prigozhin broke the air of invincibility. and exposed cracks in what some call the mafia state that he has run in the last two decades. all because of a fight within the family. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> this january six rioter, the one in the queue shirt at the front of the pack here, his name is douglas, austin, jensen, he is now famous for having chase capitol police officer eugene goodman up the stairs in the capital. he actually did not even know what building he was invading on january 6th. >> this is may touching the white house. >> storm the white house! that's what we do! >> touching the white house, very close, but still a few blocks down pennsylvania avenue, mr. johnson. anyway, despite not knowing where he was, johnson didn't know why he was there, wherever there was.

this is from his interview with fbi agents two days after the attack on the capitol, quote, i went in there, i wanted, you know, i wanted to stop this -- depends on all that. pence was supposed to be the hero to save the day, and he didn't. and when this writer was asked what got him there in the first place, he said quite clearly, trump's posts. trump posted make sure your their, january 6th. douglas austin johnson cited donald trump specifically has a reason that he went to the capitol that day, and he is not alone in that. more than 1000 people, 1000 people have been arrested for their roles in the january 6th riot so far. the nonprofit group, citizens for responsibility and ethics in washington, also known as crew, that group comb through all of the public google filings related to january 6th defendants. they found at least 174 of those defendants said that, in one way or another, that they

were answering donald trump's calls when they travel to washington and joined the violent attack. that is more than one in ten january six defendants. that is just the ones that this nonprofit could prove for certain were incited by trump. 94 of them specifically incited trump's remarks on january 6th as why they stormed the capitol. but in terms of deciding to make the trip to washington in the very first place, this nonprofit found the same thing happening over and over again. evidence of january 6th rioters planning during the same few days and late december of 2020, planning that they would go to washington. this capitol rioter from ios anti facebook message on december 21st saying we are going back to washington, january 6th, trump has called all patriots. if the electors don't elect, we will be forced into civil war. on december 22nd, the leader of the florida chapter of the oath keepers said this message -- we are thinking this is the plan, he wants us to get the bleep

kicked off. trump says it's going to be a wild, he wants us to make it wild. all of those messages came shortly after this one. a tweet from president trump at 1:42 in the morning on december 19th, big protest in d. c. on january 6th, be there, we'll be wild! now, that middle of the night tweet, it does not seem to have come out of thin air. we are seeing more and more reporting that special counsel, jack smith, is now zeroing in on a white house meeting that ended just after midnight that very night, just over an hour before trump sent that will be wild tweet. you might remember this meeting because of the headlines about how the arguments during that meeting got so heated that they nearly ended in a fistfight, that's not typically what happens in the white house meetings, as far as i know.

anyway, it was a six hour plus meeting in which trump aides who were trying to push election fraud claims, people likes trump lawyers, and sidney powell, and his former adviser, michael flynn, they all tried to use bogus fraud claims to convince trump to adopt one drastic plan of action or another. and trump's white house legal team fought back. debunking those fraud claims, and reportedly physically threatening to actually fight over them. this was the meeting in which trump was presented with a draft executive order that would've directed the u. s. military to seize voting machines all over the country. trump reportedly consider that executive order seriously enough that he called his national security adviser on speakerphone, again during this meeting, so that it could get his opinion. should we use marshall lott overturn an election? phone a friend. another one of the plans floated that might involve making trump lawyer, sydney powell, a special counsel to investigate election fraud. remember how in the dominion voting systems lawsuit against fox news got text messages from fox hosts, describing sydney powell? in november of 2020, tucker carlson texted laura ingraham,

sydney powell is lying, i caught her, it's insane. ingram responded that sydney is a complete nut. no one will work with her. ditto with rudy. that was when tucker carlson and lauren ingraham thought of seen the parliament before this meeting. but trump actually considered making sydney powell's special counsel. and bob woodward and robert costa's book peril, they reported that trump called his chief of staff, mark meadows in that meeting on speakerphone. make powell a special counsel, trump reportedly said. you give her the forms to on board her. again, that meeting, pitching and seriously considering ideas this buffalo, that lasted more than six hours. it was so, long and so heated of the meeting moved from room to room throughout the white house, people just arguing and yelling at each other until past midnight. and we do not know how, and we don't know exactly why, but

right after all of those wild gonzo ideas fell apart, just about an hour after the end of that meeting, trump seems to have settled on something. quote, big protest in d. c. on january 6th, be there, we'll be wild. after that meeting, hours after it, came trump's push to get people to the capitol on january 6th. to get people specifically to pressure vice president mike pence that date to not certify the results of the presidential election. and then the years and months since then, in that plan has poisoned our politics, in ways we are still dealing with today. republicans across the country still think that what mike pence did, did not do that day, was wrong. they think it was a grievous error, that they believe must be corrected. this was presidential candidate, mike pence in iowa, early this week responding to just that. >> do you ever second guess

yourself that it was a constitutional right that you had to set it back to the states? it wasn't like you are going to personally elect him. we all know, by the number of votes that were there, who won that election. me the history for this country -- >> let me speak to the issue. it is an issue that continues to be misrepresented. i know by god's grace, i did exactly what the constitution of the united states required of me that day. i kept my word. you never want to let washington d. c. realize -- you certainly wouldn't want one person in washington d. c. to decide who the president of the united states is. >> you weren't deciding, you are just sending it back to the states. >> the constitution of the united states, it is a job of the vice president to serve as

a presiding officer in joint session, where you open the count of the votes. don't take my word for it, go read the constitution. really, i say this very affectionate respect. the constitution affords no authority to the vice president or anyone else to project votes, or return votes to the state. it hasn't been done before, and it will not be done in the future. that is what the constitution says. no vice president ever asserted the authority. but i want to tell you, with all due respect, i said it before, i'll say it again, president trump is wrong about my authority that day, and it's still wrong. i believe it with all my heart. >> joining me now are msnbc legal analyst lisa reuben, and christie greenberg, a former federal prosecutor and former deputy chief of the criminal division in the southern district of new york. thank you both for joining me tonight. lisa, you and i have talked about this meeting that happen on december 8th and december 19th.

special counsel jack smith will be talking about it with his own investigators right now, and i guess i love both of your perspectives, i'll start with you, lisa. in terms of what this meeting represents to them in the larger investigation into trump's role on january 6th. >> i think it represents two things. let me start with the second one first. that meeting is the pivot point. you talked about this in your introduction. somehow between december 18th, and the early morning of december 19th, trump's fury of the election morphed from some sort of dominion voting, foreign interference theory, to let's focus on state legislators, let's see what we can do on january 6th itself. let's bring people to the capital to protest, be, there it will be wild. one of the things i think might be interesting to prosecutors is out after the white house staff left the meeting that night, there were a few people that were still in the room with president trump for maybe up to an hour, and those people include mark meadows, rudy giuliani, and sidney powell,

and exactly what was discussed in that meeting when folks like eric herschmann, and pat cipollone, and derek lions, part of the white house staff. >> team normal, they call themselves. >> team normal who had already been at wits and with him crazy, sydney powell and flynn, almost coming to fists with them. what happened after team normal left, i think is of central interest to prosecutors here. >> it is meaningful because it shows this 80, bce transition to the january 6th plot. also the fact that team normal was in the room is super relevant here as well because it is, correct me if i am wrong, it would be evidence that trump knew what he was doing was fraudulent. >> absolutely. you have the grown-ups in the room who are saying, there was no election fraud, you lost every lawsuit that you brought, and this is completely bogus and these plans from the three stooges that are in the room, mike flynn, sydney powell and the overstock guy, patrick byrne, these plans are preposterous. you can't possibly declare

martial law. you don't have the authority to have military come in and sees these voting machines. and so when you have the grown-up saying that this is what is going on, you then have trump having knowledge, and understanding what is going on, so at that point what does he do? now you have that tweet, and that is central to his state of mind. what is his intent here? these other plans didn't work. i still want to lie, i still want to cheat, i still want to steal this election so how are we going to get there? well, i'm going to come up with a new plan, let's fire at my base and inflame them and tell them even though i know that there is no election fraud, tell them there's election fraud and to be there and to stop the count. there is intent, there is motive, there is knowledge, it is a great piece of evidence for the prosecutors. and that is what they are focusing on.

>> it's also great evidence again, correct me if i am wrong, i didn't go to law school, but it is not a privileged conversation. you can't hide behind this because of the presidents of people like sydney powell and patrick byrne. can we talk more about that? >> yeah, kristie and i can both tell you that there is no privilege in this conversation. there is no attorney-client privilege because there are people there who put it in layman's terms, are neither attorneys nor clients. they're not affiliated with the campaign. there are certainly not with the white house, and they are not clients either. so that destroys any privilege that could have attached to that conversation. >> whether people would want to hide behind it? >> that is right. president trump has litigated executive privilege thoroughly, he was found not to be able to claim executive privilege for conversations with people like mark meadows. . if you can't clement when his along with mark meadows, he

won't be able to claim it for a meeting that involves like, 18 people, including patrick byrne and sidney powell. >> right. let me ask, you because you talked about state of mind, it seems like when you put all of those pieces together, we are getting the report about what the special counsel is doing, they seem to be making a very concerted effort to get at trump's state of mind and the fact that he knew the claims that he was making or fraudulent. whether it is the ads that the super pack was taking out, and the low level copywriters who knew the stuff is fake, whether it is the conversations he had with state officials, suggesting that they throw effectively the election for him, or whether it is its meeting in the white house, they seem to be getting at the same bone and all of that. is that right? they want to show trump knew he was lying. >> you have to show intent that he committed a crime. that meeting happened on december 18th. so in mid december you also had cassidy hutchinson who said that around that same time in mid december, trump had a conversation with mark meadows that she overheard where she said that i lost, i don't want people to know that i lost.

so again, it is a lot of corroboration and you will have witness testimony, and then you are going to have the different witnesses corroborating one another. what did donald trump say, what was said in front of him, what did he know at different points and how did that shape his actions and what he intended to do next? >> can i ask a question? because we all know a lot about this meeting. it has been reported on, why are we only hearing about the doj zeroing in on this now? we all remember when the january 6th committee held its hearings last summer, they focused on this, is the doj following the lead of congress? >> unfortunately yes. the fact that this investigation was only open in april of 2022, is, you know, ludicrous really. you had referrals way back in early 2021, from the national

archives in the state. you have the media reporting in this. you had televised hearings from the house select committee and then you had an opinion from judge carter and the central district in california in march of 2022. a month before doj opened, which said the illegality of this plan is obvious. and you need to have accountability. you need to investigate to make sure january 6th doesn't happen again. and only after that opinion a month later does the investigation get opened. you have the attorney general being saying that no one is above the law but when you sit on your hands for 15 months and you do not investigate, there is a problem. but who didn't sit on her hands? fani willis. she opened her investigation in

georgia and she got moving. so i think right now in terms of timing, jack smith is up against the clock and, you know, ray charles in the scenario, he's got georgia on his mind. he is running up against the timetable in terms of charges that may be brought in august. >> in the meantime, giuliani, we didn't even get to talk about giuliani. potentially going to be disbarred. >> rudy giuliani, he's already lost his law license in new york. he's been suspended from the practice of law in both new york and d. c. while this d. c. brnovich to qishan was ongoing, now there has been a recommendation that he should lose his law license. it is the greatest amount of discipline that once can impose on a lawyer. his lawyers were arguing something much less severe, like a sanction, or 18 should be given to him. the d. c. bar is not having that. so we will continue to see them go through their process. but rudy giuliani is also the linchpin to this investigation as well.

>> rudy giuliani, in the spotlight is on you, thank you both for being here. i appreciate it. okay, we have a whole lot to get to this evening. up, next he is responsible for helping spreading deadly disease outbreak and now he could win in the early primary contest. no, i'm not talking about donald trump, or governor on desantis. i will explain why i'm talking about next, and later, what happens when educators are told to teach their students about one of history's most famous race massacres without talking about race. how red states are rewriting history, that is ahead.

>> i want to bring you a story first covered over here in msnbc this week but my brilliant colleague, that he has on. just months before the global covid pandemic was underway, the island nation of samoa was dealing with a different kind of outbreak. measles. a disease for which vaccines have been available for over half a century. measles was suddenly sweeping through samoa. it was infecting, and killing people. most of the people who died there were children. >> this is the biggest increase in deaths we've seen since records began. a figure of 32 debt is up from 25 only yesterday. >> i think that the minute you get in hospitals with 200, or 300% capacity -- >> at the height of the crisis, nearly one in 50 simmons had contracted measles. one in 50. so the government ordered lockdowns and told people in

distress to put a red flag outside their homes. 83 people, most of them children under the age of four, 83 people died from the disease. charities from other countries have to ship children's coffins to the island to help with the shortage there. so why were so many people contracting this disease for which we already have a vaccine? it started in 2018 when two infants died after receiving the measles vaccine. and it turned out to be a case of human error. nurses had accidentally mixed the vaccine with another drug, which led to the infant deaths. but in the aftermath, panic about vaccinations and all of that spread quickly in samoa. that is when the american anti vaccine movement swept in and poured fuel on the fire. a group called children's health defense started a social media campaign to stoke

skepticism about the safety of the vaccines that those infants had received. and that campaign worked. measles vaccination rates for infants and somewhat went from 92% in 2013, to just 40% by 2018. the leader of children's health defense, american anti-vax group, the leader was a scion of an american political dynasty. robert f. kennedy junior. the man who is now challenging joe biden for the democratic presidential nomination. but during that period, as vaccine skepticism was spreading in samoa. rfk junior became a local celebrity in the country. he was an honored guest of the samoan prime minister, and he would later tell a samoan paper that the prime minister came to share the skepticism about vaccines. and around that time, samoan prime minister halted his country's infant measles vaccine program. which goes a very long way and explaining why vaccination rates dropped so very precipitously and samoa, and dozens of children died. and then, once the outbreak of

measles were underway, the anti vax group tried to blame the outbreak on the vaccines themselves, saying vaccinated children were shedding the virus, and spreading it. that claim was quickly contradicted by health experts. and doctors finally got the disease under control by pushing vaccination rates back up, rfk junior continued to cast doubt on the effectiveness of vaccines. >> the thing that cured it was nutrition, and -- not the vaccine. >> that claim was patently untrue. but that dangerous, and deadly anti-vax campaign as part of the legacy of rfk junior. it is the kind of thing that might disqualify you from running for the president, in the democratic party. but rfk junior's long shot campaign against president

biden does not appear to be going away anytime soon. some polls have found him pulling as high as 21% among the democratic primary electorate. more recent polls put him around 9% in new hampshire but still found that he has higher favorable lady numbers of either joe biden, or donald trump. now some of that might be trading on his famous kennedy name. but it may also be the support he's getting from very powerful sources. jack dorsey has endorsed rfk juniors bid. elon musk hosted rfk junior on twitter for a freewheeling discussion where the candidate blamed america's epidemic of mass shootings on antidepressants. a super pac supporting his campaign has already raised millions of dollars. and weirdly rfk junior may actually have a shot at winning early primary contests in places like iowa and new hampshire where president biden may not actually appear on the ballot as a consequence of him trying to change the democratic

party's primary calendar. so in an arrow when people no longer have the luxury of writing off kooky errors with famous last names how exactly should democrats deal with this rfk junior problem? joining us now is simone sanders the former staffer for vice president harris, and a former campaign staffer for the biden and sanders campaign, and the host of simone on msnbc. simone, thank you for joining us tonight. let me just first get your thoughts on the traction that rfk junior has gotten from democrats, potentially independents, and pretty powerful, presumably well educated business minds like jack dorsey, and i know that there is a big ax tricks next to his name, but elon musk, and others. what does that say to you about the candidate and the strategy? >> we'll, if it were not rfk junior, i mean, who is a

conspiracy theorist, an anti vaxxer, someone who has as post-lies about our public health system, lies that can and have gotten people killed, if it wasn't for him, it was just a random run-of-the-mill businessman who would be a seemingly normal, i wouldn't be as surprised. but i am surprised that people have latched on to someone that has espoused views such as his. but on the other hand, i'm not surprised that people are looking for, what is the word i have heard out there, some variety. i do think that i was just at a conference for a church group, for a church tunnel nation the other day, with the conversation in that conference. and in the q&a, someone asked the panelists about why there are no democratic primaries. and the panelists went through and explained what the process was, and the congresswoman on that panel, frankly gave one of

the best defenses of joe biden reelection that i had ever seen. a sitting member of congress give in a room like that. i was like, wow they might need to call, so i think that there are people out there who say that we want variety, we want choice, you keep telling us that people have the power, why don't the people have the power? that is bumping up against the reality of our two party system here in america. there are two political parties, the two political party apparatuses, and the democratic party apparatus. that is the function through which national elections are run, and if people would like to change the, understand that there are folks like there who would like to do so, then they have to do the work of building, in my opinion, from the ground up, grassroots efforts and getting on the ballot across the country when it is not a presidential election year. >> i get that people might one variety of the stage of the game but when you actually

listened to it, if you take the kennedy part away from his name, he is saying things that is way out there, new york magazine and details some of the missed information that he is spreading, suggesting that 5g high-speed internet powers are being used to harvest our data and control our behavior, positing again, as we mentioned, a link between mass shootings and antidepressant use. he told joe rogan that wi-fi pierces the blood brain barrier, and causes a leaky brain, and claims that the presence of atrazine in the water supply has contributed to depression and gender dysphoria. i mean, this is not someone who has traditional democratic views, or traditional american views about our society at large. i think a lot of us think that the misinformation is relegated largely to the fringe right. but rfk junior proves that there is a hunger, or a paranoia, and a latching on to misinformation. this notion the system is rigged against he was frequently like -- it is relegated to the economic discussion, but clearly there

is an appetite for seeing everything is rigged against us. and what -- go ahead. >> absolutely. i think you are absolutely right. i think that it would be people would be sorely mistaken to believe that misinformation, disinformation, only runs rampant on the right-wing spaces. i think that misinformation and disinformation stop that no one political party but the more people learn about rfp juniors positions, and they are in fact unpopular. if you will note, he has not espoused the same using the same words prior to him being a candidate. he talks about a chronic disease, or chronic illness. he shrouds the words, because his positions are widely unpopular. i think it is very important, but if people are going to talk about rfk junior, folks are going to give space to what in fact he is, doing it is very important that folks are honest about what he is saying, just as you have been here on this

program. i also think it is a worthwhile conversation to have, about is the system that is set up in america, the way in which we elect presidents and have done so for decades, and eons at this point, is this a system that best represents and speaks to the people? i think that is a fine conversation to have. but folks could understand that we do have that conversation, but you also have to understand what the reality is, and the reality of the current climate, and the current setup is in fact that there will not be a competitive democratic primary, and the incumbent president is not going to facilitate a process, meaning there will not be debates. some, people when i say, that i have been widely attacked. i was in a restaurant last week with my husband, the man who was serving us, saying you are that girl on msnbc saying that we can't debate. i'm just telling you all with the facts are. i think it's important that the people understand the facts. because only those who know the

rules can adequately play the game. >> yeah, the facts are in short supply on the campaign if robert f. kennedy junior -- always a pleasure, my friend, host of simone, weekends at four pm eastern right here on msnbc. great to see you simone, thank you for joining me. we still have more to come this evening, including one education official in oklahoma who is twisting history into a knot in order to deny the truth of one of the most shameful episodes of racial violence in this country. stay with us, we will be back for more. ♪ ♪ ♪ 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.

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some video of fort fletcher, the oldest of the three living survivors of the tulsa race massacre when she was asking congress for justice and reparations in 2021, and she spoke a century after a white mob attacked a bustling economically independent black neighborhood in the greenwood district of tulsa, oklahoma. it was the largest instance of race based violence in american history. the mob was riled up after the local paper published this article after an alleged incident between black man and a white woman who happened on an elevator. the millennia 300 black residents and demolished 35 city blocks of what was then

called black wall street. which cost the equivalent of $27 million of damage in today's dollars. it was a historic wrong, and 109 years old, violet fletcher is still waiting to see it made right. the survivors of the tulsa race massacre, the victims, and their descendants, they are still fighting for reparations. despite all of that, this is how the state superintendent of public instruction suggests that it is history of racial terror that should be taught. we don't have that sound either, we will come back to show it to you later, but effectively, it was a semi incoherent response after someone asked the superintendent, ryan walters about how teaching about tulsa race massacre might exist outside of the superintendents current war on critical race theory. it was a very contentious -- to address concerns from both parents and teachers about the

superintendents efforts to keep education in oklahoma woke free. now, the superintendents and he will crusade has drawn a lot of criticism and is nearly six months on the job. even from republicans, who think that's focus was misdirected. one state senator told a local paper he would like to see him settle down and actually start talking about it, reading, writing and arithmetic, and how to bring up test scores. by the way, there's plenty of work for superintendent wolters to do on that, from because oklahoma's education system is currently second to last in the country. instead, mr. walters is trying to fight crt, and the woke history about how 300 tulsans were killed in a pae black and thriving. what is ha is but war on and where governor ron desantis began -- even from republicans, who think that's focus was misdirected. one state senator told a local paper he would like to see him settle down and actually start talking about it, reading, writing and arithmetic, and how to bring up test scores. by the way, there's plenty of work for superintendent wolters to do on that, from because oklahoma's education system is currently second to last in the country. instead, mr. walters is trying to fight crt, and the woke history about how

300 tulsans were killed in a large part, because they were black and thriving. what is happening here in oklahoma is but one front in the republican war on woke, and it is just the latest example of its devastating effect on american education. we've already seen a lot of this in the state of florida, where governor ron desantis began his campaign to rig the state of woke ideology. state records indicate that teachers are leaving their positions at some of florida's largest university is. and schools are finding it difficult to fill those vacancies, especially in subjects the governor has targeted. the university of florida -- midnight attempts to just three positions. one of the offers were accepted. then, last, week after the supreme court's conservative majority rule to overturn affirmative action, wisconsin's republican state assembly announced that the legislator would take action to ban state grants designated for minority undergraduate students. we are going to have more on the and he will crusade with a very important guest just ahead, stay with us.

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statutes went into effect in tennessee, including a law that prevents transgender people from changing their drivers license to match their gender identities by narrowly defining male and female. the law included additional restrictions targeting trans youth and their health care decisions, but at least for now those measures have been blocked by a federal judge. in the past year alone, it has become a republican party

priority to enact invasive legislation specifically targeting trans people. in florida, several laws took effect last week, keeping teachers, faculty, and students from using the pronouns of their choice, restricting bathroom choice, and cracking down on drag shows by threatening to revoke liquor licenses of businesses that allow minors into adult drag performances. though that specific measure has also been blocked in the court for now. and texas republicans also passed a bill banning, quote, sexually oriented performances, aka drag shows, in the presence of minors. nearly 500 bills have been proposed in state legislatures across the country, and interest rate everything from pronouns to participation in school sports. all of it is part of a national conservative anti woke crusade, a vast multifaceted effort taking aim at everything from private sector inclusion efforts to the teaching of

history. joining me is sarah mcbride, who became the country's first openly transgender state senator when she won a state on the delaware state senate in 2020 and she's now running for the u.s. congress where, if she wins, she would make history once again as the first trans person ever elected to congress. thank you for your time >> thanks for having me. >> the uptick in these anti-trans laws legislation, the ideas of ways in which you can punish the whole community of people, why do you think this is happening now? is it fear? is it strategy? is it both? >> i think it's a little bit of both. i think right now the extreme republican party is trying to distract from the fact that they have no agenda for workers and families across the country. they're seeking to win elections by dividing and

conquering. this is not a new strategy for them. this is a strategy they have used throughout history to see to distract from their policy failures and to seek to drive wedges between voters. but ultimately, i think, these types of policies may drum up passion among a small part of the ever shrinking republican base. but the reality is, they are so out of touch with what is actually keeping voters up at night. and i think that wow, these policies are central to their message right now. what we'll see in 2024 swabs on 2022, which is that these attacks ring hollow. on top of, that they just don't wear well in history. >> i agree with you in terms of being on the right side of history, the wrong side of history. i wonder how you see it is part of the broader portfolio of the anti woke crusade. we tried to play some sound in the last block of the state superintendent of public education who is saying that the tulsa race massacre cannot be taught taking race into consideration. he actually says, to say it was inherent, but the massacre happened because of the color of their skin, is critical race

theory. you are talking about facts, history, and tried to literally whitewash what happened in the state. that is happening, that disenfranchisement, if you will, in terms of the teaching of history, the idea of reparations, that is happening across the board, with everybody who is not a white straight male. whether it's women and body aaliyah tommy, whether it's the trans community, the lgbtq+ community, people of color, there is a virulent and powerful crusade that seems in a lot of ways to be successful. it seems to be borne less out of strategy and more a palpable fear that the country is changing. >> without question there is a fear by republican politicians about the demographic changes. there is a fear among some people about the changing demographics of this country. what you just articulated is a clear example of the through line between these attacks. i think it reinforces how

linked the fight for lgbtq equality is with a fight for racial justice, for reproductive rights. because ultimately what we are seeing is an attempt to censor these topics out of our schools, an attempt to roll back the clock on our progress, and ultimately make this country less hospitable for people of color, for lgbtq people, for women to thrive in and live in. >> what does it personally feel like? on the one hand you could be making history, which was like a big step forward, but then you hear about what's happening in the state level and it feels insanely retrograde. how do you think about this moment as a trans person, and how do you think about whether the moral arc of the universe and which direction it's bending in? >> there is no question that the process toward progress in this country is not a linear process. it's often two steps forward and one step back.

but i have seen too much change in my life to lose hope right now. since coming out ten years ago, i have seen more hearts and minds change. i have seen laws pro-lgbtq rights laws passed around this country. my service in the delaware state senate would not have been comprehensible to me as a child. i have seen too much change to lose hope now. but i think ultimately there are few things that can help to diversify the narrative of who lgbtq people are that having an out trans member of congress who is not just focused on trans raced, who's focused on all the issues that matter will matter. paid family medical leave, gusty feed safety, reproductive rights. that helps to reinforce reinforce people trans people are part of the rich diversity of the country in that we have something to offer when you get to the table. >> yeah, it will be a good day when they just refer to you as congresswoman, and that's yet. no explanation in value history making role. >> and i will say that what i

have seen throughout the last several years is that voters are fair minded. they are judging candidates based on ideas, not their identities. in the last two weeks of this campaign, the number of people who have visited sarah mcbride. com to volunteer to donate, has been incredibly empowering for me, and i know over the next year and a half of the campaign will continue to demonstrate that voters care more about who's going to deliver for them than they do a candidates gender. >> you are living through the change. sara mcbride, democratic state senator. good luck out there. we'll be right back. we all need fiber for our digestive health, but less than 10% of us get enough each day. good thing metamucil gummies are an easy way to get prebiotic, plant-based fiber.

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- [narrator] so i can feel like part of a team, part of the community again. - [narrator] it's possible to live better. - [narrator] it's possible to have a voice and to be heard. - [narrator] to feel understood. - [narrator] to find peace. - because i've experienced firsthand that anything is possible. (inspirational music) ancient roman pantheon, the classical domed building in central roma. and it was supposed to be eight times bigger.

that dome and the massive opening in the center of it was so gigantic that clouds would have formed inside the space there. and it wasn't just that one piece of imposing architecture. the goal was trying to get do away with existing buildings and have a whole city teaming with marble buildings, an ode to the roman empire. at the time these plans were being drawn up in the 1930s, the leader of another country was focused on architecture as well. this building you see right here, with its 216 arches, was deduct designed is an homage to the ancient coliseum. it was just one part of a district full of buildings and structures that were supposed to bring back the splendor of the roman empire and bring it into modern life. now there is nothing wrong with classical or neoclassical architecture, or architecture that is inspired by it.

in fact, that building, the one with all the arches, is now the world headquarters for effendi, so that is a compliment, decidedly. but it is worth noting that the leading autocrats of the 20th century, they had a kind of fetish with neoclassical architecture. they wanted everything to be built in a way that would harken back to the glory days of the greek and roman empires. all of the buildings and waters models i just showed you, they were works commissioned either by hitler or mussolini. and so given that history, it is no wonder that it raised a lot of eyebrows in 2020 when then president donald trump signed an executive order enshrining at classical architecture as the preferred style for federal projects. given his anti-democratic tendencies, it seemed like, well, it was notable. when he took office president biden rescinded that order. over his part on trump has not given up on the issue. just a few months ago at cpac he promised to get rid of bad and i clean buildings and

return to the classical style of western civilization. but no longer is this just a pet issue for the former president. now his allies in congress are falling in lockstep. according to politico, a new republican sponsored bill would declare classical architecture to be the default style for new federal buildings in washington. and classical in traditional architecture to be the preferred style for most government buildings. how very democratic. that is our show for tonight. now it's time for the last word, with ali velshi, in for lawrence. good evening, ali. >> i'm not here to declare victory on the economy. >> i'm here to say we have a plan -- >> no disrespect to those who invented classic architecture, it is beautiful, but it has been co-opted a little bit by some of these sorts. i'm glad you did that story. thank you for doing that. >> the autocrat's favorite style of building. >> have a good weekend, my friend. see you next week. all right, we are now at the unofficial start of the 2024 presidential campaign season, six months out from 2024, and in a confluence of events this week, yesterday in fact, exactly two and a half years since the january 6th attack on the capital. it's humbling for our country, for our democracy, that the