good to be with you. i'm katey tur. is this the moment where all of our lawmakers all of our politicians, denounce violence and conspiracy that inning spire it. officials in san francisco identified the suspect who broke into nancy pelosi's home at 2:00 a.m. and beat up her husband

with a hammer. he was a 42-year-old man, nbc news is reporting, according to sources, depeppi was in fact looking for the speaker herself, shouting where is francy, where is nancy. it is the same chant that some rioters on january 6th said when they broke into the capitol. pelosi's husband paul was in the hospital. her office says he should make a full recovery. but will our politics? joining me now from outside the pelosi home in san francisco is nbc's jacob ward, we also have nbc's ben colins who is with me on the set. he's going through the social media profile. we have nbc's ryan nobles, as well, at the capitol and former secret service special agent charles marino, he is here with all of the analysis and the context, he served under lee presidents to assure individual and family safety. joining me now is nbc news investigations correspondent tom winter as well. we will have him in a moment. i'm sorry.

let's go to you at the scene of where this happened. we heard from officials a moment ago. tell us everything about it. get us up to speed. >> reporter: well, at this hour, katy, what we know is at 2:27 a.m. pacific time, the police responded to the 2600 block of broadway, the home of nancy and paul pelosi. when they got on the scene, they found david, a 42-year-old male, in the room with paul pelosi, supposedly there was a struggle over a ham ner that moment, and then police tackled the man and both were transported to the hospital. paul pelosi was transported to zuckerberg hospital, which is the big hospital you go to, it has the trauma center here in san francisco. the extent of his injuries are not clear at this hour. and what we have now seen since then is agents not just of the san francisco police department but also from the fbi and the

u.s. capitol police, all going in and out at this time. we heard a brief press announcement from the san francisco police department about 30 minutes ago, but they would not speak to motive. they only described the sort of bare bones of it, and they released the name of the suspect here. other than that, we do not have a clear sense of it, other than the very fine reporting of our colleagues who have looked into it and who seem to have found that this was a targeted attack, or at the very least, that the assailant did shout the speak's first name, as you mentioned. so at this hour, we're waiting for more sense of who that suspect was, what the motivations may have been but i will also point out this is the pacific heights center of san francisco, an affluent neighborhood, and when there is suspicious activity on the corner, they call the police right away, this kind of activity very unusual in this part of san francisco and makes it all the way unusual and all the more horrifying. >> it is certainly horrifying.

so ryan, nancy pelosi was not there at the time of the attack. she has her own security detail, obviously, she is in line for the presidency, and what do we know about the security at her home in san francisco, what does it look like when she is not there? >> reporter: no doubt about that, when the house speaker is anywhere, she has a whole fleet of capitol police officers who have the specific job of protecting her 24 hours a day, seven days a week. that same level of protection is not extended to her immediate family. and that would include her husband. we know that pelosi was here in washington last night, she was scheduled to be in washington all weekend. she has of course been traveling across the country, as we head into the midterm elections. and so it is not surprising that she wasn't there. but in terms of the level of security at her home, we're not exactly sure just how much security the pelosi family have, but they obviously are a wealthy family in a wealthy neighborhood, and we also know

that capitol police have been very concerned about the homes of lawmakers being potential targets. to the point where over the summer, they issued a 10,000 dollars budget to each member of congress, to help them harden the security of their homes, including installing alarm systems, and hardening the windows and doors, locks, and things of that nature. so we don't know exactly what changes were potentially made to the pelosi house as a result of it, but it just goes to show how concerned capitol police have been about this just dramatic increase in the amount of threats toward members of congress. it's a 144% jump in these types of threats towards lawmakers, you know, and in the past years, we've seen the threats manifest itself in violence and the congressional baseball shooting from a couple of years ago, where the house gop whip steve scalise nearly lost his life. this is something that capitol police have been warning for some time, while it's a majority

of threats right now, it has the potential to become actual violence. that's what we saw play out in a case like this, and of course, the speaker herself was not a victim of it, someone very close to her, her and her family was, and the capitol police have been warning for some time that this could be something that we could see with more frequency and members of congress themselves being the victims of attacks like this. >> i'm going to go back to that map and not map but graphic, let's put it back up on the screen to show the number of threats and the way they've increased. look at that, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, just the past few years, what has changed? in just the past few years in our politics? it's gotten uglier, it's gotten angrier. vicious, rettic has been acceptable or made acceptable by most of our politicians, most on one side of the aisle. ben collins, you track all of this. we have a number of people who have denied the 2020 election

and just take the last couple of years, denied it and have sowed conspiracies for it, saying they're coming for you, that this is your democracy they're taking and it is prevalent online. what do we know about the online life of this man that police say attacked paul pelosi? >> and they said, by the way, that there's this "they," they're out to get you and they didn't list specific people but on the internet you look at what they propose, nancy pelosi is sort of at the top of the chain, right? she was there for barack obama, she was there for hillary clinton, and she is there right now with joe biden. so she, you know, in their minds, she is running the cabal in their eyes and this guy is obsessed with it, based on what we've seen on his social media pages. and it's like an encyclopedia of conspiracy theories. it's everything you would think. q-anon. it's all there. so it makes a lot of sense. there is a direct through-line there to believes that she is

running some sort of secret, larger operation. and that's clearly what was going on. >> and clearly the guy also has, i don't want to say clearly, there's talk that maybe he has mental issues. i think going online, you're saying the stuff is clear, he has mental issues, the question is did the mental issues arise because of what he read online, or were they there before that? and really, dos it matter at this point? >> at this point, it simply does not matter. the problem is, people keep egging these people on there. are people on the television, across the street from us, that egg these people on to talk about cabals and stuff and people secretly running the world and that is happening right now and then on top of it, you have political figures. you have the previous president of the united states, posting about q-anon, on the social media platforms, and which is just about this same caba l.a. that we are talking about, so look, it doesn't really matter

at the end of the day. because right now, there are people advocating for these conspiracy theories out there, so of course, people who can't, you know, you don't know this is a game to these politicians, they will take it on the rug. >> and tom winter, our investigations correspondent, what can you tell us about what you've been able to gather from your sources? i know you put up that reporting that the man was yelling, where is nancy? >> right, a couple of different things, first off, this all happened approximately 2:27 local time. police were called for a home break-in priority a wellness check, which is a long way of saying this he were told to step on the gas and get there quickly for a problem. according to the police chief, bill scott, they entered the home, see this individual, david, born in january of 1980, 42 years old, last believed from the berkeley, california, area, in a struggle with paul pelosi, the speaker's husband.

they're both holding a hammer, according to police. and then at some point, immediately thereafter, the man strikes paul pelosi, with that hammer. they render aid, take the attacker into custody, according to the police chief, and at that point obviously, there is an investigation well under way. now the man is expected to be charged later today on attempted homicide, assault, elder abuse, and a host of other charges. we still haven't, we still don't have those yet. and we don't know whether or not he's speaking with investigators. what we have been told by two people briefed on the investigation and including in this reporting from our colleague haily talbot who covers the hill as we all know, that at some point, this individual says, where is nancy, where is nancy, but i caution that this is early on in the investigation, and early on in the case, so we need to get a little bit more details about that. the police chief hasn't said what the motive is, we're not

hearing that either, through people that are being briefed about this investigation. now, i know people might want to throw things at the tv when i say that, or throw them at the police chief when i say that, and say, well, it's obvious what the motive is, they were going after the speaker, that might be true, but the reason why is something that we're still trying to understand. i know ben is talking about the posts that he's seen online, right now, nobody in law enforcement has confirmed to us that those are in fact this individual's postings. and based on some things that we know about this individual's past, and we're still researching on, it is a little unclear to us what his background may in fact be. certainly understand how this looks, given the atmosphere that we've had, given the rhetoric that we've had, over the past several years, as you alluded to, katy, but at this point, law enforcement is not ready to say specifically what the motive is. hopefully we'll get that when charges are filed later today. it might get a little bit more information. but this is all changing quickly. obviously, we've got an

investigation now that's approximately 12 hours old, and so we're starting to get some more details, but far from complete at this point. >> i think that's good context. i think it's good, and relevant information, to remind everybody what we know and what we don't know, and you know, him going in and screaming, where's nancy, according to the reporting, and the officials that you've been able to speak with, and haily talbot has, certainly indicates one thing, and the environment we're living in, indicates that same thing, and what ben has been able to gather from his social media, they all point to that one, that motivation but again, let's make sure that we get all of the information and that will come from law enforcement in due time. tom, his name, it was said a number of different ways, in that news conference, and i use one pronunciation because that is what was said in one of the versions in that news conference. what is his name? >> just as you said it, depape,

born in january of 1980. that's our understanding. last known address that we've been able to find doesn't respond to a specific house, more of a p.o. box for lack of a better term, and we do know the name, as i said, one more time david depape, age 42 according to the san francisco police chief, a long time veteran of the los angeles police department now running things in san francisco. i think it is notable, that at this point, there is no federal investigation. this is being led by local law enforcement. not sure specifically, frankly, what the fbi could do to open the case here. unless they determine something in his background or motive that leads them to believe that this could have been something targeting a federal u.s. federal official. if we see the fbi taking this over, that might be a strong indication about motive and that might lead us a little bit more down that road from an official

standpoint, or from a law enforcement standpoint. but right now, this investigation rests with the local law enforcement there in san francisco. though the fbi is assisting, and just in case you don't believe me on that, we obviously saw pictures of the fbi outside the home in their windbreakers. so they are there. and the fbi evidence response team. which is what that individual is wearing, that jacket, they are particularly good at reconstructing crime scenes and measuring crime scenes and trying to determine what happened here. so we can expect them to be involved, as you would assume, with anything involving the speaker of the house of representatives. >> and tom, some more detail, i'm wondering if you have this, how did this man get in. and how did police know to respond so quickly. >> i've heard two different accounts of this, katy so i want to get a little bit more information before we got out with that. i just don't want to be inaccurate. >> got it. thank you very much. come back us to with that information. charles, i want to ask you, because you've been involving in protecting high profile individuals, like this, and hair

families. what goes into it? >> yeah, a lot. look, first thing is paul pelosi, quite candidly is lucky to be alive. even though he is the one that suffered the injuries in the pelosi family, this was a targeted violent attack against the speaker. you know, number two, in the line of succession, for the presidency. so i think immediately, the u.s. capitol police is going to start reassessing, especially for the leadership -- >> why are you so confident that it is an attack aimed at her. >> because her residence in san francisco is a known location. this man is reportedly from the area. they've had problems in the past with protesters demonstrating and leaving items outside of the residence. and the location of her home is easily discoverable. for somebody that didn't reside in the area. so i think we're going to find

the fbi play a bigger role in this investigation, along with the capitol police, and the san francisco police department. but yes, this was targeted. and again, i think it was an intimidation tactic against the speaker of the house. >> what do you think about the environment right now? and that's not just for lawmakers but for their families? i was watching ben rhodes a moment ago talking about how his family was targeted right after his first child was born. what about the family members of people who are working in high profile pocks within our government? >> i think that's what we're going to see evaluated by the capitol police. >> a lot more from the taxpayers to start protecting families. the capitol police were need to double in size if they start protecting family members but they will find that the need is there. the threat environment tied to politic, rising crime, you flame it, it's out there.

and we see on social media that the rhetoric is still out there. and oftentimes, it's targeted at members of congress. you know, the u.s. capitol police following the shooting of gabby giffords several years ago enhanced security at the residences of all members of congress, if they wanted it. these are technological solutions based on the reporting, we know capitol police were not at the residence, because the speaker wasn't there, and i think that's an additional thing that we might see change for the he leadership of congress. >> how does it get better? what subdues this anger, what subdues these threats? >> adults in the room. people that know how to talk about the issues calmly, and with a purpose of informing on positions as opposed to inciting. you know, we saw this on january 6th, how political rhetoric can

be interpreted, misinterpreted, you name it, and people take actions. people listen but they hear things different ways. in these types of investigations, the u.s. capitol police, fbi, right now, they're checking data bases to see if this individual was of record. was he known with any federal agencies. based on the rhetoric that we see online here. so you know, people act out, and the people that put out these words, bears some responsibility if they're inciting some type of action. >> does this calm down, is the concern not as dire, if it does turn out that this was just an individual who was meant, just solely mentally ill and wasn't targeting her because of her politic, did the officials come out and say we can't strongly determine that he was out there for nancy pelosi or out there be h nancy pelosi? >> yeah, i mean, well, the facts

are, the house was targeted for some reason. is it because it was a nice house? because it is in an affluent area? or is it the previous points i just made and by the way, it also belongs to nancy pelosi. so we may not find that it may be solely tied to politics, but it could be all of the above in terms of drawing attention of this perpetrator to the residence. >> charles, thank you very much. don't go anywhere, any. because after the break, one of speaker pelosi's colleagues in the house is going to join me. what lawmakers are asking for now, with the threats of violence taking a dangerous turn today. taking a dangerous turn today. when moderate to severe ulcerative colitis persists... put it in check with rinvoq, a once-daily pill. when uc got unpredictable,... i got rapid symptom relief with rinvoq. check. when uc held me back... i got lasting, steroid-free remission with rinvoq. check. and when uc got the upper hand... rinvoq helped visibly repair the colon lining.

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♪ ♪ you're a lifesaver. no more waiting. no more running. [ screaming ] we finish this tonight. we are still discussing paul pelosi, the husband of house speaker nancy pelosi, attacked in his home at 2:00 a.m. this morning, just after 2:00 a.m. with a hammer. we learned that the assailant was looking for nancy pelosi,

according to reporting from nbc news, sources that they have spoken with. joining me now by phone is california congressman ro khanna, thank you for being with us, congressman. what you are thinking right now? >> i'm just sickened and outraged of this. i've known paul pelosi. i've been to their home many times. they've opened that home up for decades, to community members, to philanthropic events, to activists and it is so appalling that we've come to this state in our democracy that paul pelosi can't be safe in his own home. >> do you feel safe? >> well, look, i don't think anyone in public life today is completely safe. i would say though that there are other colleagues of mine, particularly women, women of color, who are bigger targets.

and we have to really understand that words have consequences in political debates, and we have to understand that social media has consequences, and my understanding from preliminary reporting, is that the suspect had problematic conspiracy theories on social media. there should be a review whether there he was any incitement to violence there. but we have to do some soul searching as a country. what makes us an extraordinary democracy is that we don't settle disputes with violence. that the essence of who we are, it is just incredibly sad to see this. >> is that still the case, after january 6th? is it still the case that we can say that we don't settle disputes without violence? >> well, less so, obviously. i mean that was what we saw on january 6th, and apparently the suspect had comments about january 6th on his social media. but my hope is that moments like

this could get us to reflect that this violence is outrageous. i mean yes, there's going to be a review on security. i was frankly surprised that there was not security at the speaker's residence. i had just assumed there would be. i imagine that there will be an assessment to make sure at least the leadership or members of congress who face threats, specific threats, that there needs to be an increase in security. but beyond that, we all need to recognize the consequences of words that we have heard on social media or in the public domain, and what we're doing in the at atmosphere -- the atmosphere in this country. >> when you sea we all, who you are talking about? >> i'm talking about anyone who has used language that is threatening violence, inciting violence, that is encouraging people to act violently, or stoking anger. i don't want to, you know, me

calling out specific people is just going to perpetuate the cycle. i would like if just a truce, a sense that, you know, there's a favorite scene from the requests godfather" where all of the families meet after a son's death and enough, enough of it. and we almost need a moment in this country, on both sides, where people just say enough. we can't, we don't want to live in this country like this. >> i hear you. a lot of the conspiracies surround the 2020 election, and you know, that conspiracy that it was stolen, or fraudulent, is being spread by a lot of republicans. there are a number of election deniers who are running for office. how do you deal with that, congressman? >> well, we deal with it by standing up for the truth, in a way that the speaker stood up on january 6th, where she insisted

that we all go and vote, and it was the early hours of the morning, to affirm democracy, and i believe that the january 6th commission did an extraordinarily patriotic job in standing up for values. and what i think that we need to do is be careful in our language, and even those who disagree with the certification of the election, and they will say my view is totally wrong, with the election deniers, the hope would that they're not putting things out that there that is going to target individuals that incites violence. the reality of january 6th, and i keep saying this, the person most at risk was a republican. it was vice president pence. many of the colleagues targeted were republicans. this really should not be a partisan issue. people who are out there, who have mental health issues, who are looking to do these violent acts, they are not stopping to think if it is a democrat or a

conservative or a republican and everyone is at risk for serving, and it is in everyone's interest, not just the right thing to do, but in everyone's interest, everyone's family's interest, to tamp down the rhetoric. >> a good reminder. it was vice president pence. and when we watched some of the video that came out of the rioters on the floor of the senate, they were rifling through ted cruz's papers, saying that ted cruz must be hiding something. so it wasn't just democrats. it was republicans, too. as everybody in office, that they felt, was cheating them, because the president told them so. former president. congressman ro khanna, thank you very much for calling in today. i know you have a busy schedule. we appreciate it. ryan nobles, i want to go back to you on capitol hill, where what you are hearing? any lawmakers there, are you hearing anything from republicans, other than the, you know, statements of support and condemning violence? are you hearing any condemnations of conspiracy? >> to answer your first question, katy, this place is quiet. as it relates to the lawmakers.

they are in recess. we're just a little more than a week away from the midterm elections. most of these members of congress are out in their districts, trying to get as many votes possible, leading into those midterm elections. but in terms of the response that we're seeing, through social media channels, and statements, from members of both republican and democrat, at this point, they've been largely just expressing support personally, for the speaker nancy pelosi, and her family, and wishing her husband a full and speedy recovery. we've not seen yet any of these members, even democrats, i should say to that point, making strong statements about the motivation of this attacker and what it says about our political discourse. that is, we haven't reached that stage of the response from members of congress, but it stands to reason, katy, that that's probably coming, as we get more information, as to exactly what led this person to attack paul pelosi, and be in search of the house speaker nancy pelosi.

but i can just tell you from my own personal experience, talking to members of congress, this is something that they're very worried about, many of them have to deal with a tremendous amount of vitriol on a daily basis. one of the toughest jobs in any member of congress's office is the staffer that has to field the phone calls from people allegedly from their district, or beyond, that get access to those public phone numbers and just call up and say terrible things about these members of congress. it has become such a polarizing and difficult position to be in, as a member of congress, it is just a vulnerable place. and you know, just recently, pramila jayapal, a member from washington, had an incident where she needed police protection at her house, because people were, you know, basically stalking the front of her house on a regular basis, and also giving her direct threats both to her office and to her personally. so it is a very scary time for members of congress.

these threats, as we talked about before, of 144% up over the past four years, and this is a by-product of that. >> and i think, let's go back for a second, to the days after january 6th. and the days after a lot of, a lot of republicans said this is too far even for me. i'm thinking of lindsey graham. and then lindsey graham went to the airport to go back to south carolina, and he was mobbed by angry, very angry trump supporters. and then lindsey graham started attacking back. i wonder if this is, there's, i wonder, in your conversations, that you get from any of the republican lawmakers, that they are scared, to condemn them, because they're scared for themselves? >> well, there's two things to make a point about that, katy. there's two levels of being scared, right? there's the level of scared where you're worried about your own personal safety, which i think there are both republicans and democrats that are worried about their own personal safety.

and then there's also the level of scared about your political future. and it's become very clear that there are certain aspects of the republican party where you cannot criticize the individuals that support republican candidates that inhabit these conspiracy theories as it relates to q-anon, the election being stolen, all of these things that have been demonstrably debunked. it is very difficult for a republican member of congress to vocally criticize those type of movements within the republican party. just look at the ones that have. adam kinzinger, liz cheney, both members of the january 6th committee, both are no longer members of congress. liz cheney soundly defeated in her primary. someone like john, the ranking member on the homeland security committee from syracuse, who decided not to run for re-election, but voted for impeachment, and has strongly

come out about things like this. there is just not a place for members of congress and the republican party to strongly denounce this type of activity, because there will be a penalty at the ballot box when election time comes around, particularly in republican primaries. >> thank you so much for being with us. i've admired your reporting for a long time. it's good to have you on the team. appreciate it. >> thanks, katy. all right. so i just got a little bit of news from jake sherman at punchbowl. we were talking about this. capitol police is going to review security for lawmakers in the wake of the attack on paul pelosi. charles, it's not going to surprise you. >> no, it's not. obviously, this event impacted democrats today, tomorrow could be republicans, tomorrow it could be independents, so the threat is out there. it's very real. you see that it is not limited, and cannot impact only members. but their families. so this wholesale review, new threat assessments, especially for the leadership of congress,

needs to be done by the capitol police, and also the risk of copy cats. >> is it hard to be in security right now for lawmakers? is it hard to be, obviously it is hard to be in the capitol police, we saw, but is it hard to be a secret service agent right now? >> it is tough, because politicians want access to people as much as they can. so it's balancing the security and the openness, right? and the approachability. so it's a tough job. but look, as far as when it comes down to residential security, personal protection, those things can be implemented and they can be implemented fairly quickly by the capitol police. but we saw technology is reactive. if an alarm goes off, the incidents already happened. you're waiting for the police to come, san francisco pd had a great response. their chief of police is a great leader. but you need human beings there.

you need people there to stop the threat. >> charles marino, former secret service supervise ry special agent thank you very much for giving us your expertise on a scary and quite frankly depressing day for our country. coming up, journalist bob woodward on his eight hours of recorded interviews with donald trump. we have new audio. after the break though, we will talk about the same subject, just a different side of it. elections officials, what they're telling our reporters on the ground about the threats to them and the stepped-up efforts by extremists to not just intimidate the poll workers, but voters. covid-19. some people get it, and some people can get it bad. and for those who do get it bad, it may be because they have a high-risk factor. such as heart disease, diabetes, being overweight, asthma, or smoking. even if symptoms feel mild, these factors can increase

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. implying that election officials are being watched. one organization, clean elections usa has been pushing for trump supporters to, trump supporters on southern, on truth social, to create ballot tailgate parties to monitor drop boxes nationwide for suspected ballot mules. nbc news saw this happening in mesa, arizona. we got a reporter talking to us about it in a moment. and in maricopa county. two voters complained to state

officials that masked and armed vigilantes were intimidating them at ballot box drop boxes. the fbi and d.o.j. says both agencies stepped up funding to respond to threats in the field. joining me now from phoenix, arizona, nbc's vaughn hillyard, and in philadelphia, nbc's dasha burns. so vaughn, i just alluded to you. you have seen some of these patrols at the ballot box. what else are you hearing from not just voters but election workers? >> reporter: you know, i'm often hearing exasperation from folks who are working at the local government level here. you know, there is one county official, the county recorder, a deep red county, who resigned from her position, as the recorder, just months before the election, because of frustration stemming from the 2020 election. you can make the case that the seed of the conspiracy theories were planted in 2020. and now, they have roots. and that is where you're seeing the action here. there's a serious nature to these conspiracy theories. and there's of course a sliding

scale. when we're talking about the impact that those conspiracy theories have. you have those folks who have a microphone who amplify the conspiracy theories, but then you also have those folks who really act like ground soldiers, in essence those on the front lines taking action. those are the folks that you have seen, they come masked and armed to some of these polling drop box locations here in arizona. but then it's for those folks who have the microphone. i want to let you hear from two republican candidates, two of those individuals who have talked about taking action and watching these ballot drop boxes closely. take a listen to their remarks this year. >> if they can't cheat, they can't win. right now, we've got individuals who are showing up at ballot drop boxes with multiple ballots. and they deployed the media, they deployed the sheriff, oh, well we're an open carry state, people can watch those boxes, because the county sure as hell isn't. >> a lot of people saw things that they did not like in 2020,

to put it mildly. and so we're going to have an army, we're going to have a lot more eyes and ears and boots on the ground this time. >> reporter: katy, people believe the conspiracy theories, and they are taking action on it. the other night, i was in one of those parking lots. it was about 9:00 at night, i went up to one car, in which a couple was sitting there, just laser focused, they had a point and shoot camera on their dashboard, they were looking at that dropbox. they had neon yellow jackets with security em blasened on them. i went up to the car, their windows were down, i tried to ex change pleasantries and they didn't make eye contact with me and they believe that it was rigged in arizona in 2020 with joe biden and many suggested it is in fact illegal voter intimidation. we should note there is a federal judge looking at this place right now and could issue a ruling as soon as this

afternoon. >> all right, vaughn, thank you. dasha, you're in pennsylvania. in 2016, as i was on the campaign trail, donald trump would call out philadelphia, he would tell his supporters to watch what's happening in philadelphia. implying that there would be some sort of fraud and what is a heavily diverse population in philadelphia, which he did not expect to win over. it's been amplified since then, these concerns, concerns i'll put them in quotes, what are you hearing now, as we head into the midterms, about poll watchers and fraud, and the threats surrounding our elections? >> reporter: look, we're hearing things in pennsylvania as vaughn was talking about in arizona. this is a national concern, right? in this building behind me, katy, this is the beating heart of elections here in philadelphia. and the difference between what we're seeing here, this year,

compared to elections past is the level of security. yesterday, we got to take a look at the technology that they're going to be using on election day, what they're going to be using to sort and count the ballots but we heard about how much they will have to protect, not just the election and the ballots but also the election workers here. and i've been talking to elections officials for a while now, and so many of these folks, they've been doing this their entire lives, they've been working on this stuff for decades, and they never thought that this would be a job where they would have to be concerned about their safety. they always saw this as an administrative task, a civic duty, but now, security is a serious concern. take a listen. >> we have metal detectors. would he have cameras. we have all of the doors, they are fobbed. there will be a fence around the whole site. there will be security at the entrance. all of the doors are alarmed.

and there is a visceral feeling. i would never want to be a part of that. i didn't think i would have to be with the fbi and the homeland security about an election, and it is unbelievable to me, but sadly, this is the reality. >> reporter: there's no traditional early voting here in pennsylvania. but they do have these ballot drop boxes here right outside of the elections headquarters where folks have been coming and dropping off their mail-in ballots. i also asked the question, the dreaded time line question, when we might get results out of philadelphia, one of the bigger populations in the state, and it is not going to be on november 8th. we'll not get results out of philly on election night. >> and that's a good thing to remind folks, don't expect the election results to come in immediately. like 2020, it takes some time to count the mail-in ballots and count the early voting especially in counties or states

work dasha is, where you can't start it before election day. >> thank you very much. expect to see donald trump crisscrossing the country over the next two weeks. rallies for republican candidates this iowa, florida, and ohio. the former president is still popular with the gop base and he knows it. in interviews with bob woodward in 2020, he said gop candidates are nothing without him. >> you've changed the republican party. you realize that? >> 95% approval rating. nobody's ever been at 80, you know, ronald reagan was 87. >> is this a movement? >> no. that, i can't tell you. i can dealt you -- >> what do you think. >> it's the party of strength and common sense, both. you know. i don't say -- >> who's the heir? >> that's to be determined. but okay, as an example, the

republican party has always been known for disloyalty to each other. okay? they always broke up. i will say this. and this isn't a threat, because it's not a threat but if they went against it, they all lose they're election. even if they lost 5% of my voters, because nobody has a base. >> woodward just released that recording and many more from 20 interviews he did with donald trump while president. joining me is the assistant manager of the "washington post," the author of the audio book "the trump tapes," thanks for being with us. >> thank you. >> i want to ask you about the attack on paul pelosi first. >> certainly. obviously, awful, awful act. and you can't pre-judge who this person is who did it, what the motive is, but i think it's reasonable and necessary to step

back and ask the question, what sort of climate of violence has been created in this country and the answer, and you could look at the tapes, as donald trump as candidate, and president, urging people on, in a violent way, and now, you can't trace, it would be unfair to trace that to this act, but we create a climate as politicians, citizens, everyone, the press, also, and the climate is violence, well, look at january 6th, look at what some people say, oh, it was just a peaceful protest. you just have to look and see

the video of it. so somebody needs to remedy this. i don't know who it's going to be or how it's done. but what happened to paul pelosi is abhorrent and it stems or it is made more possible by this climate that has been created. >> so from preliminary reporting, it seems, according to ben collins who has been going through this man's social media, that he subscribes to a lot of conspiracy, and one of the conspiracies that our law enforcement is so concerned about is the conspiracy that the election was stolen, and the threat that it has inspired. the polls show, talking about this, 48 minutes, just showed a little bit from pennsylvania, and arizona, and what poll workers are worried about, what voters are worried about in those areas and what they've already experienced, and this experience that the election was stolen has been pushed by donald trump. we just played audio from a

conversation that you were having with him, about his hold over the republican party. he says they would be nothing without me. and because of donald trump's pushing of this conspiracy, the republican party largely pushes this conspiracy. how do you break free from that as -- how does the country break free from that? when so many of our elected officials, or leaders, are coming out and spreading it? >> a panel of brave people are going to have to put all the pieces together, and i think the question needs to be asked, what's the road back, and the road back involves leadership, people coming in and saying this is unacceptable, this is so -- what happened january 6th is so out of the reasonable path in this country of dealing with

elections, disputed elections, controversial elections, and so the answer is lots of work to be done by everyone. but let's not make the premature judgment because somebody was looking at conspiracy theories on the media, or on the internet. so we've got to be patient, but the leaders in all parties need to step up and say this is intolerable. >> yes, and that's a good reminder. let's wait for officials to give us the final word on motivation. we can tell you about the reporting we've gathered and we can tell you about the concerns and the context and the environment we're living in, but let's wait for a final determination. it is very clear that there are a lot of people who are in elected positions who are certainly scared right now about this environment. this new audio kbook that you're

out with, to go back to that, 20 conversations with the former president, largely went into your book "rage," what is your big take-away, bob, and having so much interaction with him? >> well, first of all, what the january 6th house committee is demonstrating, has demonstrated, trump does not believe in democracy. clearly, he lost. bob costa, in our book "peril," we investigated these claims from trump supporters, and they totally collapsed. they do not exist. my other take-away is, and this is the tragedy, trump in this nine month period, he was the president, the chief executive, and i could call him and he would call me. he does not understand the presidency. he does not understand the obligations that come with being

president to the people, to protect the people, as he told me, and in terms of the virus, i discovered in re-listening to these tapes, that he concealed the warning he got. he lied about it. he kept saying no, everything's going to be fine. the virus is going to go away. and he had the experts telling him no, no, that's not the way it is. what a sad situation for the country. i think when you look at it, and if you listen to all of this, you will see that his negligence was criminal. he could have taken what he was told, and just shared it with the public, and somehow had this idea that he should play it down, as he told me, and not

create a panic. one of the things we learn as journalists over the years and in my case, 50 years, the american people don't panic if they're led, and if they're told the truth. >> bob woodward, thank you very much for joining us. and i just want to give everyone a little bit of an update on more breaking news that we got in a few minutes ago. speaking about threats to lawmakers, a pennsylvania man has pleaded guilty to making threats to kill eric swalwell, united states congressman. coming up, elon musk now has control of twitter. what is about to change on the site? and i mean this whole show is on one theme right now, and that is public discourse, and the messages that get sent out and amplified. we will talk about it with elon musk and twitter next. don't go anywhere. go anywhere. a! 12 irresistible subs... like #11 subway club. piled with turkey, ham and roast beef.

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of the lifetime bans such as david duke and alex jones and steve bannon of the former president could make a comeback. musk said publicly we reverse the ban against donald trump and previously said he was taking over twitter in part to make it a free speech platform and he promised on twitter, in an apparent appeal to advertisers that twitter would not become a free for all hell scape where anything can be said with no consequences. joining me is insider columnist lynette lopez. he has free speech is not the same as free reach. it seems like he's tempering it. does that indicate to you that there will be a line in the twitter world of elon musk? >> our line is different from elon's line. elon doesn't really believe that words mean things to a certain extent. . i think one of the reasons that kanye was kicked off because of what kanye said about jews was a call to violence or a call to action or death con 4, or whatever he said, that is scary,

elon probably wouldn't have kicked off kanye for that kind of speech. i think we have a different line, as people who think about society and think about context and care about history and care about our politics and elon has more of a silicon valley free for all mentality. >> does twitter matter as much any longer? according to the reporting and the analysis of it, a lot of the major users, the frequent users are in decline. a lot of people who have very large platforms on twitter aren't really using it as much. finding that it is, it's a lot more risk than reward. are we seeing -- could this be kind of the end of twitter as a -- is it going to jump the shark? >> as a place to go to pay attention. >> i think that one of elon's things that he is thinking is if i get these guys, like alex jones, like donald trump, they will attract their following, and their following will be more active on my platform. rather than, the rest of us are kind of getting tired of

twitter, and the other thing is that twitter doesn't really make any money. >> i saw a cup of coffee with her husband. >> it is very exhausting. >> enjoy that cup of coffee with your husband. >> it seems like there is a well of anger in this country that doesn't seem to be ending. and it is fomented by the same period who like to use those distribution platforms like twitter, so that's where they want to be. it is going to be a process before the advertisers realize, yikes, and in that time, bad things can happen. >> let's connect it to today's events. because they're not disconnected. you heard ro khanna saying earlier, it is up to our elected leaders to say enough, this is not okay and acceptable. is that enough? >> that's not enough. it is up to our elected leaders what kind of society do we want to have on the internet? what kind of place? do we want to protect people from violent speech? what are your rights as somebody who gets on the internet? and as consumers, we have to make those decisions.

something that mark zuckerberg can make a decision of what the algorithms on facebook do today, ro khanna can't do anything about hate speech on the internet right now, mark zuckerberg can, and unfortunately, elon musk can, too. the other thing about elon musk is the company doesn't make any money. so he's going to have to fire a lot of people and that includes content moderators. so it also includes people running security for twitter, so your account could theoretically get hacked more recently or twitter dms could get hacked more easily. this will have real consequences and we're in a very delicate time. the time could not be worse. >> linette lopez, thank you. it is always better to have conversations face to face and they're always better. >> that will do it for us on this crazy friday. hallie jackson will pick up our coverage about the developing story about paul pelosi right now. don't go anywhere. right now. don't go anywhere. breaking