really glad that you're here. thank you for joining us. thanks for being the newest member of the velshi banned book club. christopher paul curtis, author of numerous novels, including the watsons go to birmingham, 1963, which i just learned was originally the watsons go to florida. but then he changed it. that does it for me. thank you for watching. the katie phang show begins right now. >> i'm katie phang, live from telemundo studios in miami, florida. we begin today's show with breaking news on two tragic aviation incidents. the faa says the national transportation safety board will lead the investigation into a small private medical transport jet that crashed into a neighborhood late last night in northeast philadelphia just moments ago. in a press conference, officials said that all six people on board the plane and one person

on the ground were killed. meanwhile, crews continue to search the potomac river investigating the horrific mid-air collision wednesday near ronald reagan washington national airport. coast guard personnel and additional salvage equipment is expected to arrive later today. the ntsb is hoping to learn more information from the black boxes recovered from both the passenger jet and the black hawk helicopter. so far, 41 bodies have been recovered. of the 67 victims, with officials saying that they expect all of the victims to be recovered. joining me now is nbc news correspondent maya eaglin, who is live for us from philadelphia, as well as nbc news correspondent aaron gilchrist, who is live from ronald reagan washington national airport. my thanks to both of you. maya, i'm going to start with you. what more have you learned today about the ongoing investigation there? >> hi, katie. yeah, we just heard from the press conference you mentioned from governor shapiro and mayor parker that in

addition to the six people who were on that aircraft, 19 people have been injured on the ground and one additional person has actually died. they were in a car in the area of this accident. officials are telling us the parameters actually 4 to 6 blocks and there's debris everywhere. so they're really encouraging folks not to touch anything because this is an active investigation. they say those numbers could even increase in the coming days as they continue to comb through all this debris. as you mentioned, this was a jet rescue air medical ambulance. on board was one miner who was from mexico receiving medical care here in the u.s. her mother was with her. four other crew members actually died in this crash as it a few moments after it took off from the northeast pennsylvania airport. so we're still learning more here, but just got a few more answers from some state officials. katie. >> thank you, maya, for that latest in the information out of philadelphia. aaron, let's turn to that collision near

washington, dc. investigators now have the black boxes from the helicopter as well as that commercial jet. what can when more specifically, do you think can we expect to learn some information from those black boxes? >> well. >> you really have two tracks happening right now in terms of what's going on here in washington and the washington area. you mentioned those black boxes. obviously, those are going to be key for the ntsb in terms of fact finding, in terms of getting information about what those aircraft were experiencing before they collided and what people on board those aircraft. the pilots were saying before the aircraft collided. that's going to be really critical in helping the ntsb paint a picture of what happened here. and as they've often said over the last couple of days, to be able to make recommendations to prevent something like that from happening again, we know that the ntsb is also started doing interviews with the air traffic controllers who were working at the time of that collision on

wednesday night. we understand that those interviews have been happening and will continue to happen, maybe over the next several days. at the same time, there is still a mission that's being executed on the potomac river behind us here, just off the airport property. and the mission there is really where you have divers who are going into targeted parts of the river looking for more remains. we know that 41 bodies have been recovered at this point. at least that was the last update that we got from the dc fire department. our understanding is that they really want to focus on raising the fuselage, the body of the airplane that went down on wednesday night. we know that's been broken into three pieces. the fire chief said that he believes they will be able to recover more bodies, if not all of the remaining bodies, once they lift the fuselage out of the water. we know from some local, our local station or local affiliate reporting that divers in the earliest part of their work were able to recover bodies that were folks who were still strapped into their seats in the airplane. and so this is

an incredibly sensitive operation that they're trying to undertake here, katie, and one that is going to continue through the next several days. we know that some heavy equipment is being brought in barges and cranes. some of that is already here on site. the coast guard has been participating with some of the effort to secure this area and help to recover some of the debris and parts of the plane that are in the water that heavy equipment will be really, we understand, used in earnest starting possibly as early as this afternoon, certainly by tomorrow. >> katie o erin, all of this is so sad. nbc's maya eaglin and aaron gilchrist, my thanks to both of you for getting the show started today. and joining me now for more is bradley bowman. he's a senior director of the center on military and political power at the nonpartisan research institute called the foundation for defense of democracies. bradley, i'm so grateful for you to take the time to share your insight and experience with our viewers. for folks that are tuning in, you are a former u.s. army black hawk pilot, which was the

helicopter that was involved in that collision near reagan airport. you also served in the 12th aviation battalion for two years and commanded charlie company. and you have an incredible wealth of knowledge and experience. we've all seen that footage, and it appears that the helicopter headed straight for commercial jet. it's so hard for an average person to understand how this could have happened. so i would love for you quickly, bradley, to bring us inside the black hawk into that pilot seat. what are they seeing? what are they monitoring? what are they looking for? >> thank you. >> for the opportunity to join you. >> and thank. and just the heart goes out to the families of those lost and their loved ones. and, you know, it might be helpful to you and your viewers just to quickly understand that there's a low level helicopter system throughout the national capital region that goes above a lot of the freeways and over the potomac, and it's been there for decades. and over those decades, it's safely facilitated the separation of helicopters and

planes. but obviously, this week that system failed. and we have to understand what went wrong. but at each place on that system of routes, you have to be at a particular location, at a particular altitude. you have to be communicating with air traffic control, and you have to follow directions carefully. and if and that's what's made it work for all this time. but on wednesday night, it didn't. one of the key things to make this all work is what a helicopter pilot would call a scan and a fixed wing pilot. you're scanning around looking for other aircraft to see and avoid, and you're looking inside your cockpit at your instruments to include that you're everything is going okay, including your altitude. and when i flew through that exact route and i was on those routes on the night of september 11th, 2001, if i saw that i was ten, 15, 20ft too high, and you were supposed to be at 200ft right there at reagan, then i would quickly correct it or i'd ask my copilot to correct it. so it's a system that's worked, but it also requires precision and attention

to detail. >> you know, bradley, we just heard all of the black boxes from the plane and the helicopter. they've been recovered, according to the ntsb. now, the process continues in the investigation of getting the information from those black boxes. but i want to underscore this with your assistance, please. how incredibly dangerous and unhelpful is it for people to speculate about how this accident and collision happened and to blame things without actually having all of the data in the information? before you make those assessments? >> you know, i got to tell you, i really appreciate that question, because both in the in in the tragedy in philadelphia and the one at reagan, there's been a lot of initial conjecture and much of it's been wrong, and it's just a reminder of something we know in the military. and perhaps folks in your line of work know as well that the first reports are often wrong. you know, the ntsb is full of individuals that are professionals, and they're the best in the world. let's give them the time and space they need to do their investigation. we can have discussions about what may have happened, but let's respect the process and respect the investigations and not jump to premature conclusions. that's my view.

>> you know, bradley, one of the things that has been discussed is air traffic control. and again, without speculating as to the cause of that dc collision. it is a fact, though, that there are severe shortages in terms of staffing of air traffic controllers. how important is the role of the air traffic controller in that base, in the base, in the situation where that person is to be able to manage all of the traffic that is going on, regardless of what altitude the helicopter is supposed to be, the number of the commercial jetliners that are coming in. how critical is the role of an air traffic controller? >> it's fundamental and decisive. you don't want a single point of failure, right? you don't want to rely on one pilot to do everything perfectly because we're all human beings, beings. we make mistakes. and so the air traffic controllers role is fundamental, and that's why we have the safest air system in the world. because of the amazing work of these professionals, we've got to make sure we have enough that they're fully trained and they have the

support that they need. and we've also got to make sure that our pilots have the funding, training and support they need. and that's what makes all this work. and we've got to understand what went wrong on wednesday night. >> very quickly before i let you go, bradley, the faa documented more than 1700 runway incursions just last year. reagan is known for having a few close calls, and it's because of the sheer amount of traffic, especially with military helicopters. do you have any recommendations on what our new secretary of transportation needs to be focusing on to improve aviation safety? >> yeah, it's one of the busiest spots, aviation spots in the country. it's in a tight, tight location. you got the pentagon nearby, you got capitol hill, the white house, and you have a lot of powerful and influential people that want the convenience of being able to fly into reagan. you know, we may need to look at the number of flights coming into reagan. we may need to reassess the vertical and horizontal separation required between these helicopters and the planes. and we might need to look at relook at some of these

routes. but let me hasten to add, there's a very important national security role for this unit that goes far beyond flying people to meetings and briefings, including a continuation of government on our nation's worst day. so i just want to flag that there's more than convenience here at stake. there's a strong national security role for this battalion and for those low level helicopter routes. and we need to keep that in mind as we look at the necessary reforms after this investigation is complete. >> and that's the that's the point, right? the investigation has to be complete before we know what happened. i read very quickly, bradley, the following quote, that airspace is unforgiving and there is little room for mistakes. so it sounds like it's important for us to have all the information. bradley bowman, thank you so much again for sharing your insight and your experience. i appreciate you. >> thank you. >> turning now to the middle east, where the red cross says the fourth hostage prisoner exchange between israel and hamas successfully took place earlier this morning. three more hostages are now free, including 65 year old american citizen

keith segal, who was handed over today at the port of gaza and arrived in tel aviv by way of helicopter just after 7:30 a.m. eastern time. segal was kidnaped on october 7th along with his wife aviva. aviva was released back in november 2023 after 51 days in hamas captivity. 183 palestinian prisoners and detainees were also released by israel today, arriving by bus in the city of ramallah in the occupied west bank. since the exchanges began on january 19th, a total of 18 hostages and nearly 600 palestinians have been set free. coming up next on the katie phang show, the purge trump's friday night massacre of nearly all of the fbi's most senior executives and top officials. plus, the price you pay. how trump's new tariffs on canada and mexico will impact your family's bottom line. keep it right here.

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>> convicted felon and president donald trump continues to fulfill his campaign promise of retribution through moves that showcase how dangerously petty and vindictive he truly is. late friday, the trump administration forced out all six of the fbi's most senior executives, along with roughly two dozen federal prosecutors. a letter sent to the fired prosecutors said that their removal was based on their role in the january 6th prosecutions. and that's not all. in a memo to the fbi workforce, former trump personal attorney and now acting deputy attorney general emil bove is demanding the bureau provide a list of the thousands of fbi employees who worked on january 6th cases and investigations to, quote, determine whether any additional personnel actions are necessary. so who's next on the chopping block? joining me now

is msnbc senior contributing editor michele norris. michele, thanks for coming on the show today. there's reporting out yesterday, as well that aides to elon musk locked career civil servants out of computer systems that hold the personal data of millions of federal employees. these musk allies at opm, the office of personnel management, have been making moves that have obscured visibility into what they're doing there with the computer and data systems. then you couple that with the news that the highest ranking career official at the treasury department, david lebryk, resigned after getting into a clash with more musk allies over access to sensitive payment systems. who's really running our government right now? michelle? elon musk or donald trump? >> well, donald. >> trump is the president. >> period. you know, full stop. exclamation point. he is the president. he obviously is getting advice from elon musk in ways that we've not seen a president take advice or give power to someone in the private sector. you know, this can be very confusing for people

because so much is happening in the government here in washington. the phrases you remember that movie, everything everywhere, all at once. yeah, that's how people describe what the government does. it touches every aspect of our lives. and when it runs well, you don't necessarily think about it, but they're everywhere. everything all at once. right now we're seeing that same phrase applied to the first 100 days and the effort to totally redefine government. everything, everywhere, all at once. this purge happened a few days after they impounded the distribution of funds and then rescinded that and said, wait a minute, okay. you know, my bad. we're going to hold off on that. it comes in the wake of all kinds of changes throughout government. and normally when you're making this kind of sweeping change, you do maybe one thing at a time to make sure that you do it well. but this has almost a wreck-it ralph approach where they're just going in and upending everything, and it's happening all at once. and you have to start asking some, some real

questions about what is the end goal here beyond just remaking these organizations? what are they going to be doing to protect people? what are they going to be doing to ensure that america remains not just competitive, but also safe? and what are they doing that is outside the boundaries of law? and many of the people who were just fired at the fbi. you know, it's hard to fire someone without cause. a civil servant, particularly in particular, they have civil servant protections. so these things happen. and as you're seeing, there's a big step forward. and then sometimes they have to recalibrate and figure out what they can actually do. and the goal of this clearly is confusion to test our sort of, you know, cognitive limits to overwhelm people and figure out, you know, if you throw everything at the wall and then figure out what sticks. but we're we're clearly in a space that we have never been in before as a country. >> you know, michelle, you wrote this really great piece for msnbc.com. and you talk about

how, for example, trump tie dye to that tragic aviation disaster outside of reagan national on wednesday night. and you point out that the administration is railing against dye hires. so it's created a new class of employees who could be classified under a lbm heading. loyalty before merit. i mean, this this dovetails perfectly, michel, with what you just said about the government being everywhere all at once. but right now, though, two, one of two things is going to happen. there's not going to be the humanoids and the people that are that are running these departments and these agencies because they're not going to be replaced or they're going to be replaced with yes men and yes women that are just going to be rewarded for their loyalty. >> well, you use the word humanoid. you know, i'm careful about that. i live in washington. a lot of the people who work in government, they are my neighbors. they send their kids to school with mine. i see them at the grocery store. and you know where i worship and where i work out. they are human beings who operate with great competence. competence is the

key to being everywhere all at once. and you know the reason i question this, this idea of loyalty before merit is because if you look at the prevailing standards that apply when we are looking to hire people, we are looking to place people to run the biggest agencies that control the movement of goods and services around america that protect us. our intelligence agency, the department of defense, the fbi. there usually is a prevailing standard and competence and experience, proven experience, demonstrable experience, manifest experience in that particular area is usually one of the basic standards for just getting inside the room, and we have decided to change that as a country. the country voted for someone who felt that loyalty is more important than merit, and the thing that is surreal is at the same time that is happening, he is having a conversation about dismantling dei programs

because he believes that dei lowers the prevailing standard of meritocracy and competence, and we have lost. we are in danger of allowing a new standard to be set. if people don't push back against this, of the idea that diversity and merit cannot coexist, they can't. they often do. we see it all around us. and i'm, you know, glad that i have a chance to defend dei programs. i'm glad that i have a chance to defend dei programs when they work well, because let's admit they don't always. but when they work well, they encourage people to widen the aperture and look for talent wherever it exists. i'm happy to be able to do that, but the people who benefit from dei programs, people who are women, people who are disabled, people who are veterans, people who are members of the lgbtq plus community, people who are asian. people who are indigenous, people who are latino. it is a big class of people who benefit from these programs that reaches

across ethnicity, race, gender lines, that reaches in every corner of america. and yet we don't see people mounting a strong defense for these dei programs. and in the absence of that strong defense, it is easy for people who rally against these dei programs to redefine them and to create the impression, to distort the reality and create the impression that in order to achieve dei, you have to allow people to leapfrog over more competent people and place them into positions that they are not qualified for. that is not true, and the companies that have embraced this and defend this, i wish they would speak up more. the people who themselves have benefited from dei programs in the private sector, in academia, and have benefited in all kinds of ways. i wish they would speak up more because again, in the absence of that, this administration is going to first demonize the idea of diversity and then weaponize any program that is intended to create diversity. and you're already

seeing how they're aerosolizing that at a press conference where they are supposed to be focused on the cause of a crash that took 67 souls on the banks of the potomac while those bodies were still in the icy potomac. and he was talking about diversity. i you know, it was it was a chance to advance an agenda that is based on a white. >> well, trump advances agendas, literally, while bodies remain in the potomac river. that kind of tells you what's going on right now. michele norris, thank you so much for joining us today. it's a pleasure to have you here. thanks for being here. >> good. >> thank you. >> and please, folks, don't forget to head over to msnbc.com to check out michelle's latest piece on trump's shameless politicization of the black hawk disaster and his ongoing attacks against diversity, equity and inclusion. still to come, a dark history donald trump's plan to send deported migrants to guantanamo bay as i.c.e. struggles to house detainees amid an explosion of arrests,

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them because we don't want them coming back. so we're going to send them out to guantanamo. >> joining me now is paola ramos, msnbc contributor and the author of defectors the rise of the latino far right and what it means for america. paypal, my friend, necessary conversations. let's get straight to it. guantanamo bay is a place that you and i know well, having been in miami and in florida. maybe a lot of people don't know. there's the military facility, but then they also have a separate detention facility for migrants. and, listen, the military facility, they keep the detainees after the september 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks. but we're hearing and we know the vice president of the national immigration law center saying, report upon report of conditions in those detention facilities that don't provide basic health care. they shackle women when pregnant, and they haven't had protections for communicable diseases such as covid. i mean, paola, the

continued dehumanization of migrants is the goal here, right? >> that's exactly right. i think the first thing that comes to mind when you mention guantanamo, when you mention the report, is war on terror. and that is precisely the point. that is what donald trump wants us to think about. look, i think if you take a step back now and you look at all of these images that we have been bombarded with just this week, katie, you see the ice raids, you see troops deploying to the border. you see the images of military planes carrying migrants, and now the image of guantanamo bay. the point is precisely to get this country to believe that we are entering this new chapter on the war on terror, and it makes sense for over a year. and you and i have been talking about this for so long, for over a year. donald trump made millions of americans believe that we were not only being invaded by migrants, but he used one very clear word, he said. we are also being conquered by migrants. and so the point that we are in right now is for donald trump to

continue to condition americans to believe that story and to now believe that the next iteration of that story means to defeat them and to defeat them, meaning the terrorists. so i think what guantanamo bay brings up, what scares me, at least, is that history tells us that when, as americans, we sort of enter this paranoid state that we're in, we do have a tendency to turn a blind eye on the violations that happened in guantanamo bay. you know, we have a tendency to turn a blind eye on the human rights violations, the abuses, and all of the darkness that has happened there. and that is exactly where we are. and so our job is to ensure that we don't turn a blind eye, that we don't allow history to repeat itself. >> you know, paula, i think what's so important to underscore here is these ice raids that are happening right now, they are indiscriminate in terms of who they are collecting and picking up and who they're detaining. they're actually it's the reverse of due process, right? it's i'm going to take everybody who's brown and black, and then i'm going to make you prove that you're the us citizen

versus i saying, i know you're not a us citizen, and i'm here to be able to take you the further. furthermore, the illegal moniker that is being put on migrants has now been completely distorted because folks that had temporary protected status, for example, from venezuela, cuba, haiti, nicaragua, people like that now have lost that status through the revocation of that that was afforded to them under the biden administration. and that means that they are now here illegally. when you put them all in guantanamo and you put it in an overtaxed system like this government that doesn't even know what they're doing with them, you're putting women, children and men indiscriminately together. and this facility, you don't let lawyers that don't get to go there. you don't just get on a plane and you're a lawyer and you're just there. it's almost impossible to be able to provide them with any type of due process. >> no, that's exactly right. but i think one of the things that you mentioned, i think is very important to name, and that is you mentioned cubans and venezuelans that are, for instance, part of this humanitarian parole program that donald trump has ended. i

mentioned this because i think one of the things that is happening and you talked about it in the previous block, you know, they're trying to confuse us. you know, there's so much sort of happening in front of us that we're losing sight of the paradoxes, the hypocrisies. and to your point, the human cost of all of this. right. one of the things that he said is that he is ending humanitarian parole. but what that means is that it is essentially forcing, for example, cubans, no, ridding them of an opportunity to come to the united states, not ridding cubans that are part of the very same communist regime that donald trump sort of cast himself as this anti-communist hero. and another thing that he's doing now is ending temporary protected status for venezuelans once again. that means that sooner rather than later, thousands and hundreds and thousands of venezuelans could soon be deported back to nicolas maduro's regime, the very same regime that donald trump himself has called a dictator. so i think it's important to say this because one of the reasons why donald trump was able to win miami-dade county is because of the

cuban-american vote and the venezuelan vote. and so this is a time to understand if, as a country, we will feel that sort of moral, collective outrage that is necessary during times like these now necessary to ensure that those human rights violations don't happen in guantanamo bay, but also necessary to understand the paradox that is happening in front of our eyes, where donald trump is essentially forcing people to live in those very same communist regimes and dictators that he himself claimed to want to protect us all from. >> it's what i say is the find out part for those folks that voted for him, thinking it won't happen to me or my family. paola ramos, thank you for being here and thank you for your analysis. as always, pushing the limits, testing the guardrails on trump's plans to remake the federal government through executive action and how project 2025. remember that already dramatically reshaping american society just two weeks in. don't

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vist bombas.com and get 20% off your first order >> after spending his entire campaign pretending he had never heard of project 2025, convicted felon donald trump is now checking off the boxes like it's to do list. within just the first two weeks of his administration, he has already militarized the southern border and declared that there are only two genders expanded the federal death penalty, withdrawn the united states from the world health organization and the paris climate accords, increased drilling in alaska and eliminated dye from the federal government. paul daniels, the former director of project 2025, said it best when he told cnn on wednesday, quote, this is exactly the work we set out to do. joining me now, elie mystal, justice correspondent at the nation, the host of the podcast contempt of court, the author of

both, allow me to retort a black guy's guide to the institute, to the constitution. i will say the institution. elie, i'm putting you in there. and the soon to be released bad law. ten popular laws that are ruining america. i don't care that you didn't shave elie mystal because you, my friend, always have something to share. let's let's let people know. a second federal judge yesterday blocking trump's federal funding freeze, saying that violates the separation of powers. look, these executive orders on their face, they're overly broad. and not only are they unconstitutional, but they violate several federal statutes. so what's the strategy here, elie? are they just fishing to find that one judge like an eileen cannon? who's going to agree with him? >> no. they just don't care what the judges say. i mean. >> we've had injunctions stopping this illegal and unconstitutional federal funding freeze for most of this week, but who's turning the money back on? who's actually forcing him to produce the funds that were appropriated by congress? a court order is just a piece of

paper. we are in a situation. it's like in game of thrones where ned stark is like, here's robert baratheon, will, and cersei lannister is like this piece of paper, like, i care. and that is what trump is doing. project 2025 understand it was a it was a plan to steal power through executive actions, knowing that neither the courts nor the congress would have the strength to resist them, even though what he's doing is illegal, they knew that nobody would actually stand up and stop him. and so far, that part of project 2025 has been the most correct part. even though they wrote it down, it feels likeeryt was not prepared to deal with this executive usurpation of power. and that's what kind of gets me. i don't understand that. right. i don't like what is congress doing? like, why are they even there if they're in congress right now? is it for the parking is like that's because like, i don't see any strength coming from democrats

or republicans in congress. and i say republicans as if people oh, well, they agree with donald trump. sure. but even if you agree with donald trump, you still want to have some power as a senator or congressman of the united states, do you not? and he's usurping all of your power. tommy tuberville. so, like, is there is there no decency, even among the republican party, to show up and force trump to do these things that they want him to do in some kind of normal order and normal way? and the answer consistently is no. you know, you got the democrats out here, got amy klobuchar out here talking about, well, we're going to work with them on like, why nobody wants you to work with fascists. amy. like don't do that. right. we've got oh, god is on the throne. really? god's on the throne. if so, i can't see him. if god's on the throne, somebody needs to find me the ark of the covenant and call him up and wake him up, because i don't see it. right. but that's what the response is right now. a bunch of platitudes, while they wrote down exactly how they were going to steal power. and they are stealing power.

>> okay, so i'm over the hand-wringing as well. i feel like it's kind of those stages of grief, and i kind of feel like we should be appropriately in the anger stage of it. so the question is, if you think that the courts are impotent, then even though there have been good, strong rule of law rulings coming out of federal judges across the board this week with this federal spending freeze issue, what are people supposed to be doing? what role then do the courts even have anymore? what role does the judicial system have anymore in terms of reining in or correcting the overreach in terms of the executive branch over this fallacy of separation of powers? now. >> the people put this madman in charge, and ultimately the people are the only ones that are going to stop him. and so what i'm what you know, there's a great article in talking points memo actually about this. people have to understand the democrats don't have any actual

power. the people did not give them any actual power. so all they can do is marshal public opinion. and i think when you have court orders, again, some of these from bush judges, some of these from reagan judges telling us that what trump doing trump is doing is wrong and illegal and unconstitutional. when you have kind of, if you will, bipartisan judicial review against trump, then as the democrats, you have to be able to use that in a unified fashion to marshal public opinion against the madman and his cronies in charge. remember, even though people elected donald trump, nobody elected elon musk to stage a coup over the rest of the government. so some kind of consistent messaging that starts to move public opinion away from this man is really the only way to stop him, because the only it's because only the american people who empowered him can take that power away. so like, that's on the one hand, like that's the focus, right? on the other hand, in terms of like the legal

stratosphere here, trump is violating court orders by not turning the federal funding back on. could somebody at the jeff bezos press, you know, or the new york times or the wall street journal start saying that, right. enough with the both sides ism. he is violating court orders right now. could you just print that? could you just put that in the headline? so maybe people have a chance to understand what's going on. one of the graphics that i love right now is that your concern about what you know, about how much danger we're in and your understanding of government is, is on the axis. right. and like the more you understand how the government works, the more concerned you are, but the less you understand how things are even supposed to work, the more you're just like, well, he seems to be doing it. so i guess it's legal. it's not legal. and like everybody who knows that needs to be screaming that from the highest rafters. and we're just we're amy klobuchar. like, we're

going to try to work together where we can like it's just i this is why we fail. this is why we fail. >> well, for what it's worth, elie mystal i am now saying loud and clear, donald trump is violating court orders and what he's doing is illegal. my voice is one, but it's loud and mighty. but with yours, it gets even louder. elie mystal thanks for being here, my friend. it's good to see you. >> thanks for having me. >> coming up after the. >> break. >> a piece of home. i'm going to talk to the woman behind the viral google doc that's helping kids who lost everything in the california wildfires get their favorite stuffies back into their arms. you're watching the katie phang show only on msnbc. >> work, play. blink. >> relief. >> work. >> play. blink. relief.

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10,000 homes. today, some good news. california state officials now declaring the eaton and palisades fires completely contained. but for families who lost everything, it's just the beginning of a very long and hard process of picking up the pieces. and one organization is hoping to comfort this disaster's youngest victims. working mom notes a new jersey based advocacy group is offering to find replacements for stuffed animals that little ones lost in the fires. joining me now is ashley rectenwald, the founder of working mom. notes. ashley, as soon as i saw what you were doing on social media, i had to have you on the show because, look, we see a lot of people helping victims of the wildfires in so many different ways. but your approach was so unique and so personal. so what made you think about helping families deal with the aftermath in this particular way? >> well, thank you for. having me. >> and as a. >> mom of three. >> my kids are nine, seven and five. >> and i know. >> how important these stuffed animals are to them in their

lives. so as i saw these wildfires ravaging homes, i knew that if i had to leave my home so quickly, what are the things i'm grabbing? and my answer was my kids lovies. and when i saw that a lot of families weren't able to have that amount of time to think so quickly on their feet about all the details of what they needed to actually take with them, because so many families thought they would be coming home, that i knew this was a great place to start is helping these children find comfort items that they might have lost. >> and you're so right. stuffies are so important to kids. they give them comfort and a sense of security. so what's been the response from families that have been a part of this live google doc, where people go and they put in the stuffies, they're looking to get replaced, and it's paired with people that are able and willing to help. talk about the response that you've received. >> it's been overwhelmingly positive in a two fold kind of way, where the families are so overwhelmed with insurance based

claims and trying to think about logistically, where are they going to go, what are they going to do to take this responsibility off of their plate and help out their children? i know as a mother myself, helping out my children is essentially helping me. and so i knew that that would be a place that i could really make an impact. and on the other side of this, the volunteers are so happy to help because with these big nonprofit organizations, which are doing such incredible work on the ground, it's really hard to see exactly where your money is going and feel that you're making an individual impact in someone's life, even though you are. and i think this sort of bridges the gap between wanting to really make a difference and seeing how that difference is paying off. >> you're truly sharing and building a sense of community. how can people help in your project? >> thank you so much for asking. so we are scaling. we're so excited! continue checking the

spreadsheet. we have so many volunteers that stuffed animals get scooped up before anyone can really get a hold of helping. and the most important thing we want to do is help as many children as possible. and we're excited to announce we're turning this into a legitimate nonprofit. please stay tuned on social media at working mom notes, and we will be having more information coming down the pike in the upcoming weeks. >> ashley, i would be remiss in the 30s that i have left with you to not working? mom notes. >> working mom notes is a company i founded. it's based here in new jersey, actually, where i live across the country from la. however, it's been so a special think project for me with having mothers and i created it to have it be notes of working motherhood, and it's helped me grow as a mother and a human. and it's really just all about connecting mothers and

validating their experiences through this phase of life. >> you know, ashley, i'm going to share for you and my viewers right now a picture of my daughter, stuffy. we call him brown bunny. he has been loved over many years. she's ten years old right now. but i told her about what you are doing, and even at ten she wants to be able to help. so ashley, thank you for giving and showing and doing something and putting your energy and your volunteerism where your mouth is, and making sure that little kids have just a little bit of home again when they don't have homes at all. thanks for being here. >> thank you, katie. >> and thanks to all of you for joining us today. you can catch me back here next saturday at noon eastern. remember, though, to follow us in the meantime on social media using the handle at katie phang show. you can also catch clips of the show on youtube, and you can listen to every episode of the katie phang show as a podcast for free. so scan the qr code on your screen to follow us now. but please

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at ro covid day. >> good afternoon from. >> msnbc in washington. >> welcome to alex witt reports. >> i'm christina. >> ruffini in for alex today. and we're going to start off with three big headlines. breaking news on the trump tariffs on canada, mexico and china. a