it was like, i gotta get ahead of, i was really excited, to be honest, as a fan. i just got a little sight. i was like, i'm curious to see what rachael has to say about all of this tomorrow. so that was my reaction. >> one out that i know that you like to keep it, you know, >> spicy. >> right up to the end, one of these times i'm going to sneak into your prompter and put on, now, next on msnbc, vanilla ice. >> i'm like anchor man. i'll read anything. >> you're tempting me. it will happen. thank you. much appreciated. thanks for joining us this hour. happy to have you here. you're getting more of me than you bargained for this week. i'm sorry. if everything goes as planned which is never in the news business but you can't break them unless you make them in the first place, if all goes as planned, i will be here tonight hosting the rachel maddow show and tomorrow night as well at my

usual time 9:00 p.m. hosting, tuesday night, wednesday night and thursday night i will be here as well. but the whole all star team with my msnbc colleagues. we expect to do a primetime recap of the january 6th hearing that will happen during the work day on thursday this week. so we'll see. hi tonight and tomorrow night my 9:00 p.m. and big special coverage starting at 8:00 p.m. eastern on thursday night after the next january 6th hearing. that is the plan. the only reason we break one when the news gods throw us ten curveballs at once and all the plans are thrown out the window. that is the plan. i'm glad to be here. there's a lot going on. a lot to be watching tonight as my friend chris hayes was covering on his show. we have eyes on this surprise development on possible gun safety reforms.

last week i think the whole country was pretty skeptical it was announced that democrats led by senator chris murphy persuaded enough republican senators they might potentially be able to pass a modest package of gun reform not only through the house but through the senate. republicans over the course of this past generation have not become just hardliners. not just absolutist but indeed sort of maximalists when it comes to the policy issue of how many guns there ought to be on the streets in our country and what kinds of guns americans ought to have access to. i mean, i don't know why this is sort of stuck with me and hasn't stuck with anybody else. i'm going to keep saying it and hope it sticks with somebody else some day. do you remember -- we ought to remember what the republicans did first the last time they won full control of the u.s. government. january, 2017. after trump won the white house and republicans won control of

the house and the senate. they have control of all those branchs of government. the very first substantive thing they did the very first real action republicans took in congress was, what? they changed gun laws to literally, i kid you not, to literally make it easier for people to obtain firearms if they had been formally adjudicated to be mentally ill. seriously. that was the first substantive thing republicans did the last time they got full control of the government. they set to work on the grave problem that people formaly ed a adjudicated to be mentally ill weren't easily able to get guns. they fixed that as soon as they got power. given that recent history, i think there was skepticism across the country the idea that ten republican senators and all the democratic senators would agree on some package of

gun-related reforms they would all agree should pass. that said, lo and behold, maybe we skeptics were wrong. today the leader of the republicans in the senate, senator mitch mcconnell, crawled out of his shell and said that he, too, supports this modest package of gun reforms. which would imply that it's not going to be just ten republicans that support it if their leader is supporting it, that means it might be a whole bunch of them, certainly enough to get it passed. now, we are -- we have all been burned too many times on this issue. right? to actually believe this before we see it in action. but honestly, this announcement today by the republican senate leader mitch mcconnell, it's not nothing. after decades of nothing from republicans as the gun massacres have just piled up, i mean, maybe this new announcement from the new republican side on the senate maybe this isn't exactly

nothing. but we shall see when it comes time to vote on something. caveat, buyer beware. this might first finally be the first not nothing we have had in decades. we also have eyes tonight on primary races. some interesting ones happening tonight in maine and nevada and north dakota and south carolina. there's also a really confusing special election for congressional seat in texas tonight, but just for somebody to hold that seat until january and then that seat will be up for a totally different kind of contest. the texas special election tonight is a very twisty cone of soft ice cream in terms of understanding the immediate implications of how that special election in texas is going to go, but there are primaries in these other four states. again, nevada, south carolina, maine and north dakota. most of the focus tonight has been on south carolina. in south carolina, there are two incumbent republican members of congress facing republican

challengers backed by former president trump. that's worth watching for sure in terms of the overall balance of power in the house ultimately, but also sort of the power of trumpism in an on going way in the republican party. we'll get results from those key south carolina races and all the latest on the primaries from those four states from the great steve kornacki monitoring those results from his patented big board. steve, we'll see you in just a few minutes. speaking of the former president and his influence over the modern republican party, today you should know is the former president's birthday. donald trump turns 76 years old today. as the world's worst birthday present for a former president, the new york state court system informed former president trump and his son don and his daughter ivanka that they all three must show up and give sworn testimony in the civil case that's being pursued against the trump family business by new york's attorney general tish james. they had been pushing very hard to avoid having to personally

testify in this case. you might remember when eric trump, the other son, the blonde one, was compelled to testify in this same case last fall, the new york attorney general says eric trump in that deposition he pled the fifth. against self incrimination more than 500 times in response to more than 500 different questions. he took the fifth. so, yeah. as of today, per the new york state courts, the eldest trump son, not the blonde one, and daughter ivanka and former president trump himself, they are all going to have to give sworn testimony in that civil case next month. you want to set your alarm for it or inevitable public meltdown as that testimony date approaches, right now that testimony is on the books for july 15th. so one month from tomorrow. happy birthday. see you in court. and you know, it's interesting thinking about sworn

depositions from the former president and more of his kids in that case, which really does threaten the existence of the trump family business. one of the things that just keeps becoming newly relevant over and over again about the former president about this question of whether he'll be president again, his continuing hold on the republican party, his efforts to transform that party into an anti-democracy sort of authoritarian force, the question of whether he will face state criminal charges in georgia or federal criminal charges indeed. the question of whether he might lose his family business in this civil fraud case in new york. the question of whether he will succeed in overturning future u.s. elections the way he tried to overturn the last one, on and on and on. one of the things that seemed small at the start of our understanding of him as a public figure, but just newly keeps becoming relevant for all these important questions about the future of our country, there's

this u fact we keep coming back around to which is that trump likes weird lawyers. he likes lawyers who like put a little extra hot sauce on everything they do. he likes weird lawyers who do their jobs not like normal lawyers. option up with a real focus on that with rudy giuliani. as to whether or not whole day of news coverage, he is denying he was drunk when he reportedly advised president trump to declare victory on election night even though trump had lost. mr. giuliani had his law license suspended in new york. may lose his law license in washington, d.c. as well. i mean, mr. giuliani is trump's kind of lawyer, but he's not an outlier in terms of the kind of lawyers that trump chooses. i mean, this is a former president who is in more legal trouble than any american

president has ever been before by a factor of 10,000. but, he likes lawyers like rudy giuliani. he likes consistently lawyers who approach their work say like this. >> i'm warning you, [ bleep ] tread very lightly because what i'm going to do to do you is to be [ bleep ] disgusting. do you understand me? don't think you can hide behind your pen because it's not going to happen. >> even before rudy giuliani was the highest profile trump attorney in the country that was michael cohen had 180 degree turn around in his life. he is now diametrically opposed to all things donald trump. he, in fact, apologized for threatening that reporter. what i'm going to do to you is going to be fing disgusting. when he was working for donald trump, that's how he talked to

reporters. that's what trump was looking for from his lawyer. here is another gem from that crowd. >> his attorney john dowd has promised to appeal those convictions. this is the video i was talking about. cnbc caught up with mr. dowd just a short time ago. >> get the [ bleep ] out of here. >> wow. >> that's what i got for cnbc. yeah. take that. rudy giuliani now, right, we had michael cohen before him what i'm going to do to you is going to be fing disgusting. he also hired this gentleman to be one of his lawyers at his first impeachment, the trump lawyer who went to the floor of the house and made the argument outloud that trump shouldn't be impeached, obama should be impeached. this was the lawyer who made the argument that president obama is

the real trader and he should be impeached not trump. that was his defense of trump in 2020, impeach obama four years after president obama had left office. which i'm sure trump thought was awesome. he likes his lawyers with extra hot sauce. he brought him on as a trump white house lawyer because that's what he likes in a lawyer. it turns out, though, if you have really sort of taste in terms of what you want from a lawyer, you want the guy with the hair dy ex running down his head, you know, somebody else threatening to do something fing disgusting to a reporter, running an impeach obama campaign from the floor of the house while you're being impeached, if that's your taste in lawyers, well, you're also going to have to live with that being the character of the lawyers that you're up against when they all inevitably turn against you, just like everyone

has who has ever worked with you or for you in any capacity. and so that right now is why we got these particularly pungent slashing criticisms from one trump's kind of lawyers. from eric hershman he brought into the trump white house after his particularly bombastic performance as a trump impeachment defense lawyer. >> as a combination of italians and germans different things floating around as to who was involved. and affidavit from somebody who says they wrote a software something with the philippines. just all over the radar. i thought, the dominion stuff was -- i never saw any evidence whatsoever to sustain those allegations. what they were proposing i thought was nuts. the theory was also completely nuts. right is this. >> that's trump white house lawyer eric hershman, part of

his deposition testimony to the january 6th investigation. you can tell he's a trump lawyer because he has a baseball bat on the wall behind him that says justice on it. that's the kind of hot sauce trump likes in a lawyer, right? but in this case he's not defending trump anymore. he's not saying impeach trump, no. go back in time and impeach obama. this time, this time, he's taking a part what he depicts to the january 6th investigators as just the stupidity in his characterization of some of the far-fetched claims of supposed fraud that the president wanted to use as the excuse for overthrowing the u.s. government. that testimony that we just saw there that i just played here moments ago, we saw that testimony from him before today. then this evening the january 6th investigators released a new taped statement from republican vice chair liz cheney. she included at the end of her statement something else from trump lawyer eric hershman to get us ready for what's coming

next from the investigation's next hearing. >> in our next hearing on thursday, the select committee will examine president trump's relentless effort on january 6th and in the days beforehand to pressure vice president pence to refuse to count lawful, electoral votes. as a federal judge indicated, this likely violated two federal criminal statutes. president trump had no factual basis for what he was doing and he had been told it was illegal. despite this, president trump plotted with a lawyer named john eastman and others to overturn the outcome of the election on january 6th. to give you a sense of the gravity of these issues, here is a clip of one of president trump's own white house lawyers eric hershman who talks to mr. eastman the day after january 6th. >> it was the day after.

eastman -- i don't remember why he called me. or he texted me or called me and wanted to talk with me and said he couldn't reach others. and he started to ask me about something dealing with georgia and preserving something potentially for appeal. and i said to him, are you out of your fing mind? right? i said i only want to hear two words coming out of your mouth from now on, orderly transition. i don't want to hear any other fing words coming out of your mouth no matter what other than orderly transition. repeat those words to me. and i screamed -- eventually he said orderly transition. i said, good, john. now i'm going to give you the best free legal advice you're ever getting in your life. get a great fing criminal defense lawyer. you're going to need it.

and then i hung up on him. >> that was released tonight by the january 6th investigation. get a great fing criminal defense lawyer, you're going to need it. and then i hung up on him. this is the best free legal advice you're ever getting in your life. you know, note to self, you like to hire bombastic lawyers who talk like this when they defend you, well, they're also going to talk like that when they decide they're not going to defend you anymore because now they come to believe you're part of a criminal enterprise and they're willing to testify about that under oath. the substance of what mr. hershman is sort of blustering at here, though, with a bat over his shoulder to send home the point, the substance of what he's blustering at is a real thing. john eastman was another of this illustrious pantheon of trump lawyers. he really knows how to pick 'em. eastman has been litigating in

federal court against subpoenas he received from the january 6th investigation and he said in his litigation that he was acting as an attorney to president trump and there's such a thing as attorney/client privilege. that's a real thing. it says prosecutors basically aren't allowed to see communications that happened between a person and their lawyer. a person is entitled to confidential legal advice that you can keep secret from the government even in the face of a subpoena. that said, the attorney/client privilege is not limitless. and in the case of trump and this lawyer john eastman, in the litigation where eastman is trying to keep his communications and his documents secret, keep them away from investigators, a federal judge now ruled twice in recent weeks that eastman actually has to hand over these communications and documents to the investigation. even though he was acting as trump's lawyer because even though there is such a thing as attorney/client privilege, you can't use it to cover up a crime. you can't use it to keep secret the evidence that a lawyer and a

client were actually planning crimes together. and a judge has ruled already that trump and eastman were making forth with the criming. and therefore eastman has to hand over his documents and communications because crime. because there is a crime/fraud exception to the attorney/client privilege. the judge believes that is likely implicated in this case that they were plotting a crime together and therefore his documents and communications have to be hand over to the investigation. and that is a very substantive thing for a federal judge to conclude. and that is why eric hershman in classic trump lawyer language told the other trump lawyer john eastman that he was going to give him the best free legal advice you're ever getting in your life. get a great fing criminal defense lawyer, you're going to need it and then i hung up. that's why you're getting that between trump lawyers. and that also is what liz cheney

was getting at in this little part of her intro there, in this specific part of it. >> president trump's relentless effort on january 6th and in the days beforehand to pressure vice president pence to refuse to count lawful, electoral votes. as a federal judge has indicated, this likely violated two federal criminal statutes. >> trump's effort on january 6th to pressure vice president pence he should refuse to count the votes likely violated two statutes. per a ruling, likely violated two federal laws when they pressured mike pence the way that they did. and what she specifically describing, you can check it in the judge's ruling, are these two federal statutes. 18 u.s. code section 15.12 c and 18 u.s. code section 371.

in plain english, obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the united states. and you know, there's been all this talk in the last -- i hate people in the media doing media criticism, but i'm just going to say this because i feel like this is an issue that needs a little fence put around it, it's getting blown up into a bigger deal than it actually is. there's been all this talk over the past few months but particularly in the past couple days about whether or not the january 6th investigation at the end of their investigation, whether they're going to make formal referrals to the u.s. department of justice about prosecuting crimes that the investigation has turned up. there's all this focus on whether or not all the members of the committee feel the same way about that issue, what they said whether they're going to issue criminal referrals or not issue criminal referrals. honestly it's kind of mute. here tonight in this video released on twitter,

congresswoman liz cheney is making criminal referrals. right? laying out the evidence, the committee, the investigation has been laying out the evidence that they have found potential crimes. they have named the federal statutes they believe were violated and they named the people who they say did it. i mean, that's a criminal referral. whether or not you write it down or you say it in a video that's posted online from the official twitter account of the january 6th investigation, that's it. i mean, what else do you want? this is the january 6th investigators serving the volleyball over the net to federal prosecutors. >> as a federal judge has indicated, this likely violated two federal criminal statutes. president trump had no factual basis for what he was doing. and he had been told it was illegal. >> he had been told it was illegal. it was not based in any factual truth about the world. meaning he did it and he did it with corrupt intent which means

it's prosecutable in the view of january 6th investigation vice chair republican congress woman liz cheney. in terms of what happens next here, the next january 6th hearing is not going to be tomorrow. it's going to be thursday. and the thursday hearing is going to be about the pressure on vice president mike pence that he had to overturn the election. the original plan had been there would be another hearing before that. there would be a hearing tomorrow about trump's efforts to use the justice department toover throw the government. that hearing will still happen but it has been delayed. they're going to slow down and try to do two hearings a week instead of three hearings a week which honestly seems fine. do it at whatever pace you need to do to get it right. but with all the hearings that we've got on deck, i think we now realize you are -- from the list of witnesses we're told to expect from the witnesses we have seen already from the depositions we know have been taken, i think we can see you're

going to see the same pattern at work throughout. you're going to see trump lawyers and trump's kind of lawyer, right, guys like bill barr, who frankly happily spread trump lies before and after the election that democrats were perpetrated some terrible shenanigans around the election. bill barr was as much of a problem on this issue in terms of making false claims about the election ahead of things really going to hell in a hand basket around january 6th, bill barr for all that he did wrong specifically on this issue, nevertheless, bill barr is bailing out on trump now and now testifying under oath that everything trump was pushing to the public was a lie and he knew it was a lie. another trump lawyer, richard donohue, the number two at the justice department after barr left, he was right there along with bill barr. actually inserting himself into the process. and making the justice department spend real resources investigating these made-up, ridiculous on their face fraud claims as if they were real things.

richard donohue helping very much in those -- if that regard, but in the end, nevertheless, bailing out when he was asked to do too much and now richard donohue as well will be testifying under oath that everything trump was pushing was a lie and he knew it was a lie. lawyers like eric hershman, the impeach obama, trump white house lawyer to the end, now bailing out and testifying under oath that everything trump was pushing to the public was a lie and he knew it was a lie. we are going to keep getting this from more and more of them on every aspect of the scheme and because it's the way trump likes his lawyers, we're going to get it all with extra hot sauce. and extra bluster and extra swear words. and apparently with referrals for federal criminal prosecution, live and outloud in realtime as they roll out the evidence. and, yes, it is getting through. again, i am allergic to media criticism, but you know what go up to the upper left corner of

the country, here is the anchorage daily news, front page, trump's inner circle warned him election fraud claims were false. portland, maine, advisers told trump election fraud claims were false. go to the middle of the country, detroit free press, aides warned trump to stop. here is the star tribune in minneapolis, minnesota, allied warned trump election claims were false. i mean, what you're seeing here is distilled. these are the headline versions of what liz cheney is spelling out as the predicate for federal criminal charges. so much ink and so much hot hair. it's getting across. people are getting it. it's getting across to the country as clear as you can possible imagine thanks in part to trump's own taste in lawyers. thanks to them it's getting through with some extra sauce on it. which makes it harder to miss. more to come.

stay with us.

hey, everyone. congress woman nancy mace here. i'm in front of trump tower. i remember in 2015 when president trump announced his run. i was one of his earliest supporters. if you want to lose this seat once again in midterm election cycle to democrats, then my opponent is more than qualified to do just that. >> notice sort of the air of sadness about that video in that was south carolina republican congresswoman nancy mace earlier this year she recorded sort of sad, slightly graveling campaign video stood outside trump tower in new york city. the air of sadness there is because that was the day after former president trump had endorsed not her, former president trump endorsed her republican primary opponent. and when you heard nancy mace say in the video she was one of trump's earliest supporters. that's true in 2016 she was the

coalition and field director for trump's 2016 presidential campaign, one of the very few early paid staffers on that campaign. when she went on to win a seat in the south carolina state legislature two years later in 2018, this was the headline in the charleston courier, nancy mace gives south carolina legislature first state lawmaker with clear ties to trump. but then there were minorly fraying threads on those ties. when trump white house adviser steve bannon defied a subpoena in the january 6th investigation, nancy mace was one of the members of congress who voted that bannon should be held in contempt. she also just publicly voiced dismay about the events of january 6th themselves. you wouldn't think either of those things is a cardinal sin, but apparently those things were enough to get her a trump-backed primary challenge for her seat in congress in south carolina. that election has been held today in south carolina. we'll get results thus far on that from steve kornacki all

over this tonight and is standing by. you should also know, though, that trumpy but not trumpy enough nancy mace is not the only one up against this particular kind of wall tonight. south carolina republican congressman tom rice is another one. he was one of ten republican members of congress who actually voted to impeach trump for his role in trying to overthrow the government with the january 6th attack. that vote from tom rice was a surprise but it was enough to earn rice a trump-backed republican challenger in south carolina. let's check in on both of these races with the great steve kornacki at his big board. >> hey, rachel, looks like that vote to impeach donald trump by tom rice was also enough to cost him his seat in congress. you can see here nbc news is projecting that his trump-backed challenger, russell fry has outright won this republican primary. republican, there's a 50% rule in effect in south carolina. the question here was would fry

get over 50% and win this thing outright tonight? if he fallen short of 50, he would have been sent into a runoff with rice. rice surely would have been a heavy underdog in that runoff but there will be no runoff. settled tonight by better than two to one margin. russell fry trounced rice. rice had been in office for ten years. a solid conservative voting record but it was that vote to impeach donald trump that brought the challenge from fry that brought a number of other republicans into the race for that matter, too. all of whom criticized rice for that impeachment vote. so tom rice ousted from office by republican primary voters. trump-backed challenger wins there. you mentioned the first district of south carolina, the other big trump-endorsement test in the palmetto state tonight. we're projecting that nancy mace will hold on. she will survive in this

republican primary. the margin still with some votes to come a little bit under 10 points. mace cleaning up particularly in charleston but doing well enough elsewhere in the district. she has held off this challenge from katie arrington. donald trump in texas going -- in texas, in south carolina going one for two tonight but speaking of texas, that is the other at this hour major development. it's a special election in texas. it's for a seat that will really only exist for the next few months and yet i think it's a significant result because we talked so much about south texas and the hispanic vote in particular and take a look at -- let's see if we can get this called up here. take a look at the result in this special election in the 15th district. i'm trying to get it called up here. here it is. flores, a republican, we have projected will win outright the special election in the 34th district of texas. this is one of the most hispanic congressional districts in america. again, this is a special election for a seat.

it's being redrawn because of redistricting. but we have been talking since the 2020 election about south texas, the rio grande valley, the border region, we saw county after county in this region of texas heavily hispanic swing 10, 20, 30, 40 points away from the democrats towards the republicans in the 2020 election. one of the questions is would those swings persist in 2022. certainly seeing in this special election with the republican winning in this district tonight, signs that that swing is persisting. it's a story in south texas. it's a story in florida. there's a national story here with the hispanic vote. could be very significant in these 2022 midterms. big shifts there that could affect a lot of races. so those are the three biggies we got so far. interesting primary night. rachel will be back right after this. back right after this

why choose proven quality sleep from the sleep number 360 smart bed? because it can gently raise your partner's head to help relieve snoring. ah. that's better. and can help you get almost 30 minutes more restful sleep per night. save 50% on the sleep number 360 limited edition smart bed. what if i sleep hot? ...or cold? plus, 0% interest for 36 months. ends monday.

no problem. the sleep number 360 smart bed is temperature balancing, so you both stay comfortable and can help you get 30 minutes more restful sleep per night. save 50% on the sleep number 360 limited edition smart bed. plus, 0% interest for 36 months. ends monday

another cooperator. today another member of the pro-trump right wing para military group, the proud boys, pled guilty for his role in the january 6th attack and also agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. this makes three now. three members of the so-called proud boys who pled guilty, one of those is cooperating is cooperating in the seditious conspiracy case the justice department brought against the group. there's also a seditious conspiracy case pending against the members of another protoe fascist, protrump para military group called the oath keepers. seditious conspiracy is a

specific, rarely charged, very serious crime that the justice department had a heck of a time in previous cases proving it. the very few times it's ever been used in the u.s. criminal law. but one of the things we are learning from the indictments and from the court filings in the sedition cases and in the public hearings by the january 6th investigation, is these para military groups were apparently an important integral part of the plot to try to overthrow the government to stop the certification of the last election by using force inside the u.s. capitol. the january 6th investigators laid out how hundreds of these proud boys marched to the capitol hours before trump directed the crowd at his rally that they should go to the capitol. they started attacking police just as trump started sending the big mob their way. they were effectively the tip of the spear. they breached the capitol and then the mob was there to roll in behind them. the chairman of the january 6th investigation says that upcoming

hearings, witnesses will describe conversations between these para military groups that led the breach of the capitol and people in the orbit of then president trump. they're charged with sedition. and then there's him. but you know, these aren't the only fascist, right wing para military groups operating on the right wing of politics. >> these guys stopped a u haul full of dudes. >> reporter: a swarm of extremists idaho police say came to riot. zip tied and arrested, bocks from a pride festival. >> at least one smoking grenade. multiple shields. >> reporter: police saturday discovered the crowd crammed in a u haul after 911 caller described seeing a little army at a local hotel with masks on their faces and slogans like reclaim america on their shirts. police charging all 31 with

conspiracy to riot, noting they planned to swarm several parts and carried paperwork similar to an operations plan that a police or military group would put together. they traveled in from states all across the country, allegedly united by white nationalism. >> it appeared to be affiliated with the group patriot front. >> they call themselves patriot front. they have ridiculous little uniforms you might recognize them by their distinctive matching khakis, which is supposed to be menacing instead of making like they all got off work together at best buy. but this was them in d.c. last year trying to intimidate with their little homemade shields and jv soccer shin guards. this group is a re-named version of one of the white nationalist groups that took part in the unite the right rally in charlottesville in 2017. the group renamed itself after one of the members killed heather hire, a counterprotester and seriously injurd other

people when he drove his car into a crowd of protesters. them targeting the pride event in idaho this weekend, one of the most unnerving things, patriot front was not even the only far right group targeting that particular pride event in that particular part of idaho this weekend. another so-called patriot group had planned show off your gun event to coincide with and menace that same pride gathering. the same weekend, a different group of proud boys stormed into a library in the san francisco bay area and disrupted a children's story session shouting anti-gay and anti-trans threats because the story time was led by a drag queen and so they were there to break it up by force. you will notice that the targets of these various fascist, proud boys, oath keepers, you'll

notice their targeters are the political targets of our current republican party, right? the para military groups are providing physical attacks, physical intimidation to re-enforcement political attacks. democrats and deep state actors are trying to steal the election. these will be the groups the tip of the spear that violently storm into the capitol to stop that. gay folks and trans folks are going after your children, right? these groups will storm pride festivals and supposedly objectionable children story groups and menace people with weapons and with threats. they'll put physical force behind the political threats from the republican party. there are historical and sociological reasons behind the existence of fascist, para military organizations in the united states. this is not our first rodeo with these clowns. but, it is a different thing all together when para military groups like this start playing a political function adjunct to one of the two major parties in our country. that is a very, very bad sign.

and we've got more on that next. stay with us. more on that next. stay with us

why choose proven quality sleep from the sleep number 360 smart bed? because it can gently raise your partner's head to help relieve snoring. ah. that's better. and can help you get almost 30 minutes more restful sleep per night. save 50% on the sleep number 360 limited edition smart bed. plus, 0% interest for 36 months. ends monday.

conspiracy to riot, noting they planned to swarm several parts of coeur d'alene and carried paperwork similar to an operations plan that a police or military group would put together. they travelled in from states all across the country, allegedly united by white nationalism. >> they appear to be affiliated with the group patriot front. >> why are white nationalists targeting a pride parade in

idaho or anywhere? historian kathleen the author of "bring the war home" she's an expert on these kinds of movements. thank you for making time for us tonight. >> thank you for having me. >> so, i've learned a lot of what i know about white power groups in this country and para military movements in this country from your scholarship, but i wanted to ask you about the impression i have from recent news, the sedition proud boys and oath keepers, and what we saw in idaho, i have this sense these groups are adjunct, pretty close adjunct to what's happening in very white wing electoral politics. they seem to be targeting the same targets, at least that are being singled out by right wing republican politicians. that feels unnerving to me. i wanted to ask you if that stands out to you. >> i think that's very concerning. and we don't know as much about that interface between

mainstream politics and para military white power activism in the militant right as we do about the fringe of the movement. but what we do know is these groups are inherently opportune nisic and prepared to use any open window to recruit and radicalize and implement violence. it's worth mentioning when we say the word white nationalist, sometimes people think that means overzealous patriotism, but for these activists the nation they envision is not the united states. it's a trance national group of white people. it is a whiteette know state. not the america defined by democracy and multiculturalism and multiracial identity the one we live in. it is an imaginary all white state. this is a very extremist movement. it's drawing in people as you mentioned from all over the country. and the reason that we're seeing so many of these stories at the same time about oath keepers, patriot front, proud boys the january 6th hearings, all of these things are happening at the same time because this isn't

a story about any one of these groups. this is a story about a ground swell. and even though it appears as disconnected pods of activism, it's meant to do that. what it is a nationwide para military army that is prepared to do battle for its own purposes. now, how much that can be wielded by the republican party even on the very fringe i think is open to question. >> what do you make of the reports, including from nbc news that after arresting these patriot front members in idaho, the actually police officers who arrested some of them and the police department are getting threatened. why are they threatening the police? >> yeah. you know, this has been kind of a push/pull on social media because often there has been an issue with overlap between some of these groups and some people in law enforcement. i would not paint that with one brush at all. but you know, coeur d'alene has a long history of dealing with these movements. coeur d'alene was the sight of the arian nations compound, epicenter for this activity in

the 1980s. it was nearby the head quarter actions for priesthood, the similar movement in the '90s. folks up there are not new to this. and they're very aware of how violent it can become and how dramatically it can impact their community. so i think one thing that stands out to me about the law enforcement response and sort of imple mentized in the doc is structures of power are very much in the crosshairs of this kind of a movement. there are other issues of people's homes being bombed in coeur d'alene, of people being run off the road, of people being harassed out of town. it goes on and on like this. and you know, bank robberies in nearby spokane, washington, these activists and the movement they come from have done incalculable damage in coeur d'alene over time. >> kathleen bleu, reference book

for our times. professor, thank you so much for your time. appreciate it. >> thank you. we'll be right back. >> thank you we'll be right back.

all right. that is going to do it for us tonight. may i remind you, that even though this is not necessarily when you are used to seeing me anymore, i will be back again tomorrow night, wednesday night, 9:00 p.m. eastern for another special edition of "rachel meadow show." you have to stand it. "way too early" with jonathan lemire is up next. republicans in congress are doing everything they can to stop my plans to bring down the cost for ordinary families. that's why my plan is not finished why the results aren't finished either. >> president biden unleashes new attack lines as he struggles for a message on inflation and rising costs. my new reporting on the political and economic reality facing the president and his party heading into the midterms. meanwhile, a split decision for congressional candidates backed by donald trump in last night's primaries. we'll have the election results for more gop lawmakers who got on the former