could be affected in a negative way. >> new reporting gives fresh insight into the motivations behind the capitol riot. "the washington post" revealing the fbi found evidence detailing coordination of assault. democratic congressman woman val demings and former orlando police chief, by the way, calls the investigation disturbing. >> every hour it seems like there's more and more information coming forward. the ultimate result though needs to be that every person who participated in some way and five people losing their lives, one a police officer who was murdered that day, two other police officers committed suicide, needs to be held accountable. >> and calls are growing for congresswoman marjorie taylor greene to be removed from congress. the controversies include this video. you can see her there berating parkland shooting survive david hogg and hogg tells msnbc he's outraged she still has a job. >> it's absolutely horrifying, one, that she's on the education committee, that she's been rewarded for her behavior by kevin mccarthy. we have a sitting congresswoman who threatened to assassinate speaker nancy pelosi. i can't imagine another job where people would get hired or still have their job after threatening to assassinate their who is and have the gun to do it. >> later we'll get more thoughts on congresswoman greene. we have a team of reporters to help get us started in this hour. let's go to monica alba regarding the impending impeachment trials. what do you know about donald trump's plan to as ball a new team because at this point he's without anybody representing him. >> reporter: that's exactly right. we don't know much about who is advising the former president on who he should hire for the new group of attorneys after we saw three people who signed on to help represent and defend the former president in this upcoming trial now head for the exits. essentially these three lawyers who we do know had come recommended to donald trump by a close ally of his, republican senator lindsey graham, pitch bauers, for example, a south carolina-based attorney, debra bashayer and joshua howard, all throw at one point had thought they were going to be a on the team over the next couple of weeks. we're now told according to a source familiar with the matter none of them are a part of it, and there could be others who were about to sign up who also now are not going to be in the mix on this. now, somebody who was familiar with the decision-making tells us that at least on the decision on the part of butch bauers, this was a mutual parting of ways which seems to imply that it was both the former president and mr. bauers who did not maybe have as good a chemistry or didn't see things eye to eye in terms of a legal strategy so they decided not to work together, but to your question about now who will be representing the former president, we simply don't know, and, of course, the trial does start a week from tuesday, but even before then this coming tuesday there's supposed to be a pre-trial brief that's submitted by donald trump's defense team which as of now is nonexistent though we do know from a trump adviser jason miller they expect to announce who will ultimately be on that team in the coming days, and the we're likely to hear about that in a statement from the former president himself via press release since he doesn't have his twitter account anymore. that's something that will come. this is all against the backdrop that in order to convict donald trump democrats would need 17 republican senators to join them in that effort and those numbers do not seem to be there as of now, and you can take rob portman of ohio as sort of an exhibit 1 in that kind of example because even though he has announced in a surprise move he's going to be retired very soon he's not currently poised to want to vote to convict, and he explained a little bit about his decision-making rationale earlier today on one of the sunday shows. take a listen. >> i've said with regard to the president's comments that day that they were partly responsible for what happened, for the horrible violence that occurred on capitol hill. i've also shade, you know, that what he did was -- was wrong and inexcusable. i've used the word inexcusable because that's how i feel. >> reporter: senator portman saying the behavior was inexcusable but that wouldn't be enough to convict he believes because donald trump is no longer a sitting president so that makes this more about the constitutional nature of this, at least in the view of this one republican senator and likely others at this point. alex. >> >> monica alba in d.c., thanks for that. the backlash against congresswoman greene created a twitter spat between her and senator mitt romney after greene tweeted about a great call with president trump and romney says lies of a feather flock together and referenced the about the big lie and greene told romney no grow a pair or a spine, charming, as this controversy swirls on the him. we're hearing what greene's constituents thinks. let's go to msnbc's amanda golden in greene's district where she's been talking to her constituents. did you it yesterday, too. had you some really remarkable responses. how about today? what are they telling you? >> reporter: well, alex, as you know marjorie taylor greene is doubling down as you pointed to the social media spats she's having with some fellow congressional republicans is a small snapshot. on her ground, knows who previously supported her are very much still very much supporting her. those that are against feel embarrassed and ashamed now that their district is being associated with her in such a strong way but it comes to the larger point of the voters here having put her in that congressional seat and that is their will. that's what the people decided to move forward and that's part of the reason why you're not seeing congressional republicans come out with a strong stance to either condemn her words or action or promote any kind of punishment. we saw a brief snapshot of that saying to adam kinsinger if you had the ability to evict her from the house, would you do forward? >> he would remove her from the committee assignments, something in the house that he was able to do with you the voters in the district put her in the seat and take a listen to some of the conversations i've had with some of the people here in the 14th congressional district that both support her and are against marjorie taylor greene. take a listen. >> i think she's a -- a good spokesperson for the republicans. that's my opinion of her. she's a go-getter, and -- and i think we need somebody that will step up to the plate. >> she's an embarrassment to rome and to the state of georgia and an embarrassment to the house of representatives. in my judgment she ought to be expelled. >> reporter: hearing from both sides of the aisle there among her constituents. the ones that are continuing to support her had also told me that they believed in her for her very outlandish ideas in part because she was in defense of the constitution, of some very conservative values and those were the reasons they were still siding with her. ors as you heard are outright embarrassed on ashamed that she's the one bringing the congressional district into the national focus, and as i mentioned before we're not seeing the next steps coming, at least from congressional republicans in it a real substantive way. we do know gop house leader kevin mccarty is supposed to be speaking with marjorie taylor greene next week. we don't know there will be any tangible steps to strip her of her committee assignment or censure action. the ones who support her are not swayed by the continuing record on what was already known about her conspiracy theories and the actions putting forward. >> again. the remarkable responses from you. thank you so much, amanda golden. let's go now to the latest on the capitol hill riot force and bring in former double agent and "newsweek" editor-at-large. great to have you here. fbi agents are working to unravel all the events that led to the attack on capitol hill. there's an alarming new article by "the washington post" which writes investigators cautioned there's an important legal distinction between gathering like-mined people for a political rally which is protected by the first amendment and organizing an armed assault on the seat of american government. the what are your thoughts on this? how much of this attack do you think was coordinated? >> i think a lot of it. the problem that we're having right here, alex, you know, when i talk to federal law enforcement officials they say we don't investigate ideology but we know that's not true. in a post- 9/11 world, you know, the nypd investigated every mosque within a 100-mile raidus of new york city. in fact, they went so far that they had to pull back and disband part of their unit. when it comes to the fbi and white supreme courtsy they have a terrible record of investigating it, treat these people as lone wolves, how they have tried people and how they have approached this. the joint terrorist task force, all of the task forces have a domestic terrorism squad. from what i understand those squads do very little because it's never been a priority so what you saw on the 6th was, of course, a combination of the rhetoric that was pushed by the previous administration, but to be fair it's also something that's been boiling for decades that's been unprioritized and i think you had a perfect storm. the fbi right now is playing a lot of catchup. >> absolutely. how much does the rhetoric posed by somebody, an elected member of congress, somebody like marjorie taylor greene, how much does that add to what the fbi comb through? how does that affect the people that the fbi is looking at? >> well, that's a great point. you know, when i talked to investigators they tell me, you know, radicalization doesn't occur overnight, that there's a process and for investigators part of the difficulty is catching someone at the very pinnacle of that radicalization, right before they are about to act. look, we saw it in nashville. they spoke to the bomber 16 months before. not enough to build a case and they didn't do anything and 16 months later he went and detonated himself so catching that person at the apex is incredibly important and when you have an official that's saying things, may not be talking to people who commit these violent acts directly but in part that have is that radicalization. it makes it very difficult. on the one hand you have people creating slept acts and may be inspired by someone in congress potentially. the fbi doesn't want to wade into the local morass especially coming out of the last administration so it does make it that much more difficult by adding a layer of politics to it. >> yeah. we know that the fbi is seeking information on the suspected pipe bomber with a reward of up to $100,000. how likely do you think it is that the fbi will find this person and arrest them? >> very likely. the bombs were not detonated. that's from an investigator's standpoint that makes it that much easier, and that gives a tremendous amount of evidence. from bombers, in many cases they are unique. their fingerprint is the bomb so when you have an intact device it will make it much more easy to collect, it look to see where the materials were bought, a whole slew of investigative tools that the fbi is good at doing and i'm confident they will do that. we think about one pipe bomber and several bombs put in here. it's important to remember when it comes to terrorism you don't need a lot of people. oklahoma city two people. 9/11, 19 hijackers. >> yeah. >> so one person can cause a deadly act. >> it's actually quite frightening when you put it in those terms. the "new york times" released very disturbing body camera video, and it was of the steps of the capitol during the january 6th rooimpt let's take a look at some of this. it's tough. >> well, i would hope that we'll see more than that. we'll play a little bit of this. rioters are trampling over a woman. there is a crutch. there is a hockey stick and both having been seen. they are trying to attack officers using them as weapons. to what extent should these rioters be charged? >> well, this is a tough question, and, you know, i think a lot of it has to go with the question we should start w.was this an organic act, a bunch of people who randomly came together and randomly stormed the capitol? i don't believe that's the case and i think part of challenge here is are you going to have 100, 400 whatever it is individual charges of say federal torrez passing or -- or federal -- or assault and battery, or are you going to look at this as fbi has recently done as a conspire circumstance and the challenge here, alex, is the latter, to look at this as the conspiracy. the violence that was put on here i do not believe it was organic. i believe like any terrorist act there was a planning cell, financial commitment that was put into this and there were people behind this that weren't actually there and just like terrorism you have to go after the leadership cell and that's the challenge. we see this and see the people storming the capitol and say the violence where we're angry and want to arrest them and no different than an al qaeda or isis suicide bomber. can you arrest the suicide bomber and the head like we did with bin laden, you don't take the head of the snake. >> thank you so much. we'll see you again. preparing for a hurricane of covid cases, the sobering warnings about the new variants of the virus and the massive spike in cases that we could see over the next few months. ases te ov terhe next few months nicorette knows, quitting smoking is freaking hard. you get advice like: try hypnosis... or... quit cold turkey. kidding me?! instead, start small. with nicorette. which can lead to something big. start stopping with nicorette condos. 150k. how are you, son? who's your friend? oh, um, 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[ finger snaps ] hmm. ♪ ♪ the kohler walk-in bath features an extra-wide opening and a low step-in at three inches, which is 25 to 60% lower than some leading competitors. the bath fills and drains quickly, while the heated seat soothes your back, neck and shoulders. kohler is an expert in bathing, so you can count on a deep soaking experience. are you seeing this? the kohler walk-in bath comes with fully adjustable hydrotherapy jets and our exclusive bubblemassage. everything is installed in as little as a day by a kohler-certified installer. and it's made by kohler- america's leading plumbing brand. we need this bath. yes. yes you do. a kohler walk-in bath provides independence with peace of mind. call for $1,500 off your kohler walk-in bath. visit kohlerwalkinbath.com for more info. now to the very latest on the coronavirus pandemic. the u.s. has more than 26 million confirmed cases nationwide after adding 176,000 new cases yesterday. more than 441,000 americans have died from the virus. a warning today from a top epidemiologist. he compares the spread of new variants to a hurricane. >> i see that hurricane 5, category 5 or higher, 450 miles offshore and, you know, telling people to evacuate in that nice blue sky day will be hard, but i can also tell you that hurricane is coming. i think that the b 117 or the uk strain will become the dominant strain. fortunately that one has not shown the ability to evade the protection from the vaccine but its ability to cause much more serious infection and seriousness is there. >> the pfizer and moderna vaccines may be even more effective than previously thought. a report from israel finds that out of 700,000 fully inoculated people only .04% contracted the virus. great numbers there. joining me now msnbc medical contributor dr. kavita patel. when you hear the coming wave to a cat 5 hurricane, what's your reaction and how serious is the new spread caused by these new strains? >> and i have a great amount of respect for him so i always sit up in attention because he's correct. i think what he's trying to convey, alex, is we're seeing cases coming down. we're getting better numbers coming out of hospitals but the presence of these strains and variants, particularly not just uk one which he pointed out. i'm incredibly concerned about that south african variant which we're picking up. already seen it in maryland, minnesota. it's here in the u.s. it is incredibly concerning, and do i think that it should cause all governors and officials to actually reconsider some of their reopening metrix because we had been using metrix from past variants and strains. we have more infectious, potentially more deadly variants that are within our borders, and we have to take that specifically. >> particularly to the uk strain, that's already somewhat widespread in the state of florida. healthp officials are worried after the positivity rate doubled in 24 hours now to 14%. how concerned are you about similar spikes in other places across the country of this one? >> yeah. i've been breaking down some of the numbers and some of the states, you know, and overall the state's numbers haven't doubled or trimmed, but when you do, as you point out in parts of florida, parts of texas, parts of california, parts of the mid-atlantic, including new york and the d.c. area, when you start to see regional increases that are disproportionate, alex, or places that have an unusual acceleration at the zip code level. that does point me to concern, and it reenforces, by the way, that we were only doing genetic sampling on less than half a pervis all the coronavirus kind of samples that were coming in. we are definitely going to need to accelerate that, and biden's plan has that in place, but we need to really move on that quickly, and at the same time the promising news on the vaccines means that we're not necessarily going to have a choice of are which vaccines we get but if we can get one, alex, take it, because getting vaccinated soon is going tonight name of the game. >> but long term, you have researchers at the institute for health hand metrix evaluation. they have released a 2021 covid prediction and they are saying they don't expect the u.s. to reach a level herd immunity that would prevent a third wave next winter. i mean, this time next year, dr. patel, are we still going to be dealing with coronavirus, and could it be even as severe as it is right now? >> yeah. i saw that report. i hope. no one of the things that they did is tried to mold all scenarios, and by the way they have been pretty accurate but not necessarily with every scenario. they have been pretty accurate when they put in assumptions of level immunity. it's hard to predict what the spread of the strains will be in terms of the dominance. we can suppress these strains -- these variants from becoming dominant if we can actually get to some of those regions and immunize a good proportion of them. remember, it's not going to be 80% of all americans all across the country evenly. we're going to have to start to do it on coasts and within dense cities as well as the rural areas, but remember these hot spots are starting. they are kind of all over the map. >> yeah. >> so i do think, that you know, look, i think that what it tells us, alex, is that there is -- there are highly effective vaccines. getting them out is critical. having another surge that mimics what we've just seen over the last month is something that we can avoid if we actually take incredible measures including a combination of vaccines, better jobs on testing and a better job on that genetic surveillance. we need to know before the variants take hold, we need to get advanced warnings. think of it as an early detection system to. use the hurricane analysis, an early detection weather system. not always accurate but at least a way to get it prepared before the tornado or storm hits us >> a good analogy. thanks for joining me. her son lost his life trying to save students at parkland high school. now, she has something to say about congressman marjorie taylor greene. i'm going to speak with her in just a movement plus a search for courage among gop on capitol hill. we'll hear about the apparent character flaw that's apparently inflicting so many republicans. y inflicting so many republicans this is what community looks like. ♪♪ caring for each other, ♪♪ protecting each other. ♪♪ and as the covid vaccine rolls out, we'll be ready to administer it. ♪♪ new today, parkland school shooting survivor david hogg is speaking out about being harassed at the u.s. capitol by none other than republican congresswoman marjorie taylor greene. >> she followed us for about 15 to 20 minutes inside the capitol yelling at us, screaming aurts, and actually at that time we started chanting enough is enough and the capitol police showed up in 30 seconds. >> so to 15 minutes, doesn't she have a job to be do. she's under fire for agreeing with conspiracy theories that school shootings at parkland and sandy hook were staged. joining me now is the mother of a victim that survived the parkland shooting. it's hard to believe that people out there are perpetuating all these false stories but to have one of those people in congress what goes through your mind when you see that? >> it's wrong. it's just wrong. she should not be espousing lies, okay. people in congress need to tell the truth or they need to start telling the truth those people who congress who aren't telling the truth. >> if you could talk to her, what would you say? >> well, alex, thank you for having me with you today and i need to share with you that i spoke to congresswoman greene yesterday via zoom. after attending a national gun survivors kickoff this past friday gave an interview where i said that i would be more than willing to speak face to face with congresswoman greene, an when i was driving back to my office from -- from that -- from that kickoff i decided to call my congressman and see if he could possibly make that happen. well, he did, and when we started our conversation i was totally up front and told congresswoman greene that i was going to be on msnbc today. parameters were set and the only topic discussed would be the school shootings at parkland and sandy hook and that the conversation would be totally confidential. our talk went very well. it was friendly and cordial, and at the end i asked her what she wanted me to say about our conversation when i go on msnbc tomorrow and her answer to me was say whatever you want, and i asked her again. i said are you sure? just left me know what it is that you want me to be able to share about our conversation and she said again say whatever you want and here i am and that's going to do. my first question to congresswoman greene was do you really believe that parkland and sandy hook were false flags and staged? that was a real important question to me. to this moment i cannot fat yom that somebody could say something like that. her answer was unequivocally no, i do not, so did i believe congresswoman grooench when she said they were not false flags or staged events. i very much wanted to, and i wanted to be able to believe her, so i asked her if she would come on air with me today and make a public statement, you know. i just said, you know what. if that's really, really what you believe. then come on air and tell the public just that. well, her statement is clear because here i am with you and she's not here right now. you are know, alex, truth is power, and if congresswoman greene believes that parkland and sandy hook were in fact real events she would be willing to say that publicly, and her failure tells me that for congresswoman greene politics trumps truth because lies and conspiracy theories are more important to her than honesty. you know, i'm going to say it again. she has no right to trivialize the murder of 17 innocent lives on february 14th. show has no right to negate scott's heroism, and she has no right to demean scott's memory with her conspiracy theories. so i would like congresswoman greene, especially after our conversation to publicly disavow her comments and apologize to those from parkland and sandy hook who she has hurt and devastated with her words because she has definitely devastated all of us. okay? i would also like her to acknowledge that the massacre was not staged and not a false flag. i would like her to acknowledge the massacre was real and really did happen, and would i like her to acknowledge that scott and many others were murdered, and you know what, along with that i think it's really important that she acknowledge that david hogg was not a paid actor because anyone who does not call this out needs to grow a conscience or find the conscience that they have if they have one. >> yeah. >> and i just keep saying and i believe this with all of me, silence is not an option. we must speak out. we have to combatlize and please, please, we cannot lookaway anyor. >> linda, i appreciate that you took the time to write this out. you wanted to get everything just perfect and accurately reflect the conversation that you had with the congresswoman and speak your truth there. my question to you though and it's going to go back into this. she said to you that she does not believe what she publicly espouses, correct? she said to you i don't believe that send a hook was staged. i don't believe that parkland was staged. in doing so did you take away the sense that she was only doing it for political purpose, something to gain with followers who do believe that conspiracy, the lies, the just nonsense that's being espoused? >> you know, i -- i believe that politics has totally taken over. i just -- i believe that because, you know, when -- when i spoke to her, you know, mom to mornings you know, when you go away from a conversation nom mom with somebody, everybody seems kind of normal. >> yeah. >> but, you know, the normalcy left really quickly when, you know, i turned on my tv and i saw her doubling down on so many of the other conspiracy theories that are out there, and to me -- i'm sorry. >> no, no, no. the and i -- i completely agree with you. here's something though. when you asked her about david hogg and the fact that she was not willing to -- to contradict herself, right, that he wasn't a paid actor or did she say? >> i did not ask her. >> okay. i did not ask her about david mogg. >> so when we see the video which we showed coming into this segment, we showed david hogg. he's being followed, i mean, you know, marjorie taylor greene is right there as if she's stalking him and for is so or are 15 minutes this continued before capitol police had to cnn there. how is it that you can believe what she said to you, maybe for political reasoning, to tell you what you wanted to hear, when she behaves like this and berates david hogg at the capitol? >> well, like i said before, i mean, it's a question of do i believe? i mean, unless she wants to get in front of the public and wants to right the wrong lies being espoused out there and wants to disavow the things that she said, no, i -- i can't believe it, you know. i -- it's hard to believe, put it that way, us know, i just -- she -- she's chosen to take the heat, to take the heat which she deserves, you know, because you reap what you sow. maybe inside of her she believes, it i don't know. i have no idea. i'm not inside of her, but you can -- words are very powerful. >> right. >> but actions speak louder than words. >> 100%. >> linda, i just wanted to say on behalf of everybody that i know this coming valentine's day will mark three years since you lost your precious son scott. i send my condolences to you and my admiration for you in taking on truth and trying to honor his memory by activism this way and trying to eliminate the -- illuminate the truth to everyone across this country. linda, big hugs two particularly on valentine's day from mom to movement joining me now is msnbc analyst meti hisan. >> in essence linda spoke with marjorie taylor greene, i don't know that i said parkland was a false flag, sandy hook was a false flag. >> yeah. >> can you put any common sense, any intellectual rationale to the behavior of this congresswoman? >> no, and i think the question we have to ask, alex, with all the people in the republican party who push these conspiracy thiers and mad ideas, how much is them? how much are they this kooky? how much have they gone done into the robert hole and gone into far right circles? how much is that because they know that's the way to get elected. saw that during the trump era. we saw a lot of previously moderate republicans saying mad, crazy things because they saw that was the only way to fend off a primary challenge and stay in the books. trump is gone and the party is still in the hands of the marjorie taylor grooens and laura b o'bart and we saw kevin mccarthy go to florida. many i keep seeing headlines civil war in the republican party. there is no civil war. they would be. the trump, marjorie taylor greene and qanon faction have won. not a lot of moderate republicans level. maybe mitt romney hand that's it. >> a couple days later after marjorie taylor greene, i talked with donald trump so when you connect the dots here, where does the gop stand relative to donald trump, is it side by side, perhaps? >> it's still the trump party. he's not going to get convicted clearly. the republican senators made that clear. he'll dangle out this idea he'll run again in 2024 which means he remains the de facto leader of the party and look at the local party. look at the state parties, alex. not just congress. sometimes we get distracted what's happening in this town and capitol hill. look at the gop in south carolina krens you'ring members and look at what it is happening to liz cheney and look at those who are saying is the attack on the capitol is a false flag and the hawaii gop which tweeted praise of the qanon and the texas gop which has a qanon mantra in its slogans and online motifs. this is a top from top to bottom which has been taken over by conspiracy theories, far right groups and deeply offensive people and that's a real problem in a democracy based on a two-party system. it's not like moderate conservatives or non-democrats can look elsewhere. it's democrat or republican. that's the choice you get at the presidential level every four years and at the senate and house level main lip so it's a real problem. i don't see how americans continue on this path where one of the parties is in this crazy far right la la land. >> this impeachment or conviction or lack thereof, how much will it cross the mind of the republicans who do not convict the president? the future that you're describing from local parties and state parties and the lyrics this is their future if they let trump off the hook if again? is that going to cross their minds? >> yeah, you would think the argument was that once, you know, once you lose an election people will realize they did the wrong thing. that's what happens in most democracies. a party loses an election and has introspection and tries to change some things and this has not been the case for the gop going back decades this. didn't start with trump. i remember when sarah palin was picked as a vice presidential candidate in 2008 and when they lost there was all this talk about, well, pail will be go into the wilderness, a huge mistake and gamble to put someone as crazy as her on the ticket and yet sarah palin became a star of the tea party and best-selling author and a regular on fox and a straight line as barack obama said that spoil ton donald trump so, no, this is not a party that will do any kind of self-criticism you're valuation. the arizona gop, arizona was lost to the democrats for the first time in decades. instead of going how did we lose arizona, how did we lose a senate seat and presidency, instead they are krens you'ring the governor and cindy mkaughan and jeff flake which is not even a senator. what they are doing is purging anyone outside of their cult and that's what the republican party is slight now, a cult. >> watching the gop which frequently rails against cancel culture, isn't that exactly what they are doing to their own right now? >> exactly, and who is the big cheerleader for the whole oh, my god cancel culture t.matt gaetz, republican congressman from florida. what did he do last week, did he try to think about how to solve the covid crisis in his state or hold the people who attacked his work promenade des anglais accountable, no? went to wyoming, randomly, to protest against liz cheney his rope can colleague in the leadership to basically go up and challenge her in her state in his backyard and cancel her. cancel culture, they want to shut up anybody anti-trump and we hear about snow flakes, and what are they doing, don't impeach donald trump you'll upset the base, you'll make them upset. >> how does this end, alex. >> >> i don't know how it ends, alex. it doesn't end well because i don't see any sense where in the short to medium term this party moderates itself. no incentive for it to moderate itself. we haven't talked about the white wing media echo chairman ber, fox nuts and oann and newsmax. as long as you have this information or misinformation bubble that conservatives and leap cans can live inside of it and where it's incentive brick ought from, no incentive to moderate. the opposite, you know you'll be penalized on primetime by the han 'tis and tucker if you step out of line or if you question the republican orthodoxy. ics in nicks would never have stood down, never been impeached if fox news had existed in the '70s. roger ales set it up because he saw what happened to nixon and it worked. today they have created this weird cult living inside a media echo chamber bubble and it's very dangerous to democracy in a two-party system >> indeed. let me ask you about something you tweeted yesterday. picking up food from a restaurant. people sitting inside eating, masks off, tables full. what is wrong with these folks? 4,000 people are dying in this country every day. madness. as we sit here discussing conspiracy theories, are conspiracy theories playing in the coronavirus crisis are they halving the efforts to try to get covid under control? >> well, the short answer is yes, conspiracy theories have played had a massive role which donald trump and others, tucker carlsons and the han 'tis of the world definitely push but it goes much broader than conspiracy theories. i can tell you, i'm 95% sure a lot of theme that restaurants were not conservatives and not republicans. this is not party. people have moved on. the coronavirus is a background noise even though 4,000 people are dying every day. people have normalized it like gun deaths. no other country in the world has done it and i think it's kind of the same thing. that's there. i'm not going to change my life for it. it's been here for a year. i'm still going to go out to eat for my family and it's crazy because you're endanger your friends and family. what's worse than the conspiracy theory is the normalization of it and what we have is a cdc head who can push back against the normalization of it. >> the anti-vaxxers at dodger stadium shut it down for an hour and they were able to get it back up. lapd report everyone scheduled to get a vaccination got one. are you worried we'll see more activity like that? >> yes. sadly, i warned with this last year. i said what masks are in 20209 vaccine will be in 2021 and unlike masks, the anti-maskers came out of nowhere. no such thing as an anti-masker and we've always had anti-ers sadly, donald trump was one at one point and that transcends parties, anti-vaerks on the left as well as the right. >> yeah. >> though it's driven but right wing media machine, of course, but i do think that's going to be a growing movement. we live in an ahmetically polarized age. one side wants to make everything into a culture war and that makes sense. people will look for any excuse to say it's dangerous and unsafe. even if it is, don't take it yourself. at least if there's logic to take it from yourself, but to stop over people from going out to getting it,ings that's terrible. you're endangering other people's lives by preventing them from getting the advantages even. >> so forward to looking forward to your conversations. >> today was sledding with my kids and totally forgot i was supposed to be in here and i ran in here before the thing and i'm sweating like crazy. literally ran from snow hand sleds. >> can i tell you something. that's the best kind of dad. i love that. good for you. your kids are lucky to have you. thank you so much, and if you don't get enough of mehdi here catch the mehdi hasan show on the peacock channel. ghirnion strikes back going after rudy giuliani but will it go after citizen sflump a dominion insider is joining me next. a dominion insider is joining me next file payroll taxes. that means... world domination! or just the west side. run payroll in less than five minutes with intuit quickbooks. we made usaa insurance for members like martin. an air force veteran made of doing what's right, not what's easy. so when a hailstorm hit, usaa reached out before he could even inspect the damage. that's how you do it right. usaa insurance is made just the way martin's family needs it with hassle-free claims, he got paid before his neighbor even got started. because doing right by our members, that's what's right. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. ♪ usaa ♪ ♪ don't you tell me that i'm crazy... ♪ ♪ don't you say that i'm losing my mind. ♪ ♪♪ ♪ if i'm acting a little strange ♪ ♪ it's cause there's something new in my life. ♪ ♪ i'm in love... ♪ ♪ love, love, love. ♪ ♪ it's everything i've been dreaming of. ♪ ♪ i'm in love. ♪ ♪♪ celebrate your love with a gift from pandora jewelry and discover all the ways to shop. with relapsing forms of ms, there's a lot to deal with. not just unpredictable relapses. all these other things too. who needs that kind of drama? kesimpta is a once-monthly injection that may help you put this rms drama in its place. it reduced the rate of relapses and active lesions and slowed disability progression. don't take kesimpta if you have hepatitis b, and tell your doctor if you have had it, as it could come back and cause serious liver problems or death. kesimpta can cause serious side effects, including infections, especially when taken before or after other medicines that weaken the immune system. a rare, potentially fatal brain infection called pml may happen with kesimpta. tell your doctor if you had or plan to have vaccines, or if you are or plan to become pregnant. kesimpta may cause a decrease in some types of antibodies. talk to your doctor about any injection-related reactions. the most common side effects are upper respiratory tract infections and headache. ask your healthcare provider about kesimpta. dramatic results. less rms drama. they were founded as a company to fix elections. they have a terrible record, and they are extremely hackable. >> one of its most characteristic features is its ability to flip votes. it can set and run an votes. it can run an algorithm to take a certain percentage of votes from president trump and philip them to president biden. >> the election equipment company says their comments like the ones you just heard duped millions into believing that dominion stole their votes and flipped them. the most recent defamation suit claims the statements lead to death threats and a damaged brand. joining me now is michael steele, spokesman for dominion voting systems. good to see you again on the broadcast. how do you begin to remare doe minnon's reputation given the millions of americans that bought into this lie. >> that's the problem we have people in positions of power that lied to the american people and we have to go to court to get the facts out. this is the thing, rudy giuliani went podium to podcast. they didn't repeat the theories in places where there are consequences for lying. we sell to red states and blue states, red counties and blue counties, and the bigger problem here is not so much doe minnon, but the american people losing confidence. we have to restore that confidence and the only way to do that is to get to the trul. >> he said in part we'll have a fies fight. are they at all intimidated or are they certain they can win in court? >> we're not at all intemperature dated. we know the facts are on on our side. we're also looking forward do the discovery faze of this froj and where that will take us going forward. >> will dominion sue trump because it was an echo chamber. >> we have letters requires preservation of records related to dominion and the kbektive office of the president, the trump campaign and his council. i think we will just see where this goes, follow the truth and we can't say more than that right now. you worked for the former speaker of the house. given that experience, the tenor of the country at that point it is like someone putting over everyone's concepts all together. do you ever think that you should be suing rudy giuliani? >> no. this is taking off my dominion hat and my long-time republican hat. i still remember him at the 2004 republican convention in new york standing in the middle of madison square garden. america's mayor. a front runner, and it is a shad and shocking fall to where we are today. >> i should say so. michael steel, i'm glad to have you here to talk about this. please come back to update us when you can. thank you so much, good to see you. >> coming up, why the destruction to the nation might be worse than most of us realize. f us realize. because when caught in early stages, it's more treatable. i'm cologuard. i'm noninvasive and detect altered dna in your stool to find 92% of colon cancers even in early stages. tell me more. it's for people 45 plus at average risk for colon cancer, not high risk. false positive and negative results may occur. ask your prescriber or an online prescriber if cologuard is right for you. i'll do it. good plan. ♪ oh, oh, oh, ozempic®! ♪ (announcer) once-weekly ozempic® is helping i'll do it. many people with type 2 diabetes like emily lower their blood sugar. a majority of adults who took ozempic® reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. here's your a1c. oh! my a1c is under 7! 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