understanding and about maybe not fitting into the way people think you should be. but how that is okay. and katy is a teacher down there in cobb county, georgia. now facing possible termination for the violation of reading that what under georgia state law. katie, thank you so much for telling us your story tonight. >> thank, you chris. >> that is all in on this wednesday night, alex wagner tonight starts right now, good evening, alex. >> that is all in on this wednesday night. alex wagner tonight starts right now. good evening, alex. >> chris, you know, there's always been so many appalling challenges in the road for teachers in esamerica, and then what is happening in these states like georgia and in florida to make them terrified for their livelihoods because they want to have an inclusive curricula is just i mean -- >> it's really -- folks should check out the book, but the idea

of this book is divisive or a threat is a little hard to stomach. >> and then the after effect of what happens to kids. >> yep. >> anyway, that's a great story. good on you to cover it. and thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. if you follow politics at all then you will remember that president trump's lawyer, rudy giuliani, held a news conference right after the 2020 election. it was held, if you remember, at four seasons total landscaping, a gardening business just off the interstate in philadelphia nestled inte between an adult bookstore and a crematorium. honestly i don't know we ever definitively settled on why the press conference was held there, but the whole reason rudy giuliani trotted himself out that morning in front of the gardening business is baselessly claim the election had been stolen. the real chef's kiss here is that fever dream of a press conference took place exactly as national news networks were

the election for joe biden. and honestly, as unbelievable as that series of events was, it was not even the most memorable news conference rudy giuliani held that month. just over a week later mr. giuliani held another one where he appeared to be for lack of a better term, melting. during that presser he claimed that trump had won pennsylvania by 300,000 votes and michigan by 50,000 votes. mind you there was no evidence of that, but he promised it was coming. giuliani made those claims alongside another trump lawyer who alleged that the election had been stolen by the venezuelans and the cubans and the chinese and that the voting machines had been hacked by hugo chavez, even though hugo chavez had died seven years prior. all you had to do here was connect the dots. so those bizarre spectacles were memorable, but they were just the -- what shall we say -- the

amuse boushe for what was to come. he spread an elaborate conspiracy theory that two poll workers had brought in two suitcases full of fraudulent biden ballots and scanned those fraudulent ballots through the tabulationou machines multiple times. giuliani showed surveillance video that he claimed showed the poll workers exchanging usb memory sticks saying it looked like they were passing vials of heroin or cocaine. in reality it showed them passing the other a ginger manipulate. the reality is those two women's lives were destroyed. they faced death threats, they were forced to quit their jobs, they went into hiding, and yet giuliani's conspiracy theories did not end. they rolled on like a freight train. the january 6th committee uncovered substantial evidence mr. giuliani had personally pressured officials in swing

states to draw up alternate slates of electors claiming trump the winner in states that biden had actually won. to this end giuliani called the pennsylvania house speaker on a nearly daily basis. it did not matter that lawmaker's attorneys told mr. giuliani tool please stop. giuliani kept calling. >> mr. speaker, this is rudy giuliani and janet ellis. we're calling you together because we'd like to discuss the election. hey, brian, it's rudy. we have something important to call to your attention. i understand you don't want to talk me to now. i just want to bring some facts to your attention and talk to you as a fellow republican. >> giuliani did the same thing in arizona again pushing for state officials to overturn the election results. and when giuliani was pressed for evidence of voting malfeasance, well he famously admitted, quote, we've got lots of theories, we just don't have

the evidence. aside from frustrating lawmakers giuliani helped file a raft of baseless lawsuits with other members of trump's dubiously named elite strike force. more than 60 cases were brought forth on the president's behalf and none of the allegations of fraud panned out. as things grew more desperate, giuliani took part in an hours long meeting in the oval office in which he and outside advisers batted around the idea of having the military seize voting machines. and although -- although he thought that was maybe a bridge too far, giuliani personally asked the department of homeland security about seizing those voting machines. when all of this went nowhere, giuliani became a key part of the president's war room at the willard hotel near the white house. in that room giuliani geared up with other trump loyalists for the last stand, an effort to block the certification of electoral votes on january 6th. and on january 6th itself, rudy

giuliani famously stood in front of thousands at the capitol and made these remarks before all hell broke loose. >> if we're right, a lot of them will go to jail. so let's have trial by combat. i'm willing to stake my reputation. the president is willing to stake his reputation on the fact we're going to find criminality there. >> it is by no means an overstatement to say m rudy giuliani was a central figure in trump's effort to stay in power, and that history is worth remembering because it makes this latest reporting today from "the new york times" all the more notable. according to "the times" giuliani was interviewed last week by federal prosecutors investigating mr. trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election. it voluntary interview which took place under what is known

as a proffer agreement was a significant development in the election interference investigation led by special counsel jack smith and the latest indication that mr. smith and his team are actively seeking witnesses who might cooperate in the case. the session with mr. jewel yawny focused on ways. a political advisor to mr. giuliani says the appearance was voluntary and conducted in a professional manner. it is worth noting exactly what a proffer agreement entails. as "the times" notes a proffer agreement is an understanding between prosecutors and people who are subjects of criminal investigations o that can prece a formal cooperation deal. the subjects agree to provide usefulgr information to the government sometimes to tell their side of the story to stave off potential charges, or to

avoid testifying under subpoena before a grand jury. in exchangebe prosecutors agree not to use those statements against themho in future crimin proceedings unless it is determined that they were lying. this is certainly reporting that makes you sit up and pay attention, and it also raises a whole lot of questions. joining us now is mary mccord, former acting assistant attorney general and now executive directord for constitutional advocacy and protection and a professor at the georgetown university law center. she's also, of course, a cohost of the great msnbc podcast "prosecuting donald trump." also with us tonight michael moore, former u.s. attorney for the middle district of georgia and current partner at the law firm moore hall in atlanta. my first question, mary, is who approached who here? giuliani or the special counsel? >> well, i didn't see that in the reporting and so i'm not sure, and it could go either

way. when we were getting close to an indictment or sometimes even early on in stages of an investigation we would reach out to people who had information we thought could be very helpful and offer them that opportunity to come in accordance with a proffer agreement, sometimes called a queen for a day agreement because that agreement says you come and tell us things and you're essentially queen for a day. we can't use anything you tell us against you if you were ultimately to be prosecuted, with onebe caveat that being yo can't lie. if you lie, all bets are off and we can use all of this against you. but oftentimes it would be insigated by the defense attorneys who were eitherby worried that potentially their client was about to get indicted or sometimes early on in an investigation just want to get out there in front of it and try to stave off everything including oeven as "the new yo times" reporting said, a grand

jury r subpoena. so it could go either way, and it sometimes -- it's thought by both sides to be beneficial. the defense wants to get that chance to saye look what usefu information i have in the hope that you will not end up in a plea agreement but will end up just completely, you know, not prosecuted at all in return for your information. and the government gets to kind of get a little sneak peek what you have to say to corroborate things they already know, learn new things and then decide if they want to enter into some sort of cooperation agreement with a particular individual. >> the specter of fani willis and her criminal investigation down in your state, in georgia has to figure into this as well, will it not? >> yeah, i'm glad to be with you. and i do think it plays in at some point. they're very different investigations. on the one hand you've got the special counsel investigating things on a national level and how this played from state to state and group to group. and down here in georgia you're

dealing with a districtin attorney, a locally elected district attorney who's simply looking at violations of state law and whether or not those were committed. now, t the problem for the form mayor of new york city is that he came down here and said some things that were not true to the state legislature. so i think there's a little bit of a woven story here to be told, but, again, different cohorts, different prosecutors, different allegations and i'm not so sure any type of proffer agreement the special counsel madesp unless his lawyer happen to work this out amongst all the jurisdictions is going to have any impact on the georgia investigation right now. >> e mary, what's your view on that in terms of the degree to which a special counsel is even thinking about fani willis and her investigation and the fact she's basically telegraphed that charges may come at the end of july or early august in terms of jack smith's own time frame for

all this? >> yeah, i agree with michael with respect to sort of how the proffer agreement might factor in. i meant rudy giuliani is sort facing different things in georgia and the jack smith federalan investigation. but i do think the timing to your question, for jack smith the timing is important. i mean he's got to be thinking about the time frame fani willis indicated, you know, a special grand jury or the grand jury coming back in august and her actually asking the court there, to state court not to hold court for a few weeks. and that certainly was a signal to a lot of us maybe there was going to be action during that. so jack smith has probably got that time line in mind, but he also has the time line of if i'm going to bring an indictment and if it's going to involve donald trump, will i be able to go to

trial before the election in november 2024? so i think he's got both of those things in mind, and he may certainly have a reason to want to beat fani willis to it. he's a federal prosecutor.al his case is bigger, it's more expansive, and, you know, might want to just get a jump before fani willis comes in with her case. but i think he's really going to be -- and he's got another big case he's prosecuting, too, and he's got to think about the time line for that as well. >> tmichael, in terms of -- giuliani knows a lot about what went on in terms of trump's efforts to undermine the 2020 election. of the reporting that we have we know that special counsel investigators are focused on a few areas. one, the slates of fake electors, two, the roles of other lawyers including john eastman and sydney powell, and three, the scene at the war room -- the war room scene at the will ard hotel on january 5th. if you're looking at those

things, what is of most interest to you in terms of what giuliani can give you? what is the most useful for a federal prosecutor in terms of his vantage point? >> you hiknow, i really think is likely the idea of the fake electors and that's because it happened across multiple states, andle that's something federal prosecutors look at. how broad is the net? how do i get outside one state's jurisdiction? have we crossed state lines with this crime or with this fraud? in that instance they have. we know the special counsel is interested in this because he's been talking to other witnesses. he's had people come in and folks in other states come in and talkth about how this got setup. so the idea that the architects of this scheme might somehow be of interest to him would be important. and whether or not giuliani is one of thoseet architects that' what he's looking to find out at this point. i think if i were looking at it, and i do think as a matter of fact the case is better

prosecuted in the federal courts because of this, because of the historic nature we're talking about with a former president, but also you have a federal court that sort of reaches outside the territorial jurisdictions of state lines and says, look, i've got to talk about everything that happened from here to, you know, to the west coast. so that's going to be important. you know, my guess at this point is probably he's interested in that, and that's where he was looking at giuliani about having some information on how that came about. it's not illegal to think about alternative legal plans. it's not illegal to think about strategies that may be out there. i'm not saying any of them really have merit to folks who believe that the earth is round and not square, but that -- that's where we are right now. so if he's thinking about, look, how do i move forward a possible criminal case, how do i get information what may be out there, the idea people were thinking at the time they should have lost an election or should haveor known that, is there

anybody else we should talk to, is there any other people that may have some information, that may not be legal. but the idea of having individuals come in and say i'm an elector now or maybe do something that appeared to be fraudulent or file false statements, giving false testimony, making false representations to the courts or other legislative bodies, that's a different thing. that appears where he's looking. >> yeah, to be clear the earth is round. it isar not square. some of us. mary, to michael's point setting aside the scheme or the backup plan of false electors giuliani can speak to trump's knowledge of whether or not he actually thought the election had been lost, whether he knew what he was doing and saying was fraudulent and to the degree he was personally involve in the recruitment and strategizing behind thesed knowingly false slates of electors going

forward. right, i mean that seems -- trump's involvement here, giuliani seems to be the key to basically blowing that open. >> yeah, that's absolutely right. all of those things. and i think in addition to looking into the fraudulent elector scheme, and i agree wite michael sort of initially if you're still litigating in certain states about who the winner is, it's worth, you know, having conversations or strategies about the trump electors. but remember by january 6th all of the litigation, you know, had been resolved against mr. trump. in those swing states decisions had been made by the court that joe biden was the winner. and nevertheless, there was still this effort to get those slates of electors to the vice president on january 6th. some j of the witnesses have recent bebeen talking to the grand jury and to jack smith including michael roman and his

deputy were on january 6th trying to get those false slates of electors to the vice president. and e so i think what jack smit isd trying to do here is be ab to tell the big picture story and do all the things you just indicated, alex, like what did mr. trump know, what did he believe, who had told him? and we know some of this from the house select committee all his top advisers had told him there wasad no fraud in the election significant enough to make any difference in any of the swing states. what did he know about the fraudulent elector scheme and the status of litigation in the swing states, and, you know, what was his involvement? certainly we know he was involved in pressuring some state officials such as secretary of state raffensperger. others in his orbit pressured other state officials. i think there's another aspect of this and that is the fund-raising he was doing based on his claims of fraud in the election,th fund-raising

supposedly to actually continue toac litigation the -- you know his claims of a fraudulent election, and that a real bread and butter kind of case for the government toof make if there's fraud in the solicitation of money. that's pretty simple wire fraud type of case, so i think that's another place that jack smith is looking. bite sized things. you know, he'll tell a big story if he brings an indictment, bu he doesn't need to boil the ocean and bring every possible charge he could. he needs to be able to have a coherent theory and take off all of the different elements of that for the jury and for the public. >> yeah, which is what he's doing in mar-a-lago, right? simple, willful retention of documents, straight forward, not bringing in the bedminster tape, just going with what they have. toh your point it remainatize be seen if he takes that narrow path forward on january 6th going for something like wire

fraud. we will see. thank you both for your time and expertise this evening. i appreciate it. we have a lot more to get to this evening as the state of texas suffers from a lethal heat wave. some recent moves by republicans are not doing anything to cool things down. plus, in russia another plot twist in the attempted mutiny by mercenary fighters. we'll have more on that coming up next. more on that coming up next.

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if you remember last weekend as yevgeny prigozhin, the chief of the russian mercenary group known as the wagner group was launching an open rebellion against the russian military, russian president vladimir putin was nowhere to be found. he wasn't talking to reporters, there was no official statement. he was effectively missing in action despite the most dramatic challenge to his leadership in

23 years. i when putin finally did surface some 48 hours later, he only did so to deliver a short message that raised more questions than answers. but now president putin can't stop talking. on monday night he met with his security council, a televised event showing putin sitting near his generals. yesterday the kremlin rolled out the red carpet literally for putin to deliver another speech thanking the military, then he met with a group of military servicemen, a meeting the kremlin also put on national television. and with these messages it appears putin is intent on spinning what really happened this weekend, which is that a column of thousands of mercenaries launched a rebellion with no one in sight to stop them. now, we have some clues as to why that may have been the case. "the new york times" sending information from u.s. intelligence officials is reporting that a key russian

general knew about prigozhin's insurrection all along, and "the wall street journal" reports today prigozhin's plan was to capture russian military leaders likely with the help from other russian officials. prigozhin originally intended to capture the defense minister and the chief of russia's general staff, but the federal security service found out about the plan two days before it was to be executed. prigozhin's plot relied on his belief that a part of russia's armed forces would join the rebellion and turn against their own commanders. western officials said they believed the original plot had a good chance of success but failed after the conspiracy was leaked, forcing prigozhin to impvise an alternative plan. the kremlin now claims it too knew about prigozhin's plans ahead of time, but if it did why did the kremlin not stop him and why did prigozhin wagner group able to take control of a large russian city without firing a single shot? well, i have just the right

person to ask. joining me now is the former russian minister of foreign affairs. thank you so much for being with me tonight. and i first would love to get your perspective on whether you think prigozhin did, in fact, have internal support and whether he would have gotten this far without it. >> well, i think that he had some contacts and definitely he has friends in the army because he was fighting in ukraine, and he was fighting in other places with their support. and putin now let out the whole arrangement clear for me and other observers before it was just a state enterprise. it's called a private company but nothing private when they get weapons from the russian

state. they were paid by the russian state, so they are just another department of the ministry of defense. that's why he knew a lot of people, and many in russia in the military have a varying dissolution of what happened in ukraine. they thought it would be blitzkrieg, but it turns out a long and bloody war, and many of them critical of the leadership, so he had all grounds to believe and maybe some conversations which encouraged him to be believed that he will be supported. and what is important understand that he did not plan to

overthrow putin, so the language that's misleading. it was just idea to change the leadership of the ministry of defense in revenge. and many people would be very sympathetic. i mean military people would be very sympathetic with that. but they are also covert like himself, and that's high it failed. but putin definitely panicked, and that's why he went out, say speaking of a civil war and all that nonsense. and now he's trying to calm down and meeting with the people and

meeting with his military and police and all that. so it shows he's not a strong man in a literal sense. he's just a strong man as a dictator, and he is a dictator. but he's, you know, covert. he's trying to hide everything now. but of course they knew a lot because that's the organized crime organization of the russian leadship, the russian government of putin's regime is just a mafia, and in mafia people know each other, and they conspire against each other and

they conspire and they fight all the time. in hidden places, so they are fighting inside for power. it was just a result of the fight for power and a fight -- >> and in the process putin may have lost two of his most effective fighting forces in ukraine. we'll see how it all pans out. thank you so much for your time. >> thank you. when we come back, as a brutal heat wave makes texas one of the hottest places on earth right now, certain republican politicians would rather let people die than pay for air-conditioning. stay with us.

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i come to you with a heavy heart this morning. in the last eight days in ourcounty we've lost nine presidents to this heat. >> that was the webb county, texas, medical examiner. since then two more people died from the heat wave. last monday more than 500 miles away on the other side of texas a 35-year-old power line mechanic died after stopping work because of heat exhaustion.

the next day another 200 miles away in dallas a u.s. postal service worker died on the job. these deaths are not outliers. they are the new normal. last year texas saw 279 people die from heat related causes, and that number is likely an undercount. so how is texas' leadership setting up the state to handle this new reality, earlier this month republican governor greg abbott signed a bill that eliminated city and outdoor workplace ordinances for outdoor workers like mandated water breaks and required rest. eliminated. now tens of millions of americans from arizona to florida are sweltering under this heat wave, but texas is currently one of the hottest places on earth with temperatures rivaling the sahara desert and parts of the persian gulf. yesterday the texas power grid, which is thing powering all the air conditioners in that state, yesterday demand on that power grid surged to its highest point

ever. and for the most part the power actually stayed on. you may remember that same power grid failed after demand surged in a winter storm about two years ago. at the time texas governor abbott blamed green energy for the grid's failure despite the fact the state ran mostly on fossil fuel power and it was the fossil fuel part that failed. you may be wondering how has the texas power grid stayed on this time around. the answer is green energy, specifically solar power. the amount of solar energy generated in texas has doubled since the start of last year, and experts credit that increase with keeping the power grid online. but when pushing a proposed tax incentive program for energy production in texas earlier this year, governor abbott's big red line was that no renewable energy projects be included in it. >> i supported not providing economic incentives for renewables as it concerns

especially energy and power and the power grid. our focus is on dispatchable power to make sure that we will have the needed dispatchable power to provide reliable electricity to everybody in the state. >> and then there is the texas prison system where more than two thirds of prisons do not have air-conditioning in living areas at all. today the texas tribune reports since this latest heat wave gripped texas at least nine inmates have died of heart attacks or unknown causes in prisons lacking air-conditioning. earlier this year the texas statehouse budgeted more than $500 million to install air-conditioners in all texas prisons over the next decade, but last month the republican controlled state senate rejected that proposal. now, that may sound like a lot of money until you realize that texas currently has a nearly $33 billion budget surplus. we are in this wild moment in which red states are at the forefront of some of the gravest impacts of climate change, and at the same time republican

leadership in those states is so adamant about not acknowledging climate change, not being cowed by the libs, they are literally letting their citizens die. we are going to talk to one of the democrats pushing for some real sensible action here coming right up next. sensible action g right up next.

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you think our brains are frying? all suffering with me had not a lot of time and feared they were getting death sentences. >> that was maggie luna convicted of drug possession and served two years in texas state jail, which is the maximum sentence. but two years felt like a death sentence for luna and other women in that jail because of the heat which was in the triple digits. with the state now shattering heat records, state lawmakers in texas have attempted to pass laws to protect inmates in the summer by requiring air-conditioning, but republicans have largely tanked those efforts. texas' inability or resistance to respond to this climate related crisis is not that different from what happened in the state after the 2020 winter storm, when mass black outs resulted in hundreds of deaths. after that deadly winter the state representative tried to pass a climate action bill

calling the storm a climate wake up call, but his bill failed again on party lines. in the meantime texas is grappling with a deadly reality of a change in climate, and instead of enacting measures that might help its citizens adapt to temperatures or at the very least survive them republicans in state have rolled back and made texas a sanctuary state for the oil and gas industry. joining us now is james talirico as well as "the new york times" columnist david wallace wells. representative, let me start with you since we talked in the line-up about texas and what's happening there. i'm struck by the inherent cruelty of some of these republican lawmakers who understand very much their constituents are dying because of this heat and seem very i mean just uninterested in doing the basic -- taking the basic

measures to help them. can you offer any insight into why the resistance in terms of, for example, putting air-conditioning in texas prisons, which get to be in the triple digits in terms of heat? >> well, if you grew up in canada in canada like ted cruz or grew up in maryland like our lieutenant governor dan patrick you might think texas summers have always been this hot, but texans know our climate is always changing. my family has been here since it was mexico. i remember on summer days like this one i could ride my bike all day long when i was a kid. it was hot but it wasn't this hot. now we are quickly approaching the point in the state when it may be too dangerous to let our kids outside to play in the summertime. the last eight summers have been the hottest summers in recorded history. just in the last decade texans have faced historic droughts,

devastating wildfires, five 500-year floods and the deadliest winter storm in our state's history. this historic heat wave is not the first climate disaster, and it will not be the last, but in the last legislative session republican politicians spent all their time banning books, banning drag queens when we can't even keep the hot on when it gets cold or the air on when it gets hot. maybe instead of obsessing so much about people's private parts they should come together with democrats, fix the grid and invest in renewables. >> i was struck, we played some of the sound from governor abbott saying he did not want renewable energy being part of the portfolio for tax incentives in the energy production in the state of texas, and i guess that's owning the libs, but really you expect at some point soon the pendulum tips and

republicans a acquiesce to the point claimant change is real. >> they're doing that a bit on the renewable side. renewables are such a booming business it's impossible to resist. just a few years ago oil and gas didn't want the state to intervene in energy policy. they wanted the state to get out of the way, but now renewables have rushing forward, it takes the support of the state to stop that revolution to the advantage of oil and gas. but in general i think renewables are moving forward taking seriously the climate challenge. the problem is on the adaptation side we're seeing more and more cruelty. that's what's striking about the air-conditioning in signing the bill banning water breaks for laborers outside. this is an ugly feature, and i worry about it more globally than just in texas. i think it is unfortunately a global feature where now we're seeing the consequences we want to protect ourselves and to some

degree even punish other people when we have the opportunity. >> that's such a great point because it felt like -- and, james, i don't know if you can elaborate further on this, but it's almost like a hunger games attitude towards this. if you're unlucky enough to be one of the people marginalized or most vulnerable in terms of dealing with the worst effects of climate change because you're working class or you're poor, you can't take breaks because you're on the hourly clock, then tough luck. the notion these people effectively deserve what they're getting seems to be at the root of some of this heartlessness around policy. we say oftentimes the cruelty is the point in republican politics, but here it seems it's coming home to roost. >> that's right. i'm one of the youngest officials here in texas, and i know climate change is going to affect my generation much more than it's going to affect the older generation, which is why

i've introduced bills that would set ambitious standards to martial our state resources to fight climate change because texas is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the nation, which means that if given the game texas can help lead the country and the world to a safer, greener future and in the process create thousands of new jobs, new industries, new businesses. and that's why this shouldn't be partisan. you know, temperature is nonpartisan. it's not just getting hot in red parts of the state. it's not just getting hot in blue parts of the state, it's getting hot everywhere. and there's in my mind nothing more conservative than conserving our environment. there's nothing more capitalist than starting the new industries of the future, new businesses of the future. and frankly, there's nothing more christian than protecting god's creation. so i pray every night that my republican colleagues will come to their senses and join us in this fight against climate change. >> there's the reality of

republican sort of red meat politics and what works for them as a strategy, and then there's the reality of constituents and citizens dealing with climate change and acknowledging that it's real. and i was really interested in a 2023 survey from this year. three quarters of americans think global warming is happening. when you have smoke descending from canadian wildfires, mud slides and atmospheric slides in california, droughts plaguing the southeast or heat waves, it's no longer a theoretical debate to own the libs or not, right, david? i mean one wonders whether -- the republican and democratic debates on this are one thing. the rest of the country seems like they've sort of moved past it and understand it's real. >> i think in a lot of ways the partisan dynamics have shifted favorably in the last couple of years. the ira was this massive climate bill sign just before the mid-terms and it didn't show up

in that campaign at all. they were like we're going to let that go. they didn't want to fight that fight. unfortunately, you see some of these other issues cropping up now not on renewable energy and there's some room on bipartisan consensus but how we're going to protect the most vulnerable. and there unfortunately i think the republican party is failing us, but i also think collectively we're normalizing on what used to be completely unprecedented extreme events. we're talking about five 500. year storms. and that means we've had several millennia of intense weather concentrated in just a period of a few years. and a all of us we're waking up to climate and worrying about it, but not worrying about it nearly as much as science tells us. >> i am. every day the data is staggering and deeply stressing. so great to have you on the show. thank you for coming on. representative, very, very thank for if your time and everything

you're doing in the state of texas. when we come back he was wrongly convict of rape and he became a sworn enemy of donald trump, but now he's on the verge of helping govern the biggest city in the country. that is next. e country. that is next

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24 years later here i am doing something with this platform they gave me. 13 years after we were accused, the truth came out. >> that was political candidate appearing on this show back in april. now salam's platform is his notoriety. he and four other black teenagers were wrongfully

incarcerated for the rape of a woman in central park back in 2009. back then donald trump took out full page newspaper ads calling for the death penalty for the teens, a public campaign that thrust them into the national spotlight. but in 2002 the teens who had been known as the central park five got a new nickname, the exonerated five after dna evidence linked someone else to the crime. he's taken the trauma from that experience and become a motivational speaker and author, and last night he took a commanding lead in a new york city council primary with nearly 51% of the vote. now, a winner has not been declared, but it is looking very likely he'll win, and because the seat is heavily democrat, he's then likely to win the seat in november's election. here's what he had to say last night. >> every single thing that happens to you happens for you. having to be kidnapped from my home as a 15-year-old child, to

be locked in the belly of the beast, i was gifted to turn that experience into the wound of merk. i was gifted because i was able to see it for what it really was, a system that was trying to make me believe that i was my ancestor's wildest nightmare. but i am my ancestor's wildest dream. >> that's our show for tonight. "way too early" with jonathan lemire is coming up next. why do you think he's not using his own money? >> because he's the cheapest person i've ever met in my life. that's why. what he's very good at, kaitlyn, is spending other peoples money. it's disgrateful. he's going for middle class men and women in this country and

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