we'll see what happens but so far he seems like he sitting tight. mark caputo, thanks so much. >> thank you. >> that is all in on this thursday night. the rachel maddow chill starts right now. right now. desparting supreme court justice stephen breyer at the white house today. the event basically formalized the announcement of justice breyer's retirement. president biden also invited justice breyer and his wife to have a sleepover in the lincoln bedroom sometime i president biden at the white house today, he reiterated his pledge to appoint an african american woman as his nominee to the supreme court for justice breyer's seat. even though other presidents including ronald reagan, including donald trump, have made pledges of that kind, to pick a specific demographic for the court. in reagan's case he pledged in

advance to appoint the first woman justice and president trump a female justice and nevertheless, republicans and tearing their re hair out, so outraged that a black woman is finally going to be appointed to the court. president biden announced by the end of february and the countdown begins. we have eyes on that story tonight and every night until we have a nominee and beyond. i also have to tell you becauseav i know you that we've got eyes on a story tonight that i know you most want to hear on tonight's show. a story about what is happening with theou irate irish fisherma. the irate irish fisherman we talked on the show a couple of nights ago who have decided they will sail their fishing boats in

the russian navy's planned war gamesth off the irish coast nex week. as russia continues the military buildup on the borders of ukraine, taunting the nato countries and menacing this threat, that they will start a new war now every day, the russian navy has announced a live fire exercise off the irish coast,se right near the nexus oa whole bunch of undersea communications cables. internet cables. that the russian navy has already been accused of messing with. ireland is not happy about these russian war games planned for next week, particularly onrything else that is going withrl russia right now, the irh prime minister has said that should call off the war games, russia says it will not and will do as its, pleases but this small fleetwi of fisherman they say those russian war games are planned right in the middle ofar where they fish this time the yer t for mackerel and for prongs, and frankly they get

their new prong quote on tuesday of next week and whether or not war games are going on at the time, they are going to head out there and fish and the russian navy better get out of their way. as i said, we covered this story a couple of nights ago here on the show, we've heard from more of you guys about that story than we have heard from you on almost anything we've covered in the last year. we got a huge response to that coverage from you guys. we continue to have eyes on that story. today the irish fishermen actually went to the russian embassy in dublin to like do diplomacy, to tell the russian government to stay away from their mackerels, why these fishermen are the people the world has to put in a position of going nose to nose with the russian navy while russia is about to start another war, i'm not quite sure how we ended up here as a world but we will have an update on how it is going for the irish fishermen in a moment tonight and you're definitely

going to want to see that. all that is coming up. but we start tonight in the summer of 2020, the first summer in which we were dealing with the ravages of the covid epidemic. and a sort of press conference, the summer of 2020, a bunch of people got up, on the steps of the united states supreme court, and they gave a press conference, they war white doctor's coat, the coats had embroidered on them a little logo, america's front line doctors, the point of that day wasdo to tell the american peop from the official looking group or sort of medical looking group that actually covid is no big deal. you definitely don't need to stay socially distanced from anybody else, businesses don't need to close, schools don't need to close, nobody needs to make any accommodation in their lives for it, you don't ned to wear a mask, none of those things willwe keep you from getting covid, everybody is lying for you and they tell you

those things will abate the risk of covid and if you get covid it's no big deal because secretly the government doesn't want you to know this because there's a cure for covid. just take this. antimalaria drug hydroxychloroquine and some zinc and that's the cure.hy the government doesn't want you to know this cure. the whole covid thing is a hoax. don't be a sheeple, people, it's all fine. that was a weird event in the summer of 2020. one of the america's front line doctors, speakers at that event is known for her passionate claims that if you have ovarian cysts, that's because you have been having sex with demons in your sleep, which you really should stopyo doing because onc you stop having sex with demons in your sleep, that will fix your over ryesin right up. also generally she says you shouldal not trust western at all, because western medicine is all based on dna from space aliens.

that said, white coat, and she says she's a front line doctor, sosa she must know what she's talking about, i mean can you disprove the sex with demons things? can you? congress has sincegs opened an investigation into america's front line doctors, not because of that supreme court stunt, that weird press conference, but because after that, they appeared and morphed into a hard sell online grister outfit where they set up what appear to be po gus tele-medicine appointments during which the doctors would market todu you and prescribe t you another fake covid cure, the anti-parasite drug, ivermectin which appears to be no utility against covid whatsoever. the group would take a hefty cut of theth proceeds for their trouble, they appear to have made potentially millions of dollars in their hard sell on ivermectin tele-medicine appointments. for all of the groups and the nonsense associated with this

group, you might expect a congressional grinvestigation, potentially a law enforcement investigationco as well, you mit not expect the leader of a state with one of the highest body counts from covid to look to someone from that group to become the top health official in the state. you wouldn't expectfi that. but behold. desantis of what he that is exactly has done. a few months ago, ron desantis chose this guy, joseph ladapo seen here as the 2020 front line doctor's event outside the supreme court, governor desantis chose him to be the new surgeon general of florida, despite like this, the doctor endeared himself toor ron desantis with appearances like that one and appearances in conservativeap media and a series of op-eds, where he said that covid isn't so bad, and you definitely shouldn't wear a mask, to try to avoid getting it, since becoming

surgeon general of florida, dr. ladapo has done press conferences with governor desantis where he has ominously questioned the safety of the vaccines essentially encouraging people theyva shouldn't get the because they're so dangerous. he earned himself a brief moment of notoriety in the press for refusing to personally himself wear a mask while he was in a meeting with the state senator who had just been diagnosed with cancer. she asked him to please put on a mask because of her serious medical condition. he refused. one of the ways dr. ladapo rose to prominence in media circles and the top position governor desantis put him in was in large part on the p basis of him stakg his credibility on being a front line doctor. in his conservative media appearance, in his op-eds, he presented himself as a front line prdoctor, who spent time aa

physician, treating many, many, many covid patients, and so his expertise on this matter was born out of the hard work that he hadbo experienced with all o his experience treating patients with covid-19. well, we reported exclusively a couple of months ago on evidence that calls those claims into evidence. he wrote two op-eds in national newspapers in 2020 claiming he had spent time taking care of covid patients, specifically at ucla's flag ship hospital. this caught the attentionuc of people who really did work at ucla's hospital treating covid patient, multiple people who worked at ucla's hospital at the same time as dr. ladapo said that he was misleading the public about his experience treating covid patientspu there. a member of the team treating covid patients at ucla told you that dr. ladapo was not part of team. we also obtained scheduling documents from the time dr. ladapo was attending ucla and he

was not scheduled to take care of covid patients at all. we contacted the florida department of healthhe seeking comment from dr. ladapo multiple times when we first aired this reporting and never heard back andis reached out again this we and press secretary for the florida department of health calling our request for comment quote cute, that was an actual quote, thanks for reaching out to ask about this unsubstantiatedab conspiracy theory. it's cute thatsu you're asking r comment. this is a state government. we then also heard from the communications director at floridaea department of health. he confirmed that dr. ladapo did not treat covid patients during much of 2020 when ucla was running a covid board but claimedru that he must have treated patients prior to and period, i'm sure you can find documents thataf prove that if you're finding other documents to promote your

narrative. listen, we're not trying to find documents to promote a narrative, we're trying to figure out if the guy was telling there truth. and the thing is, we did try very hard to get hold of any documents that would prove that dr.do ladapo treated covid patients at ucla particularly given the word from other doctors who actually did treat patients at ucla that he was never among them and they never saw him. we havene tried to find documen that would indicatewe that dr. ladapo did treat patients at ucla. we cannot find any such documents. nor the florida department of public healths a provided such documents in response to ouric requests. and ind all of the existing records that we can find, indicate lots and lots of other doctors treating covid patients at ucla's hospital but not him. one other thing to know about dr. ladapo is he has not actually yet been confirmed in this post as florida's surgeon general. governor desantis put him up for

the jobs months ago and he has been essentially functioning as florida's surgeon general for the last several months but he does ultimately have to be confirmed by the state senate in florida. yesterday, he appeared before the florida senate for his confirmation hearing, and it was something. >> thank you for being here today. do you believe vaccines work? >> you recognize first -- >> thank you, senator. >> i consider vaccines in the same wayor that i consider othe medical therapies. what we care about clinically is whether they are safe and effective. and that is the lens through which i evaluate all medical therapies. >> do you believe that vaccines in fighting against a pandemic

like covid-19 are effective? >> thank you for your question, senator. so again, i would say that the question is a scientific one, and it's one that is answered with data, so the question, the question is informed by data on specific outcomes and specific therapies. so that's the scientific question. >> a couple more months. a yes or no, do vaccines work in fighting against covid-19? yes orfi no? >> senator, i, as a scientist, you know, i'm compelled to answer the scientific question,

and i would be happy to answer any specific scientific question that you have, related to vaccines and covid-19. >> inscientifically, do vaccine do thefi vaccines work against preventing covid-19? yes or no? >> recognized. >> thank you, again, senator. you know, yes or no questions are not that easy to find in science. >> that's the democratic leader of the florida state senate, senator lauren book struggling valiantly to try to get an answer outva of governor ron desantis's hand picked attorney general for the state of florida and colleagues walked out of the hearing and they were fed up with dr. ladapo's refusal to offer any answers to any questions.

after that confirmation offehea, theti florida sun sentinel published this response from the paper'spu editorial board, quot josephpa ladapo and his contriv evase iveness must go. he's an expert all right, masterful at avoiding question, and in assaulting the intelligence of floridians and straight talk aboutll covid-19. and the reality is he's married to governor desantis' agenda to politicize the pandemic. the doctor does not deserve to be confirmed a surgeon general especially now that he has shown that he has so little respect for the people of florida that wouldn't give them straight answers through their senators. i mean there are a lot of debates around the covid-19 pandemic, and our response to it, and effective policies, and some of those debates are absolutely worthwhile. it is after all, a novel coronavirus and therefore we learn more about it, scientifically as we move on in timesc and we live with it for

longer. some of those debates are absolutely worthwhile but some of them are ridiculous and on the question of do the vaccines work, i don't know, i don't know, seniors who are vaxed are 50 times less likely to be hospitalized with covid than seniors who aren't. 50 times? that's not statistically significant enough for you? i mean not to be weird, but even donald trump says vaccines work. vaccines work. but the surgeon general of florida cannot bring himself to say that. that is apparently a bridge too far for that state's top doctor. someone should mayber check in with him where he thinks ovarian cysts come from. but you know, it's possible that all of this goes some way toward explaining the latest covid-related insanity coming from florida's government. and the way that a republican politics go right now, things that originate in florida's

republican government with governor ron desantis have a way of spreading around the world, spreadingof to other republican. and so it's worth noting this controversy over his top health official, it's also worth noting and watchingof out for other statesan to emulate governor desantis on what happened there this week. this week, governor desantis unleashed this furious tirade against the biden administration, blasting president biden and the administration for stopping shipments of two monoclonal antibody treatments for covid. governor desantis called that a sudden and reckless decision and accused the biden administration of basically killing people, blocking life-saving treatments, he said he's going to fight back against this decision. what is so strange about this explosion of rage from florida's governor, ron desantis is that the reason the federal government stopped sending those two particular monoclonal antibody treatments to florida and all of the other states in the country is that those two monoclonal antibodies do not

work against the omicron variant.wo those two monoclonal antibodies have been a fantastic treatment for previous variants of covid. they have saves lots and lots of lives but they do not work against omicron. omicron is mutated in such a way that it is not susceptible to those treatments. the drug makers themselves say theyts have done the tests, and those monoclonal antibody treatments do not work against omicron and omicron now makes up 99% of new cases of covid across the country including florida. you don't have to be a chemist to understand this. i mean again, this is a simple thing. antibody drugs, formulated with specificity to respond to this coronavirus, the newer mutation of the virus, the one that is 99% prevalent in the united states right ernow, that new mutation is not susceptible to thesemu treatments from these t companies. it is not that hard to understand. if you are four years old, and

you probably understand what i just said. there is oneyo monoclonal antiby from flaxo smith klein that stillfr works against omicron. that drug is unfortunately in very short supply right now. and they're trug struggling to make more of it as fast as those can but the other two companies, regeneron and eli lilly, while the antibody treatments, while they worked on earlier iterations of the coronavirus, they do not work on omicron. this is not liketh math. this is like counting on your fingers territory. but in florida they apparently cannot get that. even before today, all this, governor ron desantis has been on this kick how many antibody treatments he's openedhi and ho many doses of regeneron, the one that doesn't work against th omicron, how many doses of regeneron he has managed to secure for floridians and how the biden administration hasn't been sending enough and he's demandingt more. doing this even though it has been clear for weeksdo now that theset treatments don't work against the omicron variant and the omicron variant has taken

over. a week ago, the daily beast summed itov up with this accura headline. ron desantis opens antibody centershe that are useless agait omicron. and governor desantis's surge general joseph ladapo has chimed in, too we should not listen to people labeled as experts on these matters. he said he will personally those antibody treatments only patients with omicron even though they are proven not to work against omicron. because it worked so well with hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin and i don't know what the antidote is for sex demons but i'm sure we have nipped that in the bud too: florida is insists as a state government they will do nothing to mitigate the spread of covid whatsoever and worst than that, they will continue to spread doubt and misinformation about vaccines andou masks but they also insis

they must be allowed to continue to give people monoclonal antibodies that literally do not work against the omicron variant which is covid now. we are two years into this pandemic, this is what passes for pandemic policy in our third most p populous state. and as i said, republican politics are in such a state that what happens in florida can be spread to other red states, gets featured on fox news or whatever. dr. ladapo's confirmation process to become officially the surgeon general of florida, it is not complete before florida and due in the ethics committee before the state legislature as early as next year. and perhaps at that next round of confirmation hearing somebody will ask him about his nonsense cable claims about monoclonal antibodies and perhaps someone about his claims about

treating covid patients when it appears he has not. maybe that will pop the bubble here. don't hold your breath. maybe that will pop the bubble here don't hold your breath

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here's the statement, that's from the russian embassy, russia's embassy in the nation of ireland. any attempts to interfere with military exercises would be a, reckless and irresponsible act which could put in harm's way both sailors and fishermen. starting next week, as russia is keeping the world guessing as to whether or not they're about to invade ukraine and start another war there, next week, russia is planning big war games style military exercises off the coast of ireland. the russian government issued that statement this week, warning that nobody should get in their way while they're doing these live fire exercises in the sea, off the irish coast. that statement though was not meant for like the nation state of ireland overall, it was not a warning for ireland's navy, what it really was, was a warning for these guys.

fishermen with say they plan to disrupt russia's war games exercises next week which are scheduled to take place in the waters where they fish, where they make their living. because these fishermen are undeterred by the russian government's statement about those war games, that would be an understatement. listen to this. are you aware of that, that the russian embassy is saying well, your behavior is reckless. >> how is it reckless to go out in a boat and protest peacefully to say we, you are not welcome in our waters how is that reckless? >> they're saying it is -- >> how is that reckless? i'm not going to entertain any russian embassy or any ambassador whatever, joe. i'll tell you, this is directly to that gentleman there. if anybody tries to impede my freedom of movement in irish waters -- >> well they're international waters. >> they're going to be in trouble. >> i come back to the statement from the russian ambassador he said -- >> i have no relationship with the russian ambassador i'm a

free citizen of ireland. he has no authority over me and i take his threat as an insult. >> that's why he wouldn't -- >> that's my answer to him, okay? that's my answer to the russian ambassador to ireland, i take his threat as an insult and she withdraw it. >> i take his threat as an insult and he should withdraw it. yesterday, the russian embassy in ireland invited the cork fishermen to come visit, to come to their embassy in dublin and meet with the russian ambassador to try to talk this out. the fishermen agreed to take the meeting. had i been there, i'm not sure i would have but he went. and this is a plan to what he would tell the ambassador when he sat down with him face to face. >> is it a fishing ground or is it a firing range? >> what can the russian ambassador say to you in the morning that will make you call off the flotilla.

>> we're not calling off a flow tilla. we're going out there to fish. >> what are you going to say to the russian ambassador? >> i would like to say to the russian ambassador, this is where we fish, and this is where we fish and we hope that if they're going to carry out an exercise, they will keep a safe distance from us, not the other way around and if they feel they need to come into our area where we're fishing, our protest is, we're not moving. >> our protest is, we're not moving. this small group of irish fishermen, of course, they're not the only people in the world who are upset with russia right now, right? as russia uses its military to menace europe. but as far as russia's military exercises, around the edges of that threat go, it does seem like these fisherman in ireland are the only ones doing anything about it. this is what the head of the fisherman's organization told a local rep in court, it is a bit funny that it is up to us, but we will take the opportunity to represent our fishermen at

whatever level and whatever way we can. well, today, two representatives from the irish fishermen did travel from cork to dublin to go meet with the russian ambassador to ireland, they met at the embassy, the meeting lasted a little under an hour and by early accounts they said the meeting went well, the fishermen came outside after the meeting and told the press gathered outside the embassy they felt the ambassador took their concerns seriously and they felt understood by him and they came to a compromise agreement that russia would create a sort of buffer zone between the fishing grounds and their war games, basically an agreement to share the waters out there next week, so everybody can do their jobs and no one will get hurt, we will coexist and the fisherman russia says they were given an absolute guarantee that their fishing grounds would not be disrupted by russia's military exercises. the embassy put up this photo of the two fishermen with the ambassador, everybody is getting along, everything is fine now, and an absolute guarantee.

but well, i mean here's these fishermen, right? why is it up to them to negotiate the terms of the russian navy's military exercises? and could the russian government really be dealing with these guys in good faith about this? expressing what the limits will be, what the buffer zones will be that guarantee they're giving them about not disrupting anything, i believe the fishermen when they say the ambassador gave them an absolute guarantee that the fishing growns would not be disrupted. i believe that the ambassador told them that. but then of course, once the fishermen came out of the embassy and said that publicly, the russians claim that no such thing had happened. the headline in the irish times, quote, russian embassy disputes claims of absolute guarantee to irish fishermen on naval exercise impact. these fishermen are fishermen. they're not trained diplomats. russia appears to be trying to take advantage of that, you know, immediately renegotiating

on whatever promises they may have had in these rooms today, they are yanking these guys chains, these guys are just fishermen, who cares. all week as we have been covering this story, the back and forth between one of most powerful navys on earth and these fishermen, one thing is constant. these guys are very clear they are not going to budge. >> i have no relationship with the russian ambassador. >> i know -- >> i'm a free citizen of ireland. he has no authority over me and i take his threat as an insult. >> if they feel that they need to come into our area where we're fishing, our protest is we're not moving. >> our protest is, we're not moving. >> russia's military exercises are supposed start on thursday next week. the fishermen say hey, the prawn quote opens up on tuesday so we will be out there on the water doing our job starting on tuesday and we're not planning on moving, not for you. we shall see. stay with us. for you

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otero county, the third largest county in the state of new mexico in terms of size but a relatively small population, about 70,000 residents. the county seat, alamagagordo, part of the trinity test where the u.s. navy conducted the world's first ever nuclear explosion, hello. in the 2020 election new mexico overall went for joe biden by a pretty good margin, by about 11 points. but in otero county, trump won, by a two to one margin. more than 25 points there. apparently that 25 point margin was not a big enough margin for trump fans in otero county. earlier this month the county commissioners decided they would authorize an after the fact audit of the county's 2020 election results. this is the same sort of thing

that republicans have done in arizona and wisconsin and pennsylvania. i should note one of the county commissioners who voted for the audit has himself been indicted for breaching the capitol on january 6th. all three otero county commissioners all republicans, chose a company that runs the audit that is run by an election conspiracy theorist who claims to have invented email and claims the way the election was stolen was that in every single state in 2020 trump's share of the vote was reduced by approximately 4.2% and he knows how they did it because he read a contextual reading the sci-fi climate the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, that had the secret to stealing the election. aun commission county commissioners over the objections of the attorney, they decided to spend $50,000 in taxpayer funds to have that guy and his company conduct an audit

of the election results in the county that trump carried by over 25 points. this week we learned from the alamogordo daily news that the state aud thor of new mexico has opened a new investigation into how the county awarded that contract, the new mexico state governor's office confirmed it opened a special examination over an agreement between otero county and the audit of the election asserting the contract could violate state procurement laws. joining us now is new mexico state auditor brian, whose office is looking into the contract in otero county. thanks for joining us tonight. >> great to be with you, rachel. thanks for having me. >> did i get any of that wrong, or is there any part of this that's important to the story that i left out? >> you know, rachel, i think you got it just exactly right, i didn't know much about the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy part of the story, but i think it's excellent writing. >> what prompted you and your

office to open an inquiry over this contract? what sort of responsibility do you have for this type of county level expenditure? >> the beauty in new mexico, we have the office of the state aud thor that oversees and government transactions and the expenditures of taxpayer resources in our state. one of the important divisions we have at the office of the state auditor is the special investigations division and that is really driven by engagement with the public when they have concerns about waste, fraud and abuse and in fact, this initial examination was opened due to a whistle-blower who anonymously provided a complaint to our office about this expenditure and when we did do a review, we determined it was appropriate to open up an investigation exam on this particular transaction. we're gathering data now but i will tell you that my job is to restore people's faith in government and i'm not sure that's what is going on in otero county. >> we've seen a number of these

investigations, including a number of them that includes the selection conspiracy theorist, this company appears to be the company that's going to be awarded this contract in the county, we've seen this in a number of other states and we've seen people all over the country and elected officials such as yourself in those states lament that these audits are unscientific, they're not in keeping with best practices, they're designed to essentially make people have doubts about the election, that they shouldn't have doubts about. is that part of what is motivating this investigation, or are those concerns about the potential impact of an audit like this separate and apart from the type of investigation your office is doing and to what kind of expenditure it is. >> for us, every dollar in new mexico particularly rural new mexico is important to the taxpayers. and we've got to make sure that there isn't any waste, fraud or abuse. when we have elected officials who are abusing power, potentially, we hold them accountable with these

investigations and our findings. we have already had experience in otero county where the county commissioner was overreaching, and we did do an investigation, and we found that there were inappropriate expenditures. and that county commission her to give that money back to the taxpayers of otero county. now we have this concern. advanced by the county commissioner in otero county. now for me, what i always have to look through the lens is, is this transaction in the best interest of taxpayers. in this particular concern, we got to wonder whether this has something to do with a personal agenda, and that's going to be part of the question, what drove this transaction, appropriate, legal, compliant, with all of our codes, procurement process and was it in the best interest of the taxpayers or is this a situation with waste in government. this audit, there has already been an audit on this election by a bipartisan panel, the question is, is it appropriate

to spend another $50,000 to audit the election or personal agenda driving the decision? you have an attorney for the county who advised against it. and the commission certainly can act against its attorney's guidance but in this case, we're going to do a full and complete investigation to make sure note one dollar was misspent or spent without the appropriate process. that's my job. i do it every day. we do it for all 33 counties of new mexico. >> new mexico state auditor brian colon thanks for helping us understand this. it is again, this is a situation that we have seen, a different iteration of it, in a number of states, your investigation of this is an expenditure at the county level, it is something unique that we haven't seen at other places. looking forward to staying apprised on the progress of your investigation. thank you, sir. >> we look forward to staying in touch. no one is above the law in new mexico and we will hold everyone accountable. >> indeed. we'll be right back. eryone accountable. >> indeed.

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records laws we have just obtained documents that eliminate a weird dead end in the ongoing scandal about the fake election documents republicans created in multiple states to try to cast forged electoral college votes for donald trump. one of the odd quirks in this story is that in the state of arizona, republicans there created not one, but two different sets of forged elector paperwork. one of them looks identical to the fake documents that were also signed and submitted from five other states. that one arizona forgery looks like the forged documents from georgia and nevada and michigan and wisconsin. but the second set of forged documents sent in by arizona republicans look different. it was phrased differently, the font was different, they had a notary, officially notarize every signature on it. it had the arizona state seal all over it to try to make it look like an official state document which it was not. it was different than the other ones. well, now look at this. we know that the arizona republicans didn't just create

that document for themselves, to fantasize about being the real electors, we know they mailed in that forgery to the national archives in washington and we have the envelope that they sent it in. they sent it priority mail express them, it cost them $26.35. we also know they mailed it to the national archives because we know what the national archive diswhen they received this envelope containing that forged document. we have an email from the national archives to arizona governor doug doocy's office, surely for your awareness we received an unofficial arizona certificate of ascertainment from an arizona sovereign citizens group. governor doocy's office wrote back to the national archives that day, hi, thank you for sharing. quote, i presume you will not accept or post this unofficial certificate because among other things it does not meet the requirements under federal law. can you please confirm? arizona governor doug doocy said

this week he had no idea this fake elector thing had no idea it was going on until he saw press recently and we know at the time that his office was in directly in touch with the national archives with the fake documents and telling the national archives not to accept them, strange, but regardless, a week and a half after that exchange back in december between governor doocy's office and the national archives, a week and a half after that exchange, the cops showed up, the special agent in charge at the national archives wrote back to the arizona governor's office, a week and a half later. i am writing from the national archives office of inspector general, office of investigations, we are aware that the office of federal register received an unofficial certificate of ascertainment from a sovereign sins group in arizona which they, you were notified of. we are looking into this matter to determine if any violations or election fraud were committed and want to know if your office was looking into this issue further or otherwise referred it

to other local or federal law enforcement agencies. in other words, that's the federal investigators on the beat at the national archives saying we're starting a federal investigation into this matter, we need to know if there is a state investigation, too, so we can deconflict, so we don't step on each other's toes. governor doocy's office responded to that. saying it is our understanding that the secretary of state's office has notified the appropriate authorities. then the secretary of state's office chimed in. yes, we are referring it to the arizona attorney general's office. for potential prosecution. quote, for enforcement as to the unauthorized use of the state seal, and any other potential violations of state law. and indeed, they made that formal referral. here's the letter. arizona secretary of state writing to the person who sent in that fake elector's document saying number one stop using the state seal, it's illegal and number two we're referring to you the attorney general's office for potential prosecution. the following day, on december 23rd, we've got the secretary of

state making that formal criminal referral to the ag's office and a very straightforward thing. we received these documents from these arizona residents, purporting to be official state documents using the official state seal, these were not real official documents, use of the state seal by anybody not authorized to use it is a crime in arizona. here's the material. please proceed. that formal referral was made on december 23, 2020, more than a year ago. since then, nothing. so there's two questions here. one of them is about the federal cops on the beat here, right? why did federal investigators at the national archives only open an investigation into one of the two fake slates of electors they received from arizona? sure, that one came in first but a few days later, when a second set of elector documents came in

from arizona and a bunch of other states why wasn't a federal investigation launched into those as well, or was it? we are trying to find out and we will let you know as soon as we have figured it out. but also, in the situation in arizona, i mean again, they had two fake elector slates from two different sets of republicans in arizona, and this one with a state seal on it, it was kind of a special case. kind of an open and shut case. using state feel on your forged document -- state seal on your forged document is its own crime and here is the secretary of state's office saying hi attorney general, crime here, please prosecute. that was over a year ago. so far, nothing. what happened at this in the attorney general's office in arizona? why did this dead end there? let's turn to a local journalist in arizona to see what they think. writing this week for the arizona republican, anyone waiting breathlessly for

attorney general mark brnovich to launch an investigation into the vote should wait it no longer. his fundraising plea makes it abundantly clear he has no intention of doing his job. she shows this from the attorney general. you are going to ignore president trump? we thought he could count on you, he says in the fundraiser, making the rounds to republicans on facebook, and quote, this is your last chance to help flip arizona and take back the senate, don't miss your chance to be on trump's team. continuing, set aside for a second that this fundraiser plea is a blatant misrepresentation of the truth, trump hasn't endorsed brnovicn in arizona and threw a fundraiser for one of his opponents. he is in a crowded republican race for the senate seat, a race in which every candidate is competing to be anointed by trump for the job. trump has not endorsed anyone in the senate race.

he should be investigating the phony trump electors in 2020 signed a document avowing that they represent the true electoral votes in arizona and they sent it by registered mail to the u.s. senate and national archives. fortunately federal investigators are looking into it but shouldn't the state's prosecutor have at least a passing interest in such a blatant scheme carried out right under his nose? he continue, quote, it seems painfully clear that you can't be both the attorney general of arizona in charge of investigating all aspects of the 2020 election and a u.s. senate candidate who is chasing trump's endorsement. at least you shouldn't be. the conflict of interest is oh, so clearly everybody department in the latest fundraising plea. his hearst may lie with trump but his obligation remains to the people of arizona. he should resign. that's from the arizona republic today. calls for the arizona attorney general to resign if among other things he's not going to prosecute the state's fake

electors. i'm not close enough to arizona politics to know about the likelihood of any resignation here. i'm guessing that's not going to happen but if you're wondering why there is a need for a federal investigation, if you're wondering why the u.s. justice department now says they are investigating, well, this from the states might help explain why that is needed. in this case, no action for more than a year, even in the most clear-cut imaginable case where state law was definitely for sure no doubt about it broken. tt .

. that's going to do it for us tonight. ayman mohyeldin ayman mohyeldin will be here for me tomorrow night. but i will be back with you monday. "way too early" with jonathan le mire is up next. president biden reaffirms his promise to nominate a black woman to the u.s. supreme court. with justice stephen breyer officially announcing his retirement, the question is when will the president name his pick. new comments from vladimir putin indicate that the crisis on the border of ukraine is headed in the wrong direction. the question is what does the white house now say as far as the timetable for when russia might strike? deaths are up but the number of cases are done in the ongoing fight against covid. the question is what are we learning about the new sub variant of the omicron strain?