daniel patrick moynihan gets tonight's last word. the 11th hour with stephanie ruhle starts now. tonight, donald trump's first criminal trial is almost here. we will get new reporting on the witness list, plus tennessee republicans have their solution for school shootings.

they just passed a bill to arm teachers. and, don't worry, be happy. i campaign veteran explains why democrats should feel pretty good about biden versus trump as the 11th hour gets underway on this thursday night. good evening. once again, i am stephanie ruhle, and we are now 208 days away from the election , in just four days away from donald trump's first criminal trial. can you believe it? trump is accused of hiding hush money payments to cover up his affair with star stormy daniels. trump has pleaded not guilty and today, nbc news attained a list of potential prosecution witnesses. it includes mike cohen, who prosecutors say help funnel the money and trump spoke's person who prosecutors say was on phone calls with trump and conrad around the time of those payments. the witness list has other former trump organization employee is. the specific

charge, of course, is falsifying business records. each of them, 34 counts, has a maximum penalty of four years in prison and $5000 fine. manhattan d.a. alvin bragg says his office prosecutes charges like this all the time. new york state, in fact, has pursued that very charge more than 11,000 times over the last 10 years, and from all the talk you may have heard about this being the least important of trumps criminal cases, well, there is a brand-new poll out there that found nearly two thirds of american voters find these charges against trump at least somewhat serious. with that, let's get smarter with the help of our leadoff panel. peter baker, chief white house correspondence for the new york times. former u.s. attorney joyce vance

, and michael steele is here, former chairman of the republican national committee and former lieutenant governor of maryland. you know him as the cohost of the weekend right here on ms. joyce, what is your reaction to this potential list of witnesses. who stuck out to you? >> what sticks out to me is the whole package because one of the big questions here is whether prosecutors will ask the jury to rely on the testimony of michael cullen, who is someone who is known not to tell the truth. he has pled guilty to charges related to that and i think we now can see that is unlikely to be the case, that there are other witnesses here who will be used to corroborate cohen's testimony at every step of the way, perhaps documents they can introduce, and so it is this total package of witnesses that i think helps us start to understand what the prosecution's case will look like. >> and reminder, for those who say listen, he was a guy, he had an affair, he was trying to protect his family, his reputation, his life -- this is

about paying someone off to suppress information that could impact voters ahead of a presidential election, so who do you want to hear from most? >> so, if you are a good god- fearing christian, you wouldn't be having an affair in the first place so we wouldn't be here, would we? but since we are here, let's have the conversation, and i think come on, let's keep it real, but the reality of it is, you know, i do want to hear the tale of the women who were involved in this story. i think there is still a great deal of some backhanded discounting of their story, what happened to them, how they were used in this process by trump in many respects, how they were, you know, bought off, paid off for their silence because two things. one, he did not want his wife

to know, who is at home, nursing her baby boy, and he did not want all those wonderful christian evangelicals that he was courting and lying to about who he was, and then of course on the heels of, you know, the access hollywood tape, this may have been just too much, so yeah, i want to hear their stories. i want to hear what stormie has to say. i want to understand exactly how they were approached and what they were told because all of that to me, and joyce would understand this, particularly from a prosecutor's perspective, let me show you the man. let me show you who he is. let me show you how he operates. let me show you how he treats people. let me show you what he thinks of women in this position, and let me show you how he asserts

his power over them, thinking that $100,000, hundred and $30,000, hundred and $50,000 would be enough to shut them up because of his illegal behavior. >> then, in a very different scenario, peter, sitting there as a defendant in a criminal trial, is the ultimate of powerless. he did not have to be there for his civil trials. he chose to show up. for this one, he has no choice, as his private life is put under a microscope. peter, do you think trump wants to be there? he will be the center of attention. every news truck, every camera will be there, and as humiliating as that might be, trump is the originator of all news is good news and shamelessness is his superpower. >> yes, he once told campaign aides, he said, as long as they don't call you a pedophile, all news is good news and they are not calling him a pedophile but they are calling him a lot of

other things in this trial, none of which are very flattering. in some ways you are right, obviously it can't be a pleasant thing to sit there and be accused of one thing after another, particularly at a time when you're trying to convince voters in the republican base that you are there champion. on the other hand, i think you've got a point. he does love been center of attention. he will make this as much a show as he possibly can. he doesn't want it to be about the facts or the law. he wanted to be about the politics. he wants to be able to say to his voters, this is all part of a scheme, part of a witchhunt, it's all political. that's going to be his goal but up until now, we have not seen him on trial for criminal charges. civil trials have been important and obviously resulted in verdicts against him but this is a criminal trial that could actually deprive him of his liberty and while he may want to make a show of it, at the end of the day, he faces the threat of being in prison is the result of a conviction if he cannot convince the jury. >> michael, the washington post talked to legal experts. i can't even believe i'm acting

-- asking this, about whether a convicted felon in the united states can serve as president and they actually said yes, because the constitution does not forbid it. you used to run the rnc. can you imagine leaving the party through a presidential election where there is a legitimate chance that your nominee will in fact be a felon, and people don't seem to mind. >> yeah. it says a lot about us, doesn't it. it says a lot less about the party as it does about us as citizens, that we have even countenances this right now and put this man in the pole position to be the next president of the united states, having him leading in poll after poll. it's an abomination. it's embarrassing and it shows a level of desperation that we think that donald trump is going to somehow solve all our problems.

america has never looked to one person to do that. we have all kind of done it together in the past but that doesn't fit his narrative, so it is disappointing, and very frustrating that our constitution never anticipated that any individual who would be in this position would have the you know what to actually stop and say you know what? i'm going to be the next president of the united states. i mean, just the level of embarrassment before hand would stop you from doing it but there is no shame. there is no embarrassment with donald trump, you know. it is all about him, and i would really hope that the media does not get carried away here over the course of this thing. countdown clocks and all the other bs that goes into leveling this up. this is a sobering moment for this country and we need to treat it with that level of dignity and respect, and humility and embarrassment. we should be embarrassed as a country right now that we find ourselves with this man as a

potential next president who was going on trial for his criminal conduct, and could wind up being convicted, then what do we do? than what we say? i think we need to be very sober at this time and not get caught up in donald trump's crazy behind circus that it is all about him and as long as they don't call me a pedophile, it's good. well, you know what? i think having these types of counts against you as a former president, that is worse in many respects because little kids are looking up to you. families rely on you and all you got to show them is the backside of your hand, so i think we need to be careful about how we approach this week. >> in the words of melania trump, be better. joyce, there was a pretty interesting piece out on chris

carter dory. he says there is a chance trump's legal team will try to get the judge to give the jury the option of convicting him on muscle charges, misdemeanor charges. what do you think of that strategy to keep trump out of prison? >> this would be a solid strategy but i'm not sure it's one donald trump will avail himself of. this is the stuff of first-year criminal law when you are in law school and the concept makes sense. it is sort of a math-based concept. we've talked a lot about the fact that in order to convict someone on a criminal charge you have to prove all the elements of that. prosecutors have to prove all of that. sometimes you might have a charge for prosecutors don't approve all of those elements that there is a lesser offense

they can convict on so let's make that concrete. in order to convict him on felony charges, prosecutors will have to prove that when he falsified these business records, he did so with the intent to commit another crime and there has been some speculation at trial whether they will talk about tax charges or election fraud or what have you, but there is a range of crimes they can choose from. how trump's lawyers would implement this strategy as they would say look, yes, there might be proof here of falsification of business records, but there is no proof of intent to commit another felony so we want you to instruct the jury that if the prosecution in fact fails to prove that, they can convict only on this lesser included offense, which would be a misdemeanor and that is the strategic benefit for trump. it is a misdemeanor, not a felony, then trump can go out and try to sell that to people as this wasn't serious or it was a witchhunt or whatever he wants to, but that would, in essence, the a victory for trump because really, he's not

looking at acquittal. i think their best hope is they can pick a juror or two who will hold out against conviction, that it will be a mistrial, which means prosecutors could retry the case again. this notion of a lesser included offense, and only a misdemeanor conviction would be very appealing if they can convince the client, donald trump, to let them go there. >> peter, this trial is essentially about donald trump trying to hide information from the american people during an election, and it will be happening right in the middle of another election. how do you think the public is going to react when this trial actually starts? >> that is the open question. you are right that there has been a lot of conversation about how of the four different indictments, this is the less serious one. partly because it seems so

tawdry and unseemly. but the truth is there is a through line. the through line is, according to the allegations, at least, cheating in order to get power. that is essentially what he's been accused of in the georgia case in the january 6 case, as well. cheating in order to preserve power. as president, here he is being accused of cheating to obtain power by winning an election without letting voters know things they otherwise might be entitled to know and by cheating on the rules to do it, not simply hiding things, but by cheating on the rules that other businesses and other people who do business have to follow every day in new york, so there is a serious issue here. it is not just about sex. we seen that in this country before, sex scandals are one thing but when it comes to a business setting you have to follow the rules like everybody else. without the proof that he didn't do it, they have to prove all the elements. it hasn't been proved yet.

he has denied it. he has pled not guilty, but if he is convicted, it is part of a larger story here through all four of these indictments. >> michael, help me out on this one. republicans like to hammer the point about crime being rampant in america on president biden's watch. they call themselves the party of law and order. what does that look like, october, and down ballot republicans are running with a convicted felon at the top of the ticket? >> it's yummy. it's just yummy. it really is. i mean, i put a cherry on top of that, you know what i'm talking about? it's going to be that good because -- but you know what? here is the sad part. they don't care. they won't care because it is all about him. they are so consumed by him.

they are so much in whatever he wants and make it his successes their success, regardless of what it looks like or how it comes about, so yes. you know, the rest of us are sitting there going wait a minute. let me get this straight. you're sitting there talking about crime under joe biden. here's a good example of that. your guy. he is in the criminal justice system but it won't matter. it really won't matter because if it did, we wouldn't be here. he would not be the nominee. they would've dealt without a long time ago. they would've realized just how embarrassingly stupid and ugly they look by putting forward someone like this when there were quite honestly better qualified, better capable, certainly how shall we say, legal-free? you know, candidates. nikki haley, ron desantis and others who could have been the nominee, which would have made this a much more difficult race

for the democratic party, but no. they wanted to go with the guy who's going to court on monday, who stands a chance of being convicted, and yeah, let's run with that come november and see how america swallows it, see how much they buy, then again will say a lot more about us than it does about donald trump or the republican party. >> peter, let's stay with embarrassing, but shift to capitol hill. we are continuing to see this stand off between republican speaker johnson and republican marjorie taylor greene, who was threatening to give him the boot. where is this thing headed? >> marjorie taylor green is holding this over the speakers head, but she has not actually

called the vote and she doesn't do that because there is no vote for her at this moment. republicans don't want to go through what they went through last year and they don't have an alternative candidate. one reason they did not like kevin mccarthy is probably because a lot of republicans felt he had not been truthful with him. they did not like him in a personal way and they had a strong sense of bitterness toward him. they don't feel that way in the same way about mike johnson. they are mad at him about some of the choices he has made in some of his leadership options but they don't feel the same sense of anger at him that they did against mccarthy, so marjorie taylor green is kind of on her own right here and i don't think donald trump wants her to pull the trigger either because i think he recognizes that would not be good for him or the party either for the republicans to have another meltdown on the hill. >> joyce, i want to ask you about o.j. simpson. it has obviously been widely reported. he died today. you have a wealth of experience with our justice system. how did oj's murder trial change high-profile prosecutions, how the media covers them, how the public consumes them? as we are walking into one with donald trump come monday.

>> you know, there was incredible focus on this case in large part because it was televised, and i don't think it was just in prosecutors' offices that people watched it and dissected the action. it was really, in many ways, the great american pastime during that season. it has led to something that i think is so interesting in our popular culture, this fascination with forensic evidence that has spawned lots of different tv shows, that continues to really have a grip on the american psyche, this notion of evidence that proves crimes beyond simply witness testimony and having a headset and as she said but the more definitive proof that can come from scientific evidence, and of course, in o.j. simpson's case, that failure of proof that permitted a defendant who migrate number of people were convinced was guilty to walk free because the government did not prove it to the satisfaction of a jury.

>> right. joyce, peter, michael, thank you all for starting us off this evening. when we return, as president biden tries to close a godly pole, tennessee has a plan to get more guns out in the world. we are going to be speaking about the new effort. you've got to hear this, the new effort to arm teachers with one of the tennessee three who will be here next. later, with the war in gaza, biden's re-election campaign is facing threats from the right and the left, but i will be speaking with a democratic strategist who is not worried one bit. the 11th hour just getting underway on a busy thursday night. derway on a sybu thursda night. so, what are you thinking? i'm thinking... (speaking to self) about our honeymoon. what about africa? safari? hot air balloon ride? swim with elephants? wait, can we afford a safari?

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the biden administration took action today the end the so-called gun show loophole requiring anyone engaged in the selling of guns to register as a federally licensed firearms dealer and run background checks on any buyers. that would include not only gun shows, but flea markets and online. this could be the biggest expansion of federal background checks we have seen in this country in decades. meanwhile, this week, the tennessee state senate advanced a bill there to arm their

teachers and school staff in the face of local protests. if passed, the move would mark one of the states biggest expansions of and access since the deadly covenant school shooting that took place in nashville last year. here to discuss, tennessee state representative justin jones. you know him as one of the tennessee three. he was reinstated to his position one year ago yesterday after he was peacefully protesting gun violence. rachel wagner, a children's reporter at the tennessean and usa today network emma joins us. rachel, what should we know about this bill because it's almost too much to believe. >> right. there is a lot to unpack. first of all, the requirements for these teachers and staff members that might carry, and let -- are laid out in the bill . they would have to have a carry permit and complete annual training with local law enforcement, around 40 hours per year, and then the district director of schools, the principal and the cheese --

chief of law enforcement agency would have to sign off on it along with a mental health evaluation and an fbi background check. >> once they do that, a teacher could have a gun on their belt while teaching the third grade. >> yes, and another thing that has raised a lot of concerns is that they want need to disclose which staff members are carrying weapons and schools to teachers, parents, and possibly other teachers around them. >> representative jones, what is your reaction to this? what are people in your district telling you? >> people are outraged. you know, the tennessee republican supermajority continues to hold our state at

gunpoint and put more guns on the streets and now they are trying to force guns into our classrooms. i think the most asinine thing about this is that we live in a state where we have passed laws saying we don't trust teachers to pick the books in the classrooms. we don't trust teachers to pick their own curriculum about history but now we want to say we want teachers to carry guns in our schools when every parent will show up in our committees, showed up in her chambers, said please don't do this. more guns are not the solution and they will make our schools and children more unsafe. >> we don't even provide those teachers with the school supplies they need to do their jobs. rachel, what are parents and teachers saying about this? >> i would say a fairly wide outcry against the passage of the bill now in our state senate that has been rolling this week. it is yet to be taken up by our house, but as we run into that potential hearing, lots of folks are planning to continue their protest and speaking out against this over there concerns for all the ways states can go wrong. supporters of the bill have a different viewpoint for teachers, parents, students, i

have almost unanimously heard them say they are against it and worried about what it means. >> representative, what do you say to people who argue that schools have the option to opt out? is that good enough? >> it is not, and i want to point out that the majority of tennesseans are against this bill. 70% want common sense gun laws, so i want to be clear about that. gunshot wounds are the leading cause of death in children in our state and across this nation. people of showed up to our capital month after month saying we want laws that protect kids, not guns. we want laws that rein in the senseless terror and preventable tragedy of gun violence and i want to add that another bill being offered is not just arming teachers, but on the house side, they just passed a bill through committee to lower the age to a carry assault weapons to 18. this is a bill that is so extreme that the governor's own department of safety is saying we don't want this bill.

this is not something we can support, so what we are hearing in our state's people saying that our legislature is morally insane. we have a republican supermajority that has lost her mind, and passing laws just last week to honor the tennessee right bill the same week we are recognizing the covenant tragedy here in our state, a mass shooting that took the lives of 39-year-old and three adults and you're going to honor a gun? the only law that was passed was to protect firearms. what we are seeing is a republican supermajority that is beholden to the gun industry in the nra, and is not listening to the people of tennessee. >> representative, what do you think will happen when all of this ends up on the governor's desk? >> unfortunately, we have a governor who does not have a lot of political courage so he's going to not sign it -- sign it or allow it to take effect without his signature.

he bowed down to the extremists who have taken over his party and has done nothing, so what we say is that it's going to take people rising up. just this weekend in the senate chamber, we saw mothers and grandmothers and clergy escorted out by troopers because they refused to allow this law to pass in the comfort of silence. they shouted. they said shame on you. they said vote them out, because they are sick and tired of these lawmakers, republican lawmakers, refusing to act to protect kids and instead listening to their donors so they shouted and disrupted the session. they said we cannot allow this to happen without raising a dissent, and that is what we must continue to see and when we vote on this bill next week in the house, i hope that these mothers will continue to show up and fight for a state that honored our children and protects our children and listens to our teachers who say we want supply and fair pay. we don't want guns in schools. not one person in my district has said they want this law.

what they have said is they want supplies and better pay. >> there is someone in washington trying to do something on guns right now. i want to get your reaction to this new white house rule on the gun show loophole, and what kind of gun reforms do want to see in tennessee? >> this is an important step, closing this gun show loophole, expanding the definition of firearms manufacturers to online sales and gun shows his common sense. this is a common sense lot and that's what we are asking for in tennessee. laws like universal background checks, safe storage, red flag laws, a ban on assault weapons which we know is something that is worked before in our nation, that reduced these instances of gun violence and mass shootings. it can work again. it's going to take political courage. it's going to take doing things out of the ordinary. it's going to take folks who put the lives of people over

the profits of the gun industry and donations from the firearm industry. the majority of tennesseans and americans -- this is not an issue of left or right, but a moral issue of right and wrong. democrats, republicans, independents are in agreement that we must act to pass these common sense gun law measures that will protect us in our schools, when we go to movie theaters, concerts, all these places were we are seeing every day gun violence. people are tired of living this way and we don't have to live this way. this is a political decision, a choice of political cowardice and to the people of america, i hope we can continue to speak up and challenge this extremism. when we return, despite president biden's re-election challenges, our next guest has a message for democrats. chill. president biden has got this, when the 11th hour continues. otezla is the #1 prescribed pill to treat plaque psoriasis. otezla can help you get clearer skin. don't use otezla if you're allergic to it. serious allergic reactions can happen.

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with seven months to go before election day, president biden is facing headwinds. inflation has improved but is still higher than anybody wanted to be. voters say the crisis of the border is the top issue and the president is facing backlash within his own party for how he has handled israel and gaza. the polls show an incredibly tight race between biden and trump and there are democrats out there who are worried, but one presidential campaign

veteran is urging his fellow dems to calm down, and is here tonight to explain why. democratic strategist and consultant simon rosenberg. i am a big follower and fan of his work, so we want to start, simon. i've got to give you credit. he went against the crowd and correctly predicted there would be no red wave in 2022, so tell us why you think democrats aren't too worried about this election? >> first of all, it's great to be here and i am also a fan of your work over many years so it's a pleasure to be here tonight. my basic take on where things are right now is that joe biden has been a good president. the country is better off. we have a strong case for re- election. the democratic party is strong, unified, raising tons of money and winning re-elections across the country and what the republicans have, right? they have trump, who is the ugliest political thing we have ever seen in our lifetime and their party is an unprecedented dumpster fire. when i look at all this, i believe that over time, and i think of the general view of the campaign and people like me, is that as the general election began, the people

started paying attention in the campaign was turned on, we would see joe biden's polling numbers come up, and they have. we are in much better shape today than we were a few weeks ago, and i feel like the election is moving in a direction where we should all be quietly confident that we have, as you pointed out, that we got this. that if we execute and work hard, a lot of things are going to happen. things are going to change. that always happens in elections, but if we do the work and work hard i think we should be able to win in november. >> given, as you put it, the unprecedented dumpster fire that is trump and the republican party, why do you think polls are as tight as they are? do you just think they are not representative? look at the last few elections. when the pulse of been this tight, they are not even connected to what election results are. >> i think for most americans, they are not really paying attention. i don't think these polls have

any value. they can never predict the future. all they can do is tell you where things are today and i think vast amounts of americans are not paying close attention and what is important to realize is that when voters have had to pay attention, we keep over performing expectations and republicans continue to struggle. it has happened again and again, particularly since dobbs in the spring of 2022 where i really do think politics changed in america. i think there was a before and after moment and in the election since dobbs, we have continued to outperform expectations. the most recent example of that was in new york, just nearby for there was supposed to be a very close race and tom swazi won by eight points. that was supposed to be a great bellwether that was going to tell us a lot about the selection. so i think you have also seen it in trump. trump, the struggle that i mentioned, has shown up with trump in the early states. he has been underperforming polls in 2020.

he over per full polls in 2020. in this election he is underperformed polls. he's shown a sign of weakness that when people had to make up their minds they went with nikki haley or other candidates. at the end of the day, he really is an ugly figure. i mean, republicans have rallied behind a historically ugly candidate and what they have to consider in 2024 is far weaker and more integrated and diminished and that he was in 2020. they're having problems raising money. they're having enormous financial problems on the republican side, which is another sign of no confidence by republican voters in his leadership. >> then, do you think the panic other democrats are feeling is truly around fears that president biden is not delivering, or fears that the threat of donald trump is so great they have to take every single thing so seriously because our democracy is at risk? >> i think that is it. many americans would like to believe that we could get back to a time when you lose

elections in your democracy wouldn't slip away. the worry and fear that people have is legitimate. the key is that you need to channel that worry and fear into concrete action and democrats have been doing that. you have seen unprecedented amounts of money being raised, unprecedented levels of volunteerism and the democratic party. we are in the process of building the most powerful democratic political machine we have ever had because regular americans are answering the call. they are being challenged to fight for their democracy and millions of americans are stepping up to do so, so it should be very encouraging to us. one of the reasons we keep performing better than everybody expects is because of the work of the hundreds of thousands of millions of americans who are raising the money and making the phone calls.

in new york three, and five weeks, democrats made 2 million phone calls, 2 million phone calls into the house race. that is the kind of number of calls you would make in michigan in the general election, you know, in the entire general election a few years ago. every election got five handwritten postcards. we are seeing this outpouring of citizen engagement and it is giving us this extra muscle, which is another reason why i feel confident as we go into the election. >> maybe they don't call it strong island for nothing. thank you so much for being here. our next guest takes his love of basketball and uses it as a lens to view life and if you do not know this man, you should. you don't want to miss our keynote conversation with an amazing writer. he is even a philosopher. that is next. and really smart later i'm 70-ish. consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan from unitedhealthcare. with this type of plan, you'll know upfront about how much your care costs. which makes planning your financial future easier. so call unitedhealthcare today

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this book is on basketball. it's about ohio's most famous basketball player, lebron james, but it is not a

sportsbook. it's so much more than that. tell us. >> it's also a book about the passage of time and a book about what it is to love a place and to make it or make it out of a place. it is trying to juggle a lot of different themes life lends through basketball which helped me make sense of the bigger question. >> you talk about what it means to make it and more importantly, who deserves to make it. >> right. >> can you explain that. >> sure. i'd like to think of it broadly not just who deserves to make it in the sense of who deserves to make it to the nba or some larger platform, but who deserves a life that is sustainable that they can survive well in and someone who has lived many different lives to get to this life i have right now and i didn't believe myself capable of surviving all them. to have made it in these small increments to a place where i can look at it more patiently

and more generously, i would take that over many other forms. >> you spent some time in your early 20s in jail, didn't always have a place to live. what made you make that turn to start writing? >> i think i needed to foster a healthy imagination that was robust enough to dream a better world, not just for myself, but for multiple other people, a better world everyone could survive in or at least attempt to survive in well. there was a lot of dreaming on my own that flowed into writing. my writing is rooted in a depth of imagination and care and affection that i think came through struggle. through struggle i dreamed the world that i wanted to live in and i'm writing my way towards it inch by inch. >> you moved back to your hometown, columbus, ohio. >> yes. >> where you have been called the mr. rogers of columbus. how did that be and why?

i cannot think of a higher compliment. >> that is the highest compliment i've ever received perhaps. it's not intentional. i try to live with some level of care for my community and i'm curious. i'm very interested in people. i think the real doorway to loving people well is joyful questioning where are you from? what do you do? what are you interested in that we might be interested in? so much of my work is also reaching for these inquiries in i'm trying to share things with you in hopes you, too, might love them and then we have a common ground to open up a doorway to love each other well. perhaps that pulls me closer to mr. rogers than i expected, but that's a high compliment. >> you love to take pictures of sunsets. >> i do. >> many people roll their eyes and say it's corny and cliche, but it's not. >> i've embraced a level of corniness, but the truth is i am distinctly aware of the

amount of time that i am operating with and that it's not infinite. there were, it is important for me to slow down and consider the things some would consider mundane, the things we encounter every day, but they aren't the same every day. i can take 100 pictures of 100 sunsets. not all would be the same sunset. the sunset from my corner to your corner is not the same sunset. the sunset from my window today is not the same as from whatever window i'll be looking at tomorrow. to say i have considered that the sun sets differently from every corner of the world i can possibly touch is to offer a slow moment through which i can consider the world more generously. i think that keeps me aligned joyfully with the passage of time to say i have not considered every possible version of myself there is to come in the way that i consider that and keep considering that generously is to look at the monday dane things as not at all

mundane. >> i told you you were in for a treat. when we come back, as lewiston, maine, rebuilds after a deadly mass shooting, so is the bowling alley where it happened. how the owners are turning pain into peace when when "the 11th hour" continues. but now i have rinvoq. rinvoq is a once-daily pill that reduces the itch and helps clear the rash of eczema—fast. some rinvoq patients felt significant itch relief as early as 2 days. some achieved dramatic skin clearance as early as 2 weeks. and many taking rinvoq saw clear or almost-clear skin. rinvoq can lower your ability to fight infections, including tb. serious infections and blood clots, some fatal, cancers, including lymphoma and skin; heart attack, stroke, and gi tears occurred. people 50 and older with a heart disease risk factor have an increased risk of death.

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i gotta get this deal... that's like $20 a month per unlimited line... i don't want to miss that. that's amazing doc. mobile savings are calling. visit xfinitymobile.com to learn more. doc? the last thing before we go tonight just in time, it has been nearly six months since the horrific mass shooting in lewiston, maine, that left 18 people dead at a bowling alley in a nearby bar. now the owners of that bowling alley are planning to move forward, reopen it and make it a safe place again. >> reporter: justin juray grew up bowling here in lewiston, maine. so when the owner announced he was closing the business in 2021, he bought it just in

time. >> we were bowlers and we knew a lot of the people here and hated to see it close. >> active shooter incident. all available units. >> reporter: but last october his passion project was up ended when the gunman storms the bowling alley and a nearby bar, killing 18 people. what do you remember from that night? >> thinking that samantha had been murdered. >> reporter: samantha feared the same for her husband. >> and not knowing if he was alive, i didn't find out for 2 1/2 hours he was alive or not. >> reporter: even nearly six months later the emotion still so raw. >> yeah. >> reporter: heartache, guilt, nightmares and triggers have plagued samantha and justin's days and nights. >> i didn't think that i'd ever be able to walk in here again, let alone reopen the business. >> reporter: but slowly a change of heart and a feeling that lewiston needed just in time recreation. >> we have all new paint on the

walls. >> reporter: it's now in the final stages of renovation days away from reopening. >> the people that we lost loved this place. i could hear bob violet just telling me you can't give up. >> reporter: you feel like this is what the victims would have wanted. >> absolutely. >> reporter: bob and lucy violet were killed while volunteering with the youth league, just as they did every wednesday night. son john and his wife cassandra moved back to maine to continue that legacy. >> i look over at the lanes over here. that's where youth league wednesday night practice was, came in on a lot of wednesday nights with my own kids myself. so i try to remember the good things. >> we spent a lot of hours in this bowling alley, years and years and years here with them. so i kind of feel close to them by being here. >> i hope my presence encourages others and hopefully we can move forward. >> reporter: pressing on the only way