today, there are no reports of any toxic chemical spills, but lots of questions about how in the world this happened again. what started out as a wild weather story has quickly turned into a life-threatening disaster. scores of california residents penned in by literal walls of snow more than six feet high. they re trapped and running out of food. we ll have a live report on rescue operations under way right now. today the battle lines for the 2024 republican nomination are being more clearly than we ve seen to date, setting up what may be a long and nasty fight for the republican nomination. we heard it in donald trump s borderline apocalyptic address to a less-than-robust corrode at cpac, while ron desantis amped up his attack on liberals to a packed house at the reagan library. in four years you didn t see our administration leaking like a sive. you didn t see a lot of drama and palace intrigue. what you saw was surgical precision, execution day after day after day a
of people that included roger stone and steve bannon urging trump to declare victory regardless of the results, the actual legal results, of the 2020 election. now the january 6th select committee cites a memo that fitton wrote for trump in the run-up to election day, i think the summer before the election, as evidence that in the words of committee member zoe love gren friend the big lie was untensional, promeditated and a plan concocted in advance. here s a snippet from the january 6th select committee s final hearing. a few days before the election, mr. trump also consulted with one of husband outside advisers inside activist tom fitton about the strategy for election night. the select committee got this pre-prepared statement from the national archives. as you can see, the draft statement, which was sent on october 31st, declares we had an election today and i won, and the fitton memo specifically indicates a plan that only the votes counted by the election day deadline
today s republican party exists in is that there s a so-called deep state and that is out to persecute the ex-president, his allies and other conservatives. now having managed to become house speaker by the skin of his teeth, kevin mccarthy is enacting an agenda based entirely off of that warped and delusional world view. one of his first acts, removing congressman adam schiff and eric swalwell from the house intelligence committee. mccarthy denied it had anything to do with the fact that they are critics of a disgraced twice impeached ex-president and his allies. the cardinal sin appears to be i led the impeachment of his master in mar-a-lago, for withholding hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid in ukraine, a nation that was then at war with russia, in order to extort that country and to help donald trump s re-election campaign. you are seeing the fulfillment of kevin mccarthy s corrupt bargain, with marjorie taylor greene, somebody who declared on january 5,
and supporting prop d to build more affordable housing hi, everyone, it s all happening. it s 4:00 in new york on election day. the end of a campaign that has been like none other in recent history. more than 44 million people have already voted and millions more will have voted before the polls close in the next few hours in all 50 states. it has been an election season defined not just by the issues that dominate every election including the state of the economy, how people feel about the state of the economy, but it s also been defined by an unprecedented threat to income on the ballot and the first national election after the january 6th insurrection. in nearly every state there are republicans who have affirmed their commitment to this same big lie that led to that attack on the u.s. capitol. their races for governor, attorney general, and secretary of state that could have major implications on the next election, 2024, especially if the twice impeached ex-president as
american voices with castro starts right now on msnbc. thank you, reverend sharpton. hello everyone and welcome to american voices. i am in for alicia menendez this hour. we kick off the new year with a finale of political theater in the house of representatives. what it means for doing the peoples business and the year to come. 14 ballots tonight kevin mccarthy finally got what he wanted. last night he became speaker of the house, who knew the 15th time could be the charm. instead of using his historic moment to lay out a vision for the american people, the speaker made it clear his party s top priority is waging political warfare against the biden administration. we will hold the swab accountable from the withdraw of afghanistan to the origins of covid and to the weaponization of the fbi. let me be very clear, we will use the power of the purse and the power of the subpoena to get the job done. now, mccarthy might have the gavel, but not without a frankly embarrassing