after team trump's takeover. plus, the new lawsuit in michigan over the state's voter rolls. then, crime has become a major political talking point. so tonight, we are separating fact from fiction. our spotlight conversation with three police chiefs from across the country as the 11th hour gets underway on this wednesday night. good evening once again, i'm stephanie ruhle live from msnbc headquarters in new york city and we are now 237 days away from the election. today, a georgia judge threw out six counts in the election interference case involving donald trump. three were against trump himself. the rest were against his codefendants including mark meadows and rudy giuliani. one of those counts that was thrown out was directly tied to trump's phone call to georgia secretary of state urges him to find more votes. the judge said the counts in question quote lacked sufficient detail. her office declined to comment. we are still of course waiting on the judge's ruling about whether willis herself should be disqualified for the case because of her relationship with one of her prosecutors. that decision is expected this week. donald trump's attorney praised the judge's decision and said the entire case should be dismissed. trump of course is facing ten other counts in the sprawling georgia rico case and in total faces 88 felony counts spread across four upcoming trials. that is 88 more than any other former president. remember that. first up, new york hush money case set to start in less than two weeks. but donald trump's team is fighting to delay it pending the supreme court's decision on presidential immunity. with that let's get starter with the help of our lead panel. john allen is here. senior politics reporter for nbc news. mccay coppins, a staff writer at the atlantic. and barbara quaid is here. her new book, attack from within. okay, let's start with these three counts. they could be refiled by fani willis. put into context for us as the general election campaign gets officially underway. what he is facing on the legal front. >> he is facing something completely enprecedented in american history. a president of the united states facing not just 88 criminal charges but any criminal charge. if you can imagine that. this is is not something that put donald trump in the clear. any day, he is facing so many court dates and so many criminal charges that he will have to have a lot of good days to beat all the raps. but, a good day for him to disappear for the moment. that could be refiled. but there is still plenty pending against him. >> barb, the judge said the counts were not detailed enough about those violations. what do you think about that? when it comes to the call of the secretary of state looking for votes, we all heard that. >> what is interesting about the judge's ruling, stephanie, is what h says is there are plenty of facts alleged. but the problem is their failure to articulate what law is violated. so there is a due process right so they can defend against the claim. what he says here is they are charged with soiliest it ising public officials who violate the oath of office. that oath of office says they will support and defend the constitution of the united states and georgia and what the judge says is they must specify which provisions of those two documents the government alleges were violated and so he said they can come back and refile as long as they specify the precise clauses in the constitution that they allege were filed so it is nothing to do with the substance of the charges. he even goes so far as to say the evidence cited here certainly remains part of this case. and can be brought up in the rico charges. and if the georgia prosecutor wants to, she could refile and fix this flaw. it is a form over substance kind of flaw. >> it is form over substance. the judge is not saying the underlying evidence isn't valid but team trump is going to run a major victory lap over this aren't they? >> yeah, of course. the tricky thing trump and his camp will have to confront here, the entire narrative they have been pushing is this is the greatest political persecution in history. the judicial system is being rigged against him. that this is a witch hunt. what will be interesting to watch is how they react when things like this happen. when judges act like judges. and there are developments in these cases that go their way. are they going to be victory laps and say this shows that you know trump isn't guilty? how is that reconciled with the idea the whole judicial system is rigged? they will be pushing two kind of parallel narratives. and i think that it is going to be increasingly difficult for them to square as we head toward a general election. >> speaking with logic. all right, barb, let's go to florida. tomorrow, judge aileen con nonwho has been extraordinarily friendly to the president, we will hear his motions to throw out the classified documents case. she has been super friendly to him thus far, what should we expect? >> well tomorrow is really the heart of the case i think. because donald trump has repeatedly said that he was permitted to take these documents under the presidential records act. that he transferred them from government records to personal records and therefore he was entitled to keep them. this is a really big issue in this case. i think it is a frivolous argument, the presidential records act itself was passed in the wake of watergate and the nixon administration to clarify and make it clear that government records belong to the people of the united states. they are not the personal property of the president. and so i think this argument is nonsense. but tomorrow, we will hear the arguments from these lawyers and the judge will make a decision on this. and i think that if she follows the law properly, it seems to me this is an argument that should be defeated and i think this case then looks to be in good shape for trial and it will be impossible for donald trump to continue this narrative. >> john, we do not air trump rallies. but tomorrow he is likely to attend the hearing in front of this judge. she has been really friendly to him. most likely on the courthouse steps he will turn this into an ad hoc trump rally. is this the campaign gold as absurd as it is that they like? >> one thing will be tomorrow. which is to keep his basic side around the idea that he was being persecuted by prosecution. the other is to make a persuasive argument to swing voters they should go to him instead of biden. so tomorrow serves the base group. i don't think. and certainly time has not proven that logical consistency is the priority of donald trump or his campaign. this is a base argument. the other argument is going to be more about the issues at hand in the campaign. >> we always say the truth matters but only if you see it. so i want to play this clip of what fox news anchor judge janine said on her air earlier. >> to a person, the democrats spent the whole day saying donald trump obstructed. well, news flash, donald trump is not charged with obstructing. >> news flash. no, ma'am. for fact sake, donald trump is facing obstruction charges in two of his four criminal trials. the florida documents case and the federal election interference case. the lie was so blatant even twitter had to put a fact check on the post with that clip. so my question to you is, is the right hoping to flood the zone with lies, a montage of lies and people either believer it or tune out from exhaustion. >> you know, that has been the messaging strategy of the pro trump right the past eight years. i have reported a lot on disinformation strategies used in liberal countries around the worldment one of the strategies you see time and time again, the claims don't always have to be consistent. they don't have to push a coherent narrative. they will just be pumping out misinformation. different ideas, conspiracy theories, lies, propaganda, constantly. even if they are contradictory, even if they don't all fit together neatly. the idea is to exhaust people. when it comes to these, all those charges that trump is facing, i think we are going to see a lot of people, if the right is successful, if trump's campaign is successful, just start to tune out the noise around the trials because they can't follow all of it. and if that happens, that will be a victory for trump. >> barb, let's go back to what trump is dealing with in new york because this question has been eating away at me for three days. the judge here pepped trump's $91 million bond in the e. jean carroll case. that has me thinking back to all the conflict of interest concerns we had in his first term in office. who gave his business loans. who he was beholden to. shouldn't the same concerns be even higher now that people are covering his personal legal cost and liabilities? >> absolutely. who is coughing up this money for him to post this bond? same in the attorney general's case where the bond will be to the tune of 400 something million dollars. when a person in public office is beholden to someone for a debt, there are concerns that the person can be compromised. you know, i myself submitted to many background checks and i participated in interviews for the background checking of other people. and one of the consistent questions you were asked when you were getting a security clearance was whether you paid your debt to live beyond your means. you owed people money. anyone had any leverage of you or any basis for which you could be blackmailed because it is incredibly dangerous to national security when someone has something over your head. you are likely to curry favor with them. you can be extorted or blackmail. you can do favors for people. i think this is a very legitimate issue for the public and the press to be exploring in this campaign season. >> okay, it is an issue, but john, here is what is crazy. it's legal again. do you not remember five or six years ago how much reporting we tried to do to figure out who ultimately were trump's lenders? we were trying to figure out who could have something on him? we heard democrats say we will close so many loopholes that the president will be never in this position again where there could be these kind of conflicts. now here we are, it's worse. >> yeah. the loopholes have been expanded. and basically it is not even swiss cheese, just a big hole. >> just swan diving through it. >> and, look. yeah. i mean that exists barb made great points. i hope folks go out and read your book. but, i think there is really an excellent point there. anyone who owns a tremendous amount of money to anyone else is potentially conflicted and in so many cases we have seen them be conflicted. it is pure leverage that exists in perpetuity. so we'll have to see how this goes on. but i do to your point very much recall doing a lot of reporting on who trump borrowed money from. great to see you all. we are also following this story. here is gabe gutierrez with more on the situation in haiti. >> reporter: tonight with haiti in utter chaos, a new team of u.s. marines has been sent to protect the american embassy. this is what hell on earth sounds like. a nighttime gun battle in port- au-prince captured on a terrified bystander's cell phone. another woman, haitian american shari says an armed gang kicked her out of her home and threatened to kill her if she went back. >> we are so frightened for our lives. we can never go back home. >> reporter: she is now desperately trying to escape and meet up with her family in miami. but the border and the airports are shut down. also, suddenly trapped, best selling author mitch album visiting an orphanage his charity runs in haiti. then, a harrowing escape. a stealth private helicopter mission rescued album and volunteers. >> the fear is that the gangs will shoot at the helicopters. they have done that. we were all on top of each other, a big ball of humanity. not in the seats. within 60 seconds we were in the air in the dark. >> reporter: haiti's prime minister said he would step down as soon as a new interim government took over. but a notorious gang leader known as barbecue is calling for civil war. here in the neighboring dominican republic, the government is stopping desperate haitians from coming. and in florida, the governor is already deploying extra law enforcement and drones. in anticipation of a possible migrant influx from haiti. >> it is extraordinary. dominican republic is on the same island as haiti. it is a boat ride from miami. and as gabe said, it is like hell on earth. when we come back. the new look at the suing of the secretary of state over inflated voter rolls. and later, a discussion with three police chiefs around the country. the real story about crime in america. we'll breakthrough the noise and lay out what is actually happening. the 11th hour just getting underway on a wednesday night. underway on a wednesday night. shingles. some describe it as an intense burning sensation, or an unbearable itch. this painful, blistering rash can disrupt your life for weeks and could make it hard to be there for your loved ones. shingles could also lead to serious complications that can last for years. if you're over 50, the virus that causes shingles is likely already inside you. and as you age, your risk of developing shingles increases. don't wait. ask your doctor or pharmacist about shingles today. my name is oluseyi ask your doctor or pharmacist and some of my favorite moments throughout my life are watching sports with my dad. now, i work at comcast as part of the team that created our ai highlights technology, which uses ai to detect the major plays in a sports game. giving millions of fans, like my dad and me, new ways of catching up on their favorite sport. it is quite a week for the newly trump-ified republican national committee. there were mass layoffs and the rnc sued michigan's top election official purge voter rolls. the rnc hired some new election lawyers. including christina bobb. do you remember that name? a big lie boosting member of trump's 2020 legal team. >> it is becoming glaringly apparent that donald trump absolutely crushed joe biden in the election. it is treasonous for our federal government to take away our rights and hide it from us and lie about it and rig an election and stall an illegitimate president. >> what is this woman's title in the rnc? senior counsel for election integrity. back with me to discuss. ron, editor and chief of midas touch and stewart from the mitt romney and george w. bush presidential campaigns. ron, what do you make of this move? secretary of state benson called it a meritless lawsuit that sought to anyone herb people's faith in security of the elections. >> this is a fairly routine thing. almost every state has more voter rolls than voters. you have people who retire, move to southern states. they have been removing people all the rolls but the bigger story is christina bobb. i cover right wing media so i have known her a long time since she was a field correspondent at oan. and she has one conspiracy theory after another. i recently posted a clip on twitter where from 2022 right before the midterms, where she was very excited about the republicans taking over the house because she had a plan she was going to pitch to them to reinstate donald trump to the presidency in 2023. she had a way that the house could do that. that's christina bobb and she is in charge of election integrity at the rnc. >> so this woman pushes big fat lies. that is scary. however, the new chief council is a guy named charlie spies. he worked on the mitt romney o8 campaign like you. the fact he is there, does that give you any sense of security? how do you feel about all this? >> well i think charlie is a real lawyer. i have a lot of respect for charlie. he wasn't a big lie guy. he accepted what the election said. the person running it will be chris. the problem republicans have is not that too many dead people are voting. it is that not enough live people are voting for them. and, you know, i worked in the elections for decades. voter fraud does not exist on any serious level. it is sort of like saying elephantitis is a bigger problem than cancer so we will replace the national cancer institute with the national elephantitis institute. it's just crazy. the problem we have is getting people to vote when it is legal. not illegal. it is not a felony that people wake up and want to commit. >> by the rnc doing this, doesn't it pave way to sow doubt in elections where you have a whole lot more fired up americans headed into a january 6th and not accepting election results? >> look, the foundation of democracy, someone has to be willing to lose, you have to have faith in the system. they destroy faith in the system. and what republicans have done, you can't just say trump. they have attacked institution after institution. attack the justice department. attack law enforcement. they attack elections. and the purpose of this is just to throw up your hands and go we need a strong man. this is what the russians have said since the 1920s . democracy doesn't exist in america. it is a complete road map to an autocracy. i wrote a book about this. conspiracy to kill america. and that's what is happening here. >> ron, do you think people are underestimating that? last night, i sat next to a bank ceo and when i was talking about election denial, he laughed at me. and he said we had the strongest institutions in the world. democracy prevails. no matter what trump does, the institutions will hold. are people out there being naive about what is really happening here? >> absolutely they are. a lot of people are not necessarily as plugged in as some of us are and they have not really listened to trump very much. they don't watch trump rallies. they might not watch fox. or news max. they are watching sports and their local tv so they haven't really checked in on trump in a little while. if you followed trump pretty regularly, he is rapidly deteriorating. he is much worse today than he was in 2020 when he ran. he is a very dangerous person. >> let's talk about strong biden policies and how he can convert them to votes. i want to play a little bit of what he said. >> my predecessor talked about infrastructure and didn't get a single thing done. >> the infrastructure projects happening on joe biden's watch because he passed the infrastructure law are huge and they will have lasting positive important results around this country. how does a president convert that into votes now? people are not thinking about shoveling that will be in the ground and roads complete in four years. >> there's a lot of benefit. this is why republicans who voted against the infrastructure act are running ads, bragging about what it is doing. this is a slow process. there is no magic solution to this. what the white house needs to do, you have to go out and you have to talk about this. you have to talk about the people being impacted about it. and look. usually politics is a game of small numbers. so, you do this, you do it every week. put the cabinet out there. put people out there. and this stuff does soak in. it is part of the reason that the xinjiang is doing so well. biden-nomics actually works. and, this is sort of a beneficial result. jobs are going up faster. wages are going up faster than inflation. this creates a total positive environment that i think will only increase come november. >> we'll see. gentlemen, thank you so much for being here tonight. stewart, i believe those are newer glasses and i like them. when we come back, republicans like to claim north america is facing a violent crime wave. people are scared. they are starting to believe it. but here's the thing. that could not be further from the truth! we will break down the facts with three police chiefs from around the country when the 11th hour continues. time for a little spotlight conversation. me for a little s conversation. betmgm is for everyone that loves sports betting. everyone, but tom brady. wait what?! you've won too much, tommy. let others play. so i'm in if i'm not tom brady? you're in. now dog me. what if i used to babysit tom brady and he was a little troublemaker? no one likes a snitch, but you're in. what if i'm the tom brady of spreadsheets? you're in. what if i'm tim birdie, seven-time pool champion? the dress-up's not helping tom. it's still a no. hey tom! hi, wayne gretzky. i thought it would be bigger. download betmgm. except you, tom. you've won enough. migrant crime is beginning to spiral out of control. >> migrant crime wave. >> the migrant crime. >> the growing immigrant crime crisis. >> every third day, this is the story about some sort of migrant crime. >> for many, many months we have all heard about crime sweeping is nation. migrants and a surge at the border. here is the truth. migrant crime is on the rise. desite what fox news and republican lawmakers want you to think, the opposite is happening. we will show you the numbers because crime is dropping. violent crime dropped 8%. property crime fell. all of that manufacturing outrage left americans with very real fear. they are on the front lines themselves every day. so it is time for our spotlight conversation on a very important topic. let's bring in washington dc police chief pamela smith. and bryan o' hera. chief o' hera, what are your trends in minneapolis? >> the residents and police officers have been through a whole lot the last three years. since the murder of george floyd and the destruction of the city that followed. very quickly violent crime did rise here. it did impact our most vulnerable residents at a level we had not seen in decades. despite having a very small department as hundreds of officers have left, we have had significant success reducing the most serious crimes. gun violence. shootings and murders. but it does remain at unacceptable high levels. >> chief smith, violent crime did increase in your city even when it dropped around the country. why is that happening? >> i think on last year, again, we have seen crime significantly go up. since the pandemic. during the george floyd days and clearly when it came to the change in police reform and laws but what i can say is that today, significantly, we have seen a decrease in our crime, in our violent crimes and our property crimes and our overall crime here in the district of columbia. >> i want to bring into our conversation, detroit police chief james white. i know we were having a technical problem. tell us what it has been like in detroit. >> the pandemic brought unpredictable to policing. we saw an up tick in all of our violent crime categories. recently. we are pretty, you know, excited about where we are headed. but not declaring victory by any means. >> chief smith, earlier this week, dc mayor bowser signed a new crime bill that raises certain penalties. what is your take on this? >> i think it is certainly the way to go here in the district of columbia. what we have been seeing with regard to legal firearms. being able to have stiffer penalties for individuals using illegal firearms in the district will be very helpful for us. also, being able to raise the penalties for those individuals who are engaged in organized retail theft. and as you know, we have seen an increase in juvenile criminal activity here in the district of columbia. one of the things we saw spike in last year, juveniles using ski mask. we have a mayor who really supports our law enforcement program in the district of columbia. and we were very grateful for dc councilmember propento and the dc council for passing the bill unanimously. >> chief, talk about your police force. what is it like in terms of recruiting new officers and losing some along the way? >> i'm an outsider to the minneapolis police department. i was originally a police officer in newark, new jersey. i had some skepticism about this agency. as these uniforms were on everyone's tv a couple of years ago. i can tell you we have continued to shrink. but we are operating with the police force that is literally 40% smaller than what it had been in 2020. and we are dealing with levels of crime and demands for service that are higher than they had ever been before. so i can tell you what i have seen personally here, the police officers who have stayed are deeply committed to this city and to getting this thing right. they have been performing multiple functions. and working an extraordinary amount of overtime to do what is right on behalf of our residents and to try to bring some sense of justice for victims in this city. i'm incredibly proud of the work they are doing. i must say it is not sustainable. that said, i think our officers are healthier than they were a year or two years ago. moving forward. but we really do need increased support from city leadership, you know, to support in making investments in the department. to bring more people onto this job. i will also say the residents of this city have been incredibly supportive of our officers. especially those that are living in communities that have borne the brunt of this rise in crime. >> let's talk about perception becoming reality. 63% of americans say that crime in the u.s. is serious or very serious. that is the highest level gallop has recorded since they measured it. but the facts are that crime is down. so how do you make people feel better? >> yeah. well obviously, and very unfortunately, i'm sure the other chiefs here would have similar stories. crime tends to be very concentrated. so while i think there is a perception from outsiders that crime is kind of widespread throughout the city, that is not true at all. one thing in particular after the pandemic trying to get people back into the city. people were fearful if they saw a homeless person on the street or somebody who might be an addict. they were fearful they might be victimized in some way. that is not true at all. i think minneapolis is the same as many other u.s. cities in that crime is very concentrated here. and the people who are involved unfortunately in serious crime and gun violence are those folks just as likely to become a victim of crime as a suspect. crime in the city, particularly violent crime, in general, is not widespread. it is not random. particularly with community gun violence. it tends to be targeted and concentrated. >> chief white, how do you deal with this in detroit? even if the numbers are down? people are saying they don't feel safe. in new york, the governor deployed the national guard to control the subways and people on the subways are saying that makes them feel less safe. so how do you square this? >> we have a great working relationship with our community. our community is our strength. we work together with them. the messaging around safety is something we talk about often with our community. we do everything we can to ensure we are transparent as an agency. we don't hear from our community that they don't feel safe. we are hearing from our community that they do feel safe and they feel a renewed investment in our community. they see the work that we are doing. certainly that crime is p doing but it is not dropping enough. we still have a crime problem in detroit. we are certainly not declaring victory. but significant reductions in homicides and fatal shootings can't be ignored. the other thing is much like the dc chief, i have a very supportive mayor. who really supports policing. supports our agency. and stands behind the men and women who do this stuff job. >> thank you all for being here but more importantly, thank you for that tough job that you do every single day. chief smith, o' har, and white. thanks for staying up with me. when we come back, artificial intelligence has the potential to transform our society and our next guest is thinking big about the possibilities. his idea to reimagine how we govern when the 11th hour continues. the 11th hour continues. what is cirkul? cirkul is the fuel you need to take flight. cirkul is the energy that gets you to the next level. cirkul is what you hope for when life tosses lemons your way. cirkul, available at walmart and drinkcirkul.com. harness ai to protect us from peril. ban ai voice. >> it happened. it came up in the state of the union address. and my next guest has a suggestion for what more it could do. remake the government and potentially save the country. here's a quote. think about warp speeding entire agencies and functions. the irs, public health, surveillance and response. traffic management. maintenance. bridges, disaster preparedness and relief. think about that. josh is here to explain all of it. he is a washington post columnist covering artificial intelligence and he is a dear friend of mine. break this down. right? our government which we say day in and day out cannot function, cannot tie their shoes or find the capitol. do you think he could remake the way we function through the power of ai? >> i do. and i do. i do because they already have done it. okay? they have done it across two administrations. so, our politics are so dumb that we have actually erased some of our signal policy achievements. so, operation warp speed. may, 2020, we have nothing but one guy. four star general shows up and he is told you are in charge of operation warp speed. we have a name. he sits down, meets with a bunch of consultants and very rapidly discovered that there's ai software that will allow him to do something called see himself. this means, see my troops. see my supplies. see the enemy. here it means see everything i need to figure out how out of nothing i will create, produce, distribute vaccine to 50 states in six months. >> and they did it. >> they did it. they did it in large part, not entirely, but in large part thanks to software driven by ai. made by a company called palenteer that gave them a digital dashboard of the god view of the entire problem. so without ai, that is a much different challenge. ai exists in other places. the government uses it in times of crisis. and you will discover when it is not in crisis, it can't do any of that stuff. >> covid was a pandemic that took over our country, took over the world. so it is easy to agree we got to do this. where does the will come to implement this across our daily lives? >> are we not in crisis in 2023, about 15 government institutions, pew does a government survey. lowest levels of trust in the entire time they have surveyed them. the federal government has a crisis of legitimacy. you have covered the fact that donald trump is responsible for some of that in word and deed. but not entirely. some some of this is over the years we have allowed government to atrophy. our services have atrophied and our expectations have. the irs. during tax season, seasons 29% of its phone calls. 29%. >> with an enormous backlog, with no one answering the phone. with computer software from 15 year, ago. >> correct. and when you deal with the irs, it is still an agency that says why don't you tell us what you know? and if you are wrong, we may prosecute you. so there are lots of ways with e can improve things. we have proven we can do it with operation warp speed. let's treat it like a crisis. let's implement software thinking throughout the government. and a lot of what i have written and reported about, that is actually the challenge. >> but ai is not nirvana. what happens when there is bad actors? what happens when the system doesn't work? >> it is not perfect. but what you have to get over is the status quo. okay? so i'm not suggesting you will turn a key and we live in utopia. it's not going to happen. ai has a lot of issues. however, is it better than 29% of phone calls being answered? could you create an irsllm? remember llms are just structured data. >> we don't know what an llm is. >> a large language model. chatgpt is a large language model. the irs has pretty simple understanding of rules. thousands of pages. to a large language model it is essentially nothing. and you can use it in 24 hours a day. multiple languages. it can be responsive to about 90% of what people need. >> congress is doing something. they have a new task force. the president put out a new executive order. what do you think about either of those? >> there are beginnings. when you turn the thermostat on. and the house has been cold a long time. it will take time. and they are moving slowly and my suspicion is they are moving slowly because of something that happened today which is the eu passed a massive new ai regulatory act. they did a ton of work on it. the eu like to go first on tech issues. it is their thing. they like to be first. and they like to be harsh. what they really want is for zuckerberg and all the ce os to go wow, man, the eu. and now that there is a baseline, my suspicion is that the federal government will begin to act. so what you are seeing is obviously, chuck schumer. they did a bunch of big open forums. congress has established a joint task force. make a lot of paper about ai. you will see action in the fall. we need to start. congress has a tendency to do the big sweeping actions. you can do things one at a time. we can have a digital privacy act which wound underpin a lot of what we need to do with ai. >> here is how they could start. they could read your column. you gave them a road map. josh, great to see you. thank you for being here. when we come back, i enjoy talking to josh, but i will love telling you this story. a family's brave gesture to open their home is now opening doors for so many more. many more than ever expected. you do not want to miss this incredible story. if you like sweet dreams this evening stick around. the 11th hour continues. around the 11th hour continues. the last thing and the best thing before we go tonight. where the heart is. i have to share this story with you. involving two families bonded by one home. and an incredible gesture hing future generations trace their own american dreams. by colleague has this story. >> reporter: the historic hotel del coronado was built in the late 1800s but thousands of workers who would never be able to step foot inside as guests including gus thompson. bol will enger gardner camp is his grandson. >> it is still here. >> it is still here and it is still fabulous. >> reporter: gus thompson was born into slavery. eventually, he moved to california where he and his wife emma lived with their family three blocks from the hotel. >> this is unbelievable. this has been here since the late 1800s. >> correct. 1895 to be exact. >> reporter: kevin ashley studies the city's black history. >> the idea there was a thriving african american community between 1890 and 1920. >> was that shocking to you? >> hugely shocking. >> reporter: thompson and his family welcomed visitors. that no one else would take? >> their old original house. they usually rent it out to immigrants. >> reporter: among them. >> he was having trouble. there wasn't a lot available. >> reporter: his son ron was just a toddler at the time. >> so that's the beginning of it. >> reporter: a new beginning for the family who ultimately bought the house. now decades later they are selling it and pledging the proceeds to san diego state university's black resource center. a gesture that pays it forward to the next generation. and one that has been in the making for nearly 100 years. >> paying it forward. shall we say, is just the icing on the cake. it is a beautiful story. maybe it is one that the world needs to hear. >> reporter: nbc news, coronado, california. >> it absolutely is a story the world needs to hear and it goes to show you that you never know how the amazing ripple effect of one act of bravery, what it can produce. on that extraordinary note, i wish you a very goodnight. i told you i was giving you sweet dreams tonight. thanks for staying up late with me. see you tomorrow. with me. see you tomorrow. tonight on all in. >> we are looking at tiktok. we may be banning tiktok. >> a