politically. >> i thought is the president will look like we arrived at the final stop of the reductive train of the destruction of any semantic validity to the term? >> yeah, it's like, what does it even mean, woke, well context does that hold? we'll answer a trying to illicit? you know, i have a lot of thoughts about the use of the word woke in this way, but i will and our conversation, with a quick observation which is that, if the idea is that we try to make people become aware of injustice and acting on it, then we have to disparage a whole lot of americans that we really admire, because they had that exact same path and done some gratings. >> yeah, it's being blind, asleep. jamelle bouie, thank you very much. that is all in on this tuesday night, alex wagner tonight starts right now, good evening, alex.

i love when you say the destruction of the semantic train right is that what you're saying? i wrote it down. that is. i love it! i love it! happy valentine's day buddy! >> to you to. >> thank you for joining us at home. happy valentine's day to you at home. it is not been a quiet one. we have lots of news this evening regarding the special counsel's investigations into both trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election and to whether trump unlawfully retain classified documents and obstructed efforts to recover them. first of breaking news in the mar-a-lago documents investigation. it concerns trump lawyer evan corcoran who's been representing the former president in his negotiations with the justice department over classified documents found at mar-a-lago. corcoran's already can appeared before the grand jury but tonight nbc news confirms it special jackson jack smith is invoking the crime fraud exception and seeking more of corcoran's testimony. in a sealed filing before a

judge overseeing the grand jury, nbc reports the doj prosecutors have said that they have evidence that some of trump's conversations with corcoran were in further instance of a crime. the news was further reported tonight by the new york times, quote for federal prosecutors overseeing the prosecution into former president donald trump's handling of classified documents are seeking to pierce a sir singe of utterly client privilege and compel one of his lawyers to answer more questions before a grand jury having an aggressive new dimension to the inquiry and underscoring the legal peril facing mr. trump. the prosecutors have sought approval from a federal judge to invoke what is known as the crime fraud exception which allows them to work around attorney-client privilege when they have reason to believe that the legal advice or legal services have been used in furthering a crime. now you may recall that mr. corcoran reportedly drafted a statement last summer testing

to the fact that no further classified documents remained at mar-a-lago. that was just a few months before fbi agents conducted a search of the property and recovered an additional 100 documents with classification markings. so what is all this mean for the former president? joining us now it's bradley moss, the national security attorney who routinely represents officials with matters of pertain to classified documents. bradley thank you for being with us. first let's get the reaction of this breaking news from the new york times is nbc's confirmed? >> absolutely alex. this is pretty significant information and it certainly shows that the special counsel continues to move forward and continues to borough deeper and deeper into the inner parts of trump world. this shows that they have evidence not just that there was conduct in these individuals working to conceal information but that their lawyers are aware of the details and may have been working to further the crime.

that's part of how they would make this argument before the district court judge with the crime fraud exception. it's a very very high bar to meet. it certainly deserves to be scrutinized but if they can overcome that privilege to get that testimony before the grand jury, that is very damaging for the former president. >> it sounds like it in this is our own candle any was put it this way, but the prosecutors are trying to determine whether trump instructed his lawyer evan corcoran to lie or whether trump lied to evan corcoran. that seems to be the essence of all this. is that right? >> yeah that's part of it and it's also did trump talk to fatten corcoran order to go through one of the other trump world lawyers? who's mentioned in the new york times article and it is a player who's been around trump world and seems to be overseeing different lawyers. who was giving the instruction to heaven corcoran? and did evan corcoran give instruction to christina bobb

when she signed that statement back in june? who is overseeing it and what information did they know? does it all come back to donald trump in the end? or was someone else, was it boris epstein who went rogue and was trying to convey false information? that's what the doj has to nail down. they have to have clarity before they decide to pull the trigger and proceed in indictment. >> do you think this represents a newly aggressive stance on the part of special counsel jack smith when it concerns mar-a-lago. because of this moral around trump, some folks thought that smith might be backing off. do you think that's all a consideration anymore? >> no, i never thought that was a consideration or what i thought it was appropriate. if there's merit to the special counsel's case in any criminal liability for anybody with respect to president biden, that should pursue its own track and the same thing goes for former president vice president vice like that's. donald trump as his own criminal exposure, and exposure to his lawyers, over the last two years in mar-a-lago.

officials the jack smith is continuing down that path. he's not backing off, doesn't mean he's not gonna pour to pursuit and ultimate a diamond, doesn't even mean heat when a trial. but his it's certainly not a back step to anybody. they're gonna see it to the. and >> bradley moss, it's so great to have you on board as we see the surface breaking news. thank you for your time appreciate. it i mentioned that there were also developments in the justice department's january 6th probe, particularly as it relates to mike pence. this was vice president pence back in november when he was asked if he would speak to the january 6th investigation. congress >> will you answer questions that a congress. >> congress has no right to my testimony. we have a separation of powers under the constitution of the united states and i believe it would established a terrible precedent for the congress to cement a vice president of the united states to speak about deliberations that took place at the white house.

>> so you are closing the door on that entirely? >> and closing the door on that, but i must say again the partisan nature of the january 6th committee has been a disappointment to me. >> former vice president pence said saying he would not testify before the january six committee because vice president and member of the executive branch, it would establish a terrible precedent when it comes to separation of powers. january 6th committee of course was an investigation into the legislative branch. in the days after that interview, the new york times reported that when it came to speaking to the department of justice and its probe, vice president pence was open to considering their request, recognizing the did the doj's criminal investigation is different by the inquiry of the january 6th committee. but out, barely three months later, the grand jury subpoena has been issued by the doj and according to new reporting today, the former vice president is unlikely to comply with that subpoena. now this time his argument is

that his role on january six as president of the summit made him a member of the legislative branch. so he doesn't have to comply with the doj's demands. just to break this down. three months ago he was part of the executive branch and he didn't want to involve himself in an inquiry from the legislative branch. now he's a member of the legislative branch who doesn't want to comply with an inquiry from the executive branch. according to reporting from politico, pence is preparing to cite the speech or debate clause. how did all this happen? joining us now is congresswoman zoe lofgren of california. she was of course a member of the january 6th committee. congresswoman thanks for joining us. i feel like what mick pence is doing right now is a dictionary definition of having your cake and needed to. when it is convenient either creates part of the executive or legislative branch. are you reading at the same way

i am? i know your ball trained in the law? >> this is wrong headed at many levels. first, geologist stand up and tell the truth and not try to evade the. it looks very bad. number two, this is unprecedented. i don't think there's any case on this, but it's not that hard to decide that speech or debate does not apply in this case. all you need to do is look at article one section three, article one section six and the 12th amendment. basically those sections say the vice president's president of the senate, that the 12th amendment says the vice president shall open the envelopes and the votes shall then be counted. and speech and debate in articles one section six, says members of the legislative body may not be held, shall not be questioned for speech debate in

any other place. well, the vice president's whole premise was that his role on the sixth opening the envelopes was purely and ministerial. it had nothing to do, he had no discretion that's what he told the president, that's what he said public. obviously, that's not a legislative act. things other than legislation or activities leading up to legislation do not benefit from the speech debate clause, as lindsey graham found much to his dismay in a georgia grand jury. clearly the vice president is not gonna go anywhere with a claim of executive privilege before a grand jury that has been convened for a criminal purpose. the nixon case made that clear, and i don't think this claim of speaker and debate is really worth much. it's embarrassing that he would make that claim after stating so many times that this was purely and ministerial act.

so he may just be trying to get the lay but i also may find out that grand jury's get decisions a lot quicker and the congress does in the civil courts. >> yeah, you've raised such a good point that mike pence is singular act as vice president was to say he cannot play a part in overturning democracy. he had purely a ministerial role to perform in january six no matter what the president the united states wanted him to do. if you were the doj at the stage of the game, one of the questions you would have for mike pence that you didn't get into answers part of the january 6th committee? >> well we have lots of questions. we want to know his interaction with eastman. we want to know his interaction with the president himself. we want to know his interaction with mark meadows and a variety of other people. now he did have members of his staff come before the january

6th committee and testify at some length. we appreciated that, but there are some things that only he could talk about. for example, the phone call that he and the president, former president had on the moment morning of january six. he left a meeting he was with with his staff and went into another room to take that call. we don't know what was said. there is a lot that they need to find out that we simply could not find a. >> you made a point a marc short and greg jacobs his advisers testified before the committee providing infallible testimony. he was reluctant, he said he didn't want to testify before the committee and we see a delay at least happening with the doj. is it your belief that he will ultimately end up speaking to the doj in this investigation? do you think the laws really on the doj side and then we are gonna find out answers to those questions? mike pence and certainly told the public a lot about that they already? >> my guess is that he will end up testifying.

first, although it's unprecedented, there's not a lot of there's no case law as to a vice presidents assertion of speech or debate, it's not a complicated decision to make, and i think the judge will make a quick decision because it's not that complicated. and he may appeal, but grand jury appeals go much quicker than i say that the january six committee found in our civil efforts to get our subpoenas in force. i suspect that he will testify. i would guess that he is basically -- i don't know why he's doing this. obviously some of suggested that it has a political motive that he is appealing to the ex presidents supporters. i have no idea but i think it's probably too late. this is a group that wanted to hang him. i don't think they're gonna vote for him. >> that is true. there was the news that was directed on the capitol grounds.

and he did open the door. he was the person who said he was open today testifying before the doj knowing full well congresswoman that the doj would make that call and say hey mister vice president, if you want to come talk to us, let's do that, let's make a day. it was sort of baked-in that he would be subpoenaed? >> i want to give his lawyers credit for coming up with a very creative approach. i think when he said he was open to testifying to the doj, he no he didn't have any chance of evading that testimony through an assertion of executive privilege. that wasn't going to win. there is no other basis for it. this is very creative assertion that really doesn't stand up if you look at it at all. >> congresswoman zoe lofgren, it is so wonderful to speak to someone with such an expertise and a history on this subject matter. thank you for making time tonight. >> thanks very much. >> we have a lot more to get to tonight, like the race for the 2024 republican presidential

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contests was just around the corner and a white night was about to enter the republican presidential contest. republican who had been the subject of beltway presidential chatter for years was finally going to throw his hat in the ring as the nominee who would unseat president obama. >> i'm ten plenty, and i'm running for president of the united states. >> but the 2012 presidential candidacy of tim polarity or teapot did not last much beyond that announcement. you could've predicted that though based on the headlines the proceeded it. it was the new york times headline all the way back in 2008. plenty looks to national stage. his political in 2009. holiday preps 2012 campaign team. four years of speculation anticipation snuffed out in an instant. by 2014, there was a new great

hope for the republican party. time magazine called on the most interesting man in politics. kentucky senator rand paul. rand paul did launch campaign for president in president in 2016, and two days after the iowa caucuses he dropped out of the race. and now this year in 2023 there is nikki haley. >> they all think we can be bullied, kicked around. you should know this about me. i don't put up with police. and when you kickback, it hurts them more if you're wearing heels. i'm nikki haley and, i'm running for president. >> former u.s. ambassador in south carolina governor nikki haley is now the second republican to officially enter the race for president after her former president donald trump. and her announcement tells you everything you need to know about the challenges nikki haley needs to, win that nomination. she claims she doesn't put up with police despite putting up

with president trump's relentless bullying while serving in his cabinet. the campaign announcement video highlights her background as an indian american while chastising left for dividing people along racial lines. she highlights her handling of the a manual shooting but neglects to, you mentioned her decision to remove the confront flag from the state house. these are all decisions nikki haley feel she needs to make an republican primary of 2023, but it is unclear whether any of them will help her win the republican nomination in 2024. joining us now is former missouri democratic senator claire mccaskill. clare, i'm already gonna say that i could spend the rest of the show talking to you about these endeavors of these republicans. but first let me get the your thoughts about who nikki haley is trying to appeal to in the gop at this juncture? >> that's a really good question, and that's one of her biggest problems. it's the same problem mike

pence has. is she trying to appeal to moderate republicans? no. this is somebody who was hopped on and off the trump trains so often i'm surprised she doesn't have a high ankle sprain like the winning chiefs quarterback. she really can't decide whether she's for trump or against trump. and i guess the words bully in her announcement with some kind of hand signal to anti trump republicans that she's with them. on the other hand, there are many other things that she's gonna try to signal to the trump base that she's on their side. and typically someone who doesn't really know who they are as a very difficult time running for president. and the other thing we've got to talk about alex's south carolina. you know, the scary thing about running for president is you have to win your own state. i think ten scott is gonna run and keep in mind, guess how tim scott became a senator? nikki haley appointed him. so you are going to have united

states senator from south carolina running and then you are going to have the other united states senator who was for trump and then you can have nikki haley. watch south carolina. it is gonna be a food fight, and it's gonna get negative it and will get ugly. >> i think it is so telling that she chooses in her announcement add not to mention her decision to take the confederate flag down from the south carolina state house. which to the rest of the country after the mother emmanuel shooting was a signal moment of her career as governor tells you effectively everything you need to know about the modern state gop. that isn't mentioned suggests that there is very much a base of support for the confederate flag within the republican party. and it is really hard for me to imagine that she can manage to keep that part of the base in her side? >> it's interesting that she's not mentioning it now but in her mind she thinks she can win

the nomination and then she can talk about it in the general. because it doesn't help or in the republican primary. that makes her part of the quote unquote i've never seen the woke mob, they say it's out there somewhere, but that makes her way too woke for the republican party that she would actually do the right thing around a confederate flag. so she doesn't want to mention that in the primary. but i guarantee this. if by hook or crook she manages to get the nomination she would talk about it in the general election. >> the problem she has to go up against right now one of the person donald trump, who is proved to be the litmus test for all republicans. if she doesn't want to talk about that flag, he will talk about that flag. if she doesn't want to talk about the fact that she was the u.s. yuan ambassador, a globalist, a dreaded globalist within the ranks of the republican party, he sure as heck will remind the republican primary audience that she is a globalist. never mind the fact that he sent to their. it seems impossible that anyone can avoid talking about this sort of unquestionable things,

sorry uncomfortable things in a primary process that will be dominated by a person who will make no bones about saying the most inappropriate and be be very plainspoken in a republican primary in a way that can be prove to be very inconvenient for everyone else and in the field. >> here is what's gonna happen. you're gonna have snow white and the seven dwarfs, and if desantis gains more steam he might have two big gladiators going after each other with a cast of thousands around them. so it's gonna get ugly. you know it's gonna get ugly if trump is running. he doesn't believe in running anything other than a campaign full of calling people names, making things up, kicking people emissions, behaving like a bore and an ignoramus. that's what he will do and his base loves it. the question is, what's gonna happen to all these other people? all these wannabes?

can they peel votes away from trump? i'm not so sure if there's a bunch of them. can appeal votes away from desantis. maybe, but at the end of the day, i think donald trump right now is saying the more the merrier. if a bunch of people get in, i think his chances go up because that 20% of the republican party, there's gonna be loyal to him in a cultish way, they are not going anywhere alex. >> why is mike pence running? mike pence is out there trying to position himself as a culture war warrior especially on the topic of abortion, but i feel that ron desantis is winning out in the culture wars each and every time. he's already persona non grata with the trump base. what's the point of someone like mike pence even running at this point? >> i think there's an unwritten law that if you've been vice president you're required to run for president. [laughter] i don't get it there's a life of self awareness there. i don't think he hasn't warm

comfortable hump anywhere in the republican party or the democratic party. i honestly think that he is a guy who thinks he's going to be politically viable and i don't see how it's going to happen. i guess, things surprise you, i said at this point in 2015 that donald trump could never be president. so i need to be careful what i say, but i actually don't think pence -- pence is doing the same thing that haley is doing. he's trying to have it always. he's trying to be not saying what he should say about what trump tried to get him to do around january 6th but he's also trying to say did the right thing and i'm not trump. i'm not sure you can have it both ways in today's republican party. >> i think it's pretty much guarantee that you can have a both ways. the great claire mccaskill. thank you always for your time. it's great to see you. >> you bet alex, happy valentine's day. >> happy valentine's day. when we come back. after the latest a long list of deadly shootings, democrats in the state of michigan are planning to take on the quote

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american problem. today is the fifth anniversary of the parkland shooting. where her weeks passed a lunar new year shooting at a dance all, and a few months passed a

shooting at a elementary school in uvalde. we're looking back at a year left by shootings, grocery stores, parades and every day situations. we cannot keep living like this. >> last night that uniquely american problem made its way to east lansing michigan. a gunman fired shots into michigan state university campus buildings, killing three students and wounding five others. the interim president of the east lansing hospital treating the five students who are in critical condition there said it's too early to provide an prognosis for those students. today police released three names of the three students who died. brian fraser, sophomore university, alexandria werner a junior, and aerial anderson also a junior at msu. please sit is substack of, 43 year old man last night after caller phone in a. typically said he died of a self inflicted gunshot wound. he previously been arrested lansing in 2019 for carrying a

concealed handgun without a permit. or for police found the suspect, thousands of students were under lockdown, and some of them had been through a version of this before. just 15 months ago and four students were killed and seven injured at oxford high school in michigan was just a one hour drive from away from msu. at least one other and as you student under lockdown last night was 11 years old in, 27 people including 20 children were shot at sandy hook elementary school in her hometown of newtown, connecticut. >> i am 21 years old and this is a second mass shooting that i've now lived through. the fact this this is a second mass shooting that i've now lived through is incomprehensible. but we can no longer just provide love and prayers. there needs to be legislation, there needs to be action. it's not okay. >> and yet it keeps happening. all across the country, states are still reeling from the more than 640 mass shootings that

happened in 2022. families are still mourning and our judicial system is still processing some cases. tomorrow the shooter who killed ten black people at a grocery store in buffalo, new york in may will be sentenced to life in prison for without parole including murder and domestic terrorism. these mass murders keep happening. the nash michigan state university mass shooting was a 67th mass shooting this year. today is only the 45th day of the year 2023. joining us now is senator gary peters, democrat from michigan and chairman of the homeland security and governmental affairs committee. senator peters, thank you for being here, and as a michigander i offer all of my condolences and the residents of your state. maybe you can tell me a little bit about what a shooting on this campus of the msu means to you? i know you got your masters from msu. but what is that school

represent in the minds of all matters? >> michigan state is classic michigan. students from all across the state that go there to get their education. we take great pride in all of our universities. michigan state football weekend. that often brings people from various backgrounds together. so to have this absolutely horrific act as this murderous attacked on students really hit home to so many people across the state. i think you have students who were shot indiscriminately and go a shooter go across the campus terrorizing students, this is after we had a previous mass shooting at oxford high school which you mentioned in the opening. this should never have happened, and certainly i feel great sadness for people who are the victims and are suffering from this are in my heart and in the hearts of everybody in michigan.

but there is an awful lot of anger as well. this is got to stop. certainly our hearts go out to the folks who are suffering right now but we have to take some action. we have to pass legislation. common sense legislation that can make sure that incidents like this don't happen or incidents like this, the gun violence that we see each and every day all across our country as people are dying, we know there are common sense things we can do to save lives. and that has to be the standard. we've got to take the energy and the anger that we have from this mass shooting at michigan state university and hopefully lead to action. i know our state legislature is poised to take action. we know of democratic control in the state legislature for the first time in 40 years. governor whitmer is very focused on gun safety legislation and certainly we are very hopeful that we will see some concrete action taken by the state legislature in just the coming days. >> certainly the states have been more aggressive than say the federal government. i have to ask you because you are the chair of the homeland

security committee in the senate, how is it that schools have become shooting ranges? and that mass casualty events are now a right of passage for our adolescents? if this was any other threat, if this was a virus, there would be committees convene, there would be legislation suggested. how can congress do nothing? this is a matter of refraining this is a homeland security issue? or should we just effectively give up on the federal government and congress in terms of doing anything meaningful on this? >> we can never give up. we've got to keep pushing for that legislation and i agree, this is a homeland security issue. when you think of governments role, probably the most fundamental roles that government has is to keep us safe and to keep children safe in their schools should be the top of the priority list. folks who go to houses of worship and expect to be safe in their sanctuary that are killed, and a neighborhood grocery stores, it is simply

unacceptable. we were able to pass meaningful legislation last year in our safer communities act, probably the most significant legislation in decades. it didn't go as far as i would like or certainly the vast majority of american people would like, but at least it was a positive step forward. it also focused on mental health issues, school safety issues, the illegal trafficking of guns. but we can't stop there. we gotta keep moving forward. we gotta do things like making sure the background checks can't be circumvented with loopholes. we know that 85% of the american people believe that a common sense background check law is something that should be put in place. it's going to be incumbent on folks to stay focused on this issue each and every day, understanding that these violent attacks of using a weapons happens every day and keep pushing legislators to put the bills on the floor, force them to vote and hold people

accountable if they do not support common sense gun legislation. >> we will keep doing just that. we become the abomination of the globe in terms of mass casualty events in gun violence, and it's time we shed that title. senator gary peters, thank you for your time tonight. and again our condolences to all of your constituents that are affected by this. thanks for your time. >> thank you. >> we have still more to come tonight including while we were all looking up in the sky at a chinese spy balloon, there was a whole lot of other spying going on all around us. more on that coming up next. that coming up next. a lot of new dry eye patients in my office tell me about their frequent dry eyes, which may point to dry eye disease. millions of americans were estimated to have it.

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that we learned that a chinese spy balloon had been spotted in the sky above montana, that very same day, the largest hospital system in northwest florida, tallahassee memorial health care was brought to a near screeching halt by a much less visible security threat. a cyberattack. the entire hospital system had to effectively ditch the computers and work on pen and paper. they had to divert most medical emergency patients to other hospitals and cancel all nonemergency's urgencies surgeries. wasn't until today tallahassee memorials able to start transitioning some of their hospital system back online and off paper. they are still diverting some emergency medical patients as of today. now i don't make this

comparison to blame china for the cyberattack in tallahassee, florida, it was most likely the work of criminals. it happens a lot. cybersecurity form counted 290 hospitals hit by ransomware attacks last year alone. i also don't need to diminish concern about china's spy balloon program exists security threats, we don't know how damaging that would be. but we do know how much of a security threat cyberattacks aren't to this country. in 2014, there was a hack of a government offices where hackers stole information on more than 22 million government workers their families and everyone who had undergone government background checks, including the family of yours truly. 2015, it was a hack of the health care company at them, that exposed the data of nearly 80 million people. and in 27 people there is the equifax breach wicks exposed private data like social security numbers for more than 140 million americans. and if memory serves, that included me.

the u.s. has explicitly blamed china for all of those attacks. joining us now is nikole pro rata, she wasn't new york times cybersecurity reporter for nearly a decade, now a visor for biden's cyber security committee. this book this is how they tell me the world ends, glad they told you and not me, the cyber weapons arms raised, comes out in paperback a week from today. she's been loud and proud about how, the reaction to the chinese spy balloon is shall we say overinflated, pun intended. nicole, thank you for being here tonight. >> thank you for having me. >> happy valentine's day. what a loving topic to talk about. the spy balloon has captured everyone's imagination. i think because it's just a crazy thing. these ufos flying over the country. it is weird to me that we don't pay nearly enough the same t to a fact that the facts almost

every single person in this country. how and, do you change the narrative why do think that is? >> it is been an incredibly frustrating cycle for those under covering chinese's espionage for the last ten years. i always thought what is it going to take to get the american public and policy makers to wake up? if we could see a bomb go off and have a company that has been breached maybe that would do it. now it's a balloon over every company. because when i first started covering for the new york times, there has been more than 1000 american companies have been breached since 2018 by china for ip theft. china has taken more business data and personal data than any other nation state actor combined. former director of the nsa said

the this is the greatest transfer of wealth in human history. >> the balloon, people don't know exactly was being captured by the balloon tech. some people think it may have been viewing military installations across the country, it's unclear as of yet. when you talk about the value of personal data, to just be a dummy about it, what is so valuable and why is it the largest transfer of wealth? >> originally thinkers ip theft. this is china trying to catch up. they were sick of -- the shortest way to catch up to steal the ip, hand the ip over their state owned enterprises. and we started seeing these attacks of equal facts, anthem, and marriott actually. i think what they were doing, what cybersecurity experts have set a long time, is they have been building out database of americans personal information, particularly government workers

who stare it myriad and apply for security clearance to see where chinese citizens are staying and traveling at the same time as potential government american workers to build up a counter intelligence database for potential chinese american spies. that's what we thought originally. i think it's shifted to how much are they taking here? because they have breached data on essentially every american. course we can talk about tiktok and what kind of threat that poses to security down the line. but essentially we've seen them take the ip, we've seen him take the personal data, more than a year ago the, u.s. government declassified a report that a lot of chinese acts were pipeline networks. not i keep backed. this was china actually trying to get a foothold into our pipeline systems for the event that they might need to sabotage those systems one day. at a certain point you have to

ask yourself, what haven't they taken? >> china is obviously an aggressive actor when it comes to these attack, spoke for example what about russia? they have a very aggressive posture towards ukraine, there notorious terms of their cyber threats and cyber teams. what are they doing independent of the chinese? >> i think the best explanation for the difference between the cyberattacks from china and cyberattacks from russia, the director of the nsa said russia is the hurricane, china's climate change. >> neither of those things are good. >> neither of those things are good no. russia has been pushing on sabotage particular in ukraine. couple of years ago we saw them shut the power down in ukraine once or twice. they inflicted an attack called the -- attack, but essentially was an attack and most government agencies in ukraine, but also the railway systems, the coastal network. it didn't just hit every

business in ukraine, it had it had every business had, every business and had a, ukrainian working remotely from ukraine. it hit merck, it hit other big companies. paralyzed, this was pre-covid you. could imagine how bad it would mean during covid. today they are very aggressive about acts of cyber sabotage. now including the cyber attacks not able to compete with those former images we've seen on the ground, but it's not something to ignore we've seen them ukrainian substations it was you eradicated but they tried to take out the batter. just today there was a report in politico about a tulenko pipe dream that was discovered in development. formally attributed to russia but, all signs point that way that looks to be a sort of swiss army knife of critical hacking tools. looks like it was designed to attack power grids pipeline

networks. i could sabotage these networks. we are very restrained targeting's attacks. my personal theory that despite threats of nuclear threats and all the nuclear bluster, i think it's much more likely that if he were to retaliate for western support of ukraine, would be via cyberattacks. >> next call pro-life with some good news on valentine's day. invaluable in very important to keep it in context. thank you for your time tonight. happy valentine's day. we'll be right back. l be right back. ♪ ♪ 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 to screen for colon cancer that's effective and non-invasive. it's for people 45 plus at average risk, not high risk. false positive and negative results may occur. ask your provider for cologuard.

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perfect for valentine's day. president biden since the start of his presidency has prioritized change in the federal bench by pointing qualified judges who reflect the diversity of america's citizens. yesterday the senate confirmed a biden nominee, judge cindy chung who became the first asian american judge at the third circuit court of appeals in philadelphia. today the biden administration achieved its 100th judicial confirmation, outpacing president trump at this point in his presidency. and it is another historic appointment to the federal bench, another first. judge cheetah mendez was confirmed today as a judge in a federal district court of puerto rico. she's the first lgbtq+ federal judge to sit in a court.

judge mendez rideau is married to the chief justice of puerto rico supreme court who herself is the first openly lgbtq judge to service chief justice in that court. here is what judge mendes rural had to say about her partner in a confirmation hearing in july. >> her integrity and encouragement inspired me and gives me fortitude we are the parents to four-year-old twins a boy and a girl who we hoped can one day understand the passion for the law and justice our commitment to public service and our belief in a judicial system that safeguards the rights of all. >> props to the u.s. senate for making her new job official today of all days. happy valentine's day. that is it for us tonight. we'll see you again tomorrow. now it is time for the last word with lawrence o'donnell. good evening. lawrence good evening alex in those hundred judges who are really

big joe