The case was called snyder the United States and evolved this man, james that is, the former republican mayor of portage, indiana. Back in 2011, then candidate snyder pitched himself to voters as a successful businessman, the owner of the Mortgage Company to the city of portage. So much more than a campaign shortage as a mortgage the economic disaster. Each one of the physical risk straight realize in different ways with my employees. Because we managed and activated our doors are 5 from Mortgage Companies still open in indiana. By 2013, snyder was now the mayor. That pitch was successful to the voters. It seems as if there is physical response ability had not quite worn out. That is the Chicago Tribune report, it was christmas time, 2013 and james center was in trouble. As Mortgage Business has tanked. Irs was after him for a significant tax debt and on top of that he had Holiday Spending to account for. So snyder showed up unannounced to great lakes peterbilt, the local truck dealership he had lo helped to win two lucrative city contracts. I need money, that is what i am here for, the mayor told the owners. Days later, the dealership cut snyder a check for 13,000 saying it was for consulting that was never fully performed. Okay, all right. So he steers context of the dealership. He shows up and says i need money, they given 13,000 point im not a lawyer but a sitting r mayor marching into the office of business where he had steered Million Dollars of government contract and saying, cash, does not sound entirely on the up and up. And you know what . The department of justice agreed snyder was indicted on federal corruption charges back in 2016 and after a lengthy backandforth and multiple trials he was found guilty in 2021. Former mayor will spend 21 months behind bars. The federal judge handed down the sentence yesterday a jury convicted james snyder of taking a 13,000 bribe from a Trucking Company and illegal tax evasion. Snyder has consistently denied any wrongdoing. He argues that 30,000 was just a fee for his consulting work. Though what that consulting work is a little unclear. Rk whats more, could it possibly be a bribe and this is important. It can be a bribe because he received the money after the contracts were allocated. So if anything, it was more like a tip for a job well done. Like he just, you know, like evaristo, like he moved the screen around him and the guy is like yeah, 13 k. Wouldnt you know it . The Supreme Court agreed. Today they threw out snyders conviction. Here is how Justice Brett kavanaugh put in his opinion, va the question in this case is with the law also makes it a crime for state and local officials to accept gratuities. For example, gift cards lunches, plaques, books, framed photos, or the like. That may be given as a token of appreciation. At the fourth of july. An answer is no. Framed plaques, books. You know that thing. Snyder just excepted gratuity a little tip as a reward for steering 1 million in contracts for Trucking Company. It was like a nice book or commemorative track or 13,000. And heres the thing. This is sort of a narrow statutory interpretation about this aspect of the federal code, was it proper to prosecute him under this law but the decision is not just in a vacuum. You have to understand this. This comes against the context of the Supreme Court that has, first of all, increasingly lost the publics trust. That is not just because samuel alito keeps lying insurrectionist black outside his various homes or because hi Clarence Thomass wife was texting conspiracy theories about the bidens being sent to guantanamo bay. Na because of the allegations of rake obviously corruption level. Particularly, Clarence Thompson the subject of her absolute favorite part chart which in disclosed and undisclosed gratuities that he has received on the court. Like a luxury rv with a quarter Million Dollars. Trips on a private deck, a super yacht. How do you think that guy feels about public corruption laws . Whether getting gratuities is prosecutable. How about Justice Alito who got a free fishing trip from republican make it a paul singer and 100 grand worth of free travel on a private jet. What you think his take is on ethical rules for government officials . Would you be shocked to learn that both of those men voted to throughout james snyders conviction today. And this is not a one off. This is really important. This clip court has shown itself both in practice and in theory to be committed to a pro corruption agenda. In 2010, the Roberts Court limited the scope of federal corruption law in convicted enron ceo jeff skilling. Overturned the conviction of former Virginia Republican governor, bob mcdonnell, who, along with his wife accepted nearly 200,000 in gifts, gratuities, you might call them. Loans for the local businessmenn including vacations, clothes, rolex. 2020 throughout the convictions of former new jersey officials of the crypt bridge gate scandal after they integrally cause a massive traffic jam to punish political rivals. They were not all right down the lines. It is clear the trump majority are the ones dictating a new radical direction of this court, including todays decision. They really do seem to, in the aggregate, want to get rid of the criminalization of corruption and bribery. They want to make corruption legal and acceptable for all. And considering they went out an of their way to balance a former republican mayor from smalltown indiana, what do you think they will be willing to l do for the former republican president of the United States . Justice correspondent for the nation, he jointly now. This one is cartoonish, ive got to say. So according to Brett Kavanaugh and the conservative. It is only bribery if it comes from the bribery region of france. Everything else is just sparkling corruption. According to these people. But when you bring out not just this case but all of the cases the court has done over roberts tenure to weekend public corruption laws, i like to think of it like a gang, like for the initiative, the new initiate, he also has to steal a hearse. If you have corrupt cops they take the money and everybody has to share. So everybody is implicated. So theres no accountability for everybody. So everybody has their hands dirty and that is what the Supreme Court is trying to do. They are trying to make it seem like everything in politics is dirty. Everybody is dirty. That is their position. And also, when you add in a, it is a different line of cases. As a constitutional case. Which means it is how the u. S. Constitution operates as a post like the federal criminal code but if you look at Citizens United and all that stuff, the whole idea here is like look, politics is corrupt stuff. It is that idea that we keep with republicans, every accusation is a confession. They are saying everybody takes money. No, no, it is just you, you corrupt people. The other thing that , you keep talking about was about statutory interpretation. I cannot say it better than Justice KetanjiBrown Jackson, said it herself in the dissent, where she says an absurd and abject reading of the statute that only this court can love. That is a direct shot across the bow at cavanaugh and the rest of them for this ridiculous ruling. To be clear, the statute in question criminalizes a bribe or reward. Uses the term reward. Ketanji Brown Jackson writing, as a general matter, everyone knows what a reward is, it is a 20 bill pulled from a lost wallet. A surprised ice cream outing after a report card of straight as. The bar tab picked up by a supervisor. A reward says thank you for a good job rather than please, right . Or 13,000. Everybody knows what is going on here. And so we have kind of come again to the crux of the issue. What is Congress Going to do . That was a bill that democrats ran on in the past they couldnt get it passed, thank you joe manchin and kristin cinema. Still havent heard a great reason why they are against public eruption. But if democrats are not pushing a universal ethics bill, that applies to not only the situation that cavanaugh did with snyder, but actually also the Supreme Court and anybody who might be holding gold bars under. So until Congress Passes an ethics rule that applies to everybody, the Supreme Court is going to let everybody off the hook for their corruption. Two other things about the court today. First, it is hard to say because it is a black box in there but the immunity decision, guess what i want to say is we have no way of knowing this but my strong suspicion is that it is not like you are in your College Dorm Room and the papers due at 8 a. M. And it is 6 45 and you are like, going through. Its done, right . They have known since april 28th. They are at staging this on purpose. Since jack smith asked. And you are saying we dont know. Look, they, they hear a case and then they take an initial straw poll vote of who is going to be for, who is going to be against . And then the opinion writing starts, right . While there might still be some legitimate back and forth about freezing. That is my question, right . But that is the question, how much, they got 10 more cases to go. Push, push, push, right . I would be willing to bet that we will get immunity tomorrow because they dont want it to be the topic of conversation of the debate ticket. I think they want to do it friday of the debate actually. But i think theyre going to talk about this with Speaker Pelosi but the intolerant really is also a great example. They do on that tomorrow. So that is a great point. Idaho basically says we will not give our state law says you cannot give emergency abortions in our hospitals except under extremely precise circumstances which basically no one can beat. The federal government sued and said we have a law which is covers emergency care. It is actually a Ronald Reagan law. They said federal law controls are and federal law requires that emergency abortions be given in certain circumstances. That is the case. Today, the Supreme Court accidentally posted it for a little bit, but it is a fascinating situation where they are basically punching. There punting it until after the election. That just seems. The Supreme Court issued a stay basically siding with idaho allowing them to put womens lives at risk since this decision, six women had to be airlifted out of idaho to receive medical care they couldnt receive in idaho. That is directly thanks to the Supreme Court stay. So what they did today was lift the stay, allow the federal law to cooperate. But only for another couple of months while the case now goes back to the merits and in the actual opinion, Amy Coney Barrett lays out exactly what idaho has to do in order to get her to flip on the other side and rule against the medical care. They are just going to rule after the elections, you tell me why. You tell me why because i want to make a major Decision Just before the november election. They took the case and they did what is called digging in, which is denied as improvidently granted, which is a great acronym. You know what . We are bad, we shouldnt take this. You guys go back, their stuff happening to the lower court, the law actually changed. Come back to us maybe after the 2024 election. We will take another run at it. That is exactly it. Ha thank you very much. Coming up, as mentioned, on what republicans really have plan for abortion rights in america. But first, with less than 24 hours into the first president ial debate, the top advice trump is getting from his buddies, try not to be a raging a whole. That is next. Choose advil liquigels for faster, stronger and longerlasting relief than tylenol rapid release gels because advil targets pain at the source of inflammation. So for faster pain relief, advil the pain away. try Dietary Supplements from voltaren, for healthy joints. [narrator] life with ear ringing try Dietary Supplements from voltaren, sounded like a constant train whistle i couldnt escape. Then i started taking lipo flavonoid. With 60 years of clinical experience, its the number one doctor recommended brand for ear ringing. And now im finally free. Take back control with lipo flavonoid. Daves company just scored the comcast business 5year price lock guarantee. High five high five. Im on a call. Its 5 years of reliable, gig speed internet. Five years of advanced security. Five years of a great rate that wont change. Yep, daves feeling it. Yes. But its only for a limited time. Five years . Five years. Introducing the comcast business 5year price lock guarantee. Powering 5 years of savings. Powering possibilities. In advance of the president ial debate tomorrow, Donald Trumps giving him a strong piece of advice, to not be a raging a whole, as Rolling Stone reports, to not did what he did in the first debate back in 2020. President on the moderator. I would like you to let me ask my question and then you can answer. I want to make sure. That what last. I want to make sure. He doesnt know how to do that. Because the question is. The question is. Radical left. Will you shut up, man . Whether trump gets donald trump are basically being himself is obviously, when tens of millions of people are expected to tune in just back and democratic strategist who served as senior adviser. The clinton campaign, washington correspondent from new York Magazine where she spent years closely covering donald trump and the gop. I will start with you, jess. I do think the advice to not be a raging ahole is probably good advice. Usually, yeah. I do think theres an aspect of him i talked about this, but he can be nasty and petulant and cutting and bullying. I do think that the popular conception of him even when it is satirical is kind of clownish and buffoonish in a way that very much stands down the grossness of that can i do wonder whether he can keep that under control. He cant keep it under control. I dont think that is an open question at all. I think we have never seen him capable of keeping that under control. The second debate, though. When he did, the first debate was like that, the second one he was way more muted. Yes, you are right. He was more muted there. I dont think we can overstate the fact that he is now a convicted felon and this is the first time that he is on a large stage, you know, a very long time, but certainly since that became a reality. His grief meant, that really petulant petty part of him that you are talking about, the really mean sharp one, if you have had the misfortune of turning into a rally lately, you have heard that. Is still there, yeah. It has grown. That is the part of him that has matured. That is the wolf he is feeding, if you will. I am so sure that is who we are going to see tomorrow. He has been talking about and complaining about biden for years now. But he has not been faceto face with him. So i think he is going to be really pretty willing to be pretty savage. The thing about the aggrieved nest with him and i think it is actually an important part of his political appeal that it is not for now, he is authentically aggrieved. He actually feels aggrieved. He actually feels like a victim. There is a technical part of this, i want to get your thoughts on, so the interrupting played extremely poorly last time, the shut up, man. The debate rules might work to trumps advantage said one veteran, when it is not a candidates turn to speak, cnn will cut his microphone so viewers may not hear trump if he tries to interrupt so theres a little bit of saving him from himself. There opposing selfcontrol on him that he does not have self control to selfimposed, right . And it is going, i think it may have the effect. Of course we can see him on mute gesticulating wildly and maybe we cant hear him or maybe bidens mic is picking up depending on how sensitive it is. But i think it is going to have the effect of sort of forcing him to behave in a more mature way than he is capable of on his own. Protecting what happened. The piece that concerns me is is biden can hear him but we cant. Doesnt that offer him an opportunity to really get petty . That is is a good point [ laughter ] here is my question to you about bidens approach to this. There has been a lot of talk about how do you navigate the sort of crazy maelstrom. What is your thinking about, how you sort of focus things. Not chasing. You saw that in that last, the debate yesterday. The key is you have a thing you want to say. You got 60 Million People. You need to control your own agenda of what you want. Is what biden needs to do. Biden doesnt really need to beat trump at this debate. Biden needs to make the case to the Democratic Base that hes is a president that they should be really excited about four. It is come down to these two men now and people have to make a choice. And to a certain extent, you can just sort of point it out. While being yourself and pressing your own case. Like the most important thing he is going to do is talk to democratic voters tomorrow night. I think the most important thing he is going to do, though, show that he has beyond that stage for that long. Privately that is what everyone at politics night talks about. It is what my friends want to talk about. Is he going to be able to pull that off . I think that he really just needs to seem less old man trump seems crazy. You are right, there is a certain tonal aspect to this, totally. They know so much about these guys. Although, yes. For a halfcentury. Heres a think my sea pole that says between 16 to 20 percent of voters blamed joe biden for the fall of rome. I like okay, if you are coaching joe biden, one thing that would be important for people that are tuning it tomorrow night is to know donald trump is on the side of the row issue, and it is amazing how difficult it can be with trump to just create clarity on these questions of actual policy difference because he wont even let you do that. Especially on that issue. The trump has taken every single side of that issue. We know where he is, he was happy to sell whatever beliefs he actually had to the right in order to get their endorsement in 2020 and he, you know, he has taken, in 2016. He has taken and he is responsible for the fall of roe but he will stay the opposite. He will Say Something that is designed to confuse and mislead his audience. Or joe biden overturned roe. That is what i think it is helpful to not have these guardrails that are going to be imposed. Like the mic commuting. The backandforth between trump and biden in 2020 was, it didnt inspire confidence in the country, did make you feel good about the state of affairs in the president ial race . Certainly not but it was. It was revealing, yes. That is a very good point that in some ways the bates can reveal things even if they are not informative. At the level of substance, good to have you. Coming up, speaker emerita nancy pelosi on one of the major issues for a dominant debate tomorrow. Republican party versus abortion rights, next. Tomorrows president ial debate, abortion rights will busily be a big talker. The thing to keep in mind as you watch is that whatever donald trump says in the debate, and whatever any republican says, the fact is that, to its core, Republican Party is committed to banning access to abortion for all women in this country ever. It is what the strongest, most activated members of that party want. And what they are going to do. Take a look at what just happened in south carolina. There were three republican state senators there who had stood in the way of an incredibly taccone and abortion ban. And then, when they did that, they were all primary. And all three of those women lost their primary races to antiabortion men last night. That is the way that gravity pulls in todays Republican Party. Every single republican from state rep is and it is all the way up to donald trump understands that. I joined now by House Speaker ameritech, nancy pelosi congresswoman from california. Good to have you on. My pleasure, thank you. You are someone who spent a lifetime in politics, from the time that your father was the mayor of baltimore. You understand the way that political incentives work. When you look at what has happened to the Republican Party, when you look at Something Like last night with these three state senators had stood in the way of this man, they get primary, they lose. What is that like . What does that do to the way that republicans understand what they have to do and what they will do about abortion . No matter what messaging theyre going to say on the debate stage . Thank you very much for your question. It is good to be here, as we observe the two Year Anniversary of the dobbs decision. I can tell you that this week, weve had a drumbeat across america of events all over, talking about how we had to reverse that decision with the law, by winning the election and enshrining roe v wade and the law of the land. And also how people see it as a Kitchen Table issue. This is an economic issue for families. The size and timing of their families, or if theyre going to have a family. It is a freedom issue, it is a democracy issue. It is about freedom for women to make their own choices. So when you see that election in North Carolina last night, it was heartbreaking. Those women were courageous. They went out and said what they believed. And that was rejected by the voters. But we have to make sure that the voters know. And one thing they will know is that the difference between joe biden and the former president of the United States. If the other guy wins, there will be no question, there will be a National Abortion ban in our country. I say that very sadly, as a roman catholic, as a person who had five children in six years and one week, very wonderful, a joy to us, that was our choice. Other people should have their choice. So this, tomorrow night, youll see a split screen on the subject of respect for women. You will see a split screen on their economic life. And the list goes on that we can talk about, but you stick with dobbs for a moment. One of the things that we are observing this week, as we had our drum beat across america, was access to contraception. How many republicans do you think, in the house of representatives, voted for a woman to have the right to contraception . Eight. 195 republicans voted no. Women do not have a right to contraception. We are not talking abortion. We are talking contraception. So this is about, they believe in, they dont believe in birth control, but they do believe in controlling women. So the women have to recognize that, i say that election last night told me that not enough people were paying sufficient attention to what was at stake, and what it meant to those women, to their families for their children, and the rest, for them to have an economic issue, a freedom issue, a personal choice issue just stole away from them in that way. If he wins . Well, he cant win. Cannot happen. It can happen. I hate to tell you. We went through twice. Make sure it doesnt. For a lot of reasons. One of them is that there will be an abortion ban in our country, thats a guarantee. Speed let me ask you this, by the way, my math is still running the math about five children. Wow. That is incredible. There are two things they say. One is, trump says no national band. But im not going to do a national ban. And two, and this, i think its to something you are saying here. I was just mentioning before, when you pull folks, 20 of voters dont even realize that it was Donald Trumps supreme war that took away roe v wade. Like 15 to 20 of voters thinking that joe biden is responsible for the overturning of roe. That is so interesting because he takes great pride in the fact that he packed the court against the women and Mitch Mcconnell was his accomplice in all of that. Packed the court against women. Going out there, taking great pride in certain audiences and and other audiences saying im not going to do a band, and then there are other things that are contingent upon this. For example, he says, when you see the split screen tomorrow, in favor of a woman with respect for her ability to make her choices. On the other side, a band. A ban on contraception, a ban on terminating a pregnancy. A ban on your free choice and your liberty. Then you see things that go with it. This is a health issue. He says, and i quote him and it is crude, but he is, abortion, excuse me the Affordable Care act, obamacare sucks. No, it doesnt suck. It cures. And he says oh, if you have pre existing conditions, im going to take care of you. No he wouldnt. The bill he put forth didnt have anything about pre existing conditions in it. And if it did, it would be so expensive that, forget about it. Forget about it. So then you look at something else, people are concerned about inflation. 16 Nobel Laureates came out this week and said that is whats his name were elected president with his fiscal policies, inflation would just increase infamously in our country. And you have joe biden on the other side of that screen, leading the world in reducing inflation in our country. So if you talk of any subject you can talk about, if your young people care so much about another scientific issue, climate, saving the planet. Bozo went on, sat down at the table with fossil fuel industry executives and said, give me 1 billion for my campaign. So i can reverse what they have done with the i. R. A. To save the planet. Job biden is there, he was the first person in the congress of the United States, way back in the 80s, even before i was there, to introduce a resolution. Calling for the senate to address the Climate Crisis issue . Let me ask you this question. I think most folks watching this agree about the sharpness of these contrastss. Certainly on these policy areas. I think they are correct, right . There is real, real choices about healthcare, abortion rights, the climate and big oil, even on inflation. I think that, why, given how sharpness of contract, what do you tell yourself about how is it so close . What is your answer to that . I dont think it is going to be so close. And dont forget, there are other issues for the split screen. A very sharp contrast. The, im a big believer. We dont agonize about who says what. We organize. Own the ground and get out our vote. Joe biden will be the next president of the United States again, he will be. And kamala harris, the vice president. We are very proud of that and we are organized. Going all over the country. I came up into all of this be a grassroots organizer to get out the vote on the political side. To get out the vote. I can smell a good campaign. Or not. And i am telling you, the scent is there. People are ready. Now, just for example, in the election of 2022, you will recall that the pundits, wherever they are, were saying we are going to lose 30 or 40 seats. They didnt know what they were talking about. They didnt know. We were going a tsunami or red wave or some such thing and a little eyedrop. Thats fine, we will get them back. Akeem jeffries will be the speaker of the house. Chuck will be the leader of the majority in the senate, and joe biden will be president of the United States. But that to 22. I kept saying why are they saying that . And even democrats were going on tv and say oh, she has got it all wrong. She is saying a womans right to choose, dobbs is a big deal in this election. Yes it was. They said it is all in the rearview mirror, women dont care that much. Yes they do. Yes they do. So that is one issue. And that is a very important issue because it is a freedom issue. It is personal, it is health, it is freedom, it is economic. And we still have seen, special election after special election, that sort of driving energy that you talk about. Showed up at the polls and special election after special elections, speaker ameritech, nancy pelosi. Pleasure, thank you so much for your time tonight. My pleasure, thank you. Still ahead, the blueprint for a trump second term, how the right wing plans to essentially dismantle the u. S. Government as we know it, next. man mm, hey, honey. Looks like my todo 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 dont ask about your health . man no health questions. Physical exam . Dont need one. Its Colonial Penn guaranteed acceptance whole life insurance. If youre between the ages of 50 and 85, your acceptance is guaranteed in most states, even if youre 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, its yours to keep. Call for more information and the simple form you need to apply today. Theres no obligation, and youll receive a free beneficiary planner just for calling. You have probably heard of project 2025, the project sounds like a fantasy wish list for trumps second term. It is actually over 900 pages of actionable policy proposals and governing approaches from not just the heritage foundation, a whole collision of conservative groups. That would fundamentally change the way the federal government works. They are not hiding their dystopian vision of what would be essentially a kind of authoritarian regime. A president ial dictatorship of source. It is out there for anyone to read on the project 2025 website. So this week, on my podcast, why is this happening . I talked to a gentleman named thomas zimmer, a history professor at georgetown university. Who has not only read the entire thing but is also analyzed exactly what project 2025 would do in a second trump term. On one level, this is a program to dismantle the state, right . And you see this, for instance, with the department of education eats to go come out, we dont want it. They just want to completely abolish it but then there is to weaponized and mobilize part. And that is the idea to turn government into a tool that you can use for really only two purposes. One is to punish your enemies. And two is to impose this sort of vision of White Christian patriarchal order on american society. Now, you see this, for instance, in the department of health and human services, which is, i mean, if you read it, it has very little to do with Public Health at all. It is entirely conceived as an instrument to impose a certain understanding of what, you know, the heteronormative understanding of gender, that is just men and women. The heteronormative understanding of meritage. A hardcore, prolife, antiabortion approach. These people could not possibly be clear about what they want for the country. So at least trust them and believe them when they say they are just fundamentally not on board with this vision of an egalitarian pluralistic democracy. Project 2025 is there a declaration of war on this idea of america. That is what this is. I found the conversation really informative and profoundly chilling. And it lays out exactly what is at stake in november. You can listen to the entire episode by scanning the qr code on your screen or search why is this happening wherever you get your podcast . Thank you. Shop our lowest prices of the season with no interest until 2027. Sleep number smart beds starting at 999. Learn more at sleepnumber. Com new centrum menopause supplements help unpause life when symptoms pause it. With a multivitamin plus hot flash support. daily zz for quality sleep. and enxtra for focus and clarity. Centrum, powered by clinically studied ingredients. [narrator] life with ear ringing centrum, powered by clinically sounded like a constant train whistle i couldnt escape. Then i started taking lipo flavonoid. With 60 years of clinical experience, its the number one doctor recommended brand for ear ringing. And now im finally free. Take back control with lipo flavonoid. Daves company just scored the comcast business 5year price lock guarantee. High five high five. Im on a call. Its 5 years of reliable, gig speed internet. Five years of advanced security. Five years of a great rate that wont change. Yep, daves feeling it. Yes. But its only for a limited time. Five years . Five years. Introducing the comcast business 5year price lock guarantee. Powering 5 years of savings. Powering possibilities. What happened to your dreams of becoming a famous villain . I did manage to steal the moon. You mean that moon . [ laughing ] gru, i will exterminate you regular unleaded. Wow, it is expensive. No . Ok. Insert card and remove rapidly. [ beeping ] card not read. Did you pull it out rapidly . Very rapidly. [ groaning ] full month since President Joe Biden announced details of the potential ceasefire agreement in israelgaza war, the one that the u. S. Had endorsed. Thought that biden was hoping he could publicly israeli Prime Minister netanyahu to maintain a commitment to the deal that had committed to in private. Netanyahu now seems to have backed off that proposal a bit, which was coming in, brewed by his own war cabinet saying he is now open to only a partial deal to get some hostages out, that his government is, quote, committed to continuing the war after a pause in order to complete the goal of eliminating hamas. This is happening at the situation in gaza for palestinians continues to be horrible and is now actually getting worse. The risk of famine is deepening, a new report warns nearly half 1 Million People face catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity. Which classified as phase five, the highest level on the classification scale. Jeremy klondike just returned from the region he is the president of refugees international, previously led foreign disaster assistance. Oversaw the u. S. Aid Coronavirus Response of the biden administration. He joins us now. You were just in the region for a factfinding mission. My sense, we have been covering this closely, things got ready dire and then there was a push about a month ago to get more aid in. That seemed to have some positive effect and now a lot of talk, alarm bells ringing. What is going on . That is absolutely right. I want to talk first about what this is like a human level. So we interviewed palestinians, some who are still in gaza, some who had fled to egypt, fled away from the famine in the violence, about the conditions that they had experienced. We heard stories that are very consistent with telltale signs of famine conditions. We heard of mothers sending their children to rummage for any edible food and trash piles. We heard of people eating cats, dogs, donkeys for protein because they had no other source of protein. Eating animal feed, weeds and grasses, skipping meals. We heard of the price of a bag of flour going from 20 before the war to sometimes hundreds of dollars during periods of deprivation. People really were struggling with the famine conditions. It peaked in february into march and then in response to the march warnings, in response to u. S. Pressure, the Israeli Government did make some openings to enable greater aid, particularly into the north. That did have an effect but it was counteracted quite a bit by the rafah invasion. The Israeli Governments position on this is that the failures of aid are failures of either the uns incompetence or indolence, the groups themselves or they often say hamas grabbing eight or just marauding bandits essentially taking. And it seems to me there has been a lot of problems with just securing the distribution of aid because people are desperate and they are sort of marauding the trucks. We asked in groups about this quite a bit. We heard very few and insists of hamas targeting humanitarian aid. They have targeted some of the commercial inflows that are organized by the Israeli Government. They have largely left the humanitarian aid alone from everything that we have heard from our interviews. Criminality is a big problem. It is a big problem because the military invasion has broken down the public order has broken down the all the civilian infrastructures, particularly the civilian police. Two there is no functioning state. Eroding government, destroying hamass ability to govern was an explicit objective. Eradicating. But nothing has felt its place. Banditry has arisen, that is a problem. But we heard more than anything, the biggest obstacle in the biggest variable and whether we see famine conditions emerge or not has been the conduct and the behavior of the idf troops on the ground and the Israeli Government policy towards aid access. Say more about that. Is the policy level and that is kind of the theory and then there is the practice that they encounter on the ground. In theory, the government is allowing in aid through the crossings. But in practice, those crossings are often not accessible. The crossing which is the main crossing into southern gaza, where most of the population are now sheltering, that is almost all of it is for aid groups at this point. It is very rare to be able to get us a safe convoy there due to the criminality, to ongoing fighting and to get a convoy there requires a green light, its called, from the israeli military. And every time troops try to get to the border. So the ability to get there is very difficult and very arduous. You can trust that with the north, where they have opened up several more crossings and they are being, for now, much more permissive towards aid and it really has improved conditions. Those kind of variable changes in policy make a big difference. Theres a lot of talk that the u. S. Constructed, it has not proven to be particularly effective in getting aid there. In fact, theres less aid getting in. The totals that were constructed. It is almost becoming a punchline, it sort of unifying between the right and left, people across the conflict. What do you think of it . Look, it was announced as a kind of hail mary. And like a lot of hail marys, it hasnt succeeded and i dont think it was done quite in bad faith by the biden administration, i wouldnt say that. But it certainly was not any kind of plausible substitute for the core bread and butter of crossings. Is it possible to get, i mean, say this to me, what you are describing, the conditions of the war, and the conditions of the idf patrolling particularly in rafah where there is, they say there is a wrapping up operation but it is unclear. Is it possible to get enough aid in while the war is conducted, i guess, is my question . I think it is very difficult and the bigger difficulty than just getting aid in is getting aid delivered pics of the kind of mile axis that humanitarians need is very hard to reconcile with, at least the way that the idf is fighting this war. It would be impossible for humanitarians to navigate were conditions all the time. Most places where it would work would be conflict zones almost by definition. What is unique here is the level of obstruction that we have seen from the Israeli Government since the beginning of the war. And in particular, the contact of idf forces on the ground. Targeted, harassed, intimidated humanitarian workers not every instance of that makes the news. But it is the background noise of what humanitarians have to do with. You are saying as that of someone who heard first hands heard, for example, that the u. N. Official at a checkpoint was targeted by Israeli Forces while he waited. Thank you for joining us. That is all in on this wednesday night. Good evening, alex. Thank you for that coverage, chris, and that conversation. You may know him as steve bannon. But on one day, trumps former Campaign Manager and chief white house strategist will become the federal inmate number 05635509. Vannett is excited to report to a federal prison in connecticut on monday morning. That is, unless the Supreme Court intervenes, which it could do at any moment