As we come on the air, the eyes of the world are upon us. With our allies around the Globe Waiting and watching to see how and when the United States will respond to two of the most Urgent International questions of our time. The murder of Vladimir Putins most powerful political opponent and the twoyear anniversary of russias anniversary of ukraine just days away. The Open Question of will the United States send ukraine the aid it needs to hold the line against russia. A common denominator here, one man. Russian president Vladimir Putin. The dictator who our expresident still has yet to condemn for the murder Alexei Navalny. The white house says they will impose new sanctions to hold poout skpn russia accountable for the murder. But on ukraine, aid that ukraine so urgently needs that our International Allies are waiting to see if the United States delivers, that the Biden Administration is willing to give that aid is being ham strung by mike johnson. Who it is worth noting spent his long weekend marking president s day at maralago with donald trump. Make no mistake while johnson was kissing the proverbial ring, called an early and undeserved vacation, the situation on the ground in ukraine is deteriorating fast. Over the weekend, ukraine suffered a blistering defeat with Russian Forces capturing a key city. And now we are getting word about what the dwindling ammunitions are doing to soldiers on the front lines. Heres Nbcs Richard Engel from Eastern Ukraine. Reporter i was just talking to soldiers out here in Eastern Ukraine a few minutes ago. And they were telling me that the shortages of ammunition are so extreme that they are counting bullets. They are rationing their artillery rounds, they are rationing their regular ammunition that they put into their rifles. They are not in a position right now to launch any new offensive. They are not in a position to hold the line. Rationing bullets. You might think that kind of stark reporting might snap Speaker Johnson out of his studenter, so far theres no sign of that. But make no mistake, the world is watching and it is judging. Cnn is rt reporting that Speaker Mike Johnson is facing International Criticism over his lack of swift action on ukraine aid, which is ratcheting up pressure to make a decision that will not only have massive implications for his speakership, but for ukraines War Effort Against russia. Worth remembering that johnson was only on the job four months and lacks experience on the international stage. So far, job son has resisted calls to bring an Aid Package Up for a quick vote, a move that would require democratic support and almost certainly spark a revolt from his right flank. To say nothing of donald trump, who injected himself into the debate, urging republicans to oppose funding. Privately, johnson told republicans during a closeddoor meeting theres, quote, no rush to address the issue. With congress having left town for a twoweek recession sets. No rush. I think our neighbors and allies around the world would beg to differ. And thats where we start this hour with charlie psychs. Also with us is host of The Deep State Radio podcast david, and with me at the table is former Campaign Manager for Barack Obamas Reelection Campaign jim masina. Heres the polish Foreign Minister at the conference. Its much cheap tore help ukraine now than it will be if Putin Conquers Ukraine and then has to be deterred. We appeal to the House Of Representatives to mike johnson personally. The speaker of the house. To please let it go to a vote. Do you believe its damaging u. S. Credibility . Well, if ukraine having been encouraged to resist, the president of the United States having put his standard on the ground in kyiv, the famous, historic visit and then doesnt deliver on assistance, that would send a message around the globe that you have to be careful because the United States for regrettable reasons might not be able to congresswoman through. Be careful trusting the United States in the future. Had that would have important implications. Not only in eastern europe, but around the globe. The world is watching. This really is not only about ukraine. This is much bigger than ukraine. What do you think of when you hear that . That we are walking into an international disaster. Its easy to get distracted by the dysfunctional buffoon ri of this speaker of the Republican Party, but there are real world consequences that are measured in lost lives and the possibility of an international disaster. Unfortunately, theres no known ant antidote for. Stooper that members find themselves in. As long as donald trump is issuing his orders to Mike Johnson Johnson knows his speakership hangs by a thread, it seems knee yooef to expect any courage or any sort of leadership, despite the acuteness of the crisis. The news from ukraine, it is bleak. You have the house on recess. Speaker johnson has papted himself into a political corner here. House republicans are on vacation while their inaction does escalating damage to the national security. Rush ja just saw its significant gains in nearly a year because ukraine is running low on supplies and congress has failed to pass critically needed support. House republicans must act. Time is of the essence. In other words, when we talk about this being bigger than ukraine, its also about our national the security. Its very much about our national security. The reality is this didnt just happen. The white house asked for this aid four months ago. The white house then said that at the end of the year, if it was not provided, it would begin to do damage. We have now seen the damage. We may talk about the stooper of mike johnson and his inexperience, but we know mike johnson has sat in briefings in which he was told that if this money was not provided, these things would happen to ukraine. And the context for all of this is last week donald trump said that he would not defend nato. He didnt care what happened to nato. He invited russia to do, in his words, whatever it wants with nato. And so big damage to ukraine. Hopefully not irreversible damage, but also enormous damage to americas most Important Alliance and our standing in the world. And if we dont stop russia and if they move forward against nato, whats the consequence . Well, we will have to under the terms of the nato agreement send our troops there to defend europe against putin. In a much more costly war than the one were seeing right now in ukraine. Given those stakes, why is that not breaking through to republicans . Because donald trump has control of that party. Because donald trump is the only leader in the Republican Party right now and everyone else spends their time kissing his ring. And the political consequences continue to lose election after election following this guy down a rabbit hole in a variety of things. Abortion, foreign poll circumstances the environment, immigration, et cetera, but they dont seem to care because the only thing they are worried about is their own primaries. So donald trump continues to run his party into the ground. Can we pull up that picture of mike johnson . Folks had quite a bit of fun with this. The fact that hes under an exit sign as though that is an omen. The Biden Campaign posting the speaker of the house meets with mike job son. That gets to it right there. Mike johnson is not really calling the shots here. Hes not. Hes the Fifth Speaker we have had this year. A month ago, you and i had never heard of him. Members of congress had never heard of him. Now he has the smallest majority since world war ii they are losing seats almost every month here. They may be out of the majority before the election if it continues like this. And so the only Person Making Decisions is donald trump. He just has terrible political the judgment on all of these things. We dont have a deal at the border because of donald trump. We dont have funding for ukraine because of donald trump. Yet mike johnson does whatever hes told to do. I want to read to you something conservative Congressmen Tauters had had to say. Russia is gang on ukraine, which is running out of crucial weaponry and having to pull back from areas that have controlled and faces losing the war russia started. Is that okay with everyone . Kraip cain is a small country without the capacity for a Large Industrial economy in which it can build the needed weapons. This is not theoretical. This is reality. Nato countries border ukraine. If putin moves on any of them, then what . Hes eyeing poland, romania and the ball kin states. When you have a conservative commentator like mark levin sounding the alarm, im reminded of the fact that these gop members of congress are not even listening to people in the old echo chamber. They are not listening almost exclusively to one man. Yes. And mark levin, although hes right there, has been a dependable ally of donald trump. Only now to discover, this is grave to go along with Vladimir Putins leading cheerleader within the Republican Party. This is a grave situation. The International Consequences are immense, but jim is right. You have a House Of Representatives led by an inexperienced leaderer with an almost invisible margin of error who is not able to stand up to donald trump. And even though this is bad political judgment, what is really alarming the rest of the world is the prospect that this man might be the president of the United States. It is hard for americans and our allies to get our heads around the possibility that the United States may elect one of Vladimir Putins defenders and rationalizers. This would be the leader of the Republican Party. I think we need to step back to emphasize how mind bending this is, but also how grave the consequences are for the future of europe and for nato. This man could get back into Office Handing Vladimir Putin a victory beyond his Wildest Expectations or dreams. Just to underscore that point. You had senator chris coons saying that we are, quote, Scaring The Daylights out of our allies. We are left in a very precarious place. Donald trump is not just a defender of putin. Hes actively worked to Support Putin for the past four or five years. Whether it was inviting putins Foreign Minister into the oval office and handing over classified information at that time, whether it was saying he believed putin, a head of the u. S. Intelligence community, whether it was his decision toward the end of his the presidency to try to get u. S. Troops to pull out of germany only stopped by his then secretary of defense, who then said take him out of jemplny and put them in poland. Now trump has plans to put around him a group of loyalists and that group of loyalists will allow him to do whatever he. S and rest assured, the first thing on the International Agenda is going to be pulling out of nato, shutting it down, weakening the u. S. , putting our allies at risk, putting the world at risk of world war iii. This is not trivial stuff. It is shocking. This is a guy who stole u. S. Nuclear secrets. And yet the Republican Party is cowering like little bubny rabbits in the corner afraid of this guy who is such a threat. If they would stand up to anything, anything at all, it would be a guy like this who puts the United States at risk and who really threatens to end what we have known as the american century. When we talk about i object stalling loyalists, we often focus on doj, but as we were just reminded, that can also happen at dod. As we have this conversation about the stakes, about democracy, about the ways in which our allies are looking to america for leadership, why it does not seem as though that is breaking through with american voters. Is it because were not close enough to the election . Thats part of it. Its focused on what it means for them. They want to understand what these decisions mean. How would you articulate that . I think charlie had it right. You want to spend a little money here or billions and billions and trillions of dollars fighting all over europe. Vladimir putin has said hes going to go to other places. Well be in war in europe if hes allowed to move through ukraine. Thats just clear whats going to happen. And so i would make that case directly. I have over a president s and Prime Ministers as my clients. They say exactly what chris coons was saying they say all the time, what is America Stand for right now when you have one major party who seems to do whatever Vladimir Putin wants. Whose side are you really on . That mixed message saying and doing what he promised he would do, but he cant finish it because he has the House Of Representatives run by donald trump. There was a new ad out from the Biden Campaign talking about trumps comments on nato. Take a look. For 75 years nee has been the most important Military Alliance in the world. Its been the cornerstone of americas security. Its how we won the cold war and defeated the soviet union. The only time nato has invoked the sacred commitment of article 5 was to stand with america after 9 11. Every president since truman has been a rock solid supporter of nato, except for donald trump. Trump wants to walk away from nato. Hes even given putin and russia the green light to attack americas allies. I would encourage them to do whatever they want. No president has said anything like it. Its shameful. Its weak. Its dangerous. Its unamerican. I wonder if you think that breaks through with republican voters. I do. Donald trump lost 8 of republicans in 2020. That number gets 12 . The math gets really hard for him. And theres some old reagan republicans who watched the cold war and remember that and may not be able to stomach voting for this guy in this election because of issues like this. Russia is just the one thing that we used to all agree on here. And the Republican Party is just walked away. I wonder who you think through it . I hope it breaks through. I dont know. I hope it does. Exactly for the reasons that jim mentioned. There are republicans who are old enough to remember when republicans actually stood behind europe. And who would have seen america as the leader of the free world and would have been shocked to watch america walk away from its allies and watch a democracy like ukraine be crushed by russia. So thats what its aimed at. One hopes in the swing states that there are enough republicans willing to say i am not willing to sign on to that. Charlie, david, thank you both so much for starting us off. Jim is sticking with me. When we come back, nikki haley calling on donald trump as an unhinged and unstable candidate. But the question will it matter . Plus the former fbi informant at the heart of the gops efforts to impeach President Biden will be at a Detention Hearing later this afternoon. As the republican leading that charge acknowledges, he might never be able to have that vote. And later in the show, the federal Election Interference case against the expresident , his appeal to the United States Supreme Court over claims of president ial immunity has put the case on pause. 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When im riding, im not even thinking about my painful cavity. Well, you shouldnt ignore that. And every time i get stressed about having to pay my bills, i just hop on the bike, man. Oh, come on, man, you got to pay your bills. You dont have to worry about anything when youre protected by americas numberone motorcycle insurer. Well, you definitely do. Those things arent related, so. Ah, yee oh, that is a vibrating pain. South carolina will vote on saturday. But on sunday ill still be running for president. Im not going anywhere. [ applause ] for nikki haley, evidently, the show must go on. Even if she is backed into a corner heading into her home states primary this weekend. Instead of calling it quits on her campaign, the former South Carolina governor vowed to push forward no matter what happens on saturday. While in fairness she did so with the defiant tone, repeatedly criticizing donald trump, she again, stopped short of what others might consider full condemnation. It was emblematic of one of the more Frustratings A Pelkts of her Parking Lights run and willingness to go far and condemning trump just perhaps not far enough. Heres what she said about her old boss. Of course, many of the same politicians who now publicly embrace trump privately dread him. They know what a disaster hes been and will continue to be for our party. They are just too afraid to say it out loud. Hes gotten more unstable and unhinged. He spends more time in courtrooms than he does on the campaign trail. He refuses to debate. Hes completely distracted. And everything is about him. Hes so obsessed with his own demons from thes past he cant focus on delivering the future americans deserve. Lets bring into the conversation correspondent ali vitali live from South Carolina where nikki haley gave her speech earlier today. With me at the table is editor at large of the 19th and host of the new podcast the amendment erin haynes. Jim is back with us. What stood out about todays speech . Reporter what stood out to me is the fact they felt they had to make this speech at all. Usually, its not a good sign if youre a president ial campaign who puts an advisory out the night before that says im going to be giving a state of the race address and everyones immediate question is, are you going to drop out. Part of the reason they did this event today was to dispel any of the notions between now and South Carolina this weekend that she is going to be leaving the race. They wanted to make very clear that she says what she means and means what she says when it comes to how long shes willing to run this out. And thats clearly through Super Tuesday. Were seeing it now in the schedule that they have just put out. Shes going to michigan and then through other Super Tuesday states like texas and virginia. But then also the fact that shes On The Air Waves in michigan, which votes just a few days after the palmetto state over the weekend. About half a Million Dollar buy, that will run over the course of six days, but its the first ad buy we have seen them make outside of South Carolina, showing another degree of seriousness about staying in the race and campaigning. The reality is for the Haley Campaign are what they have always been, which is that shes likely to lose her home state. Its likely to be by a large margin. Its definitely going to be to donald trump, the otherwise presumed nominee of the Republican Party. I think whats also striking is both the ways that haley has been willing to go after trump over the course of the last few weeks. People can rightly wonder whether its too little too late, but im wondering if we ever get to the point where in that litany of things that she just went through about all the reasons that donald trump shouldnt be the nominee, if she can ever get to punctuated it with an i cant get myself to vote for him. Sh initially signed that Loyalty Pledge about definitely supporting the nominee. That was at the outset of the primary. But its interesting the fact that she wont entertain where her support could go if shes out of the race. The fact that shes willing to toy with that gets squishly. That is stunning. I think it could be a landing zone she could get to, but shes certainly not there yet. Do you think she gets there . I dont know. What we do know is that shes not been willing to say that is not willing to support him should he become the nominee and South Carolina is going to be the latest step along the way to his march to the nomination. You think back to four years ago to the extent that South Carolina resurrected President Bidens campaign at that time. This is really solidifying were going to see former president trumps hold on the Republican Party. So she is somebody who is running in her home state thats very much in favor of the former president and not in favor of her. Republican voters across the country know shes different from donald trump. Thats reason they are choosing donald trump instead of her. What she hasnt been able to convince him of yet is shes better than the former president. So with that being the case, is she somebodies thats going to fall in line like the other people that she was able to outlast up to this point. We shall see. There was a point at which South Carolina felt very much in the future. Yet here we are. Its this saturday. You have her in the last polling i saw today almost 20 points behind donald trump. I think to ask what is her path here is like too quaint. It doesnt really respect the fact that this is not a normal election and she is not a normal challenge. What is she doing in this race . Shes attempting to find any sort of momentum and probably getting enough delegates to stay into the Republican National convention Nz Case Trump were to get out and be indicted or in case trump couldnt serve. Thats now what they are saying to her. Lets get through Super Tuesday and see. I thought she was really honest today when she said im not going anywhere. She was talking about in the next week, but in general, she was talking about her campaign. Shes not going anywhere in this primary. This thing is over. Shes trying to figure out a way forward and the future for her and her political career. There was a moment today that people pointed to which she got choked up talking about her Military Husband who trump went after earlier this month. Take a will be. I wish michael was here today. And i wish our children and i could see them tonight, but we cant. Hes serving on the other side of the world where conflict is the norm. Where terrorists hide among the innocent. Where irans Terrorist Proxies are now attacking american troops. This is michaels second deployment. It was hard for us to say goodbye to him. You and i have both written books on women and leadership, so we know that emotion is often weaponized against candidates in order to question their competency. Im going to put that question aside for now and instead talk about the substance of what she was trying to say there, which is trump has repeatedly attacked military personnel. I imagine there is some frustration from haley, who is very close to this, that this has not become more of a deal breaker. Reporter i think thats right. I think maybe the explanation for that is the fact that we have done this before in different it rations. We have done this with gold star families back in the 2020 election. We have seen different iterations of trump going after military families before. Before he was even officially a candidate, he was going after senator john mccains service during the war. I think a lot of that is baked in the cake when you think about donald trump. I also think, and everyone here on the panel has a deep knowledge of the way that candidates run campaigns and how much of a personal investment it is, i also think this might be a moment where youre reminded of the human toll of running for president. It is a difficult gig. Itses especially difficult when youre forging ahead and know that that is not likely going to end the way that you want it to. I was really surprised to see nikki haley get that choked up and get that emotional today. She has done this refrain about her husbands service time and again out here on the campaign trail. I was really surprised to see her have this reaction to it. At the same time, i think it was the authentic reaction that she might have had. So it was another moment where voters get to see another side of her. The politics of this situation remains. The fact that shes going through Super Tuesday, yes, she has the resources and the cash for that, but its not like it gets any easier. There was a poll out of texas today that has trump over 0 70 points. When you look at the delegate math, and i know jim referenced this, in some of these states, its a winner take all. So shes not winning, shes not getting delegates. If shes get getting delegates, its not going to be very many. Its difficult to ride into the convention saying you should be the nominee should something happen to trump. It gets really jumbled. So the delegate strategy just isnt there. I have heard some haley allies say to me, this is why you run campaigns. If the polls guaranteed what would happen today, then you wouldnt run campaigns in the first place to try to change the polls. Even they are grasping at straws knowing shes promising to stay in, but also knowing thats not likely to change much. Ali vitali, thank you so much for spending time with us. In just under two hours from now, a Detention Hearing will get underway for the fbi informant indicted for lying about President Biden and his son during the 2020 election. What he is facing and how the republicans who propped him up are responding. D him up are responding if advanced lung cancer has you searching for possibilities, discover a different first treatment. Immunotherapies work with your Immune System to attack cancer. But Opdivo Plus Yervoy is the first combination of 2 immunotherapies for adults newly diagnosed with nonsmall Cell Lung Cancer that has spread, tests positive for pdl1, and does not have an abnormal egfr or alk gene. Opdivo plus yervoy is not chemotherapy, it works differently. It helps your Immune System fight cancer in 2 different ways. Opdivo and yervoy can cause your Immune System to harm healthy parts of your body during and after treatment. These problems can be severe and lead to death. 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Theyre working harder than ever and they still cant make enough to get by to afford food and medicine to even keep a roof over their heads. We need to build more housing thats truly affordable. We need to address this terrible epidemic of homelessness. We need to invest in good paying jobs, union jobs and investments in our future. This, this is why im running for the us senate. Im adam schiff and i approve this message. Hi, im kevin, and ive lost 152 pounds on golo. uplifting music my biggest concern when i started golo was food. Im a big guy and, shockingly, i like to eat. I was worried it was gonna be like other diets that were bland and restrictive. But with golo, my meals are great, and im no longer hungry like i was before. Im so pleased i gave golo a shot. Dont wait, go to golo. Com. The fbi informant charged last week by special counsel david wise for providing false statement will appear for a Detention Hearing. He was an informant since 2010. And provided false derogatory information to the fbi about the bidens after joe biden became a candidate for president in 2020. As we reported on this program, its a major blow to republicans Impeachment Inquiry into biden. The sack sagss have been that basis of that effort. Now the republican leading that inquiry admits the house may never hold an Impeachment Vote against President Biden after all. Tell saying, the math keeps getting worse for republicans. Lets bring in justice reporter ryan riley. Ryan, bring us up to speed on whats happening today. Were going to have an Intention Hearing for this individual, who his Defense Attorneys say holds an israeli passports. Prosecutors say hes been an informant since 2010. That means hes been an informant since he was roughly 30. And prosecutors are going to argue for his continued detention. But what his Defense Attorney said in a filing ahead of this hearing is that hes actually been held on pretty restrictive conditions. Thats going to make it more difficult for him to present a defense because those restrictive conditions are going to make it harder for him to communicate with his lawyers. I think you can expect prosecutors to push back on that and look at the severity of the charges and argue hes also potential thely a flight risk because of his overseas travel on a regular basis. So he could end up learning more Background Information here. The big question is this will end up impacting any cases that he previously worked on because part of the reason he would be in protective custody is theres probably a few people who rbt happy with him given his former work as an informant. You have republicans really sort of banking on his testimony and being the basis of their Impeachment Inquiry into the president. Now you have Congressman Comer playing down their alliance on him claiming a statement that the impeachment is, quote, based on a large record of evidence, including bank records and witness testimony, revealing that joe biden knew of and participated in his familys business dealings. You have covered this as closely as anyone. Have you seen any of that evidence . They have backed away from this. You can look at what they were saying about this fbi informant before he was indicted. Then what they were saying after. What they are saying about him now doesnt take away from what they said about this before. So now they are going to present this as, this was not a huge deal. This isnt a main part of it. But they tried to hold the fbi director in contempt because they wanted so desperately to get that document back over the summer. This was really essential is. A few weeks ago, jim jordan said on the air of fox news, this was the best evidence that they had pointing to this document saying this was at the heart of the inquiry here and pointing to the fact he had been this trusted informant. Thats what they could pin this on. Thats what they could point reporters to looking for something to grasp on to saying the fbi did have this person as an informant. Now low and behold, we find out it was made up. This was a story he invented because he was antibiden in 2020. I think theres a lot left to learn here, but basically t takes away the entire talking point. If you have ever heard anything about joe biden accepting a 5 million bribe, that was all this lie that was made up. That was the basis is of this. Its all sort of grew out of that. Theres a lot of stories that never should have been written because of that. Theres a lot of things that never should have happened because of this lie. Im glad you went there. Its where my thinking went as well. On some level, the damage has been done. Even though its not based in evidence, its not based in fact. It created a what aboutism that regardless of the truth, even if they cant bring this to a vote, they will continue to run on it. They all are in fundraising emails. They are repeating these lies every single day. The house has done an historic amount of nothing in this congress. They havent passed anything they have been doing crazy things like this. Comers statement they also took a lot of speaker votes, to be fair. We had a lot of speakers. Well all get to be speaker for a day. It will be really fun. But they continue to move this lie forward and double down on it, and comer didnt talk about the nakt his own witness just fell apart. He said they now didnt have the votes. Not the fact theres no proof to any of it. He cant even admit that. And thats the sad and pathetic thing. Because if he cant admit that, then you cant actually take the wind out of their sail. What they wanted to do was they wanted to say, at a minimum, what it did was knock late the very reasonable and very evidences based Attack On Trump that hes dangerous to democracy. Instead, you go from what aboutism to wondering if this is a witch hunt against President Biden. Because this continues to be a solution in search of the problem. Now saying that we go from this being the heart of the matter to this being irrelevant and not really having any other evidence, and knowing that there really is no other evidence to show for, republicans really seem to be using this it appears to be much more of a distraction, especially in an Election Year when they need to be talking to voters about the things they are doing. To your point, other than voting on speaker, they havent had much to really run on. So with this being one of the things they were going to talk to voters about, what they are able to sell to them is the math is not mathing yet. I imagine them against a white board originally economy was scribbled on there. They had to scratch that out. Then immigration. They have to scratch out immigration. And now they are like Impeachment Inquiry. They are running out of things to run on. Thank you all so much for spending time with me. Coming up, why you should not underestimate the manhattan da. Well preview the criminal case against the expresident and why it might be stronger than it looks. Sident and why it might be stronger than it looks. What causes a curve down there . Is it peyronies disease . Will it get worse . How common is it . Who can i talk to . Can this be treated . Stop typing. Start talking to a specialized urologist. Because it could be peyronies disease, or pd. Its 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. 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Thats how the Manhattan District Attorney is seeking to frame this Hush Money Case against donald trump. Our friend barbara Mcindicate Kwad says bragg is right. Theres much more at stake. Along with two other attorneys, the details in trumps case obscures what it is actually about. Making covert payments to avoid losing an election and further concealing it. He he will face tough challenges ahead fuelled by lingering skepticism about strength of the evidence and whether trump has been unfair lid targeted. We think he can overcome those hurdles and by seeking to secure conviction reenforce the principle that in manhattan as across the country, playing by the rules is critical to the integrity of our businesses and our democracy. Joining me at the table is our friend lisa rubin. The piece we read from, it lays out a series of different hurdles in this case. The question of the legal foundations of the case, the credibility of star witness, in which we have discussed, and controlling defendant trump, which yes, like thats a common denominator in all these cases. How do you think they clear those hurdle thes. They have already cleared the fwirs one. The judge last week disposed of trumps pretrial motions to dismiss. One of those motions to dismiss was based on the legal theory in the case. Basically the Da Charged Trump with 34 counts of falsification of Business Records with the intent to commit or conceal another felony. And theres been all these doubters that underlying felony could not be a federal election Law Violation or could not even be a violation of state law that prohibits conspireing to promote someone or scheme to elect someone. The judges opinion, which he did the not read from the bench, i deny them all, lets move on to scheduling. If you read that opinion, he dismantles that defense. So were over that hurdle the. They have also shown that hes much more cut from the cloth of a judge kaplan that the justice. He was very intolerant of nonsense in his courtroom. He was happy to let the principle lawyer for donald trump make his record, but he was not going to indulge repetition. I saw a judge who was firmly in command of the courtroom. I expect that to continue to be the case. And then theres the remaining bet, which is the importance of Michael Cohen. Trumps folks said at this last trial that the a. G. Case that cohen was the star witness. That oversells ko hadnts importance in that case. There was so much Documentary Evidence, so much so that the judge at one point said the amount of evidence they have could fill this courtroom. I remember my mind at the time just filling space with box all over the place. This is less a documents case than that one was. There are still going to be some documents here, namely checks that donald trump signed. But Michael Cohen is a significant witness here. I will caution to say that thats based on what we know right now. We dont know what Documentary Evidence or other evidence the da has up his sleeve. And i expect that is much more than we understand presently. A good prosecutor does not lay all the cards on the table. Alvin bragg has shown himself to be a Savvier Prosecutor that be many people thought. Given that series of developments that you just walked us through, do you have a sense of how the strategy on the part of either team have evolved . Theres a question about Michael Cohens credibility. Its not the same question it once was. There was a question about case law and the legal framework. We have some insights into that. Does any of that change the way that they approach this case moving forward . Yes and no. I dont think It Changesforward . Yes and no. Putting aside the fact that the justice saw him as a credible witness not with standing a prior purgery conviction and allegations that he purgered himself in the case before him, he said no, Michael Cohen was telling the truth. I saw someone honest, relaxed. Does that matter to donald trump . Not one bit. Michael cohen is his sworn enemy. He will stop at nothing to destroy his credibility. He will continue to accuse him of lying on the stand and that will be a particularly rough crossexamination. Does it change their strategy in one other respect though . Maybe. Their other big witness is Allen Weisselberg who was in the room for conversations that unless the d. A. s withholding something on us, those were conversations about cohen, weisselberg, and trump. Weisselberg might have been an attractive option to testify for donald trump until this trial. Where we know according to the New York Times, he is being investigating for or in negotiations as to a plea deal about his testimony and the civil fraud trial. If he pleads guilty to perjuring himself in the most recent New York State trial before this upcoming criminal trial, do Donald Trumps people put him on the stand . Probably not. The first thing you dont want to have happen in crossexamination is did you recently plead guilty to perjury, mr. Weisselberg . Notwithstanding the fact mr. Cohen has a reputation for extraordinary veracity, you can understand the turn hes taken in his life to try to recover the truth. Weisselberg is a different story. Up next, how the head of the nra in the words of a new york prosecutor got caught stealing from the cookie jar. That Corruption Trial with the jury right now. Details are next. Th the jury right now details are next just sleep. Inspire. Learn more and view Important Safety Information at inspiresleep. Com love you. 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When you sponsor a job, you immediately get your shortlist of quality candidates, whose resumes on indeed match your job criteria. Visit indeed. Com hire and get started today. Jury deliberations resume today in the civil trial against the nra and its leader. The jury will decide whether he drew millions away from the group and for himself. As well as other executives and internal policies to enrich themselves. He said he used the nras resources to charter jets, family trips and highend gifts for friends, even agreeing it was wrong. During Closing Arguments last week, an attorney compared the defendants to children caught stealing from a cookie jar. Well be watching for that. Up next, we are waiting for the Supreme Court to decide if theyre going to kick up trumps Immunity Appeal or kick it back to judge chutkan. Those details right after this quick break. Chutkan those details right after this quick break. Sleep more deeply. And wake up rejuvenated. Purple mattresses exclusive gelflex grid draws away heat, relieves pressure and instantly adapts. Sleep better. Live purple. Right now save up to 800 off mattress sets during purples president s day sale. Visit purple. Com or a store near you. Im hearing different ways for me to screen for colon cancer. Its time to use my voice, ive got a choice, more than one answer. I sat down with my doc. We had a talk. Knew just what to say. I asked for cologuard and did it my way. Cologuard is a oneofa kind way to screen for colon cancer thats effective and noninvasive. Its for people 45 plus at average risk, not high risk. False positive and negative results may occur. Ask your provider for cologuard. I did it my way democrats agree. Ask your provider for cologuard. Conservative republican steve garvey is the wrong choice for the senate. Our republican opponent here on this stage has voted for donald trump twice. Mr. Garvey, you voted for him twice. As your own man, what is your decision . Garvey is wrong for california. But garveys surging in the polls. Fox news says garvey would be a boost to republican control of the senate. Stop garvey. Adam schiff for senate. Im adam schiff, and i approve this message. Thats where we are. Ill talk to you later. We dont know whats going to happen. Im running for election. How can you run for election and be sitting in a courthouse in manhattan all day long . It is 5 00 here in new york. Donald trumps entire legal strategy in four words. We want delays, obviously. Those exact comments were made last thursday outside a new york city courthouse right before the judge in the mat manhattans d. A. s Hush Money Case were denied and a March 25th Trial date was set. But they could have happened outside a myriad of courthouses. His approach is the same. Delay, delay, delay. The trump prolongs the pretrial periods in each, the better chance he has of pushing the trials past the november election where he views a win as an escape from accountability. Were seeing his delay tactic play out with the federal Election Interference case where trumps appeal to the United States Supreme Court over claims of president ial immunity has put the case in limbo. The guardian says quote, there are several options that could affect a trial date. Refuse to hear the case and send it back to judge chutkan. Hear the case and issue a ruling expeditiously or hear the case and issue a ruling late in the summer. Complicating matters, chutkan isnt expected to schedule a trial immediately even if the case is sent back to her because trump is technically entitled to the defense preparation time since he first started appealing the immunity issue. So once judge chutkan schedules the trial, how long will it take . It might take around 100 days. If voters wanted to go to the ballot box not knowing if trump was guilty, a trial would need to have started before the last week of july. The argument for urgency was stressed in jack smiths ruling last week asking the Supreme Court to reject trumps appeal. He wrote delay in the resolution of these charges threatens to frustrate the Public Interest in a speedy and fair verdict. A compelling interest and one that has unique National Importance here. All while the timing of other cases involving the expresident are in question. Classified documents trial is expected to get pushback from its expected may date. The trial in georgia has still not been set and the Supreme Court has yet to rule on the 14th amendment challenge to trumps ballot eligibility. Legal issues with the clock ticking. That is where we start this hour with jordan rubin, our deadline legal blog writer and former prosecutor. Plus here at the table, democratic strategist and director of the Public Policy program at hunter college, and lisa rubin is back with us. Lisa, talk to me about the strategy. Its well documented at this point. Delay, delay, delay. Where is it working for him and where is it not . Its certainly not working for example from the new york d. A. s case where the judge has set a trial date. Thats firm. For march 25th. Even though last week, trumps lawyers tried to move that, thats where the play of the case is getting complicated but interesting because tom blanch said your honor, between march 1th and 25th, there are 42 caucuses and primaries. I thought yeah, that feels unfair if this guys going to be a major party nominee. Then the guy from the d. A. s office said but you yourself proposed that march 25th date. You said that would minimize disruption. Heres the email. Also earlier this week, you told judge cannon we dont assume that may 20th date is fixed eve though you just told that guy over there it was. One of the reasons its really interesting its not succeeds is because the lawyers in each case are closely watching the others. Its easy for folks from the special counsels office to track the way trumps two teams of lawyers in the two federal cases might be Making Misrepresentations but the d. A. s office has to keep a tight watch on what they say in those other cases as do the people in fani willis team who might be a little distracted. We have seen that Cross Pollination of those cases. If you will. I want you to pull back the curtain for those of us who are not attorneys. During these pretrial periods where things are paused, what happens . Can either side gather evidence . What are they doing right now . Right. So in a federal Election Interference case, the answer is really nothing that can be done in terms of moving the case towards trial or imposing litigation burdens on the defense. Thats why were basically stuck in place while waiting on the Supreme Court to see what it does. So on its own, the prosecution could presumably do what it wants, but again, it cant do anything that puts a burden on trump. Thats why we saw the whole to do when jack smith filed a motion. Trump had a huge complaint about that. Thats really the only litigation. Thats why were waiting on the Supreme Court right now. Litigation over whether there can be litigation. Basil, that gets to one of my core concerns, which is just fatigue on the part of voters. That there are all these cases swirling. Theres not a sense theres momentum moving forward. Some of it seems technocratic and what is at stake. And the things he is accused of, no t simply as questions of things that happened retrospectively, but things that could be on the horizon. People lose focus. Thats part of the strategy. As long as its delayed, we have a lot of the litigation to see if we need litigation kind of conversations, thats where voters start to check out and say you know what, let me back away from this for a while and start if they havent already on the price of eggs today. What their kids are doing in school. And when you get these holidays rolling in, voters start focusing on their lives. And the concern if youre a democrat, joe biden, youve got to talk about who you are and what youve done for the country, but also remind voters whats at stake in this election. Because the political Tell Evangelist that trump is, hes going to continue to go on tv, rally support, raise money off of this. And in a couple of weeks, mathematically, he will win the nomination just by the number of delegates hell have. From that point of view, he will continue to sort of be the person that says give me money but if im a republican voter, for example, or even a republican leader in a state, what im wondering is does this hurt my ability to elect the bottom of the ticket . Yes. Because if youre donald trump and youre telling the Republican National committee and every other committee associated with the Republican Party to raise money to help me defend myself, what money is left over for the rest of the ticket . All of those down ballot races, im not trying to help anybody on that side of the aisle right now, but just from a Strategic Point of view, a leader is going to come and say wait a minute. Look at how much hes a drag on our party because financially, we cant help anybody thats out there. And i wonder whether or not a republican or democrat voters are keyed into this. For them, theyre going to support joe biden. No problems with that. But if youre a republican voter, youre wondering how does this help my local congressman stay in office . How does this help my State Senator stay in office . Somebodys got to wake up and say that he is a drag on the ticket and we need to find a way to move forward. Lets talk specifically about the immunity case. If the Supreme Court decides either the case can proceed and were going to take up the question or we dont want to take up the question, is there any other way for him to delay . Well, he still has a couple of motions to dismiss and have to be decided. She may have opinions that shes been working on. He could also delay the case and the latest reply brief he wrote to the Supreme Court, his first point wasnt about the stay being warranted or the merits of his Immunity Appeal. It was all about the way jack smith is behaving. Gives the appearance of partisan conduct. Explaining there are 13 million pages of discovery that i have to review. Thats not fair to my defense. To rush this to trial in less than three months from the time the mandate is entered. I have news for you. That less than three months, that is equivalent to what you were talking about before. The amount of time they had left on the time to trial clock when judge chutkan had to press the button. So they are trying to relitigate how much time that he get to prepare for trial even though she has been steadfast in saying she felt seven months was enough and she will continue to make sure they get the full benefit of those seven months. Because were talking about what we dont talk enough about politically, i think the thing we dont talk enough about legally is the accountability that is going to be gained through all of these civil cases, which is hurting trump at the place he cares about most. His brand. His business. His net worth. In some respects, he is less afraid of jail and a conviction and what even a conviction could mean for his political future than he is about his assets and at the end of the day, the accountability that james and carroll have already obtained and i think will have those rulings upheld, that might be the ultimate form of accountability here even though were all so fixated on the criminal trials as the ultimate or zenith metric of his accountability. Im sure youd agree that partly thats because one is predicated on the other. His political success has been predicated on his perceived business success. If i can piggy back on your point, i love the point about accountability because its something that i think about. And in response to your question about voter fatigue, this is all about accountability. The danger is in some people saying look at what the courts did to decide the election. Which we didnt want happening after 2000, why should we want it now. So what i think would sort of give cover to folks that are concerned about that, pushing for accountability through the courts, is making this a democratic talking point. Are you electing people that are willing to put in place rules and guidelines after this debacle that hold our president s and political leaders accountable . If you have a concern about whether or not the courts can and should do it especially with the judges we have today, should not we look at elected officials to be able to create that level of accountability and create those guardrails because right now, if you look at republicans in congress, they dont want to do that. Theyre advocating their responsibility to do that. So maybe we put the pressure back on them to create those kinds of rules. Jordan, we are all furiously refreshing the Supreme Court website right now looking for any hint, any shred of what it is that is going to be happening. Take me inside the Supreme Court right now. What is their motivation if any to rule on the question of president ial immunity and to do it soon . So i do think they have the motivation to do something soon and i think they have the motivation to want to speak with one voice. The problem for us speculating about it now is i dont think those two factors necessarily tell us where the court is going to land amist that array of factors weve been discussing. I think were going to hear something soon. One odd thing about this is this its different from the sort of Emergency Litigation where theres going to be an execution at midnight or a new law thats going to be in effect tomorrow. We know that the backdrop is the election but in some respects, thats a difficult thing for the justices to grapple with as a formal matter in terms of what the urgency is aside from just sooner rather than later. While were looking at the as a daily thing, whats happening today, whats happening today, thats not necessarily the justices calculation. Back to today. Basil, i wonder if the closer we get to an election, the sooner we come to the possibility that he is the republican nominee. If the question of witnesses and witnesses appetite for participating in some of these cases change. I want to hear from you what about legally that means. But i do wonder in which that is one way in which the timelines collide. That is an interesting question because if youre, if youre the general public and youre waiting for justices, this is a long time coming. If youre a witness and youre, you know, youre waiting for justice, youre waiting to speak to justice, are you being threatened . Are people, you know, are people trying to undermine your testimony or trying to cloud your view and your testimony . Even if youre not being directly threatened, have you seen footage of a former president whos running for president again saying he wants to take his adversaries to task . Retribution, right. That part worries me. The longer we wait on this, i wonder what will the appetite be for folks to wait and just say you know what, im done. And call it a day. But i then go to the two Courageous Women In Georgia whose lives have been threatened. One who, forget which of the ladies said this, but she cant even use her name because she was, she decided to do her public duty and engage in public service. And the way we normally think about it. So i just hope and pray that there are witnesses who continue to do that, but to be honest with you, im not sure everybody can withstand that. And can you safeguard against it . You can. There are protections you can give to witnesses if necessary, but the choice to be a witness isnt really a choice. If the government compels you to arrive at trial unless you can succeed in quashing that and im not familiar with a situation in which the Trial Subpoena has been quashed. You have to show up. Thats why donald trump, for example, was a hostile witness in his own case brought by the new York Attorney general because hes a, a party, but b, he was compelled to show up. Ivanka trump is probably a better example. Compelled to show up via Trial Subpoena, not a party, but told she had to come. Now, shes not a person under threat, but i think that jack smith and his team are taking very seriously any indications of threats to witnesses. I wanted to talk about something jordan said about whether the court is going to take the immunity case. Its so important. You cant imagine a universe in which they dont want to have the last and final say. On the other hand, someone i highly respect said to me bad facts made bad law. These are bad facts in the sense that donald trump as an outlier unlike any other among american president s, if they use his case and alleged misdeeds to cast the Immunity Rule by which future president s will be judged and have their own immunity governed, we could see a situation which future president s have or warned prosecuted and if you hold that just having an imprunety or not means you have to go through trial, think about people who come to the Office Without the purported wealth donald trump has. He might not be as wealthy as he says he is, but theres no question he is worth at least hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars. Just not as many billions as he says hes worth. What if youre joe biden. Youve been a Public Servant for literally decades. You dont have the personal where with all to defend yourself in a world in which the Supreme Court says youre not immune from prosecution and yet the apparatuses of government belong to people who want nothing else than to see you pay for the ways in which you tried to uphold the rule of law. Jordan, i want to circle back quickly to this question about witnesses. Especially given that you have former Chief Of Staff mark meadows granted immunity. I wonder if anything about that complicated his cooperation. I dont think the passage of time alone would do that. Generally if youre trying to case, if its decades of time that you have to go back, that could be a problem. Memories fade, things like that, but when you talk about someone who for example has testified in the grand jury, theyre locked into that. When were talking about delays as a matter of months instead of years, again, were looking at this every day but in The Grand Scheme of things, trials have taken a lot longer to get going. I dont think thats a particular concern at least as far as the passage of time, but again, there are big problems with delays especially against the backdrop of the election and there could be issues with other witnesses, too. There are just so many other things that could go wrong. So when youre prosecuting the case as jack smith is, we see that urgency at the Supreme Court. Even if its not a specific concern, you know there are so many things that can go haywire. When youre holding the cards you have, you want to go when you have them. Jordan, so fun to have you on answering my many questions. Thank you so much. To get more of jordans legal analysis, you can sign up for the deadline legal newsletter. Just follow the qr code you see right there. If you sign up right now, youre going to get a fresh newsletter with all of the weeks biggest legal stories delivered on friday. When we come back, the Fulton County Election Case against donald trump and his allies is at a cross roads after willis blockbuster testimony. Did she succeed in protecting her case . Plus, new reporting that says trump allies are planning for an authoritarian and extreme Second Trump Term infused with Christian Nationalism. And later, the Biden Administration set to influence major sanctions on the putin regime in the wake of the death of dissident leader, Alexei Navalny. Deadline white house continues after a quick break. Dont go anywhere. Tinues after a quick break. Dont go anywhere. Of protein. you founded your Kayak Company because you love the ocean not spreadsheets. You need to hire. I need indeed. Indeed you do. Indeed instant match instantly delivers quality candidates matching your job description. Visit indeed. 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Its not just possible, its happening. Your office objected to getting records for flights. I object. Youre being intrusive into peoples personal lives. These people are on trial for trying to steal an election in 2020. Im not on trial no matter how hard you try to put me on trial. Fulton county District Attorney fani willis on the stand last week defiant against the accusations levelled against her. That she benefitted from a personal relationship with her lead prosecutor, nathan wade. Now, we are waiting to see what Fulton County Superior Judge does next. According to reporting from the Atlanta Journal constitution, Closing Arguments are expected to be scheduled late this week or next week. Lets bring in msnbc host and legal analyst who has been covering the story for us. Basil and lisa are also back with us. I understand there was a meeting with judge mcafee today. What can you tell us about that . The meeting that was supposed to take place today was with Terrence Bradley, the former divorce lawyer for nathan wade. Terrence bradleys attorneys, and judge mcafee. Thats it. No state present. No Defense Counsel for any of the defendants present. The reason why this meeting took place is late on friday towards the close of the evidence, Terrence Bradley on crossexamination admitted to the state of georgia that he had left the Law Partnership he shared with wade because of allegations he had sexually assaulted a law firm employee. It was Terrence Bradley accused of sexually assaulting a law firm employee, not nathan wade. Now, the reason why it became so relevant and the need for this meeting today is because on direct examination when being asked questions by the Defense Attorneys in this case, he invoked the Attorney Client privilege and did not answer why he had left the partnership with nathan wade. So judge mcafee said you know, it seems mr. Bradley, you may be a little bit confused about the scope of the Attorney Client privilege. So he said to bradley, im going to take you Behind Closed Doors and were going to explore what your understanding is of the Attorney Client privilege to make sure you have answered the questions about which you are allowed to. The Attorney Client privilege, it is held by the client. But wade. He has testified he has not waived that privilege so any of the communications hes had cannot be divulged for any reason except for a few exceptions. So mcafee has met today with bradley to make sure he doesnt have to reopen the evidence and basically have bradley answer a whole slew of additional questions. So in light of that, talk to us about whats next. What do Summary Arguments look like for both sides . Mcafee also indicated that this friday or perhaps next week, Closing Arguments as well call it, oral arguments on both sides will take place. Interestingly though, mcafee said it would only be ten to 15 minutes on each side. Reading tea leaves here, hes heard what he needs to hear to pretty much make up his mind. Now, hes a thoughtful judge thus far and i do not expect him to rule from the bench. I expect him to issue a Written Order in detail and if i am to predict, i predict hes going to deny the motion to dismiss and to disqualify. Give me a sense of what that does for timeline . I think if he denies the motion, weve lost a bunch of time kind of caught up in this episode as it were and obviously, a number of people have been horrifically embarrassed by it, but if the case goes back on track and we can start to then deal with some of the other pretrial motions that other parties have bought. There are some Discovery Disputes and start to have a conversation about when this case might be ready for trial at an earlier hearing, fani willis said she considers june to be the deadline for anybody who wants to have substantive Plea Agreements and reach a plea deal. Whether or not thats still her deadline, i dont know. But theoretically, if this case goes forward under her leadership, one of the conversations her office is very much going to want to have is judge mcafee is can we Start Talking about the schedule for the trial of the remaining defendants. We know that even if the legal question here is open shut, the republicans will allow the political question about their relationship to fester. Horrifically embarrassed is a great term. I can imagine donald trump is going to use everything that came out as political fodder. He has a history of going after African American women in particular. That didnt turn out well for him in the case of tish james. In this case either. This is a tactic he always uses and i imagine the whole purpose of this was to be able to bring out something that he could use on the campaign trail. And so you know, in going back to our earlier question, this is why in part i really do feel for the people that decide to take him on because they are really opening their lives and their families live to a tremendous amount of hate, retribution and potentially tragically violent. I hope it never comes to that. But these are folks that you know, are presumably in danger. And i imagine that as i said, you know, hes going to use every single thing that came out of these hearings against her. You heard willis talking about those attacks. Before we go, katie, not sure if you saw this reporting from cnn. They spoke to the owner of a winery that willis and wade visited. Essentially that person said yes, she paid with a great sum of cash. Is that even necessary at this point . Corroborating the story in that way . Well, the judge is not considering it because its not evidence, right, but of course its necessary because the unnecessary circus side show of allegations created an issue where now we have a Vineyard Owner whos now corroborated what willis and wade said. To the extent to basils point, theres always a court of Public Opinion outside of the actual courtroom proper, then yes, it is relevant and helpful because it helps bolster the credibility of willis and wade that she would pay on these personal travel trips but it wasnt necessary because he heard from her dad on friday and her dad said clearly that he raised his daughter to be a proud woman, financially independent, but to make sure she had enough cash to take care of herself then willis said i dont need a man and i certainly do not need nathan wade to pay my way. Thank you so much for spending time with us. Up next, meet russell law, a former Trump Administration staffer leading the charge for an authoritarian and Extremist Trump Second Term with a day one plan to invoke the Insurrection Act. That chilling story is next. In act. That chilling story is next. Just 50 bucks a month with no Exploding Bills or annual contracts. I have Type 2 Diabetes, but i manage it well jardiance its a little pill with a big story to tell i take oncedaily jardiance at each days start as time went on it was easy to see im lowering my a1c jardiance works twentyfour seven in your body to flush out some sugar. And for adults with Type 2 Diabetes and known Heart Disease, jardiance can lower the risk of cardiovascular death, too. Serious side effects may include ketoacidosis that may be fatal, dehydration that can lead to sudden worsening of kidney function, and Genital Yeast or urinary tract infections. A rare, lifethreatening bacterial infection in the skin of the perineum could occur. 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Right, she really loves these delectable squeeze up treats. Deliciously, delickable delectables. Youre hilarious. Delectables squeeze up. Deliciously delickable delectables the economy is simply not working for millions of hard working families. Theyre working harder than ever and they still cant make enough to get by to afford food and medicine to even keep a roof over their heads. We need to build more housing thats truly affordable. We need to address this terrible epidemic of homelessness. We need to invest in good paying jobs, union jobs and investments in our future. This, this is why im running for the us senate. Im adam schiff and i approve this message. We cant expect to save the country if we cant save the Leverage Points that are still there for the taking. The First Priority of our organization is to regain a notion in this country that were not a secular country. That we are a christian nation. That would be shared by everyone. The immigration debate, this trend has played out by eliminating quite frankly the space for christians to question the societal benefits of Mass Immigration without assimilation, without having our morals questioned. That is russell vote, Donald Trumps former director of the office of management and budget. Unless you are an avid fan of fox news or christian talk radio, you probably havent heard of him, but he is a key figure in shaping the priorities of a second Trump Administration. Politico reporting is quote developing plans to Infuse Christian nationalist ideas in his administration should the former president return to power. One document includes a list of Top Priorities in a Second Trump Term. Christian nationalism is one of the bullet points. Others include invoking the Insurrection Act on day one, refusing to spend authorized congressional funds on unwanted projects. While the documents do not outline specific policies, he is advised organizations that would attack lgbtq rights, demonize single mothers and eliminate Birth Control. Its worth noting this entire project to Infuse Christian nationals in the government is in the service of donald trump. In trial next month over accusations that he paid money to an Adult Film Star while married to his third wife. Lets bring in heidi on her reporting. Basil is also back with us. Heidi, an incredible piece of reporting. Talk to us about the plans if trump were to be elected to a second term. We know there has a number of christian nationalist groups orbiting trump for quite some time but this is confirmation that they would envision using state power to try and imbue our laws with that to have it also work its way through the court system. It depends on the group youre talking to just how radical and on the spectrum those policies would be, but we focus primarily on him because we know hes working on this framework and we know that he has close access to president trump, former president trump, and that trump has already echoed some of these ideas. What we uncovered was that he gets a lot of his inspiration from william wolf. Wolf has wrote about more radical ideas like russ focuses on immigration, he says jesus wasnt an open borders person and that he supports for instance Family Separation at the border. Wolf has gone much further, now, hes deleted a number of these tweets, but he has talked about Birth Control, ending nofault divorce. Much more extreme ideas. And a lot of these ideas now are coursing through these groups that dont have as much access to trump. If you look at some of the other individuals that donald trump is talking about bringing in, for instance, michael flynn, that is not at all farfetched. This is at the center of power here and a potential second term. Right now, flynn is going around the country on this Awaken America Tour talking about how we need to bring god into the government. There are even some individuals more on the Activism Side of this, but who believe that trump himself was put here by god in order to put christianity back at the center of american life. Basil, this reporting is absolutely wild. A top contender to be Chief Of Staff is you guessed it. Vogt. Youre talking about instilling someone at the inner santum who has these issued. I would say are you scared yet . Because if you ever want to know how we get towards fascism, we are watching it unfold. To be clear, there have been times in American History where the word assimilation. When it comes up. Its come up many times in our history. Weve seen governments use this in terms of bilingual education. Weve seen governments try to find ways to infuse schools with certain types of education. Were seeing that in florida. This Movement Towards the singular narrative of america. When it was clearly not supposed to be founded upon that. Groups have taken great pains to make it the melting pot that we say we are, but we can see how the leaver of political and bureaucratic power are going to be used to create the singular narrative. It was disturbing when trump conflated economic nationalism and ethnic nationalism. Now were adding Christian Nationalism to this soup. And it is extraordinarily dangerous. I have to say after hearing this and reading this piece, if youre not scared and you dont really understand how important it is for this election to vote, i dont know what would change your mind. Its a perversion of the christianity i grew with up and of democracy. Thats where i want to make sure we keep our focus. In your piece, you note that vogt is advising project 225. The mandate states quote freedom is defined by god, not man. What does that mean then . For their views on democracy . So important you brought that up because a lot of this hinges on something that christians would all be familiar with which is called natural law. It was used on social justice issues. Martin luther king invoked natural law to talk about the ills of segregation. It is the idea that there are these inherent rights that humans have and its been used in social justice campaigns but more recently, religious individuals have used it on single issues. Everything from abortion to samesex marriage to contraception which by the way i think a lot of americans would be surprised to note how much this is becoming part of the ethos and into the universe on the far right and in trumps circle is the contraception issue. But also the issues of nofault divorce. Now, these are issues of course that the orthodox churches have stood for for a long time, but its now becoming much more mainstream in the Republican Party if you look at for instance turning point usa, which is a very Influential Group in trump world, they had a conference targeting young women, women leaders, where they talked not only about ending abortion, but telling them to get rid of their hormonal Birth Control and theyre even disparaging day care. At the heart of a lot of it i think is a backlash to the sexual revolution and they believe that the hormonal Birth Control was at the center of that in terms of empowering women to have opportunities outside of the home essentially. And youre already seeing them make progress. We were talking earlier this week about the ruling around ivf and the ways in which that could have big implications for Birth Control. Heidi, thank you so much for your reporting. Basil, thank you so much. Coming up, a new push to hold putin accountable after the death of Alexei Navalny and as the ukraine war enters its third year. S the ukraine war enters its third year life, diabetes, theres no slowing down. Each day is a unique blend of people to see and things to do. Thats why you choose glucerna to help manage blood sugar response. Uniquely designed with carbsteady. Glucerna. Bring on the day. Kayak. No way. Uniquely designed with carbsteady. Why would i use kayak to compare hundreds of travel sites at once . Kayak. I like to do things myself. I do my own searching. It isnt efficient. Use kayak. I cant trust anything else to do the job right. Aaaaaaaahhhh kayak. Search one and done. Only Unitedhealthcare Medicare advantage plans come with the ucard one simple member card that opens doors for what matters. What if we need to see a doctor away from home . We got you with medicare advantages Largest National provider network. Only from unitedhealthcare. President biden is taking new action against russia and putin this week. With what the white house says will be a major sanctions package to be announced this friday to hold russia accountable for what happened to navalny. Biden and leaders around the world were swift to blame putin in the death of his most prominent critic on friday. It also comes ahead of the second anniversary of russias invasion of ukraine which the white house included in its reasons today to further sanction russia. Quote, for all its actions over the course of this vicious war that has ranled for two years. Navalnys family say they believe he was poisoned by the putin regime. This morning, navalnys mother stood outside the prison where he died on friday to address putin directly and demand her sons body for a proper burral. Were going to know a lot more details about this sanctions package probably only friday, but what can we expect based on this strongly worded announcement about how aggressive it might be . Look, the white house can still go after people who are close to president putin but remember, i mean, russia is still under already under serious sanctions because of the war in ukraine and so far, it hasnt had much impact on the russian economy which seemed to have survived much better under the sanctions. Potentially you could go after Central Bank Assets but so far, the americans have held back from. They could give money they have already frozen from russia to the ukrainians. Thats also been something that has been discussed but the chances of this making any difference to putin and to his extreme crackdown on anyone who has shown dissent seems unlikely at the moment. Clint, you were at the Munich Security Conference over the weekend. Talk about the pressure on President Biden, on the world stage to do something as the kremlin prepares to orchestrate another victory for putin next month. The story when we got there i think was going to be about ukraine and entering the third year and that shifted quickly. I dont think people were surprised that navalny was ultimately killed in putins hands but i think it was interesting that it happened basically at the first day of that conference which is really in many ways, a conference where people come together to talk about how theyre going to try to deter russia. There were several speeches there that were made by u. S. Officials. Many were reacting to the news but i think the key point was that something needed to be done. Im curious to see what they might announce in terms of sanctions and what sort of teeth it will have. This comes on the back of discussions of aid to ukraine. The question is will this galvanize for places like ukraine or look like a moment where the west could continue to deter putin both inside russia and places like ukraine. To that exact point in his sanctions announcement today, you had john kirby stressing that one of the quote most powerful actions they could take would be to pass an emergency spending bill that would provide aid to ukraine. What does for congress to pass an emergency spending bill that will provide aid to ukraine. What does it say, katty, if congress cant get that done, specifically if republicans in congress cant get that done . I remember interviewing bob gates who was Barack Obamas former defense secretary a while ago. He said to me americas three biggest threats are three things, a rising china, decline in china and its own political dysfunction. I think were seeing that on full display. We are seeing this in real time in ukraine where theyre having to ration the number of bullets theyre using. We dont need them, we have air Defense Systems were not using. Were going to have that all over to the ukrainians. The swedes and chest are ste floor of th nhirkedom members os this package needs to get to the floor of the house there was discussion still trying to confirm an arrest of an american inside russia today. This is picking up the pace. Thank you so much for spending some time with us well sneak in a quick break well be right back. The Supreme Court today declined to take up what could have been the next big challenge to affirmative action. Refusing to hear a lawsuit against admissions criteria at an elite Public High School in virginia. The New York Times says the decision suggests, quote, most of the justices are not eager to take the steps to push the ruling from june when they gutted affirmative action from college admissions. This targeted a new admissions policy that did away withage entrance exam. Students came from schools that were, quote, historically under represented. Justices alito and thomas said the court should have reversed an Appeals Court Decision Holding the schools admission policy. Everything i do thats for my health is an accomplishment. Concerns of getting screened faded away to my astonishment. My doc gave me a script i got it done without a delay. I screened with cologuard and did it my way. Cologuard is a oneofakind way to screen for colon cancer thats effective and noninvasive. Its for people 45 plus at average risk, not high risk. False positive and negative results may occur. Ask your provider for cologuard. I did it my way if you have bladder leaks when you laugh or cough like we did theres a treatment that can help bulkamid. And the relief can last for years. Were so glad we got bulkamid. Visit findrealrelief. Com to find a physician near you. Were so glad we got bulkamid. Thank you for joining us on this tuesday. We are grateful, as always. The beat with ari melber starts right now. Thanks so much. Welcome to the beat. Im ari melber. Republicans are turning to the second primary. Gove