look at those green market stocks, nothing but shooting up. basically because biden has created a stable oil market for the first time in our history, that some of the most crazy moments in the oil market, when you have seen nothing like stability, we have seen nothing but stability. it is a tremendous stress. >> you know what? it is a really story, i think it does connect with the green transition. price volatility is the number one threat because as soon as things hit five dollars a gallon, everyone is like oh, i don't want this green stuff that stability is key. dan decker, thank you very much. that is all in on this thursday night. alex wagner tonight starts right now. >> i'm going to say, i think you're more animated about that possibly than the price of eggs. >> i am! this is one of my favorite stories because it is fascinating and wild and no one knows it and it has really been a seismic change in how international oil markets function. >> a huge data point, or an

argument for maybe some more time for joe biden in the white house. >> yes, i think probably. >> thank you, my friend. president biden was in normandy today, commemorating the 80th anniversary of d-day. and while he was there, he was asked about something totally unrelated. whether he would issue a pardon for his son, hunter, if a federal jury in delaware convicts the younger biden of felony gun possession. here his out president biden responded. >> as we sit here in normandy, your son, hunter, is on trial. i know that you cannot speak about an ongoing federal prosecution. but let me ask you, will you accept the jury's outcome, the verdict, no matter what it is? >> yes. >> have you ruled out a pardon for your son? >> yes. >> pretty clear answer there. but again, this is a yes or no russian. to be honest, shouldn't be that hard to answer. joe biden, as president, with the power to pardon anyone he

wants at the federal level will let his son go to prison if he is found guilty by a jury of his peers because that is how the american justice system is supposed to work. now compare that answer to former president donald trump's answer. on trump's very last day in office, january 20th, 2021, he issued more than 70 pardons. and there were several scandalous names in that stack of pardon papers. the guy who had been charged with cyberstalking and x who got on trumps radar mostly because he was friends with jared kushner. there was the x, husband of trump ally, jeanine pirro. not exactly a mystery how president trump came into contact with him. but maybe most notable of all, was former trump campaign manager and chief white house strategist, steve shannon. bannon had been charged the year before was allegedly duping thousands of trump supporters out of millions of dollars, cash, by claiming that he was crowdsourcing money to

build trumps border wall. he was called, we build the wall. to be clear, they did not. but as president, trump made abandoned federal charges just proof, disappear. typically when a president pardon someone it is because the president disagrees with the law that person broke or because the president thinks that person is innocent. that did not appear to be the case here. three of bannon co-conspirators in the we build the wall scheme were not pardoned. they went to trial, they were found guilty, one is serving three years in prison, one is serving four years in prison, and one is serving five years in prison, as we speak. so donald trump does not appear to have pardoned steve bannon because he thought steve bannon was innocent, he appears to have pardoned steve bannon because steve bannon is his guy. to be clear, bannon still faces

new york state level charges for the we build the wall scheme. but at a federal level, trump got him off the hook. i am not just bringing up steve bannon here because it is a stark contrast between biden's understanding of the rule of law and trumps. yes, the difference is stark but steve bannon is also top of mind today because today, bannon was ordered to go to prison for something else entirely. today, a judge in d.c. ordered bannon to report to prison by july 1st for a totally different charge. donald trump immediately took to truth social to call this order a total and complete american tragedy. if you think maybe, in the eyes of donald trump but steve bannon committed an actual crime here. it's a number of 2021, the house january 6th committee subpoenaed steve bannon to ask him what he knew about the january 6th capital attack. and they had very good reason to. here is bannon on his podcast, the day before the insurrection, january 5th, 2021. >> so tomorrow morning, look,

what is going to happen, we're going to have president trump speaks at 11. we have a lot more news and analysis. i tell you this, it is not going to happen the way you think it is going to happen. it is going to be quite extraordinarily different. all i can say is strap and, the posse, you have made this happen and tomorrow it's game day. >> strapped in, tomorrow, it's game day. again, that was steve bannon, the day before january 6th. but when the house january 6th committee subpoenaed him. bannon refused to cooperate, so he was charged with nontravel and he was convicted by a jury of his peers. steve bannon may believe himself to be a martyr here but he is really just a criminal. >> the entire justice department, they're not going to shut up trump, they're not going to shut up navarro, they're not going to shut up

bannon and they are not going to shut up maga. all this is about one thing, this is about shutting down the maga movement. shooting down grassroots conservatives. shutting down president trump. there's not a jail bill that will shut me up. >> peter navarro there, that is because mr. navarro is actually already serving a four month sentence right now because he also refused to comply with a congressional subpoena, asking what he knew about january 6th. and then, he is in good company because, wow, donald trump is just surrounded by convicted and accused criminals. steve bannon, peter navarro, roger stone, allen weisselberg, mark meadows, rudy giuliani, john eastman, jenna ellis, boris epstein. how long do we have here? the list goes on and on. the republican party today is the party led by a convicted criminal who is surrounded by a sea of convicted and accused

criminals. wrap your head around that for a second. and then after you do that, recall what the republican party is saying about itself. >> look, we are the rule of law team. we believe in the rule of law. >> 20 now, new york democratic congress, dan goldman, and george conway, a contributor to the atlantic magazine. gentlemen, it is good to see you. i need to first start with you, dan. in terms of what democrats do here. when you read the list of convicted and accused criminals that surround the frontrunner for the republican nomination, a person who himself is a convicted felon, what is the appropriate way for democrats to talk about this? >> to call it out like it is. the fact of the matter is, donald trump had a trial that is like every other defendant in this country, where a jury of 12 impartial jurors swore an oath to consider just the facts

and evidence applied to the law. and they unanimously decided, beyond a reasonable doubt, donald trump had every constitutional right that anyone else gets. that is the rule of law. when the speaker johnson and other house republicans started attacking this prosecution because they don't like the outcome, that is the opposite of supporting the rule of law. and the reality is that americans, on november 5th, are going to have a very simple choice. who do you want in the oval office? a convicted felon, or not? and that is where we are. >> i mean, it is even, probably one step beyond that. it is not just, here's a person that doesn't have respect for the rule of law. here is a person who is populating the upper echelons of his campaign and his inner circle with people who are criminals, who are accused criminals. >> as you said in the intro, he is a criminal, swimming, a sea of criminals.

and the republican party has become the party of criminal has they are positioned, the only thing that they stand for now is we support the criminals. we support these people, they are persecuted by the rule, by the people who seek to enforce the law against them. a sickly saying that if we do it, if our people do it, they are immune from the law. the law will apply to everyone else. and that is essentially, what we are seeing is we are just seeing, this cultish control of a political party, is simply, it's singular purpose now is to elect, defend, a criminal and from going to jail. let's be honest here, the reason why he is running for president is because he wants to make the world a better place. it is not because he wants peace on earth he wants to stay out of prison.

>> yep. >> this is the only way he can do it. >> it is audacious, again, maybe even one step on that because mike johnson is not only just defending donald trump, not only suggesting that, but saying that the republican party is the rule of law. if you look in the dictionary under the term gas lighting, that's it. mike johnson suggests he is. >> gas lighting the rocket fuel. >> i just think, dan, there has been a lot of reported debate inside democratic circles. circles about how far joe biden should go in the campaign and the re-election campaign on this topic. i wonder if you have a thought on this because there are, you know, fairly wise and established, craddick strategists say if he goes too far out on this convicted felon think, if he focuses too much on his criminality thing, he is going to alienate voters right in the middle. >> the convicted felon aspect of donald trump is one piece to a larger effort to completely undermine and overtake our

democracy. so it is not just that he is a convicted felon, that we are going to emphasize. it is that he is a convicted felon who has already threatened every global alliance who will implement a national abortion ban, who will eliminate our government civil service, who will politicize and use our most top-secret intelligence information for his own benefit, who will pardon his buddies and also roger stone, who, by the way, had information that a potentially criminal information against him. and he will try to prosecute his enemies. all of this is straight fascism. it is not democracy. and the fact that a jury of 12 found him guilty and of 34 felonies, is part and parcel of the entire ethos of donald trump, which is that the law doesn't apply to me, i am above

the law, only i am above the law, and i will take down our democracy in order to save myself. >> and i absolutely hear what you're saying. there is an ecosystem of authoritarian and fascist tendencies that surround this criminality, george. that hasn't cut through in the same way that potentially the felony conviction does. i'm going to quote sarah and the bulwark today, who has been doing some small focus groups, but nonetheless, indicative of where the voters were going to swing this election are on this. the double haters, people who don't like trump and don't like biden are not only united ideologically but they are united in trusting the judicial system over trump, at least for now. these voters don't speak for the majority, as swing voters, they are marginal but the margin will decide this race. the conviction confirmed what many of them already knew, trump is unfit for office. so i mean, how deeply meaningful do you think this is? >> i think it is completely,

extremely meaningful. if we have one fifth of what the congressman described, it should be a no-brainer to begin with. in fact, you have understated, you can't, you can go on and on and on with all the illegality that he is engaged in. we haven't talked about the fact that he is an adjudicated we haven't talked about the fact that his money is convicted of crimes for kevin talked about the fact, that he stole classified documents and should have gone to jail for that. >> it is like how much time is there? >> and they are things we probably don't even know about. think about it all tied together. to me, i have been on this case for several years. the man is a narcissistic sociopath if you look in the definitions of what a narcissist , a pathological narcissist, a pathological sociopath, or psychopath is, this is who, he is the poster child of that.

and that ties into the a tour authoritarianism. it ties into the criminality. ties into the misogyny. it ties into the racism, ties into the desire do the bidding of vladimir putin, because they are one-of-a-kind. it ties into everything and explained everything that donald trump is, which is, he is as morally bereft, depraved human being, who should not be in any position of power. >> i will tell you, part of the problem is, i talked to people all the time. say well, i like donald trump's policies on this or on that. you know, george and i have very different policy views. but it is irrelevant if our democracy will not exist. and so i say this all the time, i disagree with very many of george w. bush's policies. but i always knew and believed

that he cared, first and foremost, about this country. we just had a different view of how we are going to get there. i long for those days where we can have those real policy discussions, we cannot have them with donald trump because the threat to our way of life and everything that we know in this country is too great. >> and on june 6th, of all days. you see those moving moments. >> d-day. >> and omaha beach. you know, we all, were brought to tears as americans. donald trump thinks those people who died, on those beaches, on those cliffs, and buried in the cemetery, he thinks they are suckers and losers. >> i have to say, you know, president biden was asked about in that interview today, the republicans are saying the system is rigged against them at the precise moment that the president of the united states is saying in an interview, saying he will not interfere

with the federal prosecution and potential conviction of his own son. these republicans truly underestimate the american public, that they are going to believe that the system is somehow rigged, as it prosecutes the president's own son. it really is playing the american public for suckers, congressman. >> absolutely, and the problem is there is such an ecosphere. because very few of them are probably watching us right now. >> hopefully more and more. >> i agree. but that is part of the problem is in how we break through. and that is why those double haters are so important. because they are paying attention to both sides of things. and when you hear, on d-day, you know, the former president talking about going after and prosecuting his enemies, and you see the current president making a really stirring, meaningful speech, about the

importance of service, the importance of a freedom, the sort of democracy and all of those people who have died for our country and our country's way of life, which is democracy and the rule of law, that is what this election is about. >> totally, it is the starkest contrast imaginable. thank you both for your time, guys. coming up, repubs try to report black voters by conjuring jim crow. discussing that strategy, coming up. but first, american presidents can't part estate convictions, especially their own state convictions but donald trump has a plan for that. more on the legalese behind that, coming up after the break it removes 9ease and grime in half the time. dawn powerwash has 3 cleaning boosters

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the new york criminal case against donald trump is probably the only one of the four that he is currently facing that will reach the sentencing stage before the november election. two of those cases, of course, are prosecutions that will likely be shut down by trump justice department if, is a big if, donald trump is re-elected president. and then there is georgia, a state-level case with prosecutorial independence, the d.o.t. can't touch and for which trump cannot pardon himself. same goes for his gap state conviction. now trump knows all this quite well, which is why he is doing everything in his power to shield himself from any current or future state level criminal charges, regardless of whether he wins the election or not. and he is doing it with the help of his own party in congress. the speaker of the house is now considering a bill to give current and former american presidents the option of removing state or local prosecutions into a federal court instead. joining me now is duncan leven

assistant u.s. attorney for the eastern district of new york. duncan, you are my legal sensei. these help me understand. on its face, it would seem like donald trump pleads a better deal and federal courts and state courts, right? can you talk about the strategy there? >> so much for state rights, right? this is, by their thinking, the president, or the former president is above the law in all 50 sovereign states in the united states of america. and you can think of all of these crimes that are not federal crimes that don't cross state lines or have anything to do with interstate commerce. just a purely state crime. i'm thinking, for example, shooting someone in the middle of fifth avenue. the local d.a.s office will not be able to prosecute it anymore. it would have to be removed, and federal court for a federal prosecutor as opposed to prosecute where there is no statute available. you can see where this is

going. not only is this unlikely to pass the democratic senate. but it is unconstitutional. >> that was my question. >> the current state of the law is that state prosecution, criminal prosecution can be moved to federal court if the conduct underlying it will lead somehow, comes under color of federal office and there is some sort of federal defense to it. you saw this most recently with mark meadows. he tried to move the election interference case in georgia to the federal court, saying that this came from his time as chief of staff of the white house and that got rejected and sent back down to the georgia state courts but that is really this arises. so i think this really fars baltimore to the category of sort of performative politics than anyone writing this who has any knowledge of criminal law or constitutionality or anything. >> you are saying the house republican conference isn't concerned. >> shocking, i know. >> i do, wonder, though.

when we do talk about what levers there are to pull in and around immunity. we are waiting for this disc is decision, right? they very well could confer some limited immunity on donald trump for certain activities in and around what he did in office and thereafter. i do, i do wonder whether that community push could affect any of the state-level prosecution, as well. >> the real answer is nobody knows because nobody knows what the supreme court is going to do. they have taken a long time they haven't ruled yet. we are extending a ruling and mr. trump is asking for something very broad. he is asking for immunity from criminal prosecution, not only around the activities carried out as part of the core part of his presidency. but this quote unquote, perimeter activity that somehow relates to his presidency but is further removed from it. i think the answer is probably that it is unlikely to affect the two state cases can really, just because the facts here. remember, this is something

that actually got tested in the new york courts because when mr. trump got indicted, he brought the case to federal court and he referred to judge hellerstein, who is a federal judge, and other claims that he made. he made this claim about presidential immunity and judge hellerstein said that mr. trump had not presented any evidence at all that hiring and paying your own personal attorney leads to your core constitutional duties that paying hush money to a porn star as part of your duties. shocking, or that, covering up a conspiracy to promote your election by unlawful means as part of your core constitutional duties and so, the biggest insult you could give to a defense attorney is to say that they don't even come up with a colorable argument. that means you know nothing. you did not even try. so the georgia case, arguably, has more to do with his duties because it relates to an election. but even that, you're talking about whether it relates to even remotely relates to his

constitutional duties and calling elected official and having that ossified election results for pretend that there are electors or come up with fake documents, fake collector or document. i don't think any of this relates to the outer, outer perimeters of what he is arguing here. so it is unlikely to carry any water. but with some of these judges, and the supreme court these days, where they are flying flags upside down. you really don't know what they are going to rule or how they are going to take it up. >> when they are, i do wonder, as we talk about judges, what you imagine the prosecution in the new york case is going to ask for in terms of sentencing for trumps 34 felony convictions. >> they are going to ask for jail time. and for good reason, it is not politics. it is because the case called out for jail time. i don't think that is a political statement. i think it is because, and you can argue, this is somebody who has lived a law-abiding life for a long time.

it is a low-level felony. it is his first criminal conviction. it is nonviolent. you can also argue, on the other side i think this is the way that the prosecution will see, likely the judge. that to the extent that the legislature envisioned a felony being punishable by four years of jail, this is the case that screams out for it. this is the case where the falsifying of this records relates to subverting the election to the presidency. michael cohen to prison for three years are basically the same conspiracy. all the different sovereigns, it was the federal prosecution, it was the state prosecution. and michael cohen was not a leader of that conspiracy. donald trump was the leader of the conspiracy. michael cohen was a henchman there. he is somebody who is carrying out orders. so if there is parity in sin sitting, called out for a jail term. also this is somebody who has been repeatedly violating the gag order. >> which hasn't been adjudicated yet. >> even recently, and that 33 minute speech he gave, he mentioned him by name.

he was on newsmax the other day calling the jurors, which, you know, the judge is very concerned with what donald trump is saying about these jurors. he was talking about the jurors and how he didn't get a fair trial with them. so judge merchan is really clear with donald trump and saying if you violate this gag order, you are going to jail. so he has put him on notice about it. i think when you put all this together, the prosecution is going to ask for jail time. i think there's a really good chance of it. >> okay, duncan. these come back on july 11th when we have sentencing. because i am eager to hear your thoughts on that. thank you, my friend. still ahead, tonight. make america great again by reversing some rights? this week, one republican congressman used that argument when pitching donald trump to black voters. my friend and colleague, joy reed, joins me to talk about that story, coming up next.

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i got indicted, but then i got indicted a second time and a third time and a fourth time. and a lot of people said that that is why that lack people like me because they have been hurt so badly and discriminated against. and they actually viewed me as i am being discriminated against. >> that was donald trump in february, saying that his multiple felony indictments were actually a reason black people should vote for him. quick reminder here, that donald trump is a man who took

out a full-page ad essentially calling for the execution of five wrongfully accused black and latino teenagers. a man who is sued by richard nixon's justice department for housing this cremation against lack renters. reportedly told one of his casino operators that laziness is a trait in blacks. he promoted the racist arthur conspiracy about our nation's first black president. he reportedly told white house staff that haitian immigrants to america all have a.i.d.s., and he once held a private dinner with a white supremacist who wants to bring back segregated water fountains. i could go on. now donald trump believes his criminal conviction puts malik with communities that if a systemic injustice. something that, as president, trump claimed did not exist. >> some african-american communities actually have said it is systemic. where do you stand on that?

>> i don't believe that. i think the police do an incredible job. >> trumps, black people love me because i'm a convict argument is as absurd as it is insulting to people of color. the notion that trumps suffering at the hands of the criminal justice system mirrors the suffering faced by people of color in the criminal justice system that notion has become a real thing inside the republican party. here is north carolina republican congressman, dan bishop, talking about conviction earlier this week. >> the people who are engaging in vindictive prosecution, using it, doing it, and rich, they don't go into a fair fight. they go into a place where no other fight is unfair. it is as bad as it was in alabama in 1950. if the person happened to be black in order to get justice. >> as it was in alabama in 1950, if a person happened to be black that argument is not

just an ill-advised talking point, it is officially part of donald trump's campaign strategy. today's south carolina senator, trump veepstakes contender, tim scott, announced that his super pack is launching a new $14 million ad campaign to woo black voters. he believes trumps convictions would help conservatives win over black men who are, quote, so fed up with this two tiered justice system. but believe it or not, that may only be the second most insulting pitch to black voters from trump allies this week. on tuesday, republican congressman, byron donalds was in philadelphia for an event and attracting lack voters to the trump campaign, and byron donalds said this. >> through jim crow, the black family was together. during jim crow, more black people were not just conservative, white people have always been conservative minded, but more black people voted conservatively and hew,

lyndon johnson, and going down that road, now we are here. >> that is a republican congress meant telling a crowd of black voters in a key swing state that things really went downhill after jim crow ended in the civil rights era began. now byron donalds has spent the last 24 hours trying to clarify those comments, including just this evening with my colleague, joy reed. we are going to show you how that conversation went and talk about it with joy herself, coming up next help your party set-up pop, and new things to help you fall in love with your family room again. when you want one-of-a-kind items to give your home a little refresher... etsy has it.

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today mark today with no major desistance from the supreme court, while we await several significant rulings from donald trump's claims that he is immune from prosecution to the availability of medication for abortions. all that, very much hangs in the air. after the controversy surrounding justice samuel alito, after it was reported that the flags associated with the january 6th insurrection, two of those flags were raised over these two of alito's homes. the justice blamed his wife for flying one of those flags, saying it came after a very nasty neighborhood dispute. but it was later discovered that the alito's were flying that flag nearly a month before the fight with their neighbor. and now that neighbor is speaking out. >> at best, he is mistaken. but at worst, he is just outright lying. and that interaction, she

approached us, started screaming at us, used all of our full names, which, to me, felt like a threat because you are a stranger, we don't know you. you don't know us, how do you know our full names? and i just, i started yelling, how dare you, because they both were there at the same time. i said how dare you, you are on the highest court in the land, you represent the supreme court of the united states, you are behaving this way, you're yelling at a neighbor and harassing us. how dare you? shame on you. >> joining us market joseph stern. mark, i was very interested in what this neighbor had to say. first of all, because her account differs from that of the justice, which seems significant. but also, you know, there has been a lot of talk about him recusing himself in today, justice alito did recuse himself on a minor case relating to chapter 11 bankruptcy. can you talk about the sort of, the dissonance there between his desire to recuse him from one case that has nothing to do

with a major, major scandal that surrounds him right now. >> yeah, so justice alito is one of a few justices who owns individual stocks and still trades those stocks, as well. discovered when chris gardner, reported that he sold a stock and bud light during a controversy when bud light had a transgender spokeswoman. and he recused himself from a decision today, almost certainly because of his ownership of some individual stock, probably, about a few thousand dollars. almost as if to say, yeah, i can do this when i want to and to remind us that he is not doing it when he doesn't want to, which is in some of the major cases to come before the court, including, as we should keep saying over and over again, donald trump's prosecution for crimes relating to january 6th, which he seems hopelessly inflicted on in the legal sense that he should not be sitting on this case.

you know, the interview with the neighbor confirms some information that the washington post and new york times have previously reported, which is, as you said, that flag was flying before the conflict reached a boiling point. it really seems indisputable that martha and alito was supporting stop the steel. when justice alito denied that in his letter to congress, he wasn't just spinning the fact, he was potentially committing perjury in a letter to congress, which is itself a very serious federal offense. >> does anybody hold him to task for that? or can congress? >> it certainly seems like congress isn't going to or isn't even going to try. the since i am getting, and i've been pressing senate democrats on this, to say what is your plan here? they are throwing up their hands and say look, the election is getting closer. we are trying to confirm judges. that is the message that they are trying to send to the base. maybe we aren't holding alito to accountability but at least we are getting some rate judges

through. >>, to be clear, the judge is being appointed by joe biden are wonderful. but they cannot undo the corruption and the ill gains that are being secured by a supreme court that includes sam alito and clarence thomas, sitting on cases they have no business sitting on. so i do see this extraordinary dissonance, not just with alito's whole story but with how democrats are approaching it. as though they can make up for their hands-off attitude to the supreme court by appointing people to the lower court. you know, those good people in the lower courts will be reversed every time by alito and thomas and their ilk unless democrats try to tackle this and impose real penalties on justices who break the rules that they themselves have claimed to follow. >> especially as the court is packing four or five terms worth of what buster cases into one term we're talking, right now, there are 29 pending decisions that we are waiting for from this court. i think 16 of which are major

cases. the fact that we haven't heard boo about the mark. how do you read the court's silence right now? the fact that they are going to effectively jam these decisions into the last remaining weeks of june. the court is out as of july 1st, right? >> the supreme court sets its own deadline. usually arbitrary for when they will finish eating out opinions. it is typically the end of june, at the latest, early july. they are going to pack in some the blockbusters into the next three or four weeks of news cycles in the hopes, i am certain, of having them get lost to the public, as we approach july 4th, especially peer people start tuning out. and this is the grand strategy of this court. the conservative justices are greedy for these cases. i want to be clear that they had taken up a bunch of issues. they did not need to resolve. they have prematurely waited into major cases because they are going to use them as vehicles to shift the law to the right. they are packing and all of these barn burners into a

single term and now they are poised to dump them all on the public in rapidfire succession so that we can barely process one before the next drops. and i think what that means, it is the friday news dump from for the next three or four weeks, we are just going to keep getting these major decisions, and have a limited ability to respond to them, the political branches will have a limited ability to push back in ways that they might be able to. because before they know it, the next one will drop. guns, abortion, immunity, the environment. it is all going to come letting the zone and we are going to struggle to really kind of process it all. and then the justices will fully for the summer and hope that the new cycle just fizzled out. >> that is such a cynical assessment of the timing here. i am not trying to question you on that. but have we seen, is there anything comparable in recent supreme court history in terms of basically, waiting to do an end run around the public and the media when you're issuing a

really controversial ruling with landmark importance? >> no, this is new. as recently as like five or six years ago, the supreme court still had only a handful of what busters each term. . strategy, and part of it is, that conservatives don't know how long they will have the super majority. it could end at any time. health could get in the way, whatever. a scandal could get in the way.

although it seems like -- [ laughter ] >> i like the scandal has already gotten in the way, mark. >> something could change the way the court is constituted and they want to get it all done now. they have learned the lessons when, they had to put a bunch of those cases on hold and set those issues aside for a few years because they lost their votes they don't want that to happen again. that is another part of this tactic is just getting this all done as quickly as possible while they have got the votes. they got them right now, who knows how long it will last but they will get it done. >> speaking of supreme court justices enmeshed in scandal, claris thompson thomas, tomorrow is the release of the justices financial disclosure record reports. i know because you tweeted this out, fix the court, release a list of gifts that justices have received in the last two decades. and wow, the reported gifts for justice clarence thomas, i don't know if you at home can see these numbers here. he is by far and away the person who has received the most gifts.

an estimated $2.4 million in reported gifts and estimates he received up to $4 million in gift sf. mark, is there no, we just move on? is that okay here? >> rather than reiterate how utterly broken that our system is. there is seemingly no accountability for justice who takes millions of dollars in gift sf, i want to point out some of the other numbers at that chart. look at some of the liberal justices and moderate justices. they are not participating in the same racket. some of these justices like souter, even cavanaugh, they only have a few hundred dollars worth of gifts that they have seen. they are trying, to some degree, so play by the rules. and the point i want to make is that it is possible to serve as an ethical justice.

it is possible to say these are the guidelines that both congress and the judiciary have said and i'm going to work with in them. clarence thomas has decided he is above those rules. and quite literally, above the law. and that alito set him apart. i think even from someone like sam alito who comes in second, distant second, having accepted many gifts from billionaires. but it is still not on the scale of thomas. what this shows that thomas is in a league of his own. >> yeah, i would say. claris thompson and sam alito, mutual leagues of their own in different ways. different justices, same court. mark joseph stern, thank you again for your time. and incandescent rage about what is a broken, broken court. thank you, my friend, for joining me tonight. we'll be right back with my colleague, joy reed, coming up next.

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existed? interracial marriage, your wife is a white, conservative activists. could your family have existed at all during jim crow? >> no, he could not, joanne. we all know that, that is why i am blessed to live in america today as opposed to america during that time. we cannot ignore the realities of not having fathers in homes. that is important for black people today and all people today. >> we are out of time. >> joining me now by phone is my friend, joy reed. host, of course, of the readout who just interviewed republican congressman byron donalds, who suggested jim crow was somehow a time of nostalgia when black families were better off. thanks for being here, i know you are by phone because we are having some technical difficulties and i am so appreciative that you have dialed them point first, let's get your reaction to congressman donalds. speaking printed pretty expressly about the great society being bad for black families and speaking nostalgically about a segregationist era.

>> yeah, allison, thank you for having me. his comment was so odd, to say the least. he made comments at an event that was designed to recruit black support of donald trump in november. but also a republican, and knowledgeable about the event, the people in that group who were black were already supportive of donald trump. it is not like it was attracting an audience. it is not really about being about what donald trump is saying. not somewhere where jim crow was relevant. he said this in philadelphia. presumably to other lack people. he said not once, not twice, but three times that during jim

crow, the black family was together, and he repeated that. and then he said that lack people, during jim crowe, were conservative and voted conservative. here is the problem, allison. if you know anyone who learned history, anywhere outside the state of florida, during jim crow, the black family had no rights. the man of that family, yes, physically in the home, did not have the right and of lbd protected from lynching. they did not have the ability to support that family. typically, the mom in that family, was with her kids all week because she was working in a white woman's home. and so that man only works during the seasonal picking time. and so families are broken,