the wnba delivered the most watched regular season in 24 years. a 170% increase in viewership from 2023. finished with its highest attendance in 22 years. and set records for merchandise sales and digital consumption. she said people are not supporting women's sports to check a box. it will be the new normal. amen, halleluiah and thank you sister. those are some extraordinary athletes out there. on that fantastic note, i wish you a fantastic night. from all of our colleagues across nbc news, thanks for staying up late with me. i'll see you at the end of tomorrow.

today we got the gigantic news that fbi director chris wray plans to resign. he was appointed in 2017 by president trump. after trump infamously fired the previous fbi director james comey. wray's decision to step down rather than wait for donald trump to fire him is definitely worth chewing over. we will discuss that with a member of the senate judiciary in just a moment. now that christopher wray has made the decision and announced he will vacate his office on january 20th, the more pressing matter is who donald trump plans to nominate in wray's place. >> i'll be ready to go.

>> are you seeking retribution against donald trump's political opponents? >> we look forward to a very smooth transition with the fbi and i'll be ready to go on day one. >> that was director of the fbi kash patel speaking with senators. if you are not particularly familiar with him, you cannot be blamed. he was a terciary character in the first trump administration. since it ended he has been loud and very proud about exactly what he would do if he were put in charge of an agency like the fbi in a second trump term. >> do you believe that you can deliver the goods on this in a short order so we can get rolling on prosecutions? >> yes. we got the bench for it bannon. we will go out and find conspirators. yes, we are coming after the people in the media who lied

about american citizens who helped joe biden rig presidential elections. we are coming after you. yeah. we are putting you all on notice. >> we're going to come after you. now, on its own, that statement might seem a little ambiguous, he said he only means people who broke the law. but who exactly does he believe fits that description. he has already published an enemies list. i mean he literally printed this list in the back of a book. last year, he published a book called government gangsters. the deep state, the truth, and our battle for our democracy. and in the appendix to that book is a list inentitled members of the executive branch deep state. and while the list has 60 people on it, the author makes sure to note that the list is

not exhaustive. but on the list are people like former trump attorney general bill barr. and hillary clinton. and wouldn't you know it, the current fbi director who trump himself appointed, chris wray. now it is not just kash patel's enemy's list that makes the idea of him running the fbi concerning. he is also an avid conspiracy theorist. from 2021 to 2023, he hosted a show for a far right news outlet called the epoch times. 79 episodes of that show were reviewed and he pushed unfounded claims of conspiracies involves government officials, law enforcement agencies, the media, and tech companies. all of those claims were about supposed attempts to rig elections, silence conservative voices, and undermine donald trump. patel also openly embrace it is far right conspiracy theory known as qanon. it asserts there is a deep

state within the u.s. government that works to protect a cabal of pedophile elites that abuse children and harvest chemicals from their blood. here is what he thinks about q. >> whether it is the qs of the world i agree with some of what he does and disagree with some. if it allows people to gather and focus on the truth and the facts, i'm all for it. if it is q, or whatever movement getting that information out, i'm all for it every day of the week. and people keep asking me about all this q stuff. i'm like what does it matter? what i'm telling you is that there is truth in a lot of things that many people say and what i'm putting out there is the truth. >> npr reports kasp patel has either promoted the qanon movement or shared the conspiracy theories in at least 50 media appearances in the past few years. when promoting one of his

books, patel signed ten copies with a qanon slogan like the golden ticket in the charlie and the chocolate factory but for people who think hillary clinton drinks children's blood. that promotion was not from his adult book. that was from one of his three children's book. his plot against the kings series. they follow a wizard named kash who sets out to save a king named donald from characters like hillary queenton and kamalalala. you can buy one of his bogus covid vaccine reversal supplements which undo the supposed nefarious effects of the covid vaccines or sign up for the right wing cell service. you can buy a fight with kash

branded tee shirt or bottle of wine. those are all real things that donald trump's real life pick to run the fbi really sells. and on top of the griftiness and on top of the conspiracies, and on top of the enemies list, one of the things we really have to worry about when it comes to patel are his thoughts on the fbi itself. >> i would shut down the fbi hoover building on day one and reopen it the next day as a museum of the deep state. >> that was kash patel three months ago. not only does he think the fbi as it is currently run is nothing more than the quote unquote deep state, when it comes to the biggest case the fbi has handled in the past four years, the prosecution of the january 6th attack on the capitol, he think it is fbi may have encouraged rioters to commit crimes in order to

entrap trump supporters for political reasons. >> it's not like they just said hey, january 6th is going down. congress is, you know, being surrounded. go. when did the fbi put those guys in and where? and did those confidential human sources engage people who were not going to conduct criminal activity and convince them to do so? that is the definition of entrapment. >> to get more of a sense of who kash patel sees as the good guys and the bad guys as it concerns january 6th, all you really have to do is listen to that strange mashup of the pledge of allegiance and the star-spangled banner that trump recorded with about 20 inmates who had been imprisoned for their actions on january 6th. remember that one? well kash patel produced that song. that is the man donald trump wants to run the fbi. >> do you want kash patel to

launch investigations into people on that list? >> no. i mean, he will do what he thinks is right. >> do you think that is right, sir? >> um. if they think that somebody was dishonest or crooked or corrupt politician, i think he probably has an obligation to do it. >> are you going to direct him to do it? >> not at all. >> is it your expectation that kash patel will pursue investigations against your political enemy ins. >> i don't think so. >> do you want to see that happen? >> if they were crooked and did something wrong, broken the law, probably. they went after me and i did nothing wrong. >> joining me now is one of the senators who will sit on the judiciary committee. senator, thank you for being here. my goodness. can i first get your thoughts, senator klobuchar for the choice by fbi director wray to

step down in advance, there is a lot of human cry about whether that is conceding to or ohm boldingen donald enboldenning donald trump. >> i have so much respect for christopher wray. he embodies the motto of the fbi. he did it when he was head of criminal after 9/11 with george bush. he was confirmed by democrats and republicans and then again as fbi director when donald trump put him in. nearly every democrat. he then served with distinction. really ramping up the efforts on cyber crime. thank you for bringing up kash patel's views on the headquarters. it is important to have a central location to deal with the cyber crimes, to coordinate with other agencies of

government. and then he also of course has done his job and supported and defended the constitution. so i think he is a model of what we want serving through two republican presidents all told in his career. as well as one democratic president. so this idea he resigned was really, let's face it, how do we say it? the writing was on the wall? donald trump was very clear he was going to kick him out. like any good manager, he gets himself in order and tells the troops who have protected our nation and investigated crime and arrested 50 violent criminals a day, and gone after the fentanyl epidemic, he has to tell his troops who he has guided through this what he is going to do and put in place people to take over from him until a nominee is basically blessed by the u.s. senate. advise and consent right in the constitution. so that is why he did it.

he did it for good reason. he didn't want to bring the fbi into the fray more than they already are. >> you mentioned the next fbi director who need to seek and gain the blessing of the senate in its role of advising and giving consent. that person at this moment looks like it will be kash patel. john bolton has an op ed saying kash patel does not belong in the fbi. this is what josh hawley had to say about patel's prospects on the hill. let's take a listen. >> so far, i haven't heard anything from anybody suggesting he is not qualified. i have heard a lot of ranting and raving and huffing and puffing from the left. people like john bollton about how they don't like his

policies. that's fine. but he's qualified for the job. >> just to like put a fine point on this. i'm not sure if he meant people from the left and people like john bolton or whether he is suggesting john bolton is a leftist. i mean, republicans seem to think he is a shoe in here. do you agree? >> i don't think that is done at all. we have not even seen the fbi background check. which we are going to get just like every line agent. the fbi has a background check and i'm a member of the judiciary committee. i have not seen that yet. and we haven't had the open hearing and we have had a number of republican senators make clear they will not do recess appointments where there is no public hearing. for these kinds of nominees. i would also think that josh hawley should listen to bill barr the conservative attorney general under donald trump who at one point said over his dead body, his words, not mine,

would he put kash patel in a role. so i'm very concerned when you look at what our country is facing right now. a major cyber attack starting out in china. we had a classified briefing on it. when you look at the terrorist threats around the world. threats on members of the fbi investigates. this is not a time to put someone in that wants to go into an fbi revenge tour against the enemies of donald trump which he has made very clear. i hope my colleagues in the end, this will come down to are there republicans who are willing to look at this and say all we need is four. and say wait a minute, this is not the best nominee for this job. >> it seems like there are two stages to this. there is this immediate period where there is a big push from the maga right and trump's allies to put pressure on republican senators to say yes.

then there is the confirmation hearing when that is really when the senate is in full flower and you will be a part of those hearings and ask kash patel about his records. i wonder if you have a sense of what you think is most alarming about him that is worth highlighting in such a public form in such a critical moment when it comes down to really where the rubber meets the road and whether he gets confirmed about. >> i think you raised a lot of them. the dog whistles to qanon. all the things he said before where he has engaged in conspiracy theories but i really step back from that. and i look at what he has specifically said that he wants to shut down the fbi headquarters and turn it into a museum. i'm looking at classified and unclassified information i have seen and democrats and republicans have seen about these major threats against our

country. i was in local law enforcement as a prosecutor. worked with our incredible local police all the time. but i know that they rely on the fbi to go after the violent crimes and what's happening in their states and white collar crimes but they also rely on them when things get really tough and there's threats that are not just against one town or one state but against our country. they rely on the head quarts of the fbi to go deep into this and call on their expertise across the nation. for that, you need people in the headquarters. that is what really concerns me when i look at the integrity of the fbi and the work they do every single day. >> we are officially in the upside down where democrats have to remind republicans that the institutional importants of the federal bureau of investigations. here we are. >> and i remember, they talked a lot in their campaigns, republicans did, about keeping our country safe. i agree with that. i think that is the number one thing the government need to do

is keep people safe in different ways. and so if they are going to be true to their policies you don't want to put someone on a revenge tour in charge of supervising 30,000 employees putting their lives on the line every day. >> a very important point. senator amy klobuchar, thanks for your time. coming up, an 11th hour power grab by republican lawmakers in north carolina today undermines the very concept of democracy. in the tar heel state. are they going to get away with it? but first, maga world is unleashing the attack dogs and senate republicans are running scared. claire and tim join me on that coming up next. on that coming up next. for more than a decade farxiga has been trusted again and again, and again. ♪ far-xi-ga ♪ ♪ far-xi-ga ♪ ♪ far-xi-ga ♪ ♪ far-xi-ga ♪ ask your doctor about farxiga.

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well as the allegations against him. i don't think there was anything that we did not cover. >> after this afternoon, senator susan collins says she remains undecided about pete hegseth. but maga world is seizing the moment with a pressure campaign to ensure that all of trump's cabinet picks are ultimately confirmed. an op ed is doubling as a not so veiled primary threat, iowa senator joni ernst. a warning about challenges. he didn't have complaints about the current fbi director. a pointed senate. no one has

said they will confirm president trump's nominees. florida senator rick scott elaborated saying they will all be confirmed. we will respect the fact he won in a landslide. respect the fact he is the president. joining me now is tim miller. cohost of the bull worth. it is great to have you both here. when you read statements or hear statements like this from rick scott, the sort of confidence some might say verging on bluster. >> first of all, let me correct them on a number of things. if there were people that were nominated that had serious problems, whether it is a lack of qualifications or things in their record, they would not be

nominated because they would not be taken seriously or they would withdraw their nomination after they saw they had significant opposition. so there's a lot of people that weren't confirmed. so, i think the idea here is these are not serious nominees. and republican senators know it. the question is just this. should they consider serious positions in face of non- serious nominees put forward by the trump administration. >> we have been to this party before, tim. where we are like what will susan collins do? and yet, and then we sort of

watch this, the spectacle of pete hegseth and the reporting and the allegations and the swirl and the fact of the matter is tim, today, looks like he is standing on relatively solid ground. so i guess i wonder, does donald trump just have an innate skill at sensing weakness? i know you guys on the bull work talked a lot about this. he can sniff out spinelessness and boy, the scent is strong in the republican caucus. >> yeah. we have been to this party before. the party sucks, alex. unfortunately. we are stuck here forever i think. anyway, look, trump did sniff out the weakness among the political establishment. the republican political establishment in particular. though you know, some of the democrats i think have not exactly shown the biggest fight in their belly either for some of this stuff.

but particularly the republicans. they have rolled over for him. they have turned out to be exactly who he thought they were. but their willingness to go along with them. that their tough talk was just bluster. and they were just as corruptible as he is. that was correct. would some of these people rather it not be pete hegseth if you know, they could figure out some way to not waste any political capital to not speak out and have him withdraw? yeah. i'm sure there is more than three republicans that would love for pete hegseth to just withdraw. but none of them are going to do anything about it. and we have seen that with joni. the only person who kind of step out a little bit was brushed back quite easily by maga. trump didn't even need to get

involved. >> when we talk about the strategy on the part of the maga associates of donald trump, it is to package all of these controversial nominees which is to say all of them together and i believe the term of art was like voltron so you can't separate one from the rest. if you are in for one, you're in for all. do you think that is possible that they pull all the people other the finish line with the threat that damning any one of them is damning all of them and a middle finger to trump? >> yeah listen. tim is right about one thing. i am way too often on this network saying i can't imagine that would happen. and it happened! the idea he is headed to the oval office. by the way, not in a landslide. he didn't even get 50% of the

vote. so that is not a landslide. you have to get more than 50% of the vote for it to be a landslide. but you know, all of these are not like the others. marco rubio is not like kash patel. they're not the same. the idea that some of the people nominated for other jobs are perfectly fine. they are not perfectly fine to me. but they certainly would pass the test of wanting to do a good job. at running the agencies they have been nominated to head. not figuring out a way to tear down the agency, shut down the agencies, spend all their time going after political enemies or culture wars. so yeah. hegseth, gabbard and kash patel. they are not like the others. if the republican senators can't see that, if they are like states from wisconsin or

states like pennsylvania or states where you can still elect a democrat statewide, they will feel it. they may motivated feel it in the primary, but they will feel it in the general. because those nominees will not be good at their jobs. >> i just, i feel like we are at the beginning of a line of questioning which you know, maybe we are in the middle of it. i'll call it breaking news from cbs. that donald trump has invited xi jinping to attend his inauguration next month. this is in addition to apparently hungary's far right leader orban who is still considering whether to attend. this is not something we do. we do not invite foreign

dignitaries or autocrats. let me get your thoughts on that. whether we are crossing a rubiconn. >> the first thought is george w. bush about the first inauguration. that is some weird, well, you know what. you'll have to google what george bush said here on cable. but look. donald trump wants this kind of weird pomp and circumstance where he gets treated like, someone being honored by the heads of the other tribes. it is not democratic. it is un-american in the sense that it is not within the traditional american sense of what the presidency is. which is that you are called

mr. president. not his exexcellency for a reason. this is not some weird coronation like they have other places around the world. but obviously, donald trump doesn't really get that. and this is about his ego. it would be strange indeed to have xi jinping at his inauguration. >> it would be. we have had ambassadors of course. but this would be the first time in american history we invited another foreign leader and potentially a foe of america to the inauguration of american president. it certainly snacks of coronation, perhaps that is a point. tim and claire, thanks for being here tonight. really appreciate your time guys. still ahead, this evening, the massive power grab north carolina republicans managed to mask inside a hurricane relief bill. but first, one writer says democrats misunderstanding of a key voting block might have cost them the election. i will talk to a new yorker staff writer about that theory coming up next. theory coming up next.

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new reporting from the new york times today shows that during the first few years of the biden administration, the united states saw its largest immigration surge ever. adding an average of 2.4 million migrants per year and surpassing the immigration boom

of the late 1800s and early 1900s. sell things contributed to this. according to the tombs, the immigration policies president biden kept in place until his border crackdown this past june. immigration became one of the democrats' biggest liabilities in the 2024 presidential election. roji karma says the party should learn a lesson. they have struck a electoral bargain. even if liberal immigration stances alienated work class white voters they were essential to holding together the coalition. it appear to have been based on a false understanding of the motivations of latino voters. a mistake that in hindsight appears simple. conflating the views of the highly educated progressive latino who's run and staff immigration advocacy organizations and care

passionately about immigration policy reform with the views of latino voter who's overwhelmingly do not. joining me now is jolani cobb. dean cobb, it is great to have you here. i want to know how you are thinking about this and processing this. there's a lot of actions to sort through. >> you would include news media. because you know, we have tended to report and cover communities as if they are monolithic so the dynamic here that certainly for people reporting about this, you always know to some degree or another that there's some disparity between what the consultant class wants, particularly, and what

activists want. and what the rank and file voter may want. we are looking four years ago about where african americans were on police reform. those attitudes were way more varied than people suspected. we also saw in the last election that the view of women on reproductive rights were complicated. and so, even if people really firmly believe in one issue, they are making a kind of counterbalance kind of argument. do i care about this? sure, but will i vote on this issue this particular time? maybe not. the only thing i would say in response to that, this may not be an either or. there are people who care strongly about immigration. but who are going to vote on the economy. it always becomes a little more give and take in the circumstances of what people

will do going into the voting booth. >> what shocks the conscience is the way trump talked about the migrants. i think we have a compilation of his choice remarks. >> they are poisoning the blood of our country. that's what they have done. a murderer, i believe this. it's in their genes and we have a lot of bad genes in our country right now. i don't know if you call them people. in some cases these are not people. these are animals. >> i mean, that is some of the most virulent rhetoric i could imagine directing at any group of people. so yes. the economy is an important thing. but to also sanction that kind of language seems like a different thing entirely. i will recall one of the lessons i learned from paulo ramos about latinos and the identity question. here is what she writes. many latinos have fallen into the traps of white supremacy. diligently conforming to a

system that does not just discriminate against them but sees them as threats to the preservation of whiteness. like white americans, these latinos now perceive they have something to lose if immigration isn't more aggressively regulated but unlike white americans they also have something to prove. their own belonging in america. >> there is another dynamic that donald trump has been an enormous beneficiary. all of the rhetoric. the things that set off alarms bells in the ears of progressives and even main line liberals, there is an effect on the right where people can say he's not talking about me. people on the left are going oh yes he most certainly is talking about you. you may not recognize it. and they say he is talking about people who came here quote unquote the wrong way. or the totalizing category of

latino is difficult. people may say he is talking about latinos from this particular place. but not this place. and so, that rhetoric, you know, should be alarming to anyone but the fact is that the people are able to make a psychological distance between what he is saying and their own sense of their personal well being that gives them the space to still adhere to being a supporter of him. >> i don't think i'm being pollyanna, but maybe overly optimistic. i still believe that the american project is strong enough that when people see as nbc is reporting trump plans to scrap the policy of restricting ice agents from conducting arrests in churches, schools, and hospitals. i still believe in this country enough to think that is not something a vast majority of the public will accept as just the way to keep the border

safe. i don't know. arresting people at church and school and hospitals? >> i at one point thought that people wouldn't tolerate children being separated from their parents at the border. and a lot of people didn't. but there were a whole lot of people who were reconciling themselves to it. the one thing i will say about this is on the church score, it is really difficult to imagine people dragged out of pews while praying. we have seen a lot that we didn't expect people to go for. that may actually be a bridge too far. the other thing about it is these rules were in place for practical pragmatic reasons. not because of the liberal pollyannaish sensitivities but because you really don't want to arrest people at hospitals. because you don't want people with communicable diseases afraid to go get treatment. you know? and you don't want to arrest

people at schools because you want them to go to school. and so, there's that part of it too. >> i feel like we will be asking the question is it a bridge too far a lot in the coming weeks and month s. >> we will. >> thank you for helping me to make sense of this. it is complicated and difficult and fraught. it's great to have you here. >> thanks. still ahead, north carolina republicans used the waning days of their supermajority to strip power from incoming democrats. how they did it and what comes next is right after the break. stay with us. break. stay with us. type 2 diabetes? discover the ozempic® tri-zone. i got the power of 3. i lowered my a1c, cv risk, and lost some weight. in studies, the majority of people reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. i'm under 7. ozempic® lowers the risk of major cardiovascular events such as stroke, heart attack, or death in adults also with known heart disease. i'm lowering my risk. and adults lost up to 14 pounds. i lost some weight. ozempic® isn't for type 1 diabetes or children.

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103 people died in hurricane helene. western carolina was hit with catastrophic flooding so it is not surprising that his emotion moves money into a fund for hurricane relief. >> we had storm in every county. our bridge on the water had come up to such a point. we decided we needed to cross the creek to keep from being cut off. >> that lawmaker went on 17 minutes on the verge of tears the whole time. his heartfelt emotion makes the

cynicism of what his fellow republicans use that emotion for, makes it particularly disturbing. democrats at the state level did much better. they won almost every statewide race including the offices of governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state and attorney general. the one statewide race a democrat did not win was for state auditor. democrats also ended the republican legislature's supermajority for the upcoming legislative session which means that as of next month, republicans won't be able to override their democratic governor's veto simply on a party line vote. but for now, for this moment, they can. what they use that power for today was wrapped inside that bill for hurricane relief. that bill strips crucial powers

from the incoming democratic administration. among them, it curtails the power of the next democratic governor to appoint the judges he wants. any republican judicial vacancies will now have to be filled with another republican. the incoming democratic attorney general will not be allowed to argue in court against any laws passed by the republican controlled general assembly. and authority over north carolina state board of elections will be transferred to that one statewide office that will be controlled by a republican. elections will now be overseen by the state auditor. democrats and supporters of small democracy have worked tirelessly for weeks to keep the pressure on republicans here to shame them from going forward with this just abundantly obvious anti- democratic power grab. but republicans in north carolina today passed the bill

under the guise of hurricane relief. while they still had the supermajority. so what do democrats do now. the chair of north carolina's democratic party has some ideas and she joins me next. and she joins me next. but here i am... ...being me. keep being you... ...and ask your healthcare provider about the number one prescribed h-i-v treatment, biktarvy. biktarvy is a complete, one-pill, once-a-day treatment used for h-i-v in many people—whether you're 18 or 80. with one small pill, biktarvy fights h-i-v to help you get to undetectable—and stay there whether you're just starting or replacing your current treatment. research shows that taking h-i-v treatment as prescribed and getting to and staying undetectable prevents transmitting h-i-v through sex. serious side effects can occur, including kidney problems and kidney failure. rare, life-threatening side effects include a buildup of lactic acid and liver problems. don't take biktarvy if you take dofetilide or rifampin. tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines and supplements you take, if you are pregnant or breastfeeding or have kidney or liver problems. if you have hepatitis b, don't stop taking biktarvy

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the motion carries, having passed by the requisite vote, the house has overridden the governor's veto, and the bill

becomes law, notwithstanding the governor's objections. >> those who can't control themselves can leave out of either of of those doors. >> despite clear objections, the north carolina house voted to take power away from the incoming democratic administration, including officials like the state's governor and attorney general. joining me now is anderson clayton who's the chair of the north carolina democratic party. anderson, thank you for joining me. what is your reaction to what happened today in your state. >> republicans once again used their powers in the legislature to strip powers away from the voters of north carolina. it's nothing that we haven't seen this party do time and time again in this state, and we're prepared to fight them at every level possible through litigation efforts afterwards but also through maintaining the voter education that we need to continuously help people understand that what's happening right now in our state

legislature and also our judicial branch in north carolina is political corruption from the republican party in our state. >> you mentioned legal avenues, can you elab rate on that? what recourse do you think you have through the courts? >> you know, we're exploring every option we have right now as a party. and we fully anticipate friday last week we were able to file in federal court to protect over 60,000 voters that republicans and north carolina gop are trying to disenfranchise in our supreme court race. the north carolina democratic party u will continue to use every avenue possible to fight for the voters that we can in our state and to protect their rights at the ballot box. >> can you elaborate, i mean, just for people who don't understand practically what this means, can you sort of explain to our audience what the implications of this power grabby republicans mean in terms of the functioning of the state and the governor and the attorney general and down the line. >> senate bill 382, and make no

mistake, it was marked as a hurricane relief bill, but it does nothing to get actual funding out to community, specifically small business owner who is don't need grants right now, they need assistance fully from the federal government and from our state government in getting back to where they were prehurricane helene coming through and destroying communities across western north carolina right now. senate bill 382 is really a power grab from republicans that takes away powers from our attorney general, our incoming democratic attorney general. and thinking about it right now, the power of the attorney general is to, in any case scenario, if there is a bill or if there is legislation that they find to be against the constitution of our state, the ability for them to sue based on that precedent is there and it strips that power away from the attorney general. it essentially becomes a lame duck position in our counsel of state right now. and republicans know that. and they did that because of the incoming congressman that they

gerrymandered out of his seat in the federal legislator right now, jeff jackson, who's coming in as our next attorney general. but also just looking at the other positions on the council of state that republicans have disenfranchised. our superintendent losing power from the office that we just elected mo green to and also consolidates judicial offices across the state as well. >> it is just a stunning authoritarian-style power grab. anderson clayton with the north carolina democratic party. thanks so much for your time tonight. we will be following this story. hope to have you back soon. >> thank you. that is our show for tonight, it is time for "the last word" with lawrence o'donnell. >> we have a senate quorum. sheldon whitehouse, jon ossoff, andy kim, and future senator maxwell frost who some time in the next 50 years is going to be elected to the senate surely. >> is it the tip o'neil thing? how do you get these senators that everybody -- what is -- do you send them chocolates?