hasan. hey, mehdi. >> hey, great interview there. can't wait to watch that. have a great rest of your sunday. throw tonight on the mehdi hasan show congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez is here fresh off a big win this weekend as progressives stand their ground on biden's build back better agenda. can they reach the big prize and secure a deal on a big transformative spending plan? plus texas senator ted cruz mixing basketball and politics again. backing nba players hesitant about getting vaccinated tweeting your body your choice. funny that wasn't his message for women in texas. also three years after the assassination of saudi journalist khashoggi the biden administration is still meeting with the man who reportedly ordered his death. will he ever be held accountable? we'll hear from jamal khashoggi's fiance. good evening.

i'm mehdi hasan. september was supposed to be the month in which congress passed hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending and guess what? the house did. by a vote of 316-113. now you might be scratching your head and saying didn't the bipartisan infrastructure bill fail to come to a vote on thursday night? isn't the budget reconciliation bill nowhere near ready for a vote? you're right on both counts. i'm not talking about those bills. i'm talking about a bill that flew quietly under the radar in the house like a stealth bomber on the occasions in which it actually works. a bill which authorized $740 billion for the defense department. $768 billion total for defense. ka ching ka ching. see president biden submitted a $715 billion budget to congress for the defense department to which members of both parties said, as if. and just threw in $25 billion extra they found under the couch cushions presumably.

yeah. in a supposedly divided congress they gave bipartisan support to spending even more money on bombs and bullet, humvees and fighter jets. look at the future projection on this graph. defense spending goes up in the ten years from 2025-2035. it is a regrettable fact of life in america that we argue over funding for health care and to address child hunger and save the planet's ability to sustain human life but, hey. quickly and quietly passing hundreds of billions to blow things up and interfere in conflicts overseas. for that lawmakers say no problem. count me in. that's more than $7 trillion for defense over the ten years which is double what senator bernie sanders has been pushing for in the budget reconciliation bill. funny that we never count defense spending over ten years. only child care. but those are america's warped priorities. why do we spend so much on f-35 fighter jets that often don't work but not on universal pre-k

or free community college? it's not just me who thinks this. a four-star general turned republican president who helped save the world from hitler gave an unheeded warning 70 years ago about america's insatiable appetite for weaponry. >> every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. >> it's worth pointing out that president eisenhower is also responsible for the interstate highway system finding it hard to get congress to pass the federal highway aid act of 1956 and it could be argued no major infrastructure projects of that scale have been undertaken since. in six decades or more. we can't even agree on what infrastructure is anymore. meanwhile we're quietly pouring

more than $700 billion. no country spends close to the united states on defense. china is second but only spends about one-third. add in india, russia, uk, saudi arabia, germany, france, south korea, france, italy, and ault and all the countries combined still don't spend as much as the u.s. does on defense. it is lunacy. why is it suddenly there is no polarization or filibustering when it comes to defense spending? not even when it came up for a vote right after the u.s. just ended the longest war in its history at a cost of $2 trillion. you would think money for defense would be going down right now not up. that is what progressives in the house wanted. but no. the senate will also pass this defense spending bill even as the build back better act languishes there. joe manchin and kyrsten sinema don't seem to have the same fiscal concerns about giving $2 trillion to american defense contractors, afghan war lords, as they do about providing free hearing aid for seniors in west virginia or paid child care to working parents in arizona.

i mean, i'll be damned if i know what sinema is thinking about anything. >> what do i want from this bill? i'll never tell. because i didn't come to congress to make friends. and so far, mission accomplished. >> sinema, manchin, and their pal josh gottheimer in the house the conservative democrats aren't budging. but as the progressives proved last week they're now a force to be reckoned with, too. they are ironically the ones defending and pushing the whole biden agenda. who is going to win this game of legislative chicken? who better to ask than congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez a leading member of the house progressive caucus. welcome back to the show, congresswoman. the vote on the bipartisan infrastructure framework didn't happen on thursday because your side the progressives stood firm. we're about to start a new week of negotiations so, question. do you believe both these bills will still pass or are we at risk of losing both of them and would that be a price you're willing to pay?

>> well, i believe that, i do believe both bills are going to pass and i think that both bills, a big reason both bills are going to pass is because the american people supported an enormous caucus of 95 house progressives to defend these kind of investments. now, what i will say is that passing the so-called bipartisan infrastructure bill alone could and potentially will have net negative effects on climate. and on top of everything else, on top of the potential risk of not securing these generational and once in a lifetime investments, the risk of doing harm to our climate royte now is something that we cannot afford. >> yes. very well put. congresswoman, i've been quite clear about the fact we in the media have failed to accurately report on this bill as a $3.5 trillion package over ten years. but your party has failed on the

messaging too, hasn't it? why don't democrats refer to this as a $350 billion a year spending bill just as they refer to our bloated defense budget as 700 billion a year and not $7 trillion over ten years? >> i wish we did. you know, i think there are two factors for that. i think on one hand you have very conservative democrats and special interests that want to make this number sound very big and scary to more conservative and moderate voters and on the other hand you also have individuals who want to say that this is a big, you know, big spending -- you know, how unprecedented it is and how exciting it is. but the fact of the matter is what we're discussing right now as you say is $350 billion. when you look down on for example some of these conservatives that are trying to bring it down to the area of $1 trillion, rather 1 trillion,

that is a hundred billion dollars a year. that is the operating budget for new york city. and so imagine taking the yearly operating budget for new york city and trying to spread that all across the united states and act as though that is going to meaningfully change our lives. it is not. that is why we have to make sure we defend these investments. >> so one of the very conservative members of your caucus you referenced conservative democrats new jersey house democrat josh gottheimer. he says you're part of a small, far left faction that, quote, blocked the president's agenda. and yet the president seems to be siding with you guys who didn't endorse him in the primaries over gottheimer who did which is amusing to me. what is your response to congressman gottheimer? >> well, i do math. and 95, which is the number of house democrats, or house progressives, is larger than nine which is the number of

democrats who signed on to a letter threatening to sink the entire reconciliation bill back in august demanding this vote this week for an arbitrary reason even the president wasn't dmaning a vote this week. and so, you know, i would wish that some of our folks are coming to the table the way that we are but, you know, also tensions get high in legislating and negotiating. it is a natural part of the process. and i wish him well. >> another conservative democrat who won't come to the table very explicitly senator sinema of arizona is also out with a statement attacking your side for betraying the american people, engaging in stunts she says. arizona democrats are upset with her threatening her with a vote of no confidence. as someone who famously came to office having primaried an out of touch conservative democrat from the left should sinema now be worried about a primary challenge come 2024? do you think it needs to be

talked about more as a way of reminding her the pressure is on in an increasingly bluish state arizona? >> well, you know, i think ultimately that is always up to the folks right there in the state of arizona. are they happy with their leadership? their most recent senator that they had just elected is more progressive, fights very hard for working families. that is ultimately up to the people of arizona. it is a state increasingly la tinno and latina. it is a place where working class populist politics is really taking off. i think if your home is in arizona it is a question you may want to raise. >> let's talk manchin the third

part of the puzzle. he has talked down to you in the past as a, quote, young lady on the left who literally talked down to a bunch of constituents from his luxury house boat in d.c. this past week. that was a symbol for us there. that image. as much as he likes -- he is kind of right isn't he when he says democrats are in this boat because your party didn't elect enough people to congress in general last november and especially people with your kind of views, progressives didn't win enough elections. that is fair, isn't it? >> yeah and the opposite is fair as well. you have frustrations on the left, conservatives in the senate blocking things like universal pre-k or free community college or expanding medicare. but the same very much applies to these conservatives in the senate sending off these very angry statements. but they could have elected more conservatives to the house of

representatives. but right now we have a caucus of 95 people who are holding strong because frankly the house of representatives, it is not the un-democratic or as un-democratic of a body as the united states senate is. and so as a result it tends, because our elections are every two years it reflects the present moment of this country a little bit more quickly i would say. >> they could have elected a nonleft democrat to the white house. oh, wait they did. he is not on their side. one last quick question before we take a break on this part of interview. we'll talk to you after the break as well. one last quick question on this. i hate asking this because i hate this abstract numbers debate. i know you do, too. but people are wondering would you accept less than 3.5 trillion? we are hearing a number like 2 trillion. is that in the realm of possibility for alexandria ocasio-cortez? >> well, you know, getting down to the low 2s, that is something

that -- i think it is going to be quite difficult. but when it comes to this question of 3.5, you know, there is this matter where we do have these two holdouts in the senate. this is a conversation for us to have. again it doesn't necessarily mean cutting back the scale of these investments. it could mean we say okay perhaps we do a five-year infrastructure plan instead of a ten-year infrastructure plan. that is where i think it is important to contextualize this number. because 3 trillion over ten years is less per year than if we go 3 trillion over five. and you can work with those numbers and have very ambitious policies if you do things like work on the timeline or also washington accounting is notoriously funny. how do you count a tax cut for working families for example? do count that as lower revenue or increased spending? a lot of times that kind of

accounting affects the top line without necessarily affecting the outcome of felt experience. >> funny you mention accounting. we can't even get the defense department audited for its hundreds of billions of dollars. we'll take a very short pause. congresswoman, please stick around. we have a lot more to get to including voting rights after a very short break. plus later this hour senator ted cruz wants basketball players to speak their minds but only if they're encouraging vaccine hesitancy. and for 20 years we fought a brutal conflict in afghanistan but didn't take more lives than we saved. i'll speak to the war correspondent who has pulled back the veil on our failed war all coming up.

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we know that the big infrastructure vote is on hold until democrats can agree on budget reconciliation. passing both could be crucial for the party's chances in the midterms next year. but it is easy to get just a couple weeks ago there was another item at the top of the

party agenda, voting rights. they are just as crucial for the midterm elections and time may be running out not just for big d democrats but small d democracy as congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez pointed out yesterday the two democratic senators quote slow walking the negotiations on spending are the same two also holding up voting rights. she is back with me now. congresswoman, we have republicans gutting voting rights and trying to subvert elections at a state level and democrats at a federal level unable to pass legislation to stop them. the first time i ever anchored a show on this fillet work july 2020 i warned of the threat of facism in this country. you did an instagram video in august of 2020 where you said the presidential election was about stopping facism in the u.s. over a year later after biden's win but after all the voter suppression laws as well in your view are we closer or further away from full blown facism in america? >> well, you know, it is closer relative to when.

you know, we were, we're basically there under the trump administration. i believe the election of joe biden essentially paused our descent into just the complete up ending of our democracy but we are not out of it. and the threat is merely growing right now. and until we pass voter rights legislation, we are very much imperiled by the up ending of our democracy and essentially if we do not pass strong voting rights legislation, soon, it cannot be right before the midterm. but it needs to be very, very soon. we're already running out the clock. the census data for redistricting was handed over mid august. states are currently taking knives to districts right now and drawing those red lines and many are republican states that are disproportionately disenfranchising communities in order to protect republican and

frankly unrepresentative seats. if we do not pass voting rights legislation in a very short period of time, it risks the republican party gaining the house and if they gain the house as we have seen there is a very real, very real chance they will not certify the 2024 presidential election if it is not a result to their liking. >> we saw what happened on 1-6. it was a fascist attack on the nation's capitol. you tweeted about a capitol police officer accused of leaking whereabouts of secure location for lawmakers on january 6th saying that is why you refuse to go there. six capitol police officers have been disciplined for their conduct on 1-6 none charged with any crimes. do you feel safe inside the capitol today? >> no. not always. and you know, i -- it is a very difficult thing to say and difficult thing to talk about. i recently had conversations

with house leadership about it and it is unfortunate because it does not necessarily reflect, as we know and everyone has said this does not reflect the spirit or the heart of every single capitol police officer but the fact is that there was very widespread disturbing behavior on the 6th that has not been accounted for. >> it hasn't and we have to wait and see what this committee does and how deep they'll go. just circling back to the funding debate we were talking about before the break congress suddenly found a billion dollars to give israel for its iron dome missile defense system which to be clear to our viewers is already fully funded. this was a billion dollars cher oin top. the majority of the squad cory bush, others voted against it. jamal bowman voted against it and he told me it is because he wanted to represent his diverse constituents. you voted present. i know you put out a statement addressing this.

can you briefly explain to our viewers tonight on msnbc why you voted that way? i'm sure you know you have come under a lot of criticism for the present vote including from your supporters. >> yeah. absolutely. this was an extremely difficult vote and i also think it is important that people are educated about the process of this vote. that democratic leadership decided to fast track this funding so when you want funding for preschool here in the united states, if you want funding for any sort of domestic priority it must go through what feels like 80 different committee hearings, mark ups, etcetera. here just casually a billion dollars was fast tracked, no committee mark up. in fact earlier that week leadership attempted to kind of slip in an extra billion dollars into a routine legislation and i was part of the democrats that helped to remove it because this is contentious. now, what became very difficult during the course of the week

was that my district is adjacent to representative bowman's and this began to frankly just really become quite contentious in our community in part due to the disingenuous messaging both parties were advancing. you are correct in that this funding was in addition to the already fully funded dome but democratic leadership decided to run with the narrative that this was in fact to vote against it was to defund the iron dome which sent many of our constituents into a panic. they called this vote. they scheduled the vote two hours, they called the vote two hours after it was announced that it was scheduled and that lack of timing created a very volatile environment back in the district. it is something that has been obviously very difficult but that is what happened that day. >> the question a lot of people asked me to ask you is was it

worth doing present because it didn't really satisfy anyone. supporters of israel are mad at you for not voting for it. critics are mad at you for not voting against it. do you regret that? >> you know, i -- it something i weighed. there is always the macro and then there is the micro. in the macro of narrative, of politics, of national impact, you know, i probably should have just gone with my value but in the macro which would be to vote no but in the micro i do believe this created a window in our community to be able to bring all folks to the table, because my great fear is that we are going to import the same sort of contention around this issue and we can have a progressive movement that defends palestinian human rights that is muslim, christian, jewish, but so in the micro i believe it created a window of opportunity

for us in the bronx but in the macro it was very difficult. yes. >> so just before we finish on a lighter note than israel/palestine my teenage daughter reminded me of this gramt video that you did that made me and her both laugh when you responded to sarah palin's criticism of you. >> my existence make you mad? does the fact that, yes, i am a mouth piece for the people of new york's 4th congressional district upset you? well i have help for you. call 1-800-cry-now. that is 1-800-cry-now. >> i have to ask you're famous for dunking your gop politicians. do you come up with this yourself? do you have a team of people coming up with these? >> i do. no, no. there's people that have all these theories that like i have some sort of intern or something. my twitter account or my instagram. but i would never let someone who works for me run with that

kind of messaging. it is a little too spicy. but i'll do it myself. however, my facebook and, yeah. my facebook and our official account we have teams. we have organizers helping us. my full-time job is not to post. part-time right? >> your full-time job is not to post but a lot of our viewers at home i'm sure enjoy the dunking. thank you for your time. we'll have to leave it there. >> thank you. next, blob fish basketball back? why is senator ted cruz mixing basketball and politics again? i'll explain next. first, the headlines. >> some stories we are watching this hour, a major cleanup operation has been launched to tackle a large oil spill off the coast of california. this leak is around 13 square miles inside and off the beach

near newport beach, los angeles. officials have learned of substantial ecological impacts. at least five civilians were killed in a bomb attack at a kabul mosque sunday morning marking the deadliest attack in the afghan capital since the u.s. forces left in august. three arrests have been made. there has been no claim of responsibility. 11 people were rescued after their boat capsized near downtown seattle saturday night. firefighters responded to the report near the seattle ferry terminal in elliott bay. those rescued were evaluated by first responders and determined to be in stable condition. more of mehdi hasan show after this break. ♪ limu emu & doug ♪ got a couple of bogeys on your six, limu. they need customized car insurance from liberty mutual so they only pay for what they need. what do you say we see what this bird can do? woooooooooooooo...

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welcome back. it's time now for what i call the 60 second wrap. remember when ted cruz referred to a basketball hoop as basketball ring? last week as the united states

crossed 700,000 deaths from covid the texas senator tweeted in defense of nba stars against covid vaccines quote i stand with kyrie irving i stand with andrew wiggins i stand with bradley beal. #your body your choice. what is' member of planned parenthood? this is the same ted cruz who bragged about not watching nba games. but that is how he operates with brazen hypocrisy. they hate sports stars speaking out unless they agree with the right. when laura ingram from fox who said this in 2018? >> you're great players but no one voted for you. millions elected trump to be their coach. so keep the political commentary to yourself or as someone once said, shut up and dribble. >> so the message from the right is very clear. if you have anything critical to say about the great injustice of our time shut up and dribble but if you want to be pro trump or antivax or straight up racist say whatever the hell you like. the war in afghanistan the

endless killing of civilians and the effect it had on women there next.

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at least five civilians have been killed in a bombing in the afghan capital today in the deadliest attack since u.s. troops withdrew. the explosion took place outside a mosque in kabul during a funeral for the mother of a taliban chief. no one has claimed responsibility yet for that attack. with the loss of yet more innocent lives the question of whether the u.s. made the right decision by leaving afghanistan once again raised its head. one pretty knowledgeable voice is suggesting the withdrawal was good for ordinary afghans. spending a lot of time including this past summer in afghanistan in not only the city centers but the rural areas where the population lives. he produce ad stunning piece which document how rural afghans have not turned to despair in the wake of america's departure

but says it is the opposite. he writes to locals life under the coalition forces and their afghan allies was pure hazard. even drinking tea in a sun lit field or driving tour sister's wedding. thanks for coming on the show. there are a lot of people watching tonight who might hear reports of bomb blasts and deaths in kabul and say see that is why the u.s. should have stayed in gnt, to save lives. you are reporting from the ground in rural afghanistan and your reporting says otherwise and questions that humanitarian interventionist narrative we hear so often here in washington, d.c. in particular. >> it is natural to feel this way because a lot of us are paying attention to afghanistan now for the first time in 20 years. what was happening for the last two decades was the type of bombing that happened yesterday in kabul was happening almost every single day in the countryside in villages. there were air strikes, committed by the united states. there were night raids by the

u.s. or u.s. backed forces. there were kidnappings by the taliban or by the u.s. backed forces. so really daily life was sort of a terror for most ordinary afghans especially in those parts of the country where the fighting was most intense. >> so you've given such a different perspective to a lot of what we've heard especially since august. why haven't we heard more of the story that you're telling about ordinary afghans, the rural areas, their resentment of the u.s. presence, and their own government in kabul? why did so many in the american media seem to screw this story up so badly over two decades? >> it is important to understand that afghanistan like any country is a multifaceted, complex, diverse country. the war in the last two decades wasn't fought across the country. it was only fought in certain provinces. in those areas it was actually very difficult to enter. part of the reason was because the taliban were kidnapping journalists. part of the reason was because there was nobody there who spoke english. the culture was very than the

big cities like kabul. for all of us in the media it was easier sometimes to be in kabul or major cities and talk to people who perhaps were of a wealthier background, middle or upper middle class afghans more similar to us. but at the same time those areas didn't see any conflict so if we just reported from those regions the last six months or three months would not have made any sense. why did the afghan army suddenly collapse and fall to the taliban? but if you look from the country side the afghan army had no legitimacy. the government had no legitimacy. people were desperate for anything that would bring peace. >> your epic new yorker piece which is rightly winning a lot of praise and i urge our viewers to read it is based heavily around your conversations over the years with this wife and mother in afghanistan. how hard was it for you to meet with and report on rural afghan women like shakira and what surprised you the most when you did? >> actually not easy to meet women in these areas. even independent of the taliban

there are cultural norms that make it difficult for men to speak with unrelated women so i had to spend a lot of time cultivating trust mostly with grandmothers where the norms are easier to work around and eventually i was very fortunate to be able to meet many women from all walks of life and shakira is an example of that. in her early 40s, she has lived her entire life in conflict. first due to the soviet invasion which killed hundreds of thousands if not maybe a million afghans. then the civil war that happened after. then the u.s. invasion which surprisingly from the point of view of shakira and many of her friends was no different than the soviet invasion. they didn't come from their point of view to bring rights or freedom. rather they just brought chaos and war lords and life became unbearable. >> on that note, we talk so much here in the west about women's rights and human rights in afghanistan. but the most important right is the right to life. and we the west the americans

the british, etcetera, we deprived a lot of people of their lives. you say in the piece in all shakira lost 16 family members to what locals called the, quote, american war. raids. air strikes. either from the u.s. military or their afghan government allies. that is astonishing. >> it is. even for me. i've been covering this conflict for a long time and i did a house-to-house survey to try to understand how representative shakira's story was and i found that on average families lost in that area of heldman province between 10 to 12 members of their families over the last two decades. this isn't a single incident like an air strike. shakira lost 16 members of her family 13 or 14 different incidents and having to relive the trauma of losing a loved one. >> and being told we are from america and here to save you. you discussed limitations on women's right in rural parts of

afghanistan. you said in many parts women are barred from visiting the market. when one woman recently bought cookies for her children a the bazaar the taliban beat her, her husband, and the shop keeper. some people criticized your piece and the suggestion that poor, rural afghan women always prefer the stability of the taliban rule, order over human rights or greater secular freedoms. what do you say to those? >> these women i spoke to want both. every single woman i talked to wanted to educate her children. they wanted to go to the market without being beaten by taliban. the problem is even to get to the market if your house might be bombed or if you go to sleep and you don't know if you'll wake up in the middle of the night because foreign men are breaking into your home and taking your loved ones your immediate way of thinking is how do i survive and get to the next day? it doesn't mean these women supported the taliban as such. rather they just wanted an end to the war and they saw the u.s.

leaving meant nobody would break down their doors and they hoped one day they could educate their children. >> thank you so much for joining us on the show tonight and thank you for your invaluable reporting from on the ground inside afghanistan. >> thank you. three years after journalist jamal khashoggi was murdered he is being remembered and so is the fact that the united states is still pals with his alleged murderer. that is next. we have to be able to repair the enamel on a daily basis. with pronamel repair toothpaste, we can help actively repair enamel in its weakened state. it's innovative. my go to toothpaste is going to be pronamel repair. are you one of the millions of americans who experience occasional bloating, gas or abdominal discomfort? my go to toothpaste taking align every day can help. align contains a quality probiotic developed by gastroenterologists. it adds more good bacteria to your gut to naturally help soothe your occasional bloating, gas and abdominal discomfort. support your digestive health with align,

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you compared your crown prince to putin, iran's supreme leader. you said he is creating, quote an interesting form of dictatorship. how so? >> i do see him as a reformer but he is gathering all power within his hand. it would be much better for him to allow for critic, media, to debate. >> jamal khashoggi tragically didn't get that breathing space,

that room for debate. instead this week marked three years since the journalist was brutally murdered on the orders of the saudi crown prince. vigils were held friday to remember jamal in washington, d.c. the freedom first campaign, while in l.a. a portrait was put on display near the hollywood hills showing the title murderer. campaigners want the united states government to take action against mbs and yet even today three years after jamal was horrifically killed by the saudis the biden administration refuses to take any action against the crown prince, a key ally. in fact they were meeting with him earlier this week. during the election campaign joe biden promised he wouldn't give saudi arabia a free pass as donald j. trump did. so far president biden is breaking that promise. coming up at the top of the hour on ayman new york congressman jones and minnesota senator tina smith will be discussing the delayed

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what are you waiting for? ♪ ♪ thank you for watching. we will be right back here next sunday at 8:00 p.m. eastern. now it's time to hand it over. good evening. before i let you take over, a lot happening this week.

before we get to the supreme court, which i want to talk about, saudi arabia, campaigning for. >> what does justice look like for the family. what does it look like for american foreign policy and a president who said they will put human rights at the center of american foreign policy. to your point -- president biden was one of the most critical voices of saudi arabia and what had happened to khashoggi and said they would hold saudi officials responsible. here is the interesting thing. at the time when the president was refusing to speak to the

crown prince who the cia believe ordered the hit, he didn't speak to the crown prince for a long time and people in the administration were saying that the president only speaks to the king. now you see that there is this kind of return to normalcy when you have high ranking officials like jake sullivan and others meeting and engaging and normalizing what ultimately has happened with khashoggi and business as usual, so to speak, with saudi arabia. i understand also that the administration has to deal with the reality of what's happening in the region. saudi arabia is again -- you have to separate what's happening internally in the kingdom, the politics of it. they are trying to turn the page domestically. that's where it becomes difficult for countries that are seeing the changes but not able to reconcile what happened to khashoggi with the reality on the ground. >> as you mentioned, biden called saudi arabia a pariah during one of the debates. people raised their hopes. whether a democrat or republican

is in the white house, saudis are our allies. it puts a lie to the argument that the united states stands for freedom, stands against dictators. we talk about iran and venezuela and putin, and we do all that while cozying up to the saudis. it's very awkward. >> no doubt about it. the point when the reality of foreign policy is about interest, not about values, you are going to have a disconnect. whether american politicians stand up to the american public when they are campaigning for votes, we will make our foreign policy reflect our values, then they turn around and do something completely different or at least minimize values for the sake of interest, then i think it becomes the height of hypocrisy. >> yeah. i'm not sure what's in our interests to be closely allied with a reckless crown prince. many would argue it's not good for the region or us. i'm about to hand over to you. you will be big on this. the supreme court --

>> not much going on. >> not much. the supreme court is in session tomorrow. to hear new cases. brett kavanaugh has covid. his fellow right wing justices have given speeches complaining about being accused of being biased. why would anyone think they are biased? i can't think of anything right wring about them. >> i wonder why. could it be perhaps that justice barrett was thinking about that standing at the mcconnell center next to mitch mcconnell? who denied garland a vote because he felt eight months out from an election that he would be an ide -- if you think that part of the test into determining who gets to be his

nomination, that ideology was a factor or a criteria in the way he picked them. you go figure. >> you have six justices who are conservative on the court. a reminder for our viewers. five of them appointed by presidents who lost popular vote. two of them accused of sexual misconduct. one of them sitting in a blatantly stolen seat. if that's not an argument for supreme court reform, i don't know what is. >> you and i have been bringing this up. at what point do you wonder whether this country is a fully functioning democracy between the electoral votes and electoral college, the american constituents represented by democratic states and senators versus republican ones and whether there's any parody there. the number of supreme court justices that were appointed by presidents who did not have the mandate from the people to actually make those choices. i think it's a valid question. you have to wonder what exactly is happening in this country. we will try to answer some of

the questions throughout our panels. you have given me a lot to chew on. good to see you. fascinating interview with aoc. good to see you. take care. >> you too. good each. welcome ayman. it's gearing up to be a busy week on capitol hill. where does the infrastructure bill stand? are progressives willing to accept a watered down reconciliation bill? is the democratic in fighting just getting started? i will discuss this with senator smith and congressman jones. new whistle-blower accusations have facebook scrambling. i will talk to an attorney about the bombshell allegations being made by his client tonight. ozy media is shutting down less than a week after a "new york times" report uncovered lies and misrepresentations surrounding the company. i'm talking to ben smith, the reporter who broke that story. let's get started.

♪♪ stalemate sunday. that's where washington is tonight as divisions within the democratic ranks keep two bills that are critical to joe biden's agenda from getting to his desk. to be fair, it's not exactly the entire democratic caucus that's in fighting. it's actually two senators, two out of 50 that are holding it up. progressives remain steadfast in their demand that the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which has passed the senate, being denied a vote in the house until after the passage of the larger social spending reconciliation bill, the build back better act. apparently, there are some trust issues between the left and the right flanks of the party. you will remember that price tag of the reconciliation bill had been around $3.5 trillion over ten years. that's important. ten years, not one. in a visit to