wisconsin and democracy of america, it is absolutely critical. go to -- >> the gerrymandering stuff is bonkers, truly exsentially -- ben wikler, thank you. that is all in on this tuesday night. alex wagner tonight starts right now. alex? >> a lot of bonkers out there in the world. thank you as always. thank you for being with us this evening, this breaking news evening. it was three weeks ago when "the washington post" published this bomb shell piece. it is hard to forget a report with a title like this, quote, fbi searched trump's home to look for nuclear documents and other items, sources say. the source fbi agents were classified classified documents relating to nuclear weapons could be found at trump's beach club down in florida. the former president told the world, quote, nuclear weapons issue is a hoax. just like russia, russia, russia

was a hoax, two impeachments were a hoax, the mueller investigation was a hoax and much more. same sleazy people involved. and in the days after, trump kept bringing up that washington post report again and again and again. on august 26th, affidavit heavily redacted. nothing mentioned on nuclear. a few days later, again, quote, what happened to nuclear, a word that was leaked early on by fbi doj to the fake news media? something about that whole nuclear thing really irked donald trump. it really got right under his skin. but besides trump's littleout burst for days after that reporting we heard nothing about "the washington post's" reporting on those nuclear secrets, no other news outlets confirm the post's along-terming reporting. but then a week ago, a week ago tonight, the justice department revealed in a court filing in an unsealed subpoena from may for those documents that the doj was looking for documents at mar-a-lago, ones that including

classification called formally restricted data. that's a designation that concerns nuclear weapons. and now, tonight, the reporters at "the washington post" are at it again. headline, material on foreign nation's nuclear capabilities seized at trump's mar-a-lago. here is the leak. quote, a document describing a foreign government's military defenses including its nuclear capabilities was found by fbi agents who searched former president donald trump's mar-a-lago residence and private club last month, underscoring concerns among u.s. intelligence officials about classified materials stashed in the florida property. some of the seized documents detailed top secret u.s. operations so closely guarded that many senior national security officials are kept in the dark about them. only the president, some members of his cabinet or a near cabinet-level official could authorize other government officials to know details of these special access programs. records that deal with such

programs are kept under lock and key almost always in a secure, compartmented information facility, a skiff, with a designated control officer to keep careful tabs on their location. such documents were stored at mar-a-lago, with uncertain security more than 18 months after donald trump left the white house. it was in this last batch of government secrets that the information about a foreign government's nuclear defense readiness was found. what is it that donald trump said about nothing mentioning nuclear? nothing mentioning nuclear? joining us now is carol leonnig, pulitzer prize national investigative reporter for washington post and one of the two bylines on this block blusing reporting. you answered the president's calls, carol, definitively. indeed it does seem like nuclear secrets were found down at mar-a-lago. can you walk us through this whole process? we knew in may, right, that the department of justice maybe was looking for this kind of

material in their subpoena to the grand jury. what has happened since? >> great question, alex. so, because of my great colleague who i co-bylined this story with, the public learned that in may the department of justice was seeking all sorts of classified records at mar-a-lago, but they included records that are particularly sensitive that involve nuclear capabilities or really sort of what you consider a foreign government or the u.s. government's ability to wage nuclear war. where are they on that continuum? are they seeking nuclear ingredients, recipes, equipment? do they have the capacity that we are woried about? are they a true nuclear rival? these are all records and materials that are covered by this classification that the department of justice sought in its may subpoena for records at

the former president's part time residence and golf club, resort club. so, we know that that's what happened. they were looking for it. but i also have learned, along with my colleague, that when they made this subpoena, they were kind of throwing the kitchen sink. concerned about anything with these kinds of classification records, anything with these markings that was stuff that needed to be under lock and key. and now we know that while they were seeking some of this material, lo and behold they found some. we don't know how much. we don't know which foreign government is involved. we have some theories. but we published what we can establish with great certainty and that is that among the records seized there were details, so classified, so concerning that it was covered by this classification material that relates to a foreign government's nuclear capacity. >> i think it bears mentioning the degree to which the doj

really had to hunt this material down, right? had several bites at the apple, if you will, in terms of returning these papers that belonged to the government back to the government. he had all of 2021. he had january when he sent over the first couple boxes. he had a chance in june when the doj came down to mar-a-lago, and yet these nuclear secrets so ultra classified that you have to look at them in a secure, compartmented facility, he did not return those any of the times previous and, in fact, they were not discovered, it sounds like, until the doj got that search warrant to go inside mar-a-lago. is that material to the investigation, the fact this was not seeded willingly back to the government? >> it's huge. i mean, it's why in their search warrant, which was executed august 8th and they seized these records and began looking through them, it's huge that before that happened, two months

before that search and that search warrant, the government was asking for these records and was told, we've done a search. the trump team said june 3rd, we looked at everything. after a diligent search, there's no more classified material down here. well, who told trump's lawyers these are the boxes to look in? here you can see all my records. or how diligent was that search because it didn't take the government more than about eight to nine hours on site to get this trove of hundreds and hundreds of documents. i'll also add one other thing that i think is important, alex, about what we learned in the last couple of hours and that is in this story by devlin and myself, and that is that one of the biggest alarm bells that begins ringing in investigator's ears after the august 8th search is that some of the records are records they can't look at. they don't have the classification. and that includes some of the

senior most national security officials in the country. there are in some instances for these special access programs, and i'm not speaking specifically of records seized at mar-a-lago, but the category of special access programs, super, super secret, as few as a dozen people can be read into these programs. the president or a cabinet-level official, someone near to a cabinet official has to approve someone being read in to review these records. so again, keep in mind the alarm bells that we're hearing about from multiple sources on august 8th when they start looking at these records is, oh my goodness, i'm not supposed to look at this. now, that's bizarre-o world when you think about the fact that they were just in a storage room or in the former president's office or residence, not only should these things be under lock and key in a skiff, they

shouldn't be accessible to anyone who lives, works or breathes at mar-a-lago. there is no one there that is read into the programs that top national security officials aren't read into. >> yeah. they were effectively being stored in like the basement of an event venue and the big security was the fact that there was only one key to the closet. it is staggering when you think about and contextualize the level of security afforded this kind of information, traditionally, when the information is housed where it's supposed to be. do you know, carol, how the doj officials who didn't actually have the security clearance to read this stuff eventually got that clearance? how did they actually discover all this that they weren't supposed to be looking at it? >> i have to tell you the sources that we have have not provided that information about those senior-most officials and the process by which they looked at this material. but i would guess, big, big

guess, that somebody had to be deputized and multiple people had to be authorized and were given the need to know authorization and read into these special access programs so that they could review the documents as part of an on going and increasingly more alarming criminal investigation. >> carol leonnig, washington post national investigative reporter, bomb shell reporting tonight that will have repercussions. i'm sure at some point we'll hear from the former president about these nuclear secrets apparently housed at his beach club down at mar-a-lago. thank you for making the time to be here on this very sbiz evening. >> of course. joining us now is someone uniquely qualified to speak to this latest reporting, former cia director john brennan. director brennan, thank you so much for joining us particularly on short notice with this breaking news. let's get right into it. what was your reaction when you read the headline that there were nuclear secrets down at

mar-a-lago that the former president lied about having possession of and loathed to give up? >> well, it's hard to be surprised about anything we learned that donald trump might have done. still, this is quite shocking. now, i don't know about the documents that were found, but based on carol's description, it sounds as though these are documents that are part of special access programs, s.a.p.s. these are the documents most highly sensitive and highly restricted within the u.s. government. and some of these programs deal specifically with nuclear capabilities, whether it's or own capabilities, the nuclear capabilities of our allies or adversaries. and these documents usually are kept in saves inside of skiffs. so it's not just that they're in skiffs, but they're in saves. and there is what's called a list that certain individuals are authorized to see these documents. they have to be signed in and signed out. and so when i worked at the white house, in president obama's first term, deputy national security adviser, i had

access to some of those programs. went i went to cia, i didn't have access to them because there's a strict need to know and you try to keep the number of individuals who have access to them to a strict minimum. and so, to think that they were held at mar-a-lago in this very unrestricted storage facility, it just really i think raises serious, serious questions about whether or not anybody saw them who shouldn't have and whether or not our national security and maybe the national security of our allies has been compromised. >> i would imagine that these documents will figure prominently into avril haines, the office of director of national intelligence, is conducting a parallel review to see if our national security was compromised in this document breach, if you will. how would she go about thinking about these nuclear documents being held down at mar-a-lago in a storage facility that is calling the storage facility is probably being generous.

>> well, sure, they are agassed to found to be located at mar-a-lago. they are conducting this risk assessment right now, trying to determine what of our sources and method collection systems might be at risk. so if this is a document about a foreign country's nuclear capabilities, how did we access that information? how was it that we became familiar in knowing what either adversary or ally has in the nuclear realm? and so therefore the community is looking at what they might need to do in order to ensure that these whether be human sources or systems are going to be protected. and it's going to be very difficult to determine exactly who might have had access to these documents. so i think there will be some people who are going to say we have to assume that these documents were accessed by somebody we shouldn't have seen them and therefore we need to take these steps in order to

protect human sources and technical collection systems. >> let me ask you a question as you detail the level of security afforded these documents, safe inside a skiff, right? how would it come to pass that the president would be able to take one of these documents back home to mar-a-lago? do you have any theories on how he would be able to sort of exit the facility, dump it in a box and get it down to his beach club? that seems -- again, given the safeguards in place, like a very difficult thing to accomplish. >> well, these documents usually are moved in the white house complex. inside of envelopes or files with a coffer sheet that clearly says that they're top secret and highly sensitive programs. there might have been some type of briefing in the white house situation room or in the oval office that was dealing with the specific nuclear issue and that trump decided to take the

document with him back to the residence. and then just scroll it away. the volume of documents that he had in mar-a-lago just indicates that he was taking these documents on a fairly regular basis, but again something like this, this special access program, it would have to have been signed out. it would have had to come from a skiff and a safe. someone would have had to delivered it to him. and he would have had to decide to keep it himself probably despite the protestations of others who were probably quite concerned and worried about his retaining them. >> so you're saying there's a level of intentionality here. because throughout this reporting, you know, especially the trump side has sort of paint a picture of a president who liked to keep things and was kind of a paper monger. he would keep a lot of stuff on his desk, get shoved into a box. sometimes people didn't know where the paper was going or ultimately how he would use it, but this kind of information, you're sort of painting a more vivid picture, you can't

unintentionally shove it off your desk into a box. this is something that needs to be -- that is safeguarded in terms of every hand it is held in. is that right? >> absolutely it was intentional. there are no classified documents that stay in the oval office overnight because you have cleaning crews and others that come through. so that office is swept intentionally everyday to make sure that there's going to be nothing left inadvertently out so someone can access it that shouldn't see it. so therefore it always raises the question in my mind, why did he select these documents among the thousands upon thousands that passed his hands, at least in his office or people told him about, over his four years. so if these documents as described by carol deal with the nuclear capabilities of a foreign country, it really raises serious, serious concerns about what he was planning to do with the document or may have already done with these documents and the information in there. and this is something that i'm

so concerned that with the appointment of this special master, the fbi's investigation could be delayed because they need to find out who might have had access to these documents as soon as possible so they can take the appropriate mitigating measures that need to be taken. >> yeah. let me follow up on that really quickly. what risk does this pose? we're talking about information about a foreign government's nuclear defense readiness. you're the former director of the cia. what's the risk there? >> well, again, i don't know if this deals with ally or adversary. may identify not just what the capabilities are but what the weaknesses are, the vulnerabilities are, the shortcomings are. whether an ally or adversary, that is something that we certainly don't want oured aerer adversaries to find out. we don't want our adversaries to know what we know. having a document like these and maybe other documents as well

out there that could be accessed by those who are not authorized to see it and then shared with folks overseas, and as i said before, i am certain that russian intelligence was targeting mar-a-lago over the past 20 months or so. trying to get people in there. whether they be guests or caterers or cleaning staff, i'm sure it was a priority intelligence target for russian intelligence given donald trump's pensions for being rather careless and reckless with our national security secrets. and mar-a-lago was not a skiff, is not a skiff. and the ability of people to get in there and possibly access these documents, again, it just makes me shutter at the thought of what the implications, the consequences of his reckless irresponsibility could be. >> statement of the year, mar-a-lago was not a skiff. former cia director, john brennan, thanks so much for making time this evening. really appreciate it. >> thanks, alex. we will have more on this breaking news next.

co-editor and chief of just security ryan goodman joins me here to react to this latest reporting and also go over the nuts and bolts of the special master process and what we can expect next from the doj. and congresswoman pra my pramila jayapal will join me why she thinks democrats will keep the house, yes, i said the house. stay with us. he house. stay with us sleep from sleep number? because proven quality sleep is vital to our health and wellness, only the sleep number 360 smart bed keeps you cool, then senses and effortlessly adjusts for your best sleep. and tells you exactly how well you slept with your sleepiq score. our smart sleepers get 28 minutes more restful sleep per night. so, you can be your best for yourself and those you care about most. don't miss the final days where all smart beds are on sale. save 50% on the sleep number 360 limited edition smart bed. ends monday.

every search you make, every click you take, every move you make, every step you take, i'll be watching you. the internet doesn't have to be duckduckgo is a free all in one privacy app with a built in search engine, web browser, one click data clearing and more stop companies like google from watching you, by downloading the app today. duckduckgo: privacy, simplified.

now that we know according to new washington post reporting that a classified document relating to the nuclear weapons of a foreign nation, now that we know that was among those papers found at mar-a-lago last month, how is all of that going to affect the damage assessment being conducted by the office of director of national intelligence? also, there is still the issue of the special master that needs to be dealt with. after two weeks of will she or won't she, trump-appointed

federal judge aileen cannon ruled on labor day trump will get the third party arbiter in the mysterious case of how over 11,000 government records, including how 100 that were classified or had top secret designations, how all that paper wound up at trump's beach club in florida. trump cannon ruled that trump will get that request for the special master to decide which are coffered under attorney/client privilege and much are covered by executive privilege. that stopped the press's ruling left the doj with decisions it has to make. first, most essentially, what do we do now? does the department appeal the ruling? the government is, quote, examining the opinion and will consider appropriate next steps in the on going litigation. there's also the issue of what is sometimes referred to as the justice department's 60 to 90 day rule. it's not an actual rule but rather a department policy that prohibits investigaive steps

that could influence an upcoming election and now we're 63 days from election day. will that stop the department from taking any further steps in this criminal investigation? and then there's the director of national intelligence and her on going damage assessment of those documents to see if trump's unauthorized handling and storage of them potentially harmed national security. that review, judge cannon ruled, is allowed to continue, supposedly. the office of director of national intelligence is part of the executive branch, so what does it mean that that office can continue its work while the doj cannot as it concerns these seized documents from mar-a-lago in august? and finally there's the question of who in the world is going to serve as a special master in this case? that person will likely need a top secret clearance and you cannot find people with those credentials on linkedin. the judge also ruled that the justice department and trump's team by friday have to jointly file a list of potential candidates for the job and they need to outline the duties and

limits of that person's role. where do you find someone like that and who would want that job? i think it's safe to say we're a long way away from a special master being appointed. who knows, the government may decide to fight this ruling in the interim. joining us now is ryan goodman, co-editor in chief of just security. good to see you tonight. so the revelation about nuclear secrets being in the cash of documents seized in august, it seems would add great urgency to all of those questions, right? how do you think that inform's the justice department's decision what to do here? >> it must mean they have to act with urgency, it's got to put a big thumb on the scale they appeal her decision immediately and that they ask the court of appeals for an urgent cessation of her ruling. they can do that. the court of appeals say we'll stop what she did to you and go

ahead and use the materials for your investigation. >> okay. would that just stop the process as it is -- sorry, stop the special master process as it is and allow them to move forward with the work given the sort of implications in terms of national security? >> it depends. they could do it one or two ways. you can still use the material while the special master is going or could say stop the special master as well because it's such a bizarre notion of a special master to be reviewing documents for executive privilege, we never had that in this country. so they could say, that's also hampering a very critical investigation. now that we know nuclear materials are in the mix, that would be a reason for them to act quickly. >> if that isn't granted, though, what happens here? because the office of the director of national intelligence gets to continue her review, but she also -- that department needs to work with the rest of the doj in tandem, right? >> 100%. in fact, the government has said that the directive is that the

odni works with the department of justice. they could have named other departments and agencies, the fbi and et cetera, it's intermingled. i understand the judge is saying you can go ahead with the damage assessment, but how? these are the same people. they need to refer back to the fbi, what's the chain of custody for the nuclear document? are there fingerprints on the nuclear document for the damage assessment and folks say we can't touch it. the judge said the order is we can't use it. we're not allowed to look at it and if we're in the criminal case we can't look to you. that's the havoc she reeked. i do think that's why the justice department might say we have to appeal this and the court of appeals might say, we're going to take it. >> we're with you on this. what about -- i mean, entertain, if you will, this notion of a special master. given nuclear secrets we're finding out about, how impossible does it make -- how impossible is it to find a candidate who can review all of

this stuff who is mutually agreed upon by both parties? that just seems like a fantasy. >> i agree. i think it will be hard to see on friday if they do go through and don't appeal, they will come together on a common agreement who could be that special master because it's such a small universe of people in this country that could have the qualifications let alone agreement because are they somebody who just stepped out of the trump administration and have an active clearance and the person has to have staff as well and the trump lawyers have to be cleared to see nuclear secrets. so this is what she created for us in part because we have never had a special master deal with this kind of sensitive information and executive privilege. >> so you're of the mind because this is so extraordinary that the special master is put aside for the moment. the work continues. that's the best case scenario sounds like you think that might be the most likely given the sort of implications for national security vis-a-vis

these nuclear secrets. let's assume that happens. then what happens next at the doj's information, if they can move forward? >> if they can move forward, i think 60, day, 90 day rule does start to kick in. it shouldn't necessarily. i written about, researched that rule all the times it's been applied. it's applied to candidates who might be in the election. so donald trump doesn't actually fit the bill. but you could imagine garland says, look, out of abundance of caution, we're not taking any major overt steps in the investigation until after the midterms, but then after the midterms looks like they have a mountain of evidence in which they might then decide, now is the moment we have to think about indictment. >> so they could move fairly quickly potentially after november is what you're saying? >> i think so. >> do you think there's any resource for donald trump in all of this, someone who protected loudly and repeatedly there's nothing nuclear there and boom we have reporting this evening says there was, in fact, nuclear in there and it was very, very serious classified information? >> yeah. makes me wonder, was he trying to get out ahead of this because

he -- if you have nuclear materials in your storage room or in your office, you probably know that. >> sounds like from director brennan he would have known that. >> exactly. i thought what director brennan said was totally correct about that. it goes to the willfulness and intentionally. he needs to say i have no idea. he is not saying that. it's more incriminating he has been saying it until we now find out that's exactly what is there. >> the opposite of what he said is true. something we heard before with donald trump. ryan goodman, law professor at nyu. thank you for your time and expertise tonight. up next tonight, we will take a look into why the background of the judge who approved trump's request for a special master to go over those mar-a-lago documents has some people raising their eyebrows. and congress woman pramila jayapal thinks the democrats may hold the senate and the house.

she will join us live ahead. d. your projects done right

. 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. i know there's conflicting information and when you book and pay throug yabout dupuytren's contracture. i thought i couldn't get treatment yet? well, people may think that their contracture has to be severe to be treated, but it doesn't. if you can't lay your hand flat on the table, talk to a hand specialist. but what if i don't want surgery? well, then you should find a hand specialist certified to offer nonsurgical treatments. what's the next step?

visit findahandspecialist.com today to get started. ♪♪ the justice department has now had its first major setback in its investigation into donald trump. yesterday aileen cannon, the federal judge in florida overseeing the mar-a-lago search, she granted donald trump's request to allow an

independent special master to go through all the materials seized from trump's home. here was the new york time's headline, deeply problematic. experts question judge's intervention in trump inquiry. one former homeland security official from the george w. bush administration said genuinely unprecedented decision by a judge. a harvard law school said thin at best and deeply problematic. and new york university law professor told the "times" the judge chose a radical path. so basically the entire legal community is shocked by this judge's call, but you know who isn't, donald trump. and you know why? judge aileen cannon, the judge who made this decision, was appointed by donald trump. she was confirmed in the final days of his presidency after trump lost the 2020 election. like many trump appointees, judge cannon is a long-time member of the federalist society, a well financed and highly, highly unflun shall conservative group aligned itself with trump well before he

was elected. the federalist society is instrumental in championing judges with hardline conservative views and ties to the conservative movement and getting them appointed to the federal bench. case in point, should the justice department choose to appeal this ruling, they will be doing so in the 11th circuit, an appeals court where the majority of judges were also appointed by, donald trump. several of those trump appointees are also members of the federalist society. and above that court, there is the supreme court, with the 6-3 conservative majority, one where half, half the conservative judges were appointed by donald trump. and all three of trump supreme court nominees were also hand picked by the federalist society. that is a lot of hardline conservatives on the bench courtesy of donald trump and the federalist society. very successful coproduction. remember that during his presidency trump and mitch mcconnell appointed more than

200 judges to life time appointments on the federal bench including the three supreme court seats, one of which lest we forget, senator mcconnell stole from president obama. of all the judges currently on the federal bench, more than a quarter of them, a quarter of them, were appointed by donald trump. just four years trump and mcconnell appointed 54 judges to federal appeals courts, nearly as barack obama confirmed during his entire eight year presidency. and most of trump's judicial nominees are very young and are all extremely conservative. aileen cannon, the judge in the mar-a-lago case is only 41 years old. she was 39 when trump nominated her as a district judge. cannon worked as a clerk for conservative judge on the eighth circuit court of appeals but other conservative appointees nod had the most extensive resumes considering these are life time judicial appointments. 35-year-old katherine kimbell

never tried a case before donald trump gave her a life time appointment to the united states district court for the middle district of florida. she was the one who handed down the opinion abruptly ending the federal mask mandate on u.s. airlines. or there is 39 judge justin walker who had also never tried a case in his life when president trump appointed him to the federal bench in 2019. in 2020, judge walker ruled in favor of a louisville wedding photographer who wanted to deny service to same sex couples. that decision was appealed but just last week another judge once again sided with the photographer and this time the judge was a guy named benjamin beaton, 40-year-old judge, another appointee of, wait for it, donald trump. as much as legal experts would like to believe that cases like this are decided on the merits of the argument made in court, the rulings of judges like aileen cannon and katherine mizelle and justin walker, they

all suggest that something else, something particularly partisan may be at play. and for democrats who currently hold both the white house and the senate, the only way to fight back may be to remake the federal bench. today the senate returned to washington to finish its work for the year which includes confirming a whole lot of president biden's you judicial nominees. just last week president biden named eight new judges. there remains a lot to do. there are still 78 district and appeals court vacancies to fill before the end of this year when democrats could very well lose control of the senate. so tick tock, right? tonight democrats confirmed a new circuit court judge in illinois and tomorrow senate democrats will hold hearings for six more federal judges. if they needed any more evidence by why these things matter, they need look no further than the florida courtroom where the

nation is watching the consequences of trump's judicial confirmation spree play out in realtime. our florida judge single handedly put the brakes on a criminal investigation into the former president of the united states and could literally change the course of american history. american history. ways on. and he's on it with jardiance for type 2 diabetes. his underhand sky serve? on fire. his grilling game? on point. and his a1c? ron is on it. with the once-daily pill, jardiance. jardiance not only lowers a1c... it goes beyond to reduce the risk of cardiovascular death for adults with type 2 diabetes and known heart disease. and jardiance may help you lose some weight. jardiance may cause serious side effects, including ketoacidosis that may be fatal, dehydration that can lead to sudden worsening of kidney function, and genital yeast or urinary tract infections. a rare life-threatening bacterial infection in the skin of the perineum could occur. stop taking jardiance and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of this infection,

ketoacidosis, or an allergic reaction, and don't take it if you're on dialysis. taking jardiance with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. a once-daily pill that goes beyond lowering a1c? on it with jardiance. ask your doctor about jardiance. it's time for the biggest sale of the year, on the sleep number 360 smart bed. it senses your movements and automatically adjusts to keep you both comfortable. on it with jardiance. our smart sleepers get 28 minutes more restful sleep per night. all smart beds are on sale. save 50% on the sleep number 360 limited edition smart bed. ends monday.

what i'm about to show you was a website for republican north carolina congressional candidate bo heines back in the

month of june. up top the website led, i am 100% pro-life. went down to life and family was literally front and center. when you clicked on it, you got bo hines will defend the pro life movement. the word always is pretty funny there because this is bo hines website today. not only is there no mention of abortion or bo hines being pro life, they dropped the life and family section together, gone. other in colorado's new eighth district, republican candidate barbara kirk meyer removed lange wang she would defend the sanctity of life from her website and took down a message of her speaking an an anti-abortion rally this year. used to be on the very front page of her website. down in virginia, the republican candidate for virginia seventh district made a teeny tiny change to her twitter bio. here is her twitter profile back in july side by side with her

twitter profile today. everything is exactly the same except for one sentence which has been cut. no longer mentions she was an appointee of president donald trump. it sort of seems like she maybe doesn't want that association anymore. by now you have probably heard the stories of republican senate candidates scrubbing their public profiles like this. and it makes sense those stories are front page news. the senate this year was always going to be a tossup. but the reason i'm cherry picking these republican house candidates is because all of their races are turning out to be way closer than anyone predicted. and clearly some of these republicans are getting pretty nervous. just a few months ago, all of the coverage of the midterm elections was about the red wave. it was not really a question if the republicans would win the house, but by how much, how colossal would the margin be. were they going to take the house by 40 seats or 60 seats? but now the political report

sees republicans retaking the house as no longer, a quote, fore gone conclusion. don't get me wrong, democrats are still at a disadvantage here. it is a midterm election with a sitting democratic president and that is the kind of situation where republicans traditionally should sweep. but with so many issues energizing the democratic base and republicans literally trying to distance themselves from their own stances, do democrats have a fighting chance here? joining us now is pramila jie ya mall, democratic congresswoman from the great state of washington, chair of the progressive caucus and she thinks democrats could keep the house this november. congresswoman jayapal, thank you for being with us tonight. >> alex, great to see you. congratulations, by the way, on your show. we're all so excited for you. >> thank you so much. i want to get to this theory of yours, which seems to be, you know, supported by some anecdotal evidence i will say, about democrat's chances in the

house. the first thing i think everybody is looking at in terms of a seismic shift is the dobbs decision and the supreme court and what that has done to energize women. i want to quote a stat here, this is data from the firm target smart. women after the dobbs decision, women became nearly 70% of all new voters registered in the state of kansas. we know what happened in kansas vis-a-vis abortion. but do you think this trend line of women being energized, outraged, i'm not sure exactly what the word is, but engaged in a midterm election like never before, have you seen that pattern holding true elsewhere in the country? >> you know, this is exactly what i predicted after the dobbs decision. i said republicans have no idea the fury and the wrath of women across the country and their families, by the way, who absolutely are going to rebel against the idea that a protected constitutional right to make choices about your own

bodies, freedoms that we have taken as our own for the last 50 years, we would sit back and allow that to be taken away by an extremist supreme court, republican supreme court. and these maga extremists. i think that is what you are seeing. it is going to hold. it is holding across the country, even in some of the special elections that you're seeing, even in the kansas decision that you saw for the ballot initiative, to strip these rights away in the state of kansas, you saw voters rebel and you saw new voters registering particularly women voters and young voters. and that once again women are going to save the country, alex, i think. and it is a very, very important piece. but along with that, of course, the fact that we are protecting our freedoms on every level. this is the same time that donald trump and the mar-a-lago, you know, scandal, outrageous

behavior of donald trump with these documents is also happening. and the same time, alex, that democrats have delivered over and over and over again on climate change, on jobs, on wages going up, on so many different things, chips, manufacturing, the pact act, taking care of our veterans. so we have shown what we can do with tiny, tiny majorities. it's really all of that put together in one package that gives me real hope. >> i want to talk about the trump mar-a-lago scandal if you would for a moment. what is that doing -- i would assume that is going to move independents? do you know who that news is swaying? we had breaking news this evening regarding the fact there were nuclear secrets he squirrelled away at mar-a-lago. who is that most affecting in terms of the midterm voters? >> yes. i think it is the independent voters and some republicans. i mean, liz cheney republicans, let's put it that way. adam kinzinger republicans,

people who understand that the threat to our democracy is very great. this is not about policy. it's about our constitution. and so i think it is that category of republicans who actually believe that we need to protect our democracy from somebody who tried to destroy it, who tried to steal an election as well as the independents. so those two categories combine that with substantial turnout from our base and engagement from our base, and i think that is, you know, potentially what can really bring us across the finish line in terms of holding the house. >> we talk a lot about what it means to be a republican in the age of trump and the way in which -- it's a mixed bag. but the endorsement, the direct endorsement of donald trump seems to help republican candidates. and he is very much remade the party in his image. but we don't talk as much about what it means to be a democrat. and i sort of wonder your thoughts -- i wonder what your thoughts are as far as where the

party is at. we know there are strong progressive candidates have done really well in primaries this year. i believe greg ceaser in texas, summer lee in pennsylvania, delia ramirez in illinois, max frost in florida, maxwell frost. the progressive caucus seems to be growing. and i know you're the chair of the house progressive caucus, but what can you tell us about the size and the shape and the makeup of the democratic party right now which is admittedly a very big tent party. >> yes. and i think first of all the democratic party has become more and more progressive and populist. that is thanks to the progressive movement across the country. but you see that a lot of progressive ideas have been taken up as the mainstream of the democratic party, things like raising wages, you know, making sure people have a decent, livable wage. you know, things like making sure that we're taking on climate change. a lot of the things that we have been fighting for, universal

child care, universal pre-k, this is the president's agenda. this is joe biden's agenda. it is the democratic party's agenda. and i think it is an agenda that is about lifting up working people, vulnerable people, giving people a shot at better lives, better opportunity. that is really what democrats are all about. and i think that's what we have shown from the american rescue plan all the way down to the inflation reduction act and everything in between. that's what we have shown. we're going to stand up for regular people, not for the special interests. we are a party that cares about people having opportunity, alex, opportunity like what i had when i came to this country at 16 by myself as an immigrant. and i think that is what we're fighting for. that's what we have shown we can deliver w. you think that the dems can hold the house. congress woman pramila jayapal, we'll come back to you in november and see about your predictions and

prognostications. good luck with everything. it's great to have you and thanks for sharing some time tonight. >> thank you, alex. we will be right back. you,x we will be right back. ♪ away suitcases come in many colors. so you can find your color. colors. choices. happiness. away. ♪ ♪

that does it for us tonight. we will see you again tomorrow. "way too early" with jonathan lemire is coming up next. ♪♪ to think the fundamental dynamics of the case are sad, which is the government has very strong evidence of what it really kneads to determine whether charges are appropriate, which is government documents were taken, classified information was taken and not handled appropriately and they are looking into and there's some evidence that suggests, that they were deceived. >> former attorney general bill barr laying out the facts of the case against donald trump's handling of classified information. meanwhile, stunning new reporting on the nuclear secrets that the fbi found inside