still nice to know that dead people who are voting are -- hugo chavez? this election? boutros boutros-ghali? so powell alleged a vast conspiracy involving hugo chavez to help joe biden win the presidential election, and yet curiously, she kept refusing to provide evidence of this vast scheme when pressed, even by friendly fox news hosts who were basically desperate to agree with her, as long as she could provide a shred of evidence. >> so sidney, you feel that you will be able to prove this do you have the software in your possession, do you have the hardware in your possession? how will you prove this, sidney? >> well, i've got lots of ways to prove it, maria but i'm not going to tell on national tv what all we have >> so we invited sidney powell on the show. we would have given her the whole hour we would have given her the entire week, actually, and listened quietly the whole time at rapt attention. that's a big story but she never sent us any evidence, despite a lot of requests, polite requests. not a page when we kept pressing, she got angry and tol

hugo chavez has been dead for seven years. wall street journal reporting trump even pushed america's second rank ken cuccinelli to seize voting machines. elections in america are state elections. feds can't take voting machines. that request was rejected. that's not all of it. tod today, i'm live in savannah, georgia, latest stop on our sunday series "velshi across america." i'm here talking to businesses and workers. i'm here for another reason. voters are heading to polls in the upcoming senate runoff races. it will decide the balance of power in congress and, indeed, the future of the united states of america. republican candidates have put themselves squarely in the conspiracy theory-laden corner of outgoing president trump. both republican candidates are now running solely on his false claims of voter fraud and other baseless arguments, which often have more than a tinge of racism attached. asking advisers during the meeting friday night about imposing martial law and deploying the military to, quote, rerun the election.

the conspiracy that dead hugo chavez was linked to rigging voting machines, prompted trump to fire her? >> there is a process. we need to follow a process. the process does allow for the president to continue to into this. many americans believe there was election fraud. i believe it needs to be looked into. we have a process. january 6th the house and senate will make the final approval of the electoral college. and they also have the right to continue to look at this, as well, until january 6th. i think, the process is occurring. i know people hate some of this going on. there's a lot of americans who believe there was a problem with the election. >> it's way too early in the morning for this sort of b.s. no. we're beyond that process. the electoral college has already voted. four years ago, were you waiting until january 6th? >> absolutely. i was there four years ago. there was democrats on the house floor, who contested the election of president donald trump. i was there. it is a process. and that's the problem. in washington, nobody wants to follow the process. we could get so muc

. >> stephen: hugo chavez kept blocking the field goal from the grave!e've all been watching, and i guess, if you had -- the other people just refused to acknowledge it and you had half the league say we're not sure it's true, you would have a similar controversy, but when that starts happening, the game breaks down and in this case it's our democracy, our democracy starts falling apart. imagine if, going forward, every single election is treated this way at every level, imagine if democrats start acting this way -- >> stephen: is that part of the danger that he's broken the seal on that idea. >> that is the concern that i think we all have. joe biden's going to be the next president, kamala harris is going to be the next vice president, but we don't want to get into a pattern where we just are willing to throw out what we've agreed to previously, including our constitutional structure, just because we find it politically expedient. >> stephen: a lot of presidents, once they leave office, becomes friends or are familiar with the other president. they lay

now, it is easy to listen to someone like sydney powell talk about hugo chavez and cuba and china and the communists in venezuela and really hear echoes of that kind of paranoia. it is not a leap to see where this all started. now, modern daytimes you have fox news. you have the conservative media ecosystem that has told voters over and over and over again that there is fraud at the polls. and, so, that's kind of bearing itself out right now, which it never had before. the president of the united states believes that has happened. when they hear it coming from his mouth, it is a lot easier for them to make that leap. and while the elected officials might not necessarily believe that this election was stolen, their voters certainly do, but they're afraid of their voters and their voters are captive to president trump. >> yeah. i mean, water will always sort of go to the lowest point, right? and the sort of conservative media on this is true, largely of the media, right, will always find its way to seep down to audience demand. so if you look at the -- here's a screen shot of news max.

. >> smart matic is the corporation tied to hugo chavez. >> news max would like to clarify.is a u.s. company not owned by the venezuela government hugo chavez. >> the smartmatic system has a backdoor that allows votes to be mirrored and monitored. >> we asked him for his assessment about smartmatic. >> i've not seen evidence that smartmatic software was used to delete or alter vote tabulation. >> that's where we stand right now. we'll keep investigating. >> joining me now is denver rig gleman of virginia. he's out with a book and bbc news washington anchor caddie. congressman, what is your message to republicans in your party actively cooking up election plots with trump? >> i would say listen to facts. it's really difficult for me to understand how we're allowing conspiracy theories to run against our colleagues. you're talking about what is going on in the white house. i can't believe some of my colleagues would meet about overturning electoral college results. we're in certain segments of the republican party on crazy. as i saw in some of the clips, even though i'm trying

hugo chavez, who in case you lost track, has been dead since 2013. on wednesday, a law firm representing the other company, dominion voting systems, sent letters to the white house counsel and to president trump's lawyer, rudy giuliani, instructing them to preserve all records related to dominion. giuliani warned that legal action is imminent. it's not just the companies fighting back. a top dominion employee is suing the trump campaign, campaign surrogates and news max and one america alleging definition. eric cumer had to go into hiding after being the subject of white thing conspiracies. his lawsuit accuses these outlets of distributing emotional distress and conspiracy. the conspiracies were so absurd ben smith thought they would never go anywhere. that's the problem with disinformation in general and specifically in the trump era. the lies move from the fringes of society, to the fringes of social media to the fringes of social movement and then to the mainstream of the social movement and then to the president whose favorite past time is watchi

i had to google, because i had thought hugo chavez was dead. trump even fired her as one of his own lawyers. now he's suggesting, according to the reporting, making her a special counsel. and he can't do that either, he has no authority to do such a thing. >> no, but sydney, this is the latest in the long line of crazy that we've seen coming out of the white house since the election. maggie's story, yesterday in "the new york times," was sort of a bombshell, it was a result of really good reporting that she was doing up until, you know, right before the story popped. i found, like you, far more concerning in that story the snippet that was kind of right in the muddle, a little bit buried, that trump had -- president trump had brought you want michael flynn idea about mobilizing the military to sort of rerun the elections. i think what we're seeing right now is the president really testing all of america's institutions that were built and meant to sort of uphold democracy. that's what we've been seeing for the last how many weeks has it been sin

so when the president comes them and tells them that hugo chavez did do this or his hologram, they're apt to believe it. i think it's very tricky because they've created this frankenstein monster and now they have to deal with it. >> stephen, what is your sense? obviously the republicans in the state legislature are participating in this. this has been the kind of way giuliani has done this. he's had, you know, local republican legislators who hosted him in these sort of ersatz hearings. what the republican party in georgia is thinking about this and whether you have -- do you have republican state officeholders or elected officials who are mad at kemp who think the election was stolen, who think people shouldn't vote in the senate runoff? >> well, chris, you don't necessarily see many republicans in elected office saying, don't vote for kelly loeffler and david perdue. don't participate in the runoff. but there has been this air of questioning everything about the election process. georgia has a republican governor, a republican secretary of state, republican statehouse and state sen

they don't want them to hate brian kemp and don't want them to think hugo chavez's ghost is going to switch all the votes to the dominion machine, so why vote? so it seems like a little bit of a fine needle they're trying to thread. >> it's a fine line, chris, and you're exactly right, i mean, i think on the one hand this is a very po temnt, you know, pool o grievance they've ridden this far. and i think that if the president can kind of get over his own kind of psychic loss here, there's an ability to turn the page and actually harness even the idea of a stolen election or something that was, you know, taken from them into a lot of votes on january 5th but i think when people that the president has boosted, his elite strike force, people like sidney powell, people like lin wood, now have his tacit backing, when he doesn't distance himself from them, they're out there saying write in donald trump, just don't go out there, that's real problematic. i think the real question for republicans is what does the president do after december 14th, after this show is kind of over, and does he g

claims that the media smeared him you mentioned hugo chavez i understand venezuela's leader once asked you just support tell us saw your television when he created it and you said you wouldn't need didn't know why after 2 terms as president why did you nothing to reform all agog owned media in brazil i didn't do anything because in brazil. to change the rules for the media you need to submit a bill to be voted in the national congress. and the majority in congress and being so conservative that. it will never approve the rules to make the media more democratic. we created a public t.v. channel. certainly we did not make the necessary investments. to make it competitive not financially competitive but competitive with regards to providing more information to society. we see something i regret not having done. we developed a project to regulate the media it was complete by mid 2009. we did not have support from congress because elections would be held before we knew and we left it for the new administration. but there was one thing that we will need to do when the p t returns to the gove

you have got hugo chavez, maybe fidel castro. i heard stalin's name thrown in there are somehow working i guess brian kemp and the secretary of state have their ouija boards out, but they're in a conspiracy with brian kemp and the georgia governor and the georgia secretary of state and somehow getting kelly loeffler illegally on the ballot. so even one of the people that mike pence is telling them to vote for, you've got trumpers running around with the very big megaphones saying she stole the election and that it should be doug collins -- fast talking doug collins on the ballot. so it's bizarre. along with willie and me this morning, we have washington anchor for bbc world news america, katty kay. we're awaiting for her exclusive interview with hugo chavez later this hour. and executive editor of the weekend and -- >> i have to go -- the devil went down to georgia. >> oh, yes. the host of hell and high water podcast john heilemann. mika has the morning off. she's looking for the exclusive interview with fidel castro so maybe we'

they were rigged against them that handed control of the national assembly to former president hugo chavez on a silver platter i thought 7 of how this time you know opposition party leaders are proposing an election of their own called suit up a poor lad similar to a referendum which the constitution recognizes as binding even if president nicolas maduro does not. seem really silly finnis whalen's will be asked to respond to 3 questions. do you want president nicolas maduro out and new in free elections do you reject sunday's electoral of them and and do you want stronger international assistance to rescue venezuela's democracy and protect its people from crimes against humanity. it's a risky proposition the last question could be interpreted as an invitation for foreign intervention but that mainly online consultation presents other problems only 7 per cent of innocent people has internet every day. and. with water would have occurred with gasoline sold. need to move to contact to the people to get informed and it's very difficult 77 percent of venezuelans say they don't believe the oppos

response would have been knowing the the the situation regarding the brits hugo chavez of course the e.u. is going to use this now to accept more leverage on the u.k. to get the u.k. to do what it wants the u.k. to do and they can do that by stopping flights will have an easy to wipe response i'd suspect that will happen today will probably have the whole of the e.u. probably banning flights from the u.k. so the pressure will be put on the u.k. to to to make concessions on on it so boyce johnson has been spectacularly either spectacularly incompetent well that's that actually is that it is the best we can say for it but it's incompetence what he's done because it was eminently predictable he's been part minister neil for a year but no british prime minister i think has done as much damage to the morale of the country to the equality of the country to the society to british society as he's done in the last 12 months he just when you think he couldn't get worse it does. feel appreciated song wrap it up there neil clark is my guest journalist and broadcaster thanks. a rockets were fired

>> this mirrors what happened in san francisco, the da used to work for hugo chavez, dictator of venezuelaties like la and san francisco, it is not legal what he is doing. you can have discretion to charge an individual in a case but he does not have the power or authority to say prostitution is legal like in san francisco were to end cashless bail. this will wind up in the courts, isn't making it safer and the reason, not unlike in new york, 35 shocking. no reason to be there. it is not safe. >> the la city council cut 800 jobs and majority will be fewer cops on the streets. got to leave it there. appreciate it. >> lockdowns crippling small businesses nationwide. >> frustration as they ramp up restrictions. >> i don't question i'm going to make it. picking your health insurance coverage isn't something you want to play games with. hope you got dental. and that's why i love healthmarkets, your insurae marketplace. they guarantee you won't find a lower price anywhere for the plans they offer, so you're not just picking by chance. no copay?... sweet. with health insurance plans constantly ch

sydney powell, who as floated a series of debunked conspiracy theories, including the late hugo chavezas involved in rigging the 2020 election. mike at flynn was also in the room and both of them floating these ideas, including the potential for naming powell as a special counsel to investigate voter fraud issues. michael flynn has previously publicly raised this idea of using martial law to re-run the election. we're told also this was discussed in this oval office meeting. to be clear, it's not something that the president is certificatesly considering, but the fact it was even being discussed in a meeting in the oval office of the white house. cleanly this was a controversial meeting and not everyone was on board. in fact the white house chief of staff mark meadows, and the white house counsel were opposed, and we're told cord to sources this meeting got ugh lieutenant atimes, according to one source familiar with the meeting. but they're continuing to try to contest this election is truly remarkable. >> jeremy, what do we know about the trump campaign apparently trying to reach the

the machines have ties to, quote, communist money and the deceased former leader of venezuela, hugo chavezesident trump to joe biden. a hearing is set for friday in atlanta. speaking of georgia, a group started by former gubernatorial candidate stacy abrams is one of many being investigated for voter fraud. georgia's secretary of state said they're looking into allegations that the group's attempt to register dead and out-of-state individuals to vote in the upcoming runoff election on january 5th. time for the word on wall street, top investors watching your money this week. joining me right now is ubs financial services private wealth advisor. allie mccartney, mark mattson and senior wealth advisor, courtney dominguez. great to see everybody this morning. mark, i want to kick it off with you. futures this morning not doing much although we see the rotation back into technology once again, nasdaq up 31 points this morning as lawmakers come down hard on chinese stocks approving legislation that will require beijing's companies and auditors to comply with u.s. regulations. failing to do so w

, who was removed from her position on trump's legal team after baselessly accusing the cia and hugo chavez of rigging the 2020 election. the pair were at the center of a heated oval office meeting friday which sources said turned into a shouting match. powell who trump is considering naming as special counsel was spotted again leaving the white house residence late sunday night. also back in the president's ear, former white house chief strategist, steve bannon. >> i strongly recommended to the president we need a special counsel named immediately, a special prosecutor just on election fraud and voter fraud, two different things. election fraud, voter fraud. you need to do that immediately. >> bannon charged with money laundering last summer may be seeking a presidential pardon. meanwhile, the president is missing in action on the coronavirus pandemic and down playing one of the worst cyber attacks on u.s. government systems, calling it, quote, far greater in the fake news media than actuality. suggesting china was the culprit, even though top u.s. officials say all signs point to russia.

conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, including suggesting that the deceased venezuelan leader, hugo chavezwas behind rigging the 2020 election, as well as michael flynn, who was a client of sydney powell's and former national security adviser who pleaded guilty to counts of lying to federal investigators before he was ultimately pardoned by the president of the united states. now according to our sources, the president discussed the possibility of naming powell as a special counsel to investigate voter fraud allegations in the 2020 election, and he also discussed this idea brought forward by michael flynn. >> he could order -- within the swing states, if he wanted to, he could take military capabilities and he could place them in those states and basically rerun an election in each of those states. it's not unprecedented. there's people out there talking about martial law like it's something that we've never done. martial law has been instituted 64, 64 times. >> reporter: to be clear, there's no indication that the president is going to be imposing martial law in the united states in order

flynn's attorney, sydney powell, that the machines were rigged the change votes under the watch of hugo chavez. bar responding saying "there's been one assertion that would be systemic fraud and that would be that machined were skewed to change the results. so far we have not seen anything to substantiate that." earlier this fall, barr proclaimed that mass mail-in voting would be a rich environment for voter fraud. instructed attorneys at the doj to investigate substantial fraud. the allegations were mostly localized. they're usually to a particular set of circumstances or actors or conduct. they're not systemic allegations and those have been run down. they're being run down. some have been broad and potentially cover a few thousand votes. they have been followed up on. one other piece of news out of the department of justice this afternoon, the attorney general has appointed john durham to the position of special counsel to continue looking into the origins of the russia investigation in a new administration. that is an indication that durham's work is likely far from over. also may cast a c

. >> to the degree that trump's ut utterances, and that is hugo chavez's late relative. the question, can you make up the vote gaps that do exist in the republican favorer between now and when they take place. that is higher to overcome. and georgia did go for biden, i think it means generally republican, and just to emphasis, the mistakes really are massive here. it's not -- you know, control of the senate may seem broad and hard to control. you are controlling e sently wh -- essentially what comes to the floor. the stimulus bill with you vote on more relief, and dick durbin made clear, he doesn't think will be be confirmation if they don't turn the seats around. while i expect trump and pence to be down in georgia, the question i'm wondering, whether biden goes down to georgia. because he knows his whole agenda really rides on those two seats. >> we will ask john osoff if he wants biden helping out, and we are president open also, and the question of the up coming election is not in doubt. one of the remaining question, and how plan be lawyers, and how many said that o

. >> is this president trying to impersonate hugo chavez, rest up there is a background to it. he is not sound mind. clinically, you look at it and say, is there something wrong there? >> he needs to be medicated and hospitalized. >> we can say that his words have absolutely emboldened white supremacists. he's clearly trying to ignite a civil war in this country. >> this is somebody in deep psychological distress right now. >> i'm thinking fidel castro, julius caesar, that was not an american president giving an acceptance speech. >> tammy: tonight as we speak, the same people you just saw are now switchingg gears. instead of attacking and investigating and probing come of the media is now attempting to shield joe biden from any and all negative attention. for example, you won't likely hear any coverage of biden's constant confusion like yesterday when joe called his running mate kamala harris the "president-elect." >> clearly and unambiguously urge to take the vaccine once it's available. i took it to instill public confidence in the vaccine. president-elect harris took hers t

the same sidney powell who claimed venezuela's long dead hugo chavez somehow was mixed up in fraud involving voting machines. this president doesn't seem to care how many cases get tossed out. how many votes he lost by. the reality tv president living his own unreality. >> you know, in politics i won two so i'm 2-0 and that's pretty good, too. but we'll see how that turns out. >> whew. we already know how that turns out. you lost. you lost. that's how that turns out. it's already happened. it seems most of his party, officials who got where they are by winning their own elections, so they know how to count votes, are they too cowardly to publicly acknowledge the rest of us, what we can see with our own eyes? "the washington post" asked all 249 current gop house members and senators this very simple question. who won the election? just 26 of them acknowledged that biden won. two incorrectly claimed trump won. the vast majority, 221 congressional republicans, simply avoided the question. like i said, they know how to count votes. they know joe biden won the election. they know they are too cow

theorist sidney powell who was removed from her position after baselessly accusing the cia and hugo chavez of rigging the 2020 election. the pair were at the center of a heated oval office meeting on friday which sources said turned into a shouting match. powell, who trump is considering naming as a special counsel was spotted again leaving the white house residence late sunday night. back in the president's ear, former white house chief strategist, steve bannon. >> as i recommended to the president, we need a special counsel named immediately, a special prosecutor on election fraud and voter fraud, two different things, election fraud and voter fraud. he needs to do that immediately. >> reporter: bannon charged with counts of wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy last summer may be seeking a presidential pardon. meanwhile, the president is missing in action on the coronavirus pandemic, and down playing one of the worst cyber attacks on u.s. government systems, calling it quote far greater in the fake news media than in actuality, and suggesting china was the culprit, even though top

we have seen from now well over hugo chavez when kicked out the d.e.a. and other u.s. law enforcement that dealt ath these issues, you've seen huge growth in the flights that as cross venezuela as well venezuela is a safe harbor for those that traffic in new drugs s well as traffic in other things as well. of a -- that is a huge cost but a challenge for are s like colombia who trying to deal with these efforts as well as dealing with lmost two million venezuelans who have fled their country and come into colombia. nations. so the drug issue and the challenges, the pandemic, economics, it's compounded by the challenges of unlawful both as an space where these people can be harbored or can use to traffic also in the ut refugees that have left or zuela and are taxing putting strains on the systems in these other countries. issue.s a huge mr. kinzinger: yeah, thank you. i sadly think we missed a really big opportunity or i guess burden in venezuela and we've ignored our own hemisphere a long time and i think have been really almost too nervous to be involved. let me just -

company and not owned by the venezuelan government, hugo chavez or any foreign official or entity.ll of these allegations were made by the president's so-called elite strike force, legal experts, and then repeated by many pundits on fox news and newsmax. sydney powell, rudy giuliani, jenna ellis never offered any proof of the allegations. >>> bill barr meanwhile, is rebuffing the president's calls to appoint a special counsel to investigate joe biden's son hunter. here is the attorney general. >> i thought a special county stage was the right tool and was appropriate, i would name one, but i haven't and i'm not going to. >>> congress has passed a spending package that will keep the government open. more than 5,000 pages. lawmakers have complained, quite rightly, they didn't have the time to read it. a lot to go over whether you'll get a check and what it means for your family. our chris pollone earlier was talking about that. we'll talk more about it on the midday news at 11:00 as well. people are talking about it online as well, complaining, really, about some of elements in there

our independent investigation that the entire system was created for the benefit of venezuela and hugo chavezrig elections to make sure he continued winning, and then it was passed on to mr. maduro to do the same. and we know it was exported to other countries by virtue of some of the dominion executives that proceeded to go about and essentially sell elections to the highest bidder. we know, for example, that mr. rodriguez has been on tv incessantly trying to and actually mocking the united states. he is one of the highest -- lou: venezuelan television? >> yes, venezuelan television. and he's been one of the leaders of the whole election stealing project. but keep in mind venezuela has been highly influenced by the chinese, and we know from filings with the sec and otherwise that the chinese put $400 million into dominion only four weeks before the election, and they shared office space with george soros' company as well as the leadership of lord malik brown in the u.k. and canada. it is a very concerning and troubling and illegal web of conduct that all of which focused on rigging the elect

for the other members of the team, including suggesting that the cia, the late venezuelan leader, hugo chavezinvolved with rigging the election. more concerningly we heard the president was discussing the possibility raised earlier last week by michael flynn of imposing martial law to rerun the democratic elections. that thought provoked quite a bit of criticism from republicans and democrats. >> well, it's not going to happen. that's going nowhere, and i understand the president is casting about trying to find some way to have a different result than the one that was delivered by the american people, but it's really sad in a lot of respects and embarrassing because the president could be writing the last chapter of this administration with a victory lap with regards to the vaccine. >> it's irresponsible and it's dangerous but at the end of the day, this is a country of laws. the american people have spoken. the election took place. >> there's no indication that the martial law idea is being seriously considered. the military has made clear they will not be involved in any effort to overturn

. >> is this president trying to impersonate hugo chavez. vladimir putin? >> he said today america first rate is not just a racial,. >> he is not of sound mind. that is somebody that clinicall you look at and say there is something wrong there. >> he needs to be hospital aide in hospitalized for it. >> we can say his words have absolutely emboldened white supremacist. >> he's given oxygen to racist. he's clearly trying to ignite a civil war in this country. >> his mind's dark. this is somebody in deep psychological distress right now . >> and thinking v dell castro, julius caesar, that was not an american president giving an acceptance speech. >> tonight, as we speak, the same people you just saw are no switching gears instead of attacking and investigating and probing, the media is now attempting to shield joe biden from any and all negative attention perry for example, he won't likely hear any coverage of his near constant confusion like yesterday when joe called his running mate kamala harris the president-elect. watch the spirit. >> the president will c

their company including that one that said that the software was developed in venezuela to benefit hugo chavez who died several years ago. in their letter they say they have no connection to venezuela, mr. chavez, and they joke they have about as much a connection to them as they do to big foot and the loch ness monster. kaitlan collins, cnn, the white house. >>> former new jersey governor chris christie who has been one of mr. trump's biggest allies said it's time for the president to accept his election defeat. here's what he told cnn's chris cuomo. >> whenever anybody loses an election, party, an individual, there's great disappointment, but elections have consequences, and this one was clearly won by president-elect biden. by the same par begmargin in th electoral college that president trump won four years ago, and by even more, nearly double the popular vote. this election, there's been no evidence put forward that's shown me as a former prosecutor that there was any fraud that would change the result of the election. and so it's time for us to accept that defeat. >> john fedderman is th

evidence to support the evidence that a computer program with ties to long dead venezuela dictator hugo chavez was used in some manner to change the election results. that there was no widespread fraud on a scale that would change the results of the november election barr asserted which underscores that president trump lost fair and square because 80 million americans voted to remove him from office and president-elect joe biden will be the president of the united states come january 20th. the attorney general said today that both the justice department and the department of homeland security looked into allegations of fraud and found no such evidence. quote. unquote. following in the foot steps of many republican appointed judges and election officials and governors who have stood up for facts and refused to indulge this nonsense from mr. trump and the president's efforts to disenfranchise legal of millions of votes from people. this may sting more given the fact that barr has generally been a trump loyalist on other matters such as the mueller investigation. the blow-back against barr is com

was basically saying that the machines and their software were developed in venezuela to benefit hugo chavezof course, passed away several years ago. they say they have no ties to venezuela or mr. chavez for that matter. just as they say in this letter they do not have ties to bigfoot or the lochness monster. >> kaitlyn collins, thank you so much. >>> >>> 885,000 americans filed for unemployment benefits last week. that number has sadly ticked up four of the last five weeks now. food bank converted a parking lot and gave away food to some 11,000 families in need. both republicans and democrats say help is on the way. key elements of a $900 billion stimulus package are holding up a final agreement. manu raju is on capitol hill. 24 hours ago a deal looked imminent. this would be more than an embarrassment if lawmakers can't figure this out. >> it absolutely would be, especially after months of stalemate. so many people waiting for relief and millions more facing the prospect of seeing their unemployment benefits expire if congress does not get its act together. now there is still expectation t

among them, ug issing the cia was involved in rigging the election, hugo chavez was involved in rigging this election. this is someone the president is considering for a government investigative role to investigate an election that has already been proven to be secure and in no way marked by widespread voter fraud. >> senator romney was right. this is sad, embarrassing and the president has clearly abdicated his responsibilities to the nation. thank you. >>> joining me now is democratic congressman jamie raskin of maryland. thank you for joining us. we'll get to that relief bill in just a second. i do have to ask you first about this extraordinary reporting that we have about a heat oval office meeting friday during which the president discussed declaring martial law, to force new elections in states biden had one, an executive order to seize voting machines and appointing sidney powell to investigate his baseless claims of election fraud. what is your reaction to all of that? >> well, let's start with some objective reality. joe biden won by more than 7 million votes. 81 million to 74

the possibility of naming powell who has suggested that the cia and the late venezuelan leader hugo chavez were involved in rigging the 2020 election. the president was discussing the possibility of naming her to a government position as a special counc counsel to investigate allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 election. the president was also discussing we're told the possibility raised last week by michael flynn about imposing martial law in several key battle grournd states. there's no indication the president is seriously contemplating imposing martial law but the fact that this was brought up in a meeting in the oval office with the president of the united states is remarkable in and of itself. some of the more outlandish ideas brought significant push back from the white house chief of staff mark meadows and pat cipollone, saying it devolved at times with powell accusing white house advisers of not pushing strong enough to push the president's claims and attempts to overturn the results of the election. >>> top officials are warning of long-term consequences if russia is not held

rejected before and people who have pled guilty to crimes, and people who have said that the ghost of hugo chavez in venezuela influenced election machines in some way. >> carol, who do you think is -- is there somebody who is enabling the president? i mean, as others have pointed out, you know, these people can't just walk into the white house. they have to be cleared into the white house. who, within the white house, when the president says i want to speak to sydney powell, i want to speak to rudy giuliani, is saying that's a good idea, sir, i'll go ahead and clear them in as opposed to, as we now know, the bill barrs are distancing themselves from the stuff that the president is saying, mike pompeo has contradicted him about russia, mark meadows reportedly at odds with these comments. who is enabling the president? >> there are some more junior, less experienced aides. and i think what's interesting about this some of them is, you know, a person who used to be his body aide, for example, a body man, continues to be at the president's right hip, helping counsel him. you're so right in your list

floated those conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, including suggesting the late leader hugo chavez was behind rigging this election. michael flynn, the president's former national security adviser who pleaded guilty to counts of lying to the fbi, ultimatally pardoned by president trump, they were both in the oval office. the president, we are told, was discussion naming sydney powell as a special counsel of sorts to investigate allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 election. the president also apparently raised this idea of floated previously this week by michael flynn about using marshall law in the united states to rerun the 2020 election. listen to what michael flynn was talking about here just a few days ago. >> he could order the, within the swing states, if he wanted to, he could take military capabilities and place them in those states and basically rerun an election. it's not unprecedented. there's people out there talking about marshall law like it's something we have never done. marshall law has been zuted 64 times. >>. >> reporter: now, to be clear, wolf, there is no in

the idea that hugo chavez from the grave was somehow in stealing this year's election.as poured out in a courtroom where all of her expect witnesses, one of them was so highly prized that he had to have a code name and could be revealed. she told him as a highly expert military intelligence analyst. turned out to be a mid level computer program from dallas that couldn't even pass the entrance exam for the 305th intelligence brigade in intelligence school. she couldn't pass the exams. he was here high level advocate. she had another one that couldn't tell precincts in townships in minnesota. anybody could have seen the turnouts were different in detroit. what she has done to throw mud open the president is so ill served. she's chief among them. >> let's get to the georgia run-off. as i mentioned, 32% of the number of people that voted november 3 have already cast ballots for a run-off. we have brad wrarathlisburger warning people from out of state if they vote they'll be prosecuted. >> tom freedman from "the new york times" said why don't liberals go to georgia and vote