into chaos, in a standard bearer doing everything he can to get the case against him thrown out of the courts. there are big developments in both of those stories, and we're gonna get all of them, this hour. but if there is one person who in ball embodies the dual crises, the dual problem in the gop right, now hit house chaos and alleged republican criminality, it is this guy. congressman george santos, a serial fabulist who remains in the house of representatives despite being charged with 13 counts of fraud fraud, money laundering, incest 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 charge is part of the broader case against her 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 bob menendez 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 knife's 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 capitol 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 musing may require him to become speaker himself. today, trump told fox news digital they have asked me if i would take it, meaning the 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 becomes 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 marched 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, at the 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 segue him 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 voted out. >> 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 from the capitol to the basement recording studio that belongs to steve bannon, to claim victory and to rally support from the maga movement. >> first, i want to say, the posse one, and the posse 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 than the big steak dinners and fund-raisers and the favors that 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 jeb bush campaign, and writer at large and charlie sykes, 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 as speaker of the house. >> as strange as it 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 capitol 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. >> right, 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 give power to trump and trumpism, and on the other hand, i kind of think it is going, it's like, is it rasputin? 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 jackal 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 lunatics 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, poisoning them against mccarthy whom he deemed an establishment rhinos to the democratic party. in other seasons, one might say, who cares what 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 suites in the capitol 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 attention, and that's all they need. what do you think of that? >> that is exactly right. tim burton has written a whole book about this. the water was poisoned a long 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 loyal enough. they keep ratcheting it up. so, what bannon represents is just one aspect of all of this. ultimately, this is a leadership promblem but it is also a follower ship problem. as you said 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 a lunatic, they have to deal with this, not just the eight members of the caucus but this entire media 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 tim, this is an assertion of dominance but it really is in many ways the worst nightmare for house republicans and 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. it feels like the 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 as 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 he had 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, there for the tweets, there for 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 bannon's broadcast 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 there 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 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 jackalt 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 bannons 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 just in time for next year's election. plus, donald trump may have retreated to his florida beach club, but his lawyers are keeping busy, working to keep trump out of multiple court cases while he is running for president. that is next. what causes a curve down there? 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customize and save with liberty bibberty. he doesn't even have a mustache. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ here's why you should switch from chrome to duckduckgo. duckduckgo is a browser you download to your mobile and desktop devices. unlike chrome, the duckduckgo browser has privacy built-in. it comes with a private alternative to google search, which doesn■t spy on your searches, and it blocks cookies and creepy ads. and there's no catch. it's free. we make money from ads, but they don't follow you around. ♪ ♪ ♪ join the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on mobile and desktop today. 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 to mutter 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 client's 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 the many other trials trump faces, in the impossibility of being, quote, in two places at once. and then, in 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 in his 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 president's core duties. so they've crafted 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 his 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 clerks. that, perhaps, was even to direct of a conflict for this court to stomach. but i think, looking at this issue about presidential immunity and the larger context of some conservative jurisprudence, that has 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, an accomplished appellate lawyer, believe that they can make it palatable to the supreme court. this is a kin to this 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 unitary 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. detect this: living with hiv, i learned that i can stay undetectable with fewer medicines. that's why i switched to dovato. dovato is a complete hiv treatment for some adults. no other complete hiv pill uses fewer medicines to help keep you undetectable than dovato. detect this: most hiv pills contain 3 or 4 medicines. dovato is as effective with just 2. if you have hepatitis b, don't stop dovato without talking to your doctor. don't take dovato if you're allergic to its ingredients or taking dofetilide. this can cause serious or life-threatening side effects. if you have a rash or allergic reaction symptoms, stop dovato and get medical help right away. serious or life-threatening lactic acid buildup and liver problems can occur. tell your doctor if you have kidney or liver problems or if you are pregnant, breastfeeding, or considering pregnancy. dovato may harm an unborn baby. most common side effects are headache, nausea, diarrhea, trouble sleeping, tiredness, and anxiety. detect this: i stay undetectable with fewer medicines. ask your doctor about switching to dovato. when the murrays discovered gain scent beads, they fell in love with the irresistible scent. ♪ ♪ huh, huh, so did their dog roger. ♪ ♪ gain scent beads keep even the stinkiest stuff smelling fresh. you know i got two home runs. you got two jacks. and then my grand slam. i signed a ball for you. okay. and it says papa i love you. bye right now, all business in why did you do that? 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(♪♪) (♪♪) the house of representatives has essentially ground to a screeching halt, which is not to say, the republican majority in the chamber was ever really the model of functioning governance. the gop only hold power because it won a razor-thin majority in the 2022 election. part of the reason there, the party went into the midterm election, benefiting from congressional maps that were redrawn by republican legislatures. and while we cannot know what might have happened in the alternate reality where congressional maps were not gerrymandered in republican state houses, the very handy website, democracy docket, has identified six states where house democrats lost at least one seat, and the majority in the house, because of those gerrymandered maps. those states are florida, georgia, louisiana, ohio, utah, and alabama. each of these republican-led states put maps in play that gave their party a distinct advantage in the 2021 election. alabama's congressional map had only one majority black district out of seven. despite the fact that black residents make up 27% of the states population. but today, after not one, but two, supreme court rulings, and a court appointed special master, alabama has been forced to adopt a new congressional map with a second majority black district. that map will be in effect for next year's election 2024, which will, in turn, give democrats a chance at picking up two of alabama's seven congressional seats. this is a major victory for voters in alabama. but it also offers a glimmer of hope for voters in other states, where republican drawn maps are currently being contested in the courts. if those challenges are successful, democrats could pick up several seats in the 2024 election. which could mean a democratic majority in congress and maybe even a functioning house of representatives. at the very least, a more representative democracy. now, while things may be looking up in alabama, over in texas, not so much. our nbc news reporters have been uncovering the transformation of schools in northern texas and the very unusual group that is behind all of that. that's coming up next. h. this painful, blistering rash can disrupt your life for weeks. it could make your workday feel impossible. the virus that causes shingles is likely already inside of you. if you're 50 years or older, ask your doctor or pharmacist about shingles. the first time you made a sale online with godaddy was also the first time you heard of a town named dinosaur, colorado. we just got an order from dinosaur, colorado. start an easy to build, powerful website for free with a partner that always puts you first. start for free at godaddy.com this halloween, trick or treat yourself to the blendjet 2 portable blender... it's to die for. blendjet 2 gives you monstrous power for a delicious smoothie, shake, or frappé anytime, anywhere. cleaning blendjet 2 is scary easy. just blend water with a drop of soap. recharge quickly with any usb port. boo-gie on over to blendjet.com and order yours today. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ get it with gurus. cargurus. we are on a mission, our mission is to be and live by the constitution and putting him first. they did need to think that i put them things that they're teaching children in our schools today they really need to think about the facts right let's live by the facts. this is a country that was founded on god. you can go back to the constitution, bill of rights and it does they put him first. we are trying to live by that. >> when we started this program, last year, we introduced you to that guy. glenn story, the one with the in god we trust sign behind him. he is the leader of a conservative christian phone company, that is literally taking the call to put god, or more specifically, an extreme far-right interpretation of christianity, to put that back in schools. his company is contributing to a fringe conservative movement across north texas. its goal is to pedal extreme anti-lgbt conservative christian ideology to public school students. the company has been trying to push a specific fringe christian ideology that is increasingly popular on the far-right. it's called dominionism. that is the belief that christians are called on to dominate the seven key mountains of american life, including business, media, government, and education. so far, this company has been pretty successful. through its political action committee, it has managed to infiltrate north texas school boards, and consequently, north texas classrooms. nbc news correspondent antonia hilton went to texas to talk with the students, who were there, dealing with the consequences. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> in pockets of north texas, students are worried about politics and religion creeping into their classrooms. >> even though we live in a conservative area, most kids are fine with learning about different identities, about learning about people of color, and lgbtq people. >> it's frustrating, strange hypocritical to see the in god we trust signs being put up everywhere. well at the same time, books are being removed from our library shelves. >> i think i've learned more about politics in the last year than i did my entire life. >> more than you wanted to? >> 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 promise 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 livestreams 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 righteous 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 wallnau, 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 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, than 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. 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. >> that belief has pushed some teachers out of public education for good. 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, i hate 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 were doing the brainwashing and the indoctrinating. is there any truth to that? were their teachers, while you are there, pushing their political ideologies, talking about gender, and sex, and the classroom? >> absolutely not. we were trying to prepare students, of course, for college success, but more pressingly, 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 keller 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's 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 everchanging, when is 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 --, 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. you're probably not easily persuaded to switch mobile providers for your business. but what if we told you it's possible that comcast business mobile can save you up to 75% a year on your wireless bill versus the big three carriers? it's true. plus, when you buy your first line of mobile, you get a second line free. there are no term contracts or line activation fees. and you can bring your own device. oh, and all on the most reliable 5g mobile network nationwide. wireless that works for you. it's not just possible. it's happening. here's why you should switch from chrome to duckduckgo. duckduckgo is a browser you download to your mobile and desktop devices. unlike chrome, the duckduckgo browser has privacy built-in. it comes with a private alternative to google search, which doesn■t spy on your searches, and it blocks cookies and creepy ads. and there's no catch. it's free. we make money from ads, but they don't follow you around. we are on a mission, our join the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on mobile and desktop today. mission is to be and live by the constitution and putting him first. they did need to think that i put them things that they're teaching children in our >> 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? >> 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, directed,

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