now there are so many santas in town. >> reporter: cheesy, maybe, cheerful? absolutely. >> are you surprised by the degree your neighbors have embraced this idea? >> i am very surprised. every day, a new santa pops up and it brings me so much joy that everyone was willing to participate and thought that it would be fun and bring some joy to our small community. >> reporter: she was inspired by videos of total santa takeovers in canada. >> that one is waving! >> reporter: the holiday trend ballooning across the u.s. from illinois to new jersey and even out west. >> i love it. >> reporter: perhaps the real magic of saint nick is what he and all 12 feet of him stand for. >> he brings fun and imagination to christmas. >> to people of all ages,

emilie ikeda, nbc news. >> some christmas cheer to take us off the air tonight. on that cheerful note, i wish you a good night. from all of our colleagues across the networks of nbc news, thanking for staying up late with me. i'll see you at the end of tomorrow. house speaker mike johnson is not having a happy holiday season. right now, his job is to pass a bill to fund the government through the next, through the first part of the next year to avoid a government shutdown. so just in time, the speaker negotiated a bipartisan deal with democrats to do just that. but this evening speaker johnson is facing a revolt from republicans in his own caucus. in his own conference. his people. that revolt has derailed the

entire deal. but his own republican conference is not the only one making his life very difficult. >> this is breaking news. you know who also doesn't like this? elon musk. the world's richest man just tweeted this bill should not pass. >> well, i was communicating with elon last night. he and vivek ramaswamy and i were on a text chain. we talked until almost midnight. he said look i get it. you are in an impossible position. everybody knows that. >> midnight text chain with vivek. don't you hate it when your friends act nice in the group chat and start sub tweeting you? trump came out against john on's funding bill saying in a joint statement with actual president-president jd vance. we want to set our country up for success in 2025. the only way to do that is with a temporary funding bill

without democratic give aways combined with an increase in the debt ceiling. anything else is a betrayal of our country. so donald trump is now officially against passing the funding bill that would avoid a government shutdown four days before christmas. trump wants johnson to throw out the deal that has been negotiated and come up with a new bill. a bill that will magically unify the republican conference and pass without any democratic support though the house republican majority has proven over and over again they are incapable of doing almost anything without democratic help. if that is not enough, trump is adding a new requests on top of that. you may have noticed in that statement i just read that trump said he wants this funding bill to be combined with an increase in the debt ceiling. the debt ceiling and the bill to fund the government are two completely separate issues. congress has to pass the bill

to fund the government by late friday night when the clock strikes midnight or the government will shutdown. but congress doesn't have to raise the debt ceiling until some time next year. so why is trump complicating this whole already complicated thing? and demanding that republicans raise the debt ceiling right now? because he doesn't want to be responsible for raising the debt ceiling in his administration though it is something that all but two presidents in the last 100 years have done. and we know that is what trump is trying to do because he literally just told everyone. this is from the same statement i just read. the most foolish and inept thing done was allowing our country to hit the debt ceiling in 2025 increasing the debt ceiling is not great but we would rather do it on biden's watch. someone should tell trump if he wants to make it look like raising the debt ceiling isn't his idea, he should probably

not put explicit instructions to raise the debt ceiling in a public statement. anyway, since trump came out against johnson's funding bill, the flood gates have opened and members of trump's own party are using this moment to prove their loyalty to him. senator ernst who has been under fire for waffling on pete hegsteh as secretary of defense, she released a christmas themed statement blasting johnson's bill. santa came early to dc with a christmas tree bill filled with a whole lot of spending. congress deserves a lump of coal for failing to do its job and putting special interests ahead of taxpayers. jolly. at the same time, steve bannon is telling his followers anyone who votes for this bill should be primaried. >> we got to light people up today. you cannot under any

circumstances vote for this bill. you are never going back to congress. >> tonight he posted that video with the caption mike johnson has got to go. and that is the other interesting tern of events here. republicans are calling for the ouster of their own speaker of the house. elon's text buddy, who has been deemed insufficiently loyal to the maga cause. which means another messy republican leadership fight three weeks from now. speaker mike johnson is in a bit of a bind here. it is worth noting however that this is also sort of all his own fault. since becoming speaker he has repeatedly promised not to do any more short term funding bill only to realize short term funding bills are the only way to keep the government funded in the modern era. here was johnson after the last short term spending bill in september. >> i want to assure everyone

that we are not going to return to the christmas spending tradition. that is a commitment i made to everyone. >> we are not going to return to the christmas omnibus spending tradition and that's a commitment i have made to everyone. a commitment that lasted approximately 84 days. i don't even have a watch. democratic leader hakeem jeffries said if the republicans shut down the government, they will make sure the american people know who is responsible. >> house republicans will now own any harm that is visited upon the american people that results from a government shutdown or worse. >> joining me now is congresswoman jasmine crockett. thank you for being here tonight congresswoman. what is happening in the house

of representatives? like, this was supposed to just be a proform exercise they were going to pass and it turned into an utter debacle with people openly calling for speaker johnson to be thrown out. how are democrats looking at this? >> like this is their problem. we have seen this play out over and over the entire two years i have been in congress. we know they had a problem picking a speaker. when i first got to congress and i thought since they held onto the speaker a little bit longer than they held onto mccarthy that i could go into january knowing that mike johnson would be the speaker. now they are calling for his ouster and remember, this is not like one of the most senior members right? so basically, he had not burned enough bridges so they had to go way, way down in seniority to find someone they could come to a consensus on. when we all try to swear in, in january. there will be less republicans

than we had in the 118th because the story has not really been told about how strongly house democrats performed while the republicans won the white house, while they ended up picking up so many seats in the senate. you know who lost seats? the house. if north carolina didn't take away our seats we would have a speaker hakeem jeffries. but there is no fixing this without the democrats. we have seen this over and over. i will just sit back and sip my tea and wait for them to figure it out. >> or maybe sip something stronger. you talk about leader hakeem jeffries. he said house republicans have been ordered to shut down the government and hurt the working class americans they claim to support. you break the bipartisan agreement, you own the consequences that follow. am i to understand that the democrats are willing to see republicans shut down the government and not bail them

out? >> oh absolutely. you know. i take my lead from my actual leader. i don't work against him. the lack of cohesiveness on that side is why this has been the most unproductive congress. people all over x say they don't deserve everything. but the people you keep putting in charge are the reason we are unproductive because they don't understand how to good afternoon and they don't have a will to govern. listen, we know that elon as they have touted about how they need to get rid of the immigrants, let me be clear, elon cannot become president of the united states. because he is an immigrant who has gained u.s. citizenship later on in life! so he is not qualified to be or he is not allowed today be under our constitution so he decided he will buy a president. and right now, he is pulling all the strings on trump but i

think it is funny they want to talk about money and what we are spending it on. but i have yet to hear that him or vivek or any of them will say we know it would be a conflict of interest if we continue to take the millions and millions of dollars from the federal government we normally receive so we are not going to do that while also making decisions about what to do for the budget of the federal government. >> it is chaos. the car guy, the rocket guy is dictating legislative priorities scuttling bills that could shut down the government. the speaker elected after a lot of back and forth inside the house republican conference could be on his way out in three weeks. the question i guess is do you worry that what could come after mike johnson could be worse than what you have now? >> i don't think it can get any

worse. here's the deal, we thought johnson was worse than mccarthy. listen, if they want to be successful, all they have to do is come together as a caucus. you have bomb throwers, you don't have a unified caucus and they are going to have a one seat majority. 217 people while we have 215. that means they lose one vote, if one person because you have to have a majority. if it is 216-216, it fails. this mandate maga thinks exists ain't going nowhere. they literally can't do the basics. we have passed the least amount of bills this this congress because of the republicans and remind, let me remind you. you brought up the debt ceiling. remember why the last speaker got kicked out? because he raised the debt ceiling. and trump was the one calling for his head. now he is like raise the debt

ceiling. you know why? because his trump tax cuts, this whole con he has that helps out all the billionaires, they expire in 2025. mind you, he is the only president we have ever had that in one term ran our debt up to $8 trillion so he already knows he is about to run the debt up so he doesn't want to have the deal with the debt ceiling. listen, i ain't got no favors for you trump. when you get here, yes, you'll have the house, the senate and the white house and y'all see if y'all can figure it out. but right now, i'm not trying to shut down this government. whether democrat, republican, or independent, when you are traveling over those holidays, you may end up with some problems because tsa is federal government. because those that are doing air traffic control to make sure we are safe, that is federal government. if you are concerned about the border, let me tell you, that is also federal government officers so yes. if you are concerned about our

international security, guess what? our military personnel will not get paid all because you don't want to help out those who need help as it relates to seniors or farmers or our veterans. these are the things that were in the bill. for those that want to talk about the cola. stop saying there is a 40% increase. it is actually silent. you know why? there is a law in place because in exchange for a cola we give out to staffers all the time. we had to give up being able to work on the side. we also have to pay for a house in the district we live in and for housing in dc. >> that is the reality of the pay raise. i think you are using the official legislation terms. there are so many cooks in the

kitchen. congresswoman. with just a few thoughts and feelings about what is happening in the chaotic house of representatives. thank you so much for breaking it down for us. great to have you on the show. >> absolutely. >> i am now joined by dan pfiefer. dan? we are all watching the dumpster catch fire once again but the flames seem more spectacular and brighter than before. donald trump is presumed to have a mandate. is presumed to be able to control the republican conference and have them do his bidding. tonight seems like there will be problems along the way. what are you making of what we are seeing unfold. >> a couple of things. first, this is a preview of what the government will look like under donald trump starting january 20th in 2025. pure chaos, government by tweet. shadow president elon musk with no knowledge of what he is talking about just firing off a

tweet and then up ending a bipartisan deal. pure chaos out there. so that is one. two donald trump is trying to do something quasi strategic. get the debt ceiling raised. no democrat should vote for a debt ceiling increase on joe biden's watch. as the congresswoman pointed out, republicans have the house, the senate, and the white house coming up. and this is their job to do and they should do it next year. >> jasmine was very clear. according to leader hakeem jeffries running the plays here, they are not going to help republicans. does that concern you at all that we could be barreling toward a government shutdown as she outlines right ahead of the holiday season where you will have tsa workers not getting paid? faa, all the infrastructure for holiday travel is largely on the government dime. that could all, they might not

be getting paid. is there political risk for that? >> there is a bipartisan deal that would have gotten plenty of votes from the democrats. elon musk and donald trump killed that bill and they are demanding the democrats do something for donald trump in exchange for nothing. so this will be on them. a government shutdown is bad. real people get hurt. but they cannot bring a bill to the floor of the house. only mike johnson can do that. if he is not willing to do that, he and trump and elon musk will own the shutdown. >> and i agree with you, this is very much a test case. it is kind of a softer test of how hard core the democratic

coalition is willing to be. it is suggested democrats should get on the war footing. opposition would use every opportunity it had to demonstrate its resolute stance against the incoming administration. do you think that should happen? can that happen? i will note the oversight committee chair is now jerry connelys, contested by alexandria ocasio-cortez who is much more of a fire brand. much more publicly engaged in terms of the back and forth on partisan politics. do you read anything into that decision as it concerns democrats on how aggressive they will be? >> i find that decision to be absolutely bananas in a bad

way. the position that you need your best messenger is the ranking member of the oversight committee. it is where the most attention will be. where the republicans are doing the most dangerous stuff to try to enact donald trump's revenge campaign on his political enemies. aoc is one of the best communicator ins the party. one of the few people with the ability to get attention. to get people who do not pay attention to politic to every moment of the day to pay attention. to give that position to connely is just misunderstanding how politics works in this era. i found that decision to be confounding. it is alarming to me that we do not fully understand. >> do you think about the fact we have reporting from punch bowl at this hour that jd vance is headed to the hill to meet

with spiker of the house mike johnson. do you have a thought about what is happening here with elon musk and jd vance and how you are reading that situation? >> yeah. for all intents and purposes, elon musk is at worse vice president and potentially co- president. i haven't seen or heard from jd vance. he seems to spend his time on twitter these days. very little influence he could not up end this the way elon musk did. >> i got to think a lot of people are saying elon, stick to the cars, dude. but too late. dan, thank you for making the time my friend. >> thank you. coming up, there is a big problem with shadow vice

president musk. and, his top secret security clearance. i'll speak to the new york times reporter with new bomb shell reporting on musk's issues. but first, the president- elect spent the day ramping up his attacks on political enemies. the great andrew weissmann joins me to discuss the any of it will hold up in court. that's next. hold up in court. that's 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. our right to reproductive health care is being stolen from us. i can't believe this is the world we live in, where we're losing the freedom to control our own bodies. we need your support now more than ever. go online, call, or scan this code, with your $19 monthly gift. and we'll send you this "care. no matter what" t-shirt. it is your right to have safe health care.

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last night at 3:00 a.m., president-elect trump threatened former republican congresswoman liz cheney. he claimed that a republican led investigation into the house january 6th committee obtained evidence that cheney allegedly broke numerous federal laws. trump went onto say the quote unquote violations should be investigated by the fbi. now trump did not elaborate what laws she might have broken but did cite his sources.

republican congressman barry loudermillic and news max host greg kelly. and last night on news max, we got more specifics. trump and his republican allies claim cheney may have engaged in witness tampering which would be a significant allegation if there was any merit to it. so far it seems there is not. here is what they are alleging. you probably remember white house aide cassidy hutchinson. she spoke about trump throwing a plate against a bar when there was no fraud found. hutchinson is how we learned about the incident in the suv where he allegedly lunged at the secret service agent driving the car when the agent refused to take trump to the capitol so he could march with his supporters and as dramatic as her testimony was in front of the cameras, the battle over

her testimony behind closed doors was even more dramatic. she was set up with a trump lawyer to represent her. hutchinson told the january 6th committee that pasantino tried to influence her testimony allegedly telling her things like we just want to focus on protecting the president. and we all know you are loyal. she claims that he told her the less you remember, the better. and urged her not to compile a time line of events. eventually she dropped him and got a new lawyer and gave the jaw dropping testimony we all remember. that is the real story of potential witness tampering in cassidy hutchinson's testimony. a trump world lawyer allegedly trying to influence her to

protect donald trump. but somehow, they are looking at that story through a fun house mirror to claim that liz cheney was the one doing the witness tampering. >> what we are looking at is why did she change her testimony? what is the catalyst that made her change it and it was the back channel communications that happened around that time. >> as comically backwards as representative loudermilk's logic is, trump's threat against cheney is still very real and trump's strategy is not about logic or facts necessarily. it is about bullying people less powerful than he is. in the mid 2000s , he sued a journalist who said he wasn't actually a billionaire. it was tossed out but trump viewed it as a win. he said he knew he couldn't win the suit but brought it anyway to make a point.

i spent a couple of bucks on legal fees and they spent a whole lot more. i did it to make his life miserable. which i'm happy about. he said everyone from liz cheney to kamala harris need to be prosecuted. he has made more than 100 threats to prosecute or punish his perceived enemies and in all of those cases, the facts are beside the point. for decades he has used his deep pockets to bully his enemies and force them to pay legal fees even if they did nothing wrong. starting january 20th he will again have the full weight of the federal government on his side. so how should the people in trump's cross hairs be preparing for the fights ahead? and are there any ways for them to fight back? andrew joins me to discuss all of that next. discuss all of that next. when i came across a snake... a rattler. fedex presents tall tales of true deliveries there we were, driver versus reptile.

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tonight, i say this to my republican colleagues, you are defending the indefensible. there will come a day when donald trump is gone but your dishonor will remain. >> that was former congresswoman liz cheney speaking on behalf of the january 6th select committee in 2022 and two years later trump is still here trying to punish cheney for speaking out. in addition to saying he would like to see the entire select committee jailed, trump is now pushing baseless claims that cheney broke numerous federal laws. meanwhile, trump continues to float the idea of pardoning the

january 6th rioters, a group which may include stewart rhodes. joining me now to discuss is former fbi general counselor andrew weissmann. it's been way too long. thank you for returning. the allegations against liz cheney that she somehow engaged in witness tampering. what is your reaction to that? >> i'm waiting to find any facts that show that. right now we are still in the phase of your point which is it the accusation and the fear. whether it is this, going after the des moines register. it's the fact of the lawsuits. in many ways i'm interested to see whether they are going to be smart about this or not. because when you think about how donald trump has fared in the courts, let's leave the supreme court out of it.

but if you look at the e. jean carroll case, he lost not once, but twice. if you look at leticia james, he lost that at trial. the one criminal case that went forward where the proof had to be beyond a reasonable doubt, he lost that. rudy giuliani lost his case against friedman and moss so you have a litany of losses going back to the election where it was almost a sweep. in many ways the idea they will be seeking a case against liz cheney, we have seen years of trump trying to avoid the january 6th trial. so i think a lot of this will be, it remains to be seen whether they want that trial or

just the fear. >> the chilling effect. >> and there is a converse warming effect if he pardons the head of the oath keepers. it's a suggestion you fight for trump, you get off the hook. >> that in many ways is even worse. that is, we do have some news about to become president who has 34 felony convictions. and so, it shouldn't be surprising he is running on the lawlessness and the idea of pardoning not just the lower level january 6th people who trespassed, that's bad enough. it wasn't like it was a trespass with no purpose. >> they weren't at the museum late night. >> couldn't have put it better. >> a new york reference. >> but to be serious, we are

talking about people who deliberately injured not just our democracy, but actual law enforcement officers who still have drama over that. those are the very last people who deserve a pardon. so to me it just instilled this idea that the country, the thing that makes us a civilized society is undermined. >> given this sort of stakes in all of this, that these are not individual cases but representative of either a larger atrophy or strengthening of our institutions, how do you feel about preemptive pardons? there is a huge debate about whether biden should issue pardons to people who have defended stalwarts. >> leaving me aside. just talking about people who were on the january 6th committee. the jack smith team. people who work in government

and are not wealthy, do not have a lot of power. i think that you want to protect them. this is a protective pardon for people who have been directly targeted. and i'm concerned about them and the next people who will be, the next people who are called onto do their duty. i think about senator mitt romney saying there were people in the senate who did not vote to convict in the impeachment because they were afraid. and you don't want that for the next. so i think you know, i think it is a tough call. it is a tough call in terms of who you decide to pardon and a separate issue is a individualized one about whether people should accept the pardon and whether liz cheney or alvin bragg or anyone

should. and that is an individual call. there is nothing i could say. >> that is their own personal decision. how are you feeling? >> i didn't do anything wrong. i feel like this is horrible i think about this in terms of the country. that we are having this conversation and recovering stories about people using the legal system to unmine the rule of law which is the irony to end all ironies. >> well, we will navigate it together my friend. thank you for your time and thoughts and all you do. andrew, great to see you. still to come tonight, he is the richest man in the world and he has the ear of the incoming president but might also be a national security risk. we will get the details on a reported investigation into elon musk. but first, bad news for

former republican congressman matt gaetz. that's next. n congressman matt gaetz. that's next.

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especially if you take medicines to treat diabetes. call your prescriber about vision changes, if you feel your heart racing while at rest, or if you have mental changes. depression or thoughts of suicide may occur. common side effects include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, stomach pain, flu, or upset, headache, feeling tired, dizzy, or bloated, gas, and heartburn. some side effects lead to dehydration, which may cause kidney problems. with wegovy®, i'm losing weight, i'm keeping it off, and i'm lowering my cv risk. ask your prescriber about wegovy®. the house ethics committee is about to let loose a little chaos as soon as the house of representatives takes the last vote of the 118th congress. nbc news has confirmed that the committee is planning to release its long awaited report into allegations against former florida republican congressman matt gaetz. according to two sources familiar with the process, the

committee took a secret vote to release it. it is a surprising reversal after the committee voted last month not to share details of its investigation into allegations of gaetz's misconduct. gaetz for his part continues to deny any wrong doing. joining me now is michael schmidt, investigative reporter for the new york times and an msnbc national security contributor. michael, thank you for being here. i think we are all a little surprised by this. do you have any expectations for the report? >> well, it looked at a range of issues. it looked at how he used funds, government funds and whether they were used thwart activities they weren't supposed to. it looked at the allegations about the women. whether the allegations are true, that he had sex with a 17- year-old in exchange for money. whether he had sex with other women. and the committee has obtained a lot of different documentation and testimony

from key people in the room when the incidents allegedly happened. and the thing you have to remember about gaetz is he was never charged. the only stuff we know about gaetz comes from the case of joel greenburg, the florida local tax collector who pled guilty, some statements made in relation to his case but never saw an indictment to gaetz because he was never charged. we were never given an explanation from the department about why he was never charged. so what you have in this document is the most awe authoritative report on matt gaetz's conduct ever created. all we know about matt gaetz is based on newspaper stories and stuff dating back to 2021 so this would be a lot of different allegations about gaetz and his conduct when he was in, you know, he is alleged to have done these things when

he was in the house. and that could be pretty damaging to him. now, maybe damaging in a classical sense, not in a trumpian sense. the classical sense. so what that means for him. after he said he wasn't going to try and become attorney general, he said maybe i will be a special counsel. the biden administration has been going on and on about how you don't have to be senate confirmed to be a special council. someone could probably get a lot more accomplished. >> and an oan, one american news network host and special counsel. >> and the cameo where you can record messages for money. he does that. or he did that. >> it bears mentioning this report seemed to, i don't know if it was central but played a

role in all the machinations around gaetz securing the attorney general pick. it was strange timing. all of a sudden trump makes this decision on air force one taking a ride with matt gaetz that he will announce him as his pick for attorney general. >> and they don't vote to release. so we are in a different matt gaetz political world today. he is no longer the nominee for attorney general. >> some people read into the flurry of action as evidence that he really didn't want the report to come out. that perhaps, we have no idea if that is true or not. but he has been vociferous in his response to the allegations. >> that would be quite, people always think trump and his folks are playing eight dimensional chess. but he is not the nominee. >> and now the report is coming

out. matt gaetz doesn't have a lot of friends. matt gaetz is no longer the nominee so there is less incentive to protect that nominee than before. >> so you think this is about him an not donald trump? >> everything is about donald trump. >> truer words were never spoke. michael schmidt, thank you for joining me. great to see you. coming up, new reporting from the new york time about pentagon investigations into shadow vice president elon musk. we'll have more on that after the break. stay with us. r the break. stay with us. ♪ ♪ you think we should wait — or... open it! it looks just like him. holiday memories made by alexis

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. new reporting from the new york times reveals that the pentagon has reportedly opened multiple investigations into elon musk and his rocket company spacex which is a major government contract or. according to the times, officials are reviewing whether he violated federal disclosure requirements meant to protect state secrets. it appears musk and his team raised red flags by failing to provide details of his meetings with foreign leaders. a lawyer who works on security clearances told the times if you don't self-report the question becomes why didn't you? and what are you trying to hide? joining me now is kirsten grind, investigative business reporter at the new york times. thanks for joining me. first of all, how do we know about all of this?

>> it is incredibly hard reporting as you can imagine. but what my colleagues and i basically uncovered is that look, spacex is a major government contract torr. they have billions in contracts and if you just pay attention to elon musk's x feed, you can tell me is not your usual defense contractor, right? so we have been hearing from various corners from people with knowledge of spacex, from the government agencies, from worldwide governments, even, that here is this person who is essentially a wild card. and is he living up to these very strict national security rules? so that is kind of how we got on the subject. >> do you feel like, well first of all, some of this, musk has lost the confidence of some of the very people working for him. is that right? >> that's right. i mean, you can always tell when something is wrong when the employees who are working

on the very issues, so reporting to the government on behalf of elon musk are complaining to the government that these important rules are being broken. so that is always a major warning sign. >> what are the potential repercussions here? trump in his incoming administration could still offer musk a security clearance anyway couldn't he, despite the red flags? >> he certainly could. it is setting up a major conflict of interest. the biggest one yet. so he is in there, in the trump transition administration basically acting as a shadow president. and now we have all these government departments who are separately worried about him and spacex and whether he can handle sensitive state secrets. so it is going to be interesting how this plays out because these government departments are worried that he as the head of this new cost

cutting agency will suddenly come in and cut their departments if they go after him. right? so it is setting up this interesting showdown we have obviously never seen before. >> do you have a sense of the breadth of the investigations that are being conducted right now? >> so there are really reviews at this point and our understanding is a lot of them are really still in the initial phases and during these phases, they will go out and talk to a lot of people. they will likely talk to spacex employees and executives and it is really fake a fact finding mission but what we really found through our investigation is they have been flouting these strict rules for years. this is not like forgetting to file like a check or a paperwork. it's these checks and balances that really exist to protect the u.s. state secrets.

>> well right. and, this is an on-going concern because you know, we have reporting tonight through the week that elon musk is sitting in on calls with foreign leaders. at the same time, that he has massive lucrative government contracts and top secret classified clearance. is that right? >> that is absolutely right. and that is why everyone is concerned. his foreign leader meetings. it is unclear, really, which details of those conversations, if any, have been reported to the defense department or any of spacex's government customers. another issue we looked at is he has said himself that he uses ketamine. well that is something you absolutely have to report to the government and he did not do that at the time when he said that in 2023 so there's all these red flags that indicate he could be a risk. that's what everyone is worried about. >> elon musk has responded to this story on x saying deep state traitors are coming after

me using their paid shills in legacy media. what is your reaction to that? >> i have had a variety of reactions to my reporting on elon musk over the years. i haven't had that one yet. we of course go to him in advance and never hear anything so we welcome any kind of response from him. >> okay. really essential reporting. thank you for doing it and coming on the show to talk about it. really appreciate it. >> thanks so much for having me. that is our show for this evening. now it is time for the last word with lawrence o'donnell. word with lawrence o'donnell. good evening, alex, and i love the way you began your discussion in your hour about donald trump and the debt ceiling and about him publicly saying there's something i really want the government to do. >> yes. >> but i don't want to do it, and i want joe biden