tv Andrea Mitchell Reports MSNBC May 26, 2023 9:00am-10:00am PDT
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>> almost has the same hair as us. >> it's one of my favorite movies i've seen. >> people aren't perfect. they are different. i think this one is mostly, she's different. >> it represents me and my culture. it's for all the little girls out there that are finally like, i see somebody that looks like me. >> reporter: back to you, jose. >> thank you so very much. that wraps up the hour for me. i'm jose diaz-balart. see you tomorrow night on "nbc nightly news" saturday. thank you for the privilege of your time. andrea mitchell picks up with more news right now. right now on "andrea mitchell reports," the debt ceiling deadline. negotiators push for a deal. if it doesn't come today, they won't have enough time to push it through both houses, even on a fast track, without blowing through that june 1st date.
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>> it's coming down to one thing. this has been about spending. the democrats have never wanted to stop the amount of spending that they do. they want to keep adding and adding and adding. i do not think it's right that you borrow money from china to pay people to stay home that are able-bodied with no dependents on the couch. this hour, a new "washington post" reporting ties donald trump to the movement of classified documents the day before a scheduled visit to mar-a-lago by the fbi. is the special counsel's investigation closing in? a former star football coach, alabama senator tommy tuberville blocking 300 military appointments. good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in
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washington. nonstop talks reported are moving negotiators closer to a deal, but they are not there yet. time is not on their side. joining me now, kelly o'donnell and garrett haake, who have been going back and forth on all the details. garrett, to you. the speaker just spoke. congressman mchenry and graves have been giving reporters updates throughout the week. what's the latest today? >> reporter: interestingly enough, the republican side has been pushing back against reports that we are getting about specific elements of a deal coming together, perhaps their own internal politics not willing to reveal specifics of what the conference will be asked to vote on sooner or later. here is what the speaker told us coming in this morning after what he said was a bike ride discussion with garrett graves, the top negotiator. >> i'm not concerned about anybody making any comments right now about what they think is in or not in.
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whenever we come to an agreement, we will make sure we will first brief our entire conference. when you go and ask questions, at least let them know what's in it. >> reporter: i've been talking to republican lawmakers this morning. they are out of town. they have not received any such briefing about the specifics of what is in this bill. the three of us have covered this before. typically, this kind of silence, when you start to hear less and less from the key negotiators, can mean that things are getting done and that what's left to be done is especially delicate. that seems like where we are right now. it's where we need to be to have any chance of getting anything passed ahead of a june 1st deadline. >> kelly, the president and his debt ceiling team have done less negotiating in public. take us through the white house strategy. your colleague, monica alba is reporting that the speaker and the president will announce this together. but are they going to brief their caucuses first? they know they have the votes?
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how does that work? >> reporter: there is a sense here from talking to the democratic side of this that there is a movement. i would agree with what garrett said. when there are less specifics coming out, that may be a good sign. when details get exposed to oxygen and light of day, that's when detractors on either side can come in and begin picking at it. that could derail things. trying to hang on to whatever is developing for as long as possible actually can be a tactic that can help to get it across the finish line. at this point, they are saying the president is going to remain fully engaged. one of the notable things is he will leave the white house to go to camp david. we do not anticipate the speaker going to camp david. the president can work the phones and do video conference and be involved as needed. the sense i get from talking to democratic sources is they are not necessarily expecting the big breakthrough today.
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these details that are getting sorted out they say could be developed over the weekend. that creates some timing issues. broad outlines, they say, for what they -- the democratic side says is a two-year plan. holding a new debt ceiling level for two years, that gets us through the next election, takes this crisis off the plans during an election year. but we don't have a sense yet that republicans are agreeing on that. we are hearing bits and pieces from both sides. certainly, you have seen the president trying to give some credibility to the house speaker, talking about him working in good faith, having limited meetings, while the house speaker can sort of chat with reporters as he is moving about the capitol more freely, the white house has taken a position the bully pulpit should be used more sparingly. some democrats would like the white house to lean more into their public messaging on what's going on. that's not the position the president has taken.
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he has spoken at intervals. we will have a couple of opportunities today when he is doing completely unrelated things, related to college sports champions coming to the white house. maybe he will say something there. certainly, when he departs for camp david, which is at the end of the day. a lot of ground between now and then, perhaps the president will have something to say. his schedule certainly has flexibility for a development, should that come. but this is where we are really reading the tea leaves. >> kelly o'donnell, no better tea leave readers than you guys, kelly o'donnell, garrett haake, thanks. the politics of it all. even if the president and speaker do reach a debt ceiling agreement, there are potential legislative land mines ahead to prevent a default. that's next coming up when "andrea mitchell reports" is back in 60 seconds. stay with us. you are watching msnbc. you are watching msnbc y system, you had to give your right arm to find great talent.
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if a debt ceiling deal is reached, the big challenge for the president and speaker is to find enough votes to pass it. mccarthy's problem is the hard line freedom caucus. the president's is the progressives, angry about any cuts in social programs. joining me now is steve ratner, a former treasury department official in the obama administration. let's talk about this. without charts. put you to the real test. you are so great with the charts. >> that's harder. >> let's talk about the real concerns. first of all, they say that they have done a smart thing where they have top line numbers. they are not going to do the details so they can say, that's going to happen in the appropriations procession. the president can say, we said we will do that. it's closer to what he called for as a clean deal. both sides can claim victory.
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they haven't agreed on all the numbers. they haven't agreed on the time frame of the debt ceiling being raised, one year, two years, longer, or is that $80 billion for the irs going to be a $10 billion haircut or $20 billion? how can they be this close without ironing those kind of details? >> we don't know, as your correspondents pointed out, we don't know where they are. there are issues beyond what you said. there's the question whether there are work requirements around welfare and public assistance programs, things like that. we don't know. the reports seem to suggest they are close on the spending point, which is that spending will be frozen. is it frozen at last year's levels or this year's levels? there's an enormous amount of work to do. there's kevin mccarthy's promise
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that he would give his members 72 hours to read any piece of legislation before it's voted on. it is certainly the ultimate in deadline pressure. i'm cautiously optimistic something good will come of that. i think on balance, this looks like a better package than i would have predicted a few weeks ago. republicans, as you know, passed a house bill that was very draconian, spending cuts, all kinds of stuff. if the democrats can pull it off where there's a spending freeze for just two years instead of bigger spends cuts for ten years, and then various other pieces, of course, that is not the worst thing that could happen here. >> a spending freeze is a cut because of inflation. if you are spending money at 2022 levels, you are getting less money for each department already. >> sure. you have been talking to allen
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greenspan for a long time. but the republicans were looking for massive spending cuts, as much as 40% or 45% concentrated on the discretionary non-defense part of the budget. again, it's not perfect. but i think it's better than i might have predicted a few weeks ago, if we get to this, of course. >> let me ask you about the possibility of the bond agencies doing a downgrade. fitch, which is less important, let's say, than moody's or s&p, but they are a player, and they may have been trying to get ahead of the others by doing the warning, would you expect that if this thing gets messy over the weekend, and they will blow past the deadline, no matter what they do if they don't do it today, according to our guidance, because there are too many days, the 72 hours plus, the possibility of a senate holdup, mike lee said he will not let it go, so is it possible that they would, in anticipation of them blowing past june 1st,
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do another downgrade and then the markets would be really obviously affected by that? >> first of all, of course s&p downgraded us in 2011 to double a minus. that leaves moody's and fitch. the problem is if we get a second downgrade, the country i'm talking about, then there are many funds, many money market funds and things like that that can't buy our debt, and that has adverse consequences. i think fitch did the right thing in telling everybody, this is what's out there, this is what could happen, this is what will happen if you guys really are dumb enough to let this country default. but i would like to think -- i don't know. i would like to think that the people at fitch and moody's said less about this would at least wait until there's an actual default before they did something like this, because the consequences are so severe. i would like to think this would happen after the fact, rather than before the fact.
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of course, if we get a deal, hopefully we get out of this alive in terms of our bond ratings and we continue to issue debt. >> let's talk about the politics now. stand by. we are bringing in michael steele, the former republican national committee, former lieutenant governor of maryland. michael what about the possibility, the likelihood of the speaker, who went through those 15 rounds before winning, holding or getting the freedom caucus and others on his right to go along with a compromise, which will not be the deal that they passed? >> that's going to be the sticky part here, is putting all these pieces together. you have a lot of folks in the freedom caucus that are screaming, burn it down, let it default. janet yellen is making up the deadline. that kind of rhetoric coming from inside the caucus makes any
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effort publically or otherwise to get to a point where you get this resolved much more difficult. as much as republicans are beating their breasts and saying, yeah, we have the upper hand, actually, you don't. at the end of the day, you still need to come to some resolution with the white house. that's going to be a pox on your house as much as the president's house. the reality for both sides is, do you want to see federal employees, do you want to see social security recipients and other individuals wind up looking at you cockeyd on the first of the month? there's pressure to come to some type of resolution. they have to give a little bit. sounds like the white house is prepared to give on spending. the problem kevin has is that his caucus is beating him into a corner. >> quickly, steve, what do you
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expect when janet yellen gives the update that she says is coming today, i guess after the markets close? >> i don't think anyone really knows what's to expect. the treasury is down to $50 billion. that's not a lot. they operate with more like $500 billion with cash in the general operating fund. they are very close to the end, whether it's june 1st or june 8th or whatever, we don't know. that's playing with fire if we're going to sit around and wait to see what day we actually run out of money. it's coming in the next couple of weeks. that much is clear. >> steve, thanks so much. michael, great to see you. happy weekend, everybody. we hope. on the move. new reporting that former president trump may have been personally involved in moving those classified documents as mar-a-lago the day before a scheduled fbi visit. details next. a terrifying scene on a plane carrying nearly 200 people.
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apparently, a passenger opened a door as the plane was just minutes from landing in south korea. no one was seriously. no one blown out. the passenger opened the door was detained. it was a frightening experience for all. this is "andrea mitchell reports." more coming on msnbc. we'll be right back. it real and talk about some risks. with type 2 diabetes you have up to 4 times greater risk of stroke, heart attack, or death. even at your a1c goal, you're still at risk ...which if ignored could bring you here... ...may put you in one of those... ...or even worse. too much? that's the point. get real about your risks and do something about it. talk to your health care provider about ways to lower your risk of stroke, heart attack, or death. learn more at getrealaboutdiabetes.com tv: try tide power pods with 85% more tide in every pod. who needs that much more tide? (crashing sounds) everyone's gonna need more tide. it's a mess out there. that's why there's 85% more tide in every power pod.
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president trump's alleged mishandling of classified documents. "the washington post" reporting sources say two mar-a-lago employees moved boxes of papers a day before the fbi was scheduled to arrive to retrieve the documents for the national archives, this is before the search. the post reports trump and his aides did a, quote, dress rehearsal for moving sensitive papers before receiving a subpoena for them, according to people familiar with the matter. they call this the latest in a handful of examples of possible obstruction. the special counsel is investigating just that. nbc has not confirmed this reporting. joining us now is ken dilanian and former u.s. attorney paul charlton. ken, take us through it. we don't want to infer too much. but there seem to be indications, at least according to this, that jack smith is getting closer to a decision stage and looking at
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obstruction. that's pretty clear. there could be a number of motivations for moving boxes. the inference in this reporting is, according to those familiar, that it was to move them away from where they could be observed easily by the fbi coming to bring them back to the national archives. >> you put your finger on what this report does say and what it doesn't say. what it suggests, it raises questions about a series of actions that look like hiding the ball. it looked like people were trying to keep classified documents away from investigators. at this point, there wasn't a subpoena, but the archives were asking for the records. the day after the boxes were allegedly moved, a justice department lawyer came with a subpoena and was actually -- he went to this storage room but was not allowed to open the boxes. the thing that this story -- none of the reporting does is connect donald trump to those actions. did donald trump order that those boxes be moved? if so, for what purpose? the story says that trump had classified documents in his
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office for others to see. that's a very important finding, if true. it opens him up to charges under the espionage act of disseminating classified information. >> when you say not connected to the movement, this dress rehearsal would indicate he was supervising in some fashion. >> the reporting was unclear, did donald trump order it? what was the context? it does -- trump said he thought these were his documents. the government wasn't entitled to them. his defense undoubtedly will be, i didn't realize it was highly classified. the government would have to prove he did know that. >> he said on the cnn town hall meeting two weeks ago that he has the right to do that. again, repeated that. paul, it's hard to be clear as to what is happening. we don't want to jump to any conclusions here about the president's personal involvement.
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"the post" reported a trump worker told the fbi of moving the boxes on trump's orders, that trump personally examined some of the boxes, trump tried to delay the fbi's review of the records. how much can or should we read into the fact that jack smith has interviewed all the workers, including a worker who happened to be standing by and helped them lift things, to help move the documents, not knowing perhaps what they were? >> here is what we know and here is what we may not yet know. we know that prosecutors will often focus upon a suspect who appears to be hiding evidence or obstructing an investigation. one of the most difficult elements in any crime, whatever crime you are trying to prove, how do you look into the mind of the suspect and know what it is the suspect was thinking? if the suspect is hiding evidence, if they are obstructing the investigation, jurors -- i know this from personal experience. jurors eat that kind of evidence up. they know and understand that's
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evidence of a guilty mind. that's what we know. we know the prosecutors here and in any case will be focused on that aspect of their investigation. what we can't yet know, as you and ken have pointed out, is exactly what the meaning behind the movement of the boxes is. the other tell here, the other important tell, the other indication that the government is so very much focused on this aspect, the possible obstruction of justice, is the previous information we have about trump's now former lawyer testifying before the grand jury about discussions he had with his client. a nightmare day for any criminal defense attorney. an important aspect. it's another indication the prosecutors here are looking to determine exactly what it is former president trump knew in the course of this investigation and attempt to recover the classified documents. >> paul, on evan corcoran, unusual that the attorney/client
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privilege would be pierced. the standard that the judge had for that was that it was to cover up an underlying crime. that indicates what to you as to how far along jack smith is? >> that tells me that once you have achieved a point in your investigation when you are going to, as you say, pierce that privilege, that most important aspect of a relationship between a lawyer and a client, that prosecutors are very seriously considering charges. the other tell here, if you will, the other indication that we are moving very close to a point in time when we are going to learn of mr. smith's conclusions, are trump's lawyers writing to the attorney general and saying, we would like a meeting with you at your earliest convenience. that kind of dialogue, that kind of request for a discussion doesn't take place unless the defense lawyers know or have
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very good reason to believe that they are about to receive bad news. they want to get in front of the attorney general to try to stop what may inevitably be coming now. >> very, very quickly, we were going off the air just as the sentence came down for stewart rhodes, the oath keeper leader who was directing january 6. 18 years is very heavy. that admonishment from the judge, what did they tell you? >> resounding. who would have thought a few days after the capitol was attacked that some of the key people would be getting such long prison sentences? it speaks to the breadth and depth of the justice department investigation. they have not stopped and they will not stop. there are other people they are prosecuting. there's another sentencing at the end of august. >> ken, paul, a great holiday weekend to you. thanks very much. russia strikes a deal to move battlefield nuclear weapons
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ukraine. this is the first deployment of such nuclear weapons outside russia since the fall of the soviet union, that we know of, in 1991. this move seen as a warning to the west from putin as moscow prepares for a counteroffensive expected from ukraine. joining us is matt miller, his first interview in his new role. congratulations. >> great to be here. i can't think of a better place for a first interview. >> thank you. it's really a privilege to see you in this role. what is your reaction to this new announcement from russia and belarus about tactical nukes? is this symbolic, showboating, posturing, more serious? >> i think what i would say, it's another provocative and irresponsible action both by russia and by the lukashenko regime. for our part, we see no reason to change our nuclear posture
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nor any sign russia intends to use nuclear weapons. we will continue to strengthen and reinforce our alliances with our nato allies, even in the face of continued, as i said, irresponsible and provocative actions both by russia and in this instance by belarus. >> the kremlin is reporting today that in a phone call with brazil's president, putin confirmed that russia is, quote, open to a dialogue over ukraine. he said this before. is there anything more serious about this coming in the aftermath of china's intervention and pressure on him to get serious about negotiations? and in anticipation of the counteroffensive from ukraine. >> i think the most important thing to emphasize here is what you said. he said this before. he said this on a number of occasions. his actions have never backed up his words. if putin wanted to get serious about negotiations, he could do so at any moment. the ukrainians would welcome real negotiations. those would have to be recognizing that the importance
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of ukraine's territorial integrity and ukraine's sovereignty. vladimir putin really since the outset of this war has made claim after claim after claim, and in every instance it has been another attempt just to justify his aggression. if the president of russian wanted this to end, he could end it today by withdrawing his troops. we have seen zero indication that's what he intends to do. >> staying in russia, the moscow court this week ordered evan gershkovich to be jailed through august, extending by three months this detention. is there anything, any hope, anything new on consular visits? there have been two requests for the ambassador or others to come. both have be denied. >> in fact, there have been three requests in the last few hours. the russians denied our latest request, the third we made for consular access to evan gershkovich since april. we had officials in court to see
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him at his hearing. we have had one consular visit with him. our ambassador was able to visit him in april. since then, they have denied visits. they are required that they agreed to provide us with access. they refused to do so. i would say that their actions with respect to consular access are keeping with their lawless actions. the charges are trumped up. he is not a spy. he is a journalist. we will continue to press for his release as we will press for the release of another wrongfully detained american, paul whelan. i would just say quickly and more broadly, there is no higher priority for this administration than the return of wrongfully detained americans. it's something the secretary blinken works on, spends a lot of his time working on. it's a priority for the president since the beginning of the administration. we have secured the release of more than two dozen wrongfully detained americans. we will make it a high priority
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in russia for evan and paul. >> on the other adversary, the superpower, is china. the state department, you yesterdaywarning to watch out for a new type of chinese state-sponsored malware that's trying to insert into computer systems, infrastructure, critical infrastructure and warning private sectors to ramp up defenses. how concerned are you about this? are you concerned that this could disrupt any attempt to thaw the relationship, for first time a cabinet level meeting right now with the chinese commerce minister in town, having dinner last night with the commerce secretary? >> i will say, we are always concerned with any illicit attempt to access u.s. critical infrastructure. in this instance, we have seen
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such attempts by the chinese government. what we have done is what we have tried to do since the beginning of the administration is work with our partners in the private sector to harden defenses, to share information. it's been a top piority to share information with the private sector and for the private sector to provide us information. as for the broader relation, one of the things is that in our view, this just heightens the importance of us being able to engage openly and honestly with the chinese government. obviously, we have a number of concerns about chinese actions. this is one of them. there are others. we want to be able to raise those concerns openly and forthrightly with the chinese government. we think it's important that we manage the relationship. china is an incredibly important country. it's important economically. it's important militarily. it's important diplomatically. it's important that we be able to manage that relationship
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responsibly. i know secretary blinken looks forward to being able to reschedule the trip to china that was postponed in february. looks to be able to do so as soon as conditions allow. >> the new ambassador from china made his first visit, a courtesy call to the undersecretary last night. is there any hint that secretary blinken's trip to china might be re-scheduled soon? >> i don't have any announcements to make here on your show today. that visit was important. we did welcome the chinese ambassador, the new ambassador to the united states here yesterday. as i said, it's important that we have these type of diplomatic talks and have them at all levels so we can manage the relationship. the secretary is looking forward to being able to reschedule that trip as soon as conditions allow. >> matt miller, thanks so much. >> thank you. beg your pardon.
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defended the limits on what can be taught inhos, this after not out pardons for january 6 rioters yesterday. >> joining me now is former republican ohio governor and presidential condition john kasich and victoria desoto. he is dangling pardons like mr. trump. >> this is the first i heard this. i'm flabbergasted. the situation is the republican party now -- the majority of them -- i wouldn't say it's 70%, but it's maybe 55%, 60%, they have -- they are afraid of things. they are afraid of immigration. they are -- who is going to come
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into the country? they are afraid of technology. they are afraid of all these changing cultural issues. so you have these candidates who are playing to that fear, which i think is -- you may be able to do well in a primary, but you are not geral election. these are pocketbook issues people care about. they care about safety, rising health care costs, beginning to care about the debt. to say i'm thinking about i'm going to pardon some of these january 6 people, i don't know what he is doing. i guess -- i'm surprised at this. to me, what he should be talking about is what he did after the hurricane, what he did to attract many people to come to florida, because of the business climate, what he did in helping the everglades with the environment. this, to me, is the wrong path. may make gains in the primary. never going to win a general election with these issues. >> victoria, nbc news is
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reporting that there's been a gusher of cash being spent by all the republicans with presidential ambitions so far. candidates and super pacs have spent $30 million on ads. that's earlier in the season than ever before. >> you need the money in order to start reaching people, the air war, the ground game. at the end of the day, every additional person that enters the race just makes former president trump stronger. earlier this week, we saw senator tim scott get into the race. now we saw ron desantis getting into the race. no matter how much money you are spending, there's still the presence of a donald trump. also, as we know from seeing elections in the past, money by itself can't buy you love. there is also the character of the candidate in addition to the issues. right now, donald trump has a lot of love within his base.
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>> governor, nbc news broke a story exclusively that employees from desantis' governor's office have been soliciting campaign money from lobbyists who do business with the state. that raises some ethical questions, if not some legal questions. >> you have to be careful when it comes to the fund-raising, as you know. in regard to the party and where they are right now, tim scott has come out of a -- out of the blocks pretty well. people like his personality. he seems to operate on the sunny side. we will have to see what his issues are and what he says he would do if he were elected president. i still believe it's possible to be able to convert some of these people over to the sunny side rather than being on the dark side. i think all these people are beginning to get in because they are beginning to sense that maybe donald trump is not as strong as -- not off to a great
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start. it's very interesting. one final thing, the creation of the super pacs has not been good. congress put this into law. now the political parties themselves have no ability to raise the money. it's all in the super pacs. they are contributed to by people who -- they remain anonymous. congress will have to look at changing these laws, in my opinion. >> a lot of this opened up with the supreme court in their ruling on campaign finance. victoria, a judge has blocked a circuit court judge in south carolina has blocked south carolina's six week abortion ban for now. i think this is the second time this happened. it's going to head back to the state supreme court for the second time and force republican candidates to confront an issue they have been struggling with. >> we know that this is not a winning issue for republicans when we are sliding into the six week ban. we have seen it -- we saw it in
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the midterm and in special elections. what i find so interesting is the republican candidates -- the republican field so far just supports it. some of them have doubled down on it, for example with nikki haley. i'm curious to see if there is a pro choice or pro life light lane. i'm thinking of governor sununu in particular in figuring out, is there a lane there? is there a lane for a moderate republican to say, hey, fiscally, let's be conservative but morally and socially, let's allow for this? >> john and victoria, have an enjoyable memorial day weekend. thank you. a stall tactic on this memorial day weekend. why why one senator's objection to pentagon abortion policy is holding up hundreds of military appointments. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports." that's next. this is msnbc.
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president biden's historic nomination of air force general charles q. brown jr. as the next chairman of the joint chiefs of staff is being held up by a single senator, alabama republican senator tommy tuberville, former auburn coach is using a procedural tactic that has been stalling approval of hundreds of military appointments for everyone with a one star ranking and above.
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tuberville's unprecedented action is in protest against defense secretary austin saying that the military will pay for women service members and their dependents to travel for reproductive health care including abortions. lieutenant general steph twitty, former deputy commander european commander joins us now. so general brown's appointment would mark the first time in history that the pentagon's two top leaders are black men. minority leader mcconnell said he does not support tuberville's move. what does the military committee think of this? >> first of all, let me just say c.q. brown's recent soon to be appointment here, of course you know we haven't had a black american since colin powell back in '86 through '93 i believe, maybe '89 through '93. i will tell you c.q. brown is the right person for the job. a guy of tremendous character.
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he's an absolute outstanding pilot and war fighter and so he is the right man for the job at the right time. let me just talk about -- >> i'm saying that only underscores the ridiculousness, if i could say that and just take a position of all these military positions being held up, including this one, by one senator on a completely unrelated issue. >> yeah, i do not think the senator really understands the impact of his decision here. there is an impact on two fronts. first of all, from a military perspective, you're going to have at least 150 to 200 generals that are waiting in the wings to get confirmed, and the ripple of that is most of these generals will have to go to their military schools, and so currently they cannot go through military schooling for their next job assignment. so that's an impact their own
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readiness. in addition we have acting commanders out there now because we have generals that cannot be confirmed. we don't have the right people in the right position, and then from a family perspective, you know, we want to try and take care of our families as much as possible. and think about all the kids out there that these generals have that cannot transfer to their schools this summer because they're waiting. so they're going to have to start school, and then when they get confirmed, then move to a school so the uncertainty there. and then all of the spouses out there who probably have gotten jobs elsewhere because they knew they were moving, that will be on hold, and then all the retirement military officers for their next jobs out in the civilian community will be on hold. so this is really a bad situation for our military personnel. >> and the women make up about 17% of our military, in one
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study in october shows 40% of those women have severely restricted or no access to abortion care where they are stationed there in those states. how is the health care policy, which covers travel reimbursements, you know, being received now by the service members? >> yeah, it's been received well. as you just mentioned, some of these soldiers are stationed in hostile environments, different locations throughout the united states where they may not have health care readily available at that particular installation, they will have to move and go elsewhere or travel and go elsewhere to get their health care. and that's why that was -- the policy was put in place to help those that needed to travel elsewhere to get the health care that they needed. >> general twitty, as always, we really appreciate your being with us, and especially on this memorial day weekend, we thank you for your service and all who support the military.
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thank you. >> thank you. and that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." and on this memorial day weekend, enjoy your picnics, your ball games and your concerts, but remember arlington and all the cemeteries. remember our troops and their families, all our veterans, and all those who have sacrificed so much so we can enjoy our freedoms. remember to follow the show online, on facebook and on twitter @mitchellreports and connecticut senator chris murphy will be joining jen psaki for "inside with jen psaki" at noon on sunday. "chris jansing reports" starts right now. good day, i'm chris jansing live at msnbc headquarters in new york city. anger but no answers in mississippi where police have yet to explain or even officially identify the officer who shot an unarmed 11-year-old in the chest nearly a week ago. what the family is doing now to
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