claim your seventy five dollar credit, when you post your first job at indeed.com/home. hi, everyone. it is 4:00 in the east. all eyes on the dramatically altered makeup of the united states supreme court as the court announced it will fake up mississippi's restrictive abortion law. other courts say it is unconstitutional but the majority on the supreme court is made up of three justices picked by an ex-president who explicitly said the qualification is opposition to roe v. wade and viewed as a clear assault on protections for women's freedoms. nancy northrup president of center for repriktive rights saying today alarm bells are ringing loudly about the threat to reproductive right just the

supreme court just agreed to review an abortion ban that violates nearly 50 years of supreme court precedent and is a test case to overturn roe v. wade. the mississippi law under review described as pure gaslighting by a judge and to legal scholars the very decision to take up the case in many ways speaks volumes about the focus of the conservative dominated court. from florida state university law professor ziegler in today's "the washington post" it is impossible to overstate what a big deal this decision is. the immediate threat to roe is very real but adds if the court stops short this case alone jeopardizes reproductive rights saying if the decides r court decides to uphold the abortion law it is not clear whether the court will impose any limit on abortion bans. this is where we start today. former u.s. senator and

contributor claire maccaskill and casey barlow an attorney and host of "words matter" and errin haynes. claire, you and i co sort of talked the way through the confirmation of at least the last two trump appointees. this was trump's goal. just the decision to take up the case strikes fear in the hearts of everyone that cares about this issue which if you look at polls is 675% of americans that support reproductive freedom. >> this may be the situation described as the dog catching the bus and what happens in america in terms of the political climate if in fact this court overturns decades of precedent and fails to protect women's reproductive freedoms via this mississippi case.

i don't think younger voters remember what it was like before roe v. wade. i don't think they realize these folks will not be happy until a rape victim is put in prison for taking the morning-after pill. that's the road they eesh going down. that's the road they've been trying do go down for a long time even though they are pushing provisions that are widely rejected by the vast majority of americans. >> what do you make of the early reaction that just the decision to take up this case is ominous enough? >> yeah. i think what will happen if this case is upheld and if you look at the tea leaves you have to believe it's going to be upheld. then look at the republican dominated legislatures in all of the state that's voted for

donald trump. they will immediately begin shutting down the ability of women to have the freedom to choose to terminate a pregnancy with limitations and then they'll keep pushing the cases up until there are none left except the few states that might make it legal. that's the way it was before roe v. wade was passed by the court, what? 40, 50 years ago. >> it's such a terrifying thought and i think you are right on the generational point. i want to give you a chance to say more about what's at stake. >> i don't -- for young women who went to planned parenthood in college and got birth control, for those that have never known the fear of an unwanted pregnancy, have never known what that represents in their lives if there is not a

safe and legal place to terminate a pregnancy, this will all be a wakeup call. this will be a shock to their systems. and we have more young people voting this last time. if the court does this, i predict that young women will be a driving force in the midterm elections. especially if those who support reproductive freedoms are doing their job. >> it was such a chilling -- i will never forget covering the death of justice ruth bader ginsburg and then the confirmation of judge barrett because everyone talked about what was at take and this came up. i wonder first your thoughts about the decision and what's at stake. >> yeah. certainly with the confirmation

process for amy coney barrett abortion was front and center for folks on both sides of this issue. it was a moment they were watching for, in some cases waiting for. this is what former president trump promised to his voters and for those that are single issue voters it was compelling the idea there could be a show down versus roe versus wade and seems that again on both sides that they're seeing this as what the moment could mean and with that confirmation and the justices that former president trump confirmed is voter rights. they're relatted. the clearance that states needed to do the things to do around

voting, especially states with a history, we saw how quickly states moved to pass laws that made it harder for folks to vote and needed permission to do those things and you saw it happen in states that didn't have that history so in the same way that those voting rights activists were concerned about the absence of a national precedent and a national kind of law being in place, abortion activists are absolutely concerned about what the ramifications could be for this decision in terms of what states are doing at the local level in these state houses around abortion because they have been nibbling around the edges. couldn't necessarily target the 24-week threshold before they

make it difficult to have access to an abortion but now having this 15-week abortion ban up for debate and discussion is something that is very much alarming. activists who have fought for half a century now and really seeing i think in a way to claire's point that roe is in fact uncertain. the future is uncertain. >> katie, you're also of course a social media editor for the scotus blog where this is explained legally better than i could and talk about the case they have taken up and what they are examining legally specifically. >> sure. it's helpful to look back at this case and first look at the supreme court's decision and as thaif said in several case that is a woman in this country has the constitutional right to

decide to have an abortion up to viability. basically whether a fetus can survive outside the womb. my understanding is that's around 23 to 24 week just the supreme court held that several times. that's the precedent and what mississippi did in this case is pass a law that bans virtually all abortions except a couple small exceptions after 15 weeks and argue that shift changed and mississippi to your point passed this law to get to the supreme court to overturn roe v. wade . they lost and they knew they likely would because their law directly contradicts the supreme court holding and planned parenthood v. casey. the goal is to get to the supreme court and now a beefened bench of skefrts to liberals majority on the supreme court and the point of looking at the confirmation of justice barrett

is noteworthy but i am keeping an eye on another trump appointee, justice cavanaugh. the supreme court struck down a restrictive abortion law in louisiana and they were joined by chief justice john robert just the chief justice was a swing vote and sided with the liberals several times last year. after the death of ginsburg and the appointment of barrett who that swing justice is has shifted and now this year brett kavanaugh is on the cases in 97% of cases and noteworthy that he aessential shifted who's in the middle so eyes will be on justice kavanaugh as the court takes on the abortion ban and not likely to get a decision

until may or june of next year. >> katie, i guess the point being it is indicative of how far to the right. roberts doesn't matter. doesn't matter how he -- so he goes with them again. boating on kavanaugh as a swing vote that might be why people are so anxious. >> right. that's exactly right. the 6-3 conservative majority means that the conservatives can afford to lose a vote and still have the majority for whatever the case is and we know a bit about justice kavanaugh's vaugts on abortion. the district let a minor to obtain an abortion. and that invoked a fiery dissent saying immediate abortion on

ademand and dissented in that case i mentioned last year striking down a restrictive abortion law. and he dissented in that case. we have hints of what he thinks an ena 6-4 conservative majority means they can afford to lose a vote and still have enough to win the case. >> claire, i want to say at the front end this is not meant to show you raise your blood pressure. this is tucker carlson on -- just watch. it will be clear. >> >> so it's important as vaccines may be and they are, the question to take them, to have drugs injected into your body is the most intimate personal health decision. politicians should have no role in a decision like that. you matsch heard that before. these decisions are for the

individual alone to decide. in consultation with family, physicians and clergy. coming to medical care it is our body, your choice. >> we have enough vaccine to go around right now and people ought to respect other people's freedom and liberty and ability to choose whether or not to be vaccinated or not. >> well of course. it is your body, your choice. >> well of course. i have a needle in my arm and given birth and we should be prepared for new depths of hypocrisy as this moves forward to the front burner of republican culture wars. >> let me see if i get this straight, tucker. it is -- none of the government's business if you refuse to protect others. forget about yourself. you refuse to protect yourself getting the vaccine but the government has every right -- i'm speaking now of cases that i

dealt with as a prosecutor. people don't understand what happens with incest. the young girls who are the victims of incest don't tell people. it is the most torturous, painful secret that they keep. and when those young girls get pregnant from a stepfather or a father or an uncle, they don't immediately speak up or understand they're pregnant. so what mississippi is saying, if you come forward after 15 weeks you must have your father's or uncle's baby but saying no problem if you don't want to take a vaccine. these guys have a lot of nerve. >> i want to show you how we got hereby. again we all covered i think the slow motion car wreck if you

will that was the last four years under the former guy but on this issue, on judges he was laser focused from the beginning. >> to trump, you're pro-life. do you want the court including the justices that you will name to overturn roe v. wade which includes in fact stays a woman's right to abortion. >> i will be appointing pro-lifer judges i would think that will go back to the individual states. >> but i'm asking you specifically would you like -- >> it will go back to the states. >> sir, do you want to see the court overturn? you have said you want to see the court protect the second amendment. do you want to see the court overturn -- >> if we put another two or perhaps three justices on that's what will be happening and that will happen automatically in my opinion because i am putting pro-life justices on the court. >> do you want a 6-3 court with 3 of your picks on there, mr.

president, would potentially rule on a life issue? >> possibly. maybe in a different way. maybe they give it back to the states. you don't know what will happen. >> so obviously we know that elections matter. this was the plan from the beginning and has to be horrifying for activists that worked on the issues for decades now to be in this place where roe is perhaps more endangered than any other point since it's been law. >> yeah. you're right. elections have consequences and republicans not just the former president but republican voters who supported him laser focused on this issue and the thing that they wanted and were willing to support the president to the exclusion of other concerns but this is the thing to deliver for them as voters and he made it clear. this is not a secret plan.

it was very much on display every time asked about it that this was going to be what he planned to do and my colleague has written in kind of summarizing the implications of this potential case being heard next summer of states that have passed legislation saying that they would take action if roe versus wade was to be overturned, that they were prepared to move forward. so you know, he certainly was press cent and delivered on the part and states a lot of gop controlled states certainly seem prepared to carry through, too. >> katie, i want to ask you to play this string forward. what is the best-case scenario for a -- we said it's a 65% issue. what is the best-case scenario if you don't want to see roe v.

wade eroded? >> as the court will consider mississippi's narrow abortion ban on 15 weeks its decision will apply across the country and to your guest's point will allow states to further restrict abortion and the best-case scenario for people in favor of the protections on the right to abortion is a narrow ruling in this case that upholds the central pedestal and the actual right to access an abortion before viability and that won't let states come up with 50 different laws more restrictive than right now. but there are states including arkansas who just signed into law a restriction on all access to abortion. there is not an exception for rape or incest period. so there's more restrictive abortion laws impacted by the court's decision related to the mississippi law. there's a lot of ways that this

can go and the best-case scenario is an extremely narrow decision or a decision straight upholding roe v. wade. >> what are the odds of that? if you had to look into a crystal ball. >> if i had to eyeball it looking at the 6-3 i would say it's unlikely. reading the tea leaves with a pinch of tea in the cup but seems unlikely especially given the fact they decided to take up this case in what will be justice barrett's first full year as a supreme court justice on the bench. sometimes they keep it quieter in the first year of a new supreme court justice but the fact they had four votes today to agree to take the case means they're interested in doing something remarkable about it. >> we'll stay on it. thank you so much for starting us off. when we come back, matt gaetz's presence very much felt today where the former associate

and wingman joel greenberg entered into a plea agreement over the charge of sex trafficking a minor. it is a charge that could turn into a major crisis for the florida congressman. does mccarthy know more about trump's state of mind in the capitol riot than he let on? how the continuing investigation into the response could center heavy listen 0 the relationship and conversations with trump following the science and following the honor system, navigating the new normal coming to covid-19. all those stories and more when we continue after a quick break. . thanks, baby. yeah, we 'bout to get spicy for this virtual date. spicy like them pajama pants. hey, the camera is staying up here. this is not the second date. [sfx: kids laughing] [sfx: bikes passing] [sfx: fire truck siren] onstar, we see them.

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i'm sure matt gaetz is not feeling very comfortable today. last time we talked there was a -- i had a certain agenda which i accomplished. this time i will leave that up to matt gaetz's attorneys to answer. >> that was the attorney for joel greenberg, the associate of matt gaetz with a new -- we showed you both. the messages for congressman gaetz. greenberg pleaded guilty to six of the 33 charges against him. they include importantly here sex trafficking of a 17-year-old girl. in a deal requiring him to fully cooperate with every investigation that federal investigators undertake why from this point forward. plea deal now sets up greenberg as a potential witness for prosecutors if they decide to charge gaetz. gaetz is under scrutiny into whether he violated similar laws by paying for sex with the same minor as greenberg did.

gaetz repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and not charged with a crime. while gaetz was not mepged in the plea deal speculation is growing that the time might be coming soon. this banner reading tick tock matt gaetz outside the courthouse this morning. former deputy assistant attorney general harry lipman. claire is here, as well. harry, when an attorney for someone who's doing a plea deal says i was on a mission last time, i achieved that mission, what does that mean? >> well, first it means he is talking out of school and ought to be more careful but here especially when what he said previously was matt gaetz is uncomfortable is i have the mission to persuading federal authorities to give me my client a lesser sentence for me to tell everything ant matt gaetz and, man, did he ever. this is an 88-page plea

agreement, extremely long. longer than anything i have ever seen, that sets it out in chapter and verse, if anyone wants to, download it and go to page 30 and 31 and got terrifying specificity and depth as to what happened with the 17-year-old girl. we are talking texts and hotels and exact number of money and when the encounters were. if as all indications suggest we're talking about gate and that plea agreement said he also had -- that this woman or girl really had sex with other men that he braukt in and had drugs with her first and the like, gaetz is in a terrible position and really there's a mountain of evidence against him and they have shown it in this very document. all of which greenberg signed off on and said in front of the

court which made a findings that this is accurate and what would be proven if he went to trial. >> claire, just speak as a former prosecutor yourself. when you have a witness like greenberg, you know what you are dealing with and it is reported by "the new york times" he is talking to the feds since december. presumably those two pages that harry cites, that was some of what they were doing, maybe corroborating the accounts that he might not be the most credible witness on the stand? >> yeah. what harry i'm sure would back me up here, what you are seeing is a prosecution that has been put together with an eye towards another prosecution. the amount of specificity in this plea deal is unusual and you say why did they need all the that? what they're doing here is they're building up greenberg's

credibility. these two guys were arrogant punks that thought they could live this wildlife style, immoral, drugs, 17-year-old, underage women, paying women for sex and that they would never be accountable and used electronic devices and they have tied the facts to electronic communications so matt gaetz taking a page out of the trump book say, what, me? i did something naughty. just locker room talk why they will be able to build up the credibility of the chief witness against him which is greenberg and in all likelihood that gaetz involved in the trafficking of this girl, paid for sex with her and i have a feeling greenberg is not the only witness here. gaetz is such an idiot he showed

pictures of women unclothed to colleagues on the house that wat to lecture us about when to have the ability to control our own bodies, where are they today? why aren't they speaking up against this guy? it is unbelievable the women in the republican party do not call this man out right now. they're going to end up looking stupid when he pleads guilty which i predict he probably will or be found guilty by a jury. >> on that, harry, can you read anything and really to both of you but can you dedouns anything about where this information into gaetz may stand timing-wise? >> timing, he's a sitting congressman and i think they are going now to want to accelerate it and they have it all. that evidence is already there. i agree 100% with claire.

he is in a tough spot with a ten-year mandatory minimum and investigated on all kind of different conduct. remember, the possibly mode cli marijuana quid pro quo or the weird trip to the bahamas and might be as with greenberg a set of crimes to try to trade off except the department i think will not let him take a pass on this which is most important and there's just not room as greenberg could say i'll plead and get a lesser sentence and he will for coop rarting up. where is gaetz supposed to go? it is a mandatory minimum. so this is corroborating and putting greenberg's record of dishonesty beside the point because we have letter and verse of credit card bill just the victim herself. maybe trends. he's in big, big trouble.

i don't see how he wriggles out from this one main charge. >> claire, the point of the republicans, two things. it is the brazen nature of what is alleged. to pay for sex through venmo and then the indifference of the republicans so busy playing whack-a-mole with liz cheney for not repeating the lie behind the insurrection and not a -- crickets with an alleged sex trafficker. this is a big deal as you're both saying a ten-year minimum federal sentence for sex trafficking a minor. where does the republican party go in terms of saying they stand for any sort of morality anymore anymore? i guess when you're pro big lie morality isn't really on the table? what do your make of the

distance? >> we can talk about this as we talk about liz cheney versus kevin mccarthy later in the hour but we have a civil war in the republican party between integrity and character and political expediency. matt gaetz is a celebrated figure within the trump base and trump has not said a word and the reason all the members of congress are afraid to stick their necks out to state the obvious that gaetz should be removed from committee assignments pending the outcome of this, that he should not be looked at as a golden boy out doing rallies to get people excited about voting for republicans, that all should happen right now. and the reason it's not is because donald trump sees matt gaetz as his guy. this is his guy. donald trump and matt gaetz are two peas in a pod. i bet if you put some truth

serum in donald trump he would say what he did was not that bad. she was 17. you know? i mean, i just don't think that there's much integrity left in terms of character in the majority of the republican officeholders because they're so worried about the chief -- the former guy who clearly was grabbing women's vaginas and fousing himself upon them because he was famous and thought it was fun to do. >> not a lot of room underneath grab them in the -- between the legs to fall. harry, i want do pull in on a doimpbt topic. if we move to where gaetz is charged is it a defense to say he didn't know how old she is? >> no. it is a really tough law in exactly that say. it used to be a defense to say she didn't look like. now if you have an opportunity

to observe her then it doesn't matter what she looked like, what she said she was. she initially said she was over 18. it doesn't matter. a special provision says as long as you had the opportunity to observe her then that knowledge requirement is met and so that can't possibly fly. to claire's point once he is indicted and why i think the doj will move with expedition is when the pressure is huge on thome and a committee is the judiciary committee that oversees doj. that is an untenable position for someone charged with this crime. >> it's always important to remind everyone that this investigation opened when bill barr was the attorney general and briefed to the highest levels of that justice department. harry, thank you. >> thank you.

when we come back, this is congressman andrew clyde on january 6. now if you don't remember from last week this is the same congressman who called january 6 last week a normal tourist visit. that's a quote. here he is barricading the chamber doors against the so-called normal tourists. why the need for a commission on that day is still so important. next. [ laughs ] ♪♪ [ humming ] [ door creaks ] oh. [ soft music playing ] what are you all doing in my daydream? it's better than that presentation. a lot better. you know, whether it's a fraction or a decimal, it's still fun, you know?

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not mccarthy and donald trump talked and the president tried to reach out to get the stories straight about what happened in that january 6 phone call? >> leader mccarthy has spoke on the a number of people in large groups and small groups since the 6th about exchanges with the president. he spoken publicly on the house floor about the view that the president's responsibility. i think it's very important that he clearly has facts about that day that an investigation into what happened, into the president's actions ought to get to the bottom of. i think that he has important information that needs to be part of any investigation, whether it's the fbi, the justice department or the commission that i hope will be set up. >> the ominous hint from congresswoman cheney there. gop leader mccarthy might be

withholding information and that it just might be a matter for the federal investigation into january 6 or potential inspected commission. with a vote on setting up the commission set to happen as soon as this week fallout front and center. one democratic congressman calling for the censure of republicans. clyde said that the attack looked like a normal tourist visit. what was clyde doing during that normal tourist visit? here he is seen barricading the doors to the house against the attackers trying to force the way in on the day of the normal tourist visit. for more on this betsy woodruff swan is here for politico. and claire mccaskill is back, as well why what makes a human being say what he said? we covered that hearing.

we saw him sort of dodge reporters afterward. our own reporter. to call it a tourist visit and then barricading the door. what is that? >> one of the congressman clyde's republican colleagues told a colleague of mine at politico that he viewed it as comically stupid. i think maybe one of the better ways to characterize the comments. a mercenary perspective of republicans responding what we could surmise that clyde decided there's more political gain to be won from being a truther or a denialist about what happened on january 6 than by telling the truth. at least within the house republican conference at least over the last two weeks that mercenary perspective is

correct. look at what happened to liz cheney booted out of house leadership. the reality is though clyde might be quote/unquote comically stupid he is not that far off from where the republican party is moved in the trump era. >> claire, it is some sick stuff to be so disingenuous where you're scared enough to help barricade the door. >> yeah. these guys have gotten into a habit of thinking they can lie with impunity and that there will be nobody that will be able to fact check them or if they can it won't matter because they say what they need to say to hold on to power within a republican party that is

dominated by people who have embraced the biggest lie of all. i remember the old days when there were actually people in office afraid of lying and would be caught lying and exposed lying. that used to be the norm and now these guys are like, hey, we had the liar in chief for four years and he is our guy so if what we need to say is a big fat whopper, a lie like these were tourists and a picture that shows me trying to barricade the house chamber against the violent mob that was attacking police officers with the american flag, so who cares? they will cover it on the right wing channels that i am on trump's side. it is stunning to me that they are doing the math and think somehow this race to solidify

the trump base is all they're ever going to need and not paying attention to how elections work in terms of who holds the power in the system. >> betsy, what is chris wallace getting out of liz cheney? is there a scuttle that mccarthy has exposure with getzing stories straight? >> that was a moment there and seems like both wallace and cheney alluding to the possibility that mccarthy and trump would have spoken about how to discuss the topic and mccarthy bent over backwards to trump. it was such a marked difference former speaker paul ryan led.

it was such a difference between the way they spoke. mccarthy courted trump's ilk going back for many years now. unlike the republican pred ses or the and did a lot to reach out to very pro-trump publications. decided to invest in sort of that wing of the republican party and now what we are seeing is the possibility that he could be mixed up in whatever this commission investigates which is perhaps why it's a head scratcher that he seems to be delaying or raising concerns or saying he has to review the matter whether or not to support bringing in a bipartisan commission but the top republican on the homeland security committee already said that he agrees that this is the right thing to do and needs to move forward on it. >> claire, it is always worth noting this dint matter to me as a what happened to the republicans. trump happened. grab him in the bleep happened

but it matters as a threat to us and frankly everyone else that works on the capitol. here's liz cheney on the topic of the republicans as a threat. >> former president trump continues to be a real danger. he is doing and what he's saying, the claims, the refusal to accept decisions by the courts, his claims continued as recently as yesterday that somehow this election was stolen, you know, what he is doing is he's causing people to believe that they can't count on our process to actually convey the will of the people. we have to be a nation of laws. if you continue to reject, if you reject the rulings of the courts, if you work against the rulings of the courts you are at work with the constitution and he is a continuing danger to the system. >> so they know that. they know that what cheney is saying is right. in their heart of hearts. they also know that this country

is under an unprecedented threat advisory for domestic violent extremism. we are at graver threat from the neighbors than any sort of international terrorist organization. do you think there is a bottom for what betsy's describing, this comically idiotic whitewashing of something that threatened them? >> i don't think there's a bottom. but i do think there's a civil war. i think that republicans hope that somehow they can distract people with the border or with joe biden, whether or not he is doing push-ups or whatever the silly cultural war thing of the day is. but here's the bottom line. they have a huge chasm in their party and this commission vote is a big darn deal because if in fact the majority of the

republicans reject a commission that was negotiated on a bipartisan basis, that the republican ranking member of the committee said we got what we wanted, there is no way to be politicized. equal democrats and republicans. everybody has to sign off on subpoenas. but it is the right thing to get to the bottom of what happened because we never want to have the pictures splashed across the world again. and if they stand up and vote against it then you are going to see a hardening of the lines in the republican party and frankly that's nothing but good news for the democrats in the midterms. >> some unbelievable state of affairs. betsy, thank you for spending time with us. when we come back, while mump of the focus has been on masks the white house today stressing vaccines. what is going to rid us of the pandemic. we'll ask an expert if that

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abide by an honor system, leaving face and businesses to navigate the rankly maskless america. already walmart, costco, cvs are among the few to lift their indoor mask requirements for fully vaccinated customers, unless, of course, required by law. let's bring in dr. vin gupta, and claire's still here. i want to read you what walmart is doing. this is fascinating to me. this is from our colleagues at cnbc. for employees who want to work without wearing a mask at a store, distribution center or other facility, walmart said they will verify their status by asking them if they have or have not been vaccinated. however, to get a vaccine-related bonus, walmart said employeeless have to show their original completed vaccine cards to a store leader or human resources manager. sort of a tiered honor system.

i wonder what you make of that, dr. gupta. >> good afternoon, nicolle. i think walmart is headed towards the direction you're going to see more organizations head towards, self-attestation up front but probably some sorm of verification system that will be done through a digital solution, at least that's what they put out there in the public domain. the broader concern here is that while the cdc has the policy right, and i love their messaging on why you should get vaccinated, you are protected. if you're unvaccinated, you're not. policy is right. the execution, unfortunately, has just been confusing and i've seen it with my own eyes. just over the weekend having multiple conversations with observations, there's likely, nicolle, just in the city of seattle going to be ten different approaches depending on the size of the business. here's why it matters. there didn't have to be this rush. we were planning on june to glide back to normalcy. the cdc could have aligned with

workplace operations that oversees workplace health. they could have aligned guidance so everything was put out together at the same time. they could have worked with agencies like department of transportation to figure out what should and should not be done when it comes to traveling, especially since people will be traveling out in the summer. the fact they put this out there and there's 20 different approaches in the ether being considered is not good. this is a one-way door here that you can't walk this back and it's created a lot of confusion. >> dr. gupta, i'm curious, i was talking to my children over the weekend and they're making the correlation between anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers and, frankly, donald trump. and that group has a tortured relationship with the truth. so here's their question to me. they know they're protected. they've all been vaccinated. what about their kids? what about their children? could you answer that question? because that's what was on their minds, what do i do about my children? i know i will be okay because i've been vaccinated but what about my young ones?

>> senator, good to see you as well. this is what i will say, we're entering an uncertain terrain. this is why public health officials didn't love the cdc's execution. they liked its intention, but not execution. particularly with regards to children. you're seeing reports out of latin america that there are more children ending up in hospitals because of potentially the circulating variant that seems more transmissible across age groups. so there is a concern here that with a changing dynamic pandemic landscape, our children safe or are they as safe as we thought they were a year ago from the worst impact of this virus? it's unclear. i think they're relatively safer than adults who are unvaccinated but they're still at risk. so that's number one. to your point about anti-masking and anti-vaxxers and the overlap, that is the point here. i know the biden administration thinks this policy will help increase or coax people who are unvaccinated to get vaccinated.

i don't think that's the risk/benefit calculation for those not getting vaccinated. they're not going to see any friction here with this policy. >> we will stay on it with your help. dr. vin gupta and claire mccaskill, thank you for spending so much time with us and thank you for spending time with us, dr. gupta. the next hour of "deadline: white house" starts after a quick break. use" starts after a quick break. ooo... you gonna eat that at lesliepalooza? ng, everybody. ooo... you, her, me, all of us. ng, everybody. ooo... living with metastatic breast cancer means being relentless. because every day matters. and having more of them is possible with verzenio. the only one of its kind proven to help you live significantly longer when taken with fulvestrant, regardless of menopause. verzenio + fulvestrant is for hr+, her2- metastatic breast cancer that has progressed after hormone therapy. diarrhea is common, may be severe, or cause dehydration or infection. at the first sign, call your doctor, start an anti-diarrheal, and drink fluids.

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i liken this office to a referee in a football game, and a referee is doing a good job, you're not talking about the referee. that's my aspiration, and i appreciate you having me on but hopefully you're not talking about me too, too much in the future. >> hi, everyone, it's 5:00 in the east. this is arizona's next recorder, a position that leads the county's elections department. stephen richer, whom you heard from, highlighted his profession that he hopes remains out of the

headlines. that was short-lived. in response to the former president's comments about the audit of the ballots under way in his county. on sunday trump put out a statement that the entire mara copa county legal base were deleted illegally, and ballots were tampered with and missing. all of that not true. and that caused him to send out this stunning tweet. wow, this is unhinged. i'm looking at our voter registration database on my other screen now. we cannot indulge these insane lies any longer as a party, as a state, as a country. this is readily falsable. and the audit continued. from the ap, quote, the former president statement came as republican senate president karen pham recommended the board

of county supervisors come to the senate raised by the private auditors she hired. the auditors moved at a snail's pace and had to cut down thursday after counting about 500,000 ballots. they plan to resume in a week, after high school graduation ceremonies, planned for the coliseum in fee phoenix. which they rented for the recount. a report in "the new york times" outlines a pattern of election legislation and increasing penalties for poll workers who make mistakes or violate code. the infractions could draw more severe punishment and run the gamut from seemingly minor lapses in attention or innocent mistakes to more clearly willful and defiant regulations. in texas, taking action that would make observation not reasonably effective for a poll watcher would carry new

penalties. states including iowa and texas that ban sending absentee ballots to voters who have no requested them would also lead to tougher penalties. this tafrgting of poll workers is all part of a larger goal for republicans. and that's according to "the washington post." columnist high ed described it as an insurance policy to assure the election strategy will fail. he prevented the 2020 results from being overturned. hiatt points out this, quote, as republicans target the people and positions that stood in their way last time, they're also attempting to change the rules. so pro-trump legislature could more easily override the will of the people and objections of any honest secretary of state who stood in the way. the gop's continued assault on democracy is where we start with some of our favorite reporters and friends.

peter strzok is here, former fbi agent and author of the book "compromised." jason johnson, politics and professor at oregon state university and till miller is back. writer for "the bulwark." tim, i started with that sound from a republican because any extremist movement or crisis -- and pete strzok knows this better than me -- can't be cracked open by those who view it suspiciously and by those who are being radicalized. and it's breaking point by breaking point. and it isn't just liz cheney. it's local election officials who have their nose against the glass and see the destruction of democracy happening in realtime. i'm not going to ask if you think it will make a difference. i am going to ask you if you think it creates a permission structure from our people who see this happening to speak out? >> well, i hope so, nicolle.

look, i think as you are, i'm pretty negative in the big picture about where the party is going. if you look at the liz cheney numbers, for example, you see that there's about 20% of the party that is upset with what's happening, with liz cheney. while it should be 80%, i wish that number was flipped, i think you do see signs there could be a crack in the coalition. while it's kind of scary we have to rely on people like secretaries of state and state recorders and members of county election boards to be the one standing between our democracy and one major political party's attempt to overthrow it and become autocratic, it's also inspiring, right, to see people like richer and raffensperger and gabriel sterling, who we disagree with on various policy items but stood up for the rule of law and our democracy. that's edict. i will say this, one more thing

on the concerning side. if you look at the arizona state president in arizona, what is happening, what we are seeing in congress is being infected in all of these state legislators. like elise stefanik, she knows they was a real election, right, but she's getting all of this pressure. so that's why she's now hosting this phony audit, right? it's the same trends you're seeing with mccarthy and stefanik, people who should know better and do what richard is doing and are not. that's the scary part of all of this. we have to rely on state auditors because so many other republicans are falling down on their duties. >> and i think the county recorder, we have to rely on county officials because this is what national republicans sound like. this is congressman crenshaw with my colleague chuck todd. >> this is an issue that many people have, you're sitting here trying to say no, no, no, no, i just had a specific question.

yet, what you did get weaponized by the former president. did you see the rantings of him yesterday, to the point a public official in mr copa county called the former president unhinged. i understand you guys want to put this behind you but he's the leader of your party and he doesn't stop talking about this nonsense. >> chuck, the only -- listen, he's one of many leaders in the party. he's a former president. we're five months into president biden's presidency, and there is a time to move on. and look, you guys in the press love doing this, and i get it, right? the press is largely liberal. they're largely pro-democrat. and there's a lot -- >> there's nothing lazier than that. excuse me. >> i'm not going to take the bait. >> i'm not trying to bait you. i'm trying to figure out why do we sit here and have a political party that is basically rattling around this bizarre lie and

mythology the former president is doing and you want to say pay no attention to this that you people in the press are bringing up. it's a former president. >> jason, i have to turn this over to you, because until we do these conversations on premium cable, i might swear here, it's not bait! it's a trough of garbage that they're all bingeing on. the notice they're getting, here kitty, kitty, kitty, they're all gorging at the trough of bs. what are they cringing about? >> dan crenshaw is a liar and always has been a liar. during the evaluation and audit, remember, he was doing commercials where he was jumping out of an airplane like it was point break to go down and help in georgia? he's part of this nonsense. what they do is they try to gaslight any reporter who asks them a direct question and say i'm not responsible for this and their hands are covered in

cookie jar stuff, right? but this is the problem, and we can look specifically at the state dan crenshaw represents and den crenshaw is from, when you see questioning of the rules that are actually in place, it's not just the laws, nicolle, what concerns me is we all know the application of these laws and penalties will not be consistent. we know it's going to be poll workers in black and brown and democratic areas who are going to end up being investigated. we know it's democratic-leaning counties that are going to have these audits. every single time i see something in den crenshaw's state of texas, hey, don't miss the poll workers if they make mistakes, i think of brenda, who did not go to jail but she voted by accident and the republicans tried to put her in jail. and then we say nothing about the dead republicans who vote,

ex-wives, et cetera. so we can't give den crenshaw any credit in these conversations. he's part of the lie. he's a perpetuator of lie. if there's a question about it, will he punish people who want to vote their truth. >> pete strzok, that was set up perfectly, i don't have a dead wife. i have a murdered wife. man charged with murder legally casts his ballot for trump. i just thought, give him another vote. he was charged this month with murdering his wife. things got stranger still, barry was also accused of casting his wife's ballot in the election for donald trump. the 53-year-old told fbi agents last month he did it because, quote, all of these other guys are cheating, and said his wife would have backed up anyway. see, if you hadn't murdered them. i just thought, give him another

vote. peter strzok, it's already illegal to commit voter fraud. and the fbi already has a system for sort of stuffing out criminal voter fraud. i think that's lost on -- i don't know if it's lost on elected republican officials. i suppose it could be. but i'm guessing that's lost on a lot of people who believe voter fraud somehow goes unsanctioned in this country. >> it's really disconcerting, nicolle. and you have seen it a lot since the january 6th insurrection. there's projection going on, the other side is doing this, the other side is plotting. these things have been going on and so it makes it okay for me. the reality when you start getting to the bottom of all of these investigations, they are going on both sides. they are going on by trump supporters who are either voting for him twice on behalf of their

murdered wife or whether they're storming the capitol and trying to upset the vote. the facts and investigations are all leading in one direction, and it's leading to a lot of people who are sitting there simply standing back and saying, i don't have any responsibility for this because, one, the system is already doing it, which is false and somehow that make it's okay. two, i had no obligation to follow the law in response to this perceived slide by the other side. i don't understand it. i don't know where we lost this sense of personal obligation to adhere to the law. on the party of law and order, it makes no sense to me how we lost that. >> on friday, pete strzok, the department of homeland security issued or re-upped the warning of extremism pinned to an ideology of grievances represents a heightened state of threat for the entire country. just putting your sort of fbi hat on, do you think the bureau is having to recalibrate or

reallocate resources to do this fairly tricky, would of monitoring those kinds of threats? >> absolutely. this is extraordinarily difficult work. to begin with, it's sensitive because it involves political speech. any time people start investigating, it's on the fringe of expressing political belief. you run into personal protected member activity. but the fact of the matter is, the radicalism is there. and you add this to the massive, massive effort to go on to investigate hundreds of people involved january 6th, to say it is large is an understatement. i'm sure it involves all six of the fbi's field offices and necessarily will have to involve a much greater number of investigators and acts that were involved at the end of last year. >> tim, i want to show you liz cheney specifically on the threat on the danger.

a lot of people sort of speculated about all that was behind her decision. i know she's given a lot of interviews but i think at its core is concern about the radicalized republican party representing a new and grave threat. here she is talking to jonathan carl. >> i think it's dangerous. i think we have to recognize how quickly things can unravel. we have to recognize what it means for the nation to have a former president who has not conceded and who continues to suggest our electoral system cannot function, cannot do the will of the people. >> when you say dangerous, dangerous how? are you suggesting january 6th could happen again? or maybe something worse? >> i think there's no question. >> do you agree with that sense? and to that end, why not speed the investigation into 1/6, heaven forbid, something else

happens? you don't have a whole party that wasn't interested in protecting the country. >> of course, i totally agree with that and i think what -- liz has been hinting in these interviews that she's right about, it's dangerous in the micro and macro. and i think there's real danger to the people in arizona right now and election officials in arizona. if you think about poll worker, who will be a poll worker in 2022 after what we saw on 1/6 and elsewhere and it's dangerous in the macro, that liz cheney brought up. there's no special magic beans to protect us from hypocrisy. they can slip away like they have slipped away in hungary and elsewhere. we've seen that over the last 40 years. i was encouraged john katko, one of the members of the house who voted for impeachment, signed off with the democrats for that to moved that to the house.

i think that is the key insight here, we can't just let the news cycle to allow us to wash away a memory of our threat. we need to continue code orange, if not code red, in thinking about the real physical threats to people involved in our democracy and broader macro threat to our democracy. >> i mean, jason, to take that micro and macro analysis, this is how liz cheney talked about the threat of foreign terrorism after 9/11. i know, i worked with her. to look at the fact we have the micro, which, you know, i know what tim's saying but i think that means the immediate threat to our safety at home and macro, the erosion of the most central democratic norm, is our hair radically on fire? is that what he's really saying? >> mine's gone. okay, like it's been on fire since trump got in office.

i don't understand people whose hair is just on fire now. this has always been danger. "rise of the nazi party" i know people think that hyperbolic, but it's not. i spent time in germany. one of the conclusions you can draw from this documentary is in order to stop a functional democracy from being overtaken by an authoritarian regime, you have to protect voting rights, you have to keep politicians accountable and stop disinformation. right now you cannot trust the republican party to do any of those things. they will not stop disinformation. they will not hold politicians accountable and certainly won't do anything to change or open up voting rights. this is dependent on the democratic party, it's dependent on joe biden and mayor garland. again, people will say this is hyperbolic but basically the republican party has just become the sort of cove are for what is a violent anti-government

authoritarian militia. that's what we saw on january 6 and. and those groups, because so many people were not arrested, because so many of those people managed to leave and get home and vacations and everything like that, they're plotting their next attack. why wouldn't they? i'm tired of people saying this is bad and dangerous. it's been over 120 days since that attack and i have not seen any members of congress who were supposedly giving insurrectionists tour the day before hand, taken to jail. i don't see them taking this seriously and until something terrible happens, i don't think they will. >> i was going a step forward, something terrible already happened. we're already there. i think putting down a marker with one of the two parties is a fruitless undertaking at this point. jason, tim, thank you for starting us off this hour. i think you might have made my more scared but thank you for

being honest. pete strzok is sticking around. later in the hour we want to ask him about that secret plot of right wing activists to dismantle president trump's sho called enemies inside the government, including inside the fbi, fbi officials and donald trump's own national security adviser. up next for us, the very latest for the middle east where the dust is rising and so is the pressure on president biden to take more actions to push israel and palestinians towards a cease-fire. brand-new reporting in axios on the former guy's wild, scary, final week and his attempt to upend the country's national security. "deadline: white house" continues after the break. dline continues after the break. t eve, with spring comes rebirth. everything begins anew. and many of us realize a fundamental human need to connect with other like-minded people. welcome back to the world.

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i feel horrible for the people. i feel horrible that we have to live like this. i feel horrible we are even seeing this. we don't even deserve this. kids maybe died in here. kids maybe died in other places, but we don't deserve this. >> the civilian death toll in gaza is still rising amid the worst playerup of israeli-palestinian violence in seven years. yesterday over 200 palestinians died, almost half women and children. in israel overnight where 11 people died, hamas launched rockets at ourn cities while gaza flattened this building that housed foreign media offices including the associated press and al jazeera. they said there was a hamas intelligence base inside.

now congressional calls for a cease-fire are intensifying the pressure on president biden to take more action to help stop the violence. joining me now from colleague, carol lee. you have breaking news on the readout of president biden's efforts in this area. what have you learned? >> that's right, nicolle, the president said earlier he did intend to speak with prime minister netanyahu. they had several calls now in recent days. the white house issued a readout of the phone call and said, among other things, the president expresses support of a cease-fire and discussed u.s. engagement with egypt and two other partners to that end and would stay in touch. what's interesting is the white house has been saying for several days they want to de-escalate the violence, bring an end to this conflict and they're interested in what white house press secretary jen psaki

today called quiet, intentive diplomacy so really behind the scenes rather than being full-throated in demanding some sort of cease-fire agreement. here we have the president speaking with the prime minister and then the white house saying that as part of that conversation, he expressed some support for a cease-fire, nicolle. >> richard, to carol's point, i have that quote she's talking about. this is jen psaki just earlier today. our calculation at this point is having the conversations behind the scenes is the most constructive approach. what changed? >> i'm not sure if anything has changed. here in israel prime minister netanyahu issued a statement not long ago saying he met with his security cabinet, he met with the heads of all of the security agencies including the shabbat and massad and he's given the order to continue. he said there's still more

targets to hit and israel is doing well, that it killed a top operative from the islamic jihad, which is a rifle organization to hamas that also operates in the gaza strip. it hit a naval asset. this has been described as some sort of drone submersible that hamas was using. and he very much gave the impression from this statement that israel is going to proceed with this military operation until it decides not to proceed any longer. how much longer that is, we don't know. but as of tonight, it's still on. >> richard eng el, can you tell us what is expected in the coming days if nothing will change on the part of prime minister from israel, benjamin netanyahu? >> i don't think we need to wait days. it's happening right now. usually around this time is when things start to happen. the israeli air strikes, usually

in the very dark hours, small hours of the day, in the overnight time. the last seven days in a row have been pounding areas of the gaza strip. each day the areas are slightly different. the last couple of days focused mostly on what israel calls the tunnel network. it's now calling it a metro, a series of underground tunnels that they mapped out using imaging techniques that allow hamas to move themselves and weapons undetected because if they moved on the surface, they would be easy for to you pick off. but israel has also targeted buildings inside gaza city itself, which is one of the most densely populated cities in the world. and when it has done that, there have been a significant number of casualties, like in these three apartment buildings that collapsed over this weekend, which accounted for many of the women and children who have been killed so far.

>> carol lee, secretary of state tony brinken said this, he criticized hamas for indiscriminate rocket fire but called on the israeli government to do everything possible to avoid more civilian casualties. senator murthy went further than that on our "morning joe" colleague. let me show you that. >> the defense mechanism which stops many from hitting israel is made by u.s. taxpayer funding. so let's use a little heavier hand right now to tell both sides that now is the time to stand down. >> carol, does this urging -- or i don't know what to call it, but people on the sidelines that's been an important ally, use a heavier hand to call on both sides to calm down.

are they hearing that in the white house? are they concerned about that? are they working the phones with their own allies in the democratic party? >> that cole, one of the things that's been interesting about this day namic is the reason exactly that you're raising, you see the members of the own party, politics there, the bs are shifting a little bit and he's more in line of the republicans who have not criticized him to the same except he needs to be more forceful. the white house is mindful they're aware of a dreambeat that's in the president's power to take a tougher stance on israel but we haven't seen the president lean into that. as you said, antony blinken saying israel has a right to defend itself. israel, while the united states wants them to minimize civilian casualties and do all they can,

they haven't come out and did all they can to condemn themselves and ask the president whether or not there was a proportion of israel's responses were proportionate. and he didn't answer that question. the press secretary was asked and didn't either. they're trying to watch this timeline and balance and do this diplomacy behind the scenes and see if it can bear fruit. the question is how long do they play that game and how long does this continue before they start to get a little more forceful? >> richard engel and carol lee, we will continue to turn to both of you in your reporting. thank you for sharing it with us today. we're grateful. when we return, new reporting from our friendon than at axios that is mind-blowing. donald trump, frantic, offthe books tactics that put him squaring i brazenly at odds with the top authorities. that's next. at's next.

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as we cover president biden's challenges on the world stage and efforts to deal with them, we are still getting the full picture of the national security hole that the last president dug for him. bombshell new reporting from axis is shedding light on the chaotic final days of the trump administration, and a campaign by the former president, whose allies at the pentagon to make dramatic and potentially irreparable changes and damages

to the american foreign policy. axios is reporting on a, quote, last-minute bid to pull u.s. forces from afghanistan, middle east and eastern africa ahead of joe biden's inauguration. the goal simple, steamroll the general and leave behind a done deal that could not be easily reversed by the next administration. joining us now one of the reporters who shares a byline on that extraordinary piece of reporting, axios reporter jonathan swan. i have two questions that burned through me as i read this. obviously trump knew he lost if he was trying to screw up american foreign policy. two, how maniacal he was trying to damage america's standing in the world for the next president? >> he was throwing everything at the wall. there was sort of parallel tracks going on. one hand he's trying to overturn the results of the election, trying to block the transition to joe biden and then there was also a parallel track that we're

only just beginning to learn more details about. and this is with the military. there were multiple ways he was viewing the military in the final days. there was the conversation he was having privately about potentially using either the military or department of homeland security to go around the country seizing voting machines, you remember that? and then there was also this effort, this aborted effort he attempted to do through a young staffer named john mcinty. 31-year-old, used to be trump's body man, former college football quarterback. then trump put him in charge of the powerful presidential personnel office. trump used johnny mcinty and retired army colonel douglas mcgregor to basically go around the pentagon and joint chiefs of staff and all of the normal policy progresses and attempt to extract america from afghanistan and other places around the

world. >> so this is what you guys report, john mcatee, one of donald trump's most-favored aides, handed retired army colonel douglas mcgregor a note stating one, get us out of afghanistan. get us out of iraq and syria. three, complete the withdrawal from germany. four, get us out of africa. how far does that go? what does the pentagon do? >> douglas macgregor, by the way, is someone who has been going on full-throatedly on fox saying we should withdraw. he saw the note and said i'm not sure we can do all of this before january 20th. if you're getting pushback from douglas macgregor, you know you're pushing hard. he did say, i know we can do afghanistan and they chose somalia as a piece of the africa piece.

anyway, macgregor gets on the phone with one of the subordinates from drp's personnel and he said we should get out of afghanistan by the ended of year and somalia as well. we can do this. by the way, the joint chiefs of staff argued it was dangerous and not to do it. anyway, this guy on presidential detail, this is not where you draft orders to withdraw america from military engagements to be shocked to here. he's never done this before. he calls up macgregor and said, i don't know what to do here. macgregor says go into the file cabinet. you will find language around the memorandum and we can go from there. and anyway, this order gets drafted up, printed. john mcatee take it's to to the president, donald trump signs it and it's delivered by courier the afternoon of november 11th to the acting secretary of defense christopher miller. he receives this memo and just says what the expletive is this?

so this sets off this basically panic around the pentagon. the chairman of the joint chiefs mark milley had never seen this before. they find out the national security adviser robert o'brien had never seen it. it hasn't been through the white house counsel's office. so this immobilizes the upper military apparatus who went to the president and said we can't do this, laid out fairly apom liptic scenarios and killed the order and basically slow-walked him towards the head of his presidency to keep 205,000 troops in afghanistan. >> based on your reporting, was donald trump a functioning commander in chief? you've got this other extraordinary reporting about how they lied to him on matters of national security. the senior official deliberately deceiving trump? what syria withdrawal? there was never a syria withdrawal?

told defense one in a post election interview. quote, we were always playing shell games to not make clear to our leadership how many troops we had there. adding the real number of troops in northeast syria is a lot more than the initial 200 trump agreed to leave there. it is something the savvy bureaucrats did to thwart the commander in chief over four years. did he function in this period you report on as commander in chief, who sits atop the military chain of command? >> it's a really complicated question to call and really important question. the truth is that throughout his presidency, donald trump would say things in meetings that in any normal administration would count as an order. i want you to do this. this would be the decision. what would often happen with the pentagon, they treated his statements and tweets as almost like they weren't real, and basically were like, well, if you're serious about this, we

want to see a formal order. there's a right way to go about it. it's a process. trump would not turn his statements into a order. so throughout the four years he allowed himself to be talked out of what was pretty strongly held instincts. obviously he was afraid to or reluctant to take ownership for some of his decisions. it was a bizarre to and fro. then he loses the election and sets in chain this last-ditch effort, which by then was too late, to pull america dramatically out of these places and it was sort of this effort at the end of him just trying to desperately extract america after he almost made it basically impossible through his lack of decisions the previous four years. >> it's an incredible piece of reporting. i wish i could have read the whole thing on the air. but when you cover this new administration dealing with any

hot spot, it's hard to find areas and places that trump's presidency didn't at a minimum stress and strain. i imagine your reporting will continue to flush out this picture for the last four years. we're grateful to have you on to talk about it. thank you. when we return, the secret operation inside the trump administration that sound more like a netflix mini series than anything that actually happened. how eric prince, remember him? ex-spy, tried to discredit former trump national security adviser. that's next. viser. that's next.

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that was the warm send-off that greeted donald trump's former national security adviser h.r. mcmaster on his last day working in the white house. now new reporting from "the new york times" suggests there were far more nefarious actions going on behind the scenes before he exited. we told you last week about new reporting, new investigation in "the new york times" in which pro-trump activists launched a secretive campaign in 2018 to discredit the former guy's detractors inside the government at the highest levels, including his national security adviser, h.r. mcmaster. it was an attempt to purge the so-called deep state from their ranks. the operation was headed up by a former british spy and conservative group called

project var atat. it also targeted fbi agents in an it attempt to expose them. they write -- female undercover operatives arranged dates with the fbi employees to secretly record them making disparaging remarks about donald trump. they came under fire from groups like veritas. in the end robert mueller removed them after he found they had an anti-trump sentiment. we're back with former fbi agent peter strzok. this whole body of reporting is extraordinary. anyway who hasn't read it should go read it at "the new york times." my first question, is it legal to run a sting operation against a sitting national security adviser? >> i think it depends on where you go with that operation. a couple things to know. one, d.c. is a one-party concept state. so what that means is if somebody is recording, as long

as one person consents to that, and in this case call them hired escorts out there trying to trap these folks as long as they're willing to be recorded, that's legal in d.c. you don't need both parties to agree to be recorded. another issue that comes into play, certainly when it relates to general mcmaster, who was the national security adviser, frequently their senior figures and their schedule when you look on the calendar, start looking in the future, is sensitive and can be extremely classified. there are foreign intelligence threats who very much want to know what people like the national security adviser, director of the cia or secretary of defense, where they will be to target them. so i don't know in this case was general mcmaster's calendar was or wasn't classified but it certainly was very sensitive. when i read this reporting not one, but two people, one person had access to his calendar and one a senate judiciary staffer working together to convey this information through the project

veritas folks, that gives me some concern about just what was going on there with that information. >> and then, i have to ask you about donald trump's really dark obsession with the fbi. jim comey has written a book. you have written a book. andrew weissmann has written a book. every intersection with donald trump or his campaign and his presidency and the fbi was war for him. what do you make of a potential sting operation to try to out fbi agents? >> it's extraordinary. when i read this article, the first thing i thought was this was something we would see the russians doing or cubans doing. it was really well resourced. veritas was getting $4 million donations, and this operation they rented a $10,000 month home in georgetown with views of the potomac river and paying $10

soorks a piece to cozy up to mcmaster and fbi agents to get embarrassing statements out of them. i can't speak for general mcmaster, but the average fbi agent will have no desire whatsoever to talk about politics with somebody they juss all the training. they trained them to resist interrogation and have cover stories. have uber drivers drop them off blocks away, to not get mail there, this had all the hallmarks of an intelligence operation but it was a private entity trying to dig up political dirt on trump ed perceived political opponents. >> you tweeted this which pulls all these threads together. if i read this right, soviet born honey pot worked under erik prince alongside former grassley staffer all to target the national security advisor and fbi agents. not ideal.

as with the last story, this is beginning to fill in a picture of almost a parallel state. we don't know if donald trump knew about this, but erik prince was a close ally. do you have more questions? >> absolutely i do. every time i see something like this, it reinforces the point that all these allegations that we heard over the last four years over the last administration of these deep state plots, more and more it looks like this was entirely projection. that people were perceiving that others might be doing it because in fact they were doing the same things themselves. so i do have questions that if these people were willing to target -- again, setting aside the fbi agents, if they were willing to target the national security advisor of the united states of america, somebody who was part of the administration, as part of some loyalty test or to embarrass him, who else out there who might have come under suspicion, anybody from a former secretary of defense or rex tillerson after he said something mean after he was secretary of state. the list of people who grew

concerned about president trump and said things about him, if they fell under similar sorts of crosshairs, what other things were going on? we don't know and i suspect this isn't the end of stories that will be coming out like this. >> it is truly extraordinary and that's why we came back to it. pete strzok, thank you for spending some time to talk to us about it today. we're grateful. when we return, as we do every day, we will remember lives well lived. will remember lives well lived whoo. i'm gonna grow big and strong. yes, you are. i'm gonna get this place all clean. i'll give you a hand. and i'm gonna put lisa on crutches! wait, what? said she's gonna need crutches. she fell pretty hard. you might want to clean that up, girl. excuse us. when owning a small business gets real, progressive helps protect what you built with customizable coverage. -and i'm gonna -- -eh, eh, eh. -donny, no. -oh. ♪♪ -and i'm gonna -- -eh, eh, eh. if you have moderate to severe psoriasis... or psoriatic arthritis, little things, can become your big moment.

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we are thinking of our colleagues at khou-11 in houston today. along with the family of john rucks russell. he was a reporter from 2006 to 2017 and it's just devastating what happened. the station says he recently died from covid after contracting the disease while caring for his twin brother, edgar, who also passed from the virus. khou says he ought to be remembered as a genuinely kind man who treated everyone with respect. a caring, quiet soul. a bit more from a former colleague, doug miller, on facebook who says this, quote, here's the kind of man he was. his real name was john russell but he decided to adopt his mother's maiden name as his heir name so every time his mother saw that handsome guy on television, she heard her son honoring her by saying her name. he was a man of rectitude, a model of decency and a true

gentleman. he has left this world much too soon. john rucks russell was just 55 years old. we will be right back. i have an idea for a trade. why don't you call td ameritrade for a strategy gut check? what's that? you run it by an expert, you talk about the risk and potential profit and loss. could've used that before i hired my interior decorator. get a strategy gut check from our trade desk. ♪♪ tonight... i'll be eating roasted cauliflower tacos with spicy chipotle sauce. [doorbell chimes] thank you. [puck scores] oooow yeah!! i wasn't ready! you want cheese to go with that whine??

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thank you so much once again for letting us into your homes during these truly extraordinary times. we're grateful. "the beat with ari melber" starts right now. hi, ari. happy monday. >> happy monday, nicolle, thank you so much. i want to welcome everyone to "the beat." we begin with breaking news in the matt gaetz sex crime probe. republican official joel greenberg in court today pleading guilty to six federal charges, including sex trafficking of a teen. the confession completes a swift fall for the one-time local republican power player. he entered the orlando courtroom in a blue jumpsuit, shackled at the wrists and