Of the president. The Portland Press herald in portland, maine, historic trial of trump begins. In hawaii, Honolulu Star advertiser, trial set in motion. Philadelphia inquirer, very dramatic, the trial begins. St. Louis postdispatch went with a very good one, trump on trial. But, i will say as much as i love the st. Louis dispatch headliner, check out the parkersburg news and sentinel. Their headline is perfect. Look. Jury duty. Get it . Jury duty. As in you are the jurors senators, do your duty. Its so good. Jury duty. Trumps trial begins, senators vowing impartial justice. This is the New York Times. All six columns. The full width of the front page. Trumps trial opens as new evidence merges. This is the birmingham news birmingham, alabama, trial begins with pomp and bombshell. Today the former summons of the president notifying him hes on trial, arrived at the white house. The white house is expected to make a reply in writing by tomorrow evening. Also by tomorrow evening, the house, essentially the prosecutors are expected to file their first trial brief for the president s impeachment trial. The president s side, in effect, the defense, will have their first brief due on monday. So, this is joined now. This is on. And as noted by those last two front pages we showed from birmingham, alabama, and new york city, there is this very unusual dynamic at work in this impeachment which is that the impeachment trial is opening as new evidence emerges as the times puts it or as proverbial bombshells continue to drop which is the way the birmingham news put it. The fact that new witnesses are coming forward, everybody noted that puts pressure on the senate in terms of whether theyre going to consider witness testimony or documentary evidence as new or potential important, witnesses continue to present themselves and new documents continue to pile up. Will the senate pretend none of that is happening or will they actually look at that stuff considering the scandal and the record of the president s behavior theyve got before them. Well speak with the key u. S. Senator tonight how it is playing inside the senate and how it ultimately be resolved. The fact that new evidence is still coming out right now in real time, new witnesses are coming forward saying stuff that is potentially very consequential for the case against the president , i think somewhat unusually it also mean that is the politics of this impeachment are very much in flux as the trial gets underway. I mean, im not trying to be naive about this, but what the public knows about what the president did is an evolving beast. As more evidence comes forward, as the public learns new things about what the president did, thats very much going to affect the publics expectations for how they want and expect senators to judge the president. It will affect how the public views senators in terms of seriousness with which they are approaching this solemn jury duty, thank you parkersburg news and sentinel. It will also affect the publics perception of the president s alleged high crimes and misdemeanor and whether or not he should be held accountable for those things. This is a live thing. Impeachments are always unpredictable, theyre so rare. The fact that this one still has more evidence and sometimes very compelling evidence coming to the surface being surfaced by the freedom of information act lawsuits, being surfaced from witnesses coming forward who have tales to tell, it matters in terms of how humble we should be about our expectations for this impeachment as it goes forward. And i should mention, can we go back to the birmingham news front page for a second . Thank you. One of the things the birmingham news is highlighting is as the trial is kicking off the nonpartisan investigative body called the Government Accountability office has just determined that when the president withheld aid from ukraine as part of this scheme for which hes being impeached, it was against the law for him to do that. It was illegal for him to do that. There has been a talking point from the white house and among republican supporters of the president and congress that this impeachment is a scandal for which there was no technical crime. There was a crime it turns out. That official determination that the president acted illegally and withholding those funds from ukraine, that official determination by the gao right as the trial starts, i know it is something thats a little bit swamped by other developments this week, that may end up being important in terms of how this goes over. That is one of the latebreaking bombshells that is still coming to forward, coming to Public Notice as the trial starts. Were going to speak with somebody very close to that story about that gao ruling in just a moment tonight as well. Weve got a lot to come. I have to tell you even just tonight the house released still more evidence that pertains to the impeachment scandal, more texts and call records and communications, even a voice mail that they received from lev parnas, the same lev parnas who i interviewed this week in new york and who had a key role in the ukraine scheme as essentially Rudy Giulianis right hand man for the duration of this Pressure Campaign. The things mr. Parnas told me in this interview this week are explosive on a lot of different levels. He bluntly implicated not only the president but also a number of other Senior Administration officials including cabinet officials in the way he told the story about how the ukraine scheme worked. I know that the white house and conservative media in particular have tried to discount his assertions and his allegations by saying that mr. Parnas is under federal criminal indictment and that is absolutely true. Nobodys hiding the ball about that whatsoever. The problem with that politically i think theres a problem with that. It cuts both ways. Lev parnas is facing charges but that puts him in good company in trump world. Why is it that so many people connected with this president are in prison or up on felony counts . The president s campaign chairman, prison, Deputy Campaign chairman, National Security adviser awaiting maybe prison. The president s personal lawyer not that one, the other one. Prison. And yeah, the guy running the campaign, prison. Like i said, thats a big team. It is easy to take shots at him for its legal problems. Dont you look around, how come this president have so many people around him who we recognized in mug shots. So, like, theres a glass houses problem with people being like dont trust this guy in the trump orbit. Hes facing felony charges. Yeah, dude, who isnt . The other problem with this effort to dismiss these allegations and these assertions made by mr. Parnas is that it turns out i learned in speaking with him this week and in reviewing very carefully everything that has been released by the House Intelligence Committee that he handed over to them what weve learned about him as a witness to this scandal is that he is that remarkable thing that prosecutors and investigators look for which is the person who not only was involved at all levels of the scheme thats being investigated. He is the person who did that while keeping all the receipts. He kept everything it turns out. He has provided reams of documentary evidence, Text Messages, letters, photos, whatsapp messages. You name it, he has handed it all over to the house investigators who have been making it public over the course of this week. And it turns out those materials can be used to corroborate his story, to corroborate some of the assertions that he made to me in my interview this week. For example, the Washington Post today took a close look at what i think is the most explosive claim that lev parnas made in my whole interview with him. And i know mr. Parnas made a lot of very explosive claims. I just want to focus in on one of them that might end up being the most consequential and its the basis of the Washington Post report today sort of checking out as best they can mr. Parnas assertions. Im not going to replay this whole section of the interview in which mr. Parnas made these claims. Theyre about the Vice President. Ive cut it down a little bit to paire it down to the essence. But you should see it one more time to refresh your memory. Did you meet with sergay shafer. Yes, i did. It has been reported as far as we understand from public reporting that you conveyed to mr. Shafer the exact quid pro quo, that you wanted zelenski to announce investigations into joe biden or military aid would not be released to ukraine. Is that accurate . It was a little bit more than that. Basically, the message that i was supposed to that i gave sergay shafer was a very harsh message that was told to me to give it to him in a very harsh way, not a pleasant way. Who told you to give it to him in a harsh way. Mayor giuliani told me after meeting with the president at the white house. He called me, the message wasnt just military aid. It was all aid. Basically their relationships would be sour. They would stop giving them any kind of aid unless there was an announcement made the conversation, i told them that if he doesnt the announcement was the key at that time because of the inauguration, that pence would not show up, nobody would show up to the inauguration. Unless he announced investigation into joe biden, no u. S. Officials would not come. In particular Vice President mike pence. So, the day after that meeting that you had this was sunday the 12th. I believe it was the following day that in fact Vice President pences visit to the inauguration was cancelled. It was after my phone call. The conversation that i laid out to mr. Shafer was basically what i was told to do by giuliani and the president. And then afterwards i relayed back to them saying that hes going to get back to me later tonight and were supposed to meet. Then around 8 00 or 9 00 at night, i text him back saying any word, whats the situation . And at that point because on whatsapp you can see a person disconnects you, and he disconnected me, our conversation. He blocked you . He blocked me. And i understood that that was a no. So i called back. I said no go . And he i remember rudy going okay, well see. And basically next day pence, to my awareness, trump called up and said to make sure pence doesnt go there. You believe mr. Pences trip to inauguration was cancelled because they didnt agree to announce the investigations. I know. Theres other the chain of events. That was the key to where we are today because after that take a look at what transpires. Next, within the next couple of day ls all days all of a sudden they get word because when pence cancels they get word that pence is not coming. Now they realize what i was telling is true. Lev parnas in my interview with him this week made explosive claims about the president , about attorney general william barr, about Energy Secretary rick perry, congressman devin nunes, Rudy Giuliani, and, and, and, and, and. But for my claim, for my money, the claim he made out about Vice President mike pence is sort of stunning. It is stunning because senators are being convened in this trial right now to decide whether or not President Trumps behavior is sufficiently bad, sufficiently illegal, sufficiently violative of his responsibilities under the constitution that senators should remove the president from office. If they remove the president from office. They would defacto elevate Vice President mike pence into the oval office. In is circumstances, it would be good to know if Vice President pence was involved or knowingly complicit in the core scheme for which the president has been impeached. I mean, theres the possibility here that you are arresting bonnie but promoting collide. If they were doing this together and Vice President pence was knowingly complicit in the heart of this scheme, demanding that ukraine announce investigations into joe biden or you get your aid cut off, if he was complicit in that scheme, if he was part of it, thats a big deal for senators weighing the prospect of removing President Trump from office for his role in that scheme if Vice President pence also had an overt and knowing role in the same thing. But they dont just live out there in space on their own. They are bolstered as the Washington Post lays out point by point. They are bolstered at every turn by documentary evidence that supports the timeline of what mr. Parnas is describing. Quote, Text Messages and other documents released by the house this week as well as testimony during the impeachment inquiry corroborate the timeline that parnas detailed in interviews about the episode. Mr. Parnas explained to me that he was in contact with a very senior Ukrainian Government official named sergay shafer, that is bolstered between the texts messages that have been made public by the impeachment investigators. Mr. Parnas told me he was given mr. Shafers number and he first got in touch with him on may 11th. That checks out. Heres that text message written may 11th from lev parnas to shafer. Its written in russian. The Intelligence Committee has translated it as good evening, my name is lev parnas, im a friend of Rudy Giuliani, call me back. Thank you. Nine minutes later to prove who he was and he had the connections he was bragging about, he sent along a copy of a letter that giuliani had sent to zelenski. Its not a public letter. This is something only someone connected to Rudy Giuliani would have. Lev sends that letter to establish. He responds understood, thanks. Later that night, shafer sends lev parnas by text the name of a fancy restaurant in kyiv where he wants to meet mr. Parnas. Hes going to get that meeting. Following morning, we know lev is on the way. Good morning sergay, im on the way. Ill be there about 10 15. We dont need to translate this. Okay is okay in any language. Now, at that meeting, at that restaurant, that is what lev parnas described in his interview with me. Thats where he said he was harsh, that he made this harsh demand of that senior demand to the ukrainian president. If they didnt investigate investigations into joe biden, it would be the end of their relationships with the United States and they would get no mike pence at the inauguration of president zelenski. Pence would cancel his inaugural visit. Just as mr. Parnas said, after that meeting happened which did not go well, it was very heated, he said he was very harsh. He said shafer made no commitment to announce the biden investigation which is what parnas was demanding on behalf of Rudy Giuliani on behalf of the president of the United States. Just as lev said, he told me in this interview that he didnt hear back from mr. Shafer after that meeting. And so later that night, it had been a breakfast meeting in kyiv. Later that night, lev parnas started texting the guy to find out if he was going to give him an answer. Thats what he told me in the interview. And in fact it checks out. Here in those texts, weve got lev parnas the night of the 12th texting mr. Shafer. Sergay, good evening. Is there any news . He does not write back. We can see from the complete string of Text Messages that a couple of weeks later, lev stries again. Hello . Hello . Thats a couple of weeks later. Couple of months later, question mark, hello, are you blocking me . In fact, shafer never writes back to lev again. Just as lev said, he cut me off from that conversation. And then what happened next after he didnt hear back from shafer on the night of the 12th . According to lev, the way he tells it, rerelayed back to Rudy Giuliani in washington or at least in the United States that it was in levs words a no go. Remember the threat was that Vice President pence would cancel his plans to attend zelenskis inauguration unless they agreed to announce the investigation. The way lev told the story, he relayed to sh wah wash its a no go, rudy told him they will see, and by the next morning mike pence would cancel his trip to go to zelenskis inauguration. Thats what lev threatened on behalf of the white house. The white house made good on that threat. The way that lev laid out this bombshell assertion about Vice President mike pence and his involvement in this scheme, in this Pressure Campaign on ukraine to make a visit and all these other things that Ukrainian Government wanted and needed from the u. S. Government, make it contingent on announcing that investigation which on the 12th they would not do, i mean, the way lev explains it that meeting happened on the 12th, he reported home the night of the 12th and the cancellation of the visit happened on the 13th. That is what lev parnas alleges as explosive as it is. And it turns out that last part of it checks out as well. We had already stopped the trip planning by that point. When did that happen . Stopping the trip happening . On may 13th. How did you hear about that . I was called by colleague, the Vice President s chief of staffs office and told to stop the trip planning. Did you have any knowledge of the reasoning for stopping the trip . I asked my colleague why we should stop trip planning and why the Vice President would not be intending and i was informed that the president had decided the Vice President would not attend the inauguration. Kind of seems like lev parnas was speaking for President Trump after all. President trump contacted Vice President mike pence and told him he wouldnt be going to that inauguration. This dramatic story that lev parnas tells about Vice President mike pences trip being cancelled to ukraine to make good on the white house threat, that that visit would be cancelled unless they announced the biden investigations, it is bolstered i mean, as shocking as that claim is and as potentially important as that claim is about the involvement of the Vice President , you may doubt lev parnas because of who he is, but what he said is explicitly and exactly bolstered by corroborating documentation and testimony from disinterested witnesses. Now, a Senior Administration official talking to the Washington Post about this chain of events even with the protection of anonymity would, quote, not share what reason President Trump gave Vice President pence for cancelling that trip. Well, somebody should maybe ask President Trump what reason he gave Vice President pence to cancel his trip to zelenskis inauguration. Somebody should ask Vice President mike pence what reason President Trump gave him for cancelling the trip to the inauguration. Or did he really just, you know, cancel his planned trip to zelenskis inauguration on direct orders from the president of the United States by saying yes, sir, please dont tell me why, sir. I mean, maybe thats how things operate at the highest levels of the Trump Administration. But somebody should ask. I will also say that in the materials just released by the house tonight, mr. Parnass claims that Rudy Giuliani arranged for mr. Parnas to have john daoud, the president s onetime lawyer represent him when he was summoned to speak to the impeachment investigation, that claim about giuliani setting him up with john daoud, that is also bolstered by these Text Messages. Also when mr. Parnas told me that he was shocked devin nunes was taking a leading role in the supposed investigation of the scandal, he was shocked because he, lev parnas, had arranged for a devin nunes staffer to participate in the scheme from digging up dirt from corrupt officials. That is bolstered in these Text Messages tonight showing lev parnas doing just that with a top staffer setting up interviews between that staffer and ukrainian officials against joe biden. What lev said to me is bolstered by the documentation that you would go to look for if you were tryi trying to prove it. I understand they want to attack lev parnas as an accused criminal. He is one of many around this president in this administration. Whatever mr. Parnas own situation, the guy does seem to have kept everything, every photo, every text, every whatsapp message, every attachment. So, his claims can be checked. The white house has denied all documents from the entire federal government to the impeachment investigation. Turns out lev has a bunch though and hes handed them over. Turns out even the most what i believe to have been the most explosive claim he made in my interview with him in very important ways, it turns out by the documentary evidence we can corroborate by, it checks out. More ahead. Stay with us. Ahead stay with us xperience of a lifetime. Its progressive on ice. Everything you love about Car Insurance the discounts. The rate comparisons. And flo in a boat. Insurance adventure awaits at progressive on ice. Tickets not available now or ever. Thouwhich is breast cancer. Metastthat has spreadcer, to other parts of the body, are living in the moment and taking ibrance. Ibrance with an aromatase inhibitor is for postmenopausal women or for men with hr her2 metastatic breast cancer, as the first hormonal based therapy. Ibrance plus letrozole significantly delayed disease progression versus letrozole, and shrank tumors in over half of patients. 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Do you recall, not long ago we would walk on the sidewalk all around the wind blows we would only hold on to let go blow a kiss into the sun we need someone to lean on blow a kiss into the sun we needed somebody to lean on all we need is someone to lean on it was a signal moment when Mick Mulvaney stood up in the Briefing Room last year and admitted out loud in front of the whole world that yes, there was a quid pro quo involving the withholding of aid to ukraine in exchange for them announcing investigations that the white house was demanding. It is easy to forget because of how large that claim looms. In that same press conference Mick Mulvaney admitted to something else. He admitted in that press conference as well that there were concerns inside the white house, inside the office of management and budget, over the legality or potential illegality of the hold on the aid to ukraine. We were concerned of an impoundment. I know ive just put half you folks to bed. The budget impoundment act says if Congress Appropriates money, you have to spend it. We knew that money had to go out the door by the end of september or we have a good reason not to do it. That was the legality of the issue. That was the legality of the issue. There is legal constraint. That presser is remembered for Mick Mulvaney admitting to the quid pro quo. But he also admitted that there were concerns inside the white house, inside omb, about the legality of that part of the quid pro quo. That part of the quid pro quo that was withholding u. S. Aid from ukraine. So, that press conference was in october. The following month in november, there was a career official from omb testifying to the impeachment investigation that in fact he was among the people who had raised questions about whether withholding those funds from ukraine was illegal. More explosively that official mark sandy testified that two other officials at omb had not only shared those concerns that this was potentially illegal, he told the impeachment investigation that two omb officials had actually resigned at least in part due to the concerns over the legality of the hold. Well, we now know those officials who resigned, they were not alone in their concerns. And it would seem to be proven now that their concerns were wellfounded. The white house refused to hand over any documents that could shed light on this matter. Just before christmas, heavily redacted documents did start spilling into the open thanks to freedom of information filed by watchdog groups. They actively took steps to try to keep it as quiet as possible. Earlier this month, reporting by justice security revealed that department of defense officials also expressed explicit and urgent concern about the potential illegality of the hold. The president and his allies have insisted consistently that no crime was committed in relation to any part of this impeachment inquiry. Its not true. The officials who were concerned early on that what was going on around them might be illegal, they were right. Yesterday, the gao, the independent nonpartisan Congressional Agency thats tasks with investigations, tasked with reviewing this matter, concluded that yeah, the Trump Administration did in fact break the law when they withheld that money. That decision said house chairman john yarmuth confirmed President Trump broke the law withholding assistance for ukraine. This is only the latest proof that he brazenly broke the law. Congressman yarmuth, mr. Chairman, thank you for making time to be here tonight. I really appreciate it. Good to be with you, rachel. I just ran down a little bit of the history of this part of the scandal. Let me ask you if i got any of that wrong or events have over taken me and i left out something important. You got it right. The impoundment act of 1974 prohibits the administration from withholding funds unless theres some kind of programmatic problem for instance if there was a Grant Program and nobody applied for the grant, they cant dispense the funds. But other than that, the government is obligated, the administration, to spend the money Congress Appropriates per sunt to article 1 powers. And if they dont, they have to come to congress in advance and explain why they want to withhold the funding. Of course they did none of that. What gao said was that you cannot, definitely cannot, withhold funds based on policy. You can under certain circumstances again the programattic technicalities, you might. But when its policy, you cant do that. The administration came back in response to the gao report and said we believe we have the right to withhold funds based on the president s priorities which is policy. So, basically theyre saying they dont agree with the law. Well, they could not agree with the law but they have to abide by it. The problem we have is theres really no enforcement mechanism. We can impeach him which were doing. And obviously this is part of the entire scheme which is part of the article one charge,that he abused his power. In this case he actually broke the law in abusing his power. So, were going to be looking at ways to tighten down the impoundment act so that there are consequences if the administration does something thats against the law. Let me ask you about one of the intriguing human dynamics behind this part of the story which is that it does appear from the documents weve been able to see from the testimony we got from people like mark sandy that there were people at omb working in the white house, there were people at the Defense Department certainly who seemed pretty convinced or seemed very worried that this was illegal, that this hold on this aid was not in compliance with the law and that there would consequences when it became known. And those people raised concerns, explicitly committed them to writing, seemed to run those concerns up the chain as far as they could. And then we also see other Trump Administration officials, political appointees, seeming to try to keep this quiet, seeming to try to keep this as something that wasnt getting widely circulated and wasnt being widely discussed after they had been warned that it was illegal. That sort of perceived culpability for people who knew they might have been furthering a criminal act, it just seems like people other than just the president did stuff that was wrong here. Yeah, exactly. And theres another piece of evidence too in that normally what we call the apportionment letters which actually has to go out when you dispense money or when youre delaying the dispense of money or signed by career officials, career employees at the omb. That was done to a certain point, and then they took it out of their hands and put it in the hands of a political appointee at omb. They took it out of the normal process. This was part of their i think again, a response to the fact they know they were doing something wrong. They didnt want the career officials to have a hand in it. And we know there were wide reports that Mick Mulvaney also had asked omb lawyers to see if they could come up with legal justification for what they were doing. They all knew they were doing something wrong. There was never any question about that. And they had that was on the technical side, the legal side. On the policy side, there were people within the administration, very high up in the military and the diplomatic sphere who were arguing against it saying it was bad policy, that we needed to actually put this money out so the ukrainians could defend themselves. Congressman john yarmuth, thanks for helping us understand this tonight. It is a dramatic thing to get a ruling that the president acting illegally in this scheme as his senate trial is beginning. But its helpful to have you clarify it for us. Thank you very much. Well, when Mick Mulvaney said he put half the people to sleep, maybe we put the other people to sleep. But its a very important event. America needs to sleep better. Sure. Much appreciated. With evidence got more. Stay with us. Appreciated. With evidence got more stay with us still looking for a dry skin solution . 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Once trump became president , Chris Collins became trumps most vocal and most ardent defenders on capitol hill right up until the point in 2018 when Chris Collins was arrested on felony charges related to an Insider Trading scheme. Collins fought those charges in court for over a year and reelected in 2018 go buffalo despite being under indictment for federal crimes. It was not until last year when congressman collins resigned from congress after he decided that okay, after all he was going to plead guilty. Well, now with the impeachment trial of donald trump underway with senators and chief justice being sworn in yesterday. Today we got a stark and sobering reminder of where the donald trump era in politics really began. Because today the first congressman who endorsed his president ial bid, Chris Collins, he was sentenced to 2 1 2 years in federal prison for his role in that Insider Trading scheme. I should note that the second member of congress who endorsed donald trump for president is a gentleman named duncan hunter. He just submitted his official resignation to Congress Last week after also pleading guilty to felony charges. Hes set to be sentenced in march. More to come in every possible way im sure of it. Stay with us. Of it stay with us. Over a pound of meat and cheese for just 10 bucks. Its more pepperoni for your penny, more beef for your buck, more. You get the idea. Get yours delivered now at pizza hut. Com. No one out pizzas the hut {tires screeching} {truck honking} [alarm beeping] avo life doesnt give you many second chances. But a subaru can. dad you guys ok . You alright . Wow. avo eyesight with precollision braking. Standard on the subaru ascent. The threerow subaru ascent. Love. Its what makes a subaru a subaru. Earlier tonight i showed you a bunch of newspaper front pages today from this historic date in our history. I want to focus for one minute on this one, this New York Times headline, trumps trial opens as new evidence emerges. I mean, its were living this so we know what this feels like but its a remarkable thing. As the articles of impeachment move from the house to the senate this week, as the senate convened its trial, nearly every day has brought forth significant information related to the factual information. How does this new information affect how the senate trial is likely to be conducted . And are senators talking about this amongst themselves or changing their minds based on the new information theyre getting that may be sort of affecting the way they otherwise thought they would approach these things . Senator mazie ho row know was sworn in yesterday. She joins us live tonight. Thank you so much for being with us. Let me ask if im right to focus in on this as a notable factor heading into this trial. The new information thats coming out every day, is it affecting what your expectations are for how the trial will run . It certainly adds to the corroboration of what we know President Trump already did which was to shake down the ukraine president for his political purposes in using almost 400 million in taxpayer money as a bribe. So, all of this corroborating evidence is emerging, thanks so much to you. But if these were more normal times, somebody like lev parnas would already have testified in the house impeachment inquiry because he was subpoenaed to testify. And he was prevented from doing so. And all the evidence that was requested, 71 subpoena requests for documents which the white house said no way. So, theyve been stonewalling the impeachment inquiry all the way, and this is one of the reasons, rachel, that i think youve done a Great Service to let people understand that theres more evidence out there. And Mitch Mcconnell is doing everything he can to prevent the senators and the American People from hearing this evidence. Thankfully in this age of social media, all of the parnas evidence and theres a lot of it is on the website, the house website. In terms of the information that has been yes. Conveyed forward for the investigation. Yes. I wonder how sensitive you think the senate is as a body, how Mitch Mcconnell, i guess is as its majority leader to Public Perceptions on this stuff because, i mean, part of whats weird and interesting about the fact that this information is coming out through freedom of information act lawsuits and through public interviews of people like me on tv is that the public knows all this stuff. The public gets to see all this stuff and that changes public expectations for what the president is going to be on trial for. How sensitive do you think mcconnell is to what the public knows and what the public is going to want answers to . I dont think Mitch Mcconnell is very sensitive at all. This is the same person who prevented mayor garland from getting on the supreme court. And then he didnt prevent the Government Shutdown that hurt 800,000 government workers. So, hes not sensitive at all. One thing that Mitch Mcconnell cares about is retaining control over the senate just as the president is totally interested in his own retention of the presidency. These are the kind of people were talking about. But thankfully, the American People want evidence and witnesses on the trial, the majority of people understand that that is what a fair trial looks like. In a Conference Call are reporters in your home state of hawaii today, you said the president is trying to rig this trial by not producing any documents and forbidding his people from testifying. What do you mean by using the word rig there . Just as he tried to rig the election by getting the ukrainian president to do his political bidding, hes trying to rig this trial using Mitch Mcconnell to prevent any witnesses or documents from being produced. This is i think rigging is the right word. Another word is cheating. Hes cheating the American People. Senator mazie hirono, democrat of hawaii. Next week is going to be a huge week. Thanks for being with us. Thank you. Stay with us. With us thank you stay with us. Ve power over p, so the whole world looks different. The unbeatable strength of advil. What pain . Amandas moms appointment hello mom. Just got rescheduled for today. Amanda needs right at home. Our customized care plans provide as much or as little help as her mom requires. Whether its a ride to the doctor or help around the house. Oh, of course tom, i am really sorry. Ive gotta go. Look, call right at home. Get the right care. Right at home. If youre living with hiv, and ask your doctor about biktarvy. 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And ask your doctor if biktarvy is right for you. Wthats why xfinity hasu made taking your internetself. And tv with you a breeze. Really . Yup. You can transfer your Service Online in about a minute. You can do that . Yeah. And with twohour Service Appointment windows, its all on your schedule. Awesome. So while moving may still come with its share of headaches. No kidding. Were doing all we can to make moving simple, easy, awesome. Go to xfinity. Com moving to get started. Were going to have to warm up the chart. All right. You remember this . This was the state of play the last time we checked in. This is something we have been tracking and trying very hard to keep to accurate scale. This is what the president ial contenders have spent on tv and radio ads thus far. This was their spending to date when we last checked in on em a week or so ago. But now, as of tonight, we have an update. With the new numbers we got in today, boop. Chaching. There is a Little Movement across the board. But the dynamic in this race remains wholly unchanged. The billionaires running in the democratic primary, Michael Bloomberg and tom steyer, are just playing a qualitatively different game when it comes to how much they are spending on ads. Everybody else i like on a bicycle. Some have faster bicycles or slower bicycles, but theyre in a spaceship. Different thing. Its almost impossible to fit that kind of difference on your screen, let alone in your brain. But here is something also mind bending in the new numbers, which tells a whole different story. Obviously, you know, iowa is first in the primary and then new hampshire. But then the next two states are nevada and South Carolina. Turns out, something fascinating is going on with the spending in those two states in particular. I want to show you nevada. When you add it up, the 2020 candidates have spent almost 12 million on advertising, tv and radio ads, in nevada. But when you look at how that 12 million is spread out across the candidates, you realize, wow, its not really spread out at all. Tom steyer has spent more than 10 million on ads in South Carolina. 91 of the ad buys in South Carolina are tom steyer. Sorry, in nevada. Sorry. And its the same thing in South Carolina. 17. 5 million have been spent on 2020 ads in South Carolina. Of that 17 million, tom steyer spent almost 15 million of it all by himself. 85 of the money spent on ads in that state, spent by that one candidate. We already know tom steyer has translated millions of dollars worth of tv time into a huge boost in the polls in those states specifically. That bought him a last minute spot at the debate this past week. But with him dominating the ad spending, not in some states down the road but in the states that go third and fourth. Nevada and South Carolina. With those contests, and they are now fast approaching, will that money, that dominant money in the ad world be translated into votes, as well . We shall see. Well be right back. Stay with us. Give me your hand i can save you. Lots of money with liberty mutual. We customize your Car Insurance so you only pay for what you need [ grunting ] only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Tracfone lets you keep your leftover data each month. Unlimited carryover data 20 bucks. What are you doing . I want to ask you about your data. Oh, i thought you said dating. This is your wakeup call, people. The new tracfone wireless. Now youre in control. The new tracfone wireless. Looking to simplify your skin care routine without sacrificing results . Try olay total effects. One dose provides more vitamin b3 than 50 cups of kale and improves 7 key areas of visibly healthy skin. Try olay total effects. How about a best new thing in the world . Ready for one . Here we go. Exactly 100 years ago today, alcohol became illegal in this country. It was the start of prohibition. On that first day, more than 1,500 federal agents spread out across the country conducting antialcohol raids with local authorities. Barrels of wine were poured into the streets. Bottles of booze were unceremoniously smashed. In new york city, the Police Commissioner himself personally dumped 100,000 worth of liquor into the east river. Come on. In chicago, barrels of milwaukee lager were tossed into lake michigan. Authorities were zealous. The government began employing, specifically, female agents to go undercover to facilitate the raids. The most famous of whom went by the nickname lady hoochhunter. Weirdly, thats my drag name now. Im not lying when i tell you that the actually lady hoochhunter quit the second she was assigned a desk job. She was a hooch hunter. Youre going to lock her up behind a desk . Despite all those efforts, prohibition, of course was a massive failure. People still drank. Bathtub gin. Speakeasies. Bootlegging. Booze cruises took passengers beyond our territorial waters as a way to bypass the law. Organized crime flourished. Gangsters had a massive new revenue stream after all thanks to smuggling alcohol and the huge demand for it. Prohibition was ineffective at achieving its stated aims. It was also a huge strain on the economy. And it bred a huge and malevolent new species of gangsterism. Federal, state, and local governments lost billions of dollars in tax revenue. It was an engine of misery and failure. When the Great Depression hit, there was a massive push to finally be done with it and have prohibition overturned. In part, because it might provide an economic boost. Protestors took to the streets with signs that said we want beer. And im no camel. I want beer it took almost 14 years but prohibition was finally gotten rid of. Finally overturned in 1933. That leads me to the best new thing in the world. The anniversary, the centennial of prohibition, i feel is a timely reminder that sometimes our country makes terrible, terrible decisions. Decisions that cause terrible harm to this country and to our to its inhabitants. But when we do that, we should remember that we can change our minds. We can undo those things. We can get smarter and resolve to never do those things again. We are capable of growth and learning as a country. And that is the best new thing in the world today. Cheers. That does it for us tonight. I will see you again very soon. Actually, see you tomorrow morning when i will be a guest on a. M. Joy. 10 00 a. M. Eastern time. Thats tomorrow morning. I will also tell you sunday night starting at 10 00 p. M. Eastern, msnbc is going to reair both of the parts of my interview with lev parnas again sunday night 10 00 p. M. See you there. Now, its time for the last word now, its time for the last word where ali velshi is in for lawrence. Good evening, ali. We can undo the things weve done wrong. We can undo our mistakes. Thats a great way to leave it, rachel. Thank you. Well see you sunday night and monday again. And tomorrow. We are seeing one reason why Senate Republicans want to rush an impeachment trial. The material keeps coming and none of it is good for donald trump. At this rate, what will we know by tuesday . Day one of the impeachment trial . Well get to all the new texts, documents, and audio that have just come out this evening. Including new documents related to the House Intelligence CommitteeRanking Member devin nunes. House Intelligence Committee member congressman jim himes will join us. Governor bill weld, who is running for the republican president ial nomination against ld