>> thanks for having me. >> that is all in on this thursday night. good evening, alex. >> amazing, we're talking about the word contraception as something that's being litigated in the united states of america. we're going to have more on that later on our show as well. thank you, my friend. and thank you for joining me this hour. today we got the news that donald trump's one criminal case, the one criminal case that was likely to go to trial before the november election, may be delayed. manhattan district attorney alvin brag's hush money case was set to go to trial on march 25th, less than two weeks from today, but now that date is in question. now, trump's legal strategy in all of his cases has been to push them off as long as possible, preferably until the month of nevuary. but today's delay is not coming from trump, or at least not directly. today d.a. bragg's office consented to a 30-day delay in the start of trial, but not because d.a. bragg needs another month. there's a new trove of records that were turned over by the feds, the u.s. attorney's office for the southern district of new york. tens of thousands of records. specifically 31,000 pages of records that the u.s. attorney iefs just handed over to bragg's office yesterday. now, the d.a. specifically pins this newest delay on trump, saying that trump's legal team waited until just two months ago to request this massive trove of records from the u.s. attorney's office. and don't get me wrong, i am sure trump's legal team is using every opportunity that exists to create delays in this case. it is what they do. but d.a. bragg's office and the u.s. attorney's office know that. and one of the reasons this appears to be happening so late in the game is because the u.s. attorney's office requested repeated extensions that trump's side consented to, according to d.a. bragg. when "the new york times" asked the u.s. attorney's office for comment on the delay, the office declined to respond. the fact that this latest delay might be the responsibility of an arm of the justice department would be a big deal on its own, but this case is not alone. this delay would seem to fit a pattern. just hours after merrick garland was sworn in as attorney general, he held a private briefing to get up to speed on what he promised was his highest priority, bringing to justice the people responsible for january 6th. but then more than a year passed. witnesses in the fake elector scheme told "the washington post" that they assumed the case was dead because no one at the doj was contacting them. remember trump's infamous call to georgia secretary of state brad raffensperger? the call where trump pressured raffensperger to find him 11,000 votes? well, key witnesses to that call in early 2021 told "the washington post" that no one at the fbi contacted them until 2023. two years after the fact. what was happening at the department of justice in that time? well, thanks to great reporting from "the washington post", we know that the answer to that question is not much. there were internal debates and heated arguments over this choice, but for more than a year, the justice department policy was to go after the little guys and work their way up. as one former justice department official told the post, you couldn't use the t word. meaning you couldn't mention trump. the way "the washington post" reports it, the department of justice was so worried about looking like they were prosecuting donald trump for political reasons that they gave trump treatment no other defendant in america would get. they effectively ignored him despite the fact that he was at the very center of this plot. it wasn't until intrepid reporting and the house january 6th committee started unearthing troves of evidence implicating trump and his top aides in the january 6th riot which, duh, it wasn't until all of that started coming out publicly that the justice department actually began investigating trump in ernest. the guy at the beating heart of everything until 15 months after the capitol attack. key witnesses in the meantime may have forgotten specifics or deleted emails, and it also set the actual prosecution of this case back more than a year. and now the window of time in which that case could make it to trial before the november election is so small it seems nearly impossible that the american public will get a ruling before they have to vote for president. we saw a similar delay coming from the department of justice in the mar-a-lago classified documents case. remember that form that trump's lawyer signed on his behalf in june of 2022? it claimed that trump's legal team had performed a diligent search and had turned over all of the classified documents in trump's possession. well, thanks yet again to extensive reporting in "the washington post", we know that it is almost -- that point is almost where the entire classified documents investigation ended. it turns out there was a months long fight between prosecutors who had evidence suggesting that trump and his lawyers might not be telling the whole truth, prosecutor who is wanted to search mar-a-lago and the fbi. the fbi wanted to take trump and his lawyers at their word. they did not want to touch donald trump. the optics were too controversial. that in-fighting delayed the actual search of mar-a-lago for months. and of course, when mar-a-lago was ultimately searched, fbi agents found more than 100 classified documents, 18 of them top secret. by the fall of 2022, prosecutors were reportedly ready to charge trump based on what they had found. it looked like a fairly straight forward case. but they did not charge trump. before they could, trump announced that he was running for re-election, and the calculations within the department of justice changed. once again the department deferred to trump and his political realities to avoid anything that might even look like political prosecution attorney general merrick garland appointed jack smith as special counsel. now, smith worked really quite quickly, but ultimately he didn't charge trump until june of the following year. that set back the prosecution timeline another eight months. now, the classified documents case is currently scheduled, scheduled, to go on trial on may 2 #09, but that date is widely expected to be bumped back. potentially delaying that trial just past the november election and missing that key date by a matter of months. after being delayed for nearly a year by, yes, judge cannon, but also indecision, in-fighting, and the passing of the case to a special counsel at the department of justice. >> do you -- looking back now, do you think that the department took too long to bring these cases maybe? >> special prosecutors followed the facts and the law. they brought cases when they thought they were ready. >> so we already know that one of the reasons trump might not face accountability before the election in either of his federal criminal cases is because the department of justice dragged its feet and fought internally and was cautious to a fault. but now tonight we learn that even in a state level prosecution, in d.a. bragg's new york state hush money case, the most likely case to see trial before the november election, even in that case it looks like the justice department may be playing a very real role in delaying justice. joining me now, andrew wiseman and melissa murray. together they are the authors of the brand new number one, not bad, guy, "new york times" best seller, the trump indictments: the historic charging documents with commentary. congratulations on this. >> thank you. >> it's not the holidays, but it's not too early to buy copies for every person in your family. we'll talk about that in a second. i first, andrew, have to get your opinion on what's happened here in the new york hush money case. because on the outside, yes, i understand trump's doing everything he can to delay, but what's going on here with the department of justice and their ability to get the d.a. and the defendants the documents they need in a timely fashion. >> self-inflicted wound. doesn't look good, especially when we're about to get a decision on d.a. fani willis. even if there's a decision not to disqualify her, the combination looks really poor. at the very least, this is a massive screw up on the southern district of new york prosecutors. i mean, really poor judgement not to have turned everything over a year ago when the d.a.'s office asked for this information. if you've got culp tour information, you need to turn that over. it was a bad decision. i'm very focused on -- you know, this isn't going to be fatal to the case. one thing to note is the d.a.'s submission today said there's still more to come. >> to come. >> it's worth knowing they do not yet know, neither side, not the d.a. nor the defense, knows exactly what the full scope is. i think that there could be information that's additional bad acts by michael cohen. remember micah cohen had pled gill through, and the southern district of new york prosecutors had publicly said at the plea hearing how much they distrusted him. they were very much fighting with our office, the special counsel's office. we were saying he should get credit. they were saying, no, he shouldn't. there should be more information about that. there could be more information about allen wise berg. reading the tea leave, it appears he may have given information to them, may have even testified in the grand jury but may have lied. so -- >> and he has already pled guilty to perjury, so. >> exactly. so there could be more complications there. there also could be discussions about the theory of the case of the federal campaign violation case. why do i say that? because if you remember, let's go back -- >> i know. >> -- in the time machine to when bill barr was the attorney general and was fighting with the acting u.s. attorney, audrey strauss, saying you should essentially get rid of the case and she pushed back. so there could just be a whole mass of material. and that's what i'm keeping my eye on, what is the information and is it going to be something that's really -- >> meaningful. >> meaningful, exactly. >> i just -- what i don't fundamentally understand, this is according to d.a. bragg, he asked for a lot of this material last sxreer didn't get excite then trump asks for it in january and so far 103,000, i think, is the count pages of documents have been turned over. i mean, what might possibly account for that? >> i think one thing you have to understand is even though these are part of the federal department of justice, they all enjoy a fair amount of autonomy. the southern district of new york is cloakly known as the sovereign district of new york. they don't always play well with other offices, state level prosecutions. they're doing their own thing quite a lot of the time this. may be one of the situations. i think things you take from all of this is that this delay is not necessarily alvin bragg's fault. he definitely asked for this information a year ago. it wasn't forthcoming. now it's been disclosed and apparently it is an avalanche of documents with more to come. he's don the right thing, concede there should be a delay. he's pushed back on the request for a 90-day delay. he's requested a 30-day delay. but he has prioritized the rights of this defendant to have an opportunity to review these documents against him, review the documents that may have information about those who will be testifying against him, and present the most vigorous defense that he can. and that's exactly what he should be doing. >> he's the one saying a 30-day delay would be fine by me. i could do the final today but i could also take it in a month when i've had time to prepare for it. one of the things i don't understand, andrew, is he makes note of the fact that the feds effectively said we need another delay, mr. trump, in terms of getting you the material, repeatedly asking for extensions. all trump wants to do is delay this thing. what would account for -- first of all, they were after this material last year. then they're asked again in january. they're saying we need more time, we need more time. and now it's the eve of, you know, the trial beginning effectively, and they're still not done giving documents. how does that process -- does that seem plausible to you? how does the process work that it might be so greatly slowed? >> well, the one thing that i don't think happened is i don't think main justice was involved. i could be, but i just don't think that's the case. i agree with melissa that u.s. attorney's offices can in a lot of circumstances, particularly the southern district of new york, just decide this on their own. that doesn't answer your question, that just sort of deals with, you know, was merrick garland somehow part of this. and as we've discussed, i have my issues in terms of the speed or lack thereof but i don't think this is something i would immediately jump to him. you know, it's hard to know how this could happen. i can tell you that my reaction and friends who either had worked in the d.a.'s office or worked in the u.s. attorney iefss all had the same rea, which is not something i could say on air. >> on this family program. >> yeah. and -- because it is either just a colossal blunder or just such a wrong view in terms of the judgement call here in terms of what needs to be done. and the idea that it so clearly took alvin bragg by surprise meant -- this normally, at the very least, if you thought you had a huge cache of document, you would call up the d.a. and say, you know what, we just found -- >> we just found 100,000 documents. >> to me it's pretty clear there's an intention. >> that is notable too. donald trump has been saying throughout all of these investigations and now these indictments that all of these various law enforcement officials are working in tandem. this is an effort to prosecute him. this makes clear this is not the case. the district attorney of new york is not working with alvin of bragg. complete dysfunction but not the collusion that he has implied. >> but i -- >> not a great defense, of course. >> no, not the best defense. >> they're so dysfunctional they can't be cluding. >> andrew, i got to push back a little bit. i'm not suggesting merrick garland was the puppeteer, but this is a week where robert hur has gone to the hill with this highly controversial report that the white house said -- that i think a lot of folk, not even just democrats, say was filled with just, you know, out of school commentary about president biden's mental acuity. the mere appointment of robert hur was a subject of debate. and then what he came up with seemed so just, you know, political in nature and not to the support of the current occupant of the white house. it all serves to paint a picture of a justice department that seems sort of hopelessly concerned with how they're going to be perceived on the right. >> so i agree with that. i just -- i'm trying to be sort of, you know, judicious about sort of taking each -- >> sure, of course. >> -- sort of set of circumstances at the same time and looking at them to give them fair weight. i agree with you about rob hur. i think that was a small pea political situation. it was done not to have criticism so you appoint someone that's a republican. i think that's a massive mistake. i think it buys into the idea that special counsels can act out of principle. i think it's absolutely right to be critical of that decision. and i think it's important because it deals with what would happen next. an important milestone to say this is what you get if you don't actually back your people in thinking that anybody, judges, prosecutor, jurors, witnesses will act, you know, out of principle. i just think in this situation, i don't know what was motivating the southern district of new york. i just don't think they would have coordinated this. i do think merrick garland, he may make wrong decisions, but i do not see him trying to slow this down by saying do not turn inculp tour information and exculpatory information over. the prosecutor is going to want to know both of those and will feel an obligation to turn over both of those things to the defense. >> i think to alex's point, though, merrick garland should have been writing all of these prosecutors in these u.s. attorney's offices below him, like sea biscuit, to get this done. there is, i think, a failure of leadership here. >> i love that. >> right, you are the department. >> it doesn't have to be nefarious to be problematic. like he's in charge, and they report to him. like this needed to be done. the defendant had a right to this information. why did it take so long? so no, i agree that this may likely fall with the office, but the buck ultimately stops with merrick garland. >> yeah. i agree with that. i just think the chances that merrick garland knew -- he may have been reading it the same way we did. of course, you're right to be like, look, he runs the office he's totally responsible, but at the u.s. attorney's office the idea that this wouldn't be turned over, i'm pretty sure that -- >> you've got to be kidding is my refrain for this block of television tonight. andrew and melissa, stay with me. i have so many more questions about more topics. i should note that tomorrow night at 10:00 p.m. eastern andrew and melissa will be cohosting a live msnbc special on their book the trump indictments. again, that is tomorrow night at 10:00 p.m. eastern right here on msnbc. we have a lot more ahead tonight, including vice president kamala harris and her words of warning to blue states where abortion is still legal. be very, very concerned. but first, the judge in donald trump's classified documents case ruled against the former president today, but does that mean the case is going to go to trial any time soon? that's coming up next. l any time soon? that's coming up next. 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wifi? wifi that works all over the house, even the basement. the basement. so i can finally throw that party... and invite shannon barnes. dream do come true. xfinity gives you reliable wifi with wall-to-wall coverage on all your devices, even when everyone is online. maybe we'll even get married one day. i wonder what i will be doing? probably still living here with mom and dad. fast reliable speeds right where you need them. that's wall-to-wall wifi on the xfinity 10g network. well, donald trump has managed to delay his d.c. federal election interference case and quite likely his new york hush money case. today down in florida trump was doing his best to do the same thing in his classified documents case. that's where trump's lawyers have been arguing that the charges trump violated in the espionage act that the charges trump's violated in the espionage act are too vague, that trump as a former president can't be held to its standard and that consequentially the charges should be tossed out. judge cannon responded a few hours later saying that while trump's legal team had some arguments warranting serious consideration, she would not dismiss the charges in question. cannon did, however, leave the door open for trump to raise the issue again in connection with jury instruction briefing and/or other appropriate motions. in other words, the proverbial can has been kicked down the proverbial road. back with me now is andrew weissman. andrew, am i reading that right, that this is cannon just punting on this call and what does that practically mean? >> i think you have it absolutely right. and i think it's really important that people not read this as, oh, she ruled for government. this is the worst possible decision for the government that she made today. and you're going to be like, why? >> oh, yes, why? >> so if she had said to the government, you know, you win, obviously, that's great for the government. it means she thinks it's right, and what would happen is if trump were convicted he could appeal that legal issue. if she had said to the government, you lose, the government gets to appeal that and go to the 11th circuit. that's 11th circuit where judge cannon has been reversed not once but twice. what she is trying to do is avoid at all costs doing anything that allows the government to go up to the 11th circuit, because what can they do? they can -- >> remove her from the case. >> so this is saying, oh, i think there's serious issues that donald trump is raising, and i think this is really a matter of quite some concern, but you know what, i'm going to decide this later. and so it's denied without prejudice to renewal. that just means that there is no decision. plus she put in the little, you know, these little bonbons of like, oh, this is a serious issue. that is really the worst possible thing for the government, because they have no recourse now and she then can just push this off. they cannot appeal it at this point. >> and trump can continue to bring it back up and slow the case down, is that right? >> exactly. well, he's -- by the way, there's so many more motions he can do this. the other thing i just want to point out the irony of this idea that this is a vague statute. there are scores of people, scores of people, including during the trump presidency, who have been prosecuted for this. the indictment itself in paragraphs 23 and 24 point out donald trump's own statements about these laws saying that they need to be enforced more. >> yeah. >> not less. he wanted a higher penalty for them. now that he's a defendant suddenly these laws are vague and no one can understand what's going on. that argument has been denied by everyone who is sitting in jail has lost that. >> right. >> so this is not a vague statute. so that puts in context -- >> how outrageous her decision is here. >> exactly. this is one where it took all day and people are like why is this taking you all day. this is something you deny like outright. maybe, yes, you want to hear somebody for a half an hour, fine. this is one where i really can't say it's just inexperience. i mean just over and over again she has shown that she is not being even handed. >> and he's making similarly meritless arguments on the presidential records act -- >> yes. >> -- and saying this is political persecution. and she's entertaining hearings on all of this, right? >> all of it. including, you know, the favorite, which is immunity. >> yes, presidential immunity. >> which i love because that's when we're, guess what, you weren't president when this happened, and i keep on analogizing. this is a bank robber going into a bank, robbing it with a gun, shooting the guard. he's prosecuted and he say, judge cannon, i cannot be prosecuted because i legally owned the gun. >> right, exactly. >> that's his argument. >> she's entertaining the argument. >> i can't wait for her to say these are serious issues. >> warranting serious consideration. does it say anything to you that two weeks ago she held a hearing to decide on the trial date for this case? and before she's even set that, she's going through this like very tedious series of hearings on these poppycock motions. >> i hope i am wrong, but to me the chances that she is going to set a trial before the general election are not even infinitesimal. i hope i've misjudged her and she's going to take the timeline seriously, but i just don't think that that's the case. i mean, there's still -- she still on the books has this may trial date. there is not a single person in the world who thinks that is going to go forward. and she hasn't set a new date. and normally that's what you do as a trial judge. you need a date set in stone because you need to block out everyone's calendars. and then everyone works to that deadline. >> right. >> this is like real life where you say here's the deadline and everyone sort of manages to that time. she hasn't done that yet. so the idea that that's going to be before the general election, i hate to give everyone all this bad news -- >> well, no, but it is theater. it's theater with a coward in the seat. andrew weissman, thank you for your time, my friend. it is an important reference in these time, my friend. still ahead tonight, how -- running mate by indulling in the great trumpy tradition of grift. but first, vice president kamala harris visited a minnesota planned parenthood today with an important message. if you want to stop republicans for coming from abortion, ivf, and now contraception, you need to go to the ballot box in november. i'll talk to melissa murray and leah litman about that next. y an leah litman about that next. 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 ultimate gillette shaving experience. the best a man can get is gillettelabs. 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(♪♪) is he? confidently walking 8 long haired dogs and living as if he doesn't have allergies? yeah. fast relief of your worst allergy symptoms, like nasal congestion. here's to getting better with age. here's to beating these two every thursday. help fuel today with boost high protein, complete nutrition you need... ...without the stuff you don't. so, here's to now. boost. but st. jude has gotten us through it. st. jude is hope for every child diagnosed with cancer because the research is being shar bother the bugs.orld. not your family. ahh! zevo is made with essential oils which attack bugs' biological systems. it wipes cleanly, plus is safe for use around people and pets. gotcha! zevo. people-friendly. bug-deadly. how dare these elected leaders believe they are in a better position to tell women what they need, to tell women what is in their best interest. we have to be a nation that trusts women. >> today vice president kamala harris did something no other vice president or president has ever done. she visited an abortion clinic. harris traveled to a planned parenthood clinic in saint paul, minnesota, to highlight the stakes of the 2024 election. even in a blue state like minnesota where democrats control all the levels of state power, a federal ban would nullify all of that. and the presumptive republican nominee for president whom harris and biden are running against has express support for a nationwide ban. democrats bid to highlight the stakes here is only strengthened by what's happening else in where in the country. in texas, basic access to contraception is now under attack. this week a panel of appeals court judges upheld a texas law requiring parental consent for minors to obtain contraception. and while this case might be about teens at present, it could also signal a fight ahead, at least one supreme court justice has already documented his desire to overturn the right to contraception among the population at large. joining me now is leah litman, professor at the university of michigan school of law and one of the cohosts of the great podcast strict scrutiny. and back with me is melissa murray, one of the other cohosts of strict scrutiny and nyu law professor. leah, thanks for being here tonight. and melissa thank you for staying. just don't ever leave. leah, first let's just talk about this texas decision, right, because i think there is a -- some people are saying, oh, but this is just affirming a general parental consent decree that exists in the state of texas, but if you read it sort of in the real world, it sounds like -- sure sounds like they're coming for contraception here. from absolutely, because you could have said the exact same thing when they began their war on abortion access, because initially when they were attempting to restrict abortion, first they adopted laws that require parental consent for abortions. then it was laws on abortion providers. then it was a law that requires spousal consent before obtaining abortions. that was part of a longer process that led to the court overruling roe versus wade and ending the constitutional protections in dobbs. what we're seeing is the same thing happening for contraception as justice thomas signalled in dobbs that he wanted it to happen more quickly than things are happening now. >> it seems like clarence thomas -- do you think this is ultimately, if not this case, a case about contraception is heading to the supreme court? >> i i think it is inevitable that contraception will go before the supreme court, because again, this isn't about simply for stalling abortion. if you wanted to end abortion, you would be in favor of expanding access to contraception, to prevent unwanted pregnancies. it's not about abortion. it's not about preventing unwanted pregnancies. it's about controlling sexuality and in particular enforcing a set of gender roles on individuals like women who rely on abortion and birth control as means of controlling their reproductive capacity. and you're right, justice thomas is very much the intellectual genius behind this entire project. he often writes alone on the court. he did not get anyone to sign on to his concurrence in dobbs. it doesn't matter because he has an army of former law clerks who are now sitting federal judges in places like the fifth circuit who hear these flares as they go up, listen to what he's saying, read his opinions, and then put them out in their own courts as part of the law of their circuits. that's what we're seeing in the fifth circuit. we have seen it before in the sixth circuit. justice thomas has been shepherding this completely bogus narrative that abortion is linked to the eugenics movement and has been used as a tool to -- the african american community. no one else signed on to his concurrence in an opinion saying that, but then it began appearing in lower court's opinions and then it appeared in a footnote in dobbs. so he is the sort of evil genius behind all of this, and when he's done for the night, he goes back to his office and strokes a hairless cat and prides himself on what he has done. >> at the end of body autonomy as we know it in this country. leeia, can you talk a little bit about jonathan mitchell who is involved in this case and matthew, the judge whose name may be familiar to some viewers of this program because we talk about him a lot. he's done a great and inordinate amount of work in terms of furthering the conservative agenda through the courts. >> he's a busy guy. he was the judge in the mifepristone case the court is going to be hearing in a few weeks. he's the judge who effectively ordered a ban on medication abortion, one of the drugs used in the protocol. he's the judge in the title ten contraception case. he is also the judge where there's a multimillion dollar lawsuit filed against planned parenthood in his court. they are filing these cases before him, in particular his division, because they know based on his track record he was essentially appointed to do all of the things he's doing now, right? making it more difficult to actually make medication abortion access available, now restricting access to contra sepths, and outlining all of these theories that some judges on the fifth circuit pick up on. they go to the supreme court, and the supreme court is able to steadily move the law in a conservative direction, even if they don't do everything the judge does, even if they don't do everything that jonathan mitchell asks them to do, they are steadily moving the law away from access to contraception, access to reproductive freedom, access to bodily autonomy. that is what the judge was put on the bench to do. >> jonathan mitch sell the guy who came up with the bounty hunter abortion law in texas. >> he is a busy guy. the bounty hunter abortion law in texas, sb8, which the court allowed to go into effect before dobbs, essentially ending abortion access in the second largest state in the union before dobbs. you know, we've talked about this -- >> the 14th amendment case. >> yes. we've talked about this endlessly on our podcast. we think he's auditioning to be our next attorney general. >> well, he has basically made statements, right, to the press indicating that he wants in the next trump administration the administration to begin enforcing the comstock act, a victorian-era law from the 1870s that now more than 100 republicans have signed on to a brief that they say allows them to ban medication abortion without actually having to pass a new law. this is a theory that jonathan mitchell says let's not talk about until after the election. >> and he's great at these kind of end runs around what the law says, right? >> he's great around these end runs like around majority preferences. they realize there's unlikely national support on an abortion ban. even if they get control of the congress and the presidency, there would be considerable pushback. all they need to enforce the comstock act is a republican president with a department of justice willing to prioritize this as an enforcement priority. and they're a business. they will resuscitate this zombie law, and they will begin enforcing it, preventing the shipping and interstate commerce of any article that might be used for abortion. and that includes long acting forms of contraception. >> this as they're talking about litigating -- well, they are litigating ivf. once you have allowed christian nationalism to sort of infuse your party platform to the degree that all interference with contraception which is where life begins is -- should be unlawful and is unethical, then that sort of dictate what is your party's priorities are in terms of policy, leah. >> they have opened the door to this. once you say states have a legitimate interest in treating fetuses, unviable fetuses as potential human beings, then that doesn't wind abortion. it extends to contraception. it extends to ivf. it extends to all other manners of reproductive healthcare. that's happening with the alabama supreme court decision, and honestly, this was happening even before dobbs. the supreme court in hobby lobby versus burwell said some were entitled to believe and act on their belief that some forms of contraception were -- and they did not have to offer it. the seeds have been planted, and they are waiting, again, for next republican president knowing that the republican supreme court will let them get away with basically anything to test the limits of the law and try to bring a federal abortion ban to life without having to enact it into law. >> that's why kamala harris is in minnesota today. you could be in a blue state with democrats controlling the state, have all the protectionious think you need, but it matters who's sitting in the white house. leah litman and melissa murray, thank you for this chariot ride into darkness. i appreciate your time. still ahead tonight, would you be interested in purchasing a donald trump nft? 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and how did it get all the way to you? curious? ancestry can help you find out. because that thing has a story, and it's still being written. what are you waiting for, a sale? well, lucky you. do you own a lot of bras, but not a single one you really love. it's time you got into a wireless bras from knix. the ultimate in comfort and support, in sizes up to a g-cup. visit knix.com to find a wireless bra you'll love. feeling sluggish or weighed down? could be a sign that your digestive system isn't at its best. but a little metamucil everyday can help. metamucil's psyllium fiber gels to trap and remove the waste that weighs you down and also helps lower cholesterol and slows sugar absorption to promote healthy blood sugar levels. so you can feel lighter and more energetic. lighten everyday the metamucil way. feel less sluggish & weighed down after just 14 days. sign up for the 2 week challenge at metamucil.com sara federico: at st. jude, we don't care who cures cancer. we just need to advance the cure. it's a bold initiative to try and bump cure rates all around the world, but we should. it is our commitment. we need to do this. you can make money the hard way as a bullfighter or a human cannonball... or save money the easy way, with xfinity mobile. existing customers can get a free line of our most popular unlimited plan for a year! not only will you save hundreds but you'll also be joining millions who have connected to america's most reliable 5g network. sure is a lot safer than becoming a stuntman for money. get a free line of unlimited intro for a year when you buy one unlimited line. visit xfinitymobile.com today to learn more. south dakota governor kristi noem was among the officials that attended biden's inauguration and congratulated him. then she tried to sell some gloves. thankful for my at sitka gloves. it was an unusual uncongratulations. especially considering sitka gear is not even from her home state but a montana based company. we may never know why she chose to spotlight her gloves at a presidential inauguration or posted a five minute dentist commercial. joining me now is roger, senior national political reporter at the daily beast. what did these smile texas spots say to you? >> a democratic legislator in south dakota has introduced a commotion to call for an investigation to see if there was some ethical violation here on her part. using the office for personal gain. what is fascinating about this is not that long ago, kristi noem actually acted as a dentist in a psa. like i think it was last year. as part of a work force recruitment campaign to bring more dentists to south dakota. she has passed legislation to make it easier to be a dental hygienist. in addition to ethics, the ethical questions, you know, you have to wonder if this is a confession. >> you would think it would be some fallout. purely on a chamber of commercial level. she is advocating for people to go to texas to get their smiles fixed. that is the thing that is most staggering. there is no shame in the age of trump. >> no shame. and again it is all because they are following the lead of donald trump since the drop. since 2015 when you launched into this. it was a promotional campaign. now that we are seeing that in a sort of systemic way, with the rnc welding itself to the trump campaign, just today, actually, they announced, they launched their joint fund raising apparatus for the rnc allowing megadonors to cut an $800,000 check to this one committee and through a series of transactions, that money, not fully 800,000, but hundreds of thousands of dollars from each of the donations. and millions of dollars can be routed back to the rnc through this setup. into its legal account which can then be used to pay donald trump's legal bills. they just launched that today. if you want to read about how that works you can check out my newsletter in the daily beast. >> i mean the gift and grift and the collusion is appalling. i would recommend everyone read your piece today. roger with the daily beast, thank you for your time. we really appreciate it. >> thanks so much alex. that is our show for this evening. now it is time for the last word with my friend lawrence o'donnell. good evening to you, lawrence. >> good evening, alex. and, for anyone out there who hasn't heard enough from alex, from andrew weisman tonight, she coming up here. as you know alex, there is so much to cover in tonight's defendant trump news. from new york

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