a robust discussion. >> this one if we have the video, would certainly be near the top ofnl the list. >> just now president putin denied having anything to do election interfeerps in 2016. every u.s. intelligence agency has concluded russia did.

my first question for you, sir, is who do you believe? >> they think it's russia. i have president putin, he just said it's not russia. i will say this, i don't see any reason why it would be. i will tell you that president putin waswi extremely strong an powerful inro his denial today. >> president of the united states of america, donald trump, standing alongside russian president vladimir putin, aligning himself with russian claims over u.s. intelligence. and denying what everyone at that point knew to be true. russia interfered in the 2016 election. throughout his time in office, trump denied and down-played and excused russian interference in america's elections. he called the investigation into thatd interference a hoax and witch hunt over and over and over again. and now mr. trump is set to be on trial for his own efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his baseless claims that the election was stolen.

in trump's new defense in that case appears to be the court should believe his claims about ave stolen election, and the reason the court should believe the election was stolen is because of russian interference. i am not joking. this is from trump's lore's latest motion in the federal elections case. between january 2019 and at least december 2020, parties reportedly linked to the russian's foreign intelligence service perpetrated what is described as one of the worst cyber security incidents in history. on january 6, 2021, they determined this threat pezs a grave risk to local, state and territorial governments. just for a second imagine being trump's lawyer and going before the court saying with a straight face that your client, trump, was justen really concerned abo russian election interference. and that it was russia's fault

and not trump's that certain americans distrusted the results of the 2020 election. well, that argument is part of a pair of new motions from trump's lawyers demanding that the american government turn over thousands ofan documents that t defense believes will help trump prove his case in court. and these russian interference stuff is just really the tip of the iceberg here. trump's lawyers want the government to turn over everything they have ono effor to investigate fraud in the 2020 election. they want20 the government to tn over anything t they have regarding undercoverey agents a thede capitol on january 6th thereby promotingry the baseles theory that the violence on january 6enth may have resulted from a failed sting operation by thein fbi. the defense also wants any documents or information supporting the baseless conspiracy that joe biden pressured merrick garland to indict donald trump. the defense wants to know if the justice department pressured former vice president mike pence

to change his testimony to prosecutors. the defense wants communications between the justice department and the biden family including hunter biden, who has absolutely nothing to do with this case except for the fact republicans apparently like saying his name ais lot. it seems pretty obvious what trump isre trying to do here. number one, bury this judge, judge chutkan, in paper, in an attempt to delay this trial. number two, reliterate the big lie and sow further distrust in our democracy. and three, dig up as much dirt as possible during the discovery process and use it during the campaign d season. as trump's lawyers proceed in that three-pronged effort. we're getting new evidence trump himself knew it wasev all a lie. new excerpts from liz cheney's forthcoming book revealed just two days after the 2020 election republican kevin mccarthy told

cheney trump knew it's oval. he needs to go through all the stages of grief. that same day -- that same day kevin mccarthy went on fox news and said this. >> president trump won this election, so everyone who's listening do not be quiet. do not be silent about this. we cannot allow this to happen before our very t eyes. >> donald trump forced the republican party toal go along withar his election lies even wn he allegedly knew that he had lost the election. and now he is going to attempt that same strategy in a federal courtroom. joining me now is melissa murray, a professor at nyu law school and co-host of "the strict scrutiny" podcast. and also joining me msnbc political analyst claire

mccaskill. 59 requests from the defense, 70 pages of legal motions, 300 pages of supporting exhibits asking forpo material prosecuto don't necessarily have in their possession. >> so as you said in the opening, alex, this is kind of a long shot for donald trump. i think, again, there are multiple strategies being pursued here. first and i think principally is topa slow judge chutkan down by inundating her with paper. as a general matter, defendants can ask for material that's relevant to their defense, but they can't really ask for the world. and in situations like this, it really comes down to whether or not the prosecution has withheld information. and here this seems a little bit far field. some of the materials on hunter biden that were requested do noe seem relevant to the issues at play in the january 6th hearing. delay seems to be the game here, but he'se also playing to anotr

court, and that's the court of public opinion. a lot ofur this is to begin to w the seeds of disinformation and the idea theed election was ston in 2020 and that the 2024 election is similarly in peril. >> claire, the thing that almost made my head explode was the notion thatas donald trump is deeply concerned about russian electionbo interference. i mean it really defies explanation. is anybody out there to be convinced that joe biden was vladimir putin's pick for president in 2020 especially given the state of affairs between the two men now? >> no. no one is buying that except thatng group of people. and it's somewhere around 20% to 25% of america that has decided to believe whatever he says. he could say the most outlandish, outrageous, and has said the most outlandish and outrageous things, and they will believe it.

but i'veev got to tell you, looking at all these cases, and love melissa's take on this, it makes me dizzy. we have civil cases.vi we have civil cases that are in front of the d.c. circuit and have been there for over a year after they were argued and have not been decided. that touchav on issues that he' bringing upn now. and then we have other civil cases against trump. then we have criminal cases against trump both at the federal level andai the state level. and all of this is swirling. it makes me dizzy, and i'm a lawyer itnd makes me dizzy. all of the cases that are out there, all of the motions being filed. ande s candidly, all of the aps that will be possible. so i would really like the respected judges that are on the bench in these cases especially those in the appellate court what could be their excuse for not deciding donald trump's appeal onng the issue of immuni in civil trials?

why in the world would that circuit be taking a year to decide a case? it's way outside the norm. >> yeah, and we actually spent quite a bit of time talking about that yesterday in the way these kindrd of pretrial motion have -- and beyond these appeals have a way of potentially really slowing down the timetable even for an aggressive judge like judgeiv chutkan, which sort of begs the question, melissa, i assume there's a lot in this request from a the defense thats laughable, but i would also assume there's probably something in there that has some merit that could throw gum in the works, if you will? and do you have a sense, and what might that be? what might be the implication of a sortth of extended discovery process here? >> i think that's exactly right. some of this is going to be outlandish, some of the material requested we don't know if the department of justice has that in its possession.

it could be not necessarily things easily accessible to the prosecution and thereforeib abl toer easily turned over to the defense. a really good judge, a diligent judge, and judge chutkan is both a good and diligent judge is going to have to sift through and separate the weak from the chaff here, and this was a case meant to be lean, mean, and move expeditiously and this will slow it down. we have the mar-a-lago case which already seems to be slowed down because judge cannon doesn't seem to be moving in an expeditious fashion. we have then case down in geora slow moving because it's so unwieldy with defendants, and of course we have the mush money case, which is almost perhaps the most minimal in termles of the legal jeopardy donald trump was in and the nature themselves. these are the two immediate cases and the one most likely to be ow slowed down by all these shenanigans.

>> and then there's the question in which this can derail the actual trial. there's this metafact of trump relitigating the big lie once again inig an election year, claire. he in manyn r, ways poisoned th groundwork for american n democracy, and it looks like he's going to take another turn at bat, if you will, on that again to use many mixed metaphors. when you hear his intention is to try to drum up some sort of phantom evidence the election was stolen once again, how concerned does that make you as far as this broader american project? >> oawell, if there was factual evidence this election was somehow tampered with or stolen, we would have heard about it long before now. that'sw. why i think public tris and w public hearings -- i thin hunter biden was very smart to say let's do my testimony in

public. every time they havey tried to trot something that was going to be damning whether it was about theam biden family or whether i was about how the election was conducted, they failed. they failed miserably. you know why? because they don't have the on evidence. there is no evidence. if there were, all the cases that have already been decided would have been decided differently. he may try tode talk about the g lie in these cases, but there's a big difference between talking about it outside of court and referring to it in pleadings. but lawyers have to be very careful about what theories they put forward. if they know they're not truthful, they can get in trouble. and obviously if the guy that hangs out at mar-a-lago takes the stand, he has to be careful. so this is not as easy as it looks for him to try to throw up the big lie as some kind of defense. >> melissa, i'm reminded of comments that judge berril

howell made i believe it was yesterday. she's a sitting judge and federal judge and overseen a number of january 6th cases, and she said it was not in a judicial context, but at an event this week she quoted heather kwauks richardson, the boston historian, who writes in her new book that america is at a crossa roads teetering at th brink of authoritarianism, and she echoes richardson's sentiment that big lies are bill boards for authoritarians. the insight into trump's strategy here is chilling, and i wonder how unusual it is for a sitting u judge to make remarks like that at a moment when a number of judges in sort of unrelated cases are saying quite unequivocally trump incited an insurrection or guilty of federal crimes. >> certainly not a coincidence judge howell made these remarksl it was made to a group of women lawyers receiving an award.

lisa monaco also received an r award. she was veryan clear the threatf authoritarianism is not an idle threat. it is one that lies beneath these big lies, sowing the seeds of distrust around elections when we know and trump knew and members of the trump administration said that the election in 2020 was the most secure in american history. it was a lie to say that the election had been stolen from donald h trump.ro but, again, this is what breeds authoritarianism, and again the 2024 election is one where i think american democracy is very much on the table. and it's not just about the united states. we're seeing the threat of ta rising authoritarianism all around the world in various countries that previously had been solid democracies. this is not an idle threat. the united states leads on these questions and other nations will take our lead and follow it as well. >> i melissa murray, claire

mccaskill, thank you both for joining me. we have breaking news this evening. former secretary of state henry kissinger has passed away at the age of 100. he served under the presidents of richardde nixon and gerald ford. our lester nnd holt has a look at his life. >> thank you. nice to see you all. >> reporter: he was brilliant, ambitious, controversial, and one of the most influential secretaries of state in american history. >> iof think we made further progress. >> reporter: henry kissinger served richard nixon, gerald ford, and was consulted by presidents of both parties on international issues throughout his life. >> henry kissinger has been a friend of mine. >> reporter: nixon made him a national fig, yr, and together they re-imagined u.s. foreign policy, relations with china, shuttled diplomacy in the middle east. kissinger helped shape nixon's

policy in vietnam and negotiated an end to the war, famously declaring success prematurely just days before the 1972 election. >> we believe that these -- >> reporter: he was awarded the nobel peace prize. >> nothing that has happened today in public life has moved me more than this award. >> reporter: though his co-recipient, north vietnam's declined the honor. four years later president fordr awarded him the medal of freedom. he was a master of big picture diplomacy, but he had his critics who described him as manipulative and insecure. some called him a war criminal for bombing cambodia and widening the war in vietnam. born in germany in 1923, kissinger's jewish family fled

to america as hitler rose to r power. he became a u.s. citizen, served in world war ii, and earned a ph.d. at harvard where he became a profelser. eye of richard nixon, who made him national security advisor, then secretary of state, the only person ever to hold both jobs simultaneously. >> there's no country in the world where it is conceivable that a man of my origins could be standing here next to the president of the united states. >> but their relationship was complicated, and white house tapes reveal that kissinger sometimes enabled the worst in nixon. >> it was a very curious relationship because we were noe personally very close. >> the night before he resigned in disgrace, nixon asked kissinger to kneel and pray with him. >> and of course it was a touching event, but i think of

that evening, as an experiencef dignity and was very moving. >> kissinger was no faceless bureaucrat. he was a world renowned celebrity. and he loved the spotlight. he was even something of a pop culture icon. after leaving government, he opened his, own consulting fir remaining active and sought after for decades. at 95, eulogizing john mccain's life, kissinger sounded a wistful note about his own. >> like most people of my age, i feel a longing for what is lost and cannot be restored. >> reporter: henry kissinger was a man of great accomplishment and controversy. but as he once told nbc's barbara walters, he had no

regrets. >> if i had to do it over again, i would do it again substantially the same way, which may make me reconstructive, and may be one reasond i'm at peace with myse. >> henry kissinger was 100 years old. we'll be right back. kissinger s old. we'll be right back.

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there are a quarter of a million more jobs in colorado since i took office. that's a quarter million more people throughout this state including in nis district who can look their kid in the eye and say, honey, it's going to be okay. >> that was president biden speaking today at what is now the largest wind tower manufacturer in the world, in pueblo, colorado. the company that owns that plant is headquartered in south korea and used to make all of its wind towers abroad. but incentives from biden's inflation reduction act

reportedly convinced this company to make a $200 million investment in that plant in colorado and thereby creating 850 new jobs in the state. by all the standard metrics the economy under president biden is doing great. inflation is slowing, the gdp is growing, the unemployment rate is just 3.9%. but when americans are asked about how they feel about the state of the economy, things do not seem so bright. a new york times siena poll earlier this month found in six key battle ground states 81% of registered voters described the economy as only fair or poor. a whopping 93% of registered voters under 30 felt the same. for this white house that is particularly concerning because biden voters in 2020 skewed younger, and this poll was specifically looking at younger voters in battleground states. so what explains the disconnect? the odds are low that many

people under 30 were watching today as president biden spent more than 20 minutes listing all the ways his administration has improved the economy. but surveys show that the odds are high that young voters are getting their economic news from social media videos like these. >> i heard a new term on tiktok today that made me stop in my tracks. >> to do a new car in 1930 would have been about $860, worth about $15,000. the average cost of a new car today is $48,000. >> new cars are unaffordable, new houses are unfor you fordable. to move to a new place and rent somewhere else is unaffordable. >> how could we be living through worst cost of living and wages than 1930, and no politician, no media outlet, no one is talking about it. >> that's bidennomics. >> those tic talks failed to

mention in the 1930s you probably would not have had a job to pay for one of those $860 cars because unemployment literally peaked in 1933 at 19%, and now it's at 3.9%, and wages are finally outpacing inflation. but as one economic analyst put it to "the new york times" earlier this month, we are in a vibe session. that's the word, vibe session. all the normal economic metrics show a strong economy, but the vibes are off. so what does that mean about the reality for american voters, and how can president biden convince the american public that his plans are actually working? chris hayes joins me here next to discuss. discuss ah, these bills are crazy. she has no idea she's sitting on a goldmine. well she doesn't know that if she owns a life insurance policy of $100,000

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today former president trump published this op-ed in news week. i will make america great again for young people. it is filled with a lot of amazing claims, but my favorite is trump toulting his credentials by saying under his leadership the price of gasoline went to $1.87 a gallon. that is amazing because the only time the national average gas price dropped that low under president trump was in march of 2020. what else was happening in march of 2020? >> one place you can expect to find a bit of relief during this pandemic is at the pump. the coronavirus has been driving down gas prices. >> the good news is gas is

incredibly cheap right now. $2.23 at this station just outside of chicago. the bad news is many americans aren't able to take advantage of it especially in states like illinois where shelter in place orders have been implemented. >> you might be paying attention to the gas prices falling, but we wanted to know if coronavirus could spread onto the gas pumps that you are touching. turns out it sure can. >> joining me now is my friend and on-air neighbor and colleague chris hayes, host of all in with chris hayes on msnbc and host of the why is this happening with pod, that i haven't been invited yet to. but we'll talk about that later off camera. you may mismanage a global pandemicch. >> there's perfect continuity between that and the tiktok you played where she's talking about how cheap things were in 1930. like stuff was cheap in 1930 for

sure. >> stuff was falling apart. >> this gets to a number of points. one is people don't like rising prices, and prices have been rising. it's not super rocket science, right? that level of frustration and even when you say, look, the prices have been -- inflation has been coming out, inflation is the rate of growth. the rate of growth has been coming down, so like people were not noticing rates of growth, they're noticing levels. at the same time when you're thinking about the question of has this person done a good job in macro economic policy, the comparison set which is every oecd country and every pure country, and the reason again this gets back to the coronavirus point. the reason things have been hard to manage is because we had a once in a century disruption. that thing that happened in march in 2020, which is i think for a variety of reasons been under-appreciated. >> yeah, i mean people don't want to hear about it. they're tire of hearing about it and they're not looking at it as

a causal. >> that's exactly right. oh, it's 2023, what do you many houses are expensive now because of coronavirus. right, houses are expensive now because we had huge inflation so the fed hiked rates. >> and the rates are going to come down, and that will create a sellers market -- we'll talk about that in a second. but i also think it speaks to a larger, weirder intractable dynamic between republicans and democrats, right? biden is shepherding through this economy that is actually incredibly good on its face, i yet he has to deal with the vibe session. they're this kind of ephemeral, unspoken but very real narrative that things are not good. trump is literally lying about his accomplishments in the pages of news week and has the confidence of the party. like -- >> well, first of all we saw this a little bit in the polling where there's a huge partisan split. so there were democrats who in 2019 would be, yeah, the economy is good under trump whereas the day biden became president.

you've already got this weird waiting that's happening in the polling. >> why don't democrats answer in a purely partisan -- >> right, because they're different, because there's a huge asymmetry. it gets to this point when you talk about 2020 and donald trump i think one of the weird dynamics that set in that is creating the vibe session is donald trump was president in 2020. do people know that? it's like everyone because it was so traumatic everyone like just cut off 2020 from their memory and put it in some locked vault -- yes, a box. things were good under donald trump in 2019. it is a complete lacuna, so there's this weird effect that set in because the macro economy in 2019 is doing well. it finally dug out from a decade that had been lost. it had been set on its this this path by barack obama, and donald trump did things to mess with it

that didn't successfully mess with it, and so you've got this very weird situation that because of the intensity of the trauma of covid, i really think people have this strange attenuted sense of whether it existed or not and who was responsible for what. >> i also just think when you are punching at shadows, something being called in the pages of "the new york times" a vibe session, it makes it incredibly difficult to combat that narrative. >> yes, and you particularly see this in the coverage, where there's this constant focus on whatever the next negative thing is. you'll see people like eggs, eggs, eggs. eggs and bacon are so expensive. turkey is -- this year turkeys were lower than their 2019 price. egg said are down in real terms. not like they've gone up less. they're actually down. no one does the local news story about look how cheap eggs are, so you've got this one way ratchet. and we say in the business we don't cover the plays at lam.

>> i haven't covered the price of eggs, cheap eggs ever. >> exactly. who's going to lead their segment with eggs are cheap? >> you. >> i have done eggs are cheap. >> you're doing the yeomans work of the biden administration. but it makes this complicated. >> they went and talked to voters who are biden voters and disapproving of the economy. there actually is a pretty good story to tell. i really say this as someone who's very invested in domestic and macro economic policy who's had very strong views on them for more than a decade. i've been working in journalism and watched the stakes. there's a very good story to tell about navigating an impossible set of challenges. basically better than any other leadership in the world. >> that's the key. there's always the republican party that's quite good at

shooting itself in the foot. if they knew what was good for them in 2024 it'd be all economy all the time, but instead they have to keep going back to social issues and abortion. >> and donald trump was like, hey, we're also going to get rid of obamacare, which is like the most incredible gift to the democratic party. >> so there's always that. chris hayes, my friend, thank you for staying late this wednesday evening. i appreciate you and your egg reporting. >> thank you. we have much more ahead this evening including the exodus of lawmakers from capitol hill. what's driving them out? i have a few ideas. the first more israeli hostages and palestinian prisoners were released on what has been expected to be the last day of that cease-fire. could there be more ahead? that's next. cease-fire. could there be more ahead? that's next.

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shipping is always free. go to dealdash.com right now and see how much you can save. today on the sixth and possibly final day of the extended cease-fire between izal and hamas, 14 hostages were released from gaza. four thai nationals and ten israelis including an american dual citizen. just the second american freed as part of this deal. the first was 4-year-old abigail eden. also released today were two russian israeli citizens. seen here walking arm in arm in a video released by hamas. their release was outside the framework of the agreement. since the cease-fire began 97

hostagevise been exchanged for 210 palestinians held in israeli prisons. in doha officials from israel, the u.s., qatar, and egypt, continue talks to extend the cease-fire a second time with the hopes these pauses could pave the way to ending this war. but israeli prime minister netanyahu has made clear that the war will continue whenever the truce ends. in a video statement today he said there is no way we are not going back to fighting until the end. joining me now is my friend and colleague, ayman mohyeldin host of ayman on msnbc. netanyahu seems pretty clear on this one. is it just vague hope this could extend and lead to an off-ramp in this war? >> no, i think now there's real hope. we're coming close to the deadline of the first extension of the second day. it's important to note the reason there is hope is because the mechanism to release hostages through diplomat

negotiations has so far work. this is it largest amount of hostages released since the war began on october 7th, so there is hope israel will stay committed to this, that hamas will stay committed to this to release the remaining hostage. here's the tricky part and it's going to come down to once both sides are done with the release of civilians that are women and children and you start getting to the next group of people, what the parameters of those are going to be, for example, we ultimately get to the issue of soldiers and reservists and women who are soldiers and those who could have served then i think it becomes a bit trickier because hamas' demands are going to go up, and it'll be interesting see whether israel meet its demands or gives its own demands. >> i do -- it's clear prime minister netanyahu has the external pressures from beyond including the united states to not go back or go back surgically into gaza and then the internal pressures from right-wing hard liners that surround him to keep the war

going. when he says we are going to keep doing this until the end, do you -- do any of us have a clear picture what that actually means? >> i don't think we do, and that's why there's this growing concern now among u.s. officials who are talking to their israeli counter parts about this and certainly starting to now appear in the public discourse in american media, the president today with a very interesting tweet that i think a lot of people interpreted to say suggest perhaps this means there's a shift in at least the public language that the administration is going to use about israel's conduct because the president was very clear about this. >> i don't know if we have the tweet. >> we do. we can pull it up right now. hamas unleashed a terrorist attack because they fear nothing more than israelis and palestinians living side by side in peace. to continue down the path of terror, violence, killing, and war is to give hamas what they seek. we can't do that. >> the part that says going down in terror, the killing, the violence, and war is giving hamas what it seeks.

so in some ways what he's suggesting is that giving this war more life is exactly what hamas wants, and you're playing into hamas' hands. so could this now be the opening of a public shift of the way the administration talks about israel's conduct in the way it's been executing this war? and the concern has been this war over the first eight weeks or so, 55 days now has been focused on the northern part of the gaza strip. you're talking about 50,000 people, more than 70% women and children. that's just the northern part. they've told 2 million people to squeeze themselves into the southern part of gaza. now they're reporting the prime minister and idf are shifting their attention to begin operations in the southern part of gaza. what happens to 2 million people trapped in the southern part of gaza who are not able to return to the north whose homes have been destroyed and now trapped because the border with egypt is not open. >> and i'm sure egypt has thoughts about attacking the southern border of gaza. let me ask you as the biden administration appears to be

sort of shifting its public stance on this, how much you think there is a calculation at hand given the new numbers that are out among just rapidly declining support for the president among arab americans? i mean these numbers are fairly staggering, right? michigan, arizona, georgia, all states that have sizable populeses, michigan biden won it by 154,000 votes. arizona he won it by 10,000 votes. the population 60,000 folks, and these are in exact numbers, right? georgia 11,000 votes was biden's margin of victory. there are 57,000 people in the arab population. these are numbers that if they flip or these folks do not come out and his approval numbers among arab americans have cratered because of this -- the situation in gaza. this is the kind of thing that could really actually affect the

election in a meaningful way. >> this is a very ominous sign for the president. at the end of the day the president is politician. he wants to get re-elected. if you're a political advisor to the president you're seeing this, and you see alarm bells going off. because the other part of that is that the arab american population that can vote in this country and the muslim population that can vote in this country have been extremely disappointed would the president in terms of how this administration has been executing or supporting the war -- executing the war and supporting it publicly i should say. and the consequence of that is for the administration is two fold. one, there is still a year out, so they could change that. they could perhaps try to put together some kind of peace conference, peace summit to try to mobilize the international community for palestinian statehood. is that likely to happen? no, but that could be an opening or something that could allow for these numbers to recover. but the second part of that is really that arabs and certainly muslim americans, they know what the alternative is, and the

alternative is donald trump, and so they find themselves in this situation where they're not going to vote for donald trump -- obviously i'm speaking generalities here, but they know that donald trump is dangerous to not just america but specifically muslims. he wants to ban muslims. he'd probably be worse on gaza than president biden has in the eyes of muslim americans and arab americans. the sentiment and the polling suggests if they don't go to joe biden, they're going to sit the election out. and if they sit the election out, the consequences will be dire for president biden, and part of that motivation is they want to be taken seriously and heard, and that is one of the main reasons they feel the administration has not heard them up until this point on the issue of the gaza war. >> we are if you can believe it less than a year away from another presidential election. my friend ayman mohyeldin host here on msnbc weekend nights.

still ahead another member of congress is leaving capitol hill for good, and it's not george santos today. we're going to talk to congresswoman ana eshew uth why she is retiring now. that's next. eshew uth why she is retiring now. that's next.

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after extensive and unusual lies and federal indictment charging conspiracy, wire are fraud, and false statements to the fec among other crimes it seems finally congressman george santos will be leaving the u.s. house of representatives. he's expected to be formally expel from the u.s. chamber on friday, in a vote that is likely to have significant bipartisan support. mr. santos is not alone in his it departure. no one else has lied about volleyball careers or broadway credentials or chinese

kidnapping plots, no one else is under indictment and no one else is getting expelled but a whole lot of congress people are leaving. a surge of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are leaving washington precisely at the same time as republican dysfunction becomes way of life on capitol hill. connection, maybe. one of them is congresswoman ana eshew, democrat of california, who is leaving after more than 30 years in the house. joining me now is the congresswoman her self-congresswoman eshoo of california. thank you for being here. let me ask you why leave now? >> i think it's time. and contrary to, you know, the mess in washington and the people fleeing, i'm really not running away from the congress. i think it's time at the end of this term i will have represented my constituents for 32 years in the house of

representatives, so i've experienced a great deal. it's really the highest honor and privilege of my life, and my constituents have been -- you know, for them to place their trust in me over, you know, three decades, i'm enormously grateful. but i just felt something inside this time, a tug that i haven't felt before, so it's time. >> you've served your country so loyally and nobody -- i certainly don't mean to diminish that at all, and i think most of us if not all of us can absolutely understand why 32 years is sufficient, but there have been a lot of departures announced this year. i believe we're up to 30 house seats that are opening up, and i wonder if you could tell us sort of how you see congress change and the work of congress change from the start of your career until now. >> well, it has changed and it

has changed dramatically. you know, there's always been heated, robust debate, and the house of representatives is a rough and tumble place, which i love. but at the end of those debates, consensus would be developed. and we don't have that now. and this is not just a messy story out of washington, d.c. i have really seen the -- the near collapse of what i understood to be the republican party. the republican party, and i'm a devout democrat, but the republican party has produced great leaders for our country -- was a great party. so to see a great party really just more than chipped away at is very sad, and it's dangerous as well because our system

depends on two functioning parties. and when one party is in the majority or the other, they have to be devoted to gufblerning, but that's not the case now. >> i wonder if you could for folks who are out there and don't understand why people still run for office and why democrats still feel the work is worth doing even when the other party is nonfunctional, tell us what it has meant to you to serve in congress for these last 30 odd years. >> well, i think there's something deeply embedded in us that we want to serve, that we want to do something for -- for our country. i guess my mother and father would say it's patriotism. but public service is a calling. i believe that it is a calling. and so it -- you know, it's

something that runs very deep. now, they're very tough jobs, too. i mean you have an enormous amount of responsibility. and the job is really 24/7. so many constituents have asked me over the years how do you balance your public life with your personal life? and i said there isn't a balance. this job -- this job and its responsibilities have to come first. but it is i think a great blessing. >> well, we are all all lucky as a country to have had you in that seat so long. >> thank you. >> thank you, congresswoman anna eshoo, thank you for your time and thank you for these last three decades. that is our show for this evening. "way too early" with jonathan lemire is coming up next. let me be clear, the speaker, donald trump, and the maga republi