hey, everyone. it is 4:00 in new york. i'm in nicolle wallace. intelligence collected by the united states government generally sorted into three escalating tiers. confidential, secret and finally top secret. the most serious classification meant to describe intelligence that could be expected to cause exceptional grave damage to the national security. keep that last phrase top of mind in the new reporting from "the washington post." from that piece, quote some of the white house documents that donald trump improperly took to the mar-a-lago residence clearly marked classified including documents at the top secret

level. according to to two people familiar with the matter. of particular interest in that "post" report, it is not clear who packed up the classified materials at mar-a-lago. trump was very secretive of the packing of boxes last month and did not let other aides look at them. according to people close to him. a spokesperson responded in a statement, quote it is clear that a normal and routine process is being weaponized by anonymous, politically motivated government sources to peddle fake news. the only entity to ability to credibly dispute the false reporting, the national archives is providing no comment. the department of justice might look into it. beyond questions of potential

criminality consider how vitally important the results of those investigations could be for the members of the january 6th committee who have their own questions about donald trump's recordkeeping reconstructing a time line. and that is where we begin with house january 6 select committee member congressman aguilar. you and the colleagues met virtually this morning. how interested would you be to discover what donald trump brought to mar-a-lago and why? >> we're always interested in talking about the issues to ensure that the public knows what we want to accomplish here and that's to seek to get the truth. that's what we'll continue to do. some are questions that only the

archives could answer at this point. i think it's important to note we wouldn't have this except for the committee's strong win in the supreme court to get the documents. the archives undertook a robust effort to catalog everything and to work with us to ensure that they turn the documents over. what i can say is it's not normal what the former president's spokesperson said and fighting us and the congressional allies which is important to note as well. >> nothing about this is normal to your point. have you and your colleagues resigned yourself to the fact that some truths may never come to light here? >> we want to get to the truth and dig deeper than the call logs that have been mentioned

and we have shed light that the vice president, former vice president and former president spoke and we want to know what the conversations were like. and the substance and to do that you have to hear from interested parties so that's a component and we haven't given up yet and make progress. >> part of the elling the full and complete story, focus on the effort to reassemble the january 6 timeline. that is a tall ord every thanks to the recordkeeping practices if you can call them that. a former member of the administration describing the trump phone situation at the white house. >> i don't know this for a fact but i imagine people coming in and saying so and so is on the phone.

they want you to call it off. he didn't want to. if he didn't want to hear a message he didn't take the call. he also would use staffers' phones sometimes. that could be happening. somebody in the room with him could have handed a phone calling in that regard. i think it is very odd and i hope they maybe piece some things together perhaps by getting cell phone records. >> he was using staffer phones. the committee subpoenaed cell phone records. can you tell us who they are and whether or not you plan on asking for trump's personal cell phone records? >> reporting the investigative details and in august was the first time that we publicly indicated to see the call data records. we were going to seek the call that da data records.

we continue to work through that progress. but it's important. we're not closing any door at this point. >> the committee subpoenaed former trump aide peter navarro. i want to play you something he said. take a listen. >> given that you have told me that you have a plan that you pushed to delay or deal with the certification and said in public trump was on board, if you say that out here why risk a legal battle or going to jail to refuse to discuss them with the commit tee under oath? >> it is what it is. i've been subpoenaed to that committee. to testify and to turn over dock ms. the president said no. invoking executive privilege. not going to coordinate until

they negotiate a reasonable pathway with the prt aen the attorneys. >> he was indicted for that. are you willing to risk indictment? >> i have a loyalty to the constitution and the president. >> congressman, he put it in a book. he shares it out with millions of viewers and seems ready to defy your subpoena. you have seen this fact before. mark meadows, rudy giuliani, are you confident in the department of justice to then take action? >> we're going to let the department of justice work their own process but as they have shown they will deliver and that's exactly what they sought to do and we continue to await any decisions that they make with regard to meadows but with bannon they xefr sized the

independence and moving forward. set a court date. so these individuals who want to avoid us there should be consequences. these are lawful subpoenas that we are sending over and they have a story to tell and some clearly in mr. meadows' case, sent hundreds of text messages and it's in a book. hard to imagine claiming privilege they don't hold or the former president hold that privilege. it's a little mind boggling but nothing about what these cast of characters around the former president did is normal. >> congressman, if navarro is to be believed that cast of characters includes about 100 members of congress who signed off on his plans. are they going to be a subject of your investigation?

>> you know, i don't know if we can take peter navarro at his word in an interview or a book. more than 100 colleagues voted not to certify a free and fair election. that's troubling in and of itself but whether there was broader coordination we don't know that and until he's willing to sit and talk with us how he came to that understanding will be difficult so we'll continue to work our investigative process and make sure to uncover every rock and have to engage in the individuals and try to get them to provide testimony to the committee. >> congressman pete aguilar, thank you so much. want to turn to the panel. "the washington post" white house bureau chief and analyst ashley parker. also luke broadwaefrt, "the new york times." and harry litman, former u.s.

congressman. let's get back to the documents at mar-a-lago. do we have any idea what those top secret documents picture taned to? if not will we ever? >> well, i don't personally know what they were but it is a great interest to the house overnight committee who i was just speaking to today. the reason this is so important is because in the past others in the federal past have been charged for mishandling classified or top secret documents. there are several recent cases where white house or federal government officials faced criminal charging for taking documents out of the white house or other federal entities and putting them in the house, sneaking them out. sometimes because they enjoyed

looking at the things they had in the career and did result in criminal charges so does donald trump face some sort of criminal liability here? that's going to be a question that the house oversight committee will be looking into. i know there's a lot of interest in that topic on the hill with people i have been talking to today. they know how much hillary clinton was investigated o the email controversy and would like to see similar aggressive stances from both congressional committees and the justice department digging into this. >> ashley, we'll talk about the hypocrisy later of hillary clinton's emails. there have been complaints about the classification system in this country. some calling them as top secret when they should be classified or secret. is that a case that team trump can make that they're top secret

but no big deal? is that the case they'll make? >> well, a couple cases they are making. one is that -- again, this doesn't apply to an ex-president but when you are president you have leeway to declassify documents. and not necessarily for nefarious purposes. we see that with the biden administration with russia and ukraine. they declassify intelligence to try to blunt that sort of attack of a false flag. that happens. another defense that the trump people are arguing is that everything was very frenzied and chaotic. trump was trying to hold on to power. didn't want to give up the white house and not beginning to get packed up. this is not an excuse but until

that last day, january 19th. aides didn't feel comfortable. in trump's mind he was not going back home and what you have are the other forces that don't exist in a traditional administration which led to documents marked top secret at least 15 boxes retrieved from mar-a-lago and our understanding is there's still more. part of a process and how we get to where we have. >> to add there i want to read more of "the washington post" reporting. quote even with documents marked classified found where they don't belong prosecutors have a high legal bar do get to criminal charges. prosecutors would have to prove someone intentionally mishandled the material or grossly negatively jetblue in doing so which can be a steep hurdle in its own right and trump as president would have had unfettered latitude to

declassify material potentially raising even bigger challenges. do you agree? >> he didn't do it. might have had the power but irrelevant. it is a high bar. willfully. if you do it and have the purpose to do what the statute prevents of destroying documents then that's what willfully means. on top secret i want to say there is overclassification in the federal government. top secret is not among it. people mark classified too capriciously. this is crypto night. it's what you said. it could cause grave damage to the national security. but back to the burden. look at especially everything we learn about the white house and his routine and brazen tearing up of documents. stuffing them down the toilet.

it's shown there and that he wasn't doing it -- he was destroying the public record. >> we know one of trump world's saving graces is political inexperience. eric trump said they weren't smart enough to collude. four years into a presidency they should be expected the know what is proper and improper handling of documents. you can't hide behind the idea that they just didn't know. >> there's ample evidence that they knew. he was very secretive about these boxes. you don't -- i agree. it goes to a defense of inadvertence. it's quite clear what he is

doing is purposeful purposeful calling card in the presidency. >> ashley, again, we know house oversight is looking into the documents at mar-a-lago and they asked doj to investigate. let's say they make the way through the boxes of documents and discover things beyond the pale. how do we know what would happen next? could you envision a scenario where agents knock on the front door of mar-a-lago with a search warrant? >> it is tough to hypothesize with what we know now other than the bar is quite high. going back to that i did want to make a point which is as we have reported former president trump did have warnings. on the ripping, tearing and shredding of documents he was

warned that he could not do this. it was a violation of the presidential records act. also add and i'm sure everyone remembers when nancy pelosi ripped up the state of the union and angry with her about that he alluded to the presidential records act saying you can't do that. that's illegal. seemed to have a knowledge of what he could and couldn't do if he no way abided by the rules himself. >> luke, ginn everything coming to light this week have the contours of the 1/6 committee investigation changed in the past week? >> i would say we have learned it is more difficult for them to put together the complete picture of january 6th given the gaps in the call logs, given the great reporting in "the post"about the chaotic nature of trump ripping up documents and

from the forthcoming book about the flushing of documents in a toilet. if they're trying to get the definitive accounted they have go through four steps to get it. not just the normal channels that you would with a normal presidency and may lengthen the time of the investigation and push back public hearings they were supposed to have this spring. >> thank you all for getting us started. the biden administration warning of a major escalation in the russia conflict with ukraine. u.s. officials say they're in a window of an invasion any time. live report from the white house on the world trying to de-escalate. donald trump's first campaign of office sending hillary clinton to prison for her use of personal oh mail. same republicans that had his back are silent over the

multiple reports that trump may have broken the rules in his entire presidency. later the so-called freedom convoy crippling the u.s. and canadian economy. why's the u.s. right wing cheering them on? all those stories and more after this. do not go anywhere. do not go anywhere uh, i-i'm actually just going to get an iced coffee. well, she may have a destination this one time, but usually -- no, i-i usually have a destination. yeah, but most of the time, her destination is freedom. nope, just the coffee shop. announcer: no matter why you ride, progressive has you covered with protection starting at $79 a year. voiceover: 'cause she's a biker... please don't follow me in. with less moderate-to-severe eczema, why hide your skin if you can help heal your skin from within? dupixent helps keep you one step ahead of eczema

with clearer skin and less itch. hide my skin? not me. don't use if you're allergic to dupixent. serious allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. tell your doctor about new or worsening eye problems such as eye pain or vision changes, including blurred vision, joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection. don't change or stop asthma medicines without talking to your doctor. ask your doctor about dupixent. ♪ i see trees of green ♪ without talking ♪ red roses too ♪ ♪ i see them bloom for me and you ♪ (music) ♪ so i think to myself ♪ ♪ oh what a wonderful world ♪

any american in ukraine should leave as soon as possible and in any event in the next 24 to 48 hours. we obviously cannot predict the

future. we don't know exactly what is going to happen but the risk is now high enough and the threat is now immediate enough. we are in the window when an invasion could begin at any time should vladimir putin decide to order it. there's a credible prospect that a russian military action would take place even before the end of the olympics. >> national security adviser jake sullivan warning of a major assault of president vladimir putin into ukraine at any moment. the pentagon in the last hour announcing to send 3,000 additional soldiers to poland. joining us now nbc news white house senior correspondent kelly o'donnell. tell us about the conversation tomorrow. >> reporter: yes. that is what we are learning from white house officials and this is a critical moment where president biden will again try to assess the mind of vladimir putin. is there an off ramp for the

russian federation to not take aggressive action, an opportunity to assess how close is vladimir putin to taking this step? is diplomacy still a viable option. the two have spoken a number of times. the president said he is frank with vladimir putin about the cost to russia if he goes forward with this in terms of economic penalties and isolation in the world community and really being in essence a pariah in the world community because of the western unity in nato and the countries of the 30-member nato alliance who are getting closer together and not always 100% agreement how to approach this and had time to work on what their approaches will be with sanctions and to defend especially the border countries like poland and romania and so this call tomorrow will be

significant. the white house pointed out to us that russia had asked for the call to be on monday. maybe that gives a sense of a window of time. the white house asked for tomorrow and russia accepted. president biden left the white house to go to camp david, a military installation with the full compliment of skush communications there and can have the call from the sort of secure facilities on the grounds there connecting him. could be a phone call or a video call. and then we would expect to get a readout after the fact. what was notable today by jake sullivan coming to the briefing room is that followed about an hour and a half call that the president had a video conference with number of key european leaders earlier today and

discussing the intelligence and the information that is causing this new prescription that there's a dire time frame here. they every not saying they're certain that russia will act but something could happen before the end of the olympics january 20th and sullivan warned the urs citizens in ukraine to leave and to prepare the public more broadly for what may be coming and part of that is u.s. forces going to support nato allies. not to fight. not in a combat role. >> you touched upon this point but how significant is it for sullivan to come in to the briefing room and to share this level of intelligence? >> reporter: typically the national security adviser does not visit the briefing room

without a specific agenda. in this case it was important to convey really what went on in the meeting with the president aenlg european leader, and he was sent to convey to the world what the u.s. position is to speak to russia, as well. anthony blinken spoke earlier in the day trying to set the table diplomatically and preparing the country for what could be a serious situation and the resources and capabilities that russia has in position are so great that they believe that russia could overtake ukraine in toppling the capital city of kyiv in a short amount of time epa talked about how an initial awe salt with indiscriminate bombing and ground assaults and

there's no way to dissearch who's a ukrainian citizen and a personal and careful to say that the president is not intending to send u.s. troops inside ukraine to rescue americans which is why they want americans to leave now. and of course there are allied partners in adjacent countries to get to safety and to do it through regular means. airplanes, buses and trains available now that might not be if conflict really breaks out so jake sullivan's presence is notable and what he said was really extraordinary in dialing up concern about what could happen. >> turning to domestic news president biden will be in camp david and working on the supreme court picks. new reporting on the top three contenders. what can you tell us? >> reporter: this is an

extraordinary time for this selection in his hands and we have learned that he narrowed as many as a dozen of qualified candidates, african american women and legal scholars and narrowed to the first three names popularly talked about when the vacancy announced with justice breyer to retire and not always the case that the first three names are the finals. but the three are the finalists that the president is look at, includes very serious vetting, fbi background checks, personal history going on and the president is reading their cases. their personal writings. portfolios in terms of resume. personal history. that will allow him to get to

know them and then the key piece would be personal interviews that our reporting tells us could happen as early next week. i asked jen psaki about interviews at camp david. that is a key signal that the president is closer to making a final selection. >> kelly, thank you for being with us. we'll have much more on the developing story in the next hour and more on the interview with president biden in the super bowl pregame show. this sunday on nbc. we'll be right back. nbc nbc we'll be right back. we're inspired by our circle. a circle that includes our researchers, driven by our award-winning science,

the dedicated social workers, and the supportive peer counselors we work with to help improve - and even change - people's lives. moving from mental illness to mental wellness starts in our circle. this is intra-cellular therapies. first psoriasis, then psoriatic arthritis. it was really holding me back. standing up... ...even walking was tough. my joints hurt. i was afraid things were going to get worse. i was always hiding, and that's just not me. not being there for my family, that hurt. woooo! i had to do something. i started cosentyx®. i'm feeling good. watch me. cosentyx helps people with psoriatic arthritis move, look, and feel better. it targets more than just joint pain and treats the multiple symptoms like joint swelling and tenderness, back pain, helps clear skin and helps stop further joint damage. don't use if you're allergic to cosentyx. before starting, get checked for tuberculosis.

an increased risk of infections—some serious —and the lowered ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor about an infection or symptoms or if you've had a vaccine or plan to. tell your doctor if your crohn's disease symptoms develop or worsen. serious allergic reactions may occur. it's good to be moving on. watch me. move, look, and feel better. ask your rheumatologist about cosentyx.

some bad things came out today. you know, those classified -- you know the word classified? she sent vast amounts of classified information, including information classified as top secret. top secret. okay? and this is where they said that she was extremely careless and, frankly, i say grossly incompetent. we cannot have someone in the oval office who doesn't understand the meaning of the word confidential or classified. and maybe classified at the

highest, highest level. how sad. >> that rallying cry surrounding hillary clinton's use of a private email serber, the attacks is what the campaign was built around why but now trump's improper handling. some republicans held lead the attacks are silent and others according to "the new york times" directly involved with investigating mrs. clinton declined to discuss the specifics except to suggest the national archives and records administration treating him more harshly. why is the archives treating this differently? the irp nir and hypocrisy not lost on clinton cleared of wrongdoing. she told request the the times" the two years frenzy over emails

oempb saw something different in what was ultimately nothing jit's time we acknowledge it was bull bleep. and write that into the history books. is my version of that word. hers was stronger. joining us is reverend al sharpton and miles taylor. now executive director of the renew america movement. miles, the hypocrisy, not surprising. a consistent thing about the former president. where's the republican outrage now? >> so i have to s.t.a.r.t. with the hypocrisy though because it is not just hypocrisy. it is that donald trump himself was mind numbingly incompetent coming to the protection of

classified intelligence. legitimately skooer scared to tell the president of the united states about it. we would talk about it before we would go in and getting certain briefs can we talk to the president about this with a worry to leak to the public to foreign adversaries. reporters were sitting in the oval office doing a background interview and had information and waving it in the air to get really important information. and our jaws hit the floor. also a photographer in the room. they didn't capture the highly secret classified information but that's how reckless this man

was with that type of information. there's that piece and again as you note the hypocrisy. people need to come out and say that donald trump like anyone else should be held accountable in terms of protection of information but what we learned is they both tried to hide, shred, maybe flush sense tifr documents down the toilet and prevent documents from being created that could be sensitive and incriminating. bad news all around. >> rev, here's senator tommy to beerville just this morning. >> he didn't say keep these and these and these. that won't happen. you have the staff people and people that work for you that it was obviously some mistake that

it made a card board box. probably not looked at since they left office a year ago. >> card board box why that's called the benefit of the doubt. hillary clinton did not get the benefit of the doubt. >> well, not only didn't get the benefit of the doubt, they thought she went through every document and box accused of hiding. i think the thing that's even more troubling to me than the obvious hypocrisy and the obvious attempt for a double standard is they literally were able to use the smear campaign against hillary clinton to get hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of voters to doubt her. may have swayed the election on a misinformation campaign. that's how dangerous this is.

as well as the fact that you have the president out united states so reckless that staff members were afraid of him having classified information that could have led to things to endanger the country. not long after he was in office he was showing the russian leader referring to documents on the desk bragging about the new power because he knew he didn't belong in the office. he was insecure about the power and had to proof to people how powerful he was because real pourful people don't have to prove that. when you put someone this that position you put us in danger and now mocking the rules because again he does not rise to the level of president or former president and not even a good person at covering the tracks after he does such obvious illegal acts and

unethical acts. >> i appreciate that you remind us of what was at stake. you are staying with you. a south carolina republican in a tough primary fight went to new york to film a video of herself telling her south carolina why she is rite to represent south carolina. in new york. we'll explain. we'll explain. ♪♪♪ my name is austin james. as a musician living with diabetes, fingersticks can be a real challenge.

that's why i use the freestyle libre 2 system. with a painless, one-second scan i know my glucose numbers without fingersticks. now i'm managing my diabetes better and i've lowered my a1c from 8.2 to 6.7. take the mystery out of managing your diabetes and lower your a1c. now you know. try it for free at freestylelibre.us throughout history now you know. i've observed markets shaped by the intentional and unforeseeable. for investors who can navigate this landscape, leveraging gold, a strategic and sustainable asset... the path is gilded with the potential for rich returns. here we go... remember, mom's a kayak denier, so please don't bring it up. bring what up, kayak?

excuse me? do the research, todd. listen to me, kayak searches hundreds of travel sites to find you great deals on flights, cars and hotels. they're lying to you! who's they? kayak? arr! open your eyes! compare hundreds of travel sites at once. kayak. search one and done. if you have type 2 diabetes or high blood pressure... ...you're a target for... ...chronic kidney disease. you can already have it and not know it. if you have chronic kidney disease... ...your kidney health... ...could depend on what you do today. ♪far-xi-ga♪ farxiga is a pill that works... ...in the kidneys to help slow the progression of chronic kidney disease. farxiga can cause... ...serious side effects including dehydration,... ...urinary tract or genital yeast infections... ...in women and men,... ...and low blood sugar. ketoacidosis is a serious side effect... ...that may lead to death. a rare, life-threatening bacterial infection...

...in the skin of the perineum could occur. stop taking farxiga and call your doctor right away... ...if you have symptoms of this bacterial infection,... ...an allergic reaction,... ...or ketoacidosis. and don't take it if you are on dialysis. take aim... ...at chronic kidney disease by talking to your doctor... ...and asking about farxiga. if you can't afford your medication,... ...astrazeneca may be able to help. ♪far-xi-ga♪ welcome to the eat fresh refresh at subway wait, that's new wait, you're new too nobody told you? subway's refreshing with better ingredients, better footlongs, and better spokespeople. because you gotta you gotta refresh to be fresh it's 5:00 a.m., and i feel like i can do anything. we've been coming here, since 1868. there's a lot of cushy desk jobs out there, but this is my happy place. there are millions of ways to make the most of your land. learn more at deere.com

we were really trying to figure out how to hold accountable a president that put our lives at risk. i believe in the days, weeks and months to come as we learn more the worse it is going to get. >> that was republican nancy mace on "meet the press" shortly after january 6th calling out the ex-president for the role in the insurrection. that got her in hot water with members of the maga right. repeatedly with the lighting of marjorie taylor greene. mace is locked in a fight in the south carolina district with trump calling her a terrible candidate and makes what she did yesterday all the more stunning and desperate. mace traveled to new york city and filmed herself in front of trump tower pledging fidelity to

trump saying that she was one of the earliest fans of the ex-president and a supporter of his policies. congresswoman mace was fighting the fringe gop and understood the culpability in 1/6 and then come to new york and howl but hold a boom box over her head and blare "in your eyes. "what does that tell us? >> i don't even -- imso aghast i don't know what to say. cowardice is more contagious than coronavirus and spreading through the republican caucus. they are so terrified about losing their races if they don't seem trumpy enough that they do anything they can short of tattooed the name on the fore arnls to seem like they're trump

supporters. i don't say this is as a talking head on tv. i talk to the candidates almost every day because we are trying to identify the good moderate runs and weed them out. i talk to the people and i hate to tell you even the ones behind the scenes that say, you know, donald trump is a bad guy, i have to do this, will go and pretend they every trumpy to the camera. it's truly disgusting. i'll say this. i think they're wrong. i look at the polls every single day. i have a kick butt political team that does this analysis and tell me that there are cracks in the edifice of trumpism looking at primary vote everies the trump endorsement means less. it is as valuable as the paper it is stamped on. voters are in the republican primary differentiating

themselves from trump and the candidates like nancy are making a mistake trying to cozy up to trump to win elections because that's not the direction the vote every base is trending but they think they have to do it and they call him the orange jesus and have to pay homage to win the races. that's how disgusting this is. >> the cracks in support that are beginning to show? >> we have actually a headquarters in charleston and i find out from them they hear the same thing on the ground from many that they have to deal with that are on the right and in the state there seems to be a weakening of the people that are members of the cult of donald trump because that's what it is. when you find you're following someone to say one thing one day and then the opposite and then

denounce everybody that wasn't with them both days you run a cult, not a party. that is tied some people. this desperate trip by mace, she is going against the tide where i think is building in south carolina but it also shows and confirms again we are dealing with a cult. you have to bow to trump and then go in front of trump towers to bow and that the average citizen in south carolina can't go shopping in the mini mall less alone get an apartment in. i think the hypocrisy will render her in my opinion probably a loser. the irony of it is when she loses trump will say -- she doesn't gain anything winning or losing. >> miles, it is not just nancy

mace. deputy virginia attorney general resigned after facebook posts showed she applauded the rioters and claimed that donald trump won the 2020 presidential election. a candidate attorney general pr admits her staff participated in the insurrection and says the true president is still indeed donald trump. you take that side-by-side with the other news we saw this week, which was, you had the rnc coming out, saying what happened on january 6th, calling it legitimate political discourse and that actually starting to create some fissures within the republican party, right, that you had people in certain states saying, that's not what i wanted to sign on to. i don't cosign that. we need to really question that. you had republican members of congress dodging reporters' questions because they didn't want to have to speak to it. is this all getting pushed to a point where things are actually going to crack? >> well -- >> i think we are seeing -- >> every day -- go ahead, i'm

sorry. >> i was just going to say, like we said earlier, there are cracks in the edifice of trumpism, and i'm going to give you two points. one that shows that we should be hopeful about it, but one that shows that we should be worried. the hopeful piece is this. after the rnc censure of cheney and kinzinger, which called january 6th legitimate political discourse, there was some pretty substantial pushback. i mean, we over at renew america organized a letter of 150 former republican senators, governors, congressmen, cabinet secretaries, very top republicans who said that this was unacceptable and that the republican party looked like it was veering towards the big lie party rather than a big tent party. that was good. that was good in terms of people, you know, drawing a line in the sand against this ridiculous rhetoric. but i'm going to give you the bad news. the bad news is when we look at the electorate and who's running

for public office, we do not have the takeaway that republicans have learned from january 6th that they should show faith to the constitution. instead, we see the opposite. in fact, our assessment is that there are 75 candidates for congress this cycle who believe the election was stolen from donald trump. there are 50 candidates for congress this cycle who have ties to qanon, and there are two dozen candidates running for office in the united states right now who were in washington, d.c., on january 6th, including two that stormed the u.s. capitol. >> rev, i did want to hear what you had to say about that. i'm going to have to wait until tomorrow, 5:00 p.m. eastern, when i get to watch you on your own show, "politics nation." miles taylor, thank you so much for joining us. all eyes are going to be on a hearing, not the rink, as a committee will decide the olympic fate of the russian teen skating star who's tested positive for a banned substance. the very latest on her future is next. banned substance. the very latest on her future is the very latest on her future is next

♪ i see them bloom for me and you ♪ (music) ♪ so i think to myself ♪ ♪ oh what a wonderful world ♪ there's a different way to treat hiv. it's once-monthly injectable cabenuva. cabenuva is the only once-a-month, complete hiv treatment for adults who are undetectable. cabenuva helps keep me undetectable. it's two injections, given by a healthcare provider once a month. hiv pills aren't on my mind. i love being able to pick up and go. don't receive cabenuva if you're allergic to its ingredients or taking certain medicines, which may interact with cabenuva. serious side effects include allergic reactions post-injection reactions, liver problems,...and depression. if you have a rash and other allergic reaction symptoms,

stop cabenuva and get medical help right away. tell your doctor if you have liver problems or mental health concerns, and if you are pregnant, breastfeeding, or considering pregnancy. some of the most common side effects include injection site reactions, fever, and tiredness. if you switch to cabenuva, attend all treatment appointments. with once-a-month cabenuva, i'm good to go. ask your doctor about once-monthly cabenuva. hey businesses! with once-a-month cabenuva, i'm good to go. you all deserve something epic! so we're giving every business, our best deals on every iphone - including the iphone 13 pro with 5g. that's the one with the amazing camera? yep! every business deserves it... like one's that re-opened! hi, we have an appointment. and every new business that just opened! like aromatherapy rugs! i'll take one in blue please! it's not complicated. at&t is giving new and existing business customers our best deals on every iphone. ♪ ♪

sales are down from last quarter, but we're hoping things will pick up by q3. yeah...uhhh... doug? [children laughing] sorry about that. umm...what...it's uhh... you alright? [loud exhale] [ding] never settle with power e*trade. it has powerful, easy-to-use tools to help you find opportunities, 24/7 support when you need answers, plus some of the lowest options in futures contract prices around. [ding] get e*trade and start trading today. alright. y'all know when they say your home [ding] get e*trade is a reflection of you? well helene found herself in a lamp.

no joke. i got a fancy grown up lamp to make me feel like a fancy grown up. mhm. adulting ain't easy. ooh! check this one out. waffles loves her dog bed. we can hardly get her out of it. she's kind of a diva. yes, waffles! living your best life. [woof] i'm telling y'all there's no place like wayfair to make your home totally you. ooh! i want that. in beijing, all eyes are on olympics anti-doping officials who say they'll seek an urgent hearing to decide the fate of teen figure skating star kamila valiyeva. she tested positive for a banned substance in russia before the games and was suspended only briefly by russian officials. their decision will determine what happens to her team's gold medal win on monday, and the united states' current silver standing as well as whether

valiyeva will be able to compete next week, where she is the clear favorite to win another gold. and that does it for me. you can catch me this weekend on "american voices." that is saturday and sunday, 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. eastern. next hour of "deadline white house" with my friend, dr. jason johnson, starts right after this quick break. jason johnson, starts right after this quick break. as a struggling actor, i need all the breaks that i can get. at liberty butchemel... cut. liberty mu... line? cut. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. cut. liberty m... am i allowed to riff? what if i come out of the water? liberty biberty... cut. we'll dub it. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ power e*trade gives you an award-winning mobile app with powerful, easy-to-use tools, and interactive charts to give you an edge, 24/7 support when you need it the most. plus, zero-dollar commissions for online u.s. listed stocks.

[ding] get e*trade and start trading today. never settle with power e*trade. it has powerful, easy-to-use tools to help you find opportunities, 24/7 support when you need answers, plus some of the lowest options in futures contracts prices around. [ding] get e*trade and start trading today. what happens when we welcome change? [ding] get e*trade we can transform our workforce overnight out of convenience, or necessity. we can explore uncharted waters, and not only make new discoveries, but get there faster, with better outcomes. with app, cloud and anywhere workspace solutions, vmware helps companies navigate change-- meeting them where they are, and getting them where they want to be. faster. vmware. welcome change. ♪ i see trees of green ♪ ♪ red roses too ♪ ♪ i see them bloom ♪ ♪ for me and you ♪

♪ and i think to myself ♪ ♪ what a wonderful world ♪ a rich life is about more than just money. that's why at vanguard, you're more than just an investor, you're an owner so you can build a future for those you love. vanguard. become an owner.

♪♪ . what are your plans toward american citizens who are in ukraine and might be there during an invasion? what scenarios would you put

american troops to rescue and get americans out? >> there's not. that's a world war. when americans and russians start shooting at one another, we're in a very different world than we've ever been in. what i have asked is american citizens should leave. should leave now. we're dealing with one of the largest armies in the world. this is a very different situation and things could go crazy quickly. >> hi, everyone, i'm jason johnson in los angeles, sitting in for nicole wallace. president biden during his one-on-one interview yesterday with nbc "nightly news" anchor lester holt. sending a dire warning for americans still in ukraine to get out before the situation gets worse. president's warning comes amid a flurry of actions today. ukraine's military warning that the country is basically surrounded by russian forces as they continue to conduct military exercises, exercises ukraine says are preparations for live fire operations. u.s. officials estimate that russia has amassed at least

130,000 troops at ukraine's borders, enough for full-scale invasion. in response, a senior defense official tells nbc news that the united states will be sending 3,000 additional troops from the 82nd airborne to poland in the coming days. meanwhile, on the diplomatic front, the white house confirms that president biden will be speaking with vladimir putin by phone tomorrow morning. today, the president held a call with nato allies to further coordinate what the white house calls, quote, diplomacy and deterrence. while u.s. secretary of state antony blinken sounded the alarm this morning in australia that russians' invasion could come at any time, even before the end of the winter olympics in beijing. a timeline that was echoed during the white house press briefing late this afternoon by national security advisor jake sullivan. he also reiterated -- >> we continue to see signs of russian escalation, including new forces arriving at the ukrainian border.

as we've said before, we are in the window when an invasion could begin at any time should vladimir putin decide to order it. whatever happens next, the west is more united than it's been in years. nato has been strengthened. the alliance is more cohesive, more purposeful, more dynamic than at any time in recent memory. we want to be crystal clear on this point. any american in ukraine should leave as soon as possible and in any event in the next 24 to 48 hours. we obviously cannot predict the future. we don't know exactly what is going to happen, but the risk is now high enough and the threat is now immediate enough that this is what prudence demands. >> the possibility of an eminent russian invasion of ukraine is where we start this hour. joining us, michael crowley, also nbc national security analyst, frank figliuzzi, and

former undersecretary of state for public diplomacy rick stengel. thank you so much for joining us today. rick, i'll start with you. i listened to what president biden said with lester holt last night. he basically said, we're not trying to do this. direct conflict with russia is world war iii. those were literally the terms that he used. he said, everybody get out. this is not going to be "argo." what is the purpose of the united states right now engaging in diplomacy or sending troops to poland if the president's made it pretty clear that we're not going to get into armed combat over ukraine if the russians invade? >> well, we were never going to get into armed combat, jason. i mean, ukraine is not a nato country, as we all know. i mean, i think what happened with -- between president biden and that kind of extraordinary press briefing that jake sullivan did is they said the die is cast, which is kind of an appropriate expression because

that's what caesar said when he crossed the rubicon to invade rome. all the preparations seem to be in place for an invasion. i hope they're wrong. you want to go the extra mile for peace, which is why president biden is talking to president putin tomorrow. you want to sacrifice as much as you possibly can to prevent a war from happening, and that's what they're trying to do. but apparently, all the intelligence, which they can't tell us about, is pointing towards the fact that an invasion of some kind, the dimension of that remains to be seen, is inevitable. >> michael, we're going to have this call, president biden is going to have a conversation with vladimir putin. what can we imagine is going to be the substance of that call? i mean, you know, obviously, president biden isn't going to threaten him. ukraine isn't a nato country. is he going to say, please don't do it? is he going to say, hey, can you wait until after the olympics? from a diplomatic standpoint, what levers and what leverage

does the united states have with russia if they are dead set on invading ukraine? >> well, not a lot. i mean, what biden officials will insist to you and there's some truth to it, is that the united states still wields enormous economic power and can use sanctions to inflict some harm on russia's economy, but you know, particularly with european countries that have more sort of financial skin in the game, nervous about this, there's a limit to how hard we really can hit the russian economy, and it also brings threats to the global economy, and among other things, there's no talk in washington of trying to cut off, for instance, russia's oil exports, which really could hurt putin and russia overall, but would drive up gas prices in the united states and is not something that president biden seems willing to consider, especially with midterm elections coming and inflation causing him problems already. so, what else can he do? he can reiterate, you know, those threats. he can talk about how he's going to continue to bolster nato

allies to give putin something that he says he doesn't want, which is a stronger nato, more nato forces along his borders, but the question is, does biden have anything new? you know, given that it looks like this really may be about to happen, is biden willing to make some kind of a new diplomatic offer that he hasn't yet? for instance, some sort of compromise on ukraine where he says, okay, we're ready to agree that ukraine does not join nato for x number of years to come, but i'm not even sure putin would accept that and i doubt biden's going to try that. >> frank, we have some information here from nbc's courtney kube. what it says here is the russian military could take nine different routes into ukraine and a full-scale invasion. according to u.s. military and intelligence assessment. the tanks could potentially reach kyiv, the capital, within

48 hours. president vladimir putin has dispatched personnel and equipment from six of the seven russian special operations unit, according to the assessment. look, if you told me, frank, that somebody got chips and wings and soda and salsa and napkins and paper plates, i would guess that there is a super bowl party that's fairly eminent. is there any way that we can look at what's happening in russia right now and say, look, this is practice. they're just trying to scare people. or do we have to assume that an invasion is imminent? >> look, there's every appearance that something is going to happen in terms of whether it's a limited invasion or a full-scale invasion, but you can only -- military experts will tell you, you can only keep troops -- this amount of troops and armament in a ready position for so long, particularly with regard to winter elements involved. so, something's coming. the idea that putin would say,

never mind, we were just drilling, and go away is not to know putin as an individual and his personality. he can not do that kind of reasonable thing after he's shown this kind of force to the world. so, the question now, for many of us that are in the counterintelligence and intelligence business is, what does this look like moving forward? we were all focused on armament and troops, but let's understand something. the new battlefield is cyber. so, it's quite likely that in terms of preparing the battlefield, we're going to see attached to any movements a major full-scale cyberattack, shutting out the lights in ukraine is not outside the realm of possibility, and for our allies, including ourselves that might come to the aid of ukraine in some way, shape, or form, don't be surprised to see some kind of denial of service attacks, particularly in our military and defense sector. that kind of thing's going to

play out. and then the war of words to shape the minds of americans is going on every night on networks like fox news. every time i tune in, as long as i can bear it, i hear things like, what's the big deal? why should we care about something happening this far away? we should care if we care about democracy. we should care if we care about the rights of a free people to determine their own destiny. we should care about an unchecked authoritarian who poinz his own people and tosses dissidents out of windows. that's why we should care. that's why we should pay attention. but that war for the american mind is going on right now. >> speaking of minds, rick, i have to ask you this. i hate it when we armchair -- do armchair psychology of world leaders but we have to do that right now with vladimir putin. why now? what is going on, either with vladimir putin's particular level of power within russia, or his perceived standing in the world right now? why is he deciding to do this right here, right now, a year

into the biden administration, different kind of administrations abroad? like, what is his internal calculation or psychology? it's not like he's got to worry about poll numbers the way a democratically elected president does so what's his motivation right now? >> you know, jason, i wish i knew. >> is that for me? >> oh, no, for rick. i'm sorry. >> yeah, sorry. jason, i wish i knew. i spent about six hours with him interviewing him in 2010, and the things that struck me was, first, of course, of how cool and aloof he was and how unwilling he was to ingratiate himself in any way, but also how deeply affected he was by grievance, by the fact that he believed the west disregarded russia. he said in that interview t greatest tragedy of the 21st century was the dissolution of the soviet union. if you can imagine that.

so, he's animated by grievance. by the way, his campaign slogan, of course, for his whole presidency is, make russia great again. why he's doing it now, rather than when his ally, donald trump, was in office, i don't know. perhaps he perceives the west is weak and divided, which is what he is trying to do. i think the rational calculus is hard to make. i mean, mike mcfaul wrote a column recently about how he was with putin and biden, and putin said to biden, you think because i look like you, i think like you. i don't. we don't know how he thinks. >> frank, you have some thoughts on what might actually be motivating either psychologically or politically, why putin's doing what he's doing now. >> well, i think rick is spot on. there's a huge ego here and a vision to take back what was -- what he still views as the soviet union. and so, under trump, he was in

the spotlight. i mean, you know, you couldn't say "trump" on television without saying "putin" in the same sentence, and i think he relished that, and now, no one's paying attention to him and his mind, and this is a form of saying, i'm still a relevant player. i still have things to say and do. i can still impact the united states. you can't do anything about it. and let's not belittle the possibility that the olympics are tied into this. when he hosted the olympics in sochi, russia, the winter games there, right after what he called the successful games, he took action and things happened in ukraine, and he wants to tell the world, i can do this again in this same time. >> michael, you know, when we look at the sort of regressive nature of russia, it's not just something the united states is concerned about. we have the story now about french president emmanuel macron refused a kremlin request that he take a russian covid-19 test when he arrived to see president

vladimir putin this week to prevent russia from getting ahold of macron's dna. now, look, i love daniel craig and "no time to die" but when you've got world leaders literally worried about their dna being taken, one, what does that say about the level of distrust between russia and the rest of nato right now? and two, what on earth did the french think that russia was going to do with macron's dna? clone him? >> well, it's an incredible thing. you know, i have to say, there's no trust of russia. obviously, you know, the russian government probably putin himself has authorized the use of nerve agent to assassinate critics, polonium in a pot of tea, you know, i mean, the russians are very creative about how they'll try to take somebody out. having said that, the first time i can remember having a conversation with a senior u.s. government official about this subject of protecting dna was maybe six or seven years ago. this has been on the radar of

top national security people for a long time. i don't completely understand it. i know that part of it, and it may not be the entirety of it, is there's concern, believe it or not, i know it sounds like science fiction, that a foreign government or some sort of super advanced terrorist actor could try to design a virus or something that would get into the system of a person based on their dna and you could exploit, i suppose, you would find weaknesses or defects in the dna that you could try to exploit, and this has been an issue for many years, and i gather, although i've not reported on this directly myself, that when the president goes to any kind of foreign location, if he takes a drink of water or uses a napkin or whatever, the secret service swoops in and scoops all that stuff up afterwards so that he doesn't leave dna behind so it's not to say that they -- they trust putin less than almost anyone else but this is also, actually, a much broader issue that's really fascinating and you could do a whole show on. >> i'll glad that rick got through that interview you

mentioned years ago with putin and got back here safely. thank you so much. michael crowley and rick stengel, thank you for joining us today, and starting off this hour, frank figliuzzi is sticking around with us for later on in the show. when we return, the canadian trucker protest over covid vaccine mandates now blocking a third border crossing with the united states and threatening real damage to economies of both countries. new information about who is behind those protests and the connections they have with the right wing next. rotests and the connections they have with the right wing next. plus, with neither the senate nor the supreme court doing much to protect voting rights, a group of house members is pressing merrick garland and the justice department to step up the fight against republican efforts to restrict ballot access. we'll ask congresswoman barbara lee what they hope the a.g. will do. and we'll round out the hour with a live report from sofi stadium in los angeles, site of sunday's super bowl. "deadline white house" continues after a quick break. "deadline white house" continues "deadline white house" continues after a quick break. my name is austin james. as a musician living with diabetes,

fingersticks can be a real challenge. that's why i use the freestyle libre 2 system. with a painless, one-second scan i know my glucose numbers without fingersticks. now i'm managing my diabetes better and i've lowered my a1c from 8.2 to 6.7. take the mystery out of managing your diabetes and lower your a1c. now you know. try it for free at freestylelibre.us trelegy for copd. ♪ birds flyin' high ♪ ♪ you know how i feel ♪ (coughing) ♪ breeze driftin' on by ♪ ♪ you know how i feel ♪ copd may have gotten you here, but you decide what's next. start a new day with trelegy. ♪ ...feelin' good ♪ no once-daily copd medicine has the power to treat copd in as many ways as trelegy. with three medicines in one inhaler, trelegy helps people breathe easier and improves lung function. it also helps prevent future flare-ups. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler

for sudden breathing problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. do not take trelegy more than prescribed. trelegy may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis. call your doctor if worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain occur. take a stand and start a new day with trelegy. ask your doctor about once-daily trelegy. and save at trelegy.com. alright. y'all know when they say your home ask your doctor about once-daily trelegy. is a reflection of you? well helene found herself in a lamp. no joke. i got a fancy grown up lamp to make me feel like a fancy grown up. mhm. adulting ain't easy. ooh! check this one out. waffles loves her dog bed. we can hardly get her out of it. she's kind of a diva. yes, waffles! living your best life. [woof] i'm telling y'all there's no place like wayfair to make your home totally you. ooh! i want that.

yep, it's go time on the most reliable network. you get unlimited for just $30 bucks. nice! but mine has 5g included. yep, even these guys get it. and the icing on the cake? saving up to $400 bucks? exactly! xfinity mobile. it's wireless that does it all and saves a lot. get the new samsung galaxy s22 series on xfinity mobile. and right now, save big with up to $750 off a new samsung device. switch today.

the protests by canadian truckers over covid vaccine mandates are intensifying. as the premier of ontario today declared a state of emergency in his province, calling the protest, quote, a siege and an illegal occupation. for two weeks, the so-called freedom convoy has brought canada's capital, ottawa, to an essential stand still and in three days, three crossings have been blockaded. nbc notes it's the busiest land crossing between the u.s. and canada and handles nearly 25% of

the trade between the two countries, which means the economic impact is already being felt. supply chains are feeling the strain, and some car manufacturers have had to reduce production. meanwhile, concerns of copy cat protests are mounting. already similar protests have popped up in australia and new zealand and in the u.s., dhs warned of potential protests by truckers that could disrupt the super bowl and even biden's state of the union address on march 1st. joining us now, nbc's cal perry from windsor, ontario, at the ambassador bridge where one of the protests is taking place, also cornell belcher, errin haines, and frank figliuzzi is back with us. cal, i'll start with you. what is going on at the ambassador bridge right now? do we have any new court rulings? do we have any changes in behavior? do we have an escalation of protests or violence or responses? >> reporter: so, jason, i have a legal sort of update for you.

the court has ruled, the superior court here, has ruled there will be an injunction as of 7:00 p.m. now, that means that police at that point would have court's permission to move in here. the details are being worked out right now. they're still back in the courts working out the specifics of what that looks like. there is a palpable sense here that something has to give. this is the biggest, as you said, land crossing between the u.s. and canada, and nothing has moved in five days. now, the protesters say they're going to stay, they're not going to leave, but in having covered these protests here in the u.s., around the world, we'll wait and see once police move in, if that's true. the thing here that is interesting, and you nailed it in your lead, is there is a shared ideology here on this side of the border that is really being fueled not just by fox news and the right-wing media in the u.s., though there is a real, i think, awareness of that. we were at the mcdonald's right here getting warm, getting coffee, and there were protesters inside watching last night's fox news. there is that going on. but there is an awareness, of course, as well that maybe this could happen in the united states, that there could be a truck convoy in the united

states. the fact is, there were less than 100 people here, and there have been less than a hundred people here for five days, and the attention that this protest has been able to get and the effect that it has had, hundreds of millions of dollars a day, according to the mayor here, is something that is spurring people here on, we'll see at 7:00 if the police move in, if that's certainly true or not but as of right now, that seems to be the mood here, jason. >> cal, do people appear prepared for what might happen later on tonight? i mean, look, we've seen protests in the united states, for different kinds of reasons, people will have masks, milk in case they get tear gassed, shields or something else like that. is anybody there prepared for what might happen at 7:00 or do they think this is going to be a staredown where eventually they'll be able to take out the government or cow the government into not doing anything aggressive? >> reporter: so, people are prepared with supplies. that is, like, food and water. this thing that you see in the united states, this battle rattle, like i like to call it, the flak jackets, the helmet, it doesn't happen here because you

don't have a lot of the same circumstances you do in the u.s. number one, firearms. number two, vehicular traffic is not in the front of minds for police. so, i think the idea that we'll see a confrontation the way that we do in the united states is probably unrealistic just because the police here don't operate in that manner. we have a long history in canada of negotiating these things through. there were native protesters two years ago in the western part of the country, they snarled the rail lines for more than two and a half months, protesting a pipeline, and it was negotiated out. now, i'm not saying that the laws didn't change and that those native protesters, the hammer didn't come down on them, but it did not get handled the way we see protests being handled in the u.s. it will be interesting to see here given this is the busiest land crossing between the united states and canada and given there's so much pressure from the u.s. to wrap this up. >> cal, thank you so much for starting us off. appreciate your insight. i'm going to start with you, cornell. the biggest thing that i think about with these blockades and these protests is the fact that

you're not talking about a large number of people. only about 10% of these canadian truckers are not vaccinated. and yet, they're also getting assistance from people in the united states who are similarly driven. what is actually behind this? is it really just 10% are that concerned about a vaccine mandate in their country? or is there some underlying ideology going on here that is driving this kind of behavior? >> you know, those are really good questions, as usual, jason. but i have to start, though, with this, because i was struck by when he said it. the police here just don't operate that way. so, the protesters there aren't afraid that the police are going to come in and kick their asses, right? they don't have a militarized police there in canada with a history of beating them up and teargassing them and siccing dogs on them. i think that is just a fascinating sort of cultural difference. sort of what's going on there in canada versus what we see here in the united states. but at the same time, you know,

if i'm for the women's march, if i'm for a pro-choice march, if i'm for black lives matter marches, i also have to be for them and their right to march, and look, it's usually the most vocal and to a certain extent the extremes that are more mobilized and organized there, so 10%, a squeaky -- it can have quite an impact, but i also did notice that there's trump signs and trump flags there as part of that canadian protest so there's absolutely an ideological element to this and we've seen this in the united states where it's been politicized. the politics of vaccinations is a real thing where the most dug-in group of voters who are anti-vaccines are also the most dug-in group of voters, pro-trump. so there's absolutely an ideological connection to this. >> errin, one of the terms that

i think is -- we hear people talking about a lot, supply chain, supply chain, supply chain, inflation, there's not necessarily enough discussion, i have always thought, about what the supply chain is. it's not some magical machine behind safeway. it is actually human beings and individuals who are sick and can't work or have covid or buildings shut down or have to take care of their kids. if the sort of supply chain issues in the united states start to get a face, if they start getting connected to truckers doing blockades across the country, how do you think that will change americans' perception of inflation? will people start saying, whoa, wait a minute, the reason that my milk is so expensive is because of these truckers? make them move. or do you think people are so sort of driven to blame president biden that it won't matter if these trucking blockades continue? >> well, having truckers be the scapegoat when we know that truckers have certainly been among the essential workers that got us through the pandemic in a lot of ways, delivering a lot of the things that we needed to

keep going, as a society, to have the supply chain disrupted is certainly something that is resonating on a very personal level with many americans, and so to frame the truckers as the disrupters, i think, is something that we haven't seen, and you know, it remains to be seen in terms of whether or not we could see it, but you know, i got to go back to cornell's point and to what some of what cal was pointing out. i smell a double standard here, jason. i mean, i'm not hearing of people dying of the vaccines that are supposed to protect them in a pandemic, but you know what is a pandemic? the ongoing killing of black people by law enforcement and vigilantes in this country, and so you know, people who were taking over highways and brunches in protest, who were black, were not lauded as heroes and they were not lauded as peaceful. in fact, quite the opposite. we know they were demonized and teargassed and arrested just as you mentioned, but that's not a concern that these people like the truckers in canada have, not

only because they are in canada, but probably because they are overwhelmingly white people who do not have that fear of law enforcement in general, and certainly not in a country that is not the united states. and while i'm absolutely not suggesting -- let me just stop right here and say, i'm not suggesting that is what should happen to these truckers in canada but i'm going to point out this does raise questions about who gets to participate in democracy and who gets to make credible claims about their loss of so-called freedom. >> frank, you know, as errin mentions, this isn't just sort of white people, overwhelmingly white people, who might be part of these trucking groups. it also appears to be really concerns about white nationalists being behind some of these protests. some of the trucker convoy organizers, from global news, have connections to white nationalism, canadian television talks about some of the main people behind it, a man named james bauder is the founder of canada unity. ahead of the convoy's arrival in the capital, canada unity

directed a memorandum of understanding to the senate and the governor general. bauder said in a video posted to social media in january that he hoped the m.o.u. would provide a referendum to trigger an election which is not within the agency's constitutional powers. in the same video, bauder said the hope for election would be legitimate because canada does not use the dominion voting machines at the center of rigged election conspiracy theories about the 2020 u.s. presidential election. frank, what i'm hearing here is members of this canadian protest parroting right-wing talking points from the united states. many of these people are also connected to anti-islam, anti-immigration, anti-black organizations. are we seeing a convergence here of sort of white nationalism across the border, under the guise of another vaccine protest? >> so, as i look at what's happening in canada, through a security lens, a domestic threat and risk lens, i see what is a

legitimate concern and protest with every right of free speech and assembly that canadians have, that americans have, but i see it morphed into this feedback loop where we may have exported to canada this kind of far-right extremist idea lolg that you are citing that's infiltrating this group, and now, we're in this feedback loop where every night on our right-wing platforms, we're hearing this is support and encouragement for essentially shutting down international trade, the very same people that would argue that covid and all the mandates and masks and vaccines have shut down our economy are doing what now in canada? shutting down the economy by blocking trade routes. so, there's an unreasonableness to this that's morphed out of a legitimate, fed-up concern that a small group of canadians have with various mandates. there's also an unreasonableness here that i'm watching because i know that new york city, for

example, is in a few days ready to terminate 3,000 municipal workers for not complying with covid requirements and vaccines. could it happen here? yes, it could. could americans look at canada and go, we can do that here too? absolutely. so, we have to monitor this as a risk to trade, to security, and the potential for violence, because of infiltration by the kinds of folks you've just talked about. >> so, errin, i want to go back to this because i thought you made an important point that i wanted to get to, that because of the race and the sort of the work history of some of these people, they might be being treated differently in canada. but we're hearing now information that these protests may start to happen in the united states, that you might have a bunch of truckers who think they can pull this off in inglewood and los angeles before the super bowl. now, my guess is, you're not going to get really far if you try that sort of thing. i don't think the nfl itself would be comfortable with that. but what do you think would happen in the united states if truckers got together and tried to block off the super bowl or

disrupt an event that i think universally a lot of people in this country would want to see not disrupted? >> well, i mean, jason, i assume that you are referring to the concert with dr. dre and snoop and mary j. blige. we will not be missing that for any reason. that's a concern. but look, just as frank said, we are marking the tenth anniversary of the modern civil rights movement, but the same people who would condemn black lives matter are borrowing the slogan for their own ends. unvaccinated lives matter? they do, which is why they're being encouraged to get vaccinated, to try to prevent them from becoming the unvaccinated dearly departed, right? so many of these municipal workers were the same people that we considered to be essential to part of our social fabric. they were on the front lines even before we had a vaccine and were putting themselves and their families at risk to keep our country running and so like, this is not about taking away anybody's freedom. but it's the idea that being vaccinated keeps us and them safe in a way that allows as many of us to have as much

freedom in public spaces like the super bowl as possible. >> cornell, i want to play you some quick sound from fox news. they are cheering this convoy on. i want to get your thoughts on the other side of what impact that could have. >> the canadian trucker convoy is the single most successful human rights protest in a generation. if nothing else, it has been a very useful reminder to our entitled ruling class that working class men can be pushed but only so far. when they push back, it hurts. >> out of touch provincial governments drunk on their own power thought that they could keep canadians subdued with these covid rules forever, but they were wrong. the situation in canada is a preview of what would have happened here if we didn't have a strong populist movement that listens to america's working class voters. >> i mean, look, tucker saying this is the most powerful movement in the last 20 years, i mean, dumb and racist is no way to go through life or be on the

aair, but i got to ask you, cornell, when you have that kind of encouragement, do you think that's going to rally people? going to the super bowl may be one thing for truckers but do you think this might happen in michigan? do you think this might happen in cincinnati where you have the important 75 crossing bridge that a lot of our information goes through? do you think we're going to see protests here in the coming weeks? >> well, if you listen to what fox is doing, and what's happening in canada, i mean, it may have a canadian accent, but it's the same old very american racial dog whistles. i mean, this whole idea of, you know, working class people pushing back, which you know is a stand-in for white working people, and you hear the same sort of victimization and language that they're using there, it's the same sort of dog whistles that they've used here and that trump routinely uses that sort of animates this aggrieved group of voters who feel as though they're losing power and they're anxious and they're fearful of it, and

again, it is dangerous because there is, you know, jason, there is a certain percentage of americans who don't understand the changes that are happening in america and the browning of america and they're anxious about it and i don't want to beat up on them about they're anxious about it but it's fuel to be lit by the likes of tucker and fox with their race baiting and it's problematic, but it's also, yes, it does -- it is a mobilizing effort. those racial dog whistles have historically, and i don't think they're going to stop working any time soon. >> frank figliuzzi, thank you so much for joining us. cornell and errin are going to stay with us. when we return, the fight for voting rights and an urgent call from the congressional black caucus for the justice department to do more or, i don't know, anything. "deadline white house" continues after a quick break. department to do more or, i don't know, anything "deadline white house" continues "deadline white house" continues after qua ick break. turned into their parents. can you believe how many different types of water

they have in this aisle? kim, did you just change blades back there? -ah. -this is perfect. jackpot. variety pack. remember, it's a fool game, not a play date. roger that. one more slice. it can be a lot. oh, good, the manager. uh, brian in produce -- very helpful. progressive can't save you from becoming your parents, but we can save you money when you bundle home and auto with us. -pulls to the left a little bit. -nope. looking to get back in your type 2 diabetes zone? once-weekly ozempic® can help. ♪ oh, oh, oh, ozempic®! ♪ ♪ oh, oh, oh ♪ ozempic® is proven to lower a1c. most people who took ozempic® reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. and you may lose weight. adults lost on average up to 12 pounds. in adults also with known heart disease, ozempic® lowers the risk of major cardiovascular events such as heart attack, stroke, or death. ozempic® helped me get back in my type 2 diabetes zone. ozempic® isn't for people with type 1 diabetes. don't share needles or pens, or reuse needles.

don't take ozempic® if you or your family ever had medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if allergic to it. stop ozempic® and get medical help right away if you get a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, or an allergic reaction. serious side effects may include pancreatitis. tell your provider about vision problems or changes. taking ozempic® with a sulfonylurea or insulin may increase low blood sugar risk. side effects like nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea may lead to dehydration, which may worsen kidney problems. looking to get back in your type 2 diabetes zone? ask your health care provider today about once-weekly ozempic®. ♪ oh, oh, oh, ozempic®! ♪ you may pay as little as $25 for a 3-month prescription. we need to reduce plastic waste in the environment. that's why at america's beverage companies, our bottles are made to be remade. not all plastic is the same. we're carefully designing our bottles to be 100% recyclable, including the caps. they're collected and separated from other plastics, so they can be turned back into material that we use to make new bottles. that completes the circle and reduces plastic waste. please help us get every bottle back.

(music) ♪ i think to myself ♪ ♪ what a wonderful world ♪

this is of existential importance. i mean, the question before us is whether we will continue to have a democracy moving forward. there is no evidence of mass voter fraud in this country. as you know, ali, it's being fabricated to then justify the racist voter suppression that we have seen, and of course we are seeing the effects of that in counties across the nation. especially and particularly where there are large communities of color.

>> congressman jones last night on this network on how the lies about voter fraud are being used to disenfranchise people of color, and it's getting worse. new reporting out of texas finds that 40% of mail-in ballots in harris county, the state's most populous county, are being rejected because of a new voter i.d. law passed in the state in response to claims of voter fraud. on monday, the members of the congressional black caucus sent attorney general merrick garland a letter urging him to do more to protect voting rights, writing, quote, there is no overstating the role of historic racism in modern disenfranchisement and there is no overlooking or downplaying the ruthlessness of those who seek to suppress the vote, adding, while we applaud the litigation that you have filed in some jurisdictions, we encourage and expect you to exponentially increase your efforts to challenge unlawful and unconstitutional voter suppression wherever it occurs.

any state should be met with a lawsuit in defense of the american people. joining us now is congresswoman barbara lee of california, former chair of the congressional black caucus, cornell belcher and errin haines are back with us. is merrick garland meeting the moment? the cbc letter is powerful. it's impassioned. it's very clear. you could put it to music. but you're saying the same thing that the texas delegation said last year. how many times are we going to have people going to the a.g. and saying, you need to do something and he doesn't do anything? is he meeting the moment? what are you not seeing from him so far? >> first of all, doesn't matter how many times, we're going to keep at it until we have the guarantee that every law is going to be enforced. every applicable law. and in fact, the attorney general, of course, you see five lawsuits against texas for their gerrymandering that would deny african american and latino voters the right to vote, and in

fact, we're making sure that he doubles the enforcement staff, the civil rights enforcement staff, and we sent the letter, and i want to commend congressman jones and pressley and our whip, mr. clyburn, for leading this letter, which i was so happy to weigh in and sign as well as many members of the black caucus to say, look, this is a state of emergency. we have, what, 19 states now that have passed 34 laws. this is an attempt not only to go back to the days of jim crow, i mean, i was born and raised in el paso, texas, i know those days, but it's also an attempt to erode the very fabric of our democracy. it's an emergency and we're going to keep on it until we make sure that at least we get the justice department to be very aggressive, but we've got to pass the john lewis voting rights advancement act and the freedom to vote act. we've got to do both because it is an emergency. >> congresswoman, as of right now, there are some lawsuits the department of justice has pursued. what would you ask that they do

that they haven't done? i mean, there's been an argument from many activists and organizers on the ground saying, look, get creative. it's not our job to figure this out. it's your job as the attorney general to do so. what is the suggestion that the cbc has for a new mode of activity from the justice department that they have yet to employ? >> well, we told them, i think, in our letter to be creative, to be relentless, and to be unapologetic, and so that's for them to decide. they've got to be very creative and because this is a state of emergency, and they have the tools, i think, to really move forward to ensure fair and free elections, so whatever they have at their disposal, they need to do, and that's why we sent this letter. they know what they can do and we're making suggestions that they look at every applicable law, make sure they file lawsuits the moment they see gerrymandering, the moment they see the move to disenfranchise primarily african american voters, people of color, people in rural communities, senior citizens, young people, the moment they see this taking

place, they need to come in, very quickly, and file lawsuits and hold up some of these laws as unconstitutional because it's our constitutional right to vote, and these states cannot deny access to that. >> cornell, i see the democratic party as having dual issues heading into the fall. you've got voter suppression, georgia, texas, florida, arizona, where republican legislatures have basically said, yeah, we don't have to count votes if we don't like the particular area. but then you've also got actual polling issues, large numbers of african american voters are disappointed in the president for failing to do anything with the george floyd policing act. large numbers of americans across all races who are working class are concerned about inflation. large numbers of americans are concerned about what seems to be an ongoing status of us dealing with covid. which is more dangerous, the structural suppression or the legislative ineptitude or frustration that many voters seem to be watching right now?

>> oh, brother, i love you. you just outlined the perfect storm. and it is brewing up a perfect storm. let me start with this because it is something i've heard from the white house. look, i think the congressional black caucus, to the congresswoman's point, you got to commend them for holding the administration accountable because they did double the number of enforcement staff because of the efforts of congressional black caucus and what have you, so they are beginning to make a difference. but as to your point, it's a perfect storm. it is chaos. it is -- and look, the story we just were talking about is part of the story here as well. because look, the more chaos, the more turmoil that could be driven, the worse it is for those in power. so, it is the perfect storm where you are -- if you keep making it harder for people to vote, guess what? less people are going to vote. and that's what the -- and that

is what they keep doing so i think you're looking at a midterm where -- and i think we've talked about this before. the problem with the midterms isn't so much that you have millions and millions of people changing their minds from the presidential election year. no, you have millions and millions of people who participated in the presidential election year not participating in the midterms. so, you have an older, more -- less diverse, you know, whiter, more conservative electorate overall, which is the problem. and they're trying to increase that. so, look, i think the white house and democrats have to sort of talk about inflation. look, they don't blame democrats right now for inflation, but they don't hear democrats talking and trying to address inflation but the structural problems around voting rights in some of these key battleground states is absolutely going to hinder our ability to hold on to the senate and congressional seats. >> one last quick question to errin. former president barack obama spoke to democrats yesterday. he said, you guys need to big up

your own victories more. certainly better refused than the take off your house shoes speech that he gave. the do you think that will be enough for members of congress to say, you know what? we do feel better about ourselves or do they need to hear that speech from joe biden and vice president harris? >> i guess what i would say is what a difference a decade and being out of washington makes. i'm old enough to remember when the obama administration was criticized for having the messaging problem, when after obamacare was passed, after his big infrastructure package was passed, the problem was the president wasn't talking about enough about what his signature legislation was going to do for everyday americans and much like now, republicans were ready to stand in the gap and turn healthcare into this lightning rod, talking about death panels and, you know, saying that you didn't build that, pointing to bridges and the infrastructure that was being repaired. but you know, still, i think given that -- giving that kind of pep rally, pep talk on the 15th anniversary of the launch of his historic campaign, seeing their quarterback back on the

field one more time with nostalgia but also encouraging for a party that could be beaten down heading into the midterms where they're expecting to, to borrow another term from 44, maybe take a shellacking. >> congresswoman barbara lee, thank you for spending time with us. cornell and errin are sticking around. thank you so much. cornell and eg around thank you so much. when we return, it is the friday before the super bowl sunday. up next, a live report from sofi stadium in los angeles where the rams will be taking on the cincinnati bengals. "deadline white house" continues after a quick break. gals "deadline white house" continues after a quick break.

my name is douglas. i'm a writer/director and i'm still working. in the kind of work that i do, you are surrounded by people who are all younger than you. i had to get help somewhere along the line to stay competitive. i discovered prevagen. i started taking it and after a period of time, my memory improved. it was a game-changer for me. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. -dad, what's with your toenail? -oh, that...? i'm not sure... -it's a nail fungus infection. -...that's gross! -it's nothing, really... -it's contagious. you can even spread it to other people.

-mom, come here! -don't worry about it. it'll go away on its own! -no, it won't go away on its own. it's an infection. you need a prescription. nail fungus is a contagious infection. at the first signs, show it to your doctor... ... and ask if jublia is right for you. jublia is a prescription medicine used to treat toenail fungus. its most common side effects include ingrown toenail, application site redness... ... itching, swelling, burning or stinging, blisters and pain. jublia is recognized by the apma. most commercially insured patients may pay as little as $0 copay. go to jubliarx.com now to get started.

(music) may pay as little as $0 copay. ♪ i think to myself ♪ ♪ what a wonderful world ♪ alright. y'all know when they say your home is a reflection of you? well helene found herself in a lamp. no joke. i got a fancy grown up lamp to make me feel like a fancy grown up. mhm. adulting ain't easy. ooh! check this one out. waffles loves her dog bed. we can hardly get her out of it. she's kind of a diva. yes, waffles! living your best life. [woof] i'm telling y'all there's no place like wayfair to make your home totally you.

ooh! i want that. they're planning for a super bowl parade already. we did land on this bet, other ideas was to change the name to loss ang less. >> we're going to dominate, we're going to be such great hosts in every way but one. we're going to send them home without the trophy and here, there is a reason why clooney and spielberg's home town is cincinnati but their home is los angeles. this is chilly versus chili, this is about the midwest versus the real west. >> the mayors of cincinnati and los angeles engaging in friendly snack talk. the bengals and rams will face off in super bowl lvi in

englewood california on sunday night. let's bring in shaq brewster and cornell belcher and erin haines are back with us. shaq, give me the idea, what are the sights and sounds and how are people feeling near sofi stadium, is that the traffic that bad already or are people walking around? >> oh, yeah. the traffic is definitely that bad already. but when you're playing that sound with the mayors there, i already heard some of that trash talk when i was at the nfl experience last night. between the rams fans and the bengals fans. there is a lot of energy here in los angeles. especially considering they are playing in their home city and just about a month ago people were concerned and they were speculating whether or not they could have this in the first place with the covid pandemic. one thing that officials are highlighting is that there are precautions in place for fan, they need proof of vaccination, that is cross-checked with identification, if they don't have that, you need that recent negative covid test and then once you get inside you have to have your mask on.

and it is not just at the game, it is the festivities all around the city. people are getting ready to go out and they want to have a good time. >> thank you for that update from the ground. of course he'll by remiss if i did not ask our statistician and reporter, cornell belcher, who do you have for this sunday? >> if i were betting, would you bet for the bengals. but i think the rams are going to win. but i don't think they're going to cover. >> good. i like it. it is a gambling makes sense. erin haines, i know you're watching that concert of 90s stars, who do you have for the game on sunday? rams or bengals. >> this is black history month, don't do it. don't do it to yourself. they're watching you. i have mary j. blige winning the super bowl. i don't know what we're talking about here. but for the purposes of my valentine's day i should say the cincinnati bengals, so go bengals. and big ohio energy there that

we just saw, that was amazing to see that smack talk. i was very impressed. >> thank you all so much for joining you today. >> thank you. >> we'll be back right after a quick break. we'll be back righa we'll be back righa quick break. i'm so glad we could all take this trip together, son yeah. and kayak made getting here so easy- ♪ ♪ here we go. you know i'm a kayak denier! you can't possibly believe kayak compare hundreds of travel sites at once! get out! i will do no such thing.

and don't use kayak to fly home, because it's not real! i'm going back to the room. compare hundreds of travel sites at once. kayak. search one and done. what happens when we welcome change? we can transform our ofworkforce overnightce. out of convenience, or necessity. we can explore uncharted waters, and not only make new discoveries, but get there faster, with better outcomes. with app, cloud and anywhere workspace solutions,

vmware helps companies navigate change-- meeting them where they are, and getting them where they want to be. faster. vmware. welcome change.

this black history month, airlines and schools are honoring for the first time the unsung african american pioneers who dare to explore the skies. wednesday, february 16th, is international black aviation day. and as the chicago defender reports, kasie grant, for delta airlines will receive a

proclamation in georgia. saying, quote, black flight attend ands have been fighting for our fight in the skies and my mission is to spread the word to educate our youth on this special day to honor and celebrate our black pioneers in aviation during black history month. that does it for "deadline: white house" on this friday. thank you for joining us. "the beat" with ari melber starts right now. >> was it not jim jones that say we fly high. >> how high? we could touch the sky. >> look at you. never missed a beat. have a good weekend. always good to see our friend jason johnson in for nicolle. welcome everyone into "the beat." the president meeting with allies today to counter the vladimir putin incursion into ukraine. it requires every