states against all enemies foreign and domestic, that you will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, that you take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which you are about to enter so help you god? >> i do. >> congratulations, senators. >> thank you. that was vice president kamala harris today swearing in democratic senators andy kim and adam schiff and republican senator pete ricketts. i think as we head toward a second trump term, there's a lot to talk about but it's always a good reminder to hear the oath that lawmakers take. democrats and republicans alike. that does it for me today. "the rachel maddow show" starts right now. >> that was fantastic. thank you for playing that. i would not have seen it otherwise. >> we love the oath.

thanks to my team for finding it. >> thank yous to to you at hom joining us. have you ever had an hr issue at work, human resources, i feel like the poor human resources people get a really bad rap. they have to deal with all the worst and most annoying stuff that happens in the workplace. nobody sees the hr department when they're at their best, right, but they do a really important job. you need them. there has to be somebody to call. there has to be somebody to intervene when things go really wrong or really weird in the workplace. imagine you're applying for a job. you want to get hired on at a new company, and you are asked to detail for your new employer your personality characteristics. they ask you to fill out an intake form and specifically they ask you to disclose on this intake form to your potential

new employer if these specific personality characteristics, you think, apply to you. quote, i like to show off my body. quote, i like to look at myself in the mirror. is that one of your personality characteristics? your potential new employer wants to know, wants you to put in writing? do these personality characteristics apply to you, quote, i don't have that much interest in having sexual experiences with another person. excuse me? sorry sorry? again, this is from your boss, your would be boss asking you these questions, asking if these so called personality characteristics, okay, apply to you. and these questions are being asked of you as part of you applying for a job. another personality characteristic, this application, this intake form asks you about, it asks if you would describe yourself this way, quote, i consistently use

my physical appearance to draw attention to myself. quote, i have chronic feelings of emptiness. quote, i love large parties. quote, i leave a mess in my room. my room? what room? quote, i do not enjoy going to art museums. quote, i get upset when people don't notice how i look when i go out in public. you're applying for a job and you're asked to declare these things, whether these are your characteristics. here's my favorite one, again, what your employer is asking in considering whether or not you're going to be hired, whether or not you're suited for a job, does this personality trait apply to you, quote, i believe in things many others don't, like having a sixth sense, clairvoyance, and telepathy, and add an adolescent, i had bizarre

fantasies or preoccupations. that's all one thing. that is listed as all one personality trait per this question, this intake form. it's believing in, you know, telepath telepathy, esp and clairvoyance, and having bizarre adolescent fantasies and preoccupations, those are all listed as one thing. what do you say? you're trying to be honest. you want this job, it's really important to you. what do you say to your would be employer, your would be boss when you're asked that one. are you allowed to say, yes, i was preoccupied as an adolescent with wanting to paint myself blue or something, but no, i don't believe in esp, are you allowed to say that or split it up. or yes, i definitely believe in telepathy, i'm controlling you with my mind right now, but when i was 12, i wanted to be a fireman like everyone else. are you allowed to question the

question? what do you tell your would be boss if only half of this individual trait applies, and this is the intake form that you are filling out to try to get a job. hr gets a bad rap. if you're applying for a job and your would be boss asks you as part of the job application process if you like to quote, show off your body, if your would be boss asks you how interested you are in sex, and this would be boss wants you to put this answer in writing and submit it to the company, call hr, right? nobody wants to, but honestly, call hr, maybe call the cops. definitely don't take that job. but that, that i just showed you, the trump transition has now confirmed that that is the

questionnaire that is being administered to people who want to work for the u.s. government in the second term of donald j. trump, tara palmeri at puck news was first to report and get confirmation from the trump transition that people interested in applying for jobs under trump's choice to lead the department of health and human services, robert f. kennedy jr., people are being given this intake form. they are being given this personality characteristics quiz, as an intake form for getting a job with rfk. does it personality characteristic apply to you, quote, i tend to have unstable and intense personal relationships, where i alternate between extremes of idealizing and devaluing others. what? does this personality characteristic apply to you, quote, i don't have much interest in having sexual experiences with another person.

seriously. this intake form to get to go work with donald trump's choice for u.s. health secretary, answer the question about how much interest you have in sex in order to get your job with the secretary of the u.s. department of health and human services. the intake form appears to be a product produced by a far right canadian podcaster, while we're on the subject of health, he famously says he flew himself to russia and serbia for what he described as emergency drug detox that included putting himself into a coma. he also famously reportedly adopted what he and his daughter market as the quote, lion diet. l-i-o-n, lion diet. it consists entirely of beef, salt and water. that's all you eat. did i mention he's advising the

health department. his intake form about how much you like showing off your body, and how much interest you have in sex, that is apparently now being used to screen applicants for jobs with the u.s. government for the health part of the u.s. government. which trump wants to be led by robert f. kennedy jr. who does say a worm ate part of his brain and died in there, and the whole experience, in his telling, dramatically reduced his cognitive capacity. the los angeles times is reporting that kennedy also recently approached this man and asked this man to apply for a job at the fda, and the man says he's done it. now, is it the same intake? i don't know. maybe applying for a job at the fda at the invitation of robert f. kennedy means you have to do the how much do you like sex intake form. we don't know. but the reason the "l.a. times" thought it was a news story of some importance that kennedy

asked this man in particular to apply for a job at the fda because in man in particular is california's best known raw milk producer, with some significant health consequences for the people of california. quote, three raw milk recalls last month were the results of positive tests of h 5 n 1 bird flew. his cows have been quarantined. the state has suspended sales of all milk and cream, and the company has issued recalls for all milk and cream products in stores. since 2006, his company has been involved in 13 recalls. mcafee's farm was involved in eleven lawsuits, stemming from a salmonella outbreak that sickened 171 people, mostly children. in addition to the bird flu recalls, the other recalls affecting his company were the result of bacterial contamination, including e.

coli, listeria, and salmonella. in some cases people by the time severely sick with kidney failure. mr. mcafee said if he were selected for an advisory role at the fda which rfk has invited him to apply for, he says he would quote look into changing food liability laws, quote, where you can't go get a million dollars for somebody that gets diarrhea for a week. oh, yum. what's the fda for again? so 13 recalls, e. coli, listeria, 171 people with salmonella. have you ever had salmonella? three bird flu recalls, his farms are quarantined. his products are right now, barred from sale after making so many people sick. but if he gives the right answer to the questions about, you know, do you like to show off your body, do you ever have feelings of emptiness, this man

could be heading to the don't complain to us about your diarrhea desk at the new food and drug administration as styled and conceived by the second term of donald j. trump. how is the transition going? how professional and well organized is this thing turning out to be, huh? and we've already had and forgotten the scandal of a close adviser to the president-elect being accused by the transition of offering presidential appointments to senior positions in the government for sale. for cash. one of the people reportedly championed by that adviser who was reportedly selling appointments is a guy who was named to be white house counsel, not that long ago. then the president-elect changed his mind and unannounced him as the choice for white house counsel, and said instead he'll be working on elon musk's

government efficiency board. he demoted him to go down with elon. how are things going over there. "the new york times" reports this weekend that the office manager from elon musk's family office has been doing the interviewing for high ranking foreign affairs positions in the u.s. state department. the office manager for elon musk's family office is hiring for senior positions at the state department and foreign policy. what are his qualifications for doing that. i will quote "the new york times," quote, the man has, quote, no experience in foreign affairs. none at all. but he does manage elon musk's family office, and so why shouldn't he be the man who chooses who's in charge of the u.s. state department. that's kind of how things are going. elon musk's mother, his actual mom, by training, a model. she says she has also been sitting in on the meetings of

the department of government efficiency as the group is getting stood up. so elon's mom is part of that. clearly a super professional operation over there. the highest profile nomination trump is likely to make for his newest administration was always going to be his choice for attorney general, right, pretty key position when the president-elect himself has recently been convicted on 34 felony accountings. matt gaetz had to withdraw from consideration a few days after he was named. that was a tremendous humiliation for president-elect trump, especially because trump himself was personally reportedly making calls to individual republican senators, asking them personally himself that they should support gaetz. despite his personal calls on gaetz' behalf, it did not work. it was more humiliating for the vice president elect. vice president elect j.d. vance

was chosen to personally physically walk matt gaetz up and down the halls of the senate to accompany him to meetings with republican senators in person, and that also did not work. there's a reason you don't put the number one and number two people right there personally alongside your least likely to succeed nominee. it's because it's a huge in-your-face humiliation for the president-elect personally, and for the vice president-elect personally when their efforts don't work and he fails out. in the gaetz case, though, to add insult to injury, that totally botched nomination let's an ethical and reputational bomb behind for republican members of congress who even after matt gaetz was gone, they still had to vote to keep secret the house ethics' committee's findings in

their investigation of the child sex trafficking allegations against matt gaetz. very important to keep that secret and make sure no one in the public finds out the facts. so all of these republicans have on their records their individual votes to keep secret the evidence and the facts discovered about this congressman's alleged involvement in child sex trafficking. that worked out great for everybody, right? good job trump transition. this was another of the excellent own goals from the trump transition so far. one of the republican senators who they're really counting on to lead the charge for trump's nominees, a senator who has been out there out front for them, all the republicans should vote for them, the guy who has been most out front for them leading everything is this senator. his name is often mispronounced. tuberville.

his name is tommy tuberville, the senator from alabama. >> there's more rumors up there going around about matt gaetz and pete hegseth, and all of them will have some kind of rumor when it comes down to it. we got to look at facts. we got to help president trump. he's not going to pick somebody that's a criminal. he's not going to do that. >> oh, is that so? is he not going to do that? again, that's a senator they need. that's the why whipping the votes and telling the republicans they need to vote for every trump nominee. what's the last thing he said again? say that again. >> he's not going to pick somebody that's a criminal. he's not going to do that. >> he's not going to pick somebody that's a criminal. right after senator tuberville said that, trump, in fact, named a convicted felon, his relative, charles kushner, to be the ambassador to france, followed very shortly by trump naming

peter navarro to be his new trade adviser. mr. navarro just got out of federal prison this summer. >> he's not going to pick somebody that's a criminal. he's not going to do that. >> yes, yes, yes, he is. yes, he is, senator, multiple times he's going to do that. but he's going to wait until right after you say on television that he's not going to do that to do it, so as to make it max embarrassing, and then he's going to appoint another one right after you said that on television with everybody listening. and they really need you. the trump transition has been amazing in all sorts of ways. the "wall street journal" today ran a feature on the various and dubious pills and potions being sold by multiple trump nominees for high office. some of them continuing to schill for this stuff after they were named as a choice for a

high position in the government. trump's surgeon general choice has her line of celebrity vitamins, which she sells on instagram. they've got they are picture on the label. trump's would be medicare chief who will sell you any number of things that might cure your alzheimer's or your thyroid ailments or make the fat melt away like magic. trump's fbi director who will sell you pills that reverse the covid vaccine. sure, because sure. the president-elect himself is still selling stuff during the transition as well. literally since the election he has been rolling out new products and hawking stuff online. he's still selling the bibles and the watches and the sneakers and the commemorative coins, but since the election he has branched out into selling the commemorative guitars, since winning the election and becoming president-elect, he started selling guitars. this weekend, he literally

started selling smells, new trump fragrances, trump branded odors in a bottle. he's doing new product launches for this stuff while also expertly managing the presidential transition, which is going just great. and the news, like sometimes intrudes on this comedy of errors and embarrassment. today we have news of a young man being arrested and charged in connection with the assassination of a health insurance executive in midtown manhattan. this young man has been charged with forgery and a firearms offense at this point. with people looking for a possible motive or explanation for that crime, one of the things in this guy's internet history that's gotten a lot of attention today is an enthusiastic review he appears to have given to the manifesto of the unabomber, ted kaczynski

who killed three people and injured 23 others in a bombing campaign that spanned more than 15 years. this young man arrested today, he has not been charged with the killing of unitedhealthcare ceo brian thompson, we don't know if he will be charged with that killing. if it is him, the fact that he's a professed unabomber fan is unsettling. i might venture that it's more unsettling that donald trump's reported choice to run the atf is also a self-professed fan of the unabomber. >> do you have a subversive thinker that you think people should look up, look into, know more about that's, you know, underrated and would, yeah, would influence people in a good direction? >> subversive thinker that's under rated? >> yeah. >> i'll probably get in trouble for saying this. i mean, i'd say, how about like

theodore kaczynski. >> blake masters later admitted, quote, probably not great to be talking about the unabomber while campaigning. just to be clear that he knew that when he was talking about theodore kaczynski, he was talking about the unabomber. under rated thinker, people should look into him. people should look into an under rated thinker who would influence people in a good direction. unabomber fan, reportedly trump's choice to lead the atf, which despite its acronym is responsible not only for alcohol, tobacco and firearms but also explosives, sure, why not put the unabomber fan in charge of the federal agency that regulates explosives. we've also had news in the last few days that trump has his choice made for his special envoy for hostage affairs.

incredibly serious job, literally life or death stakes every single day and every circumstance in which the envoy works. an unbelievably sensitive position in the u.s. government for that job, special envoy for hostage affairs, donald trump has reportedly chosen jared kushner's college roommate. sure, why not. and i mean, as long as we're talking about the news intruding on this reverie, we have also just hads fall of syria and the exile of the long time syrian dictator, considered responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians in his country, the torture and unjust incarceration of tens of thousands of people in secret prisons, bashar al assad has been thrown out of office by an uprising in syria. he has fled the country. russia says he's gone to moscow, and maybe he has. but here in the midst of the trump transition, bashar al

assad's highest champion in the united states is trump's choice to be the nation's next director of national intelligence. there's tulsi gabbard today meeting with senators on capitol hill while the news is coming down that the butcher of damascus has fled syria and gone to moscow, and every one of those senators has been to be looking tulsi gabbard up and down and thinking, oh, if this had happened one year from today, would assad be going into exile here? would his best friend in america, tulsi gabbard, have us taking him in? maybe under director of national intelligence tulsi gabbard, and president donald trump, bashar al assad could split his exile time between here and moscow. all the old hands and sort of gray beards, in american news and politics, particularly

people with experience in national security and foreign policy, they will all tell you the same thing about the presidential transition period. they will all tell you that the transition times between one president and the next, those are often times when things go haywire. and this transition is not proving to be a disappointment along those lines. i mean, in the blink of an eye, we have had the government collapse in germany. we have had the government collapse in france. we have had the imposition of martial law and an attempted overthrow of the government in south korea. we have had the topple of the assad regime, and potentially a wholesale realignment of all the major powers in the middle east. all while we are in between the end of one presidency and the beginning of another. don't worry, elon musk's mom is sitting in on the meetings. and jared just got both of his ex-con dad and college roommate really cool jobs. and people have almost forgotten

about the child sex trafficking attorney general nomination and the other guy supposedly selling presidential appointments, and the rape allegation and the police report about the defense secretary nominee, and the unabomber fan for the explosives job and the health secretary who says a worm ate part of his brain, and then died in there, now asking potential hires into the u.s. government how much they like sex and do they like to show off their bodies. i mean, it is a complicated and dangerous world out there, especially right now. and there is nothing about the quality of this presidential transition that should set anyone's mind at ease about how well america is going to be handling these matters. but for us, all the more reason for us to try to understand them as best we can. so hold that thought. we've got more ahead.

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starting in tunisia, a young man set himself on fire in the middle of the street as an act of protest against tunisia's dictatorship which had been in power more than two decades. a horrific thing and a desperate thing, and somebody recorded it on their cell phone and then posted the video online, and then that turned into something. within days, that young man's neighbors were in the streets holding up his picture, chanting his name, saying they too were fed up with the dictatorship,

they were fed up with there being no job prospects or health care and all the corruption. and then it grew into big protests, protests of mostly young people. they were angry, they were upset with how bad life is under authoritarian rule. in weeks, those protests enveloped the country. dictatorships responded like they always do, responded violently, cracked down on the protesters, they killed protesters, but it just kept going, and eventually, tunisia's authoritarian leader who had been in power for 24 years, he gave up. he fled the country. protesters won. and it didn't stop there. pro democracy protests ripped through the mieast in 2011, in bahrain, in yemen, in sudan, in jordan, in libya, even in saudi arabia. and of course in egypt, if you remember stuff from this era, it is probably egypt that you first

remember. like in tunisia, protests in egypt started out peacefully, protesters camping out in cairo. they said they were going to refuse to leave until their president stepped down. and then like in tunisia, the regime cracked down. the square became a battleground, civilians against their own country's military grade force. pro democracy protesters being beaten and killed. that went on for weeks. and ultimately, the protests worked. they toppled a 30-year dictatorship. >> they have been saying the slogan that has come to symbolize the demands of people. which means he must leave or he shall leave. >> the arab spring is one of those indelible times in history that just completely reoriented the world. regimes are ultimately toppled in tunisia and in egypt and libya and yemen, eventually in

sudan. also, did you recognize that guy? recognize that guy there? in 2011 before he became our beloved friend and colleague at msnbc, ayman mohyeldin was a reporter for al jazeera english. throughout the spring he reported daily from egypt. at one point he was detained by the egyptian police. he was blindfolded and handcuffed, left on the floor for hours. he was an essential voice for the whole world during the ara spring. he became our eyes and ears for what was happening halfway around the world. during the protests we had him on this show several times reporting live from cairo, and nbc, because they're no dummies, soon they recruited him to come here and work instead for us. and now today as another dictatorship falls, yet another

where the protests against him started in 2011, but in syria, it took this long for him to fall. what a privilege it is took able to talk with ayman, this time as a colleague about what it means and how it has all happened. joining us now is ayman mohyeldin, i first met him while he was reporting live from egypt and syria in 2011. he of course is now a beloved colleague at msnbc. thank you. >> i didn't warn you we were going to do a trip down memory lane. >> a lot younger, a lot liter, a lot less gray hairs. >> you're one of those people that gets better every year. by the time you're 90, you're going to be people's sexiest man. a chronological progression. let me ask you, you covered the origin of the revolt against assad in 2011. why did assad end up leaving 13 years down the road? >> well, he was almost out of power in 2014, 2015, and for a

whole series of mistakes that happened at the time and decisions that were made by his allies, he was able to thwart the revolution that was coming to his doorstep in 2014. i think it's important to remind our viewers that these protests as you mentioned, started out peacefully, even in syria, it started out peacefully. a young student who ripped a picture in 2011 that ultimately led to mass street protests to which he then used force and began a violent crackdown, but the protests began with defectors of his own army. we don't want to be part of cracking down on our own citizens. what really changed the course was that he began to use overwhelming force to kill without any kind of hesitation. and as the militant of the revolution grew, so did his ability to thwart it, until ultimately he was defeated, and

the russians and the iranians and hezbollah, the ally, if you will, his foot soldier from hezbollah, his financiers from iran, his diplomats in the air force of russia came, we have to save this guy. >> he was about to be pushed out when russia and iran, came in, marshalled their forces to prop him up. >> they were on the door steps of cities they took over. and that was a major red line for the russians. of course there was the time and to kind of bring america into this, there was the famous red line for president obama that bashar al assad was going to use chemical weapons. america would get involved. he used chemical weapons, america did not get involved. >> obama put it to congress, right, shall we go, and congress was like no, and congress was mad that he didn't go even though he asked them to go. >> what ultimately ended up happening is the russians, hezbollah and iran came to his defense and cracked down on the revolution, pushed it back to

the northern border with turkey, and created the stalemate that we had been living in from 2016 on. >> i feel like the thing that was so shocking to people who haven't been following it closely, and i know you have, was to see the resolve and the commitment of the iran and russia just melt away. when the tide started to turn this year, within the last few weeks, iran evacuated its people, even ahead of damascus falling. nobody exactly knew what russia was going to do, i think even as recently as last week, was expectation you might see the russian air force marshal again and level cities and kill thousands more syrian civilians. russia pulled its people out too. to what do you attribute the collapse of his international alliances that as you say made it possible for him to be there the last ten years. >> each one of these players has been mired down in their own conflict. russia has been bogged down in a

war in ukraine for three years, losing hundreds of thousands of soldiers, diplomatically exhausted, financially taxed. hezbollah has been in a war for the last 12 months, decimated, the command and control structure wiped out for the time being. they do not have the foot soldiers to send across the border to syria to fight, and iran right now is serving this landscape of a new middle east in which they have an incoming president of the united states that they're probably weary of. they have lost their foothold in southern lebanon with hezbollah. the houthis are a little bit, you know, not as vong strong of resource for them to play. their last card to play in the region was iraq, and there was some talk, and there were leaders of iraqi militia groups who said they wanted to go to syria to fight on behalf of bashar al assad. that did not happen. that is a mystery in the equation. it speaks to where the iraqi government is right now, and perhaps realizing there's a shifting orientation in the region not necessarily to be

close to iran, and perhaps say, wait a minute, let's not rush to protect bashar al assad just yet, and were able to keep their militias on their side of the border. when you look at these players, everybody is bogged down into their own internal conflicts. israel is acting with immunity in syria and lebanon across the region. america has given it a green light. we're seeing this redrawing, if you will of the maps of the middle east, and more importantly, the breaking of what iran and its allies called the axis of resistance. >> to have the axis of resistance, russia and iran, and not only their conventional forces but their prom xies. it's one thing to see it collapse of its own weight. just incredibly dramatic, ayman mohyeldin, great to have you, thank you. >> thanks for having me on the show this weekend. >> my show is your show. >> and vice versa. >> we'll be right back. stay with us. ay with us

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this is a man from flint, michigan, who went to washington on january 6th, 2021, and while he was there, he physically attacked police officers at the u.s. capitol. [ crowd noise ]

[ bleep ] >> that michigan man armed with that bat, that weapon that he was using to try to smash police officers in the face and in the head, he was ultimately arrested. had he was charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding certain police officers, inflicting bodily injury. meaning he hurt the police officers he was attacking. he pled guilty. he's currently in federal prison, serving a sentence of more than four years. president-elect donald trump has repeatedly said he wants to pardon the people convicted of crimes for the attack on congress on january 6th, 2021, this weekend nbc news's kristen welker asked trump what he intends to do about people like that michigan guy, people convicted specifically of assaulting police officers. kristen welker, quote, 169 of them have pled guilty to

assaulting police officers. trump, because they had no choice. welker, but you're going to consider pardon those assaulting police officers. >> sometimes they say here's your choice. >> welker, you're not ruling it out. trump, look, i know the system. the system is a very corrupt system. so yeah, apparently even though who attacked police officers. in that same interview, trump also told welker that he's looking forward to jailing people who he sees as his political enemies, and one of the specific people he threatened is going to join us live here next. stay with us. stay with us (♪♪) voltaren... for long lasting arthritis pain relief. (♪♪)

this weekend, president-elect donald trump said that he wants to jail members of congress who carried out the bipartisan congressional investigation into the january 6th attack. he told nbc's kristen welker, quote, i think those people committed a major crime. honestly, they should go to jail. in response to those comments from the president-elect, former republican congresswoman liz cheney who was vice chair of that investigation, she released this statement, which i think you might have heard she released a statement, it's worth hearing it in full. she said this, here's the truth, donald trump attempted to overturn the 2020 presidential election and seize power. he mobilized an angry mob and sent them to the united states capitol where they attacked police officers, invaded the building and halted the official counting of electoral votes. trump watched on television as

police officers were brutally beaten and the capitol was assaulted, refusing for hours to tell the mob to leave. donald trump knows his claims about the select committee are ridiculous and false. there's no conceivably approach factual or constitutional basis for what donald trump is suggesting, a justice department investigation of the work of a congressional committee. and any lawyer who attempts to pursue that course would quickly find themselves engaged in sanctionable conduct. joining us now is california democratic congresswoman zoe lofgren, a member of the house january 6th investigation. it's a real pleasure to have you here tonight. thank you for making the time. >> thanks, glad to be here, rachel. >> let me start by asking your reaction to trump's threats, trump's claim that he thinks you and other members of congress should be jailed. >> it's absurd. our committee was dually constituted. we worked really hard to do the job we were assigned to do, which was to uncover the events

leading up to january 6th. we uncovered a wide ranging plot with trump at the center of that plot to essentially steal the election, to overturn it culminating in his summoning a mob to washington, knowing that they were armed, sending them down to the capitol to stop the proceedings. more than a thousand of those riders have pled guilty. they did terrible things to police officers, they beat them, they sprayed them with chemicals. they tased them. officers lost fingers, lost an eye, were permanently disabled. you know, go to the department of justice case files, and read the summary of what these guys did, that he would think about pardoning them while trying in violation of the law and constitution to somehow suggest that the legislative committee that did this work that

uncovered his unsavory role was somehow in the wrong is ridiculous. go to the government printing office. take a look at the evidence. everything we found is there. read the transcripts. take a look at the e-mails and the text messages we foundment listen to the radio traffic. this was a horrendous event that we uncovered for the american public. it's protected by the constitution. article one, section six says that the congress, congress cannot be questioned in any other place for our legislative work, so this threat is an empty one. and really pretty ridiculous. >> if it is an empty threat, and he can't credibly threaten jail time, for members of congress for having been part of this

investigation, if that's something he's going to threaten but not going to be able to carry out, but he's going to carry out the other side of the threat, which is to set free all the people who committed crimes, convicted of crimes including violence on january 6th, what do you think the effect of that will be on the country? what does that do to us as a democracy, as a country, what does that do to us? >> trump is not a believer in the rule of law. we know that from all of his activities. and that you would pardon people who committed this violence, who were either convicted or pled guilty of really violent acts. really under cuts the rule of law. clemency is for people who have earned it, people, you know, we see people who have mended their ways, right now we've got rioters in court, day don't

care, trump is going to pardon them anyhow. it's really a very destructive suggestion that we would pardon these criminal asks try nd try threaten people who aren't criminals, the january 6th committee members. >> congresswoman zoe lofgren of california. i appreciate your time tonight. i'm implicitly sorry to ask you to come on to respond to these things. i want your voice to be out there as loud as anyone's in telling the story. thank you for being here. >> it's important the committee let him know we're not going to be intimidated. >> i hear you. the whole country hears you. thank you, ma'am, appreciate it. we'll be right back. thank you, ma'am, appreciate it. we'll be right back.

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