130 charged with assaulting or interfering with police officers, 40 of whom are accused of doing so using weapons. while the january 6th attack on the capitol failed to prevent joe biden from being inaugurated, in a sense the insurrection continues with the insurrectionist former president reportedly obsessing over the sham arizona cyber ninja election audit, pushing to have similar audits conducted in other states that he lost including in pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin, new hampshire and georgia, and having this all serve as a con conduit to being restored to the presidency by august. two came away publicly pushing for a similar ninja audit in pennsylvania. i can't believe i'm saying these words. pennsylvania's attorney general josh shapiro told rachel maddow this last night. >> this is who the modern gop

is, certainly who the modern gop is here in pennsylvania. heck, one of the three people who went down there is the leading republican candidate for governor. these are folks who are dangerous. these are folks who are trying to undermine our democracy. if they were to go forward with this sham audit, they would have to go through me. they will not succeed, and they will be violating their oath of office and i believe also committing a very serious, unethical conduct. >> well, according to e-mails released by a watchdog group late yesterday, the republican president of the arizona senate, karen phan, who ordered the ridiculous cyber ninja audit reportedly told constituents she was in cahoots with trump's personal attorney, rudy giuliani, and that then president trump personally called and thanked her for, quote, pushing to prove any fraud, which is an interesting way to phrase it. speaking of rudy giuliani, in addition to making hour-long videos on ufos and schilling foam pillows, a federal judge

ordered a so-called special master, really an oversight watchdog with an imposing title, to review material seized from giuliani's home and office to review and say what can be used. the special master performed these duties three years ago in the michael cohen's investigation. "the new york times" reports that the manhattan district attorney's office subpoenaed jeffrey makani, the long-serving trump organization comptroller to testify before a grand jury. as one of the family business's top ranking executives, he is one of the handful of people to know the details of the organization's finances. someone else who knows the inner workers of the trump family better than most anymore, the trump organization's long-time cfo allen weisselberg is already under investigation by the new york attorney general. the trump organization itself is under investigation by the

new york attorney general in addition to the manhattan district attorney. joining me now former united states attorney joyce vance, an msnbc contributor. she didn't get a ton of sleep last night because she was on with me at 10:00 p.m. eastern. good to see you again. thank you for being up with me. i want to go back, i can't believe the number of times i talk about the cyber ninjas and these audits and fringe characters moving from state to state to find out how these are going to, would. it is one thing to joke about it, but now trump and sidney powell and others are saying he will be reinstated in august. when we laughed about it when donald trump talked about a fraudulent election in the middle of last year, it turns out that nearly overturned democracy. i'm concerned about the fact that this stuff, this big lie stuff seems to find its way into the institutions of state. >> we should be concerned, and i think you framed it just right. this notion that we laugh at it because it is laughable, but,

unfortunately, for too many of our fellow americans they've been lured by the big lie, and this is just round two or round three, whatever we are on at this point. we should all be deeply concerned about it. we need to stop treating it with any legitimacy. this is just more of trump's efforts to subvert democracy. >> what is this special master role, this person who -- the attorney, barbara jones, who has been empowered to go through the stuff that was seized from rudy giuliani's property, what is that about? >> in a situation like this, prosecutors both love and hate to have a special master. they hate it because it slows everything down. you have had a search, you have got all of these records, you are ready to go with your investigators and now you have to wait on the special master and that can take some period of time. here is why prosecutors love having a special master. her role is to make sure that

prosecutors don't see any evidence that could taint the prosecution. giuliani is an attorney. presumably some of his materials are entitled to the protection of attorney/client privilege, and if prosecutors or investigators should inadvertently see that material it could ultimately result in them being removed from the case. it could really damage the prosecution. so the special master will make sure that anything that is properly protected never sees the light of day with this team of prosecutors who are focused on investigating the case. ultimately, that's good for everybody and prosecutors are happy to have her independently making those calls on what they can and can't use. >> what a deliciously clear explanation. let's talk about makahni. he is the comptroller for the trump organization. a senior position, operating near the top of the organization, 35 years with donald trump. he has now been called before and testified before the grand

jury. what do we make of this. it is not a name we know. do we think he is culpable or something or he just has information that is helping the prosecution figure out if they have a case against allen weisselberg or trump or the trump organization? >> yes to all of the above. the comptroller of the company is always somebody you want to talk with when you are running an investigation like this because they handle day-to-day operations. they are likely to know a lot about compliance issues. this is really the mother load of information, particularly if you are trying to get allen weisselberg to make a decision. ultimately he has to look a prosecutor in the eye and make a final decision about whether as the long-time cfo for the trump organization he wants to be a witness or does he want to be a defendant. the question he will have to answer is whether he ultimately might want to take the fall for any kind of misconduct that prosecutors have uncovered or whether he's willing to tell

prosecutors who above him in the food chain was responsible for making the decisions. what makahni knows and can tell prosecutors, and he has now gone into the grand jury with no immunity. that means he can't submit the fifth amendment privilege to avoid testifying. he has to tell the truth. they can now sit down with weisselberg and say, here is what we have got, are you going to take the fall for everything or are you cooperating with us, too. >> i tell people they should follow you on twitter. you have lots of important stuff you tweet. you also tweet about chickens and dogs which is fun. but you stopped me in my tracks when you tweeted, i dare you to name one thing that smells better than cooking garlic and a mess of onions on top of the stove. i don't know what you were up to last night, but it smelled delicious. >> it was very good. it was actually ribeye steaks.

i owed my family big time. they were understanding and i was glad to cook for them. >> good to see you, my friend. joining me is nbc news presidential historian michael beschloss, the author of "presidents of war." michael, it is always a pleasure the see you. >> you too. >> as i said to joyce, i'm very concerned about the claims that donald trump is making, largely because when he says something and it catches on there are people in this country who are prepared, as we have seen on january 6th, to take up arms in defense of it. you tweeted yesterday, no one is being reinstated in august or at any other time. you are confident in this, but are you confident that people won't do something to try to make that reality -- make that fantasy a reality? >> oh, i think, ali, i think democracy is always in danger. it is particularly in danger in these times because there are groups in this country that would like to overthrow the elected government, the

presidency of joe biden for instance. we saw that on the 6th of january. that's why we have to have a commission on january 6th to investigate this because these groups are there. they're plotting against the government, but on the 6th of january there's every sign that the sitting president of the united states, at that time donald trump, abetted this, may have planned it, may have been in touch with leaders of it like the proud boys, may have turned over the powers of the executive branch to make sure that these people were not stopped, and the result could have been, as you know, an assassination or a hostage crisis or the suspension of joe biden's election. the difference is, of course, now we have joe biden as president. he's not on the side of these terrorists, donald trump was. so even though you have a president who is presumably trying to stop things like this from happening, these groups exist and you have got, by some polls as you well know, a majority of republicans telling some pollsters that they think that the election of joe biden

was a fraud, which is ridiculous. >> so we have this big lie operating on several levels, right. you have the rudy giuliani, my pillow guy, sidney powell, donald trump saying he will be reelected and these state officials traveling from state to state trying to figure out how to do audits in states where they were defeated. on the other hand you have president biden who does not seem to be getting involved in this, does not seem to be asserting himself on the january 6th commission or any of these things. as a presidential historian when you look back on this in 25 years and we talk about the way trump was agitating to get his supporters riled up, is biden doing the right thing? >> i think he should throw his weight on to the scales to make sure that some reputable commission investigates this, whether it is a commission that is appointed by the president or the congress or some other body

that is in general above suspicion, because we've got to know. did donald trump plan the 6th of january. did you have a president in bed with -- i was going to call them domestic terrorists, but we don't know if they were domestic or not. they could have been connected to foreign powers or foreign intelligence services. we don't know about this. it was the worst attack on our congress and our capitol since the british burned it in 1814. you know, you can't just have this enormous question mark. you need the government to zealously try to investigate what happened here and pursue the guilty and, most of all, assure us americans that this will never, ever happen again. >> is there some benefit though in what biden is attempting to do and obviously bring the temperature down on this for the sake of the country, for the sake of maybe one day everybody not being as polarized as they are right now? >> i think that's right and i'm all for it.

but at the same time one way to bring the temperature down is to bring people to justice and find out what crimes were committed and assure americans we don't have to wake up tomorrow morning and worry about the possibility that there's going to be another attack on our capitol or on the white house or on other federal installations. those questions are very much there. until we find out what happened on the 6th of january and how much president trump abetted that, may have planned it, was in touch with the people who carried it out, at least i'm going to be worried every single morning about the possibility we will see it again. >> michael, good to see you as always. thank you for joining us. michael besh love, a presidential historian, author of several books including "presidents of war," which i read last year and is a worthy read given the times we are in right now. as i coming up i will be

speaking to jocelyn benson about efforts to restrict voting in her state. also, a conversation with bill nye, "the science guy". keep it locked. this is ali very son, msnbc. ali. 's glad you came ♪ welcome back, america. it sure is good to see you. [ echoing ] some of us were born for this. to protect people. to help them save.

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another day, another trump ally under federal investigation. this time it is trump appointed post master general louis dejoy. it is confirmed that the agency is looking into him due to fundraising he did previously in the private sector. current and former employees were interviewed about political contributions involving his former business. it comes in the wake of a "washington post" report from last september that revealed how

employees of dejoy's former company, new breed logistics, were pressured to attend political fundraisers and donate to republican candidates and he later reimbursed them through bonuses. shortly after his appointment, he implemented cost cutting measures at u.s. postal service putting limits on trips creating bag backlogs in the country, changes that came just in time during the pandemic when mail-in ballots would be crucial, a move suspicious to many while trump was urging supporters to vote in-person. across the nation republicans are not only attempting to suppress the vote, but who remains in power. >> this really has to do with

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republican states attempting to rewrite voting laws are targeting more than just voter access. they're trying to change how elections are governed and who has the power. rewind to december 2020 for a moment. donald trump was busy attacking america's electoral process for not yielding the results he wanted specifically in georgia and other places. he attacked election officials for not overturning election results in his favor.

for not overturning results in his favor. georgia recounted its votes, twice, and found no evidence of a rigged election, which was the beginning of the big lie. georgia's republican secretary of state, again, georgia's republican secretary of state, this man, brad raffensperger, the state's chief election officer, pushed back against the president saying he stood behind the legitimacy of georgia's ballot count and recount results. since then state republicans passed a law removing the secretary of state from the state's election board and replaces he or she with a chair person appointed by the legislature. basically looking at the guy who stood up for integrity of the election results in 2020 and removing his power to do that again. it also gives the state elections board power to suspend county or municipal election workers. this institutional change that is trying to undermine democracy is not just happening in georgia. laws are being proposed and passed to restrict voting or

undermine election officials in arizona, in arkansas, in michigan, in pennsylvania, in texas. the list goes on. we are not in the land of simple peddling disinformation now. we are in a master class now. republican-controlled state legislatures are passing restrictions and punishing election officials to manufacture their preferred outcome. joining me, jocelyn benson, michigan's secretary of state, author of "state's secretaries of state, guardians of the democratic process." also with me kim wailie who wrote a book "what you need to know about voting and why." good morning to both of you. thank you for being with us. secretary bensen, i want to start with you. i was having what i thought was a normal conversation with somebody about these sham audits and recounts that are going on, and he said to me, but shouldn't we want to make sure the system is as safe as it can be? so i started studying instances of voter fraud in the 2020 election. i'm coming out with numbers like 0.002 in mail-in ballot fraud. here in pennsylvania, the

lieutenant governor here i think found five instances of trump people voting twice. the attorney general of texas put out a bounty for anybody that can find voter fraud and hasn't been able to pay out the bounty right now. we are not just solving a problem that doesn't exist as you said before, but we are convincing people this problem is existential to democracy. >> truly. your friend is right. we should do everything we can do to protect the security of the process, and that's why actually fighting back against these efforts to dismantle democracy is just that. because here in michigan we conducted, as you know, over 50 audits that were transparent. some was even live streamed, bipartisan oversight, officials following security protocols. sure, there were actually procedures in place to root out fraud and seek justice against it when it happens. all of those procedures we've already got in place. all of those procedures for fair

audits we have in place in michigan. they've simply affirmed the security and accuracy of the 2020 election and every other election we've had, but i also add that's also what is really pernicious about this new strain of the big lie, let's call it, where it is this -- as you mentioned, this removal of facts and data and evidence from the discussion. the fact that even though there was extraordinary scrutiny, as you mentioned, over the 2020 election that found no evidence of widespread fraud, i think we can rest assured therefore there wasn't any evidence of widespread fraud. that said, the strain of the big lie that is convincing or trying to convince people that somehow it is out there, and then use that suspicion to then change the rules of the game or justify changing the rules of the game in a way that will actually hurt our ability to keep our elections secure, that's the ultimate irony of all of this but also one of the biggest challenges that we've got to take on right now. >> kim, i was just talking to

michael beschloss about this. he is a steady hand. he is a presidential historian and he was diss quieted by this idea. you tweeted an article the other day about the gop's march toward authoritarianism. what is happening is what the sent of state is talking about, there's some level of valid concern about making sure there's zero fraud, and you combine it with the big lie and now places like texas are imposing laws that are not actually about solving the problem. they're not actually going to result in any less fraud. they are simply going to result in making it harder for people who have a constitutional right to vote to actually carry out that franchise. >> right. ali, this scarce people when i saw this but i think we are one election away from the end of american democracy. it is not just because of voter access laws which we're seeing hundreds across the country in 48 states that are proposed, 22 already passed, that has limits on ballot access, mail-in ballot, drop boxes, id requirements, but we are also seeing, number two, laws that

are empowering what are called poll watchers, which is really historically in the '80s there was an order against the republican party doing this, bullying voters, bullying election officials. the third piece is some of the laws are penalizing criminally or with huge fines election officials for doing their job, for leaving a ballot box open for too long or sending a mail-in ballot to someone who does not request it. i don't know who is going to show up for the really important jobs to make our elections function if they're going to be criminalized for doing their jobs. the fourth piece, as you mentioned, is changing, moving decisions around how to count it state by state, from career officials to politicians. and then the last piece is another january 6th, and this is why the mid terms are so important. if we -- we saw multiple, hundreds of republicans refuse to certify an election win for joe biden. that is essentially saying we are not going to pay attention to the vote, the popular vote. we are going to pick the

president, and this big lie is setting it up for january 2025 saying, listen, i don't care if joe biden or a democratic nominee was chosen by the people, we're going to pick the election because of the big lie. this is a shift away from government by we, the people, to government by we, the powerful. unfortunately, without doing something about the counting in january, i don't even know if like a huge vote turn out is going to save this election. this is a dire, dire moment. we need to make sure that the republicans in congress frankly can't control it the next round, and there's no legislation in this moment, hr-1, hr-4 does not address that problem with the electoral count that dates back to the 1800s. >> so the two of you are actual experts on this. you have actually written books about it. secretary, this is your job. you confronted this. there were some issues in michigan with some people not

wanting to certify ballots and they suggested they wanted audits and recounts and you said, bring it. i know we ran a safe election so we're happy to do this. you two are the experts. secretary benson, what do you do about this problem? how do we fight this? can this only be fought in the state legislatures where in some cases republicans are -- democrats are in the majority. they walked out in texas to stop the vote, but it can only last so long. >> we can only get through this attack on democracy, but it is an all-hands-on-deck moment. we must prioritize and make saving democracy the most important issue on all of our agendas. also, what gives me hope in addition to that priority is the fact that, number one, the truth is on our side. we can't forget that. we can't allow misinformation to even begin to define reality for the majority of people in our country, and keep reminding

people not just of the safety and security of the election but also that their vote counted. that's really what this is all about. people want to believe in democracy. people want to believe that regardless of what side of the aisle they're on that the election was an accurate reflection of the will of the people, and it was in 2020 and it will be in the future. so we can't let go of that. we need to continue highlighting that. i will just say the other thing, and we have talked about the way in which there's efforts to use a minority approach in michigan to overturn some of our security protocols and change election policies. that just underscores that the people, the majority of people in this country want democracy to work. if we work with them and engage them, and if they stay vigilant, folks on both sides of the aisle demand that democracy prevail, we can get through this but it is going to take all of us working together, using every tool at our disposal to ensure that it does. >> that means people who don't think their vote is threatened. that means people who find it

very easy to vote and think it is about someone else. it is not. once they start putting, you know, impediments in the way of voting it will come for you, too. thanks to both of you for the efforts you are putting into this. jocelyn ben sit, author of "state secretaries of state." kim whaley is former assistant u.s. attorney and author of "what you need to know about voting and why." thank you for being here this morning. until the rest of the world is on the other side of the pandemic, the nation remains vulnerable. that's next. vulnerable that's next. a home. he found it in a boy with special needs, who also needed him. as part of our love promise, subaru and our retailers host adoption events and have donated 28 million dollars to support local animal shelters. we're proud to have helped over 230,000 pets so far... changing the lives of dogs like jack, and the families who adopt them. subaru. more than a car company.

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we have some breaking news as it relates to treasury secretary janet yellen's recent push for a global minimum tax. from a g7 in london she wrote, the g7 finance ministers have made a significant, unprecedented commitment today that provides tremendous momentum toward achieving a robust global minimum tax at a rate of at least 15%. yellen is pushing for a minimum tax rate for corporations of 15% as a way to end what she calls the, quote, race to the bottom. establishing a minimum corporate tax rate could help dissuade companies from shifting their profit to countries where they pay last tax. the biden administration says it will send out the first tranche of 25 million vaccine doses to other countries in the coming weeks. that millions of shots heading

to asia and south america and africa. it is worth remembering that 3.7 million people across the globe have died from covid-19 and much of the international community is still struggling. to joe biden's point, quote, as long as this pandemic is raging anywhere in the world the american people will still be vulnerable. let's take a quick look at peru which now has the worst death rate per capita of any country in the world. according to johns hopkins, more than 500 have died per 100,000 people. earlier this week peru's covid death toll nearly tripled literally overnight following the government-reviewed accounting of the deaths. officials attribute the error to a lack of testing that made it difficult to determine whether a person died from covid or from another illness. in africa, the world health organization is warning another potential wave of covid could overtake the entire continent. cases are rapidly rising in african countries but many health care facilities are unable to adequately handle a spike in severely ill patients. japan is pushing ahead with the

2021 olympics this summer despite grappling with a coronavirus crisis of its own. the government just extended the state of emergency to june 20th in some places, barely a month before the games begin. 15,000 athletes from 200 countries are ebbs pebted to arrive in tokyo next month, yet only 3% of the population has been vaccinated. that is a huge risk for everyone involved. we've talked a lot over the past year about achieving herd immunity, but none of that will be possible if the rest of the world is in the throes of a continued covid catastrophe. while it is greats americans can finally hug family, sit in an actual bar for a beer or go maskless in some places, it is worth remembering we have a long way to go in this battle and it is going to take a cohesive global effort to be victorious. turning to the nfl where the league has taken a step to drop a racist policy that made it difficult for players to get compensated for brain injuries. tiffany cross joins me now.

tiffany, it took a long time. >> yes, this policy is garbage and beyond offensive. basically this assumes that black players have a lower cognitive function and therefore may not be eligible for compensation for brain injuries. it adds to the nfl's long track record of institutional racism. i will be talking with one of my favorite people to talk sports with, jemele hill. we will discuss the continuing reaction to naomi osaka's decision to withdraw from the french open to protect her mental health. nothing wrong with that. i'm excited to her jemele's perspective. we have to talk about politics. i'm sad to say that donald trump's return to the political stage is tonight. of course, he will be peddling the big lie of voter fraud and who knows what else. lots of stories to discuss, ali. coming up next on "the cross connection." >> who knows? i can't believe that you just said, you know, the assumption

that black people had lower cognitive function and we're discussing this in 2021. i would have thought that would have been out of date in 1921 let alone 1821. that is amazing, but i'm glad you are having the conversation, friend. >> thank you. and it is kind of ridiculous because it comes on the heels of how they treated colin kaepernick. people were mad about that. this shows there was always a problem with the institution itself. absolutely ali. >> yeah. look forward to it. be sure to catch "the cross connection" coming up at 10:00 a.m. eastern on msnbc. one archaic rule standing between congress and the democratic process. coming up next, why the phil buster is sparking a five-alarm fire on capitol hill. more "velshi" coming your way. m.

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yeah i should've just led with that... with at&t business... you can pick the best plan for each employee and only pay for the features they need. it has come down to the filibuster versus democracy because republicans can and do block any and all legislation from moving forward with a minority vote. nothing is getting done, not police reform, not a jobs bill, not crucial voting rights protections, and now in a new letter sent to senate majority leader chuck schumer more than 100 groups including march for our lives are urging senate democrats to abolish the filibuster because of republican's inability to defend our democracy. this is truly a five-alarm fire. democrats have to make the choice, are they going to protect the filibuster or voting rights. the letter targets republicans,

but also man chin and cinema. cinema said the best way to fix things is by changing your rules, not to eliminate our change the rules. man chin said he is holding out for, quote, ten good people. that means ten republicans to vote along with democrats to reach the 60-vote super majority needed to overcome the filibuster. senate democrats hold a sliver of the majority since the 2020 election, but for now it appears republicans are getting everything they want as if they were in the majority. my next guest writes, quote, preserving the filibuster gives the republicans no incentive to negotiate. the republican party is focused on the long-term project to ensure its hold on power and ensure its ideologic policies take precedence. he is author of the book "the cruelty is the point." it will be released at the end of the month and, adam, we look forward to talking to you about that as well. but let's talk about this in

particular. how do you articulate the problem with the filibuster which people like cinema and man chin say, it is just a rule, everybody can use the rule in the same way. your argument is that right now it is not a lull. because of things the republicans have done in the electorate, it is a way to prevent progressive legislation from going forward or guaranteeing that conservative legislation does. >> well, it is a rule, but it is a rule that can be changed. it is not in the constitution. the founders never intended for there to be a super majority requirement in the senate. the senate itself is a countermajorian institution. the issue is that the republicans are changing the voting rules in the state so as to restrict the electorate to be more republican friendly. they are trying to deprive democratic leading constituencies of the franchise. it is a more egregious violation of the rules than simply saying the senate should no longer have a super majority requirement, which is within the senate rules to change. i think the likelihood is that

cinema and manchin are taking the heat for a number of other democratic senators who also don't want to eliminate the filibuster but represent more liberal states. so, you know, don't want to publicly say-so. i don't know if there were 48 democratic votes for eliminating the filibuster, whether manchin and cinema would be willing to overturn it, but i think the truth is if they don't do it and the republican restrictions work you will have to see the democrats move, you know, significantly to the right to be able to stay competitive in these states, and it is not even clear to me that that will work. >> so a lot of progressives focus on cinema and manchin as the people who should get your attention, protests and phone calls to change this. is your argument that there's more out there than cinema and manchin, who are using cinema and manchin as cover for not having to vote on this matter, getting rid of the filibuster? >> i think that's what the

reporting has suggested, but i think it is also possible that cinema and manchin simply don't think it would be such a bad outcome if the democrats had to move to the right. obviously they're to the right side of the democratic caucus, and because of urban/rural polarization it is very hard, it is hard for democrats to win a majority in the senate. it is one of the reasons why the democrat's majority in the senate is as slim as it is. it is possible that they also think it wouldn't be so bad if the democratic party had to move right significantly from where it is right now. >> so what's the solution to this problem? because there are things in the senate that could have -- before the senate that could bipartisan support. so if biden wanted $15 minimum wage, tom cotton suggested $10 minimum wage. police reform, some matters are not settled but there seems to be some bipartisanship on that.

even the infrastructure bill, which is not going anywhere at the moment, there are still ongoing negotiations. without this problem fixed nobody has real incentive to negotiate. >> that's right. i mean, look, if you are a republican and you know that you can block the bill, there's no reason for you to negotiate on its contents. but if there is no filibuster and you are a democrat and you want bipartisan cover for what you want to do, you would still negotiate even without the filibuster because you want to get a couple of republican votes so you can tell your constituents, you know, it was a big bipartisan bill. on the other hand, voters tend not to reward politicians for trying really hard to be bipartisan and failing. you know, if they simply cannot get this stuff done, then they're going to have to face the voters with empty hands. they're not going to care about, you know, whatever senate technicality prevented the democrats from making people's lives better. >> and therein lies the rub. adam, good to see you as always. thanks for your great writer.

>> thank you. >> adam is author of "cruelty is the point, the past, present and future of trump's america." out at the end of june. it has been one of the more tantalizing stories in recent months. the government is serious about ufos. in a report expected to be released later this month, intelligence officials say they cannot link this footage of a phenomenon witnessed by navy pilots or deny a link. so as we ponder the existence of extra terrestrial life, who better to ask than bill nye. you know him as "the science guy". the famed science educator joins us to talk climate change, biden's climate agenda and the existence of life beyond earth. you are watching "velshi" on msnbc. ♪ ♪ then we're eating grilled cheese. ♪ ♪ because it's time. ♪ ♪ yeah. ♪ ♪ time for grilled cheese. ♪

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write down phone numbers for your parents, siblings and neighbors. pick a place to meet your family if you are not together and can't go home. remind your parents to pack an emergency supply kit. making a plan might feel like homework, but it will help you and your family stay safe during an emergency. president biden's department of the interior has suspended

the oil and gas drilling leases in the arctic national wildlife refuge known by anwar. biden reversed the decision on day one but deb haaland officially halted activities pending a comprehensive analysis to determine the impact and legal analysis. this is home to migrating carry bow, polar bears and waterfowl. and while it is the nation's last true winter wilderness, it's warming twice as fast as any other region on the earth because of climate change. just two weeks before leaving office the former president auctioned off the rights to drill. the auction drew little interest from major energy companies now focused more on renewable energy. joining me is bill nye. you know him as the science guy. bill is the author of bill nye's great big world of science and this tuesday he will testify at a house homeland security committee hearing on climate

change and its threat to u.s. homeland security. let's start with the arctic national wildlife refuge. good to see you. thank you for being with us. tell our viewers why this is an important move by the biden administration? >> well, the more oil and gas we continue to extract, the more we're going to be making green house gas emissions. so it's just fundamental. the less drilling we do, the better. the sooner we wean ourselves from these energy sources, the better. now the other big problem is the biodiversity. this is a unique ecosystem with species that don't exist anyplace else and so whenever you disturb them, disturb their migration patterns, their population is going to go down. you don't want that. so it's bad in two ways. stopping it is good in two ways. man, i'm the first to admit, we

have gotten this far by burning oil and gas and coal, fossil fuels. we have to cut it out. we have to stop. the sooner the better. >> yeah, that's gone from being a -- sort of an out there idea that we can actually stop as opposed to reduce into being something fairly mainstream. i think the pandemic brought that to life, the idea when we stop for a little while back last march and last april, the air cleaned up. lots of things changed. we do have that impact. for people who say humans don't have an impact on the warming of the globe and the polluting of the air, we proved it in 2020 we have a big impact on it. >> oh, heavens yes. keep in mind, pollution is tricky. carbon monoxide is not a pollute tant in the same way hydrogen sulfide is.

it's the speed the world is getting warmer that's the key and we've got to cut it out. i know. i know. we've gotten this far burning fossil fuels. we can't do it anymore. >> bill, what are you talking to the u.s. congress about? you're testifying before the homeland security committee about a threat from climate change to homeland security? >> yes. i am very much looking forward to this. i worked hard on my testimony, getting it crisp. just that we're having the hearing, that's the news. just that people are taking climate change seriously to address it as a security issue. so everybody, what happened in texas a few weeks ago where the whole grid shut down and people were killed by the cold, that was really bad. that was bad, but if that were to happen at the same time there was a russian hack on the colonial pipeline, that could be really bad.

if there were this cold snap, a russian hack and then a big storm, that would be really, really bad. so the department of homeland security is taking this -- these sorts of threats seriously. and the analogy i give everybody is commercial airliner. the only thing that goes wrong with a commercial airliner is when several things go wrong at the same time and almost always one of those things was bad maintenance. that is to say, they took off with a problem to start with and then things got worse. that's why commercial airliners are so crazy safe. a million times safer than driving. so anyway, these are important. that the hearing is being held is enormous news and i'm honored to be asked to testify. >> by the way, the u.s. military is one of the few organizations that actually believes in climate science and takes it seriously because they understand the consequences to their deployments, naval bases and things like that.

speaking about military, i'm not chiming in here about the existence of ufos or not the existence of ufos. they say a couple of things that navy pilots have seen, they're not saying that it is or it isn't a ufo. they're saying they can't necessarily explain it. it's not one of theirs. the pessimist in me, the skeptic in me says the military doesn't tell us everything they know anyway. >> so, look, everybody, i'm a mechanical engineer. i had security clearance for a little while on a fighter plane that was called the a-12 avenger. the flying taco. it never got built or did it? i'll tell you guys fundamentally, the air force research lab does not tell the naval research lab what they're doing. and the nsa doesn't tell anybody anything.

if you guys want to look historically at the clementine space -- lunar mission that flew to the moon, that was a repurposed spy satellite. somebody at the nsa, this will be fun. nro, national reconnaissance office. yeah, cool. in other words, they don't tell ee spligs -- with respect, they don't tell young navy pilots what they're up to. they just don't and i worked with people who went to green lake, the famous area 51. this is fun. what i don't -- why don't they, why do they not paint spy planes light blue so they would match the sky? why don't they do that? they do do that. >> so you think this is a ufo? what do you think this is? are you implying you believe this might be u.s. military equipment? >> yeah. or u.s. intelligence services.

absolutely. you guys, no one thought of aliens. no one worried about aliens until sort of world war i when people were dropping bombs from airplanes, a very traumatic thing. that's when threats from the sky became real. before that in the civil war, 1880s, no one was concerned about the aliens. science fiction hadn't been created. if you can't explain it must be an alien civilization. we are not using critical thinking skills. come on. however, there are -- >> bill, good to see you. >> there are 200 billion galaxies. there has to be somebody out there. carry on. >> bill, you've got me thinking of tacos now and it's 10:00 in the morning. bill nye, the science guy.

bill, good luck on tuesday at the hearing. we'll be listening closely. that does it for me. thank you for watching. catch me back here tomorrow at 8 a.m. eastern. in the meantime, don't go anywhere, "the cross connection with tiffany cross" starts right now. this really has to do with the basic rules by which we all have agreed to keep this diverse multi-racial democracy functioning. are we going to stick to those rules or are we going to start rigging the game in a way that breaks it? and that's not going to be good for business. not to mention not good for our soul. >> the game is already rigged. good morning, everybody. we have a lot to cover this morning on "the cross