donald trump's supporters and he'll do it for you. >> an incredible lesson. >> simon, thank you so much for your time. [ applause ] >> thanks to you for watching. you at home and everyone here, that's all, the rachel maddow show is up now. good evening, rachel. >> good evening chris, it is an intimidating thing. it makes me worry a lot about my grammar. >> you worry about everything but it is a good thing. >> fair enough, you know me well. >> thanks you at home for joining us this hour. yet another day in our living history where the front pages of our local newspapers kind of feel like things you may want to save. this is the dallas morning news today, "impeachment trial begins," senators sworn in and al glegations read. this is the "union tribune."

"chicago tribune" went over a dramatic lead over the big headline. do we have that? do we have "the washington post"? washington post? thank you, "senate trial of trump begins." wall street journal? yes, senate opens historic trial of the president. "the portland press herald" historic trial of trump begins. in hawaii, "star advertiser" philadelphia inquire. "the trial begins." st. louis post-dispatch, "trump on trial." but, i will say as much as i love the st. louis dispatch h d

headli headliner. i think they have the best. check out "news sentinel." jury duty. get it? as in you are the jurors, senators, do your duty. it is so good. trump's trial begins. senators vowing impartial justice. this is the new york someti"th." trump's trial opens as new evidence emerges. "the birmingham news," trial begins with pomp and bomb shell. today the former summons of the president notifying him he's on trial, arrived at the white house. the white house is expected to make a reply in writing by tomorrow evening. the house essentially the prosecutors are expected to file

their first trial brief for the president's impeachment trial. the president's side, defense will have their first brief due on monday. so this is joined now. this is on. and as noted by though last two front pages we showed from "birmingh birmingham, alabama and new york city. impeachment trial opens as new ed emerges or as a bomb shell continues to drop. just the way the birmingham news puts it. the fact that new witnesses are coming forward. everybody noted that puts pressure on the senate in terms of whether they're going to consider witness testimony or document evidence as new or potential important, witnesses continue to present themselves and new documents continue to pile up. will they actually look at that

stuff as part of considering the sc scandal and the record of the president's behavior they got before them. we'll speak with the key u.s. senator tonight how it is playing inside the senate and how it ultimately be resolved. the fact that new evidence is coming out right now in realtime. new witnesses are coming forward and saying stuff that are consequen consequenc consequences, the politics of this impeachment is very much influx as the trial gets underway. not trying to be naive about this but what the public knows about what the president did is an evolving beat, right? more evidence coming forward as the public learns new things of what the president did. that's going to affect the public's expectation for how they want and expect senators to

judge the president. it will affect how the public views senators in terms of seriousness with approaching the solemn jury duty. it will also affect the public's perception of the president's alleged high crimes and misdemeanor and whether or not he should be held accountable. impeachments are always unpredictable, they're so rare. the fact that this one still has more evidence and sometimes very compelling evidence, coming to the surface. being surfaced by witnesses coming forward, it matters in terms of how humbled we should be about our expectations for this impeachment as it goes forward. and i should mention, can we go back to the birmingham news front page? thank you. one of the things "the birmingham news" is highlighting

is as the trial is kicking off the investigative body, the government agency has just determined when the president withheld aid from ukraine as part of the scheme for which being impeached, it was against the law for him to do that. it was illegal for him to do that. there has been a talking point from the white house among republican spofupporters in congress that this impeachment is a scandal and there was no technical crime. there was a crime. that official determination that the president acted illegally and withholding those funds from ukraine, that official determination by the gao right as the trial starts, i know it is something that's a little bit swamped by other developments this week, that may end up being important in terms of how this goes over. that's the bomb shell that's coming forward.

we'll speak to somebody closely to that story in just a moment tonight. we got a lot to cover. i have to tell you even just tonight the house released still more evidence that pertain to the impeachment scandal. more texts and cold records and communications and even a voice mail that they received from lev parnas. lev parnas who i interviewed this week in new york. who had a key role in the ukraine scheme as essentially rudy giuliani's right hand man. the things parnas told me are explosive and he implicated not only the president but a number of other senior officials including cabinet officials and the way he told the story how that ukraine scheme worked. the white house and conservative media has tried to discount his allegations by saying mr. parnas

is under federal criminal indictment, that's true. nobody is hiding a ball about that whatsoever. the problem with that politically, it cuts it both ways. yes, lev parnas is facing felony charges but that puts him in good company in trump's world. why is so many people connected to the president are in prison? the president's campaign chairman, prison. the president's foreign policy, prison. the president national security advisor, awaiting prison. no, the other one. the president's personal lawyer? prison. the guy with rudy giuliani running this ukraine scheme for the president, yeah, he's facing prison. like i said, that's a big team. it is easy to take shots at him for its legal problems. don't you look around, how come this president have so many

people around him who we recognized in mug shots. don't trust this guy in the trump's orbit. he's facing felony charges, yeah, dude, who is it? the other problem with this effort to dismiss these allegations and assertions made by mr. parnas, it turns out and i learn and speaking with him this week and reviewing very carefully everything that's released by the house intelligence committee that he handed over to them, what we have learned about him as a witness to this scandal is he that remarkable thing that prosecutors and investigators look for, which was a person that was not only voinvolved at all levels of the scheme being investigated. he's the person that did that while keeping all the receipts. he kept everything it turns out. he provided document evidence and text messages and letters and photos. you name it.

he handed over to the house impeachment investigators who have been making it public over the course of this week. and, it turns out those materials can be used to corroborate his story, to corroborate some of his assertion that he made to me in any interview this week. washington post, they took a close look i think to the most explosive claim that lev parnas made in my whole interview with him. i want to focus in on one of them that may end up being the most consequent sialconsequenti. i am not going to replay this whole section about the vice president. i cut it down a little bit to pair it down to its essence, you should see it one more time to refresh your memory.

>> did you meet with the ukrainian official sergei shaffer. a senior aid of president zelensky. it has been reported as far as we understand from public recording that uconn vyou conve exactly of the quid pro quo, military aid would not be released to ukraine. is that accurate? >> it is a little bit more than that. the message that i gave to sergei was a harsh message to give it to him in a harsh way and not in a pleasant way. >> who told you? >> mayor rudy giuliani. >> after meeting at the white house, he told me he called him in there and he does not want him to fly out. rudy giuliani came out on tv and said that zelensky is surrounded by enemies of the president.

i became concerned because i didn't know what to do because the relationship is bad. everybody started getting the 911 out that something is going on. and then i got call from lutsen lutsenko, a text message, here is shaffer. >> mr. rudy giuliani thought he personally was coming to ukraine to meet with president zelensky to make these demands. the meeting was cancelled. he's upset that the meeting is cancelled and making public statements how skelet zelensky >> given one last chance. it was not just military aid, it was all aid. basically the relationship would be sour and we would stop giving him any kind of aid. >> unless --

>> unless, in the conversation i told him that the inauguration that pence would not show up, nobody would show up. >> unless he announce an investigation into joe biden, particularly mike pence would not come. >> particularly vice president mike pence. >> the day after that meeting that you had? >> sunday the 12th. >> i believe it was the following day that in fact vice president pence's visit to the inauguration was cancelled. >> it was after my phone call. >> lev parnas in my interview made explosive claims about the president and about attorney general william barr and rick perry and congressman devin n nunes and on an on. for my money and my claim, the claim that he laid out about

meek pen mike pence is sort of stunning. it is stunning because senators are being convened in this trial right now to decide whether or not president trump is sufficiently bad or illegal under the constitution that senators should remove the president from office. if they remove the president from office, they would elevate vice president mike pence into the oval office. in that circumstances, it would be good to know if vice president pence was voinvolved knowingly complicit in the scheme for which the president is impeached. if they were doing this together and vice president pence was knowingly complicit in the heart of the scheme demanding investigation into joe biden or you get your aid cut-off.

if he was knowingly part of it, that's a big deal for senators who solemnly weighing the prospect of removing president trump in office for his role in that scheme. if vice president pence also had an owe vevert knowing role. lev parnas assertion as ex pl s explosive as they are and fascinated as they are. they are bolstered as "the washington post" lays out point by point. they are bolstered by document evidence that supports the timeline of what mr. parnas is describing. . text messages and other documents released by the white house this week as well as congressional testimony during the ip peachmempeachment inquir. mr. parnas explained to me he was in contact with sergei

shaffer that's bolstered by the string of text messages between parnas and sergei shaffer that's made public by the impeachment investigators. mr. parnas told me he was given mr. shaffer's number and he got in touch with him when he was in ukraine on may 11th. that checks out. here is that text message, written may 11th. it is written in russia. the intelligence committee translated it. good evening, my name is lev parnas, i am a friend of rudy giuliani, please call me back. thank you. nine minutes later, he had the connection he was bragging about. rudy giuliani sent the previous say to president-elect zelensky. this is something that somebody connected to rudy giuliani would have. lev sent over that letter to establish. mr. shaffer responds,

understood, thank you. the following morning, we know heavy is on his way. good morning, sergei, i am on my way, i am running late. sergei responds and we don't need to translate this. okay, is okay in any language. >> at that meeting, at that restaurant that's what lev parnas described in his interview with me, that's where he said he was harsh and made this harsh demand of the senior aid that if they did not announce the investigation into joe biden, not only they'll not military aid or it would be the end of their information and no mike pence at the inauguration. pence would cancel his visit. just as mr. parnas said, after that meeting happened, it did not go well. shaffer made no commitment on behalf of the ukrainian

government to announce the biden investigation. no uncertain terms on behalf of rudy giuliani and the president of the united states. just as lev said after that meeting which did not go well. he told me in this interview that he did not hear back from mr. shaffer after that meeting. later that night in kiev, later that night lev parnas started texting the guy to find out if he's going to give him an answer. that's what he told me in the interview. it checks out. here in those texts, we have lev parnas, the night of the 12th, texting mr. shaffer, good evening sergei, is there any news? >> sergei did not write back. a couple of weeks later, parnas tried again. hello? question mark? hello. are you blocking me? in fact, sergei safer never

writes back to lev again. >> he cut me off from that conversation. what happens next after he did not hear back with shefir. he relayed back to rudy giuliani in washington or at least in the united states that it was in lev's word a "no-go." the threat is to cancel his plans of the inauguration. the way lev told the story he relayed home to washington, it is a no go. they're not going to do it. rudy told him they'll see. the 13th, mike pence would cancel his trip go to zelensky's inauguration. that's what lev threatened on behalf of the white house. the way lev explained it and lev laid out this bomb shell assertion of vice president mike pence of his involvement in this scheme on this pressure campaign in ukraine to make a visit and all these other things that the ukrainian government wanted and needed from the u.s. government

making it contingent on announcing that investigation which on the 12th they would not do. i mean the way lev explains it, that meeting happened on the 12th, he reported home on the night of may 12th and the cancellation of pence's visit happened on the 13th. that's what lev parnas alleges as explosive as it is. that last part checks out as well. >> we had already stopped the trip planning by that point. >> when did that happen? >> stop the trip planning? >> may 13. >> how did you hear about that? >> i was called by a colleague, chief of staff's office and told to stop the planning. >> did you have any knowledge of the reasoning for stopping the trip? >> i asked my colleague why we should stop trip planning and why the vice president wuould nt be attending. the president decided the vice president not attend the inauguration.

>> kind of seems like parnas was speaking for president trump after all. >> president trump contacted president trump mike pence and told him he would not go to that inauguration. this dramatic story that lev parnas tells about mike pence's trip being cancelled to ukraine to make good on the white house threat. that visit would be cancelled unless they announced the biden investigation. it is bolstered and as shocking as that claim is and potentially important as that claim is, the involvement of the president. you may doubt lev parnas because of who he is. what he says is exactly bolstered by corroborating documentation and testimonies from disinterested witnesses. now, a senior administration official talking to "the washington post" about this chain of event with the protection of anonymity.

somebody should maybe ask president trump what reason he gave vice president pence to cancel his trip to zelensky's inauguration. what reason did trump gave him to cancel is trip? did he cancel his planned trip on direct orders from the president of the united states by saying yes, sir, please don't tell me why sir. i mean that's how things operate at the highest levels of the trump administration? somebody should ask. i will also say in the materials just released by the house tonight. mr. parnas' claims that rudy giuliani arranged mr. parnas to have john dowel to represent him. that claim about rudy giuliani setting him up with john doud, that's bolstered by the text.

devin nunes was taking a shocking role. to participate in this scheme by trying to dig up dirt? that too is bolstered in many of these messages released showing parnas doing just that with congressman devin nunes setting up interviews. what lev said to me is bolstered by the documentation that you would go to look for if you were trying to prove it. i understand they want to attack lev parnas as an accused criminal and point taken, he's an accused criminal and one of

this around the president. whatever whether parnas' situation is, the guy seem to kept everything, every attachment and photo, his claims can be checked. the white house denied all documents from the entire federal government to the impeachment investigation. turns out lev had a bunch and he handed it over. turns out even what i believe to be the most explosive claims he made in the interview in important ways turns out by the documentary evidence that we can corroborate by. it checks out. more ahead, stay with us. check. more ahead, stay with us when you shop with wayfair, you spend less and get way more. so you can bring your vision to life and save in more ways than one.

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mulvaney stood up in the briefing room and admitted out loud in front of the whole world yes, there was a quid pro quo involving the withholding aid to ukraine in exchange for them announcing investigations at the white house. it is easy to forget because of how large that claim looms. in that same press conference mick mulvaney admitted to something else, he admitted in that press conference that there were concerns inside the white house, inside the office managers and budget, over the

legality over the illegality of the hold on the aid to ukraine. >> we were concerned of an impoundme impoundment. the budget control act in 1974 says congress appropriates money, you have to spend it. we knew that money had to go out the door by the end of september or we have a good reason not to do it. that was the legality of the issue. >> that was the legality of the issue. there is legal constraint. that was remembered by mulvaney admitting to the quid pro quo. he also admitted that there were concerns inside the white house, inside omb about the legality of that part of the quid pro quo. that part of the quid pro quo that was withholding u.s. aid from ukraine. that press conference was in october, the following month in november, there was a career official from omb testifying for r t the impeachment investigation.

he was among the people who raised questions about whether withholding those funds from ukraine was illegal. more explosively that official mark sandy testified that two other officials omb had not only shared those concerns that this is potentially illegal, he told the impeachment investigation that two omb officials had resigned due to their concerns over the legality of the hold. well, we now know those officials who resigned, they were not alone. it would seem to be proven now that their concerns were well founded. the white house refused to hand over any documents that could shed light on this matter. before christmas, redacted documents did start spilling into the extra freedom of information filed by watchdog groups. they actively took steps to try

to keep it as quiet as possible. justice security revealed the department of defense officials expressed explicit and urgent concern about the potential of illegality of the hold. the president and his allies insisted consistently that no crimes was committed in any part of the impeachment inquiry. it is not true. the officials who were concerned early on that what was going on around them may be illegal, they were right. yesterday, the g.a.o. passed with investigations and reviewing this matter concluded that yeah, the trump administration did in fact break the law when they withheld that money. that decision john yarmuth broke the law by withholding security

for ukraine. joining us now is the chairman of the house budget committee, congressman john yarmuth. thank you for joining us. >> good to be with you rachel. >> exactly right. the impoundment act of 1974 prohibits the administration from withholding funds unless there is some kind of problematic problem. for example, if there is a program congress established and nobody papplied for the grant then obviously they could not dispense the funds. and if they don't they have to come to congress in advance and explain why they want to withhold the funding, of course,

they did none of that. g.a.o. said you definitely can't withhold funds based on policy. under certain circumstances, the problematic technicalities of its policies, you can't do that. the administration came back and response to the g.a.o. report and said that we believe we have the right to withhold based on the president's priorities, basically they don't agree with the law. they can not agree with the law but they have to abide by it. there is no enforcement mechanism. we could impeach him, we are doing and this is part of the entire scheme which is part of the article one charge in the abuse of power. in this case, he actually broke the law in abusing his power. so we are going to be looking at ways to tighten down the

impoundment act so that there are some consequences if the administration does something that's against the law. >> let me ask you of one of the intriguing human dynamics behind this part of the story. it does appear from the documents we have been able to see, from the testimony we got that there were people at omb and people at the defense department certainly seemed convinced or worried that this was illegal that the hold on the aid was not in compliance of the law and there would be consequences when it became known and those people raise concerns explosively committed them to writing and seem to run those concerns up the chain as far as they could and we also see trump administration officials and appointees seeming to try to keep this quiet and keeping it something it was not getting circulated or was not being discussed after they had been warned it was illegal.

that sort of culpability, it seems like people other than the president did stuff that was wrong here. >> exactly. there is another piece of evidence, too, and normally it has to go out when you dispense money or delaying the dispense of money or signed by career officials and employees at the omb. that was done to a certain point and they took it out in their hands and put it in the hands of the political appointee. they took it out of the normal process. this was part of a response to the fact that they know they were doing something wrong. they did not want the career officials to have a hand in it. we know it. >> there were wide reports that mulvaney asked oam lawyers to see if they can come up with a

justification of what they were doing. they all knew they did something wrong. that was on the technical side, the legal side . on the policy side, there were people of the administration high military and diplomatic who were arguing against the bad policy, we need to put this money out, the ukrainians could defend themselves. >> congressman john yarmuth. thanks for helping us understand this. this dramatic thing that the president acted illegally in this scheme as his senate trial is beginning. it is helpful to have you clarify for us. thank you very much. >> when mulvaney says he put half the people to sleep, maybe we put the other half of the people to sleep. >> putting people to sleep is an important skill, america needs to sleep better. we have much more to get to tonight. stay with us. ch more to get to tonight. stay with us

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in 2016, the first member of congress to endorse donald trump for president was a republican congressman from buffalo new york named chris collins. once trump became president, chris collins became trump's most public defender on capitol hill right up until 2018 when chris collins was arrested on felony charges related to an insider trading scheme. collins fought those charges in court for over a year and r

reelected in 2018 despite being under indictment on federal crime. it was not until last year when congressman collins resigned from congress. >> now with the impeachment trial of donald trump underway with senators and chief justice being sworn in yesterday. today we got a sobering reminder of where the donald trump era in politics really began. the first president endorsed the presidential bid was sentenced 2.5 years for his role inside the trading scheme. the second member of congress who endorsed donald trump is a gentleman named duncan hunter, he submitted his official resignation after pleading guilty to felony charges.

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move from the house to the senate this week, the senate convenes this trial everyday has brought significantly new information related to the factual record of this impeachment scandal. how does all this new information affect. how the senate trial is conducted. are senators talking about this among themselves or changing their minds based on the new information they're getting that may be affecting the way others thought to approach these things? >> senator macy's horono, one of the 100 jurors joining us live tonight. thank you so much for being with us. >> if i am right to focus in on this as a ♪ able factor heading into this kri trial.

the corroboration of what we know of what president trump did which was to take down the ukrainian president for his own purposes. all this corroborating evidence is emerging, thanks so much to you but if these were more normal times, somebody like lev parnas would have already testified because he was subpoenaed to testify and he was prevented to do so. 71 requests for the white house which they said no way. this is one of the reasons you have done a great service to let people understand there are more evidence out there. mcconnell is doing everything he can to prevent senators and the american people from hearing this evidence. thankfully social media and all

evidence and a lot of it is on the website. in terms of the information that's for the investigation? >> yes. >> i wonder how sensitive you think the senate as a body and how mitch mcconnell as the majority leader to public per serious conditi session on this. this information is coming out after republicans review and people like me on tv, the public knows all of this stuff and the public sees all this stuff. how sensitive do you think mcconnell is to what the public know and what they want answers to? >> i don't think he's sensitive at all. he prevented mayor garland and didn't prevent the government shutdown of 800,000 government

workers. he's not sensitive at all. one thing mitch mcconnell cares about is maintaining control over the senate just as the president is interested in his own. thankfully the american people want evidence and witnesses on the trial, the majority of the people understand that is what a fair trial looks like. in a conference call with reporters in your home state hawaii today, you said the president is trying to rig this trying by not producing any documents and forbidding his people to testify. >> what do you mean by rig? >> he's trying to rig the election by getting the ukrainian president to do his bidding and using $400 million as a bribe. he's trying to rig this trial using mcconnell to prevent any witnesses or documents being produced. i think rigging is the right

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okay. we're going to have to warm up the chart. all right. you remember this? this was the state of play the last time we checked in. this is something we have been tracking and trying very hard to keep to accurate scale. this is what the presidential contenders have spent on tv and radio ads thus far. this was their spending to date when we last checked in on 'em a week or so ago. but now, as of tonight, we have an update. with the new numbers we got in today, boop. cha-ching. there is a little movement across the board.

but the dynamic in this race remains wholly unchanged. the billionaires running in the democratic primary, michael bloomberg and tom steyer, are just playing a qualitatively different game when it comes to how much they are spending on ads. everyone else is on a bicycle somehow faster bicycles and slower bicycles, but they're in a spaceship, right? a different thing. it's almost impossible to fit that kind of difference on your screen, let alone in your brain. but here is something also mind bending in the new numbers, which tells a whole different story. obviously, you know, iowa is first in the primary and then new hampshire. but then the next two states are nevada and south carolina. turns out, something fascinating is going on with the spending in those two states in particular. i want to show you nevada. when you add it up, the 2020 candidates have spent almost $12 million on advertising, tv and radio ads, in nevada. but when you look at how that $12 million is spread out across the candidates, you realize, wow, it's not really spread out at all.

tom steyer has spent more than $10 million on ads in south carolina. 91% of the ad buys in south carolina are tom steyer. sorry, in nevada. sorry. and it's the same thing in south carolina. $17.5 million have been spent on 2020 ads in south carolina. of that $17 million, tom steyer spent almost $15 million of it all by himself. 85% of the money spent on ads in that state, spent by that one candidate. we already know tom steyer has translated millions of dollars worth of tv time in a huge boost in the polls in those states specifically. that bottom to last minute spot at the debate this past week. but with him dominating the ad spending, not in some states down the road but in the states that go third and fourth. nevada and south carolina. with those contests, and they are now fast approaching, will that money, that dominant money in the ad world be translated into votes, as well?

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how about a best new thing in the world? ready for one? here we go. exactly 100 years ago today, alcohol became illegal in this country. it was the start of prohibition. on that first day, more than 1,500 federal agents spread out across the country conducting anti-alcohol raids with local authorities. barrels of wine were poured into the streets. bottles of booze were unceremoniously smashed. in new york city, the police commissioner himself personally dumped $100,000 worth of liquor into the east river. come on. in chicago, barrels of milwaukee lager were tossed into lake michigan. authorities were zealous. the government began employing, specifically, female agents to go undercover to facilitate the raids. the most famous of whom went by the nickname lady hooch-hunter.

weirdly, that's my drag name now. i'm not lying when i tell you that the actually lady hooch-hunter quit the second she was assigned a desk job. she was a hooch hunter. you're going to lock her up behind a desk? despite all those efforts, prohibition, of course was a massive failure. people still drank. bathtub gin. speakeasies. booze cruises took passengers beyond our territorial waters as a way to bypass the law. organized crime flourished. gangsters had a massive new revenue stream after all thanks to smuggling alcohol and the huge demand for it. prohibition was ineffective at achieving its stated aims. it was also a huge strain on the economy. and it bred a huge and malevolent new species of gangsterism. federal, state, and local governments lost billions of dollars in tax revenue. it was an engine of misery and failure. when the great depression hit, there was a massive push to finally be done with it and have

prohibition overturned. in part, because it might provide an economic boost. protestors took to the streets with signs that said we want beer. and i'm no camel. i want beer! it took almost 14 years but prohibition was finally gotten rid of. finally overturned in 1933. that leads me to the best new thing in the world. the anniversary, the centennial of prohibition, i feel is a timely reminder that sometimes our country makes terrible, terrible decisions. decisions that cause terrible harm to this country and to our -- to its inhabitants. but when we do that, we should remember that we can change our minds. we can undo those things. we can get smarter and resolve to never do those things again. we are capable of growth and learning as a country. and that is the best new thing in the world today. cheers. that does it for us tonight. i will see you again very soon. actually, see you tomorrow morning when i will be a guest

on "a.m. joy." 10:00 a.m. eastern time. i will also tell you sunday night starting at 10:00 p.m. eastern, msnbc is going to re-air both the parts of my interview with lev parnas again sunday night 10:00 p.m. see you there. now, it's time for the last word where ali velshi is in for lawrence. good evening, ali. >> we can undo the things we've done wrong. we can undo our mistakes. that's a great way to leave it, rachel. thank you. we'll see you sunday night and monday again. and tomorrow. we are seeing one reason why senate republicans want to rush an impeachment trial. the material keeps coming and none of it is good for donald trump. at this rate, what will we know by tuesday? day one of the impeachment trial? we'll get to all the new texts, documents, and audio that have just come out this evening. including new documents related to the house intelligence committee ranking member devin nunes. house intelligence committee member congressman jim himes will join us. governor bill weld, who is running for the republican presidential nomination against donald trump is here to put his republican party on notice.