but in the senate, i was just really struck by thom tillis, thom tillis, senator from north carolina, right, who is up for reelection in 2026. north carolina, very interesting place. some days it's purple, some days it's red. and thom tillis, way back when he wasn't yet confirmed. thom tillis went to john thune, the leader of the senate majority, the senate republicans, and said, we have the votes. and thune told tillis, you got to take that up with the white house. and to me, it's kind of like, what do members do, particularly republicans, if when they do garner the, you know, the wherewithal and the courage to go to the leadership, the leadership doesn't back them. if i'm thom tillis, i guess it's like, well, i'm on an island. what do i do now? and obviously he ended up voting for pete hegseth, but i just couldn't imagine a mitch mcconnell leaving his members out there like that, telling them to go it alone with the white house, because i'm not going to have your back. what do these members do? what recourse do they have if the leadership is not going to stand up for them and with t

senator tillis. sen. tillis: i voted aye today and i wanted to briefly explain why. i believe in my 65 years -- i will be 65 in august -- that mr. kennedy will be one of the first people coming before who is not a trained health care expert. he views this through the lens of an attorney. he's brought many lawsuits on food safety, vaccine safety, a number of other things. mr. chair, i think it was senator warnock that said that the president said he was going to go wild in the department of health and human services. i hope he does. i hope he goes wild and finds a way to reduce the cost of health care. i hope he goes wild and instead of having the discussions we have had for the 10 years i've been in the senate of making medicaid work and making people on medicaid healthier, i hope he goes wild and figures out how to do it because the status quo has not achieved much in the way of gain. i hope he goes wild on food safety discussions so that we can actually improve our food safety supply. i hope you goes wi-- he goes wild on the health care supply chains and in fact tr

i'm thinking also, north carolina's tim tillis, he's in a tough spot.reports that north carolina researchers were awarded $3.7 billion in nih grants just last year. could that get them to move a little bit? >> well, look, i think possibly i think that there is kind of the substance and political side of this, as there always is when you have tillis and collins. there was just a report out a little bit ago. i saw that tim scott in a private meeting for the nrsc, you know, said that they were going to need to raise about $1 billion for those maine and north carolina senate races. so collins and tillis, what? yeah, that's what tim scott said in a recent thing. yes. the billion for the two. two. those are going to be the two biggest senate races, 2026. so, you know, collins and tillis can't go so far afield from the party that they feel like it might hurt. you know, if they're going after trump, it could hurt their ability to get support, you know, financially for their for their midterm. who knows. like they have a lot of different calculations i guess is

thom tillis said there are a couple of kinks in the slinky.ey said he would prefer the money go to rebuilding u.s. communities. but there are republicans who supported. mike johnson has said his vision is bold. anchor: good to have you reporting. joining the live now is the former prime minister of israel. thank you for being with us. many are charged with being serious. what are you making of it? >> [indiscernible] we cannot do that. we do not own gaza. it is not ours. it is palestinian. as soon we in to the war, which we have to do now, we have to pull out from gaza after all the hostages are returned back to israel. there will have to be a security force to prevent any further terrorist actions. if america wants to rebuild gaza , it would be very positive.

senator tillis? sen. tillis: how is your morning going? mr. kennedy: [laughter] so far, so good. sen. tillis: you came prepared and i'm glad you did. you addressed to my satisfaction a question about title x and the president's -- planned parenthood. can you confirm you are 100% behind the president's approach to title x? mr. kennedy: i am 100% behind it. sen. tillis: first off, you need to understand -- i was in a judiciary hearing this morning and it is clear to me some of these nominations will be shirts and skins. no matter what you answer, they will ask you one more question so you cannot answer in the affirmative. it is the way the game is played when we have nominees like yourself. you are handling yourself well. are you a conspiracy theorist? mr. kennedy: that is a pejorative that is applied to me mainly to keep me from asking difficult questions about interests. i was told i was a conspiracy theorist and that label applied to me because i said the covid vaccine did not prevent transmission and would not prevent infection when the government was telling americans that it

senator tillis? sen. tillis: thank you, mr. chairman. i want to thank my colleague, senator welch, for being so measured and respectful in the way he engaged with you. i would like to cover a few things. i don't know if it will take seven minutes or not. i want to go back to the "we" versus "i." in your exchange with my colleague from one of my former states that i lived in, louisiana, he repeatedly said "you," with respect to preparing a memo, or documents and he repeatedly said "we." so you are somebody who doesn't say i a lot even though it was the lead that got things done. i appreciate how you focused on that. now let's talk about how things changed over time. i don't know if presidential candidate clinton ever claimed that president trump president trump were legitimately elected. i know that stacey abrams never really allowed or acknowledged that governor kemp was governor until the second time she lost. i don't know what's wrong with you simply saying that former president biden was duly elected. i believe senator welch was askin

tillis: ok. i would have liked to have heard more of those in oversight hearings the last four years. i have it, and i am glad there is an acknowledgment you are inheriting a problem that needs to be fixed. thank you. mr. kennedy: thank you. chair crapo: senator senator -- senator sanders. sen. sanders: thank you. i very much like the slogan you coined, make america healthy again. and i strongly agree with that. despite spending, as you indicated, two or three times as much per capita on health care as other nations, we have 85 million people uninsured, underinsured, all kinds of chronic illnesses. i rely fixed of it -- our life expectancy is lower than in other countries, and for working-class people, their living 6, 7 your shorter lives than the top 1%. we have got a problem. i am going to suggest some ideas that i think can remedy that. last year the insurance industry in this country made over $70 billion while at the same time 85 million americans uninsured or underinsured. do you agree with

first senator tillis. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i voted aye today. i want to briefly explain why. i believe in my 65 years i will be 65 in august. that mr. kennedy will be one of the first people coming before who -- >> dana: you have it. the hurdle to get out of committee cleared by rfk, jr. the nominee from president trump to be health and human services secretary. there was a little bit of tension and drama leading up to it. cassidy from louisiana hadn't said how he would vote and he was a yes in the end. the vote now 14/13 to get rfk, jr. out of committee. now the challenge is to get enough votes to get off the floor. that will probably happen for him. john, what do you think john since it was unanimous on the republican side, i would -- collins might still waiver, murcowski or mcconnell but you can get him through along the lines of the hegseth confirmation. so much for bernie sanders maybe throwing in with rfk, jr. he was a definitive no. with collins there might have been interesting phone calls between collins and the white house over the last 24 hours. i know the man you

senator tillis. sen. tillis: ranking member, colleagues on the senate judiciary committee, it is my honor to introduce kash patel. president trump's nominee to be fbi director. i have completed due diligence on his life and career and i am convinced he possesses significant expertise, and ironclad commitment to justice and he has an outstanding choice to lead the fbi. his parents are indian immigrants. they are up here in the front row. that state is a melting pot of religions. including hinduism, islam, jainism, with temples and other sites scattered across the state. his father was raised in uganda, but his family had to flee to escape repression. his mother was born in tanzania. they met and married in india and then made their way to new york city by way of canada. his parents along with seven brothers and sisters and their spouses and at least half a dozen kids lived under the same roof. his parents raised him in the hindu faith and instilled in him the values of hard work and education. kash is a de

senator tillis? senator tillis: mr. kennedy, how's your morning going? mr.kennedy: so far, so good. senator tillis: you came prepared. i am glad you did. you addressed to my satisfaction a question about title x and presidents -- the presidents priority with respect to planned parenthood. can you confirm you are 100% behind the president's policy on planned parenthood? mr. kennedy: i am 100% behind it. sen. tillis: it's amazing to me -- first off, you need to understand, i was at a judiciary hearing this morning. it's clear that some of these nominations will be shirts and skins. no matter what you answer in the affirmative, they will answer a question in the affirmative so that -- answer a question that you won't be able to answer in the affirmative. that's the game we play when we have nominees like yourself. you are handling yourself well. are you a conspiracy theorist? mr. kennedy: that is a pejorative, senator. mainly to keep me from asking difficult questions of powerful interest. i was told that i was a conspiracy theorist. that label was applied to m

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. >> tillis mr. tillis i mrs. blackburn mrs. >> blackburn i mr.shall mr. >> marshall i mr. >> wyden. no. mr. wyden. no. >> miss cantwell, no. >> miss cantwell, no. mr. bennet, mr. bennet, no. mr. warner, no. mr. warner, no. mr. whitehouse, mr. whitehouse, no. miss hassan, miss. hassan, no. >> miss cortez masto. >> miss cortez masto. >> no. >> miss warren, no. >> miss warren, no. >> mr. sanders, mr. sanders, no. >> miss smith, no. >> miss smith, no. >> mr. lujan, no. mr. lujan, no. >> mr. warnock, no. >> mr. warnock, no. >> mr. welch, mr. >> welch, no. >> mr. chairman, >> chairman. votes i. >> mr. chairman the final tally. >> is 14 ayes. >> 13 ayes. >> the vote. >> was. would the clerk please restate the vote. >> mr. chairman. >> the final tally was 14 ayes. >> 13 ayes. >> the vote was 1413. the nomination is reported favorably. we will now turn to other senators who would like to make a statement. since i asked my republican colleagues to hold off at the outset, i'll go to the republican side next. first, senator tillis. >> thank you, mr. chairman

in north carolina, senator tillis will be our top target. he nearly won in 2020 and with the right candidate we will win this race. if you look at the north carolina map, we are up the next two cycles. if we spend a lot of time building the grassroots and doing early outreach and building up campaign headquarters, we can win two seats out of north carolina. believe it! there are a number of states that can be in play depending on the environment. these are some red states -- don't get nervous -- it matters who runs, who gets primary, it matters the dynamic of a midterm election against trump. remember 2006. those dynamics helped us flood -- we had more than 40 seats that cycle we won. texas has been in a single digit in recent elections. alaska and kentucky recently elected democrats to statewide offices. if they have elected a governor or a house member that has the whole state, it means they will elect a democrat statewide. we just need the right candidate at the right moment to window seats. we also have two special elections so we will h

thom tillis said there are a couple of kinks in the slinky.ey said he would prefer the money go to rebuilding u.s. communities. but there are republicans who supported. mike johnson has said his vision is bold. anchor: good to have you reporting. joining the live now is the former prime minister of israel. thank you for being with us. many are charged with being serious. what are you making of it? >> [indiscernible] we cannot do that. we do not own gaza. it is not ours. it is palestinian. as soon we in to the war, which we have to do now, we have to pull out from gaza after all the hostages are returned back to israel. there will have to be a security force to prevent any further terrorist actions. if america wants to rebuild gaza , it would be very positive. i think this is not tractable. not doable. anchor: can i ask you whether or not this comes to fruition? we have had comments from the israeli defense minister ordering the army to draft a plan. palestinians fear that this could amount to forced explosion -- expulsion. >> different plans w

tillis mr.. tillis i mrs.. blackburn. mrs.. blackburn i mr.. marshall. mr.. marshall i mr.. wyden. no. mr.. wyden. no. miss cantwell. no. miss cantwell. no. mr.. bennett. mr.. bennett. no. mr.. warner. mr.. warner. no. mr.. white house. mr.. white house. no. miss hassan. miss. hassan. no. miss cortez masto. miss cortez masto. no. miss warren. no. miss warren. no. mr. sanders. no. mr.. sanders. no. miss smith. no. miss smith. no. mr.. lujan. no. mr.. lujan. no. mr.. warnock. >> no. >> mr.. warnock. no. mr.. welch. mr. welch. no. mr. chairman. chairman. votes aye. mr. chairman, the final tally is 14 ayes. 13 ayes. >> the vote was. would the clerk please restate the vote? >> mr. chairman the was 14. ayes. 13. ayes. >> the. the vote was 1413. the nomination is reported favorably. we will now turn to other senators who would like to make a statement. since i asked my republican colleagues to hold off at the outset, i'll go to the republican side next. first, senator tillis. thank you, mr. chairman. >> i voted. >> i today, and i want to just briefly explain why i believe. >> in my 65 yea

and i think i think really about tom tillis and the fact that thom tillis went. >> to. >> john thunend john thune said, look, you need to go talk to the white house. >> to me. >> that is insane. >> i cannot. >> think of mitch mcconnell when he was the leader of republicans in the senate, telling someone in his caucus, hey, you go ahead and you speak to the president because i just don't have the energy. so that's. >> kind. >> of the interesting position. senate republicans are in, because if you're somebody like thom tillis, you're like, well, i tried. what do you what am i supposed. >> to do from a very purple state? who's up for reelection within the next two years? i think the last question i have for you in the last minute or so we have, is a tweet you sent yesterday that reminded people that elections have consequences. people are upset. >> about. >> that tweet. why? i think they're upset about. >> the tweet. >> because a. >> couple of things. i think that there are people who did sit out the last election or maybe voted third party or wrote someone in because they were upset ab

senator tillis isn't alone.ght, louisiana senator john "not that john kennedy" kennedy went on the fox news to defend trump and musk, but he got off to kind of a weird start. >> let me try to put all this in context for you. um, i like omelettes. i mean, i really like omelettes. i could eat an omelette at every meal. um, i like omelettes better than sex. [laughter] >> stephen: i've been eating at the wrong diner. i like an omelette. senator, you are saying? >> i like omelettes better than sex. not really, but you get the point. i like omelettes. you can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs. >> stephen: wait. stop. all that ramp up about omelette was just to get to that old saying? "now, are you familiar with dogs? i love me an old dog. like a hound, like an old one. just a dog that's reached a mature age. not dead, but old. and i'm also a fan of tricks. how'd they do that? but when i'm watching a trick, i like it to be a trick i haven't seen before. like, a new one. unfortunately, when it comes to elder

it appears that was senator tillis.rd that hegseth had had acted in such a volatile manner that he caused his second wife to fear for her safety, that votes would flip. in a statement after he was confirmed, danielle hegseth talked about how she was promised and her sense of frustration, talked about different ndas that could force women who suffer abuse from not being able to speak out. so why he chose that vote? it's not clear, but it's something we're still pursuing. but he embraced kash patel yesterday very effusively, and many republican senators again fear more a challenge, a primary challenge from the right than anything else. and that might be, you know, driving him at this point. >> more morning joe weekend after. after. >> a quick break. (♪♪) years of hard work. decades of dedication. committed to giving back. you've been there, done that. and you're still here for more. so now that you're 50 or older, and at increased risk for pneumococcal pneumonia and ipd be proactive with capvaxive- a vaccine specifically

the one vote i've been watching, thom tillis, the north carolina republican up for re-election in 2026troduced kash patel and validated him. seems nobody has jumped up this weekend to say i'm opposed. >> scott mcfarland, it's going to be another interesting week in washington. thank you for bottom lining it. we'll be right back. >>> the temporary cease-fire between israel and hamas is still holding and three more hostages were released yesterday including american israeli dual national keith siegel. his niece hannah is with us this morning. good morning. you've been waiting for this for over 400 days. how is your uncle doing? >> first, thank you for having me. i've been dreaming about being here today. he's doing okay. he's -- he's lost some weight. he's pale. but he's strong. he's doing okay. somehow. we're incredibly grateful. >> we've seen the video and images of him being reunited with family members. will your father, his brother, see him soon? >> yes. he's on his way. we've been staggering the family visits so as not to overwhelm him. we are all going to see him and actually his

senator thom tillis suggesting there are, quote, probably a couple kinks in that slinky. and senator john cornyn says, check back with me tomorrow. delaware senator chris, seen here covering his face in disbelief as reporters told him about trump's idea for the first time, had this to say. >> you can report that i was speechless. i'm speechless. that's insane. i can't think of a place on earth that would welcome american troops less. and where any positive outcome is less likely. this is between offensive and insane. and dangerous and foolish. >> major actors in the region also responding overnight, the terror group hamas, which governs gaza, released a statement calling trump's proposal a, quote recipe for creating chaos and tension in the region before adding our people in the gaza strip will not allow these plans to pass. but far right lawmakers in israel are hailing the u.s. president, the former national security minister, ben gvir, writing on the platform formerly known as twitter, quote donald, this looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship. joining us now

that's from senator thom tillis. he was telling that to notice, but it's not uncommon for presidents to flex a little bit on where they can spend and where they can stop spending. joining me now is former republican congressman jaime herrera beutler. thank you so much for being here. it's really nice to see you. i was so eager to talk to you for lots of reasons, not the least of which is you were one of ten republicans in the house who voted to impeach donald trump for inciting the january 6th insurrection. you faced his wrath and the wrath of maga. you ultimately did not win your primary bid for reelection. given that deep understanding of what happens when somebody goes against him and against the republican base, help our viewers understand perhaps why your old colleagues are sitting back. well, so i would take this. >> a little bit from, you know, i served on appropriations and and when i came into congress, right. it was the tea party wave. and there. >> was a lot of. >> conversation about things like earmarks a

that's a direct quote from senator tillis. now, democrats were less subtle in their pushback. senator tim kaine called this idea deranged and nuts. senator ruben gallego dared trump to seek congressional approval, suggesting that that was never going to happen if he tried to move forward with it. and then there's senator chris. take a look at how he responded when our colleague frank thorp asked him about this, he literally covered his eyes with his hands. he says, quote, you can report that i was speechless. he goes on, that's insane. i can't think of a place on earth that would welcome american troops less, and where any positive outcome is less likely. and of course, chris, one of the suggestions of lawmakers is that the mere suggestion of the us taking control of gaza could make u.s. bases and u.s. assets in the region a target. >> sahil kapur a lot to unpack for us. thank you so much. let's go now to exclusive new reporting on the pentagon's plans for a full withdrawal from syria. nbc's courtney kube broke that story. she joins us now. now in his first term, donald trump'

they reached out to senator thom tillis, who was wavering at the time. they spoke for two hours on the day that tillis ultimately came on board. cassidy clearly has concerns he wanted kennedy to simply say that vaccines do not cause childhood autism. kennedy could not say that. simply said, i need to see the evidence. if you have the evidence, i can. >> he was like, please let me get to yes, give me cover. >> there have been decades of evidence that showed the debunked, that notion that there is any link for cassidy. the complication is this he could defeat this nomination tomorrow, but he also is up for reelection next year. he's already facing a primary challenge. he's also invited also the anti-trump wing or the pro-trump wing to come against him. he was one of the votes to convict donald trump in his second impeachment trial. the politics are very complicated for cassidy, which is why it's uncertain how he's going to come down. >> real quick, tulsi gabbard tomorrow. tomorrow as well. >> yeah. another key vote. the senate intelligence committee, simil

here they are at another office for senator tillis in north carolina. a bigger group goes all the way around the block. they're here's a little group, just three people showing up to senator john fetterman's office in wilkes-barre to tell him to stand up and stop this stuff. they said when they weren't allowed to meet with anybody, they left a note explaining what their demands were as his constituents. i mean, even even when it's a smaller number of people making these visits to their offices, they're making contact there in some cases, frankly, producing intel on what senators might need an additional nudge here, for example, are some folks, some indivisible folks and other folks in washington state saying that they went to the offices of both senator patty murray and senator maria cantwell. they reported back from those meetings. quote, cantwell needs a lot more encouraging. okay. i mean, even when it's a hostile reception showing up in person, it makes an impact. here's some indivisible members and other folks outside the metairie, louisiana, office

there were threats of a primary, thom tillis in north carolina.d others. cassidy in louisiana. how much is the politics palpable here? >> the politics. >> is almost the number one issue for a lot of them. and it's unfortunate that we've gotten to a point where being primaried is probably the toughest part of winning a reelection fight for a lot of these members. >> especially in maga. >> especially in maga. and a call from mike davis, steve bannon or elon musk is the most terrifying thing any of these senators can get. knowing that means a primary challenge is coming and they don't want to face that. so i think it is looming over them. no matter what they say, they have to look two years ahead and say, do i want to spend the next two years trying to raise $100 million and fend off a primary challenge, and then have to go head to head in a purple state against a well-funded, moderate candidate? after i've gone so far to the right, it's not easy. >> is there a limit to those threats, though? can you only threaten someone with a primary for so long?

north carolina senator thom tillis also saying, obviously, it's not going to happen. i don't know under what circumstances it would make sense, even even for israel. cnn's lauren fox is on capitol hill. i'm most curious about how republicans and more republicans are responding to this, as they have generally followed trump's lead, saying they don't want to be involved in foreign wars. and trump is talking about sending troops in to remove forcibly remove palestinians from their homeland. lauren, what are you hearing on the hill this morning? >> yeah, i mean, there was a late. vote last night. >> on capitol. >> hill in the united states. >> senate. >> and it was. >> clear that a lot of republicans. >> were trying to. >> dodge reporter questions around this, saying that they had not seen these comments, saying that they needed needed to take a closer look at them. but one thing that is exceedingly clear is the fact that no one on capitol hill is really endorsing or getting their arms around this idea. most people are making clear when they are commenting that they have

they watched what happened to thom tillis. they watched what happened to bill cassidy. if they put their individual heads above the parapet, the financial threats from musk, the political threats from trump's thug crew around him, the launch of what i call the flying monkeys, the internet and maggot creeps who threaten your children and home and your life and all that stuff. all of that piles and very suddenly. so what has to happen is that five or six of them have to get together. probably through their leader, forming a quiet resistance so that they can push back to the white house until susie wiles, this goes too far. we put up with a lot out of you. but there's a limit and here's where some of the limits are. until that happens, the really brutal political treatment of individual senators is going to be what carries the day. at some point, people do get sick of that. i think making sure that the republican senators are hearing from their home states and organizations in their home states the cries of pain and anger and dismay is really important. if we do care about

and the reason we want to tell you this is that we've discovered that they have been attacked tilly this year by drones. and there's a connection and we have these rel, trades, palestinians, so we want to go and speak to them, understand what happened. this was the response of the us already to seek families peacefully protesting at the removal. the price protection, so they crops 6 months later, they still camped out on the motorway and protests push pin to seeing remembers how the police choose to tactic new to india. dropping t guys from trying yeah, but don't, but think of the chosen a would like somebody to call you on a 2nd. i'm gonna is front bedroom fleming's we a ambulance, but a committee. i'll converse, i'm unable to do that. so i just took this one. this because i thought that does it, i'm just see all the visual and this came over home as a motorcycle of how to get. 6 the this is one of the farm, as late as the shows may be empty canisters, some of which they said had come from the drawing. i don't know who the box i don't, i think i thought all interrupted by the monsoon. w

thom tillis likely with the quote of the night, which was, "there are probably a couple kinks in that desi: "there's a couple kinks in that slinky?" that's how desperate these guys are to not openly disagree with trump, they're just making up sayings now. of course some of his supporters, like steve doocy, are trying to give trump the benefit of the doubt. >> it was a jaw dropper last night. the the cover of "the new york post" is "we'll take over gaza. " i think this is just the tipping -- you know, this is the conversation starter. because obviously, the president knows when he says we'll take gaza, he knows the united states can't invade another country. [audience reacts] >> desi: of course, america would never invade another country. you can read all about it in steve doocy's american history book, "me just got lobotomy, by steve doocy." [cheers and applause] so to summarize: maga people think this is dicey. their eyeballs think it's batshit crazy. and the entire plan is d.o.a. unless trump can do some real outreach to countries in the middle east. and based on his response to thi

and thom tillis says, if you just shut down every program in there, i think it's a mistake, and it will have policy and political consequences. but that's exactly what elon musk did. he shut usaid down. >> well, first of all, going back to the transparency, you have not had a more transparent president than president donald trump. every executive order, every conversation he has with a world leader, there is a printout. it is on social media, and we are learning what's going on in real. >> time that he's shutting down usaid and tell us why he's doing it. >> well, first of all, usaid and i sat on the foreign affairs committee, and i've tried to expose this as a member on those committee hearings. i mean, we cannot get any accountability from this agency. we can't get any metrics from this agency. this is a real bureaucratic mess. the usaid, the money is being spent and shoveled to countries all over the world, countries that hate us for programs that i mean, you have countries that where people are starving and they're focusing on, you know, die, die and transgender programing. it's ridi

. >> three of your colleagues in the senate, senator bill cassidy, jerry moran and thom tillis, have they've raised some red flags over what's happening at usaid. cassidy wants to know why clinics in africa are not getting the drugs that that usaid provides. jerry moran is wondering why there's american food rotting in in ports of entry. and thom tillis says, if you just shut down every program in there, i think it's a mistake and it will have policy and political consequences. but that's exactly what elon musk did. he shut usaid down. >> well, first of all, going back to the transparency, you have not had a more transparent president than president donald trump. every executive order, every conversation he has with a world leader, there is a printout. it is on social media, and we are learning what's going on in real. >> time that he's shutting down usaid and tell us why he's doing it. >> well, first of all, usaid and i sat on the foreign affairs committee, and i've tried to expose this as a member on those committee hearings. i mean, we cannot get any accountability from this agenc

. >> senator tillis. sen. tillis: thank you, mr. chairman. mr. collins, thank you for being here.we have a lot in common. we were both born in august. you six years after me. we both entered state legislature at the same time in 2007 in two different states and you have a sister born in the same hospital both my babies were born in. you also have the benefit of me tracking since i lived in atlanta for four years, tracking georgia politics. you were a good, solid, reasonable congressmen. i know all i need to know to support your nomination. i know you have said multiple times you're not going to privatize the v.a. you are not forcing veterans out. you have done that. would you just pinky swear you are not going to privatize the v.a.? the reason that is important is that some people, not everybody -- i think senator sanders is genuine in his concerns, but folks, let me say again what i have said every time about privatization and seeking private care. there is no serious discussion among lawmakers to do that. by serious discussion i mean that can ever see the light of day. i have ve

richardson yes, thank you and kudos to tilly chang and actually sherry and to you all. >> so you guys are great as you know partner. a couple of questions for this important opportunity that we had. number one, maybe share what happens to the autonomous vehicle. member we had that pilot and we had some money in there. what happens to that and the leftover of the money and that particular project? >> good. good afternoon rachel hyatt i'm the deputy director for planning at the s.f. cta here on behalf of swannie choe. so we are working. so what linda referenced is a different federal grant that tim received actually during the obama era to support a number of different projects on treasure island from the original 2011 transportation implementation plan. and actually one of them was piloting an autonomous version of the on island shuttle. this was just a pilot demonstration effort which has concluded. >> and so that on island shuttle service will now be replaced by the shuttle service that is to be funded by this grant. we there is funding remaining in that federal grant. what we need t

executive director's report — information >> tilly chang will give her report but in light of the manualt item 6 commissioner chan as offered to forego the report for now and though it is on the website and commissioner chan is here to answer any questions. i don't see so public comment anyone want to talk about item 3. >> looks like no one in the chamber. anyone response time want to talk about item 3? >> remotely? >> do we have any remote? >> i'm. >> i'm going to it sorry. >> the government it is your enemy this is why i'm launching this addition. >> if you want to survive that what is coming on my side, (unintelligible). >> do we have our remote public comment. >> there is no remote public comment for item number 3. >> all right. public comment is closed. next item, please. >> 4. approve the minutes of the december 17, 2024, meeting—- action* >> all right. i don't see comments over and over questions from colleagues. open to public comment none in the chamber oh, i do see i do see - >> so nobody has anything to say? >> on the 17 it was the last day of the 17 on the 17 like to - 17 is

senator thom tillis said specifically, he thought that the pardons and excuse the expression sucked.m tillis said he was going up to capitol hill police officers and apologizing to them for this happening. senator thom tillis, senator lisa murkowski, senator susan collins, senator mitch mcconnell, those are the four votes. and tillis was the one vote that let hegseth get confirmed to watch here, because we're talking about an estimated number of the times reported, is that 6000 of the 38,000 fbi agents in this country were told and ordered to play some role in the january 6th investigations. so that is 15% of the fbi's workforce. and what this leads to, again, is chaos and distraction. instead of hunting down fentanyl traffickers and hunting down chinese or russian spies, the fbi is in turmoil and distracted from its mission. >> all right. david rohde, brian riley, thank you so much for your reporting and analysis. we'll continue to follow this. it is the top of the hour right now, and crews are still searching for bodies and debris in the potomac river after that deadly midair colli