i don't know if it's the right number, let's try it. >> make america great again? tell donald trump to go to hell. >> the brief political history of marco rubio, lindsey graham, and donald trump. that is our broadcast for this evening. thank you so very much for being here with us. good night from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. happy to have you here. you know, this is one of those days. i have to tell you, honestly, it's getting to be a little bit nuts. this time last night we were work 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 terrible and bloody violent domestic situation in his family. one that was known to police, it was starting to be investigated by the fbi. that nominee was hoping he'd be able to keep it secret anyway and maybe it wouldn't come out and he'd be able to become the

confirmed secretary of defense and nobody would know. right? it is amazing enough that the white house had been reckless enough to put somebody who was in that kind of a compromised position at the pentagon at all as acting defense secretary for six months, let alone that they nominated him to try to confirm him for that position on a permanent basis. i mean, whatever you think about the circumstances of what had happened in his family, the fact that he was trying to keep it secret? i mean, that's the danger, right? that's the potential liability to blackmail 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 withdrew his nomination to be defense secretary. it emerged that u.s. senators on the armed services committee were especially aggrieved that they had never been notified about that very serious situation in shanahan's background that he was trying to

keep under wraps. senator is why angry because shanahan had gone through the senate confirmation process actually 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 and trying to manage the consequences of that crime, when that all came out yesterday, senators were mad. that they were learning about that, like all the rest of us were, for first time in the pages of "the washington post." they were mad about that because they had just gone through senate confirmation with that guy as a nominee the previous year. none of that stuff had ever been flagged for them. so that's what we were working our way 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 conflagration, 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. this is a conservative confab that happened in las vegas summer of 2015. the very first time any presidential candidate running in the 20 skaection election weighed in on the issue of russian sanctions was when this red-haired woman, maria butina, walked up to a microphone at an audience q&a thing with then candidate donald trump, and she asked candidate donald trump about sanctions on russia. and trump responded with this long soliloquy about how he liked vladimir putin very much and he didn't think he would

need the sanctions and he was against u.s. sanctions on russia, he'd get rid of them. so that was july 2015. very early on in the 2016 race. and of course over time the odd dynamic between trump and putin and trump and russia and the trump campaign a's secret discussions with russia about dropping sanctions on them, that would all end up becoming a huge deal. it became such a big deal we still haven't sorted it all out. we're still not over it. but the very first time the whole idea of russia sanctions came up in the campaign for any candidate, it was through that question. at that conservative confab in las vegas in july 2015, a question from the floor for candidate trump that elicits the statement from him, i am against the u.s. government having sanctions on russia. it turns out that woman who asked that question, who injected the whole russia sanctions thing in the campaign in the first place, turns out she would later be indicted as a secret foreign agent running an influence operation in this

country on behalf of the russian federation. the maria butina story is just nuts, right? when she was ultimately arrested and indicted and put in jail, she 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 things were going and her efforts to make contacts and meet influential people inside the republican party, particularly through conservative organizations like the nra. but in the charging documents in her case, an fbi affidavit filed with the court, the government also described a different person who was involved in the scheme. a person who was named by prosecutors as "u.s. person 1." and if you piece it together through various documents and reporting, u.s. person 1 in the butina case appears to be 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 quote advance the interests of the russian federation. there's also just been a ton of public facing reporting about maria butina and her american boyfriend, including this seminal "new york times" piece which broke the news that paul erickson, the boyfriend, had, during the campaign, in may 2016, he had sent the trump campaign an email that literally had the subject line "kremlin connection." he was offering in that email 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 sent as an emissary with putin, and he could do it at an upcoming nra event. so today maria butina is still in jail. she pled guilty. it's expected she's going to be deported back to russia as soon as she finally gets released from prison.

her boyfriend, "u.s. person 1," according to prosecutors, he helped her throughout 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. he's facing federal charges there. he's pled not guilty. he's awaiting trial. but the saga of those two, right, the sorry of these two, even before their indictments, it's been like the made for tv technicolor spy movie dramatic subplot in this whole scandal and the whole investigation and all of it, right? i mean, of all the stuff around the russia scandal, it's interesting to a certain degree, it's all incredible that we're looking at russian influence in a u.s. election and potential leverage over the campaign and the candidate -- i mean, it's all pretty cinematic. but when it comes to maria butina and paul erickson, her american boyfriend, that's the stuff that definitely makes the

trailer for the movie, right? what are all these russians doing with the nra? why did all those nra people end up in moscow at the same time that michael flynn was there doing that gala dinner celebrating the russian propaganda tv channel where he sat with vladimir putin. is that jill stein, the green party candidate, there too? what? maria butina literally sends a message to her kremlin handler," 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. she sends word who that person is because she tells her handler, basically, our i'm in russia should have a heads-up about that choice, the russian government's opinion on that choice will be taken into consideration, please 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's going to pick as secretary of state? what?

i mean, butina and erickson stuff is the most sparky, most lurid, and therefore i think some of the most heavily covered part of this whole scandal. well, josh rogen at "the washington post" reports tonight that maria butina also turned up at the wedding of mike pence's national security adviser. what? yeah. this was june 2017. mike pence's national security adviser, a woman named andrea thompson, she got married that summer of 2017, first summer of the trump administration. she's got that awesome new job. she's getting married. maria butina was at the wedding. why was maria butina at that wedding? because u.s. person 1, her boyfriend, paul erickson, he was officiating the wedding. oh. it also turns out the man who mike pence's national security adviser, the man who andrea thompson was marrying at their wedding that day, he had

recently given paul erickson $100,000. now just quick looky lou at the timeline. trump administration comes into office beginning 2017. the summer of 2017, vice president pence's national security adviser gets married and her wedding is officiated by maria butina's boyfriend. by the end of 2017, there's these 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. december 2017, that's the front page of the "times." thereafter, in the spring of 2018, mike pence's national security adviser gets put up for a big new job. so the senate holds confirmation hearings for her to decide whether andrea thompson will become the new u.s. under secretary of state for arms

control and international security affairs. she goes through that whole 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 he's since been named as one of the people secretly trying to set up back channels between putin and trump, then understood, known to be the subject of a major fbi inquiry, a special counsel investigativi, a country having its hair on fire over what happened between russia and trump in the campaign, what were guys like erickson doing, she knew all of that. when she was being put up for this top job at the department of state. going out for senate confirmation. but 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.

do you want to know what that job she was up for is really like? what you actually 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 that job actually is, what you actually do when you have that job? you negotiate with russia. you negotiate with russians on arms control treaties. that's your job. so josh rogen spoke with a senior trump administration official in response to this scoop today. that senior administration official told mr. rogen, quote, 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 with an intelligence clearance knows that. but as josh rogen reports today at the "post," not only did andrea thompson not report any

of this stuff to the senate when she was up for confirmation to be the top arms control negotiator with moscow, not oshl did she not disclose it when she was up to that job, she's never disclosed it to anyone inside the government. thompson never disclosed these ties to her superiors until approached this week by this columnist. so that's what's going on in the trump administration tonight. i mean, we're trying to get our heads around new and unprecedented stuff from them all the time. but it is remarkable, right? i mean, now in the space of 24 hours we've got these twin revelations, that the guy who they had working as acting defense secretary for the last six months, he the whole time was sitting on an incredibly potent, disturbing family secret that he was trying desperately to keep anyone from knowing about while he was running the pentagon. that is a national security intelligence risk in terms of his vulnerability to blackmail and leverage. that is almost impossible to overstate.

now tonight 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 supervisors, not disclosing it to the fbi for her background checks or clearances, we can surmise that because it was not disclosed to the senate when they voted to confirm her to this post norman a year ago. this is atmosphere like a plot you would event in a novel. high-level u.s. government negotiator secretly linked to russia's undercover agent! russia knows it but the american public doesn't! what can russia do with this information now that they've got this top official over a barrel? they're heading into arms negotiations and they know that she knows and -- it's just insane. and that news breaking tonight as russian military intelligence is being called out internationally for this catastrophe which 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 flight 17. this was not the plane that disappeared, this was the commercial airliner full of civilians that was shot out of the sky. 298 souls aboard, most of them dutch citizens. the flight originated in amsterdam, was heading to kuala lumpur, the capital of malaysia. as the plane 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. their bodies and debris from that crash strewn over a large area of rural eastern ukraine. investigators from the netherlands and malaysia and ukraine, also from australia and belgium, who had citizens on board, they formed an

international group to jointly investigate this. they 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 missile. they figured out where it was fired from, they figured out which russian anti-aircraft missile brigade it could be traced to. that kind of missile is shot from a big, bulky, unmistakable anti-aircraft system that is not a little thing that you cover up in the back of the truck. you can't move it in any subtle way. as andrew cramer reports for "the new york times," western analysts said it was improbable that anyone other than a senior russian military commander, if not president putin himself, could have ordered the bulky anti-aircraft system mounted on

a tracked vehicle to be deployed across an international border. well, today the dutch-led international investigative team announced charges, criminal charges, against four suspects in these 298 murders. the suspects announced today, charged today, include a colonel from the fsb, the russian spy service, and two officers from the gru, the same military intelligence agency that ran the russian attack on our 2016 election. same russian military allege that's alleged to have carried out the nerve agent poisoning in salisbury in the uk. russia, of course, still denies having anything to do with the shoot-down of mh-17. but in addition to these charges announced today, the international prosecutors also named and implicated a senior aide to putin himself for having been involved at the highest level in organizing the transfer

of military equipment that made this shoot-down possible. and so russia doesn't want to admit it. they do not want to have to answer for this and they think their denials are good enough. this has been i'm sure an emotional day for the families of the victims of that disaster five years ago. it is astonishing that russia is still denying all responsibility for it. but now these guys are going to get charged. and i'm sure russia will not extradite them, so they will be charged in absentia when their trial starts in the spring. prosecutors say they're going to seek international arrest warrants and they say they're looking for still more witnesses to potentially charge more people. that happens today, also today. and because the news gods have basically been humming the same theme all day, this afternoon 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.

it's a bank called deutsche bank that has also come under scrutiny by law enforcement and congressional investigators. not only for that russian money laundering problem they're already on the hook for. they've also come under scrutiny for the bank's somewhat inexplicable long financial history with president trump and his businesses. just yesterday the president's lawyers filed this lengthy argument in the second u.s. circuit court of appeals trying to block deutsche bank from handing over records related to trump and his businesses. records that have been subpoenaed by congressional committees. one federal judge has ordered those subpoenas are valid and deutsche bank has to comply. trump and his lawyers are trying to get this appeals court to stop that ruling, to block that subpoena, to stop deutsche bank from abandoning over his records. now david n. rich and william rushbaum report what started as a russian money laundering operation at deutsche bank has now become an investigation into something very specific and related to high-ranking white house officials. it has become an investigation

into whether deutsche bank broke money-laundering laws or committed other crimes in what are called suspicious activity reports that quote its employees rathered about possibly problematic transactions including 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 "times" had previously spoken with whistle-blowers who allege that deutsche bank employees had flagged transactions involving the kushner family business and trump business entities, flagged them as potentially suspicious transactions. but higher-ups at deutsche bank had sat on those reports and not submitted them to the government for investigation. now the "times" reports those whistle-blowers have been contacted by the fbi and the "times" reports there is an active criminal investigation under way involving the fbi, the justice department's money

laundering and asset recovery section, and the u.s. attorney's offices in manhattan and brooklyn. the u.s. attorney's office in manhattan has already named the president as "individual 1" in multiple campaign finance felonies for which the president's personal lawyer is serving a federal 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 witness today from the trump white house. former trump organization employee, former white house communications director hope hicks testified behind closed doors to the judiciary committee today. she was there for seven hours. one of the members who questioned her joins us live next. with new nicorette coated ice mint. layered with flavor... it's the first and only coated nicotine lozenge. for an amazing taste... ...that outlasts your craving.

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only couldn't testify about her time in the white house, they were also giving her a cloak of invisibility cover her whole life. giving her absolute immunity so she doesn't have to answer anything. the committee's chairman wrote back to the white house rejecting that voodoo out of hand. but heading in today, nobody really knew how this would work, nobody knew what would happen when hope hicks showed up. the testimony was behind closed doors so we can't show that to you, we couldn't see it for ourselves. members of the committee did talk to reporters about how it was going and they sounded like this. >> were you satisfied with the responses about hush money payments? >> i think we'll have to -- i think we'll have to move toward court proceedings to delve into those questions more deeply. >> what about knowledge of the campaign of hush money payments? were you satisfied with what she said about that?

>> since there's still questioning, i said i would just say that 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 absolute immunity, which is not a thing. it doesn't exist. and you have to ask the question, what are they trying to hide from the american people? >> so they're preventing her from talking about anything? >> anything related to her tenure in the white house. absolutely. even something as simple as where is your office located? objection! it's ridiculous. >> you know, 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 you saw frthere.

hope hicks is the first trump white house employee to be questioned since the mueller report. thank you for being here. your frustration, i don't know you that well, i feel i can read your body language a little bit, i felt you were seething with frustration. am i right? >> you are right to read that. this was a very important witness for the committee to hear from. she was a member of the president's inner circle. selves there when the president directed the outside individual, corey lewandowski, to direct 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 then lie about it and then prepare false documents 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, the lawyers there for the president, not to answer questions. they objected to any question that was posed to hope hicks that had to do with anything she observed or did during the course of her employment in the white house, claiming something they called absolute immunity, which doesn't exist. this idea that you are immune from ever being asked anything about your service simply because you worked for the president doesn't exist. they know that. a court has already rejected it. this is an effort of the president to be sure that witnesses do not share valuable information to the committee to continue in this ongoing cover-up to prevent the american people from knowing the full truth. this was all put before the committee. it's on the record. the next step will be for the committee to go to court, to compel the testimony of this witness, and to kind of strike down this claim of absolute immunity. we don't have a king. no one has absolute immunity in this country. everybody is subject to the law of the land and these witnesses will be ordered to testify.

>> if court proceedings are next, as you just said, as we saw sheila jackson lee say, as we saw chairman nadler talk about today, what does this mean for hope hicks? is this a lawsuit against her? is this a court order that she'd be in personal legal jeopardy if she chose to defy it or evade it? as a witness, as an individual, andy donaldson next week, other witnesses put in this same position by the white house. how much trouble can they get in once you start taking these matters to court? >> well, the issue will be session settled first in the litigation against don mcgahn. he made the same claim of absolute immunity. that will be litigated first. the court will then decide whether or not this doctrine which they've created is valid. we all expect that they will reject it and say there's no such thing. that will then apply to all the witnesses that have claimed absolute immunity and require them to come back and provide testimony.

if they don't that will require separate legal action to compel them. the first instance i expect will be don mcgahn. i think that will be the first litigation. that's the witness who didn't appear at all and who claimed absolute immunity. >> this is going to be the kind thing where this is a legal fight that stretches on beyond the amount of time that donald trump is president and we're going to finally have this stuff resolved years down the road? or are these proceedings you think are meaningfully going to work functionally to get testimony and soon? >> i think they absolutely are going to meaningfully work. i think a court will give very expedited consideration to this. this is very clearly a tactic by the white house and the president to delay and to impede and obstruct congress from getting to the facts and continuing to behave like somehow he's above the law. i think the court will respond quickly to this and render a decision that will allow the committee to continue to collect evidence and do our job. >> congressman, i know that you and a number of other members today said we should wait for the transcripts of what happened today with hope hicks that a transcript will be released

soon. obviously you're expressing this frustration in talking about next steps in terms of the questions she wouldn't answer. we know she did answer some things, including about her time on the campaign. when do you expect we will get that transcript from hicks? >> the transcript should be available within 48 hours, in very short order. >> congressman cicilline, great state of rhode island, thank you. we've got breaking news coming up next on a story we have been covering closely on this show, a story on which we did a special report a couple of weeks ago. there is considerably important breaking news on that story tonight and we are going to have that for you after this break. t. so i know there's a big need for new gas-x maximum strength. it relieves pressure, bloating and discomfort fast. so no one needs to know you've got gas. gas-x. so[ text notification now that you have]as. new dr. scholl's massaging gel advanced insoles

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so it has been 21 days. right now the state of missouri has just one abortion provider in the whole state at planned parenthood in st. louis. we've been covering how the republican-run state government in missouri has been trying to shut down that clinic by threatening to yank their license, to stop them from providing abortions. as of now that last clinic, the planned parenthood clinic in st. louis, is hanging on by a thread. and missouri is close to becoming the first state in the country with zero access to legal apportion. the clinic's fight to stay open has been tied up in court. a judge has given both sides until friday this week to decide whether or not the clinic can stay open, whether women can still get a legal abortion in that whole state. and as you know, access to abortion has been under attack in republican-controlled states

and in missouri in particular for the better part of a decade. in an accelerating way since president trump got to put two nominees on the united states supreme court. but something very specific changed in this fight 21 days ago. every year that planned parenthood clinic in missouri has to renew their license with the state government. they have to show they're complying with all the health care rules and regulations in the state of missouri to be allowed to stay open and keep performing abortions. if they check all the boxes, if they follow all the rules, they're supposed to get their license. it's a pretty simple thing. this year when planned parenthood went to renew their license there were no new laws that they had to newly start following. there were no new rules or regulations that had been put on the book that is they had to newly start following. it was the same set of working instructions as all the times before, both in terms of laws and regulations. but starting 21 days ago, the state told planned parenthood

that now, in order to stay open, now, in order to keep their license, the state says that clinic must subject every woman who seeks an abortion there to a mandatory medically unnecessary internal pelvic examination. doctors already administer a pelvic exam right before an abortion. that is medically necessary, that is fine with them. but when planned parenthood went to renew their license this year, the state told them they had to start doing this extra thing. another pelvic exam. an extra one. an extra internal vaginal examination that is mandatory. at least three days before the woman actually goes to get her abortion. she has to do this first. three days ahead of time. she doesn't want it, doctors don't want to do it, state health director now says you have to do it. the state is citing the same rules and regulations that have been on the books for years as the reason they were making planned parenthood start to do this to their patients. but the state had never interpreted any state laws or regulations in this way before.

this is new. for whatever reason, the state decided they would enforce their laws a new way this year 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 start asking women to take their clothes off and submit to an intrucive vaginal inspection they don't need before they are even allowed to start the process of getting an abortion three days later. either do that or the state said the clinic would be shut down. all abortion services would be shut down in that clinic, missouri will no longer have any legal abortion provider. and so the doctors at that planned parenthood clinic, facing this new ultimatum from the state, they said, okay, they said they would start performing those extra medically unnecessary pelvic exams. patients don't need them, doctors don't want to give them. if they said no, if they refused, the clinic would be closed, leaving the state of missouri without a single abortion provider in the whole

state. that was the situation we discovered a few weeks ago talking to the staff and doctors at that clinic right after they had to start complying with this 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 these exams by orders of the state government. >> these women thursday and on monday were traumatized at the fact that they had to get undressed to get a pelvic exam to get an ultrasound. >> how do you explain that to a patient who is so traumatized? >> well, basically we let them know we do not agree, and that the state of missouri is requiring us to do this to them. and they have every right to contact who they feel they need to contact to voice their opinions. we make it very clear this is not our doing. we do not want to violate your rights, we do not want to make you do unnecessary inbracive procedure that we wouldn't do at this moment.

and most women are quite disturbed at that. but they're pretty remarkable because they're actually apologizing to my doctors, i'm sorry you have to do this to me. that's shameful. >> it is just so inappropriate to subject somebody to a pelvic exam, which includes putting your fingers and other instruments in the vagina, when really that gives no medical information. it doesn't do anything to help the patient or myself choose what is the best approach for their abortion care. the state continues to put us into a position where we are really choosing between what we know is medically and ethically appropriate, and i would put avoiding unnecessary pelvic exams squarely in that box. or making the choice to then say, we can't provide abortion care at all. and so obviously now that's an impossible choice for us, right? we either have to ask patients to subject themselves to a state-sanctioned, essentially sexual assault. or they can't have an abortion

here in missouri. >> fits from that clinic describing this as state-sanctioned sexual assault. so that all started 21 days ago in missouri. state government enforcing the law in a way they had never done before to force patients, force these women, to withstand a medically unnecessary vaginal probe before they can get an abortion. for 21 days the doctors at this clinic had to tell their patients to take off their clothes for no medical reason, muly mandated by the state. for 21 days they had to insert instruments into their patients' vaginas for no medical reason, newly mandated by the state. for 21 days they performed what they considered to be the state-sanged sexual assault on their patients, newly han dated by the state. for 21 days the doctors put up with it. tonight the doctors say, enough is enough. quote, planned parenthood of st. louis, missouri's last remaining abortion clinic, says it will no longer conduct a second pelvic exam that state regulators have recently mandated. planned parenthood doctors say the examination is unethical and

they stand by the decision even as it moves the clinic one step closer toward losing its license. cbs news was first to report this tonight. she tell you there was some confusion in the first version of the story. cbs initially reported that planned parenthood was defying a state regulation by refusing to administer the second unnecessary pelvic exam. they have since corrected that part of their story because that is not what's happening here. the state government moved the goal post this year. the state government changed the rules of the game. they reinterpreted existing laws and regulations as this new way of trying to force planned parenthood to perform this invasive, unnecessary procedure on women who want an abortion. a lot of people have guessed or surmised maybe the state was trying to so bully the doctors by making them do this to their patients that they were trying to get the doctors themselves to throw up their hands and say, no, shut us down. planned parenthood is not rejecting anything in state law in missouri. they're not defying the law.

they're rejecting the state's brand-new reading, brand-new interpretation, of the law which is what is making them force women to take off their clothes, peat their feet up in syrups, and get a medically irrelevant pelvic exam they don't need, as the cost of asking for an abortion in missouri. planned parenthood says enough. we have been doing this for 21 days, we are not going to do it anymore. the medical director of that clinic joins us next. in my line of work, i come face-to-face with a lot of behinds. so i know there's a big need

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so no one needs to know you've got gas. when crabe stronger...strong, with new nicorette coated ice mint. layered with flavor... it's the first and only coated nicotine lozenge. for an amazing taste... ...that outlasts your craving. new nicorette ice mint. joining us now, dr. david isenberg, medical director at the st. louis planned parenthood clinic that is the last abortion provider standing in missouri. dr. isenberg, thank you so much for being here. i know this is a stressful and busy time for you. >> it is and i really appreciate the opportunity and for you to tell our story so well in the national media and explain what's been happening for women in missouri. >> thank you for saying that. i wanted to start off by giving you the opportunity to correct me if i have been getting any of this wrong.

honestly, some of this really feels like dystopian fiction, so i'd be delighted if i have any of this wrong. basically the way we've been telling the story is accurate? >> perfectly accurate. as a physician taking care of women in the state of missouri, forced to do things that seem unthinkable, as you said, dystopian. it has been a difficult reality for me and my patients. and we do everything we can to provide the highest quality patient-centered care that planned parenthood has been known for for over 100 years. we take that really seriously. and the idea that we've been having to put women through something that's totally unnecessary, uncomfortable, inhumane, just because the state has reinterpreted the rules, just doesn't seem fair. abortion care is health care. we don't ask to be treated differently, we ask to be treated the same as every other health care provider. the patients to come to us for care don't want to be kicked around like a political football

by the governor or department of health in missouri. >> when the state decided to newly interpret regulations and state laws to require you to do this new exam that you didn't have to do before, the one that you've just described in vivid terms, did they warn you they were making this change in interpretation? did they tell you why they were doing it? did they give you any indication what they think this is for? >> i honestly don't have a good explanation for why. there's no medical or legal justification. the american college of obstetrics and gynecology, which i'm a member of, the american college of physicians, all support the idea that having a pelvic exam is an invasive and uncomfortable experience for patients, but it's justified when there's a medical need for it. if a patient's having a pap test to screen for cervical cancer. std testing. just before a surgical abortion procedure. so i can understand her pelvic anatomy before i perform her abortion. abortion care is health care. a patient who's about to have a colonoscopy has a rectal exam done by their physician just

before the colonoscopy, not three days in advance. >> doctor, you and your colleagues have made a remarkable decision as of today 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 could stay with us for another few minutes, i'd love to talk to you in detail about how you arrived at that decision and what you think will happen as a consequence. dr. david isenberg, the medical director at reproductive health services of planned parenthood in st. louis, missouri, he and his colleagues have decided to stop complying with what the state has been making them do for the past 21 days. water going to hear the story about that decision by he and his colleagues when we come back. ♪ hoo - with tripadvisor, it's easy to discover and book amazing things to do, wherever you're headed.

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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 recently been ordered by that state to provide basically punitive medically unnecessary pelvic exams to their patients as a new requirement for getting an abortion in that state, cbs was first to report tonight that that clinic, the physicians at that clinic, have decided to stop complying with that order, that new order, from the state government. joining us again is dr. david isenberg, medical director at the st. louis planned parenthood clinic that just made this decision. can you tell us about you and your colleagues and how you arrived at this decision tonight, and what you think the consequences will be as you fight to keep your clinic open? >> so this is not the first time that the state has redefined already existing rules around

abortion care to try to limit access to abortion care in missouri. last year they forced us to start doing pelvic exams for women choosing pill abortions in missouri. most women who choose pill abortions all over the country don't have to take their pants off. we can determine if they're an appropriate candidate with an ultrasound on their abdomen, on their lower tummy. they might have to unbutton the top of their jeans but that's really as invasive as it gets. they get to administer medications, then pass the pregnancy at home. it's a very common process. we were forced last year to make an impossible decision whether we choose to do pelvic exams for women wanting a pill abortion knowing there's no medical utility when the state redefined. we said it's not going to compromise access because we have a health center in illinois where women can get a pill abortion same day. missouri said, we're not doing

pelvic exams for those women, they can get that care elsewhere. this year despite that conversation and the fact that the state watched me do pelvic exams prior to the procedure, on the procedure day, when it's medically appropriate, they said, this year we're going to reinterpret the rules again and say you've got to do a pelvic exam as part of informed concept. i don't have an explanation for why. what i can tell you is i work with some of the most highly trained, highly qualified, compassionate health care providers, physicians, nurses, medical assistants, front desk staff, who work as a team to ensure the best quality of care for our patients. that's patient centered and that respects our patients' values. for the last three weeks we felt like we had to make an impossible choice between ensuring access to care and compromising my medical ethics. i've been the one to do it. i've said to patients, i am sorry, more times than i can count 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 provided anywhere in this country. the fact that missouri is holding women's access to care hostage and threatening the last bit of abortion access we have left in this state at my health center, i think it's time for us to stand up and fight back. >> dr. david isenberg, medical director of reproductive health services of planned parenthood in st. louis, missouri. you have an important court date this week as you fight to keep this clinic open. please keep us apprised. >> we'll do the best we can and we're going to be here to take care of patient not matter what. ♪

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now that you know the truth... are you in good hands? 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 don't have any homework. you can wing it. >> you know what, even if i canceled everything else in my life.ry food, sleep, social interactiona my tv show, everything i need to do and all i was doing was ee 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.s just the future of the country. >> do you have a hot iron you want me to hold for you with my head? thanks, lawrence. >> what do we call them?