right now on "andrea mitchell reports," seven memphis police officers are now relieved of duty, including the five officers who have been charged with murder in the brutal death of tyre nichols. three first responders are also fired. the d.a. says more charges could be coming in the case. also this hour, a new york city grand jury hears evidence from prosecutors on the alleged hush money payments by former president trump to adult film star stormy daniels.

mr. trump lashes out at journalist bob woodward with a $49 million lawsuit over audio book recordings of their interviews. george santos is responding to criticism over multiple lies about his resume and calls for help to step down in his district by agrees to step down from his committees. under pressure from community activists, the memphis police and first responders were continuing to clean house over the fatal beating of 29-year-old tyre nichols. a seventh memphis police officer has been relieved of duty. three emts have now been fired by the city's fire department

after an internal investigation found out they violated protocols by failing to immediately treat nichols when they arrived at the scene. nbc news reached out to these three but has not heard back. more charges could be coming in addition to the murder charges against the five original officers. joining me now, priscilla thompson, danell hargin and former u.s. attorney barbara mcquade. priscilla, there have been updates since we learned that that sixth officer was relieved of duty yesterday, now a seventh as well. bring us up to the latest. >> reporter: yeah, andrea. lots of new developments here. i will start with the emts. there were two emts and one lieutenant from the memphis fire department that responded to this scene. they were placed on leave earlier this month. in the days after that video has been released, they have been officially fired.

what the fire department says is that those emts responded to a scene where they were told that someone had been pepper sprayed and that they didn't conduct a proper patient assessment when they got there. some of what you see in this video is at one point two emts walking away from tyre nichols as he is on the ground rolling around, clearly in distress. the fire department says that that -- what happened, what they saw happen and what their investigation found was a violation of those department policies. so now those three are out of a job. of course, you have the continued fallout within the police department with police coming out and saying that there are two more officers who are now on leave in addition to the five who have been fired and charged. we did ask the police department about this one person who has not been identified. they are not identifying him. but the other officer, his name appeared in an affidavit. so they have identified him. he can be seen on his body

camera struggling to hold nichols down during that first -- the initial traffic stop and also deploying his taser. an attorney for him says that he was not at all involved in the second scene and he is fully cooperating with the investigation. still, a lot of questions here. the police department says that within the coming days, we could see more personnel action. meanwhile, we are getting a response from the attorneys for the family of tyre nichols saying that they have been praising the police department for their level of transparency. what we are seeing and what they are concerned about is the police department has not been as transparent as they would have hoped. they are calling for this officer to be fired. they are questioning whether the police department is now trying to shield some of the officers from accountability. still a lot of questions here. of course, the district attorney saying that he is investigating all of this. there could be more charges for some of those folks on scene that night.

>> to barbara, a statement released from the memphis police department's twitter says in part that there are numerous charges still developing that are pending. the d.a. referenced that. what else could the officers and emts receive in terms of charges going forward? >> we saw some swift charges filed last week, which is kind of unusual. i think it was kind of an easy call in this case in light of that video when we saw the officers physically abusing tyre nichols. there was no question they had crossed the line there. other times it does require additional investigation to find out what people knew. for example, the officer that you talked about who was involved in the initial interaction with tyre nichols but did not pursue him to the spot where there was the fatal beating, did he put him over for a valid reason? there's been some report that officers say he was driving the wrong way down the street,

refused to pull over when they activated their lights. if so, perhaps that was lawful. he engaged in faily rough handling the tyre when he pulled him out of the car. if he had a belief he was going to flee and endanger members of the public, maybe that was a tactic we might disagree but not necessarily illegal. it's important to look into that. with regard to the firefighters and emergency responders, some have a duty to intervene and render aid. a failure to do that could result in a neglect of office charge. the facts will matter. the law says we should put ourselves in the shoes of the reasonable officer on the scene. what did they know? if they didn't know the facts that we have the benefit of in retrospect, it may be their conduct is shameful, irresponsible, careless. maybe they did the right thing. but it's important to assess all of the information before those kinds of charges can be decided.

>> that said, from looking at the video, it does seem that he was restrained and in medical distress at the time that they arrived. they took a long time, 20 minutes or so, before opening their bags, offering oxygen or other life preserving responses. i want to does about that. you are a former emt technician. you worked for the fdny before you were a police officer and now homeland security. let's talk about what the emts did and what is the best practice, let's say. >> the standard of care for anybody that has a significant head injury or suspected of having a head injury is to immobilize that person just in case they have a neck injury. but really to apply oxygen. the oxygen part is so critically important. it's the easiest step.

you can apply oxygen to someone who is handcuffed. it helps the brain being starved of oxygen because of swelling and lack of blood flow. we talked about this. the autopsy is still not released. i suspect that if the autopsy indicates that these injuries may have been survivable were it not for immediate care and rapid transport, i think that these emts and paramedics are highly culpable. the other thing is there's a lack of supervision. one of the suspended and now terminated fire department staff was a lieutenant, a supervisor, who couldn't bother to get out of the vehicle. this is concerning as a trained eye. this speaks to not just a problem with this scorpion unit or the police department. this is a sis. >> tommy:ic issue in the streets there when you have this disregard for human life. everyone seems to think it's normal. everyone is walking around that this is normal business. that's what's concerning to me.

>> priscilla, i want to talk about the funeral tomorrow. we know reverend al will deliver the eulogy. this is such a hard time. everything is difficult for the parents, the grieving parents and the community. >> very difficult time. we know in addition to that eulogy, there will be a call to action. they demand change. we are learning more about some of the people that will be in attendance, including the mother of brianna taylor and the brother of george floyd. some of what we expect to see tomorrow morning as those services get under way. >> we heard, by the way, priscilla, from benjamin crump yesterday that in striking tragic coincidence, brianna taylor and tyre were born on the same day, the same year.

two victims of police brutality. thanks to all of you for starting us off. follow the money. the manhattan d.a. getting ready to prosecute donald trump over his alleged hush money payments to a porn star. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. mitchell reports" on msnbc prilosec otc reduces excess acid for 24 hours, blocking heartburn before it starts. one pill a day. 24 hours. zero heartburn. woo! blocking heartburn beforhey you.rts. i am loving this silversneakers® boxing class. thank you aetna. yeah? well, i'm loving that zero dollar monthly plan premium. thank you, aetna. ah-ha. smartest move we ever made. well, it sure is. and by the way did you finally make that appointment with your dentist? i sure did. gotta keep this million dollar smile. if you're turning 65, call 1-888-65-aetna

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we have breaking news from capitol hill. george santos announced he is stepping down from his committee assignments until he resolves the questions being raised about his long list of lies. this as a poll of his district found 78% of voters, including 71% of republicans in his direct, want him to resign from congress. something he was asked about on capitol hill earlier today. >> are you considering resigning? >> no, i'm not. >> joining me now, garrett

haake. is this the beginning of the end for congressman santos? we know that hes stepping down from committees. he was put on those committees by the speaker, despite all the criticism. now he is stepping down. >> look, i think the one thing congressman santos has been consistent on is that he has no plans to step down. this despite all the outside pressure that he has gotten from republicans back in his district, from republicans in his delegation in his state and from voters in his district, according to that poll you shared. 78% of district voters saying he should resign. that's consistent apart party identification. for santos, getting off his committees reduces his exposure to the reporters who stand outside his office and await his every move when he comes back and forth. it comes following a conversation with kevin mccarthy. mccarthy told reporters it wasn't his idea.

this was santos' decision. santos' biggest risks as i said from the beginning of this saga i think are not political. they are legal. he is not going to get forced out by house republicans. they need his vote. he is aligned with leadership. he has aligned himself with the right flank of the party, people who might otherwise put pressure on him to leave. they want his vote. his bigger problems are with potentially the doj and the fec, both of whom are looking into potential campaign finance violations along the way. it's those probes that i think are most likely to push santos towards an exit in the future. it's not political pressure. i think getting him off these committees reduces that pressure even further. the chairman of the small business committee said today he thought santos was a distraction. this means he won't be a distraction to at least that one committee. i think it extends the likelihood he can stay in congress unless and until his legal problems worsen. >> garrett haake, thanks so much. donald trump's role in hush money payments to a porn star is

under legal scrutiny. the manhattan prosecutors started presenting evidence to a grand jury in this longest running criminal investigation into the former president. i think it's seven years. the payment was made to stormy daniels in 2016 while trump was running for the white house. trump fixer michael cohen went to prison in 2018 for his role in the hush payment after testifying that the payout was made in trump's direction. "the new york times" reports that david pecker, the publisher who helped broker the deal, was seen going into the building where the grand jury is sitting. joining me now, ashley parker, jeremy peters and andrew weissmann. andrew, first to you. you are the lawyer among us. you see david pecker going into the grand jury building. this is reinvigorated.

we thought the d.a., after vance's term was up. two prosecutors quit in protest. it seems like it just never dies. >> there is this issue of what is going on. we don't know. but it is important to remember that alvin bragg did say that the investigation is continuing. at the time, we thought, could that really be true? is it something that prosecutors say? allen weisselberg was convicted. we did see the trump organization be convicted. there is life there of some sort. it's important to remember that the statute of limitations, the time frame in which a prosecutor has to bring charges or it's barred forever, appears to run at the end of this spring. there may be a reason that this

is now being presented to a grand jury and that alvin bragg is thinking, let's put people in and see what the evidence looks like. there's no decision perhaps that has been made, but getting ready for an ultimate call before the statute starts to run. >> ashley parker, does it seem though like this is such a minor issue it could be a campaign finance violation? it's a violation of state law and other -- it's fraud. then the more serious penalty and conviction if he were prosecuted would be campaign finance, it was not what the money was intended for. that said, given the insurrection, given what's happened in georgia, with fulton county, given the classified documents and a potential obstruction of justice, doesn't this seem like the least important thing to go after donald trump for, at least in terms of the political context? >> this one of, as you

outlined -- one of a cascade of legal issues that the former president is facing. again, it sort of remains unclear which one will prove most damaging to him. what this does do -- again, it's this sheer number of them all regardless of the results, is this just adds to the political struggles that the former president is having right now, which is that -- i was just out in pennsylvania talking to dozens of voters who supported trump in 2016 and 2020. when you ask them what they would like -- some of them what they would like to see in 2024, they say, they liked trump, they liked his policies, but they don't like the behavior, they don't like the controversy, they don't like the scandals. they think he is damaged. they point to things like this. not because they don't think he did anything wrong -- again, that's not for them to decide or

me to decide -- but they think he is wounded. that's why he is in one of the weakest political positions he has been in right now. he has legal expexposure. then he has political exposure. >> michael cohen met with the d.a. 14 times. he recalled the payment was made to karen mcdougal who said she had an affair with mr. trump. let me play part of michael cohen just yesterday. >> let's also not forget that stormy daniels is not the only one. there's also karen mcdougal. another claim that i pled guilty to that i had limited to no involvement in. that was all david pecker, ami and th "national enquirer." it may not have been properly

disclosed in his tax forms that he somehow believed that you can take this as a deduction. >> michael cohen, the prosecutor could think, is not the best witness against the former president of the united states in a highly politicized environment. >> slightly compromised, i would say so. as andrew pointed out, there appears to be some life there in this stormy daniels case. it's been going on for seven years, as you noted. i think as ashley would probably agree with me, having covered donald trump since 2015 when he launched his campaign, predicting his demise in any sense, whether legally or politically, is a pretty perilous thing to do. he survived two impeachments and numerous lawsuits at the state and local level. some still proceeding against him. that's not to say this georgia case, which people i have spoken to are watching very closely and

say poses the gravest threat to him of all of the cases out there so far -- it's not to say that georgia case doesn't lead to his indictment. >> we do have tape now from a taped deposition where donald trump was interviewed by the new york state attorney general and the colleagues. this involved the civil suit, the civil fraud suit involving tax returns as well. he pleaded the fifth. here is his explanation from that deposition. this was acquired -- it was a response to a cbs freedom of information request. he pleaded the fifth more than 400 times in this deposition, despite earlier saying only a mob boss would take the fifth. here is donald trump. >> why are you taking the fifth amendment? i was asking that question.

now i know the answer to that question. when your family, your company and all the people in your orbit have become the targets of an unfounded politically motivated witch hunt supported by lawyers, prosecutors and even the fake news media, you really have no choice. anyone in my position, not taking the fifth amendment, would be a fool. an absolute fool. >> that's a heavily lawyered statement he is reading, andrew. >> i agree with him on the point of taking the fifth. it's important to remember everyone has a right to the fifth if a truthful answer would tend to incriminate you. in a civil case, it can be used against you, unlike in a criminal case. one other thing i would disagree is when he is saying there's this witch hunt, he left out jurors. the trump organizations went to trial. they had their day in court.

they could present all of their evidence. 12 jurors, that's everyday citizens, found beyond a reasonable doubt that there was a multi-year tax conspiracy that his organizations were involved in. and there was evidence he knew about it as would make sense. that's one more reason for him to be asserting the fifth amendment. >> the legal point on the stormy daniels case, going back to that, does the d.a. have sole decision making on whether to prosecute on this, unlike the federal system where it would go all the way up to merrick garland, it's such a big deal? >> here the buck stops at alvin bragg. he gets to decide. it's useful to know if there's an indictment and conviction, there's no federal pardon that trump can look to if this would stick in the same way a georgia indictment, that also sticks.

they are state cases. regardless what happens in the presidential election, those cases go forward. >> what about -- would a state conviction -- this is -- i'm jumping several leaps here. hypothetically, would a state conviction bar him from holding federal office? >> that's a great question. i don't believe so. i don't think the state conviction alone. you would need to have a federal remedy. there are federal remedies that can come into play. that's quite aways down the road. >> that would also be the case in fulton county? >> yeah, the same thing. the state conviction alone would not be enough to bar him as a federal candidate. but the underlying facts that have been proved could be used by federal authorities to say he should not serve again. >> still on the trump legal front, ashley parker, switching gears, he is suing our friend and your colleague bob woodward

and publisher simon & schuster. donald trump claiming he never gave permission for the public use and sale of the audio. he gave permission for it to be taped. do you have any context for this? >> yeah. you know, what's interesting is -- i covered the release of woodward's audio book. again, the context is, there was nothing in those tapes that at that moment was truly explosive or even particularly scoopy, because it had all previously sort of -- the best nuggets had appeared in his written book. there was something different, of course, about hearing the former president's voice in discussing this with bob woodward. trump is not complaining necessarily that there was some damaging detail that came out in these audio books.

his big complaint just with the context of having covered him since 2015 and knowing him -- it's not cited exactly in the lawsuit -- is that bob woodward is doing something the former president hates, which is profiting off of him. it's the former president's voice in those audiotapes that is helping make bob woodward rich. that is sort of fundamentally the thing that trump cannot abide. >> that's such a great insight from your experience covering donald trump. thanks to all. coming up, tunnel vision. joe biden is in new york today to push his infrastructure plan as he plans to move around the country beyond covid. this is "andrea mitchell reports." you are watching msnbc. ll reports. you are watching msnbc can help your business get a payroll tax refund, even if you got ppp

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commuters. mr. biden will announce nearly $300 million in grants for a new tunnel under the hudson river. this was blocked by former president trump. part of the popular bipartisan infrastructure plan. the bill that was passed and now applying for the president's re-election campaign. mike memoli is here with me. he has talked about infrastructure in baltimore. this is the way he is approaching the state of the union and the campaign. clearly, the campaign to come. these are very popular achievements. >> this is the positive side of the coin after two years in which the president spent a lot of political capital, sometimes fighting with democrats, to try to get his economic agenda through. the white house knows even with a republican congress that's a political problem for them, the president will try to travel the country, do a lot of ribbon cutting, ground breaking events like we are seeing this week and try to reinforce his economic message.

it's about saying, i am delivering what i promised in the campaign. it's interesting to hear some of the comments the president made at the events. connecting with his roots as a working class warrior. bringing back lines from his 2008 stump speech talking about passing these homes on train ride home, seeing the flickering and lights in the homes, wondering the conversations that americans are having at their kitchen table. he is trying to get outside of washington as much as possible. we know there's a big washington fight. that's over the debt ceiling. we will see it come to a head in the first meeting tomorrow between mccarthy and biden. let's listen to an exchange that kristin welker had with the president this morning. >> the most responsible thing to do is that we sit down. we have a time period between now and june. we find places we can find savings for the american public and put ourselves on a path of

the majority. any gimmick or political games is irresponsible. >> this is the classic washington where they can't agree what the meeting is about. that doesn't bode well for where this conversation is heading. the president believes the divisions on the republican side play to his political advantage in trying to press them for a clean debt limit increase. we can have a fight over spending down the road. >> having talked to a lot of senators this weekend, that includes -- senators believe in the debt ceiling, believe in increasing it but think the president should negotiate. this is probably opening bid. meeting to talk, not to negotiate. but eventually, they will negotiate something. on the republican side, mccarthy has a problem. some of his republican senators and house members are talking about cuts in medicare and social security, which mccarthy doesn't want. that's so unpopular. >> that's what the president means. what can you get 218 votes for? the white house saying they want

kevin mccarthy to come out of this meeting with an explicit statement that he is not going to put full faith and credit of the u.s. government at risk. the president knows this is a negotiation. he was part of it in 2011 as vice president. he has seen republicans back away from the table. here is the thing that i think is worrying. people on both sides of the aisle -- ultimately, cooler heads prevailed. a lot of those people are no longer here. rob portman, paul ryan, who eventually got to a deal. that's what i think is going to rattle the markets. >> we are talking about the markets here, but the markets are global. this is a potential domestic and global crisis. even a few days -- people say, a billion here, a billion there, it adds up, the famous phrase in the '70s. what you are talking here is trillions of dollars. it's american wealth, people's

retirement savings, that can disappear overnight if this goes on very long. >> we have seen what that has done, this concern about interest rates over the last year in terms of the stock market. it's recovering slowly. we are heading into a period when the fed might be cooling off, backing off the rate increases. we expect another one tomorrow. there's a new injection of uncertainty. a lot for the president to navigate. by the time we have this fight in ernest, he will likely be a candidate for re-election. >> you talk about interest rates the fed controls, that's nothing compared to what would happen if at last time it did go for a couple of days, the credit of the united states government was downgraded. that means that you have to pay more interest on your debt. that becomes a spiraling, escalating debt. the deficit gets larger. that said, the hill and this president are heading for a cliff on a number of subjects,

because of the people who have been put on intelligence, on oversight on the house side. we saw a step back by santos today, temporarily perhaps from his committees. you have this immovable object on the intelligence front. we saw what happened with jim jordan on "meet the press." >> a lot of the action on capitol hill is about investigating the president and his administration. we will have a showdown in the coming days where the homeland committee want mayorkas. are they going to slow walk a lot of these oversight requests? are they going to provide witnesses, administration officials to testify? it's an interesting dynamic to really get a sense of whether the white house -- where they see political advantage and where they want to avoid disclosure that might add to their political headaches. >> we will take a break. we will come back when the president is speaking.

thanks, mike memoli. on edge, more violence in the middle east after atense a tense meeting. this is "andrea mitchell reports." we will be right back. this is msnbc. ill be right back. this is msnbc. money moves with merrill. so no matter what the market's doing, he's ready. and that's... how you collect coins. your money never stops working for you with merrill, a bank of america company. ♪3, 4♪ your money nev♪r stops working for you with merrill, ♪hey♪ ♪ ♪are you ready for me♪ ♪are you ready♪ ♪are you ready♪ ♪ ...i'm over 45. ♪ ♪ i realize i'm no spring chicken. ♪ ♪ i know what's right for me. ♪ ♪ i've got a plan to which i'm sticking. ♪ ♪ my doc wrote me the script. ♪ ♪ box came by mail. ♪ ♪ showed up on friday. ♪ ♪ i screened with cologuard and did it my way! ♪ cologuard is a one-of-a kind way

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look, one person in particular pushed relentlessly for the advance of this. i don't know how many times i have heard from chuck about this project, time and time and time again. he didn't let anything stop him. he knows how incredibly critical it is to people's lives and the strength of the economy of new york and new jersey. quite frankly, all across the country. that's chuck schumer. he is relentless. he never gives us. no one has done more to make this a reality. this is chuck schumer day. you got it done. chuck, you have done a hell of a job. senator and mayor, thank you -- where is the mayor? good to see you. thank you for the passport into the city. and governor, thank you.

we got a chance to speak earlier. governor murphy, you've been a great friend a long time. your leadership is vital to this project and the new jersey congressional delegation fought like hell to push forward what all this entails. i want to thank everybody here. i want to thank bob menendez. good to see you. cory booker. two great senators from new jersey. i also want to -- we try to shut down -- while others tried to shut this down, i made it clear, this is a national priority. i told you that we would get this done. we did it together. i want to thank representative gottheimer and the two members of the new jersey congressional delegation. rob menendez and don goldman. look, for being here, we got a lot of work to do. we got a lot of work to get together.

you will pay for that when you get home. i want to thank everyone from amtrak. everyone from amtrak. mtas up there. this gateway development commission is really important. thank you for your partnership. folks, just outside this space the first piece of the new hudson tunnel is being built. it's one of the biggest parts of the gateway program. let me say this. this is just the beginning. this is the beginning of finally constructing a 21st century rail system that's long, long overdue in this country. this project is critical to transforming the northeast corridor, increasing speed, capacity, reliability and safety. in addition to getting folks out of cars and on to trains, we will help the environment. we will -- all the studies show -- i have been harping on this since the mid '70s. every study shows, get from point a to b on rail as fast or

faster than in an automobile. you don't take the car. you get in the train. that's how important this project is for up to 200,000 passengers who take amtrak or new jersey transit under the hudson river every single day. you know it matters the northeast corridor from here to boston, boston to washington. for years people talked about fixing the tunnel. thanks to the leadership of chuck and the bipartisan infrastructure law, we are finally getting this done. this law is the most significant investment in rail, the most significant investment in rail since we created amtrak over 50 years ago. billions are going into projects along the northeast corridor including replacing the existing hudson tunnel. that's why it's so important. 2,200 trains. 2,200 trains run along the northeast corridor every single day. it's the busiest corridor in the united states of america. one of the busiest in the world.

the problem anywhere along the line means delays up and down the east coast for folks trying to get to work, businesses trying to ship goods, travelers trying to get to see their families. by the way, as a u.s. senator, i commuted for 36 years every single solitary day the senate was in session. i traveled over 1 million miles on amtrak. >> we know that he is right. he traveled on that corridor. as do we. as did we just to get here. >> i have spent hours upon hours in that tunnel commuting in and out of new york as a high school student and now here today. the president's talking about a $300 million project that's going to create tens of thousands of jobs. one of $1.2 billion the administration is announcing today. this is about the president being able to say he is delivering on his promising. there's a larger theme, which is that government can actually work. this is a domestic priority but a foreign policy priority.

the president wanted to show democracies can work in that battle against autocracy. >> i can say, the first new train is rolling out today on that corridor as well. thanks so much. as violence escalates in the middle east, secretary of state blinken visited the occupied west bank where he met with the president of the palestinian authority. this comes amid one of the deadliest months in the west bank and israel in several years. before leaving, secretary blinken called for both the israelis and palestinians to reduce tensions. >> we have been clear and consistent in our conviction that neither side should take any actions that right now potentially would add fuel to a fire. and over the medium to long-term would make the prospects of

achieving two states even more distant than they currently are. >> in a rebuke to prime minister net nen an ya -- netanyahu, he met with protesters against him. joining me is richard haus. his new book is "the bill of obligations, the ten habits of good citizens." congratulations on the book. i want to talk to you about this coming up in a second. first, let's talk about the middle east today. you have worked on this for so long. how did secretary blinken navigate with a weak palestinian leader and prime minister netanyahu who was opposed to the obama/biden administration? >> the bottom line -- i'm not comfortable saying -- is he can't navigate it or he can do it without much if any affect.

people have tuned us out. this israeli government is not open to the kinds of arguments the united states would make. the palestinian leadership is too weak to do anything about it. it's too divided. you have a situation where you and i for years and others called the peace process, essentially the process is stopped dead in its tracks. what you have on both sides, the israeli government with the settlers, the palestinians with younger palestinians, increasingly things are out of control. the authorities are lacking authority. i think that you have a terrible situation where diplomacy is not going to make any progress. the situation on the ground, as we have seen, is likely to deteriorate. >> that doesn't mean the u.s. and israel don't have shared priorities, including expanding israeli/arab normalization and shared mutual defense in the region with the arabs in israel.

then on iran, as toxic as the situation is on many levels with israel and the u.s. and iran, they really still believe that a nuclear agreement down the road is better than nothing. of course, netanyahu was one of the people with donald trump who scuttled it. >> i think there's no chance now of an agreement. the agreement we had with iran. there's overlap between the u.s. and israeli governments that iran cannot be allowed to gain nuclear weapons or even get to the brink of it. israel seemed to have carried out attacks on some iranian capabilities. i didn't see the u.s. particularly criticizing it. i think the real question also is -- we can compartmentalize to a degree there. it will be interesting to see if there's movement on the so called abraham accords. arab states parked the palestinian issue to the side. i think there's two questions.

will saudi arabia move ahead if the situation on the ground grows worse? there's reasons to be skeptical. will the countries in the arab world that have made peace with israel, like the uae and bahrain, could there be backsliding if things get bad enough, particularly around islamic holy places? i would simply say, once again i fear the middle east will be a source of problematic news. >> in your book, you talk urgently about the significant threat to our democracy. the bill of obligations, americans need to know about their citizenship, know about their obligations and then act on it. >> absolutely. this was a country founded on an idea. we haven't always lived up to our ideas or ideals, but it was founded on things like equal opportunity and equality of persons, and but we don't teach this story. we don't teach our history. why will americans value this democracy?

how will they know what it takes to make it work? we barely teach it in our schools. we don't require it as a condition of graduation in the lion's share of our colleges and universities. i think we have a lot of work to do, andrea, to make sure this democracy of ours endures in another couple of centuries. we can't take anything for granted, we can't dismiss the possibility of politically inspired violence in this country, so i'm hoping that we really begin to focus on what it will take for this democracy to be robust, whether in washington, so we can meet some of our challenges. i think for parents, for educators, for religious leaders, i think there is a lot of work to be done around this society. >> richard haass, this is must reading in every school, in every classroom, and at home. thank you very much. >> thank you, andrea. >> "the bill of obligations" is the book. official charges are expected to be filed today

against alec baldwin and the "rust" armorer for the fatal shooting of cinematographer halyna hutchins. it includes involuntary manslaughter. if this case goes to trial, convicted, both could face up to 6 1/2 years in prison. baldwin's attorney calling the charge a terrible miscarriage of justice adding that mr. baldwin had no reason to believe there was a live bullet in the gun or anywhere on the movie set. here with me now is criminal defense attorney and nbc legal analyst danny cevallos. there are a lost arguments to be made he was overcharged on this. if he would be charged if he weren't alec baldwin, if he wasn't a superstar. he's not being charged just as an actor who may not have known what to do with the gun, he's being charged as the producer, may have been a symbolic title, we don't know, but legally he's the producer, responsible for what happens on that set. >> i think actually charging him

as both ep, executive producer, and as the actor who pulled the trigger is a problem for the prosecution. when they gave interviews, they said and they were asked that question, they said, well, both. and i'm not sure if that's going to work with them, with a jury. if i'm the defense attorney, i say in my closing the prosecution didn't even settle on a theory. they want you to fill in the blanks. they want you to do their work for them. either he was an executive producer or he was the actor who pulled the trigger. they need to pick one theory and go with t they don't legally need to do that. they can proceed in the alternative. i think that's a problem for their theory of responsibility. >> you're pointing out their strategy you think is flawed. >> i do. i tried to be objective. i think their theory of liability has several holes. for example, they're going to argue that -- they have admitted they didn't bother to find out who brought the live round on set. if i'm giving a closing argument, i'm saying the real

bad guy is the person who brought the live round and the prosecution told you, they didn't bother to find out who that guy is. he could still be out there. instead, they settled early on, they got tunnel vision, they focused on baldwin, they think of him as a fancy pants celebrity, and that's who they wanted to go after. it would be some version of that. i expect that's what you're going to hear in closing at this trial. >> it is a fascinating case. danny thank you for being here. today we're remembering veteran actress cindy williams, known for playing shirley on "laverne & shirley" but her career spanned decades. anne tom thompson has a look back. >> reporter: they're remembering their mom as kind, beautiful, and generous with a beautiful sense of humor, talent that we watched on "laverne & shirley," from the opening scene. for eight seasons, cindy

williams charmed america as straight-laced shirley feeney. >> that's a very pretty picture. >> reporter: one half of a comic tv duo with penny marshall. >> society would only go out for you for one reason to have a good time, a few laugh and a little rodeo do do. >> i don't rodeo do do. >> reporter: together as laverne and shirley, they made the nation laugh once a week. williams telling savannah in 2015 -- >> there was a full to be, you know, made fun of, it would always be us. we also made sure that it was extremely funny to us. >> reporter: the show, basically the odd couple meets i love lucy, was a spin-off from "happy days". >> this is shirley feeney, she's yours, as you can see. >> nice to meet you, richey. >> my pleasure. >> reporter: it too captured the nostalgia for the '50s and '60s. but for williams, the laughter came to an end in 1982, when pregnant with her first child

she sued the production company. >> they had me working on my due date to have my baby and i said i can't, you know, i can't sign this. >> reporter: while you may remember williams from tv, it was in the movies where she first made her mark. as the cheerleader lori in "american graffiti ," fighting with then ronnie howard. >> you didn't. i asked you out. >> reporter: and then in the francis ford coppola thriller "the conversation". >> the man with the hearing aid like charles. >> reporter: she married bill hudson, and had two children. the couple divorced in 2000. in her later years, williams wrote a memoir and turned those memories into a show. one of two women who never heard the word impossible. ♪ he's got high hopes he's got high apple pie in the sky ♪

>> williams' family says the 75-year-old died after a brief illness. many fans are remembering her fondly today. now back to you. >> and our thanks to anne thompson for those wonderful memories. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." thank you for being with us. follow the show online on facebook and twitter. "chris jansing reports" starts right after this. "chris jansing reports" starts right after this

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good day. i'm chris jansing live at msnbc headquarters in new york city. in memphis, the focus shifts to first responders. three of them fired after waiting to get tyre nichols to the hospital. now the gut wrenching question, even after that vicious beating at the hands of police, could nichols' live still have been saved? plus, major political moves, president b