first, we are going to speak with ellen weintraub.ission since 2002. she has chaired the commission four times. this week, president trump attempted to fire her. miss weintraub responded in a post on twitter, quote received a letter from potus today purporting to remove me as commissioner and chair of the fec. she said, quote, there's a legal way to replace fec commissioners. this isn't it. i've been lucky to serve the american people and stir up some good trouble along the way. that's not changing anytime soon. joining us now is ellen weintraub, chair of the federal elections commission, who trump claims to have fired. she begs to differ. commissioner weintraub, i really appreciate you being here. thanks for joining us. >> pleasure to. >> be here, rachel. >> why do you say this firing was not legal? >> well, if you look at the federal election campaign act, there is nothing in there about removing. fec commissioners other than in the normal course, which is you can replace them when their. terms have expired by appointing a new commi

ellen weintraub joins us now.ving as commissioner and chair of the federal election commission. good morning. >> good morning, commissioner. >> it's a real pleasure to have you at the table this morning. i want to i want to start with your one of your predecessors, former fec chairman trevor potter, who happens to be a republican who noted in a letter, quote, as the only agency that regulates the president, congress intentionally did not grant the president the power to fire fec commissioners. with multiple fec commissioners serving on expired terms and one vacant seat, trump is free to nominate multiple new commissioners and to allow congress to perform its constitutional role of advice and consent. it's contrary to law that he has instead opted to claim to fire a single democratic commissioner, who has been an outspoken critic of the president's lawbreaking and the fec failure to hold him accountable. your name is no longer listed on the website. you your email is not working. >> it is not. >> you're still the h

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ellen weintraub is out front. in her first tv interview since getting that letter telling her that she was fired. it's good to have you here tonight. i know you've said this isn't the way this goes down at the fec. president trump can't just fire you. the white house told us here at cnn, quote, our message to ellen weintraub is simple. you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here. they updated the fec website, which now shows your term ended this month. i'm curious tonight, do you still have access to your email? could you get into your office? what has happened in the last day or so? >> well. >> they changed the website. >> i am no longer listed as a current commissioner. i no longer have access to my office. they turned off my email so i don't know. i actually don't know what message people will get if they try and email me at my fec address because i no longer have access to it. and i think they shut the account down. >> and have you had any further communication from the white house? >> no. what you just

weintraub was first appointed to serve on the commission by president george w.h in 2002, and this. >> i know this is an individual award, and it says most valuable player on it, but i think it's derived from team success. and i love my team. we've got such a great locker room in buffalo. and it takes everybody. >> buffalo bills quarterback josh allen, with all the class winning nfl's mvp award last night, it was a major upset over lamar jackson of the baltimore ravens. allen was just one win shy of bringing his team to the super bowl this year, but of course, they fell to the chiefs in the afc championship game. and this. >> rapper kendrick lamar, is set to perform this sunday at the super bowl halftime show. damn, that is gonna that is going to be drake's worst sunday since. well, i guess last sunday. so yeah. >> kendrick lamar gearing up for the biggest performance of his career this coming sunday. the grammy award winning rapper telling fans to anticipate storytelling during his halftime show. kendrick lamar won two grammys for his hit song not like us. that,

. >> ellen weintraub. we're talking about it during commercial break.re's the issue. the american people don't know who she is, but who she is the chairwoman of the federal election commission. she refused to leave her job after donald trump tried to remove. >> her. >> and she said he didn't do it legally. she's going to fight it. how important is it for people like ellen to stand up and say, i'm not leaving? >> that's exactly the playbook that should be followed. you don't have the authority to do this. there are ways to remove me from my job. i don't have a. >> job. >> for life. but to say, no, you don't have the legal authority. >> to do this. >> i'm not going anywhere. you're going to have to take me dragging me out of this office. that's the. that's the move. >> should we. >> put. >> our hope or our faith in the courts? because though thus far, besides. >> an ellen weintraub saying. hell no, i won't. >> go, we. are seeing at least pauses from. >> the court. >> saying, you you don't have the power to do this. i mean. >> think birthright. >> citizens

a firing weintraub says is not legal. take a listen to what she had to say on our air earlier today. >> there is this widespread attempt to. >> get rid of people who might not agree with what the current. administration views as their. view of the law, their view of how the world ought to be functioning. and that is very bad for america to eliminate opposition voices. >> the fec, the fec is a bipartisan by design. in an effort to reassure american voters that elections are being regulated fairly. what's your reaction to what is happening right now? >> well, i think. >> it's a really dangerous precedent, a dangerous time for our country. for leaders to use to fire people or put them on administrative leave. et cetera. for political. >> reasons. >> as you said, a lot of these entities are deliberately set up to be very bipartisan. equal democrats and republicans, like the fec. all of these groups also have regulations and bylaws, etcetera. policies around when. >> and how. >> someone can be removed. so to try to leapfrog ov

mayor mahan and the host committee board chair, noho weintraub. that's really cool.t's like when the olympics are handed off to the next host city. it's kind of the same thing. al, you are very familiar with super bowls. you've hosted the super bowl at levi's stadium, super bowl 50. what are the niners keeping or what are you changing? what did you learn from that? that super bowl ten years ago? well, there's a good amount changing in the stadium, so i give a lot of credit to the york family. we've invested over $250 million into the facility in the first ten years. and so right now our video boards are under construction. we're going to have two brand new video boards going to be the largest in the national football league. from a square footage perspective, all the digital is changing. the club spaces are being refreshed, the concourses, the concession stands are changing. and i think what zerlina and i are literally super excited about is not just the venue itself, but a lot in the bays change. you know, the chase center wasn't there for super bowl 50, the mission

commissioner halsey here commissioner clarke herrera here commissioner mazola here commissioner weintraub here commissioner louis has an excused absence and commissioners work will be joining us shortly as will our general manager who's walking and right now for the. >> as you're going to do the other intros yeah okay go ahead and take the san francisco recreation and park commission acknowledges that we occupy the unceded ancestral homeland of the raw material any peoples where the original inhabitants of the san francisco peninsula . we honor the raw material only peoples for their enduring commitment to mother earth as the indigenous protectors of this land and in accordance with their traditions the raw materials and have never ceded loss nor forgotten their responsibilities as the caretakers of this place as well as for all peoples who reside in their traditional territory. the stewards of parkland we recognize our duty to honor the fallen through thoughtful and informed preservation and interpretation of ancestral land as uninvited guests we affirm their sovereign rights as first pe

last night, trump sent weintraub a letter.mber of the federal election commission, effective immediately. thank you for your service on the commission, weintraub wrote back, quote, there is a legal way to replace fec commissioners. this is not it. that's where we start the hour with some of our favorite reporters and friends. propublica investigative reporter andy kroll is here with me at the table for the hour, chief political columnist and host of the impolitic podcast for msnbc. national affairs analyst john heilemann is here. also joining us, democratic strategist, professor at columbia university, msnbc political analyst basil smikle is here. let's deal with the russ vote of it all. john heilemann, let me show you some of his questioning from from democratic senator tim kaine. >> now, i pay. >> attention to the way people say. >> things, because there's. >> a million ways. >> you. >> can make. >> a point. >> and the way. >> you choose to. >> make a point tells you something about the person. you don't want federal air. >>

fec commissioner ellen weintraub, federal elections commission out of effectively shuts down the fec,ign finance violations. may be helpful to know that that's the same fec that was overseeing complaints from this last election about elon musk giving people million dollar checks to, quote, encourage voter registration, a lottery that he held even though it is illegal to pay people to register to vote. last week, we brought you the story of phyllis fong, the inspector general for the department of agriculture. she was fired by donald trump. you might remember her story. she, after she was fired, nevertheless showed up to work the next day anyway, saying my firing was illegal and so i'm going to work. marched her out of the office, apparently. well, it turns out in 2022, phyllis fong, quote, opened an investigation into elon musk's brain implant startup company neuralink, stemming from allegations that musk's company had, quote, mistreated dozens of test monkeys. this treatment that elon musk himself denies. why was it so important to fire the inspector general of usda as one of your fi

standing up to racism, and the commissioner and chair of the federal elections commission, ellen weintraubal media at the weekend. msnbc velshi continues our coverage. good morning ali. >> good morning. thank you again for a great show this morning. i mean, i know it was just two hours, but you had about nine hours of content in there and you helped make sense of it all. so i'm going to try and i'm going to try and emulate you for the next couple of hours, but have yourselves a great rest of your day. >> all right. take care. >> all right. velshi starts now.

standing up to racism, and the commissioner and chair of the federal elections commission, ellen weintraub, is going to be at the table. she says trump is trying to illegally fire her. also, be sure to follow us on social media at the weekend. msnbc velshi continues our coverage. good morning ali. >> good morning. thank you again for a great show this morning. i mean, i know it was just two hours, but you had about nine hours of content in there and you helped make sense of it all. so i'm going to try and i'm going to try and emulate you for the next couple of hours, but have yourselves a great rest of your day. >> all right. take care. >> all right. velshi starts now. hey. good morning. it's saturday, february the 8th. it's day 19 of donald trump's second term, and efforts are intensifying to fulfill the president's promise to dismantle the so-called deep state across all levels of government. many republican lawmakers have celebrated the administration's actions, calling them efforts to reduce wasteful government spending. but the ongoing purge is also in furtherance of trump's main purp