lady takes us off the air tonight. and on that note, i wish you all a very good night. from all of our colleagues across the networks of nbc news, thanks for staying up late. i will see you at the end of tomorrow. before today, the last time you saw one of these ceremonies was the spring of the year 2012. president barack obama was wrapping up his first term in office with a tradition that goes back decades, hosting the previous president for the unveiling of his official presidential portrait. on that day, in may of 2012. obama made this statement about the point of these portraits, as an enduring member of the presidents temporary time in office serving the people. >> now the white house is many

things at once. it is a working office. it is a living museum. it is an enduring symbol of our democracy. but at the end of the day, when the visitors go home and the lights go down, a few of us are blessed with the tremendous honor to actually live here. i think it is fair to say that every president is acutely aware that we are just temporary residence. we are renters here. we are charged with the upkeep and tell our lease runs out. but we also leave a police of ourself in this place. we are renters here. charged with the upkeep until

our lease runs out. in 2012, we did not know how precious those remarks were. there was no president biden fighting for the soul of this nation. there was no president trump fighting to stay in office, no insurrectionists storming the capitol. no top secret classified records taken from the white house and stored in a florida closet. none of that had happened yet. in fact, we wouldn't see an official white house portrait unveiling again for another ten years. today, president obama returned to the white house, where his friend and now president joe biden unveiled of mamas portrait alongside that of the former first lady, michelle obama. during today's event, the former president echoed the point that he made back in 2012, that presidents are renters at the white house, and that their time there is temporary.

>> i have always described the presidency as a relay race. you take the baton from someone, you ran your own like as hard and as well as you can, and then you handed off to someone else. knowing that your work will be incomplete. the portraits hanging in the white house chronicle, the runners in that race. each of us tasked with trying to bring the country that we love closer to its highest aspirations. >> now the reason this event was held today and not during trump's term in office, the reason it has been a decade since we have seen one of these unveilings, is because for the first time in u.s. history the incumbent president refused to honor his press udder with this right of passage. trump never scheduled the ceremony. given the content of obama's

address today, it might have been a little awkward for trump, given that he had zero intention of leaving the white house when history was up. obama's remarks about the peaceful transfer of power, both today and in 2012, stand in stark contrast to the president who thought he owned the place. that he was the white house. a president who tried to overthrow the results of a legitimate election and would have preferred that president obama be redlined out of the opportunity to rent the white house. trump made his campaign and presidency about being the and this is of obama. about rejecting obama's legacy, inclusion, and eventually erupting rejecting the will of

the people. you saw it early. you saw it as early as 2011, when trump went on national tv saying president obama should show his papers, show his birth certificate. those claims continued through the years, along with the false assertion that obama must be muslim, not from here, not deserving the office of the presidency. you saw trump come down that escalator in 2015 to announce his bid for office while claiming that mexico is not sending their best. you saw it after far-right violence in charlottesville in 2017, when then president trump defended neo-nazi violence by stating they were, quote, very fine people on both sides. you saw it, again and again and

again during trump's presidency. all the way up to january 6th, when trump refused to leave office and encouraged a crowd of his supporters, that he knew were armed, to storm the u.s. capitol while the 2020 election results were being certified. to try to keep himself in that house as if he wasn't a renter at 1600 pennsylvania avenue, but an owner. leading the charge to keep trump in power, to the capitol building, there were two violent racist extremist groups. the proud boys and the oath keepers. like donald trump, the oath keepers were spurred into action after barack obama was elected president. the group launched in the year 2009, in april. they recruited members threw out obama's term in office. their tactics began more aggressive and violent in 2014 after obama's reelection, that notorious standoff against the federal government at -- since then, the oath keepers have evolved from obscured group to and household name. a primary example of anti government extremism. a group that literally stoned the seat of democracy in an effort to keep its chosen candidate in power against the will of the american people. today, a judge declined to delay the trial of the leader of the oath keepers for seditious conspiracy. that fir league center on extreme, the adl lead, the adl center on extremism fleeced this report and masking jazz who the oath keepers really are. the adl combs through more than 38,000 names listed on leaked oath keepers membership lists. what did they find? they found that more than 370 people who work in law enforcement, they found more than 100 members who are actively in the military, more than 80 members who are either running for or serving in public office as of august of this year. emts. people from all parts of american society. all of which raised fresh concerns about the illegally -- seep into our high law enforcement, our government, our daily lives. joining us now is oren segel, vice president of the center on extremism at the adl, the anti-defamation league, or, and

thank you for being here tonight. >> thank you. >> so i want to get to the report and a, minute but i want to contextualize this for everybody who is sort of trying to make sense of this moment when it feels like violent extremism is surging in a way that, i think, shocks a lot of americans. you have played that sound of a bomb at the white house for a reason. it is in his first term in office that the origin story of the oath keepers begins, right? what can you tell us about how obama was a kind of catalytic event for this kind of extremist group? >> the oath keepers, in a sense, benefited from three things

that were very problematic for them when they were created. one, a democrat took office, obama specifically. second, social media began to really take off. so they were able to spread their message, amplify it to a whole new set of people. the third was the financial crisis. we were in the wake of that. what happens during a financial crisis? people feel lost. they actually lost a lot of their livelihood and they are looking to explain away the suffering that they may feel in other people. and to extremist, enter the oath keepers, who are also, by the way, and i immigrant, anti-muslim, you know, sleeping these types of accusations against the new president at that time. so. those three things were tapping

into people concerns, their grievances, their fears. offering what, you know, they thought was an alternative to the trend occult government. >> then, boom, four years later, or eight years later i guess, they get donald trump. who gives voice to a lot of this grievance, right? what happens in the run up to the 2020 election? what do you see in terms of keeping membership about this kind of planning activities and around this group? i mean, how is that a surge moment for them? >> it seems like many years ago, but the pandemic wasn't that long, during 2020, they used as an opportunity to go out and protest you know vaccines and masks. any effort that they claim

would take away their rights, and the rates of the people, so this is part of their ongoing sort of conspiracy theories, right? they point to new world order, concentration camps around the country. that people are taking away their guns or their rights to not get a vaccine or put on a mask. so they were put using that moment at the time where election was coming up. and when the election happened, boom, there was another conspiracy that was being spread from the highest office from social media and they did what extremists do, they never missed enough to trinity to sway a crisis and try to win hearts and minds. >> they recruit. >> they recruit. >> we are seeing that again, right? i don't know if it's necessarily from the oath keepers but the fbi search of mar-a-lago has anemia, we have reporting, i think it's from facebook is having a crew --

violent extremist group on the fringes, they are recruiting in the wake of the fbi search, again, because this feeds into this parenthood conspiracy of the government, the black helicopters, for coming with them. as the same truthfully of keepers? have you seen mar-a-lago as an inflection point in terms of recruitment? >> the oath keepers, it's important to note, i, mean there are a bit from disarray. in part because an insurrection happened and we saw some accountability over 800 people are arrested including a lot of oath keepers. right? some of them facing seditious conspiracy charges. >> stewart rhodes. >> right, stewart rhodes, they're up sensible leader, he's arrested. his lawyer is arrested. so right now, they're actually in a moment where they are not

exactly sure what they should be doing. her activities is more down than it has ever been. but this is where our report comes in. efforts to undermine our in democratic institution remain. efforts not only for extremist to be part of the public discord but part of our public institutions? that continues. that is what we are trying to shed light on. >> i mean, let's get to the report now. the idea that you have people who are in government working actively against government and who have paranoid conspiracies about the government, but who are representatives of side government, it's very confusing i think to a lot of people. how does that work? why does that work? >> so the oath keepers are looking to recreate primarily from the holy trinity if you will. law enforcement military, first responders. what they are appealing to is this idea of an oath to defend the constitution. so they are saying, you want to be part of our group because

you said you would defend the constitution but not our government. >> right. >> they separate the two. that's why they're able to appeal to those specific audiences. but really they are just selling a range of conspiracy theories and trying to appeal to people based on patriotism. >> i'm sure having another democrat in office helps them promote this idea that that government is that in that the real government, the pro constitution government in exile if you will, is the thing they need to defend and fight for. >> what is so shocking in this report is the degree to which it is a widespread swath of american society. right? the fact that you are talking about civil servants, teachers, and i will say, there is not, i, mean the numbers themselves are larwhat is revealed in the rep these people ar thei messa member of the marine corps ãa works? a poisonous message, t that is essentially now. you are not only legitimizing those point of views but it is not unreasonable for people to ask, well, they have access to information that normal people may not. what are they gonna do with that. so this is about infiltrating our democratic institutions and creating fear and anxiety. what we are trying to do a shed light on the fact that we need to hold people accountable in this country. you do that by sharing the data. it drives policy. understanding where the threats are coming from will help us be in a better place so that we can respond. >> it is a shocking report, especially in these times against the backdrop of news that we have today. oren segel, vice president of

the center of extremism at the anti-defamation league, thank you for tonight, thank you for your work. up next here tonight, senate republicans jump donald trump's defense even amidst washington post reporting that the documents they had at mar-a-lago included one about nuclear capabilities. senator michael bennet, a member of the senate intel committee joins us next. and steve bannon gets ready to turn himself into new york prosecutors tomorrow morning, despite a pardon from donald trump. former prosecutor barbara quaid joins us had. 's hopes and dreams. at citi, it takes a financial commitment to companies who empower people to lift themselves up. it takes funding and building on our know-how to help communities grow. that's how citi is helping create a better future by committing one trillion dollars in sustainable finance by 2030. because it takes everything to reach zero poverty. ♪ ♪

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>> if you thought the latest washington post reporting that the fbi retrieved an altar classified top secret document at trump's beach club, one describing a foreign governments nuclear capabilities, if you thought that would make republican lawmakers a bit more hesitant and their defense of the more president, well, please do you think again. here was marie senator republican josh hawley today describing what he sees as his most pressing concern about the whole search at mar-a-lago. and, the word nuclear is not in it. >> i have a lot of concerns about the fbi rating the home of the likely presidential nominee in 2024. the former president of the united states. particularly, as we learn more and more about what is going on with the fbi. i've got to tell you, i, mean maybe there is some valid

explanation for why the fbi raided mar-a-lago. if there, is we haven't seen it. >> we haven't? his colleague texted a member of the intelligence committee, john cornyn, each and, and, quote another presidential records act makes those not his record. i think what merrick garland decided to do with heavy entered and frankly naive. what he's done now is create a precedent that the department of justice can execute a search warrant against a former president when alternative means to accomplish the same result would have been available. it is not clear what senator coren is suggested when he says entered of means.

considering the government tried asking trump to return these documents for more than a year and a half before finally executing a search warrant. it should also be noted that the fbi found over 100 classified documents, including that one related to nuclear weapons, as part of a search that happened after trump's lawyers signed a statement swearing that there were no more documents located on the premises. but sure, maybe there are some alternative means that just hadn't been pursued here. still, despite republican insistence that the recovery method is somehow more agree just than what was actually recovered, reality tells us

that the stashing of super secret documents at a beach club, slash, private event space, that might be the real problem here. not only for trump but for national security. right now, the office of the director of national intelligence, the odni, is connecting an assessment to see how much damage has been done. this latest reporting from the washington post only makes that work more urgent. odni's damage assessment is happening right now, despite it is to inform a trump going to judge, aileen cannon, to use a special master to review all of the documents taken from mar-a-lago.

the judges order put a temporary halt on the fbi's criminal investigation, but it weirdly permitted the odni's damage assessment to continue unimpeded. or at least that was the judges intent. but that's not how it works in reality. here is how former cia officer david priess sees that, according to the wall street journal. quote, it is a past difficult and more likely impossible to do a meaningful odni damage assessment while the fbi investigation is stalled. odni needs to know what documents were at mar-a-lago and who may have looked at them, priess said. that information is coming from the investigation by the fbi. the odni assessments operating in a vacuum without information from an active investigation of who had access to those documents. so this complicated ruling from the trump appointed judge could likely hamper not just a criminal investigation into the former president but also the intent to get to the bottom of a potentially deadly serious intelligence failure. joining us now is colorado senator michael bennett who was a member of the senate intelligence committee. senator bennett, thank you for being here, always good to see you.

thank you alex for having me, congratulations on the show. >> thank you, thank you for being on the show. let me just first get your assessment of what republicans in the senate think of everything that has happened vis-à-vis mar-a-lago. because on the one hand you have generally effectively saying that the findings are no big deal and it is the method by which they were found. and on the other hand you have senator marco rubio, i'll quote what he said to politico this morning. saying, they never came to us and said there is a bunch of missing classified information. speaking of the fbi. that's part of the problem here. if this was so serious, it should have been raised to the congressional level. we get briefed all the time on counter intelligence threats. rubio seems to be taking this fairly seriously an almost be complaining that senate intel hasn't had a briefing on this. one, does senator rubio have a point. to, where do you see senate republicans on this? is there any party unity?

what sense do you get? >> well i would say on the intelligence committee we were working in a bipartisan way over many years to take this stuff seriously. it turns out what donald trump has done is moved classified documents to mar-a-lago in an incredibly unsafe and dangerous way. i expect that the intelligence committee will do its oversight in a bipartisan way. we will help ascertain what the intelligence committee has to figure out which is what kind of damage was actually done to our national security. i am not as surprised as senator rubio is about the sequence of events here in the sense that the administration had asked over and over again because there was, they figured out some documents had end up there. donald trump's lawyers apparently said and testified that they had said all the documents back.

now it turns out that that is not true and it turns out that some of these may have to deal with very very sensitive matters. so i'm not at all surprised at the fbi is now taking the action that they have taken and we are now gonna have to do our oversight as well. >> let me ask you about how compromised we may be here. let me get your view from the purge of the intel committee. how worried are you that clandestine operations could have been compromised here? or could be? >> i am really worried. i am really worried and people need to understand that this isn't just the substance of

what is in those documents. we obviously don't know that yet. but that could be very damaging in and of itself. but then, what could also be revealed by the substance is the way in which that intelligence was collected. we called out the sources and methods of intelligence gathering. that is particularly sensitive when it has to do with human intelligence. because our adversaries can sometimes say we know exactly who it is that had access to these documents by seeing this

intelligence. that can become very dangerous for people that are working with the united states government. in our national security efforts. that is what i'm really worried about here and obviously we are not going to know for a while how damaging it is. >> you know, we focus on adversaries, but what about our allies? there are plenty of governments that share intelligence with us and when they hear about the former president squirreling away documents that were in a safe in a scif and taking them down to his beach club that employees many people from outside of the country in a closet that was not a skiff, to say the least. i mean, there's that chill, you know, our bilateral relationships with? who we share intelligence with? >> sure, they can be, i think people understand that when you are dealing with donald trump you are dealing with hopefully a unique character.

but that is why i think it's really important for republicans to stand up as well and say that if this happened, it is completely unacceptable. i mean, we have a standard of conduct in this government. we expect people to protect the nation's secrets. one of the things that i'm really worried about is that people, you know, in a, sense become apologist for donald trump and ratify behavior that just simply cannot be ratified. b as possible in china over worl what is we overcome the chaos of the be, >> still ahead here tonight, e esidenof theunited states, regaf how coaracter he has oing thi of stuff, onnders hoously ou allit to t when it comes elligence here well th no doubt abou t think i call him comical, i don'thi comical. t i do think, i meane wa thinking about what yus with countries allr thionships rld if we are electenald trump president of t states wouldn'eve it on the other hd, i've just cok for a month in lorado, ing all around talking about thinfrastructure h , talking about th bipart reform bill and the bipart gun bill and isan veterans bill tha we hpassed the chipll whi first bill since reagan wa t where we said, you kn we are not just nna prpeople tha ofnterests that wer lots ve the most important climbablthat any goveren passed i mean, k abouha message isthe restf th wod versushaos tha donamp reprented to say nng of the kind goinon at mar-a- nowis not e, did you stealhe washington and te them t your blub? the stanf succesis, ca overcchaos of the tryears, our democracy way t it work again the american le, great economy that rows, it grows for erybod i thin can d i think we will. >> i think that the tenica rm there is raising thr. lorado senator michaelnet, thank you for your timght, best of luck nks, alex. >> still ahead here tonight, just in just a few, our stev bannon is expected to turn himself into new yor prosecutors likely for his rol in getting people to donat money to build a private borde wall, yes, really, that amazin story behind that graph is next with the speed of astepro, almost nothing can slow you down. because astepro starts working in 30 minutes, while other allergy sprays take hours.

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the choice between prop 26 and 27?

let's get real. prop, 26 means no money to fix homelessness, no enforcement oversight and no support for disadvantaged tribes. yikes! prop 27 generates hundreds of millions towards priorities like new housing units in all 58 counties. 27 supports non-gaming tribes and includes strict audits that ensure funds go directly to people off the streets and into >> these may look like fox there's only one choice. yes on 27. whose articles. but they are not.

they are all from early 2019. quote, customs and border patrol officers seized three point $8 million worth of meth, heroin and fentanyl on the arizona border. donate now. border patrol and yuma overwhelmed. 11,000 apprehensions in three days. donate now. a private group had started a gofundme campaign that fed off of trump lead fears that our border wasn't crisis. and that group used those fears in order to privately fund a border wall. it was a viral hit that raised $4 million in its first three days. the whole thing was so successful that former trump white house chief strategist steve bannon got involved. bannon had a bright idea that they shouldn't just raise money to put into federal coffers to build the wall, but that they should build the wall themselves kind of like that

pesky government middleman. all in all, the group weighs more than $25 million from thousands of donors. but when it came time to actually build the wall, the operation wasn't exactly a well oiled machine. this is the first wall they built. it isn't sunlen park. when of the major problems with this wall is that it is just over half a mile along. so, you could always walk, like five minutes to get around it. the second floor is that the wall itself was comically scalable. this is a video of an eight -year-old girl climbing a replica of it in about one minute. if that were not enough it turns out that they built this wall too close to a federal monument, which meant that they were forced to build a gate in the center of the wall and keep it open all day long, every day. then there was wall number two, the group's final wall. this one was three miles long and built along the rio grande in mission texas. the contractor for the project described it as a lamborghini of walls. i didn't know such a thing

existed. but when hydrologists and engineers inspected the wall, they discovered that it was built to close to the river, and the land it was built on was eroding into the river so quickly that the whole thing was at risk of falling down. it proved to be so embarrassing that president donald trump, mr. build the wall, he distance him self from the whole project. tweeting, i disagreed with doing this very small, tiny section of wall. it was only done to make me look bad and perhaps it's now doesn't even work. yes, perhaps. and it turned out to be a wise move for president trump to distance himself from that wall. because the very next month, steve bannon and the rest of the we build the wall fundraising through, there were

all indicted on charges of fraud. federal prosecutors allege that, despite claiming to be a volunteer organization, or even the most senior member didn't get opinion salary. bannon and his partners to hundreds of thousands of donated dollars and he's them for personal expenses, like travel and paying off credit card debt. two of the other people involved in this scheme pleaded guilty, but bannon himself had an ace up his sleeve. in president trump's very last hours in the white house, he pardoned steve bannon for his role in this scheme.

and that is where this whole crazy story stood until today. the washington post broke news late last night that stephen is expected to surrender himself to state level prosecutors in new york tomorrow and face a new criminal indictment. people familiar with the situation told the washington post that the prosecution is likely to mirror aspects of the federal case in which bad bannon was pardoned. so, bannon was pardoned federally. by the manhattan da's office seem to have picked up that case. and now it looks like steve bannon may actually face justice at the state level. joining us now to help us understand exactly how all of

this works is barbara mcquade, former u.s. attorney for the eastern district of michigan and a professor at the university of michigan law school. barb, thanks for being with us in helping us decipher the strange conundrum of steve bannon. >> i am glad to be with you, alex. >> first, let's talk about this. then in this pardon on the federal level by donald trump in the final hours of his presidency, but now can face the state and prosecution on the state level. should other trump acolytes be concerned, especially those who have received pardons from the former president? >> yes, a pardon can only act against federal prosecution. and so in this country we have something that we refer to as dual sovereignty. both states and federal government can charge people for the same crime. and so even though steve bannon was pardoned for this conduct at the federal level, most states also have fraud statutes on the books. and so, as you said, it is expected to reflect very much a mirror of the federal charges. i would imagine states charges under new york law would look very similar. and so, you are right. as you think about all the

other people who would receive pardons -- corrupt public officials -- could be charged again, as long as the statute of limitations has not expired with parallel state prosecutions. >> and that state has prosecution standing to prosecute, which they do in some of these financial crimes, especially here in new york city. i wonder what you make of the chasm between steve bannon's statement today about this and the position he finds himself in. i will read to those who are not familiar, steve bannon statement of defiance. just days after being swatted three different times by deranged thugs from new york city inspired by the biden administration, to assassinate me, by police. the soros backed da, calvin brag, has now decided to pursue

phony charges against me 60 days before the midterm election because war room -- that would be his podcast -- is the major source of the maga grassroots movement. they are coming after all of us, not only president trump and myself. i'm never going to stop fighting. in fact, i have not yet begun to fight. they will have to kill me first. here is what i don't get. he is willingly turning himself in, barb. how does this all square? they will have to kill me first, i have not begun to fight. but it appears that he is cooperating with prosecution. >> yeah. it seems that, so often with bullies, the bark is worse than the bite. although i really am concerned about, they will have to kill me first rhetoric. because it can tend to inflame people who listen to this. people will believe this. the idea that somehow he is protected from the justice department's memo on elections sensitivities, he is nobody. he is not a candidate, he is not on the ballot. he is, at best these days, a podcaster. there is absolutely no basis to suggest that they should stand down on him. and so, all of this rhetoric is really a bunch of nonsense. and if he wants to go the hard way, they will come arrest him. but instead he has a lawyer who has negotiated -- which is not the kind of courtesy every defendant gets, by the way. so, they are really giving him, i think, a real accommodation

here by allowing himself to country. alternand then the consequencesr tomorrow. >> i think district of michiga state fight ailbe foundthere rd alternative. peopetimes flee when chargeled. but the u.arshals st alys finds them. d then tsequences ar rse. beuse inn to the underl chargw you ar also funlawful flight to avoid osecution. so, alk again game t i thill be there whhe coung begin where there.the r furt barbara mcquade, firmeu.s. torney for the eastern district of michigan thanks as always, barb, fo shining a light on all of this up next, republicans in on state fight attempts by voters to put abortion rights on th ballot in november republicans who allegedl believe in states rights that is next y item to become dangerous. tide pods child-guard pack helps keep your laundry pacs in a safe place and your child safer. to close, twist until it clicks. tide pods child-guard packaging. for people living with h-i-v, keep being you. and ask your doctor about biktarvy. biktarvy is a complete, one-pill, once-a-day treatment used for h-i-v in certain adults. it's not a cure, but with one small pill, biktarvy fights h-i-v to help you get to and stay undetectable. that's when the amount of virus is so low it cannot be measured by a lab test. research shows people who take h-i-v treatment every day and get to and stay undetectable can no longer transmit h-i-v through sex.

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♪♪ at&t 5g is fast, add downy to your wash for all the freshness and softness of home. even when you're not at home. feel the difference with downy. >> if you can spot the pattern here. this was congressman jack bergman as you can republican, on the day the supreme court overturned roe v. wade. the ruling today on roe v. wade properly returns power to the states and ends decades of bad precedent. and here's how colorado republican congressman can buck

for spotted the same day. the power to decide this profound moral question has officially returned to the states, where will be debated and settled in the way it should be in our democratic society, by the people. here is minnesota republican tom amara -- every life is precious and the decision to defended should remain with the states. or how about our zone a republican paul gosar? this is not a federal issue. it this is a state issue. we the people, the states gave the federal government-limited powers and we have to take them back. so, what you all those statements have in common? they're all from republicans. they are all really big on the idea that abortion should be decided by the states, and they all just happen to have been issued by co-sponsors of a federal bill to ban abortion nationwide, a bill that would take away power from, you know, the states. the washington post found that 28 of the republican cosponsors of that federal abortion ban

issued statements after the dobbs ruling, saying abortion should be left up to the states. the post reach out to 28 of them, all of them. only six of them responded to defend their position. the republican line about abortion being an issue that should be left up to the states has always been a red herring. an attempt to distract from the real agenda of blocking access to abortion by any means necessary. and nowhere is that we're clear right now than in the state of michigan. earlier this year, hundreds of thousands of michigan citizen signed a petition to put abortion rights up for a vote. more than 750,000 signatures were gathered, almost twice the

number that we needed. but that effort to get abortion on the ballot -- that effort has hit a roadblock. last week, the states board of canvassers met made up of two democrats into republicans deadlocked on whether to advance the ballot initiative, with both republicans decided deciding against putting abortion up for vote at the state level. abortion rights groups quickly appeal the decision to the state supreme court. they asked the court to respond by today. and that is because abortion rights advocates in michigan are racing against the clock. absentee ballots have to be available for all registered voters by september 29th, which means all ballots much be finalized and ready to print by this friday. it is wednesday, if you are not keeping track of the calendar.

today, michigan attorney general dana nessel fouled a motion in support of getting that measure on the ballot. and the courts decision of what will actually be printed on what voters will actually get to decide on come november, well, that could come at any moment. joining us now is nicole wells stallworth executive director of planned parenthood advocates of michigan one of the groups fighting to get michigan voters are -- ms. stallworth, thank you for being with me tonight. >> thank you for having, me alex. >> -- it is 9:50 pm in the east. what is your expectation in terms of a reply from the court

at this point? >> as you noted, in your opening remarks, the court, legally, they have until friday to respond to our request for finding our number of signatures significant to be placed on the november ballot. we are awaiting their decision. and in the meantime, we have not lost sight of what is truly at stake here. we understand that michigan voters recognize that this is not a partisan issue at all. michigan voters recognize and understand that this is truly a matter of who gets to make decisions about their personal health care. michigan voters understand and want those decisions to be made

between themselves and their doctors and that is what we are really fighting for and what is at stake here. >> i think it bears mentioning,, how critical michigan is geographically in terms of access to reproductive choice. i think we have a map here that just shows how much abortion access has been curtailed sort of a curtain falling over many parts of the country. what does it mean to have michigan be a safe place for women seeking abortions? what does that mean practically, from the perspective of planned parenthood? >> yeah, you make a really great point. right now about one third of the country has lost access to abortion completely, after the overturn of roe v. wade. and that means that michigan is a place where patients are turning for available abortion care. at planned parenthood of michigan, we have certainly seen that kind of increase. we have had to increase capacity by about 30% for abortion appointments. we are seeing patients travel to michigan from all over the country. we have seen patients from oklahoma, as far as texas. many of them are coming from ohio to receive the kind of care that they medically deserve. >> what about -- one of the things that the republicans resistance to this is -- well, i don't even know what they offer in terms of their existence, to be honest, since they consider this a states rights issue. but politically, it absolutely,

reproductive choice, is across educational ba dividing line, strongly fa republican resistance you a democracy, particularly wha happened at the border canvassers last week here in michigan. but i think we have some lessons to be learned here, because we are living an existing in a world that we have not seen before, which is have access to the basic health here abortion that we have seen for the last 50 years. ⌞> yeah. >> and we can look to the state of kansas to help us really understand politically what is going on there, as kansas recently, in their primary election, saw voter turnout more consistent with what they see in a presidential election during a midterm election. the other thing that we are seeing here in michigan is that, truly, this is not a partisan issue for voters. and that is really important to note and to sort of really understand. because we need to make sure that voters understand what their options are when they go to the ballot box on november 8th. and also, what choices that they have been candidates who are going to respect their right to make their own personal medical decisions about their lives and their bodies. >> nicole wells stallworth, executive director of planned parenthood advocates of michigan. we will be following this story. thanks for your time tonight. >> thank you for having me, alex. >> up next, how residents of one state banded together to

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january of 2018. and a little after 8 am, people in hawaii saw this alarming message popped up on their phones. ballistic missile threat in bend into hawaii. seek immediate shelter. this is not a drill. that message came from hawaii's emergency management agency. and it set people scrambling for shelter. hawaiians sent their goodbye messages unprepared for what they believed to be impending doom. but about 40 minutes later, a second message came through. false alarm. there is no missile danger or threat to the state of hawaii. repeat, false alarm. so, yeah. that was not great. sending people into a frenzy, worried they would die. that was definitely not the move. and though this example is sort of unfortunate, it does prove a

point that reaching out to residents in an emergency situation, that can be extremely effective. just yesterday, amid record heat wave out west, millions of californians received an alert, when that possibly saved the states power grid. with temperatures well over 100 degrees, officials worried that increased use of air conditioners conditioners would have won the states capacity. four hours, the grinch garbled to keep up with the demand. and by 5:30 pm, the state's grid operator warned that blackouts were imminent. at 5:48 pm, california's office of emergency services sent out this text alert -- it read, conserve energy now to protect public health and safety. extreme heat is straining the state energy grid. power interruptions may occur unless you take action. turn of or reduced nonessential power, if health allows. you know what? people heeded that request. and within minutes, the impending grid emergency was over. it appears that message literally helped prevent mass blackouts. between 5:50 pm and 5:55 pm, demand for power dropped by 1. 2 gigawatts. for context, one giga-can power

about 750,000 homes. words have power, especially the ones in an emergency alert text. that does it for us. now it is time for the last word with lawrence o'donnell. good evening, lawrence. >> good evening, alex -- in my experience -- and i don't keep a temperature diary. but in los angeles, generally, september seems to be the hottest month, hotter than august. so, those alerts might be going out. >> i love the very notion of you keeping a temperature diary. >> i have thought about, but now. >> there is always, tomorrow lawrence. >> thanks alex. >> have a great show. >> thank you. if you control the courts, you can do whatever you want. every dictator knows that.