bipartisan support and progressives who want a sweeping bill with greater social safety net priorities passed regardless of whether any republicans support it. both groups want their bills passed first as a precondition to supporting the other bill and some moderates are saying they simply won't pass the larger bill because it costs too much money. the smaller bill focuses on physical infrastructure like roads and bridges. it has bipartisan support. but whether it will actually pass remains unclear. since progressives are vowing to tank that package unless it's passed in tandem with the party's larger $3.5 trillion social spending plan that lawmakers have been working through the weekend to finalize. the house budget committee approved the reconciliation package. that's the larger bill yesterday. so a bill will likely be brought to the floor this week. nancy pelosi will likely discuss the strategy tomorrow evening when she huddles with house democrats. she's asked for the fullest participation among her members and hopes that most of them will

attend. meanwhile, the deadly january 6th insurrection happened exactly 263 days ago. how one of the worst assaults on our democracy was allowed to happen remains top of mind and the threat posed by the rioters who participated in the attack still seems far from over. as we learn more about these far right extremists, new revelations are raising questions about law enforcement's ability to properly grasp how dangerous they are. a stunning new report from "the new york times" reveals an fbi informant was among the violent mob and they were texting realtime updates to his handler in the bureau. according to the report, this suggests that federal law enforcement may have had greater insight into the capitol attack than was previously known. the house january 6th select committee is ramping up its investigations and now wants to hear directly from rioters. the committee has started issuing requests for some defendants to voluntarily provide testimony as to why they

stormed the capitol that day. it's unclear how many of those people will respond to the committee's requests. politico notes their cooperation could be helpful writing, quote, some of those accused of storming the capitol have since renounced earlier claims that the election was stolen and have pinned their actions on trump suggesting they were duped into descending on d.c. and believed they were carrying out his wishes. well, time will tell if the failed former president ends up getting burned by his own inflammatory rhetoric. for now, he is still busy spreading his lies and feeding his base a steady diet of delusion. he was doing it last night at a rally in georgia. he falsely declared the january 6th riots -- which we all saw with our own eyes -- were a, quote, hoax and demanded that arizona, quote, decertify the election. now presumably he wasn't too pleased that the so-called results of that illegitimate republican-led fraudit in arizona indicated once again

that he lost. but we've only just begun to experience the fallout from arizona as states like pennsylvania and wisconsin are trying to pursue audits of their own. even texas. a state that trump won, is trying to carry out a similar fake audit of the 2020 election results but they're just doing it in four specific counties, four of which were won by biden and encompass large metropolitan areas which have big black and brown populations. while all of this sounds familiar, it's a serious matter because under the guise of keeping our elections safe, republicans fuelled by conspiracy theories and lies are undermining democracy by taking steps that limit the ability of some americans to vote or to have their vote counted. a true democracy cannot function like that. the danger is that some of those january 6th rioters and many republicans in this country have

come to believe, despite mountains of evidence, audits, investigations and court decisions to the contrary, that something was wrong with our democratic process. the most sophisticated in that group will continue in its attempts to undermine democracy. the most extreme in the group may continue to resort to violence, domestic terrorism and insurrection. this and this alone is why it's so important to understand what went wrong on and in the days leading up to the january 6th insurrection. joining me is democratic congressman pete aguilar of california. he's on the house select committee investigating the january 6th attack. the vice chair of the house democratic congress. welcome, congressman aguilar. good to see you again. it seems like groundhog day. you and i have to have this conversation a lot. but we have to have this conversation a lot because we have not gotten to the bottom of how and why january 6th happened. who knew and when they knew it.

you now have issued subpoenas to four key donald trump aides who would have some knowledge into what happened that day. where will this get us? >> good to be with you again, ali. and where this will get us is hopefully finding out minute by minute what happened leading up to january 6th. it's clear and even new reporting that we have from the costa and woodward book but also in steve bannon's own podcast he said he met with president trump on january 5th and that their goal was to kill the biden presidency. so every day we're finding out new information, and i think that where we go with these subpoenas is our hope is that people comply. but our ultimate goal is to tell the story about how close we came to losing democracy on that day and what we can do to make sure that it never happens again. >> while republicans call or -- many republicans call the committee illegitimate, obviously you have some republicans on the committee, you are a select committee of

congress. when you look at these four people, all of whom have highly specific knowledge about what happened, mark meadows, steve bannon, dan scavino and kash patel, how honest do you expect them to be with you? >> well, those individuals specifically, you know, aren't known for their commitment to the constitution. but our hope is that any individual who is called before the committee exercises what we feel is a patriotic duty to talk about that day and to answer congress. but there are steps that we can take if they don't comply. and so we're willing to use every tool available in order to find out the truth and find out what happened. >> what about this reporting i just had that you are looking at actually talking to some of the rioters. some of the insurrectionists, many of whom have said they were misled and blame donald trump for it. do you think that's likely to

happen, and to the extent that we're talking about more subpoenas being issued, who might those include? >> i'm not going to get ahead of chairman thompson announcing anything that's planned for the future. but i think we want to hear from the full breadth of interaction leading up to january 6th. and in if are individuals who meet that criteria that participated and now regret their participation, i think that would be interesting and helpful to the committee to understand. and so we're not going to rule anything out, and our goal has always been to tell the complete story and give the american public what they deserve, which is a full read out of what happened not just on the 6th but in the lead up to january 6th and what fostered this and what helped this and the individuals who played a role in helping direct this and fund this all of those things are within bounds of the committee. >> three of the four people who have been subpoenaed so far in this new group are -- were

people who worked for or directly with the administration. steve bannon by that point was outside doing his own stuff. the former president of the united states would -- says that executive privilegecovers their ability not to participate and not to provide information. this is what jen psaki said about that. >> the president has already concluded that it would not be appropriate to assert executive privilege. and so we will respond promptly to these questions as they arise and certainly as they come up from congress. >> so she was talking about joe biden asserting executive privilege. they'll not do that. now we have the competing executive privilege thing. how does that affect the testimony you're hoping to hear and the documents you're hoping to get? >> the twice impeached former president doesn't get to decide executive privilege. the current occupant of the white house generally has to decide, and there are also carve

outs based on criminal activities. so we feel that this is important and that executive privilege doesn't apply. but we'll let the lawyers handle that and hash some of those things out. it's important that the public also understands that the executive has been complying. we have asked for a series of documents. we continue to go over those documents. eight federal agencies that have been responsive. and so that's part of telling the story and we're ensuring that there's compliance, and we appreciate the biden administration helping us with that compliance to tell the truth here. >> congressman, good to see you, as always. thanks for taking the time to join us. pete aguilar of california, a member of the house select committee to investigate the january 6th attacks on the capitol. joining me now is "new york times" reporter katie benner who covers the justice department. she's also an msnbc contributor.

some of the strongest reporting comes from katie benner. let's talk about this new report. good morning to you. there was an fbi informant in the crowd? >> yes, that's true. so my colleagues have reported based on documents that there was an fbi informant in the crowd who had been working with the fbi prior to january 6 th. speaking to the fbi giving the federal government information about the proud boys and what we see in the document is this informant is part of the crowd but he doesn't seem to understand what is going on because, remember, this was a massive group of people. so he did not realize for example, the capitol had been breached as he was speaking with his handler. he did not understand that people had entered the capitol and attacked. he did not seem to think that he was part of a coordinated effort but he did seem to think it was imperative for the people that he knew to come to the capitol that day to express the fact they were dissatisfied with the results of the election. >> this is interesting. i was just talking to

congressman aguilar about the fact the committee would like to invite some of the participants there. and i guess when you look at the hundreds of participates who were there and stormed the capitol and the larger number there in total, it's a broad group of people. they there were for different reasons. in an effort to piece together what happened, how do you -- what do you make of this type of information? >> sure. you know, i'm not really sure what congress is going to do. i presume they'll do something akin to what federal investigators have done which is take a look at this very graduate group of people. and sort of try immediately to separate out the people who were there who were almost as tourists who got caught up in a riotous mob. they did not go there with the intent to storm the capitol. they went down there to protest which is first amendment protected activity. they went down there to say they did not want donald trump to lose the election.

and then to take the smaller subset of people who went down with an intent to cause some sort of mayhem or be involved in some sort of more serious activity. those are the people i presume that the committee would be more interested in speaking with and we've already seen the government bring charges, conspiracy charges, against several of those members of groups like the oath keepers saying they were conspiring to stop congress that day. so we have seen those more serious charges be brought. we don't know what's going to happen with them. they're still working their way through the court system. but it's my guess the committee would want to speak to those people as well p. we're seeing and in your reporting, that some of the people who were not the conspirators, some of the people who were maybe the tourists or were exercising their first amendment rights, even some of those who breached the capitol and ended up inside are getting settlements or deals or plea deals with the government that are unsatisfying to those who think that they should have the book thrown at them.

but the government seems to be picking and choosing where it's going to put all of its efforts on this one. they seem to be reserving their harshest prosecution for those who they think were more mindful of what was going on as opposed to those who happened to be caught up in it. >> absolutely. and i think that we -- i think we're seeing the government pick and choose. i think the government has been in talks about how to settle for a really long time. ever since the spring. inside of the justice department there have been conversations about what to do with the 500-plus people, i think at that point 300-plus people. now i believe it's 500-plus people charged with crimes related to the capitol. we're not just charging people at the federal government as we the people. those folks do have due process rights. they will go through court. so will we clog the courts with cases that are misdemeanors and people who entered the building but did not have an intent to attack members of congress to deface property, to destroy property. what do we do with those people,

people not hurting law enforcement officers? and the justice department has chosen in some cases to settle to move those cases out of the court system so that the courts, the judges, juries can really focus on, to your point, more serious activity. >> katie, good to see you. thank you for joining us. the justice department reporter for "the new york times" and a pulitzer prize winner. we'll have much more to talk about in the quest for information regarding the january 6th insurrection. later on i'll speak with another member of the house select committee, congressman jamie raskin who says the committee is turning over criminal acts to the department of justice. and debbie stabenow joins me on biden's big agenda and now the debt ceiling. first, breaking news. at least three people have died after an amtrak train derailed in a rural montana area late yesterday. the train, which was traveling from chicago to seattle and portland was carrying more than 140 passengers and 16 crew members. at least 15 people are believed

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i fly an awful lot. by the middle of october, i'll have been on five flights longer than 12 hours each and you have to have a mask on the whole time. i mask really well. if you want mask recommendations, hit me up, but your only choice on an airplane is what mask you're going to wear, not whether or not you're going to wear one. i'd prefer to go through a life without a mask but them are the breaks in a global pandemic. every time i get on a plane i worry about the selfish ignoramuses who may be on the plane with me. if i'm sick of them, flight attendants surely are.

>> reporter: passengers fighting in the aisles, even rolling on the floor. out of control. often drunk or angry about mask mandates. this man had to be duct taped to his seat. in a recent survey, 85% of flight attendants said they have witnessed unruly behavior this year. >> we simply cannot accept this as the new normal. >> reporter: in a virtual hearing before congress, flight attendants described just how ugly it can get. >> the specific incident that i will share today is not easy to talk about. >> reporter: american airlines flight attendant teddy andrews recounting the racist abuse he faced from a passenger refusing to wear a mask. >> i asked, sir, would you please put your mask on. must be covering both your mouth and nose. he looked at me and i will not repeat the epithet he used. he said n word, i don't have to listen to a damn thing you say. i know i don't deserve to be spoken to like this under any

circumstance. >> reporter: they report more than 4300 cases of unruly, sometimes dangerous behavior in 2021. more than 3,000 of those involve passengers refusing to comply with the faa mask mandate. passengers can face jailtime and even be banned from an airline for life. fines of up to $45,000 per incident already total more than $1 million this year. >> get off! >> reporter: now flight attendants are calling on congress for stricter enforcement, bans on to-go alcohol and efforts to spot problem passengers which could come in the form of a no-fly database. >> the vast majority of people just want to follow the rules. they want a safe, uneventful flight. we need messaging from leadership that's consistent about what we're doing together to face this crisis and how we can come together and support each other in this moment. >> our thanks to nbc's kristen

dahlgren for that reporting. president biden's deadline for police reform has come and gone and congressional talks have reportedly crumbled. but the need for federal action remains. how we're going to break that impasse, next. instantly clear everyday congestion with vicks sinex saline. for fast drug free relief vicks sinex. instantly clear everyday congestion. and try vicks sinex children's saline. safe and gentle relief for children's noses. i don't just play someone brainy on tv - i'm an actual neuroscientist. and i love the science behind neuriva plus.

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a police department in upstate new york is taking disciplinary action against one of the police officers involved in the death of a black man, 18 months later. rochester pd filed departmental charges against mark vaughn, one of the seven officers involved in the arrest and subsequent death of daniel prude last march. the group of officers allegedly pinned prude's face to the ground and put a mesh hood over his face. he's accused of using excessive force. these departmental charges are the first to be filed against any of the officers in daniel prude's death. they triggered a nationwide outcry last year setting the

table for a global social justice movement. americans of all colors and creeds demanded change and rallied in support of police reform. even congress promised to work on it at a federal level. but now almost 16 months to the day since george floyd died and those once-promising negotiations on a sweeping bipartisan police reform are officially dead. despite the collapse in talks, democratic senator cory booker of new jersey, one of the chief negotiators on the george floyd justice in policing act says he's not done fighting for reform. >> at the end of the day, we -- senator scott and i had a gulf between us that we could not close. we need to find another way. i was in the oval office yesterday talking to president biden. he's committed to moving as far as possible through executive action. we'll continue to work at this. i'm not going to give up. it took so many tries before we got comprehensive civil rights legislation. i'm not going to give up doing the work. >> for more on this i'm joined by sonia pruitt with the

montgomery county police department and founder of the black police experience. good morning, captain pruitt. thank you for being with us. i am a little surprised. you and i have been talking about this for over a year and a half. and i thought that they were very close together, democrats and republicans, tim scott and cory booker, on most issues and there was this one issue of so-called qualified immunity that democrats wanted to get rid of and republicans wanted to preserve. and that that was what was left in this dispute. what do you understand about qualified immunity and why this is such a problem to come to a bipartisan agreement on? >> good morning, ali. good to see you again, too. so since the murder of george floyd at the knee of derek chauvin, the people in this country have been looking for transparency and accountability. they want to see transformation in policing. this is not transformation at this point and qualified immunity does play a great role because it is a way to hold

police officers individually accountable for the things that they are involved in, for the misconduct. and that was taken off the table weeks ago, though. and, you know, it just boggles my mind that you would have police groups, especially, say we don't -- we don't want to take that off the table. why would that be the case? that's a rhetorical question. >> i guess my point is could they have come to some agreement because there were several key points in this george floyd justice in policing act. all of which would improve policing in some way. in case we couldn't come to agreement on qualified immunity, would there have been value in supporting a bill that didn't tackle that but tackled the other things like chokeholds, like registries? i know some democrats said it's no deal if we don't have qualified immunity, but would it have improved policing to get four-fifths of a deal? >> i think so. any step in the right direction would have been great, right?

you had the police misconduct database that would have police officers placed in that database if they were found guilty of misconduct so that they could not be hired in other police departments. you had the -- not ending, but modifying the 1033 program whereby police departments get military equipment. but here's the thing that boggles my mind also and that's this conversation surrounding defunding police departments that i heard senator tim scott mention the other day when the talks fell apart. police departments have been getting defunded since the beginning of formal police departments. whenever you have a budget that you have to agree to in a county or state, police department might not get the money that they got the year before. that's called defunding. but here's something to really point out. the banning of chokeholds, no-knock warrants, collecting use of force data, funding

body-worn cameras, all of those are part of the george floyd justice in policing act. whereby police departments would get money for that so for me, not having police departments have access to those funds is defunding the police. >> let me ask you about cory booker said, i'm going to still work on this and he said that he and tim scott -- tim scott is a senator, also a black man. they both had shared experiences about policing and shared fears and the conversation that you and i have talked about that you have had with your children. they all understand, like pretty much every black person in this country understands, what needs to be solved. if they couldn't solve this on a basic level after a year in which we have had civil rights type action in fact, we've had more people on the streets than we had during the civil rights movements of the 1960s. what happens next? how do we move forward on this?

>> well, so two things. the first thing is, when you are listening to police groups like the fop and napo and the sheriff's association, great groups for the interest of police, but those are the interests of police. when you're not listening to the people and their interests, then, of course, you are becoming now complicit in continued police abuses. that's the first thing. the second thing -- so now here we are. what did we do? it's going to depend now, to me, on local and state governments to move the ball forward. and many states have been doing that already. i live in the state of maryland which has passed comprehensive police reform. so that's the direction i think we're going to go in for the time being, but i spoke to senator booker, and i believe him that he's committed to continuing the work in this area because we need it so very, very badly. >> but you make a good point. close to 20,000 different police departments in this country and while federal legislation is important and necessary, local

legislation is probably what's going to help or local changes are what's going to help the most. good to see you again, captain sonia pruitt, founder of the black police experience. up next, what do all these children's books you're looking at on your screen have in common despite the fact they're fun, educational, empowering. it might surprise you, but it probably won't because the more things change in america, the more they stay the saim. a reminder that velshi is available as a podcast. listen to the show for free wherever you get your podcasts. but not every tomato ends in the same kind of heinz ketchup. because a bit of magic unfolds when there's a ketchup for everyone. trelegy for copd. ♪ birds flyin' high, you know how i feel. ♪ ♪ breeze drifting on by you know how i feel. ♪

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let's take this moment for a little reading rainbow velshi edition. take a look at all of these children's books. this is just a small list of the books i'm talking about. if you are a parent of young kids chances are you have some of these on your shelves. they're colorful, fun, educational, with diverse characters tackling culture, kindness, self-worth, inclusion. all things that i assume most parents would want their children to learn from and aspire to be. let's take a look at one of them. jabari jumps from gaia cornwall. jabari watched the other kids climb the long ladder. they spread their arms and bent their knees and sprang up, up, and then they -- down, down,

down. splash. kind of makes me want to go for a swim. let's read a page from "peanut goes for the gold." peanut has their own way of doing things. peanut loves doing cartwheels on the basketball court and having banana pancakes on their birthday instead of cake. this is a book that promotes self-love and positivity. it's written by jonathan van ness star of "queer eye" and champion of lgbtq rights. here's one more, "i am rosa parks." sliding over to the window, i thought about what he was demanding. he wanted to take my seat away and give it to that man. and why? because i was black and that man was white. that, of course, is a true story. it's not controversial about the fact that it's true. it's a fact. it's history. a piece of american history illustrated with cute reliable cartoons, relatable cartoons for young children. this is a lovely collection of children's books if you ask me. what do they all have in common?

they all cover diversity, race and social issues. most of them are written by people of color. they were all part of a list of books and educational resources that were banned from a school district in york, pennsylvania. not the books themselves. but the idea that there was a list, a diversity list that teachers could rely on. yeah. and all white school board in york, pennsylvania, sent a long list of resources to staff and told them not to use them in the classroom. the central york school board banned an entire list of resources and materials from latin-x and black authors. the school board president claims it was never a ban, it was a freeze while the book vetted the books and materials but that process took longer than a year. and now after protests by the students and the community, the central york school board has voted to rescind the ban. all is well. or is it? let's ask brad melzer, the author of one of the books i just mentioned, "i am rosa pa

s" and, i am i.m. pei and i am oprah winfrey. thank you for being with me. very interesting experience. i was at a farm outside of du rbin, south africa, that was where gandhi was. i was with his granddaughter. and in that office in the farm there was a book, and it was "i am gandhi," one of the books that you co-authored, illustrated by a colleague of yours. and in that moment i got an email from you telling me the story of what was going on in york, pennsylvania. i thought, brad's books are everywhere. they're innocuous, fantastic. you are an author of novels, a best seller but you take time because you think it's interesting for kids to learn these stories of global history and interesting people. must have been quite a surprise to be on this list. >> oh, of course. and the reason chris and i, our

artist on the books -- >> who is fantastic. the art in these books is amazing. >> and he is our secret weapon. we want our kids off their phones and devices. but if you don't give them something better to look at, you'll never do it. we wanted to give them better heroes of kindness and compassion and perseverance. and then suddenly to get a phone call that says your book on rosa parks has been banned. "i am martin luther king jr." was banned. i was heartbroken because it made me realize there are kids out there, right there in york county, who are not going to be able to have these heros. and it's absurd. if you're banning books, you're on the wrong side of history. >> brad, the part of the thing here is that the board says they didn't really ban the books. they banned them as a list of resources so in theory someone could use the book, but it wouldn't be part of the group of resources that a teacher could go to, which is complicated

because teachers are busy. they're overworked. the idea there's a curated bunch of books that are interesting, about interesting people in history is a useful thing. it almost felt like it wasn't as bad as it sounded but it might be worse because it's a little insidious when you start to say, not banning books. we're banning curricula that teach kids about diversity or by diverse authors. >> that's exactly right. and here's what happens is they say, listen, we want to vet these books before we hand them to kids, which is a good idea. you don't just hand books about race to kids without knowing what's in them. but what they were doing is they took a year to do it. our book has 38 pages in it. some of the books have 10, 12 pages in it. these are not the great american novels. you can read all of these books in a couple of days. and what they did it was their way to basically be slaves to their own fear. that's what was driving this. this school board is afraid. and they are afraid to talk about race. they don't want to talk about race but we do our kids -- if you don't talk about race you do

our kids a huge disservice. and race is a hard subject. i tell my kids, you don't stay away from things that are hard like that. you have to actually deal with them. >> brad, one of the other interesting parts about this thing is it was not just a story about a school board, a conservative school board doing things that we've been seeing happening around the country in different ways. this was also a story about student activism. there were students who took it upon themselves. you got involved in a conversation with a number of them to say we're not really interested in this type of activity. this type of action by the school board. >> yeah, the first thing is we took the lessons of rosa parks and started the protest. teamed up with two activists in the local community and started taking not just our books, but we said buy every book on this list. we'll put them in the local free libraries. then the school board had their big meeting and said we want an open mic. you can go for the first hour. they said, brad, do you want to come? i go there and i read from "i am rosa parks" i said let me just

show you what you're denying kids. i read the scene from the book. i read from "i am martin luther king jr." and then all of the students started speaking and the real stories started coming. students who were current students that were students who had -- members of the military who basically said they had served and they were graduated but they were so embarrassed by their school that their school district was doing this. and i sat there, listened to these empassioned mothers, students with my mouth open on that school board meeting and realized, these are the stars. by the end of the school board meeting the great part was the school board said we're going to release that list and now it's there and, of course, to watch that activism. i've had letters from teachers saying i've been encouraging my students. and people say, oh, these teachers are doing this and teachers are doing that. have you met a kindergarten teacher, a history teacher? they're trying to teach your kids to be good people. kindergarten teachers are some of the most amazing people in

the world and they want your kids to share and not eat crayons. not trying to indoctrinate your children but it was something amazing to watch it all play out. >> i've read a lot of these "i am" books and they seem to just be about universal values. there's not some weird hidden message in them that's meant to make people dislike themselves or who they are. they're just universally interesting people and history lessons. brad, thanks for joining us. best-selling author of a ton of books for adults and kids including "i am rosa parks" and he's got a bunch of other ones coming up. he's got "i am oprah winfrey" and "i am i.m. pei" coming up. cyberninjas are finished with their anti-democratic propaganda in arizona but the cyberninjas were never the real threat. the sham fraudit was not going to bring down democracy.

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i've always wanted to be a stand-up comedian. it would soeb easy to start today to stand here and joke about the results of the arizona recount. there's no way joe biden won this election. let's bring in the cyberninjas. ten months later the so-called audit determined that biden actually won arizona's most populous county by an even greater margin than originally reported. 10 months with the hand-picked firm with zero experience conducting a grossly partisan fake audit and they couldn't even get the results they wanted. it is too easy. these jokes write themselves. i could stand here and tell you the cyberninjas were so stealthy, as ninjas are, that even they couldn't see their own failure coming. or i could say that this is what you get when you listen to a guy

that sells foam pillows on tv. i could do all that. but i won't. because despite the fact that most -- not all, but most leaders in arizona made themselves into a laughing stock, what they did was deeply corrosive to the future of democracy in america. the results of this fraudit don't matter because it was illegitimate from the start. to says they was a win for biden or loss for trump give stocks to a scam. a theft of freedom in the united states of america. if you think it stops here, you are dead wrong. arizona was not the first it will not be the last state to try to strip away voting rights from its citizens. it just so happens that arizona was really bad at it. they hired a sham company that had zero experience with election audits. their leaders and organizers had partisan motives. and there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election. none. not in arizona and not anywhere else. but here's the danger. arizona will now be the poster

child for what not to do when trying to overturn an election. basically a user guide on how to lose a fake recount that you control in ten months. the next state to try this won't be as stupid as arizona was. and it's be as stupid as arizona was. and it is already happening in republican states around the country. it might not look at the spectacle around the state. but here's what it looks like. restrictive voting laws, poll watchers who intimidate voters, polling locations disappearing and restricting. and that's what should scare you. just because an injustice does not have an impact on your life does not mean it is your problem. our continuing attempts at a more perfect union fall short lt

one day you are enjoying the privileges of democracy and then, poof, they're gone. almost like, dare i say it, a ninja. the fraudit was never a real threat. they were amateur grifters who literally had one job they could not deliver on for republicans. but for more real competent forces at work trying to decide whose votes count and they might succeed where arizona failed. democracy itself hangs in the balance, and our work here is far from done. you can always spot a first time gain flings user. ♪ psst! psst! allergies don't have to be scary. spraying flonase daily stops your body from overreacting to allergens all season long.

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the arizona sham audit may have failed in its mission to overturn election results in favor of republicans in arizona. but it is catching on. we're now seeing versions of 2020 election reviews in wisconsin and texas, states trump actually one, by the way. they voted to subpoena the personal information of some seven million voters for an arizona style audit. the state's attorney general filed a lawsuit to block that subpoena. the demise of democracy stems from the big lie about voter fraud in the 2020 election. but in pennsylvania it actually started before the 2020 election. joining me now is josh shapiro. he's suing republicans over

their election subpoena. attorney general, it is good to see you again. in pennsylvania, it is a canary in the coal mine. we saw attempts by republicans in the state legislature to do things that would limit the ability of some people to register, to vote early, to vote by mail and to vote in person. and now -- and the head of the republican party there went to arizona to watch that audit to see if they could learn any new tricks from it. >> you are exactly right, ali. you are draw a straight line between the lies that occurred in the election. the litigation. we were sued 19 times before a single vote was cast to make it harder for people to vote. we won every time. we then had a safe and secure election. they sued us 20 plus more times after that to stop certain votes from being counted. the lies continued. there was a violent insurrection that occurred at our capital. state capitals across this

country are trying to pass laws to stop certain people from being able to vote. thankfully we have a democratic governor here who has been vetoing that and now we move into these sham audits. so there is a direct connection between all of this conduct and trying to silence the voices of certain people in these states. >> so here is the problem that i'm most worried about. you and i live near each other, and there are reasonable conservatives, people who consider themselves republicans out there, who still believe the problem has to be solved because this is what republicans across the country are talking about is bad things that happen during voting. >> right. >> bad things didn't happen during voting in pennsylvania. i was in philadelphia on election night and there was a constant effort by republicans to suggest that something was wrong. it went through court cases. everything happened. bad things didn't happen. voting in and around pennsylvania is not at risk.

>> no, not at all. here are the facts. we had a safe and secure, free and fair election that at the presidential level joe biden won by just over 80,000 votes. by the way, democrats and republicans won in races statewide and in local districts. we then had -- and this is an important fact. we had two legally hily require audits in pennsylvania. but the crux of your question about you said reasonable people have some concerns, well, that's because their leaders have been lying to them for the last ten months. so if the people you elect to positions of authority, the people who are supposed to know are willing to go on tv and lie to you, are willing to sell out 245 plus years of american history in our democracy to further this big lie, to further their own selfish political ambitious and goals, well, it is

no wonder why the good people in pennsylvania have doubts. >> where does that come from? literally since the election there have been court cases across the country, investigations. the secretary of state of michigan and i talk about the fact that good states have audits. good states do audit their elections. we all agree elections should be safe. how do you get over into this conversation? you can try it in court. you can win it in court. your governor, tom wolf, said no surprise in arizona. i won't let pennsylvania republicans bring this circus here. the circus is here. >> well, the circus is here, but i have gone to court to stop them because understand the subpoenas that they have issued most of the information is already available publically which kind of confirms the sham. i know, by the way, they check is donald trump first before

going forward with this. he can't be very happy. and i know a lot of these extremists aren't happy because they're asking for stuff already available. the other piece of what they're asking for is the personal information, social security number, driver's number, addresses of nine million pennsylvania residents. that violates our laws. and their subpoena was issued without probable cause. it will have a chilling effect on our elections and i sued to stop them from being able to go forward with that, and i'm confident in our legal abilities to prevent that from happening. we have been flooded with calls and e-mails to our office saying do not give over my personal information. and, so, you know, we feel confident in our legal strategy. we also think it is absolutely reckless to go forward as the senate republicans are trying to do to compromise the privacy rights of nine million pennsylvanians. >> thanks for joining me.

unfortunately, we will have this conversation several times. good to see you this morning. >> good to see you. >> don't go anywhere. straight ahead, the latest developments in the january 6th investigation with a house of the house select committee investigating the attack. representative jaime raskin. another hour of "velshi" begins right now. and good morning to you. today is sunday, september 26th. i'm ali velshi. it is a big week ahead on capitol hill. democrats are aiming high as they attempt to move forward with two major cornerstones of president biden's agenda. moderates want a smaller physical infrastructure bill. progressives want a sweeping bill regardless