with this critical voting bloc. on that note, i wish you a very good night, from all of our colleagues across the networks of msnbc news. thank you for staying up late with us! g up lat with us! ♪ ♪ ♪ last summer, when herschel walker started running for the u.s. senate seat in georgia, there was something very strange about this campaign. he almost never spoke. people spoke about him, donald trump talked endlessly about what a great football player herschel walker was. and how he would be a great candidate and a great u.s. senator and, oh, hey, did i mention what a great football player herschel walker was? walker himself would make appearances that offense and would shake hands, and occasionally he would read a short prepared statement about how much he loved america. but even cnn ran a headline last fall that said, quote, herschel walker is often seen and seldom heard.

towards the end of last year, herschel walker went on a radio show and it was friendly territory. the conservative host asked walker to basically let loose on senator raphael warnock who would be walker's democratic opponent. and in that moment we found out exactly why walker's campaign tried to never let him speak. >> he brings up voting rights, the john lewis voting rights bill. what do you say about raphael warnock trying to push this during this time? to try to, what i call, federalize elections? >> you know it is sad about that. you know, using the name of a great man to bring up something that is so bad. i think it's a terrible thing to do. you know, senator louis one of the best senators there has ever been. and for african, americans it was incredibly. they have his name on the bill, the voting rights, i think it's a shame. first of all, you know, i mean, you look at video of this, it

just doesn't fit with what john lewis stood for. >> okay, first of all, the late john lewis, not a senator! served in the house for almost 40 years. but even if you want to let that slide. the john lewis voting rights act is named after john lewis because it was literally the culmination of john lewis's life work. herschel walker's version of that history is literally so far off the map, it is on another planet. in a distant galaxy. and this was far from the only time that herschel walker got in trouble, despite opening his mouth in public. here is an ad that raphael warnock ran earlier this year that is literally nothing but a clip of herschel walker giving an interview. >> you know, what man, i will say something that i probably shouldn't. do you know right now, i have something that can bring you into a real room that would clean you from covid? as you walk through the door,

it would kill any covid on your body, when you leave it would kill the virus. they don't want to talk about that. they don't want to hear about that. >> i am raphael warnock, and i approve this message. >> that's, it that's the whole ad. just herschel walker claiming he has a dry mist that can kill all of your covid. another time, responding to the school shooting in uvalde, texas, walker proposed, quote a department that can look at young man who is looking that women that's looking at social media. i mean, sure, okay? there was the time he seemed to suggest that there is no point investing in clean air in the united states because china will just take our clean air and send their bad air over here. at least i think that is what he is trying to say. and walker routinely exaggerated his business exploits, and he lied about graduating from college, and he

pretended to have worked for law enforcement and didn't. and then there are the years that he claimed his food company donated 15% of its profits to charities. but it never did. so, okay, there are walker statements which, yes, are really extremely questionable. and then there are his actions. herschel walker has a well documented history of domestic abuse. including allegations that he held a gun to his ex-wife's head and threatened to kill her multiple times. of course, there were the revelations that walker had have been the existence of one, and the end to, and then three previously unacknowledged children. but maybe the truly globs knocking thing here isn't the latest bombshell about herschel walker's past, that the supposedly staunchly antiabortion candidate allegedly urged an paid for an ex girlfriends abortion in 2009. walker denies the allegations,

the ex girlfriend has provided literal receipts to backup her story. maybe the gobs not game thing here isn't even that republicans appeared to be rallying around herschel walker more fervently than ever in the wake of this latest revelation. a church full of evangelicals and atlanta applauded and prayed over walker, barely a day after this allegations broke. walker's campaign claims it has raised over $500,000 since that story came out. maybe the gobsmacked thing here is really how broken the republican party is that this guy was ever allowed to become the nominee for a u.s. senate seat in the first place. and for a senate seat that could very well decide which party controls the upper chamber next year. it is not that republicans didn't know who this guy was, national republican leaders were freaking out.

and, by the way, speaking out well over a year ago about herschel walker getting into the race. because they knew what disaster he was. even this new story of walker allegedly having paid for an abortion. that was reportedly an open secret in georgia politics. a top gop operative in the state told political that when it was brought to the attention of walker's campaign staff months ago, quote. the reaction wasn't that they're not gonna say that because it never happened. it was like everything else. matt, people aren't gonna find out. and, turns out they did. >> but he was only trump's choice. and the republican party apparently had no appetite for fighting donald trump's on this one. even mitch mcconnell got on board with walker's candidacy early on. herschel walker being a republican nominee for senate, this with a group effort. >> of course, the truly, truly gobs not camping about all of this is that it may not matter, any of it. herschel walker may very well win this senate race, despite being such a disaster of a candidate. that is the bet that donald trump and the rest of the republican party have gone all in on. that in the end, having an r after his name, it's the only thing herschel walker will need to claim victory in the state

of georgia. joining us now is greg booty, politics reporter at the atlanta journal-constitution. greg, thank you so much for being here. >> thank you. >> so, first tell me how this is all playing out in the state of georgia. we have those fundraising numbers, half 1 million dollar raised by the walker campaign. is there a sense that voters may be softening in terms of their support for walker heading into the final stretch of the election. >> there certainly is that sense, it's really hard to tell right now how this will all shake out. though he is denying these reports, of course. he has credibility issue. right? these similar allegations came out against governor brian kemp or other republicans and they flat out tonight, it there would be a significant number of republicans here who believed them. but herschel walker, in his

case, you have seen all sorts of ads and damaging news reports and other, you know, other parabolic airings of his lies, his exaggerations. exaggerations of his conspiracy theories. a falsehoods. and that is undercut his credibility. so i'm hearing from republicans, even before, this that certainly accelerating now. who are just very concerned about his candidacy and to feel like, even though they know he will vote the way he want him to vote, he will vote with mitch mcconnell, probably, on a number of issues. they're worried about his fitness for office right now. >> well, yeah, you see credibility. right? that implies that there may be a trust issue in terms of his reliability. when we talk about republican voters, they are not the same of broken politicians in the

state of georgia. what are you hearing from the republicans who are on the ticket elevated this game like governor brian kemp? how is that campaign treating the right walker revelation? >> yeah, it's really interesting. because while we see national republicans rally around herschel walker, because they have no other choice. right? it is too late to take him off the ballot and georgia is critical to the gop efforts to flip the u.s. senate. so there is no backing down or backing away from herschel walker for the national republicans. local republicans are steering clear. governor kemp has made it very clear that he supports the rubble can to, get what he's gonna run his own campaign [interpreter] he's not gonna be tired -- other republicans are kind of sidestepping the issue. they have been racist to run. they want to focus on their own fates in november, rather than tying themselves to herschel walker. >> what about the issue of

abortion, right? there is the issue of herschel walker's character. right? but then there is the issue of abortion, fundamentally. that just brings it right back into the floor. we know that nationally that has been an issue. what about in the state of georgia, does that matter here in this particular case? or has the trustworthiness and a proxy eclipse the actual issue about women's access to reproductive choice? >> if republicans want to be talking about anything but abortion right now. they steered the conversation back to the dobbs decision, back to the supreme court ruling that overturned roe v. wade. back to the very issue that democrats hope will change the electorate for them. stacey abrams, the candidate for governor. senator raphael warnock, herschel walker's opponent, they have been rallying for months now, even before the supreme court decision came out, saying what a dangerous position, you know, how that would undermine, you know, our legal framework here in the u.s.. trying to energize women, particularly women, to go vote and change the electorate. so now they have gotten this issue right back in the center stage. at the very time when republicans would rather be talking about the economy, rather be talking about inflation. rather be talking about anything but abortion. >> greg bluestein, politics reporter at the atlantic -- hac, thank you for your time. today thank you for your reporting, greg. >> now, i want to turn to longtime republican strategist mike murphy, who has advised republican candidates, including john mccain and jeb bush and mitt romney, he is currently co-host of the hawks

on top podcast. mike, you are the person that i want to speak to about all of this. because i need, we need wisdom about where the republican party is, where it has come from -- i've got to ask you, it feels like there would have been a time when republicans might not have called for walker to leave the, race but would not have rallied around him in the way that they are. is this the after effect of the trump presidency when republicans sort of developed a new strategy of immunity politics? i think the strategy is to try to survive donald trump who is almost always a wrecking ball in the general election. in the olden days, we would have stopped this herschel thing in the primary. not nominated such a weak candidate. particularly in a year like this where you don't have to be a great republican candidate to win. so this just to kind of disaster, you know, that politics don't want. now they are stuck with him. he doesn't have a big fan club.

but what does have a big fan club is winning that georgia seat. then the theory, as well, we will surround him with good stuff and, you know, he will vote right. so the question is in a state that republicans should be winning this year, will these sort of allegations, this is not the first one for him, derail the walker candidacy. i have to say, in a wave election. i will not sure it's will. it's a close race despite. >> if he wins, does this become a cautionary tale or an instructive one? i mean, does it suggest, hey, by the skin of your teeth you have got your guy over the finish line. or is the lesson learned, you can literally nominate anybody? >> you know, i think different wings of the party will each take the lesson they want to see. donald trump, of, course will make it worse if walker is elected by talking about him as

a feature vice president candidate. so there will be mile long lines to psychiatrist office in new york and l. a., because what could be a worse liberal nightmare? the fact that he is unfit and in the old days we would have walked the candidacy like this. but the stakes are so high in this election, you know, leader mcconnell and others are going to hold their nose and try to pull him over. what i'm interested in is the debate. because we have seen him in public, you had some tape earlier. if i were his campaign manager, i would pay somebody in the back of the studio to throw him a tight spiral, or something. move it from anything to do with the senate race. make it about his celebrity. because now with these allegations and the hypocrisy, it could be a very rough debate for him. >> just get it back to football, it's basically the strategy. but i've, and i want to bring your attention to an article written by david graham that suggests he could say anything in the debate as long as he has the letter r at the end of his name. this is the quote, with voters viewing the other party as an existential threat to the lives, to their lives, or to the republic. they seem willing to overlook nearly any personal failing in

the name of partisanship. that is the result of an era in which nothing means as much as the letter next to a candidate's name. i mean, this is not just the abortion hockey. it is the wife abuse. it is the lies, the blatant fraudulence. none of this has mattered. and i know you are interested in the debate and, you know, i'm sure herschel walker as a debate coach would love to see a tight spiral thrown to the stage. but does it matter? i mean, if this guy can weather these storms, what is to say any thing matters anymore. i mean, is this the end point of partisanship. and i will say, specifically, republican partisanship. >> well that is the big question. and there are still some swing voters, you look at the gap between how governor kemp, somebody who's a very successful politician is doing versus walker. and you see he's behind camp. you got those kind of got voters. where we are -- herschel walker is two things popping him up. what do things really. the tribalism you are talking

about, people are loyal, yeah, our pick is terrible but i'm a red sox fan, no way i'm going to put on a yankee hat. i'm going all the way! that's helping him. the fact that most midterm elections shaping up to a negative referendum on the presidents. so it's more about that protest message then even flaws candidates. and finally, if you are somebody who is hugely credentialed outside of politics, voters tend to get you a long leash in the political world. and in an election like this where most people, two thirds say around the wrong track, some places more than two thirds -- candidates like walker seen as a way to punish politics. the moral politicians kind of pro pledge and say how could he ever be in the u.s. senate? it's actually kind of help him. they become protests vessels. so all of those are propping up the disaster sly in that candidacy, and going to be close. >> i mean i just can't believe, mike, how much mitch mcconnell has become a whipping post of

the extreme maga win of the republican party. donald trump is out there riding racist screens that are affected like party betrayals on truth social, and nobody in the senate, these are directed at mitch mcconnell, and nobody in the senate is defending mitch mcconnell. mitch mcconnell's out there saying don't nominate herschel walker! nobody listens to him. i -- i i think that kind of behavior, and looking the other way, just furthers a, trump party power. and attributes the poverty establishment that could protect the party from these kinds of looney tunes candidates. >> well it's true. but mitch has a caucus in the senate, full of people who are full of their primary voters in the republican party. so his grip there, on these kinds of things, are limited. it's funny, i feel a little bad for mitch, i saw an internal polling in utah, where there's a fascinating senate race between likely the incumbent and evan mcmullin, the incumbents, and the least popular politician in utah with mitch mcconnell. it was all the maga people hate him, and all the democrats hate him, kind of a stage bill.

so, you know, the poor guy! [laughs] it's not the old days where the washington leader of the party could dictate to the primary electoral, which they do particularly with a messiah like trump running around. and we are going to see this herschel walker factor in other races to. where we have weak candidates who are mightily assisted by trump in the primary. you know -- it -- it's like he's working for the democrats. they got a name the dnc building after him. >> i don't think that's going to happen anytime soon, [laughs] , mike murphy, one never knows. longtime republican strategist. the mind be consulate in things like these, thanks for your time mike. >> thank you. >> still ahead here tonight, florida republican governor ron desantis met with president biden today while surveying the devastation caused by hurricane ian. is it's a sign that desantis is settling, setting political partisanship aside? don't bet on it! but first, billionaire elon musk is closer than ever to becoming the new owner of twitter.

new york magazine at large karen swisher joins us to discuss what happens if musk decides to reply form donald trump. we will be right back. new astepro allergy. no allergy spray is faster. with the speed of astepro, almost nothing can slow you down. because astepro starts working in 30 minutes, while other allergy sprays take hours. and astepro is the first and only 24-hour steroid free allergy spray. now without a prescription. astepro and go.

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tweeted, quote, mike pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our country and our constitution, giving the states a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or an actor ones which were asked to previously certify. usa demands the truth! thanks to the work at the january six committee, we now know that this was how the crowd at the capitol responded to trump's tweet. [chants!] >> hang mike pence! >> it was clear that it was escalating, and escalating quickly. >> hang mike pence! hang mike pence! >> so then we got to, hang mike pence tweet, was sent out, i remember us saying that that was the last thing that we needed to be tweeted at that point. the situation was already bad. so it's not like he was pouring gasoline on the fire by hanging tweeting that. >> it wasn't two hours after that after the crowd luckily couldn't find a vice president pence to hang him, that the crowd went home. and that is because president trump tweeted a video telling

them to go home. president trump's twitter account was a bully pulpit in the hands of a real bully. and it had a significant impact on the real world. there were trump's early years on twitter, where he repeatedly spread misinformation that president obama wasn't born in the united states. by the time trump was elected, that's a little piece of misinformation had convinced 72% of registered republican voters to doubt president obama's citizenship. or after trump was elected, when he began his personal campaign against congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez, repeatedly demonizing her on twitter. now trump was not the first person to push birtherism, or the only person demonizing aoc, but his voice on social media was really, really loud. this week, aoc's office told the new york times it can only keep up or hard to keep up with

the amount of threats she receives every day. her office has a daily routine updating a document with photos of men who have threatened her so she knows what they look like. a daily routine! at the end of his term, president trump had more than 88 million followers on twitter. and he tweeted more than 26,000 times when he was president. that is dozens of tweets every day. but since january of last year, trump has been silent on the platform. after january six, twitter formally banned trump from twitter, citing the risk that he could incite further violence. and sure, yes, trump now has his own social media platform, but he only has 4 million followers there. so basically, you had more than a year in which trump's preferred rate incitement device has been taken out of his hands. but that may be coming to an end. soon. elon musk, the ceo of tesla and the richest man in the world is moving ahead with his agreement to purchase twitter. and one of the only close we have as to what elon musk will

change when he takes over is that he has suggested that he would reverse trump's twitter ban, saying quote, it was not correct to ban donald trump. must considers himself a quote, free speech absolutist, whatever that means. the people who have been deplatformed from twitter have been celebrating the possibility of elon musk's takeover since he first offer to by twitter this spring. >> i'm cautiously optimistic about the prospects for twitter now that elon musk has taken over. i don't know mister mask, but i do invite him to come talk with me in washington d. c., i'd be happy to put together a round table of all the most brilliant people who have been unjustly banned from twitter. >> goes brilliant people according to marjorie taylor greene, include the lights of conspiracy theorists alex jones and far-right troll milo man out pulisic's. all of them, plus donald trump, could be back on twitter before the midterms. what could go wrong?

joining us now is kara swisher, editor at large up new york magazine, cofounder of recode, and host of the pivot podcast. kara, thank you so much for being with us tonight. >> thanks alex. >> so, it seems from the reporting that masks reporting from sweta could be imminent, how do you read the tea leaves on this? >> oh, it's going to happen unless the financing falls through. there's a couple of areas they could in court, and musk lawyers don't agree on how to do this. there's that way, the courts really wants to make sure that they don't adored in this trial before a deal is done. so there are some small things, but a lot of money, 44 billion dollars. so he's got to make sure he's got all the commitments that he needs. >> so we have a sense of how he would practically go about changing the company? and moderating what it is and now?

does he get rid of the truth and safety team? does he just do a wholesale cling of house? is that what you expect from him? >> no i don't think, that i don't think is gonna do a wholesale anything. i do think he's gonna let on donald trump. he said, it's hidden suggested, and i he believe he said it to me before. and so i think that he thought it was a mistake and that he's going to bring him back on and of course he will be under structures, but he has said that if he does a more of the violent incitement that will knock him off again, but i think he's very intent on allowing as many people possible on that platform. >> can i ask though, what you just, at every does not violent incitement that will knock him off again. what is the standard there? there are so much that donald trump tweets that is violent. even tweets that mitch mcconnell. who's going to determine that threshold? do you have a sense of how high elon musk tolerance is for something like that? >> how you look at his twitter feed? it's quite high. probably thinks those are jokes. it'll be up to him. he'll control the company. i think it's 78% or some number, he's going to go to the company. so whatever he thinks it is will be what it is.

which is a tendency to sort of say whatever you feel like in the moment. >> what -- i guess i would ask you, when he is forecasted this new kind of twitter that is going to be much friendlier to right wing ideologues, what is the reaction to that? to some degree yes, right? he's been unabashedly in his i will say praise, what's his belief that donald trump should have a voice and should be back on twitter. is there a sense within a silicon valley that social media needs to be more friendly to right-wing voices? i mean i guess i wonder if this is an ideology in search of a business model? or whether there is a thinking inside silicon valley that right-wing voices have become to marginalize and need to be more mainstream -- >> you know, i don't think he thinks of it that way. there's more conservative people in silicon valley than you think. more libertarian light is what i like to call them. almost no valleys whatsoever. they'll take whatever it takes to get to do what they want to do. that's pretty much their

philosophy. but in elon's case, you don't know what that is gonna do. marjorie taylor greene is fantastic, it's just not, he doesn't like to put himself down. so he's been expressing more i don't like the democrats, or he's talked about being a centrist, for most of the country's. he could go anywhere. i know they celebrate him, but take a turn on them at any point. if he feels like it. at any one moment. >> what about twitter employees? i guess i wonder, there's been talk that some of them would resign en masse if trump gets the platforms. depending on what musk does in

his leadership capacity. >> yeah. >> is that a problem for him? are there enough people in silicon valley that would be happy to road work for him for a musk twitter? >> well it's -- held fine people. don't worry. he's elon musk. he'll definitely runs to other company, or three, or however many he has. very popular to work at. both tesla and spacex. very important companies actually. so i think he'll probably attract a lot of people. i think -- you just don't know what he's going to do. that's the problem with a lot. you never know what he's going to say. actually, i'm always surprised by various things that he says. some of it's quite conservative, some of its very liberal. some of it is just crazy. some of it is silly. so you just don't know.

and i think a lot of people at twitter will leave. and that's always going to be, if you don't like elon musk, you really shouldn't work at sweater. >> yeah. what about facebook? facebook also took trump off its platform, but that was not a permanent band. and that sort of -- its upper we consideration, i believe in january of 2023. which means trump could be back on twitter in time for a potential presidential bid. could he read the signs on that, potential decision in any way at this structure? >> well it's not gonna be by made by mike zuckerberg. essentially number two it feels like that right, now it's going to make that any said that publicly in a recent interview. i don't, know i think they'll consider, it probably bring him back will be my guest. youtube is also puts them, i'm not really clear what it is, put him in just non permanent banning. and so we'll see what they do. i think if you on wasn't getting twitter, the current management would not bring him back on because why bother, they've already taken a hit. but it belonged comes on, he doesn't mind taking a hit. and so facebook's case, i don't i'm not clear what they are going to do. they're gonna watch him carefully for sure. putting him back on seems

probably what's going to happen. >> that's, i mean so trump could be operating full throttle on all of his social media platforms. what if truth social? there's truth social -- does that hurt trump's bottom line? where does that lay, does that go softly into the night? what do you think the future holds for that? >> well that's sad little violin of a social media site. it doesn't hurt his bottom line, it's not making any, money is losing money. it's a disaster! it's a financial operational disaster. run by technologist avenue this, you know, it's just not going to matter at all. in any way. that's gone away or in some fashion, this pack is in trouble, it's being investigated, there's blunders that are mad. it's your typical trump business. and so i think he'll be happy to be back on twitter, hill abandoned new york minutes, and he'll be back on twitter a spring in a way as he likes to do. the thing is, let me just be clear, it might not work. people might be tired of this. just like the apprentice was very popular, i watch that every season, and then suddenly got tiresome. he may become very tired some and more trump is not necessarily good for the republican party. it's sort of, you get tired of him.

and i think a lot more people might -- that might happen if it gets more of a voice. >> i would dare say more trump is not good for the republican party. but what do i know? kara swisher, contributing editor at new york, cofounder of recode, host of the pivot podcast, thank you for your time tonight. >> thanks a lot. >> up next, we have some breaking, news the daily beast reporter who broke the story about herschel walker, allegedly paying for a woman to have an abortion, it's out with a new interview. with that woman, tonight! she says she is also one of the mother of herschel walke's children. we will have details from that breaking story coming up next.

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talking about the bombshell story that rocked the georgia senate race. an allegation that the very antiabortion republican nominee, herschel walker, paid for an ex girlfriends abortion a dozen years ago. well there is now new reporting on that story just in the last few minutes, from the same reporter who broke that original story, roger sullenberger, at the daily beast. we should note that nbc news has not yet confirmed that reporting. here's how the new reporting begins, quote, after a woman revealed that republican senatorial candidate herschel walker had urged her to have an abortion, walker adamantly denied the story and claimed he had no idea who this woman could be. but there is a good reason the woman finds that offense highly doubtful, she's the mother of one of his children. the daily beast says when this woman first told the outlets her story, they agreed not to reveal details about her identity, over her concerns for her safety and privacy. but after walker denied the stories, said he didn't know who was making its, and essentially accuse democrats of

making it up, the woman decided to reveal more. quote, the woman told the daily beast that our chief concern with revealing her name was because she is the mother of one of walker's own children, and she wanted to protect your family's privacy as best she could while also coming forward with the truth. walker has publicly acknowledged the child as his own, and the woman proves she is a child's mother and provided credible evidence of a long term relationship with herschel walker. she tells the daily beast that walker quotes, didn't express any regrets. he said, relax and recover. the woman recalled, alluding to the message on the get well card that walker center along with the abortion payments. he seemed pretty pro-choice to me. he was pro-choice, obviously. she said. and criticize walker for appearing to believe that quote, an abortion is an okay thing to do when it's not the right time for you, but a terrible thing for anyone else to do when you are running for senate. the daily beast says the walker campaign declined to comment for the story.

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the justice department asked the 11th circuit court of appeals to speed up consideration of its requests to end the special master's review of documents taken from his mar-a-lago beach club. today, the appeals court agreed to expedite the doj's appeal, not as quickly as the justice department would have liked.

but on a faster track than trump's team had proposed. while the small parts of the legal saga has been expedited, if you look at the bigger picture, you can see that just about everything tied to the mar-a-lago investigation is operating on a delayed timeline. which is by design. as political points out, trump's team is now managed to take the legal fights over the seized documents to four arenas, the new york courtroom a special master, judge raymond dearie, who's trump's team has asked to review taken from mar-a-lago, the florida courtroom up district edge eileen cannon, who approved trump's request for a special master, the 11th circuit court of appeals in atlanta, where trump asked for a delay of the department of justice request to speed things along, and yesterday, the supreme courts in washington, d. c., where trump is asking for an intervention to get classified documents back before the

special master, and potentially throw out roadblocks, to the doj's criminal investigation. the multiple moving parts, political notes, has, quote complicated the status of trump's legal plight. which of course is a point here, complicate a matter that's at its core is not that complicated. trump took thousands of white house documents including hundreds of classified ones to his florida home. and for months, he refused to return them. and even lied about their existence. in response, to a federal subpoena that triggered an fbi search of mar-a-lago. joining us now is andrew weissmann, former fbi general counsel and current professor at nyu law. andrew, thank you for being here. >> nice to be here. >> i mean for different courtrooms. who has the stronger hand at this moment? it's really hard to be here. because the doj, fighting all these legal battles, but those battles have the effect of slowing down a complicated doj's urgent work. >> well i think the first thing

to remember is when you are a potential defendant, your job is to do what the trump legal team is doing. that is what you do. you know, you try everything you can. and the legal system, especially to hear those claims, and if they are not merit, you will against them. the roots of the problem here is judge cannon. >> yeah. >> so yes, she appointed the special master, you know that at this point, donald trump's ruins the day for that because the special master's-- >>--not playing ball -- >> it's nightmare, because he's actually a real judge. that's why you suddenly see judge cannon overruling the special master. that never happens! especially when the special master is another federal judge. but she is really the root of the problem. because she's done things that are just so, you know, just really improper, or you know just not following the facts, or the law. so that's why you got the 11 circuit and bald and you saw two trump appointees as we were discussing, who are on a panel of three ruling against judge cannon. and it's important to remember

with clarence thomas, people understand, that was not a really selection of donald trump. he is the every circuit, every federal appeals court has a justice and the supreme court who oversees any emergency relief. and so he just happens to be the justice for this particular circuit. >> for the 11th circuit. >> exactly, he has limited authority. he can't just do something unilaterally that couldn't be reviewed by the entire court. and it's also unlikely that he, if you wanted to grant something, that he would have sent it to the whole court. >> so you are optimistic, because there's a lot of speculation, and concern, that because clarence thomas is the justice, it's overseeing, this the 11th circuit, as he sits on the supreme court. that that can somehow factor into all of this. you are optimistic that all the entire court could review it and then what? that they are not going to find in trump's favor? >> yet what i would say is i'm optimistic, either clarence thomas is going to deny it on his face because it's a laughable, and that he doesn't just doesn't need to accept any of this. or to, he could just sit on that. in other words, there's nothing that requires him to roll quickly. in fact, there's nothing to suggest that he is expediting this review.

and he could wait to see what the 11th circuit does. and then the whole thing could be sort of move it. >> would you really expect clarence thomas to actually just sit -- i mean given his previous positioning on affairs, trump affairs, you think it's possible that he could be that unfriendly to this case as it concerns trump's interest? >> i would say, first i think that's important that he would send something to the full court and not decide something unilaterally. and then if you are chief justice roberts, there are a lot of institutional reasons to not get involved in something like this. they've taken so many hits sort of publicly, in terms of whether they are political by, and this is a case where there's such little merit to what is being argued, and there's so many ways to not rule on this. i mean just understand, it's really take anything. >> right. >> so this is not what you read the brief, oh my god there's an injustice that's been done here! >> well, yes, and i will say he rank cases right now, that i think a lot of people are concerned about, that they wish they wouldn't take up. let me just in terms of filing cannon, all roads keep going

back to her, right? if there are debates and object jury sometimes get these documents back under his rearview, there could be a fight between trump's team and the doj over what is actually privilege. ultimately, judge cannon has to be the one to resolve that dispute. how much of an and one can the courts do around judge cannon, who does, for proven to be an intractable supporter of donald trump. to the degree that she is i think not exercising the best prudence. >> just to understand it, if donald trump were to prevail in the supreme court, all that would mean is that judge dearie gets to see the classified documents. and there's no way and got greener that he's going to say, oh, these documents that are classified? i now want to share them with the trump team! he's not going to want to do, that and they'll be this tension because judge cannon will be wanting to give it to them. >> yes. >> here's what i think the off ramp, is which is the 11th circuit's appeal is now exit by, it's a much faster track than donald trump wanted. they could and all of this. because one of the arguments that the government is making is that there's actually no jurisdiction for aileen cannon to sort of poke her nose into this. and judge dearie actually have said the same thing. which can you please explain to me why this is not for the magistrates, who first heard

this. because he says -- he understand sort of how normal processes work. >> one person does not in this picture, names rhymes with salmon. >> andrew weissmann, thank you so much for your wisdom and for being here. >> you're welcome. >> today president adamant face to face with his biggest republican critics. florida governor ron desantis to take them together to help relief efforts in florida after hurricane ian. but if you think the florida governor is putting politics aside, please, think again! ♪ ♪ ♪

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i've tried detox, i've tried teas, i've tried all different types of pills, so i was skeptical about anything working because it never did. but look what golo has done. look what it has done. i'm in a size 4 pair of pants. go golo. (soft music) here is something you do not see every day. republican florida governor ron desantis shaking hands with president biden and thanking him for his response to hurricane ian in florida.

that moment today lead to a flurry of breathless headlines about how ron desantis is changing his tone, and putting politics aside, amid a natural disaster playing out in a state. but just take a second to remember who run desantis is and how he came to be the governor of florida in the very first place. ron desantis began his political career when he was elected to congress in 2012. where one of his very first acts in office was two votes against hurricane relief funds for the victims of hurricane sandy. he was one of just to for the representatives to vote no at the time, and he blasted congress for what he called a put it on the credit card mentality. since becoming governor, desantis has gone out of his way to politicize every major crisis facing the u.s., while happily working and whatever ate the federal government has sent his way. remember that desantis was among the most hearted critics of president biden's covid relief policies, but that hasn't stopped him from taking nearly ten billion dollars from the biden administration's federal coronavirus state and federal --

recovery funds. money is used for plenty unrelated issues, like shipping migrants to parts of the country. and now -- with some political fortunes ethic, governor desantis is making nice with president biden for the news cameras, while simultaneously trying to politicize the hurricane elsewhere. here was governor desantis just yesterday giving an interview about the hurricane to one of the people who stormed the capitol on january six, and criticizing the media for reporting that's hurricane ian was originally heading for tampa before actually striking further down florida's coast. >> well look, i mean, i think part of it quite frankly, you have national regime media, that they want it to see tampa. because they thought that that would be worse than florida. that's how these people think. i mean they don't care about the people of the state, they don't care about the people of this community. they want to use storms and destruction from storms as a way to advance their agenda. >> the national regime media was hoping more people would

die in the hurricane. expect to see more of that ron desantis as he continues to try to bolster his national image with republican primary voters. that does it for us tonight, we will see you again tomorrow. now it is time for the last word with lawrence o'donnell. good evening lawrence. >> good evening alex. i learned about the latest turn in the herschel walker story by listening to you report it just a few minutes ago. >> and what a turn! >> yes, i mean there was that information -- i'm just thinking of the number of times on video i have seen men on fox, as herschel walker if he knows who the accuser is. and him saying i have no idea! and those men on fox accepting its instantaneously and fully. >> at face value. and it turns out, lawrence, that the woman who had the abortion was the mother of one of his children. it is a damning piece of