and state department alise jordan, and host of the circus on showtime, nbc news affairs analyst john heilemann. >> oh, my goodness. >>> let's go. we begin with the latest developments on that leaked supreme court draft opinion overturning roe v. wade in an extraordinary step, chief justice john roberts confirmed the document published by politico, it's authentic. but noted it doesn't represent the court's final decision. roberts said he has directed the supreme court marshal to investigate how the draft became public. in a statement, he wrote in part this, to the extent this betrayal of confidences of the court was intended to undermine the integrity of our operations it will not succeed. the work of the court will not be affected in any way." willie. >> it's fascinating, mika, how republicans handled this in the last 24 hours. much more focused on the leak that roe v. wade the strategy part of the talking points from senate campaign arms to be, quote, compassion on abortion policy. a statement reads this way. this is a draft opinion -- >> hold on, hold on, hold on! willie. did you just say th

and host of "the circus," john heilemann. good to have you all. >>> polls open in less than an hour in georgia, where one of the most consequential primaries of the midterms is taking place. there are several state and congressional races on the ballot, but the ones we're closely watching are the republican primaries for governor, secretary of state, and senate. "the new york times" describes the background of today's races like this. quote, georgia's got everything. disputed elections, rapid demographic change, celebrity democrats, a restrictive new voting law, an open criminal investigation into donald trump's meddling in the 2020 election, a deep rural-urban divide and unending drama between the trump wing of the republican party and the local gop establishment. that's a lot. former senator david perdue, whose loss in the state two years ago helped give democrats control of congress, is running to unseat incumbent governor brian kemp. perdue was recruited by former president trump to run against kemp as payback for kemp's

john heilemann, what do you make of this? have, the republican party, ron desantis than donald trump. >> well, there's no doubt, mika, that one of the reasons why what we're seeing right now in this primary season and what's going to unfold between now and the midterm elections, why it matters. beyond donald trump's ego and our obsession with his power, i would say justifiable obsession, but our obsession with his degree of power over the party, how this plays out. why does it matter, apart from keeping score, and does donald trump have sway anymore? you know, the reason it matters is because republican -- not just republican voters, because i think most republican voters aren't really tuned into this, but republican activists or republican donors. the republican establishment, or what's left of it, taking the measure of trump's hold over the republican party is going to tee up or frame the context for a potential presidential run for him. whether he decides if it is worth doing. what it'd mean for the party if he did. it's a

john heilemann, we'll get to that in one moment. first, i want to go back.mocratic side. tim ryan is about, i would think, one of the better candidates that you could run in ohio in 2022 if you were the democratic party. so it'll be interesting to see who he is running against. let's look at donald trump for a second and why tonight is so important to donald trump. first of all, we look at georgia. you have brian kemp, his number one enemy. public enemy number one for donald trump out of all the governors. hated him so much, he said he'd vote for staey abrams. he'd support stacey abrams before brian kemp. pushed a united states senator to run against the governor. that senator is getting stomped, getting crushed by brian kemp. a man, again, that donald trump absolutely loathes. told everybody to vote against. then you have mo brooks in alabama who got donald trump's endorsement and did so poorly, his endorsement meant absolutely nothing in alabama. so donald trump withdrew that endorsement. now brooks suddenly attacking donald trump. then we have ohio. very

>> john heilemann, where is the smart money?re? he is at least in the ball game with the other two neck-and-neck. where are people leaning today as they head out to the polls? >> well, i think as joe said earlier, in a race like this where you have someone who is an unknown candidate, who came out of nowhere, momentum matters. she's gotten a ton of coverage, some negative, obviously, but to the base she appeals to, the negative coverage is only fueling her rise in ways. reports yesterday, willie, in addition to mastriano, who we knew was at the capitol january 6th, there are photographs that suggests barnette was also at the capitol january 6th. you know, to the republican establishment and to a lot of democrats, of course, that is disqualifying and horrifying. obviously disqualifying and horrifying to a lot of people on this show. but in the state like pennsylvania that has been in the republican ranks, has been infected by election conspiracy theory as much as any state in the country, and is a state, in a lot of ways, because

i yield the floor. >> john heilemann, what are we doing?bout obama and sandy hook and as i'm watching chris murphy there, i'm thinking about something else. i've never shot a gun. it's not really interesting to me. and i will say more about this but i didn't grow up in a gun-owning family. did you have guns in your hands? >> no, i never shot a gun. >> i never shot one. not interested in shooting one. it's not a thing for me. it's foreign to me. but i have tried over time to understand, obviously, it's a constitution -- the constitution says we have the right to bear arms. i understand people's devotion to constitutional principles, i do understand that. and i understand people who have explained to me, people in my family, my broader family, and friends, the tradition of owning guns and families that hunt with them and enjoy that. again, shooting animals in the forest has no appeal to me but i understand family traditions and i understand why those things can have powerful holds on people. i do. i understand it. it's not my thing, but i und

john heilemann, so you want the voters to understand how much it's on republicans.ou know, i've been talking about the 70% roe support. 70% support roe. you look at the polls. tell you what i'd do if i were a republican on the campaign trail. i'd start cherry-picking. just go to the christmas tree, take off an ornament, something that doesn't have 70% support. maybe something that has 20% support. something that has 30% support. that's the christmas tree they have given republicans. i guarantee you, you put together everything that's in this bill, it ain't 70%. it's not supported by 70%. you know, again, roe, we know it has the 70% support. why not have a bipartisan bill? why not have a bill that 70% of americans support? >> best answer i think you can give. tomorrow is another day. we have months before the election. the option you were putting forward is still available to democrats. >> it is. >> the collins-murkowski bill is out there. they'd like co-sponsors. i don't know what chuck schumer is thinking about this, but it's may. whether by design or whether they

and at the table for the hour, john heilemann, host and executive producer of showtime's "the circus"d the president's statement right after the mass shooting took place. and i saw his statements yesterday. i mean, this was exactly what he sought to try to stitch back together in this country. kkk marches where people march this the light of day without their heads covered because there is some permission structure to do so. i wonder what your thoughts are, what your conversations have been like with the white house about how to use this as the moment and to decide what kind of country they want to live in. >> i immediately on saturday, after getting a call from buffalo from our -- leaders in the -- if this does not make the white house say, wait a minute, we need to call in leaders from all these communities and we need to send a signal that we are antithetical to donald trump's presidency with people on both sides marching. he needs to dramatically show that this administration is against it. it's good he's going tomorrow. he's a decent and good man. i've been in the room where he's

. >> yeah, errol, i want to get at something that carl's put his finger on, something john heilemannd yesterday. we focus sometimes to our detriment narrowly on the political debates in this country, but the culture has a problem when such a large audience can be assembled night after night for replacement theory conspiracy updates, which is, quite frankly, what is offered. i wonder who is at the table if we really want to deal with the whole of it and countering this domestic violent extremism. >> well, thank you, nicolle. there are three elements to -- and i'll just call them what they are, they're terrorists -- there are three elements that are important here, you need an alienaing individual, a legitimizing ideology and enabling community. whether it's physical or virtual. so the first point about alienation that can be i'm not part of the mainstream. i don't fit in. it has nothing or little to do with mental illness. if you look at medical statistics, it will tell you that 80 to 90% of the shooters in america suffer from no mental illness. if you talk about a legitimizing ideolo

i'm john heilemann in for nicole wallace this week.n in an elementary school in uvalde, texas, that was one of the state's senators, ted cruz, being confronted after speaking at the nra convention in houston. benjamin hernandez, a board member of the liberal group, individual houston, accosted cruz over his refusal to support legislation that would make obtaining a gun more difficult. it was a moment showcasing the nationwide outrage and the newly impassioned battle over passing gun safety legislation that has followed the uvalde shooting. while republicans like cruz continue to insist that the appropriate response to mass shootings that take the lives of children in classrooms is to blame mental health issues and harden schools, including even arming teachers rather than taking common sense and widely supported steps to make gun ownership safer. according to gun control activists and parkland survivor david hogg, something seems to have changed. he tweeted, why do i know this time is different? this is the first time that i have been