coverage right now. ♪♪ hi, there, i'm stephanie ruhle live at msnbc headquarters here in new york city. it is tuesday, may 18th, and we have to start with that breaking news from the middle east. this morning a rocket fired from gaza reportedly killed two people. it comes as the u.s. tries to step in to stop the escalating crisis. on monday president biden called israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu to personally express his support for a cease-fire. but this morning, israel is keeping up its efforts to pressure hamas militants. palestinians are observing a general strike in cease-fire operations. richard engel is on the west bank. richard, tell us about the situation there. >> so here in the west bank we're on the outskirts of

ramallah. palestinians have come out to protest and also to clash with israeli soldiers and they're expressing solidarity with the people of gaza. what's interesting here is these are not all hamas supporters. this is not traditionally a hamas stronghold. there are other palestinian factions that hold sway here. but all of the palestinian factions are coming together right now. the reason i'm looking around is we're trying to see if there is tear gas coming from the israeli soldiers right now. you might bible to see there is a drone up in the sky, and that drone is either an israeli drone, either taking photographs of us or it could drop tear gas. it is something the israelis do quite a bit. instaud of launching tear gas, they will fly a drone and drop it into the crowd. it sounds like the israelis -- the palestinians are trying to fire fireworks to disrupt or confuse the drone. the but that is what we are seeing here. there have been volleys of tear

gas, and everyone is running toward me. we can hold it here for a second. this is all just fireworks at the moment. but it might inspire the israelis to launch a whole volley of tear gas. the reason what is happening here is because of gaza. almost fourth of july here all of a sudden. and it is not just here in the west bank. also within israel itself, the israeli citizenship is holding a strike and in jerusalem palestinians are on a strike. so this movement in gaza, the attack against gaza, has created a degree of solidarity among palestinians, even if they don't support hamas as a political party, as a militant group. hamas is still firing rockets in israel. there were more rockets fired this morning. there had been about a six-hour pause in which hamas did not fire rockets but they resumed

this morning and according to israeli medical officials, at least two israeli soldiers were killed. it does seem like those were just fireworks trying to disrupt this drone and cause some people to scatter here. the next step will be will the israelis fire tear gas and really disperse these crowds? and the drone is now above us. i have a feeling it is just taking our pictures, but we will see. >> richard, do you feel safe where you are? it doesn't look safe. >> the situations are fluid. i have covered a lot of these kinds of demonstrations and you come prepared. you have a helmet and gas mask and you are always keeping your eyes open, and the biggest thing you want to be concerned about is live ammunition. that is what you really want to be afraid of. and those tracks can potentially be that. now on the hill the israelis are

taking cover, they're pulling back. so it could very well be that someone -- not sure where -- is firing live ammunition. that would be a significant escalation. the israelis respond very aggressively when they are fired on with live ammunition, so we are moving back and you can see the palestinians are celebrating because whatever that was, those crackles in the distance that sounded like it could have been live ammunition, got those israelis on the hillside, the ones who have been flying that drone and throwing in the tear gas, it got them to take cover behind the hill. but i have seen enough of these long enough, the israelis have not retreated very far. they are just pulled back behind that hill and i suspect they will be responding here with quite a bit of tear gas. palestinians are celebrating the most minor of their victories. they got the israelis to push

back, and now they're coming back on the streets. so it is a fluid dynamic that has played out quite a bit in the west bank. but what's different this time is it is playing out in the west bank in solidarity with hamas and solidarity with the people of gaza. and that is that something doesn't often happen, the palestinians are not always uned it here, so they are hoping they are starting a movement. >> are there civilians around you? it doesn't look like an organized effort. it looks like civilians. >> i'm sorry, can you repeat that. >>. >> are you surrounded by palestinian civilians? >> oh, no, we are definitely seeing civilians. there have been families that have come out here. there have been family with children. i spoke to a woman who brought her 8-year-old daughter here

knowing this is a volatile situation because she said she wanted her daughter to learn this is the struggle that she was born into, that this, she said, palestinian land, this is the homeland, and she wanted the next generation to come. yes, there are all kinds of different people here and it is not organized, as you say. there are no buses here that have brought in these protesters. we're on the outskirts of ramallah. these are the people who walked here themselves and they represent a broad cross-section of palestinian society. >> richard, i could talk to you all day but i know you need to take a break, find some shelter. please, stay safe but close. keep us up. richard engel, stunning, stunning. also this morning the nation here is turning the page on the coronavirus pandemic. in the wake of the cdc's guidance on masks, all but a handful of states have dropped their mask mandates. new york will make that move today, with connecticut and delaware following suit by the end of the week. of the entire lower 48 states,

my home state of jersey is the only one without a target date for lifting mask restrictions. this comes as average cases dipped to levels we have not seen since last june, and covid hospitalizations are the lowest they've been since last spring. in the last 48 hours alone, we've seen texas, wisconsin, minnesota, iowa and idaho all report days with zero covid deaths. that is good news. at the same time, we're on the verge of a vaccine milestone. 60% of all u.s. adults with at least one shot, nearly half of all u.s. adults, are now fully vaccinated. i want to turn to our colleague vaughn hillyard talking to businesses in virginia, stephanie goss outside yankee stadium in the bronx, and the former acting director of the cdc and president and ceo of the robert woods johnson foundation, started by one of the founders of johnson & johnson. ron, let's talk about specific kinds of businesses, restaurants. we spent a lot of time over the

last year talking about how difficult it's been for restaurants. but now they're getting $28 billion from the biden administration and mask mandates are being lifted as are restrictions. what are they telling you? >> you know, we've been covering the hardships that these restaurants around the country have been taking on, and the steps that restaurants have been taking themselves, building patios and building delivery trucks, in order to expand their own operations under these circumstances. i want to let you hear though from tom teyez. 47 years ago he opened up mexican style food with his mother, 47 years ago. i want to let you hear from him directly about what this month in terms of sale look like for his business. take a listen. >> so between cinco de mayo and mother's day, we had the best week in 47 years. simply said, it was a blood transfusion deeply needed for the industry, for everybody.

and i was just beside myself to see everybody happy. >> seating capacity now at 50% here, and tom's telling me he's seeing folks coming in increasingly seeing mothers with kids for the first time out and about. there's optimism across here in northern virginia as people are returning and feeling more comfortable, getting out and spending their money inside, as well as drive-thrus, and continuing to build on where they find themselves now, stephanie. >> that is certainly good news. stephanie, take us to yankee stadium. what is going on with the yankees? >> yes, steph, at first blush this sounds incredible, right, nine members of the organization testing positive to covid. the yankees right now are on a road trip. it's been an especially tough one. in tampa and baltimore, members of the organization have had to quarantine. nine all together. but when you talk to experts,

they say that these numbers of breakthrough cases, everyone on the team has been vaccinated with the johnson & johnson vaccine, that this number is about what you would expect. one expert i spoke to said it's actually better than what they expected. part of that is the point of the vaccine is to keep you from getting seriously sick or ending up in the hospital or even worse, dyeing. in this case, all nine of these people have escaped serious illness. in fact, only one of them had mild symptoms. but this is also, experts point out, a warning that these vaccines aren't perfect, that there could be people who are following cdc guidelines who are vaccinated who are walking around without their masks on or indoors without their masks on, and they could have covid unbeknownst to them. and that is why people who are not vaccinated need to keep wearing masks. steph? >> we need to ask our expert because, richard, when people hear that nine members of the yankees have tested positive, many people freak out, they say we're not ready to reopen.

people are still sick. but to stephanie's point, most of them aren't sick at all, the vaccines are working. is it almost -- could it be problematic that asymptomatic testing is worrying people when it shouldn't? >> yeah, this is a challenge. stephanie, we are definitely in a state of flux. but in a good way. our numbers in the united states in every single state, as you were pointing out, are going down. and i think with the situation with the yankees will lead us to do is question when we should be doing just routine testing of people who are fully vaccinated. the reason the cdc was able to change their mass guidance last week is because of increasing information that people who are fully vaccinated are highly unlikely to spread the virus to other people. and given that, it raises the question, well then why should we do testing of people who are

fully vaccinated? that is a period in which it was still very much up in the air, the role asymptomatically people vaccinated could play in retransmission. >> i know you work on the opening commission. governor murphy is one of the few governors keeping a mask mandate in place. he said, if it saves even one more life, it's worth it. if that's the logic we're working with, shouldn't we say the whole state shouldn't get in a car, no cars mean no car accidents? >> i think you have to look at the context of each state. there's a lot of conversation around michigan over the past couple months and high rates of disease. at the same time new jersey was getting hit really, really hard, and had one of the highest rates of hospitalization and deaths in the country. that tide has turned and the numbers in new jersey are going down remarkably. but there are still double-digit deaths every single day.

given that, i think the governor wants to see we're continuing on that same trajectory. i expect we will and i expect when there's more time at these lower numbers, that the governor and the health commissioner will look at the mask giensd. but the cdc is saying with these mask guidance, for the individuals who are fully vaccinated, there's very little risk of going without a mask. it doesn't say, though, how businesses can implement this in a setting where they don't know who coming into their business is vaccinated or is not. and that kind of operational decision is something that all states and localities, i think, are struggling with. and coming up with very different solutions. >> and a business can say, no shirt, no shoes, no mask, no service. that's private business. but from the governor's perspective, a key part of getting through this is having the trust of the american people. does the governor and other governors who aren't lifting the mask mandate run the risk of at

the very least being hit critical? for months it was trust the science, trust the science, this isn't politics. science is saying it's okay to lift the mandate. >> one of the other things the cdc is saying 1245 you really also need to look at local conditions. so we're looking, and we are seeing declines in every single state but states that have been hit very recently very hard, i can understand why there's a reluctance to move as fast as states that have been at very local levels for a long time. states seeing zero deaths, that's a very different situation. the mind set around covid is, wow, can we get to herd immunity and wipe this disease out? that's changed. the goal now is get this down to levels where the risk is acceptable. recognizing that there will continue to be cases, there will continue to be hospitalizations and unfortunately there will continue to be deaths. but we accept that with other infectious diseases and as long as we have protections in place

and it's down to low levels, some people say if get down to 20,000 cases a day across the country, we will be at that level. i think it's a little different because you want to see how those cases are spread out across the country. and we want to make sure there aren't pockets and groups of people that we currently have who are still having barriers to vaccination. if we're saying that everyone in every community, black, latino, every community is getting the vaccination and it becomes truly a matter of personal decision whether you get it or not, then i think we're going to see more changes in more states. >> want to lose the mask? get vaxed. thank you all so much. we will leave it there. any minute now president biden will head to the state of michigan to sell his infrastructure plan, as the clock ticks down for a republican counteroffer. how far is the biden administration willing to bend? transportation secretary pete buttigieg will answer that question right after the break.

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in just a few minutes, president biden will depart the white house for the battleground state of michigan, where he will pitch his massive structure plan at a ford electronic vehicle plant. today also marks the president's deadline for the republicans' counteroffer on infrastructure and at the top of the hour the senate finance committee will hold a hearing on how they're going to pay for all of this. early this morning, i sat down with one of the key players on this infrastructure plan, transportation secretary pete buttigieg. i started our conversation by asking him about his plan today to meet with gop senators and what they're saying behind the scenes. >> what i can say is these conversations are productive and we're continuing to look for where there may be common ground and ask the republican senators and also house members we're talking to what are their ideas both in terms of where the investments ought to go and how to pay for them. and the president has often said that the only real red lines so

far for him are, one, we're not going to raise taxes on anybody making less than $400,000. two, doing nothing is not an option. this is a moment that calls for a big investment, big vision. now we are seeing just how big of a vision we might be able to agree on. >> republicans don't disagree. they certainly say there's something to do here. is there a specific number that your administration would be willing to accept? >> i think that is the conversation we're having. again, this is not a time for incremental tinkering around the edges. my department estimates that there's more than a trillion dollar back log in the united states right now. just in terms of taking care of the transportation infrastructure that we've got. then you look to the future and what it would mean to grow our economy, what it would take to make sure that america and not other countries are leading the electric vehicle revolution that is coming. we know that we've got to have a high level of ambition and high

level of boldness here. turning that into math, that is the sausage making that's under way right now. but i will say the conversations are frequent, they're productive. i think we're at the table in good faith, and we're going to see how far we can get. >> the need is so great and numbers are so big, even if you broke it up, it would be tough to argue it's just tinkering around. when you look at the cracked bridge in memphis, it's been shut down for days. there are situations like this across the country. would you be open to passing just the $621 billion for roads, bridges and traditional infrastructure, and focus on the other aspects of the bill afterwards? >> we think one of the greatest traditions in american infrastructure is the tradition of expanding our horizons. in other words, the things we call traditional now didn't used to be, whether we're talking about railroads, whether we're talking about the interstate highway system. that is why you see newer things like broadband in the president's package.

we see a lot of support for ideas like broadband. it's tougher when we get into some of things we think as necessary to tear down barriers people face in their lives, like caregiving. but we continue to milwaukee the -- make the case how they fit. there are a number of different ways he mechanically. right now in the house and senate, committees that routinely work on things like surface transportation and highway, spending and investment, are already at work putting together their vision and this is something we have to fit into it. yes, there are a lot of different ways we can get there. the important thing is, we have to get there. as important as it is to expand our idea of infrastructure, it's easier said than done. we do hear from some democrats who are saying, why are we wasting time? republicans are never going to play ball. we should just get this thing done alone through reconciliation. here's the issue -- you've got a real risk that the senate parliamentarian says a lot of the stuff here is not infrastructure, in the same way

they cut out the american wage hike from the american rescue plan. are you prepared for that reality if you do go at it alone? >> look, we have a lot of policy work to do. some of it can happen through reconciliation but a lot of it can't. it's clearly preferred to do it on a bipartisan basis. it's something the american people are looking for. but we're not doing it for its own sake. and we're not going to be allowing the clock to keep ticking indefinitely because as you pointed out, we've got pieces of infrastructure, like the i-40 bridge. they're not waiting for congressional politics. they're responding to the laws of physics. and those laws don't care whether we have been able to go through all of the procedural hoops. we just have to get it done. there's a sense of impatience on the part of the public and the president. >> how are you going to pay for

it? if your red line no one who makes less than $400,000 will have their taxes raised and republicans' line is no corporate taxes will be raised, what about using unused covid relief money? >> let's remember things like the rescue plan and other covid relief bills went to things very specific. sometimes dollars are being referred to as unused just because they haven't actually gone out in the form of reimbursements but that's how reimbursements work. when you look at something like the transit dollars that went out, that was to keep systems up and running. meanwhile, we have $105 billion repair backlog on our transit systems, let alone the need to expand and improve them. i don't think we want to fool ourselves into believing there are heaps of money just sort of sitting around. we need to actually commit to finding ways to pay for this. the president put forward a way to do it. >> how are you going to pay for it? if it's the preferred goal to work with republicans and they're saying it's a nonstarter, they won't raise

public taxes, how are you going to pay for it? >> first of all, there are a lot of things we can do on corporate taxes. the part getting the most attention in the president's proposal is the rate. we think 28% is a good rate, what it's been most of my lifetime and enough to get the job done. but you look at the loopholes and incentives that help corporations park jobs as well as profits overseas, and those can do a lot of work too. what we're trying to get to republicans is a clearer picture of where their red lines are. i realize a lot of them sincerely view the tax cuts of the last administration as an important achievement. obviously, we have a different view. we believe corporations should pay their fair share. that's exactly the back and forth we are having now and see where we can get. >> closing loopholes, the majority of americans certainly want that to happen. i want to ask about the state of michigan. the president is headed there today. in this plan there's a huge

investment in electric cars. people at gm are furious because they announced they're opening a plant in mexico, a billion dollar investment. what if these plans go through, investments are made but no jobs are created here or not enough? >> our commitment is growing jobs on american soil and that's one of the reasons we need to make the kinds of investments in supply chain and r&d and purchasing. vehicles all the way up not just the cars the government purchases but helping school corporations purchase electric school buses. >> you can't control what private businesses do, right? we saw that when president trump said don't sell your house. you won't have to sell your houses in lordstown, ohio. then he quickly realized, oh, those companies don't work for him or those administrations either. how do you get those companies to hire, to do things you want them to do?

>> this is an important part of the president' vision. we talk about the jobs plan, encouraging electric vehicles to be built, adopted, produced, we talk about creating american jobs and we certainly are going to set up the policies in that direction. the president today visiting a facility that produces f-150s. and this is important because i think a lot of people when they picture electric cars, they're not picturing pickup trucks. i had a member of congress ask me what good are electric vehicles to my rural district where people drive pickup trucks, not realizing we have so many remarkable products being made in america, including these light-duty pickup trucks that are going to be coming on the market that are all electric. the president is focusing on those that are not just an american company but today you will see what's assembled right here in america and you will continue to see our policies shape that. you're right, companies have a lot of choices. by the way, the electric vehicle market has a momentum on its own. the reason we need to make policy choices around electric

vehicles is that momentum, that electric vehicle revolution, it may be happening one way or another, but it's far from guaranteed it will happen with american leadership unless we make those choices. >> secretary buttigieg, thank you for joining me this morning. i appreciate it. >> thank you. don't go anywhere. right after the break, we've got breaking news from capitol hill. what one of the top republicans just said about an investigation into the january 6th insurrection on the capitol. n t. hooh. that spin class was brutal. well you can try using the buick's massaging seat. oohh yeah, that's nice. can i use apple carplay to put some music on? sure, it's wireless. pick something we all like. ok. hold on. what's your buick's wi-fi password? “buickenvision2021.” oh, you should pick something stronger. that's really predictable. that's a really tight spot. don't worry. i used to hate parallel parking. [all together] me too. - hey. - you really outdid yourself. yes, we did. the all-new buick envision. an suv built around you... all of you.

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breaking moments ago, house minority leader kevin mccarthy coming out against a bipartisan bill that would create a commission to examine the january 6th attack on the capitol. writing in a statement in part, while speaker pelosi, quote, wasted time playing political games, numerous congressional and intergovernmental agency efforts have picked up the slack. joining me now to discuss all of this, nbc capitol hill correspondent garrett haake and bunch pole news co-founder erin palmer. how big of a deal is this that kevin mccarthy is coming out against this bill? we were talking about how great it was republicans and democrats were working together on something . >> it's certainly not helpful but it's not clear who mccarthy speaks for other than himself on this. we're told house republicans don't plan to whip against this bill. there will not be a focused issue to block it. that suggests to me there will be enough votes to pass this

with bipartisan support. but not having the leader on board here is a terrible look. and he throws his negotiator, john katko here, ranking member of the homeland security committee, entirely under the bus. republicans got most of what they wanted in this bill. it is truly bipartisan. the republicans on it are going to have the ability to issue subpoenas or block subpoenas because it will be a completely balanced bipartisan commission. mccarthy complains in this letter the scope of this isn't broader to include other kinds of political violence. katko felt like there was room in the language of this bill that if the commissioners on it wanted to go there, they could. this to me is a tough look for mccarthy on this issue where they don't want to be talking about january 6th any more than they absolutely have to. >> why do this, throw katko under the bus so he can ride shotgun with trump? >> there weren't a lot of places for mccarthy to go. think about it, they just threw

out liz cheney because she wanted to talk about january 6th, because she thinks it's important to exam what happened. to garrett's point there, republicans have been using the talking point they don't want to focus on january 6th. they want a broader conversation around different events that have been happening, black lives matter protests, et cetera. i think the third thing is it's very likely that he himself could be subpoenaed w commission actually looked into what happened on january 6th, what did donald trump know, what did he do to actually stop this? >> i would like that. i would like him to talk about that. garrett, i always want to talk about bipartisanship if i can. i want to ask you about voting rights. senator john manchin and senator lisa murkowski calling on their colleagues to reauthorize the john lewis voting rights act. if you don't remember, this would require states to get approval before changing their election laws. what is the senator's goal here? we know across the country, more and more restrictive voting

actions are being taken by republican-led states? >> john manchin announced he was supportive of this effort and lisa murkowski was joining him in it. the press release probably should have included the word instead. he's supported this instead of the broader voting package that all other 49 democratic senators support. this bill was introduced in the last congress. murkowski was the only republican to support it at the time. this is an opportunity for john manchin to put forward a different participate technically proposal. the one that's hard to see getting the support of republicans or democrats to move forward. by the way, the horse is kind of already out of the barn here because we have so many other states that have already made the changes that perhaps preclearance would have blocked had the voting rights act been in place, had the full teeth of the full voting rights act at the time but the states have already made those changes. >> that would happen to those

states, anna? if you're one of the states that passed election laws the pass few weeks or one of the states considering it, what happens then? >> i think to garrett's point, this bill was not going anywhere. chuck schumer has said that the for the people act, which is a much broader overhaul of election laws, is where the real momentum in the democratic party is. those changes aren't going to be reversed though. those states have made their decisions, and we are quickly going to be coming up to the midterm elections. i think the question really looks to this for the people, do democrats decide to throw the filibuster, for example, because they can't get republicans on that much broader bill, much less this bill that you see senator margin and senator murkowski supporting. there's very little chance any other republican besides senator murkowski could actually back that. >> garrett, anna, thank you very much. still ahead -- one of hollywood's biggest movie studios now has a shot to complete with giants like

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and all of this comes after at&t threw billions of dollars at failed t-mobile merger, before spending billions more on directv, satellite, last i checked, is dyeing. joining us, professor at the nyu school of business and co-host of the pivot podcast and dylan byers, nbc news, senior media reporter. scott, what do you make of this deal? these guys who run these media companies can paid millions and millions of dollars but it seems the decisions they make lose billions and billions of dollar >> yeah, this cash flow will be the most expensive vacation in los angeles ever. verizon lost $5 billion. if you look at the at&t divestiture, they get to offload approximately $44 billion in debt. if the company is worth $60 billion and they own 70%, generously they might go to $80 billion, they paid $110 and owned it 3 years, basically

at&t's decision to get into media has cost shareholders about a billion dollars a month. this will go down -- time warner is the kevin bacon, stephanie, the catastrophic acquisitions. they made the worst acquisition with aol probably in corporate history. when they sell to at&t, this will be seen probably as one of the five worst acquisitions. you're absolutely right, this is a disaster for shareholders. >> but those executives will still get to lead, even the ones tossed, with a whole lot of money. dylan, for benefits, for consumers, what does any of this mean? >> first of all, from the business perspective, i agree with scott, this didn't make strategic sense from the beginning. for consumers, it will not mean a whole lot right now. the shows they watch, how they get the shows won't change for a while. in fact, this deal won't close for at least a year. but it does point to more consolidation down the line. now that warnermedia and discovery have this tie-up, there are questions for a lot of media companies about what they

do if they want to compete at a scale of a netflix, disney, amazon prime? that will be a question for our own company, stephanie, comcast universal. it's sink-or-swim time in hollywood. if you're a smaller player, you will get bought up. viacom cbs will get bought up in a matter of years at most. so you have to get at the scale to compete. the good news eventually that will mean less streaming services. right now you can describe to 8, 12, 15 streaming services. you don't always know where to find the show you want to watch. with more consolidation, you will be getting more of the shows you want to watch on key restraining services, which i think is a net benefit. >> mergers and acquisitions. bankers get paid, big companies get bigger and it means a whole lot of workers in the middle get reduced. dylan, thank you. scott, stay with me. there's another developing story i really want to ask you about.

as america reopens, there are all sorts of businesses, one, movie theaters, affected. shares of amc theaters are climbing again, amid a spike from users on reddit. like gamestock, represent game stock? it is up too. we have been debating for months since we saw reddit traders, guys talking about trading in their mom's basements, beating wall street. let's look at this, when we talk about real winners and losers, are the winners these companies that the universe bet on, gamestop and amc, they could have died months ago? >> if you made money, you can call yourself a winner. if you lost money, you're probably thinking you lost out, yes. but in any event, folks have been on both sides of this stick

when it comes to the meme momentum stocks you just talked about. the idea is some of these companies are the beneficiary of the surge not just in the stock price but market value themselves. it's also about the free publicity many of these companies have gotten. companies like amc entertainment and gamestop, the reddit threads gave them a new lease on life economically speaking. amc's business, like you said, decimated by the virus pandemic. gamestop had no real growth ahead of it. but these rise of stock allowed the companies to offer secondary offer of stock, to sell newly issued shares in their company to investors, some from wall street bets, some from reddit boards, and collect the money to use for their own corporate benefit. they will use it for things like working capital, make sure their businesses stay afloat. maybe even invest back into their own companies. we focus on the traders making

and losing money, but if the stock goes up, stephanie, it's the companies that benefit ultimately. that includes not just the employees who might still have jobs to come back to hopefully, but maybe even the ceos who see the value of their stock awards or stock options go up in value. of course, that's a very controversial topic these days given ceo pay, but still, when these stocks go up, but it's a matter now, stephanie, about whether or not it's a fundamental reason why these stocks go up in value or if it's just momentum-based traders. these companies hope it's a fundamental reason why. >> scott, these momentum trades, these companies, can you speak about how they have benefited from this? these companies could have been gone months ago. >> look, in the short run, they benefit. let's be clear, stocks move up because of fundamentals, technical trade and recently a social moment. this is the third. this has nothing to do with the

underlying business in secular decline, losing money and trading nine times sales. yeah, they get to issue, as dominic said, a secondary. i would argue this money will build a pier, not a bridge. what should have happened to amc, it should have sold to disney, got through a bankruptcy, fundamentally changed the business. maybe become an outlet for some sort of entertainment play. instead it gets a lifeline. again, i think this is a pier, not a bridge. this all comes down to one thing, young people have seen their wealth cut from 19% of wealth to 9%. they feel the game is rigged so they're making their own volatility. they're just using reddit and twitter. this has absolutely nothing to do with theaters. >> does it have to? we keep saying this has nothing to do with fundamental businesses, businesses are not that successful. does it matter? if you're one of these investors and you have seen the value of these shares skyrocket, you've

won. >> yeah, stocks up 66% in the last 8 days. it's up 6-fold in the last year. good for them. the companies took advantage of it and did a secondary. the question is now what? you have what is effectively a stock that is trading almost like -- it feels almost cryptoish. it's detached from the underlying fundamentals. if you made money on the way up, great. watch out on the way down. we are seeing a pattern here. this company, typically the market does bend towards fundamentals. the corners of this trade with gamestop -- >> not now. >> -- will begin to collapse. >> fundamentals these days, they feel like a thing of the past. dom chu, scott galloway, thank you both so much. crypto, we can go into that all day. coming up next -- a bipartisan push to make sure what we are seeing in arizona does not happen across the country. and you're going to be very surprised by who is leading this effort. >> people's ballots and money are not make believe. it's time to be done with this

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we'll get new details about andrew brown junior and his family. sparking days of protest for that video to be released. the local district attorney will bring you updates at 11:00 a.m. and we'll bring them. in arizona the largest county is now in it's fourth week of a so-called audit of election ballots and voting machines. now officials are setting the record straight on what is really going on. steve patterson is all over story. >> they are saying essentially for the first time that this process is a mockery and it should end. just to catch everyone up election materials were

subpoenaed. they are being checked very slowly by hand and watchers in there saying bizarre things are happening like workers using uv lights to check for secret water markets. in all of this time, this republican dominated board say they have been getting intimidated and harassed. they say the straw that broke the cam mels back is an assertion that came saying they have not been following the subpoena. they didn't follow instructions beforehanding the results over. in a strongly worded leader they would say that if they knew anything about election software they would say that they would

know that none of this happened. we have a word bubble of all that happened. a con, a sham, and making the state a laughing stock. we can play sound from that meeting yesterday about just how they felt about this who process. take a will be. >> people, ballots, and money are not make believe. it's time to be done with this craziness. >> i support cooperating with the senate. >> that contractor, cyber ninja, is using 150,000 to continue the process, dark money, that could take some time.

this sets a very dark precedent. saying if someone doesn't agree with the process they can up end it. they saying it may be fun where you live looking at this, but it's only where fun until it's you. >> tomorrow we're going to have one of those arizona republicans, the maricopa county recorder. a republican, to discuss all of this about democracy, not politics. steve, thank you. that wraps up this hour, thank you at home for watching. hallie jackson has breaking news coverage next. are you tired of clean clothes that just don't smell clean? what if your clothes could stay fresh for weeks? now they can! downy unstopables in-wash scent boosters keep your laundry smelling fresh way longer than detergent alone.

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right now the calls for a cease fire ignored. we're live in the middle east as the conflict goes from bad to worse to even worse. another night of israeli air strikes are hitting the heart of gaza. president biden leaving the white house for a trip to michigan not stopping to talk with reporters on his way out the door, but he is supporting a cease fire, but not demanding