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tv   Alex Wagner Tonight  MSNBC  March 28, 2023 6:00pm-7:00pm PDT

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nonfiction writers. you're an incredible writer and an incredible reporter. this book is, i think, among your best work ever. it's called "the undertow: scenes from a slow civil war." you can get it wherever books are sold. jeff, thank you so much. >> thank you, chris. that is "all in" on this tuesday night. >> i'm going to be seeing you all week. so thank you for that excellent show. >> have a good evening. >> you too. thank you for joining us. i'm ali velshi in for alex tonight. body camera and security footage was released from yesterday's shooting that left three children, three adults, and the shooter themselves dead at an elementary school in the nashville suburbs. now, there is a loft that's notable about the footage. first off, 14 minutes went by between when police were first alerted that a shooter had entered the building and when the police ultimately shot the shooter. it's pretty fast.
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the shooter who you see on the screen appears to have been unable to find anyone to shoot. we can also see how quick and brave the response from both staff members and the first responders was. this woman was outside the school, out in the open when police arrived. not only was she putting herself in danger by not getting into a more secure location. but listen how she communicated to the police when they arrived. that woman quickly and concisely told the police everything they needed to know, be careful, two kids might still be in the hallways, people inside are telling her that the shooter is upstairs. seconds after that, the police had entered the building.
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the police then cleared the room, they cleared room after room methodically and with breathtaking speed. it's clear they have trained for this moment. and when they ultimately heard gunshots, they sprinted toward them. they neutralized the shooter. it's a testament to the teachers in a building for locking down so effectively that it took so long for the shooter to find anyone to shoot. it's a testament to the first responders that they got to the scene and through the building that quickly given the fact that the shooter had two semi-automatic weapons and a handgun, three guns. every second in a situation like this matters.
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there's one other piece of video that the nashville police released today that i think is worth you seeing. it's particularly worth seeing in the context of how elected republican officials respond every time we as a country go through a mass shooting like this. you might remember that last year after a shooter killed 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school in uvalte, texas, republicans became obsessed with blaming one thing, doors. unlocked doors. doors that weren't, quote, hard enough. republicans made a huge huff about how the real policy solution after uvalde was hardened, locked doors. >> we talked about what we need to do to harden schools, including not having unlocked back doors. >> the schools on lockdown, could the doors have been locked? >> classroom doors should be hardened to make them lockable from the inside and closed to intruders from the outside. >> put a pin in that for a
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second. this is how the shooter entered the school yesterday. they used a semi-automatic weapon to shoot their way through the doors. i have no clue if that door was locked or not. clearly, it did not matter. i'm sure some people like republican texas senator ted cruz would argue that if only the doors had been bulletproof, if only we had banned windows. the shooter drove past the kids playing outside on the playground, will republicans start advocating against children playing outside as well? this is all nonsense and a distraction. there's always something other than guns to blame. >> they're fine with doing a run on the guns. and i can you can argue that if you want to do to get rid of the second amendment. but completely oblivious to what legalization of marijuana has done and is doing to an entire generation of americans with violent consequences.
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>> not sure how we got onto marijuana in this discussion, but it's always something. it's never actually the guns. sometimes the distraction is something with a shred of truth to it like how we in this country do not do enough to help people undergoing mental health crises. yesterday's shooter was under a doctor's care for an emotional disorder. except plenty of people in plenty of countries have mental health issues. and we are the only country where shootings like this happen over and over again. so do not get too distracted by the mental health issue or that violent video games are the cause. sometimes the republican lie is that by even talking about guns when discussing mass shootings, it's democrats that are politicizing the issue. >> i really get angry when i see people trying to politicize it for their own personal agenda. it just seems like on the other side all they want to do is take gun as way from law-abiding citizens before they even know the facts, and that's not the answer, by the way. >> that is also a distraction.
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everything is political. sometimes the republican distraction is so awful, you actually do have to comment on it, and unfortunately that's the case today. all the conversation on television has been about the guns that were used, and there may be a reason for that, they don't want to talk about who did it and why. law enforcement has confirmed that the shooter was a trans person. >> that was the very top of tucker carlson's show last night, trying to make the issue not guns but the shooter's gender identity. congresswoman marjorie taylor greene took this a step further this afternoon by trying to blame hormone therapy, we have no idea if the shooter was undergoing hormone therapy. but in the words of the congresswoman, quote, everyone can stop blaming guns now, which is code for focusing on the shooter's identity. trans people are already more likely to experience violence simply because they are trans
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people, so the right focusing on that is uniquely dangerous. and we have to respond to that. but it is also a distraction because there are plenty of trans people in plenty of countries all over the world. but, once again, america is the only nation where shootings like this happen over and over and over again. so maybe it's not mental health or video games or hormones. maybe it's the guns. today we learned that the shooter in nashville legally purchased seven weapons in the past few years, three of which were used in yesterday's attack. maybe that's where the focus should be, how easy it is in this country to legally obtain incredibly powerful weapons capable of horrific destruction. maybe that's where we have to focus, and that everything else is a distraction. joining us now is heidi campbell. she met with the families of the students of covenant school yesterday. senator campbell, thanks for making the time to be with us. can you tell us a little bit about what's going on in your community right now?
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you ended up going to the church where the kids were relocated so they could be reunited with their families. that's a horrible experience even when you are actually going to collect your kids who haven't been shot. >> yeah, it's the worst waiting room i've ever been in. minutes went on like hours while these families waited to find out what the status was with their children. it was just horrific. i was so proud of my community and the way that they supported one another. the police did a beautiful job. but no parent should ever have to go through a day like that. and here we are in the aftermath of this. and i can just tell because i'm a senator in this state and i'm very familiar with how things work here that we're about to make this about the fact that the shooter was trans. >> it's unsurprising that that's what we're about to make it
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about. but it's put agside the fact that it's discriminatory and we really don't need to be making life harder for trans people. it's not the issue at hand. we don't know enough about this shooter to know what marjorie taylor greene is talking about with hormone therapy and all these things. we do know that there are a lot of guns and a lot of shootings in this country. you rand against ogels for a house seat in 2022. this is a guy who sent out a christmas card. everybody saw this picture. this is his family christmas card. the guns thing where you are is big. you've got a law working through the legislature in tennessee that would loosen gun laws. >> yeah, we have gun companies moving here because we are such a gun friendly state. i would argue we're probably the most gun friendly state in the country right now. and we have bills moving through the legislature to make guns even more accessible even though
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they passed what they call constitutional carry. i call it permitless carry. in any case, we are a state that is obsessed with guns. and the problem with that is that the polling shows us very clearly that most tennesseeans want common sense gun reform, but we have legislators who do not honor their constituents' views on that. >> well, most americans want common sense gun reform, but the line that we heard from steve scalise and a lot of people is that when you talk about common sense gun reform, you are looking to take away guns from law-abiding people, and in violation of the second amendment. that is not actually typically what most people who want gun reform are trying to do. >> of course not. we put all these checks and balances in place for our kids when they ride in automobiles. i mean, good lord. we spent the past two years banning books, and we banned
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drag shows because we want to make kids safer supposedly. and, yet, 9-year-old children get shot down and we don't seem to think that we need to do anything about guns. the common denominator in all these situations is that there is somebody who has a gun. 367 shootings, school shootings since columbine. we have said never again. and, you know, yet we won't do anything about it. >> and in sandy hook after that we said never again. after parkland we said never again. there is a representative from your state, tim bur chit who said something interesting. let's just listen to this and i want to get your comment on the other side. >> you wouldn't legislate evil.
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we've got evil in this country, and everybody needs to tone down their rhetoric a little bit because all that does is gin it up and they point the finger and nothing happens. if you think washington's going to fix this problem, you're wrong, they're not going to fix this problem, they are the problem. >> i think that first point is what i want to ask you how you react to that because there are people who say that. you can't legislate evil, it's not guns, it's bad people who use guns. what do you say in response to people who say you can't legislate evil? >> well, first of all, i don't know what he's talking about when he talks about evil. there are so many different motives that people have for these shootings. some of them have been anti-semitic. and some of them have been nazi-oriented. but for him to, you know, try and tell us that you can't legislate evil when we know that these are issues that people are dealing with in every country on
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this planet. >> yep. >> and yet our country is the one that -- the only one that has such horrific outcome when's it comes to gun violence. >> the correlation is the number of guns we have in this country to the amount of gun violence. not video games, not transgender people, not evil, not marijuana, whatever anybody wants to say. senator, my thoughts are with you. i'm sorry that we have to have this conversation. state senator heidi campbell of tennessee, thanks for being with us. >> thank you. i want to turn to manuel oliver. his son was killed five years ago at the marjory stoneman douglas school. another story of you and me talking again after a school shooting. i was there at parkland. i was there at sandy hook. and i always thought it was true that this was going to stop, that the country is enflamed about it. and, frankly, after parkland and march for our lives, things really did change.
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they moved the needle. your son's death moved the needle. but the needle hasn't moved far enough. >> absolutely. i agree 100% with the introduction that you just made. and the needle has moved very little. actually, i have the feeling that it went a little backwards over the last couple of years. that means that we need to do more. i don't want to say in this interview that i'm going to quit.Ă·% we're just frustrate. this is a reason to do more and different things. so i invite everyone, we've had enough, and you just heard it from our politicians. washington is not going to fix it. so then who's going to fix it? we have to fix it. >> what does that look like to you? because, after parkland, the
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young people, the survivors of that and their parents, you manifested that energy and you showed that there was that energy and you looked for candidates who would run for office and do the right thing. you supported them and many of them got elected. for the first time it looked like the sensible gun reform movement was able to raise money and have political influence that generally speaking only the gun industry has had until now. so we've got something happening on the side of sensible gun reform. what does doing more mean right now? if our viewer is offended tonight, which is the right word, you should be offended when another child dies at a school, what does doing the right thing look like? >> doing the right thing is doing that every day. doing the right thing is what we do. all the groups that are fighting against gun violence, we don't wait for a shooting to tell you what we think on what we must do. no, this is a daily job. there are almost a million
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people on that march five years ago. where are they now? where are these celebrities today to prevent the shooting of tomorrow? >> it was five years ago this weekend in fact. that's the amazing part about it. i have to ask you, manuel, you and i've talked a lot. but how is this different for you when you hear the news, when i see it on my phone that there's been a school shooting, what's different for you when you hear about these things? >> well, i know what the pain is. you're one of the lucky ones, still. i know exactly what those parents are feeling today. i went through that. and that's why i'm so desperate to let you understand that we need to call for a national action here. i'm calling for an educational strike. we need the teachers to stand with us. this is an urgent call what i'm
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doing now, not a regular interview so you can know how i feel. you don't want to feel how i feel. >> no, i can't imagine what that would feel like. but what strikes, generally speaking, someone strikes because they feel that someone else in their industry is doing something, and if they don't stand by them, that the same thing can happen to us. clearly not enough americans think that. clearly we look at these school shootings and we think it's horrible. we know our kids go through active shooter drills but we somehow don't think it's going to be us. every time i go to a little town where there's a school shooting, it's a another little town that didn't want to be famous for having their school shot up. one after another after another. but people don't think it's their problem yet. >> and, not to mention that those kids were traumatized every single day. do you know what happened yesterday? they probably thought it was a drill. they probably thought it was training just in case something
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happens. and it was the real deal. tomorrow there's going to be more drills. you will see some politicians suggesting that the kids need to practice more how to survive this. and they almost blame it on the kids because they die by just not being trained well enough to survive the situation. shame on thoseĂł@ policies. >> it's no kid's job to know how to save themselves from being shot. you tweeted not fighting back for the next victim of gun violence makes us part of the problem. it's an important point. i'm sorry you and i continue to have conversations like this. maybe one day you and i will never have to talk again. manuel oliver, thanks fen for taking time to talk to us. >> thank you. have a great night. in nebraska, democrats in the state's legislature gave republicans a chance to do the right thing and vote down a bill banning transgender healthcare. so, what happens when republicans predictedly did the wrong thing? i'll tell you about it, on the other side. plus, massive protests
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appear to have convinced israel's prime minister to press pause. a former israeli prime minister joins us, next. with flonase, allergies don't have to be scary spraying flonase daily gives you long-lasting, non-drowsy relief. (psst psst) flonase. all good. for people living with h-i-v, keep being you. and ask your doctor about biktarvy. biktarvy is a complete, one-pill, once-a-day treatment used for h-i-v in certain adults.
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i'm very concerned. and i'm concerned. they cannot continue down this
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road. >> president biden today weighing in on some impending existential changes to israel's democracy. before we dive into that, let's go back a few years to november 2019 when israel's longest-serving prime minister benjamin netanyahu was indicted by israel's attorney general on charges of fraud, bribery, and breach of trust. a yearslong investigation resulted in the country's first prosecution of a sitting prime minister from another accusation involving a quid pro quo. no one is above the law, the prime minister insisted that the case against him was nothing more than political animus, lies, and attempted coup, and that his supporters should, quote, investigate the investigators. as the case against netanyahu advanced, he remained in office until the summer of 2021 when a shaky coalition of rivals who had virtually nothing in common except for their disdain for
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netanyahu's government unseated him. if anything about that story seems like it kind of rhymes with american politics, you're not alone. what happened next in israel might be of particular interest to you. netanyahu made a wild political comeback, taking back the reigns as prime minister.his first ord business was to, quote, unquote, reform the judiciary. his proposed changes would allow israel's parliament to override the supreme court's decision and would give lawmakers more control over appointments to the high court. now, many see netanyahu's plans for the judiciary as a means of consolidating power and potentially wiggling out of his own legal problems. this week one of netanyahu's defense attorneys threatened to stop representing the country's leader on corruption charges if the prime minister followed through on his plans to overhaul israel's judicial system. that threat was one in a series of protests that escalated
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across the country. look at these images of the people on the streets. hundreds of lawyers demonstrated in front of tel aviv courts on sunday. joining the bar association's protest of netanyahu's planned reforms. on thursday netanyahu doubled down on his plans in a fiery address that was given hours after his government passed a law making it more difficult to declare a prime minister unfit for office. opposition leaders described it as a way to protect illegally embattled netanyahu. but sunday was the real spark that caused the months long protest over judiciary changes to boil over. when netanyahu abruptly fired his defense minister who had just called for a pause to this judicial overhaul. so for that reason, tens of thousands of people poured into the streets in major cities across the country to tell their leader, no, you cannot corrupt the courts for your advantage, no, you cannot fire official who's speak against your plan, no. protesters in tel aviv chanted, the country is on fire, as they
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lit bonfires on the main highway. police opened water cannons on protesters to clear them out. they demonstrated in front of netanyahu's house. yesterday workers in so many industries went on strike that the country was essentially paralyzed. departing flights from bengurion airport were closed. preschools and universities were shuttered. health, transit, banking workers went on strike in solidarity with the country's largest trade union. finally, netanyahu agreed to pause his judicial overhaul for at least a few weeks until the next parliamentary session begins. he acknowledged that the country was at a breaking point and he promised to, quote, find a solution. but even after that some protesters continued their demonstrations in much smaller numbers. some said they do not believe netanyahu. they see this pause as a temporary solution to a bigger democratic problem. >> i don't trust netanyahu.
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he's lied so many times. >> nothing's really changed. it's still ongoing. it's the only thing that we can do. >> joining us now is the former israeli general. he was the prime minister of israel from 1999 to 2001. thank you for being with us tonight. >> thank you for having me. >> i have spoken to a number of israelis and a number of american supporters of israel over the last few days. and i have never heard them as worried about the future of israel. where are you right now in terms of the democratic health of your country, and have you pulled back from the brink? >> i think that there was a major victory for the movement against netanyahu.
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basically, stopping what was defined by our chief justice is not judicial reform but an explicit effort or attempt to crush the judicial system and the supreme court and push israel outside of the family of democratic nations. the overall battle is not over. it's one-time major victory. now some of the protesters might give -- others have described. and some negotiation opened.
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between different sections. the coalition will meet tomorrow. netanyahu won't be able to push his way into a kind of status like hungary with orban. >> it's interesting you say that, prime minister. because that's what everybody thinks. america also thinks we're too strong to be pushed into this kind of nonsense. this is a guy you know, you've run against him, you won against him. this is not the only problem. the judicial reform is not the only problem. he is the prime minister again because he has formed a coalition that is -- and every time he gets elected, it's the most right-wing coalition in israel's history. this is not where it begins or
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ends. >> no. it didn't end yet. but it will end, i believe. we have evidence that whenever a major protest -- about 7 or 8% of the adult population on the kind of protecting. at the end of it, the government either capitulates. and that's what will happen. the government won't be able to continue, and netanyahu lost a lot of prestige. and the majority of voters are against what he's doing.
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>> there's another issue going on, there's increased tensions with the palestinians. there are provocations on both sides of this issue. but this netanyahu government has not helped the situation. and there are a lot of palestinians who say it's fantastic that all these israelis came out and protested against judicial reforms, but there's the still the problem of the palestinians and you don't see 500,000 israelis taking to the streets to say let's solve that problem. you tried when you were prime minister. this prime minister is not trying. >> i think we have to put on the shelf the big elephant in the room for the time being. there is another one about the relationship between the religion and the states. there are gaps in the society. there are many main issues.
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in order to make sure, first of all, that israel will remain a democracy. so we join hands in all parts of the situation. mentioned earlier the firing of the defense minister. the minister of defense, he's demanded the covenant in order to present what he sees as an immediate risk to the security of the nation. and that's something unheard of. and netanyahu didn't let him to govern the cabinet, the prime minister's cabinet. and the reason was that there should be some vote in the knesset.
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so basically netanyahu that if the ministers will hear, we hear what the commander, the leaders should think about it that they might not join him in voting. so he close it. and when the ministers demanded and told the public the truth, he fired him. and led many supporters to question his judgment. there was a half a million people in the street.
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the protests will ultimately win. >> well, we'll continue this conversation because we can't put the matter of the palestinians on the shelf forever. so, i'll invite you back. >> not forever but for the time being. >> we'll discuss that because a whole lot of palestinians will say this is the moment to talk about this. we're going to take a quick break. when we come back, another major loss for team trump as a federal judge orders former vice president mike pence to testify. plus, nebraska democrats take the gloves off over legislation that bans gender affirming care for young people. that's next. the house whisperer!
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this house says use realtor.com to see homes in your budget. you're staying in school, jacob! realtor.com. to each their home. so cozy. how many rooms are in there? should we go check it out? yeah. we get to stay here all weekend! when you stay at a vrbo... i call doing the door code! ...the host doesn't stay with you. it looks exactly like the picture. because without privacy in your vacation home... it's a full log cabin guys. ...it isn't really a vacation... we can snuggle up by the fire. ...is it? wow, oh my- [birds chirping]
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no one in the world holds a grudge like me. and no one in the world cares less about being petty than me. i don't care. >> fighting words from nebraska state senator meghan hunt before a vote on a bill last week that would ban medical care for trans kids.
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kids like senator hunt's own son. democrats in nebraska in the legislature are waging a remarkable fight against this bill. it started with senator machaela cavanaugh. she and democrat allies are now filibustering every single bill this session along the republican-led body decides to drop this antitrans bill. last week the democrats agreed to one single vote to give republicans a chance to take a stand against the antitrans bill. but they voted to advance it instead. so nebraska democrats vowed to take up their filibuster again today, and republicans tried to get around them by changing the rules to make it harder to filibuster, but the democrats were undeterred. >> we are blowing up this session. the session's over. the session's over and it's on your terms because the terms were made clear to you for the last four to six weeks.
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and you ignored that, you didn't care, hating trans kids in nebraska is more important to you than the rest of this entire session. that message is received loud and clear. >> now, this antitrans bill will have to pass two more times before it could move to the desk of nebraska's republican governor. with only 39 days left in the session, the speaker of the nebraska legislature has conceded that time is running out for bills that don't involve taxes, education funding, or the state budget. and democrats are saying no votes on anything. so that antitrans bill is likely out of play for now. when we come back, former vice president mike pence has a lot to say about the pressure that he was under on january 6th to do his boss's bidding. now he's going to have to tell what he knows to a grand jury. stay with us. ness... this whole journey has been such a huge gift for our family.
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special counsel jack smith has been scoring win after win in his sprawling january 6th criminal investigation. donald trump suffered a major loss today in his fight to stop the vice president -- his former vice president from testifying into the special counsel's probe in. a sealed ruling, the new d.c. chief judge overseeing the january 6th grand jury ordered pence to testify as part of a criminal probe and to comply with jack smith's subpoena. the judge totally rejected the ex-president's executive privilege claims in his attempt
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to stop pence. but trump wasn't alone in fighting the subpoena, and it's notable that pence decided to fight the subpoena in the first place. he's called the special counsel's subpoena unprecedented and unconstitutional. but when it came to promoting his book last fall, the former vice president had no problem spilling the details of private conversations with trump. in fighting the subpoena, pence made a different argument than trump. he's relied on the constitution's speech and debate clause to assert that as president of the senate, he does not have to testify about anything related to his official duties counting the votes on january 6th. now, the d.c. federal judge agreed in part with that accession, but ruled that pence must testify to any conversations that may relate to potential illegality on trump's part. here's what pence had to say tonight in response to the judge's ruling. >> i'm pleased that the court
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accepted our argument and recognized that the constitution's provision about speech and debate does apply to the vice president. but the way they sorted that out and the requirements of my testimony going forward as subject of our review right now. >> now, pressed about whether he planned to appeal this ruling, pence said he would make a decision in the coming days. this comes after a string of wins for the special counsel in the january 6th probe. last week some of the ex-president's inner circle were ordered to testify, including his former chief of staff mark meadows. the rulings today ordered pence to testify and wholly rejecting trump's attempts to stop it, well, feels like a pivotal point in the special counsel's investigation. joining us now is senior legal correspondent for nbc news. what do you make of this? mike pence did talk about in his book he does make speeches about how history's going to judge donald trump. he's a guy who wants to say
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something. yet he's a guy who fought the subpoena. >> by all accounts, he believes if he has a constitutional right to some immunity as it relates to his role on january 6th, that has been sort of a novel legal claim, an untested one. there was a lot of debate among lawyers about whether or not it would work. the judge seems to agree with in principle that the victory is, because the real heart of what the special counsel wants is proving trump's intent and all of his efforts to try to obstruct and overturn the 2020 election. so to the extent that he can now probe their conversation leading up to january 6th. >> mike pence said i'm not compelled to testify. but it doesn't seem like that's what jack smith wants. mike pence writes about and talks about. in fact, i think we've got it. >> maybe i was just reading about it. >> but he talks about the fact that he had a tense conversation
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with donald trump on january 5th and he said he does not believe it's within his power to do what trump wanted him to do. >> and specifically the meeting that happened on january 4th in the oval office, cooking up the blueprint about how to actually overturn the election and overturn the people's will. pence's role in that is critical because they're trying to convince pence, you have the power to actually not certify the votes. pence is saying, i don't have that power. now the special counsel gets to ask on the stand, or prosecutors do, exactly what did the former president say in response. and all the machinations behind that now gets to come out. again, critical sort of to the key inquiry of what were trump's intentions. >> and, again, there's a lot of public evidence about this. the judge has been frank about the fact that pence's lawyer called him several times and said he needs cover, he doesn't want to do this, he doesn't
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believe he can do it but he needs an authority like you to go out there and say this is not right. and michael put out some tweets, and history was made on that. so, i wonder, is this just because jack smith has to get things on the record under oath? because jack smith and everybody else kind of knows what mike pence was thinking about what donald trump wanted. >> pence has offered a fair amount in terms of his reflections. but he hasn't offered as much about what did trump say in response, and sort of what did -- what were the points of pressure other than just your own reflection. >> let's talk about the new york grand jury. we do not believe that they are going to vote or at least we don't know. but, as it stands. >> we don't believe they're meeting tomorrow, which is interesting. >> so what do you think's happening? we know that david pecker who was the guy in charge of the national enkwiber, we know what
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he said about this in the past. he was called back. he testified again. any idea what's going on here? >> i'm curious why he would be called back so late in the game. i think some have speculated about he served as a rebuttal witness to robert costello who was put forth as trump's essentially in his shoes as a defense witness trying to discredit michael cohen's credibility. cohen and pecker have a number of important conversations specifically about this hush money scheme and all the payments. unclear what pecker said. we don't have that reporting. but the timing is interesting. and it's unclear whether this is actually a delay we're seeing or maybe this was always part of the process. the only reason we thought that this was sort of the -- not just that, but really it was the fact that his lawyers were offered the opportunity to come in, have your client testify. that's not something you see until the very end. so that was really the tell.
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the post was him putting his own spin on the timetable. but that was never sort of a realistic thing. >> but we could be on the time line -- >> exactly. we just don't yet know about what's going on in that jury room. we're going to right back. ne aches, weakness and discomfort. try nervivenerve relief.
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i screwed up. mhm. i got us t-mobile home internet. now cell phone users have priority over us. and your marriage survived that? you can almost feel the drag when people walk by with their phones. oh i can't hear you... you're froze-- ladies, please! you put it on airplane mode when you pass our house. i was trying to work. we're workin' it too. yeah! work it girl! woo! i want to hear you say it out loud. well, i could switch us to xfinity. those smiles. that's why i do what i do. that and the paycheck. as a business owner, your bottom line is always top of mind. so start saving by switching to the mobile service designed for small business: comcast business mobile. flexible data plans mean you can get unlimited data or pay by the gig. all on the most reliable 5g network,
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with no line activation fees or term contracts... saving you up to 75% a year. and it's only available to comcast business internet customers. so boost your bottom line by switching today. comcast business. powering possibilities™. two months ago, school district officials in pinellas county, florida, announced that the bluest eye, a novel by tony mauritsen had been removed from classrooms and libraries after a single parent complained about a rape scene included in the book. last week a principal in tallahassee, florida, was forced to resign after a single parent claimed that students had been exposed to pornography because they were shown a picture of
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michaelangelo's statue of david. today we are learning that an elementary school in st. petersburg, florida, is barring students from watching a film about civil rights icon ruby bridges, a 6-year-old black girl who integrated new orleans schools in the 1960s. that, too, is after a single parent filed a complaint saying that the movie isn't appropriate for second-graders because it might teach them that, quote, white people hate black people, end quote. the school had sent parents a permission slip asking whether their children could watch the movie, which is a disney movie, by the way. about 60 kids watched the film. the two families would not give their children parent to watch. her claim was enough for the school to say they're banning the movie until further notice while they review the complaint. one single parent who admitted she only watched the first 50 minutes of the film. the common thread in all of these stories is that in
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governor ron desantis' florida, it just takes one parent to complain. statewide removal of books or other instruction materials if just one parent objects to them. one. if this sounds outlandish, if you think that there's no way something that extreme could actually pass, i've got three words for you. welcome to florida. that does it for us tonight. now it's time for "the last word" with my friend lawrence o'donnell. >> great to have you here, ali. i'm going to show the audience something that happened in the senate today that i've never seen before. the senate chaplain who begins every day in the senate with a prayer, the senate chaplain gave up today on thoughts and praye

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