welcome. if you are still with us, thanks for sticking around. just today we got our best glimpse yet into how vladimir putin sees the invasion of ukraine. >> does he believe he's winning the war or losing the war? >> no, i think he believes he is winning the war. >> the austrian chancellor sharing his impressions of putin after a face-to-face meeting with the russian leader. and the chilling takeaway. this is what winning looks like for vladimir putin. the destruction of a once thriving city, mariupol. the bodies of bucha. the starving of innocent civilians. the deaths of his own troops. it all looks like winning to him. which raises a troubling question. will nuclear weapons be the next thing that putin sees as part of his winning strategy? we're going to tackle that in just a moment. we're also following other stories this hour including a race to the far right. ron desantis, greg abbott

seeming to be in a battle to see who could be the most extreme this week, from a strict new abortion law and over-the-top redistricting efforts from the florida governor to immigration stunts gone wrong from his texas counterpart. it looks like the 2024 republican presidential race is already up and running. plus later on this hour an ohio district pulls the plug on a reading by an acclaimed children's author. the problem -- praf unicorns and rainbows. i want to begin with new comments from the first western leader to meet with putin since this invasion. on "meet the press" this morning austrian chancellor karl nehammer discussed his sit-down with the russian president who seems blind to his slew of losses over the past few weeks. >> i think he believes he is winning the war. >> did he give a rationale? did he explain what makes it

seem as if things are looking better than he this look to the rest of us? >> no. i couldn't say that. he blames ukrainians to -- for genocide in the donbas region. he is now in his world but i think he knows now what is going on in ukraine. >> nbc's ali aarouzi on the ground in ukraine with more on this. good to talk with you once again. this is astounding to hear this about vladimir putin. but given his hift, given his character, it's not surprising. even with the military losses the russians have seen. >> that's right, yasmine. it is hard to understand that he isn't getting a full picture of this. first of all, this guy was a career kgb agent and part of that job is to be in control of all the facts so you can make an

informed intelligent decision as to your next move. and it's not like he doesn't know what's going on here. it's not like he doesn't know a massive warship is lying at the bottom of the black sea. it's not like he doesn't know what the troop losses are here. and the troop losses have been extraordinary. if you want to just take nato figures, they're saying 16,000 at least russian troops have been lost here. that's 16,000 troops lost in 53 days. you compare that to the soviet afghan conflict. they lost less than that in over ten years. these are things that he has to be in control of, making the decisions from the kremlin as to what this country is going to do. but you also have to look at this from a soviet russian lens. you know, they're willing to take massive troop losses of their own to gain battlefield momentum. their new general here, general dvornikov, doesn't only have a reputation for annihilating civilian structures to gain battlefield momentum. he's also willing to put his troops on the front line and

have them die in order for moscow to gain the momentum that they're looking for. and they've got 900,000 military personnel, compared to the 200,000 ukrainians. >> ali, walk me through what's happening in the city of mariupol. i know it has been completely leveled, completely destroyed. i just spoke with someone inside mariupol. in my last hour. and i asked about kind of the humanitarian aid getting to the people still inside that country -- that city i should say. i know the russians at one point have asked the ukrainian forces to surrender. they have not. what is the situation there? and how do they intend to get people to safety out of that city? >> well, look, mariupol is the biggest disaster in this country so far. it's been more bombed, more destroyed than any other city here. and there are -- we can't get exact figures on this because nobody can get in there, but there are around 1,000 troops

still fighting in there. the azov brigade. some ukrainian marines. they're determined to hold on to that city because it's so strategic. you know, it builds that land corridor from the russian mainland to the crimea. it has that steel factory which is one of the biggest in europe. and it would be a massive victory for the russians if they were to take it. but no humanitarian aid is getting into that city. none of the troops are getting the supplies they need to hold off the russians. and the civilians are just in a horrifying condition. you mentioned you spoke to somebody there. we have spoken to many people that have come out of mariupol, and they paint just a horrifying picture of what's going on in that city. >> unbelievable to think about, what people are having to live through there and have lived through there over the past weeks throughout this war. ali arouzi, as always, thank you for your reporting on this. these attacks across ukraine are happening as putin continues to dangle the threat of nuclear

warfare. austrian chancellor karl nehammer spoke more about this earlier today. >> the person you sat down with, do you think that's a person that might use a nuclear weapon? >> it's a tough question. i think he knows that he has this weapon and he knows the threat of this weapon. so i don't know if he'll really use it. but he knows that he can threat the world with these weapons. >> want to bring in former cia officer mark polymoropolous. good to talk with you once again. can you first react for me to what we just played from the austrian chancellor? >> sure. and i think this also complements what cia director bill burns in a speech several day days ago said. frankly there's no one in the international intelligence community that knows putin as well as burns.

he says there is a possibility that putin does decide to deploy tactical nuclear weapons. i think it would be irresponsible not to listen to these warnings. but make no mistake, the intelligence community is laser focused on this, the delivery systems, whth it be cruise missiles, ship-based systems, land-based missiles. i think we're going to be very cognizant of seeing movement within the russian military because this is as serious a situation as i think i've ever faced in my lifetime. >> i want to tell folks exactly what bill burns said so i'm happy you brought it up. and he said this, that potential desperation, in quotes, could actually drive putin to using nukes. though he went on to caution that there is no practical evidence to support that. what do you think is driving burns to think this about putin? >> well, again, there's no one who knows putin as well as bill burns in the u.s. national security establishment. so he sees putin as humiliated,

as backed into a corner, as angry, and so there is a risk and a fear of him lashing out. but i think there's something important to note here. the administration has been very effective in the use of authorized disclosure. so if the intelligence community starts picking up signs that they will use tactical nukes, i think we should expect to see a pretty big public relations campaign. it's designed to warn putin not to do this. of course the meng the russian military, if they do do this, they are committing war crimes. and of course the last part, and i think it's really important, is to message china. and i think that's something that's not talked about enough. china which is russia's erstwhile aline, could have a big effect on dissuading him to do this. this is kind of crunch time right now with putin backed into a corner, the u.s. intelligence community looking very closely at the russian military, and you know, it remains to be seen what happens. but i think there's a lot of nervousness within the intelligence community right

now. >> so let me ask you this. i'm happy you brought up china as well and president xi, right? how much of an influence do you believe president xi actually has on vladimir putin? do you suspect they're having regular conversations we don't know about? and the & do you think the united states and the rest of the world is using xi the way they should when it comes to this conflict knowing he kind of has this undue influence on putin that others don't necessarily have? this is someone that vladimir putin admires. and there are not many people in the world like that. >> that's right. and i think that ultimately china does not want to see russia turn into this pariah state. that's not in china's national interests. so i think that we can and should do perhaps a bit more in engaging china. and i know that's not palatable for a lot of people. but ultimately i think that the chinese do have influence over the russians. and in particular i'm going down the road of employment of a tactical nuclear weapon. this is something where i think the chinese could help. and i would imagine there are

contacts between washington and beijing on this issue. >> do you think the chinese even care that they're the largest investors in ukraine before this war? is that just a blip for them financially? >> well, sure, it might be a blip. but they do care because ultimately china wants stability. what's happening right now is not in china's interest whatsoever. i think there is certainly a warning pass by the u.s. government to the chinese not to resupply the russian military. i think that was for all intents and purposes heeded. so i do think the chinese want to see an end to this military conflict because it is certainly not in their interests. you know, in particular they don't want to be the only ones supporting this kind of failed state, which russia is turning into. >> marc polymeropolous, thank you so much. as always it is great to speak to you. still ahead, everybody, a new redistricting plan by florida governor ron desantis does about what you'd expect. forces out democrats and takes

special aim at black voters in the state. florida state representative kamia brown joins me next to talk about whether there's any way to fight back. we'll be right back.

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florida conservatives including governor ron desantis are facing massive backlash from multiple new restrictions and redraws that benefit, guess who,

them. the state's department of education announced this week that over 40% of submitted math textbooks were rejected for prohibited subjects including "references to critical race theory, inclusions of common core, and the unsolicited addition of social emotional learning in mathematics." we should note there was no mention of which books were actually rejected or specific examples cited for offending passages. so this is happening as florida governor desantis proposed any new congressional map that would carve up a largely black district and eliminate national democratic gains made during the redistricting process. critics calling the new map blatantly partisan. want to bring in democratic florida state representative kamia brown. she's also chair of florida's legislative black caucus. also jasmine bernie clark, founder and executive director of the equal ground education fund. jasmine, kamia, welcome to you both. thanks for joining us on this. the florida governor essentially

claiming this map complies with the law. how is this not, though, gerrymandering? >> oh, this bill is blatantly gerrymandering. and again, he's not even doing his job. what he is continuing to do is to push an overreach of drawing districts that actually favor republicans over democrats and all the while -- and in doing that it has affected and again picked out black folks to attack. >> i know that you are on the subcommittee in charge of pushing this map forward. primaries just around the corner in august. what are you you going to be doing to fight this? >> well, definitely, we will continue, we will return to tallahassee on tuesday. and at that point we will continue to make the point not only with a rally there tuesday morning but also within the

committees and also on the floor of the capitols. these maps are not what florida looks like. what he has done is taken away 50% of black representation. right now in what the legislature drew was actually four protected black seats. and it was, again, cited based off of amendment 5 and 6 by us following the laws and the rules of the courts. what ron desantis has come up with is the complete opposite of that. >> jasmine, let me read for you reaction from the florida state senator on this and the map's race issue. "the fact that he has the gall to do something like this clearly shows what he thinks of minorities and black voters. this is the most overtly racist action that you can do."

that is state senator randolph bracy. what is your reaction to that, jasmine? >> my reaction is i completely agree with the state senator's remarks. the fact that our governor has manipulated legislators into coming back to session for a special session and hanging over their heads the fact that he has not signed their budgets yet, he is possibly going to veto a portion of those line items as well as take away endorsements or not endorse them in their upcoming elections or re-elections this fall, means that he is leveraging that as an opportunity to ensure that he gets a map that he knows is rigged, that he knows is gerrymandered, and that he knows only benefits his personal political ambitions. this governor has every plan to become president of the united states but has failed to realize that he has to face voters this coming fall in a re-election and we are not going to forget the attacks that he has on taking away two of the four black

congressional districts in our state. >> you are going to be giving public testimony alongside kamia, jasmine, at the state capitol i believe on tuesday. what is your meng? >> my message is legislators is that we are asking them not to be manipulated or bullied by this governor. to hold up their oath of office and stop pledging allegiance to this governor but remember they are there to uphold the state constitution fair districts amendments 5 and 6 so that we don't rig these districts, so that we don't go back to a time where rigging was permitted in this state. we need these legislators to stand up for us so we can elect folks who represent -- >> kamia, i want to mention this. i led into this. the rejection of math books. they'reling telling us what math

books they are. they're not naming names. they're saying there are references to critical race theory, inclusions of common core, the unsolicited addition of social emotional learning in mathematics as well. what is your reaction to this? >> well, my first reaction is that for the past 25 years it's been republicans that have controlled the florida department of education. secondly, i will also say that what we have seen is now in this cheap attack and the culture war politics we now have our students in the middle of this continuous crossfire of our governor. they have not, which they never do, let us know information as to specifically what books. and then specifically within those books what is the issue. i mean, if you're mentioning common core, it was republicans that put that particular program in place, not democrats. and then now they're trying to end it.

it is important that we look and continue to look at these continuous attacks and all of them sound -- are on the backs of black folks. we have seen it with the anti-woke act. we have seen it with the mathematics books. we have seen it with our election laws and now law enforcement at our polling places. this continues to tell you what we have on the floor continued to see is that there are no basis, no data, no facts surrounding any of this. and so it's a farce. it's unbelievable. but again, this is his way of, again, trying to create these culture wars, political culture wars, and also up one over our former president trump. he must be stopped. >> florida state representative kamia brown and jasmine burney-clark, thank you both and good luck to you in the weeks ahead.

our coverage of the invasion of ukraine continues ahead, everybody. we're going to have a look at exactly how ukraine did the unimaginable, taking down one of the russia's flagship warships. plus the debate over who's to blame for rising gas prices. a new documentary takes on big oil and how it got us to where we are right now on prices and climate change. one of its producers joins me ahead. ahead. if you've been living with heart disease, reducing cholesterol can be hard, even when you're taking a statin and being active. but you can do hard. you lived through thirty-seven red-eye flights in a middle seat. eleven miracle diets... forty-two college campus tours... four overseas postings... one minor stroke... and four citywide blackouts... and now, with leqvio, you can lower your cholesterol, too. when taken with a statin, leqvio is proven to lower bad cholesterol by over 50% and keep it there with two doses a year.

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it was equal to about 10% of russia's black sea naval power. that's gone now. now, let me just give you a sense of this ship. it is the largest warship to be sunk in combat since world war ii. about 500 sailors on board. about 600 feet long. built almost 40 years ago but updated, representing the state-of-the-art technology. now, here's how it happened from what we know. the ship was about 65 miles south of odesa. this is a satellite picture that we got about a week ago when it was about 65 miles south. and again, we're just looking at the satellite data. then two ukrainian neptune missiles, it is believed, struck. and what we're looking at is what ukrainian and u.s. officials are telling us. and it struck here in that 65 miles, right about here, from south of odesa. that's the distance here.

now, russian officials claim an unrelated fire here ignited ammunition on board before that went down. now, we might remember, though, that ukraine does not have a significant missile program. in fact, ukraine was in the middle of modifying a missile system called neptune, which you see right here. they were modifying a soviet-era design to create this new missile'll. now, the "wall street journal" points out that final tests were not yet done at the start of the war for this missile. so in its final form, though, i did want to show you what they believe it to be. the neptune, an anti-ship missile, about 190-mile range, about 330 pounds heavy in the warhead itself, which means if it was launched from the south then when we look at it it's very significant that ukraine still had control of this area. so that they could launch and

reach the "moskva." if this had been controlled by russia potentially, they would not have been able to launch this particular missile. why ukraine is maintaining control is why this was such an important option. but look at the battery of air defenses. i just want to show you this, yasmin. because it's kind of like david and goliath, you might say. when you look at the armaments available to the "moskva" before it was sunk, anti-ship missiles, surface-to-air missiles, dual purpose guns, all of that located here right down the middle and in the front of this warship. the flagship that was sunk so strong it was seen as the defensive umbrella for much of the russian black sea fleet, yasmin, but no more. >> how is it, richard, if this thing was barely tested, sink a flagship? >> so this is it. one possibility that some experts are looking at, and there are a couple, but it's

that in -- i'm going to show you another satellite photo here. this little dot here, if you can see my finger, is where the moskva was at. and this is ukraine. now, one possibility according to experts is when they fired something from this boat a satellite radar picked it up. they were then able to aim one of the neptunes all the way from here, and talking about needle in the haystack, two of them hit. so that signature from potentially what the "moskva" had shot or aimed at or was going on land was certainly part of the calculation. one important point here, though, is that with the loss of the "moskva" what does it mean in the east and the offensive we've been talking about for two weeks? they don't have the air cover they had before because the "moskva" is no longer. >> unbelievable what the ukrainian military has been able to pull off.

>> yes. >> richard lui, thank you so much. appreciate it. all right. let's switch gears here for a minute. i want to talk about gas prices. and they could actually be dropping from their current levels this coming summer but still remaining quite high. so that is according to an estimate from the u.s. energy information administration. their new short-term outlook predicts that regular grade gas and retail diesel prices are going to average around $3.84 and $4.57 a gallon. that's respectively. so those estimates, the highest prices that we have seen since 2014 but still lower than they are now. the biden administration doing what they can to lower some of these prices. they even announced oil and gas companies can now drill on federal land. all of this coming amid a recent report from the u.n. that essentially says the earth is on a track to an unlivable world sooner than we thought. in a new three-part documentary series from pbs's "frontline," exposes how the fossil fuel

industry has cast doubt for years on the need to act on climate change. >> if big oil knowingly spread disinformation -- >> an epic three-part serbs. >> they said that climate science was uncertain, that action wasn't required. >> our job was to fight back against the progressive agenda. >> we concluded that none of these temgz were going to be competitive against oil. >> big money had infiltrated the halls of congress. >> there's an urgency to the situation that is not being answered. >> joining me now to discuss the power of big oil series producer. that narrative as you obviously well know, it's still out there among conservative politicians specifically denying the existence of climate change over and over again. what else should we be expecting from "the power of big oil"? >> well, the series shows really an extraordinary 40 to 50-year

history of this narrative. it's the birth of climate denial and the evolution of the tactics of organizations and corporations that have been opposed to action on climate change from really when it first emerged since the policy landscape in the 1980s. >> it is interesting because when president biden first came into office he was all about embracing climate change, obviously wanting clean energy, the green new deal, so on and so forth. "the new york times" pointing out, though, because of the high gas prices we're seeing across the board right now it seems as if the president is changing his tune and saying this. "president biden came into office promising to tackle the planet's climate crisis but rising gas prices have pushed the environmental-minded president to do something unlikely, embrace oil." what do you make of this? >> well, i'm not actually

surprised. i mean, one of the things that our team was surprised by as we investigated this 40, 50-year history is the number of times that i apresident has come in -- this is really since the '80s -- pledging to do something about climate change and then coming up against hard realities, either economic hard realities or the reality of the power of industry and the power of industry to protect its interests as you'd expect it to do and outmaneuver any attempts to tackle climate change. we saw a similar but different dynamic when president obama came in. he was going to be the climate president. and he came up against the hard reality of the 2008 crash but also the power of industry to frustrate his climate ambitions. >> there doesn't seem, dan, to be a commitment to the long game when it comes to addressing climate change. it seems to be great when it comes to a talking point when

you're running for president or running for office, whatever that office may be. but committing to the long game, which obviously takes time and a heck of a lot of money, and sometimes loss of political power is something it seems as if washington is unwilling to do. >> yeah. and again, that's been the story for a very long time. but what's changing now is that in the late '70s and he a80s when scientists were sort of coming to grips with the realities of climate change it was a relatively long game at that point. it was expected the effects of climate change wouldn't be felt for 20, 30 years. it wasn't a present-day issue. now we're not talking long game anymore. we're talking a short game. we're talking the next five, ten, 15 years. >> yeah, when you talk about the tornadoes, the wildfires, the hurricanes, the extreme amount

of natural disasters that we've been experiencing across the board, loss of life, loss of homes, loss of money, much bigger picture. dan edge, thank you. producer of frontline's "the power of big oil." which is by the way going to premiere this tuesday on pbs stations and you can also stream online as well. coming up, everybody, a children's author is accused of trying to turn kids gay after a single parent complaint an author's reading at a school gets shut down. the author of "it's okay to be a unicorn" is here next. ♪ ♪ we believe there's an innovator in all of us. ♪ ♪ that's why we build technology that makes it possible for every business... and every person... to come to the table and do more incredible things.

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district's interim superintendent told a local station that one parent came to him concerned about the book and wanted to "make sure that we vetted the book." this is all happening despite the fact that parents in the district had ordered over 500 copies of his book for students ahead of the event. author and illustrator jason tharp is joining me now. jason, it's great to talk to you. thank you for joining me. >> great to talk to you. >> tell me quickly about the book. >> the book is about -- a town call puffing-ton. it's full of horses. and the one rule in town is no unicorns are allowed. so cornelius has spent his life as a hat maker covering his horn with all these amazing hats that he makes. and it's decided that cornelius is going to -- he's going to be the star of the show and he makes his costumes and stuff and as he's doing it he thinks about all the mean things all the other horses have said about

unicorns and he just thinks he's cool and he just wants everybody else to see that. but he starts to question what if i tell everybody, what if i step into who i am, will my friends still like me? all those things. so it's confronting those questions of what do i do if i don't fit in, i don't like myself, and accepting myself and differences and things of that nature. >> it's incredible to me. i talk about all the time with my kids how it's okay to be different. >> yes. >> how you need to accept people that are different. then they can be different, they can own who they are. and it's incredible that this book is out there to teach kids just that and that this happened to you. you asked to read another book instead. and what happened? >> so the other book that -- when the call came it was a shock. the other book that i offered, the alternative is "it's okay to

smell good," which is about a skunk that lives in a stinky world and his idol albert einstink is coming to the science fair and he wants to create something that's super stinky. it actually backfires and he creates something that's super smelly and in their world smell good is bad. he ends up finding out his friends don't like it but he has one friend at the end of the book that comes in and likes it. and not everybody likes what you like, sometimes it's just one person. but that confronts an idea of two 5-year-olds playing minecraft or whatever the next new game it is, a lot of times your friends will say that's a baby thing, i don't like that anymore. so it's that question of switching from little to big and how that kind of feels -- you can feel kind of guilty. but it really comes from a lot of questions i get from across the country talking to kids. what do you do when somebody likes something different from you? that was my attempt to do it.

and then they came back and said i couldn't read that as well because it could be twisted to have an agenda also. which one's that happened i -- >> yeah. so you at one point, jason, you said does somebody think i made a gay book? >> yeah, i'd never actually talked to the superintendent -- >> oh, you didn't speak to the superintendent. >> no. he's never once contacted me. it's all been the principal. and the principal called and he was very clear that he was very uncomfortable having this conversation with me. >> so you asked the president does somebody think i made a gay book and the principal said yes, the concern is that you're coming with an agenda to recruit kids to become gay. >> that is what i was told. my books could make kids gay. yes. i was at a loss. the same as what i'm sure you

feel. my reaction -- >> and what was your reaction to that? >> i just said are you serious? how many? and it was one parent. and it was just -- then it was just kind of confusion. i sat in my car and i literally did my whole school presentation to make sure that he understood that i wasn't coming with an agenda or anything or -- the craziest part is i don't read the book to the older kids. i only read the book to the preschool kids through first grade. and that's only one group. and the reason why is because obviously the older kids read but i want to really help the young kids understand because i was -- it's kind of like you can start really early and i show them then the whole process of how the book comes together and read the story and teach them how to actually draw the characters in the book.

>> jason tharp, keep writing those books about kids being different. >> i will. >> i will buy all of them for my children, who need it right now, especially in this country every single day with all the differences that we have. jason tharp, thank you. >> i appreciate it. >> two republican governors going to extremes this week, and it all looks very calculated to curry favor with the trump base ahead of 2024. we're going to talk about this run to the extreme right next. homegrown tomatoes...nice. i want to feel in control of my health, so i do what i can. what about screening for colon cancer? when caught in early stages it's more treatable. i'm cologuard. i'm noninvasive and i detect altered dna in your stool to find 92% of colon cancers, even in early stages. early stages? yep, it's for people 45 plus at average risk for colon cancer, not high risk. false positive and negative results may occur. ask your provider if cologuard is right for you. consider it done. to help prevent bleeding gums, try saying hello gumwash

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welcome back. as both parties gear up for this year's midterm elections, some notable republicans appear to be already eyeing their 2024 prospect. governor greg abbott and ron desantis, both potential presidential candidates, seemingly spent this week polishing up their maga culture war resumes. abbott very publicly busing migrants to washington, d.c., deploying the national guard and stepping up inspections on trucks crossing into the state of texas. then we have ron desantis, who continued to pander hard to the gop base with a laundry list of conservative policies including his signing of another strictest in the nation abortion ban this week as well as the redistricting effort targeting black voters that we discussed earlier on in the show. and with all of this i want to bring in my panel. donna edwards, former democratic congresswoman of maryland, and noelle nikpour, republican strategist and author of

"branding america." welcome to both of you. donna, let me start with you on this one and kind of this race to republican right finish of how far right can we go. what do you make of it? especially as it's a sort of stake in the ground, even more right than the even more right than the former president? >> well, i guess these two desantis and abbott are either planning a run against trump should he run, or they're trying to outtrump trump. either way, i thought you were going to say a race to the bottom because that's what it is, playing against migrant fears on a range of race-baiting issues. there is nothing that is too low for both of these governors to do in order to out-trump trump. i don't know that that is possible because i don't think it's going to stop. if anything, it's going to anger

the former president enough to run for another term in 2024. but it's not going to go over well with an awful lot of voters. >> in many instances, noel, it's obviously they're panning to the very conservative right-wing, religious, republican base, right? i actually was speaking about a prominent republican donor the other day and was told this donor was actually thinking of donating to desantis just to make sure donald trump doesn't win the white house once again. so i wonder with all that's happening between abbott and desantis, that it could actually work. >> well, that's interesting that you said that because my specialty, i deal with superpacks and republican donors, so that's very interesting. and i have heard the same thing, that people on the donor side are -- they're not really

wanting trump to be the front runner for the republican party for 2024. and that's why a lot of people are looking at desantis because desantis, you know, he went to yale, he went to harvard, he served in the navy. he's very educated but does have a way to kind of get down and dirty with the trump base, which is very important. now, he picked an issue that residence resonates with the crowd. you can count on that crowd to show up and vote and to contribute and to recruit. so it's an interesting subject that -- issue that he picked up on, and abbott did the immigration. and as we all know, trump came to the forefront with immigration. so these issues that these two governors have picked are very

well-planned. >> donna, what about a trump endorsement? desantis has not gotten it yet when it comes to primaries. but when you look at the sporadic endorsements from trump, it's possible hopefuls like tim scott. why not desantis? >> it's interesting because i think desantis is continuing to play the game of challenging trump going at him. abbott is not doing that same thing. he is sort of quietly and southerly challenging donald trump. i do think that what's going to happen is 2022 is going to reveal to us how valuable or not a trump endorsement is going to play as we look at senate races and house races across the country where the president has endorsed.

>> noel, let's talk about democrats here. topping the list of course is president joe biden, pete, vice-president ka ma la harris, elizabeth warren. anybody missing on this list here? >> well, there is one that comes to mind that some of my friends across the aisle wouldn't mind seeing, and that's gretchen witchwere from michigan. another one is secretary jin rarks romando, very educated and seems to be doing a good job. those are a couple that are not on that list, but, you know, pretty sizable contenders. now, of that list, pete

buttigeg. if you watch him on the debate stage, that guy is a he knows his business front and back. if biden doesn't run, you've got to get somebody that i think knows policy up and down and is ready to take on the other candidates because it's going to be a fight. >> ladies, sorry for my allergy attack, tis the season. thank you to you both, guys. appreciate it p. after the break, an easter message from "saturday night live." >> you have easter egg, cadbury egg, and my favorite, release's egg. it doesn't look like an egg, but i like release. i'm very good friends with reese. s with reese. we exercise. i noticed i wasn't as sharp as i used to be.

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snl opened its show with the easter bunny allowing some familiar figures to share their easter wishes. >> hi. i'm marjorie taylor green. i have been saying to all my jewish and muslim colleagues, happy easter. don't worry, this rifle is chocolate, but the bullets are real. >> hello. so i am elon musk, and i'm here to officially buy easter. i am offering 43 billion peeps.

that was a joke. >> okay. i'm actually just going to walk away. you win. you can have easter. >> and you know what? i would be so good with bunny because i have told america covid would be over by easter. i just didn't say which one, okay? i didn't say which one it was going to be. >> all right. that wraps it up for me this hour. i'll be back in the chair next saturday and sunday. reverend al sharpton, politics nation starts right now. good evening and welcome to politics nation. tonight's lead, hope rises. right now, many of the world's believers are in the midst of a religious observance. for christians like myself,