joining me now is former democratic congresswoman and msnbc contributor donna edwards.c political analyst, and joyce vance, who's hopefully, her crystal ball is working once again, former u.s. attorney and an msnbc legal analyst. donna edwards, let me start with you on this one and talk about those nine republican congressmen. i wonder if steve bannon here was an easy target, right, to vote and hold him in contempt. but whether or not they would actually make the same decision if it came to others like a jeffrey clark or a mark meadows, folks that were seen as they colleagues. >> you know, i was reminded that in october of 2015, hillary clinton had been subpoenaed to appear before the benghazi commission. she was a private citizen at the time. she was no longer in government. and she complied with that subpoena, testifying 11 hours before the benghazi committee. there is -- steve bannon may be an easy target, but here's the thing. congress has a right to issue subpoenas and they have a right to expect the american people do that those subpoenas are going to be enforced,

but that is not the only voice in the gop electorate more broadly. >> it may be true, but donna edwardsdiciary committee report was written based on trump appointees telling what really happened. stephanie grisham, no matter what you think of her, is trying to warn the country about a return of donald trump to the white house. why don't the former trump officials have any sway, in your opinion, with the republican electorate at large? >> well, i think it goes right to president trump. i think the former president, what he does is he dismisses those people. he harasses them in his public remarks, and i think it makes many -- you look at somebody like chuck grassley, and part of the reason that trump continues to have sway in the republican party is because there's no moral center and no moral clarity from senators like chuck grassley. >> yamiche, the other thing is, there seems to be no power in numbers. everybody is afraid, if they all join hands, they could rid the party of trump, but they're not doing it. >> they're not. really at the heart of this is fear, and at the heart of this is

week," david french, the senior editor of "the dispatch" and former democratic congresswoman, donna edwards. welcome to sunday. it's "meet the press." ness from >> announcer: from nbc news in washington, the longest running show in television history, this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. >>> good sunday morning. from our nbc news bureau in los angeles. every day it seems we're learning how fragile our democracy is. just this past week the senate judiciary committee released a report about how close we came to losing that democracy in the weeks after the election. the report provides new details on a january 3rd white house meeting where top justice department officials had to threaten to resign en masse to stop president trump from taking further steps to overturn the election. we also learned that last week mr. trump told his former aides to not comply with subpoenas from congress regarding the january 6th riot at the capitol, and a facebook whistle-blower told congress this week how the company returned to relaxed security measures right after the election, but before january 6th, ev

somebody is going to get hurt. >> donna edwards, i'll admit i have my own debate with myself about howacy. i sense there is this debate inside the elected democratic party in particular. joe manchin desperately wants to believe there's a normal routine to politics again, and i think others sit here and say whoa, with donald trump out there, there is no return to normal. we have some polling that seems to agree on this. half of trump voters think that maybe the red and blue states ought to secede from each other. over 40% of biden voters think this, donna. where are we headed? >> i think it's a very dangerous time. people take their cues from leaders. the kind of cues they're getting now are divisive, are combative. i think that contributes to the environment that we find ourselves in. so it isn't just that there is a narrow margin in the house and the senate, but that that margin has actually been exacerbated because of the cues that ordinary americans are getting from their leaders. so i'm very concerned about our democracy. i'm concerned that people think the only way they can achiev

joining us now is sahil kapur, and donna edwards and a.b. stoddard. welcome all. in touch with all the machinations on the hill, the twist and turns for all these weeks. are democrats getting any closer on agreeing on what should be in this bill, and do the house democrats have something that they can get manchin and sinema to agree on? they need all 50 votes. >> are they closer than they were two weeks ago, yes. but democrats are not where they want to be at this moment. president biden is trying to resolve this by identifying a sweet spot of 1.9 trillion to 2.2 trillion in terms of the overall spending level. but the rival factions of the party are the no moving yet. joe manchin, the west virginia senator is not moving up from his $1.5 trillion ask, and senator bernie sanders is not moving down from his $3.5 trillion ask. that suggests that they're both still jockeying for leverage. in terms of policy, the party has difficult decisions to make in terms of how to narrow this down. do they cut a bunch of programs out, focus on maybe three or four programs, and fun

and donna edwards, democrat from maryland. both of my guests are msnbc political analysts. now, with two former members of congress on the panel, let's start with your former workplace. the two infrastructure bills are subject of a lot of scrutiny. but not around their actual content, which includes dozens of overwhelmingly popular proposals. they say there are two things you dont want to see made, sausages and laws. the process is messy. but david, aside from republicans' total refusal to engage in governing, is this messier than usual or just democracy in action? >> well, part of it is the latter, democracy in action, but what's made it messier is democrats have really decided to double down and gamble a little bit here to try to swing for the fences instead of take the double. what i mean by that, reverend al, is joe biden and democrats have largely already accomplished something that donald trump couldn't do for four years. the $1 trillion physical infrastructure bill that passed out of the senate, planes, trains, automobile, water, waste water, that got 69 votes. that

and former congresswoman donna edwards is here.e, do you have any additional reporting or color about the fireworks and the anti-semitic face laser barb launched by liz chinny? >> yeah, nicole i don't have necessarily new reporting here. but i think we need to take a step back and just look at the year in totality since some of these republicans who voted to hold steve bannon in contempt also voted to impeachment trump and stood align in being that group of ten standing up against donald trump. from there, you have seen this party really ride a roller coaster where you had kevin mccarthy increasingly veer towards the likes of defending people like marjorie taylor green time and time again. this isn't her first outburst. i saw her lash out, you know, pretty aggressively, and some might say violently approach aoc over the summer. but this is a party that continues to protect her and continues to try to throw liz cheney under the bus. i think we anticipated at the beginning of this year the group of ten republicans who voed to impeach

i also want to bring in donna et wards of montana. miss edwards is an nbc news analyst. to have you. mike, let's start with you in a city you've come to know well, scranton. the president deep in the trerchls on the negotiations with democrats, it would seem. take us through where the talks stand and what the president is hoping to accomplish with this president today. >> well, you'd better believe when i saw the white house announce that president biden would be returning here to scranton for the first time as president, my antenna went up. i've covered the president a long time, as you know. i know well enough whether it was as a candidate or as the president, when biden came to scranton, it was a signal from his team to take notice that this was an event of a bit more importance with a message he wants to deliver. and what's interesting, though, is as i've talked to white house officials about the plans today, they've been down playing the event in that they don't want it to be seen necessarily as a closing argument type speech. i think the answer to why that is, you

thank you, donna edwards and david johnson. now we go back to congressman johnson. let's start with the fight for democracy in georgia, and elsewhere as i said when we tried this before the technical problem. none of this would be happening, none of this would be happening in changing the voting restriction laws if the john roberts-led supreme court had not gutted the voting rights act in 2013. this week president biden's supreme court put out draft materials, indicating it would support term limits rather than expanding the court. would you say this misses the mark? you are supporting a bill that would add four more justices to the bench. tell us why? >> now, i think we are frozen again. we keep having technical problems with the congressman johnson. let's take a break. >>> coming up -- there can be some not-so-pretty stuff going on, on the inside. it's true, if you have diabetes, you know high blood sugar is the root of the problem. but that excess sugar can cause the blood vessels to be seriously damaged. and when that happens, this could happen, vision loss or e

welker, welcome back, your first day back from maternity leave, garrett haake, phillip rutger, donna edwards and brandon buck. so, walk us through what you're expecting later this evening when the january 6th committee gavels into session. what do we know? >> it will be straight forward. they're going to meet around 7:30. there is no reason to think this vote tonight won't unanimous. they're voting to recommend holding bannon in contempt. he says he is covered by former president trump on executive privilege and the committee thinks they can win out on all of that and they're going to move out quickly. the full house would have to act. that could be as soon as this week. and only then would this be referred to doj for a criminal prosecution. the point here, the house says, is they want to move quickly. they don't want to be caught waiting around for courts to act or in a long negotiation back and forth, they want to press ahead. >> first they have to get the d.o.j., merrick garland, to agree to proceed. then they have to go to the courts, get a grand jury convened, and it is a process. >> ye

donna edwards, thank you for spending time with us and for your words. who are vaccinated than younger children who are not. that new piece of reporting is next. not that new piece of reporting is next g to manage your type 2 diabetes knocking you out of your zone? lowering your a1c with once-weekly ozempic® can help you get back in it. oh, oh, oh, ozempic®! my zone... lowering my a1c, cv risk, and losing some weight... now, back to the game! ozempic® is proven to lower a1c. most people who took ozempic® reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. and you may lose weight. adults lost on average up to 12 pounds. in adults also with known heart disease, ozempic® lowers the risk of major cardiovascular events such as heart attack, stroke, or death. ozempic® helped me get back in my type 2 diabetes zone. ozempic® isn't for people with type 1 diabetes. don't share needles or pens, or reuse needles. don't take ozempic® if you or your family ever had medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if allergic to it. stop ozempic

senator, claire mccaskill and "washington post" contributing columnist, former congresswoman, donna edwards. lucky for us, all three msnbc contributors. >> jonathan, how does it feel now that it's official? it's all yours. >> well, thank you. i appreciate that very much. it's been a great feeling. i'm honored to do it. certainly i aim to bring to 5:00 a.m. my reporter sensibleties and we'll start the day with the inside analysis, interviews that people need to begin their day. and everyone on this panel today, you have an open invitation. >> when i'm up walking my puppy, i'll tune in. i want to talk with you about the president's trip to stump for mcauliffe. talk about how the white house sees this race then we'll head down to virginia. >> yeah. the white house is watching this wearily. they recognize here that this is fairly or not, it's a bellwether, a referendum. it's an off off year election. we saw that governor in california. this race, it's a dead heat and mcauliffe and biden are fairly similarly in terms of their ideology. more moderate democrats. this is a state joe biden won by te

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i want to bring donna edwards back into the conversation. does that sound reasonable to you? >> i am a creature of the house. what i can tell you is any time a president comes to the democratic caucus -- i know that i experienced that with president obama -- it is a big deal. it gives a chance for members to ask questions and to present their case to the president of the united states. it allows him to listen and then do engage even one-on-one with members. and, you know, this is not -- this meeting today is not about, you know, switching votes or changing votes. it's about reminding democrats of who they are as democrats and how they have shared values. and i think as claire has indicated, there is broad agreement around the policies. and so now you have got the policies and the priorities, and it is time to line the numbers up so that they match the competing interests of the various groups of democrats. i do think -- i am very confident they are going to get to a deal. i agree with claire, there is nothing magic about today, tomorrow, or yesterday in terms of getting a bil

joyce vance and donna edwards are back with us. the south. but when you see this gross divergence of it being written into the constitution of the state to maintain confederate memorials, but historic black churches and places that are of essential, you know, history to the civil rights movement are being ignored, is that just a reflection of ignorance or are we being optimistic or is it active hostility on the part of racists in the state? >> alabama's history and alabama's present are complicated in this regard, and it's difficult to identify consistent trends. there are many important developments. we now have a national civil rights park in birmingham through the work of alabama's congresswoman terry sewell, which commemorates the district that includes 16th street baptist church and the civil rights museum in birmingham, but in other parts of the state, we're at risk of losing parts of our history that are not well funded. i'm not sure if it's fair to lay that at the doorstep of alabama's, you know, turn of the last century co

i'm going to bring up a column that my washington post columnist colleague donna edwards, the former mcconnell said no republican would vote to cast a vote for the debt ceiling. this is to raise the debt ceiling. this despicable move can give democrats exactly the ammunition they need, a genuine defensible justification for eliminating the filibuster. they should call his bluff, kill the filibuster, raise the debt ceiling to pay our bills, fund the u.s. government. i am all for what congresswoman edwards has to say there. what's the likelihood that senate majority leader chuck schumer is going to follow that advice, anna? >> very unpopular in this crowd. the filibuster is going nowhere, right? it is very, very popular, i should say, on the left to think of different areas and where that might be the one thing that is going to put democrats over the edge, over the hump here on getting rid of the filibuster. whether it's joe manchin, kyrsten sinema and there are other democrats that aren't as publicly vocal. i have a hard time seeing the debt ceiling being that key issue that really mo