of violent right wing extremism in this country's recent history. first charlottesville, virginia where a partial verdict was announced hours ago in a civil case against some of those involved with the 2017 unite the right rally that left one woman dead. in a moment we'll hear reaction from her mother. first though, what can you tell us about the verdict. >> reporter: the jury was hung on federal conspiracy charges relating to a law passed in the 1970s to fight the kkk but did find these guys liable under a virginia conspiracy law. the other defendants took great pains to say they never had any contact with james alex fields convicted of first-degree murder for driving his car into a crowd and killing heather heier and is serving a life sentence. the jury found in some part the leaders of the group who glamorized violence or planned for it at the event are in some way responsible for those who came to the event and participated in the violence. >> you were there in 2017. you are there now to see this jury's decision on this. there is a lot of money at play. a lot of money. what can you tell us about that? >> there is. there are two parts of that weekend. there was a torch march which had no permit and a rally which did. those who participated in the torch march are responsible for a lot more money than those who did not. another strange theng is on the conspiracy charge that hits all the defendants they awarded very low numbers for compensatory damages. $1 or zero dollars. they awarded half a million or a million dollars in punitive damages. the supreme court has held the ratio between the two has to be a lot smaller like at most 1 to 10. that means the judge will possibly have to lower that to -- from six figures to two or three. >> that's interesting. so the number could change. the total number is over $20 million now but the number could be brought down substantially. which impacts my next question, which is it likely the outcome of this case will have what the plaintiffs' side wanted here which is to be a deterrent for white supremacists organizing in the future? >> it clearly sends a message for people who exclusively call for violence that there could be consequences if somebody is inspired by that to do it. most of the people involved in this case have quit organizing. richard spencer says he hates the outright and it hates him back. one defendant has been talking to me about the long term consequences of this. he got fired from mcdonald's because someone saw him on the news and figured out he was a professional racist. so yeah, a lot of these guys are out of the movement but the old money white nationalists behind the skoencenes who funded and nurtured them weren't involved in this case so they're still out there. >> you were there that night in 2017 and you're there tonight. i imagine there are more chapters in the future you'll be covering as well. we appreciate the work you're doing on this. >> thank you. >> as we mentioned one woman was killed during the 2017 rally. she was a 32-year-old paralegal killed when one defendant drove his car into a crowd of counterprotesters. he is serving multiple life sents. we are honored her mother could join us tonight. very nice to see you. we appreciate you being with us. when you heard what the jury decided today what went through your mind? >> my first question was trying to understand why they were not convicted on one and two and it took a while for this to parce out that was federally related. but yeah. i was glad the jury was able to recognize that. i mean even when the evidence seems very clear you can't always determine what the jury is going to say or do so i was glad they were able to recognize the preponderance of the evidence, definitely showed the clients to be guilty. the evidence was their own words. that was the beauty of the case that integrity for america spent a great deal of time finding the defendants' own words to use in the case. >> this partial verdict and the previous criminal trial of james fields jr. does this feel like enough accountability for you? is this what justice in your mind looks like? >> i guess. i don't know that we ever feel justice in a murder case. this is the first and god i hope the only murder in my life. i don't know that you ever feel complete justice but i don't know what else could be done. i think this speaks volumes to trying to set things straight. >> trying to set things straight. what is it that you hope people take away from the jury's decisions tod in terms of any larger message about what is and isn't acceptable in this country? >> well, the defendants seem to want to argue that their speech was protected by first amendment rights. and i would say speech is protected. action from that speech is not protected. so when you speak and you, yourself, and others act on that speech it is no longer protected. it is funny because i've often said think before you speak. definitely in this case. >> what about healing and coming together? >> with who? those of us who were not doing the hate speech, we're coming together in the first place. i would like to think that we could have a meeting of minds across dividing lines, but i'm not hearing any form of repentance or sorriness from the defendants in the case. they spent most of the case kind of jovially, pardon my word, jokingly presenting their evidence in their defense and didn't show remorse. they have not changed. no, i have no interest in making amends with those people. >> that's not what i was suggesting at all. believe me. i hear you. i hear what you're saying there. i was speaking more about the divisions we're seeing day in and day out in society and sort of giving a sense of what is acceptable and not acceptable and this jury may have laid down a marker and said, this isn't right. that being said, i want you to talk about what is right. i want you to talk about your daughter heather heyer for us. just remind us who she was and what you want her legacy to be. >> first off i need people to stop putting heather on a pedestal. she was a normal, 32-year-old feisty woman. she had her rough edges just like anybody. she was a random murder in a mass car attack. she just happened to be the one that took the brunt force and it hit her aorta and abdomen and bled out in four places. she was not assassinated. she was not a saint. she was a normal person. what i want you to take away from that is stand up and do the right thing. you don't know what kind of impact that will have. even now four years later i'm talking on cnn and after this i'll be talking to some international press because the impact of that one, small act has been felt around the world. i also want to congratulate the plaintiffs in this case and integrity for america. we were not party to the trial. heather nor the foundation. but i strongly supported the case and am very proud of the plaintiffs for not buckling under pressure when questioned by the defendants who were acting as their own lawyers particularly. from what i understand they were antagonized and picked at a bit to try to make them break down or lash out and they did not do so. i am very proud of them. >> susan bro, stand up and do the right thing is the message i'm getting from you tonight. >> yes >> i appreciate you being with us and your words and your guidance through this. be well and we look forward to speaking to you again. >> thank you so much. thank you for having me. >> we want to highlight the foundation you mentioned that you created to honor your daughter. find details at heatherheyerfoundation.com. there are programs for individuals dedicated to promoting positive social change. and now thank you very much, susan. we'll turn to the other case i mentioned involving right wing extremists. more subpoenas released this afternoon from the select house committee investigating the january 6th riot. ryan noebels joins us from capitol hill with that story. these subpoenas not just to individuals but also to groups. what is going on here? >> reporter: that's right, john. the january 6th select committee wants information from the right wing extremist groups that were prominent during the violence and chaos here january 6th. among them the proud boys. their leader, the oathkeepers, their leader, and then this right wing fringe group with a close association to qanon, the first amendment pratorium, robert patrick lewis is one of their leaders and apparently provided security for some of the speakers, michael flynn among them and some of the rally goers that day. what the committee wants to find out is was there an organized effort by any of these groups to do more than just come here and peacefully protest? did they have plans to break into the capitol and try and interrupt the democratic process and then taking it out even further were they instructed or encouraged to do so by some of the leaders of the american government at that time including the former president, perhaps his campaign or close associates. the big question is how cooperative will these groups or leaders be? >> i understand you have news tonight about bernard carrick a high profile trump and guiliani ally. he is responding to his subpoena. what does he say? >> reporter: this falls into that question, under that question of cooperation. first of all he wants an apology from the january 6th select committee and says they incorrectly identified him as being part of this group that met at the willard hotel on january 5th. he said he was not at that meeting and he has records to prove so. he also said and this is perhaps more interesting than his plea for an apology that he is ready and willing to cooperate with the investigation. that he is ready to hand over hundreds of pages of documents that he has. he wants time for he and his lawyers to go through them, redact what needs to be redacted and then offer up to the committee what he thinks is responsible. he is also willing to testify. he does want to do that in a public hearing, not behind closed doors. even though he is complaining about the way the committee is treating him it is significant he is willing to cooperate. the question is will the committee agree to his terms which has been a big rub with them in many of their subpoena targets. >> we'll see if he follows through. ryan nobles, thank you so much for that. just ahead the latest on the third case we're watching the fate of the men accused in the killing of an unarmed black man ahmaud arbery now in the hands of a jury. the jurors just wrapped up their first day of deliberations. later energy secretary-general i ever granholm on whether president biden's decision today to release oil from the strategic oil reserve can have any impact on high prices. at yo, what you'll need, and help you build a flexible plan for cash flow designed to last. so you can go from saving... to living. america! after the past year-ish, everyone deserves something new! so at&t is giving everyone our best deals on every iphone - including the iphone 13 pro with its amazing camera. like everyone that worked from home. or welcomed a new family member. they were all out of dogs. our deals are for everyone! it's not complicated. at&t is giving new and existing customers our best deals on every iphone, including up to $1000 off the epic iphone 13 pro. ♪ ♪ frequent heartburn? 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(tiger) this is the dimension of imagination. ♪ (vo) subaru and our retailers believe in giving back. that's why, in difficult times, we provided one hundred and fifty million meals to feeding america. and now through the subaru share the love event, we're helping even more. by the end of this year, subaru will have donated over two hundred and twenty five million dollars to charity. this is what it means to be more than a car company. this is what it means to be subaru. the jury has just finished its first day of deliberations in the case of three white men charged in the death of an unarmed black man ahmaud arbery and will continue tomorrow morning. sara sidner has the details on how the prosecution closed its case today one day after the defense sparked outrage. >> when three people chase an unarmed man in pickup trucks with guns to violate his personal liberty who gets to claim i'm not really responsible for that? under the law in georgia no one gets to say that. >> reporter: the prosecution getting the last word in the murder trial of three men for the killing of ahmaud arbery. arbery was jogging in february of 2020 when he was chased down by gregory mcmichael, travis mcmichael, and william bryant jr. in their trucks. the men's' defense? they thought arbery committed burglary and they were planning to make a citizens arrest. travis mcmichael ended up shooting arbery to death. >> where is the empathy? how about don't bring a shotgun with you? this is really easy. call the police. >> reporter: the prosecutor said the men didn't bother to wait for police only making this 911 call after they were chasing arbery for an alleged crime they never witnessed. >> i'm not here -- there is a black male running down the street. >> what is your emergency? there is a black man running down the street. >> reporter: it turned out aubrey had not committed a burglary. >> a burglary, so that is a felony, if he is escaping from a felony they can chase him down. >> the burden is on the prosecution to prove nine charges against each defendant beyond a reasonable doubt including aggravated assault and murder. the defense interrupted the prosecution's argument several times. each time calling for a mistrial over the prosecutor's interpretation of the law for the jury. >> you can't argue a misstatement of the law. >> motion for mistrial is denied. >> reporter: in closing arguments monday the defense went after arbery's actions and his character. they referred to video taken of arbery wandering inside a home construction site months before he was killed. >> he was a recurring, night time intruder. >> reporter: one defense attorney went after the dead 25-year-old's appearance. >> in his khaki shorts with no socks to cover his long, dirty toe nails. >> reporter: her comments caused gasps in the court and aubrey's mother wanda cooper jones rushed out of court in horror. the prosecution calling out the defense's move to disparage a victim. >> malign the victim. the victim's fault. i know you're not going to buy into that. it is offensive. >> sara sidner joins us now. we're always looking for a sign from the jury room here. any indication about whether they would reach a verdict before this week wraps up? >> you know, the judge did ask the jurors today this evening actually whether or not they were close to a verdict because he wanted to check to see how long they may stay or if they needed to go home. initially we heard for the first time from the foreperson in this case. and what we heard was we are in the process of working to reach a verdict. at first the jurors did not indicate they wanted to go home and then later on about ten minutes later the judge went ahead and dismissed them for the day saying they will come back tomorrow morning at 8:30. all indications are at this point that they are reaching, going toward reaching a verdict meaning this is not a hung jury and they are going to be starting the work all over again bright and early. >> that is interesting. body language may be that they are moving ever closer to that moment. sara sidner, thank you so much. perspective from a defense attorney and attorney and cnn political commentator and author of the memoir "my vanishing country." we played some of the rebuttal today. do you think the prosecution did what it needed to do? >> john absolutely. the prosecutor gets an a plus not just on rebuttal but through the course of the trial. three things that stood out to me that i found very effective was number one the amount of time she spent stripping away the entire defense, that there was no valid citizens arrest, no immediate knowledge of a crime, no witnessing of a crime. arbery was not fleeing from a felony crime. then she went into the second part of the analysis, which is self-defense, arguing under the exceptions under georgia law that these guys were first agresors. they provoked the incident by bringing two trucks and a gun. of course their accompanying conduct. of course that they were committing felonies. those are exceptions to self-defense. she completely stripped away the defense. the next thing she did, john, that i thought was very effective is she rose above those despicable racist comments the defense attorneys made. she used arbery's appearance that they used to vilify him to show that he is not a threat. right? she said he had these baggy shorts and so the defendants could see the waist band and they could clearly see that he didn't have a weapon. he didn't have a gun. he didn't even have a cell phone or a wallet. that was really clever on her part. last but not least she circled back to the most basic piece of evidence, which was that 911 call you just played which is what is the emergency? a black man running down the street. mic drop, right? this is really just sums up what this case is all about and what we've seen through this trial. >> talk more about that moment if you will. this was the 911 call that gregory mcmichael made. we heard him in sara sidner's piece say, there is a black man running down the street, unquote. so how much did that encapsulate what the prosecution was trying to prove here? >> i think this puts ahmaud arbery in the long list of individuals whose names we call out often. and that is the troublesome part about trying to separate race or racism from our system of juris prudence in this country. look, my colleague just laid out all of the facts that the prosecution laid out but i think we would both agree that our stomachs are in knots because we've seen the system fail black people before. we've seen the system fail people of color before. what we saw in this prosecution, she laid it out perfectly. if you were to have a split screen between what the defense said and in talking about the color of, or his toe nails for example, or what he looked like, or his appearance, versus the prosecution's case where they simply said they played a 911 tape and what is your emergency, a black man running. you look at these things in totality and you can't help but have some certain level of heart break for a system that doesn't benefit black people in this country. i want to remind people i've had this conversation day in and day out. i was in columbia today for lunch and people pulled me aside and said this jury can't come back with a not guilty verdict can it? >> i remind people often you had not one but two prosecutors who actually saw this tape but declined to initiate charges against these individuals. so i think that is the reason for hesitancy although the prosecution has done a yoman's job in putting together the best case they possibly could. >> talk a little more about that. i wasn't at lunch at the chop house but i've had a lot of people ask me essentially why would the defense say those things about ahmaud arbery's toe nails? why would she say something that offensive? the answer has to be to a degree because she thinks it will work. >> there is no question. i think that most people see the inherent and believe that inherent prejudice of black skin. that is the fact. there is this -- there used to be an old legal doctrine, reasonable fear of the black man. that is what this case is about. you have a black man running down the street. there is an inherent fear that comes along with the color of his skin. that is why i believe she did that. when you look at the jury makeup you look at the overwhelming number of white people on this jury. let's just be blunt. let's have an honest conversation about it. the question is will they come back with a verdict we believe is just or will the system break our heart again? >> sara sidner reporting on the conversation between the judge and jury at the end of the day. that is pretty interesting. you don't normally get that kind of body language there. it seemed as though the jury were saying we're getting there. what do you take away from that? >> well, look, john, i think the time line is critical here. whenever juries get a case close to a weekend or a holiday there is always a concern that they may not carry out their civic duties as they should and rush through deliberations. they are doing their best to get out of here. remember this thanksgiving is the first big holiday coming out of the pandemic where we can be with friends and family vaccinated and safe. these jurors are human beings and want to get back to their lives. they want black friday and cyber monday. i think this is not a very difficult analysis. of course there is extensive instruction, lesser as to roddie bryant. this is not the rittenhouse type of deliberation. and yet there is this concern about the belief system of these jurors and are they at all struggling? are they looking at this as the bogey man who invaded this community and these guys were heroes? you know, keeping the community safe and black free? or are they actually going to take the time and alaw the law to the facts and reach the correct verdict? i think thanksgiving, it is possible we get a verdict tomorrow but i can't read the tea leaves. i never can. >> let me just say, real quick, don't ever, don't ever try to predict what a jury is going to do. they are a jury of your peers. we know 12 people are as inconsistent and unpredictable as we can possibly imagine. they may be here for a long time or until breakfast tomorrow. >> noted. we look forward to speaking to you both again when we do get a verdict. thank you. >> thank you. we have a tragic update to report on sunday's deadly suv crash in wisconsin. also more of what investigators are learning about the events that turned a christmas parade into a nightmare for that small town. 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i'm supposed to be waiting for it over here but i don't know when it is coming. can you call please? >> reporter: not long after ryder says he saw police going up and down the street and felt it had to do with brooks so told him to leave. moments later -- >> my i.d. >> i'm looking for his i.d. moments later the police see him and get him in cuffs. i had no idea. the uber showed up maybe a minute after he was in cuffs. i just think sometimes if he had gotten in that car what could have happened. >> reporter: before allegedly driving his car through the parade police say brooks was involved in a domestic disturbance earlier sunday. he has a criminal history back to the '90s. in july 2020 he was accused of firing a handgun during an argument. in february this year he was released on bail. less than nine months later he allegedly ran over a woman who claims she is the mother of his child with his car. nine days later he was released on just a thousand dollars bail. less than two weeks before the christmas parade. the milwaukee county district attorney's office called that bail amount inappropriately low. authorities say brooks also had an outstanding arrest warrant in an unrelated case in nevada where he is a registered sex offender. meanwhile, a community is trying to heal mourning the six that were killed and processing loved ones that nearly added to the toll. >> joining us now, omar, i understand you have new information about one of the injured. >> reporter: yes, john. as we understand, a firefighter's son who was marching with his high school band during the waukesha christmas parade has just been released from the icu but there is still a long road to recovery there as the statement that was released said that he had to go under or undergo surgery for a broken femur. they are also monitoring other injuries as well as potentially going to have to place a chest drainage tube on him as well along with monitoring for more complications. so a long road to recovery. and is the reality for the over 60 people who survived this but still have a long way to go before any semblance of normal either physically or of course emotionally. >> the physical wounds but the emotional as well. thank you so much for being there. president biden took a rare step today that he says will help lower gas prices but will it make a difference and when? what energy secretary jennifer granholm told me, next. oh no. for the gifts you won't forget. the mercedes-benz winter event. get a credit toward your first month's payment on select models. with growing concern over inflation president biden announced a rare step this afternoon to try to lower gas prices. the president said the energy department will tap into 550 barrels from the petroleum reserve and called it the largest release from the u.s. reserve in history. the move was made jointly with other coil consuming countries including china and india as oil rich nations continue to ignore requests to increase production to prepandemic levels. president biden says it will take time to see a change in prices. >> while our combined actions will not solve the problem of high gas prices overnight it will make a difference. it will take time but before long you should see the price of gas drop where you fill up your tank. >> i spoke about the move earlier with energy secretary jennifer granholm. >> secretary granholm, thank you so much for joining us. what sort of tangible impact, tangible savings can americans expect to see at the gas pumps from this move by president biden? >> well, john, as you know, this is a question of supply and demand, so the release of 50 million barrels of oil is the most significant exchange of oil that we have done in this country. part of the pricing has already been figured in because you've seen public reporting about this for a couple weeks. a lot of speculation. so you've seen already a bit of a drop in the price per barrel of oil. the question is when can people see it at the pump? that is probably going to happen over the next few weeks. it won't be all at once because the supply will not be released all at once. people have to bid on it. but it will be throughout december and then the releases will occur into january. so it'll be over the course of the next period of time, a couple months, that it will be phased in. >> as you know there are those who say the u.s. tapping into this reserve is a short term band-aid and has to do with optics for the administration, an administration that has been having difficulty at least in the polls. there is a recent "the washington post"/abc news poll that said the majority of americans believe the president has accomplished not much or nothing at all. so what do you say to that? >> first of all, the president has accomplished a lot and i can go through the litany of how gdp growth, job creation has been the most of any president in history in the first year of a presidency. the drop in unemployment benefits, etcetera. the raise in wages. but separate from that, this is a short term solution. that is true. it is not intended to be a long term solution. it is intended to correct the supply and demand mismatch in the market right now. so as more production comes online after covid, then you will see obviously the supply coming up to where the demand is. that hasn't happened fully yet. that is why this mechanism of doing this exchange of the strategic petroleum reserve is to be able to mesh supply and demand over the next shorter period of time. over the next few months. >> in terms of short term relief what about maybe pressuring states to reduce some of their gas taxes or even a temporary reduction in the federal gas tax? >> i mean, that is certainly a tool. it is a tool states have. it is a tool in the president's tool box as well. there is a lot of consideration there. obviously most gas taxes go toward funding the repair of roads. we've just signed a big infrastructure bill. you don't want to take away what's already happened. the big investment is in clean energy. we have to invest in sources of energy that get us off these volatile fossil fuels and address climate change and put people to work. that is really what the bipartisan infrastructure law was all about, what the climate components of the build back better agenda are all about. we have to invest in the clean energy infrastructure in order we don't end up in this place again >> i get that is the administration's goal but in the short term it is possible that prices could go up again. would you encourage or are you encouraging then an increase in production, domestic production, increase in pumping, increase in maybe drilling? >> yes, yes, yes. we are. we're asking those who are producers to increase so that we have a supply that meets the demand. unfortunately, right now, john, for example, there are 23 million acres of public lands on and offshore that have been leased by the oil and gas companies that are not being drilled upon. there are 9,500 permits that have been issued for pumping that have not been acted upon. they're just sitting there stock piled. so we want to see greater production. the number of employees hired in the oil and gas industry are not even close to the level they were pre-covid. the number of rigs are down hundreds of rigs less than what existed before covid. so we want to see more production both domestically as well as internationally in this so that we can relieve people's pain at the pump and know that this is a transition and invest in the longer term solutions which is of course on the clean energy side. >> energy secretary jennifer granholm thank you for being with us and thank you for your time. i hope you have a wonderful thanksgiving >> i hope you have a great thanksgiving, too, john, and to all your viewers. up next reports of a toxic work environment on capitol hill. who is making the claims and who they say is to blame in a moment. y iphone - including the iphone 13 pro with its amazing camera. like everyone that worked from home. or welcomed a new family member. they were all out of dogs. our deals are for everyone! it's not complicated. at&t is giving new and existing customers our best deals on every iphone, including up to $1000 off the epic iphone 13 pro. ♪ ♪ ordinary tissues burn when theo blows. so dad bought puffs plus lotion, and rescued his nose. with up to 50% more lotion puffs bring soothing softness and relief. a nose in need deserves puffs indeed. frequent heartburn? 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[upbeat acoustic music throughout] [upbeat acoustic music throughout] tonight an unsettling new report about what it is like to work on capitol hill and what that means for getting anything done for the people, you, who want things to get done. the report details a toxic work environment wrought with bitter, heated exchanges, threats against them and their families, and worry about the erosion of also with us, maggie haberman, washington correspondent for the "new york times" and a cnn political analyst. so lauren, you spoke with more than a dozen members, democrats and republicans. what are they saying and what are they saying is to blame for this? >> well, many of the democrats who i talked to pointed directly to january 6th, john, as the moment that everything really started to change and shift on capitol hill. that's not to say that there weren't tense moments before that. that's not to say that president trump's presidency was easy on the house of representatives and the decorum there. but one member, sherry bustos, who is not running for re-election because she said things have become way too toxic to require her to come back to washington for another term, she told me that specifically after that day it wasn't just the fact that there was an attack on her workplace but the fact that that evening when they came back into the chamber to certify a free and fair election there were more than 130 of her colleagues who voted not to certify that election. and she said that really changed the dynamics. that really changed the game on capitol hill. now, there are some republicans who blame democratic leaders for the toxic environment saying that the metal detectors at the front door, the requirements to wear masks are just far too much. but a lot of democrats say it is the fact that we have colleagues who continue to talk about the big lie. >> the big lie, january 6th, maggie, which all gets back to the former president, donald trump. to what extent does this environment help him control the republican party in congress? >> well, look, donald trump governs by fear and always has governed by fear. and to the extent that you have republicans who are looking not just to him as somebody who is their leader but also looking at a common enemy in their view in democrats, and trump has certainly stoked that, that is in his -- to his benefit and in his favor and it is something that he prefers. he wants republicans to look at democrats as their enemy. and i do think lauren makes a point, that you do hear a lot of complaints from republicans that the atmosphere is just toxic across the board now, it is no longer just republicans. but there are these threats that democratic lawmakers in particular are facing and that is part of why the climate is so bad. donald trump is very good and has been historically, john, at throwing gasoline on a fire. not tamping it down. and i think that's what you're seeing here. >> it's interesting, you say donald trump wants republicans to see democrats as the enemy, lauren. but your reporting also points out that there are some, you know, party on party fighting here. republican on republican threats and danger here. what are you hearing along those lines? we know about liz cheney and adam kinzinger, but are there more? >> well, it's about how you talk to your colleagues and it's about how you talk publicly about your colleagues. you know, i asked one democrat, representative stephanie murphy, who is a moderate from the state of florida, about what she thought of a toxic work environment, and i apologized and said i don't know if toxic is too strong of a word. she said no, toxic is the perfect word. she then said there's plenty of dem on dem violence. and she talked a little about this fight that the democratic party has been in for the last month or two months now on capitol hill as they've tried to pass both the bipartisan infrastructure bill and that larger social safety net bill. eventually, they were successful in those pursuits. but there was a lot of pain sort of along the way and she said she felt like the way her colleagues were talking publicly really crossed a line. and of course that's not the same thing as what happened on january 6th. we're not making that comparison at all. it's just generally about the attitude and the decorum up here on capitol hill. there is a feeling that people aren't polite, john, and that might seem small but it's a huge deal when you talk about how legislators who are supposed to be examples in this country conduct themselves. >> look, we just want them to do their jobs, whatever it takes to get the job done. maggie, i want to ask you about another bit of reporting here. we learned that the republican national committee is paying some of the former president's personal legal bills, not having to do with the presidency per se. what's going on here? i do want to remind people that this guy is a billionaire, right? >> it's pretty extraordinary, john. this is reporting by two reporters of the "washington post." it's a terrific story. and they found, unearthed in filings i believe that the republican national committee has been paying for lawyers representing donald trump in this investigation in new york, which is a state investigation that has nothing to do with his time as president and everything to do with his business practices. now, yes, donald trump will make the argument that he was investigated because he was president. i don't think he was investigated because he was president. but i do think things came to light that might not have otherwise because he was president. regardless, it's not clear how any of this relates to party duties or activities. you know, his argument would be and his folks' argument has always been he's raised a ton of money for them. but this is really unheard of that you would have something like this for a former president in general and somebody who is thinking of running again and somebody who's under investigation just separately. >> lauren fox, maggie haberman, thank you both. a missouri man spent 43 years in prison for a triple murder he says he didn't commit. what a judge said about the case today. next. you've saved, what you'll need, and help you build a flexible plan for cash flow designed to last. so you can go from saving... to living. a missouri man is free tonight after spending 43 years in prison for a triple murder he says he didn't commit. today a judge set aside the conviction of 62-year-old kevin strickland. the judge said there was no evidence tying strickland to the 1978 crime, only witness testimony from the sole survivor of the shooting who later recanted her account, saying she made a mistake. when strickland left prison he told reporters he didn't think this day would come. according to the national registry of exoneration strickland's release makes his confinement the longest wrongful imprisonment in missouri history and one of the longest in the nation. the news continues. so let's head over to chris for "cuomo prime time." all right, john, appreciate it. i'm chris cuomo. welcome to "prime time." the arbery murder case now in the hands of the jury. we have a special guest tonight, one of the lead defense attorneys as the nation awaits this verdict. his name is kevin gough. you know him. you know him from this show. you know him from all his appearances now on television during the trial. he became controversial with what he said about black pastors and worrying about them being in the courtroom of this trial for the killing of an unarmed black man on a jog in georgia. now, that was a suggestion that many took to have a racial bent, and the prosecution seized on it today in their closing argument. >> the defendants never, ever