discuss his new mechl woir " -- memoir "go back to where you came from." back to where you came from. good evening. i'm mehdi hasan. another weekend, another trump rally. the former guy ranting and raving in texas last night where he again dangled the possibility of a 2024 run and pardons for the 1/6 prisoners. but i'm not going to start the show with that trump rally, i'm going to start with this one. from the campaign trail in september 2020. take a listen. >> who'd rather have a man on the supreme court? who's rather have a woman on the supreme court? it will be a woman, a very talented, very brilliant woman. who i haven't chosen yet, but we

have numerous women on the list. >> september 2020. trump would say that again at another campaign stop just two days later, promising his supporters that the pick to replace justice ruth bader ginsburg on the supreme court would be a woman. and it was a woman. a conservative woman. the nomination of amy coney barrett was rushed through the senate in only 27 days, even though early voting in the presidential election had already begun. but ever since president biden made clear this past week that he would be sticking to his campaign promise to nominate the first african american woman to the supreme court to replace retiring justice stephen breyer, republicans have been falling over one another to act like the democratic president has committed some great crime, broken some great unwritten rule. and it's getting nasty pretty quick. check out senator roger wicker of mississippi. >> the irony is that the supreme court is at the very same time hearing cases about this sort of

affirmative racial discrimination, and while adding someone who is the beneficiary of this sort of quota, the majority of the court may be saying at large it's unconstitutional. we'll see how that irony works out. >> speaking of irony, this you, roger wicker? quote, i have never seen a more talented, more articulate nominee for the supreme court than i have in this new justice, amy coney barrett. you mean the amy coney barrett who had never tried a case to verdict or argued an appeal in any court? that amy coney barrett is the most talented nominee for the supreme court that roger wicker has ever seen? really? wicker seems to have no problem appointing a woman, so long as it's a white conservative woman. funny how that works.

susan collins, meanwhile, says she has no problem with an african american woman on the court. it's president biden making that promise that seems to be the issue. >> the way that the president has handled this nomination has been clumsy at best. it adds to the further perception that the court is a political institution, like congress, when it is not supposed to be. >> you say that it's clumsy, but isn't it exactly what president reagan did when he said he would appoint a woman to the supreme court? isn't it exactly what president trump did when he said he would appoint a woman to replace justice ruth bader ginsburg? >> actually it isn't exactly the same. i've looked at what was done in both cases, and what president biden did was as a candidate make this pledge. and that helped politicize the

entire nomination process. what president reagan said is as one of his supreme court justices, he would like to appoint a woman. >> that's what republican senator susan collins is trying to hang her flimsy argument on, that ronald reagan said one of his picks. in that case let's look at what president ronald reagan actually did, not what he said. oh, look, his first nominee to the court was sandra day o'connor in 1981. as is always the case for any president with any nominee, there was no guarantee that reagan would get another pick. in fact he did not name another nominee until his second term when he had the opportunity to appoint three justices, antonin scalia, william rehnquist and kennedy. jonathan turley accused president biden of confirmation bias.

by using an exclusionary criteria of race and sex. while georgetown law's elia shapiro deleted two tweets that predicted biden's pick would be a lesser black woman who would always have an asterisk attached to their name. if anyone should have an asterisk in front of their names, it should know every single one of the 95 white justices that came before thurgood marshall in 1967. talk about exclusionary criteria. white man, white man, white man, white man. conservatives want you to believe the supreme court is a meritocracy. people are chosen for their qualifications not for, i don't know, their views on roe versus wade. if you were okay with trump and reagan saying they were going to nominate women but you're not okay with joe biden saying he's going to nominate a black woman, you might, you might be a racist.

joining me is congressman jones democrat and progressive from new york who last april became the first february of congress to call on stephen breyer to retire. when you hear senator wicker and others like him on the right saying this is affirmative action, appointing a black woman leaves an asterisk next to her name, they're not picking the most qualified person, does that sound like barely disguised racism to you? >> it is thinly veiled and shocking for that reason, as well as others. there are so many enormously qualified black women. we're talking about former supreme court clerks themselves, graduates of the greatest, most rigorous academic institutions in the world. and for some reason because they're black, a number of individuals in the senate have concluded on the republican side that they are per se unqualified. i think that's cause for some deep soul searching. >> and the idea that we even

pick judges based on qualifications or republicans do is absurd. do you have a particular justice you're getting behind, who you want joe biden to nominate? do you agree with cori bush that it isn't enough just to be a black woman, it needs to be a black woman who will rule in favor of racial, economic, environmental justice? >> well, i have not weighed in on who i believe should be the next supreme court justice. the great thing about what the president has done is he has still identified a universe of people who are enormously qualified. just the names that have been floated as possibilities are deeply inspiring and also give me the confidence that this president knows precisely what it is that he's doing. i will say to congresswoman bush's point, professional diversity has to matter as well.

i mean we are looking at a court that doesn't have a former public defender on it. we know that -- >> yes. >> -- a judge on the circuit court of appeals, jurist ketanji brown jackson, is a former public defender. sherrilyn ifill, the director council of the naacp defense fund. it would be wonderful to have a former civil rights attorney on the bench. >> well said. the controversy over joe biden's pick certainly does make having a conversation right now about supreme court expansion even more difficult. something i know you're passionate about, as am i. when is a good time if not now when there's a vacancy on the bench? when will your party, congressman, recognize that this court which lacks legitimacy in so many ways and is about to strike down abortion rights, voting rights, gun control, affirmative action, it needs to be reformed, it needs to be rebalanced, it needs to, yes, be expanded?

>> mehdi, you know, this is a supreme court that gutted the voting rights act, which unleashed this new racist wave of voter suppression that we are seeing across the country, including in places like georgia and texas. and so the time was a long time ago. i'm grateful to have now 50 people in the united states congress supporting my bill with johnson and jerry nadler to add four seats to the supreme court. we know the size of the court has changed seven times before in our nation's history. and of course mitch mcconnell is playing any number of games with the supreme court. he left a vacancy open for 14 months and then went back the same rule he created when he rushed through the confirmation of amy coney barrett. i want people to understand that everything they care about, whether it is democracy itself, in terms of just the right to vote or reproductive freedom which was well established until this 6-3 majority started

chipping away at it or lgbtq plus rights to live in dignity, among other things. all of that is in peril if we do not rebalance the court. it's why i'm so pleased to see a poll showing that a majority of americans now support adding seats to the supreme court of the united states in order to protect reproductive freedom. >> and you hear a lot of democrats say, well, if we do it, if we change the size of the court, republicans will do it too. as you pointed out, mitch mcconnell already reduced the size to eight for over a year just a few years ago. let's talk about, unfortunately, the former guy at his neo fascist rally last night in texas. donald trump said a lot of authoritarian things, including suggesting for the first time that he'd pardon the 1/6 rioters. he also warned what would happen if he was indicted for his alleged crimes. have a listen. >> if these radical, vicious, racist prosecutors do anything

wrong or illegal, i hope we are going to have in this country the biggest protest we have ever had in washington, d.c., in new york, in atlanta and elsewhere because our country and our elections are corrupt. >> does that sound, congressman, like he's inciting another riot to you? it does to me. it sounds like he's threatening mob violence if anyone prosecutes him. >> he is inciting violence. i couldn't help but think to myself that that would be exhibit a in a prosecution, a criminal prosecution of this president. because it is probative of his state of mind. he has incited violence in the past, has been criticized for it, claims he didn't know what he was doing, despite the obvious result, and is now doing the exact same thing, using

similar language to incite violence. of course this comes just weeks after marjorie taylor greene, his acolyte in congress, said republicans need to start using the, quote, second amendment on democrats. i mean is there anything more clear than that these are people who are prone to violence and who are not regretful of their language or their actions? they have to be prosecuted. and i wish the attorney general would take this very seriously and make more strides in that effect. >> last question, congressman. the midterms are later this year. democrats are likely to lose the house. the left are already getting blamed for that impending defeat. if joe biden rang you up and said what should i be doing that i'm not doing to hold on to the house, what would you say to him? >> you know, this is a president that has done a lot already and we need to be better talking about those things, which is the american rescue plan, which is the reason a majority of

americans are even vaccinated and certainly why so many small businesses have been able to stay afloat or this historic investment in our nation's infrastructure that's going to create millions of good-paying jobs annually. this president has to use his own executive action as he faces obstruction from members of his own party, specifically kyrsten sinema and joe manchin. he needs to be cancelling student debt. which would be a major boone for the economy. when i look at the polling and see young people are a substantial group of folks that don't approve of this president's job performance, i think we've got to make sure we've got a generational perspective in some of the behavior that we're seeing from this white house. he can cancel student debt, as he promised to do on the campaign trail, with the stroke of a pen. that's why i will continue to call on him to do precisely that. >> congressman jones, we'll have to leave it there. thank you for your time tonight. appreciate it. next, why ukraine's president and president biden maybe aren't seeing eye to eye

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we met with president zelensky as well as the foreign minister and defense minister. they understand the real threat but they also don't want to panic their population and their public. it is having an impact on their economy. you know, they're very cognizant of that. so i don't see daylight between the united states and ukraine right now. they're very serious with this and very focused and understand the threat at their border. >> that was democratic congressman barra just back from a trip to ukraine where a stand-off at the border continues. moscow is denying any plan to invade but the sight of 120,000 russian troops massing across the border might make anyone think the worst, anyone but

the ukrainian president, apparently. while not ruling out a full-blown war with russia, president zelensky doesn't want to up nerve his citizens, understandably. he's lashing out at the media at the coverage, while assuring us there is no tanks in the treat and his country is not a sinking titanic. too much coverage of a military engagement? i'm shocked. shocked i tell you. we've got our guest now, a writer for "the new yorker." masha, thanks for coming on the show tonight. you just came back from ukraine. what can you tell us about the situation on the ground there? is there too much panic or hyperbole in western media on this crisis? >> obviously i'm not in a position to count the number of troops at the border. we do have satellite images. i do think the gap between american media coverage and the ukrainian president's position and more generally the

understanding that a lot of ukrainian citizens have is that they have been living with this, the constant, truly existential threat from russia for eight years. eight years ago and a couple of weeks, it will be eight years since russia occupied crimea and then unleashed a war in the east of ukraine in which it got bogged down but basically separated two large regions of ukraine from ukrainian governance, from ukrainian law enforcement, from any kind of participation in the country. that situation has been in place for eight years, more than that. there's been a shooting war for eight years. people die practically every day in the east of ukraine. >> yes. >> and so for ukrainians to hear the war is about to start is a kind of odd -- it's an odd piece of news, because they have been living with war for better or

for worse for eight years. what they're asking quite reasonably is, look, what's changed? what makes you think that the threat is imminent? what makes americans and a lot of the west and western media think that the threat is imminent is vladimir putin's sabre rattling. so that's really the story. and the story is putin forcing the united states and nato to negotiate with him over the fate of ukraine without including ukraine. >> so on that note we've seen images out of kyiv this weekend showing volunteer army unit members training with fake wooden guns, both britain and the u.s. are reportedly preparing to send thousands of troops to the region to support nato troops, sending materiel. president biden has ruled out sending troops directly into ukraine. i wonder, masha, is that the elephant in the room when we talk about nato on high alert and 8,500 u.s. troops on stand by. but we're not going to be

engaging in military action if putin decides to invade or occupy. that is the reality, is it not? >> that is the reality. and that is the reality that ukrainians, including the ukrainian president, are hyperaware of. sending troops to the region is another way of saying we're not sending troops to ukraine. sending troops to the region to protect nato members is another way of underscoring that ukraine is not a member of nato, and cannot count on protection from the west. and so ukraine is -- i think that those pictures of civil defense training are somewhat hyperbolic in the sense that, yes, that's happening. ukraine also has a military that has been in combat for the last eight years, that is probably more battle ready than many military forces in the world because it's had practice and also because of ukraine's nato aspirations, they have been

instituting a lot of nato rules and regulations that some nato members don't institute. so they are not entirely helpless in the face of russia but of course would be overwhelmed by russian forces, especially from the air. >> so in a "new york times" op-ed this week, fiona hill says that putin senses american weakness and wants to take advantage. unlike president biden, mr. putin doesn't have to worry about midterm elections or pushback from his own party. he has no concerns about bad press or poll ratings. he isn't part of a political party and has crushed the russian opposition. is that strictly 100% true? he does care about russian public opinion, doesn't he? or at least he will if russian troops start dying in big numbers. he cares about how he looks globally to the chinese at least. >> i think it's more true than not true. i think i tend to agree with dr. hill here. i think that putin does care

about public opinion, but he cares about public opinion in the sense that he is especially concerned with how he's going to sort of raise his popularity and mobilize the population around staying in office until he dies. he's not particularly concerned about casualties. he's not particularly concerned about sanctions for a very clear reason. he entirely controls the media. so during the last active stage of the war in ukraine, which was between 2014 and 2016, russia succeeded largely in hiding its participation in the military action in ukraine from its citizens and the number of casualties. putin's control over the media has increased exponentially in the last eight years. so he's not concerned. unless things come to every household, he's able to conceal a lot of what's happening and he's able to rally the population around unfair

sanctions from the west. >> very good point. we will have to leave it there. masha gessen, thanks for taking time out. appreciate it. >> thank you for having me. coming up, a satisfying update to that traffic ticketing scandal in alabama we just covered on the show last week. but first, we have the headlines. thanks, mehdi. some stories we are watching this hour. the powerful nor'easter that hit the east coast over the weekend has left behind a deep freeze. tens of thousands of people, mostly in massachusetts, remain without power as of sunday. the storm was the worst to hit the region in four years, according to meteorologists. at least nine people were hospitalized, including at least two in critical condition at a hampton inn hotel in ohio. according to the fire chief, the area near the hotel pool contained life-threatening levels of carbon monoxide. the hotel was evacuated overnight.

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time for a quick update on a story we brought you last week. i have been absolutely utterly disgusted to read about a blatant policing for profit scheme that had been going on in a tiny town of brookside, alabama. it was all detailed in an excellent piece of reporting by john archibald to al.com. after the police chief took over the town went from one police officer to eight. the budget soared going from

$82,000 in 2019 to over $610,000 in 2020. all that for a town of just over 1,200 people. the impact of this hyperaggressive policing of all the ridiculous ticketing that funded it was being felt very acutely by the people in that town of alabama. >> behind that data are real human stories. alabama is the seventh poorest state in the country. so, so many of those people that racked up tickets can't pay them. they probably have had their licenses suspended and cars towed. the impact on low wealth people across this state is devastating. >> people all over the state and the country really were shocked at what had been going on. but some good news. on tuesday this past week, jones resigned, his resignation coming on the same day that alabama's lieutenant governor called for a state audit into the town and its police force. local officials are calling for the state attorney general to launch a separate investigation. you know what?

good journalism can make a difference, especially good local journalism. coming up, what does it mean to be a hyphenated american. especially a muslim-american? plus did you know "the mehdi hasan show" is available as a podcast? now listen to the show any time, listen for free wherever you get your podcast. listen for free wht your podcast share the love event, we are proud to have donated over two hundred and twenty five million dollars to charity. you can get a car from any company, but none will make a difference like subaru. (jeff) thank you. (bonnie) thank you. (robert) thank you. subaru. more than a car company.

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states observed the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. we also marked the 20th anniversary of the war in afghanistan. what we haven't yet really ever marked is what the last two decades did to muslim americans in this country. the fear, the suspicion, the otherizing. as the two towers fell, i was standing in my pajamas staring at the tv and i realized our lives had forever changed. there was a permanent fork in the road for my generation. for us there would always be a pre-9/11 world and a post-9/11 world. wajahat ali is the author of "go back to where you came from," a hilarious and moving story of husky pants, white supremacy and more. he joins me now. waj, congratulations on the book. sorry to interrupt you from the game. in answer to the title of your book, "go back to where you came from," you write where exactly. in america who and what are you

when you're both us and them? have you figured out an answer to that question? >> i try to give multiple answers. i'm a very generous person. fremont, california, where i was originally raised. i would love that. pre-partitioned india where our families are from. maybe i could try. and so where exactly should i go back to, even though i was born and raised in this country and simply due to my ethnicity, and last name, i'm a foreigner. and the second request i get all the time is go f a goat or a camel. and my response is why only goats and camels? why the obsession with these two animals? if anybody could answer that, i would love to know. i'm sure you and other muslims who get this hate mail would love to know answer. >> waj, one thing that's always bothered me is having to meet this bar of moderate muslim, whatever that is.

you have an entire chapter called be moderate so america will maybe love you. you even include an official scale from dr. oz to fareed zakaria to isis cheerleader. are we moderate? >> you and i are not moderates, we're terrifying. we openly say we believe in allah, we fast during ramadan. apparently we don't think the muslim brotherhood is a powerful union. we know the worn-out copy of the message that's a deep cut for muslims watching and the modern muslim is this endangered species, this unicorn that america loves. the few muslims who condemns violent acts done by violent people they have never met. they actively condemn it and they're secular. and their entire waking life is spent fighting isis, even though they're not trained in law enforcement. then and even then if you've done that and condemn fast enough and hard enough, you

might me a moderate muslim until you're not because overnight this country will turn on you and suddenly you'll become them again. >> in your book you mention the bill clinton dnc speech from 2016 when he talked about if you love america and if you want to fight terrorism, stay and fight with us, which is a very weird conditional citizenship for muslim americans. you also address liberal bigotry and liberal islamophobia. i was thinking about liberal bigotry on friday night when bill maher said this on his hbo show. >> you can twist yourself into a pretzel trying to pretend that it's islamophobia every time i call this out as barbaric. but you have to admit there's something a little off when your meat is not wrapped but your wife is. >> lots of laughter there from his audience too. how are people okay with that kind of brazen liberal racism in

american media in 2022? >> anti-muslim bigotry is the last refuge of all bigots, regardless of their stripes. it's perfectly fine. that's what bigotry does. anti-semitism, islamophobia. it essentializes us by the worst traits. and we all of us become the villains and side kicks. you and me become al qaeda, you and me have to condemn acts by people we have never met but a white man named chet eating a cheato can mosey along in his life. terrorism lumps us altogether. it flattens us completely. islamophobia is so stupid, just like anti-semitism and so vicious, that the first hate crime after 9/11 was what? a sick man because bigots aren't nuanced. bill maher compared muslims to the maher. he said muslims bring their desert stuff over here. nobody who goes on his show except ben affleck, glenn greenwald and maybe one other

person ever checked him. they just sit there and nod their head. i would love it if some of these liberals would speak up and challenge him. it would be lovely. >> you talk a lot in the book about this thing in our south asian community where we obsessively worry what will people say about us, what will they say. yet you take this head on. you devote a chapter in your book to your parents going to prison, and going to prison in a south asian muslim immigrant community comes with unbelievable stigma and shame. how hard was it for you to tell that story, to write it in the book, for you and your parents. i've known you for nearly ten years and i had no idea that your parents had been to prison. >> and i'll share that you were shocked and said they went to prison? oh, my god, no one talks about this. i've seen her and she seems happy. your mind like exploded, right? and yet two million people are incarcerated in america. millions of people have gone through the penal system.

it flattens communities, it flattens generations. no one says anything because if you're the modern minority or the immigrant, you're supposed to smile your white teeth, don't talk about mental health issues, don't talk about poverty, don't talk about illnesses or incarceration because what will people say? so you live your life as a fiction. in america you're rewarded as the good model minority. don't complain and in exchange you live with security. you just have to be invisible. and just maybe one day you can be the token who is allowed to be on the brochure. there is a pain there, a self-eraser. and i decide to tell everything. and once you tell the story, with the warts, the glory, the pain, it's the truth and it resonates with the audience and it's real. it was cathartic and freeing. i hope people who are reading, especially south asian children of immigrants, i hope to have some -- i hope they feel empowered because so far people have really embraced the book and the story and said i have

been vulnerable and honest. i don't deserve any accolades, i just tried to tell the truth. >> the book is also hilarious. you're a very funny writer but there's also a lot of pain. your parents experience to prison, your own brushes with death, and more. there's a famous line in "friends" where chandler says he uses humor as a defense mechanism. do you think you've done the same? >> not as a defense mechanism. i've used it very intentionally and deliberately to booby trap the stereo types, flatten the villains, sweeten the medicine and make people listen to some issues they otherwise would not listen to and to kind of respond to the absurdity of this human experience. many times people of color respond like daffy duck. we get frustrated and we get righteous rage. but the anvil always falls on his head. i decided to respond like bugs bunny. elmer fudd is always chasing

after bugs bunny but bugs bunny uses their traps against them. he always gets the carrot, the last laugh and the last word. i wanted the last laugh and the last word. >> one last quick question. make the case for why a white conservative american in the rural heartland should read your book. >> you should read my book because first and foremost it's entertaining. secondly, you can discover there's new moderate muslims. except that uber driver you had. third, the only way we'll make it in this country is if you and me together expand and stretch this country to accommodate all of us as co-protagonists. white supremacy is self-destructive and stupid. america will be destroyed by it. we have to confront it together. i am not your enemy. i am not trying to replace you. both of our kids have a seat at the american table. that's the only way this experiment is going to work. so read my book and maybe we can figure it out together. >> we will have to leave it there. thank you so much.

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a small town in upstate new york just on the edge of lake ontario, like countless other rural communities in this country, it's been hit particularly hard by covid-19. it so severely stressed that town's health care infrastructure that it was quite literally on the verge of collapse. they didn't have enough emts to operate the local ambulance service. that is until an unexpected group of people stepped in. >> a lot of people come up and ask you, wait, how old are you? >> you're the emt? >> when is the ambulance coming? >> so what do you say? >> you just explain to them, we are the ambulance. >> these baby-faced first

responders took over the village's emergency medical services not long after covid hit. when all the older ems volunteers couldn't or wouldn't do the job anymore. >> these young people are all that stand in the way of scores of emergency calls every month going unanswered. think about that. 16-year-olds and 17-year-olds are responding to heart attacks and car crashes and suicides. when calls come in during the school day, they are excused from class because there is simply no one else able to operate the ambulances. this is objectively horrifying. it's distopian. and yet i imagine you noticed a curious tone of the cbs report. the story is framed as less of a living nightmare and more of a charming tale of a few plucky teens overcoming hardship. there is called perseverance porn. perhaps you're familiar with this feel-good story from 2017. a texas community worked together to raise $4,000 for a

52-year-old who had been walking 15 miles to work every day. rest assured, there was no discussion of why there are no affordable public transit options in his town. one man did more than a decade of labor at boston college as a janitor so his children could go there for free. or possibly you'll recall this cnn report from 2019 after an alabama history teacher ran out of sick days, driving his infant daughter to cancer treatments 100 miles away. his colleagues donated their time off so he could continue fighting to keep her alive. a rigorous expiration of what this episode says about paid sick leave or health care in america. that was left by the wayside. to be clear, this is not just cbs, it's not just cnn or nbc.

this is a problem across the media, where our coverage of such stories fails to clearly point out that this shouldn't be happening in the richest country in the history of the world. and yet these stoies are heartwarming and the people in them deserve praise and recognition. but we should be asking why is there such a lack of public transportation or free health care in america? why does the economic model insist on ordinary people suffering through so much hardship? and where does the government, the state in all of this? did you know that a third of all campaigns on go fund me are directly related to health care expenses? we raised a health care so addicted to placing personal narrative and can do spirit over systemic problems that thousands of americans are forced to panhandle on the internet so they can pay for everything from braces to chemotherapy. the real problem with perseverance porn is not so much

the sheer horror of the whole phenomenon. it is the media framing how these systemic problems can be addressed. if your focus is on the admirable sacrifice of a few teens in upstate new york, you never have to tackle the systemic problems in our nonuniversal health care system, in our failing welfare state and the total lack of a decent social safety net. mark my words -- you'll see perseverance porn again. when you do, it shouldn't warm your heart, it should make you angry. coming up at the top of the hour, the congressman from rhode island joins us to discuss his visit to ukraine where he met with senior ukrainian officials. that's next at 9:00 eastern right here on msnbc. stay with us. nbc. stay with us start here. walgreens makes it easy to stay protected wherever you go. schedule your free covid-19 booster today. (burke) with farmers auto multi-policy discount, the more policies you

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-had enough? -no... arthritis. here. aspercreme arthritis. full prescription-strength? reduces inflammation? thank the gods. don't thank them too soon. kick pain in the aspercreme. thank you for watching. we'll be right back here next sunday at 8:00 p.m. eastern. and you can catch me on the choice on nbc streaming channel peacock. we have a big interview tomorrow. you don't want to miss it. now it is time to hand it over to my friend, ayman mohyeldin. before i go, i want you to listen to two senators, one republican, one democrat, speaking on the sunday show this morning. >> you voted to convict president trump as well. why can't you rule out supporting him in 2024? >> well, certainly it's not likely, given the many other qualified candidates that we have that have expressed interest in running.

so it's very unlikely. >> i have a good working relationship with senator grassley. we really trust one another. i like him and i hope he likes me as much. >> ayman, i feel that sums up how messed up and asymmetric our current political moment is. you have pretend moderate republican susan collins refusing to rule out for voting president trump again. and then you have the man she voted to convict of inciting an insurrection less than a year ago. then you have dick durbin telling us how keen he is for his counter part chuck grassley to like him. then we keep wondering why the dems get rolled over in the senate. >> on susan collins, former president trump put out a statement. i feel so bad for her. this morning, she said she's not ruling out voting for president trump. the statement that came out a while ago from the former president calling her whacky susan collins says everything you need to know about the republican party and what they have become.

interesting about grassley, this is the same guy that blocked merrick garland for even getting a hearing for a supreme court seat. this is a guy that has appeared in rallies next to trump, has welcomed and embraced trump's endorsement and at the same time is calling for us to move on from january 6th. i saw you earlier this week. you eloquently said it. the democratic party is not a party that is serious about saving democracy. don't you think? >> especially in the senate. look, there are many good members of congress. he wants to fight for democracy. he wants to expand the supreme court. there are a lot of activists. there is elizabeth warren in the senate. in the senate as a whole, a lot of those democrats think it is their grandfather's republican party. it is the '80s or '90s. it's bipartisan vote for john stevens. no. come on! open your eyes. not a single senator voted for a 1/6 commission. it's bizarre that people like

dick durbin thank you you can do business with them. you can't. >> and on top of that, he trusts them and he likes them. hard to imagine why. as always, my friend, good to see you. >> hard to imagine grassley saying the reverse. >> yeah, absolutely. i can't imagine it either. tonight, the art of destruction. how russia's disinformation campaign ukraine's working among the public. plus, donald trump is at it again pushing himself into the spotlight and the affirmative action is being centered around asian americans. but why? i am maybe mohyeldin, let's get started. good evening everyone. we begin tonight in russia where president vladimir putin has