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we begin with that bombshell report on former congressman matt gaetz, by the house ethics committee. a report so blistering you cannot enunciate. the culmination of a years long investigation, 37 pages, compiled by gaetz former peers in congress. between 2017 and 2020, gaetz regularly paid women for engaging in sexual activity with him. that quote, in 2017 gaetz engaged in sexual activity with a 17-year-old girl. that from 2017 to 2019, gaetz quote, used or possessed illegal drugs including cocaine and ecstasy but hates, quote, accepted's, including transportation and lodging and gaetz arrange for his chief of

staff to assist a woman with whom he engaged in sexual activity in obtaining a passport falsely indicating that she was a constituent. that he no knowingly and willfully sought to impede the investigation and gaetz conduct reflects, it concludes, quote, there is substantial evidence the representative gaetz violated house rules and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory , illicit drug use, impermissible gifts, special favors an obstruction of congress. it is a lot. even more so when you consider matt gaetz was president-elect trump's first choice to run the department of justice. we should note that matt gaetz has denied any wrongdoing and he sought a restraining order against house ethics committee and orth -- order to halt the release of the report. it could not stop the fallout that is now in full swing.

that report is where we start today with former congressman from florida political analyst, david jolly plus legal analyst kristi greenberg and political analyst molly jong-fast. david jolly, you have gaetz denying any wrongdoing, denying having sex with anyone under age, denying paying for sex and last week, he posted this, quote, in my single days, often sent funds to women i dated even some i never dated but who asked. i dated several of these women for years. it's embarrassing though not criminal, that i probably party, woman eyes, drank and smoked more than i should have earlier in life. i live a different life now. i want to put it side-by-side with what we are now reading in this house ethics committee, quote, from 2017 to 2020, representative gaetz made tens

of thousands of dollars in payments to women that the committee determined were likely in connection with sexual activity and or drug use. many of the women interviewed by the committee were clear that there was a general expectation of sex. they referred to victim a, who was 17 at the time, quote, the record overwhelmingly suggest that representative gaetz had sex with the then 17-year-old for which she was paid. at the time, she had just completed her junior year. of high school. put those two statements, the statement from matt gaetz, what i just read to from the ethics report, side-by-side. >> one holds absolutely no letter, what he does not acknowledge or really ever address, is the fact that based on credible information appears that based on the record that matt gaetz engaged in the statutory rape under the letter of the law.

i think also an important context here, is one of his closest friends is actually now serving prison time for a number of charges related to all of these activities that ultimately the department of justice was able to bring charges against his friend and they chose not to, with matt gaetz and we will never quite know why, sometimes the record does not support a prosecution, evidence in cases like this is very hard. we also know that matt gaetz, he's the privilege son of a very wealthy powerful political family in the state of florida so there are questions about whether or not those relationships spared matt gaetz any charges. we will never know the answers but i think the important thing is, whether or not matt gaetz has a political future left, we will have to see and in today's republican party, he probably does, there are still questions whether he would run for the governorship of florida. but today in real time, we need to focus our attention on donald trump's judgment and on

mike johnson's. certainly based on jill greenberg, his friends, the case we've seen against him, the reported activity about matt gaetz donald trump knew all of that when he appointed him, mike johnson you on that one kevin mccarthy a sickly said the quiet part out loud, and when he asked to bury this ethics report, we need to put as much focus on donald trump and mike johnson as much as matt gaetz. >> i want to talk about what this means, legally, given what you have read given gaetz's denial, and this does meet the criteria for statutory rape charges, what does accountability or justice look like here? >> so i have to say in reading this report, i was really surprised that the committee said they did not find sufficient evidence to conclude that representative gaetz had violated the sex trafficking statute. it looks like they are taking a

very narrow view of what the statutes are, there are multiples, so, there's the main statute which says you know, if you're trafficking in women, transporting women across state lines, you're doing that using force or coercion if they are adults and if they are minors, then you violated that statute, that's one, but there's another one which is cited in the report called the man act and that prohibits the knowing transportation of individuals through interstate or foreign commerce to engage in prostitution, so if you transport a woman over state lines, it's consensual, nobody's force, coerced or but if you just transported a woman across state lines for the purpose of prostitution, that violates the man act, so they state here, representative gaetz cause the -- that is a violation of the sex

trafficking statute, that man act and they go on to say that the criminal division of doj states that you don't really prosecute that statute unless there's more severe trafficking in persons that present, but when i would submit is they seem to miss read that into saying that you would need to have the other components like somebody being a minor or using force, fraud or coercion but that's not what the statute requires an it would render of the statute redundant, what you look at as a prosecutor, and i prosecuted this statute before, i've supervised those who prosecuted it, and you look for aggravating factors, and among them are, is there more than one woman, here, there's evidence and report that matt gaetz, not only transported one woman across state lines to new york on it trip but to women, what else? he also used drugs, also, there are text messages about the fact that he is having them

where the party favors, not just compensating them for sex but also drugs, there's later in the report that the women say the use of drugs impair their ability to consent which is something all prosecutors look at because that is a form of coercion. so, when you have more than one woman, being transported across state lines for the purpose of prostitution, and you have the presence of illegal drugs being used as well, those are the kinds of aggravating factors that prosecutors look at in prosecuting the man act, i was a little surprised at the conclusion, that said, the people who are drafting this report are not prosecutors, which brings me back to the question of why the doj didn't prosecute that to begin with. it seems like there is evidence out in this report, that suggest that those charges could be supported by the evidence that the committee

found. >> molly, i want to redo this part of this, the committee considered sanctions against representative gaetz and the committee determined it would not risk the further victimization of the women involved in this matter, what does that tell you? >> some of these women were at the time, teenagers, so they weren't women, they were children, by definition. look, i mean, i think it's worth pulling back for a minute and realizing the house ethics committee is not known, it took a lot for them to do this. the last time we saw this was 2006. this is not a regular thing, they often don't penalize members for things that are ethically dicey in fact i think a lot of times members on both the left and the right get a

pass in ways they probably shouldn't. the fact that they are making this big a deal out of this, is noteworthy, and important. the fact that, and i think what kristi said is important, the fact that the doj is not prosecuting this, it's baffling, in my mind, and really questionable, especially because matt gaetz is not the attorney general, at least not yet and probably not ever because he's not in contention anymore but i think that's a really important point, too, and i would also add we have been through so much with me to -- me too and women not being believed or believed and pushed aside, so to actually see a committee believe women, talks women, use their statements and then come to a conclusion from that especially at this moment, a little heartening. >> ryan, understanding that there are not a lot of members left on capitol hill, your sense of what the response has been from both caucuses? >> reporter: by and large members of congress wanted to

see this report out there, and probably more democrats than republicans wanted to see it but i do think there was even a sizable number of republicans that thought the time was right for this information to get out there. you know, if you've been on capitol hill over the past five years, we've lived in a constant state of rumors and accusations and this cloud that has followed matt gaetz everywhere he's gone, and i've it really had the full evidence and weight behind it where you could point to it and definitively say that he had done something wrong. this is far and away the most exhaustive report with the most detail that we've seen, that really paints a picture of what his behavior was like during that period of time, it probably onto itself alone is not enough to convict him in a court of law, but as the report goes into great detail to point

out, it certainly provides enough evidence to show that he was in violation of the standards and the rules of the house of representatives. and it's important to point out, yes there were a number of republicans that didn't think the report should come out, chairman guest put out a statement saying that he believes the report should not be put out, that same statement, it goes on to say that they do not dispute the findings of the report. it was more having to do with the president of what the committee is and the fact that they believe that they no longer had jurisdiction over gaetz so it made no sense to release it because there's nothing they can do about it. he can't be penalized by the house ethics committee, any future penalization would have to come from a prosecutor or a court of law. now, obviously, this information is out there in the public. i do think part of the thinking

by members of the house ethics committee was that this is not the end of matt gaetz's public life . we know he's going to go work for a right-wing conservative media outlet as an anchor in the very near future but he floated the idea that he could run for the senate see that marco rubio will vacate once he becomes secretary of state and there also remains the possibility that he ends up in the trump administration in the future. maybe not in a position that would be senate comfortable but there's a long list of positions that matt gaetz could find himself in, if trump sees fit, and i think there was a sense by the members that this information needed to get out there just as a reminder to trump of what type of person they believe matt gaetz is. it's also important to point out that matt dates denies

everything in this report and specifically denies that he ever had sex with underage women and he spent a lot of his day-to-day on social media, pushing back against the conclusion that was drawn by the ethics committee that he essentially was paying for sex for a very significant period of time with a long list of women, they point out $90,000 in payments to 12 different women, that they say were for the purposes of paying for sex and drugs, and gaetz, has said there wasn't a quid pro quo, he wasn't paying them for sex and they were exchanging money because they were in various forms of relationships and they also happen to be having sex at the same time any points to depositions from who he claims to be one of these witnesses in a separate civil matter. so there's a lot here to unpack, there's a lot that i think is going to follow matt gaetz for some time, hence the reason he's pushing back on it

so much but whether there will be any direct penalty for him in the future, that remains an open question. >> let's talk about speaker mike johnson. he said he was going to quote, strongly request that the ethics committee not issue the report because that is not the way we do things in the house and that would be a terrible precedent to set and then you have, ryan reminded us, they are not taking issue with what is in the report and the credibility of the report, simply saying this is not the rules. what is this mean for mike johnson? >> yeah, so, look, i've worked with the house in one capacity or another and for 30 years, and i'm sympathetic to the norms and institutions of the house but mike johnson got this one wrong. what i would say about this is i think generally, given the story of matt gaetz, his current political standing as the ethics committee said, there is an overwhelming public interest in this case, so that is fair for the ethics committee to acknowledge it. but if we stick within the norms and customs of the house,

what the ethics committee had to do is defend the institution from the likes of matt gaetz, and i mean that is clear that matt gaetz obstructed this process, thinking that he could run out the clock and ultimately, you know, manipulate the process but it wasn't until the very end when he realized that time was up, he actually resigned as the last move to try and manipulate the process. in some ways i think with the ethics committee was doing was defending the norms and processes and that's where johnson ultimately got this wrong. he had a committee on ethics in the house that they've been manipulated by matt gaetz for several years i was right for the committee to make the move and then you get to the substance of this. mike johnson was also covering up what appears to be credible allegations of statutory rape, that used to be disqualifying for any leader and it's not apparently in today's republican party so mike johnson is just as much of a corporate as it comes to civil verdicts when it relates to sexual misconduct, so in some is it's no surprise, the only surprise was that mike johnson

wears his evangelical christianity on the sleeve but is fine to turn a blind eye to this. >> thanks for bringing us your reporting, when we come back, we have more on our top story, we have likely not seen the last of matt gaetz, you've already lined up a tv job. speaker johnson managed to avoid a government shutdown but has he avoided getting the acts from his republican caucus. the democrats have said that he's on his own. later we will talk about the incoming trump administration's promise of mass deportations on day one and now the latest threat to prosecute local officials who prand in their way, all the stories and more oswhen deadlin white house continues after this.

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we are back with david, kristi and molly talking about this report on former congressman matt gaetz. david jolly reminded us about why this matters, it matters for the women who were impacted, it matters for the quote does credibility of the house of representatives, and it matters because this is the person the president-elect, donald trump, thought should leave the department of justice. when you read this report through the lens of an administration that does not want to properly vet any of its cabinet pics, what worries you

most? >> when you consider the fact that there is an associate of matt gaetz, who's currently serving 11 years in jail for committing at least some of the same conduct or at least he was charged with conduct involving sex trafficking, that seems to have implicated matt gaetz, particularly involving this minor, where this report says that matt gaetz was involved well violated that law, this individual, joel greenberg is serving 11 years in prison with respect to sexual misconduct related to that individual. so just in terms of thinking about, our justice system and relative culpability of individuals, the idea that one is in prison for that long, and the person he cooperated against, and the judge in that

case, said joel greenberg provided such incredible cooperation in 22 years on the bench, it was the most substantial cooperation he had ever seen and the prosecutor said yes, he's provided substantial cooperation and you should sentence him to a more lenient sentence because of that. so they weren't doubting his credibility and they said he was a good cooperator, and one of the people who is cooperating against matt gaetz, no charges, nothing happens to him. it reminds me, it's a parallel really to michael cohen, you know, when michael cohen served three years for campaign- finance violations, and then the person he cooperated against, the person is providing information against trump, nothing happens, and i think, if you had taken a step back, it can be exhausting to think of our justice system that you know, the higher up

the totem pole you go, as prosecutors, you're looking to get the more and more culpable people and flip people who are lower against those who are higher, when you can't get those higher people, the people who are actually the most guilty, it makes people really doubt the criminal justice system and is it working the way that it's supposed to work. so i think this case again, just reading through the report and the allegations, reading through you know, with respect to the statutory rape, and the fact that there are multiple individuals who said that they witnessed him having sex with this woman, , this girl, those under age at the time, that there are multiple witnesses to it and yet he's not prosecuted for that and he's now -- not prosecuted for federal crimes, it really, it definitely serves down in what our criminal justice system is able to a compass against people that are powerful. >> it would be alarming if it were just matt gaetz who is coming into the confirmation process, but with this type of baggage, i want to reduce some of the reporting on pete hegseth. at least a dozen senators are pushing to see the background

check. unlike some other committees, the senate armed services usually limits access to these types of checks to its two lead senators. what does this tell you about donald trump and this whole process? >> it shows that it's really important that there's background checks for all of these jobs, i mean the dod, it's 3 million+ people. it's a big, big job and then you have, tulsi gabbard, you know, top spy in the country, like these are people who need fbi background checks. and you know, i think, i think that this is the job of the united states senate, article 2, section 2, their job is to advise and consent, so they had to stand up for this and we are seeing more i think, in trump 2.0, of republican elected, standing up -- >> just the tiniest bit of

muscle memory. >> but they did it yesterday or two days ago with the house and they didn't shut down the government despite the fact that he wanted them to -- >> and he threatened to primary them. >> they have an opportunity to do their job and the hope is, and by the way, the expectation should be that they will pay >> david jolly, you reference the possibility of matt gaetz running for marco rubio's open senate seat. listen to what matt gaetz had to say about that just 24 hours ago. >> it seems i may not have had enough support in the united states senate, maybe i'll run for marco rubio's vacant senate seat and join some of those folks. >> it would see -- it would seem almost glib to ask what his chances would be, the question becomes what does it say about a republican party that doesn't say, absolutely not, sir, we have read the 37 page report, you have had your chance. no more.

>> alicia, i think the indictment on the republican party and the modern movement is already in, and there's no equivocating about it. i'm an attorney, kristi would agree with this as well, everyone is entitled to due process but in the court of politics, the standard is very different, and i think if you go back to the kavanagh hearing and you look at hegseth and gaetz and others, the reason the indictment is already in his this, you can litigate due process in front of the country over a nominee like kavanagh or hegseth and you can find the defense argument for well, we don't see sufficient evidence, that's not the standard, that shouldn't be the standard in american politics. it would not have been hard for the trump administration to replace kavanagh with another pick that didn't have those allegations, it would have been hard to replace hegseth with a

nomination who didn't have those but look what happened in the gaetz situation, the credible allegations were there, it became too tenuous for senators to support, so pam body comes in as the next nominee, you can falter on a lot of her record as well as her reasoning on policy but at least there's not credible allegations of statutory rape against pam bondi. maybe that should be the new standard, no allegations of rape or statutory rape. maybe that is why the indictment is already in, so many of these republican senators, they are willing to look the other way. >> just ahead, a new report about surprise surprise, trump's frustration with the current speaker of the house. could there be a new speaker soon? we will look at what is causing

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mike johnson's future as speaker of the house appears to be in jeopardy. in the aftermath of last week's chaos and capitol hill, far right members of the conference are noncommittal about whether he should keep the gavel. representative harris said in a statement, quote, i am now undecided on white house leadership should look like in the 119th congress.

so now all eyes turned to mar-a- lago. trump will spend the political break. the speakers fate could come down to trump's got, as the president-elect told fox news, johnson will easily remain speaker if he acts decisively and tough. the reality is trump now sees him as waffling and week. olivia, when i read that script it's like is that from now or three months ago or three months before that because it always feels like dij@ vu all over again. talk me through what the reporting is telling you about what january 3rd could look like. >> it's twofold, we have to watch house conservatives and we have to watch donald trump. starting on thursday, my colleague and i started hearing conversations from trump advisors, trump allies, who were saying that trump was

dissatisfied with johnson. one at the time told me quote, if somebody challenges johnson you are not going to get any pushback which means, he won't save them if he's in trouble. there's a growing thought that donald trump won't fly in and try to save johnson and he doesn't want to waste his political capital but also doesn't want to hurt his own, which is, he wants to get stuff going and if there's a protracted leadership fight, that might delay him, being able to do so. the conservatives i talked to, we asked them before the cr was released if they would back johnson, these are the usual suspects, marjorie taylor green, lauren boebert and most leaders said they would back johnson or a few declined to say where they were at the time. thomas massey came out against him and we saw a few republicans move from if the vote was today i will back him

to, i don't know if i'm going to say, i'm waiting to see what's happening. so it looks like johnson has a whipping problem that he has to work on over the holidays. >> i mean, david jolly, who wouldn't want to be dealing with a whipping problem over the holidays, i mean, you've made the most astute point which is the one thing that is probably protecting mike johnson is the fact that nobody else really wants this job, right? >> that's right, or if you wanted, you don't have a pass to 218 point votes, he's had a john banner type speaker ship, i know that sounds wild but he basically did for things in the last two years, and he did it all the democrats and that is what sunk every republican speaker since then so johnson finds himself in a place where math is math and apparently conservative republicans in the house can't do math. they think they will change

speakers and get a different outcome. there's one person i'm curious now about and it's jim jordan. jim jordan had a shot at the speakership after kevin mccarthy and it largely didn't work because the old appropriators had the long-term memory of how jim jordan likes to shut down the government and throw bombs. those old bulls are waiting more and more. mike johnson was never the perfect fit when he became speaker. he found the chair when the music stopped in the house republican politics. so given the math going into january, if massey and marjorie taylor greene and maybe andy biggs or someone else says no, he's not speaker, but there's no clear path for who else other than, is there somebody that now can bring some consensus, this is a truly, who knows type of moment. >> maybe i will put an abacus and a t 83 calculator, so they

have some tools for their math thing. the jim jordan's of the world, what are you hearing about the appetite to have someone like that as speaker? >> i think there is still a feeling like with jim jordan, the same thing that held him back from speakership last october will be his problem, more senior republicans don't trust him, but he's not the only name that i'm hearing, ralph norman pointed to jim jordan and tom emmer who's the house majority whip and another republican pointed to tom emmer and steve scalise. i don't really believe that people don't want the job, given that we are in a power nexus and people always want to move up, it's a tough job and they know it. i think what david jolly was saying it's a question of whether they can get there. and that power vacuum and probably turn into a messy fight if donald trump weighs in and there's blood in the water for mike johnson, so i think that is just one of those big questions and we will wait to see if that happens over the next week and a half or so.

>> and then we have the element of elon musk and the fact that there is perhaps a shadow speaker of the house. >> elon musk, you know, trump really knows how the federal government works a lot better than elon musk. i do think, look, mike johnson serves at the pleasure of donald trump. donald trump was the person who helped him get that speakership, but the people who have helped him pass legislation have been democrats, so it's a very small majority, it'll be even smaller in the next congress, and so he's not going to be able to pass things without democrats, so even if it ends up being a jim jordan, that jim jordan is going to have to build consensus and that's a problem. >> what are you hearing from democrats about this sense that, if the vote does come up that democrats are not going to bail johnson out? >> what we have heard, and i haven't seen it shifted is that

democrats are expected to back hakim jeffries. we saw in the past, democrats actually protected mike johnson and they didn't want the work of congress to be disrupted in the way that they saw the october speakership fight unfold, but we are not really expecting them to help johnson in this case, so, he's got to watch his own conference and he's got to make sure he can get enough people on his side in order to survive holding the gavel. >> david jolly, it is wild, we use the word unprecedented so often in these last few years that it feels like a word that has lost all meaning and the fact that you have a republican speaker constantly having to look to democrats to say guys, help me out here, and not in a way that is about compromise and coming together and getting things done for the american people and a brighter future,

no, it's all just like, my caucus is a mess over here, and so if we just want to you know, get some of the basic functioning of the government done, i will need your help, that sums up the moment we find ourselves in, david jolly. >> this is what republicans call a mandate environment, they suggest that everyone is going along with that none of it is true. look if you are an advocate without a coalition governing, that's what we have, name -- without jeffries and the democrats, nothing happens in a republican majority. that is a coalition government and the perversion that we are seeing that sometimes we overlook with this elon musk piece, we are also living through a real-time moment of money and politics. if elon musk wasn't the richest man, if he was just a you tuber, he wouldn't have the influence that he has. so we are seeing a couple of different perversions of democracy. republicans are using a 50-50 government to declare mandate but they can't govern with it.

it's in the hands of a lot of bad faith actors in the conference. at least if democrats had a majority in the situation, you would see good faith actors trying to resolve this. >> elon musk, $277 million directed to donald trump. just to put a point on that. >> thanks for bringing us your reporting. david and molly, you are sticking with me. some republicans are thinking musk for stepping in and guiding trump over these past several weeks and we will show you how the actual president- elect is responding to all of that. that's next.

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about tremfya®. ♪♪ no, he's not taking the presidency. i like having smart people, you know, they are on a new kick, russia, russia, russia, all the different hoaxes and the new one is, president trump has ceded the presidency to elon musk. no. no. that's not happening. he's not going to be president, that i can tell you. and i'm safe, you know why? he can't be, he wasn't born in this country. >> at least elon musk cannot constitutionally be president but that's not stopping accusations that musk is the one pulling the strings.

trump's comments yesterday raised press questions about how long the brill manse between the two can last given that he is not one to ever want to share the spotlight. it was only a matter of time and it would seem to me the fact that he is now on extended reps about it on stage, tells you that it has in fact, bothered him just a little. >> it certainly has, that is trump taking the bait, in a real way, sometimes donald trump actually knows when to not take the bait or when to back off and i think we saw that last week once they blew up the funding package and they realize they couldn't win that. you saw that with the laura loomer episode, he backed away so the question is, will they learn any lessons from mishandling the past week, but

for democrats and those who are pushing back on the movement, it's also important that they not take the wrong bait and what i mean by that is perhaps with elon musk, it's not about the personality, not about him being such an unlikable character and buddies with trump, but there's an outsized influence of his money in today's politics. is it that what elon musk typically says, is full of misinformation and raw ignorance, so are we governing through rot ignorance and they don't understand how the process works, doesn't understand what it means to real people if you have to cut the budget or shut down the government, those are the fair fights, taking the bait like we just saw donald trump do was a mistake for trump and it would be a mistake for those who resist donald trump to take the same bait. >> i want to do an entire hour on which bait is worth taking. what matters in the lives the

american people and what's just noise because they give so much, right, democrats top runneth over when it comes to deciding what to respond to from donald trump and from his allies. it also has given the writers at snl a lot of material, so let me just play for you a bit of the cold open from this weekend's saturday night live. >> i'm so thankful to my dear friend lauren michaels, for asking me to host tonight. thank you, you know, we are very close friends, we are like trump and elon musk without the sexual tension, you know? >> there's elon musk and then there's, just any person who seems to have the ear of the president of the united states, this much influence over the president of the united states, especially when america did not vote for elon musk, he did -- america did not vote for his big ideas, they voted for

donald trump. >> yeah, and there's polling that shows that america is not a huge fan of elon musk and trump is more popular than musk. >> say that one more time slowly for donald trump. >> i would say, i think the fact that it made it into donald trump's jokes means that he has noticed it and remember, democrats were the ones who kept saying it's president musk, it's president musk and so much so that it became kind of silly, but clearly, and i think maxwell frost, a member of the house, mentioned this, it actually sort of worked, and you remember that he trump does not like to share the spotlight and we remember what happened, you know, he is a totally different -- he has a totally different vice president this time. >> it's interesting, we have a president and the vice president have a speaker, it feels like as if elon musk is

our prime minister. and i spoke with him a couple of times this week, many of us, i think a large part of the voice is a reflection of the voice of the people. >> he has a voice and so do your constituents who elected you to go to congress, david jolly. >> is this the third time i will mention money in politics. he can buy a congressional seat, so many of these congressional seats unfortunately are just commodities of special interest and the super wealthy. so elon musk could put a member of congress in or out of office on a whim, that's around the error for him, and this is one of the places where look, i entered politics as a conservative thinking that money in politics should be protected. i think we should get all money out of politics now. if musk is giving us a gift right now, let's accept it and have a national conversation

about it because democrats looking to return the power, this is a fantastic issue to put in front of the american people who feel this franchise when they look at musk. >> we are going to do an hour on which bait to take and then we will do another hour on the 180 lived experience of david jolly, thank you so much for being with us. before we go to break, we have developing news to tell you about. nbc news learned former president bill clinton has been admitted to the hospital where he is undergoing testing and being observed after spiking a fever. he's reportedly in good spirits.'s closest -- sports to say that -- the source tells nbc news the former president is awake and alert and is expected to be fine. we will, of course, bring you updates as we have them. we will sneak in a quick break. we will be right back. right ba.

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tote bag as a thank you for your support. your small monthly donation of just $10 could be the reason a child in crisis survives. please call or go online to givetosave.org to help save lives. earlier today in new york city, luigi mangione pleaded not guilty to all 11 state charges in the murder of unitedhealthcare ceo brian thompson. it was the first time he was able to formally respond to the indictment which includes charges of first-degree murder, an act of terrorism, criminal possession of a weapon and

forgery for using a fake id in the days before the murder. during the hearing, his defense team accused his -- him of the perp walk. he will remain in custody until his next court date on february 1st. we will look at what trump and his incoming border czar have planned to carry out their planned agenda. planned agenda you can count on me. please have snow and mistletoe and presents under the tree. right now all over the country, kids at shriners hospitals for children™ are able to go home and be with their families for the holidays. and it's only possible

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on my first day back in the oval office, i will sign a historic slate of executive orders to close our border to illegal aliens and stop the invasion of our country.

and on that same day, we will begin the largest deportation operation in american history. every foreign gang member will be expelled and i will immediately designate the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, and we'll unleash the full power of federal law enforcement, i.c.e., border patrol, how good is -- by the way, how good is tom homan, right? >> hi again, everyone, it's 5:00 in new york. i'm alicia menendez in for nicolle wallace. there it is again, donald trump's bold, costly, and cruel promise to begin the largest deportation operation in america ever on day one of his second administration. speaking of turning point usa, arizona reiterating his antiimmigrant rhetoric. you heard him mention tom homan, his hand-picked border czar, who has been acting like his attack

dog, currently on a leash, ready to pounce once january 20th comes. he spoke at the same event where he sent a message to mayors all across the country. >> a whole bunch of agents into your community, and we'll find the bad guy, and when we find the bad guy he's probably going to be with others, others that aren't a priority apprehension, they're getting arrested too. you get exactly what you don't want, more arrests in your communities. i don't want to do that. i would much rather be safe with the agents arrest the guy in the county jail, they don't let us in, fine, you're not going to stop us. we'll go to the community, and we will find him. >> the mayor of chicago was specifically singled out by homan in his remarks with homan saying he will start his crackdown on immigrants in the windy city first. chicago's mayor brandon johnson said he would protect the sanctuary status.

"the new york times" provides an emotional look at another sanctuary city, new york, which has been sheltering, 225,000 migrants over the past few years. the reporting gives an inside look into families living into all different types of sheltered, tents erected on an island. the times reports many inside the shelters are filled with gratitude for a city that has given them a shelter, a bedside table, and they are determined to get out, to become self-sufficient and to contribute to the country they escaped to. what comes next for them and the city is uncertain. separate reporting in the "new york times" finds there are considerations by the biden administration to put in place protections for some immigrants before trump is sworn in. the immigrants in question have temporary protected status, which allows people from dangerous and troubled countries to live and work in the united states legally. as of this year, there are 1 million immigrants from 17 countries with tps, according to the congressional retail service. the deportation operation is where we start this hour. the ceo of global refuge, former

white house policy director for mish michelle obama. and msnbc contributor, charlie sykes is here. why are we having this conversation today? we're having it because of the sound we just heard from former president, incoming president on stage in arizona. what we heard from tom homan, but also because of the season we find ourselves in, and the spirit of welcoming the refugee, finding and giving sanctusay ab moment that days before christmas, that is what we are hearing from the incoming president of the united states, not a dash of kindness, not a dash of compassion, not a dash of generosity, just fear about what could happen on day one of

his administration. >> it's hard when you think

what americans actually want, to drill down, you know, one level. and they don't want asylum seekers who came here years ago and are waiting on a court decision to be deported. that's where the consensus you're talking about, people believe that those convicted of crimes should be deported but when you go much beyond that, you have a logistical hurdle, you have a prioritization because it means that you're going to take resources that should go to taking criminal

convicts out of society to focusing on people who have been a critical part of our economy, who have been a part of our community out, and so i think that's where i hope members of congress come together and say, look, let's figure out a reasonable way to approach this so that we protect american citizens while staying true to us being a country, you know, that doesn't do things in excess. >> you had dhs secretary alejandro mayorkas on face the nation and he was asked about the biden administration's timing. take a listen. >> there was tremendous pressure to maintain the workings of title 42, which we did. that held until may of 2023. we then turned to congress. and we asked for supplemental funding that was desperately needed to make our administration of a broken immigration system work much better. we were denied. we then turned to the bipartisan

negotiations, which proved successful, which were then killed. the result of it, a really terrific solution was killed by irresponsible politics. looking back now in hindsight in 2020, if we had known that irresponsible politics would have killed what was clearly a meritorious effort and a meritorious result, perhaps we would have taken executive action more rapidly. >> here's what i find interesting about that answer, charlie sykes, it is a reminder that all of this is a dance between the executive branch and congress, right, they can put together all the plans they want, they need to be funded by congress. there has to be some cooperation. otherwise all you are left with is executive action. i wonder what you anticipate in a trump 2.0, especially knowing that they now understand how to pull these levers way better than they did the first time around. >> let's go back to the point that he was making about the fact that there was a bipartisan compromise.

donald trump killed that because he did not want a solution. he wanted this crisis. he wants the chaos. the trump folks do know where the levers of government are, more than they did in the first term. but i'm not sure that he's staffing the government with the people, with the confidence and the vision to avoid more chaos, and i'm frankly not sure that donald trump doesn't want more chaos, whether he doesn't want to see real conflict. tom homan seems to actually be looking forward to going up against governors and local officials on all of this. i am not sure they totally gamed out all of the consequences of this. i mean, the reality is that, yes, this is a failed system but it's also an incredibly complex system. it is a human system. you can't tug at it and change one thing. it sounds good standing on the podium, we're going to have mass deportation, round up the gang members, and ship them out, when it comes to actually

implementing that and getting that through the courts, i think it's going to be a much more complex, much more dangerous issue. so, again, i think this is one where we tall all need to keep powder dry, watch how the promise linings up with the actual execution of this. that's the real problem. the reality is, and i was surprised by this as well during the campaign, polls show that the american people are open to the idea of mass deportation. this, i think, is a political reality. donald trump thinks this works for him. he thinks this is a political asset. the question is whether that popularity will survive the actual actions that he's going to be taking. >> i just want to say, i think the way that that question was often framed was clumsy and vague, and i think when you talk about the cartels and you talk about drug lords and gang leaders, like, yeah, there's agreement on that.

i think when you are clear about the fact that you're talking about a lot of folks who have lived in this country for years, who have no criminal history, who either own businesses or contribute in some way to their community, it all of a sudden becomes very different. so my final question to you is given all of this talk about what a resistance will look like, what an opposition will look like, if someone is at home, and they were hair on fire about family separation, and they are watching what is forthcoming in this next administration, what do you say to them? >> the reality is that mass deportations, depending on how it's conducted could be family separation of 2025, not 2018. and i think that's where i hope viewers understand that when we demonize immigrants, when we talk about mass deportations, yes, there is a consensus on removing those who have clearly violated the law, but i think that when we think about removing those children, our

children's friends, when we think about a neighbor. oftentimes we hear from our clients, there will be an exception, no, no, no, not that friend of mine, or not that person who helps me, you know, with a certain service. so i think that's where people have to understand that we are talking about human beings, we're talking about people who fled for their lives to come here because we are a beacon of hope, and i hope that in this season, there is the generosity of the american spirit that i have always believed is there. >> krish o'mara vignarajah, thank you so much for spending time. and charlie, you are sticking around too. when we come back, donald trump has a wish list, the panama canal, greenland, even our neighbor to the north, canada. we'll talk about the president-elect's seeming obsession with the territory and the global reaction to the statementings. -- statements. and a new scathing report calls out justices in the supreme court, in particular, clarence thomas for failing to

disclose more gifts and luxury travel. >> and later in the program, president biden all but wipes out the federal death row commuting the death sentences for all but three people. all that and more when "deadline: white house" continues after a quick break. don't go anywhere. continues aft. don't go anywhere. my moderate to severe crohn's symptoms kept me out of the picture. now i have skyrizi. ♪ i've got places to go and i'm feeling free. ♪ ♪ control of my crohn's means everything to me. ♪ ♪ control is everything to me.♪ and now i'm back in the picture.

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the panama canal, has anyone ever heard of the panama canal. huh? because we're being ripped off at the panama canal. you have to treat us fairly, and they haven't treated us fairly. if the principles both moral and will legal of this magnanimous gesture of giving are not

following, then we will demand that the panama canal be returned to the united states of america in full, quickly and without question. >> so you can evaluately add the panama canal to donald trump's long list, places he's mused about annexing and otherwise retaking, buying, trading for, perhaps the most bizarre thing about that list isn't that it exists in the first place, but rather that yesterday's panama canal edition isn't even its most recent entry. trump called greenland an absolute necessity. leaders from panama and greenland were clear in their responses, in short, essentially no, but the immediate question has to do with trump's world view, whether or not he sees the globe like a president, a businessman, or someone playing a game of risk. joining us now, former obama deputy national security adviser and msnbc contributor, ben rhodes, charlie sykes is back with us. ben rhodes, when world leaders hear donald trump say things

like we should buy greenland or we want the panama canal back, what do they think, and how much harder does it make the work of america's diplomats? >> well, it's hard to know where to begin here. >> that's fair. >> the reality of what's concerning to people, ght, is that he joked about buying greenland in the first term or blustered about things. this time he signalled that he thinks he knows how to do the job better than he did the first time. he's going to surround himself with people that are going to carry out his orders, even though these are claims totally without basis in international law, the u.s. has no stake or claim to the panama canal or greenland. i think people have to wonder just how far would he go to try to coerce countries into bending to his will. i think what it means, though, to answer your question is it's a massive opening for countries like china that have already obtained greater influence in

places like latin america and panama that would like to have greater influence in parts of europe where the europeans have been frustrated at times by u.s. sanctions and investments in china. the reality is the world is not going to play to the trump show. they're going to protect their own interests, and i think the reason this makes life very difficult for u.s. diplomats, and potentially u.s. businesses down the line is that nobody wants to play this game. you know, panama is not going to give back their canal. denmark is not going to give back greenland. nair they're going to look for alternatives to the united states, for trading partners, and you're going to see a significant influence of china and other countries. >> charlie, ben referenced this, you had reporting in 2022, from peter baker and susan glasser, trump was interested in greenland. there was a special team evaluating the prospects mr. trump kept pushing. he suggested taking federal money from puerto rico, which he disparaged and using it to buy

greenland, and trading puerto rico for greenland, and you have this from the same reporting. i said, why don't we have that, trump recalls in an interview for the book, you take a look at a map, i'm a real estate developer. i look at a corner, i say i've got to get that store for the building i'm building, et cetera, it's not that different. he added, i love maps, and i've always said, look at the size of this, it's massive, that should be part of the united states. being president of the united states, charlie sykes, slightly different than being a real estate developer? >> just slightly. this is one of those moments where you go is this real life? is this serious? is this a joke? we lost the distinction between the two. i have to admit i expected a lot of bad things to come from trump 2.0. i did not think the war with panama or denmark was on my bingo card, and are we still talking about annexing canada as the 51st state. the irony, of course, is donald

trump has been campaigning saying i want to focus attention back on america and american issues, and here he is talking about annexing these other countryings. countries. i wonder what the other foreign leaders think after they are done laughing about this, but the unfunny part, and i know we might talk about this is at some point, donald trump is going to sit down with vladimir putin, and the conversation could go, in my dystopian view, you know, you want ukraine. i understand that because i want greenland.wod, we are no longer principled country saying that we need to stand up, you know, stand against the imperial ambitions of china or russia or anybody else on that list, if donald trump is in an imperial mood. who knew that this was going to be part of his agenda, but it's still, again, this was one of my favorite stories from trump 1.0.

what do they say about history, you know, history starts as tragedy and returns as farce. >> and here we are indeed. ben, charlie led me exactly where i wanted to go, and that was to talk about donald trump's relationship with vladimir putin. i want you to take a listen to something else that donald trump said this weekend. >> president putin said that he wants to meet with me as soon as possible, so we have to wait for this. we have to end that war. that war is a horrible, the number of soldiers being killed. it's a flat plain and the bullets are going. there's powerful bullets, powerful guns, and the only thing that's going to stop them is a human body. >> i don't know what the end of that means, but ben rhodes, the fact that he's saying putin wants to meet with him asap, what does that tell you? >> it n has a play he's fact

that donald trump is tearing up the rule book of how the world has functioned for the last 70 years, since the end of world war ii, where the rules were enshrined to prevent future conflict. that world has been fraying. i have talked about that for some time. with trump, we are back in preworld war i days, where is essentially big powers make deals over the heads of smaller countries. big powers, you know, annex territories that they beseek. vladimir putin is not seeking to end the war on trump thinks. vladimir putin wants as much of ukraine as he can get. he wants to finish the population of the territories he has annexed. he wants to leave it in a position where maybe at a later date, he can come back for more. that's what he wants to do.

that's the reality vladimir putin is living every day while winning this war of atransaction -- attrition on parts of ukraine. denmark is a european country that has sovereignty over greenland. the idea that he's going to be dividing europe from the united states through statements like this is a huge gift to vladimir putin too. because what does he want? he wants the united states to stop backing principles like state sovereignty, under which ukraine is defending its territory. he wants the united states to be isolated from the nato allies and european allies. that weakened support for ukraine. and it's not surprise to me that putin thinks he can get in a room, and make a deal. it's not clear what trump wants beyond saying he wants to end this war. the question is on what terms, and what kind of world are we living in after that's done. and all this talk of annexing countries and making deals and disregarding the sovereign rite

rights of smaller nations. >> gifts to putin, gifts to xi, it's good to know who is on donald trump's shopping list. ben rhodes, charlie sykes, thank you so much for joining us. coming up, more details on supreme court justice clarence thomas's life of luxury, no comparison in modern american history. that story is next. modern ameri history. that story is next ♪♪ well would you look at that? jerry, you've got to see this. i've seen it. trust me, after 15 walks, it gets a little old. ugh. i really should be retired by now. wish i'd invested when i had the chance... to the moon! unbelievable. stop waiting. start investing. e*trade ® from morgan stanley. we shall overcome. we shall overcome.

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the senate judiciary committee as part of its 20 month investigation of what it calls an ethical crisis has found that supreme court justice clarence thomas has once again failed to disclose gifts from far right billionaire, harlan crow. thomas has twice accepted trips that the average american can only dream of, one on crow's private jet, and another on his yacht, without ever listing them on his ethics closures, despite editing his previous financial closures to include other trips. a spokesperson for harlan crow told the associated press that he quote voluntarily agreed to provide information for the investigation, which did not pinpoint any specific instances of undue influence. crow said in a statement that thomas and his wife ginny had been been unfairly maligned. the previouslily reported trips

alito took with paul singer, failed to disclose. the interview alito gaf ve defending his ethical lapses. the inflames flags outside alito's home associated with the january 6th insurrection. with us, is fix the court executive director, gabe roth, and msnbc legal analyst, and nyu law professor melissa murray is back with us. gabe, what stood out to you about this report? >> i think it has finally put the nail in the coffin in this idea that the supreme court can police itself. the report lays out in pain staking detail every time a justice has failed to recuse, despite the fact that they have a business interest in one of the parties before the court. it talks about the cases that they didn't recuse where their friends had business before the court. it talks about all of these gifts and travel, and says, look, you know, this is not a new issue. we on the judiciary committee have been bringing up these

concerns for more than a decade, and people in the media, like me and you and melissa have been bringing these up for many years, and the supreme court has turned a blind eye to it. so, you know, the supreme court is, you know, the top of the judicial branch. it's a separate branch from the congressional branch, but congress does have purview to write binding codes of ethics for the supreme court, and the idea that the court is going to do it themselves should just be thrown out the window. >> melissa, we knew about a lot of this, the fact that it's happened and you continue to do it, that feels like a tell. >> i mean, alicia, when i read this, it was sort of like this is just clarence thomas clarence thomasing at this point. this is a man who apparently has an emotional support billionaire, and the rest of the country just has to be okay with it. but i will say that i think the fact that there has been so much

attention paid to this sort of thing, the failure to disclose these gifts, the fact that the justices enjoy quite cozy relationships with individuals who appear before the court and have business before the court, it is making an impact from pro publica's report to the inquiries from the senate judiciary committee, in a recent case that was argued just in december, justice neil gorsuch recused himself because accountable.us another outfit that inquires and interrogates and studies the supreme court, one of the court briefs in that case was one that had very close associations with neil gorsuch. in fact, gorsuch coowned property with a member of the board of the company, and again, these things can happen. these circles are small, but it has to be the case that the justices if they're going to self-police actually do so quite rigorously. in this case, justice gorsuch decided it was in his best

interest and the court's best interest for him to recuse in that case. does it make a difference in the way that case is disposed of? we'll see when the court decides it, but the fact that they're doing this means that they know that they are being observed and it is having some effect, minimal for some of the justices, but an effect nonetheless. >> it is interesting to me, gabe, that earlier this month, you had a judge who was found to have broken the judicial code of ethics because they wrote an op-ed that was criticizing alito for the whole flag thing. this from the "wall street journal," quote, by commenting on controversial issues and criticizing alito, u.s. district judge michael ponser violated the code of conduct, that applies to all judges. i want to make sure i'm getting this right. there were no consequences for alito who oversaw multiple january 6th-related cases last term, but to criticize him means a judge is out of line. did i get that right? >> i mean, you got that right, but the judiciary itself did

not. you know, the fact that alito got off scot-free and you have a judge, a well-respected judge made a fairly measured point in "the new york times" in that essay last year saying this is not behavior that is becoming of a judge or a justice, and that justice alito should just reconsider some of the choices that he's making in light of the responsibility he has as a justice on the highest court in the land. that's all that judge ponzer was saying, but apparently just criticizing anybody else in the judiciary, a supreme court justice is so over the top that you yourself, that judge, had to be reprimanded. up is down. it makes no sense, other than to say that, again, the judiciary, if the judiciary is policing the judges who are pointing out the hypocrisy, it's the judiciary being hypocritical saying the justices can't be touched because their version of ethics, you know, they're smarter than

us, so whatever they say and whatever they do is kosher, when obviously it's not. >> i want you to weigh in on this, melissa. but i'm just curious, how you explain the stakes of this to someone who is not a nerd, and to someone who is not interested in the machinations, how do you make this real for people, that continues to me to be part of the obstacle in this discourse. >> so the first point, you know, how to make this real for people on the ground, the supreme court is not like congress. it doesn't have the power of the purse, it doesn't control the money. it's not the president. it doesn't have the power of the sword. the only way the supreme court gets us to obey its decisions is the sense that we believe the court is doing the law, it's being legitimate, it's being measured. when the court makes clear to the people that perhaps there are other things going on, perhaps they're influenced by a wide range of things, not simply the law, all of that begins to break down, and it is absolutely chaotic, and we're already beginning to see that. the idea, though, that you

cannot criticize the court, you cannot call out the behavior of justices that they're sacrosanct, that's a really dangerous idea. the fact that the judge was reprimanded while justice alito wasn't at all, calling out justice alito was the real problem, we are seeing so much of that right now. just a couple of weeks ago at a federalist society conference, a fifth circuit judge, edith jones called out a law professor who was noted the practice of individuals filing cases in a particular district in texas where they know that they will get judge matthew csmaryk and that judge is favorable to conservative arguments and causes, she called him out, had tweets that he had written. all sorts of things. and basically said that he was the one that was assaulting the judiciary by simply raising questions about the way that these judges do their work. it cannot be the case in a democracy that these individuals are completely above the law and

above criticism, but that is exactly where we're going, and it's a dangerous place to be. >> melissa murray and gabe roth, thank you both so much for helping us break this down. after the break, a full circle moment for president biden as he commutes the death sentence for inmates facing execution, thanks in part to a law he wrote 30 years ago. that story is next. art to a law he wrote 30 years ago. that story is next so, you know, han is 22 years old, and we've been together most of my life.

not often do you have a childhood dog that, that lives this long so i think it's really unique and special that we've experienced so many, so many things in life together. knowing that he's getting good nutrition and that he has energy is a huge relief for me and my dad. “such a good little bean.” we're so grateful to have had this time with him, so let's keep it going and make every day special.

a historic announcement from president joe biden today, commuting 37 death row sentences and re-classifying them as life sentences without the possibility of parole. most of the 37 prisoners had actually faced execution under a law, then senator joe biden wrote 30 years ago. as a presidential candidate in 2019, biden argued for the elimination of the death penalty, and his decision comes just weeks before donald trump takes office. trump is, of course, an out spoken proponent of capital punishment, who resumed federal executions for the first time in two decades, during his first term. this is from president biden, i condemn the murders, grieve for the victims of the despicable acts and ache for the families that have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss. guided by my conscience,

chairman of the senate judiciary committee, vice president and president, i'm more convinced than ever we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level. in good conscience, i cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that i halted. biden's decision leaves just three people on death row in federal prisons, 2013 boston marathon bomber, tsarnaev. the 28 tree of life synagogue shooter, robert bower, and dylann roof, the shooter at a historically black church in charleston, south carolina, in 2015. with us to discuss, democratic representative, ayanna pressley, congresswoman, you have been out there on this issue. you have been asking for increased mercy. you're regular action your reaction to this move by president biden? >> well, it's a powerful testament to the strength of this movement to abolish the federal death penalty, one that includes civil rights organizations, interfaith leaders and might i add also

impacted families. joe biden campaigned on addressing the federal death penalty, once he was elected president. i met with him in the white house, he gave me his word there would be no federal executions under his wachl.watch. he kept his word on that. as someone who has had a loved one murdered, i would never talk people out of the real raw trauma and heartbreak of being robbed of a loved one by such a vile act. and i'm committed to supporting the survivor community and always have been in getting the accountability and the healing that they deserve. the death penalty is flawed. it is racist. it is not a deterrent to crime. it is inhumane and barbaric and amongst our pure s. we are an outlier. one in 25 people on death row are innocent.

african-americans make up 13% of the population, but compromise 42% of those on death row. you know, one of the people that will benefit from the president's historic action today who was on death row, whose sentence has now been commuted to life without parole is billy allen, incarcerated since he was 19 years old. he was 46. there was racial bias proven in his case, and no physical evidence linking him to the crime. president biden has the authority. he is using it. i think itof legacy for president biden. >> i want to talk a little bit about the role that the media plays in all of this a few weeks ago in the wake of president biden pardoning his son hunter. you had journalist, joe see duffy rice, and she wrote, what

is the incentive to ever grant anyone clemency when the press around it looks like this. we've disincentivized mercy in a system that desperately needs it. how do we need to cover these stories? how do we need to have this conversation about what real reform might look like? >> we have to listen, listen to the voices of a growing movement for criminal legal reform. listen to the voices of a growing and powerful movement, which includes survivors. listen, we all can agree, and the polls support this as well, that mass incarceration is a crisis and has been for decades. our broken clemency system has contributed to that considerably. in the office of the pardoning attorney there are some 10,000 individuals whose lives hang in the balance. there are people who are still

incarcerated for cannabis convictions. people incarcerated for sentencing, who are disabled and elderly. women incarcerated for defending themselves against their abusers. they should be reunited with their loved ones. clemency is a powerful tool to address the mass incarceration crisis. if we believe in second chances, we have to demonstrate that, and i'll just say, in my own life, my father was incarcerated for a number of years because his substance use disorder was criminalized. my father deserved compassionat culturally competent treatment, not criminalization, not incarceration. upon his release, he went on to become an assistant dean at a college, a professor of journalism, a successfully published author, and ten years ago, walked me down the aisle to the love of my life. there are so many people who are deserving of a second chance and to bring to bear a positive contribution, and are being denied that. president biden has the authority, and he should use it. again, mass incarceration is a

crisis, pardons, commutations, it's the right thing to do. >> justice without mercy is cruelty. representative i representative ayanna pressley of maths. of massachusetts, thank you for joining us. we'll take a quick break and be right back. we'll take a quick break and be right back only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty. ♪ carl: what's up, carl nation! it's your #1 broker with the best full-service wealth management skills in the biz. tech asst: actually i'm seeing something from schwab. (uh-oh) producer : yeah, schwab lets you invest and trade on your own. and if you want they can even manage it for you. not to mention, schwab has a team of specialists for taxes, insurance, and estate planning. both producers: all with low fees. carl: we're experiencing technical difficulties... uh, carl... schwab! schwab. a modern approach to wealth management.

as americans, there's one thing we can all agree on. the promise of our constitution and the hope that liberty and justice is for all people. but here's the truth. attacks on our constitutional rights, yours and mine are greater than they've ever been.

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when you use your credit card, you'll receive this special we the people t-shirt and much more. to show you're a part of the movement to protect the rights guaranteed to all of us by the us constitution. we protect everyone's rights, the freedom of religion, the freedom of expression, racial justice, lgbtq rights, the rights of the disabled. we are here for everyone. it is more important than ever to take a stand. so please join us today. because we the people means all the people, including you. so call now or go online to my aclu.org to become a guardian of liberty. today, the former head of the metropolitan police intelligence unit in washington, d.c., shane lamond was found

guilty, for tipping off proud boys before the january 6th attack. prosecutors argue he had become a double eight for the proud boys. he wrote of his affinity for the proud boys saying, quote, of course i can't say it officially, but personally i support you all, and don't want to see your group's name or reputation drug through the mud. he was found guilty of four counts, including obstruction of justice and lying to investigators. i'm going to sneak in another break. we'll be right back. in another break. we'll be right back. my moderate to severe crohn's symptoms kept me out of the picture.

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nk you so much for spending part of your monday with us. the beat starts now. i'm ari melber, joining you on this december 23rd. we have some fun stuff by the end of the hour. we are with you, following the big news out of washington tonight, the house ethics committee releasing something that many people at first thought might not see the light