but meanwhile, here on earth today, same day, same country, we still have not figured out how to keep lights on. hundreds of thousands of people still in the dark tonight in the great state of texas suffering what has been a days' long, slow-rolling disaster caused by a big and very cold winter storm that still pounded most of the country, and it is bad in a bunch of places and a bunch of states. but the situation in texas is just a catastrophe, not only because of the weather, but because of the mix of the weather and texas' inability to prepare for it and inability to handle it. against the cold temperatures, demand for electricity is way up so people can heat their homes, but the energy supply in texas is simultaneously also way down with texas's nonwinterized, noninsulated, very fragile energy infrastructure, proving itself once again to be incapable of operating in the cold, incapable of generating anywhere near enough power to light up the state when demand is high. that has left millions of americans in texas without power for days. no power, of course, means no heat. that has created dangerous conditions for millions of people. as of tonight dozens have died in texas. the electricity part of the problem is starting to resolve now, although still tonight the number of texans without power remains in the hundreds of thousands. some of them for four straight days now. even with improvements, they may not last with many very cold temperatures in the forecast. texas regulators are warning they may again have to kill power in parts of the state that have power now may yet lose it. as regulators turn off some neighborhoods, some places that have power, again, they're anticipating have to do that to keep further strain off the unstable, unsupported grid in that state. texas grid managers saying if that does happen, they'll try to limit power disruptions this time to no more than 12 hours at a time. but on top of what everybody's already been through, knowing now may yet have the lights go off again is just beyond words. but this catastrophe with the power in texas, it is not a problem that can get fixed with the flip of a switch. the knock-on effects of depriving millions of people of power for days on end, those are baked in now. and it's going to take a while to get all of those. those. it starts with water. 14 million people are under a boil-water notice in the state of texas. the facilities that treat the water, that clean people's water lost power. because of that and storm-related issues, that means that 14 million people in texas don't have clean drinking water tonight. that's basically half the state of texas and not having clean drinking water is a very dangerous, very unsustainable problem. being told to boil your water when you might not have electricity to power any means of boiling the water is, of course, ridiculous. it's insult on top of injury. it turns out people in texas with dirty, undrinkable water coming out of their taps in some ways are the lucky ones. one austin resident telling "the wall street journal," quote, i'm, like, great. you're telling us to boil water but nobody's talking about the fact that i know one person who has water and i'm driving to get some. what water are we supposed to be boil? people in texas have been bailing water out of swimming pools. they can find pools that aren't frozen, they're bailing water out of swimming pools to fill their toilets. they've been melting snow on outdoor fire pits because the only fire they have is the frozen stuff that came out of the sky. this is houston, texas. america's fourth largest city. people are waiting in line with buckets at a local park to fill them up because someone found out there was still water coming out of that one spigot. the entire city of austin is under a boil-water notice. thousands of people have dry taps. austin officials have told people in that city to be prepared to be without water potentially for days. one austin resident telling a local nbc affiliate that she stockpiled water last week just in case, filled up one of her bath tubs. but she and her family are down to the end of that stockpiled supply, just a half case of bottled water left for the family. she said, quote, if we knew this was going to be one day or two days, that would be one thing. but not knowing and the possibility of extending longer makes it pretty hard to deal with because we do not know what to plan for. and beyond individual households in austin, it's not just households that use water, the crisis also is now a huge problem for the city's hospitals. last night st. david's hospital in austin had their water cut off. the hospital had to transfer dozens of patients to other hospitals last night. they discharged some other patients, just told them to go home. the ceo of the hospital says they need water to supply the boiler in that hospital. the boiler heats the hospital. losing water was the first of their problems. losing water also meant they couldn't find boiler, which meant the hospital was also losing heat. today they brought in a truck to feed the toilets so they can flush. i mean, this is just a slow-rolling, unmitigated disaster in texas right now. this was southwest houston today. people waiting in line for hours in the cold to get propane. this was a line outside a fast food restaurant in austin. people don't just need propane. they don't just need water. they need food. fast food restaurants open, this is kind of line you're getting. a line of cars stretching all the way down the block. grocery stores have been with people. some grocery stores were closed for days because they didn't have power. freezing temperatures have thrown a monkey wrench in the supply chain for everything. one austin resident telling the texas "tribune" about her recent trip to target. quote, the store was out of meet, eggs, milk almost before i left. people living in one of the largest states in the country are living with no electricity, no heat, no water, scrounging for non-potable water and for food. people living in one of the largest states in the country are living with no electricity, no heat, no water, scrounging for nonpotable water and for food. this has been going on for the better part of a week. it was not in the -- in the midst of that, it was not idea that the republican governor of texas, greg abbott, held a public press conference to talk to the people of texas about what's been going on, what the state is trying to do to fix it. this is how the texas "tribune" summed it up at the press conference. quote, abbott provides few details on when texans' suffering will end as state's crises mount." "the daily beast" reporting that the federal government sent texas 60 industrial-sized generators to help alleviate the strain on the electrical grid, but explained those generators were sitting in a staging area delivery instructions. same with 10,000 gallons of diesel fuel to fire those generators, sent to texas by the federal government. quote, fema officials are waiting after are instructions from texas officials. while they wait, the federal government has been trying to help. the biden administration has declared a state of emergency in texas and a state of emergency in oklahoma city and louisiana too. they've also been hard hit by the storms. the president has authorized fema to provide hard-hit states with generators and supplies. he says they're ready to fulfill additional requests for assistance. in texas specifically besides those 60 generators that were reportedly sitting in a warehouse in fort worth, fema has already sent texas hundreds of thousands of liters of water, tens of thousands of blankets, and hundreds of thousands of meals. this is a crisis that is absolutely still ongoing. joining us is bob fenton, acting administer of fema. i appreciate you taking time to help us understand what's going on right now. thanks for taking the time to be here. >> thank you for having me on, rachel. >> first let me know if you need to set me straight, if i've said anything that's wrong here or that's out of date or if my reporting is misconstrued anything. second of all, i'd like to hear in your words from the scale of the fema response is right now. >> well, thank you. what's happened is a weather event started late last week that caused significant impacts to the roadways and then this last weekend started with cold weather and another event that has continued to last. and having single-digit temperatures along the texas area and most of the state, including the southern plains and now moving up to the eastern sea board. so there's a number of states affected but texas is one of the worst because it's so far south, when you look at the building codes down there, it's really not made for temperatures that we see that are this low that happen that often. last time this happened is over 50 years ago. in addition to the cold temperatures that's causing significant impacts to individuals and collateral effects to the water and fuel smds and what we're doing now is responding to those to help texas out. the president issued an emergency declaration this weekend that authorized us to direct the federal government to support the state of texas's needs it may have and we do have a lot of resources down there. we have a large warehouse in the texas area already but we're sending stuff over from atlanta and energizing a lot of our contractors and working with a lot of different groups that would bring assistance to the area to help those that are in need. >> i know that the president's emergency declaration allows fema, which is you, to coordinate disaster relief for all 254 texas counties. when it comes to coordinating the relief, is fema focused mostly on direct aid to people who most need it, the things that i just described, water, blankets, food, that sort of thing, or is your coordination of relief also about working with texas power generating facilities and water treatment plants and other systems operators to get the systems back up and running? >> well, we're there to support the state of texas. they set the priorities where they want us to focus our resources and where we can provide assistance. so in this case right now we're providing resources directly to individuals through shelters, warming stations, whether that be water, meals, blankets, cots, those kind of things. you talked earlier about the generators, we're providing to pump stations or other critical infrastructure to get those up and operational, and we're bring fuel in and other things. in addition to that, we provide funding to texas to help them bring in resources. so we could do help in all aspects from individuals to government entities to assist the state in helping the private sector if they need help to get their equipment up and running or resources need to be brought in that aren't there right now. >> administrator fenton, i'm going to ask you just to tell me bluntly just in human-to-human terms. is the response working right now? i'm worried when i see reporting like we saw from that report at the "daily beast" today that fema has succeeded in getting generators into texas but they were sitting in a staging area this morning while we're seeing the human suffering in texas because people don't have access to power, they don't have access to all the things that are made possible, including heat, by access to power. i understand the scale of what you're describing as the effort here, but is it working or are there problems here? >> well, this is a significant event to have single-digit temperatures to hit an area in the united states that's not used to seeing that temperature over a prolonged period of time, it's impacted many that are not ready for this type of event. so it's impacted a number of people across not only almost every county in texas has been impacted in this event, 20 million something plus people plus other states are impacted by this. and what's happened is there have been secondary events. not only the cold, and texas has tried to respond by putting up heating stations and opening shelters, by working to assist improving communications and those kind of things. but then you start to have the secondary events of water line breakages, whether it's in homes or main line breakages, which is now a collateral effect that we're dealing with. and up talk about the boil water notices and the need to provide water which is almost like a second event that's happened and it still cold and this is going to happen through the weekend. we're working with texas and the local governments to provide resources they need. individuals need to continue to heed the warnings of local government officials. don't expose yourself to the cold for long periods, check on friends and family and make sure that they get to warming safety -- stations if they need to. we need to make sure we don't lose any more lives here and start re-energizing the critical infrastructure to freeway power because that's eventually going to make things better. as we do that, there will be significant damage from this event from those pipelines that we'll have to deal with for weeks ahead and make sure we're providing such water and other commodities to help those that need it most. >> well, i hear you on the scale of the response and what's needed in terms of the people of texas needing immediate relieve after four days shivering in the cold. i hope the scale of the response can quickly start to reach the scale of the need. robert fenton, acting fema administrator, thanks for helping us understand tonight and god speed to you and everyone in texas. >> thank you, rachel. we'll be there to help them through this. >> let's now go to harris county, the largest county in texas and the third largest county in the united states that includes the great city of houston. they did have some good news today. the county of -- harris county went from having 1.4 million people without power yesterday to having 20,000 people without power today. a large-scale restoration of power in harris county. having the majority of power restored in the county is a good step but the top elected official is warning tonight, quote, the lights are on for now in most of harris county but we are not out of the dark. she says most of us are still under boil water notices, we are facing another freeze tonight, meaning thursday night and we are dealing with shortages and price gouging. take steps to keep your family safe. joining us is lina hidalgo. top executive in charge of a county of over 4.5 million people. i'm told the judge just got off the phone with the governor of texas. judge, thank you so much for taking time to be here tonight. i know you are in the middle of it. i appreciate this time. >> thank you. >> i just spoke with the fema administrator live just moments ago. he talked mostly about the scale of the challenge, expressing confidence that fema can scale up to support texas as a federal partner basically in this response. i still feel like the need that we are seeing in harris county and across texas is far outstripping the scale of the response in terms of government efforts, federally, statewide, locally. it just seems like it an overwhelming crisis. how are you feeling tonight and what are you hearing from the governor? >> it absolutely and has been an overwhelming crisis. i just actually recently got updated numbers on the hypothermia deaths, just the tip. iceberg, but seven very sad stories just here in the county as the fog of war settles a little bit and we get details. we've seen cascading impacts, water, carbon monoxide poisoning, roofs caving in, hospitals with low water pressure, all kind of issues. we take care of ourselves as best we can locally. we've got committed and creative emergency response professionals but part of my discussion with the governor is how we can together advocate for an emergency disaster declaration for the federal government and is this beyond local governments for example, to adequately recover from. >> houston is one of the places where hospitals have been hit. i've read reports about pipes bursting in multiple hospitals. as they struggle without heat and water. obviously the idea of having no water pressure, no ability to flush toilets or run water to clean anything in a hospital is a nightmare scenario. what can you tell us about that status in harris county and the circumstances of your hospitals right now? >> so we lost power very early monday morning, about 1:00 in the morning. that meant many of the generators that keep that water pressure going were down. that allows bacteria to seep in the water causing boil water notices. right now as about an hour ago that i got my briefing, we have 222 cities and municipal utility districts within harris county under boil water notices about, 3.3 million people who cannot drink their water. as the roads become less impassable, at least they can try to go out and purchase it. but again, we've got a lot of grocery stores that are not operating. many folks of course have missed a whole week's work, even amidst a pandemic. and they're facing all of these same cascading effects. right now the main concern is the water situation. >> in terms of harris county's power supply, we did see power coming back. you were among the most prominent voices in the state warning that even in a big, well-resourced county like harris county, that is not getting the county out of the dark, that there may be additional power cuts, that the long-term turnaround in this water crisis that you're describing may take quite a bit of time, even as the power is back on. for people who have friends and loved ones in harris county right now in and around houston in that part of texas, what should they expect in terms of ongoing hardship these next few days? it going to be another hard freeze tonight. >> we have to acknowledge the good news and being down to 22,000 homes without power is great. but i also am not in the business of raising false hope. the challenge was that the state agency, this ercot did not have enough power generation to sustain the crisis. their power plants came offline with the cold. we're about to see cold -- that extreme level of cold again. and so they may buckle again under that weather. we're about to see high demand again. they may buckle under that high demand. that is not an expectation that we have, but i at least want to leave that possibility open that there may be some hiccups as these folks that very much failed for several nights get everything together. and i don't want folks to be, you know, extremely alarmed if there are some smaller outages as we get out of this. now, the broader impacts we are helping to address as best we can, we're working with our community partners, it's all hands on deck. so i do think that things are definitely looking up, i know folks have been concerned. it has been a catastrophic, just tragic few nights and days for the community and we just need to recognize that like with any disaster, recovery takes a while. it's not perfectly smooth and there's going to be some setbacks on the way to that progress. >> harris county judge lina hinged, the top elected official in charge of the largest county in texas. god bless you and your colleagues. it's been a bunch of sleepless nights already and will continue to be as you try to address this crisis. stay in touch with us and let us know what we can do in terms of getting the word out to the national audience. good luck. >> thank you. >> i'll tell you, my colleague lawrence o'donnell will have much, much more on the situation in texas in the next hour. including -- and over the course of the night tonight at msnbc, we're staying on this. one of the things that is very worrying in texas, even in places where we're seeing the power come back on is the crushing emotional blow it's going to be when after the power finally comes back on in a lot of places today and tonight it may yet go down again with this fragile grid in texas and more very cold weather coming in overnight tonight. that is going to be difficult, but the access to clean water issue is going to take a long time to dig out of, and it's very, very dangerous. keep texas in your prayers tonight. all right. much more to come tonight. stay with us. alice loves the scent of gain so much, she wished there was a way to make it last longer. say hello to your fairy godmother alice. and long-lasting gain scent beads. part of the irresistible scent collection from gain! my psoriatic arthritis pain? 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it means basically not just crime but crime as part of an organized enterprise. that's why they use it against the mob so much. considerably tougher penalties for crimes that get prosecuted under under that racketeering umbrella. here's the thing, though, mr. whack whack had a really good lawyer who argued although this looked like a an incredibly black and white case, mr. whack whack puts on a ski mask and shoots the cigar in a restaurant, but his lawyer was good enough to complicate the circumstances considered by the law to a considerable and lasting extent. his lawyer used that crazy case to force an entire 12-judge panel of the federal appeals court in new york, the second circuit, to reckon for the first time in that case with the real specific legal definition of racketeering. racketeering had been used in the law for quite some time but it was that case that led to the first legal live tested specific rigorous definition of racketeering under u.s. federal law. that lawyer for bruno, mr. whack whack, the lawyer for him who turned that gangland, blood bath case into a legal landmark that still matters today, that changed forever the way racketeering is used in the u.s. federal law. he's still around. that lawyer as a prosecutor and then as a defense attorney litigated dozens of high profile crime cases. including some of the highest cases in the worst of the mafia cases in new york city. as a prosecutor he ran the appellate unit and criminal unit at sdny in two different stints in that storied u.s. attorney's office. he ran both of those divisions at sdny. with all of that experience as a prosecutor, he's now one of the highest profile big deal white collar defense lawyers at one of the fanciest law firms in new york, a firm called paul weis, and that lawyer just got a new job. "the new york times" reporting tonight that earlier this month he was sworn in as a special assistant d.a., which seems like an unlikely title for a guy with that type of history, but he's sworn in as special assistant d.a. at the state prosecutor's office in manhattan. he has taken leave from his very fancy private firm and instead taken a temporary gig to assist prosecutors in that office. he has upended his whole life in private practice, put everything in on hold, sworn in with a special status and can work with state prosecutors in new york on precisely one case. and that one case is the investigation under way in that office of the trump organization. this is the ongoing criminal investigation of former president trump and his business. it reportedly includes allegations of tax fraud, bank fraud, insurance fraud. it started with an investigation related to the hush money campaign finance felonies for which michael cohen went to prison and led prosecutors to describe president trump as individual one, an unindicted coconspirator. that investigation by state prosecutors has since reportedly expanded today include wider allegations about basically the president and his company allegedly keeping two sets of books for various trump properties, including trump tower so they could, according to investigators, potentially defraud tax authorities and defraud banks and defraud insurance companies by using two different sets of books with two different sets of valuations for all the trump properties. the case has recently generated more than a dozen new subpoenas. this is also the case that produced subpoenas to financial firms for personal and business records and tax records. related to the former president. lower courts have ruled those subpoenas are valid and should be enforced and the state prosecutors should get access to those documents. cnn and the "new york times" are reporting in depth on the mystery surrounding what's happening with those subpoenas and what's happening with that case in the united states supreme court right now. this new york state investigation of president trump is one of two live criminal investigations that he's facing that we know about. one of them is the criminal investigation that has just been opened into his conduct in george in terms of him pressuring georgia state officials to basically corrupt the election outcome in that state. the other is this new york investigation into potential financial crimes, tax fraud, bank fraud, insurance fraud. well, those new york prosecutors need the president's financial records in order to press this case, and they say they need his tax records in order to press this case. they have issued subpoenas for those records. lower courts have said they should get them, but since october they've been waiting on the supreme court, the united states supreme court to find out if they're getting those records. that have been subpoenaed. lower courts say they should. the supreme court is just sitting on it. the supreme court somewhat inexplicably sitting on this request to deal with that matter for four months now. it is an unusual and as yet unexplained delay from the supreme court that is having material consequences for what seems like a very live, very active, and newly ambitious investigation a criminal investigation of the former president in new york, even as that new york prosecutor's office drafts in new, serious outside fire power to assemble that case against mr. trump, the supreme court is sitting on the documents that they need for their investigation. meanwhile, the wheels of justice do keep turning. this, for example, is a peek at the fbi's main twitter feed even just tonight. the fbi multiple times per day now is churning out new basically digital wanted posters for people captured on tape taking part in the violent sacking of the capitol by the pro-trump mob that mounted that assault on the u.s. government on january 6th. they put out new pictures, new basically wanted pictures every single day. and the president's culpability for that grotesque crime remains at center stage, particularly as more and more of his followers get arrested and charged every day, so many of them telling the court after they've been charged the reason they were there is because they thought the president was telling them to be there. he stays at center stage as long as people are getting arrested as long as the fbi keeps asking the public for more and more help finding these trump rioters so they can get arrested. as the daily beast reports today, president trump is telling people at mar-a-lago he's worried he's going to be investigated and sued for the rest of his life. we reported earlier this week on the first civil lawsuit brought against the president for the january 6th attack, a suit brought by congressman bennie thompson, the chairman of the homeland security committee. i say it's the first lawsuit brought against the president for the event of january 6th. i can tell you right now it will not be the last. joining us next, i'm here to say for the interview tonight, is the very high profile, very accomplished outside counsel who was brought in to help coordinate the impeachment trial of the president for the january 6th attack. his name is barry burke and he joins us for his first television interview since this all went down. i'm really looking forward to talking with him. that's next. the lexus es, now available with all-wheel drive. this rain is bananas. lease the 2021 es 250 all-wheel drive for $349 a month for thirty six months. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. i'm a performer. for $349 a month for thirty six months. always have been. and always will be. never letting anything get in my way. not the doubts, distractions, or voice in my head. and certainly not arthritis. voltaren provides powerful arthritis pain relief to help me keep moving. and it can help you too. feel the joy of movement with voltaren. 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ventilation or rates of community spread, and the virus worsens. fail to provide masks or class sizes that allow for social distancing, and classrooms close back down. a successful reopening requires real safety and accountability measures. including prioritizing vaccines for educators. parents and educators agree: reopen schools. putting safety first. at the conclusion of president trump's second impeachment trial, the house impeachment managers took a team photo. lead manager jamie raskin is there on the far right side, along with the rest of the team ted lieu, david cicilline, madeleine dean, congressman swalwell and congressman neguse in the back. we know all their names and faces. take a look at the guy in the back, that is another member of the team, not a member of congress, barry burke, chief impeachment counsel to the house managers. he helped craft those gut-punch legal arguments that you heard them all make. you might remember he played a similar role during donald trump's first impeachment trial with the house judiciary committee. joining us now for the interview is barry burke. this is his first television interview since the trial resolved. mr. burke, thank you so much for this time. it's a real pleasure to have you here tonight. >> rachel, it's a pleasure to be here. thank you. >> i want to give you a chance to sort of set the record straight and help us understand from your perspective the import of the trial. obviously the president was acquitted. there were 57 votes to convict him and they needed ten more. to get a conviction. but all these republican senators who voted to acquit him basically explained that they voted to acquit on a technicality, they didn't believe they had jurisdiction to vote to convict him. that's the american takeaway, he got let off on a technicality but he did it. is that how you saw it inside approximate process? >> i saw it very differently, rachel. i understand why you say it that way but the issue of jurisdiction had been resolved. for the jurors to say they're relying on jurisdiction was for them to violate their oath. i was in that senate chamber every single day and our goal was to try a case like we were prosecuting a violent crime and i felt with our extraordinary house managers, our incredible lead manager jamie raskin, we proved that case. we proved with overwhelming evidence that former president donald trump inflamed his base over time by telegram lie that the election was sold and rigged, and to stop the steal, which was something he made up and encouraged violence leading up to the day of january 6th so he knew when he used those words of violence, he would be setting them on a violent path, which they did. when they started to attack the capitol, our elected officials, the brave officers, he further incited them pitch repeating the lie and attacking their vice president who was subject and i looked at those 100 jurors and i saw they were fixated on the evidence. i believe in my heart if the jurors had the courage to be true to their oath and vote true to their conscience, we would have convicted by large margin. >> the issue of the president's culpability is still banging around like a live wire right now. looks like there's going to be a nylon-style, truth-finding commission in congress to try to get to the very core foundation of the factual evidence here. there's also the question, as you just described it, you said you prosecuted this essentially as a violent crime. there is still a live question as to whether or not there is evidence to lock at this to be handled in a court of criminal law. that was raised by mitch mcconnell. how do you feel about that? >> i feel there is certainly evidence that should be the basis for investigation of the president's conduct. he had knowledge throughout and he -- most crimes at the heart have lies. when you talk about the new york investigation, bank fraud, insurance fraud, tax fraud, those are all lies. we saw at this trial that the president was prepared to lie in order to interrupt our democracy, to try to prevent the peaceful transfer of power and lie in order to further incite an insurrection. i think all that conduct would be fair game. i do think in our country we generally give the benefit of the doubt to a former president and maybe if they engage in wrong doing we should not prosecute them after they leave office. i think given the president's extraordinary conduct is unconscionable behavior in causing over 140 police officers to be injured, people killed, our elected officials en masse so close to being in harm's way that he has lost that benefit of the doubt. i think you will see the commission look more deeply at some of the evidence that we have gathered but did not present at trial because we didn't need to and we'll see the criminal investigations go on and the other criminal investigations related to his seeking to intimidate and threaten georgia election officials to find votes that didn't exist, the lies that would be the basis for a crime for anyone else if they did it in connection with bank loans or other financial transactions. i do think this trial opens that whole pandora's box for president donald trump because he engaged in conduct where he misused his power in such a forceful way and the harm was so great. and i walked the halls of the capital every day to the senate floor and pass the victims of his attack and people who suffered and are still suffered and people who committed suicide because they were so traumatized. i'm very proud to have worked with our house manager and lead managers to prove beyond any doubt that president donald trump instigated this insurrection, he did it for his own personal benefit to prevent the peaceful transfer of power and did it despite the great harm he was causing and with knowledge he was causing it. i think this changes everything. while we did not have all the senators who voted i think the way they knew they should have voted, i still think this will have a huge effect on the future of donald trump and the future of the republican party and i was humbled to have been part of it. >> this idea of the impeachment trial and the evidence you collected, including some of it you did not present, being a pandora's box for the future of this president, i think, cannot be overstated. barry burke, chief impeachment counsel to the house managers, during president trump's impeachment trial, thank you for your service and thank you for helping us understand it tonight. it's nice to see you. >> thank you. >> thank you, rachel. nice to see you. >> much more ahead. stay with us. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (quiet piano music) ♪ ♪ comfort in the extreme. the lincoln family of luxury suvs. tonight, i'll be eating the al pastor burrito from boca burritos right here in aurora. (doorbell rings) excellent as a local access show, we want everyone to support local restaurants. right cardi b? yeah! eat local! (trill sound) do you have a life insurance policy you no longer need? now you can sell your policy, even a term policy, for an immediate cash payment. we thought we had planned carefully for our retirement. but we quickly realized that we needed a way to supplement our income. if you have one hundred thousand dollars or more of life insurance you may qualify to sell your policy. don't cancel or let your policy lapse without finding out what it's worth. visit conventrydirect.com to find out if you policy qualifies. or call the number on your screen. coventry direct, redefining insurance. when our daughter and her kids moved in with us... kids, bedtime! ...she was worried we wouldn't be able to keep up. course we can. what couldn't keep up was our bargain detergent. turns out it's mostly water, and that doesn't work as well on stains. so, we switched back to tide. one wash, stains are gone. kind of like our quiet time. [daughter: slurping] what are you doing? don't pay for water. tide is concentrated with three times the active cleaning ingredients. if it's got to be clean, it's got to be tide. to make this work, nasa scientists had to send the peenks perseverance poe miles through space. that was the easy part. the spacecraft carrying the rover was going about 12,000 miles an hour when it got to the mabsz martian atmosphere and had slow down from 12,000 miles an hour to a snail's space so it wouldn't bullet into the surface of mars and explode on impact. it worked, all while enduring temperatures of more than 2,300 degrees fahrenheit, the kwilt of traveling through molten lava. and nasa scientists figured out a way to make all of this happen. they freaking did it. >> touchdown confirmed, safely on the surface of mars, ready to begin seeking the sands of life. >> now that perseverance has landed safely in its new home. it's going to search for evidence of ancient life on mars. it's going to collect samples that will eventually be returned to earth by the 2030s. start getting ready now. the perseverance is equipped with instruments that will attempt to convert martian carbon dioxide. they traveled all the way over there with a little helicopter tucked under its belly. if everything goes as planned, that little chopper will take part in the first powered flight on another planet. we can send a rover to a planet 300 million miles away and land it like a feather. we can create oxygen over there. we can fly mini helicopters in the martian sky that work for us and send us things. we can't provide water and power to people in texas when it's cold. it's an absolutely flabbergasting day in the news today. that means selling everything. and eating nothing but cheese till you find the perfect slice... even if everyone asks you... another burger truck? don't listen to them! that means cooking day and night until you get... 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[♪♪] when you have diabetes, managing your blood sugar is crucial. try boost glucose control. the patented blend is clinically shown to help manage blood sugar levels. boost glucose control products contain high quality protein and key nutrients to support immune health. try boost. when i'm shaving down there not just any razor will do new venus for pubic hair and skin with a patented irritation defense bar for a smooth shave with blades that barely touch skin ♪ i'm my venus ♪♪ that's going to do it for us tonight. tomorrow, something to watch for, the united states of america will officially rejoin the paris climate accord. back to the land of the living. we'll see you again tomorrow. it's time for "the last word" with lawrence o'donnell. good evening, lawrence. >> good evening. we have in this hour four guests joining us from texas. so i could be sitting here alone at any moment given that the power could go out at any one of the locations. the first two are the brothers julian castro and joaquin castro, secretary castro, congressman castro, joining us together. they've been without power, been without water this week and they have a story to tell about what it's been like in texas. >> yeah. the situation in texas right now -- i mean, i spoke with lina hidalgo from harris county earlier in the hour, and elected officials trying to let the country know what's going on there in part because texas needs help from the rest of the country. but to see the state's specific collapse there, it is a scary, scary thing for a state with that many people in it. >> and it was tragically predictable the way that power system is set up there. >> exactly. thanks, lawrence. >> thank you, rachel. the one thing the junior senator from texas never has is the element of surprise. no one is ever surprised by how