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tv   Alex Witt Reports  MSNBC  December 12, 2021 10:00am-11:00am PST

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a very good day to all of you from msnbc world headquarters here in new york. welcome, everyone, to "alex witt reports." this breaking news as we're following the rescue and recovery efforts in the aftermath of the deadly tornado outbreak. right now crews in multiple states are digging through fields of rubble and debris searching for survivors. the fema and dhs secretaries are on their way to kentucky. this morning the governor said as many as 100 people could have been killed but described the perseverance he's seeing across the state. >> we had at least 56,000 homes without power, almost all in western kentucky. it has gotten pretty cold. we have opened our state parks, and we are bringing in families. the other thing we do in kentucky is we look out for one another. we open warming centers. we have 13 open. only six are still open because
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those of us blessed enough to not be hit directly with this tornado take other people in whether we know them or not. chuck, we're good people that look out for one another, that have just gone through something incredibly difficult. but we are resilient and we will rebuild. >> the storms flattened several communities like dawson springs, kentucky, leaving miles of destruction. one father's story of survival is painting a more detailed picture of the severity of the storms. >> it was just crazy. it's the most traumatic thing i've been through and i felt like i was helpless protecting my kids from it. it picked us up and threw us around and landed us on the other side of the neighbor's house. >> something no parent ever wants to feel, that helplessness. we have a number of reporters covering the tornado outbreak from all angles. let's start with my colleague
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msnbc's ali velshi in mayfield, kentucky. ali, the people there are just starting to put their lives back together. where do they even begin? >> reporter: it's hard to believe when you look at this destruction which we've been showing you. there's some municipal and state workers who are involved. there are some trucks in here, they're getting the bricks away, trying to create space for people who have private businesses or homes to get clearing done. there's a table over there that's been set up that's got food and water for people. but behind me, just to give you a scale of the type of destruction, this mound of rubble and wood was something called carr's steakhouse, an active and well-known establishment, a restaurant here. i'm here with daniel carr, one of the co-owners. it's his family that owns this. you're very good humored about this right now, maybe because
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you're still stunned and it's still hitting you. two days ago this was a fully operating restaurant and now you're looking at and trying to piece through a mound of rubble. >> definitely. we had a christmas party 30 minutes before the storm hit, we were working right up until we heard it was going to hit our town. we were clearing people out minutes before it struck. >> reporter: did you get an alert? >> i had worked all morning and all day, i was at home, we had the news on, i was ready to go to the basement, and we realized there was a huge tornado heading towards our city, so i called my brother and said, we had to clear everybody out. he was awesome, he got people out in minutes. >> reporter: you literally told people to get up and get out? >> yes, we told people we're sorry. hopefully they're thankful now. they wouldn't have stood a chance. >> reporter: this is your family business for a while. i feel like the wheels are turning, you're trying to make sense of what happens. alex was just asking me, where
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do you guys start, what are you doing right now? >> we're trying to see if we can get a few critical things we need, our files, our computer, to make sure people get paid, so we can keep the restaurant going beyond all this. we're going to pay our employees next week and beyond. other than the critical things, we'll try to clean up. we've talked about opening a kitchen somewhere else in town and maybe getting our people back together who want to work, we can start making food for the first responders, the cleanup crews, the people in the community who are displaced, so we'll get back to work in some capacity. >> reporter: it's all practical, it all makes sense. you're looking after your workers. what do you feel right now? >> defeated. it's heartbreaking. people lost more than just a building. that's what i'm thinking about, it's not really who we are, the building. we're about our people and the community. carr steakhouse will keep going on regardless of what you see here. >> reporter: when you rebuild,
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i'm going to come to carr's steakhouse. daniel carr's family owns carr's steakhouse. there is also destruction in southern illinois, outside of st. louis, 25 miles northeast, in edwardsville, illinois. morgan chesky is there now. morgan, what have you got? >> reporter: ali, good afternoon. we're hearing from officials today who have just released the names and ages of the six victims killed inside this amazon warehouse behind me when that tornado hit late friday. that death toll was increased last night. and officials wanted to make one thing clear. they are continuing to go through the debris that this tornado left behind, a painstaking process. but they don't believe there are any other individuals inside that building at this time. however, they want to be absolutely certain that no one who is potentially still alive is left behind in this debris. and we do have a stunning before
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and after photo here. this warehouse, about the size of a football field, suffered a direct hit from this tornado that essentially almost cut it in half. you can see the before version there. now look at it. it is nearly decimated on one side. authorities say there were about 45 people that they pulled from that building after this tornado struck around 8:40 p.m. on friday. people here say that they did have a warning but it was a fast-moving tornado, tough to see under the cover of darkness. you can see the damage it left behind. an incredibly telling moment just a few minutes ago, a dump truck -- a tow truck, rather, pulled out of the parking lot and on the back was a vehicle that had to have been in that parking lot that it looked like it had been placed in a compacter. keep in mind this was a much, much smaller tornado than the quad state tornado which struck mayfield, kentucky, and yet the damage is absolutely undeniable.
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we have heard from amazon, they've released a statement saying they're thoughts and prayers are with the victims, the victims' families, and everyone impacted here. and they're extending services as needed. any help that they can offer at this point in time. but just a couple of hundred yards behind me, those crews are still very busy right now, ali, going through what's left of that building piece by piece. ali? >> reporter: yeah, it's remarkable, we're seeing the same thing in mayfield, crews that are going through, literally people coming and picking up one piece of debly and debris and throwing it somewhere so they can begin to start getting life back. alex, back to you in the studio. >> that daniel carr interview, when you go to have dinner there when it's rebuilt, i want to go with you. i don't even eat steak. >> reporter: deal. >> there's a man worried about his employees, worried about
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feeding first responders while his family business has been wiped out. that touched me. >> reporter: it's amazing. >> i'm going with you. he's an extraordinary person. we wish him all the luck. thank you for bringing his story, my friend. we're getting a clearer idea of the challenges ahead for storm victims and first responders. joining me is sarah burgess, public information officer for the kentucky state police. sarah, welcome to you. give me an update on what you're seeing and the stats you have on the ground. >> right now we have agencies from across the state and beyond that are here to help us. we have teams going to residences where we do welfare checks to see if anybody is in those residences. we have a crew at the office buildings of his house ministry church who are accepting family members of missing loved ones to get reference samples for
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identification purposes. so if you are a family member of a missing loved one, we encourage you to come to the office building of his house ministries today until 5:00 p.m. to provide a reference sample and provide us with the information you have on your missing loved one. we have crews that are getting water and resources to locations and residents that need it. we're here doing everything we can. >> sarah, i know you're looking for people to come provide information on the missing. do you have any idea of the numbers that you are waiting to hear from in terms of location and if they're okay? >> we honestly don't. and that's why we're asking for those who are family members of missing to let us know who they have missing and provide that reference sample for us. but at this time we don't have any numbers. >> so 24 hours since those
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storms hit, and then some now. how are the rescue efforts going? and to what extent are they being classified as recovery, when you look at the kind of devastation that's out there? >> of course we like to be hopeful. but as you said, it's more than 24 hours in now. so we are still calling it rescue and recovery. we're hoping for the best. but we are out here with teams at numerous locations and going door to door to certain residences that we received welfare checks at. >> when officers come into contact with these people, what kind of stories are you hearing? >> terrifying ones. they're heartbroken. we're trying to be hopeful, but that can be challenging for some. >> sarah burgess, i can hear the fatigue and really the
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discouragement in your voice. though i do appreciate your words, that you're trying to stay as positive as you can. we're thinking of you and applaud your efforts, thank you so much, sarah, good luck. the plot thickens, everyone, in the january 6th investigation after potentially explosively evidence. it raises more questions on someone who refuses to speak with the committee. per during t important time of year. when you switch to t-mobile and bring your own device, we'll pay off your phone up to $1000. you can keep your phone. keep your number. and get your employees connected on the largest and fastest 5g network. plus, we give you $200 in facebook ads on us! so you can reach more customers, create more opportunities, and finish this year strong. visit your local t-mobile store today. riders, the lone wolves of the great highway. all they need is a bike an and a full tank of gas.g. their only friend? the open road.
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we are back with the political headlines developing this hour. tomorrow the january 6th committee votes whether to advance contempt of congress charges against mark meadows after he stopped cooperating with the probe. according to explosive new reporting from "the washington post," a retired army colonel who circulated a powerpoint proposal on how to challenge the 2020 election says that he met with meadows about eight to ten times and that he briefed several other members of congress the day before the insurrection. democratic congressman david
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cicilline, an impeachment manager at trump's second impeachment trial, gave his reaction on msnbc this morning. >> i hear a lot of people who argue that what happened on january 6th was some sort of organic event where people just got carried away. but what the select committee is revealing in the early part of its work is there was an awful lot of planning, financing, strategizing, and it involved people at the highest levels of government. meanwhile tensions grow as russia and ukraine appear to be on the brink of war. president biden said he told vladimir putin russia would pay a terrible price if it invaded ucontain. secretary of state anthony blinken said what was at stake. >> there is something even bigger at stake here and it's the basic rules of the road of the international system, rules that say one country can't change the borders of another by force. one country can't dictate to
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another country its choices and decisions and foreign policy, with whom it will associate. one country can't assert a sphere of influence over others. if we let that go with impunity, then the entire system that provides stability, prevents war from breaking out, is in danger. we're getting a fresh look at how the american public feels the president is handling key issues, according to a new abc news/ipsos poll. the coronavirus, 53% of americans approve of his handle. but 57% disapprove of president biden's handling of the economic recovery and 69% disapprove of his handling of election. senator amy klobuchar discussed how passing the president's build back better bill will help. >> there are still ways to pay for things going forward. but right now this bill is paid for. it is not inflationary.
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to the contrary, it will help with us the inflation issue. after the supreme court declined to block enforcement of the texas abortion law, california governor gavin newsom's office tweeted a statement writing, if states can shield their laws from review by federal courts, then california will use that authority to help protect lives. we will work to create the ability for private citizens to sue anyone who manufacturers, distributes, or sells an assault weapon or ghost gun kit or parts in california. joining me now is california congressman jackie speier, a democratic member of the house armed services, intelligence, and oversight committees. wow, as i welcome you. first give me your reaction to what gavin newsom has done there with regard to saying, you know, we're going to use what texas is doing to do it here in california, you manufacture, sell, do anything with assault
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weapons, ghost gun kits, we're going to come after you with lawsuits. >> well, it's brilliant and it makes the point that the supreme court absolutely refused to do what it should have done, which is to strike down the decision that allowed sb 8, through which texas gave vigilantes the ability to sue anyone who helps a woman get an abortion. justice sotomayor helped make the case over and over again how bad that action was for the supreme court. what's good for the goose is good for the gander and i
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applaud governor newsom taking that point of view. >> i was going to say that, what's goods for the goose is good for the gander. thinking alike there. the retired army colonel who circulated that powerpoint presentation to challenge the 2020 presidential election, he says he spoke with mark meadows eight to ten times. how important is it to connect this powerpoint and the violence that occurred on january 6th and how key is mark meadows is figuring that out? >> i think mark meadows is very key to us being able to piece together the president's involvement in the insurrection. make no mistake about it, it was premeditated. a group of thugs that were encouraged by the white house to go to the capitol and to
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forestall the actual electoral vote from being counted. they took with them bear spray, items that they could use to attack police officers and the capitol police. they refused to comply with commands by the police. that never happens. we have demonstrations at the at the capitol all the time and everyone complies with the rules. so meadows should be stripped of his retirement, as far as i'm returned, because he has violated his oath to the constitution. >> that would be one way to go after him. with regard to what the committee does tomorrow, voting whether or not to advance the contempt charges if it gets to the house tuesday or soon thereafter, will you vote for it? >> no question about it. frankly i think we should be using what's called contempt.
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>> okay. how about republican congressman lauren boebert, the anti-muslim attacks against your democratic colleague ilhan omar? do you support congresswoman ayanna pressley's motion for a resolution to strip boebert of her house committees? >> i think we're sending a message to lauren boebert. if you can spew out this kind of vitriol, i would support stripping her of her committees. i'm not at that point right now, but if she continues this kind of conduct, then she should be censored and stripped of her committees. >> okay, but look, republicans have been reluctant to take action. that's something the speaker has said that needs to be done.
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kevin mccarthy, do you have any confidence that he will take any sort of action and push back against lauren boebert and the kind of things she's said? >> so historically it's always been the caucus. speaker pelosi made no -- had no qualms about stripping congressman rangel of his authority as ways and means chair when he was censured. so the fact that kevin mccarthy is unwilling to do that suggests that these fringe members of his party control him, that he has no ability to control them, that he has a precarious hold on his caucus because of his bid to try to become speaker.
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in many respects he has a ring in his nose now and the marjorie tailor greens and the lauren boeberts are pulling him around, and the more outrageous they get, the less able he is to respond. >> isn't it extraordinary, kevin mccarthy has been gunning for speaker for a long time and yet matt gaetz is saying donald trump would make a good speaker. that's a conversation for another time. thank you very much, jackie speier. meantime, 36 hours of horror. survivors reflect after friday's devastating tornadoes. nurse mariyam sabo knows a moment this pure... ...demands a lotion this pure. new gold bond pure moisture lotion. 24-hour hydration. no parabens, dyes, or fragrances. gold bond. champion your skin. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪
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give today. - san francisco can have criminal justice reform and public safety. but district attorney chesa boudin is failing on both. - the safety of san francisco is dependent upon chesa being recalled as soon as possible. - i didn't support the newsom recall but this is different. - chesa takes a very radical perspective and approach to criminal justice reform, which is having a negative impact on communities of color. - i never in a million years thought that my son, let alone any six-year-old, would be gunned down in the streets of san francisco and not get any justice. - chesa's failure has resulted in increase in crime against asian americans. - the da's office is in complete turmoil at this point. - for chesa boudin to intervene in so many cases is both bad management and dangerous for the city of san francisco. - we are for
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criminal justice reform. chesa's not it. recall chesa boudin now. we're following the breaking news on that deadly tornado outbreak. kentucky is ground zero on the destruction. right now the dhs and fema secretaries are en route to evaluate the devastation.
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today people in the hardest-hit communities are grappling with loss and recounting their stories of survival. >> the wind started breaking, dogs flying through the air. yin what to do. walls feeling like they was caving in. it was very scary. >> it hurts to see the residents hurt and sad. >> hopefully there are more survivors in there now. we're working to try to recover debris. >> honey, listen, it's humbling. and i'm forever grateful. >> ali velshi joining us once again in mayfield, kentucky. ali, did you hear what she said about dogs flying through the air? you think about pets, there's so many things to think about but that's another thing to pile on. >> reporter: that's the issue, these warnings came out, what we're trying to get to the bottom of is how much warning people had.
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it seems like maybe they had enough warning, serious warning, but people never know what's going to hit them. this is a particularly large town to have a tornado of this force hit. i was talking earlier to a lieutenant from the kentucky state police, dean paterson. he was explaining to me the degree to which major infrastructure in this town is missing. listen to a little of what he told me. >> we're missing a fire station. the courthouse is destroyed. there's a church here where things are gone. and then these homes are destroyed. what else is going on? i know you guys were even going door to door trying to find people. >> right, yesterday, once the sun started to rise, our first obstacle was to try to get to places where we had been told that people may be there, to confirm if they were or they weren't. because there were people from outside of here that were calling in saying, hey, i have my cousin or aunt or uncle there, can you go check on them. when it was dark and we didn't
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know what was happening on the scene, we had to wait. unfortunately we had to let that time pass. so we spent the better part of yesterday going from house to house or what used to be a house, and trying to locate people. >> what is the status of locating people right now? we know there are a lot of people missing. >> it's ongoing and probably will be ongoing for some time. we still -- it's hard to account for the people that were here, that left. >> reporter: and alex, every time i'm talking to you, i'm giving you sort of a different image. i'm not walking very far, by the way, all of this is within a few blocks of each other. look at the level of destruction here, the trees that have been entirely uprooted, houses that are completely damaged. you see the "x" on the side there. that's not going to be liveable, that will have to come down. people are piecing through their homes. the weather is good now, it's warmed up. they're taking the things out of their homes that they can salvage, that they can move somewhere, and who knows where it is they're going. take a look at the incredible
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damage being done here, industrial buildings, residential buildings. but people are out here, they're helping each other, they're trying to rebuild. alex, it's always fascinating to me, after these tornadoes, when you see, because we saw people for the first time today coming into their homes for the first time, the first inspection, the first time they came back after this thing. on one hand it's a real remarkable testament to the strength of the human spirit, alex, that people come in, they see their homes and businesses, they set to work to rebuild it, they put aside for a moment the tragedy that's occurred. you heard when i talked to daniel carr from carr's steakhouse, he said we just lost our building, other people lost their lives. there's a lot of community spirit here. but the damage is amazing. you heard this person talk about pets flying around. you see the things that have flown around here, cars have flown around. this kind of stuff takes things and wraps it around buildings and trees. it's remarkable force. >> you have to wonder about the first responders such as the gentleman you were spewing
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earlier today that you just played part of that. and then you think about like sarah burgess i was talking to from the kentucky state police earlier this hour. she's exhausted, i could hear the tone in her votes. and there's discouragement there, because these people's job is to help. how do they start helping? >> reporter: and sarah burgess said to you, we don't give up, we don't stop 'til they have an absolute order to stop. they are going to keep on. to them it's still a search mission. it's very hard to imagine that because of the circumstances in which people could survive this kind of thing if they were inside. but there's machinery, everybody's got machinery pushing stuff apart. that's why these first responders want to get in there and say, let's just make sure we're not trapping anybody, there's nobody trapped, they can get out. they are built for this, they are doing it. it's the one bright side of these tragedies where you see that people are willing to help, willing to keep on going until
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they have searched every inch of this place. it is going to be hard work, alex. >> saving lives is the priority, absolutely. everything else can be rebuilt, you can't get back a life. ali velshi, thank you very much, we appreciate you a lot. we'll see you shortly. a new discovery on the omicron variant is worrying scientists but there is one factor easing concerns. we'll share it, next. before nexium 24hr, anna could only imagine a comfortable night's sleep without frequent heartburn waking her up. now, that dream... . ...is her reality. nexium 24hr stops acid before it starts, for all-day, all-night protection. can you imagine 24 hours without heartburn? ok everyone, our mission is to provide complete, balanced nutrition for strength and energy. whoo hoo! ensure, with 27 vitamins
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least 30 u.s. states. new data from pfizer shows a third shot of the vaccine is effective in the fight against the new variant. let's go to nbc's stephanie stanton, joining us from tampa, florida, which became the first city in the state to identify an omicron case. stephanie, so what are you hearing from the health officials there? >> reporter: yeah, good afternoon to you, alex. as you said last week, here in the tampa area is when the omicron variant was first identified. the latest numbers in the sunshine state, last week florida announced they had more than 13,500 cases and 325 deaths. the numbers are starting to tick up here ever so slightly. but officials say they are ready. i'm standing in front of a community resource center. this is where people can come to get covid testing. they can get vaccinated. they can also get access to those monoclonal antibodies. florida is among more than two dozen states across the u.s. that have identified this omicron variant and another one of those states is minnesota.
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i want to share with you a story about a gentleman who spoke to us at msnbc. his name is peter mcginn. he says he's fully vaccinated. he says he traveled to an anime convention in new york a couple of weeks ago, wasn't feeling very well, got tested and got a surprise phone call from the health department in minnesota. take a listen. >> when that phone call happened, i was kind of in shock just because i only heard about it in south africa. and i think at the time the san francisco area resident had it. so it was so unknown that i was like, me? i didn't travel internationally, like, i went to new york city and came back, i didn't do a whole lot. i was very shocked at the fact that i had the variant. >> reporter: and he was talking about the omicron variant. he is patient number 1 in the state of minnesota, the first patient to be identified with that variant. the good news is that he says his symptoms were mild and he is feeling better at this point.
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but another bit of good news here is, last week pfizer's ceo came out and said they did a study showing the pfizer booster shot does appear to be highly effective against omicron. now, the cdc also says, though, that so far, symptoms for omicron appear to be mild. there have been no deaths reported and only one hospitalization. nationwide, though, alex, as we all know now, the delta variant still does appear to be the dominant strain. but, you know, the big takeaway here is that omicron is here, it is with us, it is spreading. but it looks like it could be mild and it looks like, at least for now, the pfizer booster is effective in fighting it. >> we will take it, because it's something of a silver lining. if you save just one hospitalization, according to the cdc thus far, relative to omicron, that's good news. thank you so much, appreciate that, stephanie stanton. let's go to nbc's scott cohn standing by in san francisco for us. scott, let's talk about the
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restaurant issue. so many restaurants are still recovering from months of closures last year. what are you hearing about the impact of vaccine mandates? >> reporter: it's all really tough, alex. we're at a restaurant called water bar in san francisco. it's an iconic spot right underneath the bay bridge. they open about 45 minutes or so from now. as you might expect this time of year, they're expecting a very busy day. but they're going to do that with about 20% less staff than they normally have. this is what restaurants are dealing with. this staff has to enforce the mask mandate, the vaccine mandate in san francisco, everyone has to show proof of vaccination to get inside. look at the statistics as far as the jobs in the hospitality industry, down about 15% just here in california from where it was before the pandemic. so they're doing a lot of work with the same amount of demand, but with a lot fewer people. the head of the golden gate
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restaurant association, who is herself a restaurateur, says this business is, shall we say, a lot more challenging than it used to be. >> when you close a business, you know, you lose hundreds of thousands of dollars. there's tons more debt. i work closely with the independent restaurant coalition. we need the folks in dc to refund the restaurant revitalization fund as well as the other shuttered vendor funds, helping the gyms, helping the minor leagues. there's so much need out there. folks who continue to get their paychecks and could work remotely or are in industries where they could just keep going, remotely or whatever, is different than closing a business for seven to 12 months or longer. >> reporter: this being california, there's been a lot of compliance, good compliance, both among staff and among patrons, with all of the requirements here. but it's not universal. up in marin county, where the
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vaccine requirements are volume as far as businesses go, one restaurant said they received a threat taped to the door one morning last week that the place would burn if they didn't revoke the so-called vaccine passport. they're now offering $1,000 as a reward for that. fortunately that kind of thing is sort of few and far between. but the stress on this industry, which was a stressful industry going into this, is just growing, alex, as we head into a critical season. >> there's also a lot of vaccine resistance in the central part of california as well. devin nunes, kevin mccarthy, they're congressmen from those districts and there's pushback there as well. after hearing from four alleged victims, the prosecution has rested in the trial of ghislaine maxwell. what can we expect from the defense? we'll take a look. (vo) for fourteen years, subaru and our retailers have been sharing
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an emotional week in a minnesota courtroom as a 12-person jury heard three days of testimony in the police shooting of 20-year-old daunte wright. >> i just remember they were trying to just get him up. i was the only one who was trying to help him. i tried to push on his chest and call his name. and he wasn't answering me. >> that is brutal. the young woman who was riding alongside daunte wright was testifying. she watched former brooklyn police officer kim potter mistake her gun for a taser. potter is now facing charges of first and second-degree manslaughter. and i'm joined here in studio by
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criminal defense attorney and an msnbc legal analyst. i'm really glad to have you here. here's the interesting thing. there is no -- no one's trying to say, oh, this was some sort of a wrong gun kind of thing. they are saying we are admitting that she used the wrong thing. she got the taser. that's what she was looking for, instead she pulls out her gun. but you have defense and prosecution taking that fact and trying to play this in the case. it's the same fact. so i'm curious how one's trying to say you're guilty of this and the other one's trying to say we need to declare her innocent of this. >> the facts aren't that much in dispute. what the battle is about is really two things, what was in her mind at that moment and, secondly, whether what was in her mind is criminal under the law. because both sides acknowledge it was unintentional. both sides acknowledge that what you see on the video is what you see. we haven't seen a lot of variation there. so this is an unusual case.
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it's really just about what she knew, what she was aware of and what we believe about what she was aware of. >> so it took her about ten minute for her to tell other officers what's happening. we saw the car stopped a block away around a corner. it had crashed obviously. how is that something that makes her culpable? because we also know she's sobbing hysterically about this. how does that all put together? >> the prosecution spent about a whole day on the after the shooting crash they had emts and responding officers. and i think that was probably not a lot of help towards showing what was in kim potter's mind at the moment she drew her firearm. instead i think it was helpful of the prosecution to show video of daunte wright's lifeless body being pulled from the wreckage and to describe his injuries. but as to describing or going towards what her intent was at the moment, i don't think it was very helpful. but, again, helpful in the way of showing the jury that daunte
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wright area a living being and then he was dead. at the end of the day, this entire battle is going to be about whether or not she created consciously an unjustifiable risk. and the defense will hammer home this was not a conscious creation of a risk, it was accidental, it was kind of an automatic thing. but at no point did she consciously create that risk. >> and the point being when they talk about the ten minutes, they're saying had emts been alerted to go right to him more quickly that potentially his life could've been saved. >> yes. and that is a common theme when prosecuting police cases. it's a common complaint of mine that after a suspect is shot or injured, there's a lot of standing around with hands on the hips like what should we do now. and, look, that's just my anecdotal observation. but you're absolutely right. that's the kind of thing that will make a jury think, well, if it was so unintentional, you're at least a little cruel in
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letting this go on so long. but, ultimately, again, this is a defense attorney speaking, more inflammatory to the jury because it really doesn't have anything to do with her intent unless the prosecution's arguing that she did so accidently but kind of off purpose. >> so let's take a look at her reaction. i said that she got hysterical. here is some tape, everybody. check this out. >> oh, my god. >> kim, i'm going to take this and give you mine. >> no, just let me kill myself. >> no, that's not happening. i'm just going to hold onto yours. >> i don't know what happened. >> kim? we'll get it all figured out. okay? >> so, you see there one of her colleagues, a fellow police officer trying to calm her down a little bit. he's taking her gun and the like. but where does this video come into play? whose side does it help more, do you think? >> it didn't help the prosecution, but it was in the
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prosecution's case in chief. i think they had to get it out there because certainly if they hadn't the defense would've used it. it humanizes potter. it shows her clearly remorseful, which is inconsistent with the state's theory of the case. it shows her wanting to kill herself. this is not somebody who coldly and without a thought in the world executed somebody. and i think folks need to be prepared for the possibility that kim potter is going to be acquitted, and a lot of it the reason would be because of the evidence that the state is putting in their case in chief. >> one question about ghislaine maxwell. the prosecution has rested. ten days, 24 witnesses. now the defense takes over. where does this one stand right now? is there an edge one way or the other? granted the defense hasn't taken its stand, will they put her on trial -- on the stand, rather? >> this is a really tough case because we're in federal court. we don't get a 24/7 camera shot of what everybody's reaction is.
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but at the end of the day, does the jury think that maxwell was epstein's consultant and also took these girls shopping and befriended them? if that's all that the government has put on and all that the jury believes, they may acquit. but, on the other hand, these accusers have gotten on the stand, pointed at maxwell and said that's the person that did this to me. and i'll tell you what. in my experience even when the defense correctly cross-examines based on memory, maybe even drug use, still, that is so powerful coming on that stand, taking the oath and saying that's the person who did this to me. >> yeah, we got 24 people taking the stand. okay, we'll have you again to talk about that one. from the ruins of one of those kentucky tornados comes an incredible tale of survival. a family swept up by a twister and living through it.
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a very good day to all of you from msnbc world headquarters here in new york. welcome, everyone to "alex witt reports." this breaking news as we're following the new developments on that historic tornado outbreak. president biden returned to the white house just moments ago after

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