coming up, the mercenary area of donald trump. the story of tiktok, truth social, and multibillion-dollar deal. plus, a terrifying real account of post-rural america that exposes just how quickly this country is sliding towards reproductive dystopia. and today's banned book club, george orwell's masterpiece, "1984." it's important and continued importance on another hour of "velshi," which begins right now. good morning, saturday, march 23rd. i'm ali velshi. a critical and offensive deadline --

this could mean seizure of some of his most prized properties if he is not able to put up the money or the financial guarantee well he continues to appeal that case. that looks like that is where things are headed after his lawyers filed a court fili this week. early yesterday morning, the president undercut his lawyers claiming a post through hard work, talent, and luck, i currently have almost $500 million in cash. then hours after that post, shareholders of digital world acquisition voted to merge with the trump of media and technology group which owes truths social. the company will go public next week which will be a financial windfall of $3 billion for the president. he will not be able to take out that money to pay the penalty

that he owes in new york. it offers him a lifeline in a vulnerable moment. that merger between his parent company and digital world acquisitions was 2.5 years in the making. there is a story to be told that provides important context to his current situation and it involves tiktok, a conservative pack and a really rich man. he is a mega-donor and major investor that has a $33 billion stake in the chinese parent company that owns tiktok. yass is the top donor in the 2024 election cycle. that includes donations to four of his primary opponents.

ron desantis, and chris christie who is a trump critic. notably, yass has not given any money to the former president himself. yass is a major donor to the conservative nonprofit group, club for growth. he gave $16 million to the political action committee affiliated with the club for growth and the organization and its related groups have also worked hard to mobilize opposition to the tiktok band on capitol hill. it was through club for growth that trump and yass got acquainted. this is what started to catch the critics attention. the two camps split on who to support in key races. earlier this year they mended fences with a little help from yass who is one of the people who reach out to the former

president about attending the club for growth retreat this year. donald trump accepted the invitation and attended the retreat and gave a speech at the gathering where he gave yass a shout out calling the billionaire fantastic. then six days later on march 7th, trump announced that he h, had changed his mind about tiktok and came out against banning it. as bipartisan efforts were gaining steam in the house of representatives. this is a significant reversal. considering that in 2020 while he was still president, he signed the executive order that stated the united date must take aggressive action against the owners of tiktok to protect national security. his flip-flop was baffling among his allies and supporters. steve bannon suggested that he changed his stance for the yass

coin. apparently he had influence over the gop nominee. trump batted those accusations away. newly you recently met with yass, he is a huge gop donor. steve banner said that you have been paid off to change her view. did you have a conversation with jeff yass about it? new i met with him very briefly. i said hi to hhim and his wife the only one i met -- i met them both. i don't think i ever met him before. new that brings us back to the merger. this is a huge development as the president faces a litany of

political issues. the recent association is important to note. the philadelphia inquirer reports that his firm was the largest institutional shareholder in december in the company that has merged with truths social. they have held the stock since the merger between digital acquisition corp. and trump media was first announced in october of 2021. joining me is the cofounder of d.c. report.org. barbara mcquaid joins us now. the attorney for the eastern district of michigan. in the cohost of the sister-in- law podcast, attack from oh within. how this information is sabotaging america. david, let me start with you. donald trump has faced financial troubles before, now

he is facing enormous penalties and mounting legal bills. you have written about donald trump's misdeeds, we are at the front of this issue. the deal with jeff yass and having to deal with tiktok and his positions. there is no clear misdeed here at all. there are some echoes of what donald trump has done in the past. >> i think it is more trouble some then you have characterized it so politely. the framers of the constitution insulated the president from people putting money in his pocket. foreign powers and state governments. donald flouted that throughout his term. assuming that he has the cash now to post the money with the court and the fraud against him.

he is now bound to one insurance company. the framers never anticipated this sort of idea. donald said, i love the saudis, they buy apartments from you, what is not to love. think about that on steroids when someone is going to give him half $1 billion. he will twist policies in any way that will help his patron. you can see his flip-flop on tiktok where he owns 15% of tiktok and has a huge interest in donald flipping from, we must ban them to we must keep them. >> let's talk about this. what we don't know is the last part of the equation. when this company goes public,

donald trump stands to gain $3 billion which he cannot access for several months. if i needed some money and you both knew that i was coming into $6 million in a few months, that would enhance my hs ability to get a loan. if it is from jeff yass or another party. how would you be thinking about this? if this was put on your desk, as i said, we don't know any wrongdoing. it does not feel knthat good wh policy changes are influenced by someone who has an interest in the matter. how are you thinking about this? >> i look at this not from a criminal perspective wrote from the counter intelligence perspective. if this is anything in the person's background that they can be subject to to influences from the other countries that their loyalty from the united states could be compromised.

if someone is receiving $3 billion with ties to a company that is owned by the chinese government, that is every red flag. it is a financial conflict and it ties to a foreign government that is an adversary. some of these ties to the foreign government, it would stun me if they could get a security clearance to work as an fbi analyst. the people don't have to go through this background investigation. the red flags are all there. we hope that the voters can see them as well as someone within the intelligence agency would. >> the part that donald trump might be entitled to his $3 million. this is an example as wide transparency matters in the election. we get insight on who is

spending money on what. you might think this is great. that the club for growth does not wanta ban on tiktok. he is associated with them and people do this all the time. we just need to know way. we need to understand that it is mega-donors that are influencing policy that can make them richer than they are. there is a lot of money i play. how do we end up with voters that get you make decisions on these things and determine for themselves whether some of these deals pass the sniff test? >> let's be clear. the jeff yass favors certain things about schools and taxes, that is not the issue. he is entitled to get the government to adopt the policies that he wants. you do that through putting someone in your pocket which is exactly what donald is doing. the supreme court and the series of decisions leading up to the united citizens with he equating dollars to free speech

has set us on the trajectory where the chinese government company tiktok three parent company and an american investor can create a national security nightmare if donald trump gets back in the white house. there is a way for donald trump to access the money before six months. you might recall during the.com era they did not sell any of the founder stock and they had mentioned for aris. the great flood north revealed in 94 that firms will take your stock and you could not sell secretly. they would loan you money against it. if this company collapses and does not have any real revenues, it will not last. they could be in a position to

short the stock and come out fine. probably turning a profit if the stock goes down. >> we have spent a lot of this week talking to people about an industry that i know nothing about. what do you think happens at tomorrow, by the way? if he is coming into the future of some cash. it still does not look like, he has to come up with something on monday? >> he has to come up with a bond. he will try to wnegotiate something less than the full amount. unless somebody comes through for him. maybe this new financial opportunity for him will cause someone to take a chance with him. they have noted that he has been a poor credit risk. he can still go with his

appeal. he can now attach some assets. the court will attach the assets. they cannot sell him off in the meantime. when the state of new york is ready to collect his judgment, all of his assets are gone. i don't think that all of these things will be gone, they will put a security lean on some of these properties so that if and when they collect on the appeal they can get the judgment. >> thank you, it's good to see you. the cofounder of d.c. report.org. author of multiple books. in america's post war

president, coming to life in several states, what it means ra to america and the slide into dystopia. toby i will call to order this week's meeting of the agenda. george orwell's masterpiece, 1984. . (jen) so we partner with verizon. their solution for us? a private 5g network. (ella) we now get more control of production, efficiencies, and greater agility. (marquis) with a custom private 5g network. our customers get what they want, when they want it. (jen) now we're even smarter and ready for what's next. (vo) achieve enterprise intelligence. it's your vision, it's your verizon.

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and there's no catch. it's fre. we make money from ads, but they don't follow you aroud join the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today. we are continuing to follow breaking news out of moscow. 11 people have been arrested with their involved shooting at the concert hall shooting. several men broke into the concert hall and set fire to the building. the death toll will rise even further. isis has claimed responsibility for the attack.

u.s. officials confirmed that they had been gathering intelligence for months that isis could carry out an attack inside of russia. there was a notice for americans to stay away from large gatherings in russia. matt bradley is tracking the story from london. matt, good morning to you. what do we know about this group, it is called isis k. they have claimed responsibility. >> a trail of destruction over the last few years with huge attacks like what we saw in moscow. they were offended by former members of the caliban. they thought that the taliban was to moderate. they attacked afghans that were trying to leave the country as american troops withdrew back

in 2021. this attack killed 170 civilians and 13 american servicemen. and just this year in january they struck again, this time in iran. a huge bombing that killed 84 people for a commander in intelligence chief that had been killed by americans by drone a few years earlier. just like we are seeing in this attack in moscow, the u.s. said that they had warned the iranians that terrorists were planning something in their words were ignored. last night's attacks, as you mentioned, they were indeed related to the warning two weeks ago that remained unheeded. >> thank you for reporting, we appreciate it. welcome to the real life handmaid's tale, more after the break on velshi. i.

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because the research is being shared all over the world. margaret at word was writing the handmaid's tale and she had collected real world stories about how women were treated at the time and in recent history. women forced to have babies, that was a story about romania in the 1980s. catholic called taking over about a new jersey catholic colt based on the subordination of women and why not seize

slaughtered super race babies and how they practice eugenics even on their own people. margaret atwood was asked about her research process for the handmaid's tale and how she made up a world where the story takes place. she said, i did not even research it. you cannot go online and put in a topic. this is stuff that i came across when reading newspapers and magazines. i already knew what i was writing about, this was back up. in case someone said, how did you make this up? this is the proof. everything in these boxes. now our own collection of headlines is piling up. it has been a year and nine months since the end of the right to abortion care. here are some actual headlines. mothers in states with abortion bands nearly three times more

likely to die. in oklahoma, a woman was told to wait until she is crashing for abortion care. kate cox sought in abortion in texas and said no because she could not show that her life was in danger. her and other women filed a suit against the state of texas. two dozen more women were denied abortions in texas and joined the lawsuit against the state. abortion ban states have seen 65,000 pregnancies from , study estimates. a 10-year-old victim forced to travel from ohio to indiana. doctors around the country are leaving their home states because they cannot provide care anymore and for the doctors that have not left, they are being forced to go against better medical judgment to avoid imprisoning.

there was a detailed report on the impact of abortion bands in louisiana. doctors risk losing their medical licenses. they could face 15 years in prison. the report found that doctors in the state are fearful of retribution. so much so that they are going against best practices to ensure that they are not in violation of the law. the report found that women are given high risk and unnecessary surgeries instead of simple abortion procedures. they are forced to wait until their life is at risk and treatment for ectopic pregnancies. even standard prenatal care is being pushed off. one doctor interviewed for the report witnessed their colleague make the decision to go against what she knew was best for her patient. she ended up having to take this person for a c-section to preserve the appearance of not doing abortion. even though this is not a

viable pregnancy. what this means is now that this person has had a c-section and that means that she has at higher risk for any future pregnancies and can no longer deliver vaginally. the appropriate thing would be dilation and evacuation. without subjecting the patient to this abdominal surgery. while remaining in compliance with the lot were appearing to be in compliance with the law. to perform a c-section, surgeons have to cut through the layers of the abdominal wall and remove the fetus and then stitch everything back up. it is far more invasive, more risky and requires more recovery time and increases the risk of complications and future pregnancies. something that is a real risk in america. doctors describe not being able to treat pregnant patients

promptly because the state will not allow them to terminate the pregnancies. how aggressive does a cancer have to be to put into the category of a mother's life being at risk if the pregnancy is not terminated. suicidal patients have forced their pregnancies to term. one patient with an ectopic pregnancy was denied abortion until her tubes ruptured. she could've died. in the handmaid's tale, she worries about the fate of her pregnant friend. pregnancy is mandated. there are no tests and there are no abortions or c-section then medical care has been reduced to a biblically led ritual dedicated to fertility, conception and more births. what will she give birth to? a baby, as we all hope?

or something, there's no telling. they could tell us the machines but that is now outlawed. what will be the point of knowing, anyway? they cannot take it out. whatever it is, must be carried to term. positive drug women, induce labor, cut them up, so them up. no more. no anesthetics, even. it was better for the baby. i am joined by dr. michelle goodwin. and most of the podcast on the issues with michelle goodwin. and the author of multiple important books, including policing the womb. michelle, every time i talk to you, the title of your book becomes more pressing and more relevant. it is not policing, it is beyond criminalizing, it is control around all aspects of reproductive health. >> that is right. one cannot help but understand the violations of human rights.

fundamental matters of life and death which are not acknowledged. a woman is 14 times more likely to die carrying a pregnancy to term in the united states than by having an abortion. you see the denial of human rights in these cases, the denial of personhood when it comes to pregnancy. it is horrific. one has to pause to think about those whose lives have been lost since this decision and whose lives were lost before that and what is to come. just as you were mentioning, teenage girls who are not even teenagers yet are going into amateur school and middle school as mothers. these are horrific times that are captured by the handmaid's tale and are not even captured enough by something like that.

it is real life, it is no longer science fiction. >> i'm sure, that will up this book, that some conservative blog will show that. there is a lot of hyperbole comparing what is happening in the united states now to handmaid's tale. but the point you just made is that maybe this does not go far enough about the things that are happening. i bring it to alabama. the supreme court ban on ivf. is that anti-family, profamily, republicans and alabama's want to guarantee the right to ivf. the control has overtaken rationale entirely. >> that is absolutely right. the wheels have come off. a movement has forgotten why it is there. fundamentally, it is about control. it is important to understand that in the process of democratizing women is a path

we are on. it is not only in this moment. when people came in colonize this country they had questions to make about equality. it was only for men who were wealthy and could own property. we are written out of law with you women's ability to vote, men could rape their wives. that was tolerated until the 1980s. men could beat their wives and women could not even bring it in civil court. this has been about a process of citizenship. it is a long arc of american history. let's not be confused by women having the ability to hold office and be ceos. there are women who are dying

when they want reproductive healthcare. this is a country that up until a generation ago women could not get credit cards in their own name, checking accounts in their own names, women could not serve on the jury. the supreme court sanctioning all of these kinds of cases. will we see ourselves on is a path towards democratizing women's basic human rights. we should never cease to have sight of that. >> this is a report out of louisiana that i mentioned that highlight the national trend of rising maternal morbidity and racial discrimination. the maternal morbidity rate is higher than what most people think it would be.

this report describes the challenge that many black and low income women have faced before any of these bands, including the ob deserts. now people face higher barriers. there is going to be a population of women that cannot get this done within this amount of time. they will not be able to pull it off. they will not be able to get the transportation together. they will not be able to make the arrangements. that is part of the point of narrowing the window. i'm sure it is. tell me about that. >> we have heard about the demise of democracy. let's be clear, in these states, there is voter suppression where it is difficult for black woman to be able to access the ballot where they stand in line for hours and hours and they are told that the place is cold without being able to cast their vote.

the figure that you mentioned, the rate of death during pregnancy, that is national. when we drove down to some of these counties in alabama, it is five times more likely to die. 10 times more likely to die. 17 times more likely to die and what this shows is the same old patterns from before. repeated in different kinds of ways. after the civil rights act, we still find ourselves needing the protections that are claimed in the congressional legislation. uc states are fighting back. we don't have to file federal law. we have to protect people in their voting rights. we see that with the emergency medical treatment and medical act. they should be used to protect

people that need abortions. there are states saying that we don't have to pay attention to federal law. it is alarming. a supreme court where americans have lost confidence in the states. these are really challenging times. >> michelle, thank you as always. a professor of constitutional law, host of the podcast, on the issues with michelle goodwin and the award-winning author of many important books including policing the womb. coming up i will discuss the classics of george orwell's 1984. the velshi banned book club is up next. ext. what'd you got to say klay? there's nothing better than a sub— —sorry buddy. this deal is so big, we had to cut your screen time to fit it all in. order now in the subway app.

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the affordable care act, obamacare, it is still a big deal. >> the passing of the affordable care act passed by president obama. 20 million americans signed up for health insurance just this year. donald trump has vowed to repeal it. republicans tried in 2017. it only survived because john mccain gave a thumbs down vote to stop his own party from repealing part of the law in his first year in office. up next, a deep dive into 1984. the velshi banned book club is straight ahead. .

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some literature is important because it helps make sense of our world. they can help us figure out our identity and work through painful events. it can foreshadow what is to come and open up our eyes to a reality that we cannot imagine. the best example of that is today's banned book feature. 1984. in 2017, the press secretary delivered a five minute speech declaring that the donald trump

inauguration was the largest audience to witness the inauguration period. here is a look at the trump inauguration compared to barack obama's on the right. clearly not the case. orwell wrote that the party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. it was their final, most essential command. kelly conway went on to meet the press to defend what was said. orwell wrote, if all others accepted the lie which the party imposed, if all records told the same tale, then the lie passed into his true then became truth. who controls the past, ran the party slogan, controls the future. who controls the present, controls the past.

george orwell's 1984 became the top best-selling book of any genre. americans heard the alarm bells ringing loudly. set in a dystopian near future where a forgotten set of world wars have created three totalitarian states. one is ruled by the all controlling leader who is underpinned by a large following. the hero in the book is winston smith, a member of the outer party who works at the ministry of truth. destroying historical records to confirm to the constantly changing versions of history.

with each lie, he has to write and rewrite the smith hatred for the party, in order to survive, you must love big brother. it is not enough to obey him. you must love him. the ongoing cultural influence cannot be understated. it is referenced in movies and borrowed from in literature. it is impossible to discuss the manipulation of truth without invoking the books title. 1984 is more than just a warning. it is an exploration of loyalty and identity and at its core, it is a commentary on how all government if left unchecked will exert control to maintain power. the object of terrorism is oppression.

the object of torture is torture. the object of murder is murder. the object of power is power. now, do you begin to understand me. big brothers means to control are laid out the reader. stick -- restrict language. his writing style is as integral to the book as the plot and characters are. it is written with frank words. he masterfully enters fleeting emotion with his break from the party. he writes extensively about the power of clear and deliberate language when it comes to politics. politicians hide behind contrived words and verbiage. his works, including 1984 have become a rite of passage for

high school students across the country. big brother has been dissected by generations of young readers since the books publication back in 1949. now with the country in such a perilous crossroads, 1984 would be even more crucial for students to read. 1984 has been removed from shelves in iowa. in texas, and in florida, and in missouri and in pennsylvania. big brother was right all along. ignorance is strength. right after the break, i will discuss 1984 with james mcallister.

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and doesn't spy on your searchs and duckduckgo lets you browse like chrome, but it blocks cooi and creepy ads that follow youa from google and other companie. and there's no catch. it's fre. we make money from ads, but they don't follow you aroud join the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today.

today's meeting of the velshi band will club is underway. joining me now, james mcallister an expert of political science. and the author of boyer race which has also been featured on the velshi book club. the last time that conley joined us, reading 1984 stopped him from becoming brainwashed at gay conversion therapy. this was influential to you not just as an author, but as a child. >> yeah. i read it in high school and did not understand the full implications of 1984 which often happens. when i was in conversion

therapy, there were so many rules. there were 75 pages of rules in the handbook. with rules about where you could look, how you are supposed to hold your face. there were also so many terms that could've been newspeak. false images, if you had an image of yourself as a gay man, that was evil and had to be corrected. the goal, ultimately , was to love the people that are doing this to you. i could not have asked for another better text to have in my mind going into conversion therapy. i remember that i was asked, the place is called loving action. which sounds a lot like the ministry of love in the book. it is a place of hate. it is not a place of love. that in version of the idea is something that is very much throughout his writing.

>> it is not about truth, it is about rewriting history. people invoke the dangers of what 1984 contends. elon musk had a t-shirt on that said, what would orwell think. the strange part, trumps inner circle calls it -- >> absolutely. when it comes to the current political climate, he would be worried about a candidate that is trying out for the role of big brother. he would also be incredibly concerned about things that are happening on college campuses. when you are orwell, truth is all that matters. he thought that you have to be more critical of your own self

and your own side. >> where are we on this road? let's address the issue of truth. we have absolute truth these days that people believe in. some of it is related to what side you are on. you are in a world where you carve out a side and that is where you are. how do you reconcile things that are important to you with what is the truth. >> that is a hard one. for me, the truth must always be tested. that is how you check against fundamentalist thought. you have to be open to challenging your own beliefs and listening to your own side and criticizing your own side when that happens. i believe that there is a much more dangerous front coming from the right right now. my book has been banned in so many states. the kid who found my book and

wrote to me and said i no longer want to commit suicide once i read this book and my parents would not let me read it at home and they let me read it in the library. those things seem small to people. that signal is very important. i am much more concerned with that attack. especially the anti-trans bills that are all around the country right now. i would say within our own party and within our own side, we have to be willing to capture those ideas as well. >> let's talk about the book ban. 1984 has been a widely banned book for a long time. the subject matter therein and the things that you said that orwell would be concerned about would be book bans. the idea that the government is controlling. nobody objects to the idea that people can choose what they want to read and that parents should have the influential

impact into what their children read. we are in a world where people argue that the government or the library is a stand-in for the government and they should make those choices for you. >> orwell would not have any sympathy for the view along those lines. it is interesting to note that 1984 is a best seller in putin's russia. you can buy 1984 in china. they realize that the greatest support they can give to people who value freedom is to ban books like 1984. there is a lesson there for people in the united states as well. to make 1984 more attractive to people who are looking to be exposed to these ideas. >> in the book there is a relationship between winston smith and a woman named julia. they consider sex being an act of rebellion against the party.

when it comes to repression and control. >> i have been rereading 1984 and what shocked me is the anti- sensuality idea that is in the book. i think it is written large in the culture. there are certain types of sex which are allowed to be spoken about and some that are not. in the book , it presents a very clear thesis that the party is able to maintain its control entirely by reducing the desires that people have and by eradicating those desires. making the language impossible to discuss desire. all of literature cannot be allowed in that world. it is a lesson for us. why is there an impulse to ban books that mention sex? my book mentions it only within

the story as needed and he was recommended by librarians as a young bolt -- adult book as well. it is labeled as dangerous to know that there might be gay sex in the world. i find that very disturbing. >> orwell wrote an essay called politics and the english language. it examines the special relationship when it comes to political language. it is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable. >> that comes from his experiences in the spanish civil war where he was fighting the militia and he and his fellow militia members were reviled, denounced, hunted down, by communist forces.

he never got over that experience. for him, that was a crucial lesson in how people can turn to the opposite. you can go from the spanish civil war to animal farm. >> there is a new book out saying that julia is the hero of 1984. >> get a new one and read 1984. >> you did prompted in your initial discussion with us. thank you to both of you. that does it for me, thank you for watching. catch me here tomorrow morning. stay right where you are. are.