tv Alex Wagner Tonight MSNBC April 12, 2023 6:00pm-7:00pm PDT
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editorial integrity, as expose through this discovery so, there's not a lot to adjudicate, vis-à-vis you average sort of defamation case so, just this thin read of argument that's going to b taking place in the courtroom. >> yeah, one of the people that's gonna be taking place whether it looks like rupert murdoch himself may be calle as early as monday, we don't know there's some reporting t indicate that could happen a lot of other folks fro bartiromo to tucker carlson, sean hannity, are expected it is going to be fascinating, i'm glad that this is gettin coverage, you're down there, thanks for making some tim with us tonight. >> thanks for having me on >> that is all in on thi wednesday night, alex wagner tonight starts right now, good evening, alex. >> good evening, chris, if you are interested in what's happening in that fox dominion lawsuit, you will want to stay tuned for the next block, we
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have the audio recordings of rudy giuliani and trum officials and what they were saying privately to the fo news hosts that is coming up in our hour. >> that is a hello vtes, i don't go anywhere. >> stay tuned, brother thanks as always >> roll tape >> thanks to at-home for joining us this hour classified information is huge category. it covers everything fro handwritten notes that could b completely inconsequential, al the way up to the nuclea codes. so, just hearing that somethin is classified, doesn't give yo all that much to go on in term of what the actual underlyin information is which is what makes this revelation from the new york times today such a big deal. special counsel, jack smith, i asking witnesses about multipl alleged instances of forme president trump showing off confidential map that contains sensitive intelligence information after he lef office
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for months, we have known that president trump took hundred of classified documents with him when he left the white house. and we have known that among those classified documents, to secret papers that could contain things like sensitiv intelligence information but this reporting in the ne york times tonight, is potentially the first instance we know of of trump not just having that sensitive info in broom closet somewhere but of him actually showing it off. potentially damaging nationa security, potentially violatin laws like the espionage act. so, that information is new an it is huge, and it is only one of the investigations by the special counsel into forme president trump. and his other investigation, the investigation into trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election on january 6th, we go this today the special counsel's office has sent subpoenas to trum advisers and former campaign aides related to how president trump fundraised after the election the washington post reports,
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special counsel smith is looking to determine if trump, or his advisers, scammed donors by using false claims abou voter fraud to raise money you might remember, trum raised an absolutely eye-popping 100 and $70 millio in one single month after he lost the 2020 election which is not normally ho fundraising works. now, that massive haul is bein investigated by special counse jack smith all of this is coming at a tim when trump is already in triag mode, he's pulling out all the tricks, that he usually uses t avoid legal entanglements. now that he's been backed up against a wall, literall indicted in a manhattan da's hush money case, trump is goin after one of the da's ke witnesses. today, trump sued his former lawyer, michael cohen. for the really extraordinary sum of $500 million, all repea that, $500 million and with less than two weeks
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before he set her to go to trial in the civil defamatio suit, brought by, writer e jean carroll, over his denials that he raped her in the mid 90s, trump is asking for tha trial to be delayed. so, delay, delay, delay. countersued, countersue, countersue we have seen this movie before we have never seen it all at once, from all the angles, i 3d or 4k ultra hd, or whateve that is. and it is not just the court it is also in the court of public opinion >> is there anything they coul throw at you, legally, tha would convince you to drop out of the race? if you get convicted in this case in new york >> no, i never drop out. never drop out it's not my thing. i wouldn't do it >> not my thing. former president trump went on tucker carlson's fox news show last night for his first interview since his arraignmen last week, fox did what it doe best tucker carlson listened to the former president spout nonsens about how these investigations
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were just the justic department being weaponize against him. and how trump thinks north korean president, kim jong-un, is really smart because he has total dominant control of hi people, that's an actual quote and tucker listened intently he didn't really push back as if these were the kind of statements that are factual, o grounded it any kind of shared reality. of course, we now know for thi particular fox news host, that friendly attitude is all a act. tucker carlson hates donal trump. it's part of the discovery process in the more than a billion dollar defamatio lawsuit between the dominion voting machine company and fox news, we got these texts, thes are from tucker carlson to members of his staff on januar 4th, 2021. we are very, very close to being able to ignore trump mos nights, i truly can't wait later, i hate him passionately on january 6th, tucker texted producer, he is a demonic force, a destroyer. referring to the forme president.
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anyway, now tucker is having the demonic force on his sho to push his narrative, and that's that. there you go but if there's one thing w have learned from the fo dominion lawsuit, it is this what fox does on air, and what fox employees think and say of air, well, those are not alway in sync. tonight, we have exclusive, ne were really released audio tha shows that when it came to the big lie itself, even the central players knew there was no there there let me back up a few weeks ago, a forme senior producer of tucke carlson's show, who used to be a senior producer for fox news host, maria bartiromo's show a woman by the way by the name of abby grossberg, she sued fo news especially she believed she wa being set up as the scapegoat, or the fall guy, and the gigantic fox dominio defamation lawsuit grossberg claims, fox attorney coerced, intimidated and misinformed her, to influenc her deposition before dominion lawyers last year.
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now, former fox news producer, abby grossberg, is expected to be a witness for dominion. and man, she has the receipts. it turns out, abby grossberg had been recording, using an app on her phone, discussion between bartiromo and ke figures in this case figures like trump attorney, rudy giuliani. and trump campaign officials themselves grossberg told fox's lawyer, she had these types of recordings she was pretty upfront about that fox never handed them over t dominion during the discover process. so, today, abby grossberg lega team played parts of two o those recordings in court. and after hearing them, th judge decided to sanction fo news for withholding evidence. so, if dominion wants to dominion could conduct mor depositions on fox news dime judges orders. we don't know if dominion is actually going to do that,
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these tapes were explosive enough that the judge literall sanctioned fox news for no sharing them abby grossberg and her legal team have let us have thes recordings, tonight. so, without further ado, thi is rudy giuliani and fox new host, maria bartiromo, talking off air on november 8th, 2020. off air, mr. giuliani seem pretty candid about the fact that he has no evidence that there is anything wrong with dominion voting machines >> i'm going to be asking yo for as much evidence as you ca tell us about these lawsuits whatever you can tell us i terms of evidence, would b really helpful okay, great. >> i can tell you exactly what we have. >> perfect >> and what about the software this dominion software >> that's a little harder. >> seems troubling to tell you right, it's bein analyzed right now i mean, there are a couple o races that have been reverse because the democrat was tripl
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counted, two already i michigan now whether that applies for the whole state or not, i can' tell you yet >> this dominion software, doe nancy pelosi have an interes in it? >> i've read that. i can't prove that >> can't prove that, that wa rudy giuliani, the face of the big lie. privately downplaying that h knew anything about dominion voting machines. and then there is this conversation, from december 5th, 2020 this is a call between maria bartiromo and trump campaign officials themselves >> or any of the machines, i know it was on war room th other day with steve bannon. have any of the machines bee looked at? he had said that one was looke at in georgia. >> i have to check on that i terms of georgia i know during the audit, the did check on those machines.
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if we can just go off th record for one second? >> yeah, of course i don't want to say if it's not, that's why we're checking. >> yeah, i would think the have a look at the machines. when the secretary of state di its audit, there was a lot, think a fair bit of looking at the machines the audit came in pretty dar close to what the machine coun was with the receipts. so, i don't know the outcome o those, but our understanding again, this is from th secretary of state's office, was that there weren't any physical issues with machine on those inspections >> again, that was on december 5th, 2020. trump campaign officials sayin there weren't any physical issues with dominion votin machines there's a fair bit of lookin at those machines, mis bartiromo, but all the figures are pretty darn close to wha they were supposed to be the whole voting machine conspiracy, according to the trump officials, kind of a
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nothing burger or at least that's what they said in private. because here was trump, on the same day, december 5th, 2020 -- >> and one michigan county using dominion voting systems, nearly 6000 votes were discovered that were wrongly switched, from trump to biden. they called it a glitch. you know what glitch, that's like the machine broke numerous times we foun glitches and every single time, the glitch went 100 percent to biden. and no percent to trump. the same systems they used i 30 states. believe me, this is somethin we're gonna do because we can't allow it to happen, and complete overhau of our election security systems, because right now dominion is a joke not a very funny joke. it's a disgrace, in 2020, no state in america even makes an real attempt to verify tha those who cast ballots by mail
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or eligible. and lawfully registered voters the evidence of fraud is overwhelming >> one thing in public, anothe thing entirely in private. and this is no minor detail, this is the core of the bi lie. here is a taste of how fox new continued to cover dominio voting systems after tha december 5th phone call. >> we're looking into th dominion voting machines, with this new forensic examination. this is an investigation tha has taken a few weeks, it will take time. but what we have now, such a significant and overwhelming evidence that there is voter fraud, there is a lot of irregularities and jus complete disregard for the law in the states. >> now, we get to detroit, w have a truck that pulled in at 4:30 in the morning, wit 100,000 votes. and we have a machine, the dominion machines, that' filled with holes like swiss cheese and it was developed to skew
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elections. and being used in the states that are involved. so, that there's a lot that' gonna come out here over the next month or so >> tens of thousands of ballot were being illegally dropped the machines are the worst dominion, dominion nobody even knows who owns it. these machines are controlling our country? so, it was a rigged election it it was a sham and a sham. >> one thing in public, anothe thing in private again, i do not know i dominion will choose to do another round of depositions because of this. the trial is slated to start monday more depositions could mea delaying that trial. but even if dominion chooses not to, these recordings sound verily damning in terms of wha they do to undercut the bi lie. rudy giuliani, trump's own campaign officials, the core o that whole conspiracy is jus nothing. joining us now, jerry -- he is the attorney for forme fox news producer, abb grossberg, who is suing th
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network. thank you so much for joinin us tonight we really appreciate it, i kno we have a slight delay, so i'm gonna get right to the questions, i think a lot o people would like to know a bi more about how and why mis grossberg made these recordings >> good evening, alex. thanks for having me on. let me just step back on second and say, in answering your question we didn' actually play the tapes in court today. diminutive tierney's did we turned over the recording to fox's attorneys, thinking that at some point, they would get to dominion. and when i say we, i mean abby when she was asked to by fox's attorneys. and it turned out, months an months later, we noticed tha the recordings weren't anywher in the record as it became unsealed, as the papers were filed for the summary judgment motion ultimately, we felt that we ha
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to come forward, and provide that evidence, or at least let the court know, we have that evidence, as we did in our filing in delaware abby has two lawsuits, one i in the southern district of ne york, that is really the heart of her dispute, which alleges very toxic and horrific work environment that she was subjected to not so much on maria bartiromo's show, but when she left miss bartiromo's show and went on to tucker carlson' show it's also significant, the coercion that we allege that occurred during her deposition preparation, occurred as she was transitioning from mis bartiromo show to mr. carlso show and we see the two issues, and the two lawsuits, linked the lawsuit in delaware alleges, the vast conspiracy to essentially, cause abby to
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defame herself by with a transcript that was coerced ou of her in which she wasn't afforded the opportunity to correct until we filed a lawsuit and the lack of full disclosur in the transcript became apparent to the world. and then there's a lawsuit i the southern district, the two are related. really, we alleged that fo news scapegoated abby, into degree, miss bartiromo, when they finally found out tha there is going to be liability it's very telling that the order from on high came down not to have mr. giuliani and miss powell on any longer, o any show, including miss bartiromo's, the day that th smart tech lawsuit, which is
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another defamation lawsuit that's percolating along new york, i think for 2.7 billion, dropped. and fox became aware of it >> so, let's talk a little bit about the recordings, and ho she came to make them, and why you think, given the current suits here, the curren complaints, why you think fo news did not make thes available to dominion during the discovery process? >> well, i really can only speculate as to what's in fo news's mind, and the minds o their returnees. but i'll tell you, they have a lot of lawyers litigating th case in delaware. the defamation case that dominion has brought, and think among them, th practitioners there have ove 150 years of experience. and it's really unlikely tha
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they really dropped the ball and just forgot to turn this obviously relevant evidenc over it's more likely they've bee hiding the ball, as we'v alleged all along. and the reason is obvious. i don't need to make the minions arguments for them they're doing pretty well. but it seems to me, these tape go to the heart of the issue that's been left for the court for the jury, rather in the dominion case which is whether there's actua malice one could even argue, if dominion had these tapes, an by the way, there seem to be other evidence that was also withheld, from what i've bee reading, just in the dominio case it would seem to me, if they had this evidence and had been able to use it in their summar judgment motion, maybe the would've gotten a complete victory. >> you make the case in th complaint, it would be hard fo
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fox news executives not to kno that this conversations took place. miss grossberg was ver forthcoming about recordin things on a certain app on her phone, she would attac transcripts to her emails to hire opposite fox. and you make the point, people in the control room heard some of these conversations, right? >> yes >> would you, on behalf of you client, be able to elaborate a little bit more on the culture in and around fox news as it pertains to sensitiv information like this? >> sure. i would go one further, it's virtually impossible, if not actually impossible, that fo news wasn't aware of it. wasn't aware of thes recordings, and wasn't aware that there was, you know evidence being presented to fo news through its show host, an miss grossberg, that was contrary to what was going o the air.
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first of all, abby made it a regular practice to use this particular transcription software anytime she dealt with pre interviews with miss bartiromo and made a regular practice of giving, and sending thos transcriptions via fox email t miss bartiromo so, it's strange credulity, an i believe, from what i've heard, i haven't had the benefit of the transcript yet from today. our local consulate reported t me, fox news actually stood up and said, they weren't aware o these until march the 20th when they saw our correcte radish she in the delaware case, that's when they turn them over well, that really is almos impossible to believe. because if they had just done regular search of the relevant emails, they would have come u with this evidence
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i think they went so far as to try to excuse themselves b saying, well, first of all, it was on abby's personal phone a opposed to her company phone miss grossberg gave both phone over to fox news twice, to the four attorneys who drilled her for four days to coerce, basically, incomplete and self serving testimony. and also, put her in a positio where she actually came across in the transcript as someone who is either ignorant or no doing her job. neither one of those things ar true but that's the false late sh was painted in >> is miss grossberg going t testify in the fox dominio trial? >> miss grossberg is ready t tell the truth in an appropriate form she has already, you know, taken on the david versu goliath battle of challengin fox news for its attempt to, first of all, treat her as
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something less than a full human being, simply becaus she's a woman. to subject or to a grossly toxic work environment to not offered her equal opportunity and the promotio she deserves two executive producer and then to actually try t scapegoat her and try to hid information that exculpated he from having anything to do wit this big lie that wa perpetrated. in fact, one of the tapes yo played, the question, the voic on that tape, is mis grossberg's. she's the one that asks th question about the votin machines, because she actually organized that interview, in order to get to the bottom o what the truth was she was worried that perhaps miss bartiromo was going too far, or not fully informed i what she was producing >> so, that if a story never came out with a fox news
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attorneys tried to get ms. grossberg to say, during her deposition, nothing ever fel between the cracks at fox news in fact, miss bartiromo's show we argue, because miss bartiromo and miss grossberg were both women, and they were subjected to a chauvinisti attitude, they wer characterized as being in bubble, able to go wild, mis porter romo was called all sorts of unflattering names by a number of the male executive at fox news. but that show, which was at th time, the number one rated sho on weekends, miss bartiromo' we can show, not only on fox news, but all of fox, ha exactly one staff member miss grossberg and although miss grossber repeatedly asked for additiona support, so that she could fully vet all the counte allegations and the warnings that were coming in from dominion, she never received
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that in fact, she was encouraged to continue to let miss bartiromo say whatever she wants because, at the beginning, before they really got worried once legal liability was a their doorstep it was a ratings enhancer. they were concerned abou losing audience from the fac that they called arizona i guess in the 202 presidential election. and they needed ways t actually come back and try t bump the ratings this was a way to do it. so we allege >> abby grossberg is now a central voice in all of this jerry filippatos thank you s much, sir, for your time, an thoughts this evening. >> thank, you. alex thanks rev me on. >> there is another piece of tape recorded by abbey grossberg, that doesn' necessarily have to do with th fox dominion lawsuit it has everything to do with
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trump's efforts to overturn th 2020 election. during grossberg's conversatio with the trump campaig officials, in early december o 2020, those trump official raised the date of january 6th now, this was two weeks before former president trump issue his infamous tweet, implorin his supporters to come to th big protest in d.c. on january 6th, saying, it will be wild or will be wild. >> the trump team wanted t make very sure, fox news had that date mark on thei calendars. they wanted fox news, in the fox news audience to be very clear, the real backstop for the election would be januar 6th. mark it on your calendars. there's a portion of that tape >> we have seen so muc reporting, whether it be december 8th or december 14th, we've seen virtually zero pick up of the january 6th date realizing that a lot of folks, you know, we'll probably hav normal lives have gone through and the case of the hawaii i 1960, and how that went all th
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way to the january 6th and such that's the whole reason wanted to chat with you just understand where the rea backstops are here >> and the january 6th date, i'm pulling up our timeline, w do have it that's house incent senate count electoral, votes correct >> right and it both sets of electors o set up that would be the momen when the vice president, who i the president the senate, woul have to decide which slate o electors to go with. >> we will have more on this explosive tape, and th upcoming fox dominion showdown when we come back. later, senator raphael warnock joins us to talk about wha happened in tennessee, and wha senate democrats want th department of justice to d about it (psst psst) ahhhh... with flonase, allergies don't have to be scary. spray flonase sensimist daily for non-drowsy, long lasting relief in a scent-free, gentle mist. (psst psst) flonase. all good. with downy infusions, (psst psst) let the scent set the mood.
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recordings we just played yo before the break, along with a newly admitted complaint in separate civil case filed by former fox producer, abb grossberg, things just got a whole lot more complicated for fox news, ahead of its big defamation trial lawyers for the plaintiff in that case, dominion voting systems, just play grossberg's recordings, and others for the judge overseeing the cas today. because those tapes will revealed only today, and because fox did not includ them during the earlie discovery process, the judge has now sanctioned fox news an its parent company, and that judges now considering further investigation of foxes discovery process.
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all of that scolding may resul in another round of discover for fox. that is how the dominion cas is going, just days before the trial is scheduled to start. also, separately, a fo shareholder just sued rupert murdoch and four other board members yesterday for failin to stop fox news from reportin false information about th 2020 election. joining us now, katie phang, attorney and host of the o msnbc, and jim ruttenberg, loo writer at large for the ne york times great to have you both here to talk about this. jim, since you're right here, would love to just ask about your immediate reaction to the tapes that were revealed i court today, and how damagin this is for fox, days before this trial is set to begin >> well, first of all, there are two audiences that matte the most one is the judge very unhappy very unhappy not the way where you want t be days before trial starts. the second will be, the 12 jurors we'll see how this plays out a lot of this, right now, we'r
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talking about this o television it's very bad for fox repeat i a reputation away. they say that they are explanations for these things, we'll see what happens but this is a horrendous way t come into a trial, there's n question >> katie, in terms of the judg sanctioning fox, first of, all of what does that practicall mean do you think it's possible tha there will be another round of discovery? which has already been s incredibly painful for fox in terms of revealing thes communications between fox staffers >> i mean, when you're a attorney or a party in litigation alex, you never wan to be sanctioned by the court, especially on the eve of trial to jim's point, there's potential jury pool that's out there, that does not onl listen to fox news, that doe not only watch a certain new channel. and because of, that there i the potential for a future juror that's going to sit in this jury trial, hearing tha fox is now been sanctioned because it's been hiding evidence hiding evidence evidence o consciousness of guilt when yo do something like that
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the problem is going to be the following, dominion is literally on the courthous steps, about to start th biggest jury trial of it career, i guess, or it longevity, as a company, excus me so, because of that. do you take advantage of any quote, additional discover that the judge has allowed you to do? discovery is liberally construed, there's a reason wh some of the discovery requests that were served in this cas were any and all documents coal response, emails, e cetera, that dealt or relate to actual malice or related to rudy giuliani or city powell all these things could've been produced the fact that it took abby grossberg, as a former employe of fox, to come forward an bring us to the court attention, just further underscores the courts anger, it's eye or, it' offense, it's so offended by this act that's been committed by fox, that fox really wa already starting behind th eight ball with the ruling fro the judge, on the summar judgment motion's, that even
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now, it's even worse position. the credibility of its own lawyers are now suspect as well >> it in the pocket if it' passed the eight ball, katie, have to ask, the judges also mask mad at fox, it does tha fox, i'm paraphrasing here, no been truthful about the role that rupert murdoch plays in this organization. they have long cast, - they have not been fulsome i you will, about the fact tha he is both a chair and officer and officer of the fox new corporation, and chair of th fox corp the fact that he is involved directly with the news cor goings on, perhaps would hav changed the judges rulings about what was allowed in that in the discovery process is that right, not get too technical, but that seems like a fairly big deal. >> it is dominion has sued fo corporation as the paren company, and fox news, as th subsidiary of the parent company, fox corp. and what dominion has tried to do, make sure that it ha evidence going into the trial, that shows, that not only wa
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it fox news that was involved, but fox corp the reason why rupert murdoc is so critical to this entir presentation of the evidence for dominion, is if fox wa trying to insulate ruper murdoch, if fox was in its lawyers were trying to make it seem like, rupert murdoch di not have control in th day-to-day operations of wha was being put forth in front o the viewers, then there coul be the argument made, it doesn't make a difference that rupert said, that you need t have less sydney, address rout less rudy, less mike lindell actually, it will make a difference now, if there is an actual title enroll for rupert murdoch at fox news. the fact that rupert murdoch i going to be called by dominion and its own case in chief as early as this monday, consider the following, alex. you're gonna have jury selection happening assuming discovery doesn't stall it out then you're gonna have opening statements on monday and then you're gonna have dominion call rupert murdoch who is the head of fox news, and he is going to b confronted with all thos
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emails and communication wherein he says, the hosts wer endorsing the lies, and that w all know it's true, an criminally, trump wa responsible for january 6th. that is so powerful to hea that come out of the mouth o the guy who's the head of fox. >> you have ex reporte extensively on fox, and th culture of, there th involvement of rupert murdoch. first of all, speak, if yo could, about the watershed moment this represents in terms of murdaugh being directly implicated, having to take the trial, being deposed. all the rest and is there any chance that the culture inside fox changes nothing happened, it seems after the sexual harassmen lawsuits grossberg came forward with he own claims about sex discrimination what do you think this represents in terms of fox and its timeline >> well, rupert murdoch' entire empire was built on one concept. give the audience what i wants. he has become, had incredibl and success in this way.
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fox's audience, started wantin something that the news part o fox could not give it, here yo see fox go down, as we described, it in a story las weekend. down a rabbit hole the question is, do they pul back, now, there are some ke testimony in rupert murdoch' own deposition, that why did they not want to alienat trump. they did not want to alienat trump in their coverage of the election lies it's because their audience, they are fans of trump to alienate trump's to alienat their audience, is to affect ratings. the question is, will that change going forward that's a big question. even if they win at trial, the certainly don't want to go through anything like this again. >> do you get the sense that there's fear inside fox abou what this represents the fact that the king is being, you know, his time on th throne, as someone who's leading the organization, coul be in jeopardy >> i think that they are s busy preparing for trial, that is a little bit hard to read we see what we see in thes
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emails fear over audience, overrating rupert murdoch controls this company from the top i think he'll be, there his so is there, we'll see what happens after this trial they're certainly in control >> it's a family affair. katie phang, thank you both fo your time tonight in reporting we have more to come thi evening, including senator raphael warnock on democrats call from the justic department to investigat tennessee republicans throug their asulsat on democracy stay with us always working on a project. while loading up our suv, one extra push and... crack! so, we scheduled at safelite.com. we were able to track our technician and knew exactly when he'd arrive. we can keep working! ♪ synth music ♪ >> woman: safelite came to us. >> tech: hi, i'm kendrick. >> woman: replaced our windshield, and installed new wipers to protect our new glass. that's service on our time. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ nicorette knows quitting smoking is freaking hard. you get advice like...
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republicans voted to expel two black lawmakers from the tennessee house of representatives over their involvement in a protest against gun violence at th tennessee capital. with each day since then, it has become clearer what disastrous decision that was for the tennessee republican party. on monday, the national metr council defied tennessee republicans and sent expelle representative justin jone back to his seat, where he was greeted by throngs o supporters and today in memphis, the othe expelled lawmaker, justi pearson, has just been reappointed to his seat as well. >> item one, is a resolution electing justin j pierson as interim representative to th office a state house o representatives for the 86th district of tennessee. -- >> passes. >> [applause
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>> gloria johnson and justin jones and me on trial. >> yeah. >> but they ended up putting themselves on trial. >> yeah. >> [applause >> the peoples verdict is back >> yes >> guilty. guilty of white supremacy. guilty of patriarchy guilty of supporting the nra guilty of attacking the poor guilty of not expanding health care guilty of not giving u education. >> yeah. >> guilty, guilty, guilty! >> justin pearson is now heade back to nashville, where h will be sworn in months agai as a member of the tennessee state legislature. but the headache for tennessee republicans is not over. they're moved to expel those two lawmakers as onl
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emboldened efforts to addres gun violence in the state. tennessee's republican governor, billy, is now putting pressure on republicans in th legislature to pass a red flag law, something republicans had resisted up until this point and now a group of u.s. senate democrats is calling on th justice department t investigate whether tennesse republicans broke federal civi rights law by expelling thos two members in the first place in a letter to attorney genera merrick garland, those democratic senators right, our system of government set out a role for the federal governmen to protect democrati institutions and to preserve the ability of legislators t debate on issues of public importance silencing legislators on the basis of the reviews or thei participation is protected speech or protest. it is antithetical to american democracy and values we are deeply concerned that without immediate action by th u.s. department of justice, an you democratic actors will onl be emboldened and we will se more troubling and mor frequent incidents meant t unravel our democratic fabric.
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joining us now, georgi democratic senator raphael warnock, one of the lawmaker who said that letter asking th department of justice to investigate the tennesse legislature. senator warnock, it's pleasure and honor to have you on the program i'll just go right to it because i know there's a sligh delay. do you expect the attorney general to follow through on your letter? >> it's great to be here wit you, alex. listen, the federal government has a role to play i protecting the integrity of ou democracy. nothing could be more importan than that. i am heartened tha representative pierson and representative jones have been rightfully returned to their seat the city councils in nashville and in memphis good the righ thing, but this unabashe assault on the very foundation of democracy continues unabated i think this is a very dangerous precedent, and returning them as their loca
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leadership did this week doesn't solve the problem. we, i reached out to the justice department because i think that it is its duty to investigate whether th constitutional rights, first of, all of the citizens that the represented had been violated. citizens have a right to decid who's going to represent them. and unfortunately members of this state legislature, i think, evan playing games for so long engaged in partisan and racial gerrymandering so that right now the tennessee legislatur doesn't actually look the wa that people of tennessee voted and so they have been gettin away with this, playing this these games so long that the have convinced themselves that the peoples house doesn' belong to them, it doesn't belong to the people, it belongs to them. and so i think is a role for the federal government pla here, which is why we sent the letter we will continue to make the case >> the idea that the people' house doesn't belong to them the us versus them, th insiders versus the outsiders,
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people of color versus the white patriarchy in many ways. i've got to ask, you invoked the legacy of civil rights ico julian bond in your letter do you see this moment as signal moment in civil rights, is that moment was with julian bond >> i do. and i think this is a defining moment for our democracy ritual urge. we are seeing a kind of assaul on our democratic values b people who are behaving in desperate ways because the know they are losing the argument they're on the right wrong sid of the gun safety issue. let's not forget the context i which all this happened. i'm afraid that too often we get caught up in the political conversation, the back and forth in america sometimes, an we forget about what is at stake. we fail to center the people's concerns six people were killed in
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school three of them precious littl children and then three others who were trusted with the care of our children and out of that tragedy, you saw citizens stand up in the best of the american tradition trying to assemble peacefully, nonviolently, and rather tha responding to the violence i the classroom with common sens gun safety laws, we saw thes legislators respond in a mos draconian ways against those who were nonviolentl protesting and so i do think that there i precedent here, to answer your question julian bond was a youn legislator, elected to the georgia legislature at a different time, and there were those who didn't like what h was saying at the time and so they decided that the were going to somehow usurpe the peoples will, they refused to see him the supreme court found them t be in the wrong position, an so he was seated
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it is defining moment in our democracy, whether it mean standing up against partisan and racial gerrymandering, o the inordinate impact of dar money in our politics, or vote suppression, or the games that partisan actors play in my own runoff election this pas season i had to sue th secretary of state i had to sue state officials s that georgia, so that voters could vote on the weekend, the first weekend of the runoff. and actually i won but we've got to stand up, and i'm so proud of these youn legislators who are standing u in this defining moment in america. >> can we talk about those young legislators? i think a lot of people had no idea, for example, who justi pearson was until all of thi unfolded, and what the country has witnessed is what feel like the next generation o leaders in this country and as someone who is widel recognized as one of the great orators of american public lif
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and certainly in the u.s senate, i wonder what you ma have made of these impromptu speeches that you're hearing from some of these ouste lawmakers? >> i'm so very proud of all of these legislators, representative jones representative pierson representative johnson, who ha the courage to say that sh felt that her skin color and something to do with the fac that she was not unseated. they are standing up in defining moment. when you look at the history o activism in our country, there has never been change, really, without young people at th center i spoke with representativ jones earlier tonight, praye with him, and talked with hi about this moment in his lif and in the moment in our country, and i am inspired both by the air oratory both b more importantly the eloquence of their witness it's no small thing that to sa i'm gonna stand up and i'm not
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gonna be silenced by those who would try to exercise thei power in ways that are wholl inappropriate. these are young people, stil in their twenties, and you kno i remembered that there wa another young preacher named martin luther king jr. day stood up in montgomery he was 27 years old, the age o these young legislators, and the rest is history. sophistry so you never know th difference that your voice wil make but i'm glad he decided to stand up and buy some stroke o grace and human resilience the have captured the imaginatio of the whole country and i hop pushed us closer to finall getting some common sense gu safety laws passed in th congress and the kind of movement we need to safeguar our democracy. >> i do want to ask you on question on that, because it i the sort of central issue here which is, what is the movement will it happen can we change our genera posture towards weaponry and weaponized america in tennessee the republica
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governor is supporting a red flag law that seems like progress and around the corner, i florida, governor desantis i now succeeded in makin concealed carry weapon available for those withou permits. how do you see the landscape a it concerns gun safety in this country? are you pessimistic? are you optimistic from someone on the frontlines how do you understand ou position right now and where the energy is headed >> we can't let up i'm proud of the fact that las congress we passed the first bipartisan gun safety laws i 30 years and it was modest but significant. clearly it's not enough becaus we're still seeing children an other people being slaughtered in classrooms and grocer stores in houses of worship so we have to do more an here's why it's a democrac issue. because the people in america, ordinary citizens on the lef in the right, are closer i
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their views, their differences notwithstanding, they ar closer on their views than wha is reflected in the legislatio we've gotten past so far most americans believe that we ought to have universa background checks. most americans believe, as i do, that we ought to have a ban on assault weapons but we hav been able to get movement on this but i'm not about to give up and i'm going to keep talking to all of my colleague until we get the kind of legislation that is necessar to protect us. you talk about freedom what could be more important than the freedom to gather in classroom to drop your childre off at school and reasonably feel that at the end of the da you will be able to pick the up, alive in intact? >> as someone who does tha every day, dropping my childre off at school, i could not agree with you more. georgia senator raphael warnock, a real honor to have you on th program. thank you for your time. >> thank you >> we have still more to com
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international outcry one of the strongest voice condemning mbs's crown princ is known what is the senator from south carolina. lindsey graham >> nothing happens in saud arabia with am bs knowing it >> i think he's complicit in the murder of mr. khashoggi, t the highest level possible >> this hangs over the relationship like a very heavy cloud. and these are not going back t saudi arabia as long as this guy is in charge >> you have to be will feebl will food line not come to the conclusion this wa orchestrated and organized b people under the command o mbs. >> this guy is a wrecking ball the mbs figure is toxic. this guy's got to go i've never been more disturbed than right now i can ever do business wit saudi arabia again until we ge this behind us >> saudi arabia, if you're listening, there are lot o good people you can choose, bu mbs has tainted your country and tainted himself. >> he's a wrecking ball. he's our murderer.
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this guy's got to go that was then. and this is now. senator lindsey graham, al smiles in saudi arabia, sittin next to the crown prince himself. graham once said the murder of jamal chilcoot khashoggi was a game-changer for him the red line that kill tha relationship now lindsey graham is saying o twitter that the new game-changer is a 37 billion dollar deal with the saudis to buy boeing seven 87's which ar made in south carolina so 37 billion, that is the game-changer that is what it took t convince senator graham to sid with the saudis again. that is what it took to let mb get away with murder that is our show for thi evening. we will see you again tomorrow now it's time for the last word, with lawrence o'donnell. good evening, lawrence >> good evening, alex. i was just listening to senato warnock on your show talking about the 27 year olds i tennessee and th
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