riders stormed the halls of our nation's capital exposing just how fragile the american democratic experiment is. now over a year and a half later congress is finally taking steps to try and protect it. this week the house passed a bipartisan bill focused on modernizing the electoral count act, which is a 19th century law that lays out the presidential certification process. it's full of ambiguous and archaic language which actually made it easy for ex president donald trump and his allies to exploit in their efforts to overturn the 2020 election. among the provisions the new bill clarifies are that the vice presidents role in counting electoral votes maintaining that it is strictly ministerial it also lifts its threshold to force a vote on

this counting electors required in states to send electors for the candidates who actually won and bans a retroactive change over rules when it comes to governing elections. those seem like pretty common sense reforms to me. but here's the thing, only nine republicans, yes, nine republicans in the house voted for that bill. perhaps unsurprisingly all of those lawmakers are set to leave congress next year. in the end, 203 republicans voted against a bill that was aimed at protecting and strengthening our democracy. over in the senate pennsylvania's patrick me one of the many soon-to-be gop retirees has signed on to his chamber's version of the bill as a cosponsor, he becomes a tenth republican to do so which means that if all democrats and independents sign on, they have enough votes to beat the usually fatal filibuster. there is no cause for

celebration just yet, both chambers still have to work out some key differences in their bills before anything gets to the presidents desk for signature and ultimately becomes a law. the legislation does mark the first major step congress has taken to avert another january six. next week the january six committee will hold what will likely be the panels final hearing before releasing their much anticipated report later in the year. and while that committee has focused on what has taken place in the past as we approach the midterms, it is clear that the threat against our democracy is as present and as dangerous as ever. earlier today dozens gathered in front of the capitol for the so-called truth rally to actually show solidarity, yes, you guessed it with the insurrectionists of january six. this comes on the heels of a new nbc news report that found that two months into the midterms more than two dozen individuals who served as phony

trump electors in 2020 still hold some of the highest ranking political posts in their state parties. election deniers are woven into the cloth of the gop, they are occupying positions as candidates, campaign staffers and even chief election officials. they are part of the republican establishment. that is why we need to be on alert going into the midterms and that is why it is so important for congress to make these reforms and to make them now. they are setting the stage for the next coup and they are doing it in plain sight and nobody is taking that threat seriously. let's bring in my saturday night panel molly is a contributing writer for the atlantic shoes also host of the fast paused podcast, he is the ceo president of the api a victory phone he previously served in the obama administration as a former associate director of the white house office of public engagement he is also the former executive producer for funny or die.

and jonathan alter is an msnbc political analyst and presidential historian he's also the author of old coach a substack news letter, it's great to have three of you with us. molly i'll start with you it's something that i know that you are mindful of, i follow you closely on twitter i followed your writing, i want to get your reaction to the bill that passed the house is this a good first step and are we likely to see it actually get passed? >> i mean it is a good first step and it is scary that so few republicans in the house supported it. i'm amazed that they got ten republicans, but they're a lot of people who aren't running again and there are enough less trumpy republicans. i think it shows the people who voted against it that this republican party no longer believes in democracy, right? they no longer evaluate. so a bill like this -- i mean there's no reason to vote against a bill that says the vice president can't throw

out the vote, right? there is no reason to vote against this unless you don't believe in these tenants of democracy that we hold so dear. so i think that it shows where the republican party is and it shows where you need to be in order to win a republican primary. >> this is the scary part of all of this, i spent the last couple of days trying to find any of the republicans who voted against this bill making a salient argument like maybe there was something buried in the bill that they didn't want to support and they didn't want to vote for it. i couldn't find one meaningful, logical explanation as to why they would not want to strengthen our democracy let me play for you, brad, what speaker nancy pelosi had to say on the house floor about this on wednesday. watch. >> to all those who opposed this legislation, i ask you, how could any one vote against free and fair elections? a cornerstone of our constitution.

how could anyone vote against our founders vision, placing power in the hands of the people? how could anyone vote against their own constituents, allowing radical politicians to rip away their say and our democracy? >> brad, how? as i mentioned only nine republicans voted for this reform and the party's leadership openly went against it what does this tell us about the state of the gop? >> i mean, it's the party of maga point blank. those nine republicans you mentioned they are out. they are piecing out, right? what this shows me i think it's a couple of things, the fact that we are booed with excitement that there is some bipartisan movement just shows how dire straits our democracy is in in the house and the senate. this isn't going to happen until the lame duck, if you look at the legislative calendar look at what folks have to do for the midterms. what this reminds us all is how important these midterm

elections are it would be great if we could see some progress, but you would have to be crazy to think that if democrats got smoked, that first week of november, that these republicans are going to come back and do this republicans are going to do every single thing that they can do to win and that includes cheating. we know this. a very large percentage of the american public believes that donald trump won. and so what this does for me and my job victory fun and a lot of organizers out there today is that fire in our gut. we have to win these midterm elections to defend our democracy. >> nothing short of our existential democracy is literally on the ballot come this november in some way shape or form. jonathan, if the senate in the house come to an agreement, the finalize bill likely won't pass until after the midterms as brett alluded to there in the lame duck period, so to speak. how confident are you that --

will be in the security and integrity of u.s. elections? >> well, i think the real problem is not this fall it is what could happen in 2024 if the wrong people get elected. everybody is focused on congress, and for good reasons, for the democrats to maintain control, but it is not essential to the maintenance of democracy that they hold control say in the house of representatives. . what is essential is that the election deniers or the republican candidates for secretary of state in key states not to be elected, particularly arizona, nevada, michigan and pennsylvania, the governor has control of the election machinery but it is -- what's really scary to me right now is that the democratic candidate, secretary of state

of arizona a guy named adrian fantasy is running five points behind mike fish room for secretary of state who is an oath keeper who has pledged that he will not certify any election that joe biden or another democrat winds in 2024. basically taking arizona off the board -- >> his logic was that he didn't meet anyone who voted for joe biden tried to argue that it was a fantasy to meet somebody -- >> he told my daughter charlotte older who writes for time magazine that he had never met anyone who voted for joe biden is there arizona therefore it was impossible that joe biden had won the state or could win the state that is the kind of person that we are dealing with, there's another guy named jim in nevada, same thing. he is an election denier, it's essential that cisco aguilar the democratic candidate for secretary of state in nevada when, nobody has heard of these guys, so in arizona the

democrat's only raised 1 million dollars that is pennies he is running behind, this is a house that is on fire right now in all the democratic donors, you know what to give the shiny objects races, these races they have heard about in the don't realize that the real action is that the secretary of state level. >> molly, one in five registered voters in a new national nbc poll says that the most important issue facing the country's threats to democracy but the exact nature of those threats varies by political party voter suppression and election fraud are the top threat and you won't believe what republicans think it is they are singling out government control, democrats and censorship what is your reaction to just how differently these two parties define the same issue which is a threat to our democracy? >> so interesting. you have one, quote unquote,

candidate, who has just lied about the election this entire time. we have trump, who is the good republicans who have rebuked, him and all said this is not true. no evidence of fraud. yet, he keeps going. you see, republicans are just good at messaging. there is no evidence that there was anything wrong with the 2020 election, and yet, there people believe that. they have said, you are being censored to, you are being shadow band. they have an entire republican grievance staying, that they have tapped into, i think, brilliantly. they have their people convinced. you have a lot of very powerful, conservative media, and they are juggling home the same message, again, and again. there people believe that. you have a percentage in this country that does not believe the election was fair, thinks they should cheat, in response to the cheating that didn't happen, and i think it's a

scary time. i think we should, all be, a little worried happening around polls, around when people vote, and to be wary of any kind of violence. we just need to take the temperature down. that is, also, quite scary. mostly, it's on the right, but we should all be thinking about keeping the temperature low. >> panel, please stick around, we have more to discuss after the break, where migrants, tricked into being shipped to martha's vineyard, we will investigate that. first, my friend, richard louis, is here with the headlines. >> hey man, good to see you. watching now, from whether. tropical storm imam, flowing over the central sea tonight. it is expected to expand to a category three hurricane, before hitting florida next week. ian will be the first hurricane to hit the florida peninsula since 2017. florida's governor, declaring a state of emergency, from an entire state on saturday.

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shedding light on florida governor's plot to deceive venezuelan migrants into being trafficked to martha's vineyard. attorneys representing the asylum seekers released images of brochures allegedly distributed by desantis's operatives on the ground, the pen flights highlighted the benefits of relocation including things like housing, cash assistance, jobs for refugees but there is one problem with what the brochure was promoting, the migrants aren't anywhere close to being

classified as refugees which is a specific term under u.s. immigration law. the implicit promises of help therefore was actually misleading and therefore potentially criminal this is according to lawyers for civil rights a nonprofit legal aid group that is representing 30 of the people who landed on the massachusetts island last week. my saturday night panel is back to talk about this and more molly, surprising or not, your reaction to these brochures? obviously this story seemed to way more complex than what it was initially reported and now when you see the degrees to which ron desantis went to i think in my opinion to see these people, lie to them, perhaps even manipulate them into thinking they were gonna get something better, it's starting to come to life. >> yes, it is shocking what ron desantis will do to win a gop primary, right? that is what this is about, right? it is to be the heir apparent

to trump and to do this heartless stunned. i also think, i mean, i'm not super surprised by any of this i'm more just so disappointed and disheartened that this is what the republican base loves now. these are people. they are people like the rest of us. 50 people, my great grandparents who came to this country you know a country built on immigrants and it is just so disappointing that this is where the republican party is now. but the base loved it and desantis has promised he will do more stuns like this. it is just heartbreaking because this is one of the central tenants the country's founded on. >> as my colleague has pointed out and others have pointed out, we all know where ron desantis family came from the fact that somehow migrants are going to be dehumanize this way is beyond sickening. jonathan, do the legal

brochures themselves bolster -- excuse me do the brochures themselves boasted the legal case that these migrants are making against ron desantis? that you have this evidence of sort? >> i think what possibly they will and at a minimum you will see a protracted legal struggle which won't do desantis any good. he starting to look terrible on this, except to the hard-core base. for instance, he was asked why did you have to bring the migrants from texas when you're the governor of florida, he said, well they were actually coming over in one season to season, hardly any of them were in florida, which reinforces what a stunt it was. beyond the lies in the brochure to me the hearts of the cruelty is that they didn't even inform the people in massachusetts that they were coming if they

had said to the governor of massachusetts we will send some migrants north, you guys know how to absorb them, you can shoulder your share of the burden, find. but they just tried to surprise them to quote own the lives, and they are not owning the libs they are just revealing that they are cruel, they don't care about the migrants's people there are not actually trying to address the imagery action problem, just score political points. >> as always the case with the republicans, brad we learned that there was another flight for migrants that was supposed to land in delaware, that flight was canceled nbc news says that the scientists want to quote punk the media and the democrats, and yet again real migrants were left stranded because many thought that they were going to delaware for a different reason. your reaction to it? >> it's embarrassing. there's no other way to put it, this guy, look, i think of

governor desantis as -- you guys remember austin powers many means, many trump, he's doing many trump right here. he's practicing that hand movements, i'm not sure if you guys have seen the hand movements? he's doing the cruelty right, this has been the immigration policy of trump, it's to an act cruelty -- >> and the sharpie pen he loves using. >> the sharpie pan, and to be honest now it's illegality, we have investigations. the reality is that it is embarrassing. right? when you are trying to beat donald trump, i just feel sorry for you. how do you look at yourself in the mirror? and he's not even doing a good job of it. i think the reality is, republicans, as molly and jonathan both said, they are catering to extremes. they do not know how to govern. there is a hurricane about to hit florida right now, and yet we are focusing on this destruction we're focusing on many me theater. it's embarrassing. >> jonathan, white house press

secretary kareen jean pierre described desantis's action by saying it is not about getting to a solution, and look it's what you said, that much is clear. how should the white house be responding to these stunts from ron desantis? >> well, i think they should stop responding to every part of every stunned because part of the agenda here on the part of the republicans is to change the subject from abortion, from threats to our democracy, to immigration, they are starting to sense that inflation alone is not going to win the midterms for them. they want people talking about immigration and yes, immigration is a problem right now, there are problems at the border but i don't think that the democrats should engage anymore than they absolutely should on this. >> i was gonna say, it's almost like as we rounded the corner to a final stretch to the elections, cue the immigration

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if you have age-related macular degeneration, healthier is getting there's only so much time before it can lead to blindness. but the areds 2 clinical study showed that a specific nutrient formula can help reduce the risk of dry amd progression. ask your doctor now about an areds 2 supplement. >> are months of complaining about ginni thomas look like they may have paid off over the last few months there have been tons of reports about the supreme court justice clarence thomas's wife pressuring state lawmakers in places like arizona and wisconsin to overturn joe biden's 2020 win in those states. at the same time ginni thomas was also pressuring then white house mark meadows to pursue efforts to reverse trump election loss calling it the greatest heist of our history. now, finally, something is being done about these dangerous activities that she

reportedly undertook. this week nbc news reported of the january six committee has reached a deal for ginni thomas to meet with the panel in the coming weeks. let's bring back our saturday night panel to break it all down for us. molly, what do you expect to come from thomas talking to the general six committee? what should the committee seek to get out of her? >> i mean, i think they should figure out how involved she was with the planning, with the buses, you know, certainly, look, she is married to one of the most powerful people in this country, right? who has a lifetime appointment and who is radically remaking this country while she's posting on facebook about all of this very inappropriate stuff. i think we need to know what has been happening behind the scenes and what she has been doing and just how much of an activist her husband is and why he won't recuse himself from certain investigations. he has certainly behaved in

ways that are pretty shocking in my mind. >> brad, same question to you what do you make of this meeting and what should the committee tried to get out of her? is the fact that she is married to, as molly was saying, one of the most powerful people in this country relevant to what she was also undertaking privately? absolutely, i hate to make a huge leap here and jonathan will say easy, easy, but can we just talk about -- can we do it, let's reform the court. let's just do it let's talk about it, let's have candidates talk about it, i mean the reality is that this court is so compromised, this is just one example, these are lifetime appointments. we cancel adam looking for dm-ing people on the internet and yet we have to dominance literally -- to overturn our election and we can do anything.

we can't do anything about this this guy is on the bench for the rest of his life, we cannot cancel supreme court justice clarence thomas. we have to reform the court, we have -- lifetime appointments, that was a great idea hundreds of years ago y'all when we lift before to churchill, more often. we have to reform this and expand the court, we have to do it so sorry to take this tangent, i'm very curious to see how this hearing is going to go i'm sure they're gonna pressure on all of the stuff at the end of the nation's gonna go back home to her husband that guy's gonna be on the court for the rest of his life, we have to reform the court. >> sign me up, i am in the reform the court camp, without a doubt. jonathan, because you were name check, to give you a chance to respond to this before i get to the question i wanted to ask. what do you think of the point that brad raises? are we now at the point where, for the sake of our democracy, given the undemocratic nature of these justices, the fact

that there were appointed by presidents, who do not have the majority of american peoples will, to legislate, mandate, or adjudicate cases? what do you think? >> we should, definitely, move towards that. it's all constitutional. there's nothing in the constitution that talks about how many supreme court justices you can have. the problem you can have with the expanding the court, is when republicans get and, they will just expanded again. you don't, actually, solve the problem long term. the better solution is, basically, term limits. putting them on senior status, when they pass a certain age. as far as thomas goes, he gets to decide whether to recuse himself. those are the rules, and he won't. what i am interested in is ginni thomas's testimony, is a prelude to her appearing before a grand jury. she is up to her neck in these fake electors conspiracy. the department of justice is looking at a rico case, which

means, they are looking at conspiracy to commit to vote fraud, and fake electors which is, by the way, a term coined by a trump lawyer, in an email. they are the one who wants to call them fake electors. she is very involved with the fake electors, brad. these people are going to, quite possibly, go to jail over that massive vote fraud, that fake electors entails. i hope ginni thomas is one of them. >> let me pivot with the three of you, with the conversation or, another topic for the conversation. attorney general, laetitia james lawsuit against trump, is children, and his businesses, allegedly, for fraud. many of trump's legal issues, they haven't really stuck. i've started with you, jonathan. business one feel different? >> i think they will get some money out of trump. she wants $250 million, he said he was ten times as rich as he

is, and in the areas of these deals. he hates this. he had a bad week. not just because he lost in the 11th circuit on the documents case, not just because of the special master but, really knocked it down, his choice for a special master. they told the whole world that he is a fraud, based on which he is. they have to get 250 million out of him, unfortunately, he will still have a few hundred million left over. there are many other civil cases, that involve some of the capitol police officers, on january 6th, and they could, really, recover some serious damages. by the time the deals are done on this, it will be a few years down the road. he is going to be a lot less rich than he is right now. maybe down to his last hundred million dollars. >> molly, one of the most bizarre interviews i've ever seen a politician give, and certainly, this is one, that even by trump standards, was

utterly waco. let me play for you his excuse, with speaking to sean hannity, about these declassified documents. take a listen. . >> is there a process? what was your process? >> it doesn't have to be a process, i understand it. they're different people, saying different things, but as i understand, it doesn't have to be. you're the president of the united states, you can declassify by saying, it's declassified. even by thinking about it. >> that's not how it works, right? molly, you can't just think it, and then it happens, right? >> it's wild. it's like nixon gone psychic. when the president does a crime, it's not a crime, except with his mind. it's wild stuff. i'm not surprised. i was very impressed in that interview how much worse he made things for himself, which he, some times, does. there was a lot of the family going out there, trying to

protect themselves. you saw larry trump on fox, also, kind of making it worse for themselves. there is a reason that people, when they're under investigation, don't go on television right away, this is it. >> clearly, he didn't get that memo. brand, final thought to you on this, what do you make of trump, and the explanation he offered there? >> we are so desensitized to his stupidity. we are so desensitized to how don he is. we've been dealing it with it for so many years. not just the stupidity. that would ruin anyone's career, right? if dan quayle misspelled potato, we never heard from him again. donald trump spews idiocy, every day. and, to jonathan's point, the number of criminal, and awful stuff, that's happening on the legal side, is incredible. not to sound like my dad, but donald trump is a person who is

wearing a suit full of mud, and if you throw mud at him, it does not matter. he's already full of mud. if he was wearing a clean suit, if he'd never said anything stupid before, that would have ruined his career. but, at the end of the day, look, i'm glad this is happening. i'm glad he's continuing to reveal himself. i hope, some rational minded republicans out there, can see it for what it is. >> let me say, quickly, among all of the lasting damages donald trump is done to our democracy, he has, also, lower the bar, and our expectations, of what we expect from our leaders, and our politicians. it is a shameful place that we find ourselves, because of how low he has lower that bar. montes, john jenkins, appreciate it, thank you tonight. coming up next, an american contractor, held hostage in afghanistan for two years, has

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still without power, a week after hurricane fiona struck the island. on thursday, president biden announced that the federal government will pay 100% of the costs for puerto rico's recovery, for the next month. this comes a day after the president issuing a major disaster declaration in that area. nbc news correspondent, alison barbara, has the latest on the ground. >> bernardo taurus home, flooded, and hurricane maria. so, he built a wall, hoping it wouldn't happen again. then, fiona came. >> [speaking non-english] >> he and his wife have an had

power for days. the food in their fridge, spoiled. no running water, and now, puerto rico is in the middle of a heat wave. >> [speaking non-english] >> [speaking non-english] >> in bigger cities, like san juan, the power is on, and there is not a lot of damage. but if you come to communities like this, in salinas, there is just destruction everywhere you look. >> [speaking non-english] >> [speaking non-english] >> roughly two thirds of homes, and businesses, on the island are without power. luma, the company overseeing the electric power, transmission, and distribution in puerto rico since june of 2021 says, they have 2000 utility workers, on the ground, trying to restore power as quickly as possible. but, the puerto ricans we speak to say, it's not fast enough. after hurricane maria, the power grid is supposed to be

stronger. >> i think that we are stuck in the old times. we learned nothing from maria. the government learned nothing. they say they spent a lot of money to fix it up, but it's all still the same. >> filling up buckets of water, from the side of the highway, from pipes, residents jury rigged together, to gather rainwater off the mountain, and he's not alone. >> [speaking non-english] >> [speaking non-english] >> officials say, most people will have full service, in a matter of days. but, those without power, aren't so sure. >> i don't have faith in this

government. we need to make our life. >> so, they're working together. expecting the worst, but praying for better. >> thanks to nbc's alison barber for that report. changing gears, this week, in american held captive in afghanistan for two years was released, in a prisoner swap. american, mark free rich was freed, an exchange for an afghan warlord, with ties to the taliban, who had been imprisoned in the u.s., on drug trafficking charges, since 2005. friedrich's is a navy veteran, captured, while doing contract work in afghanistan, in 2020. less than a month before the u.s. signed a peace deal with the taliban. just a few days after the deal is reached, the u.s. fully withdrew its troops from afghanistan, it ended the two decade-long war in that country, and the taliban regained control of the country.

in the final weeks of that withdrawal, there are a lot of questions about what happened, but it is now the subject of a brand-new hbo documentary, escape from kabul. it goes inside the traumatic, and harrowing last days of the u.s. occupation there, as troops try to evacuate thousands of afghans, who fear for their lives, under taliban rule. >> pushback, pushback! you need to backup! stop asking the marines, back up. you need to get in order. this is not going to work. >> once we got to those gates, we could not accept people yet, because we didn't have the tactics available to be able to work the gates. we had people in place we, need a depth in place to protect the gate. we were checking on our positions, dug in, in case we took fire from the taliban again. >> after the break, i'm joined

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obviously, it is not a success. >> we knew you were there to evacuate afghans, and u.s. citizens. >> it may sound like, it will be quick, it will be simple, we will be in, we will be out. but that didn't happen here. >> that was another moment from the new hbo documentary, escape from kabul, taking us inside of the final days of the u.s. withdrawal from afghanistan. the executive producer of that documentary, dan, rejoins me now. dan, great to have you with us, thank you so much for joining us. before we get to your new documentary, i want to get your reaction to the news i alluded to earlier, about the prisoner swap. what did you make of that announcement by this administration?

>> you know -- [inaudible] >> down, i think we may be having a problem with your connection, let me try one more time, and see if we can hear you a little bit better. sorry, because we did not hear your reaction. what was your thought on the prisoner swap? >> well, i thought the story of afghanistan has been dragged on for so long. i can't help but be glad to see that some of the outstanding issues are being resolved. i don't know what america's relationship with the taliban will be, going forward. we have the remote assassination of a man's show harry, clearly the, taliban have been harboring this prominent al-qaeda member. perhaps, this release of

american prisoners is an indication of, some kind of normalization to happen. some kind of détente. because, eventually, normal relationships need to resume in afghanistan. they are a country with tremendous problems, and need americas help. >> let's talk about the documentary. incredibly important piece of work. the documentary, escape from kabul. tell me about why you want to make it. >> it felt like a full stop to one of the most ambitious attempts to remake a country, halfway around the other side of the world, by america, and its allies, including my country, britain. it felt like a terribly disorganized and, chaotic ending. what we wanted to do, jamie roberts, the director and i, wanted to do, was show what this actually meant to the people, who are directly involved. so, we went out, interviewed,

spent two months in kabul, and you see the taliban in this documentary, in a way they've never been seen before, never been interviewed before. they speak very frankly, they speak in a relaxed way, i guess. so, it gets an unusual portrayal of the taliban. you really see them as they are. they are frank. you also get two different marines. the marines are proud of what they did in this evacuation operation. really, they told it like it was. so, you get frank accounts from the marines. we really wanted to give our audience a sense of what it was like to be in the center of this catastrophic evacuation. >> what surprised you, and your director, as you both made this documentary? as you mentioned, you spoke with taliban leaders, he spoke of marines. what did you learn, that may have surprised to, that we will learn about in this documentary?

>> what was surprising was the suddenness, and seemingly unexpected nature of the taliban advance on kabul. kabul fell so quickly, no one seemed to anticipate it. therefore, this long withdrawal process, getting the at-risk afghans out, which america, and all of its allies, seems to have assumed would take -- that would take a couple of months, they were able to do in a matter of days. it was a radical for shortening of the time we had to get people out, and just how chaotic, and extreme it was. with how close it came to being a complete disaster. i think that is what, really, surprised us. of course, there was the tragic

-- there could have been deaths of hundreds of civilians, and 13 u.s. marines. it was astonishing that the allies in afghanistan was so messy. how come no one foresaw this? >> president biden, at the time, and i remember this, called the mission in afghanistan a, quote, extraordinary success. as you mentioned as well, nobody, even the u.s., anticipated the taliban taking over the country that quickly. there was some criticism against the u.s. are not anticipating that. we know the president biden's numbers and is a different reality set in. the people you spoke with for this film, saying otherwise. what do you think could have been done differently when the u.s. looks back a year on? >> i think, you know, without playing monday morning callbacks, i think it will be

expected that the afghan military, that the u.s. helped create is on a hollowed out organization, that could collapse so swiftly. everyone has been comparing the afghan disaster the situation in ukraine the ukrainians put up a much more robust defense of their homeland and the afghan military did. i think we should have known, we created a hollow organization. that they would never be able to resist the taliban onslaught. in an ideal world, i think we should make claims for that. >> definitely warning signs were there. you're absolutely right. a monday morning quarterbacking makes things look different in 2020. dan reid, thank you for this incredibly powerful piece of journalistic work, and we look forward to speaking to you again about this. thanks to all of you at home for watching us, come back

tomorrow night for two hours of ayman, starting on eight eastern, on msnbc. congressman jim hines of the house intelligence committee, preparing the upcoming january six committee's final public hearing for us. until then, i am a man mohyeldin, live, in new york. have a good night. do you want some more? wait till you see me on the downhill. see you at home. enjoy it. with the advanced safety features of a lexus es. research shows that people remember ads with young people having a good time. so to help you remember that liberty mutual customizes your home insurance, here's a pool party. look what i brought! liberty mutual! they customize your home insurance... so you only pay for what you need! ♪young people having a good time with insurance.♪ ♪young people.♪ ♪good times.♪ ♪insurance!♪ only pay for what you need.

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