thank you so much, everybody at home for watching "the cross connection," i'll be back next saturday at 10:00 a.m. eastern, but stay tuned because my friend alex witt has the latest. >> you are not excused yet, my friend, because i have a lot of questions for you in ten, 12 minutes so you can't go anywhere. regina king, that was great, but can i just say your panel at the top of this hour, some of the things that were said were so profound it stopped me in my tracks listening to them. i could talk all day with you about what you uncovered so stay right there and hold those thoughts and stay right ther my dear. >> looking forward to it. >> thank you. and to all of you, a very good day from right here msnbc world headquarters in new york, it is high noon in the east,

9:00 a.m. in the west. welcome to "alex witt reports." we kick off memorial day weekend and with a growing number of americans fully vaccinated, millions are expected to hit the road for the first time after a long, long year of lockdown. >> in norfolk, and fredericksburg, fans are leaded to the minor league ballparks and pools and parks are opening up across the state, families are headed down for memorial day weekend to virginia beach and all over the country, we've gone from pain and stagnation of a long, dark winter to an economy on the move growing faster than it has in nearly 40 years. >> and coming up, we'll have live reports from some of the country's busiest airports and those vacation hot spots, but first on capitol hill, tensions between republicans and democrats are at a boiling point after gop senators blocked the cree asian of an independent commission to investigate the january 6th attack on the

capitol. only six republicans broke ranks in support of advancing that measure, but not enough to prevent a filibuster. the move pushing the most moderate of democrats to speak out. >> choosing to put politics and political election above the health of our democracy is unconscionable and the betrayal of the oath that we each take is something that we'll have to live with, and i am sorry that my republican colleagues and friends let political fear prevent them from doing what they know in their hearts to be right. >> yeah. what he said. meantime at the white house, president biden unveiling a bold proposal for next year's budget asking for $6 trillion on infrastructure, education and domestic programs while also calling for higher taxes on the wealthiest americans. the white house says this number is needed for a speedy economic recovery while one republican is already calling it dead on arrival. >> new today, congressman matt gaetz under fire after these comments about the second amendment at a georgia rally. take a listen.

>> the second amendment is not about -- it's not about hunting. it's not about recreation. it's not about sports. the second amendment is about maintaining within the citizenry the ability to maintain an armed rebellion against the government if that becomes necessary. i hope it never does. >> uh-huh, we'll have more on that later, but we go beyond the headlines now with nbc's monica alba and amanda golden, as always, as well on capitol hill. welcome to you both on this holiday weekend. how are lawmakers reacting to the newly released budget proposal. >> democrats are thrilled. they want to see these proposals put in place and they would like the president to urge them to perhaps go it alone given these bipartisan talks and have been so stalled so far and they're pushing back at the size and scope of this $6 trillion budget and they're saying that they have a lot of spending and debt

concerns and they also simply believe that it's simply just too much for the federal government to do. that's exactly what the president says he wants. he would like his government to be more involved in the everyday lives of people and that's why he has proposed these plans on everything from traditional infrastructure to the more human infrastructure. so those are the multitrillion dollar plans within the 6 trillion and that accounts for 4 trillion. the other 1.5 trillion is for other domestic programs and education and combatting the climate crisis in addition to some other areas of health care and the other thing is that there's a slight increase in defense spending, so this is, of course, just a blueprint for the next fiscal year and any presidential budget is a wish list of priorities of something to be enacted in congress and got chuck schumer about how the strategy may shift on the hill given that republicans didn't block the january 6th commission

and what it did with negotiations with the gop going forward on other agenda items. >> it is frustrating, but that's not going to stop us where we can from working in a bipartisan way. that's the preferred way to go. it's just not possible in many different areas with this republican senate and won't stop us from acting. the president didn't -- we'll try to go bipartisan when we can, but it shouldn't stop us from the big, bold action we need. >> those bipartisan talk, alex, will continue in the white house in the coming days. we know senator capito, will come to meet with the president to talk about infrastructure, but something notable, i was traveling with the president in ohio and he mentioned there is this third group, another group of republican senators who might have their own proposal for introis structure and he said he would be willing to hear them out, as well and the major area of disagreement here is how to pay for the massive spending and that's something that democrats and republicans have found no

common ground on because the gop don't want to see taxes go up for anyone while the president wants to raise them for corporations and the wealthiest americans. so still, a lot of details, and as you know, alex, the devil is in them and they have not been able to come to any type of an agreement and the president at an inflexion point. >> it's hard to reconcile all of that, but we keep hoping. thank you, monica. republican senators facing blowback after blocking the creation of an independent commission to investigate the january attack on the capitol. let's go to amanda golden. what kind of fallout has there been on this and what are the next steps for democrats here. >> alex, now that we've seen this procedural motion to be blocked and the bipartisan commission to take place to investigate the events of january 6th, but that's not stopping democrats from potentially moving forward in their own way to continue to investigate the attack that we saw talk place at the capitol

four months ago. we've heard now from senate majority leader chuck schumer that you would be willing to put this independent commission on the table to force republican senators to vote on the record for it and we're getting further indication of just how critical the consequences could be for senate republicans and part of the reason that we only saw six republicans join in favor of this motion to move forward, and those six republicans included mitt romney and ben sasse and senator bill cassidy and susan collins of maine and lisa murkowski of alaska. some strong reactions that have come out from democrats hitting these republicans in congress, and a very strongly worded statement where nancy pelosi, quote, mitch mcconnell asked senate republicans to do him a personal favor and vote against the january 6th commission. in doing so, mitch mcconnell asked them to undermine the truth of january 6th. i should note there was one

republican senator pat toomey of pennsylvania who had indicated he would vote in favor of this, however, he wasn't present for that vote. that all accumulates with falling short of the ten republicans needed to break the 60-vote filibuster threshold. so not a lot of promising indications for how this can move forward and we heard from the mother of capitol police officer brian sicknick. she came here to personally lobby senators trying to get them to support what this legislation could do to further investigate january 6th. she was unsuccessful in her attempts, of course, but she did say in an interview yesterday she knew going into this vote that it wasn't going to happen, but here's more of what her conversations with republican senators were like. >> it was tense, and we just made believe everything was fine and we were very nice to them, for the most part. >> it was just tense because -- >> because of -- because we knew -- i think because we knew

they weren't sincere. >> and they didn't want to get to the bottom of what happened. >> no. no, and i don't understand it. >> as to what happens now, all eyes turn to house democrats who can move forward with their own select committee to investigate january 6th in a partisan way that would give democrats subpoena power to bring in witnesses to testify, but again, the initial attempt here was for that bipartisan independent investigation. that was the desire of congressional leadership at the forefront of all of this, now it looks like the democrats could go it alone if that's how they choose to proceed. >> amanda golden, thank you so much on that. joining me now, hayes brown, writer and editor for msnbc daily. good to see you. i know you've been following this story very closely over the last several days and there was one point on twitter when you saw it as a mess and chaotic. tell us what you saw. >> the senate's easy job was supposed to be passing a

bipartisan bill from chuck schumer that's about american competitiveness against china everyone like it and the vote on the commission was supposed to happen right after that. instead, what we got was a lot of weird feetdragging from the senate and that got bumped back to june now that they'll have that vote and they finally got this vote on the commission yesterday and by that point, a lot of senators had skipped town. you saw that there were only 35 republicans who were there in the chamber to vote no on moving forward with debating this bill, and so the fact that -- >> i was going to ask about that. why did that happen? why did so many sit this one out? is there any chance, hayes, they did not want to go on record for this vote? >> entirely possible, but also senators hate being there on fridays. >> oh, come on. >> they have plans for memorial day weekend. >> i mean -- we're working. how much of it is strategy and how much of it is not caring and it's hard to tell sometimes,

they blocked this bill moving forward with 35 votes and that's bonkers that they can do this is the rules of the senate. >> we lissed to gladys sicknick. they didn't bother to feign interest, sympathy, and can you imagine the mother of a capitol hill police officer who died as a result of this insurrection, he had a stroke, died the next day. can you imagine their consciences as they are speaking to the mother of this fallen officer who was there to protect them and not even making her feel like they cared. >> no because they're looking forward to not the vote, but to next elections and the election after that, whenever they're up again and they're saying to themselves how do i not get primered in my race to stay in the senate for some reason even though they don't have much of a reason to be there, if they can't be there to take votes

like this, but they knew. the people who were able to leave town knew that their sticking around would not matter. even if all of the republicans had been there, everyone had been there, and they still, the folks would have been there to break the filibuster and you see disappointment for democrats like joe manchin who has been a strong defender of the filibuster. this may, in fact, wind up pushing him and kristin sinema and it may push them forward to changing this rule so that things will be done in the senate again and we'll see if that is enough for them. if schumer does push this and if he does put it back on the floor again, and they have another vote and another vote, and there are a lot of votes that will be filibustered and you have to wonder when is it going to be so

much that these holdouts and we have to find ten good republicans. the votes just aren't fair right now. what do republicans fear this r commission had it been established, would find out? >> i think their biggest fear is not that they would find out anything truly specific. i think that none of them -- i think very few of them are trying to hide what they themselves are personally complicit in. i think what mitch mcconnell told them and what john thune said aloud to reporters which is basically, this is bad for us for the midterms. any time that we are not talking about biden and how he's spending to much money and how bad his policies are and january and trump, and that's bad for us in the midterms. if this commission were to roll over into next january and into a midterm year that's what they were afraid of. they're afraid of the politics of this. when democrats, and the few republicans voted for it said no, we need this as a country

and this is not about your election and this is not about defeating you and this is about defeating the people who were taking over the capital. >> indeed, haze brown. thanks so much. have a good weekend. let's go now to new information in just a short time ago. the tsa is reporting its biggest air travel day during the pandemic, listen to this, screening more than $1.9 million passengers yesterday and the kickoff to memorial day weekend. nbc's blayne alexander is there with all. hello to you. >> hello to you from the nation's busiest airport that is starting to look like the nation's busiest airport in atlanta. the crowds are certainly coming back in a major way, but consider this, we are still in between the busiest days. the crowds will pick up even more on monday, but let's look at the numbers last year. they're the lowest on record when it comes to memorial day holiday travel, but now with nearly 40% of americans traveling, travel is bouncing

back in a big way. >> with vaccines ticking up, summer travel is officially taking off. >> 2020 was a really bad year and we're just looking for a break. >> an estimated 37 million people will travel this holiday weekend, up 60% from last year. >> i think we're fairly safe as long as we keep our masks on. >> as airports across the country, the crowds are coming back included in atlanta's hartsfield jackson's busiest. >> when was the last time we saw it this biz. >> it was christmas 2019 when we saw this many people here. >> from the start of last year's memorial day weekend to this year, a stunning difference. >> officials expect 1.5 million travellers to pass through between wednesday and monday, meaning that the days of breezing through shortened security lines during the pandemic are over. >> we want people to be here inside the airport and not driving around on the lots, but inside the airport two hours prior to their departure time and that will allow you to head on through and get through tsa

security line. >> while air travel is up this year, still a whopping 90% of travelers this weekend will go by car. >> traffic is ridiculous. i can't believe it, bumper to bumper. >> and many will be driving into high gas prices. this weekend they are topping $3, the highest national average since 2014. in chicago, where temperatures dipped into the 40s, high waves forced the lake front trail to close. along the north carolina coast, red flags are flying high warning beach goers of beach currents. in ohio, flooding closing a theme park and forcing some cars to stay off the road. >> and just a final tip for anybody who may still be getting ready to get that vacation under way. can't say it enough, plan ahead. rental cars are going very fast with more americans choosing to drive this year. so experts say do not show up without a reservation. alex? >> really good point thank you so much, blayne for that.

the tulsa massacre, it went unmentioned in textbooks. the family wealth for generations and my colleague tiffany cross will join me to tiffany cross will join me to talk about all of this next. ♪ it comes frothin. it drives you. and it guides you. to shine your brightest. ♪ as you charge ahead. illuminating the way forward. a light maker. recognizing that the impact you make comes from the energy you create. introducing the all-electric lyriq. lighting the way. ♪

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i joseph -- >> across that country. >> that is the poet earn america has always had. >> the change is around the

corner. >> do we know here, what type of vote we're looking at? this tulsa, oklahoma, are marking 100 years since the massacre and you are looking at the heritage parade in tulsa. in 1921 a white mob attacked the greenwood neighborhood known as the black wall street. they killed hundreds and displaced thousands in an event that would be one of the worst acts of racial violence in american history. joining me now from tulsa, as promised my friend tiffany cross

host of msnbc's "cross connection." thanks for doing o.t. here. i have to tell you, my friend. i watched your entire 11:00 hour and for anyone who missed it, i'm sorry you did, because you spoke with descendants of those that were killed in the massacre. they had such powerful perspectives of this. you spoke with caucasian descendants of slave owners. there was that one woman in hudson valley, new york, not tell us, but put it all together, and talk us to about what your takeaway is from those discussions. >> alex, i know some of those discussions are uneasy and we have to get comfortable in our discomfort because these are the types of conversations that will bring the country to be the america that so many people already think that america is, and you'll see behind me the parade is marching right past us rid now, and i want to be clear. this is not necessarily a

celebratory environment because there was devastation and violence that took place a hundred years ago today, but these are people celebrating the fact that their pain, their trauma is being acknowledged, and declaring the resiliency that they will still go on to continue to fight battles that are still out there to be won. we hemmed the past to the present. our voting rights are still under attack. economic oppression smil exists and numerous lynchings take place at the hands of law enforcement a hundred years ago and still continuing today, and it was very powerful to have these conversations and bridge what happened a hundred years ago today and thread that need toll how that still impacts so many black communities across this country, and i think it is really important to note that tulsa was not an anomaly in its construction or destruction. it was normal black life in america at that time and so many parts of that continue. so you can see the parades still continue and there are people declaring their story and speaking their truth and i think

that's what the special was about for me, alex, speaking an uncompromising truth and acknowledging what happened with us. >> do you get a sense, tiffany, that the people -- it's not celebratory. we hear the drums and it's somewhat upbeat with that, but it isn't a celebration. it is a commemoration. there is a difference. do you get the sense that the folks have any kind of relief or appreciation that we are having these discussions? is that part of it? does that bring some semblance of healing or at least a start to it? >> i do, you know, it's interesting because there have been a lot of people on the ground in tulsa that are remorseful. a lot of people that say i'm not a descendant, but i'm heart broken by what happened here. there are so many people who come as journalists sometimes when we are on the field, people think that by telling us their story that we can bring some sort of resolution, and there have been so many people here

willing to talk and grateful that there's some acknowledgement here and it's interesting that this conversation is happening at a time when critical race theory is under attack, nicole hannah jones 1619 project is under attack because people want to put this entire thing to bed, and i want to toss to a soundbite. i interviewed the descendants here, and i want to play some of what they said about their thoughts on restitution because they have specific ideas and that's an important part of the conversation, as well, so take a listen. >> justice can only come in the form of restitution, reparations and repair, triple "r" effect, right? there hasn't been any viable solution, right? we still have to get voting rights renewed. that's not even affirmative. we are looking for permanent, sustainable change and we're not going to get that through any other means, and it hasn't happened and it won't happen. >> for us as descendants, what

would our lives have been if we weren't robbed of our generational wealth? you know, i often sit back and ponder about that. i ponder about laurel strafford with her hotel, he could have been the hilton. he could have been the marriott and he could have been the hyatt. >> the last person you heard from, alex, dr. tiffany crutcher, her brother was terence crutcher. she's the twin sister. he was shot. the bookended by racial violence and institutional racism and white supremacy so people are still bearing the burden of so much about the country and again, we have to have these uncomfortable conversations to move us forward. so it's really been impactful for me, but i hope impactful for

the people who don't know about this and our fellow countrymen and our experience in this country, and i think that's what this is all about and one of those times when i feel privileged as a journalist at this network to have the honest conversations that we have now and the past two hours. >> it's been a very thoughtful, compassionate education, conversation and you've been the perfect professor, my friend. thank you for spending time on my show and safe travels home. >> msnbc's trymaine lee, speaking of professors, taking an in-depth look at what happened in the tulsa race massacre in blood on black wall street that will air on sunday night on msnbc and catch it on demand at peacock. by air, land and sea how americans are embracing life. are people as mindful about the pandemic as they are on the move?

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a new travel record as we bring you the coronavirus facts as we know it this hour. tsa reports that over 1.9 million travelers passed through checkpoints on friday and this is the first time since the pandemic hit since passenger volume hit that record in a single day. the showdown in the mask man dates. the governor repealing a prob prohibition put in place while he was out of governor. he calls her actions tyranny, and finally, the duchess of cambridge, kate middleton has revealed she received her first dose of the covid-19 vaccine yesterday writing on twitter she was hugely grateful to everyone who played a part in the rollout. as we chronicle life after lockdown we have nbc's shaquille brewster joining me in miami beach, florida.

memorial day travel to miami to break pandemic records. miami international airport expecting more daily travelers this holiday weekend than it saw during the entire pandemic, say what, shaq? i mean, you've been talking with local authorities there. they've got to have some kind of a plan to keep people safe. that's a lot of people. >> reporter: it is, alex. we've been talking about that aaa number. 37 million people expected to travel this weekend and they'll be traveling to places like this on south beach. take a look at the beach. a full beach, not only do you have people coming out and vacationing and you might hear a plane or two fly above as i'm doing this report and you mentioned the people coming into town and miami officials are expecting it and they're inviting people here because memorial day weekend, this beach was completely closed and they're doing vaccinations all along the beach. i spoke to the commissioner here in miami beach.

listen to what he told me about the vaccine pop-up right here at the beach. >> we're at the point now when we're trying to target that group of people that may be a little hesitant or maybe don't want to spend the time. so we want to make it very, very convenient for them. >> and this weekend it's right on the sand. >> it's right on the sand. last week i was on the sand looking out to the water, but over the last eight weeks we've been trying to target where we could get large groups of people and so that's why i wanted to be here. there will be hundreds and hundreds of people here today for the air and sea show and i'm hoping we'll find some people who want to take the time to get the vaccine. >> and we did see some people and we actually saw as we were walking by, was there a couple trying to get their son to get vaccinated now there was an opportunity to do so. just to give you a sense of how this city is coming back. >> the boats. >> that's not something that you have seen in a while. you have that full sea of boats there. people also taking in the show.

this air and sea show. they're taking it in from land. they're taking it in from the sea, and it's a beautiful day here, alex and it's just good to see people smiling again and people enjoying their memorial day weekend. >> to that point, i have to tell you, shaq, that put a smile on my face. that was a good segment and i'm sure the viewers appreciated it, too. let's go from florida to virginia and cal perry who is joining us from reagan national airport. they're calling it a carmageddon, right? how bad is this situation going to get this weekend? >>. >> i feel guilty now because i'll take where shaq left us and i'm going to bring us way down especially for those people who are traveling around looking for a rental car. look, the bottom line is this is emblematic of where we are as a country and where we are as an economy. they sell them annually and they replace the rental cars with new

cars, but this year there is a semiconductor shortage and so that is not possible. the economy is changing and we have a run on rental cars especially when it's warm out and take a look at what the points guy had to say about it. >> some locations are a lot worse than others. right now in hawaii, you're lucky to even get a car. also in march, 18 out of 20 top rental car markets had sold out vehicles. so if you're going to those places where people are headed like hawaii and the southeast, be prepared and book in advance and it may not hurt to have a second reservation at a nearby car rental just in case you show up and there's no car for you, but just make sure it's a refundable reservation. >> reporter: it's gotten so crazy that some car dealerships here around the united states are starting to rent their cars. the other thing i can tell you is there's a labor shortage with the car rentals themselves and i waited for three hours in a car a week ago in atlanta, alex,

because there was one person driving up to the lot after they've been cleaned. so leave yourself extra time this weekend. >> thanks for the bummer report, cal. that's all right. thank you. >> i know. what you need to know about the criminal investigation into the trump organization and the fault lines and a former d.a. insider will provide his expert insights for you next.

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weisselberg, former daughter-in-law of weisselberg. joining me now to discuss, adam kaufman, former assistant d.a. and chief of the investigation commission for the manhattan attorney and now partner. thank you, adam for joining me. you served 18 years in the d.a. office. you investigated white collar crime, asset tracing, corruption fraud and the like. so what does it mean to you, hearing about this step that the d.a. has taken? >> good morning, alex. thanks for having me on the show today. it's a big deal what's happened with the step that the district attorney has taken. it means that the evidence that the investigation has reached a point where they think there's a significant amount of evidence pointing to criminality. so many cases that come in as

white collar cases are fairly simple. someone embezzles, someone steals, someone defrauds investors and things like that can be very simple cases that are dealt with rapidly in the context of a regular grand jury. they're sort of meat and potato cases to take the step of empaneling a special grand jury which will hear evidence from one or two or three cases only and will sit for an extended period of time, six months or longer. that means that the prosecution has looked at this case and they think that as you might say, there's something there there and there's a reason to go forward presenting evidence. >> the jury will sit three days a week on this. when you say something there there with the end result of potentially indicting donald trump, is that a goal? >> so, you know, prosecutors follow the evidence. >> right. >> when they start this

investigation they're going through millions of documents. they're litigating famously the task returns which now they have. they've looked at the tax returns, they've looked at all sort of books and records. they've acquired from counterparties to the trump organization, government documents and they're looking to see if there are discrepancies in those documents and you know, you might find one or two discrepancy, and you might find one or two question mark, but at a certain point, if the evidence starts to grow and you're finding lots and lots of red flags, you start to think this is a case where it looks like there is some criminality and what we need to do now is start presenting this evidence and calling witnesses to appear before the grand jury to flush out what the documents say. >> so, adam, when you look at all of the information that has been publicly available at least, on this investigation, where is it that you see donald

trump might be legally exposed and you mentioned taxes. if you think that, is that part of the reason why the public was never privy to them? i mean, every other president would always show taxes and he always said you know, i'm being audited and i can't put it out there. is that a vulnerable spot for him, perhaps the most? >> it has to be. he did famously, he said he couldn't -- he couldn't turn over and disclose his taxes because he was audited, that he was going to do it, but his lawyers wouldn't let him. there were a million excuses why the taxes couldn't come out. some of them were leaked by the press and it showed he paid $750 in income tax. >> that was crazy. >> it seems that he did everything he could to prevent them from being -- produced. >> if the president were to say, former president donald trump, if he were to say i did not know.

i'm going to claim, you know, plausible deniablity. i left it to my money guys and a couple of problems with that and i want to see that you would agree, all indications that nothing ever happened without his knowledge. michael cohen tuesday on my broadcast, and in addition, if he didn't know then why -- why would he be hiding them? why would he say oh, i can't put them out there. is there any chance that he did not know what was going on with his taxes? >> you know, the real question is not is there any chance that he did not know, the question that the prosecutors will focus is whether there was evidence that he did know. so everyone can say everybody he knows -- you hear that a lot, but everybody knows it isn't evidence. so what the prosecutors need to do, and the reason that they have to empanel a grand jury is they have to start calling the witnesses and the people who

were in the room and the people who worked with donald trump on a daily basis, who will be able to say yes, the tax return says this, the valuations are one is high, one is low, and it was donald trump who caused that to happen, who knew it happened because otherwise, you're right. it's a giant, complex organization. there's lots of moving parts and famously, everyone says donald trump knew everything that happened there and you have to have witnesses to come here and say that. >> if you were the eada what kind of levers would you be reaching for at this point. >> i never heard the eada report. >> it sounds fancy. >> so you start calling witnesses before the grand jury and, you know, the people who could be very useful are the people who have no criminal exposure. it might be secretaries. it might be assistants. it might be people who were just

called in to attend a meeting and take notes. those people can be invaluable witnesses, former employees. the documents say what the documents say. you can't change what was recorded on the pieces of paper and now you have to explain the context of what's written down and who said that it should be written that way. >> so can i ask you very quickly? prosecuting a former president of the united states, do you have to double dot your "is" and double cross your "ts," how careful do you have to be? >> you really -- you really -- in this case, i've said it before i don't think you go after a case like this if it's nibbling around the edges of something, if there's an arcane sort of complex theory that you have to install to make the case. i don't think you do it. you have to really have a solid,

straightforward case that makes it clear that there was fraud, and not something that is -- that is overly complicated or not or difficult to prove. you want to be able to get up in front of the jury and say this man committed fraud. >> adam kaufman with the fancy title that i've bestowed on you, thank you very much for joining me. i look forward to seeing you. thank you. two controversial and outrageous republicans, they managed to outdo themselves with crazier comments. you might think they're on the gop fringe, but there's a new poll suggesting that fringe is growing and it's scary. details next.

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you know who we're talking about, marjorie taylor greene and matt gaetz saying this to a crowd in georgia as part of their america first tour. >> you know, nazis were the national socialist party just like the democrats are now a national socialist party. >> we have a second amendment in this country, and i think we have an obligation to use it. the second amendment is not about -- it's not about hunting. it's not about recreation. it's not about sports. the second amendment is about maintaining within the citizenry the ability to maintain an armed rebellion against the government if that becomes necessary. i hope it never does. >> joining me now, alencia johnson, former biden campaign senior adviser. adrienne elrod on the biden-harris campaign and susan del percio, republican strategist and msnbc political

analyst. ladies, let's get into this. adrienne, let's start with you. your thoughts on what we just heard. >> i just looked at myself in the screen and realized i had an odd-looking look on my face because it is so disgusting and dangerous. these are two, quote, unquote, members of congress who appealed to not just the worst of the republican base, but the worst of americans. these are the deplorables that hillary clinton spoke about and got in so much trouble for in a ridiculous manner in 2016. it is dangerous, alex, and it is scary that there are enough people for marjorie taylor greene for matt gaetz to draw crowds across the country when they go on these tours. you just look at the folks in that room and you know, it's scary to think about what they're reading and how easily, you know -- how easily they can be persuaded to support two very dangerous members of congress

who are espousing dangerous rhetoric. >> yeah. for sure. >> we have "the daily beast" which sums it up with this, everyone. the gaetz-greene traveling freak show is the future of the gop. susan, why these two? who do they help? is it about themselveses and their ability to fund raise? >> you also have two members there who are solely concerned about making themselves look like victims the same way donald trump did. the danger and what that article is focusing on is it's the survival of trumpism with the gop even more than donald trump, and it is about donald trump's current silence since he only has a blog that allows them to use that anger and that -- and channel that i hate them whoever you want to point to "them" is,

and that's what's really frightening. it's because these are the people that the party, the current republican party is putting up for primaries, and who can -- we can see win on the mayoral level, and on the statewide level and on the federal level. >> and here's in part why, because there's a new study out there week showing nearly one in five americans believe qanon conspiracy theories. you have 20% agreeing with the statement there is a storm coming soon that will sweep away the elites in power and restore the rightful leaders. another 15% agree that because things have gotten so far off track, true american patriots may have to resort to violence to save our country. alencia, what does this say about the state of our country. >> it is so scare they this rhetoric that is carrying donald trump's water that the minority rule to uphold this dangerous action and it's not just rhetoric. we know because of january 6th

what has happened when people continue to talk this way and unfortunately, several members of the senate didn't quite have the courage, because we're on daytime, to investigate what happened on january 6th. this is horrible and really scary what could potentially happen to not just our democracy, but to people's lives. people die when rhetoric like this continues. >> those comments from greene and gaetz come as the republican senators, we'll remind our viewers, voted to block a bipartisan commission to investigate the january 6th attack. it is proof that donald trump still has a grip and chuck schumer said it flat out. as republicans begin to enter races for the 2022 midterm elections more than eight in ten republicans say they would prefer to see someone who mostly agrees with donald trump, but overall a majority of americans

would prefer candidates running for elected office that don't agree with donald trump. what does it say about holding on to the house any senate in 2022. >> i think what you are seeing in the poll's findings is that the republican base continues to dwindle. it is held hostage by donald trump. republican voters, still a majority of voters support donald trump and that base is shrinking by the day. all you have to look at the returns in 2020 to see how many moderate republicans supported the biden-harris ticket and that number continues to grow. so the republican party is the party of donald trump. i give props to the liz cheneys and the adam kinzingers of the world that are trying to hold on to the conservative values that used to drive what the republican party stands for, but that is not what the republican party is today. >> do you, alencia, believe it

will be a vote for the fight for filibuster reform? >> it absolutely has to be. the filibuster has upheld so many bills that has changed the course of the everyday lives and it would give us the gun reform that we need and legislation, and at this point it would investigate the insurrection, and the domestic terrorist attack on the nation's capitol and that is not what the founders wanted. i believe this is a turning point and if democrats are smart, we will push forward legislation where we can win and we won't have to worry about the republicans win. >> he really misses being president and another that says when you question whether or not he is serious he get it is angry about it. >> of course he does because he knows he's not going to be running in 2024. he even alluded to it when he was on the tarmac leaving for florida on inauguration day. he basically said i'll be pretty

old by then, plus he may also be on trial during that time period, so it could be a very difficult time for him, but no, i don't see him running again. i think what he is looking to do is keep the field frozen so he can continue to raise money for his legal defense fund. >> there you go. >> susan del percio, adrienne elrod,allencia, i appreciate it. >> the republicans fear the teaching of the 1619 project so much so that they are putting money into new efforts to stop it. we'll tell you what new tactics they're trying and why they're so afraid in the next hour. ♪ birds flyin' high, you know how i feel. ♪ ♪ breeze drifting on by you know how i feel. ♪ ♪ it's a new dawn... ♪ if you've been taking copd sitting down, it's time to make a stand. start a new day with trelegy. no once-daily copd medicine has the power to treat copd

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>> a very good day to all of you from msnbc world headquarters in new york. welcome, everyone, to alex witt reports. the fallout is growing this weekend as republican senators faceac