tv MSNBC Reports MSNBC April 2, 2022 4:00am-5:00am PDT
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♪♪ breaking right now on msnbc, another potential major embarrassment for vladimir putin. a russian official said ukrainians attacked a fuel depot on russian soil. now we're hearing from president zelenskyy about those claims. >> translator: everybody must know that if we are pressed in a corner on our territory, we will respond the way we can. breaking in washington, a look at jenny thomas' influence in trump world. the wife of a supreme court justice would send trump memos who to hire and who to fire.
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listen to how white house authorities describe the people that she wanted president trump to bring in the administration. >> sometimes there would be things as extreme as suspected foreign intelligence asset or spy. that is the quality of material that we're working with here. plus a political flash point in florida, republican governor ron desantis under fire as he targets the lgbtq community in schools across the state. one analyst says it's part of an ugly pattern we've seen from him before. good morning. it is saturday, april 2nd. i'm corey coffin live in new york city. if there's one thing many leaders can agree on when it comes to vladimir putin isis that ego. two days after the invasion of ukraine started politico talked to experts why putin made the decision. one response, "attacking ukraine has probably assuaged his damaged ego from the claim that
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russia is a declining power" one reason these images could be a big deal in this war. a russian official says this is what is left after a ukrainian strike on an oil depot on russian land. ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy was asked about it last night on fox news. >> did you order the attack into russian soil, the ukrainian helicopter attack on a russian military depot across from kharkiv, across the border in russia? >> translator: i'm sorry, i do not discuss any of my orders as commander in chief, the leader of this state, and there are things which i only share with the military armed forces of ukraine. >> he went on to say that if they are pressed in a corner, in their territory, ukraine will respond "the way we can." so if this does turn out to be a
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ukrainian attack on russian soil, it could be a blow to russian morale and embarrassment to putin. it could put the white house in a tough spot. it's doing everything it can to avoid a direct confrontation with russia. jen psaki was asked about this in the white house position on friday. here's how she tried to thread the needle. >> given we have not confirmed or commented specifically on the reports from here and neither has ukraine, i'm not going to get into a future hypothetical. i'd reiterate again this is a war of aggression by the russian leadership, by president putin that has left millions of people displaced, homeless, has targeted civilians, hospitals, and other innocent people across ukraine. we know who the aggressor is, that is president putin and russia. >> and if this attack potentially by ukraine comes to light that it is true, it wouldn't be the only embarrassment for president putin this week.
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one new report says russia doesn't even have a commander on the battlefield. another says they're now having to train syrian mercenaries to stop it and another backs up the claim that putin is being misled by his closest advisers. now we will get to all of that later on in the show. we'll begin our analysis. we want to begin this morning first with the latest on the ground in ukraine. there are many reports coming out about movement from russia, exactly where they're going to be targeting next, and who they're going to be targeting next. we're also hearing reports of different civilian casualties and exactly how many troops have been lost. so let's get to the very latest with ali raffa. we're actually going to move on from this report here and hold for a moment with molly hunter, and we want to move on to ali raffa with capitol hill news. we'll pivot just a moment and go to some big capitol hill news and developments in the january 6th investigation. so there are new reports the
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panel will seek testimony from ginni thomas, the wife of supreme court justice clarence thomas, after startling revelations about just how much influence she reportedly had in the trump white house. the committee is also looking into a seven-hour gap in white house call logs from january 6th. for more we're joined by nbc news correspondent allie raffa on capitol hill. we had to pivot to you quickly on what's happening on capitol hill. it's very important. what do we know about the january 6th committee seeking testimony from ginni thomas? >> reporter: there were a lot of developments on the january 6 front this week. the committee met behind closed doors to discuss whether they should all in ginni thomas interview or subpoena her for her records. there's no final decision whether they'll do that yet, one major reason ginni thomas to be key to the investigation because the committee, some members say,
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that they feel like they only have half of the pieces to this wider puzzle based on those 29 texts that they are in possession of when mark meadows was briefly cooperating with the committee last year, since that's not the case, willing to face possible criminal charges for not working with the committee but the texts drop off abruptly in december and january of last year. they're saying these impassioned texts, there is a possibility there are more of them, they can't get them from mark meadows. they may be able to get them from ginni thomas, so that's why there is a discussion on capitol hill, where she should come, whether justice clarence thomas should recuse himself. it's a point of debate on capitol hill. >> we'll break down the points coming up and the implications all of this has moving forward. allie raffa, thank you for stepping with us from capitol hill this morning. we'd like to pivot back to the war in ukraine and the very
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latest on the ground. for that, let's go to molly hunter. >> corey, good morning to you. this would be significant if it turns out to be true. russian defense officials claimed there was an attack inside russia, the ukrainian helicopters hit a fuel depot. we have asked the ukrainians for any confirmation. ukrainian officials said multiple times they will neither confirm or deny it, but really, corey, this morning, again, all eyes on mariupol on the possible evacuation the icrc has brokered. yesterday it was attempted, it failed and today we are told there are about ten buses in addition to icrc vehicles headed into mariupol. the icrc said it is critical the parties respect the agreements and provide security guaranties. over the last few days the icrc made a big point, put out statements they wanted the world and both sides to know as civilians come out, they will be bringing in life-saving aid. corey, an estimated 100,000 people still trapped inside living in basements. they do not have food. they do not have water and the
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icrc, the red cross is bringing in life-saving medical supplies, life-saving food, things these people desperately need. overnight president zelenskyy accused europe of ignoring mariupol and also spoke about the troop situation in the north and the general state of play. i want to give you an update from the uk defense ministry. ukrainian forces continue to advance against russian forces who are withdrawing in the city of kyiv, along the northwestern access ukraine attempted to move toward hostomel, where the russian troops took over the airport in the first days of the war and update from the defense ministry in the east, in the east of ukraine, ukrainian forces have secured a key route into eastern kharkiv after heavy fighting. we'll be keeping an eye on mariupol today and keep you posted if those vehicles get in, and if any of those civilians actually make it out. back to you.
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>> much life-saving, much-needed life-saving supplies, thank you. let's transition to hollywood and new fallout after sunday's night shocking episode at the oscars. will smith is resigning from the academy after slapping presenter chris rock and adding he will accept further consequences as we learn more about what happened behind the scenes with police and why smith was allowed to stay in the building. miguel almaguer is in hollywood with more. >> i never felt so immediately devastated. >> reporter: will packer, the oscar's top producer, detailing the drama back stage as police spoke to chris rock, ready to address will smith. >> oh, wow! >> they were saying this is battery. we will go get him. we are prepared. you can press charges. we can arrest him. chris was, he was being very dismissive of those options. he was like, no, i'm fine. >> reporter: after the shocking attack, the academy says smith
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was asked to leave the ceremony, but refused. packer tells abc news smith, who was seated in the front row, was ultimately allowed to stay, because packer thought rock didn't want to make a bad situation worse. >> they were about to physically remove will smith, and i had not been a part of those conversations, and so i immediately went to the academy leadership that was on site, and i said chris rock doesn't want that. >> reporter: while smith lateer apologized to rock on social media, he has not responded to our request for comment. packer says rock saved the show. >> because chris handled the moment with such grace and aplomb, it allowed the show to continue. >> reporter: with will smith still facing possible sanctions from the academy, this hollywood drama is far from over.
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>> miguel almaguer reporting. later this hour, florida's republican governor under fire for the state's new anti-gay law and now even threatening disney for speaking out against it. we will talk to florida's first openly gay state senator about the ripple effect of the don't say gay law. but first we'll dive deeper into what could be a major embarrassment for vladimir putin if it turns out ukraine launched its first air strike on russian soil. that's next.
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welcome back. now back to our top story. vladimir putin could have another massive embarrassment on his hands with that strike on a russian fuel depot. it's on top of the poor performance we've seen so far from putin's military. here's white house press secretary jen psaki. >> this war is not going how president putin had planned, that his intention of winning a
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quick war, defeating ukraine, the ukrainians quickly is not how it has played out. we've seen troops demoralized, troops run out of equipment they need on the russian side and that is clearly not what he had planned. >> it's probably easier to imagine why putin's advisers aren't giving him the full picture. u.s. officials claim putin didn't even know the russian military used and lost conscripted soldiers in ukraine. u.s. officials say somewhere between 7,000 and 15,000 russian soldiers have been killed so far and through all of this, putin's war has put a freefall on russia's economy, hurting its own citizens. add this attack on russian fuel depot if it turns out ukraine was behind it, that could have a big impact on russian morale. joining me is former cia officer mark polapoulos and jack jacobs.
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colonel, you have a possible ukrainian attack on russian soil. how could an embarrassed putin react? >> well, it demonstrates that, in fact, the russians do not control the skies, even in the east, so they don't have air superiority because the ukrainians have a very good surface-to-air anti-aircraft capability. it also demonstrates how vulnerable the logistics are to the russians, and though it would be better if the ukrainians focused their attention on tactical rather than strategic objectives, it demonstrates an extreme amount of weakness on the russian side in terms of their planning of tactical and logisticical war. >> cia officers are trained to identify whatever is dangerous and get away from it, so that
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why advisers are reportedly misleading putin about how this war is going? if they tell putin the truth, they fear putin's reaction. >> well, you know, i think advisers are not telling them the truth because in moscow, if you do so, you somehow full out of an apartment window. this is almost self-preservation. ultimately vladimir putin has a serious problem. there are rifts forming within his security services and within the ministry of defense on the war aims and this attack by the ukrainians just exacerbates that. at the end of the day, we're going to have a situation in which the ukrainians are going to be able to do this more often, we're also going to have more of our authorized disclosures of intelligence that show these rifts within russia and so vladimir putin has a problem, we're going to exacerbate it with our own information operations and this is for the betterment of ukrainian warrings. >> colonel jacobs, how would you
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describe the relationship between how things go on the ground during a war like this and the public's reaction back home? do you think that it plays a part at all in putin's thinking? >> well, it does, but don't forget that it's an autocracy and he controls the flow of information. the russian people are only getting what putin wants them to get. something else to keep in mind, and that's this. all those generals at the top of the food chain owe their positions and fortunes to putin. they're not going to deliver any kind of information which puts them in a bad light, both the chief of the army staff and the minister of defense have been in those jobs for a dozen years bye they're closely aligned with putin and not going to deliver any kind of information that's going to make it difficult for putin. >> not only do they want to keep their jobs, they want to keep their lives. as long as putin is getting this bad information, the military will continue to spin its wheels. we see russian claims they'll
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leave cities like kyiv or back up but u.s. officials are warning not to take this information, this type of information with anything more than a grain of salt. we saw something similar unfold last week, where reports indicated russia would fall back toward the east and then they hit the western city of lviv. so where do you see all of this going, especially if putin doesn't get the full picture? >> i think the real danger here is that russia, you know, does what russia usually does, which is this is more of attack and withdrawal and ultimately what we saw in syria, in chechnya in the past, while russian forces might not be trying to take the cities, russian artillery, russian long-range strikes will decimate civilian populations. i think that is the russian playbook. the idea that this is just going to move to the east, you know, might be true in terms of the engagements between the ukrainian and russian militaries. russia, if you follow their past
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practices, still has the capability and putin certainly has the willingness to extract an enormous human civilian toll on really major population centers so that's a huge concern now. we are not at a stage where diplomacy is going to take forth. we're just not there yet. >> it has become clear that there is nothing that is out of bounds for vladimir putin at this point, and mark, i want to follow up with the west is clearly established this strategy here, publicly releasing information on what's happening with russia, maybe in an effort to rattle him. you kind of alluded to that earlier. what's your take on that strategy? is that what you're thinking this is happening here? >> so authorized disclosure which is brilliant. we've always had intelligence. we never decided to, you know, disclose this. so its it's certainly designed to get into putin's decision-making loop to rattle him and cause dissension. he has discounter intelligence concerns we're able to intercept his reseem communications,
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perhaps there's a mole in his midst, that is one of the goals. all information operations there's also secondary goals and one of them that i thought quite a bit about is that this also offers him down the line perhaps an off-ramp because he would be able to say ultimately to the russian people, i've been deceived by my own military, deceived by my own intelligence services. they didn't give me the right information. i think that's the goal of this u.s. information campaign. i don't know if putin's going to take it but we laid that out for him. >> i can imagine world leaders imploring him to take that off-ramp. mark polymeropoulos and colonel jack jacobs, thank you for starting us off. breaking news this morning, another journalist has been killed in ukraine. the body of photojournalist maxim leavitt was found in march. russian soldiers are responsible. prosecutors in kyiv are putting together a case.
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five journalists have been killed so far in the russian invasion of ukraine, not including leavitt. "insane, unworkable and dripping with paranoia" how one former official described ginni thomas' hiring memos which she'd regularly present to president trump. how much sway did the wife of supreme court justice clarence thomas have over the former president? next. ♪ just till they taste what we've got ♪ [ tires squeal, crash ] when owning a small business gets real, progressive gets you right back to living the dream. now, where were we? [ cheering ] to help prevent bleeding gums, try saying hello gumwash with parodontax active gum health. it kills 99% of plaque bacteria and forms an antibacterial shield. try parodontax active gum health mouthwash. ♪
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top jobs in the administration, her suggestions includes her own friends, infamous bigots and conspiracy therapists. one white house official said "these f'ing lists were so insane and unworkable, dripping with pair noya and written by a disturbed person." she made recommendations who should be fired and donald trump was reportedly all ears. within moments of ginni leaving meetings with trump, he would start yelling about firing people for being disloyal. even before this, "daily beast" reporting democrats had been calling for justice clarence thomas to recuse him from all supreme court cases related to january 6th. do the new details about his wife's connection to the trump white house take this to a whole new level? matthew dowd and democratic strategist emily tish sussman are with us.
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matthew, you worked as a chief strategist for george w. bush and california arnold schwarzenegger and in rooms where decisions are made and at the ears of ginni thomas, have you seen anything like this? >> as you introed this i was thinking of tom clancy who said "the difference between reality and fiction is fiction has to make sense." in the last five or six years, none of us have seen anything like, but the idea we learned that, one, president was involved in facilitating and enabling insurrection at the capitol and attacks on our democracy. we've seen u.s. senators were involved in facilitating an insurrection, representatives were involved in facilitating an insurrection and we learn the wife of the supreme court had such intimate connections to the white house, she was also involved in spreading the big
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lie, attacking our democracy, and so if you didn't, if we didn't see it on our televisions, read it in our newspapers, see it on the internet, we wouldn't believe it but it's true. to me, at this point, i wrote about this yesterday as you know, i think this is one of the greatest perils to our democracy, what's happening today, including what ginni thomas has done and seems to continue to do at the fate of i believe our democracy is at stake and we have to look at it in that way. the idea these people run loose in our government who seem to care nothing about the constitution of the united states of america is incredibly dangerous. >> one step between the president of the united states and the supreme court, just one person connecting the two, it does bring up many questions. emily, according to "the daily beast" some of ginni thomas' job candidates were so risky they failed background checks and one recommendation for a position was "a suspected foreign intelligence asset or spy." what does this is a about the
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vulnerability of the trump white house? >> i think we already knew the trump white house was full of people i would certainly consider questionable and without qualification. foreign agents is another level. i do like to think that we can consider a supreme court justice and the actions of his wife as separate, because we know that they are not husband and wife or spouse do not necessarily influence 100% of what the other does but it calls into question if she was influencing his decisions, they do refer to one another in public as "my best friend." it was a text came out she was discussing these things with her friend which is quite concerning. i think that the one thing that we can maybe look to here, i hope we see action from within the supreme court in terms of clarence thomas recusing himself, because chief justice roberts does care so much about the legitimacy of the court and having it continued to be viewed as nonpolitical and
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nonpoliticized. everything coming out of ginni thomas is, quite frankly, terrifying. i hope they take action within the court and not wait for congress to step in. >> on that note, matthew, do you think that justice thomas should recuse himself from any january 6th-related investigations or court cases? do you think there should be a check on the supreme court ethics code and enforcement? how can the two be separated as ginni thomas has maintained that they are? she says her advocacy work has nothing to do with her husband's supreme sort seat but as many people pointed out, how can they not? >> if this was any court lower than the supreme court, he would have already had to, he would have been required to recuse himself, because there's the laws don't apply and the supreme court has not applied these laws to themselves that they require of the federal court and court of appeals that therefore we're in this never neverland. this situation. of course he should recuse
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himself but clarence thomas has never recused himself in any case where his wife was politically involved and there's been a number of cases long before these where his wife was politically involved where he did not recuse himself. that's the situation we're in. the laws don't apply to the supreme court, but if this was any other judge, in any other jurisdiction in the united states of america, he would have, that judge would have already recused himself. >> emily, with the last few seconds we have, how important is it that the january 6th committee interview ginni thomas and is it worth them coming after her and worth the legal fight if she does not voluntarily, is not voluntarily willing to be interviewed? >> clearly very worth it for her to at least clear some of this up. i think she has to answer the questions what was the access to the president, what were the conversations like around that, and what kind of influence, what kind of conversations she had with her husband, and i think it will also give us a direct reason to actually question whether he should be sitting on these cases, which clearly, from
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an outside perspective, he should not be but it forces the courts to address what he can and cannot hear. >> thank you for being with us this morning. we appreciate it. after the break, we'll recap vice president kamala harris' exclusive interview with joy reid, what she said about regime change in russia and the january 6th investigation. active gum he. it kills 99% of plaque bacteria and forms an antibacterial shield. try parodontax active gum health mouthwash. ♪ ♪ i'm the latest hashtag challenge. and everyone on social media is trying me. i'm trending so hard that “hashtag common sense” can't keep up. this is going to get tens and tens of views. ♪ ♪ ( car crashing ) ♪ ♪ but if you don't have the right auto insurance coverage, you could be left to pay for this... yourself.
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as putin's war in ukraine enters day 38, vice president kamala harris said in an exclusive interview with msnbc that the biden administration is not looking for a regime change in russia. this doubling down of the administration's position comes after president biden's remarks about putin in a speech last week, sparked widespread controversy. for more on all this, let's go to gary groomback live in wilmington this morning. the vice president making news overnight on many fronts, speaking about russia's war in ukraine and the health of america's democracy. tell us more. >> reporter: hey there, cory. in that interview with joy vice president kamala harris indicated sanctions against russia by the united states will continue as long as the aggression and the war in ukraine does continue. she also indicated that the sanctions economically could get a whole lot worse if what russia does in ukraine gets worse than it already is and on those regime change comments, this is an example of the president saying something off script, it was ad libbed and it was
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something now the administration at all levels has to answer for. this was if you recall he said "this man cannot remain in power." he said this during a very powerful speech in warsaw and said it at the end of remarks that were not planned to be said. it sparked international reaction immediately. emmanuel macron said the language was inappropriate and joy reid got vice president kamala harris on the record on these comments. >> let me be very clear. we are not into regime change and that is not our policy. period. >> reporter: president biden said over and over again during his campaign for presidency the words of the president matter, they can move markets and change the opinions of other nations, that's exactly what happened here, cory? >> gary, let's talk about the ethics concerns.
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the vice president addressing that when it comes to the supreme court in light of ginni thomas' text messages calling for the overturning of the 2020 election. >> reporter: yes, that's right. joy reid did a lightning round with vice president kamala harris and asked about the text messages from ginni thomas, the wife of supreme court justice clarence thomas, to then chief of staff mark meadows, and these were conversations about overturning the 2020 election. it's no surprise that ginni thomas is a conservative activist. she's supported conservative causes for years and years, but these comments about going and trying to overturn the election were certainly to another level that republicans and democrats both found issue with. here is what kamala harris had to say about those comments. >> i definitely think that the court needs to take a critical look at its rules around ethics, and that relates to a series of issues that have come up over the years. >> reporter: now what a supreme
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court code of conduct and what mechanisms would cause them to actually be followed is still up in the air but these conversations are happening on a very high level. cory? >> gary grumbach for us, thank you for stopping in to give us the lowdown on vice president kamala harris on joy reid. come up criminal charges for trump is the likelihood of that rising? this week we saw big developments in the january 6th investigation that could spell trouble for the former president. that's next. or waiting for the 7:12 bus... or sunday afternoon in the produce aisle. these moments may not seem remarkable. but at pfizer, protecting the regular routine, and everyday drives us to reach for exceptional. working to impact hundreds of millions of lives... young and old. it's what we call, the pursuit of normal. ♪ ♪ when hurting feet make you want to stop,
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♪♪ three times the electorlytes and half the sugar. ♪♪ pedialyte powder packs. feel better fast. this morning, growing questions whether donald trump could face criminal charges for trying to overturn the election. multiple reports the january 6th committee is moving toward recommending charges after a federal judge said it's "more likely than not" donald trump committed crimes relating to the january 6th vote count.
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what will attorney general merrick garland do? calls grew louder this week. lawmakers are pressing the doj to take more aggressive steps as they confront a list of uncooperative witnesses for their probe like mark meadows. last night attorney gen garland was asked about the pressure facing the agency. here's what he said. >> the only pressure i feel and the only pressure that our line of prosecutors feel is to do the right thing. that means we follow the facts and the law wherever they may lead. >> joining me former federal prosecuor and msnbc legal analyst cynthia oxney. good morning. >> good morning. >> given all the developments, do you think a criminal referral could be coming for the former president and what options does the doj have moving forward? >> it does lock like a criminal referral will come but merrick garland inherited a department
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so politicized by trump and trying to right that ship. there is reasonable criticism he has swung too far and he is too cautious. you know, they are now finally, there's evidence they're finally starting to issue subpoenas and look into the fate elector plot the way they financed it and used it to pressure pence and the conversations with pence to try to pressure him to delay or somehow obstruct the investigation -- the electoral vote count, but you know, it's been 16 months, and none of these electors have been in a grand jury and i don't understand that. as a professional prosecutor for many years, the theory is you take over your case.
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you put witnesses to the grand jury. i don't wait for congress. you are getting the records and finding out there's a seven-hour gap in the records. you're the one getting the documents and questioning the electors. he's taken a cautious approach and the criticism is warranted. the good news is they are starting to begin to do something. >> 45 it days since january 6th, 2021. i want to jump ahead quick because you alluded to this. you said you felt like this might be having moved a little slowly. you'd like to see this move faster, but in hopes that it is starting to move a little bit faster. >> i'm hoping it's moving at all. this is a very complicated case and i'm going to give that to the prosecutors and garland, extremely complicated, hundreds of witnesses will be involved in the buildup to january 6th and it's like you made a decision, i'm going to climb this mountain. first you have to, you know, build a base camp. i would say they are now
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building a base camp but nobody has put on their hiking boots and started walking up the mountain and it is time to start doing that. it's been a very long time, but they are starting. >> really quickly, it seems like there's movement thanks in part to the federal judge's comments. how much weight could those comments hold in this investigation? >> well, with the attorney general, i think it weighs a lot, because the federal judge's argument in california had to do with trump violating the obstruction of an official proceeding. it is an intellectual argument and fwarland is fundamentally an intellectual, supreme court. it's an intellectual the way the 371 conspiracy and the way the obstruction is laid out, it helps with garland's cautious
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demeanor. doesn't help in building the case, though, and building the case is just like every other case, pressure the witnesses in the jury, those who are noncompliant and get all the documentary evidence so two tracks, one is you have to get garland to be willing to climb the mountain and there's some evidence he's becoming willing to climb the mountain and that ruling you mentioned in california gets garland willing to climb the mountain. ultimately done by the prosecutors themselves and gathering of the evidence. >> former federal prosecutor and legal analyst, thank you for being with us. up next, florida's first openly gay state senator shepherd jones around the drama of don't say gay law and accusations governor desantis is putting politics over the well-being of his constituents.
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florida governor ron desantis taking heat after signing the so-called don't say gay bill into law, which ban r bans teaching about sexual identity in kindergarten through third grade. the republican governor calls it a defense against, quote, wokeness. listen. >> when you're trying to impose a woke ideology on our state we view that as a significant threat. this wokeness will destroy this country if we let it run
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unabated. steve ben nan disagrees calling it part of an ugly pattern of desantis waging a culture war at the expense of others. most polls show him well positioned to win a second term, his strategy may hurt other people but it will help his ambitions. now desantis is even taking aim at disney after it came out against the law. he's calling for an end to the entertainment company's special status in florida that allows it to self-govern its property. shell den brown is the first openly gay senator. thank you for being here. >> thank you for having me. >> desantis calls this a defense against wokeness but you talked about your own experiences coming out and how deeply this could effect a young person.
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>> it's important to point out the republicans are using these discriminatory practices to marginalize communities to do it in the name of religious freedoms. it's easy for governor desantis and the republicans to pick on marginalized communities where they don't understand or have a direct connection or relationship to you. that's why i'm happy that parents and families have joined to sue the state of florida and their governor for their discriminatory acts. because this country has checks and balances and the republicans can't just run rogue and think you can file legislation across the country in state legislatures and not be checked on what you're doing to discriminate against people. not just the lgbtq community, but people. >> right now there are 15 other states considering similar bills that would sensor education in schools.
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what would you say to state leaders considering this type of legislation? >> you've been placed in office to serve all people, not based on what you believe is right and wrong. i think it's important for us to point out that everyone who is saying that the legislation speaks about classroom instruction by school personnel or school parties, sexual orientation of kindergarten through third grade, there's no state nowhere in no standard where sexual identity and gender is being taught right now. the republicans are saying the quiet part out loud. they're discriminating against the transgender community, the lgbtq community, they're doing it because they see their power is moving away and this is their last-ditch effort to do anything and everything to create the chaos they're doing within our state legislatures to send the stuff to the supreme court
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because they know it cannot be challenged on its surface. >> it seems the state of arizona is going further. earlier the week the governor refusing to say whether transgender people exist while defending legislation limiting rights and barring abortions after 15 weekends. some believe these laws further polarize the country. why are these issues so popular for republicans? >> well, if you looked at what happened in virginia, they saw that going against parents was a bad idea. the republicans saw, hey, this is our avenue to move forward with our agenda but let's do it in the name of parental rights. look at florida, for example, as soon as that happened. governor desantis changed his tune and now all of a sudden the lgbtq community falls under the same guise wokism. and now disney falls under this.
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look at the states doing it. florida is leading. and all this is doing is setting governor desantis up for his 2024 presidential run because he believes if i follow the trump playbook we win. but i believe that the country is moving in a totally different direction than republicans are moving. and i believe this is not going to end like they think it will. >> senator, you had a heart felt rebuttal about this law on the senate floor, and even tweeted saying the fight has just begun. what else are you doing? >> right now we are organizing across the state of florida, because we understand that republicans are in power. and so we can fight it in the legal system but we can also fight it in the streets. we have many organizations that's here in the state of florida that they are everyday registering individuals to vote and they are putting the kitchen
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table issues and things we have been fighting for here in the state of florida. i'll tell you this, it is going to take time. but i promise you, the direction we're moving in, people are not going to put up with what republicans are doing and what governor desantis is doing. and i promise you that over the next few years, maybe even the next few months people are going to continue to rise to let the republicans know we are not going back to where we came from. >> florida state senator jones, thank you for being with us. we want to thank you for watching msnbc reports. i'll be back tomorrow. right now velshi starts. he is live in ukraine. good morning, it is saturday, april the 2nd, day 38 of russia's invasion of ukraine. happy ramadan to those of you
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celebrating. a bustling city, lviv, that since the start of the war has become a safe haven for many. even with the recent russian missile attacks in this city, with the exception of the nightly curfew, life essentially goes on in lviv. elsewhere in the country, though, things are different. ukrainian forces have mounted several successful counter attacks and have reclaimed some territory. notably in areas and towns around kyiv, kharkiv, and churn kyiv. in his nightly address, the ukrainian president, volodymyr zelenskyy, accused retreating russian forces of planting land mines and booby trapping their dead bodies with explosives. late yesterday the defense department announced an additional
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