showdowns have teams going head to head, hamlin is one player everyone can get behind. >> what does number three stand? for >> number three stands for strength, courage, resilience, and hopefully with a game coming up again in cincinnati, number three stands for a win. >> people buffalo have suffered tremendous losses over the past year from the horrific mass shooting in a supermarket to once in a lifetime deadly winter storm. so after all that, many across the country are rallying behind buffalo, the city of good neighbors, this weekend. on that note, i wish you a good night. i'm alicia menendez. you can catch me every saturday, sunday, american voices, starting eight, 6 pm eastern. from all our colleagues across our networks at and we see news, thank you for staying up late. >> first up on msnbc, off limits, the department tells house republicans it will not

share information about ongoing investigations. including donald trump's mishandling of classified documents. what that means for the gop's efforts to probe the agency. plus, donald trump dropped the lawsuit against new york tierney general letitia james a day after he and his lawyers or saw plus 1 million dollar fine for another, quote, frivolous case brought against hillary clinton. could we see trump upending even more lawsuits? and, congressman george santos long list of lies and controversies just keep piling up. a small newspaper exposed much of his inconsistencies weeks before the election. but, no one paid attention, why? i'll put that question to the papers publisher straight ahead. we have a team of reporters from capitol hill to the white house and ukraine following the latest for you this morning. and a good morning to you, thank you for waking up with us. thanks for starting your saturday here on msnbc. house republicans have made it clear that they plan to use their new power as the majority

to investigate investigations carried out by the doj. now the department is sending those republicans a warning. congressional correspondent julie tsirkin is live on capitol hill force this morning. what do we know about this morning? >> yes, good morning to you if i could just read you a piece of the letter to the committee in charge of oversight on this chaired by jim jordan in the house judiciary committee. they said any oversight requests must be weighed against departments interest in protecting the integrity of its work, namely they are talking about those two ongoing documents investigations. both former presidents mishandling of classified documents and president biden's documents that were found in his wilmington home and at the penn biden center over the past few months. now, what department's telling committee is that they are willing to work with you, they're willing to see where they can compromise to see where they can provide some of these documents are requesting, but really this throws a hammer into the investigations and the work that jim jordan and

congressman comer's heart of the oversight committee, all of these oversight investigations they are conducting into the biden family, because their whole purpose in this new republican majority is to conduct oversight of the biden administration. i want you to listen to what jim jordan had to say yesterday on fox news. >> i think the american people already understand there is not an evenhanded application of the law, this is the concern with the justice department and now we have had over two dozen whistleblowers talk to us about a number of issues that show a double standard. >> look, there is a couple of things that jim jordan and the judiciary committee variable to do. they have subpoena power now with their newfound republican majority and they can tentatively take this to the courts as well. but, as they have learned through watching their democratic counterparts under the trump administration ears, taking this to the courts will take a very long time. so far the house judiciary committee just tweeting, saying what is the justice department hiding and preventing us from

looking into these documents? of course, there are a number of other matters that they want answers to as well, including the southern border and other things that are going on right now, we will see if the justice department and the judiciary committee are trying to find any kind of compromise to see if they can get any of those documents that are not related to ongoing investigations. >> julie sucker for us on capitol hill, thank you, now it's something where we are trying to make headway in congress, the latest on the debt ceiling. after the u.s. reaches boring limit on thursday president joe biden saying he will meet with house speaker kevin mccarthy to discuss an increase in the debt ceiling, and, warning that failing to do so would be a catastrophic mistake. now, mccarthy and many of his republican colleagues have said they will not raise it without spending cuts. for more on all of this let's turn to nbc news correspondent allie raffa in delaware, hi. >> cory, good morning, that line from president biden coming as a bit of a shock yesterday after his remarks,

the president saying that he is willing to sit down with house speaker kevin mccarthy to discuss raising the debt ceiling to avoid, quote, a calamity that exceeds anything that has ever happened financially in the united states. president biden not saying exactly when this meeting is slated to take place, and then you have hours before that speech by president biden press secretary kareem jean-pierre saying that whenever this meeting does happen it will discuss a wide range of issues, but that remark from president biden really ignited a lot of back and forth through the afternoon, you had house speaker kevin mccarthy who has been under pressure from fellow house republicans. saying what they want him to negotiate spending cuts in exchange for any sort of start of a negotiation and raising the debt ceiling. he tweeted responding to this invitation from president biden, saying he is willing to sit down and meet and discuss irresponsible debt ceiling increase to address irresponsible government spending, the white house them

responding to that and echoing what they have said for weeks now, that this is a basic function of congress, that they should not be using this as a political football. that the u.s. really enters into these negotiations and this crisis every few years. and the united states has never defaulted on its debts, they are saying this is a basic function of congress to be able to do this, thankfully there is a bit of wiggle room on the timeline because we know that while we reach that debt ceiling on thursday we are not expected to default on our debt until roughly july or august if no action is made. ,,,. >>,.

,. ,,,. let's turn now to memphis, tennessee, and you this morning five police officers have been fired for their involvement in a traffic stop that led to the death of tyree nichols, authorities say they stopped the 29 year old for reckless driving on january 7th, and two confrontations followed. he was taken to the hospital and died three days later. his stepfather shared this photo of him with blood on his face and what appeared to be a swollen eye, the department investigation found at the officers allegedly violated multiple policies including excessive use of force and duty to intervene, and you need to render aid.

nichols family attorney says they have scheduled to view that body cam footage for the first time on monday. we will continue to follow that story. i'm going to go now to overseas, navy officials have confirmed that a former u.s. navy seal has been killed in ukraine, daniel smith had been an active deserter status is march 2019. officials now say they do not know why he was in ukraine, this comes as germany is trying to put pressure on the u.s. to send battle tanks to ukraine. nbc news correspondent raf sanchez has the latest for us. >> a lot of questions surrounding the death of this former u.s. navy seal, here's what we know. danielle smith was a decorated special forces operator, he served all around the world, but the u.s. navy says he deserted three years ago. -- they do not know the exact circumstances but it does appear that they like a number

of former u.s. service personnel was fighting alongside ukrainian forces against the russian invasion, we expect we may learn more in the coming days. in the meantime there is deadlock in the nato alliance over the issue a battle tanks. about who will provide ukraine with the tanks that they say they so badly need. a lot of pressure on germany right now, both to supply its own battle tanks but also to give permission for those german made vehicles to be supplied to ukraine. that is not a step germany's prepared to take right now, and u.s. officials tell nbc news the germans want the u.s. to agree to send their own tanks first, now, the american position is the m1 abrams tank is not a suitable vehicle for ukraine at this time, it requires a lot of specialized maintenance and it essentially has a jet engine and it, it is an absolute gas guzzler that can use up to a gallon of gasoline at a time. the u.s. position is that is

not the tank that make sense right now for ukraine, instead they want the germans to supply those leopard tanks. ukrainians are saying they do not care who's tanks come as long as they get them in time to face off against what they fear will be a fresh russian offensive. potentially, in the coming weeks, back to you. >> rat, thank you for that, and coming up the doj stiff arms house republicans as they get set to launch their investigations, why the department says it will not turn over certain documents and what that means for the gop's pros. and, a little later a small long island in newspaper expose the george santos lies it almost everybody else missed, how did they do it? we will be talking to the publisher coming up. her coming up.

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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. >> welcome back, a big that and the paycheck. roadblock for house republicans after the department of justice warns it will not hand over any information about ongoing investigations.

this after the new house you to sherry chairman jim jordan sent a letter to the department demanding documents and testimony on several documents including immigration enforcement, school board threats, as well as the departments active investigation into the classified documents found at mar-a-lago, and several subjects related to president biden and his family. the department of response to jordan's letter included this quote, long-standing department policy prevents us from confirming or denying the existence pending investigations in response to congressional requests. so, what does this mean for house republicans who are fairly targeted in those investigations? joining me this morning michigan congressman dan kildee, also the chief deputy for the top democrat congress, thank you for being here and helping us break all this down. i would like to get your reaction to this back and forth between jordan and the doj. >> well, i think jim jordan and many house republicans know better, they cannot interfere with ongoing investigations,

that is not something that is an outrageous standard, i think the justice department clearly has to maintain the integrity of its own investigations so it begs the question why is it that house republicans would be so bent on trying to interfere with ongoing investigations at the department of justice? one can draw one's own conclusions about that but it is fairly clear to me that house republicans are not really thinking about what the american people want to focus on. it is a distraction and i think it is one that the justice department will handle appropriately. >> we certainly know the republicans vote here, what about the strategy of democratic leadership when it comes to this long list of investigations that house republicans are trying to conduct? >> we are just going to have to show the contrast about between what our priorities are and what the parties of the republican conference is. they will pursue their investigation, they have a slight majority in the house of representatives, they control

the chairs, they can set the agenda, i think our role will be to be the adults in the room and try and make sure that anything that they pursue is done respectfully and within the confines of the law, but more importantly to point out they start contrast between the agenda that we pursued when we were in the majority, and able to enact legislation to reduce the costs of health care for americans by making prescription drugs more affordable, investing in clean energy for our future, that is what democrats are focusing on, what the republican leadership seems to be focusing on is helping kevin mccarthy keep whatever bizarre promises he made to the most unstable members of congress in order for him to get that speakers gavel. that is what we are seeing right now, the mccarthy promised list is being ticked off one step at a time, and it is a pretty bad reflection on the priorities of the republican party when it is obviously so political. >> i do want to go deeper into

some of the committee appointments that mccarthy made recently, i first want to get into one of the democratic priorities which is the debt ceiling, on friday president biden said he would be speaking with speaker mccarthy about raising the nations for we limit, this week the u.s. hit that limit and treasury secretary danny yellen says that if nothing is done america could default on its debts as early as june. biden says if that happens it would certainly be a financial calamity like the u.s. has never seen before, far republicans seem to be intent on holding the economy hostage, how do you see this playing out? >> i think it is right for the president to sit down with speaker mccarthy and have this conversation, but not enter into a negotiation that essentially says that the republicans will blow up the american economy and hurt american workers and companies in order to achieve something through the legislative process that they do not think they can

achieve just by the power of their own argument. or their own good ideas. so, i mean, we are going to have to meet our obligations, the debt ceiling issue is really about whether or not we will pay the bills that we have already accumulated, what republicans are saying is we are willing to risk the credit worthiness, the integrity of the american government and the american economy in order to exact a price from democrats, because they don't have the confidence in their own arguments, if they want to talk about tax policy in this country, go to the ways and means committee and they chair the ways and means committee, put their agenda on the table for the american people to take a look at, if they want to make deep draconian cuts into social security and medicare and veterans benefits, and all of those items that would be affected if they're able to have their way, put those ideas on the table in the appropriations committee but let the american people be the judge of their priorities versus hours, they are not

willing to do that. >> we have heard a lot of talking on their side about what they are not willing to do, you know, their priority is going to be fighting wokeism, we have not seen any sort of this is what we would do policy wise, this is what we want to do with the nation's finances or anything close to that. let's talk about this committee appointments, kevin mccarthy placing some of the holdouts that originally opposed him on those key smitty's. both paul gosar and lauren goldberg iran oversight, jack gains and shipper on judiciary, scandal played george santos has even been placed on a committee, he is on science, space, and technology which you are also on. these members could have access to classified information, what does that say about republican priorities? and, who is really running things in the republican party? >> i think that last point is the point, who is really running things in the republican party? it is obvious that these

members, the most extreme and disconnected from reality members are the ones that kevin mccarthy negotiated the speakership with. and they are getting their reward for that. unfortunately, it is not kevin mccarthy who pays the price, it is the rest of us who are trying to come to washington representing our home districts, make the decisions of the american people want us to make, this whole range of issues, what they seem to see it as is a place to offer some benefits in exchange for speaker. it is clear who is running the republican conference, all we need to do is look at the last few weeks and you can see that it was really marjorie taylor greene it was mccarthy's chief lieutenants in negotiating with those fringe members, his speakership, marjorie taylor greene, that is about a strong statement you can make about

where the republican party has landed. >> do you think that there is any world in which mccarthy could possibly work between and thread some sort of needle to work with moderate republicans and democrats to get something done? or, do you think because of the extremism in his party he risks being taken out of office and then it just seems like what would get done? >> that is the big question that remains to be seen, whether this initial period of keeping his promises to the fringe will then be succeeded with real government, real governance, i know there are a lot of really good and well intentioned republican members of the house, i talked to them on a regular basis, i have been on groups with them on a regular basis, between the democrats and those thoughtful republicans we can make a lot of good policy, we can make sure we don't default on our debts, we could have a budget that might not be a reflection of my own priorities but a

collective reflection of the priorities of the american people given the divided government. he is going to have to make a very hard decision in the coming months, and that is whether he will be the speaker of the republican party or will become the speaker of the house of representatives and try to find some common ground. i am not as optimistic as i would like to say i am, i have to leave hope open that the circumstances will rise to the point where he comes to the understanding that the only way we are going to get anything done is by working with those responsible members in the democratic and republican party, that are willing to put aside the little differences and do the work of the american people. i don't know if he will do that but i hope he will. >> the stakes might just have to get too high until we zillow happen, michigan congressman dan i certainly hope you are right, i certainly hope we can be optimistic about any legislation that is coming. thank you. coming up, donald trump and his

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may cause headache, injection site reactions, back pain, and fatigue. ask your asthma specialist about a nunormal with nucala. >> welcome back. donald trump has not dropped his lawsuit against new york attorney general letitia james. he accused her of abusing her position as a.g. to pursue a vendetta against him. the move comes less than a day after a federal judge slapped trump and his lawyer with a 1 million dollar fine for filing what he calls quote, a frivolous lawsuit against hillary clinton. the judge specifically pointing blame at trump for the lawsuit, writing quote, trump is the mastermind of strategic abuse of the some legit -- legislative process, and you cannot be seen as blindly following the advice of a lawyer. trump's not dismiss case claim that hillary clinton or others conspired against him to

orchestrate what he has called the russia hoax. the judge did not agree. joining me now for all of this is criminal defense attorney msnbc legal analyst danny cibolo's. danny, welcome in. i don't think i've heard a judge put it so plainly before. we've seen trump do this for decades, really manipulating the legal system to his own will. how rare is a judgment like? this >> it's very rare, for the most part, there are plenty of lawsuits that are on shaky grounds, but rare is the case that is so frivolous that once sanctions. there are rules that address sanctionable conduct and frivolous lawsuits, there is a rule called rule 11 that all lawyers, know that if you sign your name to a plea deal and has no grounds, then you subject yourself to possible punishment. but it is not used all that often. we've thrown at all the time. if you don't withdraw your lawsuit, i'm gonna seek rule 11 sanctions, but the reality is, only a tiny fraction of these cases actually get sanctioned by a judge, i think the judge

got it right. there appears to be a strategy that trump does not appear to really care about the outcome of these lawsuits. they are used as political capital so that he can violate and then go to a speech and say, well i'm going after them, i am suing them, and if you read some of his transcripts, he even tells the lawyers who are questioning him, as soon as i'm finished here, i'm going to sue you too. >> wow. on that note of it being rare, how likely is it that trump's team will have to pay this fine? >> that's another thing. they may appeal it, but in all likelihood, when you are sanctioned, you have to pay the fine. for the most part, you may try to appeal it or move to reconsider, hey judge, moving to reconsider is always a dicey process, because a judge has ruled against, you and you are basically asking the judge, hey judge, i know that you have this take on the case, i want you to rethink it. it doesn't only go that we'll. so there's a good chance they may end up paying the sanctions. >> how about this lawsuit that we've already seen him drop now

against laetitia james. do you think that other lawsuits could follow suit? >> yes. anytime you try to sue in attorney general to prevent them from suing you, normally, when you are sued, you defend it. you put in an answer, maybe you file a motion to dismiss, but you lineup your defenses and you fight the lawsuit. trump's approach is, you sue me, i will see right back. exactly. i will try to intimidate you. that might work with a corporation, because a lot of times, you can win a war of attrition. no matter what side is right. this is the seedy underbelly of litigation, is that a lot of time settlement is not about right and wrong, it is a business decision. the company says, hey look, we can keep paying these lawyers, let's put a new dollar value on this, everybody get out. when you're suing the attorney general, we don't care about stuff like that. for better or for worse, the government in their mind has infinite money. and so why not just fight it forever? and so suing the a.g., a really risky proposition. but suing companies to wear

them down? that is something trump does rather well. >> on the regular, that was his playbook before all of this happened. >> absolutely. >> with james, not only the have to drop his lawsuit against her, but she actually filed a civil lawsuit against him, accusing trump and his family members of financial fraud. she referred them to federal prosecutors and the irs for criminal investigation. what is the status of that case? >> so separately, what a lot of people don't realize, the attorney general is a law enforcement agency but they also do a lot of consumer protection. so in a sense, the attorney general is acting as a plaintiff. not really as a arresting law enforcement agency. even though they do that to. so what laetitia james it is conduct essentially a civil investigation through her lawsuit, and then refer it to doj. and doj, by the way, has been getting a lot of referrals lately if you haven't noticed. january six committee, they are getting a lot of people telling them how to do their business. and if you ask merrick garland, he would probably get up on a

podium and say once again, we make our own independent decisions, thank you for all of these referrals, we will look at them, but we are an independent branch. arguably in the cabinet, it is the position that is supposed to be the most independent, more independent and other cabinet members. so doj is an independent branch, you can make the referrals to them, you can handle them a flash drive with all your evidence, they will look at it on their own or make their own charging decisions or appoint a special counsel. >> special counsel, two words we have heard a lot of lately! and side note, nothing to do with this current interview, but also doj having to tell congressional committee members, also, we will not be giving you information on our investigations. >> very true. that is news coming out, absolutely. >> this is also interesting danny. in other trump news that is not related to what a question you on so far, newly released transcripts show that trump confuse writer e. jean carroll with his ex-wife marlin polls when shown a photo during events this -- deposition. why is that important?

terrell has sued trump for defamation and battery after he denied her rape allegations. it's trump mistaking carroll for -- undermine his legal defense that she was quote, not his type. >> i love trump and depositions, but as he's kind of the same as he is during a speech, but the problem the deposition is that every word that you say is under oath in campbell be used against the later on in trial. and trump, i've read the transcript, it is one of just referring to earlier. he is as combative of ever. at some point he told the layers, as soon as this case is over, i'm suing you too. he is combative even in this deposition. so even that kind of language, that kind of fighting back is something that can bite you at trial, and a deposition has forced a lock in your testimony. when you go to trial, bashir over the head with it. if you try to testify and consistently. so now you have him on record saying, oh, i think that is marla maples, my ex-wife, who is of course, i think we can agree, his type because he

wouldn't married or if she wasn't his type. separately saying that e. jean carroll is not his tight, he's mistaking them for each other, he's mixing them up, so that will be a pretty creative argument at trial. if this case goes to trial, which i think it probably will. >> and so what's your take on why it probably won't? >> just the numbers. the vast majority of civil cases settle. i'm a civil litigator. it's a very weird existence, because we prepare every case, you put on this front like we are absolutely going to trial. then you get to the courthouse steps, and you start doing that calculus of well, now it is a coin flip. we could get hit with a big judgment, let's talk settlements. so it is just playing the numbers. this is one of those cases of playing the numbers. we are not likely to see a trial in this case, but it is possible. ikely to s>> the fact that thert been a new show just dedicated to donald trump's legal adventures is beyond me. >> i would love to see that show. >> you will be fascinating. >> it would be the best. >> danny syphilis for us this morning, thank you, we appreciate. it credit, credit where credit

is due. a tiny weekly paper was the first news outlet to expose george santos lives. and stories published before the midterms, i will speak with a publisher says that he knew something was off with santos when he met him for the first time three years ago max. me three years ago max from jersey, brimming with confidence. and meatballs. it had a lot of attitude- for a rookie. and a lot of pepperoni. the subway series. the greatest menu of all time. (vo) what can a nationwide 5g network from t-mobile for business do for your business? for a rookie. and a lot of pepperoni. unlock new insights and efficiency-right now. allow monitoring of productivity at remote job sites, with next-generation bandwidth. enable ai cameras that spot factory issues in real time, using next-generation speed. and deliver ultra-capacity 5g coverage that's years ahead of the competition. t-mobile for business has 5g that's ready right now.

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santos has come under fire for vibrating much of his resume in biography, and falsifying his assets. he has apologized for some of what he describes as embellishments. ? one newspaper says, told you so, the north shore leader, a local paper in long island was the first to flag santos inconsistencies even before the november election, including his reported access, going from a net worth of nothing in 2022 as much as $11 million in two years. he also highlighted some discrepancies about his heritage. four months later, other news outlets like the new york times published their own stories. by this point, santos had already won the election. the publisher of north shore leader, grant lolly, is here with me, joining me to kind of break it all down. grant, thank you so much for joining me, i want to start by asking you, the origins of the santos story that really began with your paper. you told the washington post that you have met santos for lunch three years ago when he was seeking support for his political career.

and you said, even, then you knew something was off right from the start. talk about that gut feeling you had, and where it went from there. >> three years ago, in january 2020, and he reached out to us very woman that we both knew, and one of the sit down any one of our support. i had actually run for the seat mate years before that, and he was looking for my support. and so i sat down with him for about an hour and a half, i asked him a lot of questions, a lot of pointed questions, a lot of personal questions, not an unfriendly meeting at all, but he was really a we are go right from the start. he was evasive, he was also just basking in the attention that he was getting, which i thought was very weird for a guy who at the time was only 31 years old, but claimed to be a multimillionaire, finance here. >> what went through your mind when you saw the new york times story, and the subsequent

fallout from there? >> the new york times did some great reporting and some great digging, and we felt very vindicated because we call them out as a fake, we call them a fabulous, and he -- it was beyond our wildest expectations, and we didn't think someone would lie about attending baruch college. wouldn't think someone would lie about working at goldman sachs. i knew by the way that he wasn't jewish because the first time i met him, i asked him about his heritage and his background in brazil, and i don't think he expected it, and so we actually told the truth, which is that he was entirely of portuguese background, and he had one belgian catholic ancestor from 150 years earlier. so when he suddenly, early in 2022, a year ago, proclaimed himself to be jewish, i knew that was a fake. >> it is kind of fascinating that he is sitting here telling people the truth, and then

changes the story later, not thinking that that is ever going to come back to bite him, and then tweeting about it and inconsistencies they can actually be found on the net and writing. it is just fascinating. when you saw the new york times article come out, were you surprised that your own paper's reporting was not picked up earlier, and if it had been, do you think that would've changed the outcome of the election. would>> absolutely. part of this is the bigger story is that local news rooms by all of the daily papers have been got it. the budgets have been cut, reporters when they retire or not replaced, and that is really the tragedy, because we broke what is now a huge story, and we go out to a pretty robust local circulation, we go out to a lot of the regional media and they have it, and look, i know that we endorse the democrat in the race, robert zimmerman, and we are

mostly republican newspaper, but we endorse democrat robert zimmerman. and we try to get the story out, but again, the new york area media didn't focus on it, i didn't want to pick it up until later, and i'm thankful the new york times did it, it was good deep digging journalism, and they had reporters go down to brazil, and they were able to break through the bureaucratic barriers and get answers from goldman sachs and from brew college, but i think we all wish this had happened earlier, so that we don't have to deal with the sociopath in the u.s. congress right now. >> you mention that you guys are mostly republican newspaper, but she did endorsed his democratic opponent robert zimmerman. can you walk us through the process, was it literally just, basically, it's not an indictment on george santos in just how bad of an impression he left with you. >> well look, it's good and it is bad. it was not a hard choice.

we endorsed robert zimmerman in the democratic primary, and he was clearly the most qualified, the most typically minded. then we knew that santos was a grotesque fraud, not the extent that it has now come out, but we knew locally that he was a liar, and a serial liar, and a totally unqualified. and so it was not a hard decision for us to make. >> your papers now calling on santos to resign or be expelled. do you think either this outcomes could happen? >> look, i think, and you reported on the story just a minute ago, the he stole $3,000 from eight disabled united states veteran who needed that money for an operation on his service dog. santos put up a gofundme and raise $3, 000, stole the money, and they disappeared,, and the dog didn't get it surgery, and the dog died. this is pure evil. he is, no one can support him

at this point. even those who have been fist pumping him, in a tentative way, that is all going to stop, because you can't support this level of evil, by everyone. so i think it will be a pretty close to a unanimous vote to expel him, and i think it's coming pretty soon. >> real quickly, last few seconds i have, you you mentioned the significance of local journalism in our community, and also the significance to our democracy. can you expand on that? . >> look, if you don't have good journalism, if you don't have the truth, being explained and people having the courage to put country first, you are not going to have an educated democracy. too much is being filtered through mount sense of social media these days. you really need local journalists and you need local reporters to dig up the stories and tell them and if you look at the shame of, it had this been done earlier, had this

been reported earlier, we could've avoided having something like this happen. >> no doubt, grant law with the new york short leader, we appreciate your time today, and i'm sure it's going to turn a lot of heads now back to local journalism. you trump free social feeds could get a shake up coming up as the ex president plots his returns to mainstream platforms like twitter and facebook, but will trump be throwing his own social media company under the bus after he does that? that story after the break. fter the break lincoln's witnessed a good bit of history. even made some themselves. makes you wonder... what will they do for an encore? ♪♪ if your moderate to severe crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms are stopping you in your tracks...

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next on behind the series... that run with the champ was magical. i mean the tender chicken, the peppercorn ranch... i love my rings but i'll cherish that lunch... forever. the subway series. the greatest menu of all time. >> two months into his campaign

for the 2020 for presidency, donald trump is preparing to make his grand return to twitter and facebook. he turned his focus this week to unblocking his facebook account, which was up for review again after january 7th. and the letter to meddle, trump's campaign wrote quote, we believe that the ban on president trump's account on facebook has dramatically distorted and inhibited the public discourse. trump was banned for two years,

beyond two years ago i should say, for being a quote, risk to public safety after the capitol insurrection. meta says it will announce its decision on whether to reinstate trump in the coming weeks. meanwhile, despite having its twitter account back, trump has yet to actually tweet. he is limited in what he can post due to an exclusivity clause that he agreed to with parent company of his own social media platform truth social. so this morning, technology policy reporter for the washington post is zach katz -- to break this all down. cat, good morning to you, thank you for joining us. what is the likelihood that trump ends up back on facebook, and what could happen if he does get his account back? >> i think facebook is once again in a very politically tricky situation. they are under pressure from democrats right now, to kind of continue to keep don trump off of the platform. we just reported this week on some new revelations from the january six committee that talked about the role the trump's social media played in

helping stoke the extremism and the online grievances that contributed to the violent events on january six. and so on the one side, they're dealing with that, but on the right, you have house republicans gearing up to really focus on these accusations that tech platforms are biased against their party. and central to those claims are the suspensions of donald trump. i also think twitter's decision in november was more -- facebook back on the platform because then you will be in a situation where people are constantly comparing the block on facebook to that on twitter heading into a tweet -- [interpreter] heated election. >> and so what does it say about truth social the trump wants to get back on twitter and facebook? >> it seems to speak to the general instability of truth social. trump has this exclusive agreement with the truth social. he has done it in the past. he is sticking with truth, that he is not getting back on these platforms, but if he is now

considering it, that kind of shows how truth social has not had the impact that he had maybe hoped. i mean on twitter, we know that trump has 8 million followers, and i'm truth social, i looked before this interview, and he has a little bit more than 4 million. and so that is a significantly different thing. and so i off think also one of the things about trump that people have always been skeptical about, if you are permitted to rejoin twitter, if you are able to stay off, just because of how fond he is of the platform. we know the twitter was such a defining characteristic of his presidency. we all remember those tweets at all hours of the day and his unique style of governing on social media. close aides to trump have questioned for years now whether he would be able to stay off of the platform if he is let back on. >> do you think that he backed himself into the corner with that exclusivity cause? by the way, for anybody who's not aware of it, the one on

truth social says that he has to post their first, and then wait at least six hours before posting on any other platform. >> i think there is a big question about whether or not trump will stick to that agreement. as we know, he doesn't always stick to the agreements that he makes in business, as we have seen from his dealings over the course of decades. but yes, that could really be a challenge if he is trying to stick with that, depending on how that some forest, because a lot of his political success was built on these tweets they were quickly reacting to his opponents, to whatever the news of the day was. and so if he does face any sort of delay, we certainly have seen the truth social posts do not take off the same way with the media that his tweets once did. and so i think there is a question of whether he would still have the same impact with that delay. i think also the big question in all of this is how the media treats trump's tweets if he

were to return to the platform. you would think that maybe they would be covered differently after the events of january six. >> really quickly, last few seconds i have with you, there is this auction the happen on twitter. this is not about trump, this is about twitter. saying that there is auctioning off, the company is auctioning off a knee on twitter sign, a statue of its blue bird logo, even a pizza oven. this doesn't seem to bode well for elon musk's reign on twitter. what is your take on this auction? >> this is just another sign of the broad financial instability at the company. elon musk said in a twitter spaces at the end of last year that the company was on track to make three billion in revenue for the year. that is significantly down from the roughly five billion that they made the year before. i don't know that they can make up that gap. auctioning off twitter signs for $100,000 a pop. but it's certainly a creative approach. >> an attempt, at least, cats a

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reports. i'm cory coffin. katie fang is back tomorrow at 7 am eastern. velshi starts right now. >> today on velshi, the very latest on how power is playing out in a divided congress, including which trump allies landed themselves he assignments in the republican -led congress, and why it really