good evening alex when you started this show ten years ago, did you think this is what you'd be covering, this kind of just disillusion of sort of core democratic principles a decade later >> it's been a disturbing aspect

of the last seven years or so of coverage >> but we are glad to have you in the seat. thank you to all of you for joining us here at home. this is what it sounded like at the chamber of the tennessee house of representatives >> you ban books, you ban drag, kids are still in body bags. that was the scene at the tennessee capitol earlier today. republicans in the state legislature voted to expel two democratic house of representatives from the tennessee house. they voted to kick two democrats out of office. it was an unprecedented, and it was a drastic move, and it all

started last week. that is when hundreds of school students came to the tennessee capitol to call for new gun safety measures after a shooting opened fire at an elementary school in nashville killing three 9-year-old students and three adults during that protest, a handful of democratic lawmakers stood before the house chamber they had megaphones and they were not shy about standing in solidarity with the protesters outside, which was apparently a violation of the rules of the chamber, and republicans pounced. they didn't have to anything to say about the substance of the issue here, gun safety but, boy, did they have a lot to say about the megaphones and protests the republican speaker of the house accused the three democrats of inciting violence and said their protest was, quote, at least equivalent maybe worse than the insurrection at the u.s. capitol on january 6th. here he is speaking to a local

tennessee news reporter. >> what's the evidence they were trying to incite violence? >> when we had representatives trying to go to the restroom, they got spit on >> do you have any evidence these three were encouraging protesters to spit on tennessee troopers in. >> i mean you can't prove that >> the tennessee house has only purged two times this week they held a vote to expel three in total, one who was a white woman, one a black man, and one a black and filipino man in the end they voted against expelling white representative gloria johnson, but they voted in favor of expelling the two representatives of color, justin jones, and justin pearson. throughout the day those democratic lawmakers never law sight of what all of this is

about. >> we called on you all to ban assault weapons, and you respond with an assault on democracy but you will not be victorious because there are generations of young people who see what is going on >> you say to protest is wrong because you spoke out of turn, because you spoke up for people who you spoke up for parents who are living in fear, we spoke up for people we don't want to care about on a country built out of people who spoke out of turn, fought out of turn to build a nation >> joining me now is congressman jamal bowman thank you for being here i feel like you may help us understand this moment in a way it nieds to be talked about. i would love to get your reaction to what has unfolded

on-airways across this country over the last few hours. >> so this is an expulsion because members of the tennessee legislature stood up for our children and spoke out against gun violence because guns are the number one killer of children in our country. 9-year-old children were killed. in sandy hook 6-year-old children were killed imagine going to their funeral and looking at the size of a 9-year-old casket or a 6-year-old casket. thank god for these tennessee legislators for speaking up and pushing back against what's happening in tennessee but also happening around the country republicans are sacrificing the lives of our children in protection of the second amendment. if we can't protect our children, we don't have a

democracy. our democracy is broken. it's rotten. it's sickened, it's cancerous if we allow children to be killed that's what's happening, and i'm glad to see the pushback they were expelled, but their expulsion is going to lead to the continued organizing and grass roots movement that's happening in tennessee and across the country young people aren't standing for this, people of my generation aren't standing for this it's time for a movement to transform america into what it's capable of being >> i feel like it's almost generous to suggest that the reason republicans are doing this is because of the second amendment. because i look at it and say maybe on its face it's the nra and gun rights but seems like something deeper and race appears to be part of this but also naked partisan game, owning the libs, putting them in their place, the parallels being drawn between this and january 6th

it's like republicans have been looking for a way to paper over what is such a heinous, ugly chapter in their party's history which is to say the january 6th insurrection, they're trying to draw a parallel to what happened here to make themselves look less poisonous, less ugly. let's first up pack the racial piece of it because it is two lawmakers of color who is ejected from the legislature and a white woman who is left in the answer may be obvious, but how do you read that >> racism, simply put. but another layer of the racial piece to this. as long as black and brown people are disproportionately killed by guns in our country, republicans are okay with things as they are. this is a republican party, and this is a sick ideology passed down from generation to generation this is slavery, jim crow, the

ku klux klan, eugenics, the second amendment, the great replacement theory, right? it's all of that balled into this thing so guns are the number one killer of children, also disproportionately black and brown people are killed by guns in comparison. domestic violence and gun violence is something that we have to talk about as well, women being killed by their partners by guns republicans historically have been against women's rights and women's civil liberties. roe v. wade is one example of that so this is who they are. another thing i want to mention is this. they can no longer win on the merits of their arguments. >> yeah. >> they have no ideas. they have no vision for the present or future of our country, so they want to take us back to a time of continued oppression, and now that they're in super majorities and wherever they have power, they are going to be heavy-handed with that

power, so we have to be heavy-handed with our resistance to that power. and the first amendment is about peaceful assembly and speaking out, which is what those legislators did. this democracy is hanging by a thread because of the previous president and obviously their party. we have to organize across the country and people who believe in justice and equality to take it back. >> i mean i watch that, and i think there are a lot of people in this country who will feel incensed, impassioned, angry, and motivated. if the point of all of this was to silence the men of color, the women of color, the progressives, the uppity folks who dare raise their hands and hold megaphones, well, they've got another thing coming to them it really feels this is an inflection point this is signal moment for people who care not just about gun

safety, the representative democracy, but sort of the big future of the american project, right? this is a big deal, and to try to pretend it's anything otherwise or people aren't paying attention to this is foolish. >> completely foolish, but, again, they have nothing else to go to. the only thing they can do is try to kick people out of the legislature because they have power. this is why in 2024 in states across the country in the federal level and house we have to vote these people out of office any candidate republican or democrat who doesn't want to do something on gun violence and something big like banning assault weapons, expanded background checks, training, whatever it is, we've got to go big on this. they have to be voted out of office i want to say one more quick thing. i want to see the memphis grazelies grazelies grisly refuse to play an nba game because of what happened today

>> you think that's going to happen >> i want to see that happen start hitting tennessee and memphis in the pockets, i guarantee you those republicans will begin to behave different >> i want to play a bit of sound from justin pearson who is one of the legislators kicked out of office i know we had some audio problems in the last hour, and he's been an incredible speaker throughout this saga this is what he had to say take a listen. >> people who get pushed to the periphery, people who get told to be quiet, the folks who get expelled, the people who are pushed to the margins and show society what it truly means to fight, what it truly means to get to the center of the conversation, to get to the issues that are at stake, and sometimes that takes breaking a few decorum rules.

sometimes to get from the periphery in the back of the house you got to go to the well of democracy and demand that democracy be true for everybody, not just for rich white men in suits, not just for rich white people who got these positions of power perpetuating the status quo. >> you know, there's a moment in american politics when that sort of impassioned, incensed rhetoric from clearly the progressive wing of the party would have seen, you know, on the left side. i feel like this is now the mainstream opinion in the democratic party and i wonder how -- you know, have you talked to other folks in the democratic caucus about what's happening in tennessee? is the feeling of anger shared across the spectrum of democrats from centrists to progressives >> absolutely. it is shared people are enraged at what's happening and what has been happening. when i had my engagement, my argument, if you will, with

representative massy, people were texting me from the caucus saying thank you, thank you for stepping up. my office couldn't stop receiving calls from all over the country because it's not just people from the house but people across the country who are like finally, finally no more thoughts and prayers, we need action. we need to see someone is pissed off about this, and that's why we got that reaction you know, i love what he said about decorum there because i was criticized for my lack of decorum. decorum? children are being uh-uh salted by assault rifles. what do you mean about decorum throughout our history we've become better because of mass movements throughout our history, because of moments like this that turned into mass movements. we need that right now because we still have tens of millions of people who still don't consistently participate in our democracy. we need everyone watching this,

everyone on social media, don't just tweet, you've got to knock doors, go to the church, supermarket, schools talk about where we want this country to go. we have founding documents you know, we have the declaration of independence, the constitution and bill of rights. we need the document that paints the picture of a vision for america. we need a new document written by all of us not just white property owning men. >> it feels like on these two issues that we talk about consistently in the national news, abortion and gun rights, gun safety, whatever you want to call it, they are issues that americans are fired up about, that they are voting on, that they are talking about and that more -- i think more urgently than anything they feel viscerally because they shudder to think of what a 6-year-old's casket looks like. they shudder to think about what would happen to their child he was forced to get an illegal

ibortion or not, or carry a pregnancy to term that this person wasn't ready for. i mean these are issues that people feel in their souls, right? and republicans i want to say unwittingly because it almost seems like political suicide, but they have made a calculated path to drive their party towards these two issues in particular and be really on the wrong side of not only history but where the public is at and i think that the democratic party could literally exist on only -- really honestly you could have a party that just focused on abortion and gun rights and you'd have 60, 70% of the country with you >> that's right. >> do you sense any disagreement inside the republican party about where the gop has landed on these two issues? and moreover, do you sense any movement do you think this is going to wake anybody up in congress? >> i think it will i don't know about in congress i think it'll wake people up around the country, but i think

that their heels have dug in on these two issues, you know, fight for the second amendment no matter what, and, you know, be against abortion. they're dug in on those issues one other issue you just mentioned, the issue of inequality, that's another issue because people are struggling with poverty >> they feel that viscerally as well >> they can't afford housing they can't afford to exist or breathe, right and so that is another issue they're on the wrong side of all those issues what i would also say is this. democrats, we have to look at the tennessee three, look at them and be inspired by their leadership, and we need to do the same thing in statehouses across the country and in congress because many of my colleagues i love them, but they're way too polite, and they're way too focused on decorum and they're not as loud and don't push back as hard. we need to push back on this issue and all the other issues we have to take back our country and be very loud in how we do

that when the people see us fighting, they'll come out and vote in the elections, the ones who are staying home because they'll finally see, oh, my god, these people care about me and my child. >> yeah, i think that there are some people when you talk about being too polite who will say getting louder, oh, what we need in american politics is more camaraderie. we need everyone to lower the volume i would argue joe biden in some ways is the person who made that case running for office in 2020, and at the same time i think it's really dangerous to suggest that the volume is for equal reasons, right the volume on the right, the insurrection at the capitol, the tendency towards revolution has not anything to do with any particular principle, it has to do with power. it has to do with a loss of p power, a loss of relevance and fundamentally of grievance, right? that's not what's happening on the left, and fundamentally i

think it's important for democrats to make the case the reason the megaphones are held aloft and the volume is getting turned up is because you're talking about caskets and bodies and survival, right? it's not about donald trump staying in office. it's not about being angry about demographic change it's about survival. and i guess you as a progressive as you're out there and you see the right try and co-opt, a lot of the energy, right, from the left, how do you keep making that distinction that what you're doing is not the same as what they're doing >> because we actually are trying to uphold the ideals of the constitution that's what we are trying to do. we're also paying attention to what the hell is going on in our districts. a 14-year-old kid was shot at 10:30 in the morning in the chest and killed in my district in mount vernon. a 14-year-old shortly after i got into office od'd on opioids

and died and another part of my district in yonkers a 17-year-old was shot in had head and killed outside his high school in my district another 16-year-old was killed in new rochelle by a ghost gun by someone who was 16 years old. that's the reality in america. it's not just in my district it's all over the country, and there are many reasons for that. they claim to say -- republicans claim to say it's about the individual well, they ain't doing nothing to help the individuals. they claim it's about fatherlessness and poverty they're not doing nothing to address poverty. they claim it's about mental health they ain't doing nothing to address mental health either they go to all these reasons about why we have gun violence they're not doing anything about that and nor are they doing anything about assault weapons or other common sense gun laws also it's not just the nra there are big money actors in politics that influence legislation way too much that

fund democrats and republicans, and that needs to stop so people refer to me as a progressive. i'm just a regular person trying to fight for the rights of the people in my district, period. and when you poll these issues, whether it's health care, housing, education, climate, guns, abortion, the majority of the american people are on our side with these issues and so, again, this is a call to action for everyone who cares about justice and equality and wants to move forward with the politics of love for all people. that's what this is about. >> i've got to say, you know, those children who died were their children, too. those republicans, they were the children of the state that was represented by republicans and democrats, and only one party is moving forward to make sure those deaths weren't in vain congressman jamal bowman, thank you so much for your time and work we appreciate it we're going to have more on all

this breaking news when we come back and then later new reporting that supreme court justice clarence thomas has spent decades accepting luxury trips aboard private jets and super yachts courtesy of a republican megadonor without disclosing any of it. that is ahead.

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we'll demand it in the house, we'll get excelled for it, too, and we'll demand it outside the house. indeed, indeed they have a terrible miscalculation. >> that was ex-tennessee state representative justin pearson who earlier today was expelled by the tennessee state legislature. jonathan, what -- this is what

on the outside appears to be a catastrophe for republicans, although inside the party i'm not sure they necessarily see it like that. what are you hearing in terms of the governor's calculation, movements on this, and how republicans in the legislature are looking at what's just happened >> sure. the bigger picture here on tennessee increasingly this is a state dominated by the republican party even though obviously it's too biggest cities nashville and memphis are heavily democratic because of that, the prelude today was a series if you will between the republican dominated state and more dominated city and county there in nashville. the republicans wanted their national convention tobe in nashville in 2024. well, guess what, the nashville democrats did not want a trump

dominated party having their convention in nashville in 2024, so it's going elsewhere. so there's been this sort of kindling, if you will, going for some time. what i'm struck by tonight is the absence of governor bill lee. i'm not sure if she's pocan out yet, but i'm a little surprised he's not been more forward leaning, if you will, about trying to stand up and find some resolution this is obviously not a good look for tennessee, not for nashville, which as your viewers know has been a really sort of hot city, a city on the rise, massive influx of people moving there, a real destination. and obviously today is a real step back both for tennessee and for nashville. >> yeah, i -- we just had congressman jamal bowman on the show at the top of the hour, and he was suggestling this isn't just about democrats in the state. this is about asking big business that fills tennessee's coffers to take a stand on this issue. this is about making it a

national issue this is about hitting tennessee republicans where it hurts, which is in their pockets. go ahead >> i was going to say on that point there's a history of that being especially effective if you just look a decade ago, for example, alex, in north carolina the so-called bathroom bill, you know, where that really went aground for the gop is when the business community, big players like duke energy in that state stood up. and i think it may take something similar in tennessee the corporate political players in tennessee have they get to some of the leaders of the general assembly, i think you could see some movement here from republicans, but i think it would take a large step from those corporate players at least with governor lee. i think it's important to step back, alex, also on the state of tennessee. there's a sad irony to the fact this is happening there. of all the states in the south,

it was the least politically polarized up until really a decade ago, up until roughly 2010 you had a competitive two-party state. every eight years for decades effectively the two parties would change the governorships back and forth you had lamar alexander and then ned mcquarter and than don sundquest and going back for decades you had robust competition in the congressional delegation you had basically a half and half gop delegation in that state for a long time up until really 2010. and historically you had a very strong moderate wing of the gop anchored in east tennessee, people like lamar alexander and bill haslum, howard baker from that corner of the state and you had a robust conservative democratic wing in the western part of the state. well, guess what it's all nationalized, it's all

polarized now. it's a red state, and the republican party in that state is deeply conservative state, and you're seeing that play out today. i can tell you from talking to folks today in nashville it's sadly ironic it's happening there because they did not know this kind of politics in their state up until ten years ago >> i would argue, you know, something happened in 2016 that certainly radicalized at least one of the parties you know, just in terms of bill lee's movements here the only republican governor to take a stand on social issues is ron desantis and disney. that has not -- nationally, it has not looked that great for ron desantis and i wonder the degree to which you think other republican governors are looking at his example and saying, yeah, that's not the play i'm going to run. >> yeah, look, i think it's state by state i think some of them believe the populism they talk about, alex

and others don't actually believe it, and we'll see here in the days to come with governor bill lee. if this thing continues to spiral, you can be assured people like fedex based in memphis, other corporate titans will speak up, they will get to governor lee, they will talk to leaders of the general assembly, and we'll see how they respond it'll be a fascinating test of the forces of populism versus the traditional corporate benefactors in the party if this thing goes sideways in tennessee. >> jonathan martin, always good to see you thank you for the recent history in terms of tennessee politics coming up how president trump and his allies are weaponizing his indictment and what manhattan d.a. alvin bragg had to say about all those threats today. also it turns out supreme court justice thomas has a taste for the yacht life, but who has been financing it that story's coming up

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in his 1987 cult classic "the art of the deal" donald trump concluded that controversy sells. take anything, make it a controversy, and profit off of it on the one hand trump uses controversy for financial gain

and mopatizes it he's reportedly raised over $12 million fund-raising off news of his indictment and arrest. and trump is using controversy to gain political traction, making it into a weapon he can yield, in this case against the very prosecutors who are investigating him. trump has called manhattan d.a. alvin bragg a degenerate psychopath and called the prosecutors in bragg's office scum he posted a photo of trump wielding a baseball bat at the d.a. who he's repeatedly called a racist he's gone after the judge's family, and he's warned that the charges levied against him could bring death and destruction. this is all very serious stuff, enough so that at tuesday's arraignment one of the first things the manhattan prosecutor brought up is the onslaught of threats coming from trump. the prosecutor said, quote, over the past several weeks and longer this defendant has made a series of threatening and escalating communications on social media and other public remarks. these comments and posts have

led to extensive public safety measures being put into place by a number of law enforcement agencies around the city including here at the courthouse starting several weeks ago the judge warned trump not to make any statements that would incite violence, no threats or attacks and said he would take a closer look if the conduct continued. and in response less than six hours after his appearance in court and the judge's warning, trump called bragg a criminal who should be prosecuted or at a minimum resign he then attacked bragg's wife and the prosecutors on the case again. nbc news reports that just 24 hours after tuesday's arraignment the judge and his family have received threats the environment has gotten so bad that online biographies of prosecutors on the d.a.'s website, those biographies have been taken down. the nypd has added extra security at the d.a.'s manhattan office it's not just alvin bragg here after his arraignment on tuesday trump wept of doj special counsel jack smith and fulton

county dependent a. fani willis. trump called smith a radical left lunatic known as a bomb thrower and he called fani willis a racist. last night fani willis responded. >> willing told channel 2's mark winny trump has a right to speak his mind >> so it does not concern me at all. it's ridiculous in nature, but i support his right to be protected by the first amendment and say what he likes. >> she did warn him not to cross the line >> people have the right to say whatever they choose to say as long as it does not rise to the level of threat against myself, against my staff, or against my family >> trump isn't alone in attempting to weaponize the justice system for his own political gain in march house speaker mccarthy said he was ordering a probe

into the prosecution and demanding bragg's testimony in a house investigation. bragg refused and called it an unlawful incursion into new york sovereignty. today house republicans took their crusade to the next level when the house judiciary fired off its very first subpoena in their so-called investigation into d.a. bragg. jim jordan spubpoenaed a prosecutor bragg in response to the subpoena has called the so-called investigation an unprecedented campaign of harassment and intimidation. joining us now is andrew wiseman, former fbi general counsel and of course msnbc legal analyst and someone who is literally the voice of this whole series of sagas for us on this channel andrew, first let's just talk about the nature of these threats and how unprecedented this is. i mean and you know what it's like to prosecute the crime

family >> if you're prosecuting all cases i've done in the mob there's a rule, you do not go after judges, you do not go after prosecutors, after their families why? not because they're good people and they don't think it's a good thing to do. it's bad business to go after agents and prosecutors and judges is only going to lead to more scrutiny on what they're doing. plus, you know what, i have a big ego, but i'm fungible. if you take out one prosecutor just another one -- >> another one is going to pop up >> exactly the idea this is the former president of the united states where there was a serious discussion in court with a respected judge having to address this issue, he led the free world he was the head of our justice department, and there in court is the issue of his inciting

violence just to be clear we're talking about the investigation of january 6th. that is a call on response he knows exactly what he's doing. if he didn't know on january 6th, he knows now. he knows exactly what he's doing. it's going to be incumbent on the d.a. who i think is completely fearless in the way that he's handled this and the judge who i think is also going to engage in sort of what is clearly incremental steps of warning him and then seeing what donald trump does, if he actually knows to adhere to these rules. but this is a first for donald trump. he's doing what he needs to do politically, but now he has to account in a court of law. >> what are the practical implications for an actual trial, though, if he continues on this path of trying to weaponize his supporters against the judge, maybe taint the jury pool beyond the political price what can he do from an initial standpoint >> this is in one way we don't

have to actually speculate because the judge, judge kaplan who's overseeing the jean carol case, the judge in that case, a respected federal judge, said we're going to anonmize and protect the jury that was before we saw what happened at the arraignment. and, again, that's in connection with the former sitting president of the united states you have to have an anonymous jury you know when you have an anonymous jury where you're sitting and thinking they're going to try to corrupt a jury here the intimidation factor is exactly what led judge kaplan to say this is what we need to do there can be other steps, obviously if donald trump goes further and he does incite as i think fani willis was getting to, there are charges a district attorney can bring for incitement, for harassment, for

instructing governmental investigations all those are criminal matters, so he could face additional criminal charges, and then obviously there's steps restricting what he can say if he continues doing that and that happened to roger stone in a federal case >> what about a house investigation? how does that complicate matters because alvin bragg is under pressure from the legislative branch, and that's then interfering with what he's trying to do >> absolutely. but there's a part of me when i heard that today i was thinking jim jordan is going to have another on his hands because so far that's backfired for him putting mark pomeranz who used to lead this case in front of the american people, he wrote a book the book was unauthorized and there's been some controversy about whether it's accurate or not, but this is what he says in his book donald trump is guilty, and he should have been prosecuted long

ago. he should have been prosecuted for more than what he's been prosecuted for that's going to be a very odd thing for a republican to elicit to the american people so there was a part of me that was like bring it on it's one where it's one of those things of be careful what you wish for. >> or cutting off your nose despite your face. good luck, jim jordan. andrew wiseman, as always good to see you up next clarence thomas' love of private jets and luxury yachts is coming under scrutiny, particularly when someone else is picking up the tab. we're going to explore all of that next. ty. it's the moment when you realize that a good day... is about to become a bad one.

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justice clarence thomas finished out that year's term ruling party gerrymandering was totally fine, and with that wrapped up the weekend he was in full vacation mode. he hopped on a private jet and headed off to ipdnesia judge thomas and his wife setoff on a nine day island hopping tour on this superuate which comes complete with a staff and private chef propublica did the math and calculated had justice thomas paid the trip himself it would have cost him mow more than $500,000 which is nearly double a supreme court justice's annual salary but lucky for supreme court justice thomas he didn't have to foot the bill because this man did. this is republican mega donor harlin crow. he owned the jet and yacht and picked up that very hefty tab, and justice thomas never told anyone, he never disclosed it. but justices are required to publicly report all gifts worth

more than $415, quote anything of value that isn't fully reimbursed he did disclose a gift this republican mega donor had given him. it was a bible that used to belong to frederick douglas and valued at $19,000. so clearly justice thomas knows he's supposed to disclose this sort of thing particularly when it comes to gifts from this guy. because this isn't the first time it's been a scandal mr. crow also gave at least half a million dollars to help justice thomas' wife, ginni thomas a group and later evolved into her current group, which reportedly works with groups directly involved in controversial cases before the supreme court. crow also gave more than $100,000 to the yale law clarence thomas portrait fund, which, i don't know, quite a bit of money for a fund that maybe doesn't really need to exist but today propublica made all

that look like change, chump change because it wasn't just that one undisclosed $500,000 vacation propublica uncover. they report for more than two decades -- two decades, clarence thomas har has accepted luxury trips virtually every year from mr. crow without disclosing them joining us now is jane mayer, the chief washington correspondent and the author of "dark money the hidden history of the billionaires behind the rise of the radical right. jane, it's great to see you. there's no better person to talk to you about this. thanks for being here tonight. let me just first start with the reporting from propublica today. is this an open secret from people who report on the court, and are other justices doing things like this >> well, i mean the problem with this story is that because it shows that something was not disclosed, it's very hard to know what else is not being

disclosed. i think what it does is highlights there are huge loopholes for the rules for the supreme court justices they notoriously have the weakest ethics codes of all the courts in the united states, so we really don't know what else we don't know. i think it's a shocking and maybe falls into that category of shocking and maybe not necessarily that surprising a story, because we know in the past clarence thomas has been exposed of having taken other gifts and personal hospitality from this same billionaire benefactor harlin crow "the new york times" did a story on it 2011, and it was also jaw dropping and yet here we are all these years later and there was this much more. it's really an unbelievable situation for a -- for highest court in the land that is supposed to look independent, and here you have one justice

taking all of this from millions of dollars probably worth of gifts from travel and one benefactor who happens to be someone very much involved in republican politics and conservative policy circles. >> yeah, that's the other piece of it. there's just the ethics violation of not disclosing sums that are vastly greater than $415 but then there's also har hp lin crow who's a real estate magnate who's been invested in organizations very much trying to push the court further and further right. i mean, that's the other piece of this that i think is -- is alarming there's a painting that is featured in one of harlin crow's residences, i think we have a picture of it, and it's something that hangs in plain sight apparently that features justice thomas sitting around smoking cigars with harlan crow and leonard leo, of course the mocker behind the federalist

society, and other big conservative movers and shakers, if you will. when you talk about cronyism, it's not a smoke filled back room, it's a smoke filled deck but the sort of suggestion this is how it all works is made clear. this does look like how it all works when it comes to certain supreme court justice. do you think there's going to be any sort of alarm bells ringing inside the court specifically in justice robert's ears, the chief justice of the court who's intent of restoring the reputation of the supreme court? >> i mean, i think there has to be concern but for by the chief justice or by the other justices because we've all seen there are public opinion polls that show there's never been lower support for the u.s. supreme court, and the public is losing confidence in this, and this is exactly why. stories that expose to a lack of

integrity and ethical, you know, lapses on this order, i mean it's really unthinkable and propublica did a fantastic reporting job in the story, and i recommend anybody read the piece, and it's so thorough. and points to other judges and former judges saying this is unthinkable. just nobody -- and i think from a common sense point of view you can see why it's unthinkable nobody takes this much stuff from one person without being beholden to them i mean this -- even one trip you mentioned for us is worth a half million dollars that justice thomas and his wife took in 2019, and they've been doing this for two decades >> it is a shocking -- it is as you say great reporting, specific reporting, dogged reporting, tracking of private planes and getting getting insis from yacht employees i mean everyone must read this it is deeply, deeply

distressing. chief washington correspondent for "the new yorker," thanks for your time tonight, jane. >> thank you >> we will be right back or sharp, stabbing pains. ♪♪ this painful, blistering rash can disrupt your life for weeks. a pain so intense, you could miss out on family time. the virus that causes shingles is likely already inside of you. if you're 50 years or older, ask your doctor or pharmacist about shingles.

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that's our show for tonight. we'll see you again tomorrow "way too early" with jonathan lemire is coming up next this does not seem like america to dispel voices of opposition and dissent is signal of authoritarianism, and it is