-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com today the city of new york and the country paid respects to a fallen police officer, jason rivera. thousands police officers turned out today to a service to honor officer rivera. many came from around the country. a sea of blue all in appreciation of a man who made the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty. officer rivera and wilbur moro were killed a week ago after officers responded to a 911 call at a harlem apartment. his wife also spoke, saying she'd be lost without him. that's it for us. the news continues here on cnn with jim acosta and "democracy in peril." jim? >> anderson, thank you very much for that. i'm jim acosta, and this is

"democracy in peril." we've been shining light on what's been done overtly and covertly since the birth of the big lie. with the crucial midterms elections fast approaching, there is great concern about voter suppression and wheels being put in motion to clear the path for the subversion of a future election. we ignore the threats at our own peril. so, tonight we have someone who can take us inside the mind of an insurrectionist. how did people who attacked the capitol get to that point? how did they completely lose faith in our political institutions to try to make us an autocracy with violence and bloodshed. there are still people out there who are thinking like this, the fbi still rounding up those responsible for january 6th to this day. so, we're going to turn to the wife of the most high profile suspect charged yet. she's actually the estranged wife of stewart rhodes, who was ordered to remain jailed on wednesday while remaining trial for seditious conspiracy and

other charges. he is among 11 charged for plotting governing the transfer of presidential power on january 6th. rhodes has pleaded not guilty but we know investigators have loads of evidence laid out in his indictment. he says he didn't set foot in the capitol that day, but he was allegedly using signal to communicate with other members of his group. listen to him after the election was called for biden. the oath keepers founder boasted about having his team positioned and prepared to engage in violence on trump's command. >> we have men already stationed outside d.c. as a nuclear option in case the attempt to remove the president illegally, we'll step in and stop it. we'll be inside d.c. we'll also be on the outside of d.c. armed and ready to go in if the president calls. >> so, so, nutty. tasha adams testified before a judge this week that she fears for her safety and for the safety of their six children if her estranged husband is released. she calls him a dangerous man, a

sociopath who would brandish guns inside their house. and she also told the court about elaborate escape tunnels her husband built in their backyard. these are not the photos of them, but spider holes rhodes dug as some kind of training. tasha, thanks so much for being with us. we appreciate your time. you testified in court earlier this week that rhodes had been abusive towards your kids and would regularly brandish guns inside the house. how is your family coping with everything that's happened? and what's your reaction to stewart being charged with sedition? >> well, it's definitely been a roller coaster week. there was this huge relief when he was charged with seditious conspiracy. and then there was the nail biting when what i thought was no chance at all of bail, and then suddenly, you know, reading the article in the -- in the case. it looked like maybe that was a real consideration. and it was suddenly the most

terrifying thing i could ever imagine. and i -- i called in and asked if i could make a statement. and they went ahead and reconvened and allowed me to say my piece. >> and what were the early warnings signs that you saw before january 6th? you say that social media posts started to change were pro-trump, posts by him. but you were also talking about tunnels being dug and so on. tell us about that. >> well, i mean, the tunnels -- this is a lifestyle of his. this is our everyday life. this is how he lived. he lives in constant fear, a very -- his entire personality is very fear-based. and he lives in terror of the feds coming in for him one day. and this was every day for us. this actually did not even seem that unusual to me i was so used to living like that. and so sort of surprised when it didn't seem to come up in his

bail hearing what an incredible flight risk he was. and i realized this is just such a huge case, and there's so many people working on it. and, you know, no one really thought to ask us, you know, what living with him was like. and i realized i needed to call in and let them know. >> and what was it like during your marriage? i know that you're both estranged now, but did this buildup over time, did it just go off like a light switch that he started to become unhinged in this way that you're talking about? how did this evolve over time? >> well, he had always been controlling. he had always been abusive. it was always a struggle to keep everyone safe. but his behavior certainly took a downward spiral. and i don't know if it was one or the other. was it his mindset was spiraling and so he took oath keepers in a

more and more dangerous road? or was he sort of absorbing the energy of the times and following a more and more violent path and he was just more free to behave that way at home. but certainly when you see the rhetoric of oath keepers changing over the years, every time you see more violence out in the open with his behavior, that was absolutely mirrored in the way he acted at home. and he was just becoming more and more unhinged and more violent and more dangerous in the house. >> and so in your -- in your mind, it would be a mistake for the authorities to, while he's away in trial, to allow him to be released on bail or something like that? >> yeah. i -- i -- i think he would have taken off. i -- i really do. if his whole life was built around -- i'm not sure what his

mindset was at the time he chose not to run. he's so volatile. it's really hard to understand what he's thinking at the time. he believes he's right. he believes in himself. he believes he's a great man. he almost believes in himself as something of a -- of a religious figure or a -- you know, a person of myths and stories and legends. and he -- he takes that serious. he takes that very serious. >> and i have to ask you what was going through your mind on january 6th when you saw those oath keeper patches, oath keeper uniforms and so on, as they were marching up the steps of the capitol, going inside the capitol? i guess you might have known some of those folks who were there that day. i can only guess. i know you were involved with the group early on, as it was being formed. what can you tell us about january 6th? and what was going through your mind that day? >> well, i didn't recognize and haven't been able to recognize

anyone around him. he's -- you know, he's a difficult person to be around. so, he burns through people very quickly. in fact, there wasn't a single person in his group that i had ever seen before. at that point, had been completely separated from him for about three years. it was -- i knew he was going to be there, and i assumed it would be something like another berkeley-type event. but then i -- watching him online, like i often did to just sort of know where he is physically, because i'm here in montana with my children and he is in texas, but i would always have one eye on the social media just to see is he hitting the road, is he doing an event near us. i saw his rhetoric change. i wasn't the only one who noticed it. some other folks who specialize in extremism also noticed his rhetoric changing before.

i was pretty nervous. but the second i saw that military stack -- the second i saw that with those hands on the shoulders -- i knew that was stewart. i mean, nobody else would do that. and i knew it was something serious. this was not protests. this was not riots and fights in the streets. this was something far more sin t administer. and you can tell just by looking at them they're doing something completely different than other people around them. they're on a mission. they were on a mission. and i knew stewart was behind it the instant i saw them before i even zoomed the in to see the oath keeper patches. and it was just like getting hit. it was just like -- it was a horrible, horrible feeling. it was a horrible, horrible event. >> it absolutely was. tasha adams, thank you very much for calling in and sharing your story. we appreciate it. thanks -- thanks for your time. >> thank you so much. and we just got some insight into one of the leaders on the far right. now let's take a closer look at

the right wing media bubble and why even the most outlandish conspiracy theories are able to thrive. right wing media personalities have perfected the art of stoking political rage and peddling lie after lie. ♪ >> get ready to hear the truth about america. >> way past main stream news -- well beyond conservative talk -- >> now broadcasting from the underground command post -- >> reporter: -- right wing radio, podcasting, and webcasts are grinding out a daily message of outrage, fear, and resistance. >> you need to defend your civilization against the onslaught of this cancer of progressivism, liberalism, and globalist brainwashing. >> it is a fact in the universe. >> this professor has study whad he calls this propaganda for years and says it's almost unlike anything seen in america

before. >> and i think that that's an important thing to understand is that it runs end to end and that it's a very, very different and very dangerous ecosystem for civil society in the united states. >> the views expressed with the hosts on this show ought to become federal law. >> rush limbaugh and others free to build right wing empires after the fairness doctrine was dumped in 1987, such conservative programs have outpaced liberal counterparts 9 to 1 by some estimates, giving tens of millions of listeners an earful each day. >> if masks work, why aren't they working? if vaccine mandates work, why aren't they working? >> among the more common themes, the pandemic and suspicion about health officials. >> think about what they're doing to us, twisting our minds into pretzels here. >> there is non-stop denial that joe biden won the presidential election. >> trump won. you're illegitimate. the american people know it and

feel it. >> reporter: comments about the sitting president are bitter and relentless. >> just watch this creepy old pervert sitting up there, pretending to be the president of the united states of america, pretending like he had the most votes of all time. >> reporter: and on it goes. the insurrection was a noble attempt to defend democracy. the border is lawless and wide open. the economy was great under trump. it is collapsing now. any establishment news sources calling any of that a lie can't be trusted. >> these are political partisan operatives with an agenda. >> and underlying it all is a revolutionary drum beat. all opponents, especially democrats, are un-american, evil, the enemy. >> try and take your guns. they try to take your school. >> we are an occupied country under enemy forces. they are targeting the popular and outspoken dissidents.

>> there is nothing unusual about this in that ecochamber. listen just a couple of hours you'll hear everything you heard there magnified more and more and more. this is going on virtually 24/7 in that environment, again, to tens of millions of people, an environment that is often free of facts but almost always full of fury. jim? >> and fear and paranoia. tom, a great piece. one of the figures you highlighted is dan bongino. and what is interesting is that even though youtube banned him from the platform a couple of days ago for spreading covid misinformation, that's not likely to make a very big dent in his audience. he has a huge audience. >> yeah, if you're not listening to these shows -- and many people watching right now probably haven't been listening to them -- it's easy to underestimate how big they are. dan bongino, youtube can say you're not on there. it will really make little more than a scratch in his following because there are so many millions of people who have found ways around here.

and increasingly what you're seeing in this, again, this ecochamber, is that they're finding ways to get platforms where their sense of the rules, what they want to do, are not only tolerated but gladly accepted because this is also a big money making machine for an awful lot of people on that side. this, jim, has become an entirely separate universe from the legitimate information networks out there. it's not to say they don't sometimes have some legitimate things, but it's heavily, heavily seasoned with conspiracy theories and this furious anger and this sense, again, that if you're not in their group, you are an enemy and have to be stopped. >> all right. very disturbing stuff. tom foreman, thank you so much. we appreciate it. big developmentsen that fake elector scheme we told you about led by trump campaign officials to try to steal the election. and the biggest lie of the week is just ahead with your fact checker in chief, daniel dale.

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the january 6 committee is digging further into the trump scheme, to the 14 trump supporters who tried to cast themselves as electors in seven states biden won. they went so far as submitting fake certificates at the national archives. even as the justice department looks into this effort, there's yet another concerning front where trump backers are trying to work reality, claiming wisconsin legislators voted to withdraw 2020 votes for joe biden. here to debunk the lie of the week is fact checker and chief daniel dale. out of all the lies we've heard this week, this is a whopper. >> this is a doozy. i'll give you the three point brief debunking. number one, wisconsin did not vote to withdraw its ten joe

biden electors. wisconsin did not have any vote on such a proposal. and number three, this is impossible anyway. you cannot withdraw your 2020 electors in 2022? where did this come from? like a lot of election related nonsense it started on a far right conspiracy peddling website called gateway pundit. this was completely false, as i said. but it was quickly repeated by a bunch of republican figures with big followings on social media. and they include a trump endorsed governor candidate in arizona named kerry lake who just repeated it word for word. soon after that the gateway pundit revised its headline, softened its headline, to claim that wisconsin had voted to advance, to move forward with a proposal to withdraw the electors. it claimed it was a unanimous vote. they claimed they had video of this. that is completely false too. here is what actually happened. there was one republican state

legislator who stood up in advance of an entirely unrelated vote and introduced the propostal to withdraw the electors. the presiding officer, a republican, referred that proposal, that resolution, to a committee where it's going to die. and he did that because under assembly rules you have to refer such resolutions to committees. so, there is no vote at all. the video the gateway pundit posted showed the entirely unrelated vote that the assembly then moved on to have as planned after that referral to committee. now, before i could fact check this, jim, a leading republican in wisconsin fact checked it for me. the assembly majority leader posted a series of tweets dismissing the claim saying that's not what happened. he made clear there was no vote. and he also before the gateway pundit article was published, he posted a tweet saying that this resolution attempting to withdraw electors is illegal, it's unconstitutional, you can't do it. and i think that's important to emphasize. we can get lost in the retelling of the gate way pundit

conspiracy nonsense. the most important thing here is that these proposals to desert identify the election, to withdraw electors is completely ridiculous. there is no constitutional mechanism more than a year after joe biden won the election fair and square, there is no mechanism for taking back the electoral votes cast in mid december 2020. jim, nonsense start to finish here. >> it sounds like this bonkers reinstatement stuff. it's pure fantasy land. they would be better off going to amusement park or something like that. thanks so much for fact checking this one. it helps when they fact check them for you in the halls of state legislatures like this one did. thanks so much. we appreciate it. misinformation universe goes far beyond radio or tv. ahead we'll take a deep dive into out social media plays a role in tearing our democracy apart. where the big lie lives on, next.

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as we examine the threats to our democracy, we talked about the role of radio, fox, and podcasts. but you cannot ignore the role played by social media. in the words of facebook whistleblower frances haugen, here's what she had to say. >> i believe facebook's products harm children, stoke division, and weaken our democracy. they have put their astronomical profits before people. >> we know on january 6 facebook staffers acknowledged what should have been obvious, writing, quote, we've been fuelling this fire for a long time, and history will not judge us kindly. the mueller investigation showed the power of social media as a weapon used to weaken our democracy. >> we saw it on the sixth, moves

at the speed of social media. >> flew through any of the hundreds of court investigations, and you see the role social media played. you see how members of the oath keepers used facebook and other platforms to plan what federal prosecutors now call a seditious conspiracy. my next guest has asked everyone from mark zuckerberg to jack dorsey about their role in our elections. cara, great to see you. >> thanks, jim, no problem. >> the big lie is big business on social media. nobody knows that better than you. what should these companies be doing at this point? is it just -- is it beyond our control? >> it's beyond their control in a lot of ways. i mean, the problem is it's morphed into such a huge amount of information that's flowing over these things. the numbers are so massive, almost as big as the profits. if you noticed the reporting

this week. and they're making enormous amounts of money. one of the things they did is architect it in such a way that it's very hard to control this stuff. even for themselves they hit one place. they close down one thing and pop up something else. architecture is one of the many problems here. and it's very hard when malevolent players really want to gain you on systems people use every day for, you know, communicating about, i don't know, cooking or sports or whatever people are using these social networks for, which are very good purposes. >> and we notice that after trump and other folks were banished from places like facebook and twitter because of all the lies and so on that they went to alternative, conservative social media sites like parlor, getter, that sort of thing. those business models seem to be attracting people looking for more extreme views, and they're finding them there. what can be done about that? i mean, that is just sort of

another side of this -- i guess -- this spectrum that a lot of people aren't paying attention to. >> you can't prevent people from doing start ups. these are funded start ups. and you don't want to. i have dealt with white supremacists, moderation, hacking, the same problems these big sites have. the most interesting site of all of them -- and i've interviewed all the ceos from those sites is it's hard to create a social network. the interesting one is rumble, where certain people are doing really well. that's where dan bongino, he's been there. he's an investor also. but he's really doubled down since he got kicked off youtube. russell brand is on there. there's all kinds of interesting things going on as an alternative to youtube. in some ways it's a great thing if you feel there are too many big companies to create innovative startups. on the other, it creates all these silos of disinformation.

not sure we can do much about that. honestly, if they want to create businesses like that, they can create businesses like that. >> this is a question i've been wrestling with. and i think this is something we're all going to have to deal with. it is a huge question before us. that is, what do facebook and twitter do if trump runs for president again? trump and his people, the republican party -- if he's the nominee of the republican party, they're going to say, how can we be banished from these sites. what happens then? >> it's a big deal actually. a lot of people on twitter have autocratic problems in other countries. i don't know how they can keep certain people on in other countries and not put donald trump on. that said, he is a persistent v violator of their rules and laws and got away with a lot before they finally kicked him off. those other people don't violate the rules. it's a weird situation, the small group of people determining the rules. these are private companies. they can do whatever they want.

so, it'll be an interesting issue because he clearly violated rules compared to other people. when you let other people around the world on and not him, it's -- it's going to be a difficult issue for -- i think facebook will probably bring him back on. twitter, maybe not. we'll see. >> and, you know, i keep coming back to this one, too. can there really be a real conversation about fixing this? as long as republicans complain about being cancelled on facebook and twitter, they talk about the tyranny. then this week we're seeing books being banned about the holo holocaust. >> it's a little ironic. >> give me a break. >> i used to say that the people that complain the most about being the banned are the noiseiest people i've heard in my life. they're everywhere. they have lots of -- they have lots of alternatives. i think what's hard is that republicans do agree on the power of concentration in these

companies, the enormous profits, the ability not to be regulated. this industry is not regulated in any way. there's lots of things they can do that don't run into the free speech problem, which a lot of it centers around, which is not really the issue. the issue is concentration of power by a very few number of companies. privacy issues, data issues, hacking issues, transparency. there's all kinds of things that other industries get regulated and it works out just fine. this industry has never been regulated and there's things we can do that don't violate the ability of people to say what they think. and it can happen. it's just gotten sucked up into this emotional political thing that's hard to overcome. >> and we were talking to our friend scott galloway last night about podcasts and the issue with joe rogan and spotify and neil young saying good-bye. what do we do about spotify? do we allow that site, that service to police itself if

other artists want to join neil young and try to develop kind of leverage there? does the free market work itself out in that kind of situation do you think? what are your thoughts? >> joe rogan has a lot of fans, millions. so, it's a very important person to spotify. and neil young doesn't have -- he has fans. i'm a huge fan. but, you know, i mean, in terms of their business, we can't make them do anything. it's interesting way you put that. what should we -- we can't do anything. the market has to work itself out here. if they violate things, that's a different thing. but this is the choice they've made. this is the person they've decided to back, and that's the way it's going to go. and consumers can decide in their own ways whether they want to be affiliated with a company. but this is not a new thing. you know, it goes back to orange juice and anita bryant. this is night fresh new issue to consumers. in that case, it worked. in this case, it's hard. it's going to be really hard. but luckily neil young got a

very nice ad from apple today saying, we stream neil young and we love them. of course apple wanted to stick it to spotify because they're in competition. we'll see where it goes. >> that might have been part of it. but neil young is pretty great. thanks so much. we appreciate it. >> thank you so much. and some members of congress bear responsibility for the disinformation poison. 147 of them voted to overthrow biden's resounding victory. and to this day, some of them aren't letting up on the big lie. you're about to hear from one constituent, though, that let one of them have it. you're going to want to hold on for that next. super emma just about sleeps in her cape. but when we realized she was battling sensitive skin, we switched to tide hygienic clean free. it's gentle on her skin, and out cleans our old free detergent. tide hygienic clean free. hypoallergenic and safe for sensitive skin.

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it hasn't exactly been a peachy weak for marjorie taylor greene, who appeared on a public access call-in show in her district a few nights ago and got an earful. >> thank god for joe biden.

she is an embarrassment to the state of georgia. >> well, we all have our opinions. >> amen to that. and i've got mine. >> all righty. thank you. >> all righty. thank you. greene, who helped lead the right wing charge to overturn the 2020 election results, learned people back home have been paying close attention to her ridiculous antics. another listener took greene to the wood shed. it's a little long but it is worth it. >> you all refuse to accept biden. you refuse to do it. and we -- maybe we didn't like trump, but he won. and so that was it. you all are not -- you will not accept the fact that joe biden won. and that is the whole thing. you're not going to accept it. you're going keep on and keep on

and just peck, peck, peck. you won't get anything done if you're not going to respect the man and realize that he's the respect, you're not ever going to get anything done. you've got to work together. and you are not doing it. you're not doing it. and neither are the other republicans. they are -- they're just going with trump. no, he didn't win it. he didn't win it. and wasted all the money in georgia to have to count the votes three times because he said he won. and he didn't. and to me, it was everything in washington would be -- would settle down if every -- if those republicans would just say, we didn't win. it's like, alabama and florida, the alabama people. we didn't -- we really should have won. >> bless her heart. the look on the congresswoman's face as she listened to all of

that -- it's a little early for valentine's day but i think i'm in love with that nice lady on the phone. in part it's a sign our democracy stands a chance after all. and it's a reminder when you peddle the worst kind of conspiracy theories, sometimes reality bites you back. greene has become a rising star in the gop, even after blaming jewish owned space lasers for california wild fires and comparing covid restrictions to the holocaust. >> this woman is mentally ill. you know, we can look back in a time in history where people were told to wear a gold star, and they were definitely treated like second class citizens so much so that they were put in trains and taken to gas chambers in nazi germany. and this is exactly the type of abuse that nancy pelosi is talking about. >> we should point out greene later apologized. but greene is not alone on the january 6th karma watch. north carolina gop house member

madison cawthorn is facing a challenge from some of his constituents who filed a lawsuit arguing he should be barred from congress for speaking at the stop the steal rally just before the attack on the capitol. those north carolina citizens note the section in the constitution stating no person shall serve in congress if they've engaged in an insurrection. >> the democrats with all the fraud they have done in this election, the republicans hiding and not fighting. they are trying to silence your voice. >> cawthorn, who recently was caught on camera cleaning his gun during a virtual congressional hearing, has repeatedly talked up the prospect of civil war in this country for months. >> if our election systems continue to be rigged and continue to be stolen, then it's going to lead to one place, and it's bloodshed. and i will tell you, as much as i am willing to defend our liberty at all costs, there is nothing that i dread doing more than having to pick up arms against a fellow american.

>> cawthorn is blowing off the notion that he could be disqualified from congress. >> this is just another impeachment of president donald trump. it's just that he's not in office right now, so they're not capable of actually being able to do it. so, instead, they're going after his fighters. they're going after the america first patriots. >> there's nothing patriotic about hinting at civil war. that's the opposite of patriotism. but it's not just greene and cawthorn who are facing january 6th blowback these days. consider the mounting legal problems for the former president and other trump allies. they're piling up quickly. but that nice lady from georgia who was calling on greene to work with president biden has put her finger on something important. members of congress were sent to get things done for her constituents. you may have noticed that scary bridge collapse in pittsburgh today the same day the president was touting his infrastructure plan. the president was able to bring a small number of republicans on

board for his proposals to fix the nation's crumbling roads and bridges. the vast majority of the gop voted against it. there is another category of republican when it comes to infrastructure, the kind who takes credit for all of that money coming back to the states despite their opposition to the bill. iowa gop congresswoman ashley hensen tweeted how she secured hundreds of billions of dollars for a project in her state, even though she opposed the infrastructure bill. democracy may be in peril, but hypocrisy isn't. perhaps some republicans are just confused, given what's coming out of the state tv network for the party these days. >> back in june of 2021, he started talking about his bipartisan infrastructure deal. there's nothing bipartisan about it. if it was bipartisan, it would have been passed by now. >> wow. and that wasn't even tucker. just to be clear, the biden infrastructure bill once again was bipartisan. and once again, it did pass.

maybe that fox anchor was thinking about all those infrastructure weeks during the trump administration that never resulted in anything. here's an idea, maybe for once, just once, give bipartisanship a chance. give democracy a chance. i guess for some on the far right, democracy is a bridge too far. the good news -- and why don't we end the week on some good news -- is that maybe we're starting to see the light at the end of the january 6th tunnel. citizens are finding a way to send a citizen to the freaks on the fringe, roaming the halls of congress, you may be ride or die with trump, but you might also be on a highway to hell. many who continue to push the big lie, who are trying to change laws to suppress the vote, are doing so under the guise of election integrity. a reality check with john avlon is next. m. so she'll get some help from fidelity, and she'll feel so good about her plan, she can focus on living it.

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we cannot say it enough. there is no widespread fraud in u.s. elections. in fact, comprehensive studies of billions of ballots over the years have put the rate at voter fraud at less than 0.0001%. yet republican cries about election integrity only grow louder. why? john avalon is here with our reality check. >> we need to talk about the word integrity. according to the miriam webster dictionary integrity means the quality of being honest and fair. but honest and fair is the exact opposite of what it's being trodded out to defend. >> now with republicans 74 million americans have concerns about election integrity, we're supposed to just sit down and shut up? >> one thing important right off the bat is election integrity. >> we do need to look at

election integrity, and we do need to see if we can restore confidence in the elections. >> election integrity and election security is a top priority for the american people. >> this is an issue of election integrity. what's at risk for me right now is maintaining the integrity of that election. >> now, it's easy to see why this became their preferred fig leaf. after all, election integrity sounds much better than backing a lie without any evidence or i'm afraid of telling the truth because i might lose my primary. but calling an election integrity is nonsense. if you listen carefully the most slippery of these senators are using it as a dodge. they're saying because many of the right-wing constituents have bought into trump's lies there's now a need to address those concerns with restrictive new laws that make it more difficult to vote. make no mistake, this is a phantom menace, a political

equivalent of an arsonist selling fire insurance on the side. it can't be said enough that none of the recounts and audits conducted in arizona, georgia, michigan, wisconsin pushed by partisan interests have been able to find anything resembling large scale voter fraud. 14 months after the election the right wing heritage foundation database lists only seven cases of voter fraud convictions related to the 2020 presidential election, at least six of which are by republicans. and those are only the ones that have been adjudicated today. but the facts haven't stopped many people from buying the self-serving lie hook, line and sinker. thiel try to shade and broaden definitions to keep the confusion alive and use that as a pretext to conspiracy bootstrap. florida governor ron desantis even proposing a 52-member election police force to investigate, detect, apprehend and arrest anyone for alleged

violation of election laws. today an idea being floated in states like florida and arizona. they're doing this to placate donald trump, a seditious snowflake of a man who can't deal with the fact he lost a free and fair election. the cost is devastating to our democracy. honesty is too much to expect i guess for a man who told more than 30,000 false and misleading claims during his presidency. and fairness isn't in vocabulary for a guy who has no ethics or weakness. the honest truth that there's no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, it was free and fair. and i'm sorry, but those facts don't care about your feelings. many of the elected republicans who continue to push the big lie behind this mantra of election

integrity know better. they're just afraid of donald trump, and they're afraid of what will happen if they tell their base the truth. but that's weakness not strength. that's being a follower, not a leader. and that's the opposite of embracing the values of honesty and fairness in our elections. the opposite of integrity. and that's your reality check. jim? >> well said, john avalon. thank you very much. and we'll be right back. ♪ "how bizarre" by omc ♪ no annual fee on any discover card. ♪ ♪ ♪“i swear”♪ jaycee tried gain flings for the first time the other day... and forgot where she was. you can always spot a first time gain flings user. ♪ smooth like butter, like a criminal undercover ♪

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it's been nearly two years since the pandemic started. our students and teachers tried their best, but as a parent, i can tell you that nearly 18 months of remote learning was really hard. instead of helping students get back in the classroom, the school boards spend their time renaming schools and playing politics. schools that weren't even open. on february 15th, please recall school board members collins, lópez and maliga. our kids cannot wait any longer for new start. as a business owner, your bottom line is always top of mind.

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showed the constituent really tearing into marjorie taylor greene, i thought that was a very healthy development. it shows you that people are paying attention at home, and they're not buying what some of these characters on the fringe are selling. and, you know, she's beclowned herself with all these conspiracy theories and so on, and there's good, decent people at home. and don, you and i worry about this all day long, is our country so messed up we can't get out of this mess? and there are people paying attention, and they're smart. and they care about this country. they care about this democracy, and they're going to call these politicians out. and i think the more it happens the better off we'll be. >> i have a warning, if you haven't been outside, brace yourself, sir. brace yourself. i'm going to talk about this bomb cyclone that's coming to the northeast. >> i'm going to take cover. >> jim acosta, have a great weekend and be safe ou