moments i'm going to share a special report we've been working on for much of the weak about defendant trump's legal trouble and why we've seen slowly but surely this inflection point. i've going to break down for you only with legal facts and evidence how what's happening in georgia with all these confessions and guilty pleas and vows to testify is actually strengthening jack smith's hands in the doj case, which is the first criminal case of any major stature that donald trump will see himself go on trial. that is, remember, coming up in march. that special part will be part of the broadcast in a few moments. our top story is the escalating crisis in the middle east with israel pounding gaza with these massive explosions heard through the night over there. you can see some of what we've been able to capture from our aerial cameras and that's 1:00 a.m. on the dot in gaza local time. this is according to the experts and local accounts we have some of the heaviest bombing of the war so far. it also matches -- that is to say what we've seen in the field matches what israel has been expressing quite candidly or bluntly today, which is they're dialing this up tonight. they're increasing the, quote, ground operations in gaza. they say they also have specific targets including what they believe is identified as frdground terrorist infrastructure, a reference to the tunnels and caves hamas has built and used. now, gaza is also under a near total internet and cellular blackout. so they don't have communications with the outside world. this is some of the footage we have from earlier friday in gaza city. the united states also we should tell you as you look at the threat and concerns about a widening regional set of conflicts carried out two air strikes in syria. syria, which is on the northern border of israel, and those were targeting not hamas specifically, but actually iranian linked facilities that the united states decided to hit today. defense officials say those strikes are actually tailiation for the rocket and drone attacks on american forces in syria. that does not mean that in a technical sense america has entered this war or is at war with any of those aforementioned countries, but it does tell you how this is escalating according to both the public accounts of more than one government or the actual operations you see on your screen. we want to go now immediately at the top of our broadcast to nbc's ellison barbara live at the israel-gaza border. what can you tell us your reporting shows tonight? >> ari, we have been in this area just north of gaza along the border with israel for weeks now. and what we've been hearing tonight is by far the heaviest and longest bombardment into gaza we have heard since we first got here. and again, we have been in this general area for weeks now. there were a number of targeted raids that were carried out on the ground in gaza by israeli forces prior to this. at least three of them including one that took place last night and another the night before. but according to the idf those were raids that lasted most several hour, a cup of hours and then forces left. tonight at 8:15 p.m. local time and it's about 1:00 a.m. here now, you had a spokesman with the idf saying israel had expanded its attack inside of gaza both by air with the israeli air force targeting what they describe as underground infrastructure and terrorist infrastructure inside of northern gaza. and then at 8:30 local time that's when we started to get official reports from the largest telecommunication providers inside of gaza saying that they had absolutely no service, no calls, no comms, nothing coming out of gaza. we have heard, and you can probably hear some of it now just some rolling booms inside of gaza. just behind me, that is gaza's skyline. it's hazy tonight and it's dark because, remember, they do not have power inside of gaza. but every new minutes or so. every 10, 15 minutes you'll see the skyline just light up and it glowing orange or a reddish color. hamas' military wing, they say that their forces inside of gaza are engaging with israeli ground forces in at least two areas in northern gaza, one of them being a city, and we are just a couple miles from that. and we are just hearing this constant steady bit of bombardment into northern gaza. we also know not far from this area there are israeli tanks in formation here. we've seen for weeks the massive presence of israeli forces moving towards the israel, gaza border. the booms come from the left, the right, and behind. different nights when we have heard bombardments like this, it's been shorter time. and typically you can hear it all coming from one section. this is different in that it sounds like a pop, a pop, a pop, and then a pop again. ari? >> ellison barber, thank you for kicking off our coverage of this tonight with your reporting from gaza. we wish safety for you and your team. thank you. i want to bring in our other experts here state side, david whoed, nbc news senior executive editor and as we mentioned a former hostage himself, and elise lavat who has extensive experience in dozens of countries. david, when we hear the government and idf say they're escalating, obviously this isn't some sort of surprise move. this is part of something they're conveying. what do we understand their goals to be tonight, and how will this affect what has already been a humanitarian crisis on the ground in gaza? so israeli officials actually today in new york met with journalists from nbc and other news organizations, and they were absolutely clear they're determined to eradicate hamas' ability and command structure so it can never again pose a terror threat or military threat to anyone in southern israel. you know, we ask questions about the cut off of humanitarian supply, and they said they will continue to use the same tactics they've been using, the bombing we've seen. and it does seem they're using a new tactic these smaller raids and the question is whether it'll work every time. >> and take a listen to an israeli official who spoke on msnbc today. >> i can say this, that everyone was saying that israel wasn't going to do it, that israel is waiting. well, we waited, we prepared, we planned. and we're hitting them where it hurts them. hamas will pay for its crimes against humanity. hamas will pay for slaughtering our people. and tonight we are starting payback. >> elise, that's as mentioned a very clear statement there from that advisor to the prime minister and what israel intends to do and linking it of course to the precipitating hamas attacks. embedded in that, though, there's about 200 hostages hamas is holding. how cuz that may out in the operations and israel's concerns about the safety of those people? >> i think it's unclear, ari, whether these small what i would consider tactical incursions, i don't think this is the big ground incursion that we've been waiting for the last couple of weeks, tens of thousands of troops amassed at the border. i think these are small, these are operational targeted things to shape the battlefield, and does that mean they're going in and looking for hostages to see where they think they are? are they going to start-up a base of operations and move from there? and i think they want to suss out what's going on over there, how much infrastructure they have been able to destroy from these air strikes. we also hear that negotiations are still continuing with hamas, with the state of qatar, with egypt. there's some hope that maybe this initial, you know, bombardment, additional strikes may lead to a big hostage release. that's really unclear right now. i think in the morning we'll know whether this is part of the beginning of that ground battle we're all expecting or this is continuing to shape the battlefield and is this going to be the way israel shapes the battle, special operations, get in and get out and achieve your mission. i think that's what the u.s. prefers right now not just because of the hostages, many of them american but also because they think that perhaps israel is not really prepared for the kind of urban battle that they're going to get when they all land in gaza. >> with both of our opening guests here, we've been focused on what israel says in escalation and this activity in gaza. our experts stay, but i want to bring in for the widening regional perspective, a senior administration in the clinton administration, a long time foreign affairs analyst. david, i want to bring you in on the other thing that i mentioned but again trying to be as straightforward as possible, if the world were quieter and we woke up here on friday and the united states was bombing an iranian linked facility in syria, that would obviously be a very big story for america and the world all along. here against everything else it sort of gets folded in. i want to get your view, david, how should the american public understand what that operation is and what according to the biden administration it isn't. in other words, they're not saying that's a prelude to try to fight iran, but walk us through that, please. >> the biden administration has made it clear that the reason that they struck the targets in syria was to protect u.s. forces in the region and to send a message that we would not be tolerating threats against those forces. they need to understand that today in addition to what you were just speaking about with elise and david, with regard to what's happening in northern gaza, you've got skirmishes taking place in northern israel with hezbollah. you've had recently missiles fired from yemen with the houthis backed by iran that landed in egypt. but you also had messages they're really targeting israel. you had a drone attack coming from iran that was struck down with iraq. we are at a very precarious moment that depending on how the israeli escalation in gaza does, depending on what kind of interactions the u.s. or people that we are allied with have with iranian or iranian backed groups, that this could blow up into something much larger at any moment. and thank that's one of the principle considerations right now in the mind of the biden administration. the reason they sent forces into the region was to reduce the likelihood of that conflict, but of course those forces could just as easily become engaged in a broader conflict. >> elise? >> i think this is a deterrence. i think, yes, it was about retaliation, but it's more of deterrence. it's saying, okay, you tried it, don't even think about doing anymore. the u.s. is continuing to send, you know, by air and sea sophisticated weaponry. they're really beefing up their presence in the region. the u.s. hopes not just to use it but it's not just a message to syria and hezbollah and lebanon but also the u.s. is there. as david said, it doesn't want to get drawn into this conflict but it will. >> and then bringing david rhode into this regional piece we saw how it was seen as a big positive for moderates, people looking for a peace process, and hamas wanted to scuttle that. it sort of can be frustrating to people looking at this from afar and saying, gosh, why does this stuff work. and yet we know from world history how extremism and violence and v attacks can work. what the saudis are saying right now from "the new york times" reporting they warn the israeli-u.s. invasion of gaza could be catastrophic. a much tougher or more combative approach there for all those reasons that saudi arabia feels they can no longer be where they were a few months ago. where does that fit into this, david rhode, because people look and say it would be a thashl thing for this to grow into a wider regional conflict when so many forces prior to october 7th were headed that way. >> broadly speaking all of this is unkerring because of an unprovoked terrorist attack by hamas on israel. but what they're trying to spark is a wider regional conflict. and what matters here, and this is, you know, equally important, all lives matter. the number of palestinian deaths. as this death toll rises, and it may hit 7,000 tomorrow, it hits 10,000 let's say several days from now. you know, that's a 10-1 ratio very roughly speaking israelis to pal stainians. and the fear in saudi arabia and these conother countries is they lose the arab streak, that all these governments would come under pressure. jihadists across the region want to say look at the saudi arabian family, the king of jordan, they're doing nothing as palestinians are being slothered. israel has a right to neutralize hamas that's understandable given what was done. the question is can they do it while minimalizing the number of palestinians who die in the process? it's just a terrible and dangerous situation. >> dangerous and according to everything we've been reporting tonight, evidence that it is escalating this evening, about 1:15 a.m. local time. thanks to each of you. appreciate it. now we turn to a special report. the justice department special counsel jack smith has been building on procedural wins when recruiting this new star witness to testify against defendant trump at that trial, which is coming up in march. and so right now i'm going to begin walking you through a lot of things that have just recently changed. now, smith has invoked a gag order that he partially won to try to corner donald trump further. in a new filing smith urges the fedel judge there to actually tighten this gag order which was going to be paused on appeal, and mentions the psibility or threat of sending defendant trump to jail before he's convicted, before any trial, if he basically breaks the gag order and rules enough to interfere with witnesses. remember this move comes as the other prosecutor for two crimes d.a. willis in georgia has three trump aides each of them vowing to testify. these are each separate cases. both prosecutors are running their own strategy, and they have their own time lines, but the progress in georgia is putting a lot more heat on these defendants, and that may help jack smith corner donald trump. and remember jack smith has the first criminal trial of donald trump. if convicted there and upheld on appeal, that could send donald trump to prison potentially hypothetically before there is an election. now, i say potentially he is as a defendant donald trump presumed legally innocent there. bullet, now, look at georgia where those confessions put the heat on. you have white house veteran mark meadows. and i want you to remember this chart right here because we're going to come back to it and add to it in the special report. convicted, convicted, convicted. and he's seeing them vow to testify against trump and him because meadows is a codefendant there. meanwhile, and this is important and i'm going to say this clearly and slowly. meanwhile, as meadows worries about that which could landmark meadows in a georgia prison, note that meadows is vowing to testify against trump back over in d.c. with that big abc report meadows is fully cooperating i with the coup probe run by jack smith in washington. from meadows on trump in d.c., and that is the high stakes road to donald trump's response, because he's been berating his former chief of staff as weak for potentially cutting any kind of deal. now, as a pr move i could tell you that kind of attack from donald trump may sound typical or even tire or washed at this point. you've heard it all before. but i'm not talking about pr. in court where these things are going to be resolved, well, jack smith is using it and that's something he singles out. in the filing i mentioned smith talked about a social media post targeting a known witness to influence and intimidate him. meadows is that witness. and while you are allowed to criticize people in politics and say all kinds of words, smith is making the case donald trump is on the road to potentially commit another crime, witness intimidation,viting the gag order. if this were a random case about a street gang or mafia, a judge could easily jail someone before trial just for messing with witnesses, just for doing what i just showed you trump is doing. now, this judge paused that original gag order to give donald trump the right tew peel it. but with the meadows clash, prosecutors are now going further in smith's office and they're even pointing to a specific law that allows you to have detention to jail a defendant for this kind of thing. in plain english, judges can let some defendants roam free before trial with conditions. but if you break those conditions, then, yes, you may find that the judge will mandate your detention -- that is you go to jail and you have to prepare for your trial behind bars. if that sounds like a more serious punishment or sanction defendant trump has faced in a while, that's because it is. so where do we go from here? well, i can tell you we're going to a place where donald trump's odds of being convicted are much higher. and our special report continues -- we have our shortest break 60 seconds, and then i'll be back with you. secod then i'll be back with you sear. and - ahoy! it's the explorer! each helping to protect their money with chase. woah, a lost card isn't keeping this thrill seeker down. lost her card, not the vibe. the soul searcher, is finding his identity, and helping to protect it. hey! oh yeah, the explorer! she's looking to dive deeper... all while chase looks out for her. because these friends have chase. alerts that help check. tools that help protect. one bank that puts you in control. chase. make more of what's yours. (sean) i wish for the amazing new iphone 15 pro! chase. (jason) sean! do you mean this one - the one with titanium? switch to verizon, and get iphone 15 pro on them. (sean) wow! (vo) get iphone15 pro, apple tv 4k and 6 months of apple one. all three on us. only on verizon. your best defense against erosion and cavities is strong enamel- nothing beats it. new pronamel active shield actively shields the enamel to defend against erosion and cavities. i think that this product is a gamechanger for my patients- it really works. as a criminal defendant, donald trump is facing more heat now. he's operating as if the court will not make a new pres dependent and jail him before trial. jail him not for a coup crime or election crime or classified documents crime but jail him just for breaking trial rules. trump has broken at least the spirit of gag orders in washington. jack myth hakedhrough that evidence if not worse. and frump flatly broke a different civil order which is why he had to take the stand and face that grilling and also pay a fine. more violations could theoretically be punished by sending him to jail temporarily before trial. trump is clearly betting no judge wants to make a new precedent of jailing an ex-president before he's even convicted. but note that is the same kind of bet he made assuming the feds would not go after those boxes and boxes of allegedly stolen boxes from mar-a-lago, and the feds did. it's also similar to the bet donald trump made that they would not indict an ex-president, and that has now happened to him by three prosecutors across four cases, leading to the mounting heat you see across the entire nation from new york where trump's on trial in civil court now and awaiting a criminal trial, and washington where jack smith is prosecuting trump in that other federal march criminal coup trial. and down to atlanta where those rico cases have led to those three guilty pleas by his lawyers who are flipping, and then down in florida the espionage act case. now, these prosecutors act independently. they are supposed to, and they and their offices have all emphasized they're doing that. in other words, they don't collaborate on, for example, how to squeeze people or how to get cooperating witnesses in other jurisdictions, they might squeeze and they might pressure but only do that in their own case. the only level of any sort of coordination you might see -- and this is required -- that sometimes they discuss schedules because you can legally ask someone to be in two places at the same time. however, what is key, and i don't think everyone has actually completely noticed this yet. and boy, we've been busy with a lot of different things, but a core of the report i want to show you tonight is what i'm about to walk through with you. a break down of how the break through in georgia are strengthening jack smith's hand. the pressure across the cases makes it more likely that the main defendant here, donald trump, could be convicted on a lot of evidence. the most convictions are coming out of georgia. if you take the figures on your screen, over just the past eight days here as we end the week, we've updated this chart in a major way. three of them have pled guilty, so the convicted people in georgia, basically that upper type right there, those now convicted trump lawyers have confessed and vowed to testify against trump and those other codefendants you see on the screen. now consider the overlap in the open federal case. two of those georgia convicts i just showed you and three of those defendants are also on the hook in the federal coup case against trump, that's jack smith's case you see on your screen. so they are cited as unindicted coconspirators. that term has been thrown around a lot. what that means in plain english is the doj didn't charge them yet, but it could. so powell, chesebro, giuliani, eastman, clark, plus i should mention for thorough flsz, the sixth coconspiratorter of the lower right remains anonymous. so jack smith's case is about the entire coup plot. the georgia case you have the whole country and washington and all the different states, and georgia was just this georgia part. but now that people are confessing and flipping in that georgia part, let me tell you something. what happens in georgia may not stay in georgia, and this is sort of the conclusion of the report we want to show you based on our new legal analysis right out from what we've been doing as a team here on "the beat." i'm going to show it to you both cases together here. this is where you see a defendant like trump is in a worst spot than a few weeks ago now. that's a lot on your screen, and what you've got to know it's really tough for the top defendant and double for donald trump. this is way worse than where trump was just two week uzgo because the top witness of all, trump white house veteran mark meadows is now cooperating with jack smith. if you go to the right of trump he's indicted in georgia and a jack smith doj witness. so he faces, though, the heat from the other witnesses who have already publicly vowed to testify against meadows in georgia. those witnesses are facing the pressure to mauch whatever they swear under oath in georgia with what they say about meadows and trump in the federal case. take powell and chesebro and ellis, they could also eye immunity deals for federal exposure, which it would be what the doj reportedly granted meadows. and then there are the defendants and unindicted coconspirators who are still holding out. i'm leaving this on the screen for a long time on purpose because i want to now draw your attention to those people. giuliani, eastman, and clark they have the doj, that exposure. they are indicted in georgia, but unlike the other three they're holding out. what are they holding out for? i'm going to leave this on the screen as i make a final point here. when crow take this together, you have the interaction between the two cases. that is not the some grand strategy. indeed, jack smith had no idea georgia would ultimately move or not. it's the first and most perilous place where trump will go on trial soon in march and potentially face a conviction that carries prison time, and jack smith's case has been strengthened by all stamps you see on your screen. they didn't know these people would plea, and he's obviously very interested in mr. meadows. but where we are which is different than a couple weeks ago is seeing the cases collide in a way that is hugely helpful to the prosecutor who's first up, and that prosecutor is jack smith. i have two former prosecutors with me to get into all of this when we come back. into all of when we come back. for sam who m, everyday products, designed smarter. genius! like 2.5% cash back on purchases of $5,000 or more, so sam can make smart ideas, a brilliant reality! chase for business. make more of what's yours. it ain't my dad's razor, dad. ay watch it! it's from gillettelabs. this green bar releases trapped hairs from my face... gamechanga! ...while the flexdisc contours to it. so the five blades can get virtually every hair in one stroke. for the 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ask how to get an $800 prepaid card with a qualifying internet bundle. comcast business, powering possibilities. if i knew then what i know now, i would have declined to represent donald trump in these post election challenges. i look back on this whole experience with deep remorse. >> jenna ellis confessing to her crimes and discussing her, quote, remorse in court. as you can see on this chart that we've made, this is new tonight taking it all together. ellis is one of the convicted in georgia. on the upper part of the chart you see others who are both convicted in dpa and doj coconspiratorteres. that puts a lot more heat on a lot more people including mark meadow tuesday cooperate in both cases and strengthens jack smith's hands in the doj trial of donald trump in march. renato, we'll bring that back up because when i say it's a lot to process i think that would be true for anyone especially if you haven't followed all these characters. but how has this worked out to now put more heat on trump in the first upcoming trial? >> well, one thing for sure he can't count on someone like jenna ellis or kenneth chesebro coming in and potentially letting him off the hook by saying they gave him legal advice, that, you know, said this was okay hoar had conversations with them that may have given comfort. instead there's a real prospect they're going to be coming in and testifying for the prosecution and painting a different picture and potentially revealing things about donald trump's state of mind, that are going to actually potentially lead to a conviction, for example, of conspiracy to defraud the united states. >> when you look at the pressure on people like meadows and giuliani, these vows from other lawyers mean they're going to go in in georgia and talk about their meetings and pressers. sidney powell and ellis were putting heat on giuliani. a month ago they could have said, well, if nobody pleas maybe you roll the dice. >> well, certainly the pressure is on giuliani based on jenna ellis' statement. essentially what she said was i relied on more experienced lawyers, meaning rudy giuliani, to provide krufl and reliable information. essentially i was duped. i trusted them and i shouldn't have done it. they have more experience. so she's directly pointing the finger at rudy giuliani here. the larger question is whether that's all that credible. you know, i think her value as a cooperator i think to jack smith would be if she had said, oh, if i knew then what i know now, what did others know then? did you really think donald trump won in a landslide there was evidence to support that? she went on and on about the fact and evidence to claim she was relying on others i think she has a credibility problem. if she's going in to see jack smith she's going to press on these claims what she knew and what the conversations were with others before she just points the finger at others. >> right, and that statement is one she drafted as you both know from your experience and to remind viewers, in a criminal case you're not answering targeted questions. you're not philosophically on remorse unless you get to the sentencing phase. and i want to put up a federal chart we showed. when that first came down the pipe people thought, oh, why so many unindicted coconspirators? do you think jack smith's strategy here is working if as abc reports he has meadows cooperating, these other coconspiratorteres facing heat in georgia, it seems he has a better hand than he had a few months ago. >> absolutely. i think what he tried to do here is have a streamlined indictment that could get him to trial quickly before the election. so you have one defendant, trump. you have a streamlined set of charges. he wrote around the fact that mark meadows existed. it's pretty obvious when he read the indictment. these other people aren't charged. he didn't have a statute of limitations issue and he could make a decision at the end of the day has someone like powell has she suffered enough here, is she being helpful, and maybe she won't charge her? someone like rudy giuliani, maybe he leaves the door open for them to potentially decide you know what, i'm going to cooperate and maybe jack smith will decide i'm not worth his effort. >> does that make jack smith somewhat lucky, or is a good strategy one you can move in different directions, in other words without georgia he would have a slightly modified but similar plan, and with georgia now he's not blind to what's happening. meadows is facing a kind of heat where his lawyers are obviously telling him figure this out as you go. and if he gets out from the federal thing it's hard to imagine him holding strong in georgia. and why would they do that if he already started cooperating elsewhere, similar fact pattern. >> meadows is an interesting case. it's not clear there's a distinction between getting imunity and being a full-fledged cooperator and having a cooperation agreement in the federal system. it looks like what he has based on public reporting is use immunity. so anything he's said to the prosecutors in meetings with them or to the grand jury can't be used against him. and it seems as though maybe what jack smith is trying to do at least is to find out what he knows and at least ensure at a minimum that he's not going to be a good defense witness for donald trump. you know, he's saying in his book things like doj didn't investigate election fraud, and, you know, the election was rigged. and then you have reporting that he's going into jack smith and saying none of that's true, what i said in my book was just to sell books essentially. so closing out those key -- those key pieces of evidence with respect to meadows is incredibly important. you know, whether or not -- the fact it's compelled tells you that he is not fully on team usa but still giving valuable information to jack smith in the case. >> renato, do you think these are winnable cases against meadows and giuliani and the remaineders in georgia? >> i do. and i think part of the reason why is you do have these sort of shotgun effects of what fani willis did. if you fire a shotgun at a crowd of people you're going to hit somebody, right? she's already hit some targets and i think what she's sent is a message she's reasonable. she's not going to squeeze them to have a top resolution. she's looking for cooperators. she's looking for people to plead guilty now, and they'll get a reasonable deal if they do. i really think the pressure now is on someone like a giuliani. if you're giuliani and running on legal fees and sued by some of these election workers in georgia who he defamed, he's got a whole host of problems here. maybe it's attractive for him to be jenna ellis and show some remorse in order to get a lenient deal. >> yeah, and as we've seen when we take it together a lot of has accelerated just in the past eight days with the reverberations in washington. it's a pretty striking time. you can get set your calender to march but it's sooner than some think. thank you so much. have a great weekend. we're going to fit in a break, but when we come back america got a new speaker of the house this week, and learning more about him after republicans rushed in their latest candidate. we have a special report on that coming up. a special report on tt coming up. hey david. connect with an advisor to create your personalized plan. let's find the right investments for your goals okay, great. j.p. morgan wealth management. i've never been healthier. shingles doesn't care. but shingrix protects. proven over 90% effective, shingrix is a vaccine used to prevent shingles in adults 50 years and older. shingrix does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients or to a previous dose. an increased risk of guillain-barré syndrome was observed after getting shingrix. fainting can also happen. the most common side effects are pain, redness and 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tools help you know what to say, even when you don't. hi! constant contact. helping the small stand tall. congressional republicans finally picked a speaker of the house this week. mike johnson, who was not the first, second, or third candidate they looked at or not anyone thought at the beginning of this congress was up for the job. now there's a reverse congress going on because unlike jim jordan or steve scalise he hasn't been in the national spotlight for long. and some are focus ogen when what he's actually said or done with his power in congress. for example, take the conspacy theory about replacement, something tucker carlson pushed, which is the racist and anti-semitic conspiracy theory that argues basically there's these groups trying to replace the majorities in countries including the united states. tucker has pushed this a long time, and take a listen to this. >> for democrats, it's understandable because the calculus is simple. >> this is the plan of our friends on this side to turn all the illegals into voters. >> the democratic party is trying to replace the current electorate. >> you're always drawing that ultimate conclusion, they want to taurn these people into voters. >> replacing ungrateful citizens with obedient immigrants is their only hope. >> they turn these illegals to their side. >> that is the key plank the reason people support immigration that has been a policy since our founding we are a nation of immigrants, whether johnson is deliberately echoing tucker carlson and whether he endorses the other parts of that really vile conspiracy theory, for example, a secret cabal of european and american jews are partnering with these international minorities groups to bring everybody in, well, he's going to have to speak out for himself. he's the speaker. other issues have also come up this week. johnson has a long record of opposing women's rights in the health care arena and regarding abortion. he's voted for a national abortion ban, and here he was on roe v. wade. >> roe v. wade, gave constitutional cover to the elected killing of unborn children in america, period. >> as for freedom and whether people can do what they want in a free country, well, there's a big contradiction here that johnson has along with a lot of other people on the right because in 20 -- i should say in 2003 he wrote states have legitimate grounds to ban what he called same sex deviant intercourse. that means in his writings he has historically said the government should get involved from having people having sex with other people and make it illegal. that goes well beyond marriage equality. and last year he pushed nationwide abortion. fox's shaun hannity asked about some of these comments including the idea, quote, homosexuality is destructive. >> i don't even remember some of them. i respect the rule of law. they changed the definition of marriage that had been regarded by basically every human society for 5,000 years. when five supreme court justices changed it, that became the law of the land. >> what you see there in that interview, and mike johnson has been on this program before, we're happy to have it back, and you see the way he deals with these questions now is kind of using a style and a mood, if you will, the way he talks to really duck the issues. these are things he's said and done and voted on. and he wants to walk away from them, fine. not to say you kind of can't remember and just kind of bobbing and weaving, and you're the speaker of the house now. you're in the presidential line of successtion. there's going to be scrutopy on this stuff. this week reporting in washington on the day of the speaker vote hours before johnson assumed that speakership, we caught up with the democratic leader hakeem jeffries. he'd be in line to be the democratic speaker if they won back the house. and here's what what he said about that dance by mike johnson. >> mike johnson has a very pleasant demeanor, and his voting record is as as the most extreme members of their conference. someone who like kevin mccarthy, like steve scalise, like jim jordan, voted to overturn the 2020 presidential election. >> when you take this all together, it's about policy and politics. that's true with a lot of things in the congress, and it is telling that hakeem jeffries and the democrats seem to see an opening. they're on offense, bringing up these topics, calling them extreme, and johnson, while he has the power now, seems to be taking at least a stylistic step back, telling fox he can't remember certain things and trying to put a glaus on this. at the end of the day, he's the leader of his party and the party is going to have to announce both in how it votes and in the upcoming election whether all those things i mention and a whole lot more now represent the entire republican party. if they do, well, on social issues alone, johnson is publicly to the right of where trump is, which is saying something, and there's a lot of evidence from social issues to abortion to recent votes in a lot of red states that that is not a winning formula to say the least. we wanted to give you that update. there's also news for one of the people caught lying in congress and now facing a criminal trial. republican george santos was back in court today. that's next. meet the jennifers. jen x. jen y. and jen z. each planning their future through the chase mobile app. jen x is planning a summer in portugal with some help from j.p. morgan wealth plan. let's go whiskers. jen y is working with a banker to budget for her birthday. you only turn 30 once. and jen z? her credit's golden. hello new apartment. three jens getting ahead with chase. solutions that grow with you. one bank for now. for later. for life. chase. make more of what's yours. i have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. thanks to skyrizi i'm playing with clearer skin. 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months. and skyrizi is just 4 doses a year after 2 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early as next week. thanks for spending time with us on "the beat" with ari melber, as so much is going on. we'll tie to keep reporting the facts and evidence for you. i wish you a good weekend. 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