them, it's a historic day for georgia, it's a historic day for america, alex. >> it is indeed. ben crump, thank you so much for everything. >> thank you. >> that is all in on this tuesday night, the rachel maddow show starts now. maddow show starts now tuesday inside, "the rachel maddow show" with ali velshi starts now good evening, ali. >> a few hours ago, someone tweeted that what donald trump was genius, a smart thing, you tweeted earlier, you said if trump is re-elected in 2024, canada better watch out. i thought of that as a canadian, it's like going in and grabbing a place. they speak the same language, they seem to want you, but they don't want you as the boss >> donald trump called the

invasion of a sovereig >> thank you, alex. ha in ukraine, the headquarts of the defense ministry is a pale baby blue building. despite the color, actually a formidable building. look at all of the big columns and the windows, from an aerial view, it almost looks like a square version of the u.s. pentagon. today at that building, the ukrainian ministry of defense, a funeral was held for a soldier killed in eastern ukraine. in an area that was controlled, is controlled by members of the pro-russian separatists. theyo- marched his body inside e defensein ministry which is whe they held his funeral service, the honor guard then took him tn his final resting place at a cemetery in the nation's capital. that soldier's name, anton seederoff. he was a 35-year-old captain, ukrainian officer in the

ukrainian army. the first officer killed in weeks in a conflict with pro-russian separatists that's been raging since fweent. his death,en though, his funera service today took on a heightened sense of symbolism. it was the first funeral service that they held since the russian president vladimir putin announced the incursion of ukraine. today, following the funeral service for the captain, there was a demonstration outside the russians embassy in kyiv, protesting putin's decision to sendti troops into the country. protesters held t up signs that said never surrender, donbas isr ukraine. and we choose europe, not ro russia. there's a big protest in the city of mariupol today which is the part of ukraine which putin says he's no longer recognizing as being part of ukraine. there, they flew the ukrainian

flag and a russian flag with a big "x" drawn through it. there are protests outside of ukraine as well, this is prague, the czech republic, the former soviet country. they unfolded a giant ukrainian flag in the square. this is in berlin, a group in germany, staged this protest outside the embassy there. this is the russian embassy in paris. protesters waved signed that said long live ukraine. this fan marched with his fist in the air and ukrainian flag around his neck. despite outcry of leaders in the western world, despite the outcry of everyday people around the world today vladimir putin made a fresh set of demands. putin demanded that ukraine officially recognizend crimea a part of russia. that part of ukraine that he unlawfully seized in 2019. and also all of the advance

weaponry supplied by the united states and all american allies and that ukraine abandon any aspiration of joining nato. in 2018, putting ukraine as a goal. putin ordering the use of military force outside of russia. last night, the united states slapped sanctions on those two part of ukraine that putin has deemede as independent. today, president biden announced two sanctions against russia ai self-on two major banks, on the russian sovereign debt that means russia will be cut off from the systems. russian elites and their families will be sanctioned in the coming days. and the white houseco promised that more sanctions would be forthcoming if putin continues with an invasion in ukraine. butted president made it quite clear this afternoon that he believes putin has already crossed that line. >> this is a beginning of a

russian invasion of ukraine as he indicated and asked permission to be able to do from this douma. who in the lord's name does putin feel gives him the right to declare new solid countries on territory that belonged to his neighbors? this is a flagrant violation of national law and demands the response from the international community. >> presidentm biden announced would be sending troops to eastern e europe. the president has already deployed around 6,000 troops to germany, poland, and romania. these additional troops will be deploy to the baltic states to estonia, latvia and lithuania, you can see it's almost everywhere you can put troops withoutev infringing on countri that aren'tth part of ukraine. and the house saying it's considering authorization that would allow the united states to

supply aid for pro-ukrainian fighters to counter russian forces. the u.s. senate also considering an emergency spending bill that would shore up nato and ukraine. today, the senate majority leader chuck schumer with a briefing on c the entire senate. president biden concluded his remarks saying he hopes diplomacy is still available. ati ukraine foreign minister sa a solution to the crisis is still plan a. but looking less likely by the hour. today, the secretary of state cancelled a meeting with the russian foreign minister. he said he viewed russia's action az a wholesale rejection and would not be rewarding that with a meeting. and president biden and president putin would schedule a session and that also is called

off. all pointing to the fact they believe putin has made up his mind to invade ukraine and in that some wayde that invasion hv begun. according to officials in the european union russian boots are already on the ground in ukraine. the first of so-called peacekeepers, i'm putting aun l ofpe quotes on either side of peacekeepers. the ukrainian president responded today calling up reservists for military training, now past what would be consideredno a boiling point. either the russians decide to turn down the heat t or the who thing is about to overflow. joining us live from kyiv is terrel jermaine starr. he's the founder and host of the black diplomats broadcast and senior council at the atlanta eurasia center. terrell, the invasion by most accounts have begun the way some

people expected do to. diplomacy is gearing down, meetingsri cancelled. sanctions are beefing up, tell us how you see this unfolding? >> well, first of all, thanks for having me on the show. with regards to the official -- quote-unquote official recognition of independent of the donbas region thatt was fairly predictable. putin had to go back to his people with something. diplomacy was never an option. and putin does not recognize the sovereigncy of ukraine. he never has. in fact, russia since 1991 has never really psychologically embraced ukraine as a country of independence and people of their own individual agency. in regards to another thing about the word "invasion," the

invasion started back in 2014. and people here mainly have one main question which is what is biden's red line? putin has made his red line with nato very clear. for example, does the invasion mean, hey, if you go beyond the donbas region and take every the entire donbas, because a lot of people don't know that a lot of donbas is under ukrainian control. does thatun mean invasion surrounding the city of kyiv, does invasion mean that you're taking the city of mariupol which will i was at recently. so people feel there's a very blurred line that the west is used with regards to invasion. as far as they're concerned it's been ongoing eight years. >> we've been talking about the big lie in america for a long time. this is another sort of big lie, right? there's a narrative coming out of vladimir putin about the role

of ukraine historically and its relationship to russia which does deny ukrainians their agency. it does deny them a history as a country. they've got a country, a culture and a history. russia would like the world to believe it's just all part of al russia? >>rt listen, ali, i think you'r going to appreciate what i'm about to say, this is nothing but putin pull your brain theory. he has essentially made up lies about aly country that he feels should never haveat left the russian n empire. we talked about the ussr. but in reality, putin sees is himself as catherine the great. this country was annexed and taken over by catherine the great in the late 1700s. putin describes ukrainians in

the way that white racists describe people of color. i think because ukrainians quote-unquote look white americans can't possibly see a white person not having any control whatsoever over their their individual agency. but that's exactly what's happening here,t this is -- it imperialism, but it goes deeper than politics. theth way putin describes it. one more thing, in his speech, what a lot of people are not paying attention, what he said about crimea, calls them ca terrorists. he hass a very islamophobic mind-set against crimea tartars, and she's basically trying to rewrite history and make the history that ukrainians themselves don't fully exist because he doesn't think the countryca of ukraine ever exist which is very consistent with the attitudes of post-1991

leadership in russia and the douma. so this is a long time coming to the lack of respect and lack of agency that russian leadership has always held. and it's always actually preceded vladimir putin. >> terrell, every time i talk to you i get smarter about a history that i do not know enough of the history that should. thank you. host of the black diplomatics podcast, terrell jermaine starr in ukraine. joining us news, melissa slotkin, before becoming a member of congress, congresswoman slotkin did three tours in iraq. and held a senior post at the pentagon where she oversaw policy on russia europe, middle east and africa. congresswoman, thank you for being with us. pleasure to have you here tonight. >> thanks for having me. >> i'm sensing there's some si possibility, despite the fact

that bipartisanship is hard to come by on congress. there's some potential for bipartisan action in the coming days ashe there has been, as it relates to russia and its incursion into ukraine? >> absolutely. i was actually was just at the munich security conference this weekend with a warren delegation of senators and members of congress, you could feel the feeling in the roomfe was, look we have a lot of differences between us when it comes to deterring russia, pushing back onte russia, we were tag teamin in our meetings, and the sanctions were were discussing and legislation, it's a good and comforting thing. >> there's a lot of things we can agree to do in pay bipartisan fashion and then the issue ofon troops. 43 members of the house sent a letter to president biden today urging him to receive authorization from congress before invoking u.s. armed forces in the conflict between russia and ukraine. someone argued, that's the way

it's supposed to go. president should be able to sign off. you were not a signatory to this letter. tell me why. s >> o well, mostly because the president has been very clear, frankly, i think a little too clear that we were never going to send u.s. men and women to fight inen russia -- ukraine, excuse me. he's been saying that a long time so he's not clear he's not seeking permission c from congrs to go into armed conflict with russians. youed can debate whether showin our cards like that was the right thing to do he's been pretty consistent about that. terms of reinforcing our nato allies, that's not something you needli approval from congress from. you do needval approval to fign ad war and i just don't think that's where we're going. >> it's not thatre you have an objection to what they're saying, you feel it's not necessary? >> t'correct. congress basically since the iraq s war has been derelict in its duty to provide authorization. congress has just said, you know

what it's too political, who sensitive, we don't want to get involved. i have a real problem with that. >> i want to put up a map of nato and ask you, given that we do have mutual defense treaties. that's a real treaty between presidents and countries. we do have a mutual defense relationship with nato w countries. russia seems to be awfully cautious about not encroaching on a nato country.be what's th role of those bright green countries a member of which we areun in nato in this conflict? >> well, look, there's a big difference between a country thathe is part of the nato trea and a country like ukraine that isan not. the president hasne made it ver clear they're going to reinforce our nato allies, that's where our ships are going, our trains, all centered on putin thinking for one minute that he can go into a nato country. so the role is to reinforce. you know, i think there's a good debate to be had about what we could be doing for ukraine.

ico feel like we could be probay be doing stronger things for ukraine. i think it's to send a really strong symbol to putin that ukraine and nato allies are different. if you touch the nato allies you're going to get a response from the entire alliance. >> i guess the question what happens if he doesn't? does what he did in 2008 and 2014 and now, takes kyiv and ultimately installs a pro-russian government that ukraine has had a couple times before in the last 20 years and doesn't go any further. what does that look like in the rear view mirror when the world stood in and allowed another country to overtake another country. >> toyeah, not good. not good, right? i think first and foremost, i think about china. i think about china, what they're learning from this exchange.ey our level of sort of forceleness and responding when one country, russia, tries to take over another country, ukraine. it's not just china.

ever would-be autocrat in the world is watching to see the united states' response to this and i think it's a real concern. i think the days of the cold war where we had such a clear military deterrent are gone, right? people don't know sort of our level of seriousness. and i think that does not bode e well. it may seem far away for many americans. ukraine may seem very far away, but it has major implications for the next 10 to 15 years. >> maybe the most important place you hardly thought about, democratic congresswoman elissa slotkin. still ahead, the u.s. and eu have imposed serious economic sanctions on russia. still enough to deter putin? stick around. stick around

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today, the u.s., the uk and

all 27 eu member nations unanimously imposed sweeping restrictions against russia, or to use president biden's words, carving out a big chunk of ukraine. the big sanctions differ between the three groups, but the broad strokes are the same. all of them sanction russian banks, elite russian individuals. and the u.s. is fully sanctioning two of russia's banks, veb, and russia's military bank psb, the military bank alone handles 70% of russia's defense contracts and it's the smaller of the two banks. the u.s. is also sanctioning a handful of elite russian individuals. and cutting off u.s. financing the russian sovereign debt. in addition to the sanctions imposed by the uk and eu, germany delivered what might be the biggest economic blow

against russia by halting russia's nord stream 2 pipelines. you see two pipelines one in red is nord stream 1, nord stream 2. nord stream 2 is not online yet, it's not built. and whether it would reject the potential flow of double the production from russia, but today, germany did just that. the west presented a united front. all groups involved. it's very clear this is just the first round of sanctions and that significantly worse punishments are ready if russia continues to advance. but what exactly would those harsher sanctions be? would they target putin personally? how quickly would they get russia to the negotiating table given that sanctions generally have a long-term impact? and what type of economic impact could all of this have on us in the united states. joining me somebody who will nose a great deal about

sanctions, the senior policy adviser in the sanctions treasury division in the obama administration back when the united states imposed sanctions on russia in 2014 for annexation of crimea. i think you and i talked every single day for the last few days. let me ask you about the seriousness of these sanctions. why i say this, i think back to when you were involved in iran. for year, iran had been dawdling with everybody and not really getting down to business. and then the u.s. treasury imposed certain types of sanctions that were so effective that got them to the table and ended up resulting in the iran nuclear deal. what's that magic bullet for russia? >> i'm glad you mentioned iran because i was thinking about it during your introduction. people always say sanctions don't work until they do, right? iran is a perfect example of that, one that brought them to the negotiating table with sanctions with the oil sector,

right, the ones that prevented other countries from purchasing the oil from iran from benefitting from the proceeds, right? and that's also, for russia, the oil and gas sector is a major hit, you mentioned in your introduction. the sections related to nord stream 2 pipeline, which germany did, we needed germany to do that, lean on that, that robbed russia of billions, billions with a "b." billions of dollars, and that money will go into the regime, to prop up putin's regime. so those will be strong. and the sanctions from the biden administration, the bottom line, all of those sanctions are very tough. they will inflict financial pain on russia but they may not be enough to walk him back from what he's just done. >> so, what is that, how does one find the may not be enough? what's the thing? in iran, you're talking about the oil sanctions. there was the removal of iran from the s.w.i.f.t. system. people couldn't do anything, you

couldn't sell carpet, anything that required international currency or an international bank. what's the equivalent for russia that would hurt? i assume it's oil and gas because it's the biggest thing they sell. >> oil and gas would be huge, because russia is so integrated into the international financial system, they do make them a target that is easy to hit with sanctions but at the same time, they would retaliate and there would be backlash or u.s. and european business and also global markets, right? so if they rob the europeans in the gas they that he export to europe, currently 40% of gas from russia, then that would cause the price skyrocketing all over the place, right, because europe would have to find a new source, have to fix its refineries, production ability. >> it would affect our prices here because oil and gas go up globally?

>> that would affect us here. that said, that doesn't mean there aren't a number of options that the state department could pursue. you have more russia financial institutions. we haven't yet seen any export controls put in place on export and sale of u.s. technology that supports its gas sector, its efforts to diversify economy, its efforts to develop technology and its mobile sector and so on. that would hit them hard. of course, you have russian oligarchs, you're for years have allowed those russian oligarchs to park their assets there, invest in real estate, set up their businesses there. there's a lot of opportunity there. what the eu did today was also impressive given that it requires consensus of all members that includes hungary, and hungary is close to russia, right. that's a strong message. you have cutting off the s.w.i.f.t. relationship. and putin sanctioned himself.

you can ramp it up. one thing i would end here, secretary janet yellen said in the press release that i thought this was very key she said this is the beginning of the dismantling the kremlin's financial network. meaning they have a lot less in the hopper and they want president putin to stop in his tracks there are more to hopefully walk backwards with a strategy, you know, another strategy, a broader strategy in place as well. >> we'll look every day as the new things come out, people don't know exactly what to make of them? that's when we call you and say is this the big one? thank you my friend. details in the federal hate crimes trial against the three men that kill illed ahmaud arbery and the jury verdict that civil rights leaders are calling, quote, precedent

setting. up next, a different kind of precedent actively rooting against the american president and for vladimir putin led by donald trump. stay with us. stay with us

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in the summer of 2016 at the republican national convention that was prepared to nominate donald trump to be the gop candidate for president, the republican party suddenly and inexplicably changed its platform on russia and ukraine. ever since russia annexed crimea in 2014 and began to support russian separatists. that summer of 2016, the republican party officially renounced support for arming ukraine in that fight against russia. one rnc delegate said it was trump himself who directed that change in the platform. it was such a weird specific thing. but it was just the beginning.

we soon learned that trump campaign officials were entertaining at least two different proposals to hand over ukrainian territory to russia. the mueller investigation found the trump campaign chair who before taking the job from trump for free had worked for ukraine's proposed autocrat had multiple discussions with the intelligence officer about a so-called peace plan. trump's campaign chair himself admitted the plan was a back door means for russia to control ukraine. another so-called peace plan was delivered to the desk of president trump's national security adviser during his first month in office, hand-delivered by donald trump's personal lawyer. imagine, that, it, too, proposed handing over eastern ukraine and invading crimea. you see if you give putin everything he wants, voila, you shall have peace.

as soon as trump took office in 2017, his administration secretly set about to lift sanctions on it and congress found out about it and blocked it. trump only grudgingly signed it because congress passed it by big bipartisan veto-proof margins. then he eagerly set up a summit in helsinki with vladimir putin where he stood next to the russian leader and sided with him over american intelligence agencies on the issue of that russian election meddling. trump spent his whole term in office disparaging nature toe, yelling at our allies, advocating for putin to get back to world meets because he invaded ukraine. and he was actually impeached for a scheme in which he suspended american aid to ukraine, ousted the american ambassador there, and generally isolated and threatened the

ukrainian government. so, today when donald trump put out a statement say, quote, i know vladimir putin very well. and he would have never have done this during the trump administration what he is doing now. no way. well, first of all, let's just take a moment to spit laughing your beverage through your nose. second of all, why would putin -- why would putin have invaded ukraine back then anyway when he had so many irons in the fire in the trump administration so many ways to get ukraine to capitulate without actually invading. ways that the american president donald trump was helping him with? this apparent new line from trump and his allies that putin was too intimidated by strong virile donald trump to dare to invade ukraine while president. numerous republicans are now claiming putin is invading ukraine now because joe biden is weak not like donald trump who stands up to putin. in fact, here is donald trump

just this afternoon on right wing radio demonstrating his toughness with putin. >> i went in yesterday and there was a television screen. and i said, this is genius. putin declares a big portion of the ukraine, of ukraine, putin declare it as independent. oh, that's wonderful. so putin is now saying it's independent, a large section of ukraine. i said, how smart is that? he's going to go in and be a peacekeeper, that's the strongest peace force -- we could use that on our southern border. that's the strongest peace force i've ever seen, there were more tanks. they're going to keep peace. you got to say that's pretty savvy. that's genius, aren't you bowled over by his tough jns not only saying that invasion of ukraine is wonderful, genius and savvy

and admiring putin's display of military might and suggesting that united states ought to emulate it on our own border. yes, vladimir putin must be so relieved that donald trump is no longer president. joining us, ben rhodes, deputies security adviser in the obama administration. ben, thank you for joining us. it's remarkable that the lies flow as quickly as they do. i want to get your reaction from those comments not just from donald trump calling putinen's invasion of ukraine ingenious and savvy, and republicans are getting behind it? >> we have to recognize that these will play on a loop. that's been the case with tucker carlson's segments with mike pompeo lavishing praise on vladimir putin. and trying to convince his public that what he's doing is

not an overreach but actually enjoys support around the world and positions him as a strong leader and strong man which is how he wants to be seen. so this is something that is a propaganda gift to putin. and it's patently absurd. but i think, if we're honest about this, there are elements of the republican party that truly admire vladimir putin. he represents the type of leadership, kind of shameless capacity and will to power that he embodies is something that trump has sought to emulate. and let's be honest, too, the kind of ethnonationalist authoritarian tendencies that putin is the vanguard of and elements rise in the united states. so there's a natural affinity here, that has been, to be, pardon the pun here, the elephant in the room for the republican party since at least 2016. >> let's talk about some more of where this is going.

trump and his allies talking about how tough trump was with putin. that putin wouldn't have done something like this while trump was around. dramatically -- you're right, there wasn't an invasion in 2014. but now an ongoing war the whole time of which 14,000 people have died most of which donald trump was president. >> yeah, it's a completely absurd claim and the reality is part of what putin was doing is letting trump do his work for him. in terms of dismantling the post cold car and security architecture of nato and transatlantic security alliance. trump was the wrecking ball in that space and that's exactly what putin wants. i want to take head on this idea that you could argue that trump and his weakness was preventing the kind of escalation we're seeing from putin. i think the reality is what putin was waiting for and probably what he would have gotten in a second trump term is

further u.s. distancing not just from ukraine but from europe and nato itself. and if you listened to that speech from vladimir putin yesterday. if you look closely at his world view, one way or another, he was going to subjugate ukraine. one way or another, he was going to try to eliminate ukraine as a sovereign country. that's exactly what he told us yesterday. that's what he believes. if that was going to be made easier for him because united states was going to hang ukraine on a limb, then he was going to wait and see if that happened. oh, by the way, if united states distanced itself further from nato, you'll recall, donald trump had to be dragged kicking and screaming just to restate the basic principle that united states had the defense of the nato allies. in a second term what putin would have waited for the circumstance that maybe even the united states membership in nato was in question. once he'd subjugated ukraine.

his capacity to try to control the politics in further countries in europe or nato member states would have been enhanced. not only is it false to say donald trump was strong for putin. that's absurd anybody with two eyes and ears knows that's not true. even to say this kind of chummy relationship that he had with putin was somehow going to avert what we're seeing. i don't think that's true either. i think one way or another, vladimir putin was going to do what he was going to do and trump would make it easier if he had four more years. >> ben rhodes, deputy security adviser under president obama. there are two stories of persistence page off. one that rachel has been has been following for years. and the family of ahmaud arbery fought to make sure that the three men who murdered their son would also face justice for federal hate crimes. stay with us. crimes. stay with us

who were convicted in the state court murder of last fall

forever killing 25-year-old ahmaud arbery in 2020 while he was running down a public georgia street were found guilty again. this time for federal hate crimes. it took the jury just two hours to determine that all three men were guilty of hate crimes and attempted kidnapping. the federal case hinged on prosecutors' ability to show that racism motivated the three men to erroneously identify ahmaud arbery as a criminal and chase him down the street and finally murder him. during the trial, prosecutors were able to produce a litany of text messages and quotes for all three men of violence. calling them the "n" word, monkeys and subhuman, savages. and posts advocating violence against black people. today's guilty verdicts could mean the men will face life in

prison for these federal crimes, in addition to the life sentences they already received for their state murder convictions three months ago. many civil rights leaders applauded the guilty verdicts calling it, quote, precedent-setting. but this almost never did happen. we know that the state murder case against these three men almost never happened. the men walked away from the crime scene free february 2020. the district attorney ordered police officers not to make arrests she failed to file any charges. the men remained free and uncharged until may of 2020, more than two months after the murder, when the video of the shooting taken by one of the men pursuing arbery was leaked. that video sparked enough outrage that the georgia bureau of investigation took over the case from the local cops. the leak of the video is what led to the murder conviction in the fall. today, ahmaud arbery's family explained they had to intervene in order to make sure this federal hate crimes trial would

happen because last month, the justice department reached a plea deal with two of the three men charged with hate crimes that would have allowed them to serve their sentences in federal prison which they thought would be easier than state prison. ahmaud arbery's mother spoke against the plea deal in court on january 31st calling it disrespectful. she said, quote, ahmaud didn't get the option of a plea. the judge then rejected the deal. and allowed the trial to continue. ahmaud arbery's mother explained the result of her intervention this way today. >> what we got today we would have gotten today if it wasn't for the fight of the family. what the doj did today, they was made to do today. it wasn't because what they wanted to do. they were made to do their job today. >> they were made to do it today. this is the important part. joining us now, paul butler,

georgetown law professor, msnbc analyst, mr. butler, it's good to see you tonight. ahmaud arbery's mother makes an interesting case that the department of justice, the federal government, doesn't often pursue these cases. in fact, it's the first time one of these has been successfully prosecuted according to ben crump in the state of georgia ever. why is that? >> so, ali, this prosecution was symbolic in part because the three defendants had already been sentence to life in prison in the state murder case. the federal convictions are insurance in the unlikely event that the state convictions are overturned. more importantly, the jury verdict represents an official -- an official recognition that mr. arbery was killed because he was black. race didn't come up in the state file, because the prosecutors didn't have to prove racial animus, in order to lend their

murder conviction, but mr. arbery's lawyer said it was important that the racism be recognized and that's what the jury did. saying that the three defendants willfully mr. arbery's right to be in a public street and did that based on anti-black prejudice. >> you bring up an interesting point. people say why go through this process, cases do get overturned. but the state trial that convicted these three men and gave them life in prison is based on an entirely set of arguments that the federal crime were based on. so if one were overturned it wouldn't necessitate the overturning the other? >> yeah, these are independent trials and the government had to prove different things in this case. the prosecution presented a mountain of evidences that the three men had said racist things on social media and personal conversations. and the defense said we've said racist things in the past but

not about ahmaud arbery. defendants claim that they killed mr. arbery in self-defense, not because he was black. but, ali, in the end, the jury found enough connection between the defendants' racism in their pursuit and killing of mr. arbery. >> given how many times you and i have had this conversation over the year, paul, what difference does it make? what does it change now on the record that there's accountability for the racism of it? because we've described things like in the last few years as lynching, old-fashioned lynching. there was no right afforded to the person who was murdered. what does this do other than satisfy people that it feels right? >> so, this conviction certainly does not make up for the hundreds of cases in which black people have been lynched and their killers never brought to justice. but it does signal that the united states, and the south are different places than mississippi in the 1950s, where

emmett till was mentioned that his killers were never convicted. the fact that the majority like rural georgia convicted three white men of killing an african american means that prosecutors may be more willing to bring these cases in the future. because they know that juries are more willing to commit than they might have been five years ago. there was one black man on the jury. and ali, in the sign of progress, the jurors made him the foreperson. >> when he delivered the verdict, he's said to be in tears. paul, thank you for joining us, paul butler, georgetown professor, former legal prosecutor and msnbc analyst. we appreciate your time. coming up next, the story that rachel was the first to cover that today had a very positive outcome. stay with us. y positive outcome stay with us

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equal pay! equal pay! equal pay! that was, of course, the world cup crowd chanting "equal pay" after the u.s. women's national soccer team scored their fourth world title in france. if you've been a fan of this show, you know that trms has

been covering the team's long six-year long fight for equal pay for several years now. that point reached the tipping point in 2019, when 28 players filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against the uk soccer federation in the leadup to the world cup, they argue, quite, despite the fact that these female and male players are called upon to perform the same job responsibilities, thefemale players are paid less than their counterparts. this is true even though their performance has been superiorto that of the male players and the female players have become world champions. that was hanging over the soccer team as they took over the world cup title. two days after that captivating win, the team leader megan

rapinoe joined rachel. >> the conversation is not about equal pay anymore. it's everybody. if you're not down with equal pay at this point, or equality, or whatever it is you're so far out o even go there, i think it's time to move to the next phase. >> well, today, they finally moved to the next phase. and they won their hard-fought six-year battle. the players reached a $24 million settlement with the ugg soccer federation to settle that equal pay lawsuit. "the new york times," perhaps perhaps more notable is the u.s. soccer's pledge in all competitions including the world cap. that gap was once seen as an unbridgeable divide preventing any equal pay settlement. if is closed by the federation in negotiations with both teams, the change would funnel millions of dollars to a new generation

of national women players. end quote. the settlement falls short of the $66 million that the athletes were initially seeking in back pay. this settlement is still a victory for the women's soccer team and nationwide. how's that for ending the show on a positive note? that does it for us. we'll see you tomorrow. "way too early with jonathan lemire" is up next. there's still time to avert the worst case scenario that will bring untold suffering to millions of people if they move as suggested. the united states and our allies and partners remain open to diplomacy if it is serious. president biden calling russia's actions in ukraine the beginning of an invasion says diplomacy is still on the table. but, listen, the window for that, it is closing really fast. the u.s. cancelling high-level meetings in moscow. we have three questions what diplomatic actions are left? what action is the u.s. taking on the military front? an