of his current and third wife. she did not support her husband in court and stayed in florida, to be clear, there were seven other days of the trial and those were not her birthday and neither she nor her family have set foot in court to support trump, so far. her birthday was such a big deal to donald trump that he used his first moment walking into court to complain about having to sit in court rather than being with his third and current wife on her birthday. then, this text went to trump supporters. " i would love to be with melania trump on her birthday, but instead, i'm stuck in court !" it said, "i am humble asking you to please stand by my side today!" this is code, for send cash. he also repeated a lie that he's told over and over in court, "i'm at the heavily guarded courthouse. security is that of fort knox, also that maga will not be able to attend this trial." that's a lie, no one is preventing any member of the public from coming to trial. the two tourists from alaska took time out of their vacation to sit in the courtroom after seeing the play "an enemy of the people" on broadway. if any of the 74 million people who voted for trump wanted to come, they could have. donald trump would rather lie than admit that his supporters and his family are not showing up. had a they showed up, this is what they would have heard in court today as prosecutors called three witnesses to the stand. witness, david pecker, largely stood his ground despite trump's legal team attempting to undermine his testimony by claiming the deals to bury stories like karen mcdougal and stormy daniels were standard operating procedure. the second witness, donald trump's former executive assistant, monograph, provided testimony that she entered karen mcdougal's and stormy daniels contact information to the trump organization database. third, we had gary ferro, former manager at first republic bank, which prosecutors say michael: used to obtain a $130,000 home equity loan which michael cohen later funneled to stormy daniels through a shell company. friday, he authenticated bank records which prosecutors showed to jurors. that testimony will continue in trial resumes tuesday morning. prosecutors are using his testimony to authenticate documents related to the transaction. that testimony continues when the trial resumes tuesday morning. judge merchan announced a gag order hearing will take place thursday, to hear new arguments about all of the alleged violations that donald trump has committed this week. leaving off our discussion, we were in the courtroom and will be every day of the trial. a fellow at security and the former supervisor of the prosecutions and civil rights union of the eastern district of new york. good evening. unlike a lot of trump supporters and family, you've been there watching what's going on. tell us what happened. we had interesting testimony. >> we did. the first and foremost thing, we had the end of david testimony. this has been a weeklong testimony that sent the course of this trial on. it's interesting to analyze why david pecker is there to start the case, because it goes to the prosecutions more broad theory that this was election fraud. it goes back to, in his testimony today, he spoke about the 2018 nonprosecution agreement that ami, the national enquirer's corporate parent, signed with federal prosecutors, and that agreement did not go far enough to actually admit the campaign- finance violations, the david pecker did, today and yesterday on the stand. he said that they agreed that they committed campaign-finance violations. he also said today when asked directly by the prosecutor if that was his understanding back then, directly answered, "yes." now, to other witnesses, who are custodial witnesses, introducing the pieces of evidence that are just data points for the jury, that put the pieces of the puzzle together for them, contact information for stormy daniels and karen mcdougal, why is that on the database for the trump organization? that will come into play later. we are starting to see the custodial arguments behind his byzantine way of funneling hush money to stormy daniels through a shell company and a lawyer, and we are getting into the weeds on that. >> faith, the issue with a story like this is that there is no question that this money was handled, and some of that come in itself, is a violation of the way books have to be kept and records have to be kept. what is the challenge for the prosecution? they will probably be able to demonstrate that, effectively, but ultimately, having the jurors believe this was in fact a different thing, to conceal something from voters that might have made them make a different decision, how difficult was that? >> you put your finger right on it. as the week started, there were two dramatically competing visions in this case. the prosecution said that this was a seminal crime, about tipping an election in 2016, about donald trump, desperately wanting to hide his relationship with this adult film star and other untoward relationships that could have hurt him in the election. the defense put forward a very plausible explanation that this is a minor record-keeping violation. x president trump should not have been indicted and should not be tried while on the campaign trail for something like this and most importantly, outright denied that former president trump had his fingers on this at all. they made it clear that he would know the small ledger entries, for example. what happened with david pecker is he made a huge inroad in favor of the prosecution, to show that x president trump definitely wanted to alter the selection, that these are important, that he did not care about hiding this from his family but didn't care about winning the election. that really buttressed the prosecutions case, and now, we've got the important, steady, less exciting work, the leaking of the transaction to show that actually occurred and that false records were on the books. >> this office, by the way, is good at doing that. let's go back to this idea, david pecker , the defense team, the trump team was trying to make this come across as, this is standard, this catch and kill idea is standard and happens to lots of people. david pecker was saying this was a furtherance of something more serious, this is not the typical, we catch and kill it, there's a lot of reasons why you might take on a story and kill it. david pecker sort of said the unfinished part, and this was in furtherance of what donald trump was trying to achieve. >> absolutely. that came across on redirect examination. what happened was the defense attorneys presented what one would call the casablanca defense, there is gambling, ami does this over and over again, they buy stories, the ndas are not unusual, but then the prospect eater, on redirect, honed in on the differences, that there has never, even though they have, ami has quashed stories of celebrities and political figures in the past, they've never been the eyes and ears of a presidential campaign. they have never identified sources of scandal and worked to silence the accuser's who are bringing about that scandal. they have never had an admitted campaign-finance violations, which was said in no uncertain terms, today and yesterday. so, systematically, the prosecution on redirect confronted each and every defense that trump's defense attorney had presented over the past week. >> faith, there is remarkable effort on the part of donald trump steam to discredit michael cohen, who is central to this funneling of the money. michael cohen has said his peace, he will testify, but tell me about that part of the case, because it was funneled through shell companies, first republic bank, the shell company, how do you make sense of that perjury? they need to understand that this money was meant to pay someone off for their silence. how hard would it be to connect on that? >> you put your finger on it, earlier. the government will just go through the chart and graph, in closing arguments, to show where the money moved,.by.by.. some of that will be terribly interesting to listen to, but there will be jurors who care a great deal about seeing that the process does link up. it's incredibly important to link up the money trail, because michael cohen will need buttressing. he is going to be attacked like no witness in the case. he's been consistent about the story he's telling, but he will be attacked in terms of all of this untruthfulness, his participation in the crime. you can't prove a crime by just having that nuns embrace, you need participation. you need the transaction of the movement of the money around it, so i believe the government is doing exactly what they should be doing, probably putting him in the middle of the case. you want to set the stage about how important this crime is to prove, through david pecker, and put these custodial witnesses around again , and put: in the middle of the case. you do not want to the jurors, the last thing they hear, to be a bloody cross-examination, which is coming. >> i understand this case a lot better, thanks to the interpretation you both have provided. we appreciate having you on. thank you. coming up, it's hard to overstate how bizarre and unprecedented yesterday supreme court oral arguments were. our next guest is the very idea of the supreme court considering donald trump's claim of presidential immunity is, in and of itself, a bad thing for our democracy. that is next. hmm. you may be a legend on the court but you're an amateur up here. so get allstate... save money and be protected from mayhem... ...like me. old spice gentleman's super hydration body wash. 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(dog bark) it's simply fresh meat and vegetables, with all the nutrients dogs need— instead of dried pellets. just food made for the health of dogs. delivered in packs portioned for your dog. it's amazing what real food can do. norman, bad news... i never graduated from med school. what? but the good news is... xfinity mobile just got even better! now, you can automatically connect to wifi speeds up to a gig on the go. plus, buy one unlimited line and get one free for a year. i gotta get this deal... that's like $20 a month per unlimited line... i don't want to miss that. that's amazing doc. mobile savings are calling. visit xfinitymobile.com to learn more. doc? if the president decides that he is rival is a corrupt person, and he orders the military or order someone to assassinate him, is that within his official acts, for which he can get immunity? >> it would depend on the hypothetical. >> he ordered the military to stage a coup, and you are saying that an official act? >> i think it would depend on -- >> that's in you? >> it would depend on the circumstances. >> one could argue the timeline of self inflicted reputational harm to the united states supreme court began 201 years after the court first assembled, in 1790. the year was 1991 and the allegations of sexual harassment against supreme court nominee clarence thomas spilled out into the public view during televised senate judiciary committee hearings. beyond the scandal, it turned the high court into a joke, literally serving as punchlines on late-night talk shows and creating fodder for a "saturday night live" what -- sketch. for the damage was done bush versus gore that decided who had won the 2000 presidential election, paving the way for george w. bush to take the oath of office on january 20th, 2001. in 2010, the citizens united decision and did a century of campaign-finance restrictions. the supreme court effectively gave uber rich more freedom to use their money to shape elections and who gets on the supreme court itself. in 2016, which macconnell invented a rule that the senate cannot consider a supreme court nomination in an election year. that completely made up maneuver stopped president obama's nomination of merrick garland and politicized the court even further. the term presidency then saw, incredibly, three supreme court vacancies during one presidential term, allowing the most legally dubious president of the modern era, the ability to submit -- cement the court's conservative majority. for the third trump employee, amy coney barrett, mitch mcconnell entirely forgot about his rule against nominations. this conservative majority has already taken away abortion- rights with the dobbs decision and may not stop there. then, there is what we've heard from the conservative justices, yesterday. >> the only words in the constitution is that, that have to do with the president of the law is that "he shall take care that the lobby faithfully executed." correct? it's hard to imagine that a president who breaks the law is hatefully executing the law. correct? >> he has to execute all of the laws. >> do you really, president have to make a lot of tough decisions about enforcing the law, and they have to make decisions about questions that are unsettled, and they have to make decisions based on the information that is available. do you really -- did i understand you to say, well, you know, if he makes a mistake, he makes a mistake, he subject to the criminal laws like anybody else? you don't think he's in a special, a peculiarly precarious position? >> using a special position for a number of reasons. he has access to legal advice about everything he does, he's under a constitutional obligation, he is supposed to be faithful to the laws of united states and the constitution of the united states and making a mistake is not what lanes you in a criminal prosecution. >> what would happen if the presidents were under fear that their successors would criminally prosecute them for their axon office, whether they are engaged in drone strikes, all the hypotheticals. i'm not going to go through them. it seems to me like one of the incentives that might be created is for presidents to try to pardon themselves. do you have any thoughts about that? >> that is, i didn't think about that. that is certainly one incentive that might be created. >> in response to yesterday's oral arguments, our next guest posted this. whatever the court does, having this case heard and the idea of having immunity for a military coup taken seriously now being debated is a big victory in the information war that maga and allies wage alongside legal battles. authoritarian specialize in normalizing extreme ideas and involves giving them a respected platform. joining us now is ruth ben- ghiat, history professor at new york university and author of "strongman, was leaning to the president." courts are supposed to be able to decide and discuss all of these things, but there is this chance that when you legitimize everything and anything, and all sorts of behavior, like the solicitor general of one of our states, donald trump's attorney , by putting these hypotheticals forward, you cause supreme court justices to discuss them and you cause us to cover them. they are outrageous ideas. >> yeah. i am looking at this from the point of view of democracy and information warfare. republicans are waging legal warfare on our democracy, but they are waging a parallel information war. what that does is try to change the way people think, but also move the needle on what they will accept as possible in the society. so, you introduce extremist ideas, you give them legitimacy, and you have discussions on things that should be settled. i believe that is what the supreme court did by hearing this case. they took the most prestigious platform, the most legitimate platform of the supreme court and have hearings , aired arguments that should be settled in a democracy. of course, the head of state should not be immune to prosecution for assassinating a political rival or having a military coup. that's the definition of autocracy, when the head of state cannot be touched by the law. so, instead, we have a situation where things seem to be up for discussion, and that is very dangerous for a democracy and that is why i think that this is a victory of information warfare, no matter what happens. >> some justices are trying to keep this authorial, and one argument that justice kagan made is that the framers were responding to the fact that there was a monarch and back in the day, essentially, monarchs were authoritarian. the framers knew this to be true, so the justice says, let's play it. i want to hear what she said about what the framers could have done about immunity. >> the framers did not play an immunity clause into the constitution. they knew how to. there were immunity clauses and some state constitutions. he knew how to give legislative immunity. they do not provide immunity to the president. not so surprising, they were reacting against a monarch who claimed to be above the law. wasn't the whole point that the president was not a monarch and the president was not supposed to be above the law? >> she puts it quite simply. wasn't that the point, that the president is not a monarch? we already had a guy who was above the law, somebody who was immune to prosecution, because that's what the monarchy was. a lot of americans lost their lives to fight against that idea. >> the context is that we had a former president who incited a coup and is running again as the front runner and he is saying that he deserves immunity, that he should not be accountable to the law, and he is saying he will be a dictator. he is telling us what he would like to do. so, i believe the court, as not all the justices, but by hearing this, the court becomes complicit to this attempt to create a climate that is preparing for autocratic takeover. project 2025 is doing this in other realms, but it's not that having a coup or take over, if no one is going to find your government legitimate. you have to work on public opinion and the legal framework. you have to create a sense of possibility for things that we are not seeing as possible before. i believe that is what the outcome is, for these discussions. >> justice jackson actually seemed to be on the same page you are, about what could happen if this goes forward. listen to what she said. >> if someone with those kinds of powers, the most powerful person in the world, with the greatest amount of authority, could go into office knowing that there would be no potential penalty for committing crimes, i am trying to understand what the disincentive is from turning the oval office into, you know, the seat of criminal activity in this country. >> that is sort of your thesis, right? once you know you are beyond repair -- reproach, authority, beyond being held to account, knock yourself out, that's the ball game. >> yes, justice jackson said this beautifully. authoritarianism, in essence, is not just removing restraints on what the leader can do. it's actually about arranging societies of the leader and his cronies can get away with crime , and so, that image of the oval office as the seat of criminal activity is all too accurate a description of what happens when government is, like, for example, putin's russia and north korea. >> thank you. appreciate you being here, tonight. ruth ben-ghiat, history professor at new york university and the author of "strongman, from mussolini to the president." coming up, a look at how big and real if a collectors plot was in trump's effort to overturn the 2020 election. going to arizona. we will discuss that with ryan j riley, after this. this. by a heart valve problem,... ...we're going for a better treatment than warfarin. eliquis. eliquis reduces stroke risk. and has less major bleeding. over 97% of eliquis patients did not experience a stroke. don't stop taking eliquis without talking to your doctor as this may increase your risk of stroke. eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. don't take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. while taking, you may bruise more easily... ...or take longer for bleeding to stop. get help right away for unexpected bleeding or unusual bruising. it may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures. the number one cardiologist-prescribed blood thinner. ask your doctor about eliquis. starting a business is never easy, but starting it eight months pregnant, that's a different story. with the chase ink card, we got up and running in no time. earn unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase with the chase ink business unlimited card from chase for business. do you want to work together? 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seven states where alternate electors signed paperwork, falsely claiming that trump won the state. prosecutors have already charged alternate electors in nevada, georgia, and michigan. now, here's the thing. lest you think that this attempt , after january 6th, was some fly by night crack pot scream. the arizona indictment, yet again, proves how coordinated these plots allegedly went all the way up to donald trump. again, trump is described as " unindicted co-conspirator one in arizona indictment which includes charges of conspiracy, fraud, and forgery." the trump aides who been included, are mark meadows, rudy giuliani, boris epstein, former trump campaign white house official mike roman, jenna ellis, christina bob, and john eastman, yet another attorney and trump legal adviser in the aftermath of the 2020 election. these are very real charges, of very real crimes, allegedly committed at the highest levels of the trump campaign and the trump white house. trump himself is charged in george's indictment. seven states with fae collectors were nevada, arizona, new mexico, wisconsin, michigan, georgia, and pennsylvania. as we said, we have seen charges in four other states, now. all seven of these states are key battleground states that could be decisive in this year's election. joining me now is ryan j riley, justice reporter friend he and the author of "sedition hunters, how january 6th broke the justice system." here's the thing. that george indictment is so detailed, it has text, communications that go beyond georgia, to pennsylvania, to michigan, to arizona, the information is not new to us. the degree to which this was a sophisticated effort to overturn democracy is clearer and clearer with each indictment. >> it's true. even in the supreme court, what was interesting is you have trump lawyers concede that this was not activity that could be considered official presidential ask, this was private activity because the justices lined up some of this questions and coordinated with some individuals. it could end up being part of the center of this case, if that actually goes to trial, due to the fact that the supreme court had arguments was a huge win for trump and it seems like this is almost guaranteed to get past the election at some point. in 2025 or wherever this goes, theoretically, if donald trump is not re-elected, that is what we are focusing on. it's a lot of efforts to make january 6 this major day and create the chaos and catastrophe that would allow for them to essentially take the election because there was so much confusion. they ultimately wanted to get this to the supreme court, to keep creating chaos and confusion and get mike pence in on the deal. that would be what this was about, the riot, an additional part of that chaos, was to create this environment in which they could seize the power and stay in the white house. >> as you read the january 6th indictment, you read the george indictment, and you see what happened in michigan, or you are reading information out of arizona, you are realizing that what at the time looked like a clown show rudy giuliani at the four seasons landscaping place and philadelphia with make up all over his face, it seemed difficult -- disorganized, and john eastman had designed it, these are lawyers that knew better. it started by being well, in case we win one of these audits or court cases that at least we have a slate of electors into fae collectors who actually lied and said we are the real electors, and tried to get their names submitted, contrary to the law. >> the numbers are really what this is about. it reminds me of this quote, from back in the day, about how a lot of those who showed up were morons, but there were 15,000 of them. that's the danger. when you have all these individuals who might be clownish or buffoonish and have rudy giuliani with that ridiculous press conference, there are millions of americans willing to believe those lies, and having those numbers, who actually got law degrees, at one point, be willing to be part of this effort made it dangerous. met great to have you, thank you. ryan j riley, nbc news justice reporter and author of a remarkable book called "sedition hunters." he has followed every case having to do with january 6th. after weeks of protest and thousands the baby calls and letters, they did it anyway. republicans in tennessee passed a bill to arm some schoolteachers in schools, through both chambers of the tennessee legislature. the governor signed that bill. we talked to tennessee mom, a former elementary school teacher, any current school board member and we talked to the tennessee state representative. that's next. is he? claritin clear? yeah. fast relief of your worst allergy symptoms, like nasal congestion. live claritin clear® ♪(voya)♪ there are some things that work better together. like your workplace benefits and retirement savings. presentation looks great. thanks! thanks! voya provides tools 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magnesium. qunol, the brand i trust. that was a scene at the tennessee house chamber this week after republican lawmakers passed a bill to allow some teachers to carry concealed guns. there were vocal protests in the gallery, against more guns in schools. state troopers removed folks were protesting. inside the chamber, democratic slaters pleaded with colleagues not to pass the bill and argued that in the years since the national covenant mass shooting, more should have been accomplished by this legislative body. >> i cannot even believe that this is the first major piece of gun legislation that we have addressed since the covenant tragedy. just think about that. this is what we are going to do, this is our reaction to teachers and children being murdered in a school. our reaction is to throw more guns at it. what is wrong with us?'s >> this law is ridiculous. it is dangerous, and parents are going to mourn and children will be hurt. this is increasing the danger level of our schools. it is hurting and risking the lives of our children and each and every one of us will be responsible and accountable for the gun violence that will happen due to this pathetic excuse for dealing with the gun violence epidemic. >> teachers are doing four jobs already and are paid poorly. they are a teacher, a nurse, a social worker, and a counselor. now, we are saying take on another job, b-school security. we are going to continue to pay less than you were made 10 years ago. first, i can't believe folks are even considering this. then, you are saying, take your pistol up against an ar 15 and multiple other weapons. again, you are asking the ridiculous. >> four republicans join the democrats in voting against the bill despite objections, and ultimately, the bill did pass tennessee's republican governor signed that legislation, arming teachers. governor lee said "i think it provides a valuable option to public schools who want to participate. there are folks across the state that differ on the way forward. we all agree we should keep our kids safe, that is why there is an option in the legislation and it will be just guided at the local level. i think that is the best way forward." joining us now is the tennessee democratic state representative justin j pearson. good to see you, thank you for joining us. the country came to know you because of the stand you and some of your colleagues in the legislature took about having government take a stronger hand in trying to deal with the disasters you face in tennessee, the disaster that repeats itself across this country and yet, here we are, today. >> i mean, the gun violence epidemic in our state is the leading cause of death for our children. we have a responsibility and obligation to do everything possible to actually make our schools and communities safer, and the republican party of tennessee refused to to do that. the view arming teachers, increasing the amount of gun violence in schools and in our communities, as some form of solution. no one would imagine that after we experienced the tragedy we did in the wake of the covenant shooting, that the hundreds of lives we lost, due to gun violence a year ago, were 500 people in our state, that this resolution would be, increase the probability of having more gun violence. we didn't pass read flog laws or enhance protections or dress anything as it relates to gun safety storage and this is the legislation republicans have pushed, which is antithetical to anything that anyone in the state of tennessee that i have talked to has wanted to see to make our community safer. >> i'm curious as to how it even came to be. if you're going to not bother, don't bother. this seems to be possibly worse than not bothering. all of those reasonable things you talked about which conservatives and republicans have started to consider, red flag laws, increased background checks, keeping guns away from the vulnerable and from children, how do you skip all of that and go to having teachers carry pistols? >> when you have people in positions of power who don't really care about protecting children or making sure teachers are safe and don't want to take the necessary actions to prevent ar 15's and weapons of war from being on our streets and in our communities, they try and take the political expediency route of saying they are doing something and they do not think critically about the ramifications of their decision- making. this is what this republican party too often does when it comes to legislation with gun violence, the in action on healthcare, and education opportunity. it's always acting quickly and decisively without research, information, or input from the people who are most directly impacted. we skipped all the good laws, all the good policies, all the good practices because the tennessee firearm association and the national rifle association had their fingerprints on the party. there is a refusal to acknowledge the pain and the suffering of our communities. there's a refusal to acknowledge that that pain and suffering is being cause by weak and powerless actions of the legislature, even this past week, an individual pass a law to prevent other localities from passing their own protections, despite the fact that our state legislature refused to pass extremist protection orders that would prevent all cities from being able to do so. this is just a couple and very dangerous and horrible for our communities that children are going to be in schools where people have access to firearms so easily and readily available. >> it's wild to watch it unfold i'm surprised given what you and your colleagues did to bring the legislature to the attention of those who had never paid attention to it, that they are still doing it. i appreciate the time you've taken to tell us about it. representative peterson. joining us is a mother of two public school students in tennessee, who is a former public school elementary teacher and a current member of the williamson county tennessee school board which is right outside nashville. thank you for joining us. i want to pick up on things i didn't talk to the representative about, which is that, it's not easy being a teacher these days. your salaries have not kept up, generally speaking, there are some good deals but generally we can, salaries have not kept up with inflation or increasing responsibilities and i get it, some teachers might think this is an interesting idea, they are trained in guns, but this is another thing. school security is not an add on extra thing that we need to think about, hey, teacher, you're busy, there's a pistol, take care of it for us. >> absolutely. as a parent, i don't want that to be my child's teachers responsibility because teachers are professionally trained to be so many different things to these kids, but most importantly, they are professionally trained and as a teacher, i remember going through these trainings, how to keep kids safe in a crisis situation, how to walk them to the closets or shelter in place, lock the door, turn off the light, keep them quiet. they shouldn't be leaving the kids unattended to try to fight the bad guy with a gun. they should be protecting them and leaving that to the law enforcement officers who have been more thoroughly trained. his >> it's a very specific thing, the number of teachers who tell me, sadly, the number of school shooting cases, the perpetrators are also young, sometimes a former student or an existing student a lot of teachers say, that's not their instincts. they are protect, their instinct is not to shoot a student if they know them or a young person, teaching is a different job than a school resource officer or security officer. >> right, and it's a lot to ask of a teacher to step into that role. even if they feel like that is something they want to do, as a parent, it concerns me to think what is going to happen to their state of mind when they are facing someone they potentially know as a former student or what have you. it's not something that seems like the safest way to do it especially in this legislation. plenty of amendments would have dealt with some of the more concerning aspects of arming teachers, letting them bring guns to school, like notifying parents ahead of time, that was brought up as an amendment and was shot down pretty quickly, having them be safely stored if they are going to bring guns to campus, that was taken right out of amendment consideration. i just, there is a lot of concern as a parent and former teacher that i think makes this bill concerning for families. >> you are on the school board, but you are not a representative of the school board. in williamson county, your school superintendent has made a decision that this is not going to happen in your county, the school superintendent, jason golden, says "we've concluded that teachers and staff caring handguns will not improve school safety on williamson county schools campuses, so i will not authorize teachers or staff being armed at w cs schools. the share school resource officers who are assigned to every w cs school are trained professionals and are a vital part of our cobranded school safety plans." york county, for the time being, made a decision that will not be the case, but what the governor said that, we are not telling everybody to bring guns to school, we are saying it can be done on a local level. what's the danger of that? >> honestly, i like that there was that stopgap measure in place for districts that maybe don't have sro resources that we have, if they need something like this, they have the option and it has to be signed off by the head of schools, the superintendent, the sheriff's office, and the school principal , so that was one part that i was thankful for, it wasn't just a mandate that everyone was going to be able to just do it automatically. but, it's one of those things that i felt like was an opportunity for our state to come together in a bipartisan way to support commonsense legislation, especially in light of what happened with covenant and the special session when this first came up . it was very clear at that time that families in tennessee were not in favor of this sort of safety measure for students. this was not what they wanted. it was more, commonsense gun legislation that would protect students and keep them safe. i think that if you look at statistics, 70% of teachers do not want guns in their schools and just like in tennessee, there is a teacher shortage. i've heard from teachers in our county that have said straight up, you start letting people bring guns into schools, i will leave. i won't do it. that's another concern. >> you are right, it's bipartisan, there is such broad bipartisan support for common sense gun legislation in this country that it is wild, the hold that the gun industry and gun lobby has on politicians. thank you for being a teacher, a mom, and on the school board 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"the 11th hour" starts right now. tonight, new witnesses and donald trump's new york trial. trump's longtime personal assistant and michael collins banker take the stand as