>> welcome back. i'm ali velshi. hosting a special two hour edition of the rachel maddow show. we'll hear from reach a leader. but we weekend this hour in panama. until a couple of years ago, if you found yourself traveling to panama city, the capital of the central american nation of panama, you could if you are so inclined, check into the trump international hotel and tower. a 70-story building built to resemble a billowing sale. and containing a hotel managed by the trump organization. but after donald trump became president, the owners of that hotel began trying to fire the trump organization from running the hotel because they said, the trump organization had so

mismanaged the hotel and the trump brand was so toxic, the hotel was being run into the ground. but as dispute between the hotel owners and the trump organization management a red eventually rose to the level of physical or creations. at one point, when representatives of the hotel owners try to get into the main office, trump's security guards shoved and manhandled them out of the door. the police were called to the hotel several times because of confrontations like this. at one point, personnel working for the owner cut the power. the only k linked that the trump personnel were seen signing business documents in on the midst of all of this. the trump organization has design denied all of. ultimately though, in march 2018, the trump organization was evicted from the property. a panamanian judge sided with a hotel's owner and the police were sent in one last time to oust the trump management. and once the trump management was gone, it was time to deal

with a trump sign. the trump name was pride off of donald trump's only hotel in latin america, literally. we're moved unceremoniously letter by letter. and given what we know of donald trump, one has to assume this was the most painful part of all. goodness knows he really likes to put his name on things. but this sort of thing has been happening over and over. property by property. ever since donald trump was elected president. his name was taken off his hotel in my hometown, toronto. it was also taken off his hotel in new york's so who neighborhood. the trump name is gone from the luxury hotel project in brazil. the tenants of at least six apartment buildings in new york city voted to remove his name from their facades, and more expected to do so soon. officials in new york, chicago, vancouver, are all in the process of trying to get trump's name removed from various properties in the cities in particular, because they say they have a civic interest in not having the name

of a man who fomented an insurrection against united states plastered across their skylines in giant letters. in other words, the trump brand is already a brand in crisis. it has been four years. seems like maybe the trump organization as a business and a brand might not be in a position to withstand a ten count felony indictment, plus 15 felony counts against its chief financial officer. but don't take it from me. ask the people who used to work there. and it's upper ranks. former trump organization executive barbarous tells bloomberg lose quote, this is a. i think is going to destroy the trump empire. a former trump org executive vice president says quote, it's the beginning of the end of the brand. and not just because of public perception. bloomberg knows that, when financiers see the charges, their thoughts may turn to the company's ability to refinance more than $590 million of debt coming due within the next four years. more than half of which trump personally guaranteed.

because as one former prosecutor points out, the direct consequences if any criminal conviction could be a massive fine probation, or some type of court supervision and as we know, donald trump is already alienated almost emmy every bag on earth that could conceivably lend him money. washington post david fareed hole who is dumped some of the most gradual reporting over the last four years on donald trump's businesses, including i should say, on that amazing panama city story, today david foreign hold and his colleagues spoke with a couple of trump's biographer is to try to put these latest charges in perspective. both of them said the indictment of the trump organization comes during one appears to be the company's most difficult movement since trump's financial crash in the early 1990s. quote, during that period, trump found himself hundreds of millions of dollars in debt, and he lost control of prized assets -- including an airline, a yacht and, new york's plaza hotel. his business empire did not

fully recover for a decade until trump gain television fade and made tens of millions as the star of nbc's the apprentice. bc's the >> needless to say trump seems unlikely to be saved by a lucrative new network television contract unsigned anytime soon. but another thing to keep in mind, in terms of the health of the trump organization, is the charges filed against the cfo, allan weisselberg. not just because of his personal, legal liability. or the pressure on him to turn on his boss. but because of what it could mean for the company if anything happens to him. when trump biographer tells david farenhold that quote, if weisselberg were to unexpected leave the company, whether for reasons related to the case or, not a could cause a major disruption. weisselberg has effectively run the business with trump for several decades, running managing the details and the finances while trump built his brand and cut deals. the trump organization eye is a web of hundreds of into related light limited liability companies, making it unusually

difficult to run for a relatively small company. quote, it was weisselberg's job to keep everything street. joining us now is that reporter at the washington post, david farenhold. he was the first to report on the existence of the special grand jury in this case back in may. this week, he was the first to report the grand jury had filed criminal indictments against the trump organization and against its chief financial officer. so, david, thanks for your time tonight. i know you've been busy. give us a sense of what the financial situation is right now for the trump organization. what do we know about how much of a concern this business actually is? >> obviously it's a private company. it isn't put up public statements about his cash flow. but here's what we do know a strong as you said is lost a lot of hotels is lost. one of its biggest cash and it generators. think about trump suits, eyeglasses, water. trump fragrance.

all this stuff that generated money for trump for nothing. for no work in no effort. just paid him to put his name on their stuff. that's gone in addition to the hill tells that. suffered covid took a big bite out of his process. by ending the tourism business for almost all of 2020. so, his business was in dire shape at the beginning of 2021. then came the january 6th insurrection and trump's role in it, which drove away more lenders, more business partners. the pga tour that british open, and now on top of all of that, we have this indictment. which they haven't been convicted of anything yet, but it has a legal costs and uncertainty that at a time when the business as you said, is already out one of his lowest ebb since 1990. ebb since 1990i >> think about t are convicted, is not something that happens much. we remember author anderson's back in the early 2000s. that was ultimately overturned. but eight record in the business. that's a different kind of business. an accountant business. it had clients who said we don't want to be associated with it. is the trump organization that kind of business?

or does it run on its own? >> i don't think it will be as devastating. obviously arthur anderson was an auditing business. you can audit people if you've been convicted of a felony. it's hard to get government contracts. it's not really that much of a regulated business. it is need licenses to operate. it might have trouble with its lenders, there may be trouble with liquor licenses, which is crucial to hotels and golf collapse. i don't take a conviction would be an automatic death sentence for it the way it was for our anderson. that said, it adds stigma on top of stigma. and might make it even harder for this company to as you said, refined sense is loans, find different business partners. move on from the hole that it's. in >> their stuff that was allege, is alleged to be illegal. at best day since avery. it may be more common than we think. people have brought that up that kind of things the expense-ing of -- the unorthodox business practices the trump organization allegedly practice. you've seen these before.

you reported on this company in the past. these charges surprise you? >> they did surprise me. only in that they seem to be such a deliberate effort to deceive here. i cover of the trump foundation a few years ago, the charity trump run, and that ran afoul of all different laws. and the blame there, we just didn't know what we were doing. we did know how to run a charity, we don't bother to learn. and made mistakes through sloppiness. this thing on the other hand seems to be mistakes -- not mistakes, deceit. don't purposefully. if you recall the indictments as said there was a second set of books the trump organization created, where they kept track of the real compensation for their employees. and then they show the irs and state tax authorities another set of books in which some of that conversation was hidden. people i've talked to that know this world say that is from heaven for a tax fraud prosecutor. you're showing you understood what you're doing is wrong, because you're keeping a letter that hides things from the government. and also you kept track of

exactly how much you hid from the government. this is something where they have go back and recreate how much money was given out. you have a record of the cash that they should've pay taxes on and they didn't. >> let's talk about the loans. this company owes money, donald trump owes money. this has been a major concern of his for sometime. he's always been able to not only refinance, but this guy gets better terms than folks who have no strikes against them. what happens now? how serious is it that he's got more than half a billion dollars in loans that are coming up? >> it was a serious situation. it was serious before this indictment. is he re-snow. the bigger problem for him is not the indictment rather the nature of the properties in which he has these loans. a couple of them, his property down in florida, his d.c. hotel, they don't make money. they don't make enough money to pay off the huge ones. and the d.c. hotel, that was clear at the beginning. he got this giant loan that he was never gonna make enough uncommon money to pay back. and that was before he destroyed his brand with

politics. so along, i think people thought, trump needs to refinance these unknowns. he's never going to be able to pay them off. again, looking from outside we don't know what his ballot she said. 's that's going to be harder to find someone to read a finance. that said, trump's entire life has been a sort of objects -- the idea that there is a sucker born every minute. and if he tries hard enough they'll be somebody to save him. it's way too early to say that he can't get out of this mess. he's always found a way out before. but certain his options are limited. there >> he always has found his way out. before washington post reporter david fahrenthold. up next, the latest on the actual charges against the trump organization and his cfo. and how far that investigation could go. rachel is coming up later in the show. stay with us. and here. which is why the scientific expertise that helps operating rooms stay clean now helps the places you go too. look for the ecolab science certified seal. >> among others, it appears

that ivanka trunk benefited from the type of scheme that is stride at the end end of the end of today. the indictment says all their executives also benefited from that scheme. now we've got sala reporting that the investigation continues. that raises the prospect that frigid charges could be brought against his children. >> yes, it does. again, i think they should be quite anxious right now. i think he would be surprised to learn that i don't believe my cousins would exert that kind -- exercise that kind of loyalty towards him. because his relationship with them, and their relationship with him, is entirely transactional.

so, unconditional, i should say. so they're not going to risk anything for him. just as he wouldn't risk anything for them. >> that's a crazy thing for someone to be saying about parents and their children. they're not going to risk anything for him, just as he wouldn't risk anything for them. that's what donald trump's niece mary trump told rachael last night about how she thinks donald trump's children would react if they were swept up in the new york investigation that just resulted in criminal charges against trump's chief financial officer, as well as the trump business itself. as we enter the next phase of this criminal case, the big question is, where will prosecutors take this next? how confident should donald trump be that all-in weisselberg will remain loyal to him? who else that the trump organization might end up walking into new york state courtroom in handcuffs? joining us now former manhattan district attorney, rebecca roy fee. rebecca, good to see you again. thank you for being with us michael cohen pointed out this week something that has been

pointed out over the years and that once reality, no matter how important or wealthy they are, once reality change is when there are charges of this level. of this magnitude filed against you. and when those handcuffs go on. a mix you rethink your priorities. >> yeah, i mean that's 100 percent true. he's speaking obviously from personal experience. as a prosecutor, you realize that this is true. i think it's most helpful to have some of somebody's cooperation at the very beginning of an investigation. but sometimes, prosecutors can't get that and they need to wait to a later phase when the reality really sets in for somebody to agreed to cooperate. the key question here, as you say, everybody is speculating why did they come down with this indictment of the organization, if they're waiting to bring charges against somebody else? and to me, what is really clear about this particular indictment, there are two things. one is, this is a really strong

indictment. each has 15 years of off the books, compensation scheme. the question is, who was this designed to benefit? it's not convincing, once you read the indictment, it's really clear that it wasn't allen weisselberg. the prosecutors do not think this was a scheme that was designed to benefit allen weisselberg. there has to be a scheme designed to benefit somebody else. so, given the fact they were all these other executive is involves, given the fact that there is there was a detailed set of other records that david fahrenthold talked about, this is not a one man game. there are all these are the people. the prosecutors know that there are all these other people. the question is, how can they get to what from from -- what they know to what they can prove to jury beyond a reasonable doubt. that is a question mark i think is really difficult to answer right now. >> there's a name that showed up some months ago a few for the first time, --

we know that there is something called an unindicted conspiracy, coconspirator in this case. cnn is reporting that that person, or person familiar with the investigation told them that the unindicted coconspirator is jeff mcconney, the trump organization's longtime controller. there's a lot of information in there because weisselberg was the cfo, the controller and the cfo in most companies work very closely together on detailed financial matters and have financial responsibility. what if anything disrupts reporting mean to you? >> this conspiracy count to me is quite interesting because you have to have an agreement in order to have a conspiracy. then you have to have an act that is further in that conspiracy. the act itself doesn't have to be illegal, but in order to make a conspiracy you have that both that agreement and the act. so, you have to have weisselberg agreed with somebody to engage in the scheme. to enrich himself and to enrich others.

that makes a lot of sense that it would be the person who works basically directly below him,who would be involved in this agreement. again, the question mark is, who else, if anybody is involved? to me that he is the question about, when you think about it, who stands to benefit from this? and to a certain extent, it is any of those records executives who are named. weisselberg is not only helping to create this situation in which he's getting all of this compensation that is hidden, as if to seem like fringe benefits. there are others. and so, what were their involvement in this conspiracy? if the conspiracy was between him and mcconney, that shows that is what the prosecutors can prove right. now but if there are others involved in that conspiracy, we just don't know that yet. and we don't know whether, who those people might be and whether prosecutors can prevent that. or whether they're waiting for somebody to flip in order to be

able to prove that beyond a reasonable doubt. >> and one can never tell when and how that might happen. but this is obviously the first step. right? you file charges against them, people have their come to jesus moment and decide whether they are going to participate, or they are going to, as donald trump always hopes, stay loyal to donald trump. and not do that. any sense as to how this plays out? >> i really don't have a sense, but i do think that's the fact that this was a far stronger indictment that anybody thought puts increasing pressure on those individuals to cooperate. i'll tell you another thing that i think is really important about this which is, i feel like a undermines that narrative that we saw the defense attorneys and his family members come out and see this is a political witch hunt. this is work for the president in the past. about the stronger the indictment the more ironclad it is, the harder it is to make that stick. there is some way in which there's obviously a legal battle and the public relations

battle, but winning the public relations battle, or at least being in their helps a little bit with the legal battle. and it thus far up until this point, we had a defensive tierney's basically along with trump himself, able to spin this in a way that they wanted to spin it. with trump going out there and saying things like, all businesses are run this way. well now, we can look at this and if you're just a business owner in new york, you know no they don't, i can't pay my employees off the books. and if i did, i would get caught and sent to prison. so, this is about who the defendant is, it's about what the defendant did. and that really pokes holes in this narrative, or this rhetoric that the defense attorneys, and it is their job to do this, but it is not going to work as well with an indictment like this. i think that makes a difference, to. both on a public relations level as we're speaking about before. but also a little bit in the legal battle to come. >> yeah, your point is it

really comes down to. this is about who the defendant is, as trump would have you believe. and his people. or is it about what the defendant did? good to see you rebecca. rebecca roiphe is a former manhattan and assistant district attorney. more to get you on this friday night. we'll have for more from rachel shortly. coming up next, a reason to be very thankful this holiday weekend. stay with us. ♪ downy's been taking you back, since way back. with freshness and softness you never forget feel the difference with downy. >> last year on july 4th, 2020,

we were here. about 50,000 new covid-19 cases were reported that day across the country. a seven-day average of more than 48,000 new cases on that day. and it was going up. look at that incline. that was the start of what would quickly become this country's second peak in the pandemic. fast forward about 365 days and we're now approaching the july 4th weekend once again. yesterday, about 16,500 cases were recorded, four 70 average of more than 12,800. far fewer than this time last

year. we know cases are down more than 95% from the highest peak in january. overall, we're doing pretty well in the fight against the virus. but if you look a little closer at where we are on the curve right now, you'll see that the seven-day average of cases, it's hard to see, you have to look right in that corner -- is increasing once again. a new daily covid cases rose 10% since last week. and the uptake might be due in part to the lighting vaccination rates in this country. we're still on the slight increase for that right now. our pace of vaccinations has been declining since spring. president biden set a goal to get 70% of adults at least one shot by july 4th. just last week, the white house acknowledged were not on track to meet that goal. heading into the holiday weekend, he's right. there are now fewer than 66% of adults with at least one shot. another reason cases are increasing right now, even if just by 10%, might leave the delta variant. the strain of covid originally seen in india. it's not present in all 50

states and accounts for a quarter of all new cases. experts like doctor anthony fauci of the white house covid-19 response team see the vaccinations we have are still highly effective against the dental delta villa right. the cdc director was joe relandscape said health officials expect transmission to increase in unvaccinated communities unless those vaccination rates can increase right now. so, the question is, when it comes to new covid cases, are we at an inflection point? because of the delta variant? and if we are, what can we do about it? joining us now is doctor ashish -- brown university school of by public health. doctor, thanks for being with us today. your take on this? we're henry right now. we're clearly far better than we were a year ago. still, we're in the tens of thousands of cases, or at least over 10,000 new cases each week. and we have this delta variant. >> yes, first of all. thanks for having me back. couple things, first of all, we

still have 100 american sign every day. it's not great, is we want that number to be lower. we are as a country is more and more aware we're becoming a nation of two americans. we have a vaccination america that's doing well that, i think it's gonna have a safe july 4th. and we have unvaccinated america that is at very high risk from the delta variant. unfortunately, i'm worried that the unvaccinated america is going to see a lot of infections and hospitalizations in the weeks and months ahead. >> what do you do about it doctor, at this point? is it a messaging palm? is an access problem? i'm here in new york city where they literally have pop-up sends all over the place. touching vaccinations. do we have a vaccination shortage in this country? or we just up against people who don't want it? >> a couple things. we don't have a vaccine shortage. we have plenty of vaccines. we have more vaccines than we know what to do with. that's why i championship in vaccines abroad to places that

don't have enough. so, what is slowing things down here is a couple of things. one is a massive mission information campaign that's been directed at communities of colors, it's been directed at conservatives. and that has dissuaded some. there are other people who have, who work three jobs, who can just take a day off after they've had their first or second shot. for them, those barriers still exist. so, we've got to do and all of the above strategy. yes better messaging, more trusted voices, also yes, policies that make it easier for people to get the shot. >> now they're worries about what we have to do about this delta variant and whether or not boosters will be needed. analysis from the public health england released on june 14th found that two doses of the pfizer biontech via exceed were 96 effective against hospitalization from the delta variant. to citizens of astrazeneca were 92% effective. johnson & johnson says its vaccine is effective against delta. we've got another reports,

moderna says its vaccine is effective against delta. so what does that mean? >> what that means is, i feel incredibly fortunate, all of our vaccines are holding up against these variants. i don't know that six months ago i would've predicted that. i'm incredibly thankful. it means that if you are fully vaccinated, you do not have to worry about getting sick and die. you may suffer a breakthrough infection, if you're around a lot of unvaccinated people. but you're going to do well. this is amazing. this is terrific. and should be all that much motivation for people to get vaccinated. >> you had wanted to have a july 4th barbecue. is that going to happen? >> it is going to happen. back in november, i said i thought we would be at a point where we could do it. i'm having about 20 or so friends and colleagues over and my backyard cannot accommodate much more than that without violating some gathering laws. but we're gonna have a pretty standard, traditional fun july 4th barbecue. >> that makes us very happy here at the show. we appreciate that you're going

to do that. and thank you for the time you've taken to always join us. doctor ashish jha, is that dean of brown university school of public health. thanks your time as always. when we come back, rachel is going to be here with an incredible story. she'll be right back i will be right back.

>> actor nonverbal. that's roy says is the official crest of a fancy private school in the las vegas nevada area. actor nonverbal. the motto splash across the front they're latin for actions not words. and the j and may is because this is the james madison academy here's the school's website. this private school is calls the james madison academy. it's named after james madison, one of the founding fathers. credited as the brains behind the second amendment to the constitution. which of course enshrines the right for americans to keep guns.

that, you might imagine, is why the james madison academy in las vegas picked these two guys to address their graduating class earlier this month. on the left there is david keen he spent two terms as president of the national rifle association. he now sits on the nra's board of directors. on the right there is a man in john lott. he's a very influential person in gun organization circles. he's an advocate for more people having guns with fewer rules about having them are using them. he wrote a book that people call the bible of the nra. both david keene and john lott were invited to address the graduates from james madison academy. and they both said yes. they put on their robes and their funny hats. they traveled to las vegas, they prepared speeches about following your hopes and dreams. also about the importance of the second amendment. right? that's why they wear their. the school told them that as a

thank you for giving those speeches, they would both be awarded the james madison academy's keeper of the constitution award. this is them having received their statues to commemorate their receiving those awards. all of this seems a little bit on the nose, right? gun themed school, gets gun themed speakers to give gun themed speeches, and receive a sort of gun themed award -- so it's a little on the nose. there were some other signs to that a vigilant person might have picked up on early on. let's look for example at that website again for the james madison academy. parts of it look quite official, like the things you might expect. but then there is little things that seem a little bit weird. like this. call us at 808 seven oh, blah, blah, blah to apply. what is that, like operators are standing by a toll free number?

what are you, anne and believes chasing law firm? is this an infomercial? also, if you run a history of the web address for the james madison academy website, it turns out the schools website has only existed since april of this year, and that is weird. also, the keeper of the constitution award for which those guys got a little statue thing, that war doesn't exist. there's no record of a anywhere. there's no record for example, of anybody else having received that award. turns out the james madison academy doesn't exist either. unbeknownst to these two pro gun advocates, they were both invited to speak at a fake graduation for fake school. and they gave their pro gun speeches in front of 3044 empty white cheers. in the las vegas venue. according to one group that tracks gun gun death, statistics, that 3044 number,

that is a member of high school seniors who should have put on their gaps and gowns and got in their high school diplomas this year. but instead, they died they were victims of gun violence and never made it to this year's graduation. that's the class of 2021 in gun violence deaths. and it is a dramatic thing to watch a sitting and hurry board members telling 3000 empty chairs that they need to follow their hopes and dreams. they're not going to follow their hopes and dreams. i'm going to play a little video of parts of his speech now. part of key speech. i will warn you, this video also includes some upsetting audio from 9-1-1 calls made joint school shootings. if that is something you would rather not experience, this is me giving you a chance to mute the tv if that is something you don't want to hear. okay, here we go. >> let me begin by telling you what an honor is to be here to help celebrate your graduation.

picture for a minute the young james madison, for whom the school is named. this year, you focused on one of the most important of madison's amendments. the second amendment. there are some who will continue to fight to get the second amendment. but i would be willing to bet that many of you will be among those who can prevent them from succeeding. >> 9-1-1 what is your emergency? >> defending it is a challenge and a duty that americans like you -- >> he was shooting into my classroom. >> understand what has made the country the and it -- >> okay, anybody injured? >> please help. >> and overwhelming majority of people go on to college, while others may decide their dream takes a different route to success. >> the school me. >> okay do you know how many people are injured?

>> my advice to you is simple enough, follow your dreams. and make a reality. >> my son texted me from school. there is a shooting or something. >> never doubt that you can achieve that dream. thank you. >> [noise] >> >> follow follow your dream and your dream and make it make it a reality. a reality. never for never for a minute a minute doubt that you can doubt that you can achieve achieve that dream that tree, an. and overwhelming majority of overwhelming you will go on to majority of you will go on to college college. there are some who will there are some who will continue to fight that got the sick continue to fight to get the second amendment but i'd be willing to bet that many of you will be. >> that is not going to happen from any of those students, both that nra board member david keen and the pro gun commentator who spoke at that,

they gave those speeches and friend of the 3000 empty seats, representing kids who did not graduate this year because they were killed in gun violence in the united states. keen and john locked were told that before the event they needed to participate in a dress rehearsal, test the lights and cameras and stuff, that's what this video is from after the run through they were told that the graduation was canceled because of a credible threat of violence. buzzfeed news called up the pro and are a commentator guy after the videos were published, he said he had no idea what had happened here. he said you're telling me the whole thing was a setup? no i did not know that, we've reached out to david keen the nra board member and we haven't heard back from him. this remarkable demonstrative experiment, this stunt was

orchestrated by gun safety advocacy group called change the ref. the group pointed out today that quote ironically had the men conducted a proper background check on the school they would've seen at the school is fake. they said they were trying to illustrate here that the thousands of students lost to gun violence won't be forgotten and they wanted to force pro gun activists to face the consequences of their policies. they called those 3000 empty seats the lost class. this advocacy group change the ref, was founded by manuel and patricia oliver in 2018 their son was killed in a mass shooting, in parkland florida. he was 17 years old. he was a great rider, an athlete, he loved music. his father manuel said today that he was not scared to pull off this sort of unbelievable piece of advocacy and honestly subterfuge he said quote, we

need to show were brave and were not afraid of these guys, we already felt the worst possible situation. there's no threat that can make me feel different. actions, not words. joining us now is manuel oliver, mr. oliver, thank you so much for being here. we really appreciate it. >> thank you. you did a great job presenting what we did. i love it. thank you. >> tell me about change the ref and how you came up with this idea. >> we'll change the ref is a consequence of losing our beautiful son, he love to play basketball he was a great rider like you said and he mentioned that sometimes when he played basketball, he was feeling bad calls from the referee he was always looking for a fair game. then when i saw what happened in parkland and i got more involved with the news, and the reality behind that episode and

every day is gun violence, we thought that the referees the referees in d.c., the ones that are supposed to give us a fair game. the ones that are supposed to make the right calls are ignoring us. so that's how we started with change the ref, my wife patricia, myself and my daughter andrea would love the fact that the name came from joaquin and not from us. it is an extension of joaquin the six activism. >> i know that you and your wife were on site behind the scene and able to watch while these and our guys were giving their speeches in front of that sea of empty chairs. i just have to ask, what was that for you, it must have been emotional? >> it was very emotional. we were not allowed -- they told me that they might recognize me. i had no idea that i was recognizable. we didn't want to take the risk

of anything going wrong. and they locked us up in the rv and we were watching the whole thing. it was very emotional, but because we were part of a process we knew exactly every step, everything that was happening it came out exactly how we plant. >> do you feel any more hope than you have felt in the past that there will be action on any element of gun safety, including background checks which you obviously have been pushing to the forefront. do you feel hopeful do you see any reason for other people to be hopeful that things might change? >> i'm gonna give you a great reason for me to think that things are different. i am having an interview with you, not because there was a mass shooting, but because we are doing something to prevent this from happening. so now we handle the conversation. we don't need to wait for a new

tragedy to bring the subject, and that is a great advance for us. for everyone that is fighting this epidemic that is killing people. it is preventable. but just because some of our leaders are part of the problem, it is kind of on hold being part of the solution. i think that we control now the information. we do things like the one that you just saw, were not the only group that is working in this direction. hopefully, that young generation will make things happen. it's not gonna happen tomorrow next year, but it will happen in a few years. it could also happen -- i've always said that we need to advertised the truth. patricia, myself, we use art and we do a lot of campaigns in

partnership with the most creative people from around the planet to make things happen. we believe in this, we need to bring out a reality that has been ignored for years. enough of lies, these two guys, this is not about them. i don't even care how they feel. this is about those empty chairs. this is about my son, joaquin. my wife patricia was the one who were seat joaquin's diploma when he was supposed to be graduating from high school. i know how that feels. i'm glad that i can do this. i'm glad that we can find things that empower us. maybe, maybe, they are giving power to many parents that don't know how to react. they don't know how to do things. they maybe haven't found themselves doing something similar, but there are more than invited. we need to continue being

parents and no one, no one, will stop that from happening. >> manuel oliver, the cofounder of the gun reform group " change the ref ", father of joaquin all over, it's a real honor to have you here. >> thank you very much, it's my honor, thank you. hearing is important to living life to the fullest. that's why inside every miracle-ear store, you'll find better bedtime stories. you'll find a better life is in store at miracle-ear, when you experience the exclusive miracle-ear advantage. it starts with our free hearing assessment. plus innovative products that fit your needs and budget.

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obscenely wealthy spend your money on mentions, yachts private islands art collections. you found it expeditions to the furthest corners of the world. now the status symbol for the world's billionaires is apparently space exploration. elon musk has spacex, richard branson has virgin galactic and jeff bezos has to blue origin. this is not necessarily a terrible thing. spacex is changing the game for low earth orbit by faring the astronauts to the international space station so that nasa could focus on other things and develop eye-popping lee exciting technology for reusable rockets while doing it. elon musk has lapped bezos, jeff bezos who is stepping down

as the ceo of amazon, has announced his first thing that he's going to do is travel into space himself. it won't be in space long, he'll be getting to what is technically space but on the sub orbital flight, meaning he's coming back to earth after four minutes of weightlessness. bezos is going by july 20th anniversary of the moon landing not to be outdone bridge branson has announced that he is also going into space on a sub orbital flight, and he's getting their first. he plans to beat bezos to space by nine days. and it the idea of billionaires racing each other to the upper reaches of the atmosphere makes you feel a little achy, there is at least one amazing thing happening that might make it seem a little bit more palatable. jeff pesos is bringing three people with him, his brother, as a yet unnamed winner of an auction for a seat, and someone who arguably deserves the chance more than any other human. now, let's go back a bit to the very dawn of the space program in the 19 fifties. nasa decided to select its

astronaut corps, the mercury seven from the ranks of military fighter jet pilots. they were all men. a few years later, there arose a shadow program privately funded and privately administered by the same man who tested the man to test untrain women for the same opportunity. the first woman of recruited for the pilot named jerry cobb was featured in life magazine in the summer of 1960 tidal, a lady proves she's fit first spaceflight. mary wallace, nickname wally was a 21-year-old flight instructor working at fork still in oklahoma when she saw that life magazine story and she was inspired to sign up to be an astronaut. ultimately, 13 women, each of them accomplished pilots, though not allowed to fly fighter jets for the u.s. military tested off the charts on some of the same tests that nasa was putting its mail astronauts through. wally fund said that she was able to endure more than ten

and a half hours floating in a sensory deprivation tank, while the mercury seven, only had to do three hours sitting in a dark room. here's how she described it in an oral history project for nasa. >> what would i do in a tank of water, and the humidity of the room was so perfectly control to my temperature that i couldn't feel the water on my hands or on my face because there was no hearing, smell -- all your senses were taken away from you. and you were to stay in there for as long as possible and i broke the record of ten hours and 45 minutes. >> facing those tests was where the dream of becoming an astronaut ended for wally funk and other women. the next set would've been flight training but that would've required sign off from you nasa and the new u.s. military. that sign off never came. women would not be allowed can become nasa astronauts until the late 1970s when sally ride was named the first female

astronaut candidate. in 1995, when astronaut eileen collins was the first woman to pull a space shuttle mission, seven members out of that original group of 13 women came to florida as her invited guests to watch the launch. wally funk herself says she applied to nasa's astronaut program for time after they started letting women in. she says she was turned down for lack of an engineering degree. since then, she has jumped on every opportunity to try to make it to a space. including several years ago when she thought richard branson was going to be the billionaire to get her there. but now, this week, jeff bezos announced that wally funk is getting a seat on his ship, aptly named the new shepherd, after the first american man to achieve sub orbital flight, allen shepard. so if all goes well, more than 60 years after that life magazine story kindle the hopes of a young pilot from oklahoma, one of the first female astronaut hopefuls may finally get her chance to fly high. that does it for tonight. rachel will be back next week.

i'll see you tomorrow and sunday morning from eight to 10 pm eastern. this week i'm talking to congressman bennie thompson, from the committee to investigate the january 6th insurrection. have a great holiday. and goodnight. ay an>> let me welcome everyone to the be. we begin tonight with donald trump's kids speaking out amid this ongoing criminal criminal probe after their company, where they work, the trump organization and his longtime cfo, have been indicted. it was 15 counts of charges we've been running through that are in our coverage starting -- growing pressure and heat on ellen weisselberg to talk, to flip. now, there are many ways to count this up and their debates over how typical this kind of charges is. but as a practical, legal matter he could face over a decade. potentially a decade in prison if convicted. those are