we're just getting started. the former nato allied supreme commander on the ukraine-russia border and the latest bombshell developments in the investigation into the january 6th insurrection. another hour of "velshi" begins right now. ♪♪ ♪♪ . good morning. it is 9:00 a.m. in the east. 6:00 amp m. and 4:00 p.m. on ukraine's eastern border on russia. the plot to overturn the 2020 election goes far beyond the deadly attack on the nation's capitol on january 6th, while that was put on by a mob of former president's supporters, it was a plot to overthrow democracy that was quietly unfolding in the background. politico has obtained an unsigned draft that appears to

reveal a plot by theex-president's aides to use the military to overturn election results. the order empowers the defense secretary to seize, collect, retain and analyze all machines, equipment, electronically stored information and materiel records required for retention under a u.s. law that relates to preservation of election record, military. the draft order would have given the defense secretary 60 days to write an assessment of the 2020 election. that suggests that it could have been a gambit to keep trump in power until mid-february of 2021. this executive order was signed on the 16th and you don't have 60 days to overturn the election. it appears to be part of the more than 700 pages of documents that the ex-president tried very, very hard to block. the house january 6th committee from getting from the national

archives. those files also include visitor logs, speech drafts, presidential diaries and handwritten notes and they're all official. these aren't musings and these were things that were on people's computers in the white house, actual things. politico reports that the order was dated december 16, 2020, consistent with baseless proposals that were made in those same days by the lawyer why sydney powell who was a lawyer to the then president which is interesting because axios reports that sydney powell urged trump to seize voting machines during a december 18th meeting that she attended with former trump national security adviser michael flynn, the former trump administration lawyer emily newman and the former overstock.com ceo patrick burn. remember that, by the way, the next time you need to buy cheap furniture on overstock.com. the former ceo of that company was funding the insurrection. along with that damning new evidence, the january 6th

committee seems to be zeroing in on the closest allies. it hit rudy giuliani, jena ellis, and boris epstein, the four individuals we subpoenaed today pushed efforts to overturn the election results or were in direct contract with the former president about attempts to stop the counting of electoral votes, end quote. but dent take my word for it. here's just a short clip of some of the election lies that giuliani, powell and ellis, the veritable clown car of the 2020 election pushed. >> what we are really dealing with here and uncovering more by the day is the massive influence of communist money through venezuela, cuba and likely china in the interference with our elections here in the united

states. >> this is not a singular voter fraud in one state. this pattern repeats itself in a number of states, almost exactly the same pattern. i think the logical conclusion is this is a common plan, a common scheme that comes right directly from the democrat party and it comes from the candidate. >> a massive influx of communist money. >> joining me now is carol lentic, pulitzer prize-winning reporter for "the washington post," author of "i alone can fix it," donald trump's catastrophic final year. i have to give you credit. the whole clown car thing came from you in a conversation that you and i had the other day. it is remarkable because to a lot of americans they watched rudy giuliani, and jena ellis and it seemed ridiculous and with each passing day we realize how near it was, and the

military was perly involved and an executive order that would have kept donald trump in power for 60 days long after the election was supposed to be certified and the inauguration was supposed to have taken place and the idea that this was a mob attacking a capitol building is fading into the background and this is a plot to overturn democracy is coming into sharp relief. >> you're exactly right, ali. so much of this was known in terms of us seeing it in real time and it were spine ting eming and it was real. national security adviser humiliated and former national security adviser michael flynn had said that the president should seize all voting machines and declare martial law, and then lo and behold there is a memo in which he and sydney powell's theories can stop the

election proclaiming that it was faked and rigged was actually put down in writing and the president was willing to consider it. he held a meeting with these very allies who were spouting these -- this crazy talk so that they could discuss how they could do it. what i think is really important to keep in mind, ali, about this is sydney powell's press conference. the one that you shared there in the small part, she claimed that sort of the ghost of hugo chavez had gotten into the machines essentially that through the dead hand of the venezuelan leader there had been this interference in our election. well, behind the scenes and i'm sure the january 6th committee will reveal this in painful detail, behind the scenes many of the people off camera who worked for donald trump were aghast. they said we can never have her do a press conference again. we cannot believe that this laughable thing has been said on

national television and they were appalled and furious for rudy giuliani for allowing her to say this. well, here's the problem. the president loved it. that's exactly what the president wanted, and so all of those voices of reason who said that this was insanity were drowned out by a president when was trying for any lever possible to hold on to that power and block biden from his rightful rise to the oval office. >> carol, you may have heard, i just had a conversation with steve berman and ari benen. in the last senate elections in new jersey the governor, and the republican running for governor didn't win, was relatively close and he eventually came out and said fairly early that hey, i lost the election, let's move on. it wasn't rigged. you said something on washington this week, republican officials on every level of the game from

dog catcher and senator will say mi election was rigged and i'm refusing to accept the results and these are the spaces in which our democracy starts to come apart. >> absolutely. and what i said is this is something i'm preparing for as a journalist. this is the kind of talk we're hearing from sources about the plot, the plan, and once, you know, small-level state officials start saying hey, i lost this secretary of state position and it wasn't fair. the election was rigged, the way they drown out the democracy is by going on television and telling everyone the election's not fair. the more you parrot that, and the more you echo that the more americans get nervous that that is reality and it is more important what you've shown on television because you've shown claims made out of whole cloth that rudy giuliani and sydney powell make.

think about the three things they said. venezuelan voting machines interfered, communist money interfered in our election. rudy said hey, logical conclusion is this election was rigged and it was rigged by the candidate meaning biden. none of that had any basis in fact. absolutely zero, but a lot of americans believed it because it was said on television by a former u.s. attorney who should have been taken seriously, by a woman who was a member of the bar in good standing, and when this starts to be said in state halls, in arizona and michigan and wisconsin, well, buckle up because who knows where the rest of america will be when their belief is kind of shredded, their belief in the elections are shredded. >> carol, thanks as always for your great work. carol lenig and author of the

books "a very stable genius" and "i alone can fix it." joining me is joyce vance, columnist and co-host of the #sistersinlaw podcast. bill barr. trump acolytes and sycophants and bill barr is generally thought to be at the top of that list. he tried to summon his own job as attorney general. he was referred to as trump's attorney general. bill barr's got a book coming out in march. he was, apparently, not on the train of those who believed the election was stolen. the book always makes me wonder whether the committee can get out of it, and he doesn't seem to be part of the kabal that tried to overturn democracy in that particular moment. >> you know, the appearances that bill barr stepped away from the justice department just days before this memo really got

traction and trump began the endgame that culminated on january 6th. what did bill barr know? why didn't he take it to the american people and why didn't he play a role and offer evidence in the impeachment and those are the big unknown questions that i suppose he wants to use in order to sell book, but the reality here is the attorney general owes a special sort of fidelity to the american people and bill barr clearly failed to deliver. whether he's cooperating with the january 6th committee, we don't really know. there has not been a subpoena issued in his name. we know that the committee is aggressively subpoenaing people who they want to speak with, who won't voluntarily comply so that leaves open the question of whether barr has engaged in voluntary compliance or whether the committee for some reason the time isn't yet right to speak with him. >> joyce, i must get your take on this alleged, unsigned executive action that was in and amongst those 700 documents that the archives handed over to the

committee after the supreme court decided that they would. i'm sure there's shocking stuff, but that one made my jaw drop that the president was using the military to seize voting machines. >> you know me, i tend to be cautious about evidence, and i look at this memo, it's a draft memo. we don't know who wrote it. we don't know how widely it circulated. we don't know, for instance if trump looked at that time. maybe it was enacted, and maybe he looked at it as clearly illegal and this would be unconstitutional and this use of the military to intervene is clearly not a proper exercise of dod's authority under law, and so when i say i'm being cautious, i suppose that's a way of saying i have a lot of questions about this memo that demand answers. i think the january 6th

committee will get those for us and this may end up being one of the most interesting parts of their testimony when we learned those answers to the question of why wasn't this memo something that trump was desperate at the end to hold on to power, why didn't he sign it? i think we'll learn that there were minimalist guardrails that remained in place. you know like i know that every living secretary of defense wrote a joint opinion piece in "the washington post" condemning the use of the military to intervene in elections and maybe that was the guardrail. >> joyce, thank you for joining us. >> joyce vance is a former united states attorney in alabama and msnbc contributor and columnist. the world is watching russia's next move with more than 100,000 troops positioned along the border of ukraine and the threat of attack feels imminent and now we wait. america looks a lot different than it did in 1973.

smartphone, cryptocurrency and the erosion of women's access to legal abortion. 49 years after that landmark ruling was made we discuss the importance of roe v. wade. also, texas, again, a u.s. judge appointed by trump has issued a nation wide injunction blocking biden's vaccination rule for federal workers. more on that right after the break. after the after the break. ♪sure would help a lot ♪ ♪wouldn't you like to get away? ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪and they're always glad you came ♪ hi, my name is cherrie. i'm 76 and i live on the oregon coast. ♪ my husband, sam, we've been married 53 years. we love to walk on the beach. i have two daughters

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a bit of good news on the covid front this week. overall reports of new coronavirus cases across the united states are on the decline especially in the northeast and parts of the upper midwest which were hit hard and early by the omicron variant. however, other regions in the united states remain challenged with conditions in southern and western states continuing to worsen. for the last two weeks more than 2100 people have been dying on average each day nationwide. 2100 people. the overwhelming majority of whom are unvaccinated, and as

deaths continue to rack up, yesterday we saw yet another blow to the biden administration's efforts to keep americans safe through vaccination. on friday a federal judge in texas blocked the white house from enforcing an executive order that required federal workers to get the vaccine. judge jeffrey brown who was appointed to his current post by donald trump in 2019 wrote that it was a, quote, bridge too far, end quote, to let president biden require millions of federal employees to undergo a medical procedure as a condition of their employment. a medical procedure. anybody got kids who go to schools in medical procedure? jab in the arm with a vaccine. asked last night about the setback, weiss press secretary jen psaki noted that 98% of federal workers are already vaccinated. psaki added, quote, we are confident in our legal authority here. the supreme court opinion

blocking a federal rule that would have required workers at large companies of more than 100 people to either get vaccinated or face weekly covid testing. even covid testing is apparently out of bounds for these people. nato stands with ukraine. allied nations around the world are preparing their support for the threatened nation and it is not sitting well with vladimir putin. putin. [limu emu squawks] woo! thirty-four miles per hour! new personal record, limu! [limu emu squawks] he'll be back. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty. ♪

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the high stakes standoff along the ukraine-russia border continues to escalate. president biden has called the ongoing crisis, quote, the most consequential thing that has happened in the world since world war ii. the kremlin's already deployed more than 100,000 troops along ukraine's eastern border and yesterday this week russian military forces and hardware began arriving in belarus for, quote, allied resolve drills. all week u.s. and nato officials have been scrambling to ease

tensions on friday. the secretary of state antony blinken met with russia's foreign minister sergey lavrov, but there was no major breakthrough. instead russia stuck to its list of demands including a legally binding halt to nato's expansion eastward and this will become very important in the discussion i'm about to have. vladimir putin has a somewhat obsession with nato which is the strong of the military alliance and it's bringing russia and ukraine to the brink of war and it is all due to have power over the region that the ussr once controlled. let's take a look at nato. this is what the nato alliance looked like in 1978. the nato countries are in green and russia is in red. there is this buff every countries between russia and the nato alliance. at the time those countries in the middle and all soviet states formed the warsaw pact. the soviet influence counterweight to nato. they were not so much allies of

the soviet union as they were captive allies and russia for trade and for protection. over time those countries were given the chance to turn toward the west by becoming democracies and joining the nato alliance. most of them jumped at the opportunity and this is the result. this is what the nato map looks like today. you can see the alliance has expanded eastward quite a bit with ukraine now one of the few countries between russia and the nato ally. if you'll talk about nato which you have to talk about if you're talking about the ukraine situation there is literally no one better to help understand the nato effect on russia than this man the retired admiral james stavrides and author of "2034." admiral, always an honor to have you on the show. thank you for being with us. give us an evaluation of what i just told the audience. what have i missed in relevance

with the current situation with russia and ukraine? >> i think you nailed it, ali. one thing to remember, however, is we're very focused on ukraine and perhaps george a small republic and whether they come into nato. when you look at that map they are both very big, very important nations to the north and that would be finland and sweden and they're the ones in dark green on that map. they are very close partners to nato. they deployed under my command as supreme allied commander to afghanistan and many other missions, highly capable militaries and what vladimir putin is doing in ukraine will kind of nudge them toward the alliance. hey, bottom line here, everything putin is doing ultimately is going to be counterproductive for him strategically. he will increase the enthusiasm for deterrence against russia within the alliance. he's going to push nations like finland and sweden toward the

alliance, and he's going to place himself under massive economic sanctions. so let's hope he wakes up and smells the tea as they say in russia and decides that another invasion is not a good idea. >> one of the things that the glue that holds the nato alliance together is this promise to help each other in times of danger. the article 5 that says if one nato country is attacked it's as if it was an attack on all nato countries. it's not a nato country and no treaty obligation for nato countries to help ukraine. on one hand that means a bunch of european countries may not feel compelled to do so. on the other hand it's a european country that has been invaded before and might get invaded again, which if you're a european country your rusent history tells you it's bad. are the nato countries going to

be fractured in response to a potential invasion? >> i think they'll be held together and i think the biden administration has done a good job of wrangling the other 29 nations and they are 30 nations in the alliance. it's important to underline what you said, ali. ukraine is not a member of the alliance. they don't receive the article 5 guarantee which they desperately would like, but they have deployed with us again to afghanistan and counter piracy missions and they've been a very effective partner, bottom line, i wouldn't focus so much on article 5 as much as article 10. it only has five in it, and 10 about the open door policy. >> right. >> which says nations can apply and we're not going to give vladimir putin veto power over

something enshrined for over 30 years. >> i want to show the map of nato countries now. one of vladimir putin's argument and it's been for some time that we have an understanding that you all nato folks were not going to rub up against our borders and now you've got the situation where you have very few countries between russia and nato. nato has basically said if a country wants to join nato and meets the requirements we'll have them join. russia says that that is a breach of some sort of agreement or understanding between russia and the west. >> that understanding has been thoroughly debunked by historians. i challenge anybody to show me a signed document by the united states or by nato that purported to give russia some kind of veto authority. we remember, ali, and you teed it up nicely in the intro, ail of these countries, romania, bulgaria, latvia, lithuania, all

of them know what it's like to be under the boot of the russians in the old soviet union and warsaw pact days and as the nato commander, every time i go to one of those capitals particularly in the baltics, for example, the first place they took me was to the kgb museum showing what it was like to exist under russian domination. so we took them in because it was in alignment with our treaty, they asked to come in and nato has never demonstrated any active combat, intention. we are not the ones that aren't invading other countries like georgia and ukraine both of whom have been invaded in the last ten years essentially. >> admiral, it's good to see you. i suspect you and i will have a number of occasions to talk in the coming days and thank you for talking to us and giving us the claire the we need. admiral james stavridis is former supreme allied commander

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in less than 5 minutes... ...so you can stay... one step ahead. tens of thousands of federal employees are starting out the new year with a raise. president biden told federal agencies to bump the wage for federal workers up to $15 an hour. under the new directive 67,000

federal employees most of whom work at the departments of agriculture, defense and veterans affairs will get a pay increase. for context the federal government employs 2.2 million u.s. citizens full time. the postal service and the regulatory commission are not included in the $15 minimum wage policy because they're outside of the authority of the personnel management which is the government agency which granted these raises. the pay bump must be implemented by january 30th, just eight days away. democrats' dreams of voting returns, after they rejected an attempt to change the filibuster rules. the question is what now? some lawmakers are not backing down one day after the failed vote, democratic congressman jamal bowman of new york was arrested. he was arrested near capitol hill while participating in a non-violent voting rights

protest. let that sink in. it's 2022 and we're arresting members of congress for protesting anti-voting rights legislation. joining me now is tiffany cross host of america s nbc's "cross connection." i thought we saw the last of that in the '60s you protest against everyone being able to vote and you still get arrested. >> it's baffling, ali. i cannot remember a time when people of color and voters of color were not fighting for equal access to the ballot box and even before they go to section 5, voter suppression was baked in the cake especially when we talked about it on platforms like this and print media there have always been long lines to vote. i'll be speaking with congressman bowman about his arrest and what he sees as the next best steps moving forward and we'll be talking to ruben gallego who is being encouraged to run against two of the

democrats to kill the voting bill and that is krysten sinema. this is why voters of color went out and risked life and limb during the pandemic to vote for members of congress and we'll hold police beingable with the duty to intervene laws and there's a push from jay-z, from rap nation. they're laser focused on the kansas city police department and that will be interesting and our old friend from the "today" show, tamron hall she'll join us as we remember the life and impact of andre leon tally. one of the reasons i love your show is because we learn so much hearing from you and the federal raise you just talked about, we'll talk about universal basic income. >> oh, amazing. >> the postal worker, we chop it up every time she's in my building. they do such hard work so shout out to the people who are mail carriers around this country, and i think they certainly

deserve a raise, but when you talk about just what it takes for people to live and survive in this country, it's a really interesting concept to have a universal basic income so we'll have the former mayor of stockton, california, will join us to talk about that. so it will be interesting. >> it's a really interesting topic. there are lots of flavors to it. please give tamron a big hug, virtual or otherwise for me. it's good to have us back on our air today. good to see you as always, my friend. tiffany cross, stay tuned right after "velshi" for "the cross connection" at 10:00 a.m. eastern time. it's a bitter anniversary for the landmark roe v. wade five decades later and things are getting worse for legal and safe access to abortion which is not where we'd thought we'd be. t where we'd thought we'd be

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january 22, 1973, seven justices on the supreme court affirmed the right of a woman to have an abortion. the landmark ruling roe v. wade have guided reproductive rights in america for half a century and made abortions safer and more accessible across the country and allowed women to have more autonomy over how they planned out their lives, their families, their careers and their futures. up until last month this was believed to be settled law regardless of what your opinion of abortion was, but after the supreme court heard arguments in december regarding a mississippi law that bans abortion after the 15th week of pregnancy, many fear that roe is about to be gutted. in reality, conservatives have been chipping away at abortion rights for decades. for the 40th anniversary of roe v. wade in 2013 nine years ago rachel maddow, the rachel maddow show produced a series of the state of abortion rights how far access have been rolled back since roe was decided in 1973.

as part of that report she visited four clinics in states where the climate was so hostile to abortion rights that only one clinic remained open in each state. these abortion providers braved harassment and threats from anti-abortion extremists and attempts by their own state governments to target and shut them down and punitive onerous regulations specifically designed by creatively cruel anti-abortion lawmakers to make their jobs harder. these folks who have been on the ground fighting to keep clinics open in hostile states and fighting to keep abortion access for the most vulnerable women, they've been ringing the alarm bells about the rollback of abortion rights for years. here's some of what these providers had to say nine years ago on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of roe. >> before they drive in the parking lot they are accosted by the people outside with pamphlets and bombarded with information that is not true. >> we have to tell a woman that

north dakota law says -- defines abortion that it's terminating the life of a human being and ideological language, that's not something i believe. >> you will have new regulations regarding the construction of a clinic that have nothing to do really with patient care or the well-being of the patient, but the legislature passes them and then the board of health enforces them and so over time it becomes more and more difficult to obtain care. >> the identity of the last man in that clip was protected because he fears for his safety and his family's safety. again, that was nine years ago. each of those providers were the only ones left in their state at the time and now nearly a decade later abortion providers continue to experience harassment and violence on a regular basis. just a few weeks ago an arsonist

set fire to an abortion clinic in knoxville, tennessee. meanwhile, more than 100 new abortion restrictions were enacted by state legislatures last year that made it harder for people to access abortion care and abortion providers to do their jobs. these are the kind of struggles that abortion provide verse been up against for decades, but until recently the court was holding the line if just barely, keeping abortion legal in every state then donald trump installed three new justices on the supreme court and now it is an entirely different story. an effective ban on abortions in texas remains in effect today thanks to the trump stacked supreme court as the legal challenge against it keeps getting delayed and remanded from one court to another and now the nation awaits a ruling on the mississippi abortion ban that most experts expect will be the final official undoing of roe. don't go anywhere, after the

break, i'll talk to the last remaining abortion provider in north dakota. she's also one of the people in the clip we just played and we'll have elizabeth nash of the goodmacher institute. back in a moment. g goodmacher institute back in a moment t longer. say hello to your fairy godmother alice and long-lasting gain scent beads. try spring daydream, now part of our irresistible scent collection. 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. ♪♪ i'm getting vaccinated with prevnar 20. so am i. because i'm at risk for pneumococcal pneumonia. i'm asking about prevnar 20. because there's a chance pneumococcal pneumonia

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american women to access abortion since roe versus wade was decided. >> i think so. it's not the battle of roe, it has become a debate and fight around access. as you heard from those wonderful folks providing the care how difficult it is for women to travel distance, read a script by the government, to be told to have a procedure like a mandatory ultrasound that is neither medically needed nor does she want it. >> that was a former head of net rock, pro choice talking to my colleague rachel maddow on the 40th anniversary of roe v wade. the director of the red river women's clinic. the last remaining abortion provider in north dakota also with us is elizabeth nash the principle policy associate and interim associate institutes

which had vokes for reproductive rights. thanks for being here. tammy, you appeared in that rachel maddow show special. you talked a lot for access that nancy keenan outlined here. she was saying the abortion fight was no longer about the legal question because of roe, it was how hard it was to get an abortion. it seemed since that moment nine years ago, we have gone backwards. we are in a place the legality is in question. would you imagine we are looking a at future in which roe could fall away entirely? >> no, they have been chipping away at it for years, state legislatures, especially in states like ours, where there is only one clinic. they've wanted to win the battle to be the first state to restrict abortion completely. but i really did not think that this day where it really was perilous and come june we may actually not have abortion access in this country. >> elizabeth, let's talk about

the state level abortions tammy has been talking about. they have been going on a long time. you have been following them a long time, the pace and severity of these laws have picked up in the last decade alone. talk to me about these lous, how they have changed over time. some of the viewers may not. some are entirely unreasonable restrictions designed to put an abortion clinic out of practice, despite actually having no effect on what they do. >> yeah, i mean, we have been seeing states limit access to abortion since 1973, since roe, literally the ink wasn't dry and they've run this gamut from clinic regulation that limits how providers operate and essentially put them out of business to limits on veteran with access care so that they are limited and how they can pay for care.

they have to pay out of pocket. they can't use health insurance, do reading periods up to 72 hours between abortion counseling and getting the abortion, itself. there are all kind of limits that have been placed on care that are not medically necessary. they are political interference in accessing the care people need. all we have been seeing is a huge pileup of these restrictions for decades. it's been a sloc and especially when we see how it's affecting individuals accessing care. and now we're to the point where there is so much momentum behind abortion restrictions that states have gone as far as passing abortion bans, six-week bans, total bans, now we have a six-week texas ban that is devastating access to care. >> tammy, you were in washington, d.c. december 1st the day the supreme court hearing started on mississippi's case.

ahead of that trip, you told the associated press, quote, it just can't be more serious. if roe does fall as many of you expect it will, are you confident that you can keep your clinic, which is the only one opened in the big state of north dakota opened? >> no, i'm not confident. north dakota is one of thefl states that has a trigger ban in place, so if roe falls within 30 days abortion becomes illegal in north dakota. so we are trying to make plans, trying to figure out what all of our options are and that might mean having to move across state lines. >> elizabeth. let's get into what's happening. we started to see other states minimum tick laws. first of all, there are the trigger bans, tammy talks about. there are another bans that say bank it after the 15th week. it's been talked about in florida, arizona and west virginia.

at the same time states like new jersey are doing the opposite. they're passing legislation to protect abortion rights. it's early in the new year. what do you think this year will hold in terms of state abortion rights? >> well, you know, what we are seeing so far are a lot of introductions to both ban andab. people are trying to mimic mississippi because people believe the u.s. supreme court will uphold the mississippi abortion ban. that seems very likely given the tenor of the arguments on december 1. states are looking to mimic the texas ban, pass an abortion ban of sex weeks and outsource enforcement to private citizens so you get around some dined of legal challenge. we're seeing those bans introduced in places like alabama, arizona, oklahoma, ohio and missouri and florida. so, you know, we're starting to see those pick up.

on the side of progressives. new jersey was the first state to enact an abortion law this year. they've adopted statutory protections for abortion. now there is more to do. we have to make sure that abortion rights are only on paper. we need to make sure that people can get the care they need when they need it. that means we need to help fund abortions, and help people who come from out of state to get the care they need. we need to make sure that all of the restrictions are removed. and so we're expecting to see language laws introduced in states like colorado. more should be done in california. we're seeing constitutional amendments being proposed if vermont and michigan. so there are states that are really stepping up here. >> before we go, i want to play, tammy, some more of what you said on the rachel maddow show nine years ago when you talked about being a target at the lone abortion clinic north dakota

let's listen. >> when you are the only provider in the state you become a target for the local people who disagree with the services you offer. you get put on the national radar, put on national map. it doesn't happen in any other business where people are allowed to act like stalkers and use your first name and, you know, try and intimidate on your way into work. there is no place elsewhere you would work where somebody would be allowed to act that way. >> coming up nine years ago, is this still your experience today? >> absolutely. back then, i didn't carry mace every day, but as i enter the clinic every day, i have mace. i had to use it several times. we have bullying people attacking the staff and the patients as we enter the clinic. >> tammy, thank you for being here. with us. tammy is a red river women's clinic director, an independent

abortion provider. elizabeth mash, interim associate director of state issues. that does it for me, thank you for watching. catch me back here 10:00 a.m. eastern on velshi. "the cross connection" begins with tiffany cross right now. [ music playing ] >> has president biden done enough in the fight against covid? >> he as far as giving the people vaccinated he lived up to his promise getting those shots into people's arms. >> with the economy i think we are half-and-half on gas prices and that's a big concern for a lot of people. >> he's got to have a laser focus on the voting rights act and i don't think this administration with as many black people that they have in it, including the vice president, has done enough to make this message of voting rights a