still me. good evening. i'm stephanie ruhle. midnight on the east coast, 9:00 p.m. in the west. we are following breaking news on capitol hill. there is a deal in the senate to fund the government. the house passed a $1.2 trillion government funding bill which then went to the senate for a vote. the senate is still in session tonight. we will have more on that in a moment. there was also no surprise, drama in the house today when far right republican congresswoman marjorie taylor greene filed a motion to remove republican speaker mike johnson. she made that move even as the house was voting on the spending bill which she then voted against. >> i am saying the clock has started. it is time for our conference. mike johnson, the republican speaker of the house, handed over every ounce of negotiating power to chuck schumer and the democrats. and went ahead and funded the government. when this was our point of

leverage. >> also, the republican majority in the house became even narrower today. congressman mike gallagher of wisconsin who already announced he was resigning is headed for the exits earlier than expected. he is leaving congress april 19th. that will bring the house gop majority down to just one single vote. and that seat will be empty until november. with that, let's get smarter with the help of our leadoff panel. sahil kapur. john allen, connor lamb and former republican congressman charlie dent. so, what is happening in the senate as we speak? >> the senate just began voting on this unanimous consent agreement. we expect six roll call votes. chuck schumer said he wants them to be limited to ten

minutes. we'll see if that happens. then after those are done, there are three voice votes on amendments as well which are expect today be wrapped up instantly. and then final passage of the bill. sometimes in the next hour to two hours probably, we should get this bill passed. it has already passed the house, then it head to president biden's desk who says he will sign it. there will be a brief shutdown. it is not going to have any meaningful impact. they have figured this out. they have ended this appropriations process six months after the fiscal year began. i have never seen anything quite like this. it took four stopgap bills. after the fiscal year had begun. and they got the next fiscal year coming up in just six months. and they have barely even begun that process. so stay tuned for what comes next. >> so when does this all wrap up? when will we have a vote complete? >> some time in the next hour or two, this depends on how quickly senators are able to vote and to move through these

amendments. my guess is some time in the next or so, they will vote on final passage of the bill. then it will go to president biden's desk who says he will sign it. he called on congress to pass this quickly. they just released this bill yesterday. it is more than a thousand pages. you can understand why a lot of lawmaker had complaints about how this came together. this is how this happens. this is what happens when you save things. >> this whole thing is ridiculous, disappointing, pathetic. how is it that we are still doing this when it comes to keeping government running? i have said this a thousand times. if this were any private business on planet earth, the ceo would be ousted, they would be disrupt, over and done with. but this is theoretically the most important business in america. our government. >> well, stephanie, this all could have been wrapped up in december. and they kicked this off into

the new year. because the speaker was worried about a rear guard action. if you cut a deal with the democrats which he knew he was going to have to do. so that is why this thing, it is not the way to run the railroad. i help negotiate the spending bills. it is all because of internal divisions within the house republican conference. they didn't want to face the reality of this inevitable bipartisan compromise with over 100 republicans voting for it and a whole lot of democrats voting for it in the house. was because of fear. too many of these members don't want to govern. they don't think it is their responsibility. so, many of them, by the way, they hope yes, then vote no. they don't want the government to shut down most of them. but they can't vote for a bill because they are afraid of some kind of a primary against them or you know, just doing their jobs.

>> okay, then if doing your job and reaching across the aisle and working with someone from an opposing party is something that you are going to get in trouble for, are we going to get to a point where they can't pass anything? >> i think we will get to the point where the republicans won't be in the majority anymore. they are just discrediting themselves. at every turn. they might do it to themselves which i don't think anyone really anticipated. but charlie is right. the writing was on the wall for this thing for months. everybody knew this was how this was going to end. it is amazing that marjorie taylor green is now calling for mike johnson's head because she used to be for kevin mccarthy who did all the same spending bills. so now she is against the guy who was supposed to take harder line on spending bills. it is mind blowing and i don't have an answer for you because they don't have an answer for themselves. there is no leadership, there is a vacuum.

>> so marjorie taylor greene is looking to push out mike johnson and democrats like tom swaze are saying no, we want to make sure we protect him. what is going on and specifically, what is marjorie taylor greene up to? she doesn't have any independent thought. she does whatever donald trump tells her what to do. >> she is certainly not going to do anything at odds with donald trump. she had some interest in the vice presidency. very close to president trump. or at least, presents herself as such. this is what she is up to i think. she helped kevin mccarthy. she got on the wrong side of the anti-government base of the republican party. and now, she is doing some make up. she wants to get rid of mike johnson. it is possible there is a little bit of payback here for him. at the end of the day, what you

have here is a significant number of republicans who are not just in what congressman dent said. there are members of congress who have been sent here to oppose the government continuing to operate. right? there is no appropriations bill they will ever vote for. there is no amount of clipping back spending they could say that is acceptable because of this primary challenge. it used to be they were all yes, some voted no. now there's a whole bunch of them. mike gallagher, enough of them retired. every time legislation comes to the front, certainly every time it is about the government spending any money to continue functioning. >> do you agree chaos in the house is not accident, but by design? >> yeah, there is an element.

there is an element within the house republican conference. they will never vote for this deal. they drag this out as far as they can. they make demands all the time. i want this, i want that. the way it works in washington, those who are voting for the bills get to determine the content. but what is so screwed up in washington, there are these members out there making these ridiculous demands. and leadership listens to that. and lets them help drive their process though they know they will not be part of the inevitable solution. those types of people need to be marginalized and ignored, frankly. but they keep bringing them in. it didn't start with mike johnson. this has been going on many years now. and it is really, it got to end. those who vote for the bills determine the content.

not those who are voting against the votes. very simple. >> sahil, what reporting do you have about what's going on in the house? >> it has been a very bad day for house republicans. let's start with that. first off. >> hold on, hold on. tell me when the last time you said it has been a very good day for house republicans. >> let me put it this way. i can't remember the last time they had this bad a day. it has been a very, very tumultuous and narrow majority as most of the guests on the panel will agree with but today was unusual. it distilled all the fractures and the disenchantment who decided at the age of 40, a rising star in the party he has done with this.

he wanted the next speaker after mccarthy was evicted to stand up and make clear that the election was legitimate. there were four stopgap bills in the meantime. mike johnston did three more of them and didn't lose his job. there is a real reluctance despite the activities of marjorie taylor greene to remove the speaker. you would be hard pressed to ask any of those eight republicans who evicted kevin mccarthy to explain what they have gotten out of it. they have nothing out of it.

nothing has really changed. >> connor, is there a way for democrats, i can't believe i'm asking this, to take advantage of the gop's infighting? >> yeah. if by take advantage, you mean just sort of do the job they were elected to. that was much closer last time than anyone realizes. i know some democrats in close and involved talks. it was extremely close. didn't quite get there. i think now that the republicans have lost a couple of additional members, it is closer and they are more disgusted with their own side. absolutely. i wouldn't call that taking advantage. i honestly think there is just a lot of people in the democratic caucus that would like to do what they were sent there to do which is pass the bills. >> so what about taking

advantage come november? right? when all of this chaos happened, i don't know that the average american understands that it is republicans holding things up. they just say man. government gets nothing done. i pay a zillion dollars in taxes and this government doesn't work with me. i'm disenchanted with the government and i don't truster it. is there a way for democrats to educate their constituents about what is actually happening on the hill? >> i think so. first of all, you are completely right about that. it did not matter which party was causing the shutdown or causing the controversy. you know, i bore the brunt of it. so, there is a way. i think what they would have to do is not make a deal with mike johnson behind closed doors to save his speakership. but make it out in public. tell the american people what the democrats are asking in order for mike johnson to have their votes. make it not just money for ukraine which is not

universally popular everywhere. make it the defense of social security. one or two important economic priorities knowing the economy is our biggest challenge right now. and let the american people see us demand something for them in order for mike johnson to stay in power. i don't think it should happen in a back room. >> charlie, do you agree with that? >> well i would say we moved into a system of parliamentary voting patterns. what we have just witnessed here with all this dysfunction and the appropriations bills, you know, is probably not going to matter that much at the end of the day. but i think house republicans do have a real problem in that their dysfunction has been on display for a long time over this session. and so, some people are going to remember on the margins i think it really does hurt republicans with enough voters. not the vast majority. but people vote red team blue team now. and the democrats are smart.

they try to educate the american people about who is responsible for the dysfunction. but you are explaining you are losing. i don't think it will be an effective strategy.. >> well right now that person responsible for much of the chaos is marjorie taylor greene. so what happens next with her motion to remove johnson? he says i'm not trying to fire him. he is just getting his pink slip. >> it is a warning shot. she has fired the motion, written out the piece of paper but not triggered it. what triggering it miens is there has to be a vote within two days to vote on whether to remove the speaker and that requires a simple majority of the house to rote in favor of that and the speaker will be removed. again, she has not done that, she is simply threatening it. this is her way of saying speaker johnson, you better not fall out of line with the things i want you to do or i be pull the trigger on this.

and she knows, everyone knows what she wants and doesn't want. she doesn't want any ukraine funding, a big part of what is coming next when the house returns from a two week recess. he says he is open to putting funding on the floor. now he has this new sword hanging over his head. he has to make sure every day he has the votes to prevent it and the chaos we are seeing is asymmetric chaos. this is identical size majority to the one nancy pelosi had two years. and, we didn't see any of these things. we didn't see her, you know, face the motion to vacate threats or see her have a rule go down on the floor. she passed a bunch of major bills with the democrats because they were willing to accept half or compromise. there is a difference with mentality with the democrats mostly ascending into power at the time with pelosi.

and the republicans who are mostly ascending on the power of the maga faction who have a higher tolerance threshold. some of them thrive on it. >> asymmetric chaos. you know it is a friday night at 12:15 a.m. on msnbc when sahil is saying asymmetric chaos. when nancy pelosi was in charge, he got the job done. gentlemen, thank you so, so much for being here. i appreciate it. that wraps up our very special breaking coverage on capitol hill. alex wagner tonight with my dear friend and work partner ali velshi continues right after the break. tinues right after the break.

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a claim of responsibility for a major terror attack came from a branch of isis apparently. over 60 people killed and over 100 people injured. the casualty figures come from the russian investigative committee which means they are tough for us to verify. now isis has provided no proof of its involvement in the attack. or for its claim that the attackers escaped safely. the claim of responsibility was posted on a social media site by the isis affiliated news agency amak. what we know from verified videos is what the gunmen started doing. they started firing on the crowd gathered for a friday

night concert by a popular russian rock band. and witnesses say the attackers tossed incendiary devices around as well. a fire then broke out engulfing the building. massive security breach comes days after vladimir putin cemented his rule over russia for another six years after a tightly orchestrated presidential election in which he faced no legitimate opposition. matthew joins me now. thanks for being with us, i know you have been working your sources, what are you hearing this could be? there is a lot of confusion as to who is behind it. the group has claimed responsibility. but that is not completely verified just yet. >> correct. this is really going to be i think moving into tomorrow and through the weekend. kind of the core issue of this story moving forward is who actually did this. and more importantly, who is the kremlin saying who did this.

that is really the crux of this. we have that claim from an isis media outlet that isis did it. the isis group was responsible. claiming at least some of the attackers seem to have made it back to their bases wherever they are operating from. so this might be ongoing. already from the kremlin, from russian sources, we are hearing all kinds of things but one of them really stands out to me. the editor and chief of russia today. one of i would say the two main chief propagandas in russia. we were warning about potential isis event. we don't know how specific that information was. but the fact this is coming from the u.s. you have people

close to the kremlin. appearing to reject that information. and continued silence from the kremlin for that matter. really highlights this will be the key question. this government, this regime i think is no stranger to large scale terror events. early on in putin's presidency. this is something we saw a number of times and each time it was used to justify a slide toward authoritarianism. harsher security measures. so much of what putin's government has become today. major steps were taken in the wake of events just like this one. so this all goes to say, this question of who did it, what happened here is going to be a little bit of a political football potentially. but it has huge implications where this goes from here. >> and you will continue to check on it. we will as well. matthew, good to see you. thanks for being with us. all right, still ahead, we are going to bring you new information about a number of

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being a journalist is about asking important questions and i'm about to ask the question that i never anticipated asking in my career. what do you imagine donald trump smells like? well, you don't have to guess, because the former president is now selling victory 47 perfume for both men and women. according to the product description, each 99-dollar bottle which i tried very hard to get my hands on tonight contains the quote signature scent of strength and success, a crisp opening of citrus. a cedar heart. a commanding presence. with a discerning enough nose, you might detect top notes of a cash grab. by a man whose bill for half a billion dollars has come due. monday is trump's deadline to post the bond needed to delay enforcement of the 464 million- dollar fine from his new york

civil fraud trial. if he doesn't find that money somewhere, the new york attorney general can begin seizing trump's assets including his seven springs golf course. as the deadline approaches, the former president is selling perfume and stocks. his social media program approved to take truth social public. trump's 60% stake in the company could be worth $3 billion. now, if those inflated share prices hold for a while, could trump use them to post his bond? i know just the person to ask. joining me now is neil peterson of the peterson and sons surety bond agency. we have been asking people who know this stuff all week. we have no idea how the world of bonds works. now let's start with the basics.

donald trump's got to do something on monday. and, he doesn't appear to be able to have done it. he doesn't appear to have gotten the bonds that he needs. what do you think is happening now and what happens on monday? >> i think he is working diligently to obtain the bond. if he doesn't post it, there is an uphill battle for lititia james to seize his assets. i don't think it will be as simple as going to 40 wall street as she has said to the press. so i think there is going to be accounts restrained. maybe some cash seized. bank accounts levied and a further proceeding to have them turned over to her which will take some time. >> so what do you think can happen? he says i can't raise the bond needed. she says actually, you can because you don't have to have it done as one bond. tell me what that means?

>> in theory, you could postbonds from a couple of different sureties. on the back end, there would need to be some sort of agreement. >> that's what, what order they get it in. >> yes. so getting ten company to agree to anything is very difficult. even if you had four or five it will be complicated. >> and the issue is if you have to pay, the bond company now has to pay the money, in exchange for that, in theory, you would have taken assets worth more than what you have to pay out. so what's the problem? >> the real risk is that judgments once they are affirmed on appeal have to be paid within five to ten days. if you pledge real estate, you cannot liquidate it quickly. that can take months to a year to do.

a company doesn't want to lay out $5 million pending recooping about the same or more with interest and penalties. once the real estate sold. the other aspect is that most real estate has a first or second position. no one want to have a second or third creditor on the property. and then lastly, if the former president gets reelected, a bond secured agreement is, a surety company has never had to execute an indemnity on a sitting president. >> so they will be like this is too complicated for us. >> correct. they are not very forward thinking companies. one of the oldest industries in the country. they are not reinventing. they are taking select risks. >> to if you were good at this, if you knew how to handle real

estate, big real estate in manhattan and you said you are probably going to lose your appeal, i'm probably going to be caused as the bond issuer to pay up in short order but i have this building or i have these assets. would you do that from the discount you can get? could there be a way that you could say all right, donald trump, you have to put out a billion dollars worth of property to get a half a billion dollar bond. >> it is unlikely. i haven't seen the former president's financial statement. but we are also not able to secure minority interest in properties so if he is the 15% owner, 30% owner, how do you secure that? >> now you are negotiating with other people who make decisions about whether that property will be wickly dated. >> correct. and we also have a very difficult commercial real estate market. office space is empty. finding the value for the properties. whether or not the debt will be refinanced or all major questions that go into the

underwriting equation. >> let me ask you about the company. the truth social merger. in theory he gets that money. does that come into the negotiation that maybe the guys will come into a whole lot of money real soon? >> so it is definitely going to be a factor but at the end of the day today if you cannot pledge or secure an asset, a surety company is not going to take it. i have talked to a couple of special acquisition companies and if they can't pledge their stock or have a very small float, it is not really an attractive proposition. let's say you take a billion dollars in that stock and you have to sell a billion dollars but the volumes ten $10. you will completely crash the stocks with the value of your asset that you used to secure the bond.

>> so it is possible he will try to do that? >> correct, it will most likely be other business partners or a specialty lender. >> there is talk as of monday, letitia james in theory can do something. she can go into a bank, can she get her hands on the money? >> so i'm not an expert in post judgment execution but i believe she will levy the bank accounts and that will be turned over to the sheriff or the marshal and turned over to the state of new york to satisfy a portion of the judgment. it is probably also going to be some further court proceedings to do so. so it will not be immediate on monday. maybe two or three weeks. >> how do you see this playing out? you seem to think donald trump has a plan. that he is just trying not to execute on whatever plan it is because he would like to use someone else's money for this if possible. >> so i think he has a plan. i think at the end of the day, when he is backed into a corner and has to post the bond, i am

confident that he is going to find a way. >> all right, neil, good to see you, thank you for this. i appreciate it. >> thanks so much. >> neil peterson is the owner of the peterson and sons surety bond agency. coming up, new details about the doj's investigation of january 6th under the attorney general and how it all unfolded. to what degree did choices made early on play right into the hands of donald trump and his propensity for delay tactics? that's next. propensity for delay tactics? that's next. meet the jennifers. jen x. jen y. and jen z. each planning their future through the chase mobile app. jen x is planning a summer in portugal with some help from j.p. morgan wealth plan. let's go whiskers. jen y is working with a banker to budget for her birthday. you only turn 30 once. and jen z? her credit's golden. hello new apartment. three jens getting ahead with chase. solutions that grow with you. one bank for now. for later. for life. chase. make more of what's yours.

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donald trump has literally done everything in his power to delay his january 6th criminal trial. at the moment, his argument of presidential immunity has put the brakes on trump's case as the supreme court prepares to consider it. and that gambit may work by pushing the possible trial date closer and closer to the election. today, we are learning new details about how the justice department's investigation into january 6th itself unfolded and how the process may have inadvertently played into trump's hands. the new york times reports that at the start of the probe, the attorney general merrick garland encouraged prosecutors to quote follow the connective tissue upward adding a directive that would lead to a dead end. follow the money. with that, he set the course of a determined and methodical if

at times dysfunctional and maddeningly slow investigation that would yield the indictment of donald trump on four counts of election interference in august of 2023. as the time notes as a result, prosecutors and the fbi spent months sticking to their traditional play book. they started with smaller players and worked upward despite the transparent well documented steps taken by mr. trump himself in public and behind the scenes to retain power. joining me now, senior writer for political magazine and a former department of justice federal prosecutor who specialized in financial fraud. thanks for being with us. >> thanks for having me. >> the investigation sort of unfolded like a financial crime investigation would. until you have enough evidence

to convict the people on top. why was that not the right strategy in this case? >> it is not necessarily how investigation works. if you have a manager class at the top, you can roughly analogize that to what we saw on january 6th. all these people at the bottom. and a hierarchy at the top. these pads pursuing the rioters and trump. that is the big problem with the premise underlying the justice department's approach here. we were following the traditional play book. moving ourselves from the bottom to the top. it never had to proceed like that. it is important to remember that it was just a few days

before january 6th that we all heard the call that donald trump had with georgia secretary of state antony blinken. that call alone and i wrote a piece on this that published on january 6th actually, that call alone warranted the opening of a federal criminal investigation as biden took office as soon as merrick garland took office. >> so that's the question that many people have. if there appears to be evidence out in the open, with participants who could be subpoenaed, what was holding them back? was there invert grace underway for the added pieces of information did not lend themselves? why wouldn't the obvious be the case? >> it is a very good question. and this piece doesn't really answer it. though it is remarkably good reporting.

my sense having done a little bit of reporting around this, whether it was a democrat pursuing a republican or some sort of partisan affair. and that sort of was something that merrick garland in particular was quite concerned about. some of the officials we heard from had me pulling my hair out. the piece quotes someone saying it was inconceivable that trump would return to the political stage. that person is quoted anonymously and my sincere advice to them is to stay anonymous forever because that was not true. >> there was nobody who believed that was true. i want to point out what you talked about. merrick garland. and the first anniversary of january 6th, merrick garland was asked by reporters about why this was taking so long. here is what he said.

>> we understand that there are questions about how long the investigation will take and about what exactly we are doing. our answer is and will continue to be the same answer we would give with respect to any ongoing investigation. as long as it takes and whatever it takes for justice to be done, consistent with the facts and the law. >> it is coming up against one another. >> the easiest way of the path not taken is to look at what the january 6th committee did. they are straight to the top. go to the principles. don't dillydally. with the writers and hoping that you can work yourself from them to trump years down the line. straight to the top, efficient. move aggressively. move quickly. and you know, i think that the

january 6th committee did a considerable service for the public just in revealing the pacts but they also demonstrated the justice department's approach was deeply flawed. >> i want to ask you about this as someone who has dealt with financial crimes in the past. department leaders believe that the best way to justify prosecuting mr. trump and the willard plot was to find financial links between them and the rioters because they think it would be more straightforward and less risky than a case based on untested election interference charges. look, we have the benefit of evaluating that thinking in hindsight. didn't turn out to be true. but, what do you think about the fact they started by taking that approach? let's connect the moneyment we hear about that all the time. follow the money. >> again, these things are not mutually exclusive. that is why the premise that the defenders here have adopted, it is not, it just simply is not true.

let's just remember again, trump was already on a recorded call before january 6th and it was apparent even from that call that trump might have criminal exposure under title 18, section 241 which is one of the statutes he was eventually charged under. it is an election fraud statute. these were not obscure issues, arguing about and advocating. i wrote a lot of pieces about this. and about my concerns that the justice department was moving too slowly and in particular, that there would be a problem if trump eventually tried to return to power. that he might be able to outrun the case and we are seeing that. >> these cases are all important. but the january 6th case, because it is election interference and talks about the right to vote and have your vote counted, it is the most important case. what is your sense of the likelihood of this going to trial before the election? >> look, i think it is unfortunately just a brass tax,

it is fairly low. i would like to see it go to trial. the public interest is very strong. and that the laws on the side of having it move forward before november. however, the supreme court is moving slowly. i am concerned that they may try to send it back with some instructions to conduct more legal analysis and preliminary fact finding. if that happens that could be the whole ball game. >> thanks for joining us tonight. we appreciate your analysis and expertise. the senior writer of political magazine. specializing in white collar crime. one more story this evening, the biden administration has a difficult new choice to make after israel's benjamin netanyahu vows to press ahead in gaza's civilian dense city of rafah. more on that after the break. n t the lungs and lower airways. but i'm protected with arexvy. arexvy is a vaccine used to prevent lower respiratory disease from rsv

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first and foremost, we want to see an immediate and sustained cease fire. as part of a deal that leads to the release of all hostages being held by hamas and other groups. and will allow much more life saving humanitarian aid to get into gaza. every day without a deal means

more needless suffering. this resolution gets us closer to that deal. >> today the united nations voted on a security council resolution that was put forward by the united states. a resolution that among other things supported an immediate and sustained cease fire of the war in gaza. now, while the vote was largely symbolic, this u.s. resolution contained some strong condemnations of israel. the strongest we have seen since the start of the war. it represents a shift in u.s. policy that is slowly bubbled over the last few weeks. however, the resolution failed. russia, china, and algeria all voted against it. arguing that the resolution was far too ambiguous and had no direct call for a ceasing of firing. secretary of state antony blinken was in israel meeting

with benjamin netanyahu. to deter an israeli offensive into the southern city of rafah which is the last corner of gaza into which over a million civilians are now crammed. even vice president kamala harris today told report earths she cannot see safe way for gaza to evacuate rafah. there is nowhere for these people to go and be safe, she said. but after that meeting, it was clear that this push by the united states would not be enough to deter benjamin netanyahu. it appears he is dead set on invading rafah and continuing the war. with or without the help of israel's biggest ally. netanyahu told reporters we have no way to defeat hamas without going into rafah. as i told secretary blinken i hope we will do it with the support of the u.s. but if we must, we will do it alone. to be clear, when it comes to military action, israel is

never alone. the u.s. supplies much of the money and material for its military. it has been such since the inception of the state of israel, the largest recipient of u.s. taxpayer funded since its inception. hence, president biden now has yet another choice to make as it relates to this conflict. will the u.s. use the tools at its disposal? control over a lot of the military aid that goes into israel to prevent what could become the bloodiest stage of the war or will it standby as netanyahu continues to be defiant with the continual financial and military backing of the united states. as palestinians continue to die from injury and starvation, the rhetoric about the brutality has indeed begun to change. the question is, will their actions? that's our show for tonight. you can catch me back here tomorrow and sunday at 10:00 a.m.

in my usual slot. ly be convening a special meeting of the banned book club to discuss one of the most banned books of all times. george orwell's 1984. my guests, james alastor who teaches a course on orwell and garrett conley. a banned book boy erased. a memoir about growing up gay in a fundamentalist arkansas family. a fundamentalist arkans family. edition of "the last word," defendant trump, which starts right now. good evening and welcome to a special friday edition of "the last word," focusing on defendant trump, donald trump has not come up with the magical solution to present