hi there, everyone. it's 4:00 in the east. the bipartisan effort to established a 9/11-style commission was torpedoed day by kevin mccarthy in the face of pointed question about what he knew and when he knew it about donald trump's conduct during the 1/6 attack. not 24 hours after liz cheney said publicly that kevin mccarthy should be subpoenaed, he blew up said commission. from "new york times" reporting on this, kevin mccarthy, the top hour republican said he would oppose bipartisan legislation to create an independent commission, denouning, on congress in centuries, because it will not examine unrelated political violence sorted with the left.

and the indiscretion that was cited by donald trump. and by by rejecting the attack, mccarthy is also throwing under the bus john kadko, who mccarthy depend tied to negotiate the deal. he is sticking by the deal he negotiated. of previous proposals who sought -- speaker pelosi slammed rpg shortly after the announcement. watch. >> i'm very pleased we have a bipartisan bill come to the oor, and disappointing, not surprising that the -- on the

part of someone on the republican side -- so reps don't want a commission to, quote, find the truth it just might be because the truth contains devastating details. here's what liz cheney had to say along those lines to our colleague savannah guthrie last week. >> i've been very public that commission needs to be bipartisan, only look at january 6th and he events leading up to it, now to the blm and antifa riots last summer. i think that intense focus threatens people in mire party who may have been playing a role they should not have been playing. >> axios all but confirms her thinking -- the feeling among most members is erv is nervous how it could be weaponized. there are also concerns about

how it may alienate members of the gop base as well as former president trump who was impeached by the house. a vote on the commission will now take place tomorrow, which meets lawmakers will one against have to go on the record as being for accountability, for those who fomented an insurrection, or against it. the gop is an obstacle to accountability is where we start today. jake sherman, the founder of punchbowl news, and donna edwards, and "new york times" political reporters, lucky for us, all three msnbc contributors. i've been glued to the twitter feed. mccarthy, mcconnell to

investigate january 6th, they will have unilateral subpoena power, it expects upwards of 20 -- he says he's undecided and signals he wants to look at it more. is the plan just to obstruct the investigation? >> you know, i'll bring you up to speed. mccarthy said he didn't like the scope of the probe. he was a party to the negotiations that john had with the democrats. he was kept in the loop. as soon as he cut a deal, he threw katko under the bus. this bill will pass the house. mitch mcconnell seems open to this commission. if it gets through the senate, this would be a humiliating defeat for kevin mccarthy. if it gets through the house with a bunch of republican votes, that also will be a pretty humiliating defeat for

mccarthy. the only goal here -- and i'm giving him the benefit of the doubt, but the only goal i can see that mccarthy is trying to achieve here is appeasing trump. it's not having his fingerprints -- that's mccarthy -- all over this committee that will be -- could be pretty bad for other republican members of the house. but the point tiffs also making, nicolle, it seems short-sighted to oppose this if you're roms. pelosi has given into all the demands, equal representation on the committee, gives them a say in subpoena power. if pelosi prevertebrae to the committee, run this investigation through the oversight committee or homeland security committee, that would be a structure in which republicans don't have a say. this could have their hands on the process or not. mccarthy has suggested he what

rather not have his hands on the process, which from an internal point of view is pretty embarrassing, but at this point, and i'm going to report soon at the house vote, i do believe there will be a large number of defections on this bill tomorrow when it gets to the floor. we've heard anywhere from 20 to 40, it comes to a pint where if you get a bunch of defections you could have a ton of republicans just jailbreak and vote for the whole thing. a lot of really interesting dinaismices here. to answer the core of your question, i just really do think that republican leadership wants to again, like we talked about last week with liz cheney, move on from january 6th. those same human beings had a complete, what do you think -- he said he wanted -- to --

listen, this committee, so theoretically these outside experts, can compel people what was he talking about from trying to take back the majority and trying to lead in direction, it's not a terribly helpful thing to have what had be a commission investigating this. >> and some people on the investigative side think it's

not nearly long engh. >> that's right. >> i want to press you on one more thing. unfortunate some of the best reporting about the underoccurrence between liz cheney and kevin mccarthy, frankly, having as much ado, about about kevin mccarthy needing to tell investigators exactly what he knows what donald trump was doing and what he knew. is that in hindsight what led to the purge of her in his leadership team as much or more than her refusal to go along with the big lie. >> i think the relationship was absolutely broken. i've end less conversationsh about her fervent desire and for as honest january 6th commission. i'm not sure she had ever publicly connected the dots from

subpoenaing mccarthy, but she had been -- she at that other retreat, where their lationship disagreed publicly about the scope because there they were at this retreat trying to get on the same page and she was jumping off another page, onto the page of many democrats and frankly what many republicans had been saying quietly. i think that was the undoing of that relationship. . you know, i want to bring you in what we think kevin -- and those -- this will pass the house, and if you look at what kevin mccarthy said, the day of the insurrection, and i remember

that call being reported that, what trump said to mccarthy, people care more this is a hostile exchange. what is the scope of what he knows, and what does it matter? it has some contemporaneous information, about more of a president's state of mind, , and so right there is the program for kevin mccarthy. he's the odds-on favorite to be the speaker of the house in 2022, and i think that, look, if the commission embarrassing him -- he has the ability -- and if kevin mccarthy has to be a

wince against -- >> donna, i want to read you some reporting on kevin mccarthy's future as the latest it comes into the bull's-eye. and house minority leader in his side. in a first time of their rip, she wouldn't vote for mccarthy for speaker. i think that we've been to have leaders who lead based on principle. that's not what we have seen from him, cheney said.

i understand the party is totally captured now i'm not sure it will -- >> liz cheney has also said she's not going to let up. that liz cheney will have been poking and pruding all the way and that would do damage to him. he will be constantly defending himself. whether she has that -- the danger for him is that think commit could get in the way of his ability to do what he need to do as leader and for republicans around the country

as he tried to take back the house gavel. i happen to believe he's never going to be speaker of the house of representatives, because he will show suc fealty to donald trump that when donald trump falls, kevin mccarthy falls. >> i think that's so bold. i'm going to put that on my calendar. i have this theory about what liz cheney is doing. i think what she's done and what will have the greatest impact is she's created a permission structure for all the people who have tucked their tails between their legs for the last five years to speak out. here is one of them, the lieutenant governor of georgia. you know, look, we've been four

year to try to get this right. and we should never leave a meeting without reminding everybody why we're good at that. you know, this doesn't need to be a personality contest, this needs to be a policy over politics platform, where we try to -- but when you receive death threats, that's a problem. when you're only sitting there telling the truth. in such a public way, he called to say voter suppression laws, even the one? georgia so they've been out there delivering a message in a fullsome way.

but i wonder what you think those voices culminate in. >> the answer is not much, i don't think. the truth is a third party only arises in u.s. politics if there's some huge to not being serviced by a current party. i think mccarthy is wrong with the appetite of a policy over politician platform. i think what trump revealed is there's a massive appetite for grievance politics, for attack politics, for the theater of politics, for attacking the people you hate and seeing them attacked and brought down. that is the thrill of trumpism. that's what he delivers. once you have tasted that, i think for a lot of voters it's hard to go back to tax cuts, judges and abortion.

>> i agree with you, nick. donna, i want to read a piece that delivers a heart truth for never-trump republicans. this is in "the washington post." the misguided identity politics, at this point the best and probably only way to stop trumpism would be for a significant share of republicans to align with the -- but here's the problem. for many trump skeptical republicans, both elite and range-and-file, and being a republican is part of their personal identity. so far too few willing to prioritize the health of the country over the attachment. it shouldn't be a hard choice, our electoral structure is set up for two parties, so it's just a waste of time to talk much about third-party efforts. the best way to fort -- is question in successive elections. i think that's hard for a lot of

republicans who hang on to the type of things that lieutenant governor duncan is talking about. it shouldn't be bandy on the democrat party to widen their belief systems, but the new reality is there's a bench of republicans who are just people without a country in the wilderness. >> it's not democrats' job to fix the republican party, it's not democrats' job to hold on to a republican policy agenda to bring republicans in, because they have no place to go within the republican party. if this is going to be fixed, it has to be fixed really from within that party. i don't think that that happens in just one election cycle. i think you can have defections but it will take more than that. it was not a few years ago that a group of democrats were talking about splitting off into a third party.

that just went nowhere. it fizzled, because that is just -- that's just not how we function. we have a two-party system. one of the parties is working really fine, and the other one is completely broken. those republicans -- and there have to be more of them. they have to speak out. i don't think they can continue to hide behind this idea that they can speak out a bit or only on occasion. it has to be constant, it has to be persistent, and it has to be loud. >> there are some names being floated for this commission, and your reporting confirms there will be somehow someway some sort of commission. i want to float these -- these are from politico, and ask you to add mission you have heard. they named chris swecker, susan brooks of indiana, a former prosecutor, a friend of our show, former congressman

riggleman. former congressman mark frost, former congressman pete hoekstra. can you clarify any of those names? >> i don't think any of them mean anything. i hate to be dismissive. >> that's why you're here. >> if this comes down, this will be between mcconnell and mccarthy, and i would imagine there will be nobody outward already hostile to trump. mccarthy simply wouldn't great to it. number two, if the commission doesn't pass, if the senate is unable to clear it, means if ten senate republicans do not join with the democrats on the senate side, thinking it through, it will go to regular committees, or pelosi could create a select committee, like republicans did for benghazi. they could appoint members to

that committee. the only situation in which there's a committee made up of outsiders if the house and senate clear that bill. unclear at the moment if the senate will do so. again, the bills calls for -- these are just people being floated by other members of consequence. this independent commission, if it's put in place, the members already appointed by mcconnell and mccarthy. nobody else's opinion matters. >> let me press you on something you said. no one is openly hughesle to trump. does that mean that -- that rules on the chris christie, who is in that group? tucker carlson? >> i don't think that's the case. i think that some -- i think that people who have been -- who were considered, you know -- not people -- i don't want to say that. many people believe that joe biden is the duly elected president. i don't think they will put anybody on this committee who

does not believe that. franklies, that's my guess but i just have to imagine that it won't be people who are considered never-trumpers. that's just my gut at this point. >> i would button it by saying it's a small universe of people who believe that joe biden was elected and there was no fraud. bill barr frankly is in that universe. chris christie is in that universe, but nots kevin mccarthy. it seems. come back if you get more reporting in the next two hours. donna edwards, nick confess yore, stick around. the three-ring circus we've been witnessing, may finally

have reached a tipping point, with some of in the republican party there. we will explain. plus example number too many not to count of trump and bill barr's overreach at doj. the attorney general reportedly tried to use a secret grand jury subpoena, about tweets that were sent out. and report number of hospitalizations and deaths. our experts weigh in, after a quick break, don't go anywhere. quick break, don't go anywhere

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well all have our limits. i've been accused of shredding ballots and tabulation in an election i didn't run. i have been accused of inserting fake ballots delivered from a south korean plane. >> this board is done explaining anything to these people who are playing investigator with our constituents, ballots and equipment paid for with real people's tax dollars. the bad news is the obelieve race of any and all pretense that republicans in washington have any interest in getting to the bottom of a deadly attack. >> republican election official after rep election official in arizona speaking out forcefully against the big lie.

in arizona, republican leaders are saying enough. an explosionive public meeting, officials yesterday rebuking the sham election, a spectacle harming all of us, adding it's time to make a choice to defend the constitution and the republic. it is time to end this, for the gmc of the country and the institutions that define us as americans. maybe we can call it the cheney fact or the growing fear about the link between the big lie and growing threat of domestic extremism. in arizona, at least a few republicans are standing up for the truth. the question this hour -- what happens next? joining our conversation, "the arizona republic" reporter brian randazzo, donna and nick are still here.

>> as you noted the republicans o runlections in this county have just had enough. they do not believe there was any fraud. they know there was no fraud. they ran the election. what happened is they were accused of deleting files and mishandling ballots. they were accused on twitter. remember, we don't know who runs the twitter account for this audit that's taking place. they're just sick of it. they were asked to come down to the senate, and they refused to do that. they had their own press conference. we didn't delete files, your auditors don't know what they're doing. nothing was lost, nothing was deleted, we're doing the homework for your auditors, because you didn't hire

competent people to take care of this. >> donald trump e-mails out statements weighing in on the arizona audit, but also last friday, learned of domestic extremism tied to the big lie, but it feels like what pushed these folks over the edge this challenging of personal integrity. i want to read you what is in the letter to the senate president. the acindication that maricopa county deleted data is false. the various questions about our election procedures reveal a serious misunderstanding of election laws. the third point especially is a

broad message that liz cheney has made in a public way, but it's questioning their integrity and professionalism. can you talk about the factors that built up to putting this in writing? >> i think the tipping point when they were accused on twitter of breaking the law. the county supervisors just realized this is not at all an audit of finding problems. it seems aiming drawing money to the contractors who are conspiracy theorists who are runningcontrol. the senate doesn't control the audit or the twitter account the contractors do, and they have espoused conspiracy theories. the republicans you just showed you are frustrated, because they realize there's no end to this. these folks will keep trying to control the news cycle, and the supervisor said we won't answer

any of your questions. we will not jump every time you don't understand how files are transferred or how ballots are moved around in tamper-proof bags. as you said, it's going to make more people question the integrity of elections and they're not going to question that. they run the elections, they know they were clean and they're not goods to participate in this sham, circus, grift, they had a whole post of descriptors for what's going on at the coliseum. >> we've spend a lot of time about talking about the voter suppression laws. they raise criminal penalties, they alsoly deprive some career election officials of their authority. they've been in an untenable and unprecedented position, but i want to read you a tweet from

congressman riggleman, arizona officialssh they lack character, are a disgrace, asking cyberninjas to audit is like asking a fry cook to remove a tumor. he said it crossed a line for them when people started coming for the staff and election workers who had done their law and worked diligently to uphold the law. >> this is very troubling. there are thousands of election officials who are civil servants around the country who conduct elections with every signingle. i think in maricopa county, all republicans you have noted in maricopa county, these are elections officials who would, in order to believe the

importance of this audit, would also have to acknowledge that they didn't conduct a free and fair election. it doesn't makes sense. this cyberninjas doesn't know anything about elections, they're not certified, but they're in the middle of this. it must be an embarrassment for maricopa county, but it's really a black stain on democracy when this kind of thing is allowed to happen, the kind of thing that happens in a banana republic. >> nick, for the sake of our

democracy, i wish republicans to recur -- if republicans likely denounce the recount, it will -- again and again republicans have had the option of taking off-ramps, yet they had nod. that's what liz cheney is describing. she describing donald trump's quote, crusade against democracy, and last friday we had proof of our law enforcement community in america, that the threat of domestic extremism persists to a degree they reissued a security threat. what do you think this does sort of inside the efforts to deradicalize -- our stop -- i think the most recent polls from cbs show only 33% of republicans think that joe biden is the legitimate winner of the 2020 election. >> it's around off-ramp to nowhere. it doesn't lead to a new party

or different party. the paradox here is the 8% to 10% of bush republicans, let's say, who were anti-trump, will be a check on trumpism in national elections, about you they're not liberals. they're tax-cut conservatives, traditional conservatives. they're not going to vote for or empower or validate a liberate approach to government. so we're stuck in this paradox, that they could be a bulwark against trumpism in the gop and the national race, but they are not there to validate and place a contrary set of accomplice cal beliefs. it's probably a lot to ask them to do that. so it's going to leave the country, i think, in this stuck place, we'll be going back and forth for a while and not really fully repudiating or validating any new model.

ryan, what happens next? >> no counting until they can get back in the coliseum after some graduations this week. they're asking the senate to just stop. they said, you know, they have shown their cards, the cyberninjas don't know what they're doing. we're going to hear the senate's response today, and i expect they'll be back in the coliseum next week. >> if anything happens, in the next hour and a half, jump back on, wave your arms. we would love to hear any updates. thank you for your help. thank you all for spenting time with us today. up next, chairman of the house intelligence committee, devin nunes was one of the

willing stooges. now we're hearing the depths the justice department may have gone through to silence a parody twitter account. a parody twitter account.

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how people on the twitter says bad things to me. what a snowflake. look, man, i think it's terrible when kids are bullied online, but for a grown man, this shouldn't be possible.

first of all, don't click on your mentions. you are choosing to visit your bullies. hey, trevor, click here to get a wedgie. the lawsuit failed, but apparently devin nunes did not stop there. a newly unsealed court filing, one reveals in the final most, the congressman coordinated with a trump-appointed u.s. attorney in secretly obtaining a grand jury subpoena last year in an attempt to identify a person behind a twitter account dedicated to mocking nunes. after it was filed in accept, twitter took exception to it, biden took office, and the doj suppressed the subpoena.

>> joining us is andrew wiseman. and nancy parker is here. lucky for us they're both here. i wanted to travel down memory lane with you. devin nine none -- nunes was down at the who you getting dropped off in ubers, trying to unmask people. what part of the story intrigues you? one was, as you mentioned devin nunes was railing about an unmasking, and basic le he and the trump justice department were trying to unmask the

identity of this seems like a pretty anonymous parity, satire twitter user. so there's signs he can give it, but can't really take it. and then he doesn't use this word, but he doesn't like this misinformation being leveled against him. this was also not the account he tried to go after, but a -- account that poked -- he didn't like the cow puns, but wasn't a rho -- that donald trump spread about the results of the election that led to a deadly insurrection on january 6th. those are sort of two areas that are particularly intriguing to me. >> andrew is more diplomatic than i am. he was not the last, but the first trump shill among the house republicans.

on the powerful intelligence committee trying to aid trump. i want to ask you to help us understand what could have led to squash that, it seems like some of es were led to believe -- until bill barr, it was flowing forward, under joe biden it was stopped. let me read some of the facts. the motion to suppress a subpoena that they filed in march, that the justice department sent twitter a dizzy mand, so trump had lost, but this was still before the inauguration -- to provide identifying information about the users nunes alt.

e obvious backfired by propellets then to -- i follow both of them now. from being held liable, and five months later, the justice department stepped in with its grand jury subpoena, arguing it needed to identify the person behind the account, because there was a criminal investigation involving interstate commerce. my biggest question is, are there any facts to justify the issuance of the grand jury subpoena in november of 2020. the claim in the twitter papers where they quote an assistant united states attorney in the district of columbia saying this

was done because of threatening communications. that seems transparentally thing, because we have all of the twister accounts and feeds. we can see that. also, if there was anything to it, why is it two months later that the justice department is saying, you know what? we're going to give this up, and that there's a threat to a congressional officer that's going to be taken seriously. this really smacks of a grand jury subpoena being issued for political purposes. the way i look at this is not so much about devin nunes, but the same week we learned about the justicedenying federal prosecutors the search of rudy giuliani's devices, twice we are asked, and main judd said, no. that that is to shield friends.

here you have the justice department by all accounts, that they're using the grand jury as a sword on behalf of a political ally. that's really, you know, the road to hell for a democracy. the rule of law means that it applies whether they're democrats or republicans in power, and the justice department isn't supposed to do the bidding of either. >> road to hell, you've got my attention. let me just press you a little further. do you believe that there were threats from this account to department nunes, that the garlan monaco would have dropped the case? >> absolutely. when itches in the justice department or could be trying to

protect somebody from threats. it doesn't matter. that's just a common idea that i think any american i think would be think is right. there's no way in god's green earth that lisa monaco or merrick garland are going to quash an investigation that's righteous about somebody truly threatening somebody who's in congress. they're not going to care about who -- which party that person is in. >> i had that same reaction. i think, frankly this story is bigger than the pieces we see. we'll stay on it with both of your help. president biden today was in michigan, promoting his american jobs plan and touring the ford electric vehicle center. then it turns out, he got to

have a bit of fun. he caught up to the press, test driving the electric version of forte's f-150 pickup. watch. >> reporter: mr. president. >> this sucker is quick. >> reporter: how does it field? >> reporter: would you buy one of these? >> i would. >> reporter: another question before you -- >>, no, i can't. -- i'm only teasing. here we go. really? ready? ready? [ laughter ] [ laughter ]

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tonight, i'll be eating a pork banh mi with extra jalapeños. [doorbell rings] 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. we've got 'em on the ropes. the billionaires buying elections. the corporate special interests poisoning campaigns with dark money, frantic to preserve big-money politics as usual. because the for the people act is on the verge of becoming law. reining in corporate lobbyists, finally banning dark money, and protecting our freedom to vote.

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the first thing i look at is the covid numbers for the day before, i'm so cheered by what you're seeing, do you feelly -- like it's behind us? tell some he what you feel when you see these numbers? >> nicolle, i smile and i'm happy, but i would be pretty arrogant if i would say it's behind us. e pretty arrogant if i would say it's behind us. latin america, asian countries and so i kind of hold my breath. if there's one thing we learned about covid, it's that you can't predict it so we now have a vaccine defense system, a genetic surveillance defense system and kind of a military analogy, we put up as many defenses as possible, but we have to reserve the ability to be prepared for the worst, and so, i'm happy the vaccines work.

i want more unvaccinated people to get vaccinated, and in the meantime, you know, keep our kids safe and do what we can to protect those who don't have a chance to get vaccinated yet >> i'm with you. i have a child for whom there is no approved vaccine yet, and i wonder if you could just talk about the intersection of the folks for whom there is no vaccine and the lifting of mas i think that's where some of the anxiety came from last week. how do you see those sort of concerns being alleviated. >> yeah, to me, it's pretty simple that if you're in a setting where you know people are fully vaccinated, the children in your kindva of settg will most likely be safe. risk is incredibly low. but if you go into kind of an indoor, retail, poorly ventilated or anyly sort of setting that doesn't have great ventilation, obviously the children need to wear masks and honestly, i'm going to wear masks sttoo.

the kids are too young to understand, mommy's vaccinated, and you're denot. i have to keep them socially distanced so i'm going to do it with them.an i will just say, though, i'm hopeful, nicole, that cases continue to go down, down, down, where community transmission is so unlikely that even our unvaccinated children can continue to have a more normal life. no masks outdoors, maybe seeing some kind ofs, requirements in schools with good ventilation, maybe masks indoors, but being able to play outdoors. that is within sight and i think within reach. >> dr. kavita patel, we will continue to call on you, and it's so nice to be talking about happy and positive and hopeful thingsti in the news. thank you so much for spending some time with us today. the next hour of "deadline white house" starts after a quick break. don't go anywhere. we're just getting started. n't . we're just getting started 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. ♪♪

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i am very concerned about mike pence. i have no idea what he's going to do. did not love the way the president talked about that, and i don't know. we'll see. anyway, we're walking over to the capitol right now, and i don't know, maybe we'll break down the doors. >> hang mike pence, hang mike pence, hang mike pence. >> hi again, everyone. it's 5:00 in the east. some of the most chilling sounds from the day of the capitol insurrection, rioters chanting to execute the sitting vice president of the united states of america. the threat to mike pence's life was so real and so urgent, he was rushed out of the senate chamber by his secret service detail and held in an undisclosed location. reporting on that day found that rioters were less than 100 feet

away from where mike pence and his family were hiding. it was an astonishing scene, seeing the vice president flee for his safety as the capitol was breached, which makes reporting in a new bombshell book by our friend at the "washington post," carol linnic all the more important and shocking. she takes a deep look into the history of the secret service, detailing the agency's challenges and missteps over the court of 11 presidents. she writes how politics and extremism have now seeped into the agency. here's her stunning account of what happened following the events of january 6th. despite the heroism of their brothers in arms that day, some secret service personnel, again, took to social media in the days after january 6th, empathizing with and defending the mission of the armed rioters who breeched the capitol, the same ones who had pummelled capitol police officers with metal pipes and bats. one secret service officer called the armed protesters patriots seeking to undue an

illegitimate election and falsely claimed to her friends that disguised antifa members had started the violence. one presidential detail agent reposted a popular anti-biden screed that criticized democrats for their relentless attacks on trump. truly alarming findings that raise concerns about how far the infection of trumpian disinformation and extremism seeped into the agency tasked with protecting the lives of then president-elect joe biden and vice president elect kamala harris. here's more about how the legitimate, the real president-elect faced limited protection due to the former guy's lies. because of the president's insistence that he was the victim of some inexplicable fraud, biden did not immediately receive the protective shield of a specially equipped armored car, a counterassault team and a beefed up detail. the service spread the word to confused agents that they simply had to wait until the results were official, when trump

conceded or when the results were certified by the electoral college, but many agents said this delay ignored their own training. once he became the presumptive president-elect, biden was automatically a bigger target for assassination. the decision to withhold this extra security only compounded the biden camp's fears that trump had corrupted this elite band. what few realized was that clusters of agents, including some in trump's detail, were openly rooting for trump, a fact hiding in plain sight. leonnig reports that members of biden's transition were troubled by what this meant for the president's transition and some agents who biden knew were brought back as supervisors. questions swirling about the safety of the current president come as congress is wrestling with the formation of an independent commission to investigate what happened on 1/6. house gop leader kevin mccarthy announcing this morning, he will not support the bipartisan deal to establish one. it's a frightening look into the

politicization of the people who are supposed to keep the leader of the free world safe. it's where we start this hour with carol leonnig, "washington post" national reporter and msnbc contributor and author of the stunning new back out today, "zero fail: the rise and fall of the secret service." i know that you knew everything that was in your book but as we've been talking about extremism in the military and extremism in law enforcement, your account of extremism in the secret service, in and around 1/6, is just staggering. tell me more. >> i think what i found so shocking was, you know, i was reporting on january 6th just like you were, and literally within hours of that attack, i had agents who were reaching out to me, some former, some current, sharing with me social media postings of their colleagues, saying, look what guy number a, b, and c are saying on their personal accounts, some of them shrouded in a little bit of, you know,

acronyms or special extra nicknames, but they were sharing things about how biden had been illegitimately elected, talking about the rioters who, again, were attacking other police officers with flag poles to the chest and fire extinguishers to the head, describing those attackers as patriots. this was disturbing to their colleagues enough that they shared these pieces of information with me. but you know, nicole, it isn't just that moment, as shocking as that is. you know, agents and officers had been upset starting back in june of 2020 because that's the day, june 1, when the president deployed the secret service and the park police to clear out a square for a photo op. to show that he's the authoritarian leader, he's riding herd over all these protesters. secret service officers were really upset about this, and they demanded to talk to their

director about what in the world was going on. why were they using this level of force? was this appropriate with peaceable protesters? and that conversation led to many more private conversations in which agents and officers complained that members of the president's detail had maga hats on their desks. supervisors had been deployed by the president to work, at least one of them, in the white house as political aides to the president. this was something that crossed a line the secret service had never crossed before, and there are just so many alums in that family, that noble family of secret service agents, who are appalled at the way the trump administration politicized this agency whose motto is not only, you know, worthy of trust and confidence, but also, the people elect him, we just protect him. they're supposed to be politically above reproach and independent of party politics.

>> carol, what happened, and where are the agents who on their personal social media accounts voiced their support for the insurrectionists? are any of them tasked with protecting the current president or vice president? >> nicole, when i asked the secret service this question, when we were beginning to learn these pieces, they declined to comment and said that they take all inappropriate political speech seriously and they investigate it. but they declined to answer the questions, you know, what have you done with these individuals? now, to their credit, or in their defense, it's hard to talk about individual personnel cases, but some of these people are still working in very high levels and for example, the person that i mentioned who became the white house deputy chief of staff after running president trump's detail, tony,

is currently the assistant director of the secret service. now, he has great reputation as an agent, but he crossed over into a political job in the white house, and now he is back in charge at a c-suite level, protecting president biden. >> carol, we have a statement from the secret service that i'm going to read. they say that the american people can rest assured that the u.s. secret service is a political nonpartisan, our focus is not on politics but on uncompromising excellence and continual improvement, protecting national and world leaders and the security of our nation's financial system. there's no tolerance for conduct that casts doubt on the unwavering commitment to execute these missions. were the agents protecting mike pence living up to that standard? i mean, was that too close for comfort for anybody thatou talked to? >> you know, i think mike pence found himself incredibly comforted by the agents around him and believed that they went

beyond, you know, just the extra mile to protect him. three times, his detail leader came into the capitol hideaway where pence and his family were stowed away, essentially hiding from the nooses outside on the lawn and from the people that were chanting "hang mike pence." three times, his detail leader came in and said, we have got to get you out of here. it is not safe. and finally, on the third time, the vice president agreed. you can see his detail leader with his hand on pence's shoulder there in that shot. and you know, pence did not want to leave the building. he wanted to finish the work, skpemted to certify that election. the secret service somehow found a safe enough place that they were comforted that they could keep him there. but meanwhile, there were secret service agents on the president's detail, you know, basically empathizing with the attackers that day. and i would also add that the director who makes the statement

today that they will not put up with political conduct is the same director who allowed the head of the president's detail to join the white house as a political operative. helping stage the president's campaigns, helping execute the clearing of lafayette square on june 1. >> which is literally one of the most egregious presidency, one of the most egregious days of cumulative conduct. i want to read that excerpt from the book, because there's even more than what you have described to us. this is on anthony ornato, who was transferred to a political role in the trump white house. he coordinated rallies during the pandemic. quote, the president soon after promoted his loyal detail leader, anthony ornato, to a political role that was unprecedented for the nonpartisan secret service. at the president's urging, ornato took on the job of presidential political advisor as a deputy chief of staff in the trump white house. ornato had arranged for the

service to enable the president's authoritarian march across lafayette square on june 1st and coordinated the forceful removal of people protesting george floyd's killing. ornato had also been a key organizer of the president's campaign rallies out of town, putting the president's wishes ahead of the security of the people who protected him. quote, the biggest tragedy is that trump politicized a part of the secret service who pride themselves on being apolitical, one newly departed agent explained. that's the trump effect. now, i think joe hagin had that job maybe at the beginning of the trump administration. he also had that job at the beginning of the bush administration, george w. bush. that job, your hands are on absolutely everything, and i wonder how you go from being so deeply enmeshed in a president's political being back to a nonpartisan secret service, as you said, manager, deputy director. how has the return been received? >> there are a lot of alums in

the secret service who are really disconcerted by this, and there's a small group vocal enough to say it out loud. there's also a large group inside the secret service who feel that this is completely inappropriate. just because, you know, it's the idea that you crossed into a political realm and now you're returning to another one in which you're saying that you're objective, but you are willing to be a political arm, a tool, but i would say if we could -- if we kind of scale back and look at this from 30,000 feet, there's something else to be said, nicole, which is the president's impact on this agency, it was trying to recover and rebuild from a really painful series of mishaps and serial misconduct. and as it is doing that, donald trump arrives, who just like president nixon, believes that the secret service is not an entity that is important to the, you know, vital to continuing

and safeguarding our democracy but a tool for his political ends. there is so much about donald trump that mirrors the way president nixon treated the secret service. again, just a way to implement his will. president nixon used it to eavesdrop on his opponents. president trump used the secret service to look authoritarian, create imagery that he felt would be beneficial to him in communicating to his base and use them and really put them in great danger of contracting covid by sending them out on these campaign rallies while covid was spiking around the country. >> i want to get to covid. i'm glad you raise it, but i want to ask you about something that you said on npr because it shocked me that this is sort of where they are in terms of an

agency seemingly staring into the abyss at this hour. you said, they strongly believed that it was a matter of time before a president was shot on their watch. they're worried that the agency increasingly is relying on luck and it's really a matter of time before somebody finds the right chink and gets through. wow. is that their sort of belief of the current state of their abilities? >> there are a lot of agents who are worried about exactly that, nicole, and the reason i can tell you with absolute certainty that that is a fear is because they risk their careers and their jobs to tell me that. >> right. >> you know, the secret service has fired people that have spoken to me. the secret service investigates to find anyone who has spoken to me or other reporters because it's a fireable offense or at least they have made it a fireable offense. to take that kind of risk, to share this information with me, means it's serious.

and let's be honest. the moments before president kennedy was killed, agents knew they were run ragged. they knew that their mission was larger than they could keep up with. they had a jet-setting president, not enough people to cover all the bases, and their own director had been asking for hundreds more agents to cover what was a president constantly throwing himself into the maw of the american public, constantly putting himself in -- really into harm's way. those same warning signs are happening now. if we have an untrained intruder who's able to get into the white house in 29 seconds in 2014, and another untrained intruder with no plan gets up to the white house door and walks around the complex two and a half years later because all of the alarms

and sensors and radios are on the fritz, if these things keep happening, the president's alive based increasingly on chance, on luck. now, of course, it's the dedication of the men and women of the secret service that helps protect that person, but give the secret service agents the tools they need to actually deliver on their zero fail mission. they can't be wrong once. let's give them what they need to make sure they can actually deliver what they promise. >> and then i can't end this conversation without -- i mean, you had some of the most stunning reporting about covid and how it impacted them and the world saw donald trump in his hermetically sealed vehicle while he was in the hospital with covid. what was the president's infection and the white house as a petri dish, what was that like for the secret service? >> there were agents who reached out to me that day who said,

well, now we know he really doesn't care at all. before, they were suspicious he didn't care. you know, in the defense of the detail, they did, as the director testified recently, they did wear medical, you know, medical grade wear to get into that vehicle with him, so i think those two individuals who were in the suv with the president were pretty much at a low risk, but so many things had to happen to get donald trump, a clearly infected covid patient, from his room into that suv. and why? what was the value, exactly, to the president and to the country to have him take that joyride? was it worth those steps? because it communicated to a large number of secret service officers and agents that their lives weren't as important as his political joyride and his wave to his base.

for all of about, you know, what, 15 minutes? >> yeah. i want to -- i mean, chris christie and rudy giuliani and other people close to trump ended up in the hospital with covid. did members of donald trump's detail or other people around this white house get sick? >> over the summer, up until october when the president was diagnosed, 300 secret service officers and agents came down with covid or were exposed to a coworker who tested positive, and they had to quarantine, and the total number, unfortunately, nicole, has never been tallied. that was the number as of sort of early fall. we just don't know. i'm told that one person died. i don't know the details because the secret service has declined to discuss it. >> it's just amazing. i mean, it's not a massive agency, to have 300 people at

various times having to quarantine. i imagine that was a major, major impact for them. we can't let you go anywhere. the book is called "zero fail" by carol leonnig. she's sticking around and when we return, we've talked so much with carol and others about rooting out extremism in various institutions, in law enforcement, in the military. now extremism in the secret service. the agency charged with protecting the president questions the next president's legitimacy. what do we do? that conversation's ahead. plus, fighting the big lie, how one state attorney general is pushing back against frivolous challenges to the 2020 election and holding the big lie's biggest promoters, people like rudy giuliani, accountable. and another round of air strikes in the middle east as the violence between israel and the palestinians shows no sign of letting up. "deadline white house" continues after a quick break. don't go anywhere. continues after a quick break. don't go anywhere. [sfx: rainstorm] ♪♪ comfort in the extreme.

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it's been over four months since the january 6th insurrection at the u.s. capitol and since then, federal officials have arrested more than 400 suspects in connection with the attack. just last week, the first known active duty service member was charged for his involvement in the riot. major christopher warner who was stationed at quantico was charged with five counts, including assaulting and obstructing police. his arrest marks one of the first results of the standdown order from the pentagon as they attempt to weed out extremism from their ranks. rooting out extremism is proving difficult for both the military and law enforcement and as carol leonnig just informed us and reports out in her new book, extremism may also run deep within the u.s. secret service, begging the question, is the

very department charged with protecting the president has extremist tendencies and ties, where do we even start to fix that? joining our conversation, msnbc national security analyst frank figliuzzi, former fbi assistant director for counterintelligence. also with us, rick stengel, former undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and carol leonnig, author of "zero fail" is still with us. frank, i'm just dying to know what you think of what carol's reported on the secret service. >> i'm dismayed by it and i want to thank carol for providing a public service here in exposing what we need to know. i think many of us would be naive to think that somehow law enforcement and even, sadly, is secret service, would somehow be immune to everything that's going on in society. when we have an fbi director saying domestic terrorism and violent extremism is the top threat facing us, to think that somehow would not bleed into our law enforcement, even the most elite law enforcement agencies,

is naive. so, the question now is, how we move forward in an agency that has, just like everyone else that surrounds the president, somehow been corrupted, tainted, changed its culture and its mores. the stories of having maga hats on the desk, for example, just kind of blows my mind from the standard operating procedure of apolitical federal law enforcement. the fact that secret service agents may have been cheering or even more disturbingly, confused about whether they would be providing a detail to the president-elect who actually, you know, won the election and is coming in now, per rule of law, is astounding to me, and it begs the question of whether or not this secret service director, of which all of this happened on his watch, is up to the task, and has led the agency as it's supposed to be led, and if he can't answer why this happened and how this happened,

then whether or not he needs to step down and i would love to know carol's thoughts on that. >> carol? >> well, first off, frank, i want to thank you for what you just said about the service, the public service here, and i completely give my hats off to all the agents who shared these stories but i'm also glad, frank, that you mentioned the issue of the delay in providing protection to the president-elect. i remember the day that i spoke with a person who used to be in charge of that job, and he sounded like, literally, he was gasping on the other end of the phone when i told him that the president-elect was not getting a full president-elect detail at that moment on november 7th when it was very clear he was the presumed president to be. this agent said, you know, politics be damned. the president can fire me. i would have given biden everything that we give a president-elect. and this was coming from a person who personally was a republican but just knew what

the right thing to do was. and it was clear on november 7th that biden was more in danger because he was the president-elect, end of story. so, i'm glad you focused on that. as for the current director, i'm not a politician. i'm a reporter. but i can tell you what agents inside the building have to say, which is, this worries them, that this happened on the director's watch. and it worries them especially the lines that were crossed, that republican or democrat, no matter what agents' personal views are, this was upsetting to them. >> rick stengel, carol knows this already but i'll just say this on tv. this story is painful for me. i had the privilege of traveling with george w. bush and knowing a lot of his detail, and your feeling around them, when i was there, is ofawe, because know that these people, they're sure as hell not there for the staff. they're there for the president but they're there for the presidency, and so what pains me

is that that's been lost, because what carol reports out is that the presidency was no longer clear to them. they didn't -- they didn't trust the institutions either because president-elect biden became the president-elect, i guess it was the saturday after the election, and that there was any confusion, to me, just encapsulates the whole crisis for our country's national security apparatus for the democracy, and i wonder your thoughts about how we fix it. >> yes, it's sad, and let me jump on the bandwagon of praising carol, because books like hers that are really important. the trump years were a stress test for the most important institutions in our society, and some of those institutions passed, which is great, and some failed. and we have to look back on that and it's fine to have all of these books about donald trump, the personality, but we need to look at how he affected and

sometimes poisoned our institutions, and from carol's reporting, that looks like that is what happened. i mean, to repair our democracy, we have to really take a hard look at these institutions, and it's great that she did that. i have to say, also, just from where you were saying, nicole, and hearing carol talk, i mean, and you've heard me talk about this before, i mean, you know, when we stop having civics education in america, that was a sad day. you have secret service officers who actually don't understand what it means to be a citizen, who take an oath and don't understand what that oath means, what it means to protect and defend the constitution, and so, you know, we have to, in many, many cases, go back to square one in these places to help and repair our democracy, and in the case of the biden administration, you know, that's -- they have to repair the train while it's going down the track. that's not easy to do.

>> and carol leonnig, you have to answer this question sort of as best to your ability because i know that your sources speak really as you've explained at their own peril and with a lot of risk. do they think president biden and vice president harris are safe? >> well, they know that vice president kamala harris and president biden are at heightened risk compared to, let's just say, pre-president obama because obama, no doubt, was the most threatened president ever, especially in the days and weeks leading up to his inauguration. those death threats spiked like nobody's business. but let's go back to a presidency you're familiar with, nicole. you know, george h.w. bush. biden is so much more threatened than george bush and part of the reason is the domestic extremism that, thank goodness, you are focusing on day in and day out. the fracture in our country where people are being

encouraged and enabled and stoked to believe things that are just not true and that it's encouraging a kind of, you know, vigilanteism and violence and extremism that's frightening. that leads to an increase in, what do you think, assassination threats. kamala harris, a woman of color, she's automatically got a larger target on her back than president biden, and you can tell that by just any social media postings that you look at in white supremacist organizations, in chatter in some of those organizations, the fbi's watching that closely. but you know, one person we haven't talked about in all of this who really knows his stuff and i hope he is watching this now and i assume that he is, based on some of my sources, is the new secretary of homeland security who's responsible for the secret service. this tiny agency in the anti-terror behemoth that is known as the department of

homeland security. more than 300,000 employees. so, his assignment now is to figure out, okay, how are the law enforcement teams under me dealing with domestic extremism? chris wray says it's really important to him. what do i know about the law enforcement teams under me and how they are ferreting this out and solving this problem in our midst? one of biden's former detail leaders told me that he thinks this is something that law enforcement has ignored for years. maybe even more than a decade. which is the sort of silent threat within. conservatives who feel they've been discarded, their voices silenced, they have been stoked to believe these conspiracy theories and yet they're on the inside. they're an insthreat. the fbi's working on it. let's hear what the department of homeland security is working

on with regard to that. and i couldn't agree more with something rick said. all agencies need to be assessed for insider threat but also damage, and like the basic core belief, you know, that chief of staff john kelly used to tell everyone in the hallways of the executive office building, we swore an oath to the constitution, not to the president. that's our job. so, we'll see. we'll see how this particular administration gets to the bottom of that and reinforces that. >> well, if i could just add my praise, i mean, your reporting on the current state of the secret service and especially the reaction to 1/6 puts them on notice. we know that they know that they had problems internally, and i just congratulate you again for shedding more light on this story that we'll continue to cover. frank figliuzzi, rick stengel and carol leonnig, thank you so

much. thank you, especially to you, carol, for spending so much of the hour with us. carol's new book "zero fail" is out right now. when we return, how one top democrat is holding the promoters and pushers of the big lie to account in the face of months of the frivolous challenges to an election joe biden clearly and convincingly won. "deadline white house" continues after a quick break. don't go anywhere. use" continues after a quick break. don't go anywhere.

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i feel for these people. many of these people are my friends, and i know they are

getting many concerns and many wishes expressed to them from their constituents, but you know, their answer has been to conduct yet another audit led by a guy who indulges in hugo chavez conspiracy theories. my answer is simply to tell the truth. tell these people, i am so sorry, you have been lied to repeatedly over the last six months, and my heart feels for you, but it's just -- it's a lie. >> what a novel idea. i am so sorry you've been lied to. that was the head of the maricopa county, arizona, elections department expressing his anger and disappointment with leaders who peddle trump's big lie of a stolen election. more than six month after the election, the fallout from trump's conspiracies is everywhere from the faux audit of millions of ballots in arizona to the wave of voter suppression bills predicated on a lie filed in 47 state houses all across this country by republicans who cite concerns over the nonexistent election

integrity concerns stoked by the big lie. as part of a push for accountability for the big lie's biggest promoters, democratic officials have filed motions in court to sanction the lawyers and the plaintiffs who brought some of the dozens of lawsuits seeking to overturn the election results. pennsylvania attorney general josh shapiro is just one who's filed against rudy giuliani for his conduct during and after the 2020 election. and joining us now is pennsylvania's attorney general, josh shapiro. you and i were talking in realtime, but pennsylvania really was the test state for this push to delegitimize the election results, from the earliest days after the election, and i wonder how it feels now. >> well, you know, you and i did talk in realtime as these issues were being litigated, and the elections were being certified. and that's exactly what happened. we had a smooth and safe election. the results were certified.

the issues were litigated. and yet the big lie continues even to this day, nicole, where you have this big lie fueled on in part by donald trump but also in part by the unethical conduct of some attorneys, rudy giuliani and others. and it seems to me that we can't allow them to use the courts of the united states to perpetuate that big lie and to do so without any consequence. they have not only harmed our democracy, but they have cost taxpayers here in pennsylvania and across the country millions and millions of dollars. >> and they threatened all of us. there's an intersection with the big lie and the current domestic violent extremism threat. but you've written a letter for the ages. i want to read some of it. mr. giuliani peddled false claims bout in and out of court that expresident trump had, in fact, won the presidential election or that he was the victim of widespread voter fraud. neither, of course, is true.

and although mr. giuliani's lies predictably failed to convince any judge to disregard the voters' will, his abuse and misuse of courts had serious consequences. pennsylvania election workers have received death threats from individuals convinced of the truth of mr. giuliani's lies. and pennsylvania spent more than $3 million on outside attorneys to respond to election-related lawsuits, including more than $1.7 million to respond to lawsuits brought by the trump campaign. these consequences must not be ignored. what is the precedent for -- i mean, i know all this is unprecedented, but you can't just go to court knowingly making up gobbledy gook. what is your degree of optimism that there will be some sanction for giuliani? >> we do have an anti-gobbledygook rule in all our courts, our state courts and federal courts, nicole, and the reality is rudy giuliani took it to a level never seen before, in my estimation, and the consequences, of course, you can

draw a straight line between what he was saying in court here in pennsylvania, what he was saying on the stump and ultimately what happened on the steps of our capitol and inside the capitol on january 6th. we appealed to the proper disciplinary board in new york state who oversee rudy giuliani's license to simply say, don't look the other way. make sure that there are consequences for this type of conduct. we do not allow this in our courts here in pennsylvania or in our federal courts, and there must be consequences. part of the reason why the big lie has been able to take hold with some is because they've been able to use the institutions of our democracy to perpetuate those untruths, including our courts. we have rules against that, and those rules need to be applied to rudy giuliani as well as the others that we've sought sanctions from. >> when you look at the national picture, the big lie has done more in a shorter amount of time

to push through republican agenda than really anything that i can think of. 47 states are looking at close to 400 voter suppression laws to solve a problem that is nonexistent. there is not widespread voter fraud that needs a legislative solution. it's a crime and we have a criminal justice system that catches and prosecutes anyone that happens to do that and as far as what we've seen, most of those people happen to be people that cast illegal votes for donald trump. so i wonder when you sort of step back and i know this isn't your day job, but when you look at the national picture, do you feel like the big lie is winning or the people protecting the democracy are winning? >> i think the people protecting our democracy certainly are winning and have won as a result of the fact that donald trump was not able to cling to power, but make no mistake, so much damage has been done. i mean, let's examine the record, as you correctly noted, here in pennsylvania. we looked into allegations of voter fraud. we and our law enforcement partners. there was no widespread voter

fraud. we found three examples of voter fraud andall three cases, they were trying to cast an extra ballot for donald trump. yet all of the major candidates for the united states senate and the governorship here in pennsylvania on the republican side can't come together and acknowledge the simple truth that there was no widespread voter fraud, that joe biden won this election, and they can't condemn the big lie, mainly because the republican party has been hijacked by donald trump. they are afraid of him. they can't win a primary without him, and i don't think they can win many general elections with him. he is toxic, not just to our democracy but to the republican party. that's what's playing out. now, while all that political stuff plays out, we want to make sure that the lawyers who engaged in this unethical practice, unethical conduct, and who tried to undermine our democracy through the use of the courts, that they are held accountable in this process as well. that can't be ignored.

>> what, when you look at the -- the real focus on election officials and people that have your job and people that serve as secretaries of state, what is, in your view, the most egregious sort of lasting damage? i mean, we talk about death threats now. it doesn't even lead the news anymore. but i remember when gabriel sterling, an election official in georgia, came out and said, someone's going to get shot. we all took notice and we broke into our coverage and covered that. you've now got a fake audit where they're looking for bamboo by a company called cyber-ninjas. he has in his hands maricopa county ballots. where have we lost the thread on just how scary and dangerous this is? >> it's super scary and dangerous, and really, we have to salute the heroes of this election cycle, the poll workers, republicans and democrats, people like al schmidt in philadelphia and katie hobbes in arizona, you're talking about maricopa county.

i mean, really some -- justin benson in michigan. just some incredible leaders who are secretaries of state and of course many attorneys general and governors as well who made sure that the rule of law held in these states. but real damage has been done here. i mean, the fact that people question the integrity of this process that is run by our neighbors, that has been secure and safe and sound, where there's no evidence that anything was stolen the way donald trump suggests, that's a real detriment to our democracy. but yet, look, i voted today in our municipal primary here in pennsylvania. yet, these great americans come back and work the polls and make sure that people's voices have been heard and we are bigger than donald trump. we are bigger than the big lie. it is certainly infecting our democracy and poisoning the republican party right now, but we're bigger than that, and we will overcome this. the best way to overcome it, though, is to have

accountability in our system for the lawyers who perpetuated the big lie, for the politicians who enabled that, and to make sure that there is an honest conversation about what happened in these courtrooms in pennsylvania and what happened on january 6th at the capitol and the connection between the two. there's a direct causal connection between the two. it must be explored and people must be held accountable. >> well, i appreciate your optimism on a day like today when we're covering kevin mccarthy blowing up the bipartisan commission. we will continue to call on you, pennsylvania's attorney general, josh shapiro, thank you for spending some time with us today. we have breaking news from capitol hill. we reported at the top of the previous hour that house republican leader kevin mccarthy today came out against the creation of a commission to investigate the capitol insurrection. now, we've gotten word that house republican leadership is urging members to vote no when the commission comes up for a vote tomorrow. let's bring into our

conversation, garrett haake. is steve scalise whipping votes against investigating the deadly insurrection? >> reporter: he is, and this is a change from this morning, even after kevin mccarthy came out against this commission. as of this morning, this was kevin mccarthy's opinion. he put out his statement saying that he was opposed to this and that he would be voting no, and our team checked in with the whip's office and they said essentially they were staying out of this, they weren't going to whip members either way. now, about 24 hours, we believe, from this vote taking place, house republican leadership have changed their tune and steve scalise, the gop whip, is now advising members they should vote no on this. the horse may have already left the barn on this. house members have pretty strong opinions one way or the other but it is interesting to go through this memo that scalise's office sent to house republicans for their reasons of posing this. they say john, the ranking republican member, who helped negotiate this deal, did a fine job, but that the scope is too narrow and that it only focuses

on january 6th. it doesn't include things like the congressional baseball practice shooting from 2017. well, republicans were in control of the house, the senate, and the white house in 2017. they were interested in investigating the baseball shooting further, they could ve done it at any time in the next 18 months in which they were still in control. it also talks about a concern that the investigation or commission, rather, could somehow interfere with the ongoing criminal investigations that are taking place, primarily here in d.c., but also across the country related to the capitol insurrection. it's not entirely clear to me who's not a lawyer or a law enforcement expert that that argument holds very much water either, so a significant change in position from house republican leadership, although i guess we should say probably not a surprising one here, given everything we talked about last week, their desire to be done talking about january 6th essentially by any means necessary. >> two follow-up questions for

you. do we know if elise stefanik, mr. scalise, or mr. kevin mccarthy heard from donald trump today? >> reporter: we do not know the answer to that question, although it is a worthy one that i will try to report further. >> do we know if the justice department new management of attorney general garland attorney general monaco have expressed any concern about the existence of a 9/11 style commission interfering with their criminal proceedings? >> i certainly have not heard that. the omd advising the white house in a statement saying they should -- not the omb, excuse me. that the white house's official statement on this is that this commission should go forward. so if there was concern within the justice department, it did not make it up the chain to the president or anywhere else in the administration that i have heard. >> garrett haake, thank you so much for bringing us this story. we're really grateful for to you. when we return, another live

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palestinians are celebrating the most minor of their victories. they got the israelis to push back, and now they are coming back on the streets. so it is a fluid, dynamic that has played out quite a bit in the west bank. >> nbc's chief foreign correspondent richle engel this morning in the west bank on the intensifying violence in the middle east. hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets in solidarity with hamas and the people of gaza as protests erupt across the country as well, including dearborn, michigan. the site of a visit today by president biden who was there to sell his jobs plan. the president is coming under increasing pressure to take a stronger chance after his support for a cease-fire in a call with the israeli prime minister has so far largely been

ignored. overnight israel continued its efforts firing 110 air strikes into gaza. 13 israelis and more than 212 palestinians, including 61 children have died since the latest flair-up began last week. joining us live, erin who has extensively covered the violence in the middle east. such a disconnect. obviously our president, our secretary of state still talking about a cease-fire. but what you are and richard are reporting on the ground looks like anything but. >> the violence continuing. in the last few minutes we heard a series of booms. we have calls out to the israeli military to figure out what those were, if they were a rocket fire or anything else coming from the way of gaza.

we also heard from the israeli prime minister saying that at this point he has no plans for a cease-fire. he plans to continue this operation for as long as necessary, and we saw rocket fire continue from gaza into israel throughout the day, resulting in casualties, some two foreign nationals were killed in an israeli settlement to the south of israel. and tonight we are hearing from our sources in gaza that the aerial bombardment continues, this time to the south of gaza. previous air strikes have been concentrated to the north resulting in over 200 palestinians killed. some over 240,000 displaced. this has shifted to the south of gaza. so the violence showing no signs of slowing down at this point. >> and i wonder, you know, i want to read the secretary of state's comments today.

he said, our goal remains to bring the current cycle of violence to an end as quickly as possible and then bring the parties back to the work of building lasting stability, which is palestinian and israeli people and people everywhere deserve. what is happening that we don't see? because obviously our secretary of state knows that we're so far -- we're in the throws of this current cycle of violence. what are you hearing is happening behind the scenes, if anything? >> well, an intensive, diplomatic effort is underway to resolve this conflict. of course the united states does not directly negotiate with hamas, considered a terrorist negotiation. those negotiations are being conducted with the egyptians. there is intensive efforts underway. president biden expressing his support for a cease-fire. but stopping short of calling for a cease-fire, as many within his own party would like him to

do. many other governments around the world would also like to see happen, certainly many human rights organizations as well as the death toll continues to rise there in gaza. >> nbc in tel-aviv for us. thank you so much for spending some time with us today. we're really grateful. and thank you to all of you for letting us into your homes during these extraordinary times. we're grateful. "the beat" with ari melber starts right after this. stay where you are. fter this. stay where you are because it works. and so do i... ♪ ♪ hydration beyond the hype. ♪ ♪

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welcome to "the beat." i'm ari melber. tonight the top story in washington is the insurrection. everyone knows what happened. over 400 people charged with a range of violence and attacks on the congress itself. while any such violence is wrong, full stop, that effort targeted democrats and republicans alike. u.s. leaders traditionally unite in response to these tragedies. and