- yeah! - [announcer] snhu graduates recognize what they can accomplish with a supportive university by their side. - i did it... you can too! - [announcer] start your celebration at snhu.edu hi there, everyone. it is 4:00 in the east. we are watching capitol hill where at this hour republicans in the senate appear poised to stand in the way of an investigation into the january 6 capitol insurrection. in defiance of the pleas of a grieving mother whose son officer police officer brian sicknick died following the riot at the capitol spent the day on capitol hill alongside his long time partner sandra garza. it is the last-ditch effort to persuade to take seriously the

violence that took her son's life. here they are this morning. >> i think it's very disturbing that anyone would not want to support this. why would they not want to get to the bottom of the violence? >> do you think you can change minds today? >> i hope so. i hope so. brian had a work ethic second to none and he was there for just our country and for these guys and he just was doing his job and he got caught up in it and it's very sad. >> does it -- >> last question. >> does it anger you to hear senators who do not support this commission? what emotions do you feel when you're confronted with that? >> that's why i'm here today. usually i stay in the background. i couldn't stay quiet anymore. >> for grieving mother gladys

sicknick staying in the background not an option and means confronting the republican senator that repeatedly denied in the face of overwhelming video ed that january 6 was an insurrection at all. here she is with our colleague on the way into a meeting with senator ron johnson. >> what is your message going to be to senator johnson who said that january 6 was peaceful? >> just look at the footage of what all these people went through and all these police officers. to keep them safe. >> we want to talk to the senators ky you describe what you said in your letter to meet with them? a slap in the face? >> yes rng i did. because they put their lives on the line. >> it comes in the nick of time with a vote to approve that commission. the resistance from republicans could put it off until tomorrow or after the memorial day

recess. as of now three republicans support the legislation. ten republican votes are needed to skirt a filibuster expected from the gop. though nine more republicans are on the fence according to the latest counts it is unlikely that the bill will meet that threshold ens after leader mcconnell aggressively rallied support claiming that they would like to continue to litigate the former president into the future. we hi the american people ought to focus on what the administration is doing to the country and what the clear choice is that we have made to oppose most of the initiatives. it lays bear what's described in "the washington post" as the great capitulation on the january 6 commission. quote the true reason for the gop opposition has become increasingly clear. they don't want to relive this because it's bad for them politically. the republicans meeting a grieving mother's anguish with

an empty political argument is where we start today. luke robwater is back. also joining us political analyst, former rnc chairman michael steele and david plouffe. i have cited the incredible reporting about some of the associations and joint appearances between house republicans and the very same militia groups under scrutiny at the time of the reporting and now many members are charged. what's the current state of the republican denialism of what this grieving mother is up there sort of talking about and pleading for? >> i think the denialism in the republican party in congress is only growing. certainly in the house where it's -- on full display a couple weeks ago at the congressional hearings where it was just full of denials. i think in the senate it's more

of a political calculation. you have some perhaps outright deniers like you mentioned at the top of the show but the emphasis from the senate republican leadership is more about the 2022 midterms and that they think that the part of the investigation of the january 6 is a political loser for them and the long irit is in the news and people think about it they think that will hurt them at the polls so that is purely a political calculation. i don't think they deny what happened. they were there. many condemned what happened in the moment. but as it's gotten further away they're more concerned about winning the next general than necessarily getting to the bottom of everything that happened that day. >> michael steele, what is amazing is that mitch mcconnell's sort of line isn't a line that he i imagine believes. the idea that the

inrecollectionists one and done is ludicrous. after 9/11 figuring out why they didn't share information is the mission. that was part of what made sure that one we would never forget and two the attacks of 9/11 would never happen. what is the political cover if as the department of homeland security has warned domestic violent extremism is an ongoing threat and persistent and growing risk to the homeland? what's the political cover if there's another such attack? >> there is no political cover and the mission is the same as after 9/11. to find out truth and the expose the elements and the personnel that were involved and that led up to the event then and this horrific event this past january. for mcconnell to the points just made it is all a political calculation. looking at the membership and

figures how much cover can i give them to navigate the space? he is right saying you read the quote that we want to show the american people what this administration is doing to the country. but what he's failing to unis what the american people also going to see is what they did to the country. and they're going to calculate that, as well, and calculate if it should play out the way everyone suspects and you stood in the way of devining the truth, to help us heal and helping a grieving mother mourn her son that she has to leave her home. think about this. this mom has to leave her home to come up to capitol hill to ask these people to do the very thing they have been elected to do. and that is to represent and

protect and defend this constitution, in constitutional republic. here's this mom on the tail end of a covid pandemic having to get in a car a gone to that capitol hill to deal with these folks. to ask these individuals to do the basic right thing. she is not asking them to find a potential outcome. she is not asking them to dictate different terms. she is just asking them, could you please find out why my son died? could you please find out who was involved in the death of my son? could you please find out what was involved for all of these officers who put their lives on the line that day? it is unsightly, it is unslightly to have republicans say i won't meet with her and then to say i'll meet with her

but voting against her. damn. that's -- that's a pair i haven't seen ever in politics. >> i don't want to move on from this point because if there's a stakeholder sort of above all others, forget about the members that crouched in the offices and now don't care and thank god nothing happened. i'm glad that -- >> yeah. >> their safety secured by the capitol police but the capitol police weren't safe and weren't safe because donald trump incited a mob to go disrupt the peaceful transfer of power. for the life of me i don't understand why the capitol police don't walk out tomorrow, michael steele. >> you know? with the slap in the face you kind of say, dude, i had your back. can you have mine for the period

it takes to find out what happened? you know? but they wont. at the end of the day these are men and women about service. who put their live out there. i knew the capitol police since growing up in d.c. and gone through highs and lows like the country and stood firm and never shirked the responsibility and what officer sicknick's mom was saying. i'm here for the men and women who serbed on that day. i'm here for my son who lost his life and just asking that could you at least hold a hearing? hold a damn hearing! just -- it is just -- america, pay attention to what's happening now and as you look at the economy and as you weigh everything else, weigh the soul of the individuals who say no to

a mom who all she wanteds to know is could you tell me why my son died? >> it's sort of stops you in the tracks, david plouffe. here's where i come down having spent a career on the political side of this. are they sure they have the politics right? i think this is a loser. i think that republicans abandon any pretense they care about law enforcement and domestic terrorism when they decide to go all in with denialism. they deny it happened and sicknick, his heroism. they're denying the fact they hit and the men and women mutilated with flag poles and the ongoing threat and they're betting, making a big bet and i hope they're right but there won't be more political violence in america as they stoke and

stir distrust of the election and unravel as liz cheney described it. do you think it's a good political bet? >> i don't. but again the windshield they look out every day is just republican primaries. and kind of that small percentage of americans that dominate republican life these days so in that world i think they feel like they protect the flank. december 7th, september 11th, dates every american knows and i think january 6 will be one of those days. merng was attacked by enemies from outside of our shores. this was an attack from within. organized and fostered by the president of the united states and many of the same members now who want to take a complete dive here. i think for voters that determine the general election

next year, when you basically -- there's no truth or accountability, no justice, all by the way done to destroy the democracy unsuccessful in the last election but everything we see should make us be gravely of 2022 and 2024 i think they have the politics of this wrong and all worried about losing a primary. that's what they worry about. again i think this stance which is these are just tourists and peacefully protesting and nothing bad happened and no reason to look and it is a witch hunt that does appeal to that base. but at the end of the day the lack of character is a main reason that donald trump -- by the way, never got above 47 pistons of the vote why this is not a great vote getter. the reason he lost is lack of character. >> there's that. >> they seem to be doubling down on it. okay? doubling down on the dishonesty,

the deception, the lack of accountability. listen. when i grew up in politics the republican party almost every elected -- we are the accountable party. the responsible party. the message it sends is there's no accountability so it is a sad day for america and if you don't have a commission can you do prime time hearings? what can you do to bring the truth out? so we continue to keep it in front of the american people because politics aside it is necessary to examine what happened here. would you bet right now particularly if what happens is basically one of the two political parties says you can get away with anything and not going to be held to account. there's investigations. prosecutions. we think there's not political violence. you're out of your mind if you think that's the case

unfortunately. >> luke, let's talk about what happens next and if we get to watergate-style is best comparison or benghazi. you tell me what we're missing. susan collins, murkowski, romney support forming a commission to investigate. cap to, cassidy, portman, sasse, toomey and wicker are still considering it. has any of them moved? has the visits prevailed upon anyone to want to understand the underlying lapses like the fbi office in norfolk hearing the reports of making war on washington and that not getting to people like brian sicknick or

commanders? do they feel persuaded to want to understand why the intel didn't make it to those tasked with protecting the capitol? >> so i've heard from the group going around meeting with the republican senators today and they believe from some of the indications they have gotten in these private meetings that there will be a few more yes votes. i think maybe around seven but the number is ten. and mitch mcconnell personally been appealing to senators to tell them to vote no against this. obviously you have a number of people that might be inclined to pursue a commission. those are the seven senators who voted to convict donald trump during the impeachment trial but to get three more it is hard to see where those votes will come from. some of those people on that list have since said that they will not vote for a commission.

i believe capito is one of those. and moran as well. portman showed some indication today he might be open to it so we could see six or seven yes votes. obviously the moment of truth will come when the vote is called. potentially tonight after the china competitiveness bill is off the floor. for that vote on the commission. but yeah. it doesn't look good for getting ten republican votes right now and to your point mitt romney said he thinks that this is a political loser for republicans. because he thinks that we may view, talking about republicans, as a political loser but the broader public looks as though republicans blocking an investigation into a terrible attack on the capitol and how's that going to look in general elections or to any sort of

broader populous or electorate? so in his view it is not just the right thing to do but a smart politics. >> michael steele, the reason romney worries it looks like republicans block a bipartisan investigation into the deadly insurrection is because republicans are blocking a bipartisan investigation into the insurrection. the legislation, democrats should make sure everybody knows this, noted by katko. mccarthy got everything he wanted. i understand that what luke is talking about. mitt romney is really pressing people making it really personal whipping votes. why are they fighting so hard against the fangts coming out? >> the other piece of that is mccarthy put his team together

and said what he wanted in the bill but that was not done without some conversation with the senate because they knew it would go that way. so presumably what kevin mccarthy signed off on and insitsed that nancy pelosi and the team put in the bill came out of the conference of the house and the senate and republicans were aligned so what changed? what changed was -- they want to use james carville as the tipping point. you know? his comments about how democrats should use this commission. but that's the politics. so mcconnell said since we play the politics let's play the politics and recognize there's a political consequence here. so after the fact, after they decided, okay, yeah, we want the controls, maybe they were cynical thinking that nancy pelosi would never give them and

therefore we're -- nancy's fault. she doesn't want the commission but she said, okay, everything you want you get. now all of a sudden the politics got real. and so they're sitting there and going what the hell do we do now? mcconnell's like, vote no. we just won't deal with it. the politics to him to luke's point and to the other points are, look, we can just get passed this. because we don't -- can't afford to have it be a continual drumbeat between now and next november. david's right. they're not going away because the american people won't forget this because we will have reminders of what happened january 6. donald trump is about to do rallies again. mitch. okay? donald trump is about to reengage in the political landscape leading to 2022. mitch. what the hell do you think is

going to be out there for people to remember when donald trump is going on talking about election he lost claiming he won? you don't think we'll relate back to the consequences from that? you think the american people are that deaf, dumb and stupid politically? mitch? it is amazing to me how tenured and tone deaf they are and how blinded they are about a short term political gain that isn't going to be realized. there is no political upside to voting no. there is none. and a whole hell of lot us will make sure there suspect. >> it is amazing. yeah, no. it is a remarkable moment to -- you all captured it and articulated it better than i could. thank you for starting us off. when we come back, the dangerous partisan push to go

hunting for voter fraud. wisconsin a top gop legislator there is recruiting retired police to quote investigate the 2020 election result. all to make the base as the friend charlie sykes writes. and a tribute to the shooting victims from the co-workers. this won't be the last community to grieve the loved ones so publicly. a look at where the divided lawmakers are and trying to end gun violence in this country and the drop in covid cases is something to celebrate. we'll talk with a doctor where the vaccination efforts need to be focused on now. n't recommendt is scientifically designed to help manage your blood sugar. live every moment. glucerna.

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what will we find in this mare copa county recount? >> let's see what this fourth one says. >> it would be funny if it wasn't real. arizona governor pointing out the straight face to sean hannity that there have been three audits already of the vote in maricopa county. three found no irregularities. trump and the fellow travelers in the big lie pinning the hopes on a fourth audit this one run by a sketchy company. the gop's election delusions have spread beyond arizona. wednesday wisconsin's top republican hired a team to

investigate the 2020 election result even as he admits biden won the state. the assembly speaker said is there a whole lot of smoke or actual fire? we don't know yet. wisconsin election officials found 27 potential cases of voter fraud out of 3 million ballots cast there and more than half of the cases came in a single city where they registered at a ups store. let's bring into the conversation charlie sykes. michael steele is still with us. charlie, you have been all over this. written brilliant things that i will read in a second. first, not wisconsin! >> i was thinking about this earlier today and no matter how bad you think it is it is worse.

there's no republican convention to the country to say we need to acknowledge that joe biden won this election and not be booed. you can't go and say this election was stolen and not get a huge standing ovation and that brings many e to wisconsin. i know robin vaus very well and not that maga. he is transactional but he thinks he needs to throw some chum to the base. and that's what he is doing. he is going along with this election delusion and i think this is an indication of how wide and deep it's spread and become central to the republican politics to continue this notion that somehow the 2020 election that we know was fair and clean and secure and won by joe biden that did not happen.

guys like robin vaus know what happened here and yet will feebd the beast and i think that's a real warning sign because i think that anywhere in the country you go you see that's what republican politics is about. passing legislation understood the assumption that the election was stolen and continuing to feed that sense that this election was not legitimate a ten damage this has done to our confidence in american democracy is profound and going to be very long lasting. >> so does robin voss understand what he's doing is akin to just one more audit, one more hit of heroin for the addict? planning to do a fifth and sxth audit? i'll give him the last dose. does he think this is the last wisconsin recount?

>> this is part of it. let's switch from the drug analogy. they have all been raising this alligator in the bathtub and hoping it won't get loose and eat them. i don't think that he's a guy that actually is going to show up at a rally or believe my pillow guy but if he does think that this is the last hit, if he does think that this is enough i think he is incredibly naive. you see this in the republican base across the country and wisconsin was trump skeptical for a while and now all in on this kind of delusional politics. a guy like robin voss who could be getting on with the business of governing, the fact he bought into it is i think an indication of how deep the sickness goes. >> michael steele, the robin

vosses of the republican party are killing democracy. right? donald trump will do what donald trump will do. he is about to hit the road again as you said. he is about to bring his supporters back into arenas. hopefully vaccinated and safe. but he is about to elevate the disinformation. if any of these republicans think one more recount, one more audit to end the fever they're delusional. have they all broken bad and given up on democracy? what happened all the way down to the state level? >> i think a lot of it is drimp by this form of grievance politics that animates around the idea, not even a principle, a political machination to get democrats. when you start from that position that democrats are no longer my opponent but my enemy, that democrats are no longer

political party or folks out there who have a different point of view but considered dangerous, et cetera, and that's fed constantly it agains to change the way things and people operate and to charlie's point that's what you see happening around the country. i was outnubbed by democrats in the county but working with the county chairman in virginia where the republicans were then the majority you could see we were making the same case around policy and irses why republicanism was a better bet. they don't make a case for anything other than maga, trump, trumpism, qanon.

when you have a gates and a marjorie taylor green in the backyard you know nothing serious will happen there. you go to that rally, that event you are not going there to hear a discussion or theoretical discussion and why we can outmaneuver democrats. it is red meat all the time. and that's the thing that sells and then there's the grift on the other side of this because there's a lot of cash backing up this noise. >> yeah. charlie, i guess i always want to make clear why this matters. i don't really care about the republican party swirling around the bottom of the drain but while they're still here they're so committed now and not districted by the policy making that all they're doing is

tearing down and dividing and the assault on democracy threatens the security. i want to read something you wrote about sort soft lurch to sort of all culture war all the time. at the state level the gop is at ramming speed on issues from vaccinations to elections to yoga, critical race theory and guns. mump seemed designed to signal allegiances rather than deal with real problems. is the gop overreaching right now? overreaching or are they sort of revealing? maybe this is all that's left. right? tear down the democracy to try to rig the elections where they think they still have a chance and then spend the rest of the time making clear that they sort of mush together this dark form of church and state and wage the culture wars for a -- is that the game? >> yeah. it is the game. part of what i wanted to do

there is to challenge the conventional wisdom the only party overreaching is democrats in washington. look at the state level where it's crazier and just emphasize michael's point this is not about ideas or principles. it is about just feeding the id. the outraged id. performtive theater where they're not legislating to deal with real problems in the real world. it is become this what triggers the libs. how can we attack the liberals? his point, i cannot emphasize how important this is. that interpolitics right now republicans increasingly see democrats as not a political party with which they disagree but enemies that must be destroyed an enthat changes the dynamic of the politics and it is fundamentally ill liberal and anti-democratic but yes so you see them throw this chum up against the wall. playing the sorts of games

because that again is what they think the republican base wants and the polls would suggest they might not be wrong. >> how does it end, charlie? >> we're going to find out at the polls. david plouffe in the last segment made the point that the republican party seems to be focusing on primaries. the question is as they make this tent crazier and crazier does it shrink it? what happens in the general elections? i don't know. i think it's long term but looking at the republican naval gazing, the percentage that want donald trump to run for re-election. 66%. but pull out a little bit and measure than two thirds of general election voters do not want him and you wonder whether the obsession with the primaries and with playing this triggering the libs game in fact is going

to play with the voters who will divide who wins in 2022 and 2024. it might win in the short run. hard to imagine it wins in the long run. >> yeah. just in the last year republican registration went down 29 to 25. charlie, michael, thank you both for spending time with us today. up next, family, friends and co-workers of those nine people who tragically died in another mass shooting gathered today to make sure they don't become another statistics. we'll talk with a lawmaker who wants to make sure that does not happen. en be ready for every , with glucerna. it's the number one doctor recommended brand that is scientifically designed to help manage your blood sugar. live every moment. glucerna.

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today is a day to honor those individuals and their families. we want to support all our employees who are grieving. as we are all grieving. we know there's more information to come about this incident but today's about our employees and their families. it is about people. i have spoke on the the families of all the nine families. i'm not going to go into details about my calls. all the families are in pain. but we are here to help. >> that was vta board chairman hendricks emotionally remembering the nine colleagues whose lives ended yesterday in another tragic mass shooting this one at a rail yard in san

jose, california. the shooting reignited again the call for gun reform urging president biden urging congress to pass stricter gun laws. the house passed legislation requiring background checks and seemingly dead in the senate and surprising effort that could lead to a deal. joining us is congresswoman cheryl of new jersey? former prosecutor and military pilot. i was on the air when the news conference after this shooting came on. and governor newsom was so striking in his blunt talk about the numbness and the sameness and the rinse and repeat of mass shootings and the conversation on the hill seems so fruitless. is it? >> it's hard to keep coming on shows like this to talk about we have passed universal checks in the house. we closed the loophole in the

house. some point it becomes apparent that that's not going to cut it. right? we need the senate. we need ten senators, 10 out of 50, 10 republican senators to say my kids, my kids are more important than the self interest. we need ten republican senators to come forward with courage to say this level of gun violence, putting people in fear as the president would say families that will never see a loved one again has to end. we go to the marches and hear the stories and hear from families and the one offshootings too many times in some of the cities and then the mass shootings going on everywhere and just had one last weekend in south jersey and happens again and again and how it's come to the point where we can't find ten senators to just at the bare minimum say we'll make sure that people that have

no mental health issues and might commit suicide and people on the terrorist watch list, people that abuse women woeptd won't have access to firearms. how is that such a heavy lift? >> what's the dynamic that makes this immune to public opinion? you have large majorities that support closing gun show loopholes. a lot of -- i think like 80% of women and another majority issue to close the -- i mean, why is this issue immune to such overwhelming public opinion and in support of reform? >> i think what's happening in this country as we become more and more -- we see with the electoral college, the popular vote doesn't always prevail. with the senate itself every

state gets two senators even a state like new jersey. you only get two. so we become more and more anti-majority and we see a tyranny of the minority. we are seeing that not only do we have the electoral college, the senate but now we have the filibuster. so again and again and again you don't have the will of the people being carried out by the congress. and you see that the things that are really bipartisan, not just a majority of the people in the country but very bipartisan in the districts are not bipartisan on the hill. it really has become something that you see again and again and again. the will of the people is not carried out in washington. >> the legislation to form a commission to investigate 1/6 is a perfect example a bipartisan bill noernted in the house and

kevin mccarthy and the deputy whipped votes against it and now mcconnell calling on folks to do him a solid and vote it -- whipping votes against the formation of a commission. how do people -- how should people view that? >> i think they should view it as how legislation should work. house republicans and democrats meet together. there's a give and a take. i think it looked like katko got just about everything that republicans wanted in the commission. it was a bipartisan commission. same number of democrats and republicans. mccarthy would be able to appoint one. and it's going to be independent, outside of congress. just everything, even the subpoena negotiates and then brings it back and let's go and

then suddenly mccarthy is everything you don't want to see in congress. and that is just stonewalling legislation. ala what we have seen from mcconnell over the years. stonewalling legislation for partisan ends so here you have this process that you start to feel like congress is working, moving forward, the way people want to see us do it and then republicans stonewall it. and then to see mcconnell come out. there's not one person in the congress of the united states of america, because make no mistake, every single one taken an oath to the kons tux. not one person to vote against the legislation. >> just an unbelievable state of affairs. congress woman, thank you. still to come, incentivizing the covid vaccine.

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>> that's what heroes look like. wow. 44 states all over the country seeing a decrease in coronavirus cases over the last 2 weeks with new infections falling by double digit percentages for the fifth week in a row which as axios writes, give credit where credit is due. the big picture, america's vaccination drive is working and as it continues to expand, the country can safely get back to many of its pre-pandemic routines. a disturbing trend out in d.c. shows black residents making up more than 80% of coronavirus cases there in recent days. let's bring into our conversation msnbc medical contributor dr. uche blackstock, founder and ceo of advancing health equity. i feel like you talked about this on the front end. we talked about it in the middle. and now that we see all this great news, to see 8 in 10 d.c.

residents who are covid positive, d.c.'s black residents, it feels like we're still coming up short. what do you think is going on? >> yeah. you know, to be honest, nicole, i feel like we've failed d.c.'s black residents. i mean, this is a call to action that we've been screaming at the top of our lungs about since the beginning of the pandemic, since last march when we saw that black and other communities of color across the country have been disproportionately impacted, and we know the reasons for that are because of systemic racism. we thought we were ahead of the 8 ball when we set out the vaccine process, we have to think about equity and equity is not the same as equality. equity is putting the resources like vaccine outreach, like vaccination sites in the communities that need them most, because they've been disproportionately hit, and that did not happen, and that's why

we're seeing those statistics that you just showed about d.c.'s black residents, at this point in the pandemic. >> where do you come down on incentives like lotteries? i mean, the one that's in the news this week is ohio's republican governor, mike dewine, says, don't roll your eyes at ohio's vaccine lottery. the results have exceeded my wildest expectations. since the announcement, available data suggests that shots are up 49% among people ages 16 and over in ohio and have increased 36% among minorities and 67% among ohioans living in rural areas. vaccinations among 16 and 17-year-olds increased 94%. what do you think? >> so, i'm definitely not rolling my eyes. i think that we need to meet people where they are. >> me neither. >> and i think that there is a significant proportion of people who have not been vaccinated yet that just need a little bit of a push, and if those incentives are going to give that push, then so be it.

you know, i think that it's great that the biden administration has approved use of coronavirus funds for things like lotteries, and as we've seen, they have been immensely helpful, and we have to do what we have to do, especially at this point in the pandemic. we've gotten to 50% fully vaccinated but we know that we need to get that number even higher or else we're going to have talk of outbreaks throughout this country among the unvaccinated as the year goes on. >> yeah, and i have always thought that with sort of younger americans who may not -- you think that nothing can get you, and i think even dr. fauci said on this program that younger people often, not always, have better outcomes, that the incentive has to be more about what you're describing, don't be the vector in your community. what do you make about sort of the messaging shifting tortious to, be part of stopping

transmission. >> the data is really interesting in terms of surveys on what people respond to. if you tell them they're helping the community, they really don't care. i think they're more -- >> right. >> some are more self-interested, and i think these incentives appeal to self-interest and you know, i think that it speaks to sort of what this pandemic has been -- has become. distrust was there before but there's even more distrust among americans between each other. i think that was a lot of the concern when the mask mandate was relaxed on people who are vaccinated. i think people had concerns that people who were unvaccinated are going to be dishonest and walk around without masks on and infect people. and so, if we need to do messaging about, you know, your own self-interests, and that works, and that works, but i think it can't be a one size fits all messaging. we have people who are unvaccinated for a variety of reasons, distrust of government, distrust of science, because of

medical racism, many different reasons and we need to essentially have strategies that address all of those concerns. >> yeah, i love that, meet them where they are. i'm an all of the above person too. dr. uche blackstock, it's always nice to see you. the next hour of "deadline white house" starts after a very short break. don't go anywhere. we are just getting started. eak. don't go anywhere. we are just getting started. ♪ na na na na... ♪ hey hey hey. ♪ goodbye. ♪ na na na na... ♪ hey hey hey. ♪ goodbye. ♪ na na na na ♪ na na na na... the world's first six-function multipro tailgate. available on the gmc sierra.

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what are you hoping will be on their minds when they vote on this commission? >> the country. they're supposed to uphold the constitution, and right now, i don't think they're doing it. >> hi again, everyone, it's 5:00 in the east. gladys sicknick, the mother of fallen capitol police officer brian sicknick appealing there to the oath elected officials take upon entering public office as they prepare to go on the record with whether they support getting to the bottom of what president biden calls the worst

attack on our democracy since the civil war. the insurrection that led to the death of gladys's son. currently, republicans appear set to obstruct the creation of a 1/6 commission, and by doing so, are fueling the fire of donald trump's big lie because as he's seen no consequence for spewing these falsehoods, the former president has only continued to spew them. the danger of keeping trump's misinformation alive so worrisome, a federal judge identified it as a reason to keep a defendant charged in the insurrection investigation locked up. judge amy berman jackson writing this. the steady drum beat that inspired defendant to take up arms has not faded away. six months later the canard that was the election was stolen is being repeated daily on major news outlets and from the corridors of power in state and federal government not to mention in the near daily fulminations of the former president. defendant poses a threat of

physical harm to accomplish officials and ordinary citizens who may represent opposing viewpoints and to family members and other members of the community who may attempt to stand in his way. we're way beyond just having political disagreements in this country now. the former guy radicalized that guy and his supporters to such a degree that they now pose a threat to others' lives. that fact even more jarring in light of a new survey that reveals just how many americans have been radicalized. a study by the public religion research institute finds 15% of americans agree with the qanon statement that the u.s. government, media, and financial worlds, quote, are controlled by a group of satan-worshipping pedophiles who run a global child sex trafficking operation. 15%. 20% agree with this statement. there is a storm coming soon that will sweep away the elites in power and restore the rightful leaders. and there's this disturbing finding.

15% of americans agree that, quote, because things have gotten so far off track, true american patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country. analysis by nbc's first read provides this perspective on those numbers. it's hard to call something fringe when approximately one in five americans believe these statements. dangerous and violent fringe theories becoming the mainstream, apparently not alarming to the republicans. they continue to be complicit in the big lie. as we've already mentioned, nearly all gop senators appear poised to block the legislation that would create an independent commission to investigate january 6th. only three have said they support the bill. the threat of unchecked lies and conspiracies is where we start this hour with some of our favorite reporters and friends. carol leonnig, author of the book, "zero fail," is here. also joining us, clint watts, distinguished research fellow at the foreign policy research institute and matt miller is

back. lucky for us, all three msnbc contributors. carol leonnig, congratulations to your book which i believe debuted at number two on the "new york times" best seller list. >> thank you. >> let me start with you. what is this vote about today? what are they voting against when most republican senators, as we're told to expect, will vote down legislation that kevin mccarthy designated his deputy, congressman katko, to negotiate. he succeeded, got most of what kevin mccarthy, presumably, in conversations with mitch mcconnell wanted. now they're going to kill it. >> you know, what they're voting against, nicole, is the fact-finding that's never going to happen without -- it's never going to happen to the degree that we need it without this commission. i mean, the department of justice is investigating people for multiple felonies on january 6th on the capitol grounds.

i remember a law enforcement officer telling me that afternoon, okay, maybe 2,000 felonies up there. so they're doing that. that's great. but that's not going to unearth the other things that we need to know as we needed to know after 9/11. what seeded this riot? who was involved? who was stoking it? what organization or coordination was happening with protest groups that had gotten, you know, permits to protest at the ellipse or nearby capitol. what role, if any, and i, you know, emphasize if any, what role did any republican members have with some of those organizers? because you know, as you know, democrats are pretty worried and were january 6th forward that republicans had in some way played a role. there was some really angry statement the democrats had made to republican lawmakers.

i don't trust that person next to me because i think they participated in this, they encouraged this, and they may have even helped, you know, organize it. if you think that about your colleague, well, we need to get that answered. first and foremost. but as a country, we also need to know about those organizers. the failure to do this, i think, gladys sicknick sums up well. it's a slap in the face of those police officers, one of whom died, one of whom committed suicide, one of whom had a heart attack from being attacked by a throng, and 140 of them who were injured on that day. >> i guess, matt miller, that's where i understand the lost cause that is imploring republicans to do the right thing. it's taken me a long time, but i accept and recognize that. what i still grapple with, and maybe this is a personal

problem, is how do you turn your back on the people who were mutilated so you weren't? >> yeah. especially after for the last year, you've been telling everyone who would listen that you back the police and are going to support the police and then when it actually comes time in congress to support the police who were attacked on that day, many of whom suffered grievous injuries, to completely walk away from them. i think, nicole, that this vote really is about the future as much as it's about the past. yes, we need to find out the answers to all the questions that carol posed, but the reason we need to find out those questions and the reason this needs to be a bipartisan commission with responsible republicans sitting on it as well as democrats asking these questions and getting to the truth is so we can have a future that looks different than january 6th. so, there are people in this country who believe the big lie right now, who will see republicans and democrats sitting on a dais, asking witnesses questions and go, you

know what? maybe what donald trump has been telling us isn't true. i don't have any hope, obviously, from most people in the republican party, like you, from all of conservative media, which is why the goal of the commission, which was so important, it's why, honestly, nancy pelosi was willing to make so many compromises. if you look at this commission compared to the 9/11 commission, the 9/11 commission had a year and a half to do its work. this commission was going to have to do all its work in seven months, something that basically is impossible to do for a real investigation but she was willing to make those compromises that republicans had asked for to try to bring them along, and the sad truth is, it's not bringing enough of them along because there aren't enough republicans, at least in congress, with the courage to try to find out what happened. >> and are you surprised, matt miller, what judge amy berman jackson writes that this is now, and sort of the only institution of government holding the crimes to account is the criminal

justice department. she said this defendant heard these things from powerful men and women in the halls of the u.s. capitol and state capitols. >> amy berman jackson is an interesting judge because these really, in the last, you know, year, discovered the power of not just her rulings but the power of her pen to talk about what's happening in this country, to talk about what's happening to its institutions. you've seen her do it repeatedly when it comes to exposing wrongdoing and misconduct at the justice department in a number of cases that happen to be in her courtroom and i think you see her doing it now. i think what she's trying to do is in the same way she sounded the alarm about the corruption she saw at the justice department, she's trying to sound the alarm to the country about what is happening here and put the weight of a distinguished federal judge behind the fact that this is not -- you know, this isn't a problem that's over. this is a problem that's ongoing, and if we don't address it, it's -- what we saw on january 6th is something we're going to see again.

>> so, clint, when the republicans, led by mitch mcconnell and kevin mccarthy, kill this legislation, negotiated by their designee, what happens in extremist world? >> i think in extremist world, they're empowered. they see what they did as being correct. many of them will read it as a sort of -- you'll see this oftentimes, a subtle signal to continue on with their claims and to continue on with their anger. you'll see others start to maneuver, and i think it also gives weight, nicole, to those that say that the charges should be thrown out or they didn't do anything wrong, because you have the very people that were there saying that this wasn't, essentially, an issue that even merits some sort of an investigation. so, it empowers their message. i worry most that once this kind of slips away and we don't have a very formalized investigation to take it very seriously, it will just lead to similar

activities like that. there are no consequences. it's only a few that are ultimately charged. why wouldn't anyone replicate this if they were an extremist? why wouldn't they try and repeat this at a state capitol or a local city government or to come back to the nation's capital at another time. i just think it's a dangerous precedent that we're establishing for the country, and i also think it just shows that, you know, i've seen this twice now since the trump era. one, steve scalise, you know, being shot at a softball field, tragic incident, we still didn't even look towards any sort of gun or weapons reform, and then in this case, again, the republicans literally turning their backs on an attack that was threatening the vice president, a republican vice president in mike pence. it's just remarkable and what tends to happen is the longer this goes on and the more violent rhetoric there is, we're just going to see more violence both here at the capitol and probably across the country. >> and carol leonnig, i hope

that's wrong but i haven't talked to a law enforcement person or a national security person who says that that's not what is most likely to happen. how is there not a member -- even mitt romney and i guess the 35 house republicans who is worried about that? >> well, you know, privately, i think, as you and i have discussed before, nicole, privately, there are republicans actually quite afraid. there are republican lawmakers who are afraid of their constituents, because they are caught in this circular, i don't know, circular loop in which they've emboldened or misinformed their voters by saying that this election lie -- this election was stolen, and what does that lead to? you can't back away from that. you can't tell your voters, oh, you know what? i was wrong. what's funny is, i think there's a solution here that nobody's

really sort of looking upon. republican solution. if there were, as there was on 9/11, a joint bipartisan group that dug into this and joined hands and said, we're going to find out what happened here, there would be no sort of blame on anybody's particular plate if we just dig down, find out what happened, find out how it happened, reveal it to all, and then the voters can see it for themselves. it's an independent and bipartisan investigation. that might solve this circular loop that republicans are trapped in right now. they wanted to help their president, they wanted to let him claim that he had been denied his rightful second term, and they also wanted the voters that liked donald trump. and now, if they could just break that chain through an investigation, they might get themselves out of this really

terrible hole and essentially help us avoid a civil war, which is the way the country feels right now. >> well, matt miller, it also confirms that they all know what happened. they all know he's guilty. if any one of them thought he was innocent and that a scrub of this would exonerate the ex-president for inciting a deadly insurrection against his own vice president, they'd all be for it. if they thought that scratching a little bit would look good for any of them, they'd be for it. i mean, they are conveying such sort of consciousness of guilt that the notion that they think that's a better political outcome, to obstruct an investigation into an attack that endangered all their lives, that they think that equals good politics sort of explains why, you know, 15% of americans are down with qanon. >> yeah, i think that's right. look, nicole, i think there are two classes of republicans.

one, there is a larger number than you would -- than i think most people would believe of republicans, including republican elected officials, who believe donald trump won the election and believe the conspiracy theories and believe in qanon, and we'd like to think that it's the far fringe of the -- >> who? who? >> well, you go through the members of congress who, in the past few weeks, were saying that, you know, the insurrection wasn't that bad and who are defending the insurrectionists. you talk about people like ron johnson in the senate. so they are the fringe of the party but these are people in high elected office and i think it's bigger -- the number is -- there are more of them than there are liz cheneys, i'll put it that way. but i think there is a much bigger number of people who just continue to, especially in the senate, who approach this the same way they've approached the lies and conspiracy theories for more than ten years now. you go back to where this, i think, all began with birtherism, when most republicans -- you would talk to serious republicans who would say -- and this wasn't just about donald trump. it was about the base of the party. look, it's harmless.

the birtherism stuff is harmless. i recognize there might be a little racism there but there's racism all over the place. nothing is going to come of it. we can just ignore this lie. and that's a story that they've told themselves that they could ignore these lies because they would be harmless for more than ten years and they've gotten used to it and i think you would hope that january 6th, they would wake up and realize that it wasn't harmless and it seeed they would. lindsey graham saying, that's enough for me, i'm done with donald trump. you had mitch mcconnell looking like he would break but every time it comes for a vote for accountability, whether it's impeachment or this january 6th commission, they walk away, and any brief, fleeting moments of courage that they showed are completely gone. >> and clint, where that leaves us is with these numbers that 15% of all americans believe in the qanon conspiracy theories. i can't read them without laughing but i guess it's not funny that one in five americans believes that the government,

the media, and the financial world is controlled by a group of satan-worshipping pedophiles who run a global sex trafficking operation. no wonder they're mad. what is that evidence of when you see those numbers, a quarter of all republicans believe that, of all of us, that we are run by satan-worshipping pedophiles? i mean, disinformation, i guess, was putin's game even before it was the republicans' because it works. how do you unwind that? >> nicole, it's this crowd source crazy that we get from the qanon movement because it's been pretty much debunked at this point. hbo's documentary went into it in pretty deep detail, we know who some of the perpetrators really are. we're not getting the q drops anymore so why continue to believe? and i think it's what -- what it really is -- has been tapped into the last four years is the demand for disinformation. i always thought, okay, once the

information space is cleaned up, things will sort of resolve to normal. what you're seeing, even, in that study is not only is it from some far right television news outlets, but many of the people that believe this conspiracy are strictly on social media. they're not even getting their news from television news. so, they have to go searching for it. and i think that speaks to some of the psychology of it, which is if we want to upend this, we have to go with a network of messengers to really counter that. when we're looking in the information space, this is trying to create an entirely false perception, an alternative reality that they can live in. and because every one of these individuals could be their own printing press, they can be their own radio broadcaster or television show, because social media's a connective tissue that brings all these people together to allow them to create this fantasy, we need to get in there and actually try and scale truth in a way beyond what the

establishment would typically do. we already know that they're against establishment politicians, they're against institutions, they're against public health officials, they're against those establishments because they believe it holds a barrier to the alternative reality they want to pursue. we need to get in there with a countermessage that comes from people that look like them, talk like them, and are in those local communities to really dispel this over time. part of it is there's such a distance between the establishment right now and these people that are qanon supporters. we really need to show them that there is a reality horizon out there and they will crash into it. not being able to be governed as a democracy or compromise will lead to the breakdown in governance, like rolling out vaccines and things like that. so, we really need to get in there and try and undermine and it's going to take a network of messengers working with establishment officials and governance institutions to really do this, whether it's the election or covid-19 or vaccine rollout.

>> and if it becomes a national security imperative, who does that? who pays for that? who recruits for that? who makes sure it's working, clint? >> i think that's the big challenge, nicole, is no one really has ownership over the information space and trying to secure the integrity of the information environment, which allows from overseas, we have countries like china now, which is growing their disinformation networks on scale on our western platforms, russia, who's been doing it for years and really has mastered the art. but more importantly, now it's all the domestic manipulators that are out there, which are everything from fraudsters to political groups to social activists that can all scale their messages and know how to manipulate the media. so, ultimately, i think it really comes down to the u.s. government building a strategy in a nonpartisan way. what i tend to see is a continuation of the election, meaning, political groups continue to use their mail-in list and things like that to try to mobilize people but there are many things americans agree on and we can come together on that

are evidenced right now. cybersecurity is a huge one after the colonial pipeline, public health, education, and one that's coming up soon, the olympics. >> all right, you gave me some hope there at the end. you saved it for me. clint watts, carol leonnig, matt miller, thank you for starting us off this hour. when we return, president biden makes his pitch but republicans are offering far less. how long should democrats keep dealing with them before going it alone? we'll ask a key member of the biden cabinet next. and later, did the ex-president offer to pay a bribe to a powerful senator to make an investigation into the new england patriots go away? that is the new accusation from the late senator's son. we'll have that blockbuster new reporting for you. "deadline white house" continues after a quick break. don't go anywhere. continues after a quick break. don't go anywhere. good morning, mr. sun. good morning, blair. [ chuckles ] whoo. i'm gonna grow big and strong. yes, you are. i'm gonna get this place all clean.

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even my republican friends in congress, not a single one of them voted for the rescue plan. i'm not going to embarrass any one of them, but i have here a list. of how back in their districts, they're bragging about the rescue plan. they touted the restaurant revitalization fund. they touted the fact that we're in a situation where they're dealing with touted grants to community healthcare centers, touted -- i mean, some people have no shame. >> president biden there pulling out his handy list of republicans who voted against the biden administration's very

popular covid relief package and still shamelessly tout parts of it anyway. at a speech held at the site of the last rally that now president biden had scheduled last year as a presidential candidate before the pandemic led to sweeping shutdowns. president biden took credit for an economy in comeback mode. it comes as the biden agenda nears a crucial inflection point amid negotiations with the gop. president biden is expected to soon face crucial decisions over his domestic agenda as his commit to aggressive action on climate change and care for the elderly collides with his push for a bipartisan infrastructure deal. joining us now is secretary of commerce raimudo. tell me how you guys view republican efforts, especially around infrastructure, where some senate republicans seem to have offered a good faith counterproposal and if you don't see it that way, please correct me. >> yeah. so, thank you for having me. i think we see it as a sign of

progress. you know, it is progress, and it's a great credit to president biden who believes to his core in bipartisanship and he has told us, his team, to stay at the table and try to find that common ground. you know, the proposal that they presented today is better than it was a week ago. it's still not where we believe it needs to be. it's not bold enough and critical aspects aren't included, for example, veterans hospitals or other critical pieces of infrastructure. it's not very clear around how they intend to pay for it. and the president's been crystal clear that we're not raising taxes or fees on middle income americans. but it's progress. it is undeniable progress in a town that is not always known for progress and bipartisanship. we are at the table in good faith.

they are at the table in good faith. we're working really hard, and at this point, we are optimistic that we will be able to come to terms on important parts of it. >> on bipartisan, doing bipartisan -- doing infrastructure in a bipartisan way, you think that's where it ends, with some version of this compromise package? >> i think we have to still be hopeful that that is the case. we're going to work through the weekend. we will work next week. congress comes back the week of june 7th. by then, you know, by then, we need a clearer direction, but again, this is progress, and we are going to stay at the table to get as much agreement on as much of the president's package as we can. >> and are you all sensitive to sort of the concerns from the progressive wing of the democratic party that there's

nothing that you get in exchange for moderating the policy initiatives and that if there's only a short period of time when you control all three chambers, this is the time to be transformational. >> i think the president is being extremely transformational. you know, you see the boldness of his rescue package paying off, creating half a million jobs a month now, unemployment insurance claims down by a third, people going back to work, the vaccine rollout is taking hold, and his jobs plan is transformational. you know, big, broad investments in child care, infrastructure, energy efficiency, climate. we're not saying -- we are absolutely committed to being transformational, but we're also committed to working in a bipartisan way and trying to find common ground and, you know, getting to a solution, so,

listen, the president isn't going to lower his transformational expectations, but he has been clear he believes we ought to work in bipartisan fashion and some amount of compromise is on the table. >> secretary gina raimondo, thank you for spending time with us. when we return, a stunning new accusation and some incredible new investigative reporting that donald trump tried to offer a united states senator a bribe to end the investigation into the new england patriots. that story's next. england patrtsio that story's next. finding new routes to reach your customers, and new ways for them to reach you... is what business is all about. it's what the united states postal service has always been about. so as your business changes, we're changing with it. with e-commerce that runs at the speed of now. next day and two-day shipping nationwide. same day shipping across town. returns right from the doorstep, and deliveries seven days a week.

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some really extraordinary new investigative reporting from espn indicates that way back in 2008, old donald trump tried to stop a congressional investigation by essentially trying to bribe a sitting u.s. senator. it's a fascinating, compelling story that orbits around one of the biggest sports scandals of the century, spygate. a quick refresher for you. in 2007, staffers for the new england patriots were caught videotaping opposing coaches' defensive signals, making for an unfair advantage, of course, in violation of league rules. the nfl conducted an investigation and punished the patriots, but not as harshly as some had hoped they would. the late senator orland specter of pennsylvania, a well-known philadelphia eagles fan,

launched an investigation. we know from his memoir that there was a mutual friend of his in patriots owner robert kraft, and on a call in 2008, that mystery mutual friend allegedly told specter, quote, if you laid off the patriots, there would be a lot of money in palm beach. guess who that was? here's the latest from espn, who spoke to the late senator's son. quote, my father told me that donald trump was acting as a messenger for kraft, shannon specter says. i'm equally sure the reference to money in palm beach was campaign contributions, not cash. espn says both kraft and trump, through spokespeople, denied involvement in any effort to influence specter's investigation and there are questions about the gray area in which we're operating now. it's not clear if what trump allegedly offered it would be considered a bribe of a public official, at least not in a prosecutable way, but this adds more grease and grime to the trump story, his prepresidency,

and reveals much about the way he thought politics worked. joining us now, seth, senior writer for espn.com and espn magazine and the author of the upcoming book "it's better to be feared" and mark is here, "new york times" chief correspondent and msnbc contributor. take me through this story. it's -- the storytelling is extraordinary. tell us more. >> well, thanks a lot. i -- it was interesting, in 2015, don and i did a story on the connection between spygate and deflategate and at the time we got a tip on who the mutual friend might have been and my coauthor was told that it was donald trump and we tried to confirm it over the course of years, you know, don went back up to the university of pittsburgh and dug through specter's files. i made a couple trips to d.c. and i visited places that you

guys probably know well like lt steak and off the record and we just couldn't really close -- we couldn't get it confirmed that it was trump. and more recently, specter's biographer, who ghost wrote his book, charles robins, said he believed that it was trump, and then don talked to shannon specter, who confirmed that it was indeed trump and that his father had told him he was acting as a messenger on behalf of kraft so that's kind of how it all came together. >> well, and what's so amazing about it, seth, is that you see donald trump as the guy who trained michael cohen who was his own fixer, trying to act as a fixer for his friend, mr. kraft, and i wonder, the article makes really clear where the distinction is between sort of crossing that line into the crime of bribery of a public official, but if people had known it was trump, my question is, why didn't this come out while he was president? why didn't senator specter's son

speak out sooner? >> i don't know. i mean, you know, senator specter's son, shannon, wasn't someone who was necessarily looking to get this out. i think that he responded to questions from my coauthor, don van natta and i think that the way that he characterized it was that the senator was very upset at the insinuation that this good friend of his, that donald trump felt that maybe he would take a bribe if he would, you know, lay off the patriots, and he immediately responded, i couldn't care less about money in palm beach. but i think that as he told us, he was pissed, the senator was, and i think that that's one of the main reasons why shannon specter wanted to talk about it. >> so, you write this. matthew sanderson, a republican election attorney and a partner at kaplan and dries dale in washington says it's immaterial

whether specter took trump up on the offer. you can't say, my friend has a big bag of cash for you if you would drop your investigation. that's a bribe. is this getting a fresh look, legally? >> we'll see. i think there was a lot of gray area, like even shannon specter, who's a well regarded attorney in pennsylvania, wasn't sure that it was actually a bribe by the books. and we quote another election law expert as saying that it seems interesting and bizarre that essentially an offer for campaign cash in exchange for something is not a bribe, but that's kind of the way that this is kind of evolved and the way that it works, so like i said, senator specter was upset about the offer and he had a great regard for donald trump, they were really good friends. trump held fundraisers for him, he was at his book party and i think he chose to let it go rather than file a claim.

>> mark, you know a lot about this sort of trump-kraft relationship. what are your thoughts? >> my thoughts are, it's very symbiotic if you look at these two and their history and the question of what does donald trump want. donald trump wants especially at this point, to be a player in this but also to get into the national football league. at this point, before he was running for everything, he wanted nothing more than to be an owner in the national football league and that involved currying favor with some of the most powerful owners and certainly robert kraft has been one of the most powerful owners in the league and when you intersect that with specter, who was a very dogged prosecutor, attorney and is exhibit a for the hell hath no fury like a frustrated philadelphia sports fan, he had a real sense of mission. the two mysteries are, why didn't specter speak up when he was still alive and still

working on this, and also, a mystery that will probably never be solved, which is what was on the tapes which the nfl destroyed rather hastily after their investigation, which i think really triggered arlen specter even more. it's a great story. seth and don are as good as it gets and it's very cinematic in that you have a -- you have the nfl. you have donald trump. you have scandal, unsolved mysteries, it has everything and i can't wait to read seth's book and see the movie. >> mark, i have another question for you. do you think that donald trump was the only one trying to make this go away for bob kraft? do you think this is a story about donald trump as the dirty variable or do you think this is a story about bob kraft using any means possible, including a bag of money in palm beach, to make this go away? >> i wouldn't overstate how much power donald trump would have to actually make an nfl investigation go away or robert

kraft for that matter. i should say, while arlen specter is a partisan here as far as being a philadelphia eagles fan, yo will see the one article that i have ever published has tom brady on the cover so i'm a little partisan here too but i will say that this is just a great story but just continues to go -- that will not go away and i think that robert kraft will certainly do anything he can to sort of reflect well on his team but it's also unclear at this point whether there's a direct line to anything he could do for donald trump or donald trump could do for arlen specter that would have brought some kind of satisfactory resolution to robert kraft's interest here. >> it is amazing. whenever there's a donald trump angle, there's often a bag of money and something dirty. seth, mark, thank you both very much for spending some time with us on this story. when we return, we are getting closer to that senate

vote on whether to move ahead to establish a commission to investigate the capitol riot or not, a vote where republicans will put their allegiance to donald trump's big lie ahead of the country or not. reaction from a top senator next. try or not reaction fm roa top senator next think of what peanuts have given humanity! fuel for vast migrations! sustenance for mountaineering expeditions and long journeys across the world! but most importantly? they give us something to eat when we drink beer. planters. a nut above. tonight...i'll be eating crab cakes with spicy aioli. (doorbell rings) they give us something to eat when we drink beer. thank you.

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what is your message to republicans who are prepared to block the january 6th commission? >> eat some ice cream. >> do you see compromise and common ground on that? >> on a commission? i think -- i can't imagine anyone voting against the establishment of a commission on the greatest assault since the civil war on the capitol. but at any rate, i came for ice cream. >> normal reaction there from president biden expressing his disbelief that republican lawmakers, many of them firsthand eye-witnesses to the violence of the insurrection,

are on the precipice of opposing a bill that would create a 9/11 style commission to investigate the attack on their offices, basically. we're expecting the united states senate to vote to advance the bill -- to have a vote on that bill. republicans in the senate gearing up to obstruct the legislation and prevent the commission from ever being formed. we're joined now by senator angus king, an independent from maine. senator king, we have spoken at a lot of moments where all seemed lost with the republicans, and you were always really blunt, but you held out hope at different junctures of the two impeachment trials that some republicans would do the right thing, and indeed, mitt romney and then a few others in the second did. what is your feeling now? >> well, the first thing, this is a really fascinating moment, nicole, because right now, literally within probably hopefully the hour, we're going to pass on a bipartisan basis a really substantial piece of

legislation involving the competitiveness with china that involves support for research, support for the bringing the chip industry home to this country, i mean, this is a major bill that's been bipartisan from the start, and we're about to pass it, you know, i don't know -- i don't want to predict the vote but i'm sure it's going to be a very substantial margin and then probably a half hour later, we're going to have a party line vote on the commission idea. so, it's a very sort of schizophrenic moment and i was thinking about it today, and i think the difference is that the bill we're talking about this afternoon doesn't have joe biden's name on it, and it doesn't involve donald trump. that means we can do our jobs. but if it's got joe biden's name on it or if it involves donald trump, then, you know, all the brakes go on. so, you know, it's a very, very odd moment, but as the president said, how do you vote against an independent, nonpartisan

commission to try to get at the facts of one of the most serious attacks on our country, on our democratic system in our history? it's -- you know, i share his incredulity. i don't have an ice cream cone, but other than that, it's a very strange moment. >> i mean, i looked at the -- you're right. there is this stark contrast, and i looked at the republican support for the legislation you're talking about as a security consideration for them. but i think it makes it an even graver indictment that they don't care about the security of the homeland, and what do you make -- how do you protect the homeland from what christopher wray, donald trump's hand-picked director of the fbi, describes as the gravest threat to the american homeland, domestic violent extremists, agitated and fueled by this big lie? how do you protect the country from that if the other party refuses to see it that way? >> that's the question. and nicole, there was really a

stunning and kind of hilarious moment last night. i was sitting in my office waiting for the votes to resume, and josh hawley takes the floor and i hear out of corner of my eye, i'm reading something, he's talking about investigation and the american people deserve the and i thought, wow. he -- he's come around on this. and then, i heard, no, he's talking about an investigation as to what happened -- where the -- where the flu came from, and whether it came out of the lab in wuhan. so, you know, he's good with -- he's good with investigations. just not this one. the other thing is, you know, they talk about it might be partisan and all that kind of thing. i -- i did a little homework this morning. you know how many investigations there were of benghazi? ten. and the last one didn't wind up until december 12th, 2016, one month after the presidential election. talk about partisan use of investigations. i mean, that was the -- the

paradigm, you know, example. and yet, what we are talking about here, they got to be done by the end of this year. it's a bipartisan, evenly-divided, bipartisan commission. they took all the suggestions that the -- that the republicans in the house made. d to -- to make this a fair process, to just get at the facts of this very serious matter. this -- this wasn't just a bunch -- a mob that hit the capitol. it hit the capitol, on the day that we were voting to certify the presidential election. their purpose was to stop the counting of electoral votes. that's about as serious as you can get, in terms of an attack on our country. >> what do you think they're hiding? >> that's a really good question. well, i don't think -- i think, one thing that's very clear is that mr. mccarthy, in the house, doesn't want to be subpoenaed and have to ask -- answer

questions about the phone call that he had with the president the day of the insurrection. where, allegedly, from people he talked to, he was pleading for help. and the president made some crack about, well, i guess, you know, you don't care as much about the election as -- as my friends here do or something to that effect. i think he doesn't want to answer those questions because he was -- and again, you guys have the tape. but go back to that night. and you see people, like lindsey graham, and -- and mitch mcconnell. and -- and mccarthy, all, saying, you know, this is terrible. the president has a responsibility. you know, this -- this was an attack. and all of a sudden, that's all gone, now. and it's all about this guy in mar-a-lago saying jump. and -- and these folks are saying how high? it's -- it's pretty disappointing. and again, what are they afraid of? i think they're afraid of, maybe, there were some involvement of the -- of some of their members with the insurrectionists the day before.

i -- i don't really know. i mean, that's why you have an investigation. and it may be that there was no engagement. but clearly, they just want to treat this as a -- as a minor problem. but, you know, we're talking about the oath that we all take is to protect the constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic. that word is in there, for a reason. and we're talking about -- >> yeah. >> -- domestic enemies of the constitution, in this case. but my friends don't want to take the chance that even -- even get at the facts. which is, you know -- and as you imply, if people are moving heaven and earth to -- to not look at the facts, then the implication is there's something there they don't want you to find out. >> sure is. senator angus king, thank you so much for spending some time with us today ahead of that vote. we're grateful. we will be right back. >> always a pleasure. thanks. back.

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this afternoon, we're honoring the life of tim lester. a former nfl full back who spent eight seasons with the rams, the steelers, then the cowboys. he was a pivotal lead blocker for some of the greatest running backs to ever play the game. jerome bettis and emmett smith but tim lester is being remembered for more than what he accomplished on the field. you could call him a humanitarian, as well. because when his career ended, he retired in milton georgia, and started a nonprofit youth football program. he coached high school football and volunteered in his community, a thousand different ways. we learned in january that he died from covid-19, at the young age of 52. it was, indeed, a life well lived, that ended way too soon. we will be right back. ht back.

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letting us into your homes during these extraordinary times. we're grateful. "the beat with ari melber," who is always -- [ inaudible ]. >> i couldn't -- i couldn't hear nicole. just being transparent. but i think we're starting the show. thank you, nicole. i want to welcome everyone to "the beat." i'm ari melber and we are tracking developments in the new york d.a.'s newly-convened grand jury probe here. this is why there's so much riding on what faces the trump organization in this criminal probe in the days ahead. now, tonight, there is no way i can report this, without mentioning our own reporting on this very show because it has become part of the legal news, itself. today, a witness, linked to trump's money man, now at the center of this probe, allen weisselberg, is saying that he, weisselberg, is behind a push to evict her, that is retribution for her speaking out. the witness, you may recognize,

hi