Transcripts For MSNBCW The 20240701

a german u-boat turned up in the a german submarine hit a sandbar 100 yards off the coast in long island in the hamptens in new york. and this german nazi submarine drops off four guys, four saboteurs. and we know they were saboteurs because they came ashore in a raft that was launched from that submarine. once they hit the beach they buried the raft. they also buried what they brought ashorebu with them, whi was a big cashe of explosives and detonators. and then they got away. that was mid-june 1942. a few days later, four days later another nazi submarine turned up elsewhere on the american east coast. this time it was in just outside jacksonville, florida. and again another german submarine, a german u-boat turned up offshore and dropped off another four guys, four more trained saboteurs. these were germans who had previously spent time living in the united states andnt they kn how to assimilate here. but they had in the meantime been brought back to nazi germany for specialized training and for being equipped by the nazi government, the nazi military. these eight men were then put on these two submarines and sent back to the united states. again, one submarine dropped them in new york, one submarine dropped them in florida. they were equipped with fake identity papers and a ton of cash. they had explosives and detonators and they had orders and detailed plans to start blowing up a whole bunch of stuff here in the united states, specific bridges, specific railroad stations, power plants, key factories, mines, munitions plants. and so these eight guys, these two groups of trained nazi saboteurs, they were dropped off by the submarines. they initially got away. both teams successfully dropped off by u-boats, made their way onto the beaches and ultimately into the cities. the first u group went to new yk city, the second group wants to jacksonville, florida, and then to cincinnati, and then to chicago. but then one of their member went to the fbi. he surrendered. he gave up the whole plot. and so these two submarines that sent these two teams of saboteurs ashore in mid-june 1942, by the end of june 1942, they were all in custody. they'd all all been captured. and iee know it sounds crazy. this is one of those things so far-fetched it sounds like a cartoon version of a made up war story. but this is operation passtorious that happened in 1942. and once they had these guys in custody, once they caught them, the fbi and justice department had to decide what tost do abou it. think about the context here. we're in the middle of a war against germany, germany has sent these guys over with explosives to blow w things up. how is this going to be handled here legally in the united states? well, what happened in that case the most important thing about it i thinkth in the long run is that it all happened in a big hurry. they basically leapfrogged the courts. they leapfrogged over the federal district court, the trial court, they leapfrog over the federal appeals court as well. they took this unusual step of taking this matter straight to the united states supreme court to ask the court to weigh in on how this case would be handled by the u.s.d government. and it all went very, very fast. the nazi saboteurs had landed on the beaches in mid-june. by the end of june they were in custody. by the end of july not only had the supreme court agreed to consider this case, they had heard the arguments in the case and they had issued their ruling. and this is at a time when the supreme court wasn't even in session. this wast the middle of the summer. but the supreme court came back into special session in aco big hurry to take care of this very unusual issue and issue their ruling very quickly. and that is the kind of very unusual situation that used to allow you to kind of break glass in case of emergency. to leap frog all the rest of the judicial system and go straight to the u.s. supreme court. we do have a process for doing that, for asking the justices at the supreme court to weigh in straight away, without taking it through all of the other levels of the federal court system. but it used to be used for very specific circumstances. it used to be for things as weird as honestly nazi saboteurs being dropped off by submarine in the hamptons and in florida. it was used for something like that. it was used for the watergate tapes. does president nixon have to obey the subpoena that asks him to hand over the tapes or does he not have to comply with that subpoena.e that also leap frogged the judiciary, skipped through the lower courts and went right to the supreme court to weigh in and fast. for most of our modern history, you would only go straight to the u.s. supreme court with something that was that strange, that momentous, that time sensitive. most of our history. not so much recently, though. about six months ago, a law re professor published this book, called the shadow docket, and among other things, the professor's book documents, shows statistically that the ti current iteration of the u.s. supreme court that we have now more and more is conducting its business as if it is in an emergency status. more and more, they're taking up issues on this procedural basis that i'm describing, the same procedural basis that was used against the nazi saboteurs and in the watergate tapes case. before the beginning of 2019, the supreme court hadn't taken up a single case on this basis in this way for 15 years. not one in 15 years. since 2019, they have done it 19 times. so what used to be only for crazy circumstances, what used to be a very rare, break glass in kate of emergency, holy there's nazi on the beach thing, it's now a thing they kind of do all the time. and that is the remarkable backdrop for the united states supreme court today getting a petition from prosecutors, a petition from special counsel jack smith that asks for part of trump's prosecution in federal court in washington to essentially be leapfrogged over the rest of the court system, for the supreme court to directly weigh in on whether trump should be immune from the prosecution or whether he should face trial. remarkable decision today by jack smith, and a remarkable decision already by the supremey court that they're going to do it. we'll have more on that coming up this hour. it is a big move by the prosecution, the supreme court has today already said yes, we'll take it up. we're going to start moving on this next week. by next wednesday, we want the first response on this from trump's lawyers. this is a procedure that used to be for only the most emergency of emergencies. that's not the way the court uses that procedure anymore, and in the trump case, it appears to be on and they appear to be moving fast. we'll have much hoar coming up later on this hour. tomorrow in washington, president biden is going to be hosting volodymyr zelenskyy, the president of ukraine. president zelenskyy will also meet with u.s. senators tomorrow as he tries to basically break the logjam of republicans who are trying to block continued american assistance to ukraine as ukraine defends itself against russia. these billboards just went up over the la few days in major cities in russia, i don't speak or read russian, but i do know how to use the google translate app on my phone. and these say -- they look very anodyne, they say russia in big letters and in smaller language, they say happy new year. okay, very nice. very anodyne. the issue with these billboards though is you see below the part that says russia and to the left of where it says happy new year, it has a qr code there. if you scan the qr code on those billboards in russia, if you scan them with your phone, that qr code takes you to a political opposition website. the website, russia without putin. vladimir putin, the dictator of russia, has criminalized talking about the war in ukraine, let alone criticizing the war. he has made journalism a crime in russia, essentially totally wiping out the free press in russia now. he's imprisoned even multiple american journalists. he just moved to bring criminal charges against another american journalist last week, masha gessen. putin also of course made it a criminal offense if not a capital offense to stand in peaceful political opposition to putin. that website from the qr code, russia without putin, that's a website run by the organization founded by this man, who is putin's strongest and most important political opponent in russia. his name is alexei navalny. navalny is now serving a ow decades-long prison sentence with more than a dozen other criminal cases pending against him. this weekend, alexei navalny's lawyers sounded the alarm that he has apparently disappeared de inside the russian prison system. they no longer can get in touch with him, they don't know what prison he is in. he was supposed to be in court last thursday, he did not show. she was supposed to be in courts today, he did not show. nobody knows where he is. nevertheless, there's navalny's organization still fighting now with these clever billboards. just trying to get that basic message heard. russia without putin. if you go to the website, russia without putin, it asks people to plan to vote against putin, to try to get other people to vote against him, to try graffiti, to cold call people and ask them t, vote against putin. to hand out leaflets, to do anything to oppose him. which is brave. in a country where any opposition to him gets you disappeared.o or imprisoned. or killed.ne republicans want to cut ukraine off and let russia win the war and let putin take ukraine and take anything else he wants. president biden and president zelenskyy will spend the day tomorrow trying to talk them ou of that. this was the scene today in warsaw in poland. a movie theater in downtown warsaw. crowd goes wild. people are erupting in cheers at this movie theater in poland. as it was playing a live stream of the polish equivalent of c-span. what they're watching is like the youtube channel of the polish parliament. people booked a theater in central warsaw, they sold popcorn and cokes and the whole thing so people could show up and watch live the throwing out of the old government and the elevation of the new polish prime minister. when we elected trump in 2016, poland in 2015 elected basically their version of trump. they elected the law and justice party. t which crusaded against immigrants and gay people, which attacked the free press. which attacked and basically dismantled the independent judiciary. once they dismantled the judiciary, they shoved through the policy they really wanted the most, which was a total ban on abortion. but the law and justice party, they got their overturning of roe, just like we got it when we got trump. the resulting total abortion ban in poland led to the largest demonstrations poland has ever seen, including the size of the demonstrations that brought about the fall of communism. it led to a huge popular mobilization against the right wing government in poland. that abortion ban also led to the deaths of several polish women. and today, that abortion ban led to the law and justice party being thrown out in poland. and the opposition leader being made prime minister. and that turned at least one movie theater in warsaw watching c-span into kind of a heck of a party. anti-democratic, pro authoritarian movements the world over and throughout history always stomp on reproductive rights. in some cases they mandate forced abortions like in china. more often, like with the law and justice party in poland, pa it's an abortion ban. and in either case, you get the point, reproductive freedom cannot be tolerated. it's a government decision to force you to give birth or not regardless of what you want or what's good for you. it is an authoritarian project everywhere there is authoritarian governments. in france, when france was occupied by the nazis and controlled by the vichy regime, they took the time in july 1943 to guillotine a woman, to execute a woman by guillotine in 1943, for the crime of performing abortions. abortion was not just illegal, it was punishable by the death penalty when france was occupien by the nazis.is that law was only dropped when france was liberated by the allies. germany itself only last year repealed a nazi era law that banned german doctors from providing information about abortions. they finally got rid of that last year. in fascist italy, abortion had already been against the law before he came to power, but when mussolini became the fascist dictator of italy, he aggressively criminalized it. he made any woman who got an abortion subject to five years of hard labor. heaven forbid that a woman be free to decide on her own terms if she wants to have a baby. in the trump presidency, republicans finally succeeded in their machinations to stack the u.s. supreme court with hard line antiabortion conservatives and then they were able to get through the policy they most wanted. they overturned roe v. wade, and that allowed republican controlled states all over the country to ban abortion. and even those bans have not been enough for republicans in many states. republicans are now proposing in the state of missouri, for example, that abortion be charged as homicide, be charged criminally as murder. republicans in the missouri s house and senate are now proposing murder charges for abortion in legislation that they are bringing up this month. this comes after republicans have proposed similar legislation in kentucky and in georgia and in arkansas. and in south carolina, and in colorado, republicans in all of those states have proposed murder charges for abortion, which usually of course means life in prison or even the possibility of capital punishment. in ohio, a young woman is newly facing criminal charges for having had a miscarriage at mi home. bringing criminal charges against her, threatening her with prison for the handling of the fetal remains after she miscarried at home. and in texas, a case of 31-year-old kate cox has played out over these last few days as a republican fantasy of how they would most like to wield really, really, really, really big government. kate cox is a mother of two. she's 31 years old. she very much has wanted a third child. she was pregnant with that third child when she learned that it would not be a viable pregnancy. a fatal genetic abnormality. she had already been in and out of the hospital with fairly serious complications in this pregnancy, her doctor advised her that if she wants to try again, if she and her husband want to try to get pregnant again, to try for another child, which they desperately want, this nonviable pregnancy must be ended by abortion in order to protect her health and potentially to save her life. but texas bans abortion. because texas is a republican controlled state. so kate cox had to go to court to try to get an exception from texas' abortion ban. and a texas judge ruled late last week that she could have a exception from the abortion bant she could get this abortion in this special case to preserve her health, to potentially preserve her own life. the texas republican attorney general responded by writing to kate cox's doctor and to the texas hospitals where the doctor has admitting privileges. texas attorney general threatening that he would potentially criminally prosecute them if they did the abortion regardless of that texas court ruling. he then filed an appeal with the texas supreme court, texas supreme court only has republican judges on it.ud and that all republican supreme court in texas promptly agreed to hear the appeal. that stayed the lower court ruling, practical effect of that is kate cox was once again legally blocked from being able to get an abortion in texas. and then the supreme court just sat on it and did nothing. they blocked the ruling, allowing her abortion on friday, and then they just sat on it all weekend and today. who knows when they would have got around to finally making some sort of decision about it. she's already 20 weeks pregnant. she's been in and out of the emergency room at least four times with complications from this pregnancy, but no rush, om guys. today, ms. cox's legal counsel the center for reproductive rights, announced ms. cox was finally was effectively forced to flee. she left the state to go to some safer place where there isn't a ban like this one that wh republicans have imposed in texas. nancy northrop, the chief executive for reproductive rights said this. she said, quote, kate desperately wanted to get care where she lives and recover at home surrounded by family. while kate had the ability to leave the state, most people do not. in a situation like this, it could be a death sentence. that was this afternoon. and now tonight, hours after that announcement from the center for reproductive rights, hours after we learned kate cox had to leave the state of texas to get this abortion somewhere else, tonight, the texas supreme court has nevertheless just issued its ruling in this case. they ruled that the lower court was wrong to give kate cox an exception to the ban. g they ruled that kate cox ha effectively should have been forced by the government of theh state of texas to carry this pregnancy to term of a baby that would not live, despite the fact doing so would risk her health, risk her ability to ever have a child evagain, and potentially potentially even risk her death. the government would compel that of her and her body. while the republican attorney general threatened criminal prosecution of anyone who helped her. in a state where the penalty for helping a woman in this circumstance is up to 99 years in prison. because, you know, limited government. freedom. joining us now is nancy northrop the president and ceo for the center of reproductive rights, the group representing kate cox in the state of texas. thanks for being here. >> good evening. thank you for covering this. >> did i get any of that wrong? >> no, unfortunately, you got it all right. i mean, just imagine as you went through what kate went through this week.h first, she had a terrible diagnosis, then, she had to go to court, plead in front of the court. you know, in front of the world, right, because it's on video. to get basic health care. the judge rules that she can, and yet, as you pointed out, attorney general paxton says no, you know, i'm threatening your doctors, i'm threatening the hospitals. and eventually, she has to flee the state, as she did today. i mean, we're at the point in the united states where we have reproductive freedom states and we have reproductive oppression states. and one has to flee an oppression state in order to get basic health care. that's what kate has gone through this week. it's unacceptable.ta but that is what we're living with in post-roe america. >> i know that ms. cox's left the state of texas, seeking care elsewhere. i'm not going to ask you to disclose anything about the g circumstances of where she is oh what she had to do, but can you tell us if she's okay? t >> she's okay. she's had a really, really devastating time. i mean, as you pointed out, all weekend long, waiting and hoping that the texas supreme court would rule that she could go ahead as the district court ruled, having heard the medical evidence, that she could have g the abortion in the state of texas, to preserve her health, to preserve her future er fertility, and despite all that, that ruling did not come. it is just simply devastating. >> what do you make of the ruling that they issued tonight? i did not know if the case would be considered moot and they would decide they didn't have to rule once your office had announced she had left the state and was obtaining the procedurea elsewhere. they nevertheless decided to rule.el was that definitely going to happen either way. do you have a reaction to the ruling? >> the ruling did not give any more clarity or guidance to doctors about when they can perform abortions in the state of texas. so we're right back into the re place we have been for a very e long time. courts not giving guidance. the state's medical board is not giving guidance, and attorney general ken paxton is running nc around telling everybody that pa nothing qualifies under their exception. it also just shows how these medical health exceptions that these states pass saying we're compassionate, we have health exceptions, they don't mean anything. because nobody can access them. >> this is a difficult question, and please tell me if i'm off base in asking it, but given what attorney general ken paxton did here, after that initial court ruling in texas, going to the doctors, going to the hospitals where the doctor had admission privileges, and threatening criminal prosecutiov of anybody who helped ms. cox and her family in this case, is it possible that ms. cox and her husband could face like civil suits or charges? are they potentially liable as texas residents for somebody like ken paxton coming after them even though they had to to leave the state to get this done? >> they absolutely should not be.lu we have a right to travel in this country, you have a right to go to another state and get h health care and be under the laws of that state. that would be extreme intimidation and it would be a misuse of the prosecutorial a authority of the state of texas, but you know, let's hope that does not happen. and people should know, you can go to a reproductive freedom state and get health care that you need. >> how does this case -- i understand this is -- or correct me if i'm wrong, was this the first time that somebody has han to seek a court ordered exception to an abortion ban? was this the first time? >> i think post-dobbs decision, post the reversal of roe v. wade, it was. >> does this affect your other case in texas, this larger case where so many women, you have like 22 plaintiffs with cases similar to ms. cox's, does this affect it, does this essentially cast the die in terms of what's going to happen in this case anp the exceptions and clarifications those women are seeking? >> we argued that case last t month. let's see. we're really hoping the texas supreme court will finally give guidance that will be meaningful to doctors so they can exercise their best medical judgment and providing care to patients. but let me also say this. texas doesn't get it, you know who gets it? we have heard from more people all over the world and in this country in the last week than we have ever in all of the cases that we have brought to the supreme court again and again, o as you know. people really get it. just on my way up here tonight, a phone call from a woman in austin, and she said i went sh through this same diagnosis 20 s years ago. was able to have an abortion. i just want kate to know that she is not alone. we're hearing it again and again and again. >> nancy is the president and ceo of the center for reproductive rights which has represented kate cox and her family through this ordeal.ou thanks for helping us understand.el i still -- i mean we've just gone through it and i still can't believe it's happening. but thank you, nancy. we have much more ahead tonight. stay with us. th nancy we have much more ahead tonight. stay with us ♪ (holiday music) ♪ (man) mm, hey, honey. looks like my to-do list grew. 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here doing something like this, it restores a lot of faith in humanity. there is nowhere i feel safe. nowhere. do you know how it feels to have the president of the united states target you? the president of the united states is supposed to represent every american. not to target one. but he targeted me, lady ruby. a small business owner, a mother, a proud american citizen, who stands up to help fulton county run an election in the middle of the pandemic. >> proud american citizen, ruby freeman. volunteered to be an election worker in the 2020 election as a favor to her daughter. her daughter whose name is shaye moss, had worked for the fulton county elections department for years. she loved her job. she was great at her job. she loved helping people cast their ballots. in 2020, fulton county was short on election workers so ms. moss asked her 62-year-old retired mom if she could come help out as a tempworker for the election. and the two of them worked that election. they worked together through election day and election night, and the following days, helping process ballots in atlanta at the state farm arena which is where the ballots were being counted. ruby freeman and shaye moss showed up and did their work. that would have been the end of it. we would have never needed to know the names ruby freeman and shaye moss, and they probably would have preferred it that way. a few weeks after the election, trump lawyer rudy giuliani concocted a story. he started claiming that ruby freeman and shaye moss, whom he identified publicly by name, he said they had stolen the election from donald trump in georgia. he said video from the state farm arena which was running on a loop on fox news, showed them acting like drug dealers, that was the language he used. he said the tape somehow showed them stealing votes. after that, ruby freeman and her daughter, even her teenage grandson were inundated with vulgar and racist harassment and death threats. ruby freeman called 911 multiple times because people were actually showing up at her door, showing up at her house and banging on her door making threats. one of the people who showed up at her house was part of a team of trump allies who prosecutors said tried to illegally coerce ruby freeman into falsely admitting she committed election fraud. she had to leave her home for weeks. shaye moss testified before the january 6th investigation in congress. her mom was right there sitting behind her as she testified about what the threats and harassment had done to her, how they had made her regret even becoming an elections worker in the first place, that job she loved. what happened to ruby freeman and shaye moss has resulted in criminal charges against several people, including rudy giuliani in georgia. because none of what was said about those two women, which resulted in their lives being turned upside down, none of it was true. part of the reason i can say confidently that we know none of it was true is because ruby freeman and shaye moss sued rudy giuliani for defamation, and giuliani admitted in the course of that case that what he said was false. and therefore, a federal judge found rudy giuliani liable, literally liable as in he has to pay for his lies about these two innocent women. and today, in federal court, a damages trial got under way in which jurors will decide how much money rudy giuliani has to pay ruby freeman and shaye moss to compensate them for what he did to them. that compensation could reach as high as $43 million. additional punitive damages could amount to sky is the limit. and you know, one way to look at this trial that started today is as the latest chapter in rudy giuliani's descent from the heights of political influence to the shambolic farce. the judge has rebuked giuliani for failing to show up to one court date last week. today, he showed up to court 20 minutes late and forgot to rebuckle his belt after he had taken it off to go through the metal detector and his unbuckled belt hung there undone at his waist for several minutes as the trial finally got started. hey, howdy, counsellor, check your barn door. the other way to look at this trial today, though, is to ignore rudy giuliani and to look at ruby freeman and shaye moss. americans who were doing the right thing. doing their civic duty and were attacked for absolutely no reason. and attacked in a merciless and very high impact way. and they have not only been victims in that way, they have displayed bravery and an important kind of civic virtue in the way they have not let this go. they didn't just suffer these attacks. they made sure it was not lost to history. they testified about what happened to them, they showed their faces. they explained who did it. they did not let this get forgotten. and this trial is part of what justice for them is finally going to look like. ruby freeman and shaye moss also make an appearance in the case that is the biggest threat to former president trump. where he may be held accountable for what he did in the effort to overturn the election. trump's attacks on ruby freeman and shaye moss are cited by jack smith in his federal indictment of trump for trying to overthrow the u.s. government. and in that case, a major super interesting legal gambit by prosecutors today, one that was a little bit of a surprise, happened this afternoon. we have that story next. stay with us. ay with us have a clue. that's crazy! well, not everyone knows coventry's helped thousands of people sell their policies for cash. even term policies. i can't believe they're just sitting up there! sitting on all this cash. if you own a life insurance policy of $100,000 or more, you can sell all or part of it to coventry. even a term policy. for cash, or a combination of cash and coverage, with no future premiums. someone needs to tell them, that they're sitting on a goldmine, and you have no idea! hey, guys! you're sitting on a goldmine! come on, guys! do you hear that? i don't hear anything anymore. find out if you're sitting on a goldmine. call coventry direct today at the number on your screen, or visit coventrydirect.com. i got this $1,000 camera for only $41 on dealdash. dealdash.com, online auctions since 2009. this playstation 5 sold for only 50 cents. this ipad pro sold for less than $34. and this nintendo switch, sold for less than $20. i got this kitchenaid stand mixer for only $56. i got this bbq smoker for 26 bucks. and shipping is always free. go to dealdash.com right now and see how much you can save. so broadly speaking, former president donald trump has followed two strategies as he defends himself against the 91 criminal charges facing him right now. his first strategy is delay, delay, delay. delay it long enough, maybe trump becomes president again in the middle of all this and somehow makes all the cases go away. so that's his first and most important strategy. delay. second strategy is claim immunity. tell the courts that he can't be prosecuted because he was president at the time of his alleged crimes. today, those two strategies came together in a surprising and urgent way. the news comes from the criminal case against trump pending in washington, d.c. federal court, where trump is now trying to make his immunity argument with a fresh appeal to the federal appeals court in d.c. the d.c. circuit court of appeals just a few days ago. now, the d.c. circuit court of appeals should be on your radar, in part because they spent almost an entire year considering the single question of whether trump could be held civilly liable for his behavior as president around the january 6th attack. it took them ages and ages and ages to rule on that. 11 months and 25 days. they were really in no hurry. and yes, they ruled that trump could be held civilly liable, but it took them a year. and remember any delay is a win for trump. so in the criminal case, a slow moving d.c. circuit court of appeals is a huge danger to the prospect of trump getting into court and being tried anywhere near his trial date, any time before the presidential election. so this new move by special counsel jack smith today, he's decided to try to go around the d.c. circuit court of appeals. he petitions the supreme court to take the case directly, to hurry the process up, to skip the appeals court in effect. this is one thing worth noting, the petition to the supreme court was cosigned by this special counsel of record, michael dreeben. you recognize that name? he's a prosecutor who served in the solicitor general's office at doj for over three decades. he has argued more than 100 cases before the u.s. supreme court. you can imagine why jack smith might have wanted to add this guy to this part of this case. well, tonight, the supreme court has responded and said they're going to fast track consideration of whether or not to hear this case. they have ordered donald trump to respond by next week, by wednesday. december 20th. joining us is joyce vance, joyce, great to see you. thank you for being here. >> thanks for having me, rachel. >> did i understand that correctly? did i explain any of that the wrong way around? >> no, i think you got it just right. michael dreeben is the former deputy solicitor general who had responsibility for criminal. that makes him a great pick for this case. >> i know you worked with mr. dreeben, you know him professionally from all your years in federal law enforcement. what should we understand about him in terms of his skills, what he brings to this, and why jack smith might be using him in this way? >> mere u.s. attorneys, the job i once held, have to go to the solicitor general for permission any time the government wants to take an appeal on a criminal case. he was in charge of making those decisions and that means he's considered every sort of criminal appellate situation that could come up. this writ you're talking about, rachel, the writ for judgment before the court of appeals has considered a case, this isn't something that's commonly used. it's not something that even appellate practitioners are widely familiar with. this is the sort of strategy that you get when you come to someone like dreeben, and understanding that trump's strategy is one of delay. you know, now this is jack smith's moment where with his new appellate counsel at the table, he's saying i feel the need for speed, and this is the way to get it. >> and joyce, forgive me the ignorance at the heart of this question. as a nonlawyer, it's my impression that it only requires four of the nine justices to agree to this type of petition to agree to consider this case. is that right? and why would they only need a minority? >> yes, you need four votes to hear the case. this is pretty standard across appellate courts. it takes fewer votes to get a case heard than it takes to win it. so that's how the process is set up. >> in terms of what's likely to happen here, if you had to -- looking at the composition of this court, looking at what we know about smith's case, looking at mr. dreeben helming this part of the case, what do you expect to happen in the supreme court and over what kind of a timeframe? >> look, it's tough to predict these things. we both know that. at bottom in this matter is trump's argument that former presidents are above the law. i don't think the supreme court can accept or let stand that sort of a ruling. the supreme court has to decide this case. it's what lawyers call an issue of first impression. no court has ever determined whether a former president has immunity for the rest of his life for anything he did while he was president that might be criminal. so there needs to be a decision. but i think that there will be a majority of this court even if it's a slender one that will say that criminal prosecution can continue, and the way we know that dreeben is a great lawyer to argue this case is the way he's framed this petition already, appealing to the core issues that we know this court is very concerned with. the history, the structure, the language of the law is what he's already raised, saying that this is an issue that goes to the heart of democracy. it's fundamental to the future. i think he'll position this case to make it very attractive for the court to rule in jack smith's favor. >> joyce vance, thank you so much for joining us tonight. clarion as always. great to have you here, joyce. >> thanks. >> much more to come tonight. stay with us. h us can disrupt your life for weeks. a pain so intense, you could miss out on family time. the virus that causes shingles is likely already inside of you. if you're 50 years or older, ask your doctor or pharmacist about shingles. (man) mm, hey, honey. if you're 50 years or older, looks like my to-do list grew. "paint the bathroom, give baxter a bath, get life insurance," hm. i have a few minutes. i can do that now. oh, that fast? remember that colonial penn ad? i called and i got information. they sent the simple form i need to apply. all i do is fill it out and send it back. well, that sounds too easy! (man) give a little information, check a few boxes, sign my name, done. they don't ask about your health? (man) no health questions. -physical exam? -don't need one. it's colonial penn guaranteed acceptance whole life insurance. if you're between the ages of 50 and 85, your acceptance is guaranteed in most states, even if you're not in the best health. options start at $9.95 a month, 35 cents a day. once insured, your rate will never increase. a lifetime rate lock guarantees it. keep in mind, this is lifetime protection. as long as you pay your premiums, it's yours to keep. call for more information and the simple form you need to apply today. there's no obligation, and you'll receive a free beneficiary planner just for calling. you guys, we are almost the best ever. we almost have the record. the record, the all-time american record for the least productive year in congress in the history of the congress. is from when herbert hoover was president, the last year of his presidency, 1931 to 1932. america was in the throes of the great depression. at that point, the unemployment rate was still climbing from horrific to even more horrific. that congress from march 1931 to march 1932 passed a grand total of 21 bills that were signed into law over the course of the whole year. that's the lowest of any year in congress ever. and that year, congress actually waited nine months before ever convening a single session in washington. they basically took the first nine months of the year off. so all 21 of the bills that congress passed that entire year were passed in just the last three months. that's the record, the all-time low in terms of congressional history. just 21 laws passed in a whole year. that's the record. we're so close. this week, officially marks the end of this congress' first full year. the number of bills passed by this congress and signed into law so far is 22. we're so close. you guys. this congress has managed to just barely beat the absolute worst record set by any congress in history. a congress which again only met for three months of that year. we are almost as bad as it gets, so close. they have passed 22 laws total, one of them was to establish a new commemorative coin, and two of them were to rename medical clinics. that said, this congress has set some records of its own. this is the first congress to have a speaker of the house ousted by members of his own party. this congress has also passed more censure resolutions than any congress since 1870. they have censured more of their own members than any congress since the invention of the light bulb. that's something. now to top off this remarkable year, republicans are looking to close things out by voting to open a new impeachment inquiry into president biden despite the fact that republicans have yet to find anything to actually impeach president biden for. they're just going to kind of open ended impeach him and hope something emerges while they're voting. what republicans have done to this congress on the one level is hilarious. but on another level, it's a little disturbing. if you can step back from it, if you like, the schadenfreude, i mean, on a more serious level, when a democracy starts sliding into an authoritarian form of government, one of the things you see is the erosion of all government power, all government authority other than the leader, other than the executive. so the league system, the judiciary comes under attack or gets undercut or weakened or closed down or co-opted. you see that happen to the judiciary. you also see it happen to the legislature. right? because in an authoritarian system, you can't have a parliament or a congress, a legislature that has any real authority that can compete with the authority of the dear leader. that's the whole idea of the authoritarian system. unified authority in one person and that person is effectively the government. there's a reason nobody ever talks about what bills are being passed in the russian legislature because it's essentially been domesticated, weakened, and rendered irrelevant by the fact they have a dictatorship. it matters whether or not you have branches of government. abrogating the authority and responsibilities of a branch of government is not just dumb and pitiful and sometimes inadvertently funny. it's also sometimes an important part of losing your democracy. it is part of the anti-democratic authoritarian project. this congress is pitiful. we also need america to have a congress. this congress still has one more year left. perhaps they will decide to make it count. sold for only 50 cents. this ipad pro sold for less than $34. and this nintendo switch, sold for less than $20. i got this kitchenaid stand mixer for only $56. i got this bbq smoker for 26 bucks. and shipping is always free. go to dealdash.com right now and see how much you can save. all right, that's going to do it for me tonight. thanks so much for being here. "way too early" with jonathan lemire is up next. it's a high stakes day in washington for volodymyr

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