tv MSNBC Prime MSNBC August 5, 2022 1:00am-2:00am PDT
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hillary clinton, were greeted warmly by american allies, as they announced a more cooperative approach to international affairs as opposed to the with us, or against us attitude of th president obama was not the only world leader attending his very first general assembly that day, another first-timer got almost as much attention as obama but unlike the new american president, this guy had been ruling his country for 40 infamous years. >> his excellency, muomar quadafi, leader of the revolution, president ofqu the african union, king of kings of the traditional kings of africa.
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>> quadafi raged on for 95 minutes and 8 seconds, a diatribe against the u.n. from a jumble of handwritten notes and waving a copy of the u.n. charter and pretending to rip it up. >> it should not be called a security council. >> and he made no mention of the lockerde by scotland plane. >> and who called him? somebody by the name of lee harvey and jack ruby called lee harvey. whyle did he kill him? >> mystified the u.n. and the white house -- >> i t wouldn't try to begin to explain the actions today. >> the speech from the libyan dictator was weird. really weird.at he called for the u.n. headquarters to be relocated to libya so that he could avoid jet lag, but remarkably, this was not even the weirdest part of quadafi's visit to the united
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states. the weirdest part was his attempts to find somewhere to pitch his tent literally. he liked to travel with a tent that we set up wherever he is going and not talking about a small camping tent, a big structure to hang out with entourage and host dignitaries and room for the all female security detail which traveled with him everywhere he went but whenhe he came to new york in 29 for the u.n. meeting no one was interested in letting him camp out on theiron property. he first tried to get a permit to pitch the tent in central park. new york officials nixed that idea. then he triad spot across the river -- then he triad spot across the river in new jersey, and no one wanted him next door. it seemed like quadafi was out of luke for his tent but ultimately he found oneut new yorker who was happyte to host him. one new yorker who looked at muomar quadafi and saw not an
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international pariah but a businessah opportunity. and i'm going to give you one guess as to which new yorker i'm talkingrk about. >> thein wealthy suburb of bedford, new york, north of here, is the home of richard gear, martha stewart and perhaps tomorrow muomar quadafi of liba. donald trump's organization says it is looking into published reports that he has put down stakes at trump's estate in bedford new york for the u.n. visit and trying to pitch his tent including the requisite satellite dishes on the estate known as seven springs. a local newspaper in bedford reported that the town has issued a stop work order because no one had gotten a permit for the quadafi tent. >> i love that the trump organization said it was looking into reports that quadafi had pitchedad his tent on trump's property and randomly showed up on trump's lawn and a total
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surprise to everyone. the town made him take the tent down and donald trump made a big showdo how he was shocked, shocd to find the libyan dictator on his property. but of course, trump himself had made the deal to let him stay there. and in true donald trump fashion, later on, he couldn't stop himself from bragging about how much money he made on the deal. >> i'm the only one, i made a lost money with quadafi, if you remember, he came to the country and he had to make a deal with me because he needed a place to stay and paid me a fortune and never got to stay there. trump didn't make as money as he hoped to make, buzz feed news said the trump made the deal to let him stay at his property because why else, he wanted to get the libyan dictator to invest some w of his oil billio into trump properties. long before he was president, donald trumpe had an affinity r foreign dictators but once he became president, he got the opportunity to meet so many more of them.
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vladimir putin of course and trump had been dying to meet for years. trump also traveled to the philippines, t to meet their terrifying autocrat best known for telling his police to shoot drugsh suspects on-site resulti in thousands of deaths. in washington, the philippines drug war as model for the united states. maybe trump's favorite autocrat wasri this man of hungary, here was a man who was demonstrating in realtime how to use the power of state to undermine democracy and cement his hold on power. over his 12 years as prime minister, viktor orban has attacked the judiciary and taken over over the media and criticized civil society group and preventing others from campaigning and tienacting emergency powers that let him rule by decree. bit time he ran for re-election
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a month ago, his victory was a foregone conclusion and based his movement on an appeal to an explicitly white christian heritage for hungary. last week he delivered a speech in which he condemned quote race mixing saying european people should not mix with noneuropeans and doesn't wan hungary to become mixed race. one of his longest serving advisers could not stomach that speech and resigned and she called it a pure nazi speech. andre after all of that, as viktor orban headed to the united states for a visit this week, can you guess what his very first stop was? a visit to donald trump's golf club. because when you are an autocratic leader being shunned by everyone in the westernin world, andes you're fresh off a speech thates even your close adviser calls pure nazi, never fear, the fine properties of the trump organization are always open to you and donald trump himself will be there to welcome you with open arms. except this time, it's not just
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donald trump. viktor orban stopped off at trump's club because he is on his way to texas, to address the conservative political action conference, cpac, the premiere annual gathering of american conservativesf or at least thas what it used tons be. the chair of the conference was asked whether they might reconsider hosting orban in light of his no race mixing pure nazi speech. cpac's chair responded quote, let's listen to the man speak. let's see what he says. apparently forgetting that everyone already did listen to him speak and did see what he said which is the entire problem. and so today, the whole furtherment of the american conservative movement welcomed viktor orban to their conversation and boy did they love what they heard. >> ladies and gentlemen, pea we are the first ones in -- we are the first ones in europe who said no to illegal immigration and stopped the invasion of
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illegal migrants. >> hungary and state institutions are obliged to protect the official charter of hungary. hungary shall protect the institution of marriage and the union of one man and one woman. family ties shall be based on the marriage or the relationship between parent and children. to sum up, the mother of is a woman, the father is a man, and leave our kids alone. full stop. end of discussion. [ cheers and applause ] >> my government is law and order without compromise.
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it decided we don't need more genders. we need more rangers. less drag queens and more chuck norris. >> boy, the autocratic prime minister of hungary sure knows his audience, christian heritage, no foreigners, more police, no gay marriage, no troons gender rights and apparently no drag queens and while you're at it, less democracy, because if you want a white christian nationalist government in society, representative democracy and pluralism doesn't really mix well with that. orban told the cpac conference that he and american conservatives should join forces but that is already happening. fox news tucker carlson is orban's biggest cheer leader in the united states and took his show to hungary last year. orban returned the favor quoting carlson in his speech, cpac itself held a conference in hungary a few months ago. this is the guy american conservatives are looking to, for inspiration, and it is
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showing up not just in conservative conferences, but in election results. lots of donald trump supporting election deniers won this week's republican primaries, candidates who pledged to mess with american's election infrastructure, until they get the results they want. the republican nominee for governor of pennsylvania is a textbook christian nationalist in the mold of viktor orban, the guy who won the republican nomination in arizona a couple of days ago, almost entirely funded by a billionaire who says he no longer believes in democracy. not too long ago, if a dictator visited the united states, nobody, other than donald trump, wanted anything to do with him. but the republican party is trump's party now. and the right kind of dictator can come here and get a standing ovation. joining me now is npr media correspondent, who attended the cpac conference in dallas today. good to see you, david. it sounded like a rally, a fun conference in which the
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speakers, and he's just one of them, viktor orban, knew what the audience wanted and threw them the red meat. >> that's the point of the conference. the republican, the conservative wing of america's conservative party, is really sort of defined at time the far right reaches of what is acceptable in the republican party politics, you know, among the speakers would be texas senator ted cruz, and fox news's sean hannity, at this very hour on, and the peddler of conspiracies, including the one that is called pizza gate, people shot at at a pizza parlor in washington, d.c., so you know, this is a place where a lot of heat is fostered around hut button issues. what was impressive in some ways from a technical standpoint is how many hot button issues viktor orban, the prime minister of this small central european country, can set off for his
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very conservative american audience. >> what is it about him, what is it about the hungarian leader that makes him such a favorite, in particular, with the fox, with fox news, and this cpac crowd? >> well, i think that one thing is his success, you know, he just won his fourth straight election to be prime minister of that country, and elections that freedom house, an independent operation that sort of monitors civil rights, civil liberties and election, called a free but not fair set-up for election, i think also the fact that he is able to explicitly invoke the notion of europeans needing to both protect and project christian values, but also, the idea that as you said last week, races should not mix. he is able to say things that certain elements of republican and conservative thought
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nowadays touch upon but don't want to say explicitly and there he is saying it outloud. i'm not saying that is true for all republicans and all conservatives but there is an element that is happy to hear in an age where woke-ism and cancel culture and blm are touch stones for republicans on the right and all of which he talks about in his speech earlier today. i also think that the fact that you saw him talk about migration in this country, and borders are a rallying cry for the right, in a way that in some ways right now abortion rights are a rallying cry for the left in this country and for much of the center as well. and that's something in which orban was able to find certain kinds of electoral support in his country, even as he was doing everything to do these trump-like things of intimidate, to buy off, to grind down, or smother independent voices and outside outfits like the press, like universities like nongovernmental outfits, that monitor human rights. >> the idea of the immigration, the hard line on immigration is,
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is one place, as you mentioned and you write in your piece, that viktor orban sort of overlaps with the american right but there are issues in which he diverges with the american right as well that you talk about. >> yes, in doing reporting, talking to hungarian journalists and others, you know, you found that abortion is legal there. it's restricted some after i believe 15 weeks but it is illegal up to 24 weeks under certain conditions. they have universal health care. paid for and arranged for by the government. in addition, gun ownership is strongly, severely regulated. there these are not stances that people at what's called cpac, this event, will embrace in any way, shape or form. however, that is not the point. the point is you have tonally somebody who is willing to stand up to what he calls the global ruling classes lumping together people in the media and academia and independent outfits as i said before, feel like the
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liberal hungarian born philanthropist george soros a bogeyman for orban like so many on the american right, a tonal thing, he is willing to take them on unapoll get youcally and one of the things he said, a christian politician, a christian leader can never be racist because of his value, his christian values and they will always keep us from going too far. it is sort of a crazy defense in some ways about, against the condemnation that he received with the kinds statements that you touched on a bit earlier, that is, that the idea that races shouldn't mix in hungary is not racist, because he can't be racist, because he has christian values. >> it is quite something. as you mentioned, he's getting re-elected. npr media correspondent, thanks for joining us tonight. we appreciate you having you on. >> you bet. we want to bring into the conversation, the author of
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"strongmen" an expert on authoritarian leaders like viktor orban and he and his people, have gone after you a lot in the last several months and you and i have talked about and you have spoken about how out of step he is with his nato neighbors in europe. but he continues to gain popularity. shy point out, which i think you will do anyway, he wins elections but every election is a little bit less free than the last one. >> yes, that's right. and the reason he's the idol of the gop is that he has shown the workings of what's called electoral autocracy, and he calls, you know, he talks about hungary being in a liberal democracy, but there's nothing democratic about it at this point, where he's managed to have this, you know, captured institution, and his party has a huge amount of power, so that the elections are kind of rigged, and in fact, the last election of his opponent, having
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been invited on national tv, since 2019, so there's the veneer of freedom but the practice is despotic, and that's what the republicans are very interested in. >> but this is a point you have made that always stands out to me, that we have an association here, with the idea that if the vote exists, and there are elections, then there must be democracy and hence freedom. and you point out that increasingly, in a world that is marching toward more authoritarianism, there are still votes, there are still elections and lots of country notice world that have elections that are neither free nor fair. >> that's right. and actually the metric that you need to use for democracy versus, you know, autocracy today, is not really elections, but transparency and accountability. and that's in short supply in hungary, because, you know, it's very difficult to be a critical voice. when he has these, you know, he
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has these international conferences and he allows some dissidents to be there, which is typical, but it's very difficult to have, as we saw in the last election, he keeps winning over and over again. and now what he's doing is, you know, trying to be the kind of mentor, the strongman, who is going to have, you know, lead the alliance of the far right international, because he's trying to go into this space that putin is a little too toxic now, people have followed window, he's got his war and/orban becomes the acceptable despot. >> and you wrote today that in fact, orban's appearance at cpac is the outcome, the words you used of a carefully cultivated relationship. that's particularly important in this moment. who is cultivating this relationship? >> well,'s got very, you know, hungary is a small country, and what better thing than to have tucker carlson give his, you know, give a whole week of the show over to you, and make you a
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show piece, and so it's like a very good synergy that they have going. and so you know, they are helping one another. they are giving each other legitimacy. and that's very important to orban. and so in fact, at the end, he said, oh, we need to make new agreements with the chinese, the russians, and the americans, but it might be easier, you know, with the republicans. now he didn't mention trump, which is very, typically autocratic, because very opportunistic and he didn't mention trump at cpac and he didn't mention him to keep things going, it might not. >> an expert on authoritarianism, we appreciate your time. well, up next, the issue that has republicans panicked about the midterms. stay with us. out the midterms stay with us
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you're a cio in 2022. so what's on the agenda? threat briefings, it meetings, and lots of coffee. but with fully integrated security solutions all in one place. you're ready. comcast business. powering possibilities. ™ . if you take tudor dixon at her word when it comes to outlawing abortion, she told us exactly who she is. >> are you for exemptions of rape and incept? >> i am not. >> any exemptions for rape and incest or the health of the mother? >> no tudor dixon, not acceptable for michigan. >> blake masters has made his dangerous idea of abortion easy to understand. >> i think we should go further.
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>> no state should permit an abortion. >> you make it illegal and punish the doctors. >> blake masters, too dangerous for arizona. >> those are two new ads out today, targeting arizona republican senate candidate blake masters, and michigan republican gubernatorial candidate tudor dixon, those two republican candidates only won their party nominations on tuesday, but they're already facing ads like that, giving voters a sample of the candidates' extreme positions on abortion in their own words. and that may have something to do with the other election that happened on tuesday night, when voters in the state of kansas, a state that donald trump won by nearly 15 points in 2020, overwhelmingly rejected a republican proposal that would have removed protections for abortion rights in that state. republicans have spent the last two days struggling to explain the results of that kansas election. kansas republican senator roger marshall told "politico" today, it was quite a gut punch. yes, i'm shocked.
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absolutely shocked. that's not what i was expecting. not what i was told the polling showed. and i thought it was gonna be a tight race. i don't have an explanation. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell was also at a loss for an explanation when he was asked about kansas on fox news. >> i don't think we really know until the end of the year what kind of an impact putting this issue back into the hands of those of us who are elected as opposed to nine unelected judges will have on the country. we're in the process of finding that out. >> do you think kansas tells you something about that? >> it tells that you there were a lot of people interested in the issue in kansas. there's no question about that. >> as republican leaders struggled to deal with the electoral consequences of the supreme court's decision on roe v. wade some republican officials are moving full steam ahead to a more radical anti-abortion agenda. today, florida governor ron desantis announced his decision
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to suspend a county prosecutor in tampa who had promised not to prosecute to those who quote seek, provide or support abortions end quote. that prosecutor had just been re-elected by voters in 2020, but ron desantis decided to overrule those voters. with the midterm elections less than 100 days away, it's clear that the supreme court's decision to end roe v. wade still looms large. and republicans aren't sure how to deal with it. so what do we expect in a couple of months? joining us now is senior correspondent at new york magazine, who covers this very closely, good to see you again. democrats wasting no time as we just saw in those ads trying to make their republican opponents, records on abortion, part of this election, and are those ads like the ones we just played, are they going to have an impact on how people choose to vote? >> well, ali, i think the most important thing is that the victory in kansas belongs to the organizers on the ground who
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spoke to people and met people where they were and turned people out. so yes, abortion is broadly popular, even in a state like kansas, they did not want to see a total ban. and in arizona, and michigan, which are purple states, you look at the numbers there, people don't want to see these total bans, either. so i think it is a question of activating people, people are paying attention because the supreme court did the unthinkable, it allowed the words to be said roe v. wade has been overturned. now john roberts wanted the supreme court to take a more incremental step, and i had to laugh hearing mitch mcconnell saying there were nine unelected justices, and implementing the policy agenda that he designed to put on the floor when he controlled the senate. he has been pretty happy with the nine unelected judges when they for example strike down campaign finance and voting rights but the supreme court has made this real and i think that's the biggest difference, people are used to seeing ads that tell them, this or that is going to happen if this person gets elected but what people in
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kansas realized and what people across the country are going to realize is that because the supreme court ripped the rug out from under the constitutional protections, this is not a theoretical question, people in missouri are being denied plan b rape survivors, miscarriage care all over the country is being compromised. republicans are defending 10-year-old rape victims being forced to carry to term so we can no longer say if you elect this republican, maybe somewhere down the road, you know, abortion will be chipped away at, it's a reality, it's a reality in states all around kansas, it is a reality in states all around michigan and arizona as well. so knowing this is what is being fought in these very same states, i think that that is going to have voters paying closer attention, if democrats stay on this issue, and if they turn people out. >> well, "the new york times" did an analysis using the kansas results to project how the rest of the country would have voted on similar referendum, and they found that voters would support
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abortion rights in all but seven states, and if you've had a chance to dig into this, what do you make of that analysis and kansas was starting in a position when it had abortion protections in the state constitution, wisconsin doesn't have, that michigan is trying to get it on as a ballot question and everybody is on a little different position but what do you make of this sort of analysis? >> i think we've known for a long time that public opinion on abortion is proudly in favor of access. people do not want to see abortion banned. there have been ways in which republicans have tried to turn it into wedge issues and there are also by the way times in which anti-abortion activists have succeeded in their ballot initiatives in states like alabama, west virginia, and tennessee, but they did so really under the radar. and it may be, you know, in louisiana, which i believe was highlighted in that "new york times" piece, but those were low turnout elections and similar to the one that was expected in
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kansas, and it isn't what happened, and they were ones in which perhaps democrats didn't pay, didn't mobilize people on abortion. so now, it's folks paying attention and people being emboldened by what the folks in kansas managed to pull off, i think we're talking about a different story. we've always known that this is what the polling says. we haven't known what people turn out, what they actually still believe. and it remains to be seen, when they're voting on a candidate, whether that will be different than voting just specifically on an issue to take something away that is the status quo by the supreme court. >> a lot of elements to what happened in kansas that are specific to kansas, but it's surprised a lot of people on both sides of the issue this week. good to see you again. thanks for joining us. senior correspondent at new york magazine. i want to bring you a major and sadly not unexpected update on a story whoa we have been following closely. today a russian court sentenced the american citizen brittany griner to nine years in prison
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after something of a show trial with a pre-determined outcome. the basketball star had been detained in russia since february about, a week before russia invaded ukraine when vape cartridges containing cannabis oil were found in her luggage. now griner's hopes turn to international diplomacy. president biden released a statement today condemning russia's harsh sentence for brittney griner and reiterating his call for her release and that of another detainee paul whelan, the u.s. official tells nbc news that russia has not responded substantively to a quote serious offer that the u.s. made in june for a prisoner swap for the russian arms trafficker viktor bout but officials will keep pushing for her release. this is justice in russia. and another big update of justice for breonna taylor here in america. that is next. in america that is next and looking to buy life insurance on a fixed budget,
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>> for 874 days, tamika palmer, activists and protesters across the cun i have have been calling for justice for breonna taylor, the 26-year-old emergency room technician who police shot dead in her home, during a nighttime raid in march of 2020. louisville police officers executed a search warrant related to a drug investigation that breonna taylor had nothing to do with. they used a battering ram to enter her home around midnight and police say they knocked and announced themselves, breonna taylor's boyfriend said they heard clouds -- heard loud banging when they were at the door. multiple rounds were fired shooting breonna taylor. she did not receive immediate medical attention. she died that night. there were no drugs found in the apartment. for 874 days, breonna taylor's family and people across the
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country have been asking the law enforcement to hold the police accountable for killing her and it looked like maybe that day would come, a kentucky grand jury had a chance to indict three officers involved in breonna taylor's death. they indicted one. the grand jury charged him with three counts of wanton endangerment for shooting into a neighbor's apartment, not for shooting breonna taylor, and he was later acquitted. fast forward to today. when the federal justice department weighed in. >> justice department has charged four current and former louisville metro police department officers with federal crimes related to ms. taylor's death. those alleged crimes include civil rights offenses, unlawful conspiracies, unconstitutional use of force, and obstruction offenses. federal charges announced today allege that members of the place-based investigations unit
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falsified the affidavit used to obtain the search warrant of ms. taylor's home. that this act violated federal civil rights laws. and that those violations resulted in ms. taylor's death. >> the four officers charged include three officers who were part of the investigative unit which obtained the search warrant to raid breonna taylor's lome and the fourth is brett hankison fired from the police department for shooting blindly into taylor's lome. the justice department has been investigating the practicing of the louisville police department for a year now, and today the department of justice argues that three of the officers made false claims in the search warrant affidavit containing, connecting breonna taylor to their drug investigation. the d.o.j. also argues that hankison deprived taylor, her boyfriend and their neighbors of their constitutional rights when he fired recklessly through the apartment through a window covered with blinds. if these officers are convicted of any of these charges, they could face years in prison.
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for example, willfully violating someone's rights when it results in death can result in a maximum sentence of life in prison. the indictment stated did not name the officers who shot and killed taylor, but at the very least, 874 days after breonna taylor was killed, these are the potential consequences these four officers now face. breonna taylor's family attorney ben crump put it this way. >> advance toward justice. today, it bent toward breonna taylor. day, it bent toward breo taylor a term policy - for an immediate cash payment. we thought we had planned carefully for our retirement. but we quickly realized we needed a way to supplement our income. if you have $100,000 or more of life insurance, you may qualify to sell your policy. don't cancel or let your policy lapse without finding out what it's worth. visit coventrydirect.com to find
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what i'm about to show you is the absolutely unbelievable email exchange in which the legal team for the far right media personality alex jones accidentally sent the opposing legal team a 2.3 gigabyte digital copy of alex jones' cell phone contents. texts. emails. everything. this is the opposing legal team's lawyer, via email to alex jones' lawyer, quote, i forwarded this email to my paralegal to download this production. he asked plea to take a look because it was a huge amount of material he was downloading and he wanted plea to verify that he needed to download all of it. i looked through the directories, and they seem to contain a lot of confidential
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information. my assumption is now that you did not intend to send us this? to which, alex jones' lawyer replies, quote, thank you. there appears to have been a mistake in the file transfer. please disregard the link. now, unfortunately, for alex jones, just saying please disregard the link does not hold a lot of weight legally, and jones' lawyers apparently didn't do any of the lawyer-y things they needed to do to meaningfully restrict the cell phone contents that had been inadvertently forwarded to the other side. and now, not only does the opposing legal team in this case have the contents of jones' cell phone, but the january 6th investigation has now requested the contents from them as well. and it looks like jones opposition's lawyers will be complying with that request. >> i have been asked to turn them over. i certainly intend to do that unless you tell me not to. i don't see how the protective order could be applied in a way that would prevent me from doing that. i think they have dropped the ball completely.
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>> turned it over to authorities? turn it over to press? who you are turning it over to? >> i have been asked by the january 6th committee to turn the document over. >> i mean i don't know you that get to stop that anyway. >> well, if they subpoenaed them, it certainly would be a very different story. >> well, they're going to now. they know about them. they know they exist. they know you have them. i think they're going there either way. >> now, what's most amazing to me is about all of this is not just the oops wrong attachment, the case is not about january 6th, it's about sandy hook. for nearly a decade alex jones has been pushing a dangerous conspiracy theory that claims that the sandy hook massacre in 2012 was a hoax. i was on the scene hours after it happened in newtown, connecticut, on december 14th, 2012, within hours of the massacre, long before many parents knew they had lost their kids, 26 people died.
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20 of them were first graders. all of them were real. with real families who suffered first from that tragedy. and then later from the psychological torment and literal harassment produced by the conspiracy theory that alex jones was pushing. today, the jury in this case decided that jones owes two of those sandy hook parents $4.1 million in damages for his actions. and that is all just from one trial, for two parents. jones has multiple more damages trials ahead of him for his role in pushing this sandy hook conspiracy theory, which should ultimately cost him a ton of money. but it's like a cosmic justice bonus because of the lawyer's mistake this case could be handing january 6th investigators evidence that could be used in that investigation. it's important to remember that the january 6th committee tried to speak with mr. jones back in january, he claims to have pleaded the fifth amendment
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nearly 100 times. and there's a lot alex jones could have said in that interview that maybe his texts can now say for him. take for example the story we learned from white house aide cassidy hutchinson, about president trump's demanding that once he finished his speech on january 6th, he wanted to be taken to the capitol to march with his supporter. how trump allegedly physically fought with the secret service agent to try to take him there. we didn't know that until the january 6th hearings last month. but check out this video of alex jones at the capitol on january 6th, after trump ended his speech. telling his supporters to march on the capitol. >> we love you, alex jones. >> history is happening. i salute you. tell everyone you know, go to the other side of the capitol, that's where trump's gonna be. >> now, here's jones the day after the riot on january 7th, on his show, explaining how it
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is that he came to know where trump was supposedly going to be. >> the white house told me three days before, we're going to have you lead the march, the secret service, before trump finishes 30 minutes or so, lead to you the point, take you out of front row and lead to you the place where they want you to start the march and trump will tell people go and meet at the capitol. >> we have no clue what is actually in the trove of texts and emails that the january 6th committee is now very likely about to receive, but texts cannot plead the fifth. there's lots to unpack here. joining us now is paul butler, professor at georgetown law school, former federal prosecutor. paul, thank you for being with us tonight. i want to start with a very basic legal question about the damages case against alex jones, go back to the sandy hook story here, the first phase wrapped up today, with the $4.1 million judgment against jones, for the sandy hook victims parents, what
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happens next? there's a punitive stage to that. is that a different trial? or is that a different decision by the jury? >> so ali, the first phase of the trial was about compensatory damages or actual damages, how much money jones has to pay back families for the extreme harm he caused, think of things like medical bills, moving expenses, security costs. the next phase is about punitive damages, and that's about sending a strong message that alex jones probably won't understand, but to other people who are out there, spreading conspiracy theories, that they know are lies and that ruin the lives of innocent people, a huge punitive damage award might get their attention and let them know that actions have consequences and intentional malicious lies can cost you all your money, and if you lie under oath, you might even get locked up. >> what's the line here, because alex jones, for a very long time said he was protected by the
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first amendment in saying what he, what he said, lying is not against the law, what is the part that holds him responsible for this? >> if he had bothered to comply with the four other court proceedings and turned over documents, he might have had a chance to have his first amendment claims litigated. but he didn't turn over documents. and now the sandy hook families have exposed him as a serial liar, as you mentioned, the defense attorneys had the receipts to prove it in terms of all of those text messages. and ali, alex jones was dumb enough to complain about the judge and the jury at the same time that they were deciding the case. he called the jurors extremely blue collar and said didn't know what planet they were living on that, the judge allowed the jury to hear that, and some of that money, that he lied about having, was earned about exploiting the families of dead children, after the jurors fine
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punitive damages, jones might actually be bankrupt. >> what a story, paul, thank you as always, goods to see you. pout butler, a professor at georgetown law school and former federal prosecutor. news that senator kyrsten sinema has finally broken her silence putting democrats one major step closer to getting their big spending bill, which contains significant money to fight global warming through the senate. that breaking news is next. ware senate that breaking news is next with angi, you can connect with and see ratings and reviews. and when you book and pay throug you're covered by our happiness check out angi.com today. angi... and done.
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will support the legislation. there is a condition. the removal of the carried interest tax provision from the bill. that provision would close the loophole that allows private equity and hedge fund managers to pay a reduced tax rate on their share of profits from investments. in a statement, senator sinema said quote we have agreed to remove the carried interest tax provision subject to the parliamentarian's review, i'll move forward. this follows speculations about whether she would support the bill and what appeared to be a lobbying effort from senator joe manchin. the senate chamber camera captured them talking today. meanwhile the senate already started moving ahead in case they get the all clear from the senate parliamentarian, chuck schumer says the senate will take tomorrow off and reconvene on saturday and hold the first procedural vote to begin consideration of the bill. that motion to proceed only needs a sim majority. it cannot be filibustered and will jump start to 20 hours of debate equally divided between
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each party. once the debate is over, they will vote to a vote-a-rama a bunch of amendment votes that concludes with a final vote to pass that package and who knows when that will be. a big step in the right direction. watch this space. "way too early" with jonathan lemire is up next. after days of negotiations, arizona senator kyrsten sinema says she is on board with a proposal to address key pieces of president biden's agenda. we'll take you to the latest version of the bill and how soon it could pass. plus, sandy hook families finally get some justice, against a plan they say has made their lives a living hell. we'll explain how a mistake by alex jones' lawyer could also help the january 6th committee. and ahead, the latest on brittney griner's future. what the kremlin and the biden administration are saying about a potential prisoner swap, now that the wnb
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