the guardian, thank you so much for your reporting on this, i'm sure it will be a story that we continue to follow, for weeks and months ahead. that is all in on this tuesday night, the rachel maddow show starts right now, good evening rachel. "the rachel maddow show" starts right now. goods evening, rachel. >> good evening, a mon, it's great to see you, my friend. in the 1960s, early 1960s he founded a publishing house that distributed recordings of nazi speeches and nazi marching songs. then in the '70s, 1972, he teamed up with a guy who had literally collaborated with the nazis when theh germans invade france and occupied france during world war ii, he found a guy to work with who had been a willing nazi collaborator in france. he and the nazi collaborator guy founded a new political party in

1972, among other things, the new political party celebrated the vici government, who accepted the rule.ce who worked with the nazis who persecuted and helped in the murder of french jews like they wanted to. the party celebrated the vici french government and the nazi collaborators. so he founded that political party in 1972. he ended up running that political party for 40 years. and along the way, he became one of the world's most famous holocaust deniers, he said, as far as he could tell, there were no mass murders of the jews by the nazis. he never saw gas chambers, he considered it to be a minor thing, he called the gas chamber, quote, a detail, a mere detail.

he built his entire decades' long career on black people and muslim and immigrants. in 2014, he actually praised ebola, he praised the ebola virus because he said maybe ebola would be the solution to immigration. he was banned from the european parliament inhe brussels after attacked a female politician. he physically assaulted her. assi recently as last year, at e age of 93, he faced new charges, new criminal charges, for threatening a jewish actor that he would putor him in an oven. his name is jean le pen, he's in his 90s. he founded the national front in france. hein founded it 1982, after a

publishing house oof nazi house. and until 2011, in 2011, he stepped down, the person who took over for him in running that party was his daughter whose name is maureen le pen, his youngest daughter. now, her father, jean-marie le pen, he ran for president in france five times. he never got close, but his daughter, that turned out to be a different story. tomorrow, she will debate emmanuel macron, the president of france. and it will be their first and only debate of the presidential campaign. and then on sunday, french voters will go to the polls in runoff election between her and the incumbent president, president macron. it's the second time in five years she's made it to a runoff

with him. the last time, maureen le pen's campaign was financed in large part f by a $10 million loan by russiann bank. a loan she's never had to pay, although lately she disputed that. just weeks before the vote maureen le pen turned up in moscow. at the time, she was pledging that not only would france form a whole new alliance with russia if she were elected president, but she said at the time, she would actually pull france out of the european union if she were elected president. you know, if you're a diminutive russian dictator for life who lives and breathes to try to undermine and destroy the west, right, that must sound great. i get brexit and then i get this, frexit or whatever they call it. a new president in france from a super right wing party that's been known for decades for being

violently anti-semitic and loves putin, don't worry about paying the loan back, maureen. policemen know how much else you might need, let me know how else i can help. it turns out there was more that russia could do to help, between her trip to the kremlin a few weeks before the actual vote and when the vote happened in 2017, russian hackers gave her a little something extra. they broke into the campaign of her -- they hacked into the campaign accounts of her h opponent, emmanuel macron, and then they leaked supposedly damaging information that they stole from his campaign and his party. they leaked it all to the public right before the election to try to hurt his chances in the election and to help her. sound familiar? maureen le pen, having the kremlin overtly fund her campaign. the last-minute trip to moscow

to visit with putin right before the vote. and the even more last minute russian replay of the attack on hillary clinton in the previous year, it was to help maureen le pen, but donald trump basically the exactal same thing that was amazing to see in 2017. russia did all they could. in the end, it wasn't enough, and maureen le pen has lost that election, and emmanuel macron has beenel the president ever since. now five years later, she made it again, she's made it to the final runoff election against him. and the polls are closer this time. it's this weekend. the polls show her closer to the french presidency than she's ever been. but she does have that peculiar history about how she's trying to win the presidency in the past. of course, thissi time, the president election in france is happening just after her best friend, her mentor, putin, has

invaded ukraine. in fact, the vote will be happening this week, just as russia starts the second phase of its attack on ukraine, what appears to be an all-out massive destruction of a campaign against the east. before the war started maureen le pen had reportedly printed up a million leaflets for the election, leaflets that included the famous pictures of her with putin shaking his hand. had to scrap those once putin invaded ukraine 55 days ago. something the french people did notin like. le pen's campaign reportedly had to shred those million leaflets showcasing her friendship with vladimir putin. yes, given the war, given the passage of time, given the taste of french public, she's had to moduate her stance, not moderate, because she's just

changing the way she talks about a lot of things. even with putin having just invaded ukraine, she's still promising if she's elected president this weekend in france, she'll form a new bilateral alliance between france and russia. she said she will pull france out of the military command structure out of nato. she's no longer saying overtly she will pull france out of the european union, but you can certainly say good-bye to the eu providing weapons to ukraine to defendwe themselves to the russn military. she has suggested publicly that russia essentially has a right to menace ukraine, and to keep ukraine in its severe of influence. again, the vote, the presidential election in france is this weekend. the vote's on sunday. the one o and only debate betwe the candidates, between her and emmanuel macronhe takes place tomorrow. here's whats "the washington post" said this afternoon, quote, alreadyhi facing a resurgent menace from the

kremlin, europe is bracing for the possible rise of threat from within. one who could bolster moscow, break the european union and diminish u the nato since the fl of the berlin wall. maureen le pen, the person with strong ties to vladimir putin it facing her strongest bid yesterday for the french presidency. with polls in the final round of elections putting her within striking distance. should she succeed, european observers fear an illegal russian leader taking the helm of the eu's sole nuclear power. have complicated u.s. and european attempts to isolate so putin. le pen opposes plans to wean europe offo of russian oil and gas. her stance could embolden the kremlin by tying the eu's hands on any further measures against russia should putin deploy any

more inhuman tactics in ukraine. in brussels, the eu's capital, the europeans diplomats see le pen's surge as a surreal replay. and many hoping she will lose as she has before. quote, i just can't believe they would vote for putin's stooge, said one diplomat who spoke on anonymity, and then the diplomat continued i could not imagine is that someone would vote for trump. one former french diplomat writes today in the boston globe with his hair on fire, he writes at the time when european union has shown unity in the face of russia's attack on ukraine, a le pen victory to fragment europe.

and that's essentially putin's dream. if maureen le pen is elected as president of france, it would create a shock that would shake the tworld.e even know maureen le pen basicallyle shares the politicsf her elderly father, one of the most prolific and violently anti-semitic fascists, maureen le pen is said to be estranged from him personally in recent years. i mention that even as he's facing new charges this past year for threatening to put jews in ovens. he's well into his 90s now, but his daughter is closer to when the le pen family has ever been, to real power, at the worst possible time. the head of the european union is now confirming that the eu is drafting plans for a full embargo, a full ban on russian

imports to oil which is the closest thing you can get to a silver bullet against the russian state. the nseu is not planning on votg to implement any such ban on russian oil until france has elections this weekend. they don't want fluctuation on oil and gas prices to have an impact on the french vote. even as they're drafting the embargo, they say they will not ask eu member states to vote on it until after the french election happens this weekend. that said, if the eu is going to impose an embargo on russian oia and gas. all the eu member states have to vote for that, including france. and if maureen le pen gets elected this weekend, it's almost a certainty that she will have france block that kind of a move against russia. she might even force the eu to drop t some of the other measur they've already taken against russia. like the embargo on russian coal they've put in place. or the ban on russian ships using eu ports.

you need eu anonymity, you know that among the states. she might back france out of that and therefore destroy eu's ability to do any of those things against russia. today in greece, a big russian oil tanker apparently had to dock in a greek port. it didn't seem to be aimed at that port in the first place. apparently, the tanker had engine trouble and got caught out in the rough seas and had to dock in greece. and greececk is an eu member country. and russian vessels are banned fromve docking in eu member por. greek officials seized the tanker and its russian crew. because the sanctions against russia say they cannot be at an eu port. we'll see what happens there. nbc news is first to report today that president biden has approved another large shipment ofpr weapons, particularly, hea artillery to go to ukraine.

it was pretty big news late last week, when our government said they'd ship more than $800 million worth of helicopters and howitzers and drones and armored artillery and more. to get more than $800 million of that shipment approved by president biden last week. apparently, they started making plans for another shipment of about the same size. in eastern ukraine, the russian assault appears to be as massive as was feared in the leadup to the phase in the war. in mariupol, where at least hundreds, at least hundreds of civilians are said to be sheltering insidebe that giant steel plant along with ukrainian soldiers and marines, today, the leader of thein marines, posted this video explaining this might be the last anybody would hear from them. that they are outnumbered now 10 to 1 by russian forces. they're dramatically outgunned. he said they have 500 wounded

ukrainian soldiers including women and children. they're asking to organize an extraction to take them to a third country. sky news reporter jane farrell found the wife and children one of those ukrainian fighters in mariupol. he is in mariupol, among the lastpo mariupol offenders, his wife and children are in underground in a makeshift hospital in another ukrainian city. >> reporter: underground in the city of mykolaiv is a bunker which is now a children's ward. drip feeds are administered among the gloomy basement. oksana has done the best to brighten things up. her two sons, whose toys reflect the battle above. she last spoke to her husband four days ago. he is among some of the last fighters holding out in the pummeled city of mariupol. mari.

>> reporter: how are you coping? >> she says she will be there until the very end. her husband, according to that sky news report, among the holdout of ukrainian fighters still trying to save the city of mariupol which the russian military has already effectively destroyed but where the russians

want control. and no one knows what lengths they will go to with remaining ukrainian fighters and civilians there in order to get it. the ukrainian government has reportedly offered to trade russia one of it's high value prisoners, at least one of its prisoners that russia will value highly. the russian-inked oligarch viktor medvedchuk. they reportedly offered to trade medvedchuk to russia to the mariupol soldiers and survivors. russia has not responded to that offer. and the second largest city, kharkiv, it's a cosmopolitan city, it's being targeted. the reporters in the city of kharkiv say the strikes appear

to be aimed at residential neighborhoods. "the new york times" has two strikes what appear to be adjustments in the russian strategy in this part of the war, trying to avoid the same mistake that they made in their initial invasion, when they went in all over the country, when they tried and failed to take the capital of kyiv. "the new york times" today, quote, russia has launched a new campaign with a narrower goal focused primarily on capturing ukraine's east and it promises to be much more methodical. instead of lightening attacks from the front line, moscow's force have increase their artillery barrages to probe ukrainian lines. known as shaping operations in military circles these smaller russian attacks are often precursors to larger troop movements which serve as a distraction from other fronts. joining us from kharkiv, the correspondent from "the new york times" which is the lead byline,

mr. thomas neff. he brings unique experience to this reporting job. he's also served our country as a marine infantry man with two tours in afghanistan. thank you so much for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> we've been following your reports from kharkiv. and all the reports you've done in ukraine closely. you can just give us an update on the scale of what's happening in terms of this phase of the war, and what russia appears to be trying to accomplish? >> right. it's tough, as you had read in the article that we have written, they have narrowed their focus, right. they have thousands of troops kind of located in the east, preparing for a larger offensive, but taking much less ground than they had set out for in february. that just looks different this time, instead of having armored columns and infantry advances and helicopter and searches, they're kind of advancing very

slowly from predetermined front lines that they've established in the last month and a half, two months. a lot of that is going to look like say lot of artillery fire. and slowly moving the troops underneath the artillery fire as they weakened the positions. >> it sounds more efficient than what you describe that way. i don't know anything about military tactics and i'm not a military veteran like you are. it sounds from a layman's perspective, the way you're describing that, that this is a massive show of force. that it's going to be grinding but it also seems to have more military chance of success than the earlier tactics that they used in earlier parts of the war. is that a fair assessment? >> i think for the most part, i think it's going to be a lot slower. i think a lot of that has to do with keeping casualty numbers lower, as before the early parts of the war, they suffered, the russians and ukrainians suffered a lot of casualties just in those early weeks. from february to march.

so, however it turns out, again it will be just much more concerted and russian forces will focus on weak points where they can kind of gain as much ground as possible before stopping the regrouping. >> what does this mean for the civilians who are in the path of this -- this part of the russian offensive? obviously, what we have seen in the places where there has been sustained and concerted fighting is that russia's basically destroying the places that it's trying to take over. the city of mariupol is in many, to a large extent, rubble. and that's true in a lot of cities in eastern ukraine that have been the target of sustained fighting thus far. is there any effort, is there any strategic imperative to try to preserve anything about the liveability of these cities or any of its infrastructure? are they just razing things to the ground? >> i think going forward, a lot of what we've seen so far, the

weapons of the u.s. and the u.s. has supplied like the javelin, which is a mini tank guided missile. at the end of the day, this is an artillery war that means a lot destruction, no matter where the fighting is. of course like any conflict, the civilians and innocents are caught in the middle. so as this move it's in east, people living in towns and cities will be caught in the middle -- if they can't evacuate, again, there's always a big chunk of people that stay behind because they can't leave their team here, elderly family members, they're sick. so, again, whatever happens next is going to be the civilians caught in the middle that will bear the brunt of this. >> in united states, there's been a lot of talk about the shift that the u.s. is providing, u.s. providing artillery rounds and other kind of weapons that at least echo

the way russia's fighting its side of the war. do you believe any of the weapon shipments from united states from the european union, from ukraine's allies could make a difference? is there enough materiel that would be moved into ukraine to help them find some equipoise in this conflict or turn the table? >> that is always the question. just from what we've heard, the shortage of ammunition, it really comes down to bullets and band aids, they need a lot of that, ukrainians need a lot of that to hold the line but retake territory. it remains to be seen. it will be something that the west and united states especially is keeping a pretty close eye on. >> in terms of your plans and your reporting, i mentioned you've got unique experience because of your personal history you bring to this reporting. what are your plans, you don't have to get too specific with me, but do you feel like you and your colleagues can safely report from where you are in

ukraine? do you have plans to move to try to stay in safer places? >> i mean, as far as -- kharkiv is shelled daily. i think you said, it's a -- it's a big city. there's places, you know, outside of the shelling where we can stay. but, i mean, i think, going forward, we have every intent of covering this war, you know, where it is. and where this offensive pushes. >> thomas gibbons-neff, kabul bureau chief of "the new york times" joining us after 4:00 in the morning, i'm not helping you do your job to be up past 4:00 in the morning to talk to me. i'll let you go, sir. thank you so much for your time and good luck. >> thank you. >> we've got much more ahead for tonight. stay with us. even when her bladder makes a little drop-off. because candice has poise, poise under pressure and poise in her pants. it takes poise.

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so, here's something that's worth watching tonight and over the next few days into this weekend. a few days ago, we learned from

cnn that utah republican u.s. senator mike lee had comported himself after the november election, and in the leadup to the january 6 attack, in a way that didn't at all match what he has said publicly about what he did at the time. senator lee has repeatedly presented himself as somebody who didn't approve of donald trump's efforts to try to overturn the election and stay in power, even though he had lost. he's presented himself as someone who had a patriotic conscious about that kind of thing. thought just a conservative, but a constitutional conservative who never would have gone along with any of those scams. well, then, cnn obtained text messages that senator lee sent to president trump's white house chief of staff mark meadows at the time that was going down and the text messages tell a very different story. for example, senator lee told reporters bob woodward and robert costa that he was shocked, shocked when the first time he received a legal memo

from trump lawyer john eastman, a few days before january 6, that would entail sending fake slate of presidential electors to multiple states. state where is biden won. they would nevertheless have trump elects sent from those states to the electoral college. and maybe that's how the election results could be overturned. mike lee told woodward and costa, that he was shocked, shocked, to get that ridiculous memo from john eastman, laying out that plainly unconstitutional illegal plan. he said he saw it for the first time on january 2nd, just days before the january 6 attack. he said he was shocked and horrified when he saw it. that said, we now know, from senator lee's text messages which are in the possession of the january 6 investigation which are released publicly by cnn. his text messages actually show

that senator lee was recommending that trump lawyer john eastman to the white house chief of staff as far back as november, john eastman has really interesting -- on this. and senator lee texting mark meadows, quote, if a very small handful of states would to have their legislators elect a small slate of delegates there could be a math. behind the scenes, senator lee was vocally advocating the plan to throw the election to trump. he was advocating as far back as december 8, 2020 and he told bob woodward and robert costa that he was shocked when he heard about it. it's plainly not true. when you learn about this process, it's plainly not true. the text messages further show that senator lee continued to work on and promote that scheme

privately behind the scenes, all the way up to the january 6 attack. he would claim later to know absolutely nothing about it but he was working behind the scenes trying to get states to effectuate this plan to send in a slate of fake elects and there be turn over the election. cnn obtained these i assume after obtained from the january 6 investigation. the investigation has them, cnn has made them public. this is coming back to bite senator lee in a way he may not see coming i'm not sure i did either. here, for example, is the head line from the salt lake tribune which is the paper of record in mike lee's home state of utah. they start by quoting one of senator lee's texts to mark meadows, quote, please tell me what i should be saying. text messages show mike lee assisting trump efforts to overturn 2020 election. newly released text messages show lee knew of scheme to send

trump a month before claimed. it's getting worse for him, just today, the salt lake tribune released another editorial, saturday's utah state republican convention would be a great place for mike lee to come clean. quote, it's time for lee to start fessing up to all he knows about the plot to set aside the results of an honest and fair election to keep donald trump in power. we know the senior senator had a much greater role. his constituents deserve a much more detailed accounting of what went on and the extent of senator lee's participation in it. the editorial continue, quote, yesterday would be a great time for senator lee to come clean. saturday's state republican convention would be a really good opportunity for that too. so, the january 6 debacle is proceeding on a whole lot of

different levels now. georgia republican congresswoman marjorie taylor greene tonight is facing a legal challenge about her eligibility to run for re-election because of her alleged help to the insurrectionists on january 6. the criminal cases against people who actually entered the capitol on january 6, they proceed with new arrests continuing this week. the january 6 investigation in congress as of yesterday, they took 9 1/2 hours of testimony from donald trump jr.'s fiancee, kimberly guilfoyle who helped rally the crowd on january 6th in a count chocula costume before they stormed the capitol. and those part of the plot to get the election results overturned, that's still an open question. a very open question in our country. and now includes utah senator

mike lee in a very important way that's becoming very hot for him at home. watch this space. (woman) oh. oh! hi there. you're jonathan, right? the 995 plan! yes, from colonial penn. your 995 plan fits my budget just right. excuse me? aren't you jonathan from tv, that 995 plan? yes, from colonial penn. i love your lifetime rate lock. that's what sold me. she thinks you're jonathan, with the 995 plan. -are you? -yes, from colonial penn. we were concerned we couldn't get coverage, but it was easy with the 995 plan. -thank you. -you're welcome. i'm jonathan for colonial penn life insurance company. this guaranteed acceptance whole life insurance plan is our #1 most popular plan.

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it's been reported here last night, a federal judge in florida yesterday decided to strike down the cdc's mask rule for airline travel, train travel and public transportation. there's a little bit of a strange decision by that judge. she made the decision, even without hearing arguments in the case. she said she didn't need to hear the arguments.

she just ruled on her own. and she said ruling would apply nationwide even though the plaintiffs only brought suit in her single district in florida. nevertheless, that immediate change ordered by that one judge to this nationwide public health law has immediate consequences. if you, for example, flew out somewhere for spring break before yesterday's shock ruling, you're going to find just all flying home from spring break, under very different public health rules than you might have been counting on. maybe that doesn't matter to you, maybe you didn't feel strongly about it. maybe you weren't factoring that into your covid safety matrix when you were planning this travel. maybe it does matter to you. maybe it was a big factor. the context in which this happened, not just the suddenness, that matters here, too. the cdc had just decided last week that they were going to extend the mask rule until may 3rd. it's a short extension. they just wanted to give the agency a few more weeks to assess what the current uptick

in covid cases might mean, for our health care system. for hospitalizations, for deaths. they needed a little more time to assess how much the mask rule might help avert the worst of those consequences. so, again, they plan to extend it, just until may 3rd. may 3rd is right around the corner. now that this judge has thrown out the ruling, effective immediately nationwide, well, that timing has to factor into the government's decision as to whether or not to appeal, right? by the time they brought the appeal, may 3rd probably will have come and gone. which means that the extension that the judge ruled against would effectively be moot. given the timing here, there's been an open question and an interesting one as to whether the justice department would try an appeal. today, the justice department gave an answer to that question, quote, the department continues to believe that the order requiring masking in the

transportation sector is a valid order for department of health. if cdc concludes that a mandatory order remains necessary for the public health after that assessment, the department of justice will appeal the district court's decision. so, the doj is trying reinforce that the cdc has authority to set rules for public health. they're trying to give cdc room to continue assessing whether a mask rule is needed, whether it's still a necessary public health measure. well, it comes to the bigger, potentially, existential question of whether the cdc has authority to put public health rules in place in the middle of the pandemic, if that question is still open, as long as this judge's ruling goes unchallenged. what does that mean for doctors and nurses treating patients as a member of covid cases starts to tick back up again. joining us now is dr. craig spencer. he's the director of global health at columbia university urban medical center.

he's an emergency room doctor practicing in new york city. he's also a doctor with personal experience with scary contagious diseases. he was the first person in new york city to be diagnosed with ebola back in 2015 after he returned from treating ebola patients in africa. when the covid pandemic in new york city hit in march 2020, dr. spencer was on the front lines treating patients at the worst during that time. dr. spencer, thank you for being back on. >> thank you for having me back on. it's a pleasure. >> so, it seems to me that there's two things to think about in terms of this judge's ruling. one is just the practical question. people may be watching you right now with your experience as a specialist in the field, as a practicing physician in new york. is it a good idea to wear a mask on the train, on the subway, on an airplane, even if i'm no longer required? but also, what's your view for this challenge on the cdc

authority to put a rule like this in place at all? >> both of those are incredibly important questions i will add that not only as a provider but as the parent of a 3-year-old and 1-year-old who three days ago took a flight to visit family and have to fly back home to new york city under these new rules, it does give me trepidation, my 3-year-old and 1-year-old. one can mare a mask, they've both been vaccinated, the 1-year-old can't. i would prefer they were on a flight where people wore masks but we're going to have to adapt and figure out a way to keep ourselves safe. my most recent flight was with my family to go and visit immunocompromised family in florida. i'm worried about a situation that may expose others. for myself, i'm young, i'm healthy, i'm triple vaccinated. my risk isn't high. that's for the personal, and now being the more important, i

think, legal precedent, what you saw here was not a public health decision, you had a legal decision that overrode the decisions of the public health short in the middle of a pandemic. and i'm not just worried about what that means right now, today, for flights in the next few days and for the uptick in cases. i'm worried about what that means in the future when we respond to pandemics. when we have further passage that threaten us in the u.s. we've already had dozens of state implement measures to limit public health short. authority. now, you have one decision who has overrode the decisionmaking authority. i think that sets precedent for the cdc to challenge that. >> and the administration says they will challenge it provided that the cdc assesses in scientific terms that a continued mask mandate, a continued mask rule for public transit actually is in the public health interest.

so they're effectively -- the justice department is effectively saying that they're going to follow the science. that if the cdc still thinks this type of rule should be in effect, that they will appeal the ruling in order to try to reassert the cdc's authority to make those decisions. >> right. >> it still does feel a little precarious in terms of the standing of the cdc to pass these rules in the future. i mean, i understand why the doj is referring to them. that precedential issue is frightening. >> that's right. if you're young and vaccinated you may think that your personal risk is low. we may say that having them in congregate settings work. what is the decision to be made here. what is the cdc even looking at. we know right now, ba.2, that subvariant is spreading. we've seen it in new york. we know it's causing an uptick in cases nationally. we need to better understand

what that means, not only for local outbreaks, bigger outbreaks, in places like new york city and other big cities where they've seen virus and vaccinations. it hasn't led to a dramatic uptick in hospitalizations. i don't see a lot of covid patients in the er right now. we're not admitting a lot. that's not going to be true for every place in the country. so, these decisions might seem really difficult and hard to untangle, even two years in. but the fact is we are one country with many different subpopulations, or vacates vaccination, immunocompromised state, and people have a bit of empathy, even though the pandemic is over for, it's not for a lot of people, including parents of kids. and people who are immunocompromised and might not have access to the care and medications that they need to stay safe as everybody else. >> dr. craig spencer, director of global health at columbia medical center.

dr. spencer, it's a pleasure to have you here. i understand you guys got stuck in the middle of a round trip with the rules changing in the middle. >> thank you, rachel. >> more news. stay with us. more news stay with us

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involved. this is a very important matter as you've already highlighted and so, yes, the investigation seems that it will go past just this one phone call that we discussed and you that played for your viewers. >> that was georgia state prosecutor, the district attorney in fulton county, georgia, fani willis. speaking with us last we're. we had that interview with her, after her office opened a criminal investigation into president trump's efforts to overturn georgia's 2020 election results. she told us in that clip that it went beyond trump's secretary of state telling us to be declared the winner of the state. she said it was like peelen an onion, and they'd be looking at everything related to those efforts to interfere with georgia's results. it's been a little over 14 months since fani willis' office began that investigation. today, we're learning where things stand and where things

are headed. you might remember earlier this year, a panel of judges cleared the way for potential grand jury to be seated to look at charges against former president trump. today in the "atlanta journal-constitution," district attorney willis confirms a time line saying the grand jury will be seated may 2nd and start hearing from witnesses june 1. in today's interview, she notes that her investigation has taken voluntary testimony from at least 50 people. she told the paper today, with the grand jury being seated now, she plans to seek subpoenas for an additional 30 other people at least. part of the special grand jury's job would be to sign off on subpoenas for folks that won't voluntary testify but will once compelled to by the grand jury. come june 1, that grand jury is expected to hear from the witnesses themselves. all of that is new and notable. i'll tell you there's one other

piece of that interview with the hhc that stood out from me today, fani willis and her team have faced threats from very early on since they first announced the investigation. they was very candid about the threats that come into her and her office as the investigation had been announced but in the latest interview with the atlanta journal constitution she declined to name the lead prosecutors that she's assigned to the probe citing security precautions. she also told the paper that she's recently ordered bulletproof vests for investigators working on the case. that's bracing to hear but it appears that the investigation is full steam ahead. now, we have a bit of a time line for it. ticktock. balancing so you stay cool. and now, save $1,000 on our most popular smart bed. only for a limited time. to learn more, go to sleepnumber.com.

all right. that is going to do it for us tonight. that presidential debate in

france that i talked about at the top of the show tonight that is taking place tomorrow afternoon at 3:00 p.m. east coast time. we're going to be keeping an eye on that. in tomorrow's news, given the stakes in that contest but i'll see you again here tomorrow night. "way too early with jonathan lemire" is up next. ♪♪ russia puts new pressure on the last pocket of resistance in mariupol as moscow looks to secure an early victory in its new eastern offensive. meanwhile, the west is rushing to send in new and heavier arms. we'll get a live report from ukraine. plus, the latest in the battle over mask mandates. the biden administration now saying it likely will appeal the ruling that lifted the mandate on planes and other public transportation. and after losing subscribers for the first time in a decade, netflix considers something it has tried its best to avoid.