we re all excited the gang is back together this wednesday morning after a christmas holiday. a christmas break for each of us. it was a wonderful time. makes us all grateful for this job and we are all back together. feels good. steve: feels great. welcome back, brian. before yesterday. we were here, and griff jenkins was here as well through the entire holiday. hats off to him and everybody else who filled in the chair. brian: must have been tough for him to not surf. griff prefers to surf. steve: i was talking to griff yesterday because is he going to go down today to south florida to go surfing. and i told him the beaches are gone because of beach erosion over the last month. brian: you are kidding. steve: beaches are pretty much shot. lawrence: finally gets to celebrate and there is no beach. ainsley: still waves. brian: waves crash into land. just send you. steve: just smooths out. no roll. ainsley: y all, before christmas we saw the presiden
,. Good to go, all right. Hello, new york. Thank you for joining us, live at in new york city for this very, very Special Edition of why is this happening . He is insightful, he is big hearted, very, very very smart. Admit it, hes taller than you expected. Please give a warm welcome to my friend, my beloved colleague, and msnbcs chris hayes. [applause] hello, everybody. Hello thank you. Oh, stop. [applause] stop it [applause] how are you . Good . Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Sit down, sit down, sit down. Thank you, thats extremely kind. I hate attention and positive feedback. Really, really hard 20 seconds for me. Thank you for cutting it short. Its amazing to be here in my hometown of new york city, ive got some family here. Tonight, were gonna talk about democracy. In that word, weve probably talked more about democracy in the last four or five years that i had in all of my time before than i would say. Even that as a topic seems weird, we know americas democracy. Ther
breaking news on this holiday weekend. special counsel jack smith delivers a newfound, an urgent an appeals court to dismiss former president trump s immunity claims. ahead, what that means for the case and when we could get ruling. plus, nikki haley s campaign playing cleanup after she botched a simple question about the civil war. what her answer says about the state of the gop and its base. also ahead, a look at how the polls have shifted over the course of 2023 and what that means for 2024. and why an extreme immigration law in texas is drawing the attention of the justice department. this is american voices. we begin this hour in iowa, where several gop presidential candidates are spending the weekend in hopes of dismantling donald trump s hold over the republican party. that includes former south carolina governor nikki haley. but as she works to capture momentum from a surge in the polls, her campaign is also cleaning up her recent comments about the civi
everybody, it is wednesday, january 3rd, 2024. and we start this second hour of fox & friends with a developing story. that man right there, new jersey s long time senator robert menendez is back in the spotlight following new corruption allegations. ainsley: the embattled democrat is now facing even more bribery charges. this time for allegedly helping the qatari government in exchange for lavish gifts. lawrence: this is unbelievable. peter doocy is live from the white house with more on this. hey, peter. peter: the word was allegedly out all around the world. if you want the u.s. senator to say something nice about your country just buy him something expensive. that s what the united states government is alleging now that there are these text messages showing the following. it s pretty extraordinary. bob menendez gets a text from a businessman with ties to the qatari government that says how about one of these? and it s photos of two watches ranging from $9,900
Decision did not come down to a panel of state justices. Instead just Secretary Of State Shenna Bellows upheld two of the three challenges brought by maine voters. One of whom ill speak to in just a moment. What bellows says her reasoning was based on and what it all means for donald trump heading into Super Tuesday. Were also watching colorado where time is ticking on the decision to remove trump from the ballot there that the former president has yet to file his appeal with the Supreme Court. Still voters are urging justices to speed up their review of an appeal from colorados Republican Party. How and when they could act. Plus which other states could throw a wrench into trumps 2024 calendar. Weve got a whole lot to cover. Lets dive in. Joining Me Msnbc News Justice reporter ryan riley. Bring us up to speed on what happened in maine and how donald trump is now reacting. Yes. As you expect the Trump Campaign plans to file an appeal quickly and get this through the court system very q