that was all in this thursday night, alex wagner tonight starts right now. good evening, alex. night, a>> good evening, thank y friend as always. thanks to you at home for joining me this evening. the republican party has two major problems on its hands right now. an ungovernable house majority that has quickly descended into chaos, and a party standard bearer facing 91 felony counts who was doing everything he can to get the case against him thrown out of the courts. there are big developments in both those stories, and we are going to get all of them this hour. if there is one person who embodies the dual crises facing the gop right now, and the dual problem of house chaos and alleged republican criminality, it is this guy, congressman george santos. he is a serious top list who remains in house of representatives despite being charged with 13 counts of fraud, money laundering, and theft. he is still there, and today, the former treasurer for santa's campaign pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge. that staffer admitted to having a made-up fake campaign donations for santos's campaign. that conspiracy charges part of the broader case against boss, george santos, who has been accused of crimes that range from defrauding donors to falsifying official paperwork to lying to the government in order to get pandemic aid. so, the fact that this santos campaign official is now admitting to some part of the alleged scheme, that is bad news for george santos. yet, congressman george santos remains a member in good standing of the house republican conference. he has not been publicly denounced by a majority of his republican colleagues the way that, for example, democratic senator mom and then this has. he continues to be, members of his party for his criminal indictment. i mean, if anything, george santos is at the height of his power in this congress. for the second time in less than a year, republicans need george santos, and they need his vote in particularly to stem the chaos in their caucus. whoever the next republican speaker is, that person is going to court the likes of george santos at the same moment that his former staffer is striking a plea deal of federal prosecutors. the gop is so fractured, that it governs itself on a nice edge. as to who could actually corral this republican mess into something resembling a government nudge majority, that is anybody's guess at this point. today, we learned donald trump is considering a visit to the u.s. capitol early next week, right in the middle of the republican race for speaker. it will be the first time trump has visited the capital since january 6th 2021. a lot has changed, and a lot has not. trump claims he's making the visit because he wants to help unify the party, which, he's openly using may require him to become speaker himself. today, trump told fox news digital they have asked me if i would take it, meaning speakership, for a short period of time for the party,until they come to a conclusion, i'm not doing it because i want to, i will do it if necessary, should they not be able to make their decision. as preposterous as this sounds, as much as trump at the capitol should be a glaring reminder of what happened the last time he was there, republican lawmakers have been cheering trump on. this is congresswoman marjorie taylor greene pleading, if trump because speaker of the house, the house chamber will be a trump rally every day. but, we have already seen what it looks like when a trump rally comes to the u.s. house chamber. we saw it when a trump rally march to the capitol with trump signs and smashed the windows and barricades, and paraded through the building chanting, hang mike pence. that is what it looks like. kevin mccarthy's failure as speaker was in large part due to his courtship of the maga base, his deference to the hard right. in the wake of that spectacular failure, the republican party is courting the head of the maga movement. they are inviting the january 6th guy back into the building. for anybody looking for course correction, it looks like it's going to be a long wait. today, republican campaign stop in michigan nbc news asked republican primary voters what they thought of kevin mccarthy's ouster and, boy, they made it clear he wasn't radical enough. >> he caved in sending more money over to ukraine. basically, it seems like a typical political crook. >> we can't be segue then with these liberal policies, we just can't, we have to stand up to that and other ways we're gonna lose our country. >> if he was working a little bit too cozy with the democrats then i'm all for him being -- >> cozy with the democrats? how and where that kevin mccarthy, the person who launched an impeachment inquiry into president biden and blamed a near government shutdown on democrats, how did kevin mccarthy become somehow a tool of the left? here's a clue. the morning after ousting mccarthy, congressman matt gaetz walked a few blocks down to the capitol to the basement recording studio that belongs to steam bannon, to claim victory and to rally support from the maga movement. >> first, i want to say, the policy one, and the policy was attacked last night. what they are trying to say is they're afraid of collective agency. they are worried that your ability to act as a force in american politics can become more important and the steak dinners and fund-raisers and the fears are traded back and forth. >> that's the republican party donald trump is returning to. while that is mired and dysfunction and anger and chaos and paranoia. it is clear that the threat is inside the building. they have breached the capitol in more ways than one. joining me now is tim miller, former communications director for the 2016 bush campaign, and writer at large and carly -- podcast host or and author of how the wright lost its mind. thank you gentlemen for johnny both tonight. charlie, let me ask you what you make of trump positioning himself as a, quote, unifying figure that the republican party needs to have a speaker of the house. >> as changes is, obviously we haven't reached a political crazy here. donald trump as a unifier. it is a preposterous idea, but as you pointed out, what an alignment of the stars, the man who incited the attack on the capitol, returning to the capital to see his handiwork, to see how absolutely ungovernable it has been. the republicans are faced with an unenviable problem, trying to figure out how to govern in this particular environment with the jackal caucus, with donald trump looming over all of this. it's really kind of a political rubik's cube for morons. there is no solution, there is no way he is going to come out of this more sane or more rational or getting back to some sort of normalcy. this is what they are bringing into 2024. anyone who thinks we're going to see a return to normal american politics is not going to happen. next week is going to be wild, even by the standards of the last year. >> rights, be there will be wild part two, tim, what do you think the presidents of trump at the capitol does to the speakers race? on one hand, you think could be a very helpful reminder of what happens when you get power to trump and trumpism, and on the other hand, i kind of think it is going, it's like, is it rasping? he conjures this spell that the party seems to find under. i wonder if it informed today pick for speaker. certainly is on donald. trump >> it's reasserting dominance. there's a lot of areas in this life where he's lost control, multiple courtrooms across the country. he's still very much in control of the republican party. i think showing up is an opportunity for him to demonstrate that in the most visible way possible. i think he is right about the fact that he be able to put his fell on the scale and not be speaker himself but supports whoever it is, jim jordan, or whatever from the maga caucus. as charlie called in. it recalls for me, alex, i think i feel like a broken record, remember that old quote from after the election, what is the downside for humor-ing him, for this little bit of time. for some reason, these republicans that kevin mccarthy, the old guard establish republicans thought that they can make this deal with the devil and then when he lost in 2020 he would go away and it gets a move on with their lives. but, that's not how deals with the devil worked. donald trump is once again just like he did on january six, just like he did endorsing all those and six in 2022, he'll do it one more time when you go to the capitol next week. he saying, you still got a pair. he is going to be there to accept his payments. >> i wonder, charlie, whether this sort of poison runs deeper than just deal making. the new york times is out with piece about how steve bannon in many ways helped orchestrate the ouster of kevin mccarthy by effectively poisoning the well, poisoning the posse, which is to say, the right-wing not just in congress but voters and listeners to steve bannon's podcast, pointing them against mccarthy whom he deemed an establishment rhinos to the democratic party. in other seasons, one might say, who cares with steve bannon is doing. the timepiece point out, and i'll read you a short expert. in past decades, right-wing rebels on capitol hill have encountered trouble getting real traction, shunned by lobbyists and big money political action committees, excluded from leadership streets in the capital and disregarded by fox news. with the help of mr. bannon, who streams lived for four hours every weekday, mr. gaetz and others do not need to rely on any of that. they can find their money by spewing nonsense on the bannon airwaves, and they have an audience, and intention, and that's all they need. what do you think of that? >> that is exactly right. tim burton a whole book about this. the water was poisoned along time ago over the last five or six years. you have this vast ecosystem that thrives on stirring up outrage, convincing the base that they need to be angry, that they are being betrayed, that somebody is not being wild enough. they keep ratcheting it up. so, what bannon represents is just one aspect of all of this. ultimately, this is a leadership prompt it is also a follower ship problem. as you illiterate earlier, there are a lot of people out there in the primary electorate who have no problem with this kind of chaos and this kind of dysfunction. donald trump feeds on this as well, and that is the problem that the majority of house republicans have to deal with, is if they want to elect somebody who is not completely crazy, if they want to elect somebody who's not completely lunatic, they have to deal with this, not just the eight members of the caucus but this entire ecosystem which is devoted to passing out the meth of outrage on a regular basis? and donald trump pool insist on the sort of thing. donald trump, in many ways, i agree with him, this is an assertion of dominance but it really is in many ways the worst nightmare for house republicans than it is the fondest wish of democrats in the biden campaign to basically trumpify the entire republican party and make it absolutely clear that donald trump owns all of this chaos and dysfunction. >> thank you for pointing out the sort of role that the republican electorate has in this. tim, i'd love to talk on you more with this. the incentive structure is all messed up. and feels like republican electorate not only wants the chaos, but expects the chaos. so, when the chaos unfolds, it's not a source of shame and indignation, it's either, like more of that or, what else is new? so, jim jordan's speaker seems entirely possible to the group of people. >> for sure. this is the thing a lot of folks i think on the coast miss about what's happening with the republican party. there is that old trope that a lot of republicans are like, i like donald trump for the policies except, but not the tweets. i just wish you have control over his twitter. there is a big group of republican base, maybe not a majority, but really close to it, 35 45% of the party that is there for the chaos, therefore the tweets, therefore the cruelty. they like this stuff, and so, you might think that the fact that the republican party cannot govern themselves might make republican viewers of fox and steve amberson upset. for many of the viewers, they're like, no, good. we want to tear this whole thing down, and so, that makes things very challenging for the republicans who want to do the right thing. i think is a dwindling number of them. i think many of them feel really trapped by their own voters. >> what do you think the implications are for the actual speakers race, charlie is, it's a foregone conclusion that it's going to be somebody in the radical rink of the parties base? >> most likely. but, again, this is the dilemma that in order to get twitter 18 votes, you either have to get the votes of the matt gaetz jacket caucus, or you have to get some democratic votes. in order to get the matt gaetz caucus, you're going to have to continue doing what kevin mccarthy do which is to get one -- concession after another of the taliban wing of the party. in order to get democratic votes, you're going to have to strike some grand bargain that would absolutely outrage the right-wing base and the baton of the world and donald trump. so, the question is, how do you get to 218 votes? the conventional wisdom would suggest that it's going to be somebody like a steve scalise, but who knows. my only prediction is, strap in, break out the popcorn, because it's going to be long, it's going to be ugly. >> that is not popcorn eating footage for me. i just want to put all food aside watching the degradation of our two party system. the jackal caucus. somebody put that on a mug, please, somewhere. tim miller, charlie sykes, great to have you both on the program. thanks for your time tonight. >> thank you, alex. >> we have lots to talk about this evening, like a victory. yes, a victory for representational democracy as a republican effort to keep democrats out of power in alabama fails, and it just in time for next year's election. plus, donald trump may have retreated to his florida beach club, but lawyers are keeping busy, working to keep trump out of multiple court cases while he is running for president. that is next. s next ♪oh♪ ♪then you take me by the hand♪ ♪i feel better again♪ ♪oh i feel better now♪ i'm orlando and i'm living with hiv. i don't have to worry about daily hiv pills because i switched to every-other-month cabenuva. for adults who are undetectable, cabenuva is the only complete long-acting hiv treatment you can get every other month. it's two injections from a healthcare provider. now when i have people over, hiv pills aren't on my mind. don't receive cabenuva if you're allergic to its ingredients, or if you're taking certain medicines, which may interact with cabenuva. serious side effects include allergic reactions, post-injection reactions, liver problems, and depression. if you have a rash and other allergic reaction symptoms, stop cabenuva and get medical help right away. tell your doctor if you have liver problems or mental health concerns, and if you are pregnant, breastfeeding, or considering pregnancy. some of the most common side effects include injection-site reactions, fever, and tiredness. if you switch to cabenuva, attend all treatment appointments. it feels good to just live in the moment. with every-other-month cabenuva, i'm good to go. ask your doctor about cabenuva today. ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ ( ♪♪ ) constant contact's advanced automation lets you send the right message at the right time, every time. ( ♪♪ ) constant contact. helping the small stand tall. the power goes out and we still have wifi constant contact. to do our homework. and that's a good thing? great in my book! who are you? no power? no problem. introducing storm-ready wifi. now you can stay reliably connected through power outages with unlimited cellular data and up to 4 hours of battery back-up to keep you online. only from xfinity. ♪ ♪ ♪ home of the xfinity 10g network. in new york today, it was day four of donald trump's civil fraud trial, and for the first time, the former president was not in the courtroom to watch or too much or under his breath. instead, he was at home, in florida. doing trump stuff. but it appears that trump's lawyers are working overtime, doing everything they can to either postpone or dismiss four of their clients five pending pending legal cases. in the new york civil fraud case, trump's team announced that tomorrow, they'll be requesting a stay, pending appeal. exactly what part of the trial they want to put on pause is still anyone's guess. but we should know by tomorrow. another set of trump's lawyers filed a motion to dismiss the manhattan d.a.'s criminal hush money case against trump, calling the charges politically motivated and marred by legal defects. in the federal criminal case, involving trump's storage of classified documents at mar-a-lago, today, his lawyers asked judge aileen cannon for that trial to start after the 2024 presidential election. citing that many other trials trump faces, in the impossibility of being, quote, in two places at once. and then, and the other federal criminal case, involving trump's efforts to overthrow the 2020 election, trump lawyers are trying to get that case dismissed altogether. they argued, trump's efforts to subvert democracy were actually, quote, efforts to ensure election integrity, and are therefore, protected under presidential immunity. joining me now to give her take on the validity of all of this is joyce vance, former u.s. attorney for the northern district of alabama. and of course, co-host of the sisters in law podcast. joyce, thank you for being here. i am not a lawyer, which i say, i think, every hour of this program. but i did read highlights from this argument, trump's lawyers were making. and found myself chuckling. i wonder what you thought about the assertion that trump has absolute immunity inject smith and its federal issue in case. because the actions trump took, in and around the election, we're within the outer perimeter of his presidency. in his actions to overturn the election were at the heart of his official responsibilities as president. what do you make of that? >> right, so, alex, i think they're making the argument that they have to make here. obviously, stealing an election does not fall within a presidents core duties. they've corrected this argument using sterile language to describe the allegations against trump. instead of representing it in terms of the conspiracies that the government charges to defraud the united states, to obstruct an official proceeding, to deprive people of their civil rights, they, say oh, trump was just having conversations with state officials. and as vice president, and this was very normal sorts of conduct. that argument, i, think defies common sense. and is not an argument that will succeed in front of judge chutkan. but that's not the goal here. trump's lawyers are trying to set up an appeal, possibly an interlocutory appeal, before trial. if they can persuade the courts it's merited. this is partially a delay game. partially a game in front of the supreme court of getting them to buy into this expansion of presidential power and presidential immunity. >> what do you think of the chances on that front? given this current supreme court. i will -- i'm not sure people notice. clarence thomas this week, recused himself from a supreme court decision not to take up a case involving the january 6th committee getting access to john eastman's emails. john eastman, famously, the lawyer that helped hatch the plot to overturn election results. does that signal anything to you? at all about how these justices are thinking about the efforts in around the 2020 election? >> so, i'm not holding my breath to see justice thomas begin to recuse, wholesale, from cases. where he might have what people would perceive as a conflict of interest. eastman is one of his former law clerk's. that, perhaps, was even to direct of a conflict for this court to stomach. i think, looking at this issue about presidential immunity and the larger context of some conservative jurisprudence, that is focused on expanding the range of presidential power, perhaps there's a way that trump lawyers, like chris keys, who's a former florida solicitor general on accomplished appellate lawyer, believe that they can make it palatable to the supreme court. this is a candidate argument, you might remember this, alex, when bill barr was auditioning himself for the attorney general job. as jeff sessions time as attorney general came to an end. he wrote this lengthy memo saying, the president couldn't be prosecuted for obstruction of justice because of something called the unitarian executive theory. that essentially said, if the president did it, it was okay. they will make that same sort of argument here, and see if they can get some traction on appeal. >> so, it sounds like it's not a foregone conclusion, one where the other. but there could be hope for trump at the supreme court. >> you know, i wouldn't want to predict, i mean, reading the argument on its merits, i would, say absolutely not. this just is a nonstarter of an argument, of course, the supreme court has been predictable in some ways. for trump's lawyers, there is the prospect of possible delay here. if they can position this moment to delay the case until after the republican primaries and the nominating processes are over, i think they believe that they're serving their client. >> yeah, and delay is the number one unspoken tactic here. speaking of which, it's been a minute since we talked about what's happening in the mar-a-lago case. trump's lawyers would like to basically delay that case until after the 2024 election. convenient. there's been a lot of analysis in recent months about where judge cannon's heart lies in terms of sympathies for trump in the defense he's mounting. do you think there is a case to be made that he's just too busy to have, to be a participant in a federal criminal trial down in florida? >> no. that's absolutely not an argument. everyone who is a criminal defendant has a job, they have a family, they might even have prepaid preplanned vacations. that doesn't mean you get to continuance from march to december. maybe it means that there is a realistic need for a couple of extra weeks or for a month. but given this case and the very payton game that's playing here, trying to move the trial until after the election. it would be a real abuse of justice for judge cannon to play along and given. >> we'll be watching to see what judge aileen cannon does down there in florida. joyce vance, i always feel enlightened after wechat. thank you for your time tonight, my friend. >> thanks, alex. >> still to come this evening, what a christian cell phone company has to do with a radical school board in the state of texas. it is an incredible nbc news investigation, and is just ahead. first, there are some good news out of the state of alabama. that offers hope for a functioning democracy and a function in congress. that is next. stay with us. ay with us he hits his mark —center stage—and is crushed by a baby grand piano. you're replacing me? 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>> more than i wanted to. now, that is all i can see. in my school, all i can see is people pitted against each other. >> over the course of the last two years, school boards in the grapevine-colleyville south lake and keller school districts. all passed sweeping policies. like restricting lessons on race, gender, and sexuality. the bathroom use of transgender students. and removing access to hundreds of books. many of those school board members are being backed by a conservative christian cell phone company. patriot mobile. >> patriot mobile is america's only christian conservative wireless provider. >> headquartered in grapevine, they promised to donate some of their profits to gop causes. and they run a political action committee, called patriot mobile action. one of their spiritual advisers, pastor rafael cruz, is the father of gop senator ted cruz. he live streams bible study sessions from their offices. encouraging christians to run for local school board seats. >> if the righteous are not running for office, if the rioters are not even voting, then what's left. the wicked, electing the wicked. >> christian leaders have found success by focusing on school politics. one texas evangelist and patriot mobile business partner, lance wall now, recently claimed christians played a secret role in the elections in the neighboring town of south lake. >> we didn't south lake, texas. 1000 people when it and flood, it took over the school board, took over the city council, took over the mayor's office. boom. you know it was? christians did it. the media doesn't know it. because we never said. it was a church initiative. we called it a community initiative. >> in total, the pack patriot mobile action spent more than $600,000 supporting at least 14 texas school board candidates in the last two years. according to campaign finance reports. races that only a few years ago, would have been mom and pop operations run with only a few thousand dollars. patriot mobile hired a pair of gop consulting firms, that have worked on campaigns for ted cruz and florida governor ron desantis. bringing sophisticated national strategies to local school politics. >> do you believe that believe in having biological males compete in women sports -- >> north texas representative nate -- represents many of the families in the keller school district. he's also a former pastor. and runs a church-based nonprofit, that works to get conservative christians elected in these communities. on the first day of the last texas legislative session this year, he led a prayer and worship service in the texas capital. he shared some of the images on social media. >> there is nothing more important than we could be doing, then this right here. worshipping and praying in the middle of the capital. throughout the session he talked about how his faith informed his politics. schatzline and other conservatives voted to restrict drag performances, and to hire religious chaplains as unlicensed mental health counselors. in public schools. he spoke with nbc news for the new podcast, grapevine. >> do you believe in the fundamental separation of church and state? >> i believe that church and state, in the constitution, what was written about it was written to keep the state out of the church, not to keep the church out of the state. the >> that belief has pushed some teachers out of public education for good. the amanda guthrie was an award winning world history teacher in grapevine. before she quit, halfway through last school year. >> i think they want to defund public education. create a, essentially, segregated school system. and whether that be segregated by race or religion is unclear right now. i believe they want complete control over curriculums. and they ultimately want to create an uninformed and the, i heard the term, brainwashed, but manipulated voter base. >> our analysis of district district data shows she was one of more than 160 staffers who resigned from her district by the end of the last school year. >> they say it was teachers like you who are doing the brainwashing. and the indoctrinating. is there any truth to that? where their teachers, while you are there, pushing their political ideologies, talking about gender, and sex, and the classroom? >> absolutely not. we are trying to prepare students, of course, for college success. but more pressing lee, for the ap exam at the end of the year. so, i never discussed things that were outside of the realm of those standards. and i know that my coworkers didn't either. >> the grapevine-colleyville south lake and color school district leaders all declined interviews. in an email, grapevine-colleyville told nbc news, we review all feedback, and continuously look at how we can better serve and support our employees. south lake carroll school noted, as required by texas law, we have policies and processes that respect parental rights and appropriately review curriculum. keller isd saying, we believe that mutual respect and dignity build unity. >> in a time where the climate is so hostile and ever changing, when the next policy gonna come? what have they done now? it's nice to be able to find solace in friends you can talk to. >> i think the student communities that have sprung up make me optimistic. because i've seen so many students stepping up as leaders. and forming a community where people feel safe. >> this is not just happening in texas. this is a national movement. antonia hylton, along with nbc news senior investigative reporter, mike hastened bought, have spent years investigating the infiltration of far-right christian ideology into classrooms in texas and across america. and they join me coming up next. stay with us. stay with us one aleve works all day so i can keep working my magic. just one aleve. 12 hours of uninterrupted pain relief. aleve. who do you take it for? 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(notification dings) in fact, more than 95% of enhance select premium customers report hearing better with their friends, family, and colleagues. with jabra enhance select, you can get the same advanced hearing aid technology and professional care you expect from a clinic at a fraction of the cost. try at risk free for 100 days. visit jabraenhance.com. i think we all just feel exhausted. we tried so hard last year to keep our teachers. we know are still passion about teaching. to have a safe environment in our schools. and no one listened. >> that is -- she is a high school senior in the grapevine-colleyville school district in the dallas-fort worth area. rather than focusing on the things most high school seniors are worried about, like making the honor roll, or figuring out what to pack for college, she is one of several north texas students now worried about their classrooms becoming battlegrounds for right-wing politics. nbc's antonia hylton spoke to her and her classmates about the far-right curriculums changes recently foisted on schools across north texas. antonia hylton, along with mike -- -- senior investigative reporter for nbc news joins me now. they were co-host of the peabody award-winning podcast, south lake, which covered how americas racial history is taught to kids in suburban classrooms. and how the wright has responded to it. they are new podcast, grapevine, continues that reporting on the religious far-right, targeting north texas's public schools. antonia and mike, you guys are doing incredibly essential reporting. i'm so grateful for the reporting period, and to join me and said to talk about this. we've talked about patriot mobile on this program before. antonia, if you could, talk to me a little bit about the sort of unlikely partnership of right-wing phone company and school boards. and the way in which there's, you know, the handshake between those two things and the effect on teachers and students in north texas? >> well, look, first, for anyone who's confused about why a cell phone companies involved in this, i think your explanation of dominion as of earlier would've helped. there's a school boards, that's the area of education, and then there's the area of business. so, it's one of the pillars in which people who are part of this movement, who believe that questions are called to take control of the spaces, it makes sense for them to do it in the business sphere as well. and then, you know, what we're seeing right now, the folks involved in this movement, they are getting a signal, all the way from our national politics, from the changing shape of our supreme court. and getting the sense they can change things locally. no they can seize this moment. so, with a couple hundred thousand dollars, which is a lot of money locally, but not a lot of mentally nationally. they're able to make big, big seismic shifts, very quickly. in local communities and completely change students education and teachers educational experiences and careers. so, that's what we're seeing. amanda guthrie, who just met that story, this is the practical implication for her. she's in the middle of teaching a lesson about jamestown, the colony virginia. and she gets to a section of a passage that she's taught before, that she always felt great about. she tells me that she realized that the passage describes slavery as foundational to the colony into the founding of the united states. and because of laws passed, and because of the nature of our school board, she realizes, i can't finish reading this. she accidentally says that loud event for students. and that was the moment he really she had a quid. >> wow. the self censorship these teachers have to go under threat. the threat of punishment. the threat of expulsion. it's so similar to what's happening in, for example, states like florida. what's interesting here, you talk about return on investment that a company like patriot mobile gets. for a couple hundred thousand dollars, you can reform, if you will, the way texas public school students learn. in the process of doing this, mike, they're also bringing in outside consultants that are familiar in national politics. is that? right >> oh, absolutely right. we should mention, we made many efforts to get patriot mobile to interview interview business. i went to see pat to try to talk with him. >> brave work, my friend. >> they declined. we don't have their perspective on what their motivation is and why they're doing this. we can see that they do have a huge read in turn an investment by investing in local school board races, either hundred $50,000 into a local school board race. where you normally would spend $5,000. you have the power to really effect change. one of the religious scholars we spoke to, when you think about this decades-long effort to really like the 1960s, put prayer back in school. but got back in school. the new iteration of that, put god back in school, and push lgbtq out of school. if you're looking to affect that change, and when the next generation, and if you believe this is a spiritual battle for the heart and soul, the future of your country, what better place to fight it then in a classroom, at a local school board. you know, our new podcast, grapevine, really drills beyond that political story. and into the lives of teachers and kids who are dealing with this. at the center of this story we tell of the course of six episodes, you hear from a teacher who has been accused by a mother, in the midst of this political climate, of convincing a transgender student to become trans. this is something we've heard from politics things like ron desantis, the teachers trying to do this. in this district, a mom made that allegation against a teacher. in a school district, where these folks have taken control you can really see how these teachers life was turned upside down. harassment how she was made to take books off her shelf completely changed how she teaches kids. >> i mean, there is the departure of these teachers from the system writ large, you talk about in this piece here. there is the way in which they have to self censor, and change the lesson plans, i do wonder about the students. in some of the reporting that we've done in florida, the students very much see what's happening. and they do everything they can, through speaking out, organizing what have you. to push back. but there is such a limitation to what they can actually accomplish when they run up against the forces of government. what's happening in north texas? and what to the students tell you about the changes they're living through? >> the word i keep hearing is exhausted and defeated from students right now. they tried in 2022, this last cycle, to put up a bit of a fight. they're going door-to-door, talking to parents, neighbors they know for years. what's going to on the. school outpatient if you do xyz. they see they have the board majority, that is going to be a couple years before they even have another shot at taking the majority and if a direction. so, they are feeling like, well, that's it. there goes my high school experience. my high school culture. so, what i'm hearing from this group of kids, they've lost some faith in adults. the adults around them, who they thought should shield them from politics and controversy, should allow them to be kids for just a little while longer. that they've messed up their job a bit. now, they're at the front lines, they are getting in front of microphones and podiums at school board meetings. and they're begging people to take action, and to let them have a say in their own education. >> wow, to let them actually learn what happened in history. and in american society. great work, you guys. indispensable the work you're doing. antonia hylton, mike hixenbaugh. thank you both, the first two episodes of their new podcast series, grapevine, from nbc news studios, just drop yesterday. you can find it by scanning that q r code on your screen right now. that's our show for tonight, now it is time for the last word with lawrence o'donnell. good evening, lawrence. >> good evening, alex. sean penn is gonna be joining us later in the hour tonight. he has now produced,

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