a given year. >> i will say this, just the pushback on that a little bit, and we may have different views on this, i remember reading about the 1 million folks that were just in the city of damascus that came from iraq at the peak of the war, there were about 1 million syrians in stumble. i am sure if you asked the folks of damascus and assemble, it really burden the systems, but the amount of asylum seekers and other countries taking under other periods is way beyond what we're doing, just to be clear. >> that's exactly right, so i am saying is you have to allocate the resources that are consistent with the number. as a nation, we have all sorts of reasons to grow. we have labor shortages, no way to keep up with china, and we don't know the number of people in the country, but what we need to do is actually matched the number of people processing asylum claims with the number that we are bringing in. i would argue to hire more people to process those claims. >> senator chris murphy, that was a productive conversation,

thank you for joining me, i appreciate it. >> thank you. >> that is all in on this wednesday night. the alex wagner show starts right now. good evening, alex. >> it's just alex wagner tonight. >> we've been doing this for several months, i just renamed it. >> just go with it, it's a show. >> the syntax gets me every time. >> you know what, do, we've known each other for decades, you could call the show whatever you want. >> the alex wagner show starts right now. >> that was chris hayes's show, all in. >> yes. >> thanks to you at home for joining us on alex wagner tonight this hour. we have a whole lot to get to this evening, but we start first with election results. i know, you thought the elections were over, but, nope, they are not. as voters in the commonwealth of virginia while no, there was a special election is a day for a state senate seat in virginia beach. we now have a projected winner in that race, democratic erin rouse, he defeated republican kevin adams, flipping the state

senate seats from red to blue, and he did it running ads like this. >> you want to believe it can't happen here, but it could happen sooner than you think. republicans enrichment are trying to pass a new ban on abortion in virginia, and kevin adams, he wants to join them, to take away women's freedom to make our own personal medical decisions. kevin adams would be the deciding vote to ban abortion in virginia, but your vote can stop him before it's too late. >> i am erin rouse, candidate for state senate, and this address paid for by aaron rice. >> he ran just three tv ads this campaign, to a dam or focused on abortion with virginia's republican governor glenn youngkin pushing for an abortion ban in a closely divided state senate, rouse sold himself as the last line of defense for reproductive rights in the state, and aaron rouse one, because you know it is really unpopular, banning abortion?

voters made abundantly clear double terms after the supreme court overturned roe v. wade, and every single state where abortion was on the bout, even deep red montana and kentucky, voters came out firmly in support of abortion rights, just as they did in kansas city months earlier. antiabortion republicans lost senate and governor races in major swing states. even donald trump said republicans did poorly in the midterms because they were too extreme on abortion, from whatever that is worth. you might think that republicans to take, i don't know, a lesson from all of that but, apparently, not. in their first week can join the house of representatives, republicans today made it one of their first orders of business to vote on anti abortion measures, and it's not democrats saying that this is a bad idea, it was republican congresswoman nancy mace of south carolina, speaking to reporters before the vote. >> it's tone-deaf at this point. it's never going to pass the senate.

it's never going to get to the presidents desk to be signed into law. we're only paying lip service to the pro life movement. >> wait a second, with republicans like these, who needs democrats, but never mind, when the measures came to the floor of the house today, every single republican there voted for them, even congresswoman nancy mace. now as for exactly what they were voting on, antiabortion measures are so unpopular, republicans in the house actually invented something popular sounding that they could vote on. they created a bill to outlaw something totally made up. it is called the born alive abortion survivor protection act, and makes the crime for doctors to murder babies that are born alive during an abortion, which if it were something that happened, would be very much covered under existing laws against murder, but it's a moot point because only in the dark imaginations of republicans is this something that abortion providers would ever actually do. do not take it for me, take it

from a doctor, alice mann, the democrat state senator of minnesota where state republicans are pushing burn alive legislation. >> this is a perfect example of why politician should not make medical decisions, it is because we are literally making stuff up, and writing laws about it at this exact moment. a child does not come out part way alive and then doctors kill it, that is not a thing, that's not a thing today, not think tomorrow, it's not a thing ten years ago, it's not a thing, so for us to legislate things that don't exist in real life, again, perfect example why politician should not practice health care. >> of course, this is just the latest on republicans decade -long war on what is called late abortions, which republicans like to call partial birth abortions, another completely made up thanks. bushes that take place after 20 weeks make up just 1% of

abortions performed in the united states of america, and they are generally performed because of severe fetal abnormalities or in some cases, because a woman has been unable to obtain an abortion because of the very restrictions that republicans put in place in state at the state. lay abortions are difficult and they are costly, and they are definitely not children on a whim. the other measure republicans in the house proved today condemns violence over the issue of abortion, but not violence against abortion providers, which has spiked in recent years. no, this condemns attacks on anti abortion facilities, including crisis pregnancy centers. republicans love to promote crisis public centers as places that they care of pregnant women's, but crisis pregnancy centers are infamous for falsely advertising themselves as abortion providers and then feeding false anti-abortion information to the pregnant women who come to them in order to stop them from having the abortions they may be seeking. last year when nbc news

producer visited to crisis pregnancy centers in texas to ask counseling, they were told that abortions caused mental illness, cancer and infertility. instead of medical advice, counsel sent away, one of the producers away with knit baby booties, telling her that should pray for her. that's a crisis pregnancy center. this is week one of your newest of representatives, no too scary sounded abortion procedures that don't actually exist, yes to crisis pregnancy centers that led to women. they have really got their finger on the pulse of the american -- meanwhile, the republican attorney general of alabama say that people could be prosecuted for taking abortion pills after republicans spent years saying to never prosecute women for having abortions. anti activists say their next front is to start picketing outside local walgreens or cvs because those pharmacy chains will soon start dispensing abortion pills following recent fda approval. nothing makes you popular like

yelling at people while they try to buy to pace. but maybe conservatives figured they don't need to be properly, after all, they got the supreme court, and now, the u.s. house of representatives for now. joining us now is cyril richards, former president of planned parenthood and a co-chair of american right. social, thank you for being here. >> good to see you, alex. >> before we get into the political dimensions of all of this, i think it's a really important to demystify what republicans are trying to do with this actual legislation. these crisis pregnancy centers, for example, here's the players that and a planned parenthood, what did these crisis pregnancy centers do, and what happens to women seeking abortions, if they go to one of these things, mistakenly? >> of course, they're completely set up to try to keep women from accessing their right to make a decision about pregnancy. we saw them a planned parenthood, often set up literally next door to a

planned parenthood. they put a signage that makes it look like a planned parenthood, and the whole idea is to deceive women. they don't provide health care, and now, of course, there publicly funded in many of the states, so they do nothing for women's health care, and i think one of the scariest things that we see now is, of course, online since so many women are forced online now to find health care. if you look up to find an abortion providing health center, oftentimes, you are sent to a crisis pregnancy center, and as he said, part of the whole idea here is to delay giving women information, delay giving them health care, to push them later and later into pregnancy. >> then there is the issue of condemning violence in the abortion sphere, again -- >> horrible, horrible -- >> as amanda has seen what partly due to clinics and doctors that provide abortions, the doj, i believe, has created a reproductive rights task force because of the violence

directed towards abortion providers. what inexperience have you seen in terms of the threats and the risk that abortion providers have to take on? >> it's always been true, and i think that i am grateful that the department of justice is taking this seriously. it is really important and, of course, what has happened, and i see this in my home state of texas, is that the fear that women have now to even ask someone for advice, much let's go to a health center is tremendous, and that is what the republicans have tried to do, create a sense of fear among doctors, health care providers, clinic escorts, women seeking care, it's terrifying. it's particularly terrifying in these states that have banned abortion, women seeing stories coming out of louisiana, texas, women who can't even get assistance for miscarrying right now because doctors and care providers are turning them away. >> they're terrified. >> yeah, because they don't know, it's so unclear that these laws are passed not by medical professionals but

politicians, and it's a scary time for women. >> speaking of politicians passing laws for things that are not rooted in reality, this idea that there are doctors killing [interpreter] [interpreter] [interpreter] babies are born after unsuccessful abortion procedures, is that minnesota state representative said it is not doing, it is not a thing of a past, think of the president or the future, really seems like republicans want to do something on the issue of abortion, so they have created this complexion which on paper sounds like a terrible thing, that of course, they want to vote against, but does not exist in reality. >> and they know that is false, but i think report earlier, every single republican voted for this, this is not just the extreme wing at the party. the extreme wing of the party has become the republican party. the fact that the first week of congress, this is the priority of the republican party, after seeing an election in which overwhelmingly, candidates were defeated not just by democrats but by independent republican

voters who said, we do not want a country where politicians are in charge of pregnancy and the most imminent decisions about what people make about the future and their family. >> you're a strategist, there is a political reality here. when lindsey graham proposed that national, federal 15-week abortion ban, there was great consternation among people who are not in congress but in the republican party. this is a bad idea, we saw the referendums, we saw a voters had to say about the issue, and yet, as he put out, this is the first week in congress, the day pay a price for this, think they're insulated from this somehow? the political calculation here escapes me. >> right, i think there are two things. one, of course, they already paid a political price for this because they got wiped out in so many races across the country in the midterm elections and particularly on this issue, but the other problem is exactly what we saw with kevin mccarthy. we used to say in texas, you have to dance with him that breonna, the people that got kevin mccarthy in the position he's in right now, are the

extreme fringe of the republican party, and there are driving the agenda, so i think what we will see and continue to see both in congress and at the state level is the republican party continuing to pass further and further restrictions on abortion, on reproductive health care, and it's not popular. they will pay a political price, they already have. >> the fact that every single republican who's there voted for this, the fact that nancy mace says, this is lip service, and then goes and vote for it. these people are not all running for speaker of the house. they don't need to prove anything. what they do need to do is hang on to the swing state in two years. >> right, but i think we are going to see in the next election cycle, it was bad enough for republicans this time, i think we will see in the next cycle, as more and more stories come out about what the impact is on families, on women, of these abortion bans, it will become even more unpopular.

this is not going to a 12 for republicans, and these kinds of votes showing that this is what this party is about, it's not popular. >> the longer that this is in place, the more women, the more families affected by this, the more real the problem becomes form republicans who have put their and planted their flag on the sunday i'll. . >> cecilia richards, former president a planned parenthood and co-chair of american branch, it was good to see. thank you for joining me, to see you. >> great to see you too. >> we are much more ahead this hour. republicans are still getting it wrong when it comes to the discovery of classified documents in the private offices of president biden, but next, lying congressman who lies has lost critical support as even more revelations about his strange lies and questionable finances come to light. will he resign, who can make him resign? new york congressman dan goldman joins me to discuss coming up, stay with us. stay with us. i'm a vegas hotel. i don't want anything too serious either.

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you might think, that i'd say my hero is my doctor or nurse. or even my physical therapist, and they are. but there's someone else, who's a hero to me and 1.5 million other kids and counting. you may be surprised, but my hero is you. is people just like you, who give every month. to shriners hospitals for children. and because of heroes like you. i can do things now that were impossible before. and i can walk. all of this is made possible because of heroes like you. who go online to loveshriners.org right now. when you do, we'll send you this adorable love to the rescue blanket as a thank you. and a reminder of all the kids whose hero you are. each and every month. >> george santos campaign last please call or go to loveshriners.org right away.

year was a campaign of the seat, lies and fabrication. he is not welcomed here at republican headquarters, from meetings or any of our events. as i said, he has disgraced the house of representatives, and we did not consider him one of our congress people. today, i'm behalf of the nassau county republican committee, i am calling for his immediate

resignation. >> that was the chair of the nassau county republican party, the county where congressman george santos congressional district is located, calling for santos's resignation this morning. the loss of local party support is devastating for any congress person, let alone a congress person who was caught lying from everything of his resume to his identity, to his religion to being on a winning college volleyball team, to lie about all those things. but today, even as the world knows that he lied about things that know congressman is taken the time to lie about before, george santos remains defiant. >> will you step down? >> guys, i will not. guys, you had to give me space. >> the new york republicans are calling you a disgrace, will you resign? why won't you resign? >> excuse us -- >> now, you would think giving the magnitude of santos's life and complete loss of support at the local level, you think that leaders at the national

republican party would not leave the question of whether or not sent discussed is they in congress up to senators himself. you think that the speaker of the house would not stand for that, you would be wrong. >> are you going to take any action against him at this point? are any of these allegations acceptable to you? >> what are the charges? is there a charge against him? in america today, you're innocent until proven guilty. >> speaker kevin mccarthy finds himself in a tough spot. he is hanging on to par with a paper thin majority, a handful of votes in which he traded in everything except the speaker gavel himself. george santos has voted to -- 15 times, every single vote, so whether or not mccarthy actually wants centers to be a member of congress, a need sentence to be a member of congress to maintain his majority. so it sent us not resigning willingly, and mccarthy not taking action, what happens now? it turns out that mccarthy is innocent until proven guilty comment might actually be the path forward here. why it may not be a crime to

lie but we went to college, whether jewish or you are the star striker on a college volleyball team, it is a crime to lie about your campaign finances. and to put it lightly, politely even, santos's campaign finances officially. new york times reports the sentences campaign paid a housekeeping company called cleaner 1 to 3, and pay the company $11,000. that company than rented a suburban long island on that never say it appeared santos was living in. and santos local long island election, he somehow managed to charge the campaign for $40,000 of air travel. and $30,000 in hotels and airbnb's in space in places like tennessee, virginia, texas, florida, california, kansas, michigan, the list goes on. again, this is all for a local long island congressional campaign. to top it off, the campaign claimed more than 800 expenses below $200.

that's the threshold for needing to keep receipts for a campaign purchase. more than 30 of those expenses for pick that $199.99, just a penny below the reporting threshold. as i said, fishy, fishy enough that yesterday, to other new york congressman, ben goldman and richie torres formally asked the house ethics committee to investigate george santos. joining me now is one of those congressman himself, dan goldman of new york. congressman goldman, first of all, welcome to congress, and thank you for being with us this evening. >> great to be with you, alex. >> so, just to get a sense of how much you normally spend on air travel and hotels, i think nick vallow to, another representative from long island, spent 900 bucks on hotel stay, there is a dozen dollar on airfare, $900 on taxes. did you spend anywhere close to $40,000 on air fare, hotels and texas during the course of your campaign? >> no recourse, these are

absurd expenses that no one in a highly competitive, local race for congress would ever spend, and you listed a laundry list of questionable expenses, but what i want to emphasize is, i think it may be much more serious than that because those are campaign expenses, but the question is, how did he get the money into his campaign to spend it? he gave $700,000 of his own money to the campaign, and in order to get that? from an entity that he created during the campaign that all of a sudden was infused with 1 million dollars that he then paid himself, which he acknowledged, he paid himself and ultimately siphoned to his campaign. there are red flags of campaign finance fraud all around that conduct. >> on that note, we have some new reporting for the washington post this evening,

prior to the campaign, santos was working at an organization called harbor city capital, which is later accused of a classic ponzi scheme. turns out, sentences working there later than initially reported. he's working there as recently as april of 2021. in may of 2021, he creates this organization of what you speak, did the volker organization, which then all of a sudden is flushed with cash, including enough to pay him a salary of $750,000 and learned his campaign $700,000. do you think it is possible that the money that was piped into doubled could've had its origin in a classic ponce scheme? >> i think it's too hard to tell, and i don't want to speculate about the, but i do think what they're -- there has been some reporting on is that some of the money that went into the organization, some of the clients that he

claimed but did not disclose importantly were large republican donors who may have very well been using the organization as a pass through to get to george santos's campaign and to allow them to exceed campaign finance limits. a lot of this is speculation, and that is why congressman torres and i asked the ethics committee in the house to investigate these very finances, to see if he violated the ethics of government act. there is a parallel investigation in the u.s. attorney's office in the eastern district of new york that i am sure is also looking at this conduct, as well. but in congress here, if we were to have a member of congress walking around, it's a stark violation of the ethics law that apply to all of us, that's unacceptable. it means the integrity of the institution, of each one of us here. it eliminates our ability to

ask americans who follow the law, if there are members of our own body that cannot do that or won't do that. that's why we ask for this investigation is today. >> you think it will happen? i mean we saw kevin mccarthy's position on this is basically until he is charged with something, he is my guy. the house ethics committee's bipartisan, but it will have a republican chair. we don't know who that sure is. is your expectation that they will take this matter up, given how egregious, at least the evidence appears to be? >> yes, our expectation is that they will. it is a committee that has been evenly divided between republicans and democrats with nonpartisan staff, and this is exactly what the purpose of the committee is. i would expect george santos will cooperate fully. if he says he's done nothing wrong, nothing unethical, then he should have no problems turning over the documents to the committee. kevin mccarthy's skating on thin ice on this one, because

if your argument is that you're welcome to be a member of the republican party until you're convicted of a crime, and you can deceive and the fraud voters of a district in order to get into congress, as much as you want, as long as you escape criminal charges, that's a lot of leeway for a party that is already very anti democratic. >> i just got to say, what a start to the 118th congress. what a start for the new york delegation? did you ever think your congressional career would begin like this, with an ethics committee referral for someone in your own state delegation? >> no, and nor did i think that the first thing that i would agree on with other members of the new york delegation on the other side of the aisle is that your sentence should resign, but there are now four republican members of the new york delegation who have done exactly that, and i do agree with that. >> bipartisanship instead, at

least in the empire state when it comes to george santos. congressman dan goldman of new york, through time tonight. >> thank you, alex. >> still ahead tonight, i'll talk to illinois governor, jimmy preschooler about the major bill he signed making illinois the ninth state to do something huge to address the problem of gun violence. and the discovery of the second batch of biden classified documents as attorney general merrick garland mulling whether to appoint a second special counsel. the view from the justice department on all that, that is coming up next. stick around.

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late this afternoon, nbc news was first to report aides to president biden have found a second batch of classified documents from his time in the obama administration at a second location, separate from the private d.c. office where the first ones were found. we do not yet know much about these documents, how many there were, the level of classification or where executive are found, but already, republicans have seized on this draw parallels between the situation and trump's mishandling of hundreds of classified documents at mar-a-lago. >> i think if you believe special counsel is necessary to assure the public about the handling of classified documents by donald trump, you

should apply a special counsel to the mishandling of classified documents by president biden when he was vice president. >> an addition to senator graham, the new republican chair of the oversight committee, james comer, has sent a letter to the white house counsel office demanding all of the documents retrieved from biden's personal office. today, the house judiciary committee republican twitter account, which republicans use as their primary outlet for online trolling, that account tweeted to the fbi raid the biden center? they tried to suggest a double standard of how the doj treated trump and now biden. the question of why the fbi did not raid president biden's personal office maybe more telling than republicans want to admit. the fbi only searched mar-a-lago after trump refused to turn over documents for months and then -- declined to comply with the subpoena. then lawyers falsely certified that there were no longer classified documents on the premises.

contrast that to how the biden administration has handled this. biden's lawyers discovered the first batch of documents before voluntarily turning them over to the national archives, which by the way, did not appear to know that the documents are missing the first place. the latest batch of documents were also reportedly discovered by biden's own aides as part of their own efforts to operate in a matter. even without all these details, it is clear that the behavior of both presidents in these cases is radically different. but that does not change the fact that the justice department must now deal with both of these cases at the same time. tonight, the new york times reports that merrick garland, the attorney general, was made aware of the existence of the biden documents before he made the decision to point jacks myth as special counsel overseeing investigations into president trump. the times also reports tonight the discovery of the missing biden documents could forced garland into appointing a second special counsel. joining us now is weinstein, a

former federal and state prosecutor. tell you, thank you for being here. so, who wants merrick garland's job? it seems like a worse job and washington d.c., but let's look at the timing here. the fact that he knew this was looming on the horizon before he appoints jack smith as special counsel, looking into, among other things, trump's retention of classified documents in mar-a-lago, you think it's inevitable that a second special counsel is appointed for biden because that's what he has to do politically, at least? >> i don't think it's inevitable, but i think if it is even a close call then merrick garland is going to appoint that second special counsel. one of the advantages of special counsel is that they do explaining in the way that prosecutors generally don't. prosecutors generally say respeak two indictments and jury verdicts, not much else, but special counsel issued reports, and they talk about the investigative steps they've taken, and the attorney general

can disclose those. that might be helpful here to have two of them because the public is going to need to understand what to me is still very clear. these are very different cases, and they are not similar, so they cannot be treated similarly. >> it seems like the essence of this is the woefulness of the act, right? that seem so abundantly clear cut. we know and catalog the ways in which trump was refused to hand over the documents, but the biden team is literally pushing paper at the national archives saying, we took this by mistake, here, have it back. and yet, there seems to be for some, gray area. do you see parallels here? put on your fox news hat for a moment and explain to me how these cases, beyond the fact the paper were found in the offices, are similar. >> i don't have a fox news hat, alex, but facts really do matter, and so far, baskin

change, they develop, they come to life, but on these facts, these are entirely different situations, which is why i would much rather be biden today than trump even though this was a bad day politically, obviously, for president biden. i would definitely rather be biden's lawyer than trump's lawyer, thinking about criminal matter. always and today. what would it take for the facts will be similar, right? we would see, for example, that biden purposely hit these documents, no evidence of that, that he obstructed justice when somebody tried to get it back. on the contrary, as he said, they've said here, please take them. that he left them in some places like a hotel that people walk to, right? also, not happened so far, that there were hundreds of them and not tens of them. volume is an aggravating factor also. because the doj does not prosecute the statute on the stare are aggravating factors,

which is what i laid out, and that's because the point of a criminal prosecution is not to punish sloppiness, but to punish intentional bad acts. >> criminal acts. >> and we don't have any of that here. >> what are they going to do to investigate this? we know that there is a u.s. attorney in chicago assigned to this by merrick garland. is he going to have to interview president biden? how would it determine all of this? do you have a sense? >> i think that will be way down the road. so far, they've done harm assessment, which is what you do when you find a national security documents have gone awry. now we turn to whether there should even be a criminal investigation. my understanding is that what the attorney general is thinking about now, and an investigation would look for the factors that i talked about, woefulness, obstruction, the types of documents, who got to see them, why did other people get to see them if they did, and the question of who might need to be eight witnesses so far away from any of that to me

right now. >> how does this complicate merrick garland's movements behind the scenes? a lot of people set on its face, the mar-a-lago documents case is a case where you have a clear cut indictment of president trump. january six is another piece of special counsel jack smith's purview, but a lot of folks on the outside have said, if merrick garland is looking for an indictment in the coming calendar year, it is probably mar-a-lago. do you think that the surfacing of this biden document situation, if people would call it, changes the calculation about the timetable for a potential indictment mar-a-lago? >> no because that starts to sound like a political calculation and not a legal one. i think that this is still the tighter case so far. we saw some reporting today about subpoenas from the special counsel relating to january six, some are really brought. it told me that they have not honed in yet in the

investigations. they're still trying to get a lay of the land, these are not surgical subpoenas, so i think that this is probably the first other cases that is going to resolve, and has not changed what we already knew. what is different realistically is that there is going to have to be explaining, and it was really unusual when merrick garland after the mar-a-lago search went to the podium and he said, oh, this is what a search warrant is. here is how we got probable cause. that's stretching in that way, i think there will have to be more of the the build confidence in the rule of law and what he is doing. >> lots of transparency from a man who probably has no interest and putting him soap before cameras to explain why things are happening where they are at the doj. dahlia weinstein, former federal prosecutor, it's good to see you, take your time. >> thank you so much. >> coming up next, the state of

illinois did something huge in the fight against gun violence. illinois governor jimmy parker joins me coming up to discuss, stay with us. stay with us the promise of america is freedom, equality, but right now, those pillars of our democracy are fragile and our rights are under attack. reproductive rights, voting rights, the right to make your own choices and to have your voice heard. we must act now to restore and protect these freedoms for us and for the future, and we can't do it without you. we are the american civil liberties union. will you join us? call or go online to my aclu.org to become a guardian of liberty today. your gift of just $19 a month, only $0.63 a day, will help ensure that together

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so hearing well is easier than ever before. try it risk-free for 100 days. visit jabraenhance.com >> i couldn't be prouder to say that we got it done! illinois now officially prohibits the sale and distribution of these mass killing machines and rapid fire devices. i'm signing this legislation tonight so that it can take

immediate effect and we can and the sale of these weapons of war as soon as possible. >> there are some very big news out of the state of illinois. the states democratic governor, jb pritzker signed a bill late into late last night banning the assault weapons in the nation's sixth largest state. that bill prohibits the sale delivery, and purchase of assaults out weapons and high capacity magazines. it also makes it illegal to own and use devices that increase the firing rate of semi automatic weapons. and it would require those who currently on these weapons to register them with the illinois state police. the new law comes six months after a shooting in the chicago suburb with highland park during a fourth of july parade that killed seven people and wounded dozens more. with a bill signing, illinois becomes the ninth state in the nation to ban the sale of assault style weapons. joining us now is the man himself, jb pritzker, governor the great state of illinois!

governor pritzker, thank you joining me tonight. congratulations on getting this done, and for other governors or citizens out there who have seen the nra basically have legislators in the stranglehold -- how did you get this done and how did you get it done now? >> well this is a multi year overnight success. the truth is that we have been fighting this battle for sometime. we have a very strong and our a affiliate that is here in the state of illinois, and other associated organizations that are fighting every effort of hours to get these weapons of war off the streets, but i think two things happened. one is we had, frankly, several mass shootings that occurred in the state, not doesn't highland park, but just recently as been a towards high school. two young boys, 14 and 15 were killed, and others were wounded.

the mcdonald's in downtown chicago -- nine people were shot, to killed. these were done with semi automatic weapons, or weapons that have been altered to make them essentially automatic weapons. and then of course the highland park shooting where there was an ar-style rifle used. so, that plus the fact that we had a very successful november election for democrats who are in favor of gun safety legislation, and so we were able to bring all that together here in early january. it's something very important we got it done. >> when you talk about the nra, they have already said that -- while the state gun law lobby has said that -- when the state revolution has said that the challenges accepted, the illinois state rifle sensation will see the state of illinois in courts. are you concerned at all that the law could be overturned? >> look, of course they are going to try to take this to court. they do this every time something passes that keeps

people safe in the state. but the fact is that it is now law in the state of illinois. we have an outlaw upset assault weapons, we have outlawed the switches that turn normal weapon into an automatic weapon. the success that we have achieved is keeping families safe now. we believe that the court challenge that they will bring will be unsuccessful, and that we will successfully defend our new law. >> you mentioned, i think importantly, that this is a law aiming to keep people safe. and yet, you have already seen what i think it's pretty staggering pushback from sheriffs, from law enforcement, who don't plan to enforce the law requiring residents who own some of these weaponry to register with the state police. i think sheriffs and counties including winnebago, ogled, stephenson, and lee had issued statements calling this law a violation of the second amendment and saying, they are

not going to check, they are not gonna have their officers check to keep that law gun full registers will be ready with the state. i mean -- what do you do about that problem? >> well it's political grandstanding by elected officials. these are elected sheriff's. they are republicans, they are in favor of more guns, not less on the straits, which doesn't make any sense for me. because all the law enforcement in our states are very much in favor of taking assault weapons off the streets. so -- frankly, they are the outliers. i know they are loud and their opposition to this, but it's our state police and law enforcement across the state that will back and enforce this law, and these outliers sheriffs will comply, or frankly they'll -- you know, they'll have to answer to the voters. >> i think -- for those who have witnessed and who have read the news

about these mass shootings happening all over the country and little being than about them, it is -- i think everyone should be breathing a collective sigh of relief that at least in one state, action is being taken with the leadership of a governor who just won reelection. governor pritzker of illinois, thank you so much for your time, congratulations on this when! >> thank you alex! >> we have one more story for you tonight. after more than three decades in the making, we are seeing major progress on something that was once the looming catastrophe for an entire generation. that's coming up next! stay with us. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ nsurance 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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just look around. ...so you can relieve your this digital ageathe easier. we're living in, it's pretty unbelievable. problem is, not everyone's fully living in it. nobody should have to take a class or fill out a medical form on public wifi with a screen the size of your hand. home internet shouldn't be a luxury. everyone should have it and now a lot more people can.

so let's go. the digital age is waiting. i screwed up. mhm. i got us t-mobile home internet. now cell phone users have priority over us. and your marriage survived that? you can almost feel the drag when people walk by with their phones. oh i can't hear you... you're froze-- ladies, please! you put it on airplane mode when you pass our house. i was trying to work. we're workin' it too. yeah! work it girl! woo! i want to hear you say it out loud. well, i could switch us to xfinity. those smiles. that's why i do what i do. >> come! that and the paycheck.

take a ride back, in the way back machine, with, made to the 19 80s and 99 days. when people talked a lot about the ozone layer. >> the ozone bubble surrounding the earth helps make life possible on this planet by screening out harmful ultraviolet rays. but there is a new warning tonight that the completion of that ozone depletion, chemical masses, could cause a health catastrophe here. >> in the year since then, america stopped talking about the hole in the ozone and appear to have forgotten about the fact that it was a cadet -- catastrophe. it was a huge deal and then just sort of gone from conversation. like garfield, were or chips ahoy. that is until this week when we got some good news. that hole in the ozone, it's

finally on the mend! after more than three decades since scientists first discovered a hole in the planet ozone layer, leading experts backed by the united nations and the layer is on his way to full recovery. as it turns out, making the ozone the pressing global crisis of a generation was a good thing. in 1987, 46 countries signed a treaty known as the montreal protocol, and they agreed to phase out dozens of synthetic chemicals that were commonly found like things like ridgefront and hairspray. chemicals that were tied with the destruction of the ozone layer. that treaty has now nearly 200 signatories. and the result is clear, if current policy stay in place, the ozone layer is on track to recover by the year 2040. global action to assault a major environmental problem worked! and now, and they are 2023, we can look back on those choices we made in the 80s and then i.d.s, and the early 2000s, i know with certainty that they were the right ones. at least most people think so. most people who aren't still

weirdly stuck in the 1980s. >> and they all days, you put the hairspray on it was good. today, you put the hairspray on and it's good for 12 minutes, right? but you know, they say that you can't -- as i wait a minute! so if i take hairspray and if i sprayed in my apartment, which is all sealed and -- you're telling me that affects the ozone layer? yes. i say no way folks! no way! >> way! way. as it turns out the hole in the ozone is healing. other catastrophes however continue. that does it for us tonight, we will see you again tomorrow and now it is time for the last word with lawrence o'donnell. good evening. lawrence >> good evening alex. can we have an arrangement where i get a warning that [laughter] that kind of thing is going to come in my ear when i'm sitting here doing my homework for the seashell i have to do -- >> it's true. >> and suddenly i hear a -- guy >>