tv Chris Jansing Reports MSNBC July 12, 2022 8:00am-9:00am PDT
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good morning. i'm chris jansing live at msnbc headquarters in new york city. we're just two hours out from the next hearing of the january 6th committee, and we're starting today with how the committee is pushing more open conversations at the justice department about former president trump's conduct. according to "the new york
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times," this is a relatively new development that was triggered by cassidy hutchinson's testimony last month. "the times" says a number of hutchinson's key assertion, including the idea that trump knew his supporters were armed and wanted to lead them to the capital, were new to investigators. quote, in conversations at the department the day after ms. hutchinson's appearance, some of which included deputy attorney general lisa monaco, officials talked about the pressure that the testimony created to scrutinize mr. trump's potential criminal liability and whether he intended to break the law. ms. hutchinson's disclosure seemed to have opened a path to broaching the most sensitive topic of all, mr. trump's own actions ahead of the attack. exploring the link between the former president and the extremists who traveled to d.c. on the 6th. axios has learned the committee
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has evidence that some pro trump groups were planning to come closer to the date of the inauguration but changed those plans, in one case actually changing the date of their rally permit after trump tweeted for them to come on january 6th because it would, quote, be wild. here is committee member jamie raskin speaking exclusively to nbc's ali vitali about the impact of that tweet. >> it set off an extraordinary chain reaction on the internet, among his followers, but very specifically among the dangerous extremists who run far right groups, the proud boys, the oath keepers, the three percenters, different white nationalist groups. that's the story we're going to tell. >> nbc capitol hill correspondent ali vitali joins me right now. also with me, harry litman, served as deputy sis stan attorney general in the clinton
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administration. carlos curbelo, former congress from florida, and ryan rally. ali, i think the strength of this committee has been its ability to weave a compelling story. tell me more about the story they plan to weave today. >> to weave a compelling story and do so while they're still actively investigating and actively getting more information. that's going to be part of what we end up seeing just a few hours from now, chris, the idea that this is a script that chairman raskin told me he's rewritten five or six times because they've gotten new people coming forward and specifically the former top white house counsel, pat cipollone, coming forward at the end of last week and testifying for more than seven hours in front of the committee. that videotaped testimony is going to be seen for the first time today in these hearings. it's going to detail in part this meeting in the white house on december 18th that happened between outside advisers like
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rudy giuliani and others with the former president as well as his inside white house lawyers. you've got to imagine cipollone was able to speak to the committee about that. that's a meeting raskin says they're going to spotlight in part because he calls it the crazyiest meeting of the trump white house which is a high bar for us who have had people calling us to tell us about crazy meetings in the trump white house n. the committee's view, that meeting kicked off trump to have a tweet in the early morning hours of the 19th, the following day, telling people be there, be wild. that, as raskin detailed and you pointed out, is what kicked off the mob and the extremist groups to come to the capitol on january 6th, as well as mis and disinformation was used to compel people to come to the capitol on the 6th. >> is there a concern going on where you are or am i hearing a
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piano concerto in my head. >> no that's some mood music for this somber moment. it's worth reminding us that jamie raskin is leading this hearing for a reason. he's headed up a house investigation on federal failures to confront the threat. what do you want to see and hear from him today and in particular from the witnesses? >> two things. first, on his expertise, as you say, chris, he's going to document what is really -- can't be distinguished from, they are terrorists, we're talking about death lists, we're talking about pre training military style, we're talking about grenades and others brought to the capitol. really the nastiest of the nasty. most importantly would be to try to make the link. as you say, this meeting on the 18th is going to be pivotal for the committee. it is the ascent of team crazy
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as we heard about in the very first hearing. we're talking about giuliani and powell and flynn. they have trump's ear. less than an hour after the meeting trump tweets outgoing to be wild. and raskin and the committee are going to make the case that it was pivotal. people changed their plans, et cetera, to follow the lead of their president. so it leads into the narrative that hutchinson unveiled what so explosively last week that trump wasn't simply a bystander with respect to the violence. he, a, knew about it and, b, even tried to promote it. >> of course, one of the -- going through trump allies like mike flynn, roger stone, rudy giuliani. but a times report after the attack also named republican lawmakers who have also had ties to extremist groups, people like paul gosar, andy bigs, lauren
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bow bert, matt gaetz. do you expect to here some of those names today? >> chris, we're certainly going to be hearing those names. if we zoom out after this happened in the days and weeks and months even after the attack of january 6th, a lot of people thought, well, donald trump inspired this mob. he said things that motivated these people. what we're seeing now is that this was coordinated. this was a calculated campaign. maybe it wasn't very sophisticated. certainly there was a lot of communication and apparently that communication included members of congress who later sought pour dons because they felt or thought or feared that perhaps they had been involved in some kind of conspiracy. so those names are going to be heard today in the hearings from the mouths of stephanie murphy and jamie raskin, and it will be interesting to see how those members react, if they comment, if they attack the committee the
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way they had been doing for weeks or if they decide, perhaps under legal advice, to stay quiet. >> that leads us to a reminder i think of what attorney general merrick garland told us, that he and doj investigators are watching these hearings very closely in realtime. i mentioned a moment ago the great story in "the new york times" that outlines how cassidy hutchinson's disclosures have helped put trump's actions into sharper focus for the justice department. the co-author of that article, katie benner is on the phone with us now. it seems as though hutchinson let those doj officials climbed the rungs on the ladder heading to the top. >> certainly. i think until cassidy hutchinson trump was very rarely mentioned. we talked to people who said it almost felt like they couldn't mention him unless it was in the context of a motivating factor for those that attacked the capitol and did some sort of act of violence on january 6th.
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what cassidy did, she started talking about things that sound like criminal intent and suddenly prosecutors felt they could more openly talk about the idea of criminal intent including top leaders like lisa monaco, this is really important because the investigation is essentially being supervised by lisa monaco, the deputy attorney general. no big decision is made without her say-so, without her knowledge. from their point of view it's important that this line of communication was opened up, that they could be more forward, more forward facing and more frank about whether or not donald trump himself had criminal intent. >> katie, i know you're on the move and you stepped aside to be able to talk to us. thank you and thank you very much for your reporting. harry, obviously when we listen to what cassidy hutchinson had to say, you could see what would pique the interest of doj. andrew weissmann, a senior
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prosecutor in the russia investigation wrote a necessary say in "the new york times" argued just the fact that doj was surprised by hutchinson's testimony is, quote, not a sign of a robust investigation into the facts. he says that the department could and should have interviewed her a long time ago. i wonder what you make of that and whether you think he has a point. >> so weismann is a very, very credible investigator. we think of the dodge as knowing everything, telling nothing. it's true sometimes, and i've been on the other side, you read a piece in the paper or see it on tv and say holy cow. what he's saying is that this playbook that the department insists it's using from the first day merrick garland came in, one rung at a time, in the long run this could be years and years and they'll never get to the culmination. the fact that hutchinson was so eye-opening to them means in
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weissmann's view, there is a bona fide dispute and issue ability whether the method -- everyone is proceeding aggressively at doj, but according to a playbook of one foot in front of the other and him saying not here, not now, not with these facts, not with this national urgency, you can, in fact, go up many rungs, start more at the top with trump or even meadows who is right now subject to real pressure for an obstruction charge, change the playbook. that is a dispute or argument that's being had in the department of justice to date, the conservative, one foot in front of the other approach has always won out. weissmann points out, that's got real cause and when, if ever, are we going to get to the end of the road if they continue to do it this way. it's a bona fide issue. i'm sure they're taking it
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seriously right now because especially because he's' nor mussily respected within the department. >> let me talk more about the dispute. i guess on the conservative side, you had a riot. let's look at the riot, right? then weissmann goes on to talk about a multipronged conspiracy, what prosecutors term a hub and spoke conspiracy in which the ellipse speech and the january 6th attack were one spoke of a grander scheme. he said if you look at it in that context, it strengthens, as you say, any future cases. who do you think is right here, harry? >> i haven't been inside the department, but i'm loathed to go against weissmann. he's right in this sense, chris. this has to be a grand conspiracy, and to date it really has touched only glancingly on trump. but the fact is that the big case that hutchinson sort of pre
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figured would mean that the same agreemen the proud boys reached, the same agreement that maybe the congressional folks reached, trump himself joined. so what you could do here, you certainly could, you could pole vault right to the mark meadows level, put pressure on him and be really doing the squeeze at the very top. it's very fact and law based and very sensitive to the exact things in front of them. but weissmann is a really, really sharp guy. it's true they've been going very slowly. i wouldn't come down on one side or the other without knowing more. i would say if weissmann says it, it's worthying about. one more quick point, they had to go methodically through the 850 people who were on the ground, but at this point when they're dealing with team crazy and trump, they could, in fact,
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do a little pole vaulting here. >> ryan, that's kind of the long game. let me bring it back to the hearing we're going to see in about an hour and 45 minutes. so much of the hearings previously have hung on the credibility of previous witnesses, and i would say notably hutchinson, who was so impressive and so detailed. like many before her, she also had been very loyal to donald trump. tell us what we know about today's witnesses, their loyalty, their credibility. >> one of the witnesses is actually a former member of the oepgt keepers, the reformed member, so to speak, who is going to offer an historical look at the oath keepers as an organization. he's been out of the oath keepers for a while. so i don't think we're going to hear anything directly about january 6th. the one i'm really interested in is stephen aiers, a january 6th defendant. when news of his testimony came up, i was speaking with online sleuths who are concerned about this. he's a wildcard, the idea of putting someone in testimony and
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putting them before a national live audience is a risky maneuver. if we know anything about the january 6th committee, they've been very on brand, very scripted, very sticking to -- no surprises, right? nothing is going to come at them that they're not expecting. i think if they're going to choose to put a january 6th defendant on the stand, they chose correctly here. this is an individual in that key moment right between, after they pleaded guilty. ayers pleaded guilty last month. but they're over a barrel somewhat. they can't come out and spew off undisputed facts. they have to stick to something that's going to look good when they have to go before a judge in september. that's a good moment to hit someone, if you're going to put someone on the stand. it still illustrates that the committee is somewhat in control of what's going to happen this afternoon. >> well, so far they have made it interesting. more to come. ryan reilly, former congressman carlos curbelo, ali vitali, thanks to all of you. harry, we'll talk more to you
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later in this hour. even as covid cases rise, why americans seem to be unconcerned. up next, dr. anthony fauci joins me on where we are in this fight. nasa releasing more stunning photos from the james webb telescope. will these astonishing new glimpses into the uniform reveal extra terrestrial live? you're watching chris jansing reports only on msnbc. s jansing s jansing reports only on msnbc. aspirin helps reduce the chance of another heart attack by 31%. your heart isn't just yours. [whistling]
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appear to cause more severe illness, and the u.s. average, 281 deaths per day is a fraction of where we were last winter, but daily infections are climbing. joining me now, dr. anthony fauci, chief medical adviser to president biden, also the director of the national institute of allergy and infectious diseases. thank you for joining us. i was looking at where i am, new york city, formerly the epicenter of the pandemic here in the united states. the positivity test rate is 15%. that's an intensity not seen
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since january. the number of hospitalizations are up as well. how worried are you at this moment, dr. fauci, about the ba.5 variant, and what do we need to know about how to protect ourselves? >> well, it's something we absolutely need to take seriously. it has a transmission advantage over the prior variants that were dominant. the dominant variant was first ba 1, then ba.2, then 2.1. then you get to ba.5, which clearly has a transmission advantage which is one of the reasons why we're seeing throughout several regions of the country including in particularly the new york area, you're starting to see cases go up. it needs to be taken seriously. everybody wants to put this pandemic behind us and feel and hope it doesn't exist. it does. however, the good news is we
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have the capability and the tools to address it, and we just need to utilize those tools. for example, getting vaccinate fire department you're not primarily vaccinated. if you're due for a booster, use a booster. and when you're in an area where you have a high dynamic of infection, when not talking about mandating anything, but recommending people when in indoor congregate settings to wear a mask. those are simple, doable things that can help prevent us from having even more of a problem than we're having right now. >> given where you see the american people and their mindset and, frankly, their exhaustion right now, how much harder a sell is it for you now than it was, say, a year ago, to say when you go indoors, wear a mask. >> no doubt about it. you're absolutely correct. it becomes a hard sell. we don't want people to panic. we don't want this to disrupt
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their lives the way it has all of us over the last 2 to 2 1/2 years. but you have to remember we're still dealing with an issue. you can deal with it without necessarily disrupting your way of life, by doing some simple things. getting tested, for example. tests are widely available right now. if you're going to a function or you have someone in your family who is a vulnerable person that you want to make sure you are not exposing yourself to them if you get infected and you might actually not have any symptoms at all. so testing is an important mitigation. the next is vaccination. the next is boosting. and if, in fact, a person does get infected, if you are in a risk group, widely available now are very effective therapies. the point i'm making is that we don't want people to panic and feel, oh, my goodness, we want
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to get this over with and they keep telling us things that we have to do. what one has to do is really relatively simple, but the dividend of that is extraordinary because you can prevent yourself from getting infected and certainly with the vaccines that we have, they are still very effective in preventing you from grossing to severe disease if you do get infected. >> so given that, dr. fauci, is it your recommendation to president biden that he should expand the second coronavirus booster shot to adults under 50? >> first of all, let's make sure you get what the sequence of events would be. that's really important. it's not going to be president biden that's going to extend it. it's going to be something that we leave fully to the authorities responsible. this is an fda authority situation which, if they give the authority to extend the
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fourth booster to people less than 50 years old and the cdc is in concord dance with that, then it will happen. right now we're in active discussion about that. you mentioned that in the opening to this particular interview that it was reported in "the new york times" that we are actively discussing the feasibility and advisability of being more flexible in allowing for vaccinations for people less than 50 for their fourth dose. the only thing i can say is that we're actively discussing it. but the final decision about this will be at the fda level and ultimately with the cdc with a recommendation or not. >> do you have a sense of when that might come, that decision might come, dr. fauci? >> i really can't give you a day or a date on it. but i would think it's going to be something that is reasonably soon. in the conversations that our team, which includes the fda and the cdc and myself and dr. jha
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and others, that we've been discussing this actively, and i would not be surprised if within a very reasonable period of time you're going to be hearing something about it. >> dr. anthony fauci, thank you. it's always good to have you on the program. we appreciate your time, sir. >> my pleasure. good to be with you. firefighters in northern california are making progress in their battle to save the historic sequoia trees in yosemite national park. the washburn fire that started thursday is now about 25% contained, but it's grown to more than 2,700 acres. more than 500 firefighters are doing all they can to protect the area including putting out hot spots and using sprinkler systems. still to come, a new legal setback for steve bannon and the potential divide it may show with team trump. you're watching "chris jansing reports" only on msnbc. g "chrisg reports" only on msnbcw,
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why does the committee want to meet with him, ali? >> reporter: chris, this points to the december 18th meeting you and i were talking about earlier in the show. it's something the committee is going to be talking about a lot today because this is a meeting, in the words of congressman raskin, that was one of the crazyiest meeting in the trump white house between the former president, people like rudy giuliani and sidney powell, but also key white house lawyers, people like hirsh man who we've seen repeatedly throughout these hearings. patrick burn is someone who can potentially flesh out more about that meeting because he was inside of it. what it continues to point to is not just that this meeting is going to continue to be a focal point because this is a meeting where raskin says they're going to show us it was a hail mary strategy session effectively, the white house knowing it had lost the election at that point, but trying to throw spaghetti at the wall and trying to make themselves stay in power. they're going to want more
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information on that. it's also the case as we've seen time and again that this committee is actively fact-finding even as they're actively doing these hearings. >> ali vitali, thank you for that breaking news, appreciate it. also happening right now, the bad news piling up for trump ally steve bannon. his contempt of congress trial will go ahead as planned next monday after a judge rejected his request for a delay. bannon had stonewalled the january 6th committee since october, refusing to comply with a subpoena. here is what might be the most telling moment of yesterday's court appearance. after the judge ruled against bannon on several possible defense strategies, his lawyer asked what is the point of going to trial if there are no defenses. the judge agreed. in a new filing, the department of justice revealed something else interesting, a dispute between bannon and legal -- the bannon antrum legal teams. trump's lawyer, justin clark,
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told the fbi that the former president never invoked the executive privilege over any particular information or materials and, in fact, offered no basis for bannon's refusal to comply. former assistant deputy attorney general harry lippman and maya wiley with me. they wrote, the criminal contempt statute is not intended to procure compliance. it is intended to punish past non-compliance. stonewalling is a known feature of folks in trump's orbit. has that caught up with steve bannon? >> it sure has. by the way, it was always going to catch up with steve bannon. one of the things to note with all of this coverage about his willingness to testify and whether or not donald trump invoked executive privilege, there was no executive privilege that could be invoked around any conversations with steve bannon
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when he wasn't working for the president. this is the point, he has always, always been contempt. even if donald trump said, well, i think i can invoke executive privilege, it wouldn't have applied here. so just adding the fact that he didn't is just another nail in the coffin that steve bannon was always going to lie -- >> you've got to wonder, maya, if anyone looking at this case for bannon who considered not working with the january 6th committee might be rethinking how they proceed. >> possible, but remember steve bannon has also made it clear even when he said he was willing to testify, he wasn't going to be very cooperative. he was still using it as a bully pulpit to attack the committee. i think the important thing here is either this fraudster --
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remember he's someone who was pardoned for fraud, but he has a lot he needs to tell us about his links to white nationalists, to the violence that happened. either he's going to come clean or he's not. he is in contempt. i think this criminal case is strong for all the right reasons. >> harry, the whole exchange yesterday where the judge basically said you don't have a defense so you're in trouble here, he's a trump-appointed federal judge. he also rejected a request by bannon's team to subpoena house speaker nancy pelosi and members of the january 6th committee to testify in the trial. what is going on in that courtroom? it just feels like the judge is saying you've got to be kidding me. >> right. because he's playing -- bannon is playing the type -- maya is 100% right. there never was any possible privilege charge, trump can say all he wants. i think bannon was trying to gin
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up a very poor argument. now that he's given me a waiver, i can do it, so before i was okay. really legally he never had a leg to stand on. remember, chris, how blustery he was when he was first indicted, i'm going to make this the misdemeanor from hell. now we're a few days away and he's caving. maya is 100% right, also. he would have some valuable testimony if he were going to be straight, but to have him come in and grandstand and do a kind of steve bannon dance without having been previewed in advance is something they're avoiding assiduously. they're really choreographing this carefully. quick point on burn, the guy we just heard about, he's firmly in team crazy or he was. he is one of the guys being sued by dominion, the machine guys for billions of dollars for
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defamation. he was right in the center of the crazy types. >> one of the craziest meetings ever held there according to what we just heard, right? >> and that's saying something, as you said. >> before we go, maya, i have to get to this, that judge in fulton county georgia who ordered republican senator lindsey graham to testify before a special grand jury that's looking into the former president's efforts to overturn the state's 2020 election results. the judge called graham, quote, a necessary and material witness. he ordered him to testify on august 2nd. what can of worms does that potentially open up for the senator and, who knows, maybe other members of congress or trump's inner circle? >> lindsey graham made a decision to be squarely in team trump. he made calls to georgia after the election. unfortunately from him it did not sound good in terms of the
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way he communicated with georgia officials around looking for votes. fulton county is fully within its rights to say you are a fact witness and we have a right to determine whether or not you're more than that. so question for lindsey graham, how much more did he do and what does he have to fear? can't speak to that. certainly everyone including elected officials cannot avoid the grand jury in a state simply because they're a federal elected official. >> raffensperger who he spoke to has already testified voluntarily. if he goes in and gives an inconsistent story, he's in some hot water. >> harry litman, maya wiley, thank you. the battle for the senate looks like a real horse race. while the republican lock on taking control in november isn't so tight anymore. you're watching "chris jansing reports" only on msnbc. g "chrisg g "chrisg reports" only on msnbc and in it. mostly.
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favoring republicans between inflation, gas prices and how americans view the economy, winning the senate not a sure thing. "the washington post" reports behind the scenes republican operatives are growing increasingly nervous. one gop strategist telling the paper there are massive problems on the candidate front. nowhere is the republican angst more obvious than georgia where democrat raphael warnock is running for re-election against trump-backed former nfl player herschel walker. walker had taken an early lead, but moments like this have put that race very much in play. >> if we don't control the air, our good air decide to float over to china and be bad air. when china gets our good air, their bad air got to move. so it moves over to our good airspace. now we've got to clean that back up. >> i want to bring in elise jordan who served in the bush
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white house state department and is an msnbc political analyst. okay. that's one example. another that eugene robinson writes about today in "the washington post" is this: this is how in march he explained his doubts about evolution. at one time science said man came from apes. did it not? if that is true, why are there still apes? think about it. >> well, you know, we knew herschel walker was going to be entertaining on the campaign trail. i think the extent of it is really proving quite shocking just in how unfit and how little gravitas he has. >> here is somebody who complained about, talked about black fathers abandoning their children, and then we find out he has three children that he pretty much had never talked about and apparently never sees very often. how wore road are republicans about that seat? >> very worried. i've heard from veteran gop political operatives who are
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just like, whoa, this is not a good one. it's been reported that mcconnell is sweating this race. what could they really do? herschel walker was supported by trump. he got put in. he's just not a strong candidate going up against raphael warnock who actually is a pretty good politician. this seat should just be a gimme. this should be a given that republicans are going to win and take back the senate seat, and it looks like donald trump yet again is going to leave georgia, put it in line for georgia republicans to lose the seat again. >> georgia isn't the only one. so pennsylvania, john fetterman is ahead of dr. oz. you've got ohio, tim ryan is really doing well now against j.d. vance who seems to be in big trouble there, author of hillbilly-ilogy. even ron johnson who the january 6th mentioned in regard to fake
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electors is lagging in the polls in possible match-ups. when you look at topher all picture, most people will say to you it's still very much favoring the republicans but not nearly as much as it did before. >> not like the house at all. the map is totally in favor of republicans. you look at the senate, and there could be some friction there and it might not be as easy of a layup as it should have been. it's going to depend on their momentum in wisconsin. ron johnson is not very popular. is there going to be enough enthusiasm among democrats to kick him out of office. >> maybe the big picture question, you never know what it's going to be in november. maybe the big picture question that a lot of people are asking themselves is yes, inflation, gas prices, food prices. that stuff is worrying to me, but not as worrying as having
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somebody in office who is questioning evolution because there are still apes. >> when you have candidates who are so out there, you're looking at the scenario back in 2010, 2012 when republicans ran some whack a do candidates. if they're so far out there and lack basic knowledge about policy and science, shall we say, it's not going to be as easy for republicans as it should be regaining the senate. >> elise jordan, great to have you onset. the whack-a-doo candidates are keeping us entertained but keep this interesting for november. thank you so much. in just the last hour, we're getting our first look at more of those stunning photos from nasa's james web telescope, what they can tell us about life out there in the cosmos and whether it might shake up the entire field of astronomy. that's next. you're watching "chris jansing
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you ever wonder why people are always on their phones? they're banking, with bank of america. look at this guy. he bought those tickets on his credit card and he's rackin' up the rewards. she's using zelle to pay him back for the hot dogs he's about to buy. and the announcer? he's not checkin' his stats, he's finding some investing ideas with merrill. and third as you know in baseball means three. digital tools so impressive, you just can't stop banking. what would you like the power to do? gorgeous and amazing new photos are giving us an almost mind-boggling window for the first time ever.
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4.6 billion years into the past, in an extraordinary new view into the possibility of extraterrestrial life. take a look at some of these breath-taking new images just released by nasa from its james webb space telescope. this is the largest, most powerful telescope ever built and it's now capturing the sharpest and deepest infrared views of the far reaches of our universe to date. as amazing as these pictures are, they might be just the tip of the iceberg because there's so much more to come as we look into the cosmos. joining me now, derrick pitts. i'm so psyched to talk to you about these incredible images. the one that we were just looking at, i thought this looks fake. but what exactly are we looking at and what might it tell us? >> i think this is a really stunning image, because not only does it show us stars that look really sharp and beautifully
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clear, but what we're looking at is we're looking at the edge of a cloud of gas and dust where new stars are being born. and you can see the incredible detail of the cavities and the pockets and the bubbles in this gas. you can see hundreds of new stars buried in the gas. these are stars we've never seen before. so we now have the opportunity to sort of dig into this and learn more about gas clouds like this where new stars are being born. >> so for folks like you seeing these first images, in fact it's been described by many astronomers as an emotional experience. kind of the universe giving up some of its secrets. but front and center among those secrets for those of us who are not astronomers might just be is there life on any other planet than earth? could this telescope help us answer that question? >> the telescope is definitely going to help us better characterize other planets that
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we found orbiting other stars. we'll be able to determine what kind of atmosphere they have had. one of these images is already showing us there's water vapor in the atmosphere of one planet orbiting another star and that's pretty cool in and of itself. so as we continue to dig deeper, we'll be able to better understand how many of these planets are earth-like and does that alone allow us to think about the possibility of inhabitants in other parts of our galaxy and other galaxies within our universe. >> can we talk about the james webb telescope. 30 years in the making, $10 billion invested. i think it took about 20,000 engineer, technicians, astronomers, bureaucrats. when man went to the moon, questions are always raised about whether it's worth the investment. in this case, is it? and why? >> oh, it certainly is worth the
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investment. i mean for $10 billion what we have is an instrument that is far and away better than any other telescope ever built. so we're now able to use this to answer questions about the universe that we've never been able to answer before, and this telescope has the capability to bring us enough information that we'll be able to create new questions going forward for decades into the future and have the information generated by this telescope to begin to answer some of these questions. some of these are practical questions about how the universe is structured and how it formed and what its fate might be. but then there are also the philosophical questions that we all have, and that includes the fate in the universe and the possibility that there are other inhabitants out there. if that's not worth $10 billion, i don't know what is. this is a telescope that is head an shoulders above anything else we've ever had to use before. >> as some people have said, it
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leaves hubble in the dust. derrick pitts, thank you for being with us today. i appreciate it. join us for "chris jansing reports" tomorrow at 1:00 eastern right here on msnbc. but our special coverage of the january 6th hearing with andrea mitchell, katy tur and hallie jackson starts next. mitchell, katy tur and hallie jackson starts next. don't take if allergic to nurtec. the most common side effects were nausea, stomach pain, and indigestion. ask your doctor about nurtec today! are you tired of clean clothes that just don't smell clean? what if your clothes could stay fresh for weeks? now they can. downy unstopables in-wash scent boosters keep your laundry smelling fresh waaaay longer than detergent alone. pour a cap of downy unstopables into your washing machine before each load. and enjoy fresher smelling laundry. if you want laundry to smell fresh for weeks make sure you have dows in-wash scent boosters. shop for downy unstopables online,
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good day, everyone. this is andrea mitchell in washington joined by hallie jackson and katy tur in new york. as we get ready for what could be another explosive day of testimony during the january 6th committee's seventh public hearing. today the focus will ganss shift from former president trump's relentless push to get state governments to overturn the election and the justice department to intervene to the coordinated efforts by far-right extremist militia groups to overtake the capitol and stop the electoral count on january 6th and whether they were inspired by mr. trump's call to action in a december 19th tweet. >> that's right. so let's talk about some of the big moments to watch for in today's hearing. there's a couple of them. first, you've got live testimony from a former top spokesperson from the oath keepers on how these groups radicalize members to the point of doing what we saw on january 6th, these
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