my exclusive interview with arizona house speaker rusty bowers, after his powerful january 6th testimony. >> announcer: from abc news, it's "this week." here, now, co-anchor jonathan karl. >>> good morning with 100 days until the midterms president biden is dealing with something he hasn't seen in a while, good news. a week of victories after months of setbacks. the president had a spring in his step after emerging from covid and congress passed a long debated bill to boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing and then, a deal no one saw coming, a reversal from senator joe manchin, the democrat who had stood in the way of so much of te president's agenda, announcing his support of key components of biden's build back better program. the manchin deal still needs to pass and some democrats are complaining loudly that the deal was struck in secret, and as for that covid recovery president biden tested positive again yesterday, a rebound case, although his doctor says he's feeling fine. we're going to talk to senator manchin in a moment, but we begin this morning with major stories about ame

one of their biggest targets, arizona house speaker rusty bowers. bowers didn't just refuse to participate in trump's campaign to, i don't know, end democracy. he testified about it publicly before the january 6th select committee laying out exactly how team trump pressured him to throw out the legitimate arizona election results even if they admitted they didn't have a scrap of evidence to back up their vote fraud claims. after saying back in june after that dramatic public testimony that he would support trump in a rematch against biden, bowers had a change of heart and is now saying that he will never, ever vote for trump again. here's what he told abc news jon karl after being the subject of attacks from donald trump. >> i have thought at times someone born how he was and raised how he was and he has no idea what a hard life is, and what people have to go through in the real world. he has no idea what courage is. >> how do you explain the hold that he has, though, on republicans including a lot of republican leaders right here in arizona. >> yea

trump attacked bowers on the campaign trail after he testified during the january 6th hearings. >> rusty bowerso coward who participated against the republican party in the totally partisan, unselect committee political thugs and hacks -- >> reporter: bowers telling the committee despite immense pressure from trump and his associates, he refused to overturn arizona's election results. >> i said, look. you are asking me to do something that is counter to my oath when i swore to the constitution to uphold it, and to quote the former president, during the conversation, he told me the election was rigged and that "i won arizona," unquote. did you have such a conversation with the president? >> i did have a conversation with the president. that certainly isn't it. anywhere, anyone, any time has said that i said the election was rigged, that would not be true. >> reporter: he spoke to my colleague, jon karl, last week. >> let's go back to what trump actually wanted you to do after the election in 2020, and rudy giuliani. they basically wanted you to overturn the results in arizona? >> that would be t

there was a piece you did with rusty bowers. >> we're looking at the reality, andrea, there could with b a clean sweep in arizona. this is the first major primary coming out of these public january 6th hearings. there are a lot of national implications we could take away from essentially of these races. you know, one of them is the governor's race. you have two political newcomers. you have kari lake and robeson who's also endorsed. and you've got an running for attorney general with trump's endorsement. he's also called for the decertification of the 2020 election. of course, blake masters for the u.s. senate is atop the polls here, but the other race here is the very, very local one. that legislative race. rusty bowers after publicly testifying in frlk of the january 6th committee, after serving in public office for 16 years t mormon house speaker from the east valley of may san jose sharks arizona, he could potentially lose his primary to a trump-endorsed challenger. i was able to catch up with him over the weekend and asked

and for rusty bowers, the truth is that donald trump tried to destroy the constitution of the unitedvery powerful interview, one of the most interesting conversations i've had in a long time. >> stephen: jonathan, thank you so much for being here. >> thank you. ( applause ) >> stephen: the book "betrayal" is available now. jonathan karl, everybody! we'll be right back with b.j. novak. ♪ ♪ ♪ joe biden and democrats in congress just passed the inflation reduction act to lower our costs. the plan lowers the cost of healthcare and medicine and lowers our energy bills by investing in clean energy. that's more savings for us. facing expensive vitamin c creams with dull results? olay brightens it up with olay vitamin c. gives you two times brighter skin. hydrates better than the $400 cream. ♪ ♪ the thing that's different about a vrbo vacation home. you always have the whole place to yourself. no stranger at the dinner table making things awkward. or in another room taking up space. it's just you and your people. because why would you ever share your vacation home with someone you wouldn't s

how interesting. >>> a run by rusty bowers. remember him? along with trump's big lie. and who testified before the january 6th committee. he's headed for defeat. bowers is convinced he's headed for defeat. and this past weekend, he told nbc's vaughn hillyard why. >> the party has thrown me out, basically. the state party issue the county party. and now my district party. >> if you do not win on tuesday, why would you have not won? >> probably because i stood up. and when they ask me to tell the truth, i told the truth. i wasn't the, i didn't go looking for a fight. but the fact that i would break ranks and somehow find, find what the president, the former president did, was unacceptable. but that's like a broke some sort of taboo. and i did break a taboo. and it's kind of a cultic thing, you know, that you have to be in with the cult. >>> let's bring in the host of the podcast, "on brand" with donny deutsch. host of them is nbc's politics nation. president of the action network. reverend al sharpton. and former chief of staff adrian alrod. se

i mentioned rusty bowers a few minutes ago. and of course liz cheney. but mark, republicans who are currently in office, those that you know personally heard shaking their heads, who privately know how dangerous he is, never liked and to begin with. someone whose name might rhyme which mitt romney. where are they seeing right now as trump is getting more aggressive and louder in this space. >> they can't believe it, because listen, there's a couple of things happening. one is that biden has some mojo, they're animated by a couple of recent decisions, the inflation reduction act, and roe. the supreme court has certainly animated them. the other equation that has happened is that donald trump has come back on the radar screen, because of this mar-a-lago search. republicans are going, jeez, just when we had some momentum and had a wave going into november, here comes trump again. that's part of the problem. because not only are democrats animated, but we've seen it a lot of polling and research, the republicans enthusiasm has been dampened, and part of tha

in arizona, state house speaker rusty bowers, the conservative state house speaker who refused to help overturn the election and testified before the house select committee is also facing opposition backed by the former president in his state senate race. some of the very same candidates are also being supported controversially by democrats hoping to run against more extreme opponents in the fall. all of this with inflation and fears of recession as the backdrop, president biden''s foreign policy decision on the table in midterm elections now 98 days away. john king is tracking the important races and trends at the wall. john, missouri polls are just closing, as you know the former president caused a lot of confusion in his senate endorsement of two people named eric, both running for the same office. how is that race shaping up? >> yeah, anderson, the fact that we're talking about missouri is actually the story in the sense that this is a retiring republican incumbent roy blount the wind at the republican's back. this should be a safe seat. the former president decided at the last min

you mentioned rusty bowers, there were people who stood up and said no, right? like, it's going to be country over party for me. that happened in enough places with enough republican officials to turn donald trump 's efforts away. now, you have these people who are committed to not just expressing his lies and repeating them, but actually potentially committed to overturning elections that they would then have oversight over, if they didn't like the results. that's what i think the biggest danger is in the way in which the republican primaries play out. >> you also have this sort of trump pence proxy war. i don't know how significant that really is. >> you know, i think it's more a trump proxy war against the establishment of the republican party. we use mike pence or where he was a doug doocy in the governor of arizona as the person on this other side. you know it's interesting to? is that we're going to these primaries that are being held in the middle of august right now, the dog days of august, we are not going to see record turnout. what we are going to see

the arizona house speaker rusty bowers who publicly testified before the january 6th committee about being pressured by trump and his allies, to overturn the results in his state, he lost his bid to be the republican candidate for a state senate seat, to a trump-backed opponent. michigan congresswoman peter meijer one of ten house republicans to vote to impeach trump during his second impeachment lost his primary for re-election. apparently this is the state of things. while election deniers are doing pretty well, those who stood up to power and told the truth, particularly the republican party, lost. joining us now is jocelyn benson, michigan secretary of state. madam secretary, thank you for being here today. thanks for your testimony. you and i have had had many chances to discuss it but very personal for you and that's not the part we often talk about but you're going to stay in this race, in this business, but there are people who are leaving it, there are people in lower positions, volunteer positions, or paid positions, in elections across this country, who are saying that kin

. >> one quick point on your impeachment point, one person who is trailing tonight is rusty bowers, whol know played such a significant role in these hearings, a former speaker of the arizona house who's running for the state senate today, losing, trailing. and that is completely about impeachment. he has represented that area forever. the republican party there is censured him in the last weeks of the campaign, just to make the point, just to make the point that he was an apostate because he stood up for democracy even though it might her donald trump. >> stick around everyone, we've got much more to come, maybe the biggest result of the night. in kansas, voters maintaining the right to abortion in kansas state constitution. in two seconds, a vacationer will say... yeah, i'm going to live here. only to realize... what if i can't selly place? ♪ don't worry. sell it direly to opendoor and we'll lp you buy your next one. aah. when life's doors open, we'll handle the house. nurse mariyam sabo knows a moment this pure demands a lotion this pure. gold bond pure moisture lotion 24-hour hydrat

people like republicans rusty bowers in arizona, losing, people like tutor dickson walking away with our nomination in the state of michigan. peter meijer's losing as well. what does that tell you about people's perception of election integrity, both in this country, and the state of michigan? >> it says two things. one, we have to remember it's a primary, not a general election. when the full electorate participates, i expect to see a rejection of the lies and conspiracy theories that have really been furthered just by one political party over the last several years. with a political agenda. it also shows just how deep those lies and conspiracies have seeped into our major political parties, to the extent that we are seeing. nominees from those parties gain nominations based on lies. they are willing to continue spreading those lies, despite mountains of evidence that our elections are secure, and the results are accurate. >> the new michigan republican nominee for governor disagrees with you there. tutor dixon has criticize you recently, saying quote, we have to make sure that our

movement rose up and voted as if their lives depended on it >> reporter: trump also helped oust rusty bowers, who testified abou the pressure he faced to overturn arizona's 2020 election. the arizona house speakers los to a trump-endorsed challenger in missouri, senate candidat eric schmitt had the win. in michigan, congressman peter meijer, one of ten house republicans who voted to impeach trump last year lost his race against a trump ally >> we're sick of the politics, sick of everything being a question of fear or anger. >> reporter: the gop's next major primary is the wisconsin governor's race next week, and then wyoming, where liz cheney is trying to fend off a trump-backed challenger and defend her investigation into january 6th. lester >> all right, vaughn hillyard, thank you. >>> a military show of force by china tonight in response to house speaker nancy pelosi's historic visit to taiwan, the self-governed island that china claims as part of its territory. andrea mitchell has the latest >> reporter: just as house speaker nancy pelosi was waving farewell to taiwan, china responding b

just take the reelection campaign of arizona republican, house speaker, rusty bowers, who is facing anion denying challenger in tuesday's primary. now, you might remember bowers from his january six committee testimony, when he talked about being the target of an extensive trump lead pressure campaign. this came after he refused to let the arizona state legislator send fake electors to congress. well, this weekend, and nbc's vaughn hillyard asked bowers why he may lose, come tuesday, reelection? >> probably, because i stood up. and when they asked me to tell the truth, i told the truth. and i did break a taboo. and it's kind of occultists thing, that you have to be in with the cult. >> and bowers is right. that is what the gop has become. it is a cult of conspiracy pushing liars. so, with 100 days to go, voters across the country have a choice to make. and it is not just a simple as, democrats versus republicans, no. november's election will be a choice between the truth and conspiracy, and the future of our democracy. let's kick things off this hour. in our midterm coverage, with matt

. >> reporter: in arizona today republicans rusty bowers and david farnsworth face off in the closely watched state senate primary. farnsworth has the backing of former president trump. >> i'm a proven conservative who knows how to get things done. >> reporter: while bowers, the current house speaker, recently testified to the january 6th committee about withstanding pressure from trump to reverse the 2020 election results in the state. >> someone born how he was and raised how he was, he has no idea what a hard life is and what people have to go through in the real world. he has no idea what courage is. >> reporter: meanwhile, trump has triggered confusion in missouri after endorsing eric in the state primary without providing a last name. there are two erics in the race. both eric greitens who has been accused of abuse and blackmail and eric schmitt, the current attorney general have claimed the endorsement as their own. trump not providing clarity overnight leaving many to believe he's hedging his bet by endorsing both. another closely watched race is for governor in michigan. trum

elsewhere in arizona overnight house speaker rusty bowers was trailing in the state senate primary by a wide margin. he recently told the january 6th committee how he rejected pressure from former president trump to reverse the 2020 election. mona. >> ike, thank you. >>> a major development now overnight from the january 6th investigation, abc news has learned former white house counsel pat cipollone has been subpoenaed by the federal grand jury investigating the capitol attack and other efforts to overturn the 2020 election. sources say cipollone is expected to negotiate the terms of his appearance like he did with the january 6th committee. that testimony included how he wanted then president trump to do more to end the riot, cipollone may also be able to provide insight on any action trump took to support fake electors. >>> a government watch dog says the pentagon deleted text messages from several trump administration officials after the attack on the capitol. the data was reportedly deleted from the cell phones of former acting defense secretary chris miller, his chief of staff a

arizona's house speaker rusty bowers is fighting for his political career tuesday after testifying at a joanuary 6th hearing. in michigan ryan kelly was arrested by the fbi for allegedly directing crowds at the capitol riot and in washington state, two republican house members who voted to impeach trump are facing primary charges from candidates endorsed by him while in kansas, abortion rights takes center stage, voters will weigh in on the issue for the first time since the supreme court overturned roe v. wade the state's supreme court protects the right to an abortion as of now this vote could hand the power over to the conservative state legis legislature. activists on both sides rallied throughout the weekend. >> i want to see a future where kansans are involved in the discussion where unelected judges don't decide for the rest of us the right kind of limits on abortion in our state >> we have a limited right to access abortion care in our state right now, but this constitutional amendment will mandate government control over our private medical decisions and really pave the way f

this is rusty bowers, he was republican speaker of the arizona house of representatives. congressional hearings into january 6th about the attacks he's had since that. various groups come by and they have had video panel trucks, with videos of me proclaiming to be a paedophile and a pervert, and a corrupt politician, and blaring loud speakers in my neighbourhood. so it was disturbing. it was disturbing. the man rusty bowers lost to is david farnsworth — a man who has claimed the 2020 election was influenced by "a real conspiracy headed up by the devil himself". and early results say arizona republicans have nominated more election—deniers as their candidates for top posts. on the left is kari lake — she looks set to get the gop nomination for governor. in the middle is now us senate candidate blake masters. both campaigned on trump's election lies. on the right is mark finchem — he was instrumental in bringing the stop the steal campaign to arizona. he's now the republican nominee for secretary of state, a position from which he would oversee future election results in ar

we're joined today by a distinguished legislator from arizona, rusty bowers, our republican speaker of the arizona house of representatives. mr. bowers was elected to the state legislature in 1993. he served as speaker since 2019. welcome, speaker bowers. brad raffensperger is the 29th secretary of state of georgia serving in the role since 2019. as an elected official and a republican, secretary brad raffensperger is responsible for supervising elections in georgia and maintaining the states public records. welcome mister secretary. gabriel sterling is a chief operating officer in the georgia office. mr. sterling was the statewide implementation manager for the 2020 election in georgia, responsible for leading the secretary of state's response to the covid pandemic and rolling out modernized voting equipment. i will swear in our witnesses. witnesses will please stand and raise the right hand do you swear upon the penalty of perjury that the testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help you god? thank you, please be seated. let the rec

arizona's rusty bowers, speaker of the arizona house lost his bid for a state senate seat. bowers resists trump's efforts to build a fake set of state electors to overturn the election. he testified it was his patriotic duty not lie. in michigan republican congressmen peter mye challenge. some rubs did not like myer because he voted to impreach president trump in the second impeachment. democrats were afraid of myer running again. he's an iraq war vet who went to afghanistan to help in a charity. he's very wealthy and would be a tough opponent in the primaries so democrats helped fund adds for his republican challenger, john gibbs, a relative unknown with a history of tweeting qanon theories. referring to his vote to impeach, myers in his concession last night said "i'm proud to remain true to principles even when doing so came at significant political costs." we're watching results of primaries not in including the arizona's governor primary. you can follow me on facebook at scott mcgrue tv. >>> a follow up this morning and a story of reincarnation or coming back from the

rusty bowers, who we saw testify for the committee, he didn't just lose, he dplot clobbered.nate, won. and he is someone who is certainly in a key battleground state. his influence looms large. democrats will say maybe this isn't a bad thing that republicans have now nominated those who are more to the extreme right of their party. serve on the fringe, maybe they will be easier to beat come november. a that's a risk. these candidates, arizona is a toss-up state. depending what the political environment looks like, they would have a shot to win. if they do win, that's a dangerous thing. these are election deniers. some want to go back and decertify the 2020 election. and at minimum, they would be entrusted to certify the one in 2024 and who could have any faith they would do so properly. >> so jonathan kind of lays out in broad strokes what happened and how this is playing out across the country. give us a sense of what the republicans are doing here and what the exact of what they are doing here by pushing this big lie. you have these candidates, just a clear sweep of trump-b

as for conservative republicans state house speaker rusty bowers who refused overturn 2020 election rivals all's, he lost his bid to supporter of the former president. cnn political director david chalian, barbara birkenstock, strategist david urban, campaign adviser the former president. david chalian, what's the result in kansas tell you? >> well, it tells me that all the polling we saw nationally, anderson, after roe v. wade was overturned, that bore out to be true in this first electoral test. it is widely unpopular, what's the supreme court did. it motivated people to turn out for record numbers in an august primary. more than 1900 thousand people voted in this kansas contacts, mirroring the 28 teen gubernatorial election had in kansas in november that. year why does not tell us, is that abortion is going to replace the economy or inflation is the number one driving issue in november, which it is likely to be. but this is a proof point. it is a proof point for democrats that the overturning of row can be a mobilizing factor for their supporters. it is also a proof point for why you he

remember rusty bowers the arizona speaker for the arizona house to testify about efforts to get him to overturn the election results, will he lost his bid to senate seat to a trump backed opponent. we have a lot to cover tonight, so let's get smarter with the help of our lead off panel. jacqui anna-meni joins us, congressional investigations reporter for the washington base an msnbc contributor. professor alyssa murray she was a law clerk on the federal bench before her nomination to the supreme court and kurt wild is here, former fbi special agent and a distinguished fellow at the research institute. i have to go to you first. this almost blows my mind. a former white house lawyer now testifying before a federal grand jury. what does that tell you about how serious this thing is? >> it's pretty serious stephanie and it suggests that the department of justice is honing in on the former president and those closest to him. again, given all the concerns around executive privilege and clan attorney privilege, the fact that they are bringing in path sub loan is that they are moving in a mor

. >> you saw in the january 6th hearing, rusty bowers, the speaker of the arizona statehouse says giulianies but no evidence. donald trump went out on election night, claims there was fraud, claimed a big lie. started immediately without having any evidence, any facts, and of course as you noted, bill barr has been deposed in the dominion case because he told trump that this whole conspiracy theory about dominion voting machines was a bunch of crap. so, again, i think this is a great pushback to the role of conspiracy theory in american politics. >> yeah. really excellent. appreciate your view on it. it's a big, big precedent that's clearly getting noticed. thank you. fit in a break. when we return, news in the sentencing of ahmaud arbery's murders. stay with us. ers. stay with us i would say that to me an important aspect is too... meta portal with smart sound. helps reduce your background noise. bring that sense of calm, really... so you come through, loud and clear. meta portal. the smart video calling device that makes work from home work for you. i love all types of dancing... salsa,

he also gets a win in arizona where rusty bowers actually spoken from the january 6th select committee goes down from the beat. >> and we should mention all those trump backed candidates are election deniers. some of them have said they want to fundamentally change how elections are run in that state and even potentially give the legislature the opportunity to reverse election results, so that is a really, really crucial state, and these are crucial positions. >> that's exactly right. i'll just add that's why that secretary of state race is so important because they control in the state of arizona. >> how about in missouri? because an eric won. >> yeah, it was not eric lasao, cnn vice producer in the morning. it was eric schmidt. knew greitens couldn't win so he endorsed the irices, and for my opinion he gets a half win endorsement for that race. >> i know you were up late and up early and you still got it. >> you're bringing it, that's what i love about harry. all right, charlie dent back with us. also join using karen finny. we missed you in that earlier segment. i was hoping we coul

and in fact you'll recall rusty bowers, the speaker of the house, who lost his state senate primary hed before the january 6th committee as a total outlier, rock red conservative republican, but he was an outlier and now, you know, lost this job he was seeking because of it. >> stood on his principles. we have not called. you see the check marks. those are the races cnn has projected. blake masters won the senate nomination, mark finchem won the nomination for secretary of state. can democrats turn this to their advantage, trending blue to two democratic senators now. the question is can democrats trend that to their advantage some. >> i know in the senate race mark kelly they're pretty pleased blake masters won. they think he is easier to beat, but the question is, you know, in these races if these candidates are already saying there's cheating happening in an election they won against a republican what is going to happen in november? it's going to be just as chaotic and very tumultuous for the state of arizona who might have to go through all of this again. >> and i mentioned the mic

one person who is trailing tonight's rusty bowers.e all know he played such a significant role in these hearings, former speaker of the arizona house, running for the state senate today, losing, trailing, and that is completely about impeachment. he's represented that area forever for the republican party of arizona censured him in the last weeks of the campaign, just to make the point, just to make the point that he was an apostate, because he stood up for democracy, even though it might hurt donald trump. >> stick around, everyone. we've got much more to come. maybe the biggest result of the night in kansas. voters, maintaining the right to abortion in the kansas state constitution. with angi, you can connect with and see ratings and reviews. and when you book and pay throug you're covered by our happiness check out angi.com today. angi... and done. pre-rinsing your dishes? you could be using the wrong detergent. and wasting up to 20 gallons of water. skip the rinse with finish quantum. its activelift technology provides an unbeatab

candidate and the battle over rusty bowers. he made national headlines when he testified before the january 6th committee and he basically blasted donald trump for his behavior and his allies here in arizona. the looking to see how this slate of trump endorsed candidates do against the rest of the republican field. victor? >> is there any indication of if these trump endorsed candidates have momentum going into the vote tomorrow? >> well, let's frame this correctly. who you see vote in the primaries, especially on the republican side, are the ones truly engaged. and so what we are seeing the lie that trump won in 2020, again, he did not. that is resonating among those that voted for trump. the question is whether or not there are -- they are going to outnumber the other republicans who decide to vote tomorrow. and that's the big question. >> all right. we'll wait for the vote and the count. thank you. >> this week is a critical one for president biden's agenda. senate majority leader chuck schumer wants a vote by friday on the

in arizona, state house speaker rusty bowers, the conservative state house speaker who

rusty bowers, who testified before those hearings, the speaker of the house, is running for the stateand is very much in jeopardy of losing to a trump-backed election-denying candidate. and you go across the whole tableau of candidates, of campaigns today across the country, and you know, i think trump has set up to have a big vengeance night tonight. >> and i think just given arizona's role in the whole election saga, i mean, remember, arizona was the first state that when fox news called it, the white house and the trump campaign basically lost their minds, and on that election -- in that election week, that was the place where we saw people, trump supporters and republicans, showing up outside of vote counting centers and protesting. this is a place where the republican base is really very, very far to the right. so, this is not, i think, a state where you should have any confidence that sort of cooler heads will prevail. i think it's very likely that you're going to see some of these more extreme candidates. secretary of state, governor, and senate, winning their primaries and pot

meanwhile, rusty bowers, arizona's speaker of the house, lost his bid for state senate seat, losing to a trump-backed candidate. last month the republican party in arizona censured bowers for telling the house january 6 committee that trump and his lawyer rudy giuliani pressured him to overturn biden's 2020 election victory in arizona. in other primary election news, missouri attorney general eric schmidt has won missouri's republican senate primary, defeating a crowded field including missouri's disgraced former governor eric greitens. in michigan, republican congressmember peter meijer, who voted to impeach trump last year, has lost to john gibbs who was backed by trump and has claimed trump's loss in the 2020 election was "mathematically impossible." the democratic congressional campaign committee spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on ads to help elevate gibbs' message as part of what some see as a risky strategy of aiding far right candidates who might be more vulnerable in the november general election. in other election news from michigan, democratic congressmember haley stev

as for rusty bowers, who refused to help overturn election results, he lost his nomination bid to a supporter of the former president. there's plenty to talk about with our panel, david chalian, barbara comstock, david urban, who served as campaign adviser to the former president. david chalian, what does the result in kansas tell you? >> well, it tells me that all the polling we saw nationally, anderson, after roe v. wade was overturned, that's actually -- that bore out to be true in this first electoral test. it is widely unpopular what the supreme court did, and it motivated people to turn out for record numbers in an august primary. i mean, more than 900,000 people voted in this kansas contest, nearing the kind of turnout almost that the 2018 gubernatorial election had in kansas in november of that year. what it does not tell us though is that abortion is somehow going to replace the economy or inflation as the number one driving issue in november, which it is likely to be. but this is a proof point. it's a proof point for democrats that the overturning of roe can be a mobilizing factor f

. >> that was arizona house speaker rusty bowers who testified before the january 6 committee just beforedonald trump. the former president's candidates went on to sweep the primary races for arizona state wide offices. that is governor, secretary of state and attorney general and the united states senate. they all have questioned legitimacy of the 2020 election including the nominee who could oversee the next presidential election. our next guest reports on that grassroots movement that has pushed the state's republican party to the conspiracy far right. he's a contributing writer at new york magazine, it is robert draper. >> want to read from your piece. in it robert writes there is more at stake than the health of the republican party when it is core activists as well as a growing number of officials and those campaigning for governmental positions openly espouse hostility to the word democracy itself. what is different now is the use of democracy as a kind of shorthand and even a slur for democrats themselves, for the left and all of the positions espoused by the left that anti-democr

and arizona's republican house speaker, rusty bowers, who was a star witness for the january 6th committee, lost his state senate race to his trump-backed opponent. but the most closely watched race there is still too close to call. the showdown between trump-backed election denier, kerri lake, and karen taylor robeson. our team is covering all of it for us this morning. shaquille brewster is in michigan and vaughn hillyard is in new hampshire. shaq, let's start in michigan. are you hearing from anymore of the candidates there? >> reporter: the candidates saying that they are geared up for a big fight ahead. we know that tudor dixon, trump-endorsed governor's candidate, she won that primary. that was an incredibly chaotic primary from the start. it started with some of the front-runners being kicked off the ballot because of invalid signatures. it included a $2 million ad buy from a democratic group to influence the result of the republican race and then it included that last-minute endorsement for tudor dixon, and dixon last night turning her attention from her republican opponents, and p

rusty bowers testified during the january 6th hearings is projected to lose his primary for the state >>> on the other side of the race for the democratic nomination for governor katie hobbs cruised to victory and in the senate mark kelly ran unopposed. now to missouri, where the state's attorney general eric schitt easily won the republican senate primary. it's the race that featured two erics. the other being former governor eric greitens who actually finished third behind congresswoman hartzler. on monday, former president trump gave a halfhearted endorsement in that race saying he was supporting eric but didn't specify which one. the eric that won scmitt will face busch valentine this fall, a nurse and heir to the anheuser-busch fortune. greitens dogged by personal scandal loses badly. >>> we'll have much more on these primary races later in "way too early" and of course on "morning joe." >>> now overseas, house speaker nancy pelosi met with the president of taiwan yesterday, becoming the highest-ranking u.s. official to travel to island in 25 years. she made the visit despite mil

arizona house speaker rusty bowers lost as well.mpts to overturn the results that and testified before the january 6th committee. the latest target is someone you probably don't know, very conservative wisconsin house speaker robin voss. his crime is refusing merely two years later to somehow declare trump was the winner in wisconsin. >> adam stein is running to defeat your rino speaker of the house, robin vos. vos said they won't let it happen again. in other words, it was okay to cheat in 2020, but we won't let it happen again. >> i think we should just let people know, robin vos is an extremely conservative republican. he was actually kind of on board with this idea of trying to find fraud, but he just didn't find any. that is not good enough for trump. >> because there was no fraud in wisconsin which non-partisan committees that investigated that said no, joe biden did win the state by 20,000 votes. what's remarkable about robin vos, he's not a household name, he and trump were quite close once and had a pretty good -- i would c

in the arizona, house speaker rusty bowers who delivered emotional testimony to the january 6th committee, he is projected to lose his bid for a senate seat. the winner of that race claims, "the devil himself" meddled in the 2020 election. the devil. and in one of the largest rebukes to the supreme court decision on abortion ban in that state. nick valencia is in topeka, kansas, following the story this morning. nick, the voter turnout here really highlighted the importance of this issue that seems to have driven voters to the polls. and they voted no. >> that's right. good morning, jim. voter turnout turned out to be a huge factor here in kansas. a state where there is nearly twice as many registered republicans as democrats. but a huge swath of unaffiliated voters. that's what kansans in the state trying to protect abortion access were counting on. they worked tirelessly to try to educate voters and to get out the vote. they believe they were fighting an uphill battle, jim, not only because of the ambiguous wording of the amendment where a yes would have stripped abortion rights and no

also in arizona, cnn is projecting that rusty bowers, the state house speaker who testified before the january 6th committee, will lose his primary to david farnsworth. bowers refused to participate in trump's efforts to throw arizona's 2020 election into doubt. >> and in michigan, cnn projects election denier tudor dixon has won the republican primary for governor. she will face gretchen whitmer in the fall. also in michigan, peter meijer, one of the ten house republicans who voted to impeach donald trump has been defeated by challenger john gibbs after democrats meddled in his primary. and you might recall that trump endorsed an ambiguous eric in the missouri senate race and one of the erics has won. cnn projecting eric schmitt will defeat eric greitens, the former president president governor who resigned in disgrace. >> let's begin with cnn's jeff zeleny in st. louis with the very latest. jeff? >> reporter: good morning, brianna. missouri attorney general eric schmitt easily defeated former governor eric greitens here in missouri. really giving republicans across the country a sens

he celebrated the ousting of rusty bowers, who of course is the arizona house speaker, who testified in front of the january 6th committee about the pressure he faced from trump allies to overturn joe biden's arizona victory. he was beat by a trump-endorsed challenger. but then of course you've got the governor's race which we at nbc news have still not yet called here. at the same time the ballots that we are still waiting on, anywhere from 150,000 to 200,000 ballots, these are the mail ballots that instead of folks mailing them in they came and dropped them off at a polling place in the last 48 hours. those voters we expect to definitely lean more toward kari lake here. voters that are skeptical of mail-in voting after the 2020 election and preferred to drop it off themselves there. so we're looking at a likely kari lake victory here in the state of arizona zpp think it's important as we look toward the general election, andrea, we're going to not only look at of course close democratic i guess races here with knees republican nominees but i think it's important to recall that here

arizona voters have picked david farnsworth over rusty bowers in the gop primary for senate. bowers, you may remember, delivered emotional testimony to the january 6th committee in june. farnsworth had said of the 2020 election this is a real conspiracy headed up by the devil himself. that's a quote from the gop candidate there now. but it was the vote to protect abortion rights in kansas that could be a major recursor, a sign at least for november. voters there rejected an amendment that could have led to an abortion ban in that state. let's begin in michigan, though. political correspondent sara murray in grand rapids. looking broadly at last night's results, potentially a major impact on what we see in november. you've got election deniers winning the republican nomination in a lot of states. in kansas another sign. >> reporter: oh absolutely. when you look at michigan, it was a great night for election deniers. we saw john gibbs defeating peter meijer, someone who was a republican who voted to impeach donald trump. i think that tells us two things. one, the trump grip on

and here is testimony that we received from the speaker of the arizona house of representatives, rusty bowers, about an exchange that he had with rudy giuliani after the election. >> at some point, did one of them make a comment that they didn't have evidence but they had a lot of theories? >> that was mr. giuliani. >> chief of staff mark meadows told people that he thought trump should concede, around the time the electoral college certified the result. but nonetheless, he later worked to try to facilitate president trump's wishes. here's what cassidy hutchinson told us. >> during this period, he -- i perceived his goal with all this to keep trump in office. he had very seriously and deeply considered the allegations of voter fraud. but when he began acknowledging that maybe there wasn't enough voter fraud to overturn the election, i witnessed him start to explore potential constitutional loopholes more extensively. which i then connected with john eastman's theories. >> the startling conclusion is this. even in agreed upon, complete lack of evidence could not stop president trump, mark mead

and rusty bower, the republican house speaker who refused to go along with trump's big lie and later testified before the january 6th committee is headed for defeat. bowers spokes to nbc this weekend. >> the county has thrown me out basically, the state party, the district party. >> why will you not have won on tuesday? >> probably because i stood up and when they asked me to tell the truth, i told the truth. i wasn't, i didn't go looking for a fight. but the fact that i would break ranks and somehow find what the president, the former president did was unacceptable, that's like i broke some type of taboo, and i did break a taboo and it is kind of a cultic thing that you have to be in with the cult. >> voters in michigan, washington state and kansas, also head to the polls tomorrow. on friday, donald trump endorsed conservative media personality tudor dixen in the primary fight to challenge michigan democratic governor gretchen whitmer. . we're also watching the races of several house republicans who voted to impeach trump. in michigan, congressman peter meijer and in washington stat

the very conservative house speaker rusty bowers because bowers refused to go along with trump's plot to overturn the election and because he testified publicly before the january 6th committee. and three republican representatives who voted to impeach trump the second time, michigan's peter meijer and jaime career butler and dan newhouse of washington are also facing primary challenges backed by the ex president. we have a lot to get to tonight as the results are trickling in, so let's go right to the wizard himself steve karnak e at the big board. steve? >> we are waiting for the trickle to begin and maybe a little bit more in some of these states as you say polls closing in much of kansas, missouri and michigan. some of the big things we are looking for and we may start to get some numbers, we'll see if these maps start to light up. let's set the scene for what's gonna come in the next few hours. starting in kansas, obviously the headline, there is this referendum, it's a constitutional amendment that would say that in the state of kansas's constitution there is no right to abortio

we want to be clear cnn has not called a lot of the races particularly in arizona, rusty bowers has lost, that was a referendum on trump certainly, but what do you make of this strength these election deniers are showing in republican primaries apparently at the same time that the abortion effort has gone down in kansas, and what it says about the matchups in the fall? >> i think a couple things. one is we look at these races and say that it is trump and anti-trump, right? we frame t we boil it down to whether it's win or loss for donald trump. bottom line is that we're seeing something here that is going to surpass donald trump when he leaves. we are seeing election deniers that will be put into positions of power that will be able to change the law or not enact the law or cause havoc at worse case that's going to force the state legislatures to get involved eventually down the road because we are going to see -- look, they could be in place in some of these states for the 2024 election and we saw the likes of kari lake say even if she loses she's not going to accept loss because it wou

potential race that could give us an understanding is a very local one, the legislative race which rusty bowerstified before the january 6th select committee because of pressure he faced to overturn the results and send trump's fake slate of electors to washington to be counted. i caught up with him this weekend as he faces a trump-backed challenger himself. take a listen. >> it's kind of a cultic thing, you know, that you have to be in with the cult and here's our doctrine and you can't go beyond the doctrine. i said no, the people in the middle don't want the extreme right or left, they want america back. >> reporter: but hallie, that's not how primaries work. it's going to be up to republican voters and some independents who chose to pick up republican ballots to determine what nominee they want to represent them in november. so a potential clean sweep of trump-backed candidates. it will be the ones decided on to take on the democrats here in november. >> vaughn, thank you for that reporting. shaq, let me go to you. you're talking with the two leading candidates in that governor's race in mi