hi there, everyone. it's 4:00 in the east. a vote in the house clearing the way for legislation to investigate the insurrection at the united states capitol by trump supporters. that legislation passing its final procedural hurdle ahead of tomorrow's vote among the now hardened obstruction from republicans after dispatching gop congressman john katko to first negotiate the terms of a bipartisan commission in which katko achieved everything the republicans initially wanted, kevin mccarthy flipped on his own member and has been frantically pushing a purge of his own leadership ranks of truth tellers like liz cheney and an obstruction campaign to thwart any investigations into january 6th, including his conversations with the ex-president, something liz cheney thinks he should testify about. the question of the hour today, will speaker pelosi tap cheney

or any of the republicans who voted for the commission to her select committee? politico has some new reporting on what they call pelosi's curveball. speaker nancy pelosi surprised washington when her office announced monday that she was open to appointing a republican to fill one of her party's spots on the select committee to investigate january 6th. a pelosi-appointed republican would make it harder for gop leaders to attack the panel's investigation as a partisan witch hunt. if democrats decide to subpoena house minority leader, kevin mccarthy, for instance, they'll be able to portray the move as bipartisan. the one variable, republicans blocking the commission seem not to have considered is the horror being revealed by the ongoing investigation into the insurrectionists themselves. the crimes that republicans don't want probed are heinous and directly in line with calls to attack our democracy and to treat reporter as the enemy of the people by the ex-president. "the washington post" reporting of one such insurrectionist who,

according to prosecutors, claimed, quote, i did what needed to be done. from that new reporting, quote, when a group of men who stormed the capitol on january 6th pushed a "new york times" photographer to the ground and ran away with her camera as she described for help, sandy palm roy wire stood still while she broadcast the assault and theft on facebook live, prosecutors said. she would later yell for the photographer to be maced while continuing to record. according to documents. wire is now facing multiple charges over her alleged participation in the riot according to a criminal complaint unsealed yesterday in federal court. the horrors of january 6 and the gop's ongoing commitment to covering them up as speaker pelosi moves forward with an investigation is where we start with some of our favorite reporters an friends. donna edwards is here. charlie sykes, editor of the bulwark joins us and luke

broadwater is back, "new york times" congressional reporter. luke, we start with you. tell us about what is taking shape, the latest on what the select committee will look like and where those conversations are about appointing a republican. >> well, a lot is in flux right now. i've been talking with both some of the top democrats and some of the top republicans today. speaker pelosi is holding some of her cards pretty close to her chest right now. a lot of the top democrats are sort of jockeying as to who might be on the committee and who won't be. that's still really up in the air right now. we do know she's been meeting with some of the committees of jurisdiction here. there are about five congressional committees that have some role to play in this investigation or have been investigating thus far. and it's sort of ironing out who will take what as this moves forward. obviously there's a lot of interest in the unanswered questions from january 6th,

including what motivated the rioters, what were conversations like with president trump that day. there are still lots of unanswered questions about who planted the explosives by the dnc and the rnc that capitol police say got their attention. so we're expecting this vote tomorrow, but i don't think we'll know for sure who's going to be the picks on this committee just yet. >> i want to read from some of your reporting, luke, about very public stakeholders. i don't know at the time that people would have expected the officers themselves to be so disillusioned with how political the republicans became almost right away. but let me read some of you write about officer fanone. he said that the republican strategy appeared to be to try to make the public forget about the attack, as the party looked to retake the house in next

year's midterm elections. quote, when you're that obsessed with gaining power that you're willing to trample over a bunch of police officers, that is sickening, he said in an interview. what do the victims who really, you know, their bodies were mute -- mutilated, their eyes were poked, they were beaten with flag poles, what do they think that the speaker is about to appoint a select committee? >> well, it's interesting you mentioned that meeting. it was kind of an extraordinary meeting with officer fanone and officer harry dunn. the mother of brian sicknick who tragically died after the attack. in that meeting, which i'm told was an incredibly emotional meeting on the part of the officers, speaker -- i'm sorry, leader mccarthy told the officers, according to the

officers, that he would take the select committee seriously. now, that's a pledge that they told us reporters afterwards that he made. i haven't confirmed that with mccarthy's office. they haven't answered my questions about whether he did in fact say that. but that's something a lot of the officers want to hear. they want to see serious people on this committee, not right-wing bomb throwers who are just looking to stir things up or create a whole lot of conflict. i don't think they want to see bomb throwers from either side. they want to see serious people who want to get to the bottom of what happened and get some real answers. >> you know, donna edwards, that feels significant, luke reporting that kevin mccarthy has committed to appointing, quote, serious people. who would that rule out in your view, donna edwards? >> well, it would certainly rule out the most vocal of the insurrection crowd, and that would of course be marjorie

taylor greene, lauren boebert, biggs from arizona, gozar. there are a long list of republicans that really should not be on this committee. if kevin mccarthy is going to be a man of his word having committed both to the mom and to these officers, then there are plenty of serious republicans who will do, you know, the investigative work that's necessary. and i think that he should in fact -- mccarthy should follow pelosi's lead. i fully expect that pelosi isn't going to choose the people that we see on our air all the time and officers who are front and center. she's going to choose serious legislators who are able to do investigations and will hold that investigation closely and get to the truth. i mean we wouldn't even be in this position if republicans in the senate had simply passed the

legislation that would create an independent commission. the reason that we are here now, the reason that this process faces accusations which i think are inaccurate from republicans, is because of the failure of the leadership of the republican party. this is squarely in their hands, and so i think that a commission with members if they're serious on the republican side and the democratic side are simply going to be there to seek the truth. >> charlie, it's really gross. to donna's point, it's gross that we're here. 35, i think, republicans in the house voted for the commission. there were bipartisan votes to impeach donald trump, bipartisan votes to convict him for his role in inciting the insurrection, a bipartisan group of house members voted to form the commission, and then mccarthy and mcconnell went about whipping up obstruction to the legislation. what do you think the role would

be of the kind of republican, the truth teller, and there are only a couple to choose from, liz cheney, adam kinzinger, if pelosi were to go that route and pick a republican for the select committee as one of her choices? >> well, we need to be realistic and understand that republicans will accuse them of having a partisan witch hunt no matter what she does. having said that, it would be a smart and a savvy move for nancy pelosi to name liz cheney to this, because liz cheney would be a forceful voice on this commission and would blunt -- i mean it won't stop them from making the accusation, but it certainly blunts the accusation, particularly when they begin going through the testimony and they try to subpoena kevin mccarthy. so i certainly hope that she thinks about that. i also have very little confidence that kevin mccarthy is in fact going to take this seriously, as he reportedly told the police officers.

i see that matt gaetz is already making noises that he would love to be on this. i don't think that he's going to be on it, but i certainly hope that nancy pelosi takes this opportunity to put one or more republicans, probably not realistic to think more, but liz cheney would be the perfect choice. i hope that other democrats see that. you know, what i think is perfectly obvious, though, is that the republicans just simply do not want an investigation to january 6th. they are deeply committed to memory holing this. they do not want the questions asked about who was behind this, what actually happened, why did people use the american flag to beat up police officers? they want to move on, they say. they want to talk about something else. and for them, it's all about the midterm elections. so it is -- the weight of actually running this committee and getting the facts will fall on the people that nancy pelosi

appoints. >> let me push back with all the respect in the world, charlie sykes. i'm not sure the midterm election calculation is a good one. they are now going to do whatever they're going to do with the optics of police officers who paid with bodily harm against them. and in defiance of this guy, let me play general milley and his interest in getting to the bottom of this. >> i want to understand white rage, and i'm white. and i want to understand it. so what is it that caused thousands of people to assault this building and try to overturn the constitution of the united states of america, what caused that? i want to find that out. i've read mao zedong, i've read karl marx, i've read lenin. that doesn't make me a communist. so what is wrong with understanding, having some situational understanding about the country for which we are here to defend. and i personally finding it offensive that we are accusing

the united states military, our general officers, our noncommissioned officers are being quote, woke, or something else because we're studying some theories that are out there. >> so, charlie, if i'm nancy pelosi i put kinzinger and cheney on and say i'm doing it for the military and for law enforcement, because the top military leader in this country, he wants to understand white rage. he wants to understand why thousands of people stormed that building and law enforcement officers who paid with their bodies, who paid with their lives, they want to understand too. if i were nancy pelosi i'd call their bluff on the politics of the midterm. >> oh, i completely agree with you. in fact i would play those cards very, very hard. flip the script on the republicans. this is for the military. we are the ones that back the blue. we are the ones supporting the police officers. we are the ones deeply offended at the desecration of the american flag by people who used it as a weapon. you look at the republicans today or the right-wing media, how much more offended they are by an olympic athlete turning

her back on the flag than they are by the fact that the american flag was used to beat up police officers on january 6th. so, yes, i completely agree with you. and i think this is important that nancy pelosi says this is a patriotic duty. this is something that we do because we love the constitution, because we believe in law and order and because we back the blue. i think that would be immensely strengthened if she were to put liz cheney and adam kinzinger on this committee. >> luke, i know you follow the facts as a reporter, i'm not going to ask you to speculate on the likelihood of her doing that unless you want to but i want to read some analysis from the washington post because you've been ahead of this story about some associations and public appearances between some house republicans and folks who now after many months of investigation have been ensnared in the investigation and prosecution of the insurrection. this is from greg sergeant. tellingly after defining january

6th as domestic terrorism and domestic violent extremism, the bill also quotes the fbi director testifying that the biggest driver of such extremism is racially motivated with white supremacist ideology representing a subset of that. in other words, the commission is charged with treating the insurrection as an outgrowth of a longer running series of threats to democracy posed by various movements and ideologies and office racially motivated and white supremacist violence as a key component of that threat. this should open the door for a robust debate over white rage and democracy. at the very same time, luke, you've got some members doubling down on those associations and obviously the constitution protects association and speech. but again, doubling down on these politics that it's going to be a winner to be hanging out at the intersection of domestic violent extremism and racism. >> yeah. you're right to bring up that

angle because that's exactly what speaker pelosi said this committee would investigate. not just the security failures, which do deserve to be investigated, but also what's prompting this in america. was it just the rallies that donald trump was having or is there something deeper and darker and longer standing than that that's been building for years? and we saw just today, the questions on the hill today for whip scalise were about congressman gosar promoting a meeting with a group that's associated with white nationalists. so you have these questions that are being asked of steve scalise right now. he said he wasn't totally familiar with that and would look into it. but you have this element in some parts of the republican party which were clearly on display on january 6th. and what many people were asking

for, including the top democrats that are pushing for this committee, is to get to the very root of that so it can be rooted out as the congress moves forward. >> and i guess, donna, when you put it that plainly, why are they against uncovering that? why are they for protecting insurrectionists at the very rot of our society, at the rot of racism and domestic violent extremism? >> because at the end of the day they expose themselves. they expose part of the voting base of the republican party. and i think that they really have to ask themselves whether they are patriots are not. that's really what this comes down to. and i suspect that in addition to looking at the security failures, it's important to understand the root and the

causes because they're an important set of policy implications from that regarding law enforcement, regarding federal investigation, and regarding our institutions. so there's a lot to get to the bottom of and this is the reason that i'm glad that the speaker is not suggesting an end date to the investigation because you can't put an end date on something that you don't even know how it started. >> because you have served in this body, donna, i'm going to put you on the spot. who would you advise -- we've now watch the ex-president impeached twice. we have some sense of how people ask questions. we have some sense of their investigative skills because we've watched it over the last four years. who would you like to see in both parties on a select committee, donna? >> well, i'm not going to answer that question, but what i will say, nicolle, is there are

members of congress many of us don't see every day that have strong investigative skills. they ask probing questions, no matter what committees they sit on. and i think that the speaker knows her caucus really well. she doesn't want grandstanders, she really wants to find members there, and i know a number of them, who will serve, who will do their work diligently and who won't be seeking the camera attention but really will be seeking the truth. >> charlie, it strikes me that republicans may rue the day that they killed the bipartisan commission that they negotiated. they sent congressman katko out as i mentioned at the top of the show. he got everything that they wanted. joint subpoena power, joint representation, outside of congress. there's now going to be a select committee. the history there obviously more

recently is ben gauzy. there's history with watergate. do you think they're going to regret the way they conducted themselves here? >> i think they might. let's take a step back and think about why is this even controversial? everyone acknowledged that we were going to obviously do a deep investigation because both parties had a vested interest in finding out the truth. this -- it was not obvious that this was going to become a partisan food fight. and think about how easy it would have been had mitch mcconnell and kevin mccarthy said of course we're going to do it. we're going along with an independent commission that is evenly divided, that is nonpartisan, that doesn't have politicians on it. that would have been the easy thing to do. and now what have they ended up with? they have a commission that will be dominated by democrats, that will go ahead, that does not have an ending date and they have no control over whatsoever. so i do think that they are

going to regret this. again, this is a series of decisions they're making to not offend the trumpian base or trump himself. and as luke just mentioned a few minutes ago, right now they have to wrestle with what are they going to do with somebody who associates with neo-nazis in their caucus? have they become so numb or so afraid of policing themselves they're not going to do anything about it? so the real danger is they're going to go into 2020 thinking that they have the wind at their back because it's a midterm and instead they are going to be chained to people like paul gosar and marjorie taylor greene and the other members of the sedition caucus and they will be perceived as covering up for people who are insurrectionists who attacked the police and engaged in this kind of behavior. so this is -- republicans think they're being savvy by looking

the other way, but their immune system has completely been destroyed. >> the other thing i would add, charlie, i agree with all of your analysis, but the last time there was a midterm election and domestic homeland security was the question, the answer was to leave the president's party in power to defy all of that midterm history. so -- >> that's true. >> -- we can't say that's a possibility. 2002. donna edwards is sticking around. charlie and luke, thank you so much. when we come back, bracing for charges. donald trump's business has been under an investigative microscope for more than two years, the most wide-ranging examinations ever of the trump organization's financial records in history. we could find out what criminal charges new york prosecutors might hit that company with any time. plus, president biden is reminding workers in wisconsin today that he is mr. amtrak. fired up in front of the crowd making the case for a huge

historic investment in infrastructure, trains, other major national programs. we'll get a report on that and "the washington post" reporters who wrote the stunning, brand new, behind-the-scenes account of how the last guy bungled this country's response to the coronavirus pandemic, led by a president far more concerned with his own re-election than getting the virus under control and saving lives. all those stories and more when "deadline white house" continues after a quick break. don't go anywhere. k break. don't go anywhere. ♪ when technology is easier to use... ♪ barriers don't stand a chance. ♪ that's why we'll stop at nothing to deliver our technology as-a-service. ♪ your mission: stand up to moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis.

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once those indictments come in, it's a total different game. now what's on the line is your freedom. based upon the allegations that

are being brought against weisselberg, against calamari, against the trump organization and others, you're looking at potentially ten years. rest assured, the game is not stacked in your favor. the lawyers will turn around, especially that they're being paid by trump right now. you know, stay the course. like what was told of me. stay the course. stay on message, do what you need to do. don't worry, donald is there for you, he loves you, he's going to protect you. he'll never let anything bad happen until, of course, he forgets allen who? matt who? michael cohen who? >> someone who knows a little bit about all of this. that was former trump attorney and fixer and loyalist michael cohen with a bold prediction on what lies ahead for trump organization cfo allen weisselberg and other business associates of the disgraced, twice impeached ex-president with criminal charges for the trump org that could come down

any moment. lawyers for donald trump's family business mounted a last-ditch effort on monday to fend off criminal charges. meeting with federal prosecutors investigating whether it had awarded valuable benefits to a top executive without paying taxes. the meeting which lasted less than an hour over a video call came after the prosecutors warned the trump org that they were considering indicting the company and its long-serving chief financial officer. joining our conversation, neal katyal, georgetown law professor and msnbc legal analyst as well as marketing and branding expert donny deutsch. neal, i want to show you one more thing michael cohen said about how trump carries on this houdini-like ability to evade legal and criminal accountability. let's watch. >> donald trump's big out is the fact that there are no emails or no text messages because he has no email address and he doesn't text message. however, all of the

documentation refers back to the boss or to him by name and so on. yes, it's not -- it's not a slam dunk since you don't have the emails from his email address since he doesn't have it. but if everything and everybody all acknowledge the same thing, that everything was done at the direction of and for the benefit of donald j. trump, including when it comes to the taxes where i believe that he'll look to throw the accountant and the accounting firm under the bus, they all are going to then have to come out and defend themselves, leaving trump all by himself. eventually this is what's going to happen as a direct result of these indictments that are going to be coming out. >> so, neal, my question is we know from michael cohen and others that that's how the business ran. you know if you read the mueller report, especially volume 2, that's how the white house ran. is this really going to protect him if his company is charged? >> i don't think it will,

nicolle. i think michael cohen is right. it's harder for trump to walk away from this and be like trump organization who? he can do that with michael who or allen who or whatever, but this is literally the company that donald trump built and his children run, so it's just a lot harder. so i do expect just given what we've read in the reporting that we will see criminal charges brought against the trump organization. i suspect trump's first move afterwards will be to declare victory and say, oh, i wasn't charged or something like that. but his company was just indicted. and it's a bit like boasting you didn't get a speeding ticket after you got busted for a hit and run or something like that. this is very bad. it's not -- it's not -- it's usual actually that you don't charge right away the ceo, the principal, you build your case. if you think about enron, for example, enron wasn't indicted for two years. they first indicted arthur andersen, then started indicting midlevel people and then you work your way up through

flipping folks to the very top. ken lay, the ceo of enron, was found guilty of ten counts. so the next day or two is just the start, not the end. >> donny, michael cohen obviously now sort of shares his experience of being asked to stay loyal to trump and then being in his view betrayed and having to side with law and justice and prosecutors and investigators. what does he privately think the likelihood is that allen weisselberg or mr. calamari or either of their sons will do the same? >> he thinks there's no -- they will flip. i actually spoke to him today. he says, look, when they bring the hammer, they bring the hammer. two things, i agree with neal obviously and every prosecutor that's been on here, this is the first step. they will continue to build a case. but even this step is devastating. it will really destroy the trump organization in that basically

they won't be able to borrow money from banks. you can't have a real estate company not doing business with banks. an indicted company the banks walk away from. even this move before they go after trump personally will devastate him and his company. and then where i think this goes, i introduced this a couple of years ago is the rico, racketeering influence and corrupt organization act that i think they will eventually bring. that's what they do for mafia bosses, mafia companies where even if trump's fingerprints are not on every little thing, the organization comes back to him, he is the centerpiece of the organization. they will destroy donald trump. the organization will go down and he will go down. i just -- you can't do the math and look at it any other way. >> i want your thoughts on that, obviously, neal, but i also want to ask this question. dan goldman made this point on the show last week that an indicted company can't borrow money. who is still loaning this highly leveraged, only mildly successful company money at this

point? how much more damage can be done? >> yeah, i'm no businessman but it sure seems like not exactly the right kind of person you want to be lending to, even above and beyond the question of whether they are indicted. i think dan's point last week and i think you just heard donny echo it is a good one. loan agreements often have in them a clause that says that they can call the loans if the lendee is indicted. and so if the organization is indicted, that can happen. indeed that "new york times" article that you were just showing a moment ago goes on to say that trump's own lawyers made that very point to the prosecutors yesterday. don't indict us because it will create financial hardship for the company. so i suspect that's further confirmation of what donny said. now, dan goldman has also said something else, which is that prosecutors need allen weisselberg, the cfo, to testify against trump. they won't be able to indict

trump without that. dan is the best of prosecutors so i ordinarily defer to him. the one cautionary note i'd say here is that dan is really used to organized crime prosecutions where you have really sophisticated and smart criminals, people who take every precaution not to get caught. donald trump is just not that, whatever he is. yes, he doesn't use email and so on, but he's also someone who has such an arrogance and insusiance about the law i suspect there's more documentary evidence than there is in your standard mafia prosecution. >> well, and donny, to that point, he's also not discreet. he doesn't ever try to hide his appetite for corruption, for rigging things in his favor. let me show you some of the recent interviews with jennifer weisselberg and others who are more familiar than i am about what's under the hood at trump org. >> when donald says numbers or

certain things and allen says numbers or certain things, they're not adding up. >> and i actually went through a situation where i was asked to literally build false financials for my business. i then went into donald's office and donald said did robert and harvey talk to you about the numbers? i said yes, they did. but let me explain why i can't redo the numbers because they won't be true. and he just said we need new numbers. >> so, i mean if this is what is public facing, donny, i imagine investigators and prosecutors whom the supreme court cleared to literally see everything under the hood, all of the financial records, all of the tax records, all of the accounting records have a lot more examples than what those two just shared with us. >> yeah. i think it's going to be stunning. look, even the best real estate companies, if they look under the hood, there's a lot of funky stuff that goes on in real estate. but donald trump was known long before he was president as a

complete sleay businessman. most legitimate people wouldn't do business with him. wherever your mind can take you of what someone would do criminally, he would do. it's hubris. he's above everything, untouchable and entitled to do everything. even the things we've seen like simple bank fraud and insurance fraud where you list an asset value on one form and completely different on a loan form, you go to jail for that. that's just going to be the tip of the iceberg. i think -- i don't think the american public really understands or comprehends the level of criminality that will surface with this organization. >> and, neal, even trump's political allies have always thought that this was, excuse the vigil, the soft underbelly of trump's universe. i wonder what you think should we learn that his company has been indicted this week or charged criminally, what would your questions be about what

happens next? >> well, i think you're right about the soft underbelly and that's why you saw trump try with every tooth and nail and his allies to go to the supreme court and block all of this information from coming out. i think the next set really does turn on have they been able to flip anyone in the organization and what can they reveal. and in particular, how much was donald trump directly involved in this as opposed to kind of leaving it like an ostrich, burying his head in the sand to avoid knowledge of any ill-becoming activities. >> can i respond to that. >> we will keep you both close -- go ahead, donny. >> there's nothing that happened in the trump organization that he did not know about. everything went by his desk, every check, every number, so that's not going to be an option for him. >> we will keep you both close, as i said, in case any of this news comes down this week. neal katyal, thank you for joining us.

donny is sticking around a little bit longer. up next for us as congress struggles to negotiate and ultimately pass a bipartisan infrastructure plan, the president is going straight to the people outside the beltway saying big, bold action is nothing short of essential. that story is next. tory is next for mac. who can come to a stop with barely a bobble. lucia. who announces her intentions even if no one's there. and sgt moore. who leaves room for her room. with usaa safepilot, when you drive safe... ...you can save up to 30% on your auto insurance. get a quote and start saving. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. i brought in ensure max protein, with thirty grams of protein. those who tried me felt more energy in just two weeks! [sighs wearily] here, i'll take that! woo-hoo! ensure max protein. with thirty grams of protein, one gram of sugar, and now with two new flavors!

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chocolate. >> white chocolate raspberry. >> you're not getting rocky

road? for infrastructure? >> i'll tell you, it's been a rocky road. we're going to get it done. >> he was ordering ice cream there. president biden can't seem to help himself, doing his best to sell his sweeping infrastructure package wherever he is. he's doing it in wisconsin today trying to take his message to the american people from outside the beltway as lawmakers fight over every word and every inch of that legislation. biden is facing pressure from republicans but also progressive democrats who say his compromised legislation doesn't go nearly far enough. his answer to that tight rope walk is a message of unity. >> because i believe that there's nothing we cannot do if we bring -- come together as a nation, democrats and republicans. we're really divided on a whole range of things. but if you look back across our history from the transcontinental railroad to the creation of the internet, you can see the truth in that idea about coming together, because

america, america has always been propelled into the future by landmark national investments. it's time for us to write a new chapter in that story. >> joining us now, white house correspondent for the associated press jonathan lemire. he's also an msnbc contributor. donny and donna are still here. jonathan lemire, take us through what became sort of a twist andy tortured path for the president's bipartisan infrastructure deal. >> well, nicolle, as you know, bipartisanship is paramount to this president. he campaigned on it. even though no republican lawmakers signed on to the covid relief bill, he did not give up hope that he could get gop support for this infrastructure package. it has now been divided into two, this hard infrastructure bill which has republican support and this looming budget reconciliation process that will have everything else, the human cares package as the white house has put it.

but things really changed over the last few days. it was thursday that the president came out just behind me at the white house and announced with some republican senators that a deal had been reached. a short time later at a news conference he made clear that the two packages were linked. he would only sign this bipartisan deal which is a shade under a trillion dollars and he also, the reconciliation bill much larger was also going to come to his desk. republicans objected dramatically. even though it was very clear from the beginning. let's reiterate that, that these two packages were being done in tandem. what biden did in that news conference the first time was link them to the point where he said he would veto one without the other. republicans said, hey, that's changing the deal. over the weekend the president put out a statement clarifying that, saying that was not the case. white house aides working behind the scenes in a series of calls with republicans, lawmakers and their staff saying, look, no, he's going to sign the bipartisan deal. yes, we're going to pursue reconciliation but the

bipartisan deal will stand as it is and that seems to have calmed down republicans. today the president went on the road touting this bill. he was in wisconsin, much cooler there than here in sweltering washington, suggesting this is something he needed to do to prove americans could come together, the two parties could work together and the nation needed something like this to repair its crumbling infrastructure and to be prepared for the growing challenges presented by climate change. >> donna edwards, your thoughts to how this -- how the two packages have sort of been ushered through and how they have been communicated? >> well, first of all, i think the president isn't doing a victory lap. what he is doing around the country is really selling that infrastructure package in communities where people know that the bridges are falling apart and the roads are, as he described, rocky. so i think that that part is moving smoothly. but i do think that these -- the

infrastructure and reconciliation are tied. they have to be. who knows that best? speaker pelosi and leader schumer. and the reason they know it is because they know where the votes are in their respective -- among their respective democrats. it's going to take all of those democrats in the reconciliation and it is going to take democrats and republicans for the bipartisan infrastructure bill. so whether they come at the same time or they come one right after the other, they are two steps. the president understands this. the leadership in the congress understands it. in order to get all of the votes that are necessary to put it over the finish line, they're going to need progressive democrats, centrist democrats, all democrats to make this happen. i think there's no better salesperson for all of that for the president's climate agenda, for the human infrastructure and for the hard infrastructure than the president of the united

states. >> donny, i may have -- i may be in the minority here, but i think the only mistake this white house made was apologizing. you have the deadliest building collapse in this country's history in surfside, florida. i don't care where you live, if you need to go somewhere in a car, in a train, over a bridge or in an airport, it looks like a third world country in most places. democrats and republicans across this country welcome investment in our infrastructure. i think the only mistake they made is apologizing for the size and that which would be bipartisan and that which would be democrats only. >> i agree. he got himself in a little bit of a quagmire there. everything is on their side right now. there will never be a time in his presidency where every wind is behind his back. the ice cream truck is going around the country and the dnc has a new thing america is back. shot in the arm, checks in the

bank, jobs coming back, scoop in hands. it's just this americana thing right here. it's kind of goofy, hokie and goes back to another time, but that's the sense, that's the wind they have at their backs so i think you're exactly right. the tragedy of what happened in surfside certainly is a huge, huge exclamation point for anyone walking into any building or driving over any bridge or whatnot. so yeah, i'm with you on that one, nicolle. >> let me put up something else that has happened, and this to me is interesting on two levels. dr. jill biden is on the cover of "vogue." let me read some of what it is. well, first of all, this was something i think that melania trump coveted, something that i believe donald trump complained about. but this is a little bit from the interview. i asked dr. jill biden about the mood of the country during the campaign. i felt so much anxiety from people she said. they were scared. when i travel around the country

now, i feel as though people can breathe again. i think that's part of the reason joe was elected. people wanted someone to come in and heal this nation not just from the pandemic, which i feel joe did by getting shots in everybody's arms, but he's a calmer president and lowers the temperature. donna, things can turn on a dime. i'm not saying it will always be the case. but this white house is, i think donny has described it accurately, has some wind at its back in terms of getting those shots in arms, getting so far much of their agenda through. i wonder where you think they take all that good will? i know there's a lot of angst and a lot of exasperation about voting rights legislation sort of dying this fizzly death and nothing really being presented as a plan b. but what do you make of this moment in the biden presidency? >> well, i mean i think that all of us, not only did we want normalcy and a return from the pandemic, but we wanted a normal government. we wanted a normal presidency.

and i think that joe biden is demonstrating that every single day. where do you go from here? obviously in order to win big, you have to just keep winning. and so i think one step at a time. the covid relief package, the infrastructure package. you keep winning and you can win more. and i think that that is the message coming from this president about how he plans to govern. and to govern pragmatically, looking at the needs of the american people, talking to the american people about that, and then moving congress to where the american people already are. >> donna edwards, jonathan lemire, donny deutsch, thank you all so much for spending some time with us. up next, as the families of the victims and nearby residents wait for answers about how that tragedy in florida happened, president biden announces that he will travel there this week to offer his condolences to those struggling and waiting for news of their loved ones. a live report on the day's developments there is next.

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it is day six of that massive search and rescue operation in surfside, florida, as more than 200 workers continue a desperate search to find any signs of life after the condo apartment collapsed last thursday. 11 people are now confirmed dead. more than 150 are still unaccounted for, numbers that haven't changed now in almost 24 hours. just today president biden announced that he and the first lady will travel to florida on

thursday to grieve with the families at the scene. all of this comes as relearn new details surrounding the collapse of the building. nbc news obtaining a letter from the condo board from just two months ago in april, warning of the accelerating concrete deterioration amid a growing renovation cost and photos from the "miami herald" show the cracked concrete and standing water in the building's garage under the pool just 36 hours before the building collapsed. let's bring into our conversation nbc news core responsibility alison barber live for us in surfside, florida. alison, the latest? >> reporter: hey, nicolle. there are so many questions it seems so many red flags ignored by swo somewhere along the line. when i talked to residents who lived in the towers still standing they say they're frustrated, they want answers. they want to see laws change and they want to see someone, something, groups of people held accountable. but when i talk to families who are still missing their loved ones, that's not really their

concern right now. their focus, their worry is on finding their loved one alive. they want their loved one home, and whether it is alive or not they want them out of that rubble. for so many of them that really is their main concern again and again. 150 people are still missing. among them, nicole and louise. they lived on the 8th floor of the south tower. they were at home thursday night with each other and their pets when the building collapsed. they were recently married. they got married in january. they did a small, little celebration ceremony at a courthouse and they were planning to have a bigger wedding, a bigger ceremony after the pandemic, but now instead of planning for a joyous celebration their family is just praying for a miracle. we spoke to nicole's dad, pablo, and her brother, martin. i want you to listen to some

what they told us. this is her brother martin. >> they have -- they had so much to look forward to. they were just starting off their lives together. they had a plan for a family soon, things that now are unknown and for six days to go by and not knowing if they're in there, if they're fighting, why things like this happen. it gets to you physically and emotionally. i do believe miracles do happen and i know, i know these people and they're fighting. i pray that my sister and my brother-in-law are one of those fighting. >> reporter: martin said when his sister went into a room she just lit it up, and if you met her she is someone that you just could not forget. he said as far as his

brother-in-law goes, he could not have asked, could not have dreamed of a better brother-in-law. he is convinced that if anyone could still be fighting, it is his sister, it is his brother-in-law, and they really are just praying for a miracle and trying, despite the time slipping away, not to lose hope. nicolle. >> nbc's ellison barber covering the most extraordinary stories and tragedies that i have ever covered. the next hour of "deadline: white house" starts after a quick break. don't go anywhere. k break. don't go anywhere. now, he uses therabreath healthy gums oral rinse with clinically-proven ingredients and his gum problems have vanished. (crowd applauding) therabreath, it's a better mouthwash. at walmart, target and other fine stores. i've got moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. now, there's skyrizi. ♪ things are getting clearer. ♪ ♪ i feel free to bare my skin yeah, that's all me. ♪ ♪ nothing and me go hand in hand nothing on my skin, ♪ ♪ that's my new plan. ♪ ♪ nothing is everything. ♪

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the degree to which

misinformation is now disseminated at warp speed in coordinated ways that we haven't seen before, and that the guardrails i thought were in place around many of our democratic institutions really depend on the two parties agreeing to those ground rules, those guardrails. and that one of them right now doesn't seem as committed to them as in previous generations, that worries me. and i think we should all be worried. >> hi, again, everyone. it is 5:00 in the east. former president barack obama with a worry and a warning. the health of our country and its democratic institutions are now in danger due to the big lie and the republican disinformation that spews it. one prime example has a sham audit in maricopa county, arizona, is now forcing officials there to replace their voting equipment to ensure the safety of upcoming elections.

county officials out with a statement. quote, maricopa county will never use compromised equipment that could pose a risk to free and fair elections. as a result, the county will not use the tabulation equipment subpoenaed by the arizona senate in any future elections. "the washington post" notes this new development will not be free. quote, the announcement probably reflects an added cost to taxpayers for controversial review that has been embraced by supporters of former president donald trump, who has falsely claimed that the 2020 election was rigged in arizona and other battlegrounds that he lost. but the lasting consequences of that big lie reach much further than just replacing physical voting machines. secretary of state katie hobbs, who has been an outspoken opponent and critic of the audit could soon lose her power over elections there. "the new york times" reporting, quote, the republican-controlled state legislature in arizona voted thursday to revoke the democratic secretary of state's legal authority in

election-related lawsuits, handing that power instead to the republican ag. now, the provision which was inserted into the state's budget just awaits the republican governor's signature. the other epicenter of this nationwide gop-led assault on democracy is georgia where another specious audit is underway, but that audit was just dealt a substantial blow from the ajc's report. quote, a judge dismissed most of a lawsuit thursday, seeking a deep inspection of fulton county absentee ballots from last year's presidential election, a review pursued by voters trying to find fraud. the case is an attempt to scrutinize 147,000 absentee ballots based on claims by republicans who suspected there were counterfeit ballots during a manual recount of november's election results. election officials have said there's no indication of fraud after multiple recounts and investigations. georgia also set to be the

location of the senate rules' committee's first field hearing in 20 years. according to a statement from the committee's chair woman, amy klobuchar, during the july 19th hearing, quote, witnesses will testify about recently enacted legislation to restrict voting in the state and the need for basic federal standards to protect the freedom to vote. new developments in the gop's attack on our right to vote is where we begin this hour with some of our favorite reporters and friends. erin hayes is here, editor at large for "the 19th" and an msnbc contributor. former republican congressman denver rig willman is here, and pete strzok is back, author of the book "spromsed." errin haines, i start with you. i think what president obama is talking about is sort of this thread that you could pull through the last five years, that so much of what held things together was each party's basic adherence to norms, and even

when laws aren't being broken the obliteration of norms does now represent one of the gravest threats to our democracy. what do you think of what he had to say there? >> well, i do agree with president obama that democracy works when we are operating with kind of a shared set of facts and a shared set of norms, but what we've also seen in the past five years is an erosion of those facts and an erosion of those norms, and all of that was kind of building up to the big lie, which while it did not ensure the victory of the former president trump as was his aim, kind of raising the specter of a rigged election in the event that he lost. what it has done is continued to provide fuel for the voter suppression machine that we see happening in state houses across the country and in the pushback at the federal level against the legislation that democrats are trying to pass to protect voter access. so, you know, we still are very much as a country in this pitched battle between expanding

voter access and restricting voter access, and that's what you see, an inside/outside strategy happening with lawmakers, with activists, with organizers who all understand the stakes and what the consequences are depending on which one of those strategies prevails. >> you know, denver, president obama to his credit -- and i think because he and his family and his children lived with the consequences and the threats to their life that were sort of manufactured by and disseminated by the ring wing disinformation and specifically the ex-president and his birtherism campaign. there is a point though where if the other party has no shame and they are proudly and brazenly headed down this anti-democratic path, the other side needs to recalibrate, needs to adjust and needs to look at their own norms more critically, things like the filibuster. what do you make of sort of the asymmetry that remains in one

party, the republicans, brazenly heading down an autocratic, anti-democratic path, the conspiracies getting more drunken and more lunatic and more insane by the hour if you watch any of fox news in the evenings you know what i'm talking about, while democrats are still struggling with whether or not the filibuster does more good or harm. >> yeah, i mean it feels like right now we are playing disinformation whack-a-mole on certain parts of the far right. the issue we have is people on the inside, on that side of the aisle need to be working against it also and i'm not seeing it. you look at the last few weeks and we had the fbi accused of, you know, the false flag on the january 6th riots which is an evolution from antifa, right, and the false flag rumors that were there before the disinformation. then you have fox news host saying that nsa is looking in on him, right, and i worked for the national security agency. i know that's absolutely ludicrous, almost to a point you are wondering if there's some kind of drug use involved. so now you have, you know, these

conspiracy theories that are running out, and then president trump comes out today and supports the nsa, you know, conspiracy theory that's happening right now, the disinformation that's being pushed out there. nicolle, it almost feels like there's not -- there's not enough of us that are or were republicans that are fighting this battle. so, you know, as the democrats are arguing over there, and i get it, right, with things that are going on, i think we need to turn sort of the target sights over to the disinformation that's just being fed through these social media pipes we've never seen before. you know, i started tracking in 2001 al qaeda senior leadership. you think about social media then or the internet then, and now in 2021, 20 years later, it is amazing how many different pipes can feed directly into people's frontal loebs. fighting that is difficult. i almost feel like a conservative anti-disinformation vigilante out here and right now there's just not enough of us. >> well, and pete strzok, i mean it is not like it isn't a lethal

threat to the homeland. i mean the disinformation and the purveyors of it and the fans of it are very much sort of the folks that the current fbi director, intelligence agencies have warned all of us in dhs bulletins. i will read from them. historically mass casualty domestic violent extremist attacks linked to racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists targeted houses of worship, crowded commercial facilities or gatherings. some advocate for a race war and stated civil disorder provides opportunities to engage in violence and furtherance of ideological objectives. i mean it is not a right wing disinformation game. it is a lethal threat to the american homeland. where is the bipartisan alarm? >> i have no idea, nicolle. that's a great question. when you look at the days

following january 6th there was a sense of sort of bipartisan outrage, but within a week it was gone. what i really worry about is you're absolutely right. this isn't just people who, you know, spouting off or being hot headed online. there's some of that, but underlying it is a very real threat of violence. that's why the fbi is warning about it of that's why dhs is warning about it. they're not just sitting there abstractly saying this might be a problem. they're saying these things because they see warning, they see indications that violent activity is being planned. we certainly know violence occurred on january 6th, and i really worry for political will to sort of coalesce around saying something is unfortunately going to take a massive tragedy we could have prevented if we had any sort of maturity on, you know, the sort of extreme elements of the republican party. >> you know, errin, it is all connected. i mean restricting the right to vote from communities of color and younger voters is all part

of disempowering voters who don't keep them in pour power at a time when the republican party is unpopular in a lot of places. the reason they're targeting georgia and arizona, those are places that president biden obviously prevailed. are you concerned that the bad guys are winning? >> well, i'm concerned that voters do not have an assurance that they will be able to participate in this democracy because that is the moment we now find ourselves in as a country. listen, nicolle, i'm old enough to remember that gop autopsy, right, after the election where republicans were really kind of reckoning with how they might expand and make inroads with a more diverse electorate, knowing that this country's demographics are changing. so that was a road that republicans could have gone down once upon a time. it does not appear to be the road that they are really committed to going down at this

point. they are really seeming to be more focused on restricting -- passing restrictive laws that really would directly impact those voters who we did see turn out in record numbers, especially voters of color, other marginalized folks in 2020. but, you know, one thing i would point out, nicolle, and this is a story we reported first day on the 19th. i mean you have organizations like stacey abramson's fair fight action that are going on offense in the face of the restrictive voting laws and voter restriction efforts. they just stood up a website today so that the expected 102,000 or so voters in georgia who the secretary of state's office is going to be purging can check to see if their name is on that proposed purge list and to proactively take steps to make sure that if they, in fact, should still be registered voters in georgia for upcoming elections that they take the steps to get back on and don't find themselves kicked off the rolls when they attempt to cast

their ballot if they should be, you know, eligible voters but for whatever reason have been put off the roll. so you have organizers and activists who in the face of this voter suppression continue to, you know, try to get more people on the rolls even as you have, you know, republican officials seeking to take measures like taking people off the rolls and making, you know, access harder to folks and making it harder for people to exercise their rights. you do have people that are pushing back, who do believe that, you know, the more people that participate, that still is a good thing in this country. >> but, denver, stacey abrams is a hero in a category of her own, but she is solving a problem predicated on a lie. there was no fraud and there are laws for people that commit -- it is a -- committing election fraud is already a crime that would be punished. so my concern is that the democrats are too adaptive.

i've told this story before. a republican called me, said, "you're so hard on these laws, what could you live with, are you cool with voter id?" i said, "i'm not cool with any of it because it is all based on bs, there was no fraud." so go solve a problem that exists in this country. we don't have election fraud in this country and in the rare instances we did, in this presidential election they all were dead people who voted for the disgraced ex president. there are laws on the books to investigate and prosecute them. so, denver, i guess my concern is that -- again, stacey abrams is a hero in a league of her own, but the democrats shouldn't have to be this creative. they shouldn't have to be this adaptive because these laws are all based on a republican lie. >> well, i mentioned this before. you know, language is pretty important. you know, if you have been in the fbi like peter, intel like myself in the nsa or air force intelligence, there's cover terms. what i have been screaming about, if we're having debates

on policy, election policy cannot be a cover term for stop the steal. you manipulate the language, you dog whistle, hit the flanks on the edges to give a wink and nod about, hey, here is what we're talking about instead of talking about truth and facts in the situation. what you are talking about with voting on republicans, i would think we would want to have as many people listening to our policies as we can rather than having a party by subtraction. i think that's what is going to catch up to the republicans. i know, listen, i have been pretty pessimistic on the gop as far as message, but i have been bullish. i think they will do well in 2022 because of the disinformation and the excitement you are seeing right now. i think they're going to do -- i think people need to realize disinformation is a very powerful tool, that language can be used on the edges and the flanks to sort of tip an tune your message when you are giving a wink and nod to things that are absolutely untrue, and it is very difficult to have a policy argument or to be taken seriously when you are using language as a cover for things that are false, that are

disinformation, and then turn out to be dangerous if you looked at january 6th. that's what frightens me, nicolle, and i think it frightens other people that have been in this space, talking about db or what not, that violence is always possible with disinformation, especially if it becomes good against evil or some kind of messianic theory that you are there to support people that believe in god against people that are somehow evil. i think that's what scares me, that violence is always right there, you know, disinformation metastasizes in the way it has already happened. >> i guess i would add to that, denver, that i'm afraid of the associations and i think some people would say there's always been an association on the right with white supremacy and i think you have thought about paul gosar with white nationalist. i would like your thoughts on this. in an unsubtle rebuke to his

many critics, representative paul gosar is planning a fundraising event with a white nationalist banned from youtube for violating rules against hate speech. a post on the conservative social media platform telegram may have teased a fundraiser with gosar and nick fuentes associated with the charlottesville riot. what do you make of the fact that some on the right are wearing associations with white nationalists in an out and brazen way? >> there is a minimum of seven white nationalist groups that were part of the 1/6 insurrection, right. so when you have seven white nationalist groups that were there it is not surprising. i'm not trying to break my arm patting myself on the back, but it was me that found that out on tell. >> grant: it was the america first message side on telegram where we saw it. we know it is true. he tried to back pedal and be

vague about it, but it is amazing it is out there. we have a republican congressman willing to do a fundraiser with a white nationalist group or a group that has a leader who said some awful things. you know, sort of a youngster that has really no grasp on reality. so that's the issue that we have, is that how do we actually sort of tear apart this fabric in certain parts of the republican party that has this racism that's sort of baked in. listen, i wish i knew. nicolle, you know, i can sit out here and talk all day, you know, but it is almost like spitting in the wind. it just comes back and hits you in the face. so we just have to have more people, you know, that are right center on that line. they have to stand up and they have to do this because i can't do this by myself. adam can't do it by himself. liz can't do it by herself. you know, we need help. but i want to keep doing it because, you know, i don't mind doing it. what are they going to do to me?

send me back to my distillery? >> i will be fine. >> pete, my question for you, how complicated are efforts to fight domestic violent extremists that intersect with white supremacy when you have one of the two political parties in some corners, officials in washington, giving them permission structure? >> generalizing on this activity. i think, nicolle, what people need to understand it is not the future potential threat. this is something that's having an adverse impact right now. all of these cases are gumming up the court system. all of these requirements for judges to sit and hear arguments, to read filings and to announce judgments mean they're not doing other work that they might otherwise do. every time doj has to open a righting rights act violation investigation in georgia or wherever else, it is taking investigators to do that, investigators that might be looking at a methamphetamine distribution ring. if fbi investigators need to

look at potentially tampered voting equipment in arizona, that means they're not looking at a crooked stock broker who just swindled a retiree couple out of their life savings. all of these things come at a cost and coming at a cost right now. so, yeah, i'm worried about what the future holds but there's a price being paid as we speak right now through all of this nonsense. >> errin haines, denver riggleman and pete strzok, thank you for stating us off in a difficult conversation. when we return, a top democratic member of congress who protected his colleagues during the capitol insurrection on the big questions that still need to be answered as the house gets ready to launch a select january 6th committee to investigate. plus, stunning brand-new reporting about the trump administration's botched response to the coronavirus pandemic and the toxic environment the ex-president created behind the scenes as the virus took hold of the country. "washington post" reporters behind the blockbuster new book

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to switch and save hundreds. i think the american people are interested in getting to the bottom of some of the outstanding issues. look, as you know, i voted in favor of a bipartisan commission. i think that would have had more credibility. just having a commission which is established under the speaker of the house obviously leaves credibility in the lurch. look, it was a terrible day in american history and it is going to be used against us around the world. it already is by china and russia. it has huge implications. it should never happen again and

any effort to understand why it happened is, in my opinion, appropriate. >> a terrible day in american history. that was senator mitt romney laying out just why a thorough accounting of the capitol insurrection is so necessary. the house this week is moving closer to setting up an organized effort to understand why it happened, as mitt romney puts it there. but the vote to establish a 13-member select committee to investigate the january 6th attack taking place tomorrow. according to the outlines of the proposal, speaker pelosi will have the power to unilaterally appoint eight members, and her office has left the door open to appointing a republican for one of those spots. joining us now is democratic congressman jason crow of colorado. he's a member of the intel and armed services committee. congressman, you have helped us understand a lot of what isn't known publicly yet about that day, and i wonder your thoughts to both headlines. one, that this plan b, i guess, a select committee is moving forward and, two, the speaker may use one of her spots to

appoint a republican? >> yeah, thanks for having me on, nicolle. first of all, it is extremely disappointing the senate didn't do its duty by coming together and voting for a commission that would have been the right thing to do. it is what the country did, it is what the congress did after september 11th because it was what we needed to do. similarly, it is what we needed to do after january 6th as well. they decided not to fulfill that obligation, so the house of representatives has done what we have always done over the last couple of years, and that is stand up, stand in the breach so to speak and perform our duty to move this select committee forward. i applaud the speaker for making the decision to do that. with respect to the composition of the committee, the speaker has done a very nice job of selecting the right teams and the right people. we have been through two impeachments in the last three years, so she's very adept at finding the right teams. both of those impeachments went through without mistakes, bring an incredibly strong cases. of course, we can't control

again the senate and whether or not they will fulfill their duty, but we will do what is necessary. >> i mean it seems to me, having spent some time in the republican party myself, that they did more than fail to do their duty. the leaders -- republican leaders in the house and senate leadership with votes against the formation of a bipartisan commission, does that increase your interest in wanting to know what they know and what they're so eager to not have investigated? >> yeah, of course it does. i mean what do they want to hide here? i think the answer is obvious, that they don't want to talk about donald trump's role in this. they don't want to talk about how this happened with donald trump's supporters. they want to sweep it under the rug because those who want to sweep it under the rug want power. they want to win elections. they want to retake control of the house. they want to retake the senate. nothing is more important to these people. i mean, listen, we had a police officer die of his injuries, another took his life after the

attack, 140 others were badly beaten. i had police officers breaking down in tears to me, saying, you know, we did the best we could, sir, to fulfill our obligation to you, and i feel like we let you down. i said, no, you did not let us down. you did your duty. we have an obligation to you to find the truth, to find accountability, to make sure this doesn't happen again. we have to do right by those officers, but we also have to fight for democracy here. you know, autocracy, dictatorship is on the rise around the world. you know, america to be the beacon of hope that we need to be, we need to be able to show the world we're willing to fight for it at home. that's what this truth and accountability is about, and that's why it is so important we do this the right way. >> i wonder how much the select committee will look at everything that's been said since it happened. i mean one of the most startling things of president biden's trip to europe and his summit with

vladimir putin was putin taking up for the insurrectionists. you have this sinister echo chamber between the prime time hosts at fox news and vladimir putin. you talked about autocracy and democracy. i mean will the scope include really trying to sort of understand where all of the money came from, where all of the messages were amplified? can you talk a little bit about the scope sort of leading up to and since the insurrection? >> sure. the scope has to answer what happened, why it happened, and how we prevent this from ever happening again. that would include, you know, all of the facts. you know, i'm always careful not to predetermine facts or to show where i think those facts are going to lead. you do an investigation, you convene a committee to find the facts and gather all of those facts wherever they happen to lead you. that's what this country deserves. that's what rule of law deserves. that's what the american people and those police officers

deserve. so, you know, we have to be very careful not to say it is going to go one direction or the other. it will be where it needs to go. it will go where we have an obligation to take it, but it has to start, it has to start in earnest and we have to have the right people on that committee. i serve on the armed services committee. i serve on the intelligence committee. i was one of the members that was trapped in the gallery for half an hour wondering if i was going to have to fight my way out, and i never thought i would be in that position again. we have to stop this from happening. we have an obligation to do so, and we have to uncover the truth. we won't stop until we are able to do that. >> a lot of what the public knows we know from investigative reporting and we know some from the congressional hearings. where are the biggest gaps for you? i mean are they around the delay in the national guard? are they around the failure of the intel from the fbi norfolk office to get to the frontline police officers? where are the holes from where you sit? >> well, there are several

investigations, nicolle, as you point out. there's a dod iog investigation, there's are doj investigations. i'm overseeing and requested and set off a general accountability office investigation, but there are things that those investigations will not get to. namely, what was donald trump doing before the attack, during the attack? who was he talking to? what happened in that phone call with kevin mccarthy? why was the national guard and the military delayed? who ordered them to eventually go? why was there a delay in that? the intelligence here, i mean this was planned out in the open, let's remember. this was not a secret assault. this was planned out in the open. i actually sent my children home a couple of days early after swearing in because i saw what was about to happen. i was concerned about it. so my family went home to colorado. what was the huge disconnect between all of what we knew to be true leading up to it and the complete lack of preparation? our officers deserve better.

our democracy deserves better and the american people deserve better, and we're going to get the answers to those. >> i want to switch gears and ask you about legislation that you have sponsored to speed visas for afghans who helped our now decades-long efforts in afghanistan. you said this. this is a moral imperative for our nation. we have to honor our promises to our partners. we're going to debate afghanistan for decades to come and what lessons we learned, but we do know we can do things with honor for the next few weeks. talk about the legislation and its importance. >> yeah. thanks for bringing that up. i served three combat tours in iraq and afghanistan as an army ranger. i served shoulder-to-shoulder with afghans, with iraqis who fought with us, bled with us, died alongside american soldiers. you know, i may not be sitting here talking to you right now today had it not been for the service of those afghans and those iraqis who warned me of threats, who helped me assess risk, who served with me on missions. they are my brothers and sisters

and i have an obligation to them, a personal one, but we also have a national security obligation to these folks as well. america is strong because we have friends. we have partners, we have allies. we are not just strong because of the number of tanks and bombers that we have. if we want to have friends in the future to meet the many threats that we face, we have to treat our current friends right because our future friends are looking very carefully at how we treat the afghans over the next couple of months as we withdraw. these people will be killed by the taliban if we don't get them out, so i'm very proud we actually passed today my bill to expedite the special immigrant visa process that's going to get more of those folks out faster, but we have more work to do. >> i invite you to come back any time and keep us posted on how those efforts are going in your view and in theirs, if they start to feel like this process is moving too slowly. we'll do our part to make sure that mess an gets out there. congressman jason crow, thank you so much for spending time with us today.

when we return, the first in-depth behind-the-scenes, ugly, gritty account of what was really happening inside the trump administration as the ex-president badly mismanaged the response to the coronavirus pandemic. the reporters behind the brand-new book "nightmare scenario" will be our guests after a quick break. don't go anywhere. n't go anywhe. ♪ when technology is easier to use... ♪ barriers don't stand a chance. ♪ that's why we'll stop at nothing to deliver our technology as-a-service. ♪

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we're prepared for anything. we're prepared, we are really very highly prepared for anything. >> i like this stuff. i really get it.

it is no surprise. every one of these doctors said, how do you know so much about this? maybe i have a natural ability. maybe i should have done that instead of running for president. >> still all of these years later, appalling. march 2020, an arrogant donald trump touring a cdc lab producing covid tests. we learned from journalist bob woodward almost one month before that took place the ex-president donald trump knew that the virus was deadly and much deadlier than the flu. stunning brand-new reporting in a new book by "washington post" journalists called "nightmare scenario" reveals behind-the-scenes chaos, bullying and denial that became the hallmark of our nation's pandemic response. under a president on that day and throughout the pandemic who was more concerned with ratings than american lives despite that mounting death toll. from the new book, quote, trump hadn't wanted to go but some aides advised him to make a show of confidence in the agency.

trump was, in fact, growing increasingly unsettled on. on air force one he saw on fox news there were 240 cases of sick americans, a five fold increase in a week. he was still in deny. it's like a bad flu, that's what they're saying, he protested to aides even as the evidence showed otherwise. joining me yasmeen abutaleb, "washington post" policy reporter, and damian paletta, "washington post" economics editor. they're authors of the new book "nightmare scenario: inside the trump administration's response to the pandemic that changed history." first, congratulations. second, this is a fete and journalism and public service. i want to start with you, yasmeen, take me through what struck you first. i mean from the outside it was so dysfunctional and so horrifying but i wonder what it looked like when you tunnelled into what was going on behind the scenes?

>> yes. like you said, it was clear last year from pretty much the beginning that things were chaotic and damian and i were covering this every day as journalists for "the post." but i think we were struck by the fact that when we started doing this book together and people were more willing to share more unvarnished experiences, especially after the election and after the inauguration, just how deep the failure of the government, of its people was here. i mean 600,000 people have died now, 400,000 people died under the last administration's watch. while there are singular anecdotes or outbursts we chronicled in the book that haven't been reported before, i think we realize that the totality of what had happened and the totality of how the government had failed its people here was so much more devastating than any single anecdote or any single moment in regards to the pandemic response last year. >> i'm going to read some of the anecdotes. i promise, we are dying to dive into all of them. they're really extraordinarily

reported and written, but i want to ask a similar question of you, damian. i mean was it your sense that once you started sort of digging in, it was worse than it looked? >> yeah, absolutely. i mean, for example, the anecdote we have about president trump recommending that cruise ship passengers be sent to kwan thanh mow bay to quarantine, these are 70 or 80-year-old grandparents he wanted to put on an island near terrorism suspects. i think when we heard nuggets like that it made us wonder what else is happening, what else are they considering, what else are they doing we don't know about? the more we pushed and pulled the more we found out about how dysfunctional the response was. as you mentioned at the opening, there was so much bullying and fear going on inside the white house and so many decisions that were made. it was this eat-or-be-eaten atmosphere that was so dysfunctional and made the pandemic response so much worse. i think that was something that really drove us to try to get to the bottom of what happened.

>> damian, i'm going to read that excerpt. i have it right here. >> yeah. >> it is stunning. you guys report this. trump was most angry about what the sick passengers meant for him. quote, that doubles my numbers overnight, he complained to azar. we import so many things, he told aides during one situation room meeting in february. we import goods. we are not going to import a virus. no, why don't we send it somewhere. don't we have an island that we own? the room was silent. where was trump going with this? he continued, what about guantanamo? everyone froze, from pages 58 to 60. so i guess, damian, my question is they froze, but what did they do? i mean did they tell him no? i mean what happened next? >> no, i mean like a lot of these crazy ideas, initially they sort of said, okay, sir, we will look into that, we will get back to you and they hoped he never would bring it up again, which sometimes he wouldn't. in this case he did. he brought it up a second time

in another meeting in the oval office, and that's when they decided, the aides kind of huddled and said, we have to kill this idea, there's no way we can do this, it would be a public relations catastrophe, so this idea was one they were able to wrestle to the ground but there were so many others and we saw the consequences, whether it was him pushing hydroxychloroquine, whether it was injecting bleach. so many things that went from his head through his mouth and made his aides scramble and it setback the scientific response because there was no confidence in the public health community that they had input with the president when he was kind of trying to lead from, you know, the pulpit or from the oval office. >> yasmeen, was there anything you uncovered that sort of went against what we saw? i mean what we saw was a president concerned about his numbers. i mean he also says that the cdc -- you know, i don't want my

numbers to go up. he wants them to go to guantanamo. was there anyone talking about human suffering or presenting that to him? >> there was. i think one of the things that we tried to really understand in this book is we spent a lot of time trying to understand the role of deborah berks and how she was dealing with all of this, what she was doing as i think the public perception of her is a bit simplistic and not entirely in line with what she was actually doing. she is a complicated figure. some of her public statements did alarm people when she was praising the president in ways that people thought maybe went too far. but what we found was behind the scenes she was aggregating data in march and february and march, she was working with her european counterparts to try to put together data that the u.s. didn't have yet so she could put together projections. those efforts were what ultimately convinced the president to extend the shutdown for 30 days, even though most of his political and economic aides at the time were urging him to reopen as quickly as possible. her and dr. fauci in a scene

that hasn't been reported before, sit down trump and it is because of the data and the slides that berks put together that the president was ultimately convinced to extend the shut down for another month. >> i want to ask you, yasmeen, about an episode that i think we know very little about, and that's just how gravely ill the ex-president was. you have some reporting here that i want to read to our viewers. people close to mark meadows said that he was consumed with fear that trump might die. at least two of those that were briefed on trump's medical condition that weekend said he was gravely ill and feared that he wouldn't make it out of walter reed. robert redfield spent the weekend trump was sick praying, praying that he would recovery, praying that he would emerge from the experience with a newfound appreciation for the seriousness of the virus. yasmeen, of course, he did the opposite.

he sort of went full mussolini with his government-produced videos, ripping off his mask, pounding his chest and became almost more counterproductive to public health afterwards. talk about that episode and the fear he might die among his aides? >> damion and i wanted to understand this weekend better because we were, of course, covering it in real-time. it was so chaotic that people had different pieces of information and it was hard to understand how everything fit together. woo we learned was that a lot of trump's medical advisers including dr. redfield, then the school board director, really hoped this would be a turning point. they knew that he was gravely ill for a time. he had been put on oxygen twice. his oxygen dipped into the 80s. his doctors were fearing he was going to have to be put on a ventilator and they thought this has to be the turning point. this was a national security failure. there was not a plan of succession if he became incapacitated and he had a rapid turn around because he had access to an experimental medication at the time that

wasn't available to the public. but instead what they found was exactly what you had read from the passage. he walked up the steps of the balcony, he ripped his mask off, sort of more define ant and triumphant and told people not to let it ruin your life. a lot of his advisers thought it was a missed opportunity to show empathy, to urge the country to take precautions and wear masks before the third devastating winter wave hit. >> so you guys have such good reporting on both these. i want to get to both of them, both on the politics of mask wearing, but i want to dig into something you just said about berks with you, damian. i think you offer a fuller picture of the behind-the-scenes abuse that fauci and berks both received. i want to read this. i am sick and tired of how negative you all are, trump began. first he turned to fauci, pointing a finger at him. you've got to stop being so negative. then he turned to berks.

every time you talk i get depressed. you have to stop that. what trump was doing was showing them once and for all that he was done with them. he might not be able to fire them, but he could ignore them. damian, this inability to see their advice as advice to protect the country but some sort of indictment on him and his presidency seems essential as anything to his inability to protect the country. >> exactly. i mean i think one of the things that we really dug into with birx and fauci was their track records and their legacy as doctors that really grew up and rose during the aids pandemic. you know, they learned that you have to tell the truth, you have to be honest. you can't lie, even if the information you are conveying is really difficult you have to be forthcoming. so now they're in a situation where the virus that no one has ever seen before, that's completely out of control, and a president that wants to tell them to be more upbeat and positive. you know, i think dr. birx at times kind of tied herself in

knots to try to appease the president so she could stay on the inside and have influence. dr. fauci, obviously, felt much more comfortable being adversarial, but at the end, you know, the president kind of tried to cast them both aside and have dr. scott atlas play his chief medical advisor role. so it was kind of one of the tragedies of this, is that the scientists were kind of broken loose from the white house, and with that third wave came, as yasmeen mentioned, the white house was completely unprepared for it. that's what made it so devastating in november and december. >> damian, something that i have not seen is that his political advisors knew that mask wearing really wasn't a politically perilous position to take. so not only could it have saved lives but it might have boosted his political fate. let me read this from page 336. a top campaign pollster, tony fabricio and his campaign adviser, jason miller, sat across the desk from trump.

mask wearing was not the political anvil they told him, and if he reversed course it would show leadership heading into the election. kushner weighed in. he thought embracing mask wearing was a no brainer. mark meadows interjected, absolutely not, he told with me. no masks. this seems to be one of the trumpist positions at all. if trump said masks are good, his base would believed him. was there no effort to push back meadows and trump after this conversation with kushner and the pollsters. >> we were talking about maybe after the walter reed's episode and the president's illness that he would encourage people to wear a mask. that was their last stitch effort. they were showing him polling,

80% of republicans were actually fine with a mask mandate if it meant that you can open the economy. there was not a serious effort to push back. that was in june or july. the white house really turned to campaigning after that. there was a lost of focus in the pandemic. we didn't see the president wear a mask. i think people knew it was a battle that's not going to be won. the mask issue is politicized already, trump told a number of his aides that he thought masks make people looked weak. it was clear he just had this real disdain of mask that did not make sense of people. when he was not convinced even most of his supporters would be fine with it, it is not something they're going to win on. >> damian, real quickly, tell me

what happened around the ex-president when he suggested for people to inject bleach. >> we had that image of birx freezing behind her chair. she said to olivia troy, dear god, i can't believe this just happened. she knew how devastating that was to the response. she knew it will be an iconic moment over the year. she kept her mouth shut. she knew it was a devastating moment, that'll track her for the rest of her life. >> one of the most important books to be written so far about the trump's presidency. thank you so much for spending some time with us to talk about it. "nightmare scenario" is out now. a special tribute to the real

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yes! hold on. get a powerful and secure connection you can count on. only with xfinity xfi. and see f9 only in theaters. ♪ ♪ the trump organization criminal probe are imminent which marks the first criminal charges of the first ex-president in the country ever. questions in the national republican party and many, many expectations. >> right now this morning the trump organization and people who worked for it on high alert as we speak. >> criminal charges for the trump