weekend, i'm alex wagner. let's get right to the week's top stories. fulton county d.a. fani willis today answered accusations of misconduct that have been coming from one of donald trump's codefendants in the georgia election conspiracy case. now, the attacks against d.a. willis center around this man. nathan wade. one of three special prosecutors that d.a. willis brought on board to oversee this case. last month, trump's codefendant and former campaign operative, mike roman, alleged that d.a. willis and nathan wade were carrying on a secret relationship. mr. roman then asked the judge in this case to remove mr. weighed, miss willis, and her entire office from the case. mr. roman contends that nathan wade wasn't qualified for the job on the eighth willis's team, but miss willis hired him anyway. ensuring that he would receive a generous salary, financial benefits, thanks to their alleged relationship. now, today, in a 176 page court filing, fani willis has offered a detailed response to those allegations. first, she confirms that, yes, she and nathan weighed at a, quote, personal relationship in addition to their, quote, professional association in friendship. miss willis says the relationship began after she hired mr. weighed -- in a routine. >> she claims mr. -- paid by mr. wilson's office to finance vacations, he and the d.a. took together. but miss willis disputes this. financial responsibility for personal travel taken is divided roughly evenly between the two. and all expenses were paid for with individual personal funds. in other words, they were going dutch. as for the claim that nathan wade was not qualified for the job, fani willis cites a litany of nathan wades qualifications. and notes that when nathan wade ran for unelected traditional post-mike roman's own lawyer was a vocal and visual presence in support of nathan wage campaign. as evidence of that fact, d.a. willis even includes this photo of mike roman's lawyer in a nathan wade campaign t-shirt, which the lawyer posted to social media with the caption, vote nathan j weighed! d.a. willis argues that her relationship with mr. wade is not automatically disqualify. it is worth noting that there are at least two personal relationships among the collection of defense attorneys representing the defendants. and then she goes on to name names. so, that is the defense for district attorney fani willis. did she break any laws? well, it seems like the answer could reasonably be no. as former senior justice department official andrew weissmann notes, the new fani willis briefs supporting f but david and exhibits are so powerful you wish the substance was public right after the allegations, so as to nip them in the bud. but does that mean this whole saga is over? unlikely. after all, d.a. willis has criminally charged the former president in several members of his inner circle and the stakes for this trial are enormously high. so, none of this is going to go quietly into the night. independent of the actual legality here, there are a few other factors that d.a. willis must contend with. consider the case of bert jones. jones was a state senator in 2020. he served as one of the fake electors in georgia, helping donald trump create bogus election documents to try to overturn joe biden's victory. fani willis went to investigate her jones, she was stopped from doing so. the georgia judge, judge robert mcburney, blocked her. on the grounds that d.a. willis had helped raise money for bert jones's democratic opponent in jones's race for lieutenant governor. now, judge mcburney did not cite any laws broken, but in the courtroom, he called fani willis's actions what are you thinking moment. judge mcburney wrote in his opinion, quote, an investigation of this significance, garnering the public attention it necessarily does and touching so many political nerves in our society, cannot be burdened by legitimate doubts about the district attorney's motives. the district attorney does not have to be apolitical, but her investigations do. now, it's possible that the judge in the current criminal case, judge scott mcafee, can make a similar determination here. with regards to miss willis's prosecuting the election conspiracy case. or not. but then there's georgia republican controlled legislature. the georgia senate has already launched an investigation to d.a. willis, which they could use to subpoena records from d.a. willis, or force her to testify under oath. which could be of interest to the commission that georgia republicans created last year for the sole purpose of removing so-called far-left prosecutors. now, that commission was effectively put on ice by the georgia state supreme court. but as of now, georgia republicans are trying to revive it. and they are using fani willis as an example of why that commission is needed. joining me now, the man i -- listen to even more often. andrew weissmann, former fbi general counsel, and the coast of the indispensable prosecuting donald trump podcast. also with me, clark cunningham, a professor of law and ethics at georgia state university. andrew, i just know from our pre-conversation that you see this maybe slightly different than i do. how much peril do you think this election conspiracy case is in? >> not a lot. i think, i manage what i tweeted out, if you think about where we were before this filing, the intimation that was made by defendant mike roman was that you had a boyfriend who is incompetent who was hired by fani willis, solely because of that relationship. and then the way they were going dutch, the profits of getting this contract where than split, and she was getting this money. that was the look of the allegations. and the response, and i'll say there could be a hearing, and we'll see what comes out of this, but the response with assigned affidavit from wade that was submitted today is that none of that is true. so, i think at this point, people might be nibbling around the edges, but there is a sworn affidavit that there was no relationship at the time. there is a sworn affidavit which seems really strong to me about his qualifications. and there, i want to point out, no lawyer is perfect. you are building a team. i've been in that situation where what i've been hired, i've told the person hiring me, look, just so you know, this is what i'm not good at. and they're trying to pick somebody who can fit with other people. i thought that was a really strong part. and then they said they roughly divided everything, so i just thought that the main thrust of what was being exposed, which to me, is not that there's a relationship, that happens. that's not the issue. it's the issue of hiring somebody, either profiteering, or hiring the person because of that relationship. so, i thought the main thrust, again, if there's no contrary evidence in this is what the record is, i think this is very much a tempest in the tea pot in terms of the legal issue that's before this judge. i think the defendant has no right to complain about it. whether there are ethics issues, whether all of these eyes were dotted and t's crossed, there may be something there. but to me, this is the main thrust of this, it seem like a mountain out of a molehill. >> professor cutting him, i know that you wrote an op-ed in the new york times. and i'd love to read an excerpt of it. where you said that i believe the judicious in farsighted course would be for miss willis to take a personal leave of absence and turn over control of the district attorney's office, and the case against mr. trump, to a career deputy district attorney. now, that was before this filing came out today. i wonder if there's anything in it, in terms of her explanation of things or defense, if you, will that change your mind. >> well, with all respect your other guest, reading this response and i would say very vague and a vase of affidavit filed by david wade, strengthens my opinion. that she should take a temporary leave of absence from the office and turn it over to a career prosecutor. i think that there's a lot of the trump defendants can work with here. i think it's way too early to make any predictions about what the ultimate outcome of the disqualification motion is gonna be, i said that before, i say that now. let me point out one thing that's pretty clear from just what's been filed. we've seen, mr. romans file something late this afternoon, evidence that mr. weighed spent about 1300 dollars at the beginning of november 2022 to pay for both of them to take a three-day luxury trip to aruba. they came back from aruba and, at that point, did not have a contract. this contract had expired. they together signed a new contract right after coming back from aruba. she personally signed, it he personally signed it. i cannot understand if she was in a romantic relationship with this man as a public official, why she would be signing contract that outside contract, with so much reason relationship with. and then that contract gave her the authority to allow him to go over monthly limits. in the next year, she did it month after month after month. he collected at least 30,000 more dollars than the cap. and she apparently personally approved it. so, i don't see any evidence as resolving issues at all. again, i'm not projecting weather should be disqualified, but i do think the defendant still have a lot to work with to argue that she had financial stake and the amount of money he was getting paid. as outside counsel. >> i can't get into the receipts. and i absolutely trust professor cutting him has looked at mike romans lawyers filing judiciously. but i'm sure there's gonna be some amount of back and forth about all of this. i go to the robert jones case. you know, there's the legal question, and that's the ethical question. the fact of the matter is, as distasteful as all this may be, this is the highest profile case may be in, certainly in this d.a.s lifetime. maybe in georgia state history going after a former president on charges of election conspiracy, a r.i.c.o. charge against a president. and i just wonder, is there some merit to, as professor cunningham suggests, basically taking a leave of absence which would not scuttle the broader case, and turn it over to somebody else in her office. >> so, i think i agree with the professor that it is useful to wait for the hearing in the full facts. the same way that i found that the filing today was informative and changed my view. i was concerned about the idea of hiring somebody wow you're in a relationship. i'm less concerned about that idea that the contract continued, these were six month contracts. but i do think, let's wait for the hearing. i do not think that there should be an overreaction of saying, oh, if there's an appearance, you should withdraw. i've been in those kinds of cases. i've worked for robert mueller, i've seen high profile cases. in the kinds of allegations in spurious allegations that are made. this comes up a lot of times when people ask judges to recuse because of the appearance of impropriety. usually, really good judges their first instinct is to, you know, what i don't want any question. i'm happy to recuse. -- >> unless it's clears thomas, i'm sorry, it had to be. said >> okay, true. open a caveat on that phrase. but then judges think about, wait a second, that is not how you can run a system. you don't just recuse every time somebody raises an issue. they really has to be a legal standard, it has to be met. you cannot let one side or the other use gamesmanship. so, if this turns out to be something where, yes, she had a personal relationship with somebody in an office after they were hired, that, to me, is not a reason to recuse. i would note to the professor's point, one thing that is at least alleged by the fani willis submission, that every receipt, all of the payments had to be approved by the chief financial officer of fulton county. i was looking for exactly that kind of thing, what kind of -- exactly. if you're having a relationship, what are you putting in place? that doesn't mean there could be more to it. to the professors point. i do think it is useful to have a hearing on this. but i do think this is a much more complicated situation, and people should not be saying, oh, the better way to deal with this is just to recuse. you cannot when a system that way. >> professor cutting him, there is the legal avenues here, also political avenues here. the georgia state legislature has their committees and their panels that are gonna be investigating this. can you talk a little bit about the climate in around this case in the state of georgia in the make is yours. georgia in the make is yours. delay, i would say. even if she ultimately prevails. months of delay. and right now, we just found out that the d.c. cases has been taken -- there's an opportunity for the georgia d.a.'s office, maybe just to subvert donald trump, try him alone, and jump into this space that's in the spring right now, and give the whole nation the televised trial right away, before the general election. i think that's incredibly valuable. and fani willis could make that happen if he kemade this disqualification motion go away, which she uacould do righ now if you took a leave of absence. so it strategic. i appreciate what andrew saying, prosecutors don't want to be chased around by accusations. but, willis is smart enough to realize that this is gonna -- it's not gonna be resolved on february 15th. >> primetime weekend continues just ahead with my colleague, stephanie ruhle. stephanie ruhle. i'm daniel lurie and i've spent my career fighting poverty, helping people right here in san francisco. i'm also a father raising two kids in the city. deeply concerned that city hall is allowing crime and lawlessness to spread. now we can do something about it by voting yes on prop e. a common sense solution that ensures we use community safety cameras to catch repeat offenders and hold them accountable. vote yes on e. so, you've got the power of xfinity at home. now take it outside with xfinity mobile. like speed? it's the fastest mobile service around... and right now, you can get a free line of our most popular unlimited plan. all on the most reliable 5g network nationwide. ditch the other guys and you'll save hundreds. get a free line of unlimited intro for 1 year when you buy one unlimited line. and for a limited time, get the new samsung galaxy s24 on us. there was plenty of big news here at home today, including about our economy. our strong economy. we had a blockbuster jobs report. more than 350,000 jobs were added in january. that was nearly double what analysts expected. and the unemployment rate held steady at 3.7%. this is just the latest positive sign for the economy, as americans are finally starting to feel better about all of it. just listen -- earlier this week in a rare statement. >> this is a good situation. let's be honest. this is a good economy. >> not something you hear from him often. joining me now, my dear friend -- msnbc senior analyst. ron, for months we were debating. will it be a hard landing, a soft landing? it seems there will be no landing. this is great news. very good news across the board. what's your assessment? >> unambiguously good news. not only do we have a strong employment, the unemployment rate now has been below 4% for the longest stretch since the mid 1960s. wages are growing faster than inflation. the atlanta federal reserve puts out a realtime estimate of growth for the u.s. economy in the first quarter, the quarter that we're in right now, it's expected the economy could grow as much as 4%. that's faster than we wear at the end of last year. so no landing is the correct assessment at this point in time. >> even right-wing media sort of finally acquiesced throughout the day. you know, normally, they would say, but this, but that. finally, they said, you know what? the truth is the truth. the numbers are good. so you're hearing that. we often hear, well, people are told the economy isn't strong. that's not changing. there's so much good data that people can say, well, it's not so good. do you think people will start to feel it more? >> what we're seeing in the consumer sentiment -- we're not seeing it in the polling, actually, people are responding to the economy based on the party to which they belong. so if you are a republican, you think the economy is not doing so well, at least according to the polls. if you're a democrat, you think that it's doing better. i do think people are feeling it. the stock market, new all-time high for the s&p 500 and -- americans have over six trillion dollars in cash and money market mutual funds. that goes to a trillion if you count certificates -- >> we don't know what that means. >> they have a lot of cash on hand. so consumer spending -- strong for some time to come. it means the economy is not likely to slow down anytime soon. so, this is not just to get economy. this is about as good as it gets. you know, back in the 1990s, when wages grew faster than inflation, that was a really good environment. new all-time highs in the stock market. that's effectively what we're seeing. the one wrinkle is the fact that prices overall in a post pandemic world are higher than they were before the pandemic. but employments better, inflation has slowed considerably, wages are up, good news all around. >> not a wrinkle, but a risk. let's talk about what's happening overseas. these u.s. strikes tonight. do you think they will stop the houthis from continuing to attack cargo ships? right, attacking those cargo ships is forcing those cargo ships to make massive turns basically around an entire continent to make their way around the world, which could definitely impact prices, worsen inflation, hit oil prices. >> if it were to be a severely protracted series of of fence, yes, this could be a problem for inflation. i don't necessarily think that's gonna translate in a way some people feel. yes, shipping costs have gone up rather dramatically as a result of this. if that activity does get tamp down, and we start seeing ships go back through the red sea and through the gulf instead of going around the horn of africa, taking the more typical route that they often undertake, then we don't have to worry too much about that. what's been interesting about this entire process, if you can cause that, crude oil is in the lower 70 range -- heating oil is even down, even though we've had a cold snap. energy prices have not been affected by this. shipping prices have, but i don't think that's gonna be a long run problem from inflation. >> and of course, or pumping more oil in the u.s.. >> 13 and a half million barrels a day. >> before i let you go -- >> yes. >> you know wall street. you know politics. you also know the state of new jersey. >> i do. >> today, i see a trump fund raising email. and it, it said, nikki haley is backed by wall street and globalists. last i checked, or you tell me -- who are members of the trump golf club? who are members of mar-a-lago? at $200,000 an entry fee, that, to me, is not coal miners or union members. >> it's not. there are parts of new jersey that are indeed populated by hedge fund managers, wall street titans and others, whether it's in northern new jersey or southern new jersey, where things can be expensive around the -- new jersey is a relatively wealthy state, so it would be unfair to suggest -- >> that this idea where donald trump is trying to convince his donors, a broader audience, that it's these wealthy backers of nikki haley -- he to surrounds himself with those. >> well he's always tried to. i'm not sure he's been entirely accepted by the wealthy community. i know from past experience there people in his business that didn't necessarily equate his success to their own in the real estate business. >> ron, you just covered everything for us tonight. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> primetime weekend continues ahead with my colleague, rachel maddow. rachel maddow. ♪ at bombas, we're obsessed with comfort. softness. quality. because your basic things should be your best things. one purchased equals one donated. visit bombas.com and get 20% off your first order. we're travelling all across america, talking to people about their hearts. how's the heart? i feel like it's good. how do you know? let me show you something. it looks like a credit card, but it is the kardiamobile card. with kardiamobile card, you can take a medical—grade ekg in just 30 seconds, from anywhere. kardiamobile card is proven to detect atrial fibrillation, one of the leading causes of stroke. kardiamobile card is just $89 during heart health month. don't wait. get kardiamobile card at kardia.com or amazon. here's to getting better with age. here's to beating these two every thursday. help fuel today with 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costs, and bring good jobs back home. the choice is clear. i'm adam schiff, and i approve this message. ♪oh what a good time we will have♪ ♪you... can make it happen...♪ ♪♪ try dietary supplements from voltaren for healthy joints. >> woman: why did we choose safelite? try dietary supplements we were loading our suv when... crack! safelite came right to us, and we could see exactly when they'd arrive with a replacement we could trust. that's service the way we want it. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ she has hung the kind of career in publishing that a lot of young women in journalism dream of having. prolifically published with an absolutely singular, instantly identifiable writing style. practically universally beloved by her peers in the business. here's a brief sampling of how she has been described by fellow journalists and editors. she's been described as, quote, quirky, cheeky, daring, gutsy, funny, trail blazing. people have called paired the female hunter as thompson. despite that, illustrious, lengthy, enviable, multifaceted, creative, deeply impressive career, these days, e. jean carroll's almost universally remembered for one of the last things that she wrote. it was her most recent book, in which e. jean carroll first accused former president donald trump of raping her in a department store dressing room in new york city in 1996. after she made that accusation in that book, published in 2019 while donald trump was still president, he said she was lying about it. he said he had never met her, let alone assaulted her. and so, she sued him. the sitting president. and it took a while, but in the end, it has now resulted in a jury ordering donald trump to pay e. jean carroll more than $83 million. for defaming her with false claims after a jury determined that he was, indeed, liable for having sexually assaulted her that day in 1996. and of course, what this was was a civil case, right? this is a lawsuit brought by one person, by this one extraordinary, interesting, totally unique person, brought by her against another private person. it's not a criminal case. nobody is going to jail. nobody criminally charged here. this is just about what the defendant owes the plane to. what he should be forced to pay to her to compensate her and to punish him for what he did. it's a civil case between two very identifiable, very unique individuals. and as such, there are two ways this has resonated so much with all of us. there's two reasons why we care so much about what she has just been able to do. the first reason, the first reason resonates, the first reason we care, honestly, is because of us as a country, and who we are, and the way he as a political figure is trying to change us as a country. >> you are promising america tonight you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody. >> except for day one. he's going crazy. except for day one. i said i want to be a dictator for one day. i only want to be a dictator for one day. >> would you rather have four years of donald trump as a dictator, or four years of joe biden as the president? >> trump. >> as a dictator? >> maybe. >> sometimes, in life, we all need a good modeling from the principle to set our life on the right track, and this country does need a little bit of that. we need a little paddling. >> it's nice to have a strongman running your country. >> would you rather have four years of donald trump as a dictator or four years of joe biden as the president? >> donald trump all the way. >> even as a dictator? >> yes, yes. >> trump. as a dictator. >> i think i'm chasing donald trump as a dictator. >> i'm going to consider trump, for. >> i really want donald trump as a dictator. >> the other day, donald trump said on his first day, he's gonna be dictator friday. >> i like that. yeah, i like that. >> would you rather have donald trump as a dictator for four years or the reelection of joe biden for four years? >> i would rather have donald trump. i'd like to see the repeal, the roosevelt law, so he can be a president for a lot more than four years. but we, this country needs a dictator. i hate to say that, but it's the truth. >> this is part of why we care. right? because putting him in court tests this whole idea. what is appealing about a dictator? a dictatorship, right? what is appealing about a strongman leader replacing democracy? having somebody who just stays in power indefinitely and has unchecked, total authority to do whatever he wants? what is appealing about that? not just, why would you offered to be that. you can see the appeal to a person who wants to be that kind of person. but why would you want that? in your country? the most appealing thing about a strongman leader, right? is that he be able to get stuff done. he'd be unconstrained. couldn't be stopped. you know? i alone can fix it. we are enforcing, you know, loyalty to him or death, by locking up his enemies, by breaking all the rules, you know, government, whatever. congress, whatever. the courts, them and what are we? that's what he's promising. that's the appeal. so what this writer, this journalist, this extraordinary, unique woman dead, which give us pretty much the first test of that prospect that has come all the way to fruition. this has run into the end now. this is the test. is he that strong man that he claims to be? and that his followers believe him to be, and that they so want, instead of this messy democracy, where sometimes other people get their way -- or is he a citizen? an american, who lives in a democracy, which has courts and laws? to be clear, the only reason to bring criminal charges against someone is because they committed a crime. the only way to bring a civil case against someone is if they have done someone -- something legally actionable. but once you believe a person is done those things, once they're in court, we are testing not only the allegations in that particular case, you are testing the system. you are testing whether the law that applies to everyone else can be brought to bear, even on that guy, who says he is absolutely immune. you bring him to court, and that is the best. hasse as a country. and that is why the court system looms so large in this era. that's why we've all become armchair lawyers in the last eight years. that's why all these former prosecutors and ex litigators have jobs on tv now, explaining stuff. right? that's why judges and the court system are so important and central in the age of donald trump and his takeover of the republican party, and his promises of a strongman dictatorship. i would be strongmen says he is immune from the legal system. he's unconstrained by any institution, and by anything in our government. e. jean carroll is the one who called that question. e. jean carroll's civil case says, i'm not a strongman. and neither are you. none of us are. no one can be in america, because this is a democracy, and the law, in a case like this, she says, the law protects me. even from you. and so, i will call the question. i will call on the law, the court system, to show that. to prove that the strongman model does not work here. however much people might want it. this is not europe between the wars. this is america. and that's the second reason that we care, right? that's the second reason this case, this huge 83 million dollar judgment, resonates so much with us. because she did this in a civil case, human to human, eyeball to eyeball, she did this in her own name and in her own personal defense. she called upon the law to protect her, a named person who is willing to put her name to the allegations and to show up in court and say it. joining us now is e. jean carroll, who successfully sued donald trump for defamation. she's flanked tonight by her lawyers in the case, robbie and -- who you see on the right. thank you all so much for being here. it's such a pleasure to see the three of you here and i have you here. i'm really grateful you made the time. >> it's a pleasure. >> jeanne, let me just ask you. you guys have lived this case in one way or another since 2019, when trump was in the white house, when you published your book. how different is it now to be part of this case now that you are out the other side? you have won this massive 83 million dollar judgment. does it feel different now than it did while you were in the middle of it? >> rachel, thank you for that. that incredible introduction. the three of us were shaking with laughter, and tears in our eyes, laughing and crying all at the same time. you had to put in a nutshell what we were fighting for. you did it. thank you so much, rachel. yes, i feel that this bodes well for the future. i think we have planted our flag. i think we've made a statement that things are going to be different. that there's gonna be a new way of doing things in this country. because of this indestructible team of lawyers, rachel. i am sometimes 50 years older than some of the associates online team. i'm 40 years older than sean, and 30 years older than robbie, and together, when this team of brilliant young people have, as you said we, stood up to the man. who, by the way, rachel, is not even there. he's nothing he is like. a walrus snorting, and like a rhino flopping his hands. he is not there. that was the surprising thing to me. >> well, on that point, talking about being face to face with him, being in the same physical space with him for the first time since, when you say he assaulted you, in 1996 -- >> right. >> what you're describing there, in terms of him being nothing, feeling like an animal, he's feeling not intimidating, was that a shock to? because i mean, your gutsier, your bravery here, includes the physical bravery of being around him again. it sounds like it didn't go the way you expected it to once you are in the same room. >> no, rachel, i was terrified. i was just a bag of sweating corpuscles as we prepared for trial, and four days before trial, i had an actual breakdown. i lost my ability to speak. i couldn't talk, and i couldn't go on. that's how frightened i was. but oddly, we went into court, robbie took the lectern, i sat in the witness chair like this, and she said, miss carroll, good morning. would you please spell your name for the court? and, amazingly, i looked dire, and he was nothing! he was nothing. he was a phantom. it was the people around him were giving him power. he himself was nothing. it was astonishing. an astonishing discovery for me. he's nothing. we don't need to be afraid of him. he can be knocked down. >> let me finish for the final question. and this is both for you shawn, and you, robbie. and you guys can divide up responsibility here. but there are multiple cases here involving trump that are coming up. obviously, most eyes are on the federal january 6th case, having been up against trump in the courtroom, i'm wondering if you to have any advice in terms of what it's like to go up against him in the legal team the way that he approaches his defense, that's part of it. but i also want to know if this big, whatever -- everybody is expecting it to be a huge -- change anything about the way that you approached the ask to the jury, the way you presented evidence, the way that you're planning on making sure this money is, in fact, extracted from trump's wallet. how many of these different cage says interact with each other, if at all -- learn from each other's experience? >> destroyed ensured to the cases interacting with each other is absolutely, all the time. to give you just one good example, in our case, we played, at the end of our case, not only the deposition that i took of donald trump in this case, but we played the deposition that the new york attorney general took in their case. because in that deposition, trump is bragging about how his brand alone is worth more than ten billion dollars. he has $400 million cash on hand. and the reason it was so relevant is in assessing how much money to work for punitive damages. the jury is not only allowed to, but supposed to think of the wealth of the defendant. so, when we said, when shawn said, give him enough, give enough to e. jean to make him stop -- they had to think what would be enough for donald trump. so the case is kind of predictable ways and unpredictable ways, they're kind of talking to each other all the time. >> -- what i wasn't prepared for coming into this trial is that when donald trump is stripped of, you know, all the press, and not at a rally, and there's no tv cameras, and he sort of has a small group of supporters around him, he's not that scary. and he also can be controlled. you know, his antics in the courtroom, we've talked about them. but at the end of the day, he did kind of follow the rules. robbie cross-examined him, he was in the witness chair, and he only got to answer three questions, i think. and he pretty much stayed within the bounds. i think when you have a strong judge like judge kaplan, who enforces the rules of his courtroom, and you have lawyers, you can really get him to behave, sort of. and when he is stripped of all the rallies, and the truth socials, he's just a guy. i think e. jean called him the emperor with no clothes. that's not my quote, but he definitely is -- he's not the guy that you see on tv. he's just a guy, sometimes acting like a petulant toddler, but just a guy. >> primetime weekend continues, ahead, with my colleague, joy reid. joy reid. fred! how are you?! fred... fuel up to 7 brain health indicators, including your memory. join the neuriva brain health challenge. having triplets is... -amazing -expensive. so, we switched to the bargain detergent, but we ended up using three times as much and the clothes still weren't as clean as with tide. so we're back with tide, and the clothes are clean again. do 3x the laundry and get a tide clean. it's got to be tide. next, republicans try to fill the -- it's a, quote so i know my producers got me here, blanks space left by the bad blood between their party and relevant cultural icons, with a troubling new ex conspiracy theory explaining the love story between taylor swift and travis kelce. know that i know nothing about what i'm talking about, but i know that because my producers are getting at me with my lack of -- [laughter] of -- [laughter] allergic to n. allergic reactions can occur even days after using. most common side effects were nausea, indigestion and stomach pain. talk to your doctor about nurtec today. liberty mutual customized my car insurance and i saved hundreds. that's great. i know, i've bee telling everyone. baby: liberty. oh! baby: liberty. how many people did you tell? only pay for what you need. jingle: ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ baby: ♪ liberty. ♪ shingles. some describe it as pulsing electric shocks or sharp, stabbing pains. ♪♪ this painful, blistering rash can disrupt your life for weeks. a pain so intense, you could 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[music playing] if you've turned into any conservative media are scrawled through elon's ex twitter in the past few days, you may seize the last -- latest conspiracy that has the far- right losing their minds. but there was a student government operation working to psychologically manipulate republicans into voting democrat in the next election. -- global superstar, taylor swift. this theory has been circulating for months now, amid the explosion of swift's popularity. but it spiraled out of control of this weekend when the kansas city chiefs won a spot in the super bowl, a claim that's -- team that swift's boyfriend, travis kelce, just happens to play for. combine taylor swift's mega influence with the fact that kelsey has done ads for the pfizer vaccine, and -- somehow, that means the relationship is all just an orchestrated government to get -- vivek ramaswamy suggesting that the super bowl will be rigged to artificially culturally propped up a couple who will -- presidential endorsement this fall. and, saying this. >> celebrity sweetheart joins forces with the top dog in the nfl, playing for the team that's going to the super bowl. i mean, let's be real, here. this is bread and circuses on steroids. major league sports and itself is nothing but a psyop. just imagine for a moment of people whereas dedicated to jesus as they were professional sport. >> that's not snl. that was real. none of this should be surprising. coming from the camp that pizzagate and the big lie. but it is worth asking, why are they so obsessed with taylor swift? -- back in 2016, which was unwittingly made into an icon by the alt-right. white supremacists as their aryan goddess, claiming that believes, and was just waiting for donald trump to get elected. . it was quite the opposite. when taylor delved into politics, democrats in tennessee, including an opponent of congresswoman marshall blackburn, a moment she talked about netflix documentary miss americana, claiming that she has to be on the right side of history. -- , telling rolling stone, literally nothing worse than white. . . and in 2020, trump for his rhetoric against protesters following the killing of george floyd. -- of white supremacy and racism presidency. and not too long, he endorsed joe biden. since, then she's encouraged her massive fan base to vote, forming a partnership with vote dot org which registered more than 35,000 voters after swift posted on social media in september. and we all know there's nothing that scares republicans more than eligible voters actually voting in elections. but now -- another likely trump versus biden election, conservatives i throwing anything at the wall to justify their hatred of smith. -- swift. -- newsmax host said this about her fan base. >> they're elevating her to an idol. idolatry. this is a little bit wet idolatry, i think, looks like, and not supposed to do that. in fact, if you look it up in the bible, it's a sin. >> it's rich, coming from the party that is basically worshipped donald trump as the second coming. let's not forget that just a couple of weeks ago, trump was playing video before his iowa rallies called god made trump that likens him to jesus. but perhaps what's really behind the rights panic is simple. they're jealous. the republican party has completely lost its grip on american culture. for years now, all the big celebrities, bruce springsteen, beyonci, jay-z, have all thrown their support behind democrats, election after election, while maga is stuck with people like vanilla ice and one of the teenage mutant ninja turtles. doesn't even matter which one? just listen to what alt-right activist jackpots soviak said about it today. >> we don't have taylor swift on our side, but you know we have? we have kid rock, ted nugent, we have influences. >> oh yes, i'm sure kid rock will really rally the base. >> this is been primetime weekend. i am joy bag. please tune into the readout at seven pm eastern, in all of our primetime shows weeknights on msnbc. on msnbc. it relieves sensitivity helps restore gum health and rehardens enamel. i am a big advocate of recommending things that i know work. ah mornings! cough? congestion? i'm feeling better. all in one and done with new mucinex kickstart. headache? better now. new mucinex kickstart gives all-in-one and done relief with a morning jolt of instant cooling sensation. it's comeback season. my frequent heartburn had me taking antacid after antacid all day long but with prilosec otc just one pill a day blocks heartburn for a full 24 hours. for one and done heartburn relief, prilosec otc. one pill a day, 24 hours, zero heartburn. >> woman: what's my safelite story? for one and done heartburn relief, prilosec otc. i see inspiration right through my glass. so when my windshield cracked, i chose safelite. they replaced the glass and recalibrated my safety system. that's service i can trust. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ covid-19? i'm not waiting. if it's covid, paxlovid. paxlovid is an oral treatment for adults with mild-to-moderate covid-19 and a high-risk factor for it becoming severe. it does not prevent covid-19. my symptoms are mild now, but i'm not risking it. if it's covid, paxlovid. paxlovid must be taken within the first five days of symptoms, and helps stop the virus from multiplying in your body. taking paxlovid with certain medicines can lead to serious or life-threatening side effects or affect how it or other medicines work, including hormonal birth control. it's critical to tell your doctor about all the medicines you take because certain tests or changes in their dosage may be needed. tell your doctor if you have kidney or liver problems, hiv-1, are or plan to become pregnant, or breastfeed. don't take paxlovid if you're allergic to nirmatrelvir, ritonavir, or any of its ingredients. serious side effects can include allergic reactions, some severe like anaphylaxis, and liver problems. these are not all the possible side effects so talk to your doctor. if it's covid, paxlovid. ask your doctor today. ♪ ♪ two leading candidates for senate. two very different visions for california. steve garvey, the leading republican, is too conservative for california. he voted for trump twice and supported republicans for years, including far right conservatives. adam schiff, the leading democrat, defended democracy against trump and the insurrectionists. he helped build affordable housing, lower drug costs, and bring good jobs back home. the choice is clear. i'm adam schiff, and i approve this message. you want to see who we are as americans? i'm peter dixon and in kenya... we built a hospital that provides maternal care. as a marine... we fought against the taliban and their crimes against women. and in hillary clinton's state department... we took on gender-based violence in the congo. now extremists are banning abortion and contraception right here at home. so, i'm running for congress to help stop them. for your family... and mine. i approved this message because this is who we are. good evening, and welcome to politicsnation. tonight's leaned, challenging days ahead. ♪