country, around a value set of ideas and policies that we thought would be important for
11:58 am
the nation to hear and certainly to implement. that's not what this is about now. you know, there's a sign up there. this is the place where globalists go to die. really? who are you talking to? you're talking to moms and dads sitting at kitchen tables, trying to, you know, deal with life as it's coming at them. you're preaching to a very very small choir of people who are going to stroke your check, and so that becomes the new play. >> michael steele, charles coleman, more conversations like this to come. thank you both so much. and you can watch michael on "the weekend," the show he co hosts with symone sanders townsend, and alicia menendez. we have breaking news now. we have an update on the news we brought you just moments ago about president biden meeting with the family of alexei navalny. i want to go to mike memoli who's traveling with the president, what do we know about this, mike? >> reporter: well, chris, it was just moments after andrea
11:59 am
mitchell broke the news about this meeting that the white house actually tweeted a photo of the meeting itself. president biden meeting here in san francisco with yulia, as well as her daughter dasha. you can see the president hulling yulia, and sitting down with the two. the president said he met with his loved ones to express condolences. his legacy of courage will live on in yulia and dasha and the countless people fighting for democracy and human rights. a white house read out says the president expressed his admiration, courage, and legacy for fighting for a free and democratic russia, and he affirmed to navalny's widow, he will be announcing as we expect tomorrow major sanctions on russia in response to navalny's death. it's notable, chris, this meeting happening here in san
12:00 pm
francisco. we know of course dasha is a student at stanford. we thought perhaps this meeting might be happening later this afternoon when the president would be attending a fundraiser miles from campus. it was just after andrea broke the news of the meeting that the white house revealed this meeting had happened. you can understand the secrecy, security concerns around the meeting. now talking about the meeting taking place. we should note the strong words we have been hearing from president biden not just this week, but even last night at a different fundraiser here in the bay area. criticizing his likely opponent, donald trump, for his coziness with vladimir putin, talking about putin also in that fundraiser as a sob, chris. >> mike memoli, thank you for that. much appreciated. and that is going to do it for us this hour. make sure to join us for "chris jansing reports" every weekday 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. eastern right here on msnbc. our coverage continues with

107 Views

info Stream Only

Uploaded by TV Archive on