me why donald trump would want to put this off the trial into the spring, right in the heart of a presidential primar season, when the da wanted t be in january? >> look, he only sees upside the campaign only sees upside, they think by having thi indictment, all of the rest of republican field has to fall i behind him basically, they see this as campaign boost, you can alread see the -- ahead of this desantis, no it's doing him a lot of favors with respect to fund raising he raised 5 million in the las 48 hours >> got it. i love for the city about agai very soon. that's gonna do it for me on this edition of alex wit reports, all be off for th easter holiday tomorrow, happy easter to all of you celebrating. my friend yasmin vossoughian continues our coverage good afternoon, i'm yasmin

vested denver following several major stories this afternoon two big rulings on a key abortion pill praising the legal stakes to protec abortion rights for millions o women. reaction is coming in, fast an furious. new developments in the ouster of two - lawmakers in the tennessee legislature as the vic president lends her voice to the fight. >> they understood the importance, these three, o standing to say that peopl will not be silenced >> we are also keeping a close eye on israel after severa attacks this easter weekend. a new move from the white hous on trans athletes that has all sides of the debate upset. all of that, plus the news thi week that the former vic president will testify against donald trump, what he migh say. -- once he is under oath. we're gonna look at that comin up as well we begin though with the breaking news on abortio rights a federal judge in texas has essentially blocked the fda'

approval of mifepristone potentially undoing two decade of legal and safe use of the most common medication used in abortions. that ruling has been stated fo seven days to allow for appeal which have already been file by numerous challenger including the department o justice. less than an hour after this ruling, a federal judge, a washington state judge, issued a separate case on behalf of a lawsuit filed by 17 states along with the district of columbia that challenges the texas ruling, and orders the fda to make no changes in th availability of mifepristone these rulings had for a lega standoff that's likely to make its way up to the suprem court. i want to bring in nbc's, sach burns, and former u.s. attorney, barbara mcquade. this is incredibly convoluted, everything that's taken plac over the last 24 hours and wha it all means if you, welcome start us off here and, what can you tell us about these rulings and what comes next when we are talking

about the availability o mifepristone >> so, this is some of the consequential news when it comes to abortion access tha we have seen since the overturning of roe v. wade let's not forget, this came in essentially at the end of th business day on good friday. so that is some importan context to think about let me turn with the texas reeling, this is a case that we've been watching for months now. abortion rights advocates have been raising the alarm sounding the alarm for month saying that this could have massive impact the judge in this case did i fact decide with the plaintiff for the most part. let's take a step back and explain the basics of a lawsui here a group of antiabortion loss - in this case sued the fda, essentially saying that the fd did not adequately evaluate th safety of the drug mifepristone, which is one o the two drugs used in medicate

abortions when it approved bac in 2000's. the fda says this case has n merit, this drug has been on the market for more than two decades, they say more than million women have taken thi drug safely. only 28 deaths have been reported in relation to this drug but, but we have here is a judge citing with th plaintiffs, using a lot of ant abortion rights advocate language in the filing that he wrote. and then giving the government seven days to try to see emergency relief from a higher court. for seven days nothing happened but, it is throwing a whole lo of chaos and confusion for abortion providers, for wome seeking abortion it is also because at the same time we have this ruling i washington state, also by federal judge that i essentially ruling the

opposite saying that the fda needs to maintain access to this drug i the 17 states, plus washington d.c., that brought this suit the suit was essentially a response to what is happenin in texas now, those 17 states are under conflicting guidance this is very likely to head to the supreme court. point being, yasmin, this is convoluted and ultimately it's going to present a lot o challenges for the providers that have been talking to wh say look, we've already seen chilling effect since the dobb decision overturning rugby weight they are scared of civil lawsuits, this kind of criminal, lawsuits and there are big question marks about wha actually happens with this dru because it's fully unprecedented to overrule th fda's approval of a drug that' been on the market for thi long >> all, right we have a lot to dig into with this, that is fo sure i'm gonna let you go, dasha. thank you for that information barb, let's take through som of the stuff so one of the big questions

have on, this and then we'll get to what's gonna happen nex and whether it's headed to the supreme court, that's th overarching question to this whole thing. why would a judge give thi seven-day grace period why not make the ruling he was gonna make what was the thinking behind this >> i think that's pretty typical to give opposing parties an opportunity t appeal a case. there is - if this is given effect, there will be chaos around the country if this medication i suddenly removed from th market and there is nationwide injunction. the justice department has sai they will appeal i imagine they will follow through on that. seven days is a reasonable period of time to do that. i think this judge accuratel knows that that is gonna happen that's probably the leas controversial thing the judg did in this opinion, not creating a period of chaos while the justice department files this appeal. they're going to do, wha they're probably gonna do it very quickly and so giving the

seven days is an effort to either be or appear to b reasonable >> the texas judge says that the drug should be taken off the shelves in every state across the, country th washington judge is protecting those 17 states. >> all of that being said, whe you have this ruling, is there any merit behind this texa judge's ruling when you look a mid press stone, which has bee on the market for more than tw decades, taken by 5 millio women across the country is there any merit to this decision by the judge? >> no, most of the time when there's a legal decision, will say well, it is a close call, or reasonable minds ca disagree no, absolutely not the fda is the governmen agency that is empowered t make decisions about whether drug should be permitted on th market for a judge 23 years later t go back and second guess and say they got it wrong and i am overruling their decision, i is legally wrong and it is terrible public policy imagine you're a dru

manufacturer, once you get fda approval, you should be able t invest in this drug and market this drug an everybody who wants to sel this drug. -- if you judge at any point coul reverse the decision of the fda, it throws the whol pharmaceutical industry out of whack. it creates chaos for consumers if you look at the language of what the judge, says what they failed to accurately - emotional trauma who i suffered by women who underg medical abortions when they se their unborn child there is no agreement as to -- that language is so loaded no agreement whether a fetus i a child under various religiou traditions and other things. so i think this case ultimately, in a normal, world i would say this case would be reversed. but we're in the fifth circuit which is also quit conservative we have a supreme court whic gave us jobs i don't have the confidence would've had pre-dobbs tha this is just not going to stan

at the court level >> talk more about, that if yo will then there's this question tha i brought up earlier, is thi headed to the supreme court? you think about? it the language the judge used in this, ruling if we had question about the judicia system and how it's politicized, i think sarin sir. using words like abortionists. chemical, portion callin fetuses unborn children, so on and so forth is this heading to the supreme court? can we be confident if the press will remain on the shelves considering that the supreme court has decide before >> i think it is at leas headed up to the next leve which is the circuit court o appeal, it's the fifth circuit that covers the texas ruling there is the ninth circuit tha covers that washington rolling i don't know that we'll get an appeal out of there because think the fda is gonna be just fine with the ruling there if the fifth circuit does what it really should do under the, law and say no, they got i completely wrong, reverse.

we're done that's what i hope is the case if the fifth circuit agree with judge as merrick, and affirms this decision, then fo sure we're gonna be at the supreme court and in between lots of chaos for people who want this medication we >> wow, all right, barbar mcquade, thank you, we hav more to come for you, barbara. stick around and we're gonna talk about all of the former presidents legal issues coming up had our next hour, the president and ceo of planned parenthood, alexis mcgil johnson, joins me with her reaction to the abortion pil rulings. and what her organization is planning to do to fight back against the decision in texas. it is been two days since tw day -- were expelled for taking par in protests against gu violence they might not be gone for long and pc now confirms tha one of the lawmakers is said t be reinstated as early a monday this news comes as kamal

harris made a surprise visit t the tennessee three yesterday. nbc's, priscilla thompson, covering this story. priscilla, talk to us. how exactly are they seein justin jones who represent parts of nashville, around 100 000, people returning to the state capital so quickly could his colleague be next? >> yes absolutely the way this works is this decision now goes to the counties to appoint someone to serve in the interim and wha nashville metro council ha decided to do, the lawmakers have signaled that they ar going to hold a meeting on monday they're gonna suspend the rule that would require them to wai for weeks to appoint someone after announcing this vacancy. they're gonna go ahead and tak the vote to reinstate former representative, justin, jones. that decision would go int effect immediately and we could see a similar situation happening for former

representative, justin pearce, down in memphis and shelby county if the officials they're choos to do, that they have no scheduled their initia meeting. so we're still waiting on that but as for what comes next after that the governor will set a date for a special election that will occur sometime likel in the summer. at which point both of the lawmakers would be eligible to run for reelected in, if the were elected they would be bac here at the state house. earlier today austin jones was speaker to his supporters abou what he wants to tell them i this moment of limbo, i want t play a little bit of what he had to say >> what i will say to the youn people of america is that if w were not powerful, they woul not try so hard to stop. yes i was the youngest black lawmaker in tennessee, formally, and now i'm a lawmaker in exil because they were afraid of ou generational shift coming to america. the reckoning that our generation says that we don'

have to wait for some other, time or there comes a time, th time itself is ready for a change the time has come for tennesse and america. >> and we know that there ar calls for more protests an demonstrations next. week we expect to see more o those demonstrators here makin their voices heard at the stat capital. i just want to mention, i wa struck by a conversation that had with a constituent of no former representative, justi pierson. she said he didn't agree wit what he did. but she felt that this decisio to expel these lawmakers was too extreme. and as you, mentioned she is among more than 100,000 people who are now withou representation as all of thi continues to play out. yasmin >> all right, priscill thompson for, us thank you, we will continue to follow th story throughout the two hours ahead. all hours have been on the former presidents indictment what could the news that his former vice president is willing to testify the special

counsel's investigation before the case that is coming up in just 60 seconds. we'll be right back. we'll be right back. what are you going to do with it? i could use a new sign. with t-mobile for business, save more than $1000 versus verizon. and with our price lock guarantee, we'll never raise your rate plan. ever. (dog barking) we love our pets. and with our price lock but we don't always love their hair. which is why we made bounce pet hair and lint guard with three times the pet hair fighting ingredients. just one sheet helps remove pet hair from your clothes! looking good starts in the you're doing business. in an app driven, multi-cloud world. that's why you choose vmware. with flexible multi-cloud services that enable digital innovation and enterprise control, vmware helps you keep your cloud options open. your best defense against erosion and cavities is strong enamel- nothing beats it. new pronamel active shield actively shields the enamel to defend against erosion and cavities. i think that this product is a

gamechanger for my patients- it really works. welcome, back former president trump's indictment in new york could be the start of a long road of legal troubles as we now know his far, vice president mike pence, will not appeal a ruling that orders hi to testify about january six t a federal grand jury it is all part of the specia counsel's investigations int the former president talk more about, this let' bring in our national politics reporter, jonathan allen back again, barbara mcquade as well jonathan, let's start with you on this. bring us up to date on where w are with the special counsel's investigation. there was some back and forth, obviously with the far vic president, where he was gonn peel yet again to testifying before the grand jury. but now we know that he will b in fact doing just that. where are we on all of this?

>> if you are juggling at courthouse circus, there would be a lot of lawyers in the air right now. we between president trump's charges in manhattan, th investigation, the dua investigations by jack smith january 6th and also into th week mishandling of classified documents. of course also, this georgia case which might be next u about trump's attempts t overturn the election result from 2020 in georgia i think barbara will have better sense than i do about how these things move in terms of speed with the federa investigation potential charge there. but for the moment that seem to be in the third spot at least for getting started. when >> barbara, if you will jump in here, can you talk about the significance of th former president of the united states testifying against hi former boss. i shouldn't use against, jus

testifying and with the special counsel's investigation into january 6th what could this mean for the overall investigation? when >> i think jack smith i likely to not want to go forward with any case unless h can hear from the people who were closest to former president trump. that would be mike pence and mark meadows i don't think that you can mak a charging decision one way or another without talking to the to make sure you know all th facts. it may be that neither of thes men tell jack smith he didn' already know maybe he tells them things tha are very valuable, maybe h tells them things that are som ways in exonerating. he has to talk to, them even i only to lock them into their story now under oath because what they can't have happen is to file charges an then a year from now have th case go to trial and have on of the men come in and testify with some story of recen fabrication that is someho exonerating for donald trump by putting them in the grand jury now for better or worse

or indifferent, they are locking in their story and i think it's a necessary ste before a decision can be made. it's one of the last things yo do before you make a chargin decision so soon as he's able to ge through the remaining witnesse i think he's gonna make charging decision one way or another. >> oh, so that is big, barbara talk more about, that if you will for now, with, penc with him appearing before th grand jury for the testimony for january 6th, the jack smith, the doj is ultimately close to deciding whether another gonna move forward with criminal charges against the former president? >> yes, and i would included that the other group o witnesses for whom jack smit has sought to pierce the executive privilege, peopl like mark meadows, stephen miller, and some other peopl close to him the way prosecutors typicall investigated the cases eve tightening concentric circles. you start wide to educat

yourself especially, can any moving closer to the target as you learn more about who the target is and what they ma have done. you want to be as informed a you can be as you aske questions of those peopl closest to the target. you want to talk to everybody, review every document as you close in there's really nobody an closer than pence and meadow and that's where jack smith is headed now >> jonathan, i want to tal quickly and touch on the manhattan's da's case. i know you did some digging an reporting a new contributed to the nbc news piece about som small political donations made by judge wang marchand who's been in the spotlight as o late talk to us about what you foun out. >> we are talking about $1 donated to joe biden's campaig in 2020 through the web service, act glue which is betwee donors and campaigns another donation to a grou called stop republicans. this is -- these are almost laughable i

terms of the size. very few people on stature giv such little money, as a 15 dollar contribution. so look, it opens the door for donald trump to continue t make his claims that the judge is biased. we heard him say that th judges, biased we've heard him attacked the judge's famil from mar-a-lago on tuesday after hit beard in court manhattan. you can only expect that's gonna continue from donald trump. but at the same, time it's har to make an argument there's payoff for a judge or some sor of impropriety of a judge in terms of him giving mone rather than him receiving it so certainly there are man judges across this country who are elected on a partisan basi or bipartisan electorates. this doesn't rise to the level of say, clarence thomas is things that he's taken fro friends. we >> and, i just want to read quickly from the base with som

contacts, it's not uncommon fo judges to donate to politica candidates, a search of federa campaign donation in 2021 in 2022 turns up more than 30,000 donations from people listin judges their occupation. donations from single digi sums to more than $10,000. so we're talking about this, it's obviously important t keep it all in context thank you, barbara mcquade thank you as well. we are going live to israe next where it's been a blood weekend already in the midst o a holy week for jews, muslim and christians we will continue to follow reaction to a major ruling tha could end availability of a ke abortion pill. the ceo of planned parenthoo is ahead, we'll be right back. is ahead, we'll be right back.

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happening now in israel, massive protests over prim ministers netanyahu's plan t overhaul the nation's judicial system they're continuing for the 14t

straight week. at the same, time a new wave o violence has kicked off betwee israeli forces and pets dillio militants amidst a holy week for both jews and muslims. i want to bring in nbc, is raf sanchez, who's in tel aviv for us raf, what led, if you will, to this latest round of violence. talk to us about what' happened over the past 24 hour or so. >>, well yasmin, just the last couple of minutes the israel dispense ministry has announce new restrictions on crossing from the occupied west ban into israel, as well as ne restrictions on the very few people who can cross from gaza and israel which is a way of signalin that from israeli perspectiv this is not over yet as we, speak there is a majo man hunt underway in the occupied west bank israeli forces are looking ver suspected palestinian gunmen who killed two israeli sisters yesterday. their mother is still in the hospital, she is in critical condition right now fighting for her life

this is actually a british israeli family who lived in settlement in the occupied wes bank yasmin, we're just a coupl miles from the scene of last night's attack in tel aviv israeli police say palestinian driver rammed into tourist o the promenade on the beach they are killing one person, injuring five and we hav confirmation today that th person who lost his life was i fact an italian tourist who wa here on vacation >> hey raf, so bring this full circle if you will i imagine much of what i happening, the conflict betwee israel and palestine, is havin an effect certainly on these ongoing protests right behin you. >> yes, it is interesting. as you can, see the protesters are still out in force despite everything, they are here an there are thousands. what we've heard fro protesters tonight is they fee that the issue of israel democracy is too important cannot wait, despite the

violence i will tell, you it is certainly been more somber her tonight. you might not know it from the trump circle behind, me bu this protest began with moment of silence for th victims of the various attacks yesterday. what we have heard consistentl is people are very alarmed her by netanyahu and thi government, which includes members of the israeli far-right. they fear not only about wha this government may do t israel supreme court, what i may do to weaken israeli democracy, but they also fea that it's potentially pourin gasoline on what is already an major security fire here yasmin -- >> >> raf centers for, us than you, raf up next, everybody, lawmaker in tennessee say the house i expulsion of two members i just the latest in the pattern of republicans targeting the black community. the executive director of blac pack joins me, next with their reaction to that plus, vice president harris' impassioned speech in nashvill in support of tennessee three.

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require and allow and encourag debate and discussion. and yes, dissension! but this so-called leaders tried to shut it down instead. but we are not having that >> vice president, kamal harris there on her meetin with the so-called tennessee three in nashville president biden also spoke t three lawmakers on the phone inviting him to the white hous in the near future meanwhile, state representatives, jones and pearson, look to regain thei seats as representative -- after surviving by one vote. adrian shropshire is the executive director of blac pack, thank you for joining us on this. we appreciated we got lawmakers intern assist in tennessee, it is just the latest in a pattern of by stat republicans targeting the blac community. what has this pattern been

>> yeah, i think we can broade it out a little bit. i think that we know that this is very on brand for the moder republican party when we think back to presiden obama's election in 2008, an the subsequent voter suppression laws that we saw happen across multiple states. they are still being debated i states today we saw just after the georgi runoff election this year, w saw georgia, the state o georgia reintroduce additional restrictions on vote participation. so yes, tennessee is n different. in 2018, there was a massive effort to both register an turnout black voters the tennessee black vote project registered over 60,000 black voters in the aftermat

of that, what we saw was the tennessee legislature attemp to criminalize organizations for registering voters we saw, obviously significan gerrymandering, includin splitting up nationa congressional seats. we see now that takeover of th nashville city council and their economic assets. obviously now we see thi incredible attack on democracy with the removal of these tw young men from their seats >> let's talk about -- justin jones expected to be appointed back to his seat b the nashville council. both him and justin pierson ar eligible to be gained thei seats through a specia election to fill the vacancies what is your organization goin to do in getting behind them t make sure they're both reinstated >> the good news, and th

unfortunate thing fo republicans in the state o tennessee, is that these are not two young men who woke u one day and decided, i'm gonna run for office these are two young men wh have been involved i organizing and activism in their communities for a very very long time and the important point here i that they themselves are organizers, there is a tremendous amount of organizin capacity and activism on the ground in nashville an memphis. so while my organization wil certainly support the work that's happening there, they are more than capable of ensuring that the nation attention stays on thi travesty, they are more than capable of organizing not just in their state and in thei cities, but organizing supporters and allies from around the country, includin us, to make sure that not only they regain their seats bu

they have the support that the need for their reelection's. and also for the ver progressive black legislator that are in the legislatio fighting for them and alongsid them for the kind of policie that they keep bringing th attention back to. they know this is a travesty and an attack on democracy, bu they continue to bring it back to the fact that this is ultimately about gun violence. this is about children who die republicans response to gu violence and the death o children is to engage in racis and to put on display for th entire nation, and the entir world, the kinds of racist governments that happens in th state of tennessee >> and they continue to do tha in all the interviews that the have given yes, they want the spotlight t be on what is happening in the tennessee legislature, but ultimately this is about the loose gun laws that ar currently in the state the tennessee, after the lates school shooting in this countr -- adrienne, thanks so much the white house has proposed a

new rule that could prohibit blanket bans of trans athletes competing on school sports it would allow bands of tran athletes in some cases, whic is prompting mixed reactio from the lgbtq+ advocacy groups -- monica, if you will walk u through this new proposed rule and the next reactions it is getting? >> yes, yasmin this comes from the department of educatio under its title nine authority the reason it is significant i because this is the first time that the biden administratio is weighing in on this natur of the eligibility criteria of how schools can determine wh should be eligible for certain sports based on the issue of gender essentially, this rule, whic again that is just being talke about as a proposal, it hasn't gone into effect it won't go into effect unti there can be about a month lon period of comments and potential changes to it. what it would do is essentiall

allow the schools to say tha for certain ages, like elementary school for instance kids can play based on their gender, but then when it comes to high school and collegiat athletics that then othe students may want to mak different choices as it relate to that. certainly to allow for transgender athletes t identify and select what kin of a team they would want to play on. when you mentioned the respons to this is mixed, there ar some groups that are sayin that a rule like this sink going to get rid of now some o the bias and discriminatio that many of these groups have been facing, specifically to your point because some states have proposed these outright bans on allowing transgender athletes to participate. it doesn't deal with all o that in a blanket manner, it leaves it's up to some of th schools. that's where you have some o the groups saying they wish th guidance would be a little bit different. there are others who are applauding this move from th department of education and yo

have the department of education secretary weighing i and saying that being a part o a team is a critical thing for any kid at any stage at an point, and they want to make sure that this becomes a mor inclusive environment at the different levels you're also seeing som immediate pushback from some republican states, for instance, who are saying that this wil be met with legal challenges including governor kristi noem who wrote to president biden i a tweet, we will see you i court. she has been outspoken on this issue. we can anticipate that there will be some legal response to this that, again this is somethin that could go into effect in may. yasmin >> monika, thank you coming up next, donald trump's defense is once again going on the offense. going big with attacks on th manhattan da judge and their families my next guest looks at the former presidents weaponizatio of the legal system as he goes quote unquote, scorched eart

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a claim order, make a motion for a violation of his first amendment constitutional rights he will then use it to try t have judge merchan recused and then tried to compound nonsensical request to have th case moved to someplace else someplace that he deems to b more favorable >> to talk all about this an more, i want to bring into m bryant, bloomberg opinio senior executive editor who' also an msnbc political an lure tim it's good to talk to you about this stuff so let's star there right? and the former president i doing the stuff anyway trying to get it, movie want today moved to staten island versus in manhattan, trying to get marchand recused as well because of the other cases tha he is overseeing, specifically allen weissenberg, former cf of trump organization. what do you think of the sensitive merchan with to kind of put this gag order in place

it would only put fuel on th fire of the former president and what he likes to do? >> well i think it'll be about a month of motion work ahead o it for a look of a change of venue and look at challeng anything the judge does. at the end of the day, i don't think he has a foot to stand on remember in the enron case there was an issue and they're as to whether or not and rod the friend that could get fair trial in texas becaus everyone in texas knew the enron the buckle and had har feelings about it there is nowhere in the solar system that no one's heard of donald trump. so the idea that he is going t move and seek to move tanya ou of new york to go somewher else where there will be a jur that does not know him, i don' see that happening the gag order issue, if they make a claim that is first amendment rights are being violated, no one has a right t incite violence which he has been doing and he didn't throughout his presidency, h did it when he was a candidate for the presidency it doesn't on january six an he is doing it now and he is threatening the judge, he is threatening the judges wife, he has threatened th

judges daughter. he should get a gag order an he should be sanctioned by the court if he violates it. that is just a matter of law i think it's very tough righ now for all institutions suffolk out how to manag donald trump because he up civic norms and he is rational the reality is the court syste has been moved through this to a certain extent as the woul with any other defendant >> so your fourth a lot an cover trump a lot over the las few years, i want to go throug some of the recent pieces fo bloomberg. first kind of how trump ha used the legal system in the past to his advantage. open till now of course. trump spent decades weaponizin the legal system against competitors, partners, the government and critics while o waiting lasting accountability and a court of self. even if the socks with a targe of prosecutions, and investigations now engulfing in that area of invincibilit has been pierced he has been indicted

walk us through kind of th change that you have seen here and which the last china for decades or so, former presiden has used his legal system an now the some accountability? >> well there is a myth that h has of aided intense prosecutions or a courtroo drama for decades but th reality is prior to this, he had only been subjected to a serious criminal investigation once, for housin discrimination and his family' properties along with th father in the early 1970s. since then, it is never been targeted by federal prosecutor or robust state prosecutors th way he is now. so that is, new secondarily, when i say he weaponizes the legal system, he has used that the silence people without any intent from actually going t court or seeing most of thes legal actions through. and he learned that from roy cohn, he did it forever, he di

it to his great advantage bu that was for business purposes or reputation ill issues against the media. he sued me and lost fo example. but now officials of criminal, fraud civil fraud, electoral fraud and at the department of justice gets its boots on an goes after him, insurrection i violation of the espionage act >> yeah, certainly is an unbelievable timeline to say the least, all coming to fruition now it seems. tim o'brien, thank you so much and appreciate it got to talk to you. coming up everybody, in th next hour, absolutely a suprem court justice with a jet set lifestyle. i will talk to the journalis broke the story of clarenc thomas's lavish gifts from republican billionaire up next, tensions over taiwan. how china is reacting to american attention for the president of taiwan. (seth) and i got to choose the phone i wanted. for free. (cecily) not that you're bragging. (vo) switch and choose the 5g phone you really want, on us. like the incredible iphone 14.

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conducting military drills b flying fighter jets over the taiwan straight. it's coming as a bipartisa group of u.s. delegates led by house borne affairs committe chair, michael bacall makes visit. mccall says the west will no be intimidated by china' actions and this pledgin ongoing support for taiwan today's drills by china also follows a meeting earlier this week between house speaker kevin mccarthy and taiwan' president and california a well joining me from taipei's and b seen corbin qb, always joining us courtney good to talk to you

what else are you learning about today's meetings i taiwan and other actions possibly tha china could be taking? >> so there is the 71 chines fighter jets that have now crossed into taiwanese airspac today, saturday. as a part of this larg exercise that china ha announced today. in addition to one of that though it's critical yasmin, there are nine chinese ships that are now encircling th island, essentially they are simulating a naval blockade. this is a very potentially provocative military exercise. as you, mentioned we have been here covering this congressional delegation tha was here led by congressma mike mccarthy, chairman of the foreign affairs committee. large through this was about showing unity between the u.s. and taiwan as well as th meeting was speaker, kevin mccarthy in california mccall also had a couple o other messages he wanted to tell-to-one tha the u.s. would send them weapons and get them training. here is a little footing at th state today during his meeting with president tsai. >> as the house foreign affair

committee chairman, i signed off on all four notes here for sales. including weapons to taiwan. and i promise you mada president, we will deliver those weapons. we are doing everything that w can in congress to speed up th sales and get the weapons that you need to defend yourself. and we will provide training t your military. not for war but for peace. >> that trading to the militar is a critical point yasmin the u.s. does not acknowledg that any u.s. military trainer here but when i presse congressman mccaul about, that later and throughout the strip actually, it's not outside the realm of possible that the u.s will consider sendin contractors here, civilian they do some of that trainin and the weapons bop lock tha he mentioned it's up to 19 billion dollar in weapons that the u.s. has promised to taiwan that ou backlog. some of them will barely mak it here before the end of this

decade, yasmin >> what is the white house i position on the u.s. delegatio being there? >> they are trying to tamp dow any tensions over all of these meetings this has really been a lon string, a very high level talk between the u.s. and taiwa starting not just with kevin mccarthy but remember, president tsai she went to new york before she went t california, she met with a number of senators and members of congress or she was out there. and it continued all the way until to the white house wants to bring down th tensions which between the u.s and china have been extremel high over a number of differen issues everything from the spy balloon, china not answering the phon calls of some very high-leve u.s. officials and then of course this ongoin discussion about the potential for china to supply russia wit non lethal or even lethal ai for u.s. and ukraine all of these things have reall bubbled up the level of tensio between the two countries an

the white house is trying to bring it down right now, yasmin when they have been addressing president size meetings and he visit to the u.s., they call that routine despite the fac that china did not see it as anything that was routine. >> yes, courtney kube for, u thank you and we appreciate it we have a lot more coming up everybody, you are watchin msnbc, our second hour start right now. hey everybody, i am yasmin vossoughian. if you are just joining, u welcome. if you are sticking with, us w thank you for that protests scheduled nationwid today for abortion right coming just after two majo rulings up with the future of key abortion pill at risk. and a, moment i will speak t alexis mcgill johnson, ceo o planned parenthood on what thi means for millions of women. also following efforts t quickly get to tennessee lawmakers booted from the stat house back in their seats.