stragglers in your life, waiting until after the initial rush was over, that time is now. get the shot, might make you feel like a million bucks. that's all the time i have for today, i'm alicia menendez. now i hand over to mehdi hasan. which of the incentives would have pushed you over? >> fries, burgers, food, going out, eating out, all of that is going to win me over all the time, over the money. it's the food. >> free pen, would have got in back seat. >> would have got it anyway and pocketed the free stuff. alicia, great message to end with. get your vaccine, listen to alicia menendez and everyone else. thanks so much.

tonight on "the mehdi hasan show," do these people look like tourists to you? knew the gop would rewrite history, didn't know would be this soon. i'll talk to former top trump white house official who accepts the election results. conversation ahead. plus many of us have seen this haunting video, congresswoman jayapal hiding. what's her message to republicans who want to move on. israeli/palestinian conflict into the lighting up, what do americanuish people think. jeff bezos is rich enough to buy his yacht a yacht. interview with brad stone. good evening, gaslighting is attempt to make one question one's own memory, perception and

judgment. to make someone think they might be crazy for having ever thought otherwise. begin tonight asking you this, what do you remember about what happened in nation's capital on january 6th. lot of us predicted that republicans would try to rewrite the history to some extent of what happened that day, what we didn't expect or i didn't was it would be so soon and brazen. >> censored and covered up, as result doj is harassing peaceful patriots across the country. >> it was trump supporters who lost their lives that day, not taking the lives of others. >> there was no insurrection, to call it that is bold-faced lie. watching the footage of those who entered the capital and walked through the hall, showed orderly fashion, taking videos and pictures. if you didn't know the tv footage was from january 6th, would think it was normal

tourist visit. >> wait a minute, congressman, is that you in this picture with your colleagues trying to barricade the door of the house chamber against normal tourist visitors, is that what you always do when tour group comes through? really? if they were normal tourists, would i have to warn you this video may be too graphic for some viewers. capitol police officer assaulted by rioters, crushed in doorway. does that look normal? does this look normal, smashing the windows to get in? there was nothing normal and people were not tourists. any response that's not shock or anger or outrage is not normal, it's likely gaslighting, propaganda or fealty to leader donald trump.

stripping the republican leader from his position because she doesn't boost the former president. warns that history could repeat itself. >> january 6th could happen again or something worse? >> i think there's no question. you know, we've now seen the consequences. we've seen how far the president, president trump was willing to go. >> lawmaker who replaced miss cheney in house republican leadership was making it clear that damn the consequences, gop is donald trump's party, full stop. >> we're unified and talking about conservative principles. president trump is an important voice in the republican party. we're working as one team. >> nearly four months after he left office, republican party is firmly back with donald trump and his lies. ball is in his court as they say, next to the tennis pavilion melania constructed in middle of

global pandemic. former president has purged his party. got voter i.d. laws he wants in key states he lost and mcconnell and nikki haley, his critics, who will back him if he runs again. his party if you ever had a doubt. every other republican living in it. tonight we kick off with a different guest. don't have former top trump officials on the show because many of them have history of lying and gaslighting. but making an exception it's important that alyssa farrah has spoken out against the big lie that donald trump won the election. spoken out against the capitol insurrection. but did work for the white house as director of communications until resigned in december.

alyssa joins me now. thank you for coming on the show, i appreciate it, really do. talk about your time with donald trump in a moment but start with the republican party. you admirably opposed the polity's attempt to overturn the election, quit the white house and called out big lie, but seven months on, removal of liz cheney top four leadership positions held by people who voted to overturn the election. mccarthy, scalise, palmer and stefanich. the party is more extreme, not less since january 6th. >> mehdi, thanks for having me. gop is careening down strategically unwise path and morally reprehensible one, be to be completely candid with you. liz cheney did the right thing.

shouldn't commend people for simply telling the facts. did the right thing, shouldn't be brave or heroic but just what our leaders do. here's the problem the gop is facing, this isn't going away. voters haven't forgotten about january 6th, republican party has a numbers problem, need addition not subtraction to win back the principals we care about. but there's perception we care more about loyalty to the former president and wanting to gloss over the election and january 6th. my unsolicited advice would be the truth tends to come to the top. address it now, come to grips with what went wrong and accept it. we're going to be dealing with in into midterms and 2024. >> yes, indeed and you admirably and bluntly called attackers on the january 6th terrorists and praised liz cheney for speaking

the truth about it. yet you also say that stefanik was best replacement. how can you favor that who voted after the terrorism, who went on steve bannon's podcast to support the crazy arizona audit, disputes the victory. seem to want to have your cake and eat it. >> i would say this, lisa i someone i know well, highly educated, serious policy maker, a moderate republican member who votes and legislates her district. i don't know every detail where she came down on the election, but if you asked her today, she would say joe biden is president, that's starting point. we've got to do better than that. should have acknowledged it the day the race was called. but somebody i have confidence in to make sound policy for the

american public. >> you're right, more moderate voting record than liz cheney but stands by ridiculous claim that 1 in 4 votes cast in fulton county, georgia, 140,000 votes for fraudulent or illegitimate. quarter of all cast in the county, that's bonkers isn't it? i assume you don't agree 1 in 4 were fraudulent. >> i don't. i'm not familiar with the comments so wouldn't want to comment further. but that's absolutely ridiculous. we've litigated in states around the country and been thrown out. there's no there there. sooner my party accepts we came up short, didn't win over enough people, lost women and older voters. we have to win them back on what we're actually for and believe in. i'm fearing that people with

policy positions they want to share, liz cheney, getting pushed aside for adherence to supporting one man. not a conservative belief. complete loyalty to one person over virtus is fundamentally unconservative but here we are. >> talk about that one person. you admitted that donald trump lied about the election and bluntly and rightly called the trump supporters who attacked the capitol terrorists. would you accept the argument that your former boss donald trump is inciter of terrorism? >> i think i've spoken about it before. he played a role in inciting the violence on the capitol. i went on cnn shortly after, said in terms of the second impeachment, he shouldn't relitigate that day because the facts were not on his side. there was constitutional question about impeaching somebody no longer in office but

the words are there. we know what he said and how the people that stormed the capitol interpreted it. they've said on the record this is what we thought the president wanted to do. it's tragic. thought of conveying this to people not republican voters to know it's not all donald trump all the time, our politics are cyclical. but hope the party comes around to the principles we stand for. there was time i was proud to work for donald trump, inclusive economic and lowest unemployment for women, blacks, hispanics, but that's overshadowed by this. trump is about to do rallies again. not going to go away. to kevin mccarthys of the world, this is not something you can brush aside. >> you're proud of having worked in the white house, lot would

say there was much to be ashamed of before january 6th, great that you spoke out against the big lie but what about your critics who say too little, too late. why didn't you quit when outrageously told four nonwhite women in congress to go back where they came from, or talked about covid like flu or talking about putting disinfectant in people's arms? or separating children at border? >> i would say it's different from the campaign, once somebody is the president and leader of the free world, entire u.s. federal government, most powerful military on the planet is under his control, i believe people willing to and serious should step up to serve. people in the white house i knew reluctantly stayed when hard

things were said or policies enacted because they knew they could marginally do better. i'm not asking for pat on the bad, i've alienated folks right and left but do believe in public service -- go ahead. >> doesn't public service also involve saying i can't work for racist misogynist bully, how do you work for somebody, senior official for president who says racist things like that. >> as brown woman, lebanese and syrian, it is challenging. i remember counseling him, though i keep conversations private -- you can wake up every morning and condemn white supremacy, that's not hard, making it difficult i told him,

make it unequivocal and say it's wrong. rather have people in the room speak up to say those things, but i believe in 90% of his agenda. still republican, didn't vote joe biden. it's probably better after january 6th he's better in president and i believe in republican policy, national defense. >> i respect republican policies but that wasn't trump. he was taking kids from border, authoritarianism, telling black and brown people to go back to where they came from. he was paying money to stormy daniels, what is the reasoning? just the tax cuts? someone like says i'm going to carry on. >> two quick answers. with vice president pence in the

family separation crisis, awful, terrible and inhumane, we did reverse it within our administration because people were willing to advocate for it in the room, secretary azar pushed back, vice president pence behind the scenes pushed back. if every person disagreed with president up and left and got minute of putting out righteous statement but not able to influence policy, would have had worse outcomes. that's my position. but there's more than that we accomplished and worked on i believe in. federal government, presidency is bigger than any one man. as arab-american it was great to be in oval office in the signing of the abraham accords. >> okay. >> things to be proud of but we need to reject untruths and base on facts and move on from this moment. >> we're out of time but i have to ask, one question people

would say why did you help try and reelect him, now speaking out. if he runs in 2024, would you oppose him or say he did bad things but if he's the candidate, i'll support him? will you say tonight i'll oppose him? >> i will not support donald trump in 2024. >> alyssa -- >> it's easy answer for any. >> i appreciate you coming on the show, thank you. >> thank you, mehdi. coming up, congresswoman jayapal had to seek shelter from the quote/unquote tourists, what does she make of the republicans saying move on. her next. israeli/palestinian conflict is not new but why one lawmaker

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this week house democrats unveiled plan for response to the january 6th attack. $1.9 billion to address security flaws at capitol and bipartisan 9/11 style commission to delve into what went wrong that day, commission would produce a report and give recommendations to prevent future attacks. nancy pelosi says the house

could vote early next week. in stark contrast to the insurrection denying gop members like andrew clyde who likened the riots to tourists. democratic congresswoman, chair of the caucus, congresswoman jayapal. we saw the video of you as the rioters tried to take over the congress. how do you respond to the gop likening that to tourists? >> it's insanity that my republican colleagues refuse to accept what happened january 6th and worse than that are trying to rewrite history. we have to remember that police officers were killed that day, mike pence was -- he was chased down, people trying to hang mike pence, calling for him to be

hanged, trying to kill nancy pelosi, and hundreds of insurrectionists have been charged already with federal crimes for what happened on january 6th. my belief is that these republicans who refuse to accept what happened january 6th or continue to try to rewrite history are actually a serious national security threat to our democracy. because if we don't get to the bottom of what happened on january 6th, if we don't hold accountable those involved, then our democracy will suffer, and that is a very, very serious thing we're looking at. you heard liz cheney this morning, you talked about this in your opening. this could happen again. for those of us trapped in the capitol, you showed shot of me there, it isn't just personal trauma we deal with, it's the fact we understand how deeply fragile this democracy is, and

how close we came on january 6th to losing it. >> so congresswoman, given all that, when you see president biden meeting this week with republicans, including kevin mccarthy, who voted to overturn the election, when president biden meets to search for quote/unquote bipartisan solution for infrastructure, how do you work with a party that doesn't accept the legitimacy of the election results. how do you do deals with people who deny insurrections and election results? >> well, we can't. it's been extremely hard for us, particularly in the house, impossible to work with the vast majority of republicans on the other side because they won't admit what is true. they have become, vast majority of them, a one-man cult. and only thing required to be member of the republican party apparently is pledge fealty to

donald trump and the big lie. liz cheney was kicked out of leadership because she didn't do that. i have no faith whatsoever that republicans are going to suddenly see the light and come along, and come up with a bipartisan deal. remember it's not just kevin mccarthy. mitch mcconnell in the senate said 100% of his focus is stopping the biden agenda. idea we're going to suddenly find a bipartisan deal and make the kind of once in a generation investment that president biden has laid out and we're pushing for that and more, is inconceivable. what i've said to the white house and publicly is look, if they want to come along, they've got to do it now. i have very little faith that's going to happen. i think we should move forward with a big, bold package, get this done and move the country forward. >> i mean i'm with you when it comes to lacking faith in

bipartisan solution. on the topic of safety, your colleague alexandria ocasio-cortez was harassed by marjorie taylor greene, not first time. as private citizen. >> stop locking your door and face the american citizens you serve. if you want to be a big girl, get rid of your diaper and talk to the american citizens instead of us using a little flap. sad. >> nancy pelosi thinks this requires ethics investigation. a photo holding a gun next to squad and aoc.

members of congress in fear of their other members of congress, is ethics enough? has she not done enough for expulsion? >> i've signed on to the resolution to expel her from congress, it's not just ocasio-cortez but newman and swalwell, numerous members harassed by taylor greene and mccarthy and stefanik are responsible for letting it continue. kicked man off committees for criticizing trump and refused to take action against marjorie taylor greene they're encouraging this because hoping

she's going to continue to raise money for them. >> 30 seconds left but have to ask you about gaza. progressive democrats, seen them be more critical of israel than sigh of seen in my lifetime. are things changing in democratic party on israel and palestine? i want your take. >> israel's behavior has gotten so outrageous with the annexations, human rights abuses, i think it is starting to change and i believe president biden needs to be far stronger than he has been, this is a human rights crisis and we need to address it. >> congresswoman jayapal, thanks for being with us, appreciate it. >> thank you. coming up, the problem with how some people talk about the growing israeli/palestinian conflict, it's not jews versus

muslims. getting my timer ready. first richard with the headlines. >> some of the stories, two brothers wrongfully sentenced to death awarded $75 million in damages. mccollum and brown spent nearly 31 years behind bars for murder they did not commit, coerced into confessing. chick-fil-a is opposing a sauce limit on imposing a sauce limit on customers, said it's due to industry-wide supply chain shortages. looking for arsonists who may have set of a brush fire. more than 1,000 have had to evacuated from their homes. more "the mehdi hasan show" after the break. "the mehdi has after the break.

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welcome back. it's time now for what i'm calling the 60-second rant. start the clock. earlier this week the right-wing cable network news max suspended someone for proposing that jewish-americans would be more supportive of israel, and that's antisemetism. of course this conflict has a religious dimension, jews and muslims care about it but not a holy war. it's not jews versus muslims, pro israeli or palestinian or on the fence, discuss with international law and self-registration, not through lazy jews and violent muslims.

jews around the world are not responsible for the acts of israeli government. level of brazen bigotry to it. coming up, escalating fight in the middle east and parallels with black lives matter. >> palestinians told the same thing as black folks in america, there is no acceptable form of resistance.

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they all deserve care and access to the vaccine. no matter their address, income, or skin color. not having a ride to get the vaccine. can't be the reason you don't get it. you wanna help? donate a ride today. israel is conducting a series of heavy air strikes across gaza city this evening as the death toll in the israeli/palestinian conflict continues to rise. senator bernie sanders wrote blistering op-ed calling on the united states to stop being apologists for the netanyahu government. end line, palestinian lives matter.

not heard often or at all from representatives of this country. of course palestinian lives matter as israeli lives matter, all lives on all sides. israelis suffering living under air raid sirens and ten have been killed by rocket fire, and should condemn hamas for that. all lives matter, but point of black lives matter is not to suggest white lives don't matter but that black people are disproportionately the victims of police brutality and suffering. that's the same with palestinian lives matter. most of the violence is against the palestinians. don't take my word, look at numbers. 2008/2009 gaza war, three israelis killed, 926 palestinians at least.

2012, four israeli civilians, 101 palestinian civilians killed in conflict. 2014, u.n. figures show six israeli citizens, 1,462 palestinian civilians in the same conflict. past week the numbers for civilians are less clear but 188 palestinians in total, including 55 children, killed in gaza compared to ten israelis, all deaths are tragic, but the disparity in numbers shouldn't surprise us, one side is occupier, one is occupied. one has most advanced high tech weaponry on planet earth and other side just doesn't. more and more members of the congress and public are recognizing the power imbalance, including jewish-americans. joining me president of "j"

street, advocacy group for pro-israel, pro peace americans. heard from robert hernandez, fervently pro-israel for years, deeply troubled. appears to be a sea change in how democrats are talking about the conflict. listen to the house democrats wednesday. have a listen. >> how many palestinians have to die for their lives to matter? live under apartheid strips palestinians of their human diggity. >> palestinians are told same thing as black folks in america, there is no acceptable forms of resistance. >> united states has to acknowledge its role in injustices and human rights violations of palestinians, this is not about both sides, this is about imbalance of power. >> that was on thursday, i

should say. when you founded "j" street, ever think would hear so many democrats speaking out against israeli military actions? >> i actually did, because what we knew is that these are the sentiments people held behind closed doors. what we knew, if we gave political space to people to actually talk about what american policy should be and what was both morally right and strategically right, you would begin to hear these statements and more balanced american policy would emerge. it's not a surprise they're finally coming out, just glad to see it, it's taken a long time to get to this point. >> and open letter from jewish members of congress, democrats, urging joe biden to engage further on the issue and at the same time, i think last weekend, former israeli ambassador for the u.s. gave interview

suggesting that israel should prioritize the passionate and unequivocal support from evangelical christians over the jewish-americans he calls our critics. what do you make of that? >> i am proud to be part of the disproportionate part of the jewish-american community critical of the underlying policies of government of israel in its treatment of the palestinians living in area that israel occupies. it's morally reprehensible, runs counter to democratic principles and to jewish values to treat other people way you wouldn't want to be treated yourself. glad to see large numbers speaking out.

in last hour you may have seen a majority of the democrats in senate called for immediate ceasefire. seeing a sea change as you said in overwhelming bulk of the democratic party. >> so we're seeing that in overwhelming bulk of the democratic party but not in the white house. you told the "new york times" this week that benign neglect is not a policy option. yet that's what joe biden is being accused of, what you suggest he's been doing. what should joe biden be doing? and why do you think he's found himself in this one-sided some might argue out of touch, dare i say leading from behind position on the conflict? >> look, the first thing we need to do is really make this a senior level high priority. it's way past time for this administration to appoint somebody to be in charge on this

issue. not saying that you need to launch peace talks or peace conference tomorrow to resolve the conflict, but to have nobody in charge and delayed making appointments and not follow through on specific policies that needed to be implemented if not on day one, at least first 100 days, the administration has not moved with the speed and decisiveness it needed to. we need senior level envoy or diplomat in charge of policy on this issue asap. they need to lead the way, not follow from behind. towards an immediate ceasefire, then need to get to work to address the specific underlying root causes that cause us to be in these cycles of violence. it's horrific, mehdi, to see years after years, 2010, '12,

'14, now 2021, people dying over and over again. we have to find a way for palestinian people to have peace in land where they and their families have lived for generations. >> indeed. jeremy, thanks for joining us. appreciate it. >> thanks. coming up, imagine being so rich even your yacht has a yacht. that's the reality for jeff bezos. what political weight does he pull with all that cash of his? that's next. and in the next hour, david hog joins joshua johnson on "the week" to discuss gun violence and new on the parkland shooting on msnbc msnbc. ting on msnbc msnbc

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workers cash and still be as rich as he was before the world locked down. so much money, half a billion dollars on super yacht but spe half a half a billion on this yacht. what is to stop a person with that much money from controlling the entire political system? coming up after the break, we'll speak to the author of a new book on bezos, so don't go away. that new dove breakage remedy gives damaged hair the strength it needs. even with repeated combing hair treated with dove shows 97% less breakage. strong hair with new dove breakage remedy. obsession has many names, this is ours. the lexus is. all in on the sports sedan.

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good the pandemic has been for amazon's business the tech giant took in nearly $3 million during our last commercial break alone. more than $108 billion in the first quarter of this year. let's discuss all this with brad stone, he's the senior executive editor at global technology at bloomberg news and the author of the new book "amazon," and congratulations on the new book. you say amazon is getting close to invincible. what does that mean for democracy, brad? what is to stop a person with as much money as jeff bezos from

being invincible? >> the reason i said that and wrote that is because i looked at the scandals amazon and bezos sz had been through, and they have not missed a step, particularly in the pandemic, as you note. that kind of wealth and power does have some influence. the senator from washington proposing legislation to redo masses conference on the space exploration, and the eu is investigating amazon, and the ags in california and new york opened investigations, so he's got influence. amazon is a huge lobbyist, 18 million in 2020, but also makes

it more of a target. >> but we live in a country where billionaires largely are celebrated, where we're told by a lot of our political leaders to celebrate american corporate success stories. do you believe the world is better off with amazon as it currently exists in it? what independent booksellers might say and -- >> it's the question in my book, is the world better off with amazon and bezos in it? on the one hand this company created $1.6 trillion in market value for investors and some small part for bezos himself, and it's got convenience and

selection, and at the same time it changed the nature of work, you know, and added a fair amount of chaos to the global economies, and where i am out is probably has been beneficial, and there are things it could do and should be doing to clean up its act as it gets more powerful. >> i think a lot of people that lived through the pandemic with amazon regardless of politics would say amazon helped them. that's undeniable. bezos said he would step down as the ceo, and what will a post amazon look like? will it be a post bezos amazon? >> that's the question. i don't see him fully untangling right away and he says he will

stick around and work on new projects, and i go back to the antitrust sub committee last summer where jeff bezos was sitting there alongside tim cook and zuckerberg, and i think he didn't want to be there, and so things are going to change as bezos spends more time sailing the high seas. >> you managed to track down the person that provided the voice for alexa through canvassing the voice actor community, and she recorded radio ads like mott's apple sauce, and did you get to speak to alexa herself? >> well, i had to do a fair

amount of that, and she's a woman that lives in boulder, and i did all my due diligence and i did give her a call, and she couldn't talk and got off the phone quickly, and it was unmistakable. that voice is very distinctive. but i did not talk to her at length, to answer your question. >> i wonder if she asked alexa to hang up on you. thank you so much for your time. congratulations on the book. >> thanks. thank you all for watching the show tonight. we'll be right back here next sunday, of course, 8:00 p.m. eastern. you can catch me monday through thursday at 7:00 p.m. eastern on the choice on nbc's streaming channel, peacock, but now it's time to turn it over to joshua johnson.

>> thank you. we are seeing the latest round of heavy air strikes on gaza city after the u.n. secretary general called for an immediate cease-fire. what if anything can president biden do to ease the tensions? also the republican party could split in two parts, one probably much bigger than the other. how would that go? we'll consider if the gop might go the way of the wig party. and then david hogg is here, and we'll talk about his activist in gun violence. i'm joshua johnson. welcome to "the week." the violenced continued today between israel and hamas, and israeli warplanes launched early more strikes on gaza city and today the defense f