that moment, that magic would stay with me for a lifetime. >> it was just so incredibly moving, it's beautiful. it's like, there are moments you dream about happening, and friends, you know, everything to share a moment like that. anyway, she's so generous and kind of. i don't know what else to say, other than i've been touch and i moved, and it's a moment i will never forget. >> that was absolutely awesome. my wonderful and talented and beautiful and brave and fearsome phenomenal friend, hoda kotb take us off the air tonight. and on that note, i wish you all a very good night. from all of our colleagues across the networks that nbc news, thanks for staying up late with me. i'll see it tomorrow. i'll see it tomorrow >> since it was founded in 1935, the fbi has had only eight

senate confirmed directors, and those directors all have a few things in common. they are all white men. they all favor a clean cut look, and each and every one of them, every senate confirmed director since the dawn of the fbi has been a republican. that includes current fbi director christopher wray, who was appointed by donald trump. but you would not get that impression, given the way director wray's fellow republicans attacked him in his agency during a hearing today on capitol hill. >> when the court says the fbi misled, that's a nice way of saying they lied. >> how many individuals were either fbi employees, or people that the fbi made contact with, we're in the january 6th entry of the capital? i'm going to make the assumption that there is more than one, more than five, more than ten. >> i will say this notion that somehow the violence at the

capitol ungenerous six was part of some operation orchestrate by fbi sources and their agents is ludicrous. >> your job's review what they do your job is to protect the american people from the tyrannical fbi storming the foam of an american family. >> i couldn't disagree more with your description of the fbi's tyrannical. >> you preside over the fbi that has the lowest level of trust in the fbi's history. people trust the fbi more wintry edgar hoover was running the place, then when you are. >> respectfully, congressman, in your home state of florida, the number of people applying to come work for us and devote their works -- for their lives working for us is up over one hunted percent. >> the american people fully understand that there is a two tiered justice system that has been weaponized to persecute people based on the political believes, and you have personally worked to weaponize the fbi against conservatives. >> i would disagree with your characterization of the fbi, and certainly, your description of my own approach.

the idea that i'm biased against conservatives seems somewhat insane to me, given my own personal background. >> somewhat insane. that's also how republicans talk about the fbi now, somewhat insanely. it's not just on capitol hill, conservative media has also gone all in on this theory that the fbi is a weapon of the federal government that will attack conservatives. here's what coverage of that hearing, of christopher wray, looked like today on newsmax. >> anybody the finds themselves in the crosshairs of the fbi tend to be people that are politically problematic for the ruling elite. >> we're talking about multiple scandals, we're talking about spying on the united -- on the american people. we are talking about targeting catholics, targeting conservatives. >> nobody is happy with the fbi, no one. >> the reason that republicans have decided to make the fbi their target, the reason is donald trump. the de facto leader of the republican party has been

indicted by federal prosecutors, and he is facing more potential charges from another federal investigation. the former president has chosen to turn his party against the federal law enforcement agency which has traditionally been run at fellow republicans. that campaign has done more than just sour republican voters on the fbi, and sew broad distrust in the justice system. it's also put fbi agents in real danger. the washington post reported last week that prosecutors who were working on the trump classified documents case are now facing a substantial harassment and threats online and elsewhere. as one extremism expert told the post, rather than seeing these giant swells of activity, we are seeing a smaller subset of individuals drilling down in a particularly intense way to find individual people to take out their anger on. it's too risky for them to go into the streets right now, every time they do, even a little bit, there's a huge

media frenzy and a huge police presence. joining us now, tim haffee, former lead investigator for the house's january 6th investigation and mary mccord, former acting assistant attorney for national security at the justice department, and of course, co-host to the msnbc podcast, prosecute donald trump. tim, i would love to know from a personal perspective, given your involvement in interviewing witnesses for the january 6th investigation, how safe, how vulnerable did you feel in the course of those interviews, in the course of that invti>> alex, the best ansi can give you is that every member of the select committee over the course of our work had to avail themselves of escort protective service from the u. s. capitol police. adam kinzinger, a member of the select committee, had an infant child during the investigation and received a very vile threat at his home against his wife

and that child. they were literally escorted from wherever they went in washington by multiple u.s. capitol police officers. that is unfortunately what working on these issues has come to. it is despicable and sad, and is something that did not hamper our work, but definitely impacted the way we went about it. >> mary, to sort of protect the people who were working on these important cases, for example the prosecutors working on the special counsel's probe into the january 6th, and also the mar-a-lago investigation. the post reports that the doj is trying to put the names of those officials secret, but of course their names are part of the discovery process, part of the files that the trump team is going to be able to look at in the course of these indictments. we now have the case according to the post that far-right trump supporters or post in the names of the prosecutors and government workers online. my question to you would be, how much can we even expect the government to keep people safe in this current landscape? >> these are situations like

tim said where if there are specific threats, targeted threats towards particular prosecutors, fbi agents, witnesses, that might require some sort of special security precautions. including assigning escorts, potentially even to people's homes, and potentially even installing security systems if they don't have those things. the government, if we expect the government employees, prosecutors, to do jobs that put them in risk, the government has a responsibility to try to mitigate that risk. for witnesses, all the more so. i think that that's one reason why we've got the protective order here, whereby the government provided a list of witnesses to the defense, but on the condition as ordered by

the court as one of the conditions of his release, that those witnesses ' names could be protected and not be distributed publicly. you can only take so many precautions. there is risk inherent in this, and we maybe mentioned when i've been on with you before, tim and i were both prosecutors for years and sometimes we would have threats against us. but prosecutors are fungible. if you get rid of one of us, there is another going to take our place. and many people who are accused of crimes understand that. extremists, it's completely different ball game. they don't seem to care about that, the extremist's threats the rhetoric, actual attacks, don't factor into the account but that won't get rid of the problem. >> and can i follow up on that? in the wake of these indictments, whether it's alvin bragg, whether it's the mar-a-lago case, there is a sense of perhaps the danger being neutralized, because

hasn't been an outpouring. there hasn't been another january 6th style and direction against the courthouse, for example. really, that line in the washington post reporting, the nature of the threat is now different, that it is a smaller subset of individuals drilling down in a particular intense way to find individual people, to take their anger out on. that really stood out to me and mary, given your national security background, if you could explain that a little bit. >> that's exactly right. there's two points that i make, one is that is sort of part of the strategy of extremists right now. let's eschew these big national things that will get us all arrested, like an attack on the u.s. capitol, and let's get more decentralized and localized with our extremism, including targeting people for retribution. the second thing i would say is this is what's so hard to protect against. i myself, and i know tim, been subject to plenty of online threats. the question is, when is that

online threat just a bunch of bravado and bra she oh, and looking tough, let's say these really mean things about this woman, and when is it somebody who's actually going to get in their car and going to track you down and try to actually harm you? it is just like the issue with lone wolf terrorists, they're usually not part of a big group activity. they oftentimes act on their own. but they act on their own very much inspired by and incited by disinformation, and what now is so popular, which is victimhood. the idea of a weaponization subcommittee is because they're saying that the government is being weaponized against people, and they are the victims. victimhood gives rise to people feeling like they can engage in acts of political violence, that those would be justified. who is going to engage in those acts? that is the real thing that is difficult for our law enforcement. >> i still think it's worth unpacking, tim, what happened on the hill today in this assertion, that the fbi is a

readout of liberals intent on targeting conservatives. it bears mentioning that fbi director chris wray is a member of the federalist society, who clerked for michael luttig. he's a dyed in the wool conservative, and i'd love your assessment about how deep the deep state might be in the trenches of liberalism given, you know, the claims made on capitol hill today. >> as chris wray himself said, alex, repeatedly today, the narrative that the fbi is somehow full of liberaep state, anti trump, anti conservatives is ludicrous. chris wray is a pro. i disagree with chris on a lot of issues, but i respect his integrity. as i do with all of the men and women in the fbi who, in my experience as a former prosecutor, go about their very important work with a great deal of integrity. they do make mistakes, and the

tragedy of a hearing like today is that we are spending all of this time on these ludicrous issues of political theater, and not talking about real issues, like how the fbi gathers information about mystic violent extremism. , do they put undue restrictions, first amendment, association restriction on ability to monitor open source information, or is their assessment of danger when it comes to intelligence afflicted with some implicit racial bias? these are huge issues that our work identifyed, none of them absolve the former president and his coconspirators who caused the riot. but those conditions of law enforcement, how the fbi and other agencies prepare for and the manage these events really deserve attention. we're not talking about that, because we are going through this charade of the fbi is somehow be weaponized or part

of the deep state. that, as christopher wray says, is ludicrous. it prevents real discussion about important issues. >> not only is it missing the point, it might even be more malignant than that, which is the few former fbi -- a few former people, from law enforcement, who've been charged in january 6th are there as liberal democrat that -- democrat plants. they are there as actors working there in support of trump and his in. and jarred wise, former fbi bureau supervisors, charged in january six, mark ibrahim, an active duty dea agent at the time of his arrest, thomas caldwell, who claims he's the former section chief of the fbi. i mean, these people were working in law enforcement and they were writing on january 6th. and my question to you, tim, and then also to you, mary, to what degree is the department aware of the bad actors within its ranks who may be furthering the causes of the former president? >> alex, there is no question that there were some current and former members of law enforcement in the crowd who believed that the election had been stolen, who believed that false narrative.

it's totally ridiculous to suggest that the fbi in any way instigated, caused, somehow motivated, the riot. we looked very hard for evidence of that, and found absolutely none. as director wray said today. i think law enforcement doesn't need to get serious about extremism in its ranks, and as a recruiting matter and as a trading matter, ensure that they do all they can to ensure that the men and women they bring in our bringing some warped ideology into the very important responsibility. i think they get that and are on that. but this notion that they are either part of the deep state helping liberals, or were somehow instigating the ride as a false flag operation, is not beast on fact whatsoever. >> mary, are we getting better policing extremism within the ranks of our own law enforcement agencies? >> we are certainly calling attention to it, and i think that certain law enforcement departments are getting better about it. one of the things that i have been trying to spread the word

on as much as possible over the last couple of years is that, yes, police officers have first amendment rights, but those are not limitless. even when they are speaking in their personal capacities about matters of public concern, if their speech or activity or their association undermines the mission of the police department, the law enforcement agency that they are members of, they could be disciplined, including firing. the courts have been very clear about that for decades. i think that sometimes law enforcement hides behind the first amendment as a reason not to take action against extremism. that is just wrong as a matter of law, the substantial leeway there, just as there is in the military. and yet, what we are seeing now even in admirable effort in the military to crack down on the, you are now accessing attachments to the national defense authorization act, which is something, critical piece of legislation that will need to be passed this year. we're seeing amendments to that

to try to dismantle those efforts within the military to eradicate extremism. so, for every step forward, it seems like there's folks on capitol hill that want to take a few steps backward. >> well, yeah, and a lot of the republicans, right, the very people who have committees dedicated the weaponization of the federal government. the irony is too thick to slice. tim heaphy, mary mccord, thank you so much for time tonight. >> thanks, alex. >> speaking of donald trump and the weaponization of the federal government, we have explosive new reporting about what the former president allegedly one government agencies to do to his perceived enemies. that is coming up next. plus, a cautionary tale for republicans who work to undermine american's faith in elections. and i'm not just a pillow sales. stick around for that. stick around for that.

he snores like an angry rhino. you've never heard an angry rhino. baby i hear one every night... every night. okay. i'll work on that. save $1200 on our most popular sleep number 360 smart bed. plus, save up to an additional $500 when you add select adjustable bases.

trying to control my asthma felt anything but normal. ♪ ♪ enough was enough. i talked to an asthma specialist and found out my severe asthma is driven by eosinophils, a type of asthma nucala can help control. now, fewer asthma attacks and less oral steroids that's my nunormal with nucala. nucala is a once-monthly add-on injection for severe eosinophilic asthma. nucala is not for sudden breathing problems. allergic reactions can occur. get help right away for swelling of face, mouth, tongue, or trouble breathing. infections that can cause shingles have occurred. don't stop steroids unless told by your doctor.

tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. may cause headache, injection site reactions, back pain, and fatigue. talk to your asthma specialist to see if once-monthly nucala may be right for you. and learn about savings at nucala.com there's more to your life than asthma. find your nunormal with nucala. is it possible to protect my business from cyber threats? there's more to your life than asthma. it is, with comcast business. helping every connected device stay protected. yours. your employees'. even...

susan? hers, too. safe. secure. and powered by the next generation 10g network. with comcast business, advanced security isn't just possible. it's happening. get started wih fast spees and advanced security for $49.99a month for 12 monts plus ask how to get up to a $750 >> this is a love story. prepaid card with qualifying internet.

>> lisa, i love you so much, please lisa. lisa, please, tell me you love me lisa, i love you. peter, i love you. i love you like i've never loved anyone. >> that was president donald trump in 2019, and despite how it might seem, mr. trump was not workshopping a one man play. he was making fun of these two fbi agents, peter strzok and lisa page, who had worked on the investigation into the trump campaign's ties to russia. for taking part in that investigation, both struck and paige were frequent targets of republican attacks and conspiracy theories, and also weird casinos is from the then president. they ultimately left the justice department, peter strzok was actually ultimately fired, so they both sued the doj in a civil suit, alleging their privacy was violent when the department released text messages between them, the ones

trump was bizarrely pantomime-ing at his rallies. strzok it's also claim that was improperly fired. well now, something has come out of that lawsuit that is a lot more troubling than trump's puppetless puppet show. john kelly, donald trump's former chief of staff, has given more testimony in that lawsuit. he has said in a sworn statement that donald trump, while he was president, discussed having the irs and other federal agencies investigate lisa page and peter strzok, as retaliation for their work on the russian investigation. in other words, trump tried to use the power of the federal government to punish his political enemies. the new york times has some additional reporting, that it didn't stop with those two fbi agents. quote, mr. trump had, at times, discussed using the irs and justice department to target others, including hillary clinton, amazon ceo jeff bezos, and former cia director john brennan. joining us now is john brennan, who is both the former cia

director, and in this apparrent club of people targeted by the former president. dr. brennan, thank you for being here this evening. for those that had forgotten the way in which you have very plainly, volley been critical of the former president, i will read one of your choice tweets from, i believe this is march of 2018 addressed to the president at the time. when the full extent of your valid, the moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known, you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history. nobody tweets like john brennan. director, it's reportedly this kind of statement that draw the ire of president trump, and basically put you on a retaliation last. can you talk about what it was like to be targeted by the president of the united states? >> since that time, i have been the target of many of the trump army, in terms of their animosity, their hatred, and

also the death threats. but it is clear that donald trump will go to any lengths possible to use whatever opportunity he has to be able to carry out these vendettas against those that he believes have harmed him, such as peter strzok, lisa page, and others. therefore, i shudder to think that if donald trump were to get back into office what he were to do with those institutions of governance, powerful organization, and the laws of this country, which he has so manipulated and distorted in order to advance his own personal agenda. when i think about what donald trump has done to the tenets of this great democracy, this great country of ours, it really just demonstrates the depth to which he will go in order to do anything to hurt, harm, and i think put a great risk to those who have the audacity to speak out against him. >> i would love if you could talk more about the guardrails themselves. we know about this literal

weaponizing of the federal government in this case, for example, the irs or doj and its hiring and firing practices, because of john kelly and his testimony under oath. i wonder the degree to which you think those guardrails hold if trump was reelected another four years. he is, of course, running for president. you intimated just now that you are concerned about it. institutionally speaking, can the center hold? >> it's a good question. john kelly, who is a very close former colleague of mine, is also a close friend. he decided to do that job of chief of staff at the white house knowing that it was going to be difficult, because he wanted to make sure that at least somebody was going to try to protect this country from any of the abuses that donald trump might engage in. i have no doubt whatsoever that the things that john kelly has said in these statements, as well as many other things, that trump was expecting more planning to do, or trying to do.

i if you don't have people in the positions that are going to prevent the abuse of power by presidents and others, this is something that i think he is really going to just tear this country apart. we're already deeply polarized, but again, you have somebody like donald trump, who's going to be the one to select the attorney general, probably going to fire chris wray, chris wray, who has been doing a tremendous job in my view, as to try to avoid a partisan and political borders that he finds himself involved in. and so therefore i am just concerned that donald trump, again, who has a really well deserved reputation of being vindictive and using any type of tactical ploy that is of questionable, ethical, and even legal basis to again, hurt is enemies. >> i wonder if there is a troublesome, the through the looking glass aspect to the republican war against the

weaponization of the federal government. it's like the best gaslight ever, when it seems like based on the evidence we have, republicans and conservatives didn't been weaponizing the federal government. once you say the phrase enough, whether it's the left or right, my concern is the phrase itself becomes meaningless. you lose the importance of the evidence that backs it up. republicans on the house subcommittees can talk about the weaponization of the federal government until they're blue in the face. without any evidence, it's meaningless. my worry is you say it enough, then it then becomes meaningless even when you do have evidence, as we do in this instance with donald trump and lisa page and peter strzok. does that concern you with all, that the gaslighting might be effective in the end? >> unfortunately, i think it. is affecting the attitudes and sentiments of many americans. watching the testimony today by chris wray, and those questions that were being lobbed at him from the republicans, it was

clear that they had several objectives. . , one was to put out these mischaracterizations, distortions, these lies in order for them to be replayed on the various right-wing networks, as well as for their own reelection purposes. secondly, i think that they're trying to discredit the investigations underway to really look into what donald trump did while he was in office, and then also after he was in office. third, i think he is trying to intimidate chris wray and the fbi to try and prevent them from actually doing their work, investigating these leads as appropriate. the fact that the republicans are doing this really is so surreal. republicans, for so many years, were known as the law and order party, the ones that were defending the law enforcement officers, the fbi, intelligence professionals, and others. and now, the tables have really turned. and it's the democrats there come to the aid and rescue of the fbi and the intelligence community, as a way to protect these institutions so that they're able to do their work,

despite the fact that they are being so roundly condemned unfairly by these republican members of congress, who only have their own very hyper partisan agendas as their goal. >> my concern is that institutional integrity has to be bipartisan, right? it's good that democrats are trying to rush in and preserve these important institutions of democracy. that in and of itself is a problem for the country. right? it has to appear that republicans believe in them as well. it has become a plank in the republican party platform to sow distrust in institutions in the government. how much hope do you have that there are efforts they can even be taken to mitigate this, given this absolute silence, the deafening silence, at best, from the crop of presidential candidates that are now running to lead the nation, and of course, the republican party? >> the trends are not good. and as you say, in the three bipartisan. national security and law

enforcement, these have always been traditionally very strong bipartisan issues. so both sides of the aisle can come together. when i see how these republicans are misrepresenting the facts and truth, and really trying to tear down these institutions, that we, as american citizens, rely on. i am hoping that we are going to find a way to get past this very difficult period of our national history and put donald trump, and others like him, behind in the rearview mirror, and move forward. but it is going to take some very strong, independent minded, and courageous republicans, both in the senate and in the house, to be able to say that this is wrong. sometimes they stand up and say it, but then they forget it right away. they need to have to stand up to pursue these -- in a bipartisan fashion, with the democratic colleagues in a way to make sure that we preserve these institutions that again, keep us strong internally, and keep us strong from external adversaries. >> former cia director john brennan, the only person that i

know of at this moment who has used the word caucusocracy in a tweet, and made it so deeply meaningful. still to come this evening, iowa's new six-week abortion ban is going to put presidential hopefuls in a very public political bind. plus, election denialism has consequences. just ask the my pillow guy. we're going to explain that, coming up next. ♪ ♪ ♪ 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.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ get it with gurus. cargurus. meet the portable blender we can barely keep in stock. blendjet 2 gives you ice-crushing, big blender power on-the-go. so you can blend up a mouthwatering smoothie, protein shake, or latte

wherever you are! recharge quickly with any usb port. best of all, it even cleans itself! just blend water with a drop of soap. what are you waiting for? order yours now from blendjet.com before they sell out again!

i will be a travel influencer... hey, i thought you were on vacation? it's too expensive. use priceline, they've got deals no one else has. what about work? i got you. looking great you guys! ♪ go to your happy price ♪ ♪ priceline ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

>> for the low, low price of five american dollars, this thing could be yours. it is an industrial pillow roller. it rolls pillows. but it's not just any industrial pillow rollout, it's a my pillow pillow rouleau from the my pillow pillow factory. my pillow is auctioning off over 850 equipment pieces from suing machines to forklifts. the companies even subletting part of its manufacturing space. why? because my pillow is not everyone's pillow or even a lot of peoples pillow, or so it seems. after january 6th, big box was like bed bath & beyond and cools stop selling my pillow products. in the last year, my pillow's

biggest distributor, walmart, walmart drop my pillow, too. turns out that having a ceo that's both the face of your brand and the face of conspiratorial election denialism is bad for business. my pillow ceo mike lindell says that after those retailers drop my pillow, the company's annual sales fell by over $100 million. and that's just sales. don't forget that mike lindell's lies about the 2020 election mean that he and the company mypillow itself are facing a 1.3 billion, with a b, billion-dollar defamation lawsuit from the voting machine company that mike lindell lied so much about. now, as much as mr. lindell is getting his comeuppance here, no group is perhaps feeling the heard from its own 2020 election lies quite as much as the republican party. in 2018, 54% of republicans said they were confident that votes in elections would be counted accurately. new polling shows that now only 22% of republicans have

confidence that those will be counted accurately, 22%. by contrast, democrats and become more confident about elections in that time. between 2018 and now, of course, the de facto leader of the russian party, donald trump, has pushed the big lie that the 2020 election was stolen. in particular, trump repeatedly demonized mail-in ballots as a source of fraud. but trump did not do this all single-handedly. do you remember virginia republican glenn youngkin's race for governor in 2021? mr. youngkin had to walk a fine line on election fraud. he didn't endorse conspiracy theories, but he also didn't debunk them. he was unwilling to say whether joe biden had been fairly elected until after he won his primary. now, youngkin can risk alienating a huge chunk the american electorate that still believes american elections are rigged. but it turns out that having an electorate that doesn't believe that voting works is a bad thing. this week, governor youngkin

launched a new message in campaign, attempting to convince republicans that early voting and mail in voting might not actually be the end of democracy after all. governor youngkin is not the only republican now in this position. in a big new national push this year, the rnc is desperately trying to get republicans to bank their vote, which is shorthand for vote earlier by mail. even the election deny gubernatorial candidate kari lake who to this day, has not conceded the 2022 election, even she has realized that telling people voting isn't secure is not the best way to win votes. so, kari lake has launched what she calls the largest ballot chasing operation in american history, which, you guessed it, means helping people cast their ballots early or by mail. republicans casting doubt on voting itself is one of the biggest self inflicted wounds in the history of our democracy. it is unclear how the party is going to clean up this mess,

but if they need an industrial floor scrub, or i know a guy. up next, republicans are digging themselves into yet a another hole on another issue just ahead of another election. claire mccaskill joins me. stay tuned. ns me. stay tuned

>> those voting aye, 32, nay, 17. the bill, having received a constitutional majority is declared to have passed the senate, and the title is agreed

to. the chair recognizes the senator from -- , senator whitford. >> boo! shame! blue! >> shame! >> those were protesters in the iowa senate chamber late last night, voicing their disapproval a few months after lawmakers passed a six-week abortion ban in a marathon 14 hour special session. the bill includes exceptions for the health of the woman and certain pregnancies resulting from rape or incest. certain groups, including local chapters of the aclu and planned parenthood, filed a lawsuit to temporarily block that ban, as the courts determine whether it is constitutional. even still, iowa governor kim reynolds plans to sign this newly-passed bill into law on friday afternoon. this republican governor does not want to sign her six-week abortion ban behind closed doors in the dead of night, like, for example, governor ron desantis, who announced he had signed his ban in april, shortly before midnight, and with no media in the room.

instead, governor reynolds wants to sign it here, at the very public family leadership summit. and because her state is the first nominating contest in the republican presidential cycle, the government -- the governor will have quite an audience. six republican candidates are x slated to be there, excluding, notably i'll add, former president donald trump. ron desantis, mike pence, tim scott, vivek ramaswamy, nikki haley, and isa hutchinson of all sign up to ten this family lived summit. and whether they like it or, not through those candidates will take the stage in the afternoon session, which now features the signing of a six-week abortion ban as its opening act. joining us now is claire mccaskill, former democratic senator from missouri. claire, thank you so much for joining me. i would love for you to wear weigh in on the awkwardness of governor desantis and nikki haley now having to share the same zip code with a six-week abortion ban. >> it's interesting. desantis is running for president, so he wanted to hide the fact that he signed this

bill. i'm not sure what the governor of iowa thinks she is accomplishing by this. but it certainly isn't speaking to most of america or even most of iowa. a 61% of iowans, this was a poll by the des moines register, which is nationally recognized is a very accurate pollster. and recently they polled, and 61% of iowans said they wanted abortions to be legal most of the time, safe and legal. 70% of iowa women say they want abortions to be safe and legal in most instances. only some 30% say they want it to be illegal in all circumstances. so, she is not representing her state. she is playing to the far right crowd that has a firm grip on the republican party right now. and it is that part of the party that these six presidential candidates are going to be catering to on friday afternoon. >> it's almost like she didn't

get the memo that you're supposed to sign the six-week abortion ban behind closed doors at midnight. the reality that this is just absolutely abysmal politics on the national stage. if you get out of the mud fight that is the republican primary, the polling on this isn't even a question. and therefore republicans are making a craven calculation that they can do all of these things behind closed doors in primary season and that the public is going to forget about them when it comes to the general. and i wonder, claire, put on your pessimistic hat or your disillusioned hat, if you would for a minute, do you think there's any truth to that? do you think you can get away with something like what ron desantis is doing, which sign it behind closed doors, sort of pretend it didn't happen, and then hope that placates the base enough to get through the primary and that never speculative again once you're a general election candidate.

>> first of all, i don't think that's going to work in the first instance, because women. this feels personal to women. the supreme court has taken away a right that women have counted on for 50 years. women do not want the government telling them what to do with their own bodies and in their relationships with their families, with their own faith. the government doesn't have a primary role in that instance, and women aren't going to forget this. i love being on meet the press after the dobbs decision, and remember the republican panelists said, said, counted a poll that said, you know, everyone's top weather's abortion decision. but people aren't really paying attention to, it it will matter in the midterms. and i'm yamiche alcindor and i looked at each other across the table and went, he's wrong. he doesn't understand that women care about this, they understand it. and women understand many times you don't even know you are pregnant at six weeks. it is just the same as the

missouri law which makes it illegal to have abortion in all instances from the moment of conception. >> i think it's notable that donald trump, who is, so far, sort of the only person who has raised a red flag around the abortion issue being perhaps terrible for republicans in an election, is not gonna be at this summit. ron desantis, is the unlucky guy, along with nikki haley, who gets to be in the afternoon session when this is signed. which, coupled with his general strategy on abortion and bodily autonomy, gives rise to the latest reporting on ron desantis. which is even rupert murdoch has his doubts about ron desantis. mr. murdoch, this was reported in the new york times, that he is privately told people he would like to see governor glenn youngkin of virginia entered the right race. i get why this desantis campaign is not ringing true for a lot of republicans, including rupert murdoch, but

the question is, do you think it's just delusional for them to believe that anybody but trump is going to be the nominee, or is the garage door not yet down on that? >> i think this is one of the big problems they have. they all know that if they can beat trump in iowa, it shakes the premise that he is unbeatable. in iowa the vast majority of the republican voters that participated in their caucuses are white evangelical voters that are in line with the six -week abortion ban. so this has become a litmus test for all those candidates whose only hope for getting a win in the primary is to win in iowa. and that is why it is interesting that trump is not showing up. trump had a hard time there. he didn't win in 16, and frankly had to run around the state with jerry falwell to try to drum up conservative evangelical support, even in 2020, to do better than he had in the past. i think it's one of those

things they're hoping this issue will sink trump in iowa and they'll have a chance. but the irony is, they're going to sink all of them, because women are not going to forget this. >> the governor is going to make sure of that as well. the great claire mccaskill, i really appreciate your time tonight. and this quick programming note, it's going to be a big night here at 30 rock tomorrow, a circus, one might say, when all three of my former co-host from showtime's the circus, that would be doug heilemann, mark mckinnon, and jennifer palmieri, will join me to talk about all things 2024. there will be a lot to discuss. tomorrow night, right here on msnbc. but first, hollywood is holding its breath as actors threaten to join the writers on strike for the first time since 1960. what is on the line there, and which major political figure, that's a hint, led them during the last strike. that's next. ♪ ♪ ♪ th 20 grams of protein for muscle health

versus 16 grams in ensure® high protein. boost® high protein. now available in cinnabon® bakery-inspired flavor. learn more at boost.com/tv ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ wherever you go. wherever you stay. all you need is one key. earn and use rewards across expedia, hotels.com, and vrbo. make a splash with the ultimate pool party essential. blendjet gives you ice-crushing,

big blender power on-the-go, so you can soak up the sun with a frosty beverage. enjoy 15+ blends before rapidly recharging via usb-c. and it even cleans itself with a drop of soap and water. stand out even when you're accidentally twinning with our kaleidoscope of colors. make this summer the coolest ever. order yours now from blendjet.com. we really don't want people to think of feeding food like ours is spoiling their dogs. good, real food is simple. it looks like food, it smells like food, it's what dogs are supposed to be eating. ♪ >> woman: why did i choose safelite? i love my electric car, so when my windshield got cracked, supposed to be eating.

i trusted the experts at safelite. with their state-of-the-art technology, they replaced the windshield, recalibrated the car's camera, and then recycled my old glass. i found out safelite recycles over three million windshields a year. great job! >> tech: thank you! >> woman: replace, recalibrate, recycle. i count on safelite. ♪ rock music ♪ >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ more shopping? you should watch your spending honey. i'm saving with liberty mutual, mom. they customize your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. check it out, you could save $700 dollars just by switching. ooooh, i'll look into that. let me put a reminder on my phone. save $700 dollars. pick up dad from airport? ohhhhhh. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ >> tonight, just hours after

nominations were announced for the 75th emmy awards, the machinery of hollywood may be coming to a grinding halt. the union representing 160,000 tv, film, and radio actors is threatening to go on strike at the stroke of midnight pacific time tonight, if contract talks with the major studios fail. if negotiators do not reach a deal, the result would be a double whammy of historic proportions. actors would join hollywood

writers who have already been on strike for the past ten weeks. the last time anything like this happened, that both actors and writers went on strike at the very same time, the last time this happened was 63 years ago. and leading those very tense negotiations in march and april of 1960 was a b list actor you might have heard of. his name was ronald reagan. you can see him in this photo standing second from the right, next to charlton houston. reagan was serving his second stint of as president of the screen actors guild, and he had helped spearhead a strike with the writers guild of america against seven major film studios. that is correct. two decades before he ushered in the modern era of conservatism, rooted in the idea of small government and slashing the social safety net and diminishing the power of organized labor, two decades before that, ronald reagan led the actor union, actor's union, through bitter negotiations, once that ultimately secured investment dollars for a new

union health insurance plan, a pension plan, and residuals for films produced after 1960. that was ronald reagan's handiwork. and today, residuals are once again at the core of the demands of the actor's union. they are asking to be compensated for their work appearing on streaming services, and they're also demanding safeguards from artificial intelligence, as well as better composition and better working conditions and better benefits. right now, production is already shut down on abbott elementary and yellow jackets and stranger things because of the writer's strike, and we're gonna find out in a few hours if even more shows have stopped production and whether this might just be the summer of strikes. that's our show for tonight. we'll see you tomorrow. and now it's time for the last word with lawrence o'donnell. >> good evening, lawrence. >> good evening, alex. i'm glad you noted the only union president in history to become president of united states, ronald reagan, unique position that he holds in union history in presidential

history. >> yes. who would have thunk it, all of it, union president and president, and what he did during the course of that presidency. >> alex, we have former attorney general eric holder joining us tonight, and i am so eager to talk to him. we'll talk about a few things, but one thing we'll try to talk to him about is something i haven't discussed in a full segment on this program, but i have suggested from time to time, that i do not see, given that presidents of the united states get lifetime secret service protection, i have not been able to see how a president, former president, can be sentenced to prison. that means a dozen secret service agents. you've seen how many secret service agents go to court with him. how many have to go to prison with him? how do you do that? in what prison? how is that supposed to work? just as i think about it, i ha