for that. >> i'm going to also check out spill, i definitely need another app. mike isaac and christina greer, thank you both. that is all in on this thursday night. remember, if you're on threats, you can follow us. we are at all in with chris, i'm -- i guess we are calling it threading, something like that. alex wagner tonight starts right now. good evening, alex. >> i know threading to be something else, we'll talk about that later after the show. but i found out about it from you, i thought about you and i have done threads this morning because you are such a -- you are the master of tweets. prolific how did you feel starting a new week journey, if you will, chris? >> such a profound impression i can give you about a 60 minute answer. i don't know. i don't know who i am anymore on which network. i'm reaching a point that i've

never thought i would, i'm running out of things to say. >> having known you for 1000, years that seems hard to believe, dude. >> or that we will get to the bottom of that jar of peanut butter. there you go. there's nothing left. >> we will never tire of the things that you have to say. keep saying them. >> so many takes. >> i'll be following. thanks, chris. and thank you to you at home for joining us this hour. we start this evening with this. get caught in a hot mess? call the dawn bomb of law. that is an ad for the legal services of the new florida lawyer representing former president trump's alleged coconspirator, walt nauta in the mar-a-lago documents case. just from the layman's perspective here, yes, it sure seems like he is caught in a hot mess. today in miami, mr. nauta finally pleaded not guilty to the charges that he screamed with trump to hide color documents of trump's florida

beach club, and then attempted to cover it up. for weeks now, if mr. nauta it has been delaying this arraignment, claiming he has had trouble finding local florida representation. today, we learned that he has found that local representation. the don bond of law. we don't know for sure who is paying for his new local council, but the other lawyer, then on local council that he has had for a while now, who by the way was also in court, today and entering his plea. that lawyer is an attorney named stanley woodward. we know from public disclosures that his law firm has been paid by former president trump's political action committee, save america. that little tidbit matters, because of the past prologue here, the lawyers, who pays for the lawyers, it can make a world of difference when it comes to actually getting at the truth. >> i was in the vicinity of a conversation where i overheard

the president say something to the effect of, you know, i don't care that they have weapons, they are not here to hurt me. take the mags away. let those people in, they can march the capitol from here. let the people in, take the mags away. >> remember cassidy hutchinson? she was a former top aide to trump's white house chief of staff, mark meadows. cassidy hutchinson was one of the star witnesses for the january 6th investigation. she described how president trump not only knew the crowd gathering to hear the speech at the ellipse on january 6th had weapons, she testified that trump also did not want security to take those weapons away. she was in the west wing, she was the first hand witness to many of the key incidents leading up to, and on january 6th itself. cassidy hutchinson was not always completely transparent with the january 6th committee. early on in the house investigation, hutchinson was represented by a lawyer named stephen passantino. passantino's law firm was paid

by, take a guess, paid by trump's political action committee, save america. the same organization that has paid the law firm of the lawyer representing mr. nauta. because of the extensive testimony that hutchinson gave to the house, we know exactly what kind of legal representation that trump world is playing paying for. mr. passantino, the lawyer, told hutchinson things like, we want you to focus on protecting the president. we all know you are loyal. he gave her legal advice like the less that you remember, the better. while instructing her not to look at calendars, or to look at timelines, or do anything that could jog her memory. that is the kind of legal advice the trump world was paying for. it has a distinctly pro trump hints, doesn't it? because of how detailed mrs. hutchinson's testimony was, it ultimately, in the end, we know the exact moment that she decided to flip. around june of last, year

hutchinson believed that the house investigation might hold her in contempt of congress for not cooperating with them. this was the advice that her lawyer, again, paid for by a trump pact, this is the advice he gave at the time. there is a small element of risk in refusing to cooperate, but i think it's the best move for you. do you agree? it turns out, cassidy hutchinson did not agree. she described that moment explicitly as her breaking point, saying that it was then that she knew she needed to sever her attorney client relationship with or without a new attorney. we are re-counting all of this, because cat cassidy hutchinson and will not are strikingly similar characters. she was a trump loyalist, a top white house aides -- which is telling its own right. walt nauta is a navy veteran, former white house -- he's done everything from fetch trump his diet coax to move his very important boxes around mar-a-lago. since trump and not work

coincided, that usual arrangement, they've been spotted together over and over again, attached at the hip. remember, both hutchinson and his legal fees were initially paid for by trump's save america pack. so far, he appears to taken -- that when that hutchinson started with. he is stonewalling investigators. for example, one of the crimes that he is charged for is lying to investigators. the indictments laid out like this. may of last year, they asked not to if they were aware of any boxes being brought to trump's home. he answered no. when asked if he had any information at all about where those boxes were kept, he responded, i wish i could tell you. i don't know, i don't i just don't know it is now very public knowledge that jack smith's office knows this is a lie. they can prove it. they have security camera footage of mr. nauta moving the

boxes before making the statements. they've got text messages of mr. nauta's, where they talk about moving those boxes. again, before making the statements. and still today, walt now to pleaded not guilty. i don't know if that was his own idea, or if that is the legal advice that he's getting. it was certainly a bold decision here. the very live question now is, how long will it walt not to stick with that decision? will he make it all the way to a trial with the lawyer paid for by donald trump? joining us now to discuss is the former u.s. attorney for the eastern district of michigan, msnbc legal analyst barbara mcquade, as well as david aaron. former federal prosecutor and intelligence attorney with the u.s. department of justice. thank you both for being here. barr, i have a good set of theories about why walt nauta might be inclined to flip on trump, but entertain the idea for a moment that he doesn't

flip on trump. what are the incentives to staying in the good graces of trump world at this point? >> pleading guilty is a very personal decision. sometimes it takes people up until the very end to be convinced that their guilt could be proved. i imagine wynyard -- and you are working for donald trump perhaps, there is a motivation of loyalty. perhaps there is a thought that ultimately, any prison time would be a small portion of the rest of your life, and the rest of your life you could instead be rewarded by donald trump. there might be financial reasons, for reasons, there might be loyalty reasons. i don't think it's over. they can cooperate up until the time of the case goes to trial. i do think that he is probably blown his best chance, which would've been a pre-indictment plea if he is to plead guilty. i think you would have to plead guilty as charged. and then he would hopefully

nancy for the judge, exchange for the copper cooperation. once we've got into this point, i don't think the government needs his cooperation to secure the conviction of donald trump. >> dave, does it surprise you the walt nauta, his moving of the boxes is part of the affidavit for the search warrant. he has been kind of at the ground zero of this criminal indictment since day one. does it surprise you that he is pleading not guilty here? >> it doesn't surprise me at all. most defendants pleaded not guilty at their arraignment, and as barr rested, negotiations can proceed from there. i do think that in this case, as the days have gone by, the usefulness to the potential, as a potential cooperator, is probably declining steadily. i think if he's going to make that decision to cooperate, he's about a year late. >> barb, what do you think of the peril that he faces legally speaking, given the fact that he's the only other person named in the first, at least initial criminal indictment from the doj. what are the potential

consequences here if they are found guilty? >> the penalties can be steve. the false statement charges, penalizing up to five years in prison. it's the conspiracy to obstruct justice that is the one penalized up to 20 years in prison. the sentencing guidelines usually bring that number to something lower, and i would imagine that if i were the lawyer from walt nauta, i would argue that he should be getting a reduction in the sentences, even a little partisan -- he was just taking orders from donald trump, even if he is guilty, minimizing it. nevertheless, i think he's looking at years in prison. there is still that incentive to plead guilty, in an effort to reduce that number. >> years in prison is nothing. what is the legal representation he has? what's the new local council mister don? she's not a formal federal prosecutor. do you think that that has any effect on her inclination to strike a deal with the government if that is even in the cards in the future? >> i don't think so. i think there are a lot of

excellent defense attorneys that have been public defenders, who have not been prosecutors. several of them have cleaned my clock in the past. i think like any attack defense attorneys, you will assess the case against her client, she'll see what those options are. we'll see what the most advantageous way forward is, and advise her client. again, these decisions, at the end of the day, she can get the advice -- ultimately, her client has to decide what the best way forward is. >> i'm not meaning to suggest anything other than a capable lawyer. in terms of her ability, i think the negotiations between formal federal prosecutors and current pro federal prosecutors, at least colloquially, anecdotally speaking, seems to be more of a pro form of exercise than they would necessarily be with anybody who hadn't had that experience. is there any validity to that? >> there is certainly a common language that former prosecutor and current prosecutor will have.

in my experience, those relationships, they're really much more on a case by case basis, and you might be up against a former prosecutor who is going to tell you all day, say that he knows how to do your job better than you do. that's not would be a good relationship. i have had excellent relationships with the defense attorneys who would never think of prosecuting somebody. she spent a lot of time as a public defender dealing with prosecutors. i think she probably knows how to engage. it's also important to remember that she's not alone here. she has at least one team member now, the team micro. there will be plenty of opportunity for the personalities to work themselves out. >> barb, just to be clear, if there's any evidence that walt now does council has not had walt natale's best interest as a central concern, that could be caused to invest in the case. he wants to have adequate legal counsel of this, is that correct?

>> it is permissible for somebody else to pay your legal fees, but the duty of loyalty for a lawyer's to the client. it's an ethical duty that every lawyer has. regardless of who's paying the bills, you're supposed to act in the best interest of a client at all times. in the cassidy hutchinson, casey said earlier, you see how those incentives can cause people to do things differently than perhaps the ethics rules would suggest. for prosecutors, they are very reluctant to get in between a lawyer and her client, to do anything to disrupt that relationship. if they were to get wind that something was amiss, what they could do is file a motion with the judge, for the judge to acquire exactly -- as to whether they were satisfied with the representation. it would take a lot before that could happen, and that lawyers and prosecutors would put

themselves in that situation. >> just based on what we know from cassidy hutchinson, the advice she was giving seemed plainly not in her best interest, or in the interest of getting to the truth, but that's another matter. there is no repercussions there, it seems like it's a really high bar to prove that your legal counsel was not acting in your best interest, but instead potentially the interest of the person paying the bills. in this case, donald trump. >> it's a difficult thing to decide to come between an attorney and client. miss hutchinson, mr. nauta or in very different positions. one is a witness before a congressional committee, another is now a defendant. they're in different postures. there was no judge to come between the witness, miss hutchinson, and the committee. she was really making that decision on her own. in a way, it's a good thing from mr. now to hear, there's a judge potentially to a whatever it needs to be made if it comes

to that. >> that would be a cannon. we will see how this all plays out. barbara mcquade, david aaron, thank you both for joining us tonight. we really appreciate it. >> thank you. >> still ahead here tonight, calling 9/11 a hoax, it's not enough to get you kicked out of the -- but calling your fellow member names, that is. that's next as rhonda sanchez's campaign appears to falter, his state of florida is dealing with malaria, as in malaria. stay with us. ria. stay with us ever notice how stiff clothes can feel rough on your skin? for softer clothes that are gentle on your skin, try downy free & gentle downy will soften your clothes without dyes or perfumes. the towel washed with downy is softer, and gentler on your skin. try downy free & gentle. my a1c was up here; now, it's down with rybelsus®. his a1c? it's down with rybelsus®.

my doctor told me rybelsus® lowered a1c better than a leading branded pill and that people taking rybelsus® lost more weight. i got to my a1c goal and lost some weight too. rybelsus® isn't for people with type 1 diabetes. don't take rybelsus® if you or your family ever had medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if allergic to it. stop rybelsus® and get medical help right away if you get a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, or an allergic reaction. serious side effects may include pancreatitis. gallbladder problems may occur. tell your provider about vision problems or changes. taking rybelsus® with a sulfonylurea or insulin increases low blood sugar risk. side effects like nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea may lead to dehydration, which may worsen kidney problems. need to get your a1c down? you may pay as little as $10 per prescription.

what if your entire day glided like dove men? it's made with a plant-based moisturizer and glides on without irritation. so you can glide through your entire day with confidence. ♪♪ feel the dove men glide. >> do you remember this moment?

♪ limu emu & doug ♪ what do we always say, son? liberty mutual customizes your car insurance... so you only pay for what you need. that's my boy. now you get out there, and you make us proud, huh? ♪ bye, uncle limu. ♪ stay off the freeways! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

this was the house floor fight captured by c-span's cameras between former allies and current congresswoman marjorie taylor greene and lauren boebert. this happened just about two weeks ago. reporters claimed that during the dispute, the congresswoman called her colleague a worm -- marjorie taylor greene later called that reporting, impressively correct. it turns out that that incident was more than just a momentary feud. state political reports of the house freedom caucus, the far-right wing of the republican conference, has voted to kick out congresswoman

marjorie taylor greene. when member told politico that tensions had been brewing over the decision to side with house republican leadership, and against the far-right members on issues like the debt ceiling. the member called the incident with boebert the straw that broke the camel's back. it's the first time that the freedom caucus has ever booted a member from its ranks. the first time the camel has balked, if you will. they've had plenty of other opportunities. the caucus previously unaired -- and paul gosar remained members in good standing. despite both of them attending a conference hosted by non white supremacist nick fuentes. marjorie taylor greene hasn't since moderated herself from any meaningful way, after, all the fight between her and congresswoman boebert was over which one of them would get to bring articles of impeachment against president biden. still, the woman who won suggested the 9/11 was a hoax, and blamed california wildfires on jewish space lasers, that

win is now considered insufficiently radical in the eyes of house conservatives, which tells you everything you need to know about the chaos that speaker of the house what kathy is currently swimming in. politico reports this week that house republicans are now ramping up their fight against the fbi and the department of justice, including a renewed push to defund federal law enforcement. a move that not every republican is on board with. again, according to politico, in a recent closed-door meeting, conservative republican congressman ken buck of colorado privately urged his colleagues to be careful about how they talk about justice department funding, adding that i am not in favor of cutting doj. at the same time, some conservatives are pushing to bring articles of impeachment against attorney general merrick garland in what would be the first impeachment of a cabinet official in nearly 150 years. attorney general garland decided to testify before the house committee later this summer. joining us now is brandon buck,

former aide to house speaker's paul ryan and john boehner. brandon, there was a time in american politics where people let bygones be bygones. it doesn't seem to be the case when it comes to what happened during the debt ceiling fight. i personally am surprised that the house freedom caucus is still so incensed over that deal. is it not usually that once the speaker gets it done, everyone can move on? that doesn't seem to have happened here. >> i think it might have moved on, but they don't forget. that's what kevin mccarthy's problem is here. some people gave him a pass, but even the ones who you might have been surprised that supported him of kind of said, well, we are going to look down to the appropriations financials binding of mining -- if we don't end up cutting spending much below this deal, then we're going to have a real problem. that's what marjorie taylor greene's problem is here. it's not so much that she's fighting with her colleagues, is that she's become an ally of the speaker.

she and folks at home could be excused for thinking that the freedom caucus exists primarily to advance conservative ideas. their conservative, to be sure, but their bigger priority is growing within with leadership. i've seen that plenty of times. marjorie taylor greene has become not just an ally, but a shield from a lot of conservative criticism of the speaker. i think it probably in the view of the freedom caucus, she's become a pawn of the speaker. at times, it's not just supporting kevin mccarthy for speaker, which she did, it's defending things like the debt limit deal. she has, at times, looked like a serious, one which i think says more about the freedom caucus than it does about her. she's still a conspiracy theorists. it tells you the kind of challenge but kevin mccarthy is facing. they saw what happens, and they haven't forgotten. they're just waiting until the next opportunity to strike. >> and it bears mentioning that they could've scuttled the deal. they could've scuttled the debt ceiling deal if they wanted to. could they not have?

they had enough votes to make kevin mccarthy's life very complicated, and they didn't. now they are angry. some bizarre twilight zone version of congress. marjorie taylor greene was the adult in the room, and kevin mccarthy has now lost. to your point, how critical is she, slash was she in those fights they had to get the far right wing members of the conference on board? how much of the weapon, for back lack of a better chain, have they lost in, that she's been booted from the house freedom caucus? >> she'll be useful to him. what happened in the jet limit deal was that she helped kevin mccarthy make all of those people are relevant. the bill passed with a huge majority. really able to ignore the freedom caucus, they hate being ignored. everything that's going on. they were really able to pass without worrying about that. they do have conservative cover, not from marjorie taylor, green people and jim jordan, who used to be one of our biggest headaches. he was supporting it. in the aftermath of that,

that's when you saw them lashing out. they should on the house floor for a week, they started making those demands. now they're making kevin with kathy pledge that he's going to be fighting for spending cuts lower than where we are in the, deal which is not going to happen. it's really just sitting him up for the fall. it's always for the next play, always looking down the road ways in which they can trip him up. they might have gotten a little outmaneuvered on the debt limit deal, and i think they're looking for revenge the next time around. >> they are having the big appropriations fight in september they can shut down the, government -- that almost seems like a foregone conclusion. in the meantime, they're going to defund the fbi and doj? that seems, in a word, cuckoo. and yet, how much is this something that the doj now actually has to consider inside of the house? >> if you've been telling your constituents four years that the doj is not just corrupt, but it is targeting people like you regular folks out in red america, they're going to do something about it. that's where we are now. -- the accusations made, when the

time comes to defund the doj, people are going to demand some action taken. they're talking about other things like impeachment. there might be other release valve that they can use for this. at some, point the bill is going to come do with all of the promises that you've made. oversight is typically working in that you search for facts, then you reach the conclusion. right, here house republicans have reached their conclusion first. the doj is corrupt, now they're searching for facts when you back it up to do that case. so far, again, it's just setting up kevin mccarthy for failure. they're not going to be able to defund the doj. with all of, this if you shut it down, you do like crazy. >> and i would also say, what does it do? the republican party wraps itself in the mantle of being the party of law and order. they will be the party, potentially, that seeks to cut funding for the department of justice and the federal bureau investigations, and rallying around a candidate that might have multiple criminal, federal criminal indictments against him. the implication, is there not a

price to pay for that among conservatives out in the country, swing voters in the country, independents in america? >> it's a four seat majority. five c majority. there have been moderates pushing back, what are we doing? this is crazy stuff. it's not helping me to get reelected. that's not the culture of the house republican conference. the culture is to worry about feeding the base all the time. they don't care about their swing district. people that put them into the majority. they often get overruled. i'm sure they'll get run over here. the big question will be whether four or five of these moderates stand up and say, i'm not voting for this. they usually don't fight back, but this could be an opportunity where they say that enough is enough. >> how many times can we slip on a banana peel before the joke is on us? i don't know. kevin mccarthy is still the speaker. branded, mark former aide to speaker paul ryan, thanks for joining us tonight. good to see. >> thanks. >> still ahead here this evening, florida reports two new cases of malaria today. cases that people got in

florida. governor ron desantis has so politicized public health that his government cannot hire anybody for top jobs to manage public health. as the right-wing goes nuts over a baggy of cocaine found at the white house, we'll get into the real history of drugs at the white house. coming, up stay with us. ng, up stay with us. are you still struggling with your bra? it's time for you to try knix. makers of the world's comfiest wireless bras. for revolutionary support without underwires, and sizes up to a g-cup,

find your new favorite bra today at knix.com - i got the cabin for three days. it's gonna be sweet! what? i'm 12 hours short. - have a fun weekend. - ♪ unnecessary action hero! unnecessary. ♪ - was that necessary? - no. neither is a blown weekend. with paycom, employees do their own payroll so you can fix problems before they become problems. - hmm! get paycom and make the unnecessary, unnecessary. - see you down the line.

you've evolved. you've changed. so have we. that's why new dove body wash now has 24-hour renewing micro moisture for continuous care. new dove body wash. change is beautiful. >> the state of florida has

issued a mosquito alert after

confirming four cases of malaria now in sarasota county. >> concerns are growing as this marks the first time we're seeing local transmission in the u.s. in two decades. >> those cases were discovered in sarasota and lansing counties, but there is concern from health officials that it can spread. >> malaria, a disease transmitted by mosquitoes, something the united states eliminated in 1951. it's back. at least in the state of florida. the cluster of cases in florida, plus one case in texas, are the first instances of a locally transmitted malaria, diagnosed in this country in 20 years. from time to time, you might hear about somebody diagnosed with malaria in the u.s., after they have caught it overseas. it seems like this cluster originated in sarasota, florida, it came from there, and it's spreading. today alone, two cases were reported in sarasota. raising floyd's total case count to six. last week the cdc issued a health advisory warning about these cases while assuring the

public that overall, the risk of contracting malaria in the u.s. remains low for most of the country. florida epidemiologists are concerned because florida is not the rest of the country, which is probably evident by now. anyways, for starters, the person at the helm of florida's department of health's doctor joseph latypov. you might remember him. he's the doctor that governor ron desantis appointed as florida surgeon general in september 2021, right in the middle of the covid-19 pandemic. after doctor latypov openly and incorrectly questioned the effectiveness of covid vaccines. after governor desantis announced his appointment, dr. ladapo announced there is nothing special about vaccines compared to any other preventative measure. it's been treated as a religion, and that is just senseless. that year before that, he joined a controversial group of doctors as the gratitude outside of the supreme court to tell the american public that

they definitely didn't need social distancing or masks to stay safe. austria, simply doctor latypov was accused of personally altering data -- health risks for a young man associated with the covid-19 vaccines. the anti vax fearmongering here, maybe good politics, but it's not exactly attracting the stars of the public health world to the state of florida. and we see news is exclusively reporting today that the two top public health officials, those ones responsible for tracking and preventing the spread of communicable diseases like malaria, they left their positions in recent months, and those positions were remaining vacant. nbc reports that the open positions include the head of the board of epidemiology, overseeing much of the core health functions. a second key post, the minister of the bureau's surveillance division has been vacant since

march. we don't yet know why these officials left positions, but some people think that they have a hard time replacing them because governor desantis and latypov have so politicized public health. meanwhile, the governor themselves has spent -- instead, campaigning all over the country, including this past fourth of july weekend. governor desantis was literally caught in the rain as he marched in an independence day parade in new hampshire. that's new hampshire, new hampshire, not new hampshire, florida. there is not currently a resurgence of malaria there, at least as far as we know. desantis is trailing donald trump in national polls, roughly 30 percentage points. a gap that has widened significantly since he began actually meeting voters. back in his camp, the talking point is that polls will begin to lean his way later on, once he has been done turning the country. at least that's what they told the new york times.

bryan griffin, a spokesman for the desantis campaign says it's a marathon, not a sprint, we'll be victorious. okay, a lot can happen with enough time. including, by the way, the reemergence of malaria and florida after two decades. a desantis's nomination at this point seems like kind of a long shot. at least right now. we'll have more on that ahead with the great claire mccaskill. ir mccaskill. that is always discreet. look at how it absorbs all of the liquid. and locking it right on in! you feel no wetness. - oh my gosh! - totally absorbed! i got to get some always discreet! after cooking a delicious chicken cheddar broccoli recipe, you will want to delete all your delivery apps. because nothing beats a perfect combo of sweet tomatoes and smooth, silky zucchini. knorr taste combos. it's not fast food, but it's soooo good. ♪ ♪ generalized myasthenia gravis made my life a lot harder. but the picture started changing when i started on vyvgart.

vyvgart is for adults with generalized myasthenia gravis who are anti-achr antibody positive. in a clinical trial, vyvgart significantly improved most participants' ability to do daily activities when added to their current gmg treatment. most participants taking vyvgart also had less muscle weakness. and your vyvgart treatment schedule is designed just for you. in a clinical study, the most common side effects included urinary and respiratory tract infections, and headache. vyvgart may increase the risk of infection. tell your doctor if you have a history of infections or symptoms of an infection. vyvgart can cause allergic reactions. i have gmg and this is how vyvgart works for me. [camera shutter] picture your life in motion. talk to your neurologist about vyvgart.

i'll always take care of you. ♪ i'm gonna hold you forever... ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ be by your side... ♪ ♪ i'll be there... ♪ i'm jayson. i'm living with hiv and i'm on cabenuva. it helps keep me undetectable. for adults who are undetectable, cabenuva is the only complete,

long-acting hiv treatment you can get every other month. cabenuva is two injections, given by my healthcare provider, every other month. it's really nice not to have to rush home and take a daily hiv pill. don't receive cabenuva if you're allergic to its ingredients or if you taking certain medicines, which may interact with cabenuva. serious side effects include allergic reactions post-injection reactions, liver problems, and depression. if you have a rash and other allergic reaction symptoms, stop cabenuva and get medical help right away. tell your doctor if you have liver problems or mental health concerns, and if you are pregnant, breastfeeding, or considering pregnancy. some of the most common side effects include injection-site reactions, fever, and tiredness. if you switch to cabenuva, attend all treatment appointments. ready to treat your hiv in a different way? ask your doctor about every-other-month cabenuva. every other month, and i'm good to go. >> i think identifying donald

trump as really being a pioneer in injecting gender ideology into the mainstream where he was having men compete against women in this beauty pageants. i think that's totally fair game. >> as florida governor ron desantis, attempting to defend what we will generously call a bizarre ad shared by his campaign this week. the video, released on the last day of pride month, tries to paint donald trump as a woke ally of the lgbtq community. it also hypes ron desantis's efforts to restrict lgbtq rights. in between catalyst men in the serial killer from american psycho. all of it set to a club soundtrack. the ad has not helped governor desantis. even log cabin republicans accused him of venturing into homophobic territory. it has given rise to a number of questions about the desantis campaign and its strategy,

namely, what is it. because it is starting to seem like the more people hear from governor ron desantis, the less they like him. republican primary polling average is show desantis trailing trump by more than 30%, a gap that has only widened as voters continues to meet desantis on the campaign trail. joining us now is former democratic senator of missouri. thanks for joining. me there's nobody i'd rather hear from in terms of assessing that ad that was shared by the desantis campaign. what do you make of it? and what does it tell you about what the campaign thinks of republican primary voters? >> well, the interesting thing here is, he has to have, and his team has to have, some theory by which he takes votes from donald trump and he thinks the way to do that is to

out-trump trump, go even further, spew more hate, and bigoted language. and i've got to tell you, the biggest problem that desantis has is, in order to be a con man, you have to have showmanship. now, we all know that donald trump is a con man. he is a huckster. he is somebody who thinks it's all about self promotion and marketing, and nothing about substance or policy. ron desantis is no showman. he doesn't have the personality to be a showman. he is awkward. frankly, he has the personality of kind of a dead frog. it is really not a guy that is going to light up a room or light up a hall or light up a rally with his showmanship. so how does he get those away from trump? i've got news for him. he's not.

the people that are with trump now are not going anywhere. they are certainly not going to abandon him for somebody who is just a wannabe of donald trump. and here's -- go ahead, alex. >> i was just me to say, i think, first of all, apologies to dead frogs everywhere, and secondly, it seems like what desantis cannot accomplish in terms of charm or wit or comedy or anything approaching warmth, he tries to make with cruelty and meanness. it's like he's over compensating for a lack of personality and personal skills by just trying to be the meanest, most aggressive, shirtless warrior out there. not that he's shirtless, but the people in his ads are shirtless. to me that seems like a bizarre calculation, because it does miss something central to trump, which is as abhorrent as a lot of trump's policies navy, and that he's a husker, he's also a

very talented and magnetic campaigner. what desantis seems to have shortchange that part of the trump strategy, which is letting trump be trump maybe repulsive too many people, but he also has a certain amount of basic magnetism for the people that love donald trump. >> yeah, and i think desantis has looked in the mirror and looked around a very close circle of people, and what he sees reflected is that he is wonderful, that he won florida by a big margin, therefore he's the guy. and he's not the guy. and the interesting thing here, alex, is that the hard thing about running for president is, you have got to appeal to your base in a primary season in order to gain the nomination. but you have to do it in a way where you do not alienate independent voters or voters of the other party that maybe you are not comfortable with their nominee. ron desantis is digging a hole he can't get out of.

because with every time he spews hate, every time he uses the heavy hand of government to take freedoms away from the lgbtq community are accuses public school teachers of being groomers and pedophiles, he is losing votes that are independents and republicans who don't like trump. so there's no strategy here for victory, for him to ever be president of the united states. >> i'm starting to smell a weight of a jeb bush around ron desantis's campaign, which is, someone who is presumed front runner doesn't end up being a front runner at all, despite all the attention and resources. but i do wonder, because trump is in many way unpalatable, because there is a sense, though yet unproven, the republicans would be willing to switch coffees do you think donors hang with desantis longer than they normally would in a traditional campaign cycle with someone who isn't necessarily as filled with

kryptonite as dom trump appears to be? >> well, i think you've hit on a really important point. the jury is out whether ron desantis can raise the kind of money he's gonna need to raise. will he get the grassroots donations that in fact is donald trump's lifeline? don trump has never really had the big donors coming in guns blazing for him. but ron desantis has had some big donors, but the question, is are they going to stick with him as he continues to fumble. everything he tries to do in this campaign. and what are these debates going to look like? if trump doesn't debate, chris christie is going to tear desantis up. if trump does debate, both chris christie and trump are going to tear desantis up. and guess who else is going to tear him up? he's number two. number three, four, five, six, seven, and eight are going to tear him up because they need to try to get up ahead of desantis to be the next alternative to donald trump.

so he is in a terrible position right now. both in terms of his ability to raise money and, frankly, the fact that he's going to be a target of everybody running for president except him. >> if you are chris christie or nikki haley or tim scott, what it's your, i mean where do you go right now, claire, seeing the weakness of ron desantis? >> i think if they're smart they're going to talk about the issues that people care about. they're also going to talk about the janeiro president on a platform that is foundational with hate, that is foundational with dividing people. alex, everybody in america someone they love that he's gay or lesbian. this is not 34 years ago when people were not, so many people were afraid to come out and be honest with the world about the sexuality. not anymore. and it is mainstream now, and this country is not going back.

i don't care what the supreme court says, i don't care what clarence thomas says, i sure as hell don't care what ron desantis says. this is not going to work. and i actually think that if the other candidates talk about uniting people around the traditional values of the republican party, that's their best shot. it may not be a good one, because trump has got them all under a spell. >> hot tip, don't run on hate. straight from someone who knows politics. we claire mccaskill, always a delight to see. thank you for your time tonight. >> thanks, alex. >> we have one more story for you tonight. the right-wing conspiracy machine has fired up over a bag of cocaine found at the white house last weekend, but that is not the only coke to find itself at 1600 pennsylvania avenue. we are going to get into a brief history of presidential drugs, right after the break. right after the break about my family history.

with ancestry i dug and dug until i found some information. i was able to find out more than just a name. and then you add it to the tree. i found ship manifests. birth certificate. wow. look at your dad. i love it so much to know where my father work, where he grew up. it's like you discover a new family member. discover even more at ancestry.com (vo) consumer reports evaluates vehicles for car shoppers in... reliability, safety, owner satisfaction, and road-test evaluations... and the results are in. subaru is the twenty twenty-three best mainstream automotive brand, according to consumer reports. and subaru has seven consumer reports recommended models. solterra, forester, outback, crosstrek, ascent, impreza, and legacy. it's easy to love a brand you can trust. it's easy to love a subaru.

are you still struggling with your bra? it's time for you to try knix. makers of the world's comfiest wireless bras. for revolutionary support without underwires, and sizes up to a g-cup, find your new favorite bra today at knix.com

i'm saving with liberty mutual, mom. they customize your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. you could save $700 dollars just by switching. ooooh, let me put a reminder on my phone. on the top of the pile! oh. only pay for what you need. (jennifer)erty. liberty. the reason why golo customers have such long term success is because we focus onu need. real foods in the right balance

so you get the results you want. when i tell people how easy it was for me to lose weight on golo, they don't believe me. they don't believe i can eat real food and lose this much weight. the release supplement makes losing weight easy. release sets you up for successful weight loss because it supports your blood sugar levels between meals so you aren't hungry or fatigued. after i started taking release, the weight just started falling off. since starting golo and taking release, i've gone from a size 12 to a 4. before golo, i was hungry all the time and constantly thinking about food. after taking release, that stopped. with release, i didn't feel that hunger that comes with dieting. which made the golo plan really easy to stick to. since starting golo and release, i have dropped seven pant sizes and i've kept it off. golo is real, our customers are real, and our success stories are real. >> the right-wing is having an why not give it a try?

absolute field day after a bag of white power with a lab test confirmed was cocaine was found in the white house on sunday. there is absolutely no evidence to suggest the president joe biden or his son hunter had anything to do with this. the president and his family were at camp david over the holiday weekend when a secret service official says officers discovered the suspicious powder during a routine patrol of white house premises. white house officials say that the bag of powder was found in a highly trafficked area. the ip's go through there but so do escorted visitors and tourists as well as staff, military, and operations employees. and while officials have low expectations but they can identify who left this cocaine, investigators expect wrap up the forensic work by monday. but if you did not know it already, there is a fascinating and storied history of drugs and other illicit substances found in or near the seat of power, right here in the u.s.,

and i have exactly the perfect person to talk about this with. joining us with is lindsey trevon, ski provincial presidential historian. lindsey, thank you for making the time. this is not the first time that cocaine may have been found in the white house. can you talk a bit about the era of franklin delano roosevelt and what was happening then? >> absolutely. so cocaine used to be used in a number of medications because it had has the effect of restricting blood vessels so for example franklin delano roosevelt had a lot of sinus problems in some reports suggest that one of the medicines doctors recommended was a diluted cocaine substance that would be done swaths on the inside of his each of his nostrils to help increase oxygen flow and reduce any blockages that he may or may not have had. >> what about, i mean, back in the day opium and cocaine were used in a lot of pharmacies for

like a better word. they reasoned basis for a lot of bison. can you talk a bit more about that what was happening in the 18th and 19th centuries? >> absolutely. as you said, opium was a common ingredient in a lot of different medications. one of the most frequent uses was called latina. this was something regularly prescribed for pain medication for pain tolerance of someone was ill or had trouble sleeping. so for example we know that two first ladies in the 19th century died while their husbands were in the white house, letitia tyler and carole harrison. we don't know what they were prescribed log and was so common at the time that's hard to imagine that was one of the things that suggested. similarly, one of my favorite colorful stories occurred in 1805, when one of the first and only impeachment proceedings of a supreme court justice took place. john randolph was in charge of the prosecution of that case. he had such bad stomach issues

that his doctor prescribed him opium laced wine. and he wasn't so much pain that he basically was taking a sip of this concoction and between every single sentence. and by the end of the trial he could barely stand and was slurring his words because he had taken so much of this, what they thought of then, as medication. so it just goes to show how much our understanding of these things have changed. >> we still have the impeachment proceedings but we don't have the opium laced wine. was it a big deal that he was taking opium laced wine at the time? or was it just, oh there he goes again with the openly opium least wine? >> it wasn't such a big deal that he was taking the wine. rather the quantity is what people noted in the effect on him, because either he hadn't eaten march or he hadn't been sleeping well, and so everyone was noticing that he was not his best south on this particular day in the senate chambers. >> it's not so much the opium in your wine, it's just how much of it you are drinking. okay. i'm very glad we had this

history lesson. lindsay chervinsky, like you for your time and wisdom tonight. we appreciate it. >> thank you for having me. >> that is our show for this evening. we'll see you again tomorrow. and now it is time for the last word with lawrence o'donnell. me for>> good evening, lawrence. >> alex, opium laced wine is the last word. i am going home now. there is nothing left to say. >> listen, we need it for the next impeachment proceeding, right? apparently that's what got america through at the last time. >> alex, you will deal with your own needs, and in that situation, water, here it is, will do it for me. that will get me through it, i'm sure. >> you are strongman, lawrence. >> oh, no no. opium laced wine. i can't follow that, alex. i'm stuck here. >> you certainly can and you will. >> thank you, alex. yes, your