america is very dry tinder, like a single spark can set it off. you know, canada is really like, it doesn't have these problems as the united states. >> steven marsh, the book is called max civil war, thanks so much. that is all in on this thursday night. >> -- you decide to talk about canada. >> when a great country! can i say how much i love canada. i love canada. i love canadians. i love many things about the society. the country. >> of course, you and i have talked about the health care that is there. with much to discuss. let's take a field trip home. th much to have a good night. >> thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. and just a few minutes, we'll have the latest for you at the stunning report the boxes

records that donald trump took to his golf club may have contained classified top secret material. plus, we will bring you an exclusive interview with biden. his first tv interview in months. there's a lot to go into tonight. that's just on brighton. i want to start tonight with gelatin. gelatin. gelatin is the jiggly wiggly stuff that makes your jell-o and your gummy copy, it goes in a whole other foods and pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics. it's in a lot of stuff, it's big baseness. most of it is made from animal products. so about five years ago, a guy from wisconsin went to mississippi with a plan, to make gelatin out of catfish waste. all the stuff that is left over from catfish processing. the stuff that would be typically thrown away. this guy and his business partner brought in all these potential investors and told them this business plan was a sure bet. there was nothing they didn't know about making gelatin out

of catfish waste. the gelatin was perfected and ready to be sold. they already had a 3 million dollar contract set up with a buyer for it. it sounded great, investors handed over hundreds of thousands of dollars for the project. the state of mississippi also gave them hundreds of thousands in dollars in grants. they will get a loan from the bank. and for a while, it seemed -- things seem to be going well. as far as the investors knew. the guy running the gelatin from catfish waste company was sending them emails, letters, telling them how well things were going. telling them the company was, quote, producing product, shipping, and invoicing customers. we have contracted orders from two large customers, totaling 3000 metric tons per year. we've completely sold out of gelatin at a good price. and quote. the u.s. navy is interested in our catfish waste gelatin

process. by the way, we just signed a contract for over 1 million dollars with a new process sir plus we are going to get 50% of the profits from that second processing plant. but we're just a little short on the quick cash to get a hold of that. so if you all could chip in $25,000 more apiece, or more, if you're feeling generous, that would be great. and so the investors kicked in. they gave more cash. but guess what? and i bet you can probably guess where this is going. yeah, there was no new processor or second plant. there were no million dollar contract. in fact, there was barely even any gelatin. there was a whole lot of catfish waste. from court documents, they were, quote, never able to manufacture a syllable product, often pouring the results of third attempts in a ditch behind the plant. in fact, they were only able to make viable batches of the product a couple of times. as a result, the company had no

customers and never made any sales. and quote. an investor testified said that he has the guy running the company why he didn't tell investors the truth in the letters he was sending out to which the guy replied, quote, they can't handle the truth. i thought these were court documents because ultimately federal prosecutors brought up multiple felony charges to this guy and his can finish to gelatin scheme that's -- he also -- always maintained his innocence but he was convicted on man fraud and bank fraud charges. was ordered to pay $2 million and sentenced to 17 months in prison. he was released in 2014. but recently, he has been peddling a new project. this was the headline in the milwaukee journal sentinel last summer. a wisconsin man is scanning ballots and suing a county clerk as he launches his own election review.

the story that follows is as nutty as the headline sounds. to be clear, there is also an investigation launched by wisconsin republicans into the 2020 election run by a guy who says the election was stolen and whose hired trump administration officials as his investigators. that investigation is ongoing weighing to hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer dollars. but this is not bad. this was just a random guy tooling around making copies of ballots because he decided he wanted to run his own private freelance election investigation. and once the local press caught on to what he was doing, it didn't take long for them to realize that the guy wandering the state caught the ballots for his own freelance investigation was in fact our friend who went to prison for his catfish waste into gelatin scam. and look, this guy has served his time. he's paid his debt to society, even if, as of 2020, he hadn't

paid much of the nearly $2 million that he also owes and restitution. and i suppose he wants to travel the state of wisconsin making copies of ballots, it's a free country. and apparently, that's a thing you are free to do in wisconsin, help yourself. but by this december, things have kind of escalated. and a december lawsuit, he accused the director of elections in milwaukee of being part of a, quote, sect that planned, conspired, and implemented a massive election fraud by using fake names and fake addresses to cast ballots. he claimed that this sects allowed someone to print ballots for biden in a back conference room. his filing included a hand drawn floor plan of an election office with a spot labeled, hidden room. someone was sleeping? snoring? and now, this guy, the catfish waste into gelatin scan made

copies of all the ballots, there is a secret sect in the hidden room printing balance for biden guy, that guy, he was invited by republicans to give a presentation to the states assembly elections committee. >> someone is using -- we don't know who. someone is using our systems, our databases, to cast illegal ballots. we found tens of thousands. we don't know who's doing it. it's probably not the person who's the name. it's probably some bad guy. something's wrong. someone's in there. somebody is doing something wrong, casting illegal ballots. someone's in there. they are adding names, they're adding fake voters. they're casting illegal ballots by the tens of thousands. i appreciate your time. and thank you for having me here today. >> they are having big voters, they're casting the ballots by the tens of thousands.

we don't know who's doing it, but it's bad guys. bad guys are doing it. and he should know, he's got thousands of volunteers on her super computer working on this stuff. this is what republicans on the elections committee are doing in the state of wisconsin right now. i will say, there are a couple of democrats on that committee, they tried valiantly to pin this guy down on something. he's kind of like gelatin. tough going. >> you did say that there were people who were -- who told you or your group that they showed up to vote at the polls and were told that someone had already voted in their name. do you have, either for us or for law enforcement, affidavits from those people detailing those issues? >> when we do is we encourage those people, many of whom are afraid to come forward, but we found hundreds and hundreds of them. >> none of them would sign an affidavit? >> i would say none, but i would say, i would say if we

had 500 -- >> you could say five? >> i don't have them. >> the poorest state assemblyman. do you have any evidence? maybe five people? maybe one person? >> no, sorry, you're gonna have to take my word for it. we also reached out to this gentleman this evening to ask if he could provide us for with some evidence, he did resupply to respond for comment. in plenty of other states to be continually investigated the 2020 election to be entertaining any and all theories no matter how loopy about mysterious possible irregularities and fraud is not actually a pointless exercise. it has a practical purpose for republicans in the states. and that is to create this turning backdrop of fear and suspicion around voting and elections to justify making it harder to vote, and to provide the justification for republicans taking over the administration of the elections.

the brennan center reports this week, quote, 20 -- legislators in 27 states have introduced, profiled, or carried over 250 bills with restrictive provisions. that's a tripling of proposals to restrict the vote. the bills would reduce access to mail ballots, limit, or eliminates same day voter registration, require proof of citizenship to vote or register, or make it harder for people with disabilities to vote. and there are bills pending in 13 states on election administration. quote, someone would give the state legislature the ultimate power to reject election results. others threaten election officials with civil or criminal penalties or placed partisan actors in charge of vote counting, and quote. and of course, plenty of states have already made changes. in texas, they are new sweeping voting restriction law is wrecking havoc of head of the primaries this month with absentee ballot applications

because the new requirements are so unclear and official elections are -- promoting voting by mail is now a criminal offense in the state of texas. back in wisconsin, there are elections next week. and they look likely to be the last ones where voters are allowed to use ballot drop boxes. the milwaukee elections director says over half the people who vote by mail intercity use those drop boxes. so you better get rid of them. you don't want to many people to vote, especially a big blue city like milwaukee. of course, congress could intervene to stop the tsunami of voting restrictions across the country, but be thanks to unified republican opposition and lack of support from two democratic senators, joe manchin on the left, kristen sinema on the right, the bills died last month. so now a group of lawmakers is turning to the justice department. democratic representatives ira

pressley, mondaire jones, and jim clyde burn have written their letter signed by more than 40 other members of the congressional black caucus to attorney general merrick garland. the letter does that mince words. quote, congress looks to you, the attorney general of the united states, to enforce the constitution and our voting rights laws with unmitigated vigor and tenacity we writer urge you to leverage the full might of the department of justice to defend the sacred right to vote for all americans. any state that in max alonna infringing on the fight to wrote should be met with a lawsuit in defense of the american people. if states face no consequences for their actions, they will be emboldened to pursue even more draconian voter suppression tactics reminiscent of a jim crow era discrimination. our message is simple, be creative. the relentless. be unapologetic in your

commitment to do whatever it takes to ensure that every american has their vote counted no matter how they look or where they live. we end quote. powerful letter. joining us now is one of the authors of that letter, the congressman mondaire jones, he's a member of the house judiciary committee. thank you for congress joining us out tonight. i appreciate your time. this is heavy, this is big stuff. you are writing to the attorney general of the united states to basically say, we are running out of options, we are running out of time. democracy is being undermined, you might be the last hope. >> always good to be with you. this is of existential importance. the question before us is whether we will continue to have a democracy moving forward. you already noted that because of the unanimous obstruction of my republican colleagues over at the senate, and, of course, the obstruction of justice two

democratic senators, we were unable to pass the freedom to vote john r. lewis act which would've solved so many of the problems we are now seeing, including putting an end to some much of the voter suppression that has been enacted. last year in at least 19 states. and of course, over 400 voter suppression bills were introduced last year in state houses across the country. >> congressman, you, know we started with this story about the catfish guy. it's a ridiculous story. but that sort of the point of the story. it's ridiculous, but there are people entertaining these ridiculous ideas of voter fraud because they don't exist. and yet, it is working, it is making some people say, well we have to make sure that voting is safe in this country, we have to take away any possibility that it wouldn't be safe, and to the extent that people don't understand that these restrictions are eroding democracy, what argument do we make to right minded people to say, stop listening to the bs?

i think you've got to present the facts which are that there is no evidence of mass voter fraud in this country. as you know, ali, it's being fabricated to justify the racist voter suppression that we are seeing. and, of course we are seeing the effects of that in counties across the country. especially and particularly where there are large communities of color. and of course, in georgia. you have counties whose mail-in ballot applications are being rejected. sometimes the rate is as high as 50%. and that is intentional. that is deliberately aimed at disenfranchising people of color who, unfortunately, the republican party of today blames for the election of this

president and of the two democratic senators, for example, from the state of georgia. so you have to push back on the narrative of mass voter fraud whenever you're given the opportunity. otherwise, folks who hear something from tucker carlson or someone of like mind on similar networks is going to believe what they hear. >> you know, the brandon sanders says as of january 14th, 27 states, as we, said to have carried out some sort of tension in 50 bills, prefile, dave introduced, whatever the cases, at least 18 bills in five states would add new identification requirements for absentee ballot applications. social security number, drivers license, number voter record number, whatever that happens to be. at least six bills in five bid states would prohibit officials from sending out mail ballots or ballot applications. 13 bills and three states would curtail who can request an absentee ballot. all of this stuff, it would be

interesting if one of these bills were actually done in reaction to something that was proved to be a problem. but we've had numerous court cases, dozens, probably 100 cases or more now, where we prove that hasn't been the case. the allegations have never overcome the hurdle of convincing a judge or jury that they were valid. this is what you're up against, and i guess this is the point where you're going to the attorney general because you can't win this in court anymore. with every one of this has been one and it still doesn't convince people. >> look, you know, to be sure, this far white majority that we have on the supreme court of the united states which is hostile to democracy itself has been busy over the last decades gutting key provisions of the voting rights act. which created, which led to multi racial democracy in this country. but they are still successful cases being litigated on the voting rights act.

decreasing lay because of the weakening of that key statute from 1965. it's why you have seen a lot of states referred to their own constitutions where the federal law has in doubt now. recently, as in just a few days ago, there was a case rising out of alabama which has over a quarter of its population african american. and of the numerous congressional districts, there's only one congressional district which was majority black, and that was deliberately meant to reduce the electoral power of the black comedian immunity in that state, and even justice roberts, who is the author of that 2013 shelby decision which shot down the heart of the voting rights act. even he's at the dissent, he's lost control of the right-wing majority of the supreme court. that's why folks like myself have called for other courses of action, including adding seats to the supreme court to save our alien democracy. >> i'm glad you brought up

alabama. 27.8% of the population of alabama is black. 14% of the districts, congressional districts, have a majority of black population. that should tell you everything you need to know. congressman, good to see you again, thanks for joining us tonight. just ahead, we have new reporting on the documents of donald trump took home from the white house, it turns out that some of them were top secret. that is next. were top secret were top secret that voltaren, the joy of movement. ♪ ♪ ♪ hey google. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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president was weeks away from being impeached for the first time it was a stressful, chaotic time for the white house. and, yet president trump's mind was elsewhere. >> we have a situation where we're looking very strongly at sinks and showers. and other elements of bathrooms. people are flushing toilets ten times, 15 times, as opposed to

once. so epa is looking at the very strongly at my suggestion. >> now, in this job that i am privileged to have, i have traveled all over this country, literally. i have interviewed hundreds and hundreds of people about the problems they have in their everyday lives. and not once has anyone told me they wish the president of the united states would increase the internal velocity of their toilets or the water coming out of their sinks. but for a while, it was something donald trump was kind of obsessed with. >> i said, sinks, showers, and toilets. it's the shower, it's a sink. i will talk about the fact that people have to flush their toilets 15 times. dishwashers, sinks, toilets. sinks, toilets! and showers! we won't talk about toilets. toilets, toilets. sinks, right, showers, and what

goes with this sink in a shower? >> truly, the honest call and call and response of all-time. making the audience scream, toilets! back at you. i don't care why trump was obsessed with toilets. to be perfectly honest, i don't want to know why or where they got involved in discussions about toilets having to be flush ten or 15 times. unfortunately though, the ex presidents odd predilection for toilets is in the news today. and as a serious journalist, it's my duty to tell you. according to new york times haberman, when donald trump was president, his staff used to periodically find wads of printed paper clogging the toilet and believed that president trump was purposely trying to flush pieces of paper down the toilet. the former president immediately pooh-poohed these ideas saying, he never put

presidential records in their toilet, which is definitely a thing i cannot believe i just did on tv. but jennifer jacobs come from the reporting with her own sources to. she said that trump staffers were trying to fish clumped, torn, and shredded papers out of the white house toilet. who knows, maybe that's why the president was so obsessed with the firepower of the toilets in this country. but this reporting makes clear is that donald trump has certainly deployed a diverse range of tactics to destroy presidential records. we've been reporting all week about how he ripped up records during his time in office, despite being required by law to preserve all documents that he would come across his desk. staffers had to try to jigsaw them back together, taping them back together. other documents were just destroyed entirely. put into burn bags, i didn't even know would bring back swear. they were put into burn bags

for staffers to just decide what to keep, but to shred, but to burn. one of the presidents former aides told me on my show on sunday that she once even saw donald trump chewing up the remains of a document he had shredded in the oval office, he literally put the paper in his mouth to destroy it. a germaphobe, by the, way didn't put much in his mouth. just today, the new york times reported that the january 6th investigation in congress has found gaps in the official white house so phone logs on the day of the capitol attack. this week, the washington post has reported that he also improperly took 15 boxes of it cereals to mar-a-lago which had to be retrieved by the national archives. and tonight, the washington post is out with a new scoop about what exactly was in those 15 boxes. here's the lead, quote, some of the white house documents that donald trump improperly took to his mar-a-lago residence were clearly marked as classified,

including documents at the top secret level, according to two people familiar with the matter, while it was unclear how many classified documents were among those received by the national archives and records as administration, some bore markings of the information was extremely sensitive and would be limited to a small group of officials with authority to view such highly classified information. the handling of sensitive classified information is a highly regulated thing. mishandling that kind of material is accounts the law. which leads me to the other piece of explosive reporting in the post tonight. but the national archives is now asked the justice department to look into the matter. to see if anyone should be potentially prosecuted for stowing top secret documents at the former presidents beach resort. i am now officially out of my depth. so joining me is dan goldman he's the former assistant to the attorney of the southern

district of new york. he served as -- well first impeachment trial. daniel, i'm okay with the plunger on the toilet side of this occasion. i don't understand the rest of it. i don't understand the removal of documents, i don't understand what governs the removal or control of top secret documents and what this is all about. so please help us out here. >> certainly, ali. from my experience on the house intelligence committee where everyone needed to have topsecret clearance, there are very, very carefully choreographed methods to protect classified information. classified information, potentially top security information, doesn't need a secure area. if it does, you put it in a bag with a lock on it. they are really detailed and careful procedures to make sure that no classified material is ever left out to the public for

anyone with shouts top secret or secret whatever classification clearance that is necessary. and it doesn't really matter on one level as to who was ultimately responsible for bringing those boxes down to mar-a-lago, because almost certainly, whatever was in those boxes should not have been classified information. now, the president himself does have the right and the authority to declassify documents, but he's doesn't just wave a wand in the air and say, oh, that is what i am going to do. this document is declassified, that document is declassified. all of these documents have very clear markings on them. he'll say, secret, top secret, a variety of other markings. and one of those markings will be declassified. or it would crossover. the classification markings

from earlier if it were from declassified. so there's a process. and the fact of there being top secret documents in random boxes in mar-a-lago is in and of itself mishandling of the classified information. when we don't know is who did that, who is responsible for it. presumably donald trump is not packing his own boxes, but was he aware of what was in them, who else was aware, who oversaw this, and that's where the department of justice and the fbi need to get involved. because, even if there is no criminal investigation or criminal prosecution that arises from this, it's a national security issue and the fbi's counter intelligence division needs to figure out what happen. >> so, we're definitely out of, we are in unfamiliar ground, and after last several years, i would think there will be unfamiliar ground. this is actually new. so our viewers are sitting around thinking, what's supposed to be happening here?

someone supposed to be held criminally liable? where are the national security implications, because obviously, the documents are classified for a reason? does this fall under the purview of the january 6th investigation, or is this an fbi justice department matter, because it does seem to the justice department's initial reaction to the national archives was inspector general, or whoever, take a look at this and we'll keep talking. the first reaction wasn't, this is terribly serious. >> no, in the report. it also says that even when they uncovered the top secret information, and we laid that to the fbi, the fbi was still figuring out what they should do with it, but i do think it's important to put this in perspective, okay? the classification issues, the related to the stuff that was in the documents, the presidential records act violation is not something that really falls within the purview of the january six committee. the house oversight committee,

under chairman carolyn maloney, is announced investigation into that issue. that is separate from the january six investigation. what i think is important and that overlap a lot with this presidential records act, and the january six committee investigation is two things. one is the fact that there are very few call logs from the day of january six is an issue. what's happened was donald trump intentionally concealing conversations that he was having with people through his aids personal cell phones that were not protected, and we're not supposed to be used. where was he when he was making, having these conversations? because we know that he also was sneaking people in the side door for meetings prior to january six. and then the other thing that i think is very important here, and it's a continuation of a pattern that we've seen from donald trump, is the

destruction of these documents, whether he ripped them up, tore them up, ate them, flushed them down the toilet, or whatever it is, he is destroying presidential record. that's a violation of the presidential records act. but this is also someone who obstructed the mueller investigation, who obstructed the first impeachment investigation that i worked on, and has a history of obstructing investigations, of trying to hide what we can only assume now is misconduct, because of the pattern of fatness of doing that. and so, the question then becomes, what is he ripping up? what is he tearing? what is he trying to hide? and presumably, that falls under the january six investigation. >> and so concludes the discussion i never thought i would never have on tv. dan goldman, appreciate you joining me. once that starts with blocking toilets with ripped up documents is just something that i never thought i do. daniel goldman is a former

united states attorney for the southern district -- >> who thing after him? >> it's all things weird. daniel, good to see you my friend. much more ahead, senator amy klobuchar is here, and we're gonna have lester holt's exclusive interview with president biden, right after this. ter holt's ter holt's exclusive interview ♪ so different and so new ♪ ♪ was like any other... ♪ president biden, right after this

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president biden to pick a nominee to replace justice stephen breyer on the supreme court. two weeks ago today, president biden gave himself a self imposed deadline, saying he'd pick a nominee by the end of february. february is the shortest month of the year, so the deadline is now only 18 days away. other than that deadline, the only thing we have known for sure about biden's pick is that he plans to nominate a black woman. the first ever on the court. beyond that, we've been in the dark, trying our best to read the tea leaves about who he might pick. until today, when nbc's own lester holt sat down with the president, and got a little more about where his process is. >> can i ask you where you

stand right now in your nomination process for the supreme court? what's your short list looks like? or if you want to name a nominee right here, would be happy to hear you? >> first of all, the short list our nominees who are incredibly well qualified undocumented. they were the honor students, they come from the best universities. they have experience, some on the bench, some on the practice law. >> what's the number, four, five, six? >> what i've done is i've taken about four people and on the deep dive and meaning i'm a thorough back checks, and see if there's anything in that back down background that would make them not qualified. is >> it important that you believe they're gonna vote on the republican side? >> well, i think, however i think gets a vote on the republicans for the following reason, i'm not looking to make any choice. i'm looking for someone to replace judge breyer. with the same kind of capacity

judge breyer had, with an open mind, who understands in the constitution and interprets it in the way that comes consistent with the mainstream interpretation of the constitution. >> and it is a lot going on in the news right now, but this particular decision, who biden chooses to nominate for a lifetime appointment on the supreme court, could be one of the most significant decisions that he makes in his entire time and office. and he is never that decision down to four potential choices. today, president biden met with democrats from the senate judiciary committee in a closed-door meeting at the white house, to discuss the next steps. back when he was in the senate, president biden spent some time as the chair of the judiciary committee, including involved in nominations to the supreme court. so this is a process with which he is intimately familiar. i'm very bad at waiting. i work in the news. i won all of this. yesterday, i wish there were a fly on the wall of that closed-door meeting at the white house. but luckily, we have the next best thing. joining us now is senator amy klobuchar of minnesota, a

member of the senate judiciary committee, who was in the room where it happened with president biden today. senator klobuchar, good to see you again. thanks so much for being with us tonight. >> thanks, ali. i'm still trying to process using on the next best thing to the fly on the wall -- >> you know, that may not have been the best way to put it. but you love you know i love talking to you. talk to meet with president biden was telling lester holt. they're doing a deep dive into it for a potential nominees. what's your understanding now, is there sort of us shortlist? >> he didn't go through names, and he made very clear that he wasn't gonna do that. and by the way, the meeting lasted for over an hour. he was incredibly generous with his time, and really, understands historic nature of this. you know, the fact that we got 114 justices, and 108 of them, ali, have been white men. and i have been surprised that some of the pushback from some of my republican colleagues, not all of them, but some of

them, given that they were overjoyed when ronald reagan said he'd appoint a woman, donald trump appointed a woman. and now, joe biden is taking this step to see he would put an african american woman on the court. so in the meeting, we talked about that historic significance, about the fact that this person would be attacked. we talked about the fact that we'd already gotten 46 federal judges on the court, and all-time record really since ronald reagan was president. and that we also do not rule out, as he told lester holt and that important interview, the tweet do not and all rule out getting republican support. i think there's a very good chance it will be republican support for these nominees, and the president goes into it with that open mind himself. and hoping to get some support, and i think he -- well could >> you push up under the president, he said i don't want this to be an ideological choice. it used to be that the judiciary committee was less

concerned about the idea that the president made an ideological choice. it was the idea of whether or not that judge or that lawyer was qualified to be in it and associate justice for the chief justice of the supreme court. and it seems to me that that's when the president was hinting at with lester, that when it comes down, we're gonna find an appointee who is qualified, will stand up for the scrutiny of the senate judiciary committee, which is what your job is. >> and let me make clear, i don't think in any way he needs his gun a short sell america on a strong nominee. when he's talking about someone like justice breyer, it's talking about someone that has an open mind and reaches consensus. but also, it is someone that he is taking very strong stance for equal justice, including on the death penalty, and so many other things. so i really came away from it thinking that the president has extraordinary nominees, that me, as the democrat on the

judiciary committee have been through a lot of hearings on supreme court, from justice kavanaugh and amy coney barrett back to sony settle my or and elena kagan. that we are united on getting good nominee, and so is the president. i just think we have some excellent choices here. and also, we know that the attacks have already started against some of these nominees. we know that's part sadly, of our politics today, but we are ready. we just say, bring them on, because these nominees are extraordinary that he's looking at. >> senator, good to talk with you. thank you for being with us. >> thanks, ali. wonderful to be on. >> we've got much more of lester's exclusive interview with president biden, next. stay with us. 's exclusive interview 's exclusive interview with all you have to do is schedule delivery. go to capsule.com to get started in 15 seconds today. stay with us what can i du with less asthma?

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play a little bit of lester holt's interview with president biden, in which the president confirmed these narrow down supreme court shortlist to four people. the president sat down with

lester in virginia earlier today for his first tv interview in months. aside from making some news about the supreme court pick, biden also made news out of a number on other fronts, including his administration's battle against coronavirus, the current debate over state mask requirements, and the showdown with russian president, vladimir putin, over ukraine. here's an extended part of that exclusive interview. >> mister president, in recent days, we've seen numerous governors from blue states roll back indoor mask requirements. essentially, getting ahead of the federal government, the cdc. are those governors wrong? >> well, it's hard to say whether they're wrong. here's the science is saying now that masks work, masks make a difference. and there's a relationship -- i think there's only one governor drawing back immediately, and most of them are somewhere in february, i mean and the february, march, april, they said a time limit. and it has something to do with whether the omicron variant continues to dive, fewer and fewer cases.

and because there is a relationship between the number of cases you have in your community and the need to wear a mask. >> you acknowledge, though, a restlessness and leaders vowing to the political winds? >> oh, i do. omicron and the variant, all the variants, have had a profound impact on the psyche of american people. >> should children be required to wear masks in schools? >> well, look, i got when i got an office, only 46% of schools were open, now 98% are open. and they're wearing masks. what's happening is, every day goes by, children are more protected. we're now on the verge of being able to have shots for children under the age of seven. and young children, and so, the more protection i have, probably, you're gonna see less and less requirement to have the masks. >> the cdc hasn't changed its guidance on that, and the question is, with these governors making these moves, does it begin to make the government, the cdc, irrelevant?

that people will gravitate to it, you know, the advice that really fits their worldview. this things really feels like it's over. >> look, i think it's one thing to say to talk about masks other than to talk about shots. and boosters and alike. but look, it is confusing. it is worrisome to people to try to figure out, but what i have tried to do, i've tried to make sure we have all the vaccines needed, all the boosters needed, although masks needed, all the protections needed. >> are you afraid, though, that some states and cities are moving too quickly to loosen indoor mask mandates? >> well, you know, i committed that i would follow the science. the science says, put forward by the cdc, and the federal people. and i think it's probably premature, but it's, you know, it's a tough call. >> and i asked about the tense standoff with russia over ukraine. >> what are your plans toward

american citizens who are in ukraine, and might be there during an invasion? what's would you put american troops to rescue, and get americans out? >> that's a world war, when americans and russians start shooting at one another, we are the very different war that we've been. >> not even on behalf of simply evacuating americans? >> no, how do you do that? how do even find them? this is not like, i'm hoping that if in fact, he smart enough to go in, he smart enough not to go anything that would negatively impact on american citizens. >> have you told him that? >> yes, -- >> you've told him that americans will be aligned, they can't cross? >> i don't have to tell him that. i've spoken about that. he knows that. and you know, it's a little bit -- look, when i have asked is, american citizens should leave, they should leave now. we are dealing with one of the largest armies in the world, so

it's a very different situation, things can go crazy quickly. >> american citizens, i have to draw your attention to that arm a report, and investigative report that has come out about the lead up to the withdrawal from afghanistan. it interviewed many military officials and officers who said the administration ignored the handwriting on the wall. another described trying to get folks in the embassy raid to evacuate, and countering people who are essentially in denial of the situation. does any of that ring true to you? >> no, no, that's not what i was told. >> you were told that the u.s. administration officials where prepared. they knew it was time to get out. >> no, when i was told, no one told me -- look, there's no good time to get out. but if we had not gotten out, they have not as we would have to put a lot more troops back in. we had to significantly increase the number of troops,

and we're back in this war of attrition. and there is no way we were ever gonna unite ukraine. i mean, iraq, sorry, afghanistan. no way that was gonna happen. and so, this is a much wiser thing to do -- >> just to clarify, are you rejecting the conclusions or the accounts over this army report? >> yes, i am. >> so they're not true? >> i'm rejecting. them >> more of lester's ex exclusive interview with president biden will air tomorrow morning on today's show. we've got one more story for you tonight, stay with us. show show we've got one more story forr b. you tonight, stay with us. fasenra is a different kind of asthma medication. it's not a steroid or inhaler. fasenra is an add-on treatment for asthma driven by eosinophils. it helps prevent asthma attacks, improve breathing, and lower use of oral steroids. nearly 7 out of 10 adults

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she is a 100 million dollar super yacht, the length of three basketball courts. according to the website, boat international, she has an indoor pool that can be converted into a dance hall, a drop down screen and projector for private ocean movie screenings, and hello desk to land your helicopter, a gym, a cocktail bar, and a spa tool pool alongside another to plunge pools for either hot or cold dips. back in september, the graceful docked at a german shipyard for some upgrades, she was there to be retrofitted with two brand-new balconies and extended swimming platforms. but then suddenly, this week, german media reported that the graceful was departing that shipyard, unexpectedly, before

workers could finish their upgrades. and this is important because the russian owner of the graceful is believed to be none other than the russian president, vladimir putin. putin's luxury party boat was relocated from german waters into russian territory, leading some to believe that the russian president is trying to get the boat of nato-controlled sees, so that it cannot be ceased as part of any u.s. or european sanctions, following the russian incursion into ukraine. now, we do not know for sure, if this is vladimir putin's boat, and whether he decided to move his big nautical my club. but as rachel would say, watch this space, or watch that vote. we'll see you again tonight. it's time now for the last world with loans o'donnell. lawrence, you know, i gotta give you a lot of advice, but before you engage in any wrongdoing, move the boat. >> move the gap. >> yeah.

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