nicolle wallace. we have a lot of developments out of the middle east right now including a last minute deal bringing a temporary reprieve to millions of people in the middle east. extending a truce that has led to the release of d of hostages and palestinian prisoners. at this hour 11 hostages have been freed, they are now in israel. this has just happened moments ago. this footage from al jazeera shows them being handed over to the red cross. the group, the israeli group includes three french citizens, six argentinians and two germness. you can see two of the hostages here, two boys, seen in yellow sweaters in exchange for the release of these hostages israel has released 30 minors and three women who were being held in israeli prisons. there will be more exchanges in the days to come. the humanitarian truce between israel and hamas that was put in place on friday has now been extended for two more days under the same terms, meaning more hostages released in exchange for a pause in combat. the release of more palestinians detained by israel and for more humanitarian aid to reach gaza. now, here is what the national security council spokesperson john kirby had to say about the extension. >> the humanitarian pause in gaza now in its fourth day will be extended for another two days through thursday morning israel time. this humanitarian pause has already brought a halt to the fighting together with a surge of humanitarian assistance. now, in order to extend the pause hamas has committed to releasing another 20 women and children over the next two days. we would of course hope to see the pause extended further and that will depend upon hamas continuing to release hostages. >> and that's a suggestion the administration has made, that they will continue to see these pauses in exchange for hostage release. prime minister benjamin netanyahu has said he wants a minimum of ten hostages released per day in order to continue on with this arrangement. kirby added that the administration believes that fewer than ten americans are now being held captive in gaza but it's unclear who is holding them hostage, whether it's hamas or another group. for days now we've witnessed incredible scenes of israeli families reuniting with their loved ones who spent weeks held hostage in gaza in the middle of a brutal and bloody conflict. this video shows a 15-year-old and 8-year-old reunited with their mother after 51 days in captivity. their father and their brother were killed by hamas during the october 7th attack. this photo shows 4-year-old israeli-american abigail edan, she, too, was released sunday where she is at a children's hospital with her aunt and uncle. her parents were killed on october 7th. in exchange for those hostages dozens of palestinian prisoners have been freed. they're being released at a ratio of three prisoners for every hostage. 39 prisoners were released on sunday, all of them are minors according to the qatari government which is facilitating the negotiations that are resulting in these hostage and prisoner exchanges. you can see one of these released prisoners kissing his mother in ramallah in the occupied west bank late on sunday. the extension of the truce today brings hope to many more israeli and palestinian families that they will see their loved ones, gives millions of people much needed breathing room. 1.8 million people have been displaced in gaza. that's about 80% of the population, and the death toll has surpassed 14,5 o 0 people. with the skies over gaza silent one resident says during the truce we felt like we began to gradually get our lives back. we were able to check on our loved ones, to move around and buy necessities for the house and kids. that's where we start this hour with nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel in tel aviv, plus former deputy national security adviser to president obama ben rhodes and the former cia director now a msnbc national security analyst john brennan. richard, i want to start with you, you are back in tel aviv. this is an eventful day, not just the hostage release, but the announcement that this will be extended, they will keep on trying to do this for succumb more days. the united states suggesting this could go on even longer. tell me what you are seeing from your end. >> reporter: so 11 more israelis are tonight in slye territory according to the israeli military. nine children and two women, described as mothers. all of them according to the kibbutz they were released from and all of them were released from the same kibbutz have other relatives who are still being held by hamas. also according to the israelis 33 palestinians will be released and all of the palestinians according to activists and people who support the palestinians say -- or people who are following the palestinian side of this negotiation say that the palestinians have been released thus far have been relatively low level. a lot of administrative detainees. but at the end of the day this all shows progress. it shows that compared to where we were two or three weeks ago, we're starting to see diplomacy pay off. the qatari, the egyptian mediation is getting hostages out of gaza, it is getting the israelis to release some prisoners, although some say they are very low-level prisoners but they are still being released nonetheless. so this is perhaps a way out of this and if you speak to the arab mediators and we've been speaking to them all day, they are hoping that this can become the bedrock, the foundation for a more lasting ceasefire, but if you listen to what prime minister netanyahu says, he insists that this has nothing to do with finding a long-term solution, not even -- not even the basis of a ceasefire. that this is strictly about releasing the hostages and that as soon as the hostages are released or as soon as hamas stops releasing them the military campaign will resume. we are seeing progress but i really don't know where this is going is the point. is this the start of something or no? >> that's the biggest point, richard. thank you for that. that's the important point. where does this go now? if we are trying to look at the future because for 51 days we've been looking backward, we are now looking at something that, john brennan, could result in the release of in theory all the hostages if hamas knows where all the hamas are. when i was in israel the families of the hostages were saying if they can just get negotiations for hostages maybe they can have negotiations for peace, but there does seem to be space growing between the united states and the netanyahu administration because in theory benjamin netanyahu is suggesting through his spokespeople and his own speeches that this thing resumes. after the hostage releases are done this all out war on gaza resumes. it seems both i'm placket cal and out of synch with what the rest of the world is going to think appropriate. >> as richard said, there has been good progress, four days of adherence to the terms of this truce by both sides with hostages and prisoners being released with the truce cessation of the hostilities for this period of time holding and the humanitarian aid coming in. but i do believe that netanyahu is going to be determined to relaunch the military campaign at some point. whether or not this truce extended for another two, ten or 20 days, i do not believe hamas is going to give up all of the hostages, absent some type of real change in the situation. they know that that is leverage that they have and they're buying time, they're trying to extend this truce so that they can reequip their forces as well as prepare for the day after. but, again, as richard said, we don't know what's going to happen the day after the truce ends, but i do believe that netanyahu is serious when he says this campaign is going to continue. the question is at what scale and what scope given that the biden administration has been putting a significant amount of pressure on netanyahu and the israelis to try to scale back the extent of their strikes that have killed so many palestinian civilians over the past seven weeks. >> let me ask you about this, ben, pause john just used the term "the day after." that's what we are talking about, what happens when whatever goal, if we accept that the goal is to neutralize hamas and they are neutralized, what happens the day after? again, the united states has discussed support for a two-state solution, something that has increasingly got less and less support on the ground amongst israelis and palestinians. they've talked about using perhaps the palestinian authority as a negotiating partner, something benjamin netanyahu has said there's not a chance of that happening. what is happening on the palestinian side? we're seeing prisoners released. here is a good example, these were prisoners who were in there sometimes for what they call administrative detention, some without charge, some very young, they come out, put on hamas paraphernalia and a flag because hamas got them out of jail. they may not have been hamas supporters when they went into jail. tell me about what the day after looks like from the palestinian there's a couple of questions, ali, that are relevant here. the first is assuming israel does resume its military operation and assuming that it is of a scale that is similar to what they were doing in the days before this pause, i do think that there's very real challenge that that's going to contribute to the radicalization of the palestinian public, a hard nick of attitudes, if you will, given the bombardment they're under, the siege they're under, in ways that may make it more complicated to fully sideline hamas. i actually think we have to name the reality that the goal that israel states is to destroy hamas but that is not really an achievable goal when you have hamas political leadership in other countries, you i'm sure have hamas blended in with a large civilian population in southern gaza. you can degrade their military capabilities, try to eliminate the membership of their military wing that is identifiable, but i think that if your approach is this full-scale bombardment, part of what you're doing is contributing to a hardening of attitudes with people that are going to be living in gaza assuming that they are not displaced en masse in egypt which is something that neither the palestinians or egyptians want. i think the second question is what is the israeli political objective in terms of the day after, the day of a an actual ceasefire is put into place. let's bear in mind that there is a difference between the israeli and u.s. government about how gaza should play out. that runs counter to the american view there should be palestinian authority under the leadership of the pa, the palestinian authority, but also a two-state solution. this israeli government, prime minister netanyahu and his ministers they don't support a two-state solution. that's not their position. so when you have the u.s. and other western politicians talking about a two-state solution, i think a very big caveat is that's not the policy of the israeli government. what needs to be done is an effort to identify and resource and support and empower an alternative palestinian leadership to hamas that draws on the palestinian authority but also draws on palestinian civil society, doctors, lawyers, people who have credibility in communities and trying to get them in charge of gaza and the reconstruction of gaza that has a political horizon of a palestinian state in both the west bank and gaza but i think we have to name the reality that there is a chasm between that american vision for how this all ends and the current policies of the israeli government. >> richard, you have spent a great deal of time with all of these parties and in all of these places. what's your take on where we go from here? >> reporter: well, i think it would be very difficult for israel to reoccupy the gaza strip. israel for years expressed no interest whatsoever in going back and reoccupying gaza. israel was content to have effectively forgotten about gaza, locked up the gaza strip, locked up the 2 million plus people inside, put them behind security fence and ignore the problem. that clearly didn't work when hamas was able to use gaza as a springboard to launch the october 7th attacks. so now it is at a difficult crossroads. does it go back and try to build a better prison and lock in the people of gaza more tightly with more effective controls? or does it go in and try to clear, secure and hold the terrain of gaza and then impose some sort of puppet government? that is a process that could take years, that could take decades. may never succeed. so this is -- these are really difficult questions. and what the -- what ben was just talking about and what the biden administration is talking about is instead of just going in and trying to reoccupy gaza, perhaps it's a time to relaunch the peace process based on a two-state solution. that's what president biden has said, that's what numerous middle east analysts have suggested. but as ben was just talking about a moment ago, that is not something that the netanyahu government has expressed interest in pursuing. so where does it go from here? are we just talk being a tactical pause to get out the hostages, get out as many as possible, particularly the most vulnerable hostages, the elderly, the women, the children, before fighting resumes in earnest? and if so for what purpose? what is the goal of that fighting? is it to create a new -- is it -- is it to carry out regime change? and if so regime change, and i think the israelis and anyone who has been engaged in military policy in the middle east including the united states will know is a very, very slow process, fraught with difficulties which often does not succeed. >> yeah, you know, you talked about what's supposed to happen afterward. i guess that's part of the issue. in the early days of this war there were a lot of israelis who were telling you and me when we were there that joe biden -- there's no space between netanyahu and joe biden and anybody who knows these two men's history knows there's a great deal of space typically between them but they eliminated that in the early days of the war. now there is real space and that's going to develop. what happens here because we are on the verge of the united states of passing a very big bill to extend funding to israel, israel has just extended new funding equivalent of $1.3 billion in she can else which is going to include money for settlements something joe biden has said has to stop. we have growing tension of the west bank, more arrests there. before october 7th we had 200 palestinians and 30 israelis killed just in that tension that's been going on for a year. so is there someone looking at -- have you heard anybody in israel talking about a strategic plan as opposed to a tactical plan. there is nobody that doubts they can achieve some degree he have success in gaza what does strategic look like? ? >> reporter: if you talk to senior israeli officials in this government or advising this government they say they do have a strategic plan. that the strategic plan is to eliminate hamas. that their strategic plan is to make sure that no government in any shape or form in the gaza strip can ever threaten israel the way that israel was threatened on october 7th. but the question is how do you get there? and i haven't heard convincing answers or even very much discussion of specifics about how they are going to get there. what they're talking about now is a military campaign, a clearing operation that begins in the north where israeli troops are on the ground and prime minister netanyahu was himself with a flak jacket on visiting troops in gaza over the weekend. a clearing operation in the north that will eventually move south, but at the top of this show, ali, you mentioned how 80% of palestinians have already been displaced from their homes and there has only been an operation in the north. so eventually is israel going to move south? that's what the israeli prime minister says, he says that is his strategic plan, to clear all of gaza. are they going to move south and push all the people who were driven from northern gaza to the south, are they going to suddenly drive them to another part of southern gaza along the coast? that's what they're talking about, or drive them to the central gaza and keep stirring the population there around? how is that necessarily going to eliminate hamas? how is that going to root out the militant group and how is that going to ease tensions? i think everyone on this show ben and the former cia director will know from the u.s. experience in the middle east you cannot beat people into moderation. >> yeah. >> and i think just having a strictly military approach if you are looking for a more moderate government it could easily come up short. >> so, ben, tell me about how that goes. you have joe biden trying to manage the relationship with netanyahu and the israelis, and you've got antony blinken who is doing some of that but he is bopping around between middle eastern capitals dealing with everyone else, including the qataris who are helping facilitate these hostage negotiations. he's getting an earful from a lot of people about what america needs to ask for particularly on the eve of get more funding going to israel from the united states. what do those conversations look like? because americans -- the white house and the administration are practical about this. they understand what's possible and that's not possible. what are they actually asking for? what are they pushing the israelis for? we know what netanyahu doesn't want, but what is possible? >> well, i think already what those conversations have done is the increased focus on needing to get humanitarian assistance into gaza i think was definitely a focal point of a lot of what secretary blinken was hearing in the region as well as this concept of a multiday pause. i think this emerged out of travel that secretary blinken had across the arab world. i think that there is this other question about trying to assure a few things. there are things that the arab governments, i think, don't want to happen. number one, there cannot be a mass displacement of palestinians out of gaza into egypt. that's both from egypt's perspective about its own stability, it's also about this not being another mass displacement of palestinians where they are pushed out of gaza and can never come back. that's the one thing people are concerned about. another thing is this question of whether or not there is a reoccupying of gaza or an israeli de facto control over gaza. that's something that the arab states are giving an earful about, they see that as potentially destabiliing and a recipe for a long-term conflict and one that might serve not to disempower hamas but serve to elevate the iranian backed resistance part in the middle east, hezbollah they prey on this conflict. there is a desire to see that there is a political horizon of a palestinian state, of palestinian administration of gaza and right now obviously the main discord is with the israeli government's opposition to that. there are other ideas, too, for instance, is there potentially a role for a peacekeeping force, arab multinational peacekeeping force to go into gaza. you have resistance from the arab governments to play that active role. the other thing the u.s. will put on the table is there is a lot of resources in the arab world, qatar and saudi arabia and uae, can they be a solution to palestinian state building and if the war stops today, ali, you have 1.8 million people who are displaced. i don't know how many of those hundreds of thousands of people are homeless but that also depends on israel being willing to let assistance into gaza and in the past they have not wanted to let anything in that they thought could benefit hamas. there is a lot that depends upon the political dynamic between the u.s. and israel to unlock some of the questions about the future. >> secretary brennan, when we talk about there is a lot that israel doesn't allow in, this is broadly interpreted. there are things you would think of as household goods that gazans couldn't get because israel was worried that hamas would make it into weaponry. they were still able to build rockets and mortars. that said, what's your sense of who might fill that vacuum and go in there and undertake the primary responsibility for rebuilding gaza, which could take several years and hundreds of billions of dollars? sure, there's lots of money in the middle east, iran has got it, saudi arabia has got it, qatar has got it, uae has got it. they don't all share the same interest in this. is there some sense you have of who may take the lead? is there some clue it may be qatar given the role they were playing in their relationship with both hamas and in the hostage negotiations? what's your sense of who goes in there and takes that lead? >> well, first of all, i think it's clear to me that the israeli defense forces are going to be in gaza for a long, long, long time. they are not going to leave gaza until they have some confidence that hamas or palestinian terrorists can reconstitute themselves in gaza and carry out additional horrific terrorist attacks in the future. we are talking about an extended presence of israeli military forces in gaza. now, ultimately i think this is going to take several years, many years, in order to be able to address not just the security situation, what has been said there has been talk about having some type of multinational group that could, in fact, take charge on the security front with arab countries dissipating, blue helmets, u.n., arab resources paying for it, but, again, that is something that has to be worked through and we still don't know what's going to happen as a result of this follow on israeli military campaign. but also let's face it, much of gaza right now is rubble. that is going to take many years and billions upon billions of dollars to be able to try to make it inhabitable again for those many palestinians that have been displaced. so we are still at the very beginning, i think, of what we're going to see transpire in gaza in the coming weeks and months and years, but this is a very, very complicated problem that makes any type of real progress on a two-state solution which ultimately, i think, has to happen, be something that is going to be an aspiration but we still have a long way to go in terms of hostages, humanitarian support, as well as the military operations that we're going to be seeing inside of gaza in the coming months. >> i thank you all for your analysis and, richard, for your constant day in and day out reporting. richard engel for us in tel aviv. ben rhodes and john brennan. thanks to all of you. when we come back the ex-president donald trump continuing his attacks on a new york judge and his law clerk even under a gag order. how jack smith in washington is using evidence to keep him fwagd in that trial. an 11th hour pardon as donald trump was exiting the white house, one that destroyed an i don't know going justice department investigation raising new questions and red flags about how he could again test the limits of the power of the office in the second term. later in the show, what we know about the shooting of three college students in vermont, the victims were all of palestinian descent. how the fbi is responding and what it says about the growing rise of hate here at home. all those stories and more when deadline white house continues after this. don't go anywhere. te house conts after this don't go anywhere. >> tech vo: schedule now. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace ♪ is this for me? 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(vo) for a limited time, turn any iphone in any condition into a new iphone 15 pro with titanium and ipad and apple watch se - all on us. office in the second term. continues after this. value. office in the second term. continues after this only on verizon. michael strahan: support st. jude, and you're helping kids with cancer grow up and be whatever they want to be, like mary browder. man, i need lessons from her. marlo thomas: give thanks for the healthy kids in your life, and give a gift that could last a lifetime. hmmm... can this be more, squiggly? perfect! so now, do you have a driver's license? oh. what did you get us? with the click of a pen, you can a new volkswagen at the sign, then drive event. hurry in to lease a new 2023 all-electric id.4 for zero down, zero deposit, zero first month's payment, and zero due at signing. limited inventory available. over the weekend the special counsel jack smith made an urgent holiday plea to an appeals court to keep the ex-president's gag order in his federal election interference trial. pointing to the latest real life evidence of threats and harassment stemming from trump's continued on line rampage against courts and judges. special counsel included in his letter sent on thks day the copious vial threats in the separate ongoing civil fraud trial in new york, including the quote, hundreds of threats disparaing and harassing comments and anti-semitic messages that are directed at the judge and his staff, end quote. joining us conversation is a former top official at the justice department andrew weissmann, with me lisa ruben. thank you both for joining us this afternoon. andrew, let me start with you, tell me about the connection for anyone who doesn't understand the legality of this of jack smith using stuff that's related to the new york civil fraud trial for his own trial. >> sure. well, you have two judges, one in a criminal case in d.c. and one in a civil case in new york dealing with a similar issue, which is that donald trump is a defendant and he is speaking in ways that the government thinks and the court has agreed, the trial court has agreed endangers the integrity of the judicial process. that judicial process can be a civil case as in new york or a criminal case as in d.c. now, the gag order in d.c. was much broader. it related to the court and the court staff, but also to jack smith and his staff and to jurors and witnesses. the new york gag order was very limited, it related to the court staff and particularly about not speaking about one particular principal law clerk that was something that the judge said was prohibited. both of those so-called gag orders are on appeal and both are stayed pending appeal, meaning that they are not yet in effect pending the outcome of that appellate process. but the reason they relate to each other is the history of violence, the history of threats to witnesses, potential jurors, to court personnel, to prosecutors is relevant to both cases in the same way that judge kaplan, a federal judge in the e. jean carroll case has already taken steps to protect the jurors in that civil case because of the concern of prospective violence towards jurors in that case. >> so let's discuss because, lisa, this becomes a broader issue of a permission structure that gets created that cannot just be intimidating for witnesses, but we're going to talk about this later in the show, that's also just part of this growing sort of environment of violence and hate. from the documents cited by jack ith written by a court employee in the new york fraud trial it reads, i've been informed by ms. gre felled that she's been receiving approximately 20 to 30 calls per day to her personal cellphone and approximately 30 to 50 messages per day on combined sites of social media, linkedin and two personal email addresses. ms greenfield also informed me since the interim stay was issued lifting the gag orders on november 16, 2023, that andrew was just talking b approximately half of the harassing and disparaing messages have been anti-semitic. the reason i bring this up is because this is not about witness interference or court interference in the normal way, it's this permission structure of harassment and intimidation and anti-semitism. >> yeah, and you can see that, ali, also in the affirmation from the court officer because in addition to excerpting some of the most vial threats against the principal law clerk which primarily have to do with her relationship with the judge and her religion, encoded in those are also threats against letitia james the new york attorney general that take on a very transparently racist nature and also threats against the judge who himself is jewish and, therefore, those are anti-semitic and there's also a suggestion of homophobia, not just a suggestion, there's more than a whiff of it, there's some real homophobia in those threats, too. so when you talk about an environment of hate, it is sort of a cataclysm of isms in that affirmation. going back to the conversation that you and andrew were having, one of the reasons the special counsel wants to bring this to the d.c. circuit's attention is because there was a suggestion during oral argument that there was no proof that anything trump had said had led to particularly violent threats against anybody who was a subject of that gag order. obviously someone has been arrested for threatening judge tanya chutkan, but she herself is not the subject of the gag order she issued that is now on appeal in d.c. >> right. >> by giving to the d.c. circuit this affirmation from the court security officer in new york, you start to see evidence of what happens when trump issues a threat, both in kind and the extent of that. one of the things you didn't mention about that affirmation is that is that the court security officer says i've transcribed the voice mails left for judge he think ron and his chambers and the principal law clerk, they fill 275 single-spaced pages. >> wow. >> so mention that like that particularly when the d.c. circuit doesn't have evidence like that at its disposal in large part because some of the people who would be witnesses in that trial don't have a law enforcement apparatus supporting them, they're private citizens now. so to give that information to the d.c. circuit i think is particularly valuable to show there's not just a correlation between, you know a trump post and an uptick in threat environment, but you can actually quantify that and excerpt it and present it to a court in an evidentiary fashion. >> andrew, is there a fifth amendment defense to say, story, people have nasty, homophobic, racist, anti-semitic things to say to court officers or others but it has nothing to do with the trial at hand? >> it's not a fifth amendment but i think that -- >> i'm sorry, i meant first amendment. >> yeah, i was going to say. so donald trump has raised a first amendment defense in both courts and there are sort of two answers to that that were discussed in court. one is that this is not a restriction on you and i, this is somebody who is in the court system. so this is really about bail restrictions and, remember, when you are out on bail in a criminal case, there are all sorts of restrictions you have to report to pretrial services, you could have to call in, you could have travel restrictions. my word, you could even be under house arrest or even jailed pending appeal. so there are all sorts of restrictions on rights that you otherwise would have. and what the court in d.c. was particularly interested in is what kind of prophylactic steps the court is entitled to take in order to make sure that there is integrity to the judicial process. that people feel safe that is correct they will come forward and testify truthfully without fear of being harassed or worse, and then of course as lisa pointed out, there is this issue of causality. the call and response that we see time and time again with the former president and, in fact, he is in many ways charged with that in connection with the january 6th d.c. case. it is a call and response that we have seen so many times and that the court is going to assess here in deciding the parameters of a gag order. i think the general view is that the d.c. circuit is likely to affirm the gag order at least in part. they may restrict it around the edges, but that they are going to be concerned about at the very least witnesses and jurors maybe a little less concerned with people who are court officials who have extra protections at their disposal, although i will say that still is a hard thing to explain to the public why court officers should be subject to this just for doing their job. >> how much smarter i feel every time i talk to you guys. freudian whenever i think of an amendment that refers to donald trump i use the fifth amend because he uses it when i mean the first amendment. just in the last few minutes the judge in the election interference case is rejecting a move by donald trump a fishing expedition around january of. we will tell you about that and look at who he may want to testify in his defense. the list from his legal team is expected soon. defense the list from his legal team is expected soon. ♪ we're building a better postal service. for more on-time deliveries. and easier, affordable ways to ship. so you can deliver even more holiday joy. the united states postal service. delivering for america. ♪ students... students of any age, from anywhere. students in a new kind of classroom. ♪ using our technology to power different ways of learning. ♪ harnessing ai to plant new beginnings. ♪ so when minds grow, opportunities follow. sleep more deeply. and wake up rejuvenated. purple mattresses exclusive gel flex grid draws away heat. relives pressure and instantly adapts. sleep better live purple. right now save up to $900 dollars off mattress sets during purple's black friday sale. visit purple.com or a store near you today. moments ago in the federal election interference case a rejection of the ex-president's request to subpoena the january 6th committee for records related to the january 6th capital attack. judge chutkan saying in a seven-page opinion that trump, quote, has not sufficiently justified his requests for the records. a request that she calls broad and his description of their potential relevance, quote, vague. all of which chutkan calls more of a general fishing expedition, end quote, than a good faith effort by trump to obtain identified evidence. i'm back with andrew and lisa. i know, lisa, you've been on your phone trying to get to the bottom of what this is about. let me just try to understand it from my own purposes. donald trump wants a subpoena, january 6 stuff that's not in the public domain at the moment. >> that's right. and there are a number of things that are not in the public domain. there were witnesses, for example, who gave interviews who were career staff at the white house, for example, we know that the january 6th committee communicated, for example, with an old office valet, we have never seen that transcript. there are other people in the national security realm who also gave interviews, but because they are career staff at the white house continue to work there, those transcripts have been withheld from us. there are other materials that donald trump has suggested exist as well and the implication in his original filing was that there were all sorts of things, ranging from witness transcripts to video interviews to all sorts of other things that he alleges the january 6 committee sent back to the executive branch as a way of hiding them from donald trump and his republican allies. in this seven-page opinion judge chutkan is effectively saying you have most of the categories of things that you've already described, in fact, the department of justice says they are in the discovery, they have furnished to you, and if there are things specifically that you want to follow up on, they have given you enough to specifically identify what it is that you need. you haven't done that. your motion relies on supposition and implication that you can't substantiate and, no, i'm not going to allow you, therefore, to ask the executive branch for all sorts of things that may not even exist but you would like your political allies to believe democrats are hiding from you. >> you're getting to this, andrew. i want to understand what's the implication of saying no? because tanya chutkan like aileen cannon will be under a microscope because of things they have been involved with in the past, tanya chutkan has expressed strong views about what people about on january 6. what is she preventing from telling donald trump you can't go on this generalized fishing expedition for information, if you want something specific ask for it and i will rule on that. >> that is a great question. so i think that the main answer to that is that donald trump is entitled to be treated like any other defendant. he should not be treated worse, but he should not be treated better. so what is a defendant entitled to? first, he is entitled to, and there is no claim here that he has not received from the government all evidence that would tend to exculpate him or that would tend to impeach any government witness. so that's a broad category and there's no claim here that the government has not turned all of that over. if the defense, any defendant, wants to also get documents that might exist in the world at large, you can't just make up any sort of fanciful claim and say, i want to go, you know, to paris and find certain documents. the court requires a defendant to state specifically what it is that they want and why it would be admissible at the trial. and so here judge chutkan is saying you haven't done that, but i'm not going to preclude you from looking through the discovery and coming back, as lisa said, and making a particularized showing. what she's doing is treating him like anyone else. and i do think this in many ways is a motion that was doomed to fail in court, but was not geared to court. it was geared to a court of public opinion to say, look what i'm being denied, when, in fact, that's not the case. there is no way that this motion on its face would have been granted with respect to any other defendant and so donald trump should have been treated exactly as he was by judge chutkan. >> lisa, before we had this news i wanted to talk to you about this subpoena, this list of people that donald trump's team is going to present at any point. what are you looking for and what is going to interest you on a list of witnesses that donald trump may be interested in? >> so in the colorado 14th amendment case that was tried last week, that was the case in which a group of voters tried to disqualify donald trump from being on the ballot, trump had attorneys there and he presented witnesses that were supposed to show the court why he had not participated in an insurrection. when i look over that list of witnesses, i will say i am underwhelmed by the people who apparently were close enough to trump to know he didn't participate in an insurrection and yet willing to come to court. >> right. >> many of the usual suspects are absent from that list and replaced by the likes of folks like kash patel. >> right. >> i will be very interested to see if people who are much closer to the inner circle around donald trump are willing to take on that risk because as you know in the federal election interference case there are no other defendants at present and there isn't yet an indication necessarily that the department of justice will charge others, but we don't know for sure whether anyone has made a deal. so i will be look to go that list to see who is willing to raise their hand and take on that risk, or is there an indicator in that list that somebody has cut a deal and having agreed to testify for the government, also can't escape testifying for the defense. >> i'm going to be watching my email for when you have a take on this thing. we are going to talk later this week. you're going back to do the new york civil trial tomorrow. >> i am going back to the new york civil trial to see witness interests deutsche bank testify. >> thank you do both of you, i really appreciate the time that you spent with us. after the break, a time of great change and great uncertainty in the halls of congress, retirements surging, trumpism spreading and a refreshing dose of the truth where you might not expect it. that's next. he truth where you might not expect it. that's next. why choose between a longer life or quality of life? you deserve both. and with kisqali, a treatment for people with metastatic breast cancer, you can have both. kisqali is a pill that, when taken with an aromatase inhibitor is the only treatment of its kind shown to both help people live longer and improve or 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everything ships free! plus, pay your way with a wayfair credit card. shop big deals with wayfair's cyber week! ♪ wayfair you got just what i need ♪ all right. we are as we speak in the midst of a mass political exodus the likes of which we haven't seen in more than a decade. lawmakers are fleeing congress at an astonishing rate. this month alone 13 senators and representatives announced that they wouldn't seek re-election. that's the highest in more than a decade. in total seven senators and 31 representatives have made that decision. now, the reasons vary, but for many republicans it's the result of what their party has become. count congressman ken buck among them. he's a member of the far right freedom caucus who said he got death threats for holding the line on jim jordan's failed speakership bid, at least in part over jordan's 2020 election denialism. now without a re-election fight to plan for buck is speaking about his colleagues and the truth with refreshing clarity. >> everybody who thinks that the election was stolen or talks about the election being stolen is lying to america. that's everyone. that is making that argument. everyone who makes the argument that january 6th was, you know, an unguided tour of the capitol is lying to america. everyone who says that the prisoners who are being prosecuted right now for their involvement in january 6th, that they are somehow political prisoners or that they didn't commit crimes, those folks are lying to america. >> joining me now two good friends. on set senior political reporter for puck news tara palmieri. also with us editor at large for the bulwark, charlie sykes. good to see both of you. hey, charlie, let me start with you because i didn't think ken buck was one of those guys who seemed all that constrained to start with, but he feels now that he can -- he's letting it all hang out there. he's telling you exactly what he thinks of the republican party and the state that it's in at the moment. >> yeah, unfortunately, you're seeing a lot of these deathbed conversions. the unfortunate part is they wait until they're out the door to tell the truth but this is the reality of the current republican party, that if you say the kinds of things that mitt romney has said or liz cheney has said or adam kinzinger or ken buck, you better have a post-congressional career in mind because there's just no tolerance for you. but these are the kinds of things that i think the vast majority of elected republicans in private know, in their hearts know but they can't say. and what's unfortunate, of course, is as many of these guys leave, these men and women leave congress, their place will be taken by people who will bow the knee and will repeat the big lie. >> tara, i've known you for a long time, and you come with notes. so i have questions for you. but i want to know what you think about all this. >> i agree. i was just saying there are literally -- it's a little too late, right? they're both not running for re-election, mitt romney who has said the same thing, ken buck, liz cheney who lost by 30 points to a primary challenger. the truth is they tried in the last congress, a lot of these people like adam kinzinger and liz cheney, to run for re-election and they were primaried and they lost brutally. so the people trying to do the same thing instead of running again they say i'm going to throw my hands up and retire because it's otherwise embarrassing. truly the trump people, i was out there in wyoming, they were really propping up liz chen yis opponent harriett hageman. they brought trump out there. they will do anything to silence their critics. so at this point what are you supposed to do? you might as well just retire. but it is a little too late. they should have been saying this a long time ago without fear of retribution, but as we know that's not exactly what we find in politics all the time. >> i guess, charlie, the question becomes what's the solution? ken buck says the gop needs to beat president biden whom he refers to as an existential threat. there are a lot of republicans who say you've got to vote for biden to make sure trump doesn't win or the republican party burns down and becomes a phoenix that rises from the ashes. nobody's got a prescriptive. everybody's got a lot of complaints. but what's the prescriptive as to what the republican pary has to do in theory twoin the next election? because the behavior in congress so far has not been one of a party that says hey, give us another chance. >> yeah, there's been a lot of magical thinking, that maybe something something something, unicorn, meteor will fix all this for them. but nobody has any idea. it was interesting over the weekend that mitt romney did say that he would vote for joe biden over a donald trump or vivek ramaswamy. now, again, that's not going to necessarily move the needle. it's not going to chait minds of a lot of republicans. but he went further than other republicans have been willing to go in saying i am willing to say that any democrat is preferable to this guy, this -- you know, somebody who is so man festally unfit for office and so dangerous to the democracy. but also another calculation that a lot of these guys are making, to tara's point, is not just they can't win. i think a lot of them are looking around and going do i want to be part of this club, do i want to spend the next two years of my life sitting next to lauren boebert and marjorie taylor greene? do i want to be part of this ridiculous chaos? and i think many of them love being in office but the price has just gotten too high for them. >> yeah, this isn't as much fun anymore. and look, the presidential campaign is kind of interesting. mitt romney in that comment that charlie was just talking about said that he would vote for any of the republican candidates except vivek ramaswamy. nikki haley continues to get kudos for her performances in these things. there's a little more life in that republican primary than you would think given the numbers, right? the numbers still indicate that there's no competition for donald trump. but the activity there seems more interesting than at least in congress where nothing's happening. >> right. you're seeing a surge for nikki haley. surge aobviously still a 30-point gap with trump. but you know, momentum is always interesting. but it's interesting because her surge is also corresponding with ron desantis's decline. he's not doing well in new hampshire. he has just really leveled out in iowa. there's a lot of hope that they can rally around one anti-trump candidate. but that doesn't really seem probable because they're not incentivized to drop out of the race and consolidate round one candidate. like chris christie, for example. he's on a one-state mission, a one-state tour. new hampshire. that's the only state. he has no national strategy. and yet he won't drop out of the race. so he's taking 12 points from an anti-trump candidate. you have to have the david and goliath situation to take on trump and no one's going to drop out. >> republicans have had a lot of problems in recent years in figuring that strategy out, like who are we going to rally around to take donald trump down? doesn't look like they're there. good to see you, my friend. thank you. tara and charlie, we thank you both for being here today. charlie, one of these days we'll see you in person as well. all right. coming up next, the justice department on the rise of hate-fueled violence and terrorism here in the united states targeting jewish, muslim and arab communities. much more news straight ahead when "deadline: white house" continues after a quick break. continues after a quick break. it's amazing. it's so good. it makes it look like i have magical powers. magic eraser and sheets make cleaning look easy. at humana, we believe your healthcare should evolve with you, and part of that evolution means choosing the right medicare plan for you. humana can help. with original medicare you're covered for hospital stays and doctor office visits, but you'll have to pay a deductible for each. a medicare supplement plan pays for some or all of your original medicare deductibles, but they may have higher monthly premiums and no prescription drug coverage. humana medicare advantage prescription drug plans include medical coverage, plus prescription drug coverage. and coverage for dental, vision, and hearing, all wrapped up into one convenient plan. plus, there's a cap on your out-of-pocket costs! humana has large networks of doctors, hospitals and specialists across 49 states. so, call or go online today and get your free decision guide. humana - a more human way to healthcare. as always but especially now, the justice department is remaining vigilant in the face of the potential threats of hate-fueled violence and terrorism. we are closely monitoring the impact of the conflict in the middle east may have in inspiring foreign terrorist organizations, homegrown violent extremists and domestic violent extremists, both here in the united states and abroad. all of us have also seen a sharp increase in the volume and frequency of threats against jewish, muslim, and arab communities across our country since october 7th. there is understandable fear in communities across the country. hi again, everyone. it's 5:00 in new york. i'm ali velshi in for nicolle wallace. the attorney general merrick garland today emphasizing the alarming reality here in america, that there has been a steep rise in violent threats against both jews and muslims in this country following the october 7th attack. the fbi director noted that incidents of antisemitism reached historic levels after threats against jewsad already been rising in recent years. a6-year-old palestinian american was stabbed to death outside of chicago a week after hamas's attack. just this weekend three college students of palestinian descent were shot in burlington, vermont. today the suspect in that shooting pleaded not guilty. he's charged with three counts of attempted murder in the second degree. he's being held without bail. when the alleged shooter answered the door yesterday to law enforcement, he told them, quote, i've been waiting for you. in his comments earlier the attorney general spoke about the tragic shooting in burlington, vermont noting that it's being investigated as a potential hate crime. all three men who were shot have been hospitalized. one of them was shot in the spine. here's the mother of that young man, hisham awartani, speaking about the horror her family's going through. >> hisham, the prognosis is it's very likely that he won't be able to walk again. so he has something called incomplete spinal injury. i feel -- i feel empty inside. you know, just this knowledge that there was something that happened to my son that i can't -- i mean, he's my baby. there was no reason for this man to approach them. there was no reason for him to try and kill them. i mean, essentially he was two years away. so it's a miracle they are alive. >> the hate and vitriol escalating in this country right now is at least in part a consequence of the ex-president donald trump's own words. that's according to his former ally and now opponent in the 2024 gop presidential primary, chris christie. let's hear what christie said this weekend. >> when you show intolerance toward everyone, which is what he does, you give permission as a leader for others to have their intolerance come out. and so, you know, intolerance toward anyone encourages intolerance toward everyone. and that's exactly what's going on here. >> and that's where we start this hour with the former assistant director for counterintelligence at the fbi, frank figliuzzi, plus former acting assistant attorney general for national security at the u.s. department of justice mary mccord. and joining us is donnell harvin, former chief of homeland security and intelligence for washington, d.c. good afternoon to all three of you. thank you for being with us. and look, i want to talk about this permission structure, but mary, i also want to talk about the national security aspect of this and the reason that the attorney general is talking about it because there comes a point at which the rise in islamophobia, the rise in antisemitism, the rise in white nationalism goes beyond the rhetoric that is upsetting to a lot of people but transfers into stochastic violence, and it's now occurring in numbers that cause this to be what people would think of as a national security threat. your chances of dying from stochastic violence because of someone who's an extremist are higher than your chances of dying from other things in this country. >> right. it's still low compared to many other things. you know, gun violence more generally, right? and car accidents. but the fact is the frequency of these kind of attacks inspired by domestic political, ideological reasons, even though here i guess we have the domestic political ideological reasons that are fueled of course by the israel-hamas war going on. these are things that increase as fbi director wray has said now numerous times. they increase the risk not only of more copycat crimes, more permission structure to commit these types of crimes, but also a foreign terrorist organization taking advantage of the sentiment here in the u.s. and the sort of permissive environment for additional terrorist attacks. and you can often see, and we know the fbi is looking very carefully and is very concerned about potential lone wolves inspired by foreign terrorist organizations, isis, al qaeda, et cetera, hamas. you know, engaging in attacks right here in the homeland. now, again, director wray has been careful to say they don't have any credible threats of any sort of major attack by hamas in the united states at this time, or at least the last time he testified. but these are still things where individuals can be inspired by and commit those types of crimes. but the antisemitism and the anti-arab, anti-muslim, anti-palestinian, it also doesn't -- that ideology and the willingness to use violence in furtherance of it doesn't end right here in the u.s. it's something we're seeing in other parts of the world as well right now. and that entire environment of a feeling of violence as being an acceptable and almost normal way of achieving political ends does become a much more significant national security threat. and it's very hard, it's very hard for our law enforcement agencies to effectively prevent attacks that are like the ones we've heard about, the shooting of the three young men, students, palestinians, or the killing of the 6-year-old. very hard to disrupt that. >> right. they don't come with manifestos. they don't come with a lot of warnings in some cases. donnell, let's talk about that. all the things mary talked about, permissive structure, the idea that there's a sentiment that people may capitalize on. the acceptability of this hate. as mary said, it's happening all around the world. how do you insulate yourself from it? what can america do if there are sentiments, rising sentiments, anti-muslim, anti-arab, anti-jewish sentiments all over the world? what can you do as law enforcement or as a government to try and insulate your society against this type of rising sentiment? >> well, it's quite difficult. and i'll go back to the lead-in with the former governor christie talked about trump and his intolerance. i would actually push back. i mean, of one group he was tolerant towards, and those were hate groups. so that we saw over the last, you know, four years really have grown in number. it's legitimized hate. the spread of online mis and disinformation and hate on social media platforms is completely out of control. and this is what we have. mary's spot on in terms of the work we used to do, and i was in this space. it's very difficult. often it's easy to track groups because they're communicating with each other. there's linkages. but when you have individuals that are lone actors that have no what we call leakage, they're not actually online making threats, they're just walk outside of the door of their home allegedly and shooting people, how do you stop that? one of the things that i find that i want to always come back to is the fact that it's notable that secretary mayorkas of dhs as well as christopher wray of fbi were on the hill speaking very publicly for the last month to not just the politicians really. their messages were to the american people. the fbi relatively, people may be surprised by this, is a relatively small police force, and the number one counterterrorism tool that we have in this country are the people watching this show. are normal americans. if you see something say something. a lot of things that law enforcement rely on or online tips from these leakages that we talked about, people making threats, and that's how these things get run down. but to your point, ali, it's quite difficult when you have a lone actor with no footprint out there. >> frank, let's talk about -- there's sort of the dialogue and discourse that gets very heated in this country that we spend a lot of time talking about and thinking about and being affected by it. we talk about it on college campuses. and then there's this. in my mind they're different. maybe i'm wrong. maybe they're all connected. maybe it's all on a continuum. but the idea that people go out and injury people, use violence against people, shoot people, kill people. that seems different than discourse that may seem unhealthy or not considerate. >> well, we can harken back of course to the deep south and kkk and linchings and mob violence against blacks. so it's not unique to our history. i think what's unique here is as we've talked about, is this permissive environment where our leaders, our elected officials are actually saying yeah, i'm encouraging this or at least i'm not calling it out. even a president, now former president involved in this. and now factor in something we've never had before, which is the proliferation of all of this on social media. and those who research this kind of thing for a living say to me that the covid period had people in front of their computer screens for unprecedented amounts of time seeking affirmation, seeking like-minded people, and that contributed to this mess we're in as well. so i'd love to sit here and tell you that look, if we changed curriculum and taught kids in school about hatred and the violence in our history and we had parents who said look, we don't do this in our family, we don't hate people, we can fix social media through legislation, all of that is something that needs to get done but all of it is something we're not going to see done in the near term because of the political environment we're currently in. >> you'll remember, mary, when joe biden announced that he was running for president he talked about the soul of the nation. right? it was about charlottesville. it was about what we've become. it was about this nurturing of hateful environments and how that was going to change. and sadly, it hasn't changed. and then we've got, as frank just said, social media. i mean, we've got elon musk in israel right now sort of seeming to launder his reputation after a whole bunch of antisemitic stuff that was going on on his posts on x. what is it? will social media fix it? can joe biden and somebody running for president say there's a way to heal the soul of this nation? or is this a tactical rather than a strategic approach? >> i think as american people the way this is going to end if it does in a peaceful way is we've got to just reject this kind of violence. and i think social media's very much not helping in that. and in fact, there are two pretty significant cases that are going to be before the supreme court this term which are about the ability of social media to take down hate speech and other types of threats and things that do not yet reach the level of sort of being foreign terrorist content that is illegal or a true threat that is a criminal act but are so close, they're intimidating, they're harassing, they make people feel that it's all us versus them. right? they put people into their silos. they drive our political polarization. and these two cases arise out of texas and florida, where the legislatures have passed what they call anti-censorship laws that would limit the ability for social media companies to do that. it's critical that social media companies be able to enforce their terms of service against things like hate speech and like propounding some of the same type of ideologies that drive this kind of violence. and you know, that's one place to start because that is a tool, a technological tool that has driven us into this us versus them polarization and corners. but we've got to be able, and we need leaders to call it out. they're not doing that right now. only a few are. we need people at a human level to start looking at other people as human beings. >> yeah. i mean, that's interesting that you're saying that because in general most people watching this show would say they're against violence. they would never support this thing. they think it's all wrong, right? but what are the tools that we z donnell, you're talking about the testimony by chris wray and others who have spoken about this. but you're right. it can't just be an fbi problem, right? this has got to be not just an all of government problem as you folks who've been in government say. it's really got to be an all of society problem. but i don't know how you suddenly get a society that otherwise would already as a starting point say we denounce violence, political violence, racist violence to somehow make that operational. have you thought about that? >> yeah, the first thing we all have to admit is violence against anybody for their religious affiliation or their political background is completely wrong. if you just take a step back and widen the aperture here, if you're online consuming content that's anti-muslim or antisemitic you're playing directly into hamas's hands. let's just be honest with that. right? this is exactly what they're sitting in gaza looking at television hoping that they're doing in terms of us tearing ourselves apart. quite frankly they're taking advantage of a political environment that's particularly vulnerable to this type of online radicalization. and so you know, this is a whole of government approach. i've told people through my entire government career, if you're waiting for government to solve these type of problems you'll be waiting all your life. this is a societal issue. government can help. we can secure houses of worship. we can train people in how to detect online mis and disinformation and how to fight back against hate. but quite frankly, mary said it, alluded to it, and obviously frank did, these online social media companies really have no incentive to pull back some of the hate stuff. i'm sure you and many of the viewers have just stopped looking at some of this stuff. you turn on some of your favorite social media sites and you feel like you want to vomit. it's so horrendous out there. and it's completely unchecked. it's the wild wild west. we need to reel that in, perhaps legislatively, and then we need to have some civil discourse about what we're consuming and who's driving this. and i'll end with what i said, this is playing into hamas's hands, americans going after americans for their political or religious backgrounds is not what we're about. >> i will tell you that there are days i don't want to look at it but i will say that there are a lot of people out there even in the social media community who have still stayed on there who are affirming of what you just said americans are, people who care about each other, who respect each other, who respect this pluralistic society in which we live and in which we share different faiths and different opinions and thank you to all of you who keep on doing that. mary mccord and donell harvin, thank you. frank, stick around for a few more minutes. we've just learned in the last few minutes that secretary of state antony blinken is heading back to the middle east. secretary blinken will travel this week to israel, the west bank and dubai after prescheduled meetings in europe. he's expected to stress the need to keep aid flowing to gaza and work to secure the release of all the remaining hostages. and when we return, the inside story of a presidential pardon issued by donald trump on his very last day in office. it freed a man convicted of running a drug-smuggling ring and it blew up an ongoing justice department investigation in the process. that troubling pardon is just the latest in a growing list of warning signs of what trump might do if he were to win a second term into the white house. one of the reporters on that story will be our next guest. also ahead the texas supreme court taking up that state's strict abortion ban, the one that's prevented women with nearly fatal health challenges from accessing abortion. we'll be joined by the lead plaintiff in that case, amanda zarovsky. and president biden with a plan to help consumers this holiday season. we'll explain. 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[ cheers ] yeah! woho! running up and down that field looks tough. it's a pitch. get way more into what you're into when you stream on the xfinity 10g network. goli, taste your goals. on his very last day in office at 12:51 a.m., ex-president donald trump pardoned a man named jonathan braun who had been convicted of running a drug-smuggling ring. now, according to the new reporting from the "new york times" the consequences of this unusual pardon paint a broader picture of how trump used the white house to influence the american justice s and how he could do it again in a second term. the "times" writes, quote, just months after mr. trump freed him mr. braunetned to working as a predatory lender, according to new yo state's attorney general. two months ago a new york state barred him from work in the industry. weeks later a federal judge acting on a complaint from the federal trade commission imposed a natiwi ban on him. a "new york times" investi drawing on documents and interviews withnt and former officials and oers familiar with mr. braun's case found that there were even greater ramifications stemming from the commutation previously known and revealed new details about mr. braun's history and how the commutation came about. joining our conversation is one of the reporters on the byline on that report. "new york times" washington correspondent mike schmidt. and as viewers of this program know, mike is the proud and most likely sleep-deprived father of baby izzy. mike, congratulations. frank figliuzzi also staying with us for this segment. mike, first of all, thanks for this reporting. tell us what the -- what's the significance of this particular pardon and why it matters for a man who might be president of the united states again? >> so this is the type of thing that could happen if trump came back to office. it happened at the end of the administration, where there were a flood of clemency requests that came into the white house. trump had basically stiff-armed the justice department's program for looking at clemency applications where there is sort of detailed rigorous process to determine whether people should receive pardons or commutations. and it was run out of the white house in a far less structured way. and as we see in this story, you know, jonathan braun was an unusual candidate to receive clemency and there was a consequence to it. so a lot of times we talk about, you know, trump undermining the rule of law and trump, you know, taking on democratic norms. in this case there's a tangible example where it actually hard an sdny investigation. the government, federal prosecutors were in talks in negotiations with jonathan braun in 2020 for him to get out of prison in exchange for cooperating against other people in the merchant cash advance business. and the government never thought he would get a pardon or commutation. he had many years left in prison. and they were going back and forth in this negotiation. what they didn't know is that jonathan braun, relying on his family's ties to the kushners, were also trying to go through the front door of the white house for a commutation and were successful on that. >> so this is interesting. and there are two interesting points here, frank. one is the legal matter, and that is if his -- braun's sentence were not commuted, he may have been cooperating and testifying in an investigation that remains unfinished to this day. but the bigger one might be the one that mike just made, and that is if you know people like the kushners or you've got a lawyer who's in trump's orbit things work differently for you. >> yeah, indeed. and while we've seen something like this occasionally in past administrations and there's controversial pardons throughout the history of presidential administrations, what we haven't seen is a complete abandonment of the justice process, meaning as mike said you don't even vet candidates for pardon. we've even heard from attorney general barr on this topic. former attorney general barr has said look, he contacted -- the white house said you're issuing pardons faster than we can process and vet back here, so you don't even know who you're letting go or letting off. and as mike has reported, this guy, ts is a double whammy. this guy was convicted and headed toward prison for drug distribution but was actually immersed within predatory lending and a much larger doj investigation and on the verge of cooperating when of course he thumbed his nose at that whole process and said i'm out of here, i've been pardoned. so what does this mean for the future? it means that a former president who's already told us he will consider pardoning january 6th defendants is going to do it. and he's going to do it without benefit of the justice department saying hold on, this guy actually has a problem, he's an ongoing terrorist or this is a child molester. that's not going to happen. we have a president who's not going to just pervert the system, he's going to abandon the system. >> what's interesting about that is that one assumes, mike, that there's a vetting process in place when someone's about to be pardoned. and some of that vetting process is just pro forma stuff. but if someone had vetted this properly, and maybe they did and maybe trump just ignored it, they would have said hold on, there's a very big other case going on. if you warned this guy, there's a whole lot of stuff that won't happen. there's a whole lot of injustice that will result from it. did that vetting not happen or did the vetting happen and donald trump ignored it? do we know? >> so we actually report in this story that the line prosecutors and investigators who were trying to reach this deal with jonathan braun for him to cooperate were not consulted about the pardon or the commutation. they were not asked whether this was a good idea or not. and that runs in the face of the way that it was done during the obama administration when there was a lengthy back and forth between prosecutors who had worked on cases about whether the individual was a good candidate for clemency. so you had these investigators in new york who were trying really hard to flip this guy, to take on this industry that has destroyed a lot of small businesses across the country. they thought they were working toward a deal. they thought they had maximum leverage. they thought jonathan braun had seven more years in prison. so at some point he was going to come around and make the deal with them. and all of a sudden all that leverage evaporates instantaneously. at 2:51 in the morning on trump's last day in office. and he's a free man. and to the point of the consequences of this, he has returned to working in the predatory loan industry. he has returned to that practice and has basically been banned from doing business in new york state and the country by judges just in the past few months. >> mike, we don't have access to everybody in izzy's household right now because we're trying to give some of them some peace. while we've got you here, can you just tell us a little bit about our new news niece, izzy? >> she's perfect in every way. including when she wakes up in the middle of the night. so -- and she only cries when she's hungry. and she's sick of hearing the name jonathan braun. so we're going to move on from this. >> i also only cry when i'm hungry. it's okay. mike, good to see you, my friend. thank you for being with us. frank, thank you for sticking around for a couple blocks. it's always a pleasure to see you. frank figliuzzi and mike schmidt. all right. just ahead, the texas supreme court will hear a challenge tomorrow to that state's near total ban on abortion. the lead plaintiff in the case joins us on the other side of a very short break. stay with us. when you have chronic kidney disease... ...there are places you'd like to be. like here. and here. not so much here. farxiga reduces the risk of kidney failure which can lead to dialysis. ♪far-xi-ga♪ farxiga can cause serious side effects, including ketoacidosis that may be fatal, dehydration, urinary tract or genital yeast infections, and low blood sugar. a rare, life-threatening bacterial infection in the skin of the perineum could occur. stop taking farxiga and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of this infection, an allergic reaction, or ketoacidosis. when you have chronic kidney disease, it's time to ask your doctor for farxiga. because there are places you want to be. if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. ♪far-xi-ga♪ they were monitoring the baby's heartbeat and they said it stopped. so several times i just had to listen to her heartbeat while simultaneously wanting to hear it and not wanting to hear it at the same time. >> that was amanda zurawski back in july testifying about the excruciating experience of being denied abortion care after her water broke when she was 18 weeks pregnant with her daughter willow. despite being told by her doctors that willow would not survive doctors told amanda they could not perform an abortion until willow no longer had a heartbeat or until amanda's life was at risk. amanda became septic and nearly died. tomorrow the texas supreme court will hear arguments in the case filed by the center for reproductive rights. it seeks to clarify when doctors can intervene in cases like amanda's. amanned av is the lead plaintiff in that lawsuit. and in the time since amanda and her fellow plaintiffs first testified the case has only grown. 28 women are now suing four states including texas after being denied care. and to be clear, this lack of exceptions in anti-abortion laws is intentional. new reporting by propublica found concerted efforts by highly organized christian groups to prevent states with the strictest bans in the country from adding exceptions. and it worked. frt reporting, quote, republicans ultimately fell in line with highly organized christian groups. those activists fought to keep the most restrictive abortion bans in place byhreaning to pull funding and support primary challenges to lawmakers that didn't stand strong, end quote. let's bring in amanda zurawski, the lead plaintiff in that lawsuit, and minnie timaraju, the president and ceo of reproductive freedom for all. thank you for being here. amanda, thank you for being with us. i'm sorry we had to play that testimony again. it's crucially important for history. it can't -- i can't imagine what it must be like you to to relive that and to think about it again. and to consider the b.s. that you were not in a position to with a doctor make a determination about a pregnancy that ended your daughter's life and would have ended your life. >> yeah. thank you for having me and thank you for saying that. it does not get easier to listen to or to relive. it is complete b.s. you're absolutely right. and that's why, you know, we continue to tell our stories because putting a face to this trauma and highlighting these stories is really i think what it's going to take in order to change people's minds and change the laws and get things back to where they need to be. and you know, you mentioned that we're up to more than 20 plaintiffs now in the suit. and all of my fellow plaintiffs are reliving their trauma and their grief, and i'm just so proud of every single one of them. >> minnie, you would argue that nobody should have to get to the position that these women have had to get to. this is health care, right? this is a decision that should be between a woman and her doctor and nobody should have to be near death to have to file a lawsuit to understand why that's not an exception. but the law is b.s. right now. the fact is this is actually the law in many cases and in some cases it's really the law and in other cases it's just that doctors and hospitals are fearful that that's the law, that if they make the wrong decision and they assist amanda in aborting early someone's going to jail. >> yeah. it's so important that you raise this point. that's even the case in states where the bans have exceptions. and this is really important. so your coverage is critical. there are many states with no exceptions, but states with exceptions, those exceptions don't work. because they create a culture -- bans are bans. they create a culture and a climate, a fear of prosecution, a fear of criminalization, where women who need access to quality care that includes abortion care, and let's be clear, any abortion is valid, if it's decided on by the pregnant person and their physician and their provider. so we are trying to destigmatize the procedure for sure. we also want to clarify that when folks think they can get away with bans with elusive exceptions those aren't effective either. i also want to take a step back and just personally thank amanda and the 19 other plaintiffs. these women coming forward telling these excruciaing personal stories is doing exactly what she said. it's changing and shifting public opinion. we're seeing it in state after state with these ballot measures and we're going to see it in 2024. >> yeah, we're actually all grateful to you, aa, because what you're doing is you're fighting for everybody's rights. this is one of those things that's not just about women who reach the stage in a pregnancy that you do. this should be obvious that you should have received the treatment you should have. but there are a whole lot of women out there who are on some line somewhere, on some spectrum somewhere with this doctor that's unsure, with some hospital that's unsure, in a state where the rules are unclear or where there's an attorney general waving around some threats that they're looking for somebody to sue. i don't think when you went through this you were looking to be part of a movement. but you're in it now. you are now part of a movement to save democracy for all of us, to save rights for all of us. >> it's certainly not where i thought i'd be at this point in my life. but you know, at this point i feel like this is my responsibility and i do feel like together we're all fighting for democracy, for humanity, for the lives and dignity of pregnant people in this country. and i take it very seriously. and so while my state would prefer that i shut up or run away, they messed with the wrong woman. i'm not going anywhere. and i won't stop fighting until things change. >> and the implication of that, mini, is that they messed with the wrong woman. and what we're seeing in election after election and referendum after referendum is that women and those of us who are allies of women have decided that we are going to be the foot soldiers of this. we're going to do our part. this is not beyond any of us. it is amanda's role to testify and to be a plaintiff in this case. but all of us have a role, whether or not we're involved in a legal case, and we can exercise that role at the ballot box. >> absolutely right. and i think while we have to give credit for women, particularly folks like amanda and activists on the ground in places like ohio who are really mounting these fights and challenges, what we also have to note, independent voters, male voters, white male voters are crossing over and voting proactively for abortion rights in key battleground states. and this is something frankly republican extremists just don't know what to do with. but we're in a position now where we know that this message regarding reproductive freedom and its direct connection to our democracy is really powerful and is resonating across parties. >> how are you feeling about that, amanda? are you feeling the growing support in america? because i know you must be getting a lot of hate as well. but do you get a lot of love from people who are out there saying thanks for doing what you're doing? >> i do. and i feel the support across the country. and i guess so much more love and support than i get hate or negativity. and i think that's just indicative of how people feel about this issue. no matter where your party line falls, no matter what your political beliefs are, we know that americans by and large do not support restrictive abortion bans. and that's really evident just from the support i've gotten from my fellow citizens. >> well, that gives me hope. i'm glad to hear that. and amanda, it's good to see you again. it's good to talk to you again. one day we'll be talking about the fact that what you did changed america. so thank you. amanda zurawski, mini timmar a. ju. just ahead what president biden's economic moves mean today for consumers and his re-election hopes. we're back with the person i always turn to to get a read on the economy. after a very short break. reak hi, my name is damion clark. if you have both medicare and medicaid, i have some really encouraging news that you'll definitely want to hear. depending on the plans available in your area, you may be eligible to get extra benefits with a humana medicare advantage dual-eligible special needs plan. all of these plans include a healthy options allowance, a monthly allowance to help pay for eligible groceries, utilities, rent, and over-the-counter items. the healthy options allowance is loaded onto a prepaid card each month. and whatever you don't spend, carries over from each month. other benefits on these plans include free rides to and from your medical appointments. and our large networks of doctors, hospitals and pharmacies. so, call the number on your screen now and ask about a humana medicare advantage dual-eligible special needs plan. humana. a more human way to healthcare. before the pandemic supply chains weren't something most americans thought about or talked about. but today after years of delay in parts and products everyone knows why supply chains are so important. today our supply chains are stronger than ever, with backlogs, bottlenecks and shipping rates at a 25-year low. >> president biden earlier at the white house announcing brand new actions to strengthen supply chains and bring down prices for american consumers. the president's been touting good economi numbers, falling inflation, low unemployment, good economic growth numbers that he attributes to what they call bidenomics. but americans continue to remain sour on this economy. a recent "new york times"/siena college poll found an astounding 81% of voters rating the economy either fair or poor. just 19% calling it good or excellent. selling voters on his economic record will be one of president biden's biggest challenges as he faces re-election in 2024. joining me now is my old friend, my former co-host for years, co-author of a book we wrote together many years back, many, many years ago, nbc's new senior news -- senior business correspondent christine romans. we've been talking about supply chains, you and i have been talking about it for 20 years. just the world started talking about it during covid. what is going on with this? what is happening? because this economy -- let's find the flaws in it right now. it's under 5% unemployment. very low. our mortgage rate is 8%. that's a bit of a challenge. but unemployment's low, wages are increasing. the stock market is high. economic growth is low. inflation is now under control. what's wrong? >> and it's the riddle in the american economy right now. you look at any of these metrics and you say we're going in the right direction, the economy's actually really resilient. you look at 2023, this was supposed to be the year of the recession that never happened. there never was a recession. >> we spent all of last year guessing when the recession was going to come. >> absolutely. and it never came. i've been saying for months bartender pour me another, this is what a recession feels like because it's pretty good. but the american people don't believe it. and one of the -- the big reason is inflation. you and i talk about it. we see and fed policy makers see an inflation rate that is turning. but for the american people the level of prices, that slower inflation rate is on top of two years of higher -- >> the price of an egg is still higher than it was two years ago. it's just not growing aas fast. >> exactly. so people just feel nickelled and dimed. and that's what the white house is trying to address, find these places where it can use the bully pulpit in some cases, the defense production act and others to try to show people they're trying to lower prices where they can. so far if you look at the polls and consumer sentiment it's falling on deaf ears. >> you and i always talked about the fact that one day we'll be like norway where wages will go up for everybody, prices will go up and it will all adjust in the end. we're seeing wages go up. we've seen wage growth. we've seen the summer of protests, union movements, union successes, the ups success, writers guild, not sure what's going on with sag-aftra right now but big strikes that are resulting in big wage gains, double-digit wage gains for workers. in theory, that should get felt at some point, satellite people should say my paycheck's bigger, my grocery bill's also higher but the two even out. >> for many months inflation was running faster than wages. and so that was the problem. but in the last couple of months you've seen wages eke out past inflation. it will take time for people to really feel that. you know, a good friend of mine, an economics editor, calls it the sourpuss economy. no matter what you tell people, they're like i just don't feel it, i don't feel good about it. health care is still -- it's still a big part of my budget. childcare in so many parts of the country, women are not fully employed back in the labor market because they still have this health care -- or child care problem. and it's a problem for men in families too. so there are still these things, these intractable things people can say just hasn't been fixed post-covid. and also the covid hangover, what we all lived through was remarkable and horrible. right? so there's that and there's political discourse in the country. >> you say political discourse. how much of this is just the idea that one gets up in the morning and there's a lot of nonsense going on in the world, a lot of bad stuff, this doesn't feel like a bright new era for us in general. does that just sort of bleed into your views about the economy and perhaps about joe biden? >> you know, behavioral economists would tell you yes, there's a lot of constant negativity around political life at the moment here. even when you talk to people and they say their own personal budget is better than it was a few years ago, that they are personally in great shape financially or okay shape financially, most of the country is sitting in a mortgage way below 8%. right? >> and they're locked in. >> they're locked in. they're not feeling the pinch of the fed right now. in fact, they're feeling for the first time where savers can put money in a savings account and make money. it has been -- the financial engineers for the past 15 years have made money, right? not normal people. normal people can finally save money. but that is not, that is not th engineers for the past 15 years have made the money. not normal people. normal people can finally save money but that is not the conversation you're seeing here. >> the political argument is that democrats should either really lean into this and talk about the economy all the time or just not. >> is it it's the economy stupid or as you said, democracy stupid or something else. what will be the thing that will animate people in the voting booth next year. it's unclear if the economy is a help or a hindrance to the incumbent or if it has anything to do at all. it's too soon to tell how the economy will play. there could be other things. gas prices could rise. they're down quite a bit from last year. that's one of the reasons why you've seen such good retail spending the past weekend. just look. look at cyber monday, black friday. we've been saying the consumer's going to pull back and they haven't. they are saying one thing. they're unhappy about the situation with the economy and they're doing the opposite. they're acting optimistic. when they're speaking pessimistic. >> the economy, as much art as it is science. my friend, this is the first of many times we're going to be together. it warms my heart that we're back. i always knew it would happen. back in the same place again. christine romans. quick break and we'll be right back. ristine romans quick break and we'll be right back cause it could be peyronie's disease, or pd. it's a medical condition where there is a curve in the erection, caused by a formation of scar tissue. and an estimated 1 in 10 men may have it. but pd can be treated even without surgery. say goodbye to searching online. find a specialized urologist who can diagnose pd and build a treatment plan with you. visit makeapdplan.com today. ♪ [man struggles] i need some sleep. ♪ [man relieved] if you struggle with cpap, you should check out inspire. inspire. sleep apnea innovation. learn more and view important safety information at inspiresleep.com okay everyone, our mission is to provide complete, balanced nutrition for strength and energy. yay - woo hoo! ensure, with 27 vitamins and minerals, nutrients for immune health. and ensure complete with 30 grams of protein. 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