that's all the time i have today, i will be on -- i am julián castro, ali sherman and this is back tomorrow for more american voices. but for now, i had it over to ayman mohyeldin, hey, we ayman. >> hey julián, it's good to see you. enjoy the rest of your evening. welcome to ayman tonight. devastation on hurricane in -- we will go beyond the statistics to actually hear from those affected. plus, ginni thomas speaks out, new details regarding her closed-door testimony to the january six committee. and court is in session, the explosive case that the supreme court is set to hear as its new term begins this coming week. i am ayman mohyeldin.

let's get started. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> we begin this hour with an update on the aftermath of hurricane in, even in this early stage, experts believe ian will be one of the costly storms to ever hit the u.s. and potentially the deadliest. the death toll now stands at 77, 73 in florida, four in north carolina, more than 1.2 million households still without power in florida, making rescue efforts that much more complicated. nbc's guad venegas is on the ground for us in fort myers, one of the hardest hit areas on the west coast of florida. guad, you have been there for a while. what are we seeing as we go 48 hours after this deadly hurricane made landfall? >> ayman, a lot of moving parts here. the governor speaking about the efforts to fix the power grid here. they want to make sure that people have power, but there is also the search and rescue

missions taking place in fort myers beach [inaudible] [inaudible] >> [inaudible] >> [inaudible]

>> [inaudible] >> and we had to get him out. there's others that are too old and they had to get food and water, and with the risk of them as well. of course, there's still becoming the bodies of those

deceased in the area so that's one of the reasons why they asked for the evacuation. as they continue with those efforts, meanwhile, authorities are also working on restoring power and bringing up to other affected areas. we had a report today of a local hospital that did not have a running water, they could not flush the toilet and all sorts of issues, so they're trying to work, authorities with local agencies and charities trying to work together to bring the help to the community but also asking people to be patient, to contact agencies for help and to not get in the way of a lot of the search and rescue efforts, ayman? >> guad venegas live for us in fort myers beach for us, guad, we will check with you later in the hour. we will also speak with a fema administrator, craig you get about the search and recovery efforts underway. meanwhile, here, we will switch the politics for a moment. the january six committee postponed its latest hearing this week because of hurricane ian, and a new date has yet to be set, but that makes sense

because there is still a lot of information that is pouring in. just this week alone, the panel conducted one of its most high profile -- after months of negotiations, ginni thomas, the conservative activists and wife of supreme court justice clarence thomas, sat down with the committee for nearly four hours behind closed doors for an interview. thomas told investigators that her husband was completely an oh where upper postelection activities, which she downplayed as, quote, minimal. let's give you a quick reminder, thomas exchanged nearly 30 text messages with ex trump chief of staff mark meadows encouraging to tell trump not to concede in the wake of his defeat. she was also in contact with trump lawyer john eastman regarding his fake electors scheme and even personally pressed state lawmakers in wisconsin in arizona to overturn the 2020 election results. so much formidable, i guess, right? nearly two years later, it appears that thomas is only

doubling down on election denialism despite everything we have seen since then. here is what chairman bennie thomas had to say about his testimony. >> did she express her belief that the election was still stolen? that she believes that? >> yes. >> can you characterize what she is not answering? what she's refusing to answer? >> no. >> so you're saying she's no believes the 2020 election was stolen? >> yeah. >> and she tell you that? >> she said the. >> yes, she still believes the election was stolen two years after the fact. ginni thomas cooperation comes amidst the release of a new bombshell footage in a another coup player, roger stone. danish filmmakers who followed roger stone in the weeks leading up to the election have not turned over several clips to degenerate six committee. here is a bit of what that one time trump ally was saying behind closed doors, even before the election was actually called.

>> i really suspect that it will be up in the year. when that happens, the key thing to do is to claim victory. possession is nine tenths of the law -- sorry, over, we won, f you. after voting, let's get right to the violence. shoot to kill, c and antifa, she taco. >> sources tell nbc news that these clips will likely feature prominently in the committee's next hearing, and while we still don't know when that hearing will be or what exactly it will focus on, one thing is for sure, they are going to have a lot of new material to work with. let's discuss this and more with carolyn maloney and glenn kirschner, both former prosecutors and msnbc analysts. the committee finally sat down with ginni thomas, we have been hearing about for sometime. she tells investigators that she still believes the 2020 election was stolen. we know that claim has been

repeatedly debunked since the election, both legally and just out in plain old public. does thomas's status as, quote, a true believer absolve her of any possible legal liability? can you simply plead ignorance or stupidity at this point? >> ayman, whether she is potentially liable down the road or not, it's a fact that argument that we'll have to be played out a bit in the general six committees fact finding proceedings. but to me, the most challenging part of this has to do with the clarence thomas, the sitting supreme court justice. that's why ginni thomas is in the headlines. she is just one of a number of people who had these views and who took part in some of these activities leading up to january six. but the problem here is that she is married to a sitting supreme court justice. the question is going to be down the road, the next time it

matter and support for the supreme court related to the january six proceedings, it's clarence thomas going to recuse himself? he has already not recused himself from one of these matters, and what is going to happen the next time around? that is a real problem because the supreme court justices, it's tough to ask a supreme court justice to recuse themselves for this reason, because unlike a lower court, you cannot put in a substitute supreme court justice, so that would mean going with eight justices instead of nine, and that's a problem because you have an even number of justices. you don't have an uneven number of justices, so you would have a split. the problem here is that ginni thomas was not just writing an article or talking to schoolchildren or just a friend of mark meadows, she actively took part in sending communications to the white house about the very subject that is being investigated. that is the difference here. it is difficult for me to see how clarence thomas does not recuse himself the next time

one of these matters goes to the supreme court. >> it seems to me, as well, that she is not just posting her opinions on twitter, she is messaging people involved or had a say in the outcome of these elections, and encouraging them to act the certain way, whether it's telling the president to his chief of staff to not concede defeat, whether it's allegedly messaging state electors and telling them to do one thing over the other. that seems to be more than just a person giving an opinion, it's somebody who's giving active direction. >> that is absolutely the case, and again, the reason ginni thomas is in the headlines here is because of her marriage to cleanse thomas. >> glenn, let's move on to roger stone for a moment. he is found himself yet again in a headline with this footage that has emerged and in those clips obtained by the committee. he can be heard calling explicitly for violence in the weeks leading up to the right. of course, we know what happened on january the six, violence actually occurred.

and usually, the footage caught stone texting a lawyer with trump and his second impeachment trial asking if he can, quote, plug stones pardon request the next time he spoke to the president. i mean, there is so much to digest here. what is your reaction to him asking for a pardon but also inciting violence at the same time? >> it seems ginni thomas and roger stone are two birds of the same better. they're exploiting their connections to the white house indifference, so roger stone asking for a pardon always takes me back to an old supreme court case, the case in 1915 where the supreme court had set, a pardon carries with it and imputation of guilt, that's the term, the supreme court as used, and accepting a pardon is at least some confession of guilt. listen, you only ask for a pardon if you know you have committed a crime, and you want

to get away with it. let's face it, roger stone is something of a frequent flyer when it comes to pardons. he was convicted of seven felony accounts for lying to and obstructing congress, tampering with a witness. and three days, ayman, before he was to report to the federal bureau of prisons to start a 40 month sentence, he gave an interview. he said, i want a sentence commutation, mister president. later that day, donald trump commuted his sentence and, of course, went on to fully pardon him. it looks like roger stone is in the thick of it. it looks like he should perhaps be investigated and indicted for participating in a seditious conspiracy, and we are all just waiting to see if that happens. >> carol, i want to happy more specifically about the secret service in this. this week, we learned that the leadership in the secret service had confiscated the cell phones of 24 agents involved in the agency's

response on january the six. they have become central to the investigation and according to the sources, were then handed -- this officer then handed over to the department of homeland security inspector general, and you had the vice chair liz cheney announcing last year that the committee had an -- obtained around 80,000 pages of communication materials from the agency. how pivotal is disinformation in piecing together what was happening that day and why? >> well, aside from videotapes, they are really in terms of at and quality of evidence, there is not much better than text messages. the reason for that is because people tend to pop more casually in text messages. they are not thinking about how this will look on paper or when somebody posts one of these tax up in a courtroom. but now that the committee has all of these tax, it's going to

color in the picture for them about what was going on during all of these proceedings with the president going to the oval, and then the president wanting to go to the capitol, and the communications among the secret service agents if they were able to capture those exact tax. remember, one of the problems here was that the secret service did not immediately turn over the text messages that were requested by the inspector general in and around january six. and then, apparently, a great number of them, of those tax, were deleted as part of an upgrade of the system. that is what they told the inspector general. so, it remains to be seen how much actual evidence that is relevant the committee is going to be able to get from those 80,000 texts. >> glenn, i want to switch gears for a moment and get your reaction to this social media post, the ex president made on his site last night. hours after congress passed

this stopgap funding bill, trump won after senate minority leader mitch mcconnell, writing he had a death wish for supporting democrat sponsored bills. in that same post, he also made racist remarks about mcconnell's wife, who actually used to serve the former president and his cabinet. could trump's cabinet -- comments be seen as a legally speaking? >> communicating a threat is often a difficult charge to prove and it's a little counter intuitive. imagine how many threats are sort of turnaround on the internet, for example, every day. i will do this, i will do that. what law enforcement has to do is really look and see whether there was a present intent to commit harm that was communicated and that was serious. that's more of the layman's explanation then the legal explanation. it looks like donald trump is up to the line there, accusing a lawmaker, because he is

involved in -- that he has a death wish. that could be a thinly veiled call to his supporters, not unlike come to d.c., we will be wild, march to the capitol and fight like hell. we see where donald trump's rhetoric ends up, how it motivates and inspires people. so, i have to believe, a man, that the department of, federal prosecutors, are digging into all of this, they are cataloging it, putting it in their files, probably presenting some of it to the grand jury, and we will see if charges result. >> i will tell you what, even if they don't do anything against foreign president, the security detail on mitch mcconnell, their job deathly got a little bit tougher tonight because of what the former president set. they are going to have to be much more careful with mitch mcconnell now that the former president has put that post out on strict social.

caroline, glenn kirschner, thank you to both of you. up next, we'll have more on hurricane in and house chair carolyn maloney reacts to breaking news about trump and the national archives. stay with us. stay with us (cecily) adam. look-y what i got... (adam) is that the new iphone 14 pro? (cecily) yup, with this amazing new camera. smile! (adam) and you got it on verizon? (cecily) even better. i got verizon's new plan. includes apple one. that's apple music, apple tv+, apple arcade, icloud+. (adam) i hear the acting's pretty good on that one. (cecily) so is the deal i got from verizon. iphone 14 pro, on them! you should get one.

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mile per hour winds picking the fifth strongest hurricane ever to hit the u.s.. but beyond those that's, are the faces of floridians who fear for their lives and who are now left to pick up these pieces? >> can we get some help down here? but that be too much to ask? you look around, there's nothing. we have no power, no phone service, nothing, so we would just like a little help, it get my home back in shape, because i've nowhere to go. >> there is nothing on the boat. >> so what are you eating? >> we got a box today. >> people came by to bring us food. >> what do you need? >> i know i need clothes. i ain't got no clothes. >> you have been wearing this all time? >> the whole time. >> the devastation is unbelievable. i was a paramedic fireman for 25 years, and it's just unbelievable. >> joining me now is former fema administrator, craig few gate. it's good to have you with us this evening. you heard the soundbites of

those people and what they need, and the fact that they don't have anything. they literally don't have clothes or food. what are your biggest concerns, and what are the main dangers in this window that we are dealing with right now? >> the big concern as you have heard, completing the rescue and completing the search. seconding, getting supplies in their, as bad as this is, it's really not about can you get surprise to people or can you get people to where there are better conditions? this is also a time still dangerous. we see accidents, receive false, we see other things that could hurt people. as we go through this, it's really about lifesaving, life-sustaining, and then to start looking at next steps. those next naps are part of what the president turned all other course of the governor -- people without assurance could apply for fema help, get a place to stay, get additional

funding to start taking care of immediate needs. that's all taking place, but there's another group that is looking at the infrastructure, something that nobody has talked about yet, but it's got to be -- we had to work backwards. -- you have to start taking steps to look at all the critical infrastructure and other activities that you need to have to this community can start giving back to very basic functions, while you are still trying to find out how bad it is. if you wait too late, we would not get to these critical steps in the recovery. >> help me understand that a little bit about the importance of getting schools back up and running and why that matters to the community. do you mean the schools as a shelter to be able to congregate people and take care of them? or do you mean actual classes and students attending for meals and education? >> getting kids back in school. one of the things that you said is key. it's one of the things we learned after hurricane

charlie. it took us two weeks, but we've got the schools open, and half of them were destroyed, the other half were in sections. but when we got to get back to school, we were able to, one, make sure they get meals, to get health care to them, get counseling to them. and it starts the recovery. it's also a key sign in the committee that they are coming back. when i worked for governor bush, that was a high priority, that he placed on this, once we are through lifesaving, once word to the life-sustaining, a big next up is how many schools can get open? these are kids that have already been, because of covid and all of the destruction, this is their first full school year. getting schools open, it's not something you hear people talk about, but as an emergency manager, this is one of the things that i am taking. i always start with working backwards. what does it take to get a mentally viable school setting safe and getting children back in. and can i now surround the services that this children will need while parents are still dealing with the recovery

activities? >> what do you say as the positions that you have, when you hear the sound bites from folks, what would you say to them? what are officials supposed to say to them? it is simply acknowledging them, we hear you, we see you, we are doing our best, or is there something that needs to be communicate to these folks that are going back there with literally no clothes, no food, no home? >> this is basic, you have to survive, we had to take it a day at a time. things are moving, but it's getting to the last mile, that last street, that last person in this kind of devastation that in the first couple of days, it's going to take a little bit of time. think of all the resources that are doing such a rescue. once the search and rescue gets to the point where they are accountable that they accounted for everybody, that will free up more resources that will now start moving towards what we will call immediate need, of getting resources in their. there are volunteer organizations, this is not just government, we turned it whole

community. you see chef jose andreas and world central kitchen, red cross, salvation army -- all these teams are out there, and it's getting to that last person that is also sees that challenge, particularly when you have so much devastation and the roads and access is so limited to some of the areas. >> i have a coupon for you, but how do you go about determining who is still missing adam perhaps a neighbor saying, i don't know where my neighbors? is there a database that the government is using off of local registers? how do you determine the number of people that you're looking for? >> you basically have to keep working these this. in fact, i remember when we were working -- we had such a huge less. the state actually brought in their investigators. they had to start chasing people. it turned out that we had a very big list of missing people. the other thing is, and this is where they have to go room by room, building by building, in some cases, they will have to look at some of the waterways and search those to see if

there is anybody that we missed that lost their lives and could do a recovery. >> absolutely harrowing effort underway there in florida. craig floodgate, thank you for your time, i appreciate your insights. after the break, we will discuss abortion rights with house oversight chairman carolyn maloney, don't go anywhere. carolyn maloney, don't g anywhere anywhere as someone with hearing loss i know what a confusing and frustrating experience getting hearing aids can be. that's why i founded lively. affordable, high-quality hearing aids with all of the features you need, and none of the hassle. i use lively hearing aids and it's been wonderful.

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were not afraid of the a word. a being abortion rights. now, they are actually running on it. at the peak of the midterm cycle, the political landscape around reproductive freedom has much severely shifted. republicans are scrubbing campaign websites of any empire abortion language that they once used. polling indicates -- even mitch mcconnell is reportedly telling candidates to talk about anything but abortion. but at the heart of this matter

is not politics, it's actually peoples lives, real peoples lives, and that was the focus of the house oversight committee this week which held a hearing, examining the impact of abortion bans and restrictions that have been imposed by republicans on women. joining me now is the chair of that committee, democratic congresswoman carolyn maloney. congresswoman, thank you for making the time for us again. why did you want to hold his hearing? what was so important about it? >> because it's on the ballot. this next midterm election and it's important to women's lives. to me, i was astonished that they would roll back 50 years of accepted law, a constitutional right for women to make decisions about their own health care, including abortions, including reproductive health care, and it's really frightening what is happening. 33 million women have lost access to abortions, have lost that already in our country, and if they continue, we

estimate 63 million people may be at risk. >> i want to play for you in one -- excuse me, for you and our viewers, one of the witnesses in that hearing, doctor -- who is the medical director for primary trans care app planned parenthood gulf coast had to say. listen to this. >> before roe was overturned, when we were so providing abortion care under sb8 and saw a patient was afraid her abusive partner would find out she was pregnant, she was sure to make it to the clinic in time to get an abortion. she had not. she barely made it to the clinic that they without her partner finding out, going out of state was unthinkable. she sought so loudly, people could hear her in the waiting room. her fate was sealed. she was sentenced by the state to carry the pregnancy to term, tethered to her abusive partner to likely endure more obese. these stories are endless. >> as he set, these stories are endless, or talk to us a little bit about what you heard indoors those hearings and how

abortion bans and restrictions affect real folks who are already in the most vulnerable of our society? >> it was heartbreaking, and like you said, effects are most vulnerable. we did a report that i thought was astonishing. actions speak louder than words. they keep saying that they just want to return it to state rights, but we documented 51 bills, over 51 bills, that banned abortions that have been produced in the last congress. over 120 laws that were passed across the country restricting a woman's right to choose. they are no longer restricting it, they are bulldozing rights into the ground, and they're not stopping. they are talking about access to birth control. but over 51 laws that either outright ban abortion -- or could put doctors and nurses in jail, banning access to a medicated abortion and banning

the freedom to move across state lines to seek an abortion, democrats on the other hand, we have a path to federally protected right to abortion in the house. it's stalled in the senate, and we have also passed a bill that guarantees access to abortion. the biden harris administration has come out with numerous executive orders to help women access health care. republicans were saying that abortion is not a health care. that was their main thing, but all of our doctors on the panel and the official doctors and gynecologists, their organizations have come out to say that abortion is absolutely help here, and that women will die, women will be injured, and in many cases, because of their lack of access to an abortion. we heard heartbreaking stories of women that were forced to carry children that were incompatible with life in

really life-threatening situations. >> congresswoman, allow me to shift gears and get your thoughts on another important development. there was brick in news that came out earlier tonight, i am sure you are aware. the national archives telling your committee to estill, till this day, not recovered all the records from trump administration officials that should have been transferred under the presidential records act. what is your reaction to that shocking news -- that they don't have the records that they are supposed to have? >> it is shocking, and it's outrageous that 20 months after our former president left office, we still do not have the records that are required by law that belong to the american people. that we don't have them, and they have shown total disregard to the law, and we will not stop until we get them. the archive got a letter last night saying that they did not have all the records, and we

must not stop until we retrieve them. we are working on legislation to make sure that it never happens again. what is very troubling to me, according to our investigation, there were a lot of folders marked a highly classified, and there was no documents in the folder? so we don't know what the classified information was, or where it is or who has it? that's a national security risk. this is a very serious disrespect for the law. the number of national security marc documents was highly, highly troubling to say that lease and dangerous, i would say. -- they are not secure. >> yeah, who knows where they are, in fact. congresswoman carolyn maloney, i appreciate time. thank you for joining this evening. up next, justice ketanji brown jackson takes her seat on the supreme court, and her first term could be one of the most

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the supreme court new term, and it is hard to overstate just how historic it could prove to be for our country. for starters, justice ketanji brown jackson is now on the bench as the first african american woman to serve on our nation's highest court. in a ceremony this week at the library of congress, jackson received a standing of asian, which she said, i have a seat at the table. i have a seat at the table now, and i am ready to work. but as exciting as it will be to see justice jackson on the bench, the court is stacked with conservative ideologues who have shown little reverence for president, ethical standards and, occasionally, basic facts. and as a friend of the show has said in the past, elie mystal, he writes in the nation, this term, the high court will cement its grip on the highs political life in america, the

clean water act, the voting rights act, affirmative action and same sex marriage. all of this door instead to pull this country gently through the right. but there is one case in particular that you need to know about and watch closely. it's called more versus harper. in more versus harper, the supreme court will decide whether the north carolina supreme court has the power to strike down the republican dominant legislators illegally gerrymandered congressional map for violating the north carolina constitution. the republican legislators have argued that it debunked interpretations of the u.s. constitution, known as the independent state legislator theory, renders the state courts and state constitution powerless in matters related to federal elections. now the once fringe theory has actually now found near universal buy in from across the conservative legal universe. what is more for the courts justices, clarence thomas,

samuel alito, neil gorsuch and brett kavanaugh have all signaled at some point, some favorability to some form of this theory. as the brennan center points out, adopting the independent state legislative theory would also mean that voters across the country have no judicial remedy in state court or in federal court to fight partisan gerrymandering. and the potential consequences of this could stretch still further. the theory with their elections into chaos, nullifying hundreds of election rules put into place by valid initiatives, state constitutions and administrative regulations, including foundational state policies like the process for voter registration and mail voting and basic guarantees like the secret ballot. state lawmakers would be able to adopt voter suppression legislation without any checks or balances from the state courts or even a governor's veto. in other words, the theory would up and key aspects of our

elections and our democracy. and the positive conservative special interests are finding the walk or dated effort to make this i.s. out theory the law of the land. one of the main backers is leonard leo, the cochairman of the ultra conservative federalist society. in recent years, leo has helped to orchestrate the supreme court's current extreme composition by recommending conservative nominees and managing massive spending campaigns to get them confirmed. folks, we are in a five alarm fire territory here. if you can see that by now, we have a serious problem. the supreme court ruling embracing the radical notion that some state legislators have absolute and sole authority to regulate federal elections could be a giant step backwards for our democracy and protections of our cherished freedoms. at a time when our democracy is already under assault on multiple fronts, adopting the

iss theory would be a dangerous power grab with potentially life altering effects for our democracy. amy and it. after the break, i will be joined by dahlia lithwick, senior editor at slate and off there of the new book, lady justice, women law and the battle to save america. america 80% of couples sleep too hot or too cold. because quality sleep is vital, the sleep number 360 smart bed is temperature balancing, so you both stay cool. our smart sleepers get 28 minutes more restful sleep per night. save 40% on the sleep number 360 special edition smart bed.now only $1499. only for a limited time. (vo) get the new iphone 14 pro on us. right now t-mobile is including apple business essentials so you can easily manage your team's devices. on the network with more 5g coverage. only from t-mobile for business. get ready... to get everything

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precedent and adopt the radical independents that state legislator theory, state legislators would have new sweeping powers to be the sole

arbiters of laws governor our elections and gerrymandering. that could not the right of americans to elect their leaders of their own choice. joining me now is dahlia lithwick, senior editor at slate and author of the new book, lady justice, women, law and the battle to save america. dahlia, it's good to have you with us. it's good to see you again in person, and congratulations on the book. talk to me about this case, harper versus more, and why is so significant? did i get anything wrong in the setup there? is there any more nuance that you think we need to be aware of? >> no, and in fact, often when i explain the case, people go on screen save, because it seemed super technical. you got across the idea that this could kind of detonate elections as we see them. the only other thing i would do is connect out the interview with the representative about abortion post stops because let's remember in justice's leaders majority opinion in dobbs, he said women are not without electoral power. they don't like this, go to the

polls, right? but this is the same justice alito who has a hard hand in glove with some of the conservative justices that you described to do away with the ability to go away from the polls, to have your vote at the polls be tossed out a few letters that it is not like it. if you look at more and harper and also the alabama jarmanning case, it's really unfair to tell women, particularly vulnerable and black and brown women of color to go to your polling place wire still -- >> and while you are marginalizing them even more, excuse me. in my description there, this could be the end of democracy as you note. this could up and our system in so many ways. is that hyperbolic for people trying to wave the flag of saying that this is a five alarm fire that we need to pay attention to? >> it's not hyperbolic. i think there is a whole range of different postures that are coming into this case, so there's very extreme versions of it, which essentially say

exactly what you said, that a state legislator could just say, we will just leave suppression. we will just do away with mail-in ballots -- >> you decide which electors are, there's too many questions around this, we will determine who the electors are? >> this is what donald trump and his lawyer john eastman we're asking pennsylvania in wisconsin to do in the 2020 election, just send in your fake ballot. that is the issue version. there are less extreme versions than that, but who knows, this has no trial basis. the supreme court could raise any version of this that they want. >> are you alarmed that this is already made in this far up the judicial process. this was a friend theory to people dismissed even when it was presented in some form by john eastman. folks out there were looking at it like it was bonkers. now, it's actually a case working its way to the supreme court. >> that's right, there is no -- to support this. there are underground think tank laps that have cooked us

up, but it's rooted in a opinion, bush v. gore, they got three votes. there's no place to appeal this, and it does not matter. as you said, you have millions and millions of dollars poured into amicus brief, trying to take the position that this is well founded, it goes back to the founding, and all the scholarship on the other side says, this is crazy. >> we know the other side puts millions of dollars as they did with roe v. wade until they got a overturned. last term was consequential, very few of us could have imagined when that term was beginning. here we are the at the beginning of another term. what are the cases that you are tracking a monitoring that could've been our way of life? >> the depressing answer is everything that they did not do last time they will try to do this term. i think as he said, action is on the table. clean water act is on the table. last year, they went out of the clean air act. we had the rights of service providers to refuse service to lgbtq couples for religious

reasons. over and above that, we have this essential alabama racial gerrymandering that will do away with what is left at the voting rights act. that's -- and the indian child welfare act has a tiger on it. so there is not much left. >> not much to be optimistic about. >> no. >> i don't want to end the segment on a bad note. i want to give folks a little hope, as we mentioned, just this ketanji brown jackson has not taken her seat on the court, making history. in many ways -- obviously, it's a 63 majority, but what's the importance of just having her voice there, and her presence there on the court? >> i was thinking about this a lot. i think that there is something singularly poignant and powerful that there will be dissent written by three women, two women of color. i think that will be a loud a signal to america that they are being heard and seen, and that is not trivial. the other thing i would say about justice jackson is that she has an almost amazing

superpower to get people across the aisle to listen to her, to come together. she's not a bump there are, she's very respectful and a deep listener, and a brilliant writer. i think she will take her place as a person who if she has to write the sense, they will be powerful, and they will be heard by law students around the country, who know that it's time for them to pick up the mantle. >> you know how important those descends can be for the moral conscience of the country compared to previous the sense just in the last term. before i go, i had to ask you about your new book, lady justice, women, the law and the battle to save america. why did you write it? if you feel that when he started writing it that things a penalty friendly? i imagine you started it well before roe v. wade was overturned? >> i did, and i had to rewrite huge chunks of it in the days after dobbs, but i think i started writing it as a history of women in law and power, and the ways that women held the line against some of the worst forms of trumpism.

today, i think it's actually sort of a blueprint going forward about how women can do the same thing, pick up the instruments of law, pick up the blue books and their no pets, and do the work, because there is a lot of work to be done, we can't give up. >> we certainly have a lot of work to do. delia left-wing, thank you for coming in, greatly appreciate it. >> thank you. >> after the break, an update on the situation in puerto rico. we will also talk about the hurricane in florida as well, stay with us. stay with us

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has been on the damage caused by hurricane ian across florida and the carolinas. but we also want to direct your focus to somewhere else that has been ravaged by recent storm. puerto rico. hurricane fiona tore through the western portion of the island nearly two weeks ago. she brought more than 30 inches of rain, knocked out the entire power grid, constable stating flooding, and unleashed major landslides. at least 25 americans died according to officials there. there are still more than 170,000 households without power. 12 days after the storm, and the biden administration this week announced a move to help bring puerto ricans out of the dark. the department of homeland security is temporarily suspending the jones act, allowing a ship to bring much-needed fuel to the island. dhs secretary alondra mayorkas says it will ensure that the people of puerto rico have sufficient diesel for

functioning critical facilities in the territory. president biden spoke directly to the americans and puerto rico well at fema headquarters earlier this week, watch. >> what we are seeing the devastating images and florida i want to be clear, to the people of puerto rico, we are not gone away. i am committed to you, and the recovery of the island. we will stand by you for however long it takes to get it done. >> president biden says that he plans to visit both florida and puerto rico and conditions allow. so when we come together to help those in need in florida, and the carolinas, please do not forget our fellow americans in puerto rico, they need our help, our empathy, and the resources of the federal government. we are going to start the second hour of ayman now with an update on the aftermath of hurricane in. let's go straight to nbc's god vinegars who joins us from fort myers. it is our live report from florida, tell us what