jenna griswold, thank you for joining us. we do appreciate it. sec. griswold: thank you. that is the newshour for tonight. remember, there's a lot more online including a look at the top five things you need to know about this newest covid vaccine. that is all online at pbs.org/newshour. i'm amna nawaz. on behalf of the entire newshour team, thank you for joining us. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the newshour, including jim and nancy, and kathy and paul anderson. >> consumer cellular. this is sam. how may i help you? this is pocket dial. >> with consumer cellular -- >> you get nationwide coverage with no contract. that is kind of our thing. >> have a nice day. >> the ford foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide. funding for america at a crossroads was provided by -- and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to

secretary griswold, it's great to see you again. were you surprised by donald trump's request to move this lawsuit to state court to federal court? >> no, i wouldn't say i was surprised, but i do think state courts are really well suited to deal with this question. and there are questions of state law, also. this is a novel situation. we have never had a president incited an insurrection and then decide he's going to run for office before. section three of the 14th amendment definitely comes into question, but sodas state law. and the state law in question is how do you even consider someone who is disqualified in terms of ballot access. can they still be put on the ballot in the state of colorado? >> do you think that donald trump's hopes this case goes to the supreme court, eventually? >> oh gosh. i have no idea what donald trump hopes. i try not to get into his head, but what i will say is that he will do anything to try to hold on to power. that is what we saw in 2020. we saw him set up the fake electors scheme, lied to the amer

secretary griswold, thank you for being here.rump from the ballot declares it would be improper and a breach or neglect of duty for you as secretary of state to allow him name to appear on future primary or general election ballots. talk about the lawsuit and how you plan to address it. >> well, first, thank you for having me on. it's always great to see you. and what we are facing is a lawsuit alleging that donald trump is disqualified from the colorado ballot for inciting the insurrection and trying to steal the election in 2020 from the american people. now, this is a somewhat novel issue, but there is a provision of the constitution, section 3 of the 14th amendment, that clearly states that when someone swears to uphold the constitution, they are disqualified from office if they engage in insurrection or rebellion or comfort or aid the enemies of the constitution. so the lawsuit is based on that provision. there is a lot of questions of exactly how that provision works. and that's why i'm so glad to see honestly a lawsuit fil

. >> joining us now is the democratic secretary of state in colorado, jena griswold.reat to see you. you've always been a great friend to the show. this is complicated for you because you don't have the role as an advocate or as an advocate, or as an activist in this case. you are everything you do and decide, it is going to be very closely scrutinized by everybody and probably ending up in a court somewhere. you've heard before the break, you had the ceo saying the colorado has a law giving voters legal standing to bring the 14th and that meant law soon. i want to know how you're considering this. >> thank you for having me on. there's always big issues happening in this country. i think ultimately, it is good for a court to weigh in. you, right section three of the 14th amendment lays out in clear terms that if somebody swears to uphold the constitution, they are disqualified from holding office if they go and engage in an insurrection, rebellion, or aid, or comfort to the enemies of the constitution. that a trump incited an insurrection. there are big constitutiona

colorado secretary of state, jena griswold, a democrat, said in the statement said that she hopes thisvide guidance to election officials on trump's eligibility as a candidate for office. the executive director of that watchdog group, citizens for responsibility and ethics in washington, noah bookbinder, joins me now. noah, thank you for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> so, noah, i really want to put you to a test here on some of this, because, while i understand what is so appealing about this for a lot of people, frankly, this is really, really untested. i do wonder, though, first of all, why choose the state of colorado, which biden won pretty handily by almost 500,000 votes? >> colorado really emerged as our lawyers looked through it state-by-state as a particularly good first place for this kind of lawsuit for a couple of reasons. first of all, different states have different laws as to how you can challenge the qualifications of a candidate for office. and colorado has a statute that says the secretary of state is required to remove from the ballot anyone who is constituti

now reacting to the lawsuit, colorado secretary of state, janet griswold who is joining me in the next will provide guidance to election officials on trump's eligibility as a candidate for office. after the break, i'm joined by the president and ceo of crew, noah bookbinder. noah bookbinr.de and i'm a fitness instructor. i saw myself in a photograph. and we were all smiling, and i looked closer, and i was like that- that's what everybody sees? i'm back, and i got botox® cosmetic. the lines were so prominent it's all i saw in the photograph, so now when i take photos, and i see myself in photos, its- it's me, i just have fewer lines. botox® cosmetic is fda-approved to temporarily make frown lines, crow's feet, and forehead lines look better. the effects of botox® cosmetic may spread hours to weeks after injection causing serious symptoms. alert your doctor right away, as difficulty swallowing, speaking, breathing, eye problems, or muscle weakness may be a sign of a life-threatening condition. do not receive botox® cosmetic if you have a skin infection. side effects may include allergic

joining us as close to election official, secretary of state jenna griswold.f viewers, can you just explain part of the 14th amendment that argues this and that applies here? >> absolutely, and thanks for having me on, anderson. so a lawsuit was filed claiming that donald trump is disqualified from the colorado ballot for inciting the insurrection and trying to steal the election in 2020 from the american people. section three of the 14th amendment says that if anybody swears to uphold the constitution, they are disqualified from office if they subsequently engage in rebellion or insurrection, or provide aid or comfort to the enemies of the constitution. so that is what the lawsuit is about. there are big constitutional questions attached to it. and i think it's necessary for a court to weigh in. >> as an election official, do you think the argument is valid? do you think he did, i mean, there is arguments of all sorts of arguments against this, was he really involved in secession, did he give aid and comfort? what do you think? >> i think there is a lot of bi

do, launch a medium barrage -- >> reporter: the mission, free this american navy veteran, james griswold've been unlawfully detained for 13 years with no trial. >> reporter: franks' job today, the tricky task of proving he was wrongfully imprisoned for murder in mexico, a close partner of the u.s. >> i'm pretty convinced they had no eyes on this case in the state department back in washington, d.c. before i started asking questions. >> reporter: franks calls himself a fixer. in this case he was hired by the frisvald family because the state department considered him a criminal defendant, not a wrongful detainee. what do you say to the people who say, what you do is counterproductive, what you do is a sideshow, what you do makes the u.s. government's job harder? >> the fact is they could make me irrelevant. all they have to do is go make some decisions that actually do stuff, right? the only reason families turn to third-party interlocutors is the government often isn't doing its job. >> reporter: the state department did not want to comment on the case specifically but told us it works t

where we start with colorado secretary of state jena griswold and joining us, ben rhodes and former topnalyst andrew weissmann is back with us. madam secretary, take us through -- we just asked speaker pelosi about it. she said she'll leave it up to the courts and folks like yourself. tell me where things stand in colorado. >> well, in colorado, a lawsuit was filed to see if trump is disqualified for inciting the insurrection and trying to steal the 2020 election from the american people. section 3 of the 14 amendment amendment says someone who swears to protect the constitution cannot hold office if they engage in rebellion or insurrection or comfort or aid the enemies of the constitution. this lawsuit has a lot of really novel questions about that provision in the constitution and we will see what a court says. i think it's good a court will have to weigh into these big questions of state law and u.s. constitution. >> let me read that section for our viewers. i'm not a constitutional scholar, nor am i lawyer but this is pretty plainly written. quote, no person shall be a senator or re

roger griswold the melluded to something that have a clue?fles :o something that have a clue? roger griswold theme baffles :o somethirif that have a clue? roger griswold theme baffles :o somethirif you for me baffles me. okay. if you have job in the and have any job in the country and you have job applicants for that , and someone turned up and said, i have never worked in this industry before, i have got no qualifications that would support me working in this industry other than fact industry other than the fact that i exist as a human that i merely exist as a human being. you would not employ them. but when it comes to government like at the treasury, they're like with our chancellor, real chancellor, jeremy hunt, no real banking experience, nothing like that comes that at all. if it comes to somebody in charge of education, have they ever been a teacher ? have they ever been a teacher? have worked in have they ever worked in education? say the education? you could say the same well, you, for same as well, couldn't you, for health? it doesn

my next guest is the colorado secretary of state jenna griswold. who also chairs the democratic association of secretaries of state. sharp critics of trump effort to overturn the 2020 election. as i referenced brad raffensperger he has your job in georgia. he said it would be unamerican to remove trump this way from the ballot. do you agree with him? >> well, not necessarily. so i read brad's opt ed. the did not cite georgia law doesn't get not constitution. i think it's a good political take. but ultimately. if the constitution disqualifies the former president we have to uphold the constitution. i wouldn't say brad is right or wrong. i would say there are major constitutional questions and also questions of state law. and all of us have different state law that should be considered by a court. >> you know that much of this conversation springs from a fourth coming law review journal at your alma ma ter, the university of pennsylvania law school. mine too. have you read it? do you agree? are you of the opinion that donald trump should be precluded

we know that jim griswold, the secretary of state in colorado, has already been in touch with other secretaries of state in other locations in the united states and she reasonably anticipates, as to other secretaries of state, these types of cases can be brought not only by crew but other plaintiffs. i want to note, in colorado, these six plaintiffs, four of them are republican. two of them are unaffiliated voters. so this challenge that is being brought to trump candidacy and his ability to even appear on the ballot in 2024 is a bar partisan one. it is one that has no party affiliation. it is the idea that if you consider the language of section three of the 14th amendment, if for the opportunity to the plaintiffs to sue the secretaries of state, to present donald trump from actually making it to the ballot. so to hugo's point, there is power in a case that's not criminal. don't sleep on the civil cases. those are the cases that actually can create serious obstacles to someone like donald trump. another critical example, eugene carroll, she's had -- her civil litigation she brought against don

colorado secretary of state, janet griswold says she's been talking to other secretaries of state aboutpolitico that quote, we can expect a lot of lawsuits filed on this issue across the nation. joining me now is donald sherman, executive vice president and chief counsel of citizens for responsibility and ethics in washington. which filed a lawsuit in colorado on behalf of the plaintiffs. donald, it is nice to have you here to kind of break this down a little bit more for our viewers. i just cited to the language of the 14th amendment section three. it's explicitly korea clear. if you construe that language, trump and others are barred from holding public office again. has this theory been tested before in courts? >> thank you so much for having me on. it has been tested in courts. in fact, my organization last year represented three new mexico residents who successfully utilized section three, of the 14th amendment, to remove blake griffin, a new mexico official from office based on his role in engaging in the january six insurrection. the court found a number of things, including that

thank you administrator griswold for being herek today. there are at least five major army corps of engineers project been held up in my district currently due to funding gap. i and f having been implemented and the drf disaster recovery fund running low, what happens if this fund is not replenished by congress? lexa congressman the projects you mentioned the obligations are on hold they are not life-sustaining projects they want to continue to reserve to support those efforts for things like we saw and hurricane is the malate wildfires. as soon as it drf is replenishing of my commitment to begin reimbursing these projects on a first in first out basis. we will work around the clock seven days a week to expedite those payments. but we cannot do so until the drs is replenished. >> we know the timeframe we have a sling on its hurricane season is dramatically extending year-over-year. $2.4 billion to armor to hit right now and emptied the drf, what would happen if a w subsequent disaster struck with the disaster recovery fund sitting at zero?

roger griswold there regular on our show.g all that, making all that noise in the corner, of course, karen malone. >> it's my husband ringing me. >> it's my husband ringing me. >> well, not know you're >> well, does he not know you're on television ? does he not know on television? does he not know how works? clearly. and sam how it works? clearly. and sam lister, malone, sam lister, carole malone, sam lister, carole malone, sam lister, can just about lister, can we just talk about the weather, ladies? lister, can we just talk about the yes,ther, ladies? lister, can we just talk about the yes, because es? both came in >> yes, because you both came in here little hot and here a little bit hot and bothered, it's wonderful, bothered, but it's wonderful, isn't bothered, but it's wonderful, isn'well, it's wonderful for >> well, it's not wonderful for the has gone all the here. mine has gone all frizzy hot, but it wonderful. frizzy hot, but it is wonderful. and you know. but, you know, do you this feeling every time you get this fe