♪♪ good afternoon. i'm yasmin vossoughian. we are following some breaking news. a failed drug test for kentucky derby winner medina spirit, rocking the sports world. the latest fallout from a cyberattack on a key pipeline that provides nearly half of the gas and oil needed in the northeast. a crucial week with big developments on the biden agenda expected from the white house and on capitol hill. and then a showdown just days away on republican liz cheney and whether she'll be stripped of her leadership for refusing to lie about donald trump. plus, live from new york, i've always wanted to say that. it's elon musk. >> we'll make a lot of eye contact with the cast tonight. i'm pretty good at running human

in emulation mode. after weeks of controversy, the world's second richest man makes his "saturday night live" hosting debut complete with a groundbreaking admission. a lot of bitcoin humor, and his mom. and then next hour, a special report. are we ready to go back to normal? a look at the psychological toll a year-plus in isolation has taken and whether we're mentally prepared to get back out there. but we want to start with that breaking news in the world of sports where this year's kentucky derby-winning horse medina spirit has failed a post-race drug test. its hall of fame trainer bob baffert has been suspended from churchill downs. he was told the horse tested positive for a steroid. he calls it, quote, a complete injustice. however, this is not the first time one of baffert's horses have tested positive. four others in his care tested positive in just over a year.

here's what churchill downs is saying. the connections of medina spirit have the right to request a test of a split sample and we understand they intend to do so. to be clear, if the findings are upheld, medina spirit's results in the kentucky derby will be invalidated and mandaloun will be declared the winner. much more on this story coming up later on in the hour. you don't want to miss that. now to that developing story, that could impact the oil supply for much of the country. the massive cyberattack that's led to the main fuel supply or east coast being shut down. the colonial pipeline stretching more than 5,000 miles and carrying 45% of the east coast's petroleum supply. nbc's kelly o'donnell is at the white house where they're monitoring this closely. great to see you. thanks for joining us. what do we know about who is behind this attack and really the impact of this closure? >> well, yasmin, this is a

stunning attack on u.s. infrastructure. and in talking with some experts as i'm working on this story today, i am really struck. we've all heard about cyberattacks. we've often talked about the vulnerability of our electric grid or other important parts of our infrastructure. and some of the experts who work in this area describe this as a nightmare scenario and a 9 out of 10 in terms of their concern. why? a cyberattacker, unknown identity at this point. could it be a nation state or ransomware syndicate of criminals? they don't yet know. with an apparent financial motive that has the potential to cripple an important part of u.s. infrastructure and certainly enemies of the u.s. would have an interest in that. they are seeking money from this company, colonial pipeline, that supplies energy through jet fuel, gasoline and other critical products all across the east coast. i am told that since this was

identified on friday, there is a window of time where the company, along with partners from government and private industry trying to help them are trying to determine the depth of the breach, what has been affected, who is behind it and how to remedy this. and this could take a matter of days. the company chose to shut down its pipeline to try to stop the vulnerability, to stop the bleeding in a way, if i can use that metaphor. this is a concern that a top official in the biden administration described as all hands on deck across different agencies trying to assist with this. and today, on cbs, one of the sunday shows, congressman adam kinzinger, a republican of illinois, reacted as well on the potential risks here, the dangers and what we don't know. >> it's really important in terms of, you know, understanding the role that cyber is playing in the future. things like critical infrastructure, energy. this needs to redouble our

efforts to get past our internal divisions as the end all, be all of everything and focus on things like critical infrastructure in the future because this is only going to continue to happen more often if we're not careful. >> so the potential for the consumer is that if this pipeline is inoperable for a period of time, that could affect the u.s. supply. that then affects prices. so the ripple effect could be very damaging. in another sense, it is a warning to all kinds of businesses that are a part of very critical nerves in this country, different parts of energy, transportation and so forth, health care. the potential to be subject to this sort of an attack. so finding out who's behind it, understanding theeh ramificatio, these are all big parts of a very troubling mystery that's just unfolding. yasmin. >> very oltroubling. kelly o'donnell for us at the white house.o' thank you, kelly.k good to see you. we also want to talk capitol hill for a moment where amid a busy week of negotiations

between lawmakers and the white house there's a major shakeup in republican leadership also slated to happen behind closed doors. on wednesday top conservative lawmakers will determine number 3 liz cheney's fate as they eye elise stefanik to replace her. ali vitali has the latest from capitol hill on this. ali, good to see you as well. talk to us, ali, here. what can you tell us about this impending ousting of liz cheney? >> reporter: well, you laid it out right there, yasmin. ae, busy week here on capitol hill. on then other end of pennsylvaa avenue here asnd well as republicans here inas congress decide the fate of congresswoman liz cheney. we're also going to see another test for bipartisanship on infrastructure as republican senators are set to meet with president biden again on those ongoing negotiations. on cheney, we expect as you mentioned wednesday to be the dayes for that secret ballot vo here in congress where republicans are going to decide if she will serve or not as the conference chair going forward.

kevin mccarthy this morning reiterating that he supports the alternative option, new york congresswoman elise stefanik, and we expect that cheney will be ousted from her position. the reason i say expect is because mccarthy has thrown his support behind someone else but also because he's making comments like this on a sunday morning show. watch. >> any member can take whatever position they believe in. that'she what the voters vote o the individuals and they make that decision. as conference chair, you have one of the most critical jobs of the messenger going forward. that's whygo we need a conferen that's united and a conference chair that is delivering that message day in and day out. and uniting the nation to make sure that we are on the right footing going forward. >> dusupport elise stefanik for that job? >> yes, i do. >> reporter: so mccarthy gearing up for a very busy week. on the same day his caucus is

likely to oust congresswoman cheney, he's also set to meet with president biden and the rest of the gang of four, the top republican and democratic leaders here in congress, meeting with i biden for the fit time in this b presidency to ta about other key priorities like infrastructure. and then the next day, republican senators led by west virginia republican shelly moore-capito will continue their talks. it's not just a difference in price tagsdi but basic definitions. what qualifies as infrastructure. we know that democrats and the white house have a broader view as what qualifies as infrastructure. they want to include not just nc roads, tunnels and bridges but also things like b items in the care economy, paid leave as well as universal pre-k. meanwhile republicans would argue that traditional infrastructure is really what this bill should focus on. we've seen a divergence of opinions there as we put bipartisanship to the test one more timee as republicans and

democrats see if they can negotiate on this or if democrats are going to try to go it alone, yasmin. >> can't help but shake my head around that mccarthy sound, a lie or the truth. we'll answer that at 4:00. ali, good to see you, thank you. one republican senator wanting to pay people to return to work. nebraska senator ben sasse planning toen introduce the national signing bonus act which would redirect extended unemployment insurance into signing bonus payments. people who get a job by july 4th would get a bonus equal to 101% of two months of federal unemployment benefits. republicans have blamed this week's smaller-than-expected job gains on enhanced unemployment benefits. we are also following the fallout from a shooting in times square that wounded three bystanders, including a child, now renewing concerns of the city's c safety ahead of reopeng this summer.r. with me to discuss this is cori

coffin who's following the story for us. good to see you. what do we know so far about this attack and the status of the victims? >> reporter: all right, so times square is back open after this attack last night. as you can see how busy it is, this happened during mother's day weekend. it is not what you want to be talking about during such a lovely holiday. so far they are still looking for the suspect and the three victims are said to be recovering from the hospital so that is a little bit of silver lining there. this comes at a time when new york is trying to reopen fully and trying to bring tourism back. restaurant capacity ur75%. broadway tickets are on sale. in fact the city is even offering free vaccinations for tourists. but all of that is being threatened by the rise in crime. yasmin, if you look at april 2021 versus april 2020, there was a 30% increase in crime and a threefold increase in shootings. president biden has called the shootings in america right now anca epidemic, a national embarrassment. yesterday new york's police commissioner echoed that. listen in.

>> how many kids have to be shot before we h take this seriously? we just had a 1-year-old homicide cleared this week. how many more kids do we need to be shot before we realize that bad policies have consequences and we need action and we need policies regarding laws to have consequences. >> reporter: all right. so this is not just happening in new york, unfortunately. this is a conversation across the country. we also know of two other shootings that happened, one in florida and one in maryland yesterday with multiple victims. according to axios, if you look at january to april, yasmin, there were more than 700 people either killed or hurt by gun violence in 139 mass shootings. president biden has promised gun reform. now, he's calling on congress to act and pass reform but he's also trying to implement some policies in place with executive action. we'll have to see where that goes in the coming weeks, though, yasmin.

>> we were just looking at images of michigan and florida that we were following yesterday as well.es some really troubling numbers across the board. cori coffin, thank you. coming up, everybody, we have explosive reporting on whose funding one of the january 6than capitol attack. plus a sighca of relief for anyone worried about the out of control chinese orrocket. what we know about where it landed and the investigation, when we come back.ut , wh en we come back. [doorbell rings] [doorbell rings] thank you. ooo... you gonna eat that at lesliepalooza? what? who's coming to that? everyone's coming, everybody. you, her, me, all of us. everyone's coming, everybody. did you know prilosec otc can stop frequent heartburn before it begins? prilosec otc uses a unique delayed-release formula that works to turn down acid production, blocking heartburn at the source. with just one pill a day, you get 24-hour heartburn protection. take the prilosec otc two-week challenge.

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welcome back, everybody. we're following some breaking news out of the middle east. we have unrest on the streets of jerusalem for yet another night as violent clashes with police left dozens of palestinians wounded. this is coming just one night after more than 200 palestinians were injured in skirmishes with authorities around the city. despite days of violence, police in jerusalem gave the green light to the annual jerusalem day parade, an event to display claims to the holy city. and i want to show you this. it is a display of weapons seized by the u.s. navy this weekend. thousands of chinese-made guns, grenade launchers and other deadly weapons. navy officials say they were discovered aboard a vessel in the arabian sea but it did not identify where it believed the shipment originated from. as nuclear talks between the u.s. and iran are continuing in vienna, the biden administration

is considering granting iran economic sanctions relief if the country will go back to the original nuclear deal. a state department spokesman telling nbc news this, the united states would be prepared to lift the sanctions necessary for our jcpoa compliance only if iran is prepared to return to its nuclear program to its jcpoa status. earlier this week u.s. officials said a deal for reviving the agreement could be possible if iran makes a political decision to make it happen. and remnants of an uncontrolled chinese rocket have finally landed, according to reports from chinese state media. the debris plunged into the indian ocean on saturday night landing just west of the maldives. the news brings some measure of comfort to those concerned by its landing. but continuing to draw condemnation from the united states with nasa blasting china earlier today for failing to,

quote, meet responsible standards for the rocket's return. it remains unclear if any debris fell on land. we continue on. coming up next, everybody, we'll take you inside the world's number one covid hot spot. numb er one cov id hot spot. >> reporter: right in the back there's a huge, huge long line of cars. anyone who can't breathe is coming here for at lrelief. >> that reporter has seen what most of us hope to never experience up close, including the loss of her father. her story is next. ♪ ♪ smooth driving pays off. saving is easy when you're in good hands. allstate. click or call for a quote today. ♪ it's grilled cheese time. ♪ ♪ yeah, it's time for grilled cheese. ♪ ♪ after we make grilled cheese, ♪ ♪ then we're eating grilled cheese. ♪ ♪ because it's time. ♪

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history says: fine jewelry for occasions. we say: forget occasions. (snap) fine jewelry for every day, minus the traditional markups. ♪♪ all right, welcome back, everybody. i want to go back to that breaking news in the world of sports where this year's kentucky derby winning horse, medina spirit, has failed a post-race drug test putting its win in jeopardy, of course. nbc is following this

announcement. welcome to you. thanks for joining us on this. give us first the reaction from medina spirit's camp and what else we're learning from churchill downs. >> reporter: good afternoon. well, a response from bob baffert this morning, he was upset. he says he was informed last night of the results of this failed drug test. this morning he spoke to the press, denying any wrongdoing. just moments ago he also spoke to nbc news saying he doesn't know what could have been the cause of this result. these are his words. >> i got the biggest gut punch in racing for something that any do. and this is really -- it's disturbing, it's an injustice to the horse. i feel like here you win a race and you're still not to me -- i don't know what's going on in

racing right now, but there's something not right. >> reporter: so what we know now is that the horse tested positive. this was a post-race test. this is an anti-inflammatory steroid that is used on horses. baffert did say they are allowed to use this on horses up to 14 days before a race. he's denying having used this on the horse. he doesn't understand why these results happened. he has requested a split test that might take anywhere between two weeks to a month. they're also planning on moving forward with the race. this horse is expected to race in the next -- this is the next race for the triple crown. medina spirit is still. also we got a statement from churchill downs saying that the connection of medina spirit, they still have the right to request a test of a split sample and we understand they intend to do so. to be clear, this is what's important, if the findings are

upheld, medina spirit's results in the kentucky derby will be invalidated and mandaloma would be the winner. the trainer has suspended from entering any horses at the racetrack for now and he plans to keep contesting this. now, he did say even if the second test comes back positive, he will appeal. so he plans to keep fighting this while the horse keeps competing for the triple crown. >> hey, can you just quickly cover the history of baffert for me. i read this is the fifth year that a horse has failed a drug test of baffert's. >> he had a different horse last september test positive for this same substance in september. he's also had a number of issues

in the past. if you think about it, he is probably the best representation of any trainer in the sport. he's the leading trainer. this was his seventh win of the kentucky deshy. derby, he established a new record with that. so it is a black mark on the sport. he's denying this finding as of now. this test result needs to be confirmed with the second test, the split test for this to be considered an official positive result. but yes, he does have a history of violations throughout the years and a history of being the most successful trainer. >> all right, thank you. good to see you. i want to go to india today where we're seeing staggering new numbers of coronavirus cases and deaths as the country is struggling with limited hospital space, a scarcity of vaccines and a critical shortage of oxygen. here is how an indian journalist covered a chaotic scene outside

of a sikh place of worship where instead of food, a soup kitchen began handing out oxygen. a warning if you're watching this, the video, it is really disturbing. >> reporter: desperate cries for help by families like this one are now common place at the gates in this town. just one hour from the national capital. on the streets outside, there's a rush of cars, motorcycles, auto rick shaws and cycle rickshaws. across classes and neighborhoods, they're all coming here. this is the only such place of its kind for ordinary citizens to turn to when they are unable to get a bed or a hospital or

even a covid test but are quite literally gasping for breath. this is, of course, only an interim measure. an oxygen cannot replace a hospital, medication or consistent treatment. but for now it's all that people have. and as evening falls, the crowds do not dim, they only get larger and larger. thankfully the family that first drove in here in panic is now feeling much better. this is their story and also the story of a country literally starved of oxygen. >> so on the day of this report, the day that it was published, she learned that her own dad had succumbed to covid. she wrote in "the washington post" his infection seemed mild and initially manageable at

home. when his fever spiked, i promised him i'd get him back from the hospital after a few days. i failed. the journalist is joining me now from new delhi. thank you so much for the work that you're doing. i'm so incredibly sorry for the loss that you have experienced, the loss that you've seen in your country. how are you doing? >> thank you, i can't say -- yasmin, for having me. i'm absolutely heart broken, i'm absolutely devastated, and yet in this moment of personal loss an personal crisis, having lost my dad, what i am mindfully and painfully aware of is that at least he had a chance to get to a hospital, however chaotic it was for me to find a private ambulance, an ambulance, by the way, in which the oxygen cylinder failed. it did not have a paramedic, it

did not have a stretcher, yet i managed to get him to the hospital. by the time i got him to the hospital his oxygen levels plummeted to a dangerous level. we had to take him to icu and he never made it back. despite that, i count my father ahead of hundreds of thousands of indians because at least he had a chance for 45 days in a private excellently looked after hospital. most are dying on the streets at the doors of hospitals that do not have space for them, do not have oxygen for them, do not have beds for them and do not have doctors for them. so through this moment of loss, the only way i know to honor my father is to try to report the story and draw the world's attention to an unprecedented humanitarian crisis that has taken place in part due to the yip competence, callousness and complete absence of humility from a government. >> can you talk about that incompetence because you write i

am angry, filled with rage at a government whose top officials continue to lie to the indian people about the scale of the calamity. you charge them with lying to the indian people and that is why so many hundreds of thousands of people are dying in the streets, as you put it. >> yasmin, what's actually happening is that before we could provide vaccines to our own people through the months of january and february and march, the indian government mysteriously decided to declare the pandemic closed. they thought the worst was behind us and exported away vaccines that should have been kept for our people. they then put no contingencies in place for the second wave which hit us like a tsunami. as a result, we do not have hospitals with a regular supply of oxygen. in other words, to be very clear, people are dying not necessarily from covid but because hospitals are running short on high flow oxygen. we have seen incident after

incident. i have tabulated and reported at least five myself in which 20 people, 25 people, 12 people have died in the icus of this hospital because the administration has failed to provide a regular supply of uninterrupted oxygen to these people. the absence of vaccines, the absence of oxygen -- the absence of a regular oxygen supply, the absence of coming forth and taking responsibility, the absence of heads rolling. take my own dad, for example. if the vaccine rollout had been quicker, we had vaccines for our own people, my dad had one jab. i keep thinking if he had a second jab, he'd be alive today. i know so many elderly people showing up for their second jab and there aren't enough vaccines to go around. through all of this we have governments fixated on how western media is covering the story than about saving lives on the streets. they're not coming forth and squaring the number of people that are dying.

i've been reporting from cremation grounds and grave yards. i can tell you that there's at least a fourfold gap between the pyres and the bodies we're counting and the numbers in the official data. so we're in a position where people are dying appendicitis we're not even counting our dead. so through this time of grief i feel a deep sense of rage, one i know hundreds and thousands of my countrymen and women share. >> are you scared? >> i'm scared for my country. i'm scared for my country because i think that we are going to see a projected 100,000 people, maybe more, die in the next one month and we can't get our government to treat this with the urgency it deserves. >> i am so sorry for your loss and keep doing what you're doing every single day. your reporting is excellent and we appreciate it. thank you for joining us. we'll be right back, everybody. s we'll be right back, everybody . idolizing them. mimicking their every move. and if she counts on the advanced hydration of pedialyte

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welcome back, everybody. a shocking story from "usa today" about the proud boys and americans who give them money. the report finding the group tied to the insurrection getting a lot of donations from chinese americans. chinese american gifts made up more than 80% of the 106,000 raised for proud boys medical costs after violent clashes in washington in mid-december. i'm joined by the reporter who covers extremism for "usa today" and wrote this piece. will, thanks for joining us. this is completely fascinating to me, i've got to say. you write about these donations seeming based on conspiracy theories and fear of communism. you write in part these, conspiracy theories such as alex jones that america is under attack from communism. they believe the proud boys are on the vanguard to protecting the country from a communist army controlled by antifa and

the black lives matters claims that have been widely debunked. what drives this commitment from some of these chinese americans that are signing up and donating to an organization like proud boys? >> well, i think to sum it up, it's ignorance and it's a lack of understanding of the -- of politics and of what's going on in this country today. and i say that because that's what drives the support for the proud boys from everybody in society who is supporting them, not just chinese americans obviously. the proud boys have managed to convince a large portion of the united states public that this country is under attack from communists, cultural marxists, that we're about to have our way of life stripped away from us and the only way to protect that from happening is to support the proud boys and people like them who are the only people who will get out there and fight and stop that from happening.

>> so playing into their history. playing into where they are from and what they have known from their own country in a way? >> that's right. of course now the proud boys, what they essentially do, and what a large section of the far right does, is basically take everything that they disagree with and anything that they think is bad and they call it communism. so, for example, rights for trans people is a communist idea when it comes -- as far as the proud boys are concerned. so we're not actually talking about communism. we're talking about things that the proud boys and people of their ilk choose to label communist as a way to scare people and to tell people, look, this is a takeover that's going to happen of our country. they have done it very, very effectively. and it's resonating amongst the chinese-american diasper. they see communism is going to take over and black lives matter

is run by communists and they're fearful. they're worried about it and they want to support the groups that are fighting against it. so that's what the donors told me. that's what the donors put on their donations. those are the reasons that they support a group which actually isn't doing any of those things and is more just a street gang full of people who get drunk and like to get into fights. >> a white supremacist street gang at that. it's also fascinating because it seems similar to why some cuban americans actually have supported donald trump in the past, playing into that kind of idea of socialism and saying the democrats are all about socialism, playing into their fear of chavez and where they came from in cuba and what took place there. it's a fascinating piece, will. thank you for reporting on this. if you have an opportunity, you should definitely take a look. will carless, appreciate it. it's been the story on social media since it was first announced. elon musk hosting snl after

weeks of condemnation and rumors of a potential boycott from members of the cast and other hand wringing, last night the controversial billionaire finally hit the stage. >> reporter: live from new york, elon musk took the stage at 30 rock kicking off the evening with an unexpected reveal. >> i'm actually making history tonight as the first person with asperger's to host snl. the tech know king got his chance to explain digital currency. >> what are cryptocurrencies? >> they're a type of digital money but instead of being controlled by a central government they're decentralized by blockchain technology. >> oh, so it's a hustle. >> yeah, it's a hustle. >> he played a stage manager to

a doctor and even part of the super mario game. musk played himself as the leader of the first mission to mars. >> chad, this is elon musk. >> who? >> reporter: the show also took aim at musk's controversial face mask opinions. >> yeah, what about that time we robbed a bank and he refused to wear a mask? >> okay. for a while i thought masks were dumb. but now i think masks make sense. >> reporter: musk was the first business leader to host the show since donald trump in 2015. and with great ambitions, who knows what elon may launch next. >> okay. coming up, in the spotlight today behind the scenes of the invasion of iraq, we'll take you back to 2003 with a look at how president bush convinced the country it needed a war without evidence.

hello, everyone. i'm alicia menendez. ahead on "american voices" how new evidence in an arkansas murder case may prove that an innocent man was put to death. daniel eccles who spent 18 years in prison for murders he did not commit is my guest that. and more ahead at 6:00 p.m. eastern, only on msnbc. eastern, onl y on msnbc try nervivenerve relief from the world's #1 selling nerve care company. nervive contains alpha lipoic acid to relieve occasional nerve aches, weakness and discomfort. try nervivenerve relief.

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about the pill first prescribed for ra more than eight years ago. xeljanz. welcome back, everybody. back in 2003 when the u.s. invade iraq, a majority of americans supported the war, as did most politicians, both liberal and conservative. today, 18 years later, it is universally seen as a disaster that killed hundreds of thousands of people and tarnished america's credibility on the world stage. on this week's edition of "in the spotlight" my next guest takes us on a history lesson back to the bush administration and breaks down how the former president made the case for war to the american people.

>> the mushroom cloud line was cooked up by a bush speechwriter in the white house iraq group. it was originally meant to be deployed in a speech by the president, but the group liked it so much that they started using it earlier. you can see why they found it useful. it was a throwback to cold war fears of nuclear destruction. and the more recent imannual of the twin towers falling in a plume of smoke. it was a difd response to those who wanted to hold off on declaring war until there was hard evidence. by then, we might all be dead. >> facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof. the smoking gun that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud. >> all right. so joining me now is host of the slow burn podcast, noreen malone. this is a really good podcast. >> thank you. >> i was fascinated. actually i'm a bit scarred after listening to it, so many things in retrospect that we didn't

actually know were going on, a real deep dive. talk us through just quickly here in a way how the bush administration kind of peddled on the fears of, played off of the fears of this, you know, idea of weapons of mass destruction. how they settled on saying this is what is going to be our way to war, our path to war. >> well, what you have to remember about 2001, 2002 is that it wasn't just of course the 9/11 aattacks. there was also the anthrax attacks which i think a lot of us have forgotten about but this were a bioterror attack and iraq of course was known to have bioweapons. so that was a very scary thing for people in the white house and also for americans. so the bush administration -- elements of the bush administration wanted to go to war from -- go to war with iraq from hours after 9/11. what they needed was a cause for

war so they looked for a bunch of different things. at first the elements of the bush administration wanted to prove that there had been a link between saddam hussein and al qaeda, because of course what more of a cause for war could there be than if the united states had been attacked by another country. and there turned out to not be a link even though people like dick cheney were going on the news and saying there was a link, one of the 9/11 attackers had been spotted in prague meeting with an iraqi official. this wasn't the case. this continued all through 2002. members of the bush administration pushing this. elements of the cia just finally said, no, this is not the case and the bush administration could not make that case publicly. the thing everyone could agree on is there probably were weapons of mass destruction. >> probably. probably is the keyword. it was so fascinating because in the beginning of your podcast

you were talking to a weapons inspector from the early '90s at the time and you talk about when this weapons inspector heard the announcement of this decree that there was weapons of mass destruction and the u.s. was going after them in iraq, he was saying to himself, wait, what? what are they talking about? they had discovered these weapons back in the early '90s but subsequently realized they were no longer there. you bring up the former vice president dick cheney and his role in all of this and his role in intelligence gathering and things that he kept under lock and key, intelligence that had not been verified. i want to play a portion of that from your podcast. >> the thing about intelligence is you can find almost anything you want on a spectrum. there was raw intelligence, and raw intelligence is somebody saying something often for motives of their own, and it is unverified and it is unanalyzed. this raw intel exists, just stacks and stacks of it, and indeed the office of the vice

president kept these many vaults of raw intelligence. >> like actual vaults? >> actual vaults. i think they had like a half a dozen of them. >> the unfilteredeney was not a reliable. he was getting some unverified intelligence, stuff that would make it to the vice president' desk. >> i'm obsessed with your questions, like actual vaults. actual vaults. so my question is why. why would cheney want to stand on this unverified intelligence? >> well, he wanted to do his own analysis. he felt like the cia did not have a good track record of actually knowing what was going on in iraq so he wanted to be able to see, you know, any kind of source that was available. he wanted to do -- he wanted the raw intel. you know, he felt like in the '90s the cia had missed the fact that saddam hussein's regime did have weapons of mass destruction and of course the bush

administration had missed 9/11. he really didn't want that being caught missing something again. >> noreen malone, it's good. it's really good. make sure to tune into noreen's podcast. by the way we were talking about dick cheney. we'll talk about another cheney at the top of the hour. lots of cheneys going around. we're doing this again next week so let me know what podcast you love and maybe we'll cover them. coming up, everybody, fighting back. the gop is advancing its efforts to restrict voting across the country. what opponents are doing to fight voter suppression. we'll be right back. n. we'll be right back. idolizing them. mimicking their every move. and if she counts on the advanced hydration of pedialyte when it matters most... ...so do we. hydrate like our heroes.

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but is it secure? sure it's secure. and even if the power goes down, your connection doesn't. so how do i do this? you don't do this. we do this, together. bounce forward, with comcast business. welcome back, everybody. in texas this weekend opponents of the republican-backed voter restrictions bill are calling for it to be struck down as it advances to the state senate after being passed in the house on friday. despite multiple amendments made by house democrats, the bill would still ban county officials from sending unsolicited mail-in ballot applications and protect partisan poll watchers. jane tim has more on this. jane, thank you for joining us. talk us through the next steps for this bill and what, if anything, can those against it to to fight back? >> so the house and the senate in texas had each passed different bills urmd the same

name. because they're so different they're expected to go into conference committee where lawmakers will hammer out the differences or as critics put it frankenstein these two restrictive bills together. so what happens then is they go back to the house and the senate, they get an up or down vote and they get to the governor's desk where he's expected to sign them. people are quite worried. you see protesters on the screen who say we really oppose these bills, we've done what we can but we don't know what the legislation is going to look like when it comes out of conference committee. >> can we talk about the other recount also, the other battle, i guess i should say happening in the gop, which is the recount in maricopa county by, i believe, the arizona senate. where does it stand right now, and what hurdles are they facing? >> you know, if you talk to people who run elections, republicans and democrats, they say reality tends to be the biggest hurdle. last week we learned they were looking for bamboo in the ballots because of a conspiracy

theory that ballots were flown in from asia. the week before i reported that they were looking with uv lights for water marks. they're also really behind schedule if you want to go back to the basics. they have counted about 200,000 ballot as of wednesday and they need to count 2.1 by the end of the week. it's just not going to happen. >> i guess we know where we stand when they're looking for bamboo in the ballots. jane tim, thank you. thanks for the laugh. approaching the tough of the hour, everyone, you're watching "yasmin vossoughian reports" right here on msnbc. hour two here, everybody, on msnbc. welcome if you're just joining me. thanks for sticking around if you've been with me. i'm yasmin vossoughian. still ahead, truth versus trump. that is the decision facing house republicans just days away as they vote on whether to remove liz cheney from leadership for standing up to

donald trump's big lie in favor of congresswoman elise stefanik who has embraced the former president's bogus claims. >> do you support elise stefanik for that job? >> yes, i do. >> it just bothers me that you have to swear fealty to the dear leader or you get kicked out of the party. >> for us to win in 2022 and 2024, we need everybody. >> to defeat nancy pelosi and the socialist agenda, we need to be united and that starts with leadership. >> this idea of let's just put our differences aside and be unified, you cannot unify truth with lies. >> it's sort of a circular firing squad where we're just attacking members of our own party instead of focusing on solving problems. >> it doesn't seem united to me. also coming up i'll talk to a democrat who has now made the republican hit list of vulnerable seats they hope to win the house.