biden's win. the times says that the plan revolves around alternate slates of elections in states that trump lost and that, quote, on november 18th memo and another three weeks later are among the earliest known efforts to put on paper proposals for preparing alternate electors. at the heart of the strategy was the idea that they are real deadline was not december 14th, when official electors would be chosen to reflect the outcome any state. but rather january 6th, when congress would meet to certify the results. -- led to the effort to pressure mike pence to overturn the election and ultimately fueled the riot at the capitol. two of pence's most senior aides, former chief of staff mark shorts and council greg jacob have already spoken to the select committee. and today, the national archives said that it would turn over some of pence's records by march 3rd. the

january six committee has indicated that it would like to talk to pence. earlier today, one member said that they are still debating that ask. >> we have not made that decision yet. we may or may not. i will say that the documents that we have received from various individuals have shed considerable light on what the vice president was going through. >> the committee did meet with former trump justice department official jeffrey clark. for nearly two hours today, clark reportedly tried to get the doj to pursue claims of voter fraud after the election. investigators also spoke with oath keepers founder elmer stewart rhodes today, who has pled guilty not guilty to

seditious conspiracy in connection to the capitol riot. nbc news reports that, in fact, he spent six hours talking to the january 6th committee. and roads, quote, invoke his fifth amendment rights 20 to 30 times but ended up talking extensively about the history of the oath keepers organization. investigators are also waiting to hear from ivanka trump. the committee had invited her to voluntarily appear tomorrow or thursday. this afternoon, chair benny thompson was asked about that. >> any plans for her to appear? >> we don't know. we make preparations but sometimes things slide another day or another week. [inaudible] >> as for the panels overall progress, since its creation in july, investigators have now interviewed more than 475 witnesses, received 60,000 pages of records, along with more than 700 pages from the national archives that donald trump tried to keep hidden. we are also following tonight the latest on the russian troop buildup on ukraine's border.

biden has ordered about 3000 u. s. troops to eastern europe. late today biden spoke about his decision. >> i want to be totally consistent with what i told putin in the beginning. as long as he is acting aggressively, we are going to make sure we reassure our nato allies in eastern europe that we are there and article five is a sacred obligation. >> earlier this evening, biden spoke with french president macron about the crisis. we will have more ahead. tomorrow, the president heads to new york city, where he will meet with governor kathy hochul and mayor eric adams on efforts to fight gun violence. biden's efforts come as the city still reeling from the shooting of two police officers, one of whom was buried today. as biden focuses on his domestic agenda, he is also reviving an initiative close to his heart. this afternoon, he announced he is relaunching the cancer moon shot program, started during the obama administration. the goal is to cut the death rate by at least 50% over the next

25 years. president biden, of course, lost his son beau to cancer in 2015. he spoke today of an experience all too familiar to too many. >> for too many of the patients diagnosed with cancer, instead of hope there is also bewilderment. they are frustrated that doctors and hospitals cannot easily share your medical records or help find answers when minutes count. and they are having to advocate for even the most basic care and attention for your loved ones. even when therapy is in reach, a therapy that is too expensive or that your insurance will not cover, and despite all the progress, there is still a sense of powerlessness. there is a sense of guilt that maybe you are not doing enough because you do not know enough. and there is fear. >> biden is also encouraging

americans to get screened more regularly. more than 9 million screenings have been skipped during the pandemic. with that, let's bring in our lead off guests, shannon was pettypiece, and jackie alam mainly, and neil katyal, former acting solicitor general, who has argued dozens of cases before the u.s. supreme court. good evening to all of you. so we are learning a lot more, neal, about trump and his circle, about the effort to try to keep biden from the white house. we are also learning more about how early this took place. is lewis looking to you like a broader effort than we might have thought of an initially? and what are the legal implications? >> it is and the january six committee has done an excellent job with having 475 witnesses they have talked to. the hundreds of pages that trump tried to keep written.

all of that is good and of course today, in the interview with jeffrey clark -- who is effectively constitutional nobody, this guy was someone who tried to angle, and if someone were trying to demonstrate the banality of evil here, i would say, look, a career environmental lawyer tries to orchestrate a coup, that is a pretty good place to start. -- this memo that was written on november 18th by a lawyer's chesebro gut does show some intend to try to steal the election early on. it has a bunch of bogus reasoning, like all the trump memos. so you can possibly read this and say that calhoun and chesebro our insurrectionist-esque wires. and as you were saying -- was

much bigger. but it might be the case that this guy thought that trump had legitimately one. but we do have reporting from the times and other places that trump him self was getting a bunch of memos, and ordering these executive memos to be written, that called for a season of electioneering and cuckoo stuff that is the behavior of dictators and coup plotters and the like. >> if i can interrupt you though, neal, you use the word intent. and i keep hearing from our lawyers, and i am not one, that that is going to be key around decisions on whether criminal charges will be brought in some of these cases. is there are

also an argument to be made, though, in addition to what we are understanding about the paperwork to back up some of these concerns that people had, that the things that the former president is saying tell us a lot about what they wanted to do? i don't know if that comports with intent. one >> hundred percent. so, to make a criminal prosecution out, you are going to have to show some criminal intent. it sure looks like the january 6th committee has found that on the part of donald trump. time will tell. but all the reports are indicating as much. when the president goes in, for example, and tears up these memos and tries to hide them from investigators, that itself is a separate federal fellony and so

you have that. the optics of that, and trying to figure out someone state of mind, it is not hard for prosecutors to piece together what was going on. that president trump admitting it recently, said he wanted to prevent the testimony from coming out, from the january 6th people. >> and jacqui, you have done a lot of great reporting on the tearing up of memos, as recently as a couple days ago. and you have been following the documents that the committee has been receiving. so help us understand the importance of the national archives move to say yes, in a month or soon we will send over mike pence's documents. >> if you talk to any member of the committee, they will tell you that these documents that are finally being transmitted from the archives to the committee, after winning a battle in courts, are key to connecting a lot of the dots and the evidence. and the new documents and materials that they already have. but that being mark meadows thousands of text

messages, along with other documents that they have obtained from the over 300 witnesses that have voluntarily cooperated with the committee or those who have been subpoenaed and who have decided to cooperate. but i think that getting vice president pence's contemporary or contemporaneous documents and notes and handwritten notes, potentially all related to the events of january 6th, they are going to be just as important as some of the documents that were circling in the presidents office. because we know that on that day the outside goal of those working with the president to overturn the election, was to ultimately convinced the former vice president to go along with their plan and actually make a case for a pressure campaign on

him, regarding a lot of these memos, and they were ultimately passed along to the vice president's office. and they were the ones -- or send it back to the states. >> and we got to this point, shannon, by the committee doing what they said that they were going to do, saying that they were going to be methodical in following the evidence and looking at what they got in terms of interviews and documents. but what can you tell us about timing? obviously, the committee wants to hold public hearings soon, they are working against the clock. what are the next steps we might see? >> well, when you look at those numbers you put up earlier, chris, the number of interviews and documents that they have already gotten since, i believe, july, it was really a tremendous volume of information they already have. they have 400 plus interviews that they have already conducted. again, the 6000 pages of records are there. there is an enormous amount of information they already have. there has already been a lot of focus on the vice president.

and whether he will come and testify. well, we know that they talk to mark short. we don't know exactly what he said or how much detail he went into. but marc short was the vice president's right-hand man, essentially. he was there that day. and they talked to a number of other people in the vice president's inner circle. so i think it is worth questioning, and you always want to get to the principle, and neal will probably tell you that from an investigative standpoint. but from what i could glean from knowing the various investigative players in this, they certainly have a lot of information, even if they are not going to get it directly from the vice president or directly from someone like ivanka trump. i know another person that you mentioned there, ivanka trump. but i would add one more thing to this conversation, the

element of tearing up documents. i don't know if this holds up in court, but i know from past experience that president trump was famous for tearing up everything, every piece of paper. and i remember one of my colleagues years ago did his story, how it was difficult for people in the records department to actually go around and taped together torn up documents. that was sort of part of trump's of trump's behavior, certainly. but it does not look good in this instance. and to go back to your original question on timing, if democrats do not hold on to the house or senate come next year, all of this is going to come to an end. so, there is a clock here to be met as far as the end of the year, if they want to get this done on the chance that republicans take back control of the house and if they do that, they would shut down this committee. >> so now, politico is reporting that if he pardons -- we did hear -- some folks are now calling that witness tampering. could it be witness tempering? >> absolutely, trump tried to do

the same thing with ukraine. and this is part of a team mo that he has. if you are dangling out pardons, that is the kind of stuff that the justice department prosecutes. and yes, i agree that there is a clock at the end of the year with respect to the congressional investigation. but the justice department is investing investigating criminal investigations here. [inaudible] and so on but that kind of witness tampering is the kind of stuff that, even if the control of congress changes, that is something that they can still continue to investigate. and i guess trump's defense, you just heard, it will be, hey, i rip up documents all the time. i ripped them up when i was running my company. but the difference is that there is something called the presidential records act. and that basically privileges and says that when you have

presidential records, you have to treat them in a really special way. they are so serious that i used to go in on saturdays at the justice department and print out all my emails, just to make sure that there was a record. and it is no defense whatsoever to say, hey, i rip up my documents in private practice. you are the president of the united states and you obviously know better. therefore, there is a criminal case to be made here and i expect the justice department will look into it. >> jacqui, i want to ask you a bigger picture question, it may seem more for shannon. but i want to 1600 pennsylvania avenue view on what president biden has been doing. he launched the cancer moon shot, he is going to new york city after the killing of those two police officers. he has this scale, obviously, in empathizing with voters. and it fits into the white house reset. do you have a sense, outside the white house, jacqueline, that

democrats feel that this could work? that maybe republicans are worried it could work? >> yes, chris, it's been interesting to watch this pivot. i was remarking to some democratic staffers that i was speaking with today that congress in general, since we returned, has been a pretty grim place, between lawmakers calling in sick with covid, having to quarantine. now we have senator how lujan who is recovering from a stroke and will be out of office for several weeks. this shows how slim the majority is for democrats. i think there is a sigh of relief that some of the pressure has been taken off of congressional democrats. and a lack of action on build back better, voting rights and a number of other legislative priorities for this administration between the impending scotus nomination for the supreme court, after justice breyer's retirement two

weeks ago, some pressure has been taken off of that. and now with president biden hitting the road, i think there is a sense that they are trying to inject a bit of energy, some change into what the white house is doing and take some of the tension and pressure off of the lack of action on capitol right now. >> shannon pettypiece was, jackie alemany and neal katyal, thank you. coming, up why the white house is no longer calling the ukraine border -- eminent. but i will talk to an state department official about what this means for an already tense situation. and later, why -- talking points on ukraine. i will talk to two of our political experts on the deep foreign policy divisions in the republican party. the 11th hour just getting underway on a wednesday night. erway on a wednesday night.

>> the united states will soon move additional forces to romania, poland and germany. i want to be very clear about something. these are not permanent moves. they are moves designed to respond to the current security environment. it is important that we send a strong signal to mr. putin and to the world that nato matters to the united states. >> while the united states prepares to deploy additional troops to eastern europe, the pentagon says that additional forces will not be sent to ukraine. this comes as the white house says it will stop using the

word imminent to describe russia's potential invasion of ukraine. >> i think it sends an message that we were not intending to send. which is that we knew president putin made a decision. i would say the vast majority of times we've talked about it, we said he could invade at anytime, that is true, we don't know if he's made a decision. >> former secretary of state with us at this time for the obama administration and former managing editor of time magazine. good to see you rick. politico makes the snow in its report tonight, i'm going to quote them. zelenskyy and biden reportedly disagree over the united states imminent messaging in a call last thursday, that some media accounts characterized as tense. and friday, zelenskyy publicly announced anoint over western depictions of the security

situation. arguing that they were undermining ukrainians faith in government and stoking economic panic across the nation. as you see, as you talk to folks, how is our relationship with ukraine right now and how is russia reading into this report and tensions? >> hi nice to see you. i actually went and looked up the word imminent. which means about to happen. and i think as jen psaki said, you don't want to be like the boy who cried wolf and constantly saying that putin is about to invade. so yes. i think they are listening to president zelensky of ukraine. who basically wants to tamp down any sense of panic. or imminence. so chris, i'm going to tell you a trade seeker of diplomats. they take a piece of paper and they draw a line down the middle. and on one side it says things that putin is doing to escalate the situation and on the other side it says things that putin is doing to de-escalate the situation. that left side of the paper has a lot more items on it.

putin is increasing troops in belarus. he is increasing troops in ukraine. he is increasing troops in crimea. those are all escalations. and whether we say it is imminent or not, it looks ominous. and the folks that i've spoken to in washington today, all feel like it is trending in that direction. i am an optimist, i hope it doesn't happen, but it is moving that way. >> if you turn the piece of paper and you put a line down the middle, it's about the things putin said. you also get different things. i want to play something that the former ambassador ukraine bill taylor said earlier today. about what seems to be a disconnect of putin first rejecting with the nato and usa, but also claiming that he is open to a diplomatic solution. take a listen. >> i think what mr. putin is saying to us, is that he is

ready to back down. he is ready to negotiate, rather than invade. which means, that the strong position that president zelensky has been taking. that president biden has been taking. that nato has been taking. has worked. it has deterred an invasion. it has demonstrated strong unity. >> it may be dangerous territory to predict what vladimir putin is going to do at anytime. but do you agree? >> i hope ambassador taylor's right. i certainly agree with him. that the strong stance of the biden administration, the strong stance of nato, the fact that we are consulting every step of the way, has had a deterrent effect on putin. who was thinking that when he did this, this would help our all of the nato allies. germany would go in one direction, france would go in another. but i also think that it is not terribly helpful to talk about somebody blinking. or somebody standing down.

the way we will get out of this is with some compromise on both sides. and people have to emerge from it with their dignity and their sense of power intact. we talk about people backing down, i don't think it is a helpful way to look at it. >> the biden administration officials are going to be briefing the house and senate more on these escalating tensions with russia. are you confident, do you have any sense that this congress can come together and actually play a crucial role in supporting the white house through all of this? given the very public divisions that we have seen. >> well, the democrats are pretty united. there is divisions within the republican party. traditionally, the republican party was the anti counter russian party. and there are still a lot of additional republicans like that. there are some like that were not. congress does not have a gigantic role to play here. president biden has said over and over that he is not sending

american troops to ukraine. ukraine is not a member of nato. all of those troops that we have been talking about at the top of the segment, our troops that are going to nato allies. they are going to poland, they are going to germany, they are going to romania. they are not going to ukraine. >> so they may not vote on something rick, but does it send a message of their divisions? is it important for the u.s. congress, if we are talking about anything like this happening? to present a united front. >> of course it is great. and once upon a time, people were united at the water's edge. i want to say something to our viewers. sometimes people think authoritarian nations like russia and china seem powerful, because they speak with one voice. while they do speak with one voice, because they are authoritarian powers. everybody in that country is afraid to disagree with vladimir putin, or president xi. we speak with many voices. that is the power of democracy. it is not a form of weakness,

it is a form of strength. and just because we don't always speak with one voice, does not mean that we are not determined to do the right thing. and i think we are. >> rick stengel, always enlightening us and revealing secrets tonight as well. we appreciate it rick. and coming up, why the white house is slamming the republican senator for not being aligned with long-standing american values on ukraine. when the 11th hour continues. the 11th hour continues ♪♪ hey, do you know if i work sunday? sure do! clover does that. who are you? he's from clover. clover does that so i can do this.

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ukraine is laying bare some divisions within the republican party. gop senator josh hawley has now come out against

ukraine's eventual admittance to nato. axios was the first to break the news, saying, hawley is taking out of position increasingly supported by the republican base but historically at odds with the mainstream gop consensus still backed by his senate colleagues. tonight, holley doubled down on fox news. >> listen, if we expand nato it means that the united states will be providing additional security guarantees, that we will be more embroiled in european conflicts. this is not the time for that. we cannot do everything. >> here is what the white house is jen psaki had to say earlier today about hawley's stance. >> do you think it is helpful right now, in the showdown between ukraine and russia [inaudible] -- >> if you are just parroting russian talking points and parroting misinformation, you are not in line with long-standing bipartisan american values. >>

joining us, eugene robinson and bill kristol, editor at large of the bulwark. good to see you, gentlemen. i want to read you this tweet from republican congressman adam kinzinger earlier today. quote, i hate to be so personal, but hawley is one of the worst human beings and a self aggrandizement con artist. when trump goes down, i certainly hope that this evil will be late in the open for all to see and be ashamed of. speaking bigger picture, what does it say about trump's republican party when so many are willingly following him to this place where they undermine everything nato stands for. there is this little thing called article five. >> yes, there is. and i wonder if this is all down to trump or whether this sort of sentiment was building in the republican party and he tapped into it.

but it is there. and it is something that i never thought i would hear in my lifetime. i never thought i would be hearing in my lifetime, a senator from the republican party, which has always been very tough and strong and in favor of nato and against russian or soviet aggression. i never thought i would hear a gop senator saying, yeah, basically, give putin what he wants. if he scarfs up ukraine, what is it to us? it is just extraordinary. but it is something that we have to deal with. a lot of the base does seem to agree with senator hawley hawley and it is astounding to me. i have read his letter to blink in and found the juvenile

sophistication of his analysis. but you're there you have it and it is something to be dealt with. >> so, they'll one kristol, senator mike braun joined in and said, let countries defend themselves. last time i checked, countries like romania were part of nato. what is behind this gop shift to -- >> well, romania is not part of nato, maybe we should have let it in. but we started the weekly standard in november september 1995. we urge clinton's invasion of bosnia in 1995 and actually attacked politicians like phil graham. and signed a letter to -- [inaudible] bosnian muslims. so

i think it is not as unusual as maybe we have been saying. russia makes it a little different. but of course, we just had a republican president who is basically pro putin in many ways, for four years. and the one thing i would say is this. first of all, trump has not really weighed in in a big way on this in the last few days or weeks or months, i don't think. but what he says will be important and that will probably -- some republicans. some of them who are against supporting the president, president biden. but the main thing to be said is that everything changes if putin invades, whether it is a big one or small one. the moment troops cross the border, you are in a different world than. and things can change very quickly in terms of the politics here. it looks very different if we have russian planes bombing ukrainian sites

and having refugees come across the border. i don't know if it makes people less hawkish or more hawkish. you can have people go both ways. but it is an unusual situation. i think it's a very fluid situation. and i do not have great confidence in this republican party, i wish i had more. but on the other, hand a fair number of them have been saying fairly supportive things of ukraine and biden and nato. >> there is, though, this disconnect, eugene, between the gop foreign policy establishment and is pro-donald trump base and the value of intervening in what that base sees as foreign quagmires. what of this disconnects impact on how we are viewed abroad? >> well, i think it obviously has an impact. rick stengel said one of our strengths is that we don't speak with one voice. we have debate and then we decide. i think that the policy that

the biden administration has followed has been pretty effective so far. they have kept nato together and unless you are ready to just decide that nato isn't that important anymore and i cannot go there. i think most americans cannot go there. i think you can support with the administration has done and i hope it continues to have success in deterring an invasion. >> eugene and bill are staying with us. coming up, no name needed. joe biden's supreme court pick has already become a political lightning rod. when the 11th hour continues.

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who has been all too eager to offer advice, regarding the president's supreme court nominee. is south carolina senator and longtime biden senate colleague, lindsey graham. from politico, graham is stumping hard for u.s. district court michelle childs. arguing her public state school education pairs well with biden's pledge to nominate a black woman. still with us, eugene robinson and bill kristoll. so, eugene, graham tweeted a photo this afternoon with fellow south carolina's jim scott, james clyburn, and he captioned it, very proud of who we are in south carolina. is that a message to biden, that his support is contingent on his nominee being judge childs in south carolina? is he sending a message to his constituents, what is going on? >> i think a little bit of everything. i think one of the messages he is sending is, you owe a whole lot to jim clyburn, president biden. and here you have two republican senators, and probably two republican votes

for michelle childs. if she is your nominee. judge in south carolina. so the native daughter argument is being made in a very strong way. that said, the president does not need republican votes to confirm his nominee. and i suspect we will certainly look at judge childs. but he will also look at judge brown jackson. and others who are named as candidates. and who are seeming to be very good candidates as well. as michelle childs is a good candidate. so whether it is contingent or not, i think he is more hinting that, than saying that.

>> there are several republicans though bill, who have voiced objections to biden 's commitment to nominate a black woman. ted cruz called it offensive and insulting. one of those network contributors, our friend michael steele, had a pretty powerful response to those objections today, take a listen. >> you've got in front of you, a group of women, who have survived a whole lot of crap to get to that point. try being a black woman in law school. a black woman working her way through a law firm, to become a partner, let alone and associate. go through the process, and understand what these women have achieved. and can we for once, step back and go, dang, amazing, wonderful. let us talk about them. who do we put on the core? and so help move the country off of stupid. the president, play your card. have your interviews. put forward the best qualified black woman on the list that you have. and let those guys choke on it. >> bill, what do republicans hope to gain with that kind of opposition, lindsey graham

notwithstanding. is fighting the nominee, counterproductive? >> i think it is, or it could be made so, if the biden white house exacerbates. which they should do. they should not be too nice about this. they are going to have very well qualified. >> mitch mcconnell sure wasn't. >> mitch mcconnell does not want a fight on this. he's looking at senate races in states where it is bad for republicans to look to right wing. at least the general election. to look racially insensitive and so forth. these are well qualified candidates. it certainly looks like they will do well in the hearings. >> mitch mcconnell will go quickly quietly. no big deal, let the others vote against. he does not want a bunch of republican senators from deep red states on this denigrating the fact that this will be the first black woman. but denigrating that their

achievements. -- very similar. >> they already have. president jon kennedy, you heard what he had to say. worried about having a woke candidate. worried about a black female pick who won't know a logbook from a j. crew catalog. -- >> biden can make republicans cater to the base. cater to trump. cater to primary voters. others do not want to. if you are no effective politician and your party is being split in that way, frankly he should make life tough for them. i think jen psaki, forget about foreign policy. tack them on this. attack them on the comments there making of these well qualified candidates. >> i mean, it is about politics, it's always about politics, it's gonna look how history is that this time. >> eugene robinson, bill crystal, thank you. his lawyer calls him the rosa

parks of the nfl. the coach accusing pro football of systemic racism is now taking action. that story when the 11th hour continues. adjusts to keep you both effortlessly comfortable. so, you can really promise better sleep? yes! you'll know exactly how well you slept, night after night. we take care of the science. all you have to do is sleep. and now, during the ultimate sleep number event, save 50% on the sleep number 360 limited edition smart bed. plus, 0% interest for 24 months on all smart beds. only for a limited time new vicks convenience pack. dayquil severe for you... and daily vicks super c for me. vicks super c is a daily supplement with vitamin c and b vitamins to help energize and replenish. dayquil severe is a max strength daytime, coughing, power through your day, medicine. new from vicks. we are following developments

from a lawsuit filed by the former head coach of the miami dolphins against the nfl in several teams. brian flores is alleging widespread discrimination in the nfl's hiring practices. gabe gutierrez, nbc correspondent, sat down with the former coach. >> is the nfl racist? >> i think the numbers speak for themselves. there is one black head coach. >> until weeks ago, that brian flores was the dolphins second. but flores and his attorneys have now filed a class action lawsuit against the nfl and several teams, alleging discrimination against black coaches. >> there needs to be change. >> flores says the giants only interviewed him to comply with the rooney rule, an nfl requirement that minority candidates be

considered for head coaching jobs. >> -- >> the suit says that the giants already decided on a higher, a higher with no coaching experience. -- bill belichick mistakenly, days before floors interviewed, congratulating him on getting the giant job. flores then asked him, coach, are you talking to brian flores or brian daboll? just making sure. >> he replied with an expletive saying, sorry, i bleeped this up. >> what did you see think when you saw those message? >> i was humiliated. >> the giants are defending their actions, saying flores was in consideration to be head coach until the 11th hour. ultimately, we hired the person we thought most qualified. the owner also offered, allegedly, to pay him $100,000 to lose each game. >> it is -- >> the dolphins say that -- flores now notes he is

risking his career. >> we can make changes to this system and get more opportunities to black and minority coaches, real opportunities, i think it will be worth it. >> the nfl says flores's claims are without merit. bill belichick has not returned our calls for comment. >> dave gutierrez, thanks for that report tonight. and coming up, what we heard from the governor of texas at the beginning of the winter power grid and what we are hearing now as a major winter storm bears down on his state. when "the 11th hour" continues. "the 11th hour" continues.

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i can tell you why, for one, i signed almost a dozen laws. that make the power grid more affective. i can guarantee the device will stay on. we have a very substantial winter storm. coming over the next few days, it will be in the state of texas, for the remainder of the week. nobody can guarantee that there will not be a quote, event. >> the last thing about to go tonight. texas is about to face the major test of its parker, since last year's major storm. and i storm already beginning

to impact parts of texas tonight. and continuing into tomorrow. in fact, much of the state is under a winter storm order, or a storm warning, right now. up to half an inch of ice is expected. and that is fueling fairs of a last year's disaster. when the states power grid went down. and 11 million people lost power. some texans were left without heat or water for weeks. and at least 246 people died. as you just saw, a few months back, texas governor greg abbott did guaranteed the power grid would be able to handle winter conditions this year. before rescinding that guarantee just yesterday. of the folks at the lincoln project noticed as well. and tonight, is that with this warning, that governor abbott promised to keep the heat down for the people of texas, just might not be his top priority. >> a governor's first duty is to protect citizens. greg abbott has failed.

last year, the texas power grid crashed and texans died in the cold dark. greg abbott promised that he would do better. promise that he would do it it took to get texans ready for winter storm. >> i can guarantee the lights will stay on. >> he promised he would do his job. what did abbott do, did he ask him to heart in the target? how about add additional capacity. no. what did he do? would he always does. he asked them to write big campaign checks. the big power and energy companies have giving greg abbott millions in campaign cash. meanwhile, they were handed billions, without truly investing in our power grid. greg abbott has been running for office for three decades. he is not going to change. to protect texas, we need to change governors. >> the lincoln project is responsible for the content of this advertisement. >> we here at the 11th hour are sending warm thoughts to the people of texas. and to everyone else in the

path of this latest winter storm. that is our broadcast for this wednesday night, with our thanks for being with us. on behalf of all my colleagues at the networks of nbc news, goodnight. tonight on "all in" -- >> this is bigger than football. this is about equal opportunity for qualified black candidates, not just in football but everywhere. >> he is a fired head coach who just filed an explosive new lawsuit against multiple teams and the nfl. tonight, coach brian flores on his bombshell allegations of racial discrimination and more. then, the "new york times" uncovered new memos that lay out the origins of the fake trump electoral plot. plus

there is new reporting on donald trump's plans to pardon january 6th insurrectionists. and we will speak to congressman pete aguilar on what he says is former president's witness tampering. and we examine the awful truth on america's response to the pandemic, when "all in" starts right now. good evening from new york, i'm chris hayes, we are here on february 2nd in the midst of two extremely important seasons in american life. they always ride together. black history month in february and of course super bowl season. those two things, race and football, are related in a whole lot of important ways in this country. we have seen it for more than 100 years since the founding of the american professional football association, precursor to the national football league. the association was founded in 1920. but it did not integrate until 1946, when it had its first black player, kenny washington, who signed with the l. a. rams. in recent years, of course, at a time when american audiences are