donor-backed incumbent. >> yes. we are seeing a unique combination. what i worry about is again what's going to be left with when donald trump is not on the political scene anymore? this is a model for campaigns that could persist long after he's gone. >> michellely and daniel wiener, thank you for your time. the rachel maddow show stars now. good evening, rachel. >> it's okay, crease. >> i didn't know if he was winer or wiener. it was all in my head. >> that's going to be on your mind all night. >> follow me on my commute home. i should probably just e-mail. >> you can call me anything you want. thank you very much for joining us. happy to have you here. this is one of those days. i have to tell you it's getting to be a little bit nuts. this time last night, we were working on the story of the trump administration having

nominated someone to be secretary of defense, despite the fact that that nominee was trying to keep secret a bloody and terrible domestic violence situation in his family. one that was known to police. it was starting to be investigated by the fbi, but that nominee was hoping he would be able to keep it secret anyway and maybe it wouldn't come out and he would be able to be the secretary of defense and nobody would know. it is amazing enough that the white house had been reckless enough to put somebody who was in that compromised position at the pentagon at all as acting defense secretary for six months, let alone they nominated him to try to confirm him for the position on a permanent basis. whatever you think about the circumstances of what happened in his family, the fact that he was trying to keep it secret, that's the danger, right? that's the potential liability to black mail or somebody trying to leverage that secret against him while he's running the

defense department. it emerged after "usa today" and "the washington post" broke that story yesterday and patrick shanahan withdraw his nominations to be defense secretary. it emerged that u.s. senators on the armed services committee were especially grieved that they had never been notified about that very serious situation in shanahan's background that he was trying to keep under wraps. senators were angry because shanahan had gone through the confirmation process for a lower level job at the defense department in 2017. as part of that confirmation process, the administration should have turned over vetting materials and background check information that provided senators with that kind of information about that nominee before they held his confirmation hearings and voted on him. so, in the patrick shanahan baseball bat beating grim history involving his wife and his son and his own involvement after the fact in trying to manage the consequences of that

crime, when that came out yesterday, senators were mad they were learning about that like all the rest of us were for the first time in the pages of the "washington post." they were mad because they had just gone through senate confirmation with that guy as the nominee. none of that stuff had been flagged for them. that's what we were working through in terms of the news. this time last night. that was just yesterday. well, now i see your acting secretary of defense vetting disaster and i raise you vice president pence's national security adviser. okay, this is maria butina. see the red-haired woman asking a question reading off her notes? that's maria butina, a conservative confound that happened in las vegas in the summer of 2015. the first time any presidential candidate running in the

election weighed in on the issue of russian sanctions. it was when this red-haired woman, maria butina walked up to a microphone at the audience q&a with donald trump and asked candidate donald trump about sanctions on russia. trump responded with this long soliloquy about how he liked vladimir putin very much and didn't think he would need the sanctions and he was against sanctions on russia and he would get rid of them. that was july 2015. very early on in the 2016 race. overtime, the odd dynamic between trump and putin and trump and russia and the trump campaign's secret discussions with russia about dropping sanctions on them, that would all end up becoming a huge deal, right? it became such a big deal we haven't sorted it all out. we are still not over it. but the very first time, the idea of russia sanctions came up for any candidate it was through that question at that

conservative confab in las vegas a question from the floor for candidate trump that elicits the statement i am against sanctions on russia. it turns out that woman who asked that question who fuel-injected the whole russia sanctions thing in the campaign in the first place, she would later be indicted as a secret foreign agent running in this country on behalf of the russian federation. the maria butina story is just nuts. when he was ultimately arrest and indicted and put in jail, he was described by prosecutors as a secret agent, basically. working on behalf of the russian government regularly reporting home to her kremlin handler about how it was going and ability to make contacts and meet people inside the republican party, particularly through conservative organizations like the nra. in the charging documents in her case, in an fbi affidavit filed

with the court, the government described a different person who was involved in the scheme. the person named by prosecutors as u.s. person one. if you piece it together through various documents and reporting, u.s. person one in the butina case is her american boyfriend, who according to the government, worked closely with her throughout the duration of her influence operation to try to influence the republican party in a way that would advance the interests of the russian federation. there also has been a ton of report being maria butina and her american boyfriend, including this seminole "new york times" piece that broke the news that paul erickson, the boyfriend, had during the campaign in 2016 sent the trump campaign an e-mail that literally had the subject line, kremlin connection. he was offering in that e-mail to set up a connection to donald

trump with an emissary from vladimir putin's office. he said he could set donald trump up in a meeting with somebody who set an emissary from putin at an upcoming nra event. so today, maria butina is still in jail and pled guilty. it's expected she will be deported back to russia when she gets released from prison. her boyfriend, u.s. person one according to prosecutors helped her with her illegal influence operation she was running on behalf of the russian government. he has meanwhile been indicted himself on financial fraud charges in his home state of south dakota facing several charges there and pled not guilty. he is awaiting trail. the saga of those two, right? the story of these two even before their indictments, it's been like the made for tv tech color spy movie dramatic subplot in the scandal and the whole

investigation and all of it. all of this stuff around the russia scandal is interesting to a certain degree. it's incredible that we are looking at russian influence and the leverage over the campaign and the candidate. it's cinematic, but when it comes to maria butina and paul erickson, that makes the trailer for the movie. what are all these russians doing with the nra and why did the nra people end up in moscow at the same time mike flynn was there at the gala dinner celebrating the russian propaganda channel where he sat down with vladimir putin and is that jill stein? maria butina sends a message to her kremlin handler saying i am ready for further orders. she immediately sends word to her handler that she has heard that a specific person is going to be nominated by trump to be secretary of state and sends

word of who that punish is because she told her handler, our people in russia should have a heads up and the russian government's opinion should be taken into consideration. circulate the name and let me know what i should tell people here about it. this is crazy stuff. the russian government being consulted on who trump is going to pick as secretary of state? what? the butina and erickson stuff is the most sparky, most lurid and i think the most heavily covered part of this scandal. josh roggin at "the washington post" reports tonight that maria butina also turned up at the wedding of mike pence's national security adviser. what? this was june 2017. mike pence's national security adviser, andrea thompson got married that summer of 2017, first summer of the trump administration. she's got that awesome new job.

getting married and maria butina was at the wedding. why was she at the wedding? u.s. person one, her boyfriend, paul erickson, was officiating the wedding. oh. it also turns out that the man who mike pence's national security adviser, the man who andrea thompson was marrying at the wedding that day, he had recently given paul erickson $100,000. just a looky loo at the timeline. trump administration comes into office the beginning of 2017. the summer, mike pence's security adviser gets married and her wedding is officiated by maria butina's boyfriend. by the end of 2017, there is news reports about maria butina and her boyfriend, including her boyfriend offering to be the kremlin connection setting up secret back channel meetings for trump with people from putin's office.

this news is like the front page of the new york times in december 2017. that's the front page of the times. there after, in the spring of 2018, mike pence's national security adviser gets put up for a big new job. so the senate holes confirmation hearings to decide whether andrea thompson will be the secretary of state for arms control and international security affairs. she goes through that confirmation process in the spring of 2018, knowing that her new husband had given $100,000 to maria butina's boyfriend and maria butina's boyfriend officiated their wedding and had been one of the people setting up the back channels between putin and trump which were widely known to be the subject of an fbi inquiry and a country having its hair on fire and what were guys like maria butina's

boyfriend doing offering to set up the secret back channels to the crekremlin? she knew all of that when she was put up for this top job at the department of state. going up for senate confirmation. apparently none of it came up. did not mention it. none of the senators who voted on her confirmation had any idea of any of that because she didn't say and nobody told them. you want to know what the job she was up for is really like? what you have to do on a day to day basis if you in fact are senate confirmed, as she was, to be under secretary of state for arms control and international security affairs. you want to know what you do when you have that job? you negotiate with russia. you negotiate with the russians on arms control treaties. that's your job. so josh roggin spoke with a

senior official in response to this scoop. that senior official told mr. roggin when the person who marries you gets into trouble with the russians and your job is to negotiate with the russians, you have to disclose that. everybody within an intelligence clearance knows that. as josh roggin reports at the post, not only did she not report any of this when up for confirmation to be the top negotiator with moscow. not only did she not disclose it, she never disclosed it to anyone in the government. she never disclosed these ties to superiors until approached this week by this columnist. so that's what's going on in the trump administration tonight. we are trying to get our heads around new and unprecedented stuff from them all the time, but it is remarkable, right? in the space of 24 hours, we have the twin revelation that is

the guy who they had worthing as acting defense secretary for the last six months, he the whole time was sitting on an incredibly potent disturbing family secret he was trying desperately to keep anyone from knowing about while running the pentagon. that's a national security intelligence risk in terms of his vulnerability to black mail and leverage and almost impossible to overstate. you can add to that the chief high ranking official negotiating on arms issues with russia had a really big russia-related secret that she had been sitting on as well not disclosing it to her superiors and to the fbi for the background checks or clearances because it was not disclosed to the senate when they voted to confirm her to the post more than a year ago. this is like a plot you would invent in an airport spy novel. high level u.s. government negotiator secretly linked to russia's under cover agent. russia knows it. but the american public doesn't.

what can russia do with the information now they have the top official over a barrel as they head into arms negotiations and they know that she knows. it's just insane. that news breaking tonight as russian military intelligence is called out internationally for this catastrophe that happened five years ago next month. if you think back to the summer of 2014, you will remember this. this was the shoot down of mh 17. malaysia airlines flight 17. this was not the plane that disappeared. this was the commercial airliner full of civilians that was shot out of the sky. 2 nea 298 souls aboard originating in amsterdam headed to kuala lumpur as it was flying over eastern ukraine where russia was waging basically an undeclared war at the time.

that passenger plane was hit with a sophisticated military anti-aircraft missile. everybody on board was killed. 298 people killed. bodies and debris from the crash strewn over a large area of rural eastern ukraine. investigators from the netherlands and malaysia and ukraine and australia and belgium who had citizens on board, they formed an international group to jointly investigate this and have diligently and aggressively investigated the circumstances of that crash. how could it be that 300 civilians could be shot out of the sky on a well-marked commercial plane on a civilian passenger airliner on a normal not off track flight? what they determined over the course of this five years of investigating is that the plane was definitely shot down by a russian-made surface to air michelle. they figured out where it was fired from and when which russian anti-aircraft brigade it to be traced to.

that kind of missile is shot from a big bulky aircraft system that is not a little thing thaw cover up in the back of the truck. you can't move it in a subtle way. as andrew kramer said, they said it was improbable that anyone other than a military commander if not president putin himself could have ordered the system mounted on a tracked vehicle to be deployed in an international border. today the dutch-led investigative team announced criminal charges against four suspects in these 298 murders. thesomes announced today and charged today are a colonel from the fsb, the russian spy service and two suspects from the gru that ran the russian attack on our 2016 election. the same agency alleged to have carried out the nerve agent

poisoning of a russian dissident and his daughter in the uk. russia of course still denies having anything to do with the shoot down of mh 17. in addition to the charges, the prosecutors name said and implicated edaide to putin himself for the transfer of military equipment that made the shoot down possible. so russia doesn't want to admit it and they don't want to have to answer for this and think the denials are good enough. this is an emotional day for the families of the victims five years ago. it is astonishing that russia is denying responsibility for it. the guys are going to get charged and i'm sure russia will not extradite them. they will be charged in absentia. prosecutors will seek international arrest warrants and are looking for still more

witnesses to potentially charge more people. that happened also today. and because the news gods have basically been humming the same theme all day, we also got word about a newly reported u.s. federal criminal investigation involving a major international bank that has been implicated in billions of dollars in russian money laundering. a bank called deutsch bank that has come under scrutiny from investigators not only for the russian money laundering they are on the hook for, but the long financial history with president trump and his businesses. just yesterday the president's lawyers filed this lengthy argument in the circuit court of appeals trying to block deutsch bank from handing over records related to trump and his businesses that have been subpoenaed by congressional committees. one judge ordered they are valid and deutsch bank has to comply. trump and his lawyers are trying

to get the appeals court to stop and block the subpoena and stop deutsch bank from handing over his records. they protested and the "new york times" reports what starts as a russian moan laundering investigationa at deutsch bank has been an investigation into something very specific and related to high ranking white house officials. it is become an investigation into whether or not deutsch bank broke laws or had crimes in suspicious activity reports that its employees prepared about possibly problematic transactions include being some linked to president trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, jared kushner. both the kushner family real estate business and the president and the president's businesses have been deeply involved in financing deals with deutsch bank. the time his previously spoken with whistle blower who is allege deutsch bank employees flagged transactions involving

the kushner family business and trump business entities flagged them as potentially suspicious transactions and higher ups at deutsch bank sat on the reports and not submitted them to the government for investigation. now the times reports that the whistle blowers have been contacted by the fbi and the times reports there is an active criminal investigation under wie involving the fbi and the justice department's recovery section and the u.s. attorney's office in both manhattan and brooklyn. you will recall that the u.s. attorney's ochs already named the president as individual one in multiple campaign finance felonies to which the lawyer is serving a prison sentence. and all this news breaks on the day that congress for the first time today took testimony from a trump white house official on the issue of the mueller investigation and russian interference in the election. they had their first wnls from the trump white house.

former employee former white house communications director hope hicks testified behind closed doors there for seven hours. one of the member who is questioned her joins us live, next. r who is , estioned her joins us live next here are even more reasons to join t-mobile. 1. do you like netflix? sure you do. that's why it's on us. 2. unlimited data. use as much as you want, when you want. 3. no surprises on your bill. taxes and fees included. still think you have a better deal? bring in your discount, and we'll match it. that's right. t-mobile will match your discount.

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the former white house communications director hope hicks spent seven hours behind closed doors. the white house made clear they will try to prevent any white house official from testifying about time working in the white house. in addition that, on the eve of hicks' testimony, we got this rocket from the white house, claiming that hope hicks not only couldn't testify about her time in the white house, but giving her a cloak of invisibility covering her whole life. giving her absolute immunity so she doesn't have to answer anything. the committee's chairman wrote back, rejecting that voodoo out of hand, but heading in today, nobody knew how this would work and what happened when hope hicks showed up. the testimony was behind closed doors, we couldn't see it for ourselves. members did talk to reporters

about how it was going and they sounded -- well, they sounded like this. >> were you satisfied with the response about hush money payments? >> i think we will have to move towards a court proceedings to delve into the questions. >> what are about the knowledge of the campaign with the hush money payments. were you satisfied with the answers? >> since they are still questioning, i said i would just say this is a building block and there are a lot of unanswered questions. >> i'm watching obstruction of justice in action. you have the white house asserting immunity, which is not a thing. it doesn't exist. you have to answer the question, what are they trying to hide from the american people. >> they are preventing her from talking to anything? >> anything related to her tenure in the white house. absolutely. even something as simple as

where was your office located? objection. it's ridiculous. >> it's proceeding. the witness has been directed by the white house and the president not to answer questions. this is an ongoing effort, i think, by the president of the united states and the white house to prevent congress from getting to the truth and getting the answers we deserve. >> joining us now is congressman david cicilline from the great state of rhode island. he was in the room for the interview. she is the first official to be questioned since the release of the mueller report. i thank you for being here. appreciate your time. >> my pleasure. >> your frustration, i don't know you that well, but i feel like i can read your body language a little bit. you were seething with frustration there. am i right to read that? >> you are right to read that. this is a very important witness to hear from. she say member of the president's inner circle. she was there when the president

directed the outside individual, cory lewandowski, the attorney general of the united states to order the special counsel to limit his investigation to future campaigns and not look at the current presidential campaign. she was there when don mcgahn was directed by the president to fire the special counsel and lie about it and prepare false do you means to support that lie. she was there when director comey was fired. so she's a very important witness, however throughout her testimony today, she was directed by the white house counsel and the lawyers there for the president not to answer questions. they objected to any question that posed to hope hicks to anything she observed or did with her employment in the white house claiming absolute immunity that doesn't exist. the idea that you are immune to being asked about your service because you worked for the president doesn't exist. they know that. a court rejected it. this is an effort for the

president to make sure that witness dos not share valuable information to the committee to 99 this ongoing cover up to prevent the american people from knowing the full truth. this is on the record. the next step will be for the committee to go to court to compel the testimony of this witness and to strike down this claim of absolute immunity. we don't have a king. no one has absolute immunity. everyone is subject to the law of the land and the witnesses will be subject to testify. >> for court proceedings are next as we saw sheila jackson lee, what does that mean for hope hicks? is this a lawsuit against her or is this a court order that she would be in personal legal jeopardy as she chose to defy it or evade it? as an individual, we will have annie donaldson and other witnesses that will be put in the same position by the white house. how much trouble can they get in when you start taking the matters to court?

>> the issue will be settled in the litigation to source the subpoena with don mcgahn. he made the claim with absolute immunity. he said he didn't have to show up. that will be litigated and the court will decide whether or not the doctrine that they have created is valid. we all expect they will reject it and say there was no such thing. that will apply to all the witnesses that claimed immunity and require them to come back and provide testimony. if they don't, that will require separate action to compel them. the first instance will be don mcgahn. i think that will be the first litigation that's the witness that didn't appear at all and claimed absolute immunity. >> is this a legal fight that stretches beyond the amount of time that donald trump is president and we will finally have this stuff resolved years down the road or are these proceedings that you think are meaningfully going to work to get testimony and soon? >> they absolutely are going to meaningfully work. the court will give expedited

consideration to this. this is clearly a tactic by the white house and the president to delay and impede and obstruct congress from getting to the facts and continuing to behave like he is above the law. the court will respond quickly to this and render a decision to allow the committee to continue to collect evidence and do our job. >> briefly, congressman, you and a number of other members said we should wait for the tribute with what happened to hope hicks and it will be released soon. you are expressing the frustration and talking about next steps that she wouldn't answer. she did answer some things including her time on the campaign. when do you expect we will get that transcript? >> within 48 hours. very short order. >> from the great state of rhode island. thank you, much appreciated. >> we have breaking news up next on a story that we have been covering very closely on which we did a special report a couple of weeks ago.

there is considerably important breaking news on that story tonight. we are going have that for you after this break. stay with us. you after this break stay with us (woman) when you take align, you have the support of a probiotic and the gastroenterologists who developed it. (vo) align naturally helps to soothe your occasional digestive upsets 24/7. (woman) so where you go, the pro goes. (vo) go with align. the pros in digestive health.

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>> it has been 21 days. right now the state of missouri has just one abortion provider at planned parenthood at st. louis. we have talking about how they are trying to shut down the clinic by threatening to yank

their license to stop them from providing abortions. the last clinic, the planned parenthood clinic is hanging on by a threat and missouri is close to becoming the first state in the country with zero access to legal abortion. the clinic a fight to stay open is tide up in court. the judge gave both sides to friday of this week to decide whether or not the clinic can stay open and if women can still get a legal abortion in that state. access to abortion has been under attack in republican-controlled states and in missouri in particular for the better part of a decade and in an accelerating way since president trump got to put two nominees on the u.s. supreme court. something specific changed 21 days ago. every year that planned parenthood clinic in missouri has to renew their license with the state government and show they are complying with the rules and regulations to be allowed to stay open and keep

performing abortions. if they check the boxes and follow their rules, they are supposed to get their license. it's a simple thing. this year when planned parenthood went to renew, there were no new laws they had to newly start following and no new rules or regulations that had been put on the books that they had to newly start following. it was the same set of working instructions as all the times before in terms of laws and regulations. but starting 21 days ago, the state told planned parenthood that now in order to stay open and keep their license, they must subject every woman who seeks abortion to a medically unnecessary internal pelvic examination. doctors already administrator a pelvic exam, but when planned parenthood went to are you new the license, they had to do another pelvic exam. an extra one.

an extra internal vaginal examination that is mandatory at least three days before the woman actually goes to pet get her abortion. she has to do this first three days ahead of time. she doesn't want to do it, but the state director said you have to do it. they are citing the same regulations as the reason they were making planned parenthood start to do this, but they never interpreted any state laws in this way before. this is new. for whatever reason, the state decided they would enforce laws a new way and put patients through this extra vaginal exam that they don't need, that they didn't have to get before. they said that now for the first time, planned parenthood has to ask women to take their clothes off and submit to an inspection that they don't need before they start the process of getting an abortion three days later. either do that or the clinic

would be shut down. all services will be shut down and missouri will no longer have any legal abortion provider. so the doctors at that planned parenthood clinic facing this new ultimatum from the state said okay. they would start performing the extra medically unnecessary pelvic exams that the patients don't need and doctors don't want to give, but if they refused, the clinic would be closed, leaving the state without a single abortion providenr in the state. that was the situation we discovered when we talked to the staff and the doctors after they had to start complying with the new interpretation of the law. they told us how traumatizing it was for their patients and honestly for the doctors too who had to administer the exams by orders of the state government. >> these women thursday and on monday were trauma tatized that

they had to get undressed to get a pelvic exam and ultrasound. >> how do you explain it to them. >> we let them know that we do not agree and the state requires us to do that to them and they have every right to contact whoever they want to voice their opinions b you this is our doing. we do not want to violate your rights and do unnecessary invasive procedures that we wouldn't do at this moment. most women are quite disturbed at that, but they are pretty remarkable because they are saying i'm sorry you have to do this to me. that's shameful. >> really it is just so inappropriate to subject somebody to a pelvic exam which includes putting your fingers and other instruments in the vagina that gives no medical information or anything to help the patient or myself choose what is the best approach for their abortion care.

the state continues to put us in a position where we are choosing between what we know is medically and ethically appropriate and i would put avoying unnecessary pelvic exams squarely in that box or making the choice to say we can't provide abortion care at all. obviously now that's an impossible choice for us. we either have to ask patients to subject themselves to a state-sanctioned sexual assault or they can't have an abortion in missouri. >> the physicians describing this as state-sanctioned sexual assault. that started 21 days ago enforcing the law to force patients to withstand a medically unnecessary vaginal probe. they had to take off their cloaks for no medical reason newly mandated by the state and insert instruments into their patients vaginas for no medical

reason mandated by the state for 21 days and performed what they considered to be sexual assaults on their patients, newly mandated by the state for 21 days. the doctors putz up with it. tonight the doctors say enough is enough. planned parenthood of st. louis said they will no longer conduct a second pelvic exam that state regulators have recently mandated. the doctors say the examination is unethical and they stand by the decision as they move one step closer to lose its license. they were first to report this. there was confusion in the first version of the story. cbs initially reported that the planned patient hood was defying refusing to administer the second exam. they corrected that part of the story. that's not what's happening here. the state government moved the goal post this year. the state government changed the rules of the game and reinterpreted existing laws and

regulations as a new way to force planned parenthood to perform this unnecessary procedure on women who want an abortion. maybe they guessed or surmised that the state was trying to bully the doctors by making them do this to their patients and they were trying to get the doctors to say no, shut us down. the planned parenthood is not rejecting anything in state law in missouri. they are not defying the law and defying regulations. they are rejecting the state's brand-new reading and interpretation of the law which is what is making them force women to take off their clothes and put their feet in stir ups and get a pelvic, invasive exam they don't need. planned parenthood said enough. we have been doing this for 21 days and we are not going to do this anymore. e are not going to this anymore in my line of work,

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>> joining us now is dr. david eisenberg, the medical director at the st. louis planned parenthood clinic that is the last abortion clinic standing in missouri. i know this is a stressful and busy time for you. >> it is and i appreciate the opportunity and for to you tell our story so well to the national media and explain what's happening for women in missouri. >> i wanted to give you the opportunity to correct me if i am getting any of this wrong. some of this feels like disto distopian fiction so i would be delighted to have it wrong. it is accurate? >> perfectly accurate as the physician taking care of women for the last three weeks at our health center, forced to do things that seem unthinkable. distopian. it has been a difficult reality for me and my patients. we do everything we can to provide the highest quality patient center care that planned

parenthood has been known for over 100 years and we take that seriously. we have been having to put women through something totally unnecessary, uncomfortable. inhumane because the state reinterpreted the rules just doesn't seem fair. abortion care is health care. we don't ask to be treated differently. we ask too much treated the same as every other health care provider. the patients don't want to be kicked around lie like a political football here in missouri. >> when the state decided to newly interpret regulations and state laws to require you to do this new exam thaw didn't have to do before, the one you described in the vivid terms, did they warn you they were making this change in interpretation, did they tell you why they were doing it and give you an indication to what they think this is for? >> i honestly don't have a good explanation for why. there is no medical or legal justification.

the american college of physicians and obstetrics and gynecology support having a pelvic exam is uncomfortable for patients, but justified if the patient has a medical need. if they are having a pap test or std testing or just before a surgical abortion so i can understand her pelvic anatomy before i perform her abortion. it's health care. a patient about to have a colonoscopy has a rectal exam just before, but not three days in advance. >> you made a remarkable decision that you are going to stop going along with what the state government of missouri has been making you do for the past three weeks. if you can stay with us for another few minutes, i would love to talk to you in detail about how you arrived in that decision and what will happen as a consequence. >> i can. >> david eisenberg who is the medical director at planned parenthood in st. louis,

missouri. they decided to stop complying with what the state has been making them do for the past 21 days. we have been covering that and we are hearing about that decision when we come back. stay with us. about that decision when we come back stay with us play it cool and escape heartburn fast with new tums chewy bites cooling sensation. ♪ tum tum tum tums has been excellent. they really appreciate the military family and it really shows. with all that usaa offers why go with anybody else? we know their rates are good, we know that they're always going to take care of us. it was an instant savings and i should have changed a long time ago. it was funny because when we would call another insurance company, hey would say "oh we can't beat usaa" we're the webber family. we're the tenney's we're the hayles, and we're usaa members for life. ♪ get your usaa auto insurance quote today. ♪ (kickstart my heart by motley crue)) (truck honks)

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hey! i live on my own now! so no one needs to know you've got gas. i've got xfinity, because i like to live life in the fast lane. unlike my parents. you rambling about xfinity again? you're so cute when you get excited... anyways... i've got their app right here, i can troubleshoot. i can schedule a time for them to call me back, it's great! you have our number programmed in? ya i don't even know your phone anymore... excuse me?! what? i don't know your phone number. aw well. he doesn't know our phone number! you have our fax number, obviously... today's xfinity service. simple. easy. awesome. i'll pass. cbs news was first to report tonight that the doctors at the last planned parenthood clinic, the last abortion provider in the state of missouri who have been ordered by the state to provide basically punitive medically unnecessary pelvic

exams to their parents as a new requirement for getting an abortion in that state, cbs news was the first to report that they stopped complying with that order, that new order from the state government. joining us is dr. david eisenberg, medical director at the clinic that made this decision. you can tell us about you and your colleagues and how you arrived at the decision and what you think the consequences will be as you fight to keep your clinic open. >> this is not the first time the state defined existing rules to limit access to abortion care in missouri. last year they forced us to do pelvic exams with pill abortions. most women don't have to paik their pants off. we can determine if they are a candidate with an ultrasound on their lower abdomen. on their tummy. they might have to unbutton the top of their high waisted gen e,

but that's as invasive as it gets. they pass the pregnancy at home. it's a common process. we were forced to make a decision as to whether we choose to do pelvic exams for a woman. knowing there is no medical utility when the state redefined their interpretation and it's not going to compromise access because we have a health center in illinois where women can get a pill abortion without a waiting president. our physicians said we are not going do the exams for those women. they can get that care elsewhere. this year despite all of that conversation and the stafact th the state watched me do the pelvic examinations, they said we will reinterpret the rules again and say you have to do a pelvic exam as a part of that informed consent. i don't have an explanation for why, but i work with some of most highly trained, highly qualified and compassionate health care providers, physicians, medical assistants

and nurses and front desk staff to ensure the best quality care for our patients that is patient-centered and respects our patients's values women felt like we had to make an impossible choice between ensuring access to care and compromising my medical ethics. i have been the to do it. i said to patients i am sorry more times than i can count in the last three weeks. i'm tired of doing that. i cannot justify the harm that is being inflicted on my patients for the last three weeks just so they can get one of the safest types of medical care and the fact that missouri is holding women's access to care hostage and threatening the last bit of abortion access we have left in the state at my health center. it's time to stand up and fight back. >> from planned parenthood, david eisenberg, you have an important court date as you fight to keep the clinic open

and you wrestle with the ethical positions. keep us apprised. >> we will be here to take care of patients no matter what. >> we'll be right back. of patiet >> we'll be right back ♪ play it cool and escape heartburn fast with new tums chewy bites cooling sensation. ♪ tum tum tum tums

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for effective, non-addictive relief. salonpas lidocaine. patch, roll-on or cream. hisamitsu. that does it for our show tonight. we will see you again tonight. it's time for the last word with lawrence o'donnell. >> good evening, rachel. one week away from the debates. just week away. >> why are you so mean? >> you nl i don't have any homework. you can wing it. >> you know what, even if i canceled everything else in my life. food, sleep, social interaction, my tv show, everything i need to do and all i was doing was prepping for the debate for the next week, i would still not be ready. >> it's called pressure, rachel. >> thanks, my friend. >> there is nothing much at stake. just the future of the country. >> do you have a hot iron you want me t