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we are coming on the air with some key moments happening now in the senate including a potentially historic vote that could set up a push to protect same-sex marriage in this country. and you've got mitch mcconnell fresh off the mics after being re-elected at a republican senate leader poised to make history himself next term and what he is now saying and what it means for both parties. and happening live right now, the u.n. security council as we speak after two people were killed after what officials say is probably stray ukrainian fire on tuesday. we will have the latest on that meeting and get any new reaction from tammy duckworth, a member of the senate armed services committee later on this hour. with me is ali vitali and

punchbowl managing editor heather kay. there is a lot going on. first, you have this key test vote that will move forward, potentially, a bill that would enshrine protection for same-sex marriage. we expect that to go down any minute. we're going to get into what that means and whether the backers have the votes in the senate. then you have mitch mcconnell coming to the cameras just minutes after beating back a first-ever challenge to his leadership position in the senate. and in that chamber, democrats are looking to re-shape the judiciary, and now that they've kept the majority over the next two years. we're going to have more on that later on in the show. and then over the on the house side, house speaker hopeful, speaker-hopeful, you could say, kevin mccarthy having to face the reality of concessions to far right members so they will confirm him to leadership in january. ali, let's start with the senate leadership elections. this may feel inside the beltway reads and nobody really cares about, however this matters as it relates to the power that even the minority leader wheeled in the senate, as it relates to

actual legislation. actual governing. >> let me make the case why everybody should care because these are the people who lead the legislative battles here on the senate side and the house side and the key messages and key stop-gaps what legislation gets moved on and taken seriously and what doesn't. in the case of kevin mccarthy and perhaps he was challenged for the leadership role from midterms, and pre-term, it makes sense because you have a republican party in a complete reckoning right now and they thought they might have a chance of taking the senate. and now of course they have not been able to do that. and they thought they would be able to run away with it in the house and if they get the majority, it is by a handful of seats, so there is of course a reckoning by what that is the case and the fact that mccarthy and mcconnell backs the challengers tells the larger story is telling the larger

story, if you're entrenched as the likely leader or the sitting leader it is hard to move people up. for mcconnell's part, he was confident the entire time and if you watched the despint attitude as he came out and talked to reporters after the many hours of deliberation and the ultimate vote that confirmed him to the position of 15 years, he offered an assessment of what went wrong and this is what it sounded like. >> among independents, and among moderate republicans, who looked at us and concluded too much chaos, too much negativity, and we turned off a lot of these centrist voters, we have a problem with people in the middle who still, as many as they used to be, determined the outcome. >> so some notable things that he didn't say there, he didn't plan former president trump, despite the fact that donald trump has spent a lot of time pointing the finger at mitch mcconnell. and he didn't say anything about

rick scott, whose job it was to take back the senate and the plan who challenged him in the closed door leadership elections and instead mcconnell staying focused on the future and what republicans want to accomplish and what they have to change in their messaging to voters. >> let me turn to you. because rick scott never really posed as a serious threat to mitch mcconnell but does this reorient the power dynamics in the gop moving forward into the new congress. >> yes, i think absolutely. i think as alley said, this is the first time, mcconnell, 16 year leadership career that he ever faced a challenge. and to get ten votes against him, that's about 20% of the caucus. and it is actually a pretty big deal. we always knew going into this that mcconnell was going to win, and that was never in doubt, but i do think that there is a faction of the caucus, or the conference now that says you know what, we are unhappy with the things, the way things are being run, we're not afraid to say so, and you're going to have to listen to us a little bit more now. >> let's talk about that. >> so i think it will be -- go ahead. >> i'm sorry, go, please. >> yes, i was just going to say

i think it will be interesting to see how these ten no votes and maybe some other people who kind of feel the same way but didn't want to speak up try to exert their influence over the next two years while they're still in the minority but a very tight minority where they have a lot of power. >> you talk about folks trying to exert their influence, ali vitali well knows as she covers both chambers and you were seeing that on the house side and it is interesting, that punch bowl has laid out, what happens to kevin mccarthy in the uphill battle getting 218 votes, right? he needs two dozen plus more to become speaker in january. if by the way, if republicans do, the house of representatives, the map in their favor and msnbc hasn't officially projected the seat and if you round up the concessions he may have to make, from expanding the steering committee which hands out committee assignments to allowing committee members to elect their own chairs and then a big one is this bringing back a motion to vacate the chair and that means only a simple vote

would allow the chamber to basically dump mccarthy at some point down the line. how much is he going to budge on this, heather? and where is his path? >> look, you know, i think a lot of those things are open for negotiations. i do not think we at punch bowl don't think that he gets on the motion to vacate. that makes you absolutely powerless as speaker in some ways and totally beholden to a very small faction of people if they're unhappy with you. now, the question is what kind of deal does mccarthy cut between now and january 3rd to get to 218. and that's a good question. he will have to give to some of this with conservatives and the other thing to consider, he has several more members coming from districts where biden won and biden is popular in new york and the west coast, so i think there is a lot of talk in the conference right now, especially among the middle of t road, that mkt carthy can't go too far right or he will risk alienating members who are in vulnerable districts and kptd do these extreme investigations and other things that the far right is

calling for if they want to win re-election in two years. >> thanks to both of you, as we nerd out here, a little bit on the dc side to start the show. important. we will talk about more what else is happening in the senate in a second. we have to get to news overseas. right now, a live shot, the u.n. security council is talking about the war in ukraine. this is a meeting that is happening as we speak. and a day after an explosion in poland raised concerns of potentially an escalation by russia. now, the leaders of nato and poland saying it it is no indication that it was in fact a russian attack. they say it was probably, most likely caused by a ukrainian air defense missile. the secretary of defense, lloyd austin, is saying today that no matter what the investigation shows, russia is still to blame for starting this war in the first place. listen. >> whatever the final conclusions may be, the world knows that russia bears ultimate responsibility for this incident.

>> nbc news foreign correspondent molly hunter is joining us now live from lviv ukraine and raf sanchez is in brussels. raf, i will start you with. you are covering all things happening with the u.n. and nato, et cetera and 24 hours ago we were on the air caveating like crazy with the questions that we still had, the questions unanswered, and we're now getting some more answers here. talk us through what you know and what you expect to see in the hours ahead here. >> yes, hallie, 24 hours ago, it really looked possible that nato was on the brink of war with russia. today, things are a lot calmer. ian stoltenberg the u.n. secretary general trying to lower the temperature, and he says it appears what happened in eastern poland yesterday is that as the ukrainians were trying to stop this wave of incoming russian cruise missiles, one of their own intercepters went astray. it landed in eastern poland and it caused this explosion. he said there is no indication that russia either deliberately attacked poland yesterday, nor

is it planning any attack on nato territory at any point coming soon. take a listen to what he had to say. >> we have no indication that this instant was the result of a deliberate attack on nato territory. and there is no indication that russia is planning offensive interactions against nato allies. >> now, just like the secretary of defense, stoltenberg said russia bears moral responsibility for this, even if it was ukrainian missile, because the only reason there are missiles flying over the skies of europe is because of vladimir putin's aggression. he said the nato alliance in the coming days is going to be vigilant, calm, and closely coordinated, and we are seeing that reflected in the military posture, poland has increased its air patrols, it is trying to reassure its public that they are prepared for whatever might come, but the real message from

nato right now is they are not looking for escalation. >> hallie? >> raf sanchez live in brussels. thank you. >> molly hunter, where it is all rainy in lviv, ukraine. give us the view from on the ground there, molly. >> yes, you just heard raf lay out basically the international consensus at this point, we were on the air 24 hours ago, we were saying we do not know what is happening because of the leadership in poland, the ukrainian leadership, the nato leadership, and no one knew, and after a night of investigations at the impact site across the border in poland, this very some answers and so many answers that the prime minister is saying what rocket it is, from what air defense system. we did have all of this information and we saw president zelenskyy come out quickly before the information was available saying that russians missiles hit poland and even after all of this information, just about an hour ago, he was on the television speaking to

ukrainian journalists and he was doubling down, he was adamant that these are ukrainian missiles and requested access to a joint investigation, and with the eu and nato allies and it had been a part of this discussion today, that is really hard to square, when you have, you know, secretary of defense lloyd austin and the nato secretary general all saying we're not blaming you, no one is pointing fingers at you, we understand why this is happening and yet they're saying this was likely an error in ukraine. >> molly hunter, thank you very much. appreciate it. coming up, here on the show, a lot to get, to including elon musk telling everybody who works for twitter to get hard core or else. telling his staff to commit to long hours by ak today or they are welcome to get out. we'll talk about it. plus former president trump officially now making a third run for the white house. but not everyone is happy about it. including a big republican donor, we'll talk about the new gop pushback in just the last few hours, coming up in a

second. and first, the senate, set to take a step for protecting a marriage equality and federal law, any minute now. will democrats get enough republican votes to make it happen? we'll get into that and a whole lot more with senator tammy duckworth when she joins us next. duckworth when she joins u next (vo) verizon small business days are back. and there's never been a better time to switch. get our best offers of the year on business internet. help your business stay ahead with the reliable connection your business deserves. book your appointment today. and switch to the network america relies on. verizon. are you tired of clean clothes that just don't smell clean? downy unstopables in-wash scent boosters keep your laundry smelling fresh waaaay longer than detergent alone. if you want laundry to smell fresh for weeks, make sure you have downy unstopables in-wash scent boosters.

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partnerships and the court overturned roe v. wade this summer. let's bring in ryan nobles. let's talk about the level of competence and getting the, the confident to get the bill to the desk and there are things that democrats had to negotiate on this issue. . >> reporter: no doubt about. that the answer to your question, everyone seemed really confident. that's despite the fact that we have yet to identify ten specific republican votes that would get this bill over the finish line, both the responsers of the bill, republican and democrat, continue to tell us that when the votes are actually cost, they will be there. so in the next five or ten minutes, we will probably learn specifically who it is they've convinced to vote for this bill that will take it over that procedural hurdle, which will then put it on the path to eventually passing and getting to president biden's desk. but you mentioned those compromises. and there were sox mices necessary to get republicans on board, and they specifically had to deal with protections of religious liability and for

religious groups that don't agree with same-sex marriage. it includes things like protecting all religious liberty and conscious protections under constitutional and federal law. and it protects nonprofit religious organizations from providing services, facilities, and goods for the celebration of marriage. and in other words, you wouldn't be penalized if you were unwilling to perform a same-sex marriage. and also, tax-exempt status for religious groups will not be affected by the legislation. and the federal government not required to recognize polygamous marriages. >> these are part of the arms made and republicans have said they will vote yes and we will have to see what the final remaining senators are. and it is important to point out the timing. this is during the lame duck session of congress. a lot of these republicans votes are members of the senate that aren't going to be around after the start of the new year. so they feel comfortable being

able to cast this ballot and not having to worry about how it impacts them back in their home states. >> ryan nobles, staying on top of that one for us. senator tammy duckworth is with us now. thank you for being with us. how confident are you that this respect for marriage bill will make it to the president's desk? and secondly, are you satisfied that this bill goes far enough to protect same-sex marriage? >> i am very confident that this bill will make it to the president's desk for his signature. i think there are very good compromises that were made and we will get the ten republican votes to allow us to move forward with this. but the bill is really more clarification language, to make sure that people understand where the law as it stands is. and remember, that it is still the law of the land and it has not been overturned so it is

still illegal in this country. >> and ryan nobles on capitol hill talk bltd the lame duck session to do list, and it is kind of long for senate democrat, the reauthorization of the national defense bill, you got to keep the lights on and avoid a government shutdown and address the debt ceiling and talk about the electoral count reform act. and what should be the biggest priority for democrats right now? >> well, i agree that we need to get this same-sex bill passed but i also would like to see the defense budget passed as quickly as possible. i don't think that there are, you know, we have talked about it in a bipartisan way out of committee back in the summer and it is time that we get this passed so that we can fully support our military and there is a lot of legislation in there, language in there, that helps military families in particular. >> yes, that's a bill that has a lot of other smaller pieces in it that are also important. permanent protections is talked about for immigrants.

i want to play this and ask you about it. >> the cards are directly on the table. we know it is important in december that we pass the dream act. december of this year. when we return from thanksgiving. because if the house moves as we think it might, politically, it becomes increasingly difficult after the first of the year to take up this issue. >> senator, is that something you would like to see this congress take up before the new year starts? >> very much so. it is long past time that we passed laws to help our dreamers, our daca children as well. and that was good to see dirk durbin from illinois, he has been working on it for 20 years and it is long past time. i have a piece of legislation that would allow people to gain legal status for serving in the military. only one senator is blocking it, senator grassley and there is a lot to work on if we can get them to come to the table. >> you talked about folks getting them to come to the table and the lame duck but

let's talk about the next senate and nbc news has not called it eight days later that republicans will probably take control of the house of representatives by a very small margin, if in fact the math continues to work out in their favor. for folks who are looking over the next two years and going okay, dems senate, and republican house, and president biden, what is one place where you see both the house and the senate working together, collaboration, between a mccarthy-led conference, dealing with the freedom caucus, and a very, you know, thin majority democratic senator. what is one issue where they might have collaboration to look forward to in the next two years. >> i hope we pass a farm bill. i'm from illinois. a farm bill is very, very important to our nation's ax g sectors that not only feeds the nation and beginning to fuel the nation in term of our ethanol and bio fuels production. and if the republicans do take control of the house it will be a very small majority and there will be quite a few republican senators who would cross party lines to vote for democrats and there are a moderate republicans

out there. i think speaker mccarthy, if he is elected speaker, will have a hard time controlling his majority as you have already said and there will be a lot of republicans that will cross over the lines to vote with democrats and i think you will see democrats fully united, and he's going to have his hands full. >> before i let you go, i know you have to run but i would be remiss if i didn't ask you, as a member of the armed services committee, how you view the events from the last 24 hours, in poland, and what we've seen, as it relates to the international response to the explosion there. >> well, i was relieved to see that the rocket that fell in poland did not come from russia. already, we have this great mistake made by putin. he has lost legitimacy. we need to continue to support our allies and ukraine. illinois is a big, has a big population of ukrainian americans and polish americans and the national guard was training the ukrainian military up until just a few months before the russian invasion. so this is very deeply personal for us in illinois. we need to continue to support

ukraine as they fight for their freedoms, as they fight to protect and defend their own sovereignty and i think this shows that we really must remain united and the last 24 hours have been pretty scary for folks and i think it brought through the reality for what a lot of folks what article five of the treaty means. >> tammy duckworth, thank you very much for being back on the show. >> thank you. we will talk about former president trump making it officially official with a third shot at the white house. some republicans already coming out very publicly this afternoon, with their take on it, and spoiler alert, it is not great for the former president. plus, our team just getting a brand new report, suggesting some of the top social media companies, along with the fbi and dhs, are not doing enough to fight domestic terror. we are scrambling our intelligent correspondent to the camera and we'll have it for you after the break. it for you after the break. for instant relief that lasts up to 12 hours. vicks sinex targets congestion at the source, relieving nasal congestion and sinus pressure

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new pushback this afternoon, from republicans whose names you are probably familiar with. against the idea of yet another trump white house. they don't want to see former president trump run again in 2024. they think there is a better direction for the party. after donald trump announced his intentions over that in mar-a-lago. watch. >> i wish he wouldn't. i think he is unfit for office. i thought his remarks were very subdued and uninspiring. >> we're also learning a second republican maga donor has turned

away from the president, the ceo of blackstone telling axios it is time for a new generation of leaders, that is a big zeal, because who controls the purse strings matters here, and the money question is front and center in some ways for the former president, given his new entry into the 2024 race. he's got a war chest of nearly $100 million spread across his political accounts and he's got to make some moves with that country to be able to touch it now. has lot of strict limits at this point on fundraising spending and et cetera. let's bring in vaughn hillyard joining us from west palm beach. it not just mark esper. there is mike pompeo, with a little dig with a line from the former president claiming victim, and not to claim victimization and a slew of republican officials who said maybe this is not the right move and not to mention vp mike pence, he thinks there will be a better choice, spoiler alert him, in 2024, and give us the

landscape, it seems to me from the conversations i've had with folks in trump world they are undeterred by this unsurprisingly. >> reporter: the question is going to be who in the republican party is going to willingly put their political capital on the line, and who believes that they would be able to raise the sort of funds to go toe to toe with donald trump. let alone have their character maligned. and have their political fortunes in the future be at stake here. and when you're looking at the, the bank of money, you're talking about $100 million, now there was a legal complaint that was put forward this week over the transfer of funds and most of the funds were raised from donald trump's leadership act which he set up after losing the election in november 20620, and just here, after the last weeks i'm told, that a significant amount of that money was transferred to a super pac, where that super pac will be able to help boost donald trump's candidacy. for actual campaign purposes, he will have to go out and sort of fundraise for the campaign

apparatus but backing from an outside group that is able to help out on tv ads and help out on research and help in terms of opposition, they'll be able to do a lot with that super pac. in terms of who will step forward, i want to let you here our scott wong on capitol hill a few moments ago caught up with kevin mccarthy and asked him whether he would be endorsing donald trump. take a listen. >> >> >> you are prepared to endorse president trump? >> why? >> are you prepared to endorse him? >> do you endorse him? >> you guys are crazy. >> hallie, you know this. donald trump demands loyalty especially within his republican party here. at the same time, i was having a conversation with somebody close to glen young kin this afternoon and there's not necessarily a rush here. you know, glen youngkin, the virginia state legislature, they're going to be meeting and convening in january and february. here in florida, the legislature convenes in march and april. we're talking about 14 months to

the iowa caucus. so as long as there is not a whole slew of candidates that are going and trying to win over these sort of anti-trump money here, this can be a waiting game and we could be looking at several months before anybody decides to willingly put themselves out there and make them subject to donald trump. >> and i have to tell you, it is my sense that that, the idea that this is a waiting game, that we're still so far out from 2024, it is why you heard some exasperation, and kevin mccarthy's voice, i don't know for sure, but it is my sense it is less about whether he will endorse donald trump and more about, are we really going to do this now, like a week after the midterms? you heard the same kind of exasperation from florida governor ron desantis today when he was asked about this and he literally said, everybody needs to chill. everybody needs to take a deep breath and chill for a second. i know -- >> the irony is that it is their former president himself is the one who is looking at the entire conversation. >> that said, twice impeached former president whose actions incited an insurrection at the capitol who is looking to try to

make another run for the white house. vaughn hillyard thank you. brand new reporting at nbc news, the homeland security committee is accusing top social media companies to not do enough to fight domestic terrorism from anti-government extremists and bring in ken dilanian, with this brand new reporting. tell us about it. >> the first thing to note, this is essentially democrats investigating democrats, the majority of the homeland security committee, out with this huge report, 128-page report, criticizing agencies now run by the biden administration. but they pulled no punches. they said for example that they found that the fbi and dhs are continuing to devote for resources to international terrorism than the threat from domestic terrorism even though officials have been saying for years that the domestic terrorism has eclipsed international terrorism as the most dire threat to americans. and the committee, the investigators also found that

the fbi and the dhs can't come up with good data, a good data picture of how many domestic terrorism attacks in a given here, how many arrests, how many cases, it is a muddled picture, they are not keeping the required data according to the committee. the fbi is in the midst of the biggest domestic terror investigation in history and has-a lot of arrests in the capital riot case, but before that, domestic terrorism was declining by the fbi even if the threat was metastasizing. in terms of the big social media companies, meta, tiktok, twitter, youtube, what the report found was that they have a business model that incentivizes extremist content. they said that these companies have failed to meaningfully address the growth of extremist content on their platforms, and now the companies are pushing back, and saying particularly, in the case of meta, they're saying no, actually, it is going down. but the committee really dug in deeply here, and i talked to some of these company executives and they got the sense that the

the company responses to take this content down after it has already spread, rather than taking action in terms of their algorithms, to sort of tweak what is put in front of people, because you know, these, all of these platforms, encourage engagement, and what draws engagement, often the more extreme content is what this committee is finding. so unfortunately, hallie, they don't really have a great answer in terms of how the government can better regulate these social media companies, there's a huge first amendment issue out there. no one is quite willing to say that the government needs to step in and demand action from these companies. >> ken dilanian, thank for that new reporting, appreciate it. a curve ball now in the seditious conspiracy trial with members of the oath keepers. as testimony was winding down and closing arguments were expected to start, one of the defendants made a surprise decision to take to the stand in her own defense. jessica watkins, who founded a small militia group in ohio, you can see her officially linked up with the oath keepers on january 6th, i wam want to get to ryan

reilly posted outside the courthouse in dc, talk to us what this means for watkins and the trial overall. as we say, this is not something that prosecutors were fully expecting. >> reporter: that's right, hallie, i didn't expect to be standing here talking about this, and potentially closing arguments but the prosecution was going to take that up this afternoon, but at the last minute, jessica watkins decided she was going to testify. and jessica watkins has a compelling story, a transwoman who went through a lot of issues as a member of the u.s. military when she was not out, and i think that, you know, it was interesting to hear her perspective, but it was also interesting to hear, she was willing to do what other defendants who took the stand do, your stewart rhodes and other defendant, thomas caldwell who were unwilling to do, which was sort of take some shots at herself. and she took the stand and said what she did was stupid. she talked about how she was really gullible. and in fact, at one point she said she wanted to apologize to officers who had to deal with

her, quote, dumb ass inside the capitol. so whee was willing to give a little bit more i think to the juror than these other prior defendants were. i think essentially what she is trying to do is avoid that seditious conspiracy charge, that is the one that she really wants to dodge here. and she essentially admitted to the elements, the obstruction of an official proceeding and talked about how she was there, essentially obstructing what was happening and she was saying that this wasn't part of a freedom pre-meditated act and she wasn't what prosecutors said to create this conspiracy and obstruct the peaceful transfer of power on january 6th. what this means is we will hear cross-examination from the government tomorrow morning, when she's back on the stand, and you know, really thanksgiving is what we're dealing with here, as to whether or not the jury will get to this friday, and the jury will probably stick around until only tuesday so there is a chance that that verdict, which could

have come before the thanksgiving holiday might not come until after. >> thank you very much. live in dc. thank you. still ahead, we know senate democrats were thrilled to keep control of that chamber in the midterms. but you know who else is pretty psyched about it. the white house, with president biden willing to make some moves, making some nominations to reshape the federal judiciary after years of republicans doing just that. we have more at the big board. sahil is there: sa hil is there anre supplement insurance plan from unitedhealthcare. medicare supplement plans help by paying some of what medicare doesn't... and let you see any doctor. any specialist. anywhere in the u.s. who accepts medicare patients. so if you have this... consider adding this. call unitedhealthcare today for your free decision guide. ♪

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so right now, nbc news is still not project wlog will control the house just yet, although the math is looking good for republicans. here is what we do know as it relates to the senate. dems will hold that for the next two years, so what does that mean for the future of president biden's agenda and his push to try to churn out federal court appointees without the threat of republicans trying to block his picks. we will have more in the next segment "tl: dr," the courts can get complicated and the president's picks, making rulings, at the supreme court and federal level below that affect your life, gun reform, voting access, lbgtq plus rights. sahil kapur has more to make sense of it.

you're calling it low key success for the biden administration. what does control of the smat mean for the future of the judiciary? >> one of the most important things the president does, and joe biden had a lot of success over two years, at rapidly appointing federal judges to the courts, now that democrats have clinched the senate for another two years, he will get at least another two years of continuing that project to reshape the courts. what kind of impact has the president had on the courts so far? let's look at the composition of judges that he has appointed. 75% are women. 25% black. 17% man is hispanic. 15% asian americans. these are historic numbers. i will show you why. the current composition of the courts. the bright spots are female judges. the clear dots are male judges. 70% of the courts are men. the racial ethnic composition, 78% are white. and a steep dropoff of black, hispanic and asian american. the white house's argument and the argument of the democratic allies that these numbers don't

look like america and they believe the federal courts should reflect the diversity of the country as a whole. and now, the numbers, keep your eyes on the red bars here, these are the apples to apples over the first two years of every president in the 21st century. joe biden outpacing predecessors so far, and outpacing george w. bush and wrought pacing barack obama, and this number 84-84, biden's number is expected to go to 85 because the senate has confirmed another judge that president biden has appointed very soon. . these columns are very important. this is the district court and appeals court and supreme court justices, appointed by each of these presidents. i want to draw attention to this column. it is enormously important because the appeals court judges have the last word on most matters of federal law. the vast majority of cases never make it to the supreme court. and it is these judges that have the last say on where these cases go. compared, biden's number 25, to trump's number 54, he is roughly matching donald trump's pace, what he was able to do with four

years with what biden has been able to do here over two years. the supreme court justices, this is the bar that people pay the most attention to, hallie, and you saw bush and obama each got two supreme court justices, and donald trump got three supreme court justices, over four years, and managed to create the most conservative supreme court in a century. so far, joe biden has gotten one supreme court justice. ketanji brown jackson. who of course made history as the first black woman on the court. now, a lot of this is democrat can playing catch-up, after republicans, under donald trump, and a rep-can led senate had enormous success with conservative judges who reshaped the courts in a different way. let's look at the judicial vacancies right now. 76 on district courts and nine on appeals courts and these numbers are growing as more and more judges retire and take senior status. it is only a question how big the numbers willing grow to and democrats will have the ability to confirm as many judges as

they want to, to these vacancies. and one big question on the minds of many people, hallie, is will there be another supreme court vacancy in the next two years? we don't know the answer to that and we're not expecting that in the current moment, but before the midterm election, mitch mcconnell, the senate republican leader had not committed to allowing a vote for a potential supreme court nominee and he will not have the power to stop it. it will be the democrats and chuck schumer who will be motivated to fill a supreme court vacancy. and deeply personal to a lot of people. a success story for the biden white house that appears guiden to continue here. >> thank you. looking at the republican party and the work that they've done over the years and the democrats, thank you very much for being at the big board. appreciate it. still ahead, elon musk disappearing in court today, defending that multibillion dollar deal at tesla and also has a message for the staff of

twitter. work extremely hard core or leave. what would you do? but first, new reporting on the collapse of crypto exchange ftx as the house committee, we're learning today is now getting a look into what happened. and what we know and the potential consequences coming up. at we know and the potential consequences coming up (vo) verizon small business days are back. and there's never been a better time to switch. get our best offers of the year on business internet. help your business stay ahead with the reliable connection your business deserves. book your appointment today. and switch to the network america relies on. verizon. moderate-to-severe eczema. it doesn't care if you have a date, a day off, or a double shift. make your move and get out in front of eczema with steroid-free cibinqo. not an injection, cibinqo is a once-daily pill for adults who didn't respond to previous treatments. and it's proven to help provide clearer skin and relieve itch fast. cibinqo continuously treats eczema whether you're flaring or not. cibinqo can lower your ability to fight infections, including tb. before and during treatment,

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and can automatically stop itself. (mom) is everyone ok? (kid) i'm ok. (vo) your family is safer in a three-row subaru ascent. love. it's what makes subaru, subaru. a house committee today coming out and saying it will investigate the collapse of ftx, that crypto exchange, a bankruptcy saga involving billionaire investors, celebrities, famous tech tycoons and the demise of a crypto empire like this means a lot of people lost a lot of money. on top of a huge class action lawsuit, we have the financial services committee out with a new statement today saying it will hold the hearing next month and it expects to hear directly from sam bankman-fried. known as sbf. the founder of ftx. and sbf has a pretty big presence in politics. has spread a lot of money around

washington. the crypto tycoon is the second biggest democratic donor of the midterms, shelling out almost $40 million. and senior digital politics reporter, who has new reporting on sbf, on ftx, on the house, and i'm sure other ak nixes, alex. tell us about it. >> yes, well, needless to say, this is not the mark on washington that he's expected to leave but what my reporting shows is the extent and the scope of the ambitious that sbf and the people around him had for their washington operation. they were building something that they expected would last decades, and have an enormous mark on public policy, on media, on campaigns, and had the money to back it up. as you said he spent $40 million on democrats, the second bigges. ftx executives spent $70 million. he said in a podcast interview, he might spend $1 billion in 2024. the demise came out of nowhere for the people working for him. they bought a $3 million townhouse just a couple blocks

from where i'm sitting here near union station. they had a party there six days before everything collapsed where congressional chiefs of staff, lobbyists came. there was an open bar and vegan snacks. they came to make inroads to sbf and his money. that day or a few days later, his man in washington found out everything was imploding, which is the more shocking when you find out that was his brother who was in charge of the sprawling political empire, he found out on twitter about his brother's demise. lots of people, the three dozen staffers, lots of other consultants, are trying to figure out what happened and what happens to their future and the organizations they were involved in. >> thank you for that. let's talk other tech news. elon musk is planning to find somebody else to run the social

media giant. he is revealing this in court. the case is about tesla's record smashing $56 billion pay package for musk. you have a shareholder suing over claims he used his dominance over tesla's board to influence how much he got paid out. this trial is about tesla, but during his testimony, musk is dropping details about his, let's call it, chaotic overhaul of twitter, saying, i'm quoting, i think the fundamental organizational restructuring will be done at the end of this week. about that reorganizing, musk is giving employees a new ultimatum, he is telling people, commit to working long hours at high intensity or get three months severance and leave. employees have until 5:00 p.m. tomorrow to decide if they want to get in musk's word hard core or not. bring in jacob ward. the twitter bucket and then

tesla. he laid off roughly i think half of staff at twitter. he is telling everybody, get ready to work harder under what seemed to be terrible working conditions as it relates to morale. who does he think is going to hang? >> it's not at all clear yet. this ultimatum does speak of only exceptional performance being a passing grade. everyone has to go hard core. it's not clear yet whether this is a legally enforceable thing. are you allowed to send people a pledge with 24 hours notice and say click here and you are fired? we don't know. we know that he is known for pushing people extra ordinarily hard. the two buckets did slosh into one another in this delaware court today. amazing to listen to elon musk speaking at length about his role as ceo, why he would deserve a payout of more than $55 billion. he says he is not a ceo.

his job is to make breakthrough technology possible and that he doesn't believe he strong armed the board into handing over the money. they supposedly did not violate their responsibility. he says there's nothing untoward about bringing tesla engineers on twitter on a voluntary basis. one of the strongest exchanges that indicates his state of mind is at one point he was asks about the tesla consent decree. he criticized it and said he doesn't believe that it is legal. he says, an agreement made under duress is not valid as a foundation of law. counsel said, are you trained as a law? i have some experience. a big day of wild punches in this delaware court. >> no joke. with this testimony, it showed,

as you describe it, the way that the buckets slosh into each other. this question comes up. how is musk able to functionally run both companies? >> think about it this way. if you were about to go on stand to defend a $56 billion pay package, you would think you would be trying to go to bed at a reasonable hour. he sent out the email that's the ultimatum at midnight san francisco time, that's 3:00 a.m. east coast time. this email that he is describing to everybody basically is asking them to fire on all cylinders or find a few new ones. >> thank you for that. that does it for us. another busy one. this week is flying by. we will have more tomorrow, same time, same place. i will see you in an hour on my

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♪♪ it's 4:00 in new york. what does it mean when the mastermind of a failed coup attempt against the united states government throws his hat in the ring for another run at the white house after showing disdain for the rule of law