bush and himself, dan quayle. to us that he would do anything to disrupt those proceedings. i was thinking also, al gore succeeded dan quayle as vice president. al gore behaved very honorably in december of 2000 when he accepted the bush v. gore decision and urged national unity and we had to support george w. bush as the the president. quite a contrast with donald trump. >> you know, our friend crystal lizza said dan quayle may have saved democracy in that phone call with mike pence, maybe. but it is such an unbelievably low bar. don't overthrow the results of an election here. >> it's a low bar, john. two-thirds of house republicans 0 voted to overthrow one state, or two states. who knows if they would have voted for other states. it's a low bar but an important bar. it reminds us character matters. the laws are not self-executing. the constitution is not self-executing. people have to obey the law and support the law when there are temptations to break it in important ways. and as i say, vice president quail di

yes, dan quayle was one of those other guardrails. him at trump tower during the transition and i said to former vice president quail, is this what your transition looked like? no, this looks like a bleep show from the beginning people like dan quayle knew what this was going to be. but it got worse than any of us ever imagined and the fact that we were that close to that soft coup occurring, i think is another reason why we need a comprehensive end to end investigation into this period. of course, a bipartisan commission on january 6th wasn't started but i think milley's comments, the stories about pension and dan quayle is all the reason we need that independent assessment. hopefully the january 6th select committee can do that but this is urgently necessary. >> i wonder if dan quayle gets called to testify. >> that would be an interesting plot twist, wouldn't it? >> seems like it would be appropriate. >> miles, thank you so much. miles taylor. >>> just ahead, the duelling data that could affect friday's decision on booster shots. >

you really don't expect anything to be saved by dan quayle. up the bat signal, and the guy who shows up is dan quayle. ( laughter ) we also have an update on last night's biggest story by far. i'm talking, of course, about nicki minaj's cousin's friend's balls. you guys know the story i'm talking about? we've made some jokes and bits, some gags about these testicles, and we've got a few more, which brings us to tonight's: "stephen colbert's ball gags." ( laughter ) ( applause ) for those of you-- they took that away quickly. they took it that lower third away quickly, didn't they? for those of you who have been living under a rock or a particularly large pair of balls, nicki minaj caused a controversy when she tweeted, "my cousin in trinidad won't get the vaccine cuz his friend got it and became impotent. his testicles became swollen." of course, "your cousin's friend" is a much more trusted source than all of the world's doctors. that's why in an emergency, you always hear people yell, "this man is having a heart attack! quick! is anyone here

you don't call dan quayle just to appease trump for doing what he wants you to do. what's being described in this new book is the action of a man who is genuinely searching for a way he could do what trump wants. in that conversation later recounted with dan quayle, woodward and costa report that pence even raises the prospect that there were real problems in the vote count in arizona, if maybe that was enough of a pretext to justify not certifying the entire election and there be setting the stage to throw it to the house of representatives or republicans in the house would assure that trump held on to power despite losing to joe biden. and this new book makes clear pence was far closer than we had previously realized to doing some version of what trump wanted him to do. and with more than half the entire republican caucus in the house ultimately voting to reject the election results. i mean, mike pence was the guy who stopped that from happening. but it was close. we were there. and the right has honestly made no progress in widening the distance from how close we

dan quayle was right. vice president pence did have extremely limited legal and constitutional authority to do what the president was asking him to do. dan quayle's advice was good. the fact that vice president pence needed to seek out dan quayle is extraordinary. >> neil: all right. i want to thank you for that, tom. the other part of this story that we started with, the concerns enough that general milley had that the chinese should be reached out to because fears that they had and others here had that maybe an attack could be launched by the president. he not only once but twice assured the chinese before the january 6 demonstrations on can toll hill and after them that they need not worry. they were worried, the second call after the sixth attacks. gordon chang and what he makes of this. knowing the chinese hierarchy and that general milley reached out to his chinese counter part to assure them that look, things are crazy here but nothing violent will happen. there's not going to be some military strik

you know, i don't think many people thought that dan quayle would be someone, especially my friends on the left, who think that dan quayle was someone that would turn up to be a hero in telling mike pence to do the right thing. the fact that mike pence, as the vice president of the united states, as someone who used to be a, you know, a constitutionalist and brag about his conservative bona fides, would actually need to seek counsel with so many different people to tell him that this cockamamy attempt to overturn a dually elected president -- >> the fact that he would even want to ask, i mean, is so disturbing. >> that's right! it's the insanity of all of that, just demonstrates to you that mike pence has no spine and he never did. donald trump had no respect for him anyway. it didn't matter what he did. and the level of bsequiousness that mike pence demonstrated to donald trump, it was to the level of ad nauseam. that he was even willing to find a way to undermine the constitution to please his master. and thank god there were people who were not elected officials but republicans like

and so here is dan quayle telling mike pence, mike, you have no flexibility on this. none. zero. ay, quayle said. pence says, i know, that's what i've been trying to tell trump, pence said, but he really thinks he can. and there are other guys in there saying i've got this power. and quayle interrupts and says, no you don't, just stop it. one of the investigative roots for the january 6th committee in the house is who were the other guys? who were the other people in the white house who pence is referring to right there, who were saying that mike pence does have this power? >> well, i think first before we go there who would have thought it would be dan quayle to save our democracy, lawrence? that was absolutely not on my bingo card at all. but in all seriousness, i think there's a lot of republicans that are -- have whispered behind closed doors but at the end of the day came forward and said, yeah, there's this authority. i would say ted cruz is one of them. anybody who voted against the certification that day of january 6th, those are the republicans that behind closed doors on

tells us. >> that's what republican conservatives used to look like, dan quayle. dan coates, also from indiana. dick lugar, another republican from indiana. that's what the senate used to look like. today it doesn't bear me resemblance to those three members. today, you have simply sycophants for the most part, reinforcing the kind of mentality that donald trump has represented to the world. one of division on racial lines, on ethnic lines, on cultural lines. he's divided our country. that's the reason why so many people feel our democracy is hanging by a thread, because we have people in public office today who are fearful of donald trump. and bob woodward's buck ook sum it up in three words. number one, fear, they fear him. number three, we're all in peril as a result of what he has done. the american people are right to be concerned about it. we better wake up now because it can happen here. we came very close to having it happen here where there was an overturning of the electoral process. and that would have undermined our democracy for years to come in we eve

now we have more context on why, perhaps, he had the conversation with dan quayle.he document and discussed it with him. how many other people knew about this document? it looks like senator lee did. how many elected officials knew this plan existed. this is the republican playbook firsthand and my concern reading this document is that to me i'm concerned about this being the republican playbook for future elections. here they laid it out in terms of the way they've been behaving and the big lie and the fact this continues, this legacy lives on. >> the mike pence that you knew and served, the idea they would entertain as planned, we should put the plan up for people. put the full screen up of this. open and count the ballots. throw out the electoral college votes of seven states by allege theg have competing electors. now that is a very arcane thing. we know why that is in there. declare the trump the winner with 232 votes to 222 in the face of howls of from democrats destroying democracy will do that. send the matter to the house. demand normal rules so gop majorit

dan quayle said you have no authority, you have no flexibility, don't do it.ence did, he defied donald trump. donald trump is not going to be his friend anymore, as donald trump said to mike pence. but that's something that the country can be thankful for. >> john, thank you so much. >>> coming up for us, as thousands of haitian migrants camp out at the u.s./mexico border, the biden administration is ramping up deportation flights back to haiti. what is going to happen and what is the biden administration going to do about it? everybody's a skeptic. paper money. it's the future! get outta here. i'm leaving with my gold. it's not crazy. help me, mother. it's an omelet. just crack an egg. visible is wireless that doesn't play games. no surprise fees, legit unlimited data, for as little as $25 a month. and the best part? it's powered by verizo but it gets crazie bring a friend every month, and get every month for $5. which ishy i brought them. two $5-a-months right here. (both) hey. plus the players in my squad hey. what's up? then finally, my whole livestream. b

dan quayle had that job in 198 -- 1993, i guess it was, where they failed on their re-election campaign and he as vice president had to deliver -- basically open the envelopes, as they put it, open the envelopes showing bill clinton won. >> indeed, january 6th, 1993, dan quayle as vice president certifying the victory on that day for then president clinton, vice president gore, and he largely disappeared from the american political scene in recent decades, but he remains close to his fellow hoo sier and fellow republican. the pressure for president trump and vice president quayle based on our reporting kept telling pence, you can't do this, mike. we're friends, we're both indiana republican vice presidents. you just can't move forward. and bob woodward and i were talking recently about that january 5th scene, too, lawrence, and the most striking scene to me is after pence leaves the oval office on january 5th, we have in our book, president trump opening the door on a freezing night, january 5th with the future rioters outside, his supporters outside in the streets of washington, and in

who would have thought dan quayle was going to save the day in all this?t surprised by it. the previously republican party which still exists today small though it be may is comprised of people with names like quail, with names like bush whose statement on 9/11 was clear he sees a very real danger to our country from this. people with names like cheney, i never image gaiined i would fin myself praising people named cheney. liz cheney is willing to do something so few of my republican colleagues are willing to do. our constitution of the united states and democratic order is more important than the fear i feel of donald trump. >> this new cnn poll is troubling. the immediate crisis of january 6th may be over but it shows americans fear a future where an election could be overturned. how concerning is that? do you see steps happening now that would make that nightmare scenario a real possibility in. >> well, absolutely, and two things to say to that. number one, of course it's a real possibility. one of the things that republican legislatiures are doing is t

and he called dan quayle. he called the former vice president of the united states and basically asked the former vice president who had to sit in the same chair after george h.w. bush lost. any way to get out of this? mike, you have no flexibility on this. none, zero, forget it, put it away. how do you see that episode? >> well, i think it's just as likely that mike pence felt very confident in his position that he had no flexibility here. but, nonetheless, because it was such an important decision and because the president of the united states was pressuring him, he just wanted to get confirmation from someone who has sat in that chair. so, you know, i have confidence in mike pence. i think he did the absolute right thing. and i give him the benefit of the doubt. i think what he was doing here was simply calling someone who had been in that same chair and just reaffirming his position. >> it was relentless pressure from the president of the united states according to this book donald trump told mike pence we

pence called dan quayle. >> who saw that coming?r 500, alex. but you know, pence asked quayle can i overturn the election on january 6th and quayle is like forget about it, just open the envelope. >> makes you wonder if he had gone to someone else for visitor if dan quayle had said something different, would the outcome have been different. i think that there is this sense that he was some kind of hero, but behind the scenes he really wanted to help overturn the results. ultimately he did the right thing but i don't think that it is as clear cut as we thought it was. >> people on twitter saying if you have dan quayle as a person saving democracy on your bingo card. >> good reader perhaps of the law. that could be the case. >>> we have more on the land slide victory for governor newsom. what does the failed recall effort tell us about other races across the country? >>> plus new cnn reporting about the debate within the fda over vaccine boosters. what it could mean about when you could receive a third vaccine shot. if you have postme

it's incredible. >> yeah, well, thank you, dan quayle. and i think it just speaks to the disappointment of mike pence. you know, he carried out his role, thank goodness. he did certify the election results, at the end of the day, after they called for his hanging, but it goes to show the extent of the trump circle and the extent of the bullying that went on and the extent to which people enabled the whole situation and how close we came. >> there were so many enablers along the way. and i have to think that the former vice president will have to come out and address this at some point. olivia troy, thanks so much for your time this afternoon. we appreciate it. thanks for your insights. >>> coming up, a pentagon admits that a drone strike meant to ward off a terrorist attack was, in fact, the worst mistake imaginable in wartime. etinol brd used most by dermatologists? it's neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair® smooths the look of fine lines in 1-week, deep wrinkles in 4. so you can kiss wrinkles goodbye! neutrogena® visible is wireless that ge

and thankfully dan quayle, said no, just do your job, this is the situation that you are in.ou think about the fact that mike pence is likely running in 2024 and he was part of this entire situation. >> can i just take issue with what you said, i want you to take what you said about this crazy person who is in office implying donald trump. i know that is how you feel. you've made this clear many times before. is that something that you would ascribe to mike pence? i know you can't get inside of his head, but you do know how you he approached things. how did he feel about donald trump? >> i certainly saw mike pence be very frustrated at times. and he knows exactly who donald trump is. and that is what makes mike pence on difficult to understand in many ways on why you would continue to stand by this person still today. because he still repeats a lot of the talking points that trump use, election integrity, he is still part of the big lie that almost led to his family and li law enforcement and other people who were killed that day on january 6. so i think that's complicated sc

bush dan quayle told him he had no authority to do so. pence held the line for democracy on that cashing day but what's your reaction to these new revelations? >> lindsay, i know mike pence. i worked with mike pence in the donald trump administration and mike pence is no hero. i hate to say it, because i'm a hoosier from the indiana state where he's from. he's not a hero. mike pence is a coward and i watched him consistently in the oval office fail to stand up to donald trump and try to demonstrate as much fealty toward him as possible. it's clear pence was actively trying to find a way to overturn our democracy and i applaud dan quayle and grateful to him for telling him to shut it down. he was a close friend of mike pence. during the presidential transition i sat up at trump tower next to dan quayle during meetings, i turned to him and said "is this what a presidential transition should look like?" he turned to me and said "this is a disaster." i'm glad he was there to provide that moral check but mike pence was not, did not have the ri

searching and whether in congress he could've rejected the election results only to be told by dan quayle to forget it, there is much more to this explosive page two turner of a book it'll leave you aghast not only at how close the country came to a break but also help pair realism the future remains. the conversation with authors will be jean robinson, pulitzer prize winning columnist at the post in the four decades of the paper also has covered city hall reported from europe and south america and that the south section additionally he is author of three books working on a fourth and appears frequently on msnbc as a political analyst. gentlemen, enter. >> thank you so much first i want to say what a pleasure and honor to be doing this tonight, brad i've known you for many years and my predecessor at the post bob costa i've known you since she came to work at the washington post in a very quickly saw and admired your persistence as a reporter, this is a great young reporter and bob woodward i've known you for 41 and a half years, you hired me at the washington post. >> that was a mistake.

what do you make of the notion that mike pence called dan quayle and quayle restored order? >> well, if quayle had been there, he had been vice president, and the odd thing is mike pence was praised after this january 6th episode for not exercising a power a person believes he had to exercise. so it's a weird dance here. what in the world mike pence thought he needed to call a former vice president to be told the obvious, i do not know. >> so the praise you speak of, how much does this revelation impact that image and reputation from mike pence? >> well, it's hard to know where mike pence goes from here, because on the other hand, he's joined at the hip as former vice president to donald trump. on the other hand, if he makes the slightest attempt to put distance between himself and the former president, he will be excoriated. mike pence in a way is a microcosm of the entire republican party's problem, because it lives in terror of a man who may have a future, may not have a future, but have paralyzes them until he decides. >> so this rally near the capitol in support of the

it just goes to show that this may have been a close call. >> who knew that dan quayle would be the realo of this story. >> there you go. >> i mean that is a revelation on so many levels, jamie. then it was not just general milley who was expressing concern. >> correct. >> about president trump's deteriorating state of mind. what were other officials saying? >> the book -- the last book, you may remember, was called "rage." this could be rage 2.0. the book is filled with trump lashing out and having temper tantrums in the oval office. top advisers and cabinet officials in the book describe scenes that they say are like out of movies, full-metal jacket, "dr. strange" love. there are two quotes i want to read you, cia director gina haspel says of trump that he is, quote, like a 6 year old with a tantrum. secretary of state mike pompeo says he is in a very dark place right now, and there's a showdown between then-attorney general bill barr and president trump, and he sort of confronts trump about his chances of getting re-elected and he says to trump, they just think you're an -- you can re

indeed was some way he and cox could reject the election result only be told by none other than dan quayle to forget it. there's much more to this explosive page turner of a book which reads like like a thd will lead you aghast not only at how close the country came to the brink but also how perilous the future remains. the conversation with the authors will be pulitzer prize-winning columnist at the post who in his four decades with the paper also has covered city hall, reported from your and south america, and edited the style section. additionally he's the author of three books, working on a fourth, and appears frequently on msnbc as a political analyst. so gentlemen, the screen is yours. >> thanks so much brad, and it's first of what is it what a pleasure and what an honor it is to be doing this tonight. brad, i've known you for many years. you were my predecessor south america correspond at the post. bob costa, i've known you since you came to work at the "washington post" and very quickly, so i have admired your doggedness and persistence as a reporter and the way you work your sourc

pence refused to go along after advice from dan quayle. finally, trump enlisted the help of supporters to show up at the capitol january 6th, and they did. >> we're going to walk down to the capitol because you'll never take back our country with weakness. you have to show strength. and you have to be strong. >> so the important thing, this is not over. he talks about it at every rally. he lies about it in almost every interview. his lies about the election are not some ins dental sideshow. he is the republican front-runner for president in 2024. as we sit here, 78% of republicans more or less say they believe him. . >> are it is a staggering number. a new opinion essay in the "washington post" has this to say about the impact of donald trump's efforts to undermine the public's faith in american demo democracy. the united states is heading into its biggest constitutional crisis since the civil war with a reasonable chance the next three to four years of incidence of mass violence, breakdown of federal authority, and the division of the cou

sick and demented. >> eamon, new revelations in the book about mike pence and the role former vp dan quayle that's right, shep. woodward and kosta report pence called guayle for guidance mike, you have no flexibility on this none zero forget it. put it away is what quayle told pence. pence pressed looking for grounds to pause the certification but quayle himself who had to certify the election he lost was unmoved the authors report shep, i spoke to pence former chief of staff say this account is a gross embellishment and pence never waivered to his commitment to the constitution back over to you. >> eamon javers, thank you. >>> homeland security are expecting a much smaller crowd than the one that stormed the capitol for the insurrection this one at a rally in d.c. this weekend. a dhs official says they estimate about 700 people will attend the justice for j6 rally on saturday demanding justice for those charged in the insurrection compare that to the thousands who showed up back in january. the same official admitted the department had gotten a bit lax, as he put it, about aggressively sha

>> well, my recollection as that dan quayle called the vice president to offer his advice and the realityhe vice president pence always told president trump he would be happy to look at anything that would send his way to he review this but he was pretty certain and confident there is no constitutional authority that would have ever given any one person some massive authority to overturn the results of the election, that we as conservatives believe the election should be certified at the state level and that's what happened in 2020. there were not a separate set of slates, a different set of circumstances, i think it's rather unamerican to think any one person would have had the authority to have that much authority to overturn an he'll election. i think the vice president was clear from day one, that's what he thought his role one and i don't think he ever wavered in that. chris: let's go back to the milley story. what have you found in your reporting? how chaotic was the trump white house in the final days and how much concern was there in the white house in the government at large abou

mike, said dan quayle, you have no flexibility on this. none, zero. put it away.the right thing. but what if he had not? ask yourself, what might have happened to the united states and the american ex-perment, our democracy, had someone else been in that role? had kevin mccarthy been the speaker? what if the secretary of defense had been mike flynn who had started calling for president trump to invoke partial martial law, to force new elections in states that biden won. the threat of violence is no longer an abstruaction. that's language that seems to at least in trump's mind, justify the violence. none of this is a secret. it's playing out in front of us. there are two sides here. those in favor of a democrat ic body politic and those rooting for the man gonzalez called a cancer on the country. the cancer remains in the body. the news continues next. that delicious omelet was microwaved d me get outta here. everybody's a skeptic. paper money. it's the future! get outta here. i'm leaving with my gold. it's not crazy. help me, mother. it's an omelet. just crack an

i think many watching this show will be surprised that dan quayle seemed to be an unlikely defender of the republic. >>> still ahead, antony blinken defends the american withdrawal from avenue gone. and dan kildee will be my guest. those stories and a check on weather, when we come right back. ♪ when you have nausea, ♪ ♪ heartburn, ingestion, upset stomach... ♪ ♪ diarrheaaaa. ♪ pepto bismol coats your stomach with fast and soothing relief. and try new drug free pepto herbal blends. made from 100% natural ginger and peppermint. age before beauty? why not both? visibly diminish wrinkled skin in... crepe corrector lotion... only from gold bond. why bother mastering something? why hand-tune an audio system? why include the most advanced active safety system in its class...standard? because when you want to create an entirely new feeling, the difference between excellence and mastery is all the difference in the world. the lexus es. every curve, every innovation, every feeling... a product of mastery. get 1.9% apr financing on the 2021 es 350. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. this i

and of all people dan quayle comes and says you have no out. there is no way to get out of this. power you have. and to me the takeaway is just how pence was looking for a way out. >> mark murray joining us here for that discussion. mark, thank you so much. appreciate it. we're keeping an eye on what's happening at the building behind me here where four elite gymnasts, four of the nation's top gymnasts are set to testify about the abuse they suffered under their former coach larry nassar. you see senator blumenthal delivering his opening statement now. we expect two more opening statements before they make their remarks. we want to take a quick break. we'll be back with more of this. . we'll be back with more of this. what are you wearing, dog? they're pants, dog. no, these are pants, dog. no way. my pants are pants, dog. pizza on a bagel—we can all agree with that. uhm whatever those are, they're not pants. [ ding ] i was drowning in student loan debt. then i discovered sofi. lower interest rate. my principal is going down. sofi is a place where you can start to tackle those mon

it made me think highly of former vice president dan quayle for stating the obvious and telling mike he had to do this, it was his duty, there was no way around it. but really it's far for the course with what we've seen for mike pence and you see a rare display like january 6th and he does what he's supposed to do, but then you see plenty of other episodes over the course of the trump presidency where he pandered and made sure to stay in donald trump's good graces. so with that kind of wishy washiness, it is not what i like to see in someone who is going to be vying for the 2024 gop nomination. >> zelina, this may all be in the past, trump may just be a private citizen now. but at the end of the day, he is still the leader of the republican party and he could very much be the republican nominee for president in 2024. so what is your gut reaction to that in light of this book? >> well, i think it tells you the state of the republican party in this particular moment. this is a crisis for our democracy. it's not really a crisis simply along partisan lines, although it's one party not p

republican marco rubio calling for president biden to fire millie. >> dan quayle saves the day. peter, thank you. >>> let's bring in white house correspondent for pbs news hour and moderator of washington week on pbs. we're talking about someone who very well might be the next republican nominee for president. i'm obviously talking about former president trump. i know you've been looking into some of the reporting that is in this book. given that at this moment he is still the de facto head of the republican party, what is the most shocking thing in here that the american people need to know? >> the most shocking thing when you take all of this reporting into account, and i've been talking to some former trump officials, as well as allies of president trump, the most shocking thing is that people within the trump administration thought president trump was crazy. they thought that he was someone who would not be trusted to head the military and to be the commander in chief of our country and that you had military officials taking extraordinary actions and having extraordinary con

talking through his struggles with former vice president dan quayle who noted, there was no evidenceof fraud. well, there's some stuff out in arizona, pence said. quayle replied, mike, i live in arizona, there's nothing out here. pence told the former president as much during a january 5 oval office meeting, he couldn't do anything about the election. trump replied, i don't want to be your friend anymore if you don't do this. that sounds like a fourth grader. he said something similar, blasting kevin mccarthy after kevin blamed him for the insurrection. reportedly saying, this guy called me every single day pretending to be my best friend and then he f-ed me. jonathan, i have to go to you first. this toggles between sounding like a conversation a fourth grader had about something he thought was his best friend and literal fears that we were about to be in a nuclear war. any commentary out of the former president's camp about this book so far? this stuff is scary. >> i would like to note dan quayle is an unlikely savior of the republic, it would appear. >> can't spell potato but he ca

it turns out he talked to dan quayle. to sort of ask what are my options?ssible precedent? he knew that his value to former president trump was being loyal, being loyal person and that there was no role in which he could go to trump without saying i talked to everyone. you've done everything. i looked into every constitutional loophole and this is just something that i can't do. now the book makes this point. others reported that that was not enough for donald trump. and he was and remains furious with his vice president. >> all right. ashley parker from "the washington post". always great to you have on. thank you for your unsights. >> thank you. >>> it is election day in california. today voters across the state will decide whether or not gavin newsome should stau in office or become the third governor in the nation's history to be removed in a recall election. today voters will answer two questions, should the governor be recalled and if so, who should replace him? now recent poll released by the berkeley institute of governmental studies and "los angele

the book where there's an excerpt of mike pence, a fellow reaching out to former vice president dan quayleif you look at that exchange interest does seem like the former vice president mike pence was really toiling with what to do and he was not necessarily as convinced in the early stages that there might not be a path out and he said to dan quayle you don't understand the predicament that i'm in and he said i ups. there's really no other option and you do see in the book. i was like covering this election, specifically covering joe biden for the democrats. reading excerpts of what is described in "peril" you understand how conflicted mike pence was and how really uncertain it felt from republicans that they potentially really thought there was a viable path which from the democrat side which sounded completely out of the realm of possibility, like it was not real legal path forward, you know. it's what most i would say americans thought. >> most americans thought the math was the math and the math was settled and the trump campaign had every right and every chance to go to court, to go t

>> well, i think the american people should thank vice president dan quayle, first of all. that was solid and good advice. none of this information is too surprising. what is happening now with these books and what will happen with the january 6th committee and the subpoenas and the texts and the emails that come from all of these people close to the president, we are going to see it in a lot more detail and, unfortunately, as we get more detail, it is going to look even more awful for donald trump because every time you think you're in the basement of awfulness with donald trump, there's another basement below it. but the great news, and i think that is coming out in these books and will come out in the hearings also, is that you had republican officials even within his own white house, certainly within his administration, who said no to him and you also had officials in arizona and georgia and other states who also said no. and unfortunately are paying political consequences. but i think history will reward them. and a party that keeps trying to hitch itself to the sore l

and dan quayle just shutting it down cold and saying no, you don't have any right, mike, you have no, zero, forget it. give me some insight into that because it was then that he realized that he had no options. >> i think that we were all surprised. remember when mike pence put out that letter, that statement that he was not going to vote down the certification of the election. and we were surprised because at every step along the way that you those four years, he stood by president trump. he never crossed him. never even privately. you know, you have a lot of republicans in town who will say one thing about donald trump publicly but privately say yeah, he's kind of crazy or whatever it may be. but he was never like that. he was stone faced in public and stone faced in private about donald trump. so it is not necessarily surprising that he considered his options to find another way to stick with him. but ultimately at the end i want to make sure that he did note that he did do the right thing and he stood firm on the side of the constitution and i'm grateful for that. >> and peter, f

reports mike pence initially sought a way around counting the electoral college votes, calling dan quayle who had played that role in 1993, who tells pence, mike, you have no flexibility on this. none, zero forget it. tonight, former president trump told newsmax for milley t say he was going to attack china is the most ridiculous thing he's ever heard. general milley is not commenting, but people familiar tell nbc news a number of cabinet officials agreed to keep close watch on the president's national security decisions at that time lester >> andrea mitchell in our washington newsroom thank you. >>> high political drama and high stakes tonight in california where people are still voting on whether to recall governor gavin newsom jacob soboroff is there for us tonight ♪ in the city ♪ >> reporter: the stakes couldn't be higher for california governor gavin newsom. >> we're not done campaigning. >> reporter: tonight voters will decide whether he keeps his job or if the state goes in a different direction. >> the question is, can they close that huge 2-to-1 gap with democrats? it looks like

then-vice president pence called fellow hoosier and somebody else who is a former vice president now, dan quayler should honor that demand from then-president trump to overturn the election results. and the book says quayle told pence, "mike, you have no flexibility on this-- none, zero. forget it." >> "the adventures of mike pence." tonight's episode: "to coup or not to coup." >> should i subvert democracy? what to do. great scott!

pence reportedly turned to the former vice president dan quayle for advice asking quayle if there was anything he could do to keep trump in office, but quayle reportedly told pence, quote, mike, you have no flexibility on this, none, zero, forget it. put it away. the book also claims that trump ignored repeated requests from staff members including ivanka trump to call off the rioters on january 6th. >>> meanwhile in washington today, simone biles and other gymnasts will testify at a senate hearing about the fbi's failures during the larry nassar investigation. he is the former doctor serving life in prison for molesting hundreds of athletes. a recent investigation revealed delays by the fbi may have allowed nassar to abuse dozens of additional women and girls. fbi director christopher wray is also scheduled to testify today. >>> turning to the pandemic, children now make up 30% of new covid cases. dr. anthony fauci says the vaccine could be ready for children aged 5 to 11 by late october. as for vaccine booster shots, for adults an fda panel meets on that issue this friday. overseas

he says to dan quayle, uh, i don't know, dan, there's stuff in arizona. eah, nicolle. we really -- what this new reporting shows in addition to the previous reporting is that there was an evolution for vice president pence as he started to contemplate what his options were on january 6th in certifying the electoral college vote. he did his own private study with his in-house counsel and some other lawyers to examine the constitution and really test the legal limits of his authority in convening the joint session of congress. he also, as woodward and costa report, reached out to dan quayle, but he ultimately determined he couldn't do what trump wanted him to do. once he realized he had no options, there was no lawful way for him to try to overturn the election result or in any other way tamper with the process, delay it, what have you, send it back to the states, that's when he became resolute and decided he had to push ahead and do what he needed to do, which was a fairly ceremonial role as the vice president, and on the 6th itself he, of course, remain at

and it turns out that dan quayle who spent as many years as vice president that mike pence spent ands as vice president, under a president, whatever else you want to say about george herbert walker bush, an a guy who was an arch institutionalist, someone who believed in democratic norms, and believed in the rule of law, and the stuff that everybody has long believed in in america, until quite recently under donald trump when the republican party went off the deep end. dan quayle spent work doing in the private sector, philanthropic center, reflected on what makes the american system great, which is the norms and values and structures. it turns out that mike pence after his four years in the vice president has not been left with that appreciation. what he has left with is he's a more craven, more yolked to donald trump than he was the day that he walked in, and way more than the prevailing narrative have it. what the pence people have sold people on since january 6th is this bill of goods it turns out, that mike pence was a hero. that donald trump pushed him and said you got to go and

ex-president might launch a nuclear strike to distract from the election, that our democracy was saved by dan quaylehe former president's legal team laid out a six-step plan for vice president mike pence to overturn the election. ( booing ) yeah, it's disturbing. but it's easy to see why they gave the job to pence. everyone knows the former president has a hard time taking six steps. ( laughter ) i read it. i've read it. and this blueprint for a fascist coup was written by disgraced former law professor and inventor of the side toupee, john eastman. ( laughter ) this eastman fellow told pence that, on january 6, he could overturn the election results by throwing out electors from seven states. seven states! that's 15% of the states! though it does say in the declaration of independence, "we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal-- offer not valid in pennsylvania, georgia michigan, wisconsin, arizona, nevada, and new mexico." ( laughter ) ( applause ) here's how-- ( cheers and applause ) here's how eastman's evil plan was supposed to work: pence would throw out those sev

. >> joining me now, bill crystal, former chief of staff for vice president dan quayle and director of defending democracy together. this is the president saying it out loud the former president. he's not embarrassed by his public in broad daylight lies about the 2020 election. >> good morning, john and brianna. you said he confessed in a legal sense, as ben said correctly he's not embarrassed. the key is he can't be embarrassed and not going to apologize. the whole point is to normalize this and the republican party is carrying this message of denying the facts about the election and committing in a sense to the possibility at least of overturning the next one, it's not just donald trump. so the whole point of the enterprise here is not to apologize, not to cover it up. it's to normalize this. >> the point is in 2020, the point is 2024. >> totally. maybe a little bit 2022 incidentally and states where there might be close elections. no, the point is that trump as a party -- if donald trump were an ex-president put wailing away at the injustices done to him and sulking and screaming an

and i can tell you -- listen. >> that was former vice president dan quayle. l reputation is sometimes associated with some of his better public li sized gaffs. but it turns out that former vice president quayle may have played an outsized role in protecting our democracy. in "peril," woodward and costa report on a phone call between quayle and pence as pence seriously considered delaying or stopping the certification of the 2020 election results. trump's efforts to control pence was a dark fantasy. quayle believed, and could precipitate a constitutional crisis. mike, you have no flexibility, none, zero, forget it. put it away. i know, that's what i have been telling trump, pence says, and he really thinks. other guys think i have got this power. quayle interrupts, just don't, just stop. pence pressed again. it was easy for quayle to make a blanket statement from political winter. he wanted to know whether there was a glimmer of light legally or constitutionally to perhaps put a pause on the certification if there were ongoing court cases and legal challenges.