Possible when americans put their Heads Together to do something truly grand. Just an american feat of breo and engineering and ambition. Its major heartsing to see the Team Celebrate at the jet propulsion lab, to see those first pictures beamed back from the surface of mars, where we have our rover now. It was just amazing. Were going to have more on that later in the show tonight. But meanwhile, here on earth, today, same day, same country, we still have not figured out how to keep the lights on. Hundreds of thousands of Americans Still in the dark tonight in the great state of texas, suffering what has been a dayslong, slowrolling disaster caused by a big and very cold winter storm that has pounded most of the country, and it is bad in a whole bunch of places and in a whole bunch of states, but the situation in texas is just a catastrophe, not only because of the weather, but because of the mix of the weather and texas inability to prepare for it and inability to handle it. Against the cold temperatures, demand for electricity is way up, so people can heat their homes, but the Energy Supply in texas is simultaneously also way down, with texas nonwinterized, noninsulated, largely unregulated, very fragile Energy Infrastructure proving itself, once again, to be incapable of operating in the cold, incapable of generating anywhere near enough power to light up the state when demand is high. That has left millions of americans in texas without power for days. No power, of course, means no heat. That has created dangerous conditions for millions of people. As of tonight, dozens of people have died in texas. The electricity part of the problem is starting to resolve now, although still tonight the number of texans without power remains in the hundreds of thousands, some of them for four Straight Days now. Even those improvements, though, may not last, with very cold temperatures in the forecast. Texas regulators are warning they may again have to kill power in parts of the state, parts of the state that have power now may yet lose it as regulators turn off some neighborhoods, some places that have power again. Theyre anticipating having to do that to try to keep further strain off the unstable, unsupported grid in that state. Texas grid managers saying now that if that does happen, theyll try to limit new power disruptions this time to no more than 12 hours at a time. But on top of what everybodys already been through, knowing that places with the lights on right now may yet have the lights go off again is just its beyond words. But this catastrophe with the power in texas, it is not a problem that can get fixed with the flip of a switch. The knockon effects of depriving millions of people of power for days on end, those are baked in now. Its going to take a while to get out of those. It starts with the water. Tonight, more than 14 Million People are under whats called a boil water notice in the state of texas. In parts of texas, the facilities that treat the water, that clean peoples water, lost power. Because of that and some other stormrelated issues, that means that 14 Million People in texas dont have clean Drinking Water tonight. Thats basically half the state of texas. And not having clean Drinking Water is a very dangerous, very unsustainable problem. Being told to boil your water when you might not even have electricity to power any means of boiling the water is, of course, ridiculous. Its insult on top of injury. But it turns out, people in texas with dirty, undrinkable water coming out of their taps right now, in some ways, theyre the lucky ones. One austin resident telling the wall street journal tonight, quote, im like, great, youre telling us to boil water, but nobodys talking about the fact that i know one person who has water, and im driving to that persons house right now to get some. What water are we supposed to boil . People in texas have been bailing water out of swimming pools. If they can find pools that arent frozen, theyre using that water to fill up toilets. Theyve been melting snow on outdoor fire pits because the only water they have is the frozen stuff thats fallen on their lawns, the stuff that came out of the sky. I mean, this is houston, texas, americas fourth largest city. People waiting in line with buckets at a local park to fill them up because somebody found that there was still water coming out of that one spigot. The entire city of austin is under a boil water notice. Thousands of people have dry taps. Austin officials have told people in that city to be prepared to be without water potentially for days. One austin resident telling the local nbc affiliate that she stockpiled water last week just in case. Shed even filled up one of her bathtubs. But now she and her family are down to the end of that stockpiled supply. They have just a half case of bottled water left for the family. She said, quote, if we knew this was going to be one day or two days, that would be one thing, but not knowing, and the possibility of extending longer makes it pretty hard to deal with, because we do not know what to plan for. And beyond individual households in austin its not just households that use water the crisis also is now a huge problem for the citys hospitals. Last night, st. Davids hospital in austin had their water cut off. The hospital had to transfer dozens of patients to other hospitals last night. They discharged some other patients, just told them to go home. The ceo of the hospital says they need water to supply the boiler in that hospital. The boiler heats the hospital. So, losing water was the first of their problems. Losing water also meant they couldnt fire the boiler, which meant the hospital was also losing heat. Today the hospital brought in a water truck to feed the boiler and to feed the toilets, so they can flush. I mean, this is just a slowrolling, unmitigated disaster in texas right now. This was southwest houston today. People waiting in line for hours in the cold to get propane. This was a line outside a fastfood restaurant in austin. People dont just need propane, they dont just need water. They need food. Fastfood restaurants open. This is the kind of line youre getting. A line of cars stretching all the way down the block. Grocery stores have been mobbed with people. The shelves in many stores are bare. Some Grocery Stores were closed for days because they didnt have power. Freezing temperatures and rolling Power Outages have thrown a Monkey Wrench in the supply chain for everything. One austin resident telling the Texas Tribune about her recent trip to target. Quote, the store was out of meat and eggs and almost all milk before i left. Lines were wrapped around the store when we arrived. Shelves were almost fully cleared for potatoes, meat, eggs and some dairy. She said her neighbor went to that same store two days later. By then it was completely out of food. There was no sign that more shipments were on the. Was, no restocking shelves, nothing to restock them with. People living in one of the largest states in the country are living with no electricity, no heat, no water, scrounging for nonpotable water and for food. This has been going on for the better part of a week. It was not in the midst of that, it was not until yesterday that the republican governor of texas, greg abbott, held a public press conference to talk to the people of texas about whats been going on, what the state is trying to do to fix it. This is how the Texas Tribune summed up what Governor Abbott said at the press conference. Quote, abbott provides few details on when texans suffering will end as states crises mount. Today, erin bianco at the daily beast reporting that the federal government had sent texas 60 industrialsize generators to help alleviate the strain on the electrical grid, but she reported that as of this morning, those generators were, quote, sitting in a staging area in ft. Worth, waiting for delivery instructions. Same with 10,000 gallons of diesel fuel to fire those generators, sent to texas by the federal government. Quote, fema officials are waiting for instructions from texas officials as to where to send it. While they wait, the federal government has been trying to help. The Biden Administration has declared a state of emergency in texas and a state of emergency in oklahoma and louisiana now, too. Theyve also been hard hit by the storms. The president has authorized fema to provide hardhit states with generators and supplies. It says theyre ready to fulfill additional requests for assistance, in texas specifically. Besides those 60 generators that were reportedly sitting in a warehouse in ft. Worth, fema has already sent texas hundreds of thousands of liters of water, tens of thousands of blankets, hundreds of thousands of meals. This is a crisis that is absolutely still ongoing. Joining us now is bob fenton. He is the acting administrator of fema in the United States. Mr. Fenton, i really appreciate you taking time to help us understand whats going on right now. Thanks for taking the time to be here. Well, thank you for having me on, rachel. First, let me know if you need to set me straight, if ive said anything thats wrong here or thats out of date or if my reporting has misconstrued anything. Second of all, id like to hear in your words what the scale of the fema response is right now. Well, thank you. Whats happened is, a weather event started late last week that caused significant impacts to the roadways, and then this last weekend, it started with cold weather and another event that has continued to last. And having singledigit temperatures along the texas area in most of the state, including most of the Southern Plains and now moving up to the eastern seaboard. So, theres a number of States Affected in addition to texas, but texas one of the worst because its so far south. When you look at the building codes down there, its really not made for temperatures that are this low that happen that often. Last time this happened was over 50 years ago. So in addition to the cold temperatures thats causing significant impacts to individuals, its having collateral effects to the water systems, to the fuel systems, and what were doing now is responding to those to help texas out. The president , as you said, issued an Emergency Declaration this weekend that authorizes us to direct the federal government to support the state of texas, needs it may have. You talked about a lot of the resources we sent down there. We do have a very large warehouse in the texas area already, but were also sending stuff over from atlanta and energizing a lot of our contractors and working with a lot of different groups that would bring assistance to the area, to help those that are nr need. I know that the president s Emergency Declaration allows fema, which is you, to coordinate Disaster Relief for all 254 texas counties. When it comes to coordinating the relief, is it most is fema focused mostly on direct aid to people who most need it, the things that i just described, water, blankets, food, that sort of thing . Or is your coordination of relief also about working with texas power generating facilities and Water Treatment plants and other systems operators to get the systems back up and running . Well, were there to support the state of texas. Theyve set the priorities where they want us to focus our resources and where we can provide assistance. So, in this case right now, were providing resources directly to individuals through shelters, warming stations, whether that be water, meals, blankets, cots, those kinds of things. In addition to that, you talked a little bit earlier about the generators were providing. Some of those are to pump stations or other Critical Infrastructure to get those up and operational, and were bringing fuel in and other things. In addition to that, we provide funding to texas to help them bring in resources to this. So, we could help in all aspects, from individuals to Government Entities to assist the state in helping private sector, if they need help to get their equipment and running or resources needed to be brought in that arent there right now. Administrator feon, im going to ask you to just sort of tell me bluntly, just in humantohuman terms, is the response working right now . Im worried when i see reporting like we saw from that report at the daily beast today, that fema has succeeded in getting generators into texas, but they were sitting in a staging area this morning, while were seeing the human suffering in texas because people dont have access to power, they dont have access to all the things that are made possible, including heat, by access to power. Is this i understand the scale of what youre describing as the effort here, but is it working, or are there problems here . Well, this is a significant event. Singledigit temperatures, to hit an area in the United States thats not used to seeing that temperature over a prolonged period of time is an impact to many that are not ready for this type of event. So, its impacted a number of people across almost every county in texas impacted by this event, which is 20plus some Million People. Plus, other states are impacted by this. And whats happened is theres been secondary events. So, not only the cold, but you know, texas has tried to respond to that by putting up heating stations, by opening shelters, by working to assist improving communications and those kinds of things, but then you start to have the secondary events of water line breakages, whether its in homes or inline breakages, which is now a collateral effect were dealing with. And you talked about the boil water notices and the need to provide water there, which is almost like a second event thats happened now. And its still cold and this is going to happen through the weekend. So, we are working together with texas and local governments there to provide the resources they need. You know, individuals need to continue to heed the warnings of local government officials, you know. Dont expose yourself to the cold for long periods. Check on friends and family and make sure that they get the warming stations they need to. Make sure we dont lose any more lives here. And we need to make sure that we start reenergizing the Critical Infrastructure, the water, the power, because thats going to eventually make things better. As we do that, theres going to be significant damage from this event from those pipelines that were going to have to deal with for weeks ahead and make sure that were providing essential water and other commodities to help those that need it most. Well, i hear you on the scale of the response and whats needed, in terms of the people of texas needing immediate relief after four days shivering in the cold. I hope the scale of the response can quickly start to reach the scale of the need. Robert fenton, acting fema administrator, thanks for helping us understand tonight and godspeed to you and your colleagues. Thank you, rachel. Prayers are out for everyone in texas and well be there to help them through this. All right. Lets now go to texas, to Harris County. Harris countys the largest county in texas, the Third Largest county in the United States. Harris county includes the great city of houston. And they did have some good news today. The county, Harris County, went from having 1. 4 Million People without power yesterday to having 20,000 people without power today, a largescale restoration of power in Harris County. And having the majority of power restored for the county is a good step, but the countys top elected official is warning tonight, quote, the lights are on for now in most of Harris County, but were not out of the dark. She says, most of us are still under boil water notices. We are facing another freeze tonight, meaning thursday night, and we are dealing with shortages and price gouging. Take steps to keep your family safe. Joining us now is Harris County judge lina hidalgo, who is the Top Executive in charge of a county of over 4. 5 Million People. Im told judge hidalgo just got off the phone with the governor of texas. Judge, thank you for taking time to be here tonight. I know youre in the middle of it. I appreciate this time. Thank you. I just spoke with the fema administrator live, just moments ago. He talked mostly about the scale of the challenge, expressing confidence that fema can scale up to support texas as a federal partner, basically, in this response. I still feel like the need that we are seeing in Harris County and across texas is far outstripping the scale of the response, in terms of government efforts, federally, statewide, locally. It just seems like its an overwhelming crisis. How are you feeling tonight and what are you hearing from the governor . It absolutely is and has been an overwhelming crisis. I just actually recently got updated numbers on the hypothermia deaths, just the tip of the iceberg, but seven very sad stories just here in the county, as the fog of war settles a little bit and we get details. Weve seen cascading impacts, you know, water, Carbon Monoxide poisoning, pipes bursting, roofs caving in, hospitals with low water pressure, all kinds of issues. And so, you know, we take care of ourselves as best we can locally. Weve got committed and creative Emergency Response professionals, but part of my discussion with the governor is how we can together advocate for an emergency disaster declaration from the federal government, and thats a discussion i had today with the white house as well as fema, is this is far beyond the ability of local governments, for example, to adequately recover from. Houston is one of the places where, as you mentioned, hospitals have been hit. I read reports today about pipes bursting in multiple houston hospitals as they struggle without heat, without water. Obviously, the idea of having no water pressure, no ability to flush toilets or run water to clean anything in a hospital is a nightmare scenario. What can you tell us about that status in Harris County and the circumstances of your hospitals right now . So, we lost power on very early monday morning, about 1 00 in the morning, and that meant that many of the generators that keep that water pressure going were down. That then allows bacteria to seep into the water, causing boil water notices. Right now, as of about an hour ago that i got my briefing, we have 222 cities and municipal utility districts within Harris County that are under boil water notices. Thats about 3. 3 Million People who cannot drink their water. As the roads become less impassable, at least they can go out and try to purchase it, but again, we have a lot of Grocery Stores that are not operating. Many folks, of course, have missed a whole weeks work, even amidst a pandemic, and theyre facing all of these same cascading effects. Right now the main concern is the water situation. In terms of Harris Countys power supply, obviously, we did see big progress with the electricity coming back, but you were among the most prominent voices in the state warning that even in a big, wellresourced county like Harris County, that is not getting the county out of the dark, that there may be additional power cuts, that the longterm turnaround in this water crisis that youre describing may take quite a bit of time, even as the power is back on. For people who have friends and loved ones in Harris County right now, in and around houston, in that part of texas, what should they expect in terms of ongoing hardship these next few days . Its going to be another hard freeze tonight. We have to acknowledge the good news and being down to 22,000 homes without power is great. But i also am not in the business of raising false hope. And the challenge was that the state agency, this ercot, did not have enough Power Generation to sustain the crisis. Their power plants came offline with the cold. Were about to see cold, that extreme level of cold again. And so, they may buckle again under that weather. Were about to see high demand again. They may buckle under that high demand. That is not an expectation that we have, but i at least want to leave that possibility open that there may be some hiccups as these folks that very much failed for several nights get everything together, and i dont want folks to be, you know, extremely alarmed if there are some smaller outages as we get out of this. Now, the broader impacts we are helping to address as best we can. Were working with our community partners. Its all hands on deck. So, i do think that things are definitely looking up. Theyre definitely looking up. I know folks have been concerned. It has been a catastrophic, just tragic few nights and days for the community, and we just need to recognize that, like with any disaster, recovery takes a while. Its not perfectly smooth, and theres going to be some setbacks on the way to that progress. Harris county judge lina hidalgo, top elected official in charge of the largest county in texas. God bless you and your colleagues. I know that it has been a bunch of sleepless nights and will continue to be as you address this crisis. Stay in touch and let us know what we can do in terms of getting the word out to a National Audience and good luck. Thank you. All right. Ill tell you, my colleague, lawrence odonnell, is going to have much, much more on the situation in texas in the next hour, including and over the course of the night tonight here at msnbc. Were staying on this. One of the things that is very worrying in texas, even as in some places we are seeing the power come back on, is the, i think, the sort of crushing emotional blow its going to be in some places when, after the power finally comes back on in a lot of places today and tonight, it may yet go down again with this fragile grid in texas and more very cold weather coming in overnight tonight. That is going to be difficult, but these water, the access to clean water issue is going to take a long time to dig out of and is very, very dangerous. Keep texas in your prayers tonight. All right, much more to come tonight. Stay with us. T, much more to coe tonight. Stay with us his name was Carmine Galante, but his mob nickname was the cigar. He was apparently almost never seen without a cigar clamped between his teeth, so that was kind of his mafia handle, carmine the cigar galante. And in the 1970s, galante rose through the ranks, kind of killed his way through the ranks, to become at one point the de facto chief of the bonano crime family. Galante was implicated in multiple murders and in Drug Trafficking on an enormous scale, and one of his drugrelated trials, they had a hard time keeping a jury on the case after individual jurors kept getting phone calls threatening their lives. The jury foreman, somehow, ended up falling down a long flight of stairs and breaking his back. On top of all the other crimes in which he was implicated and for which he was convicted, perhaps the best window into Carmine Galantes approach to his upward mobility in the mob is the fact that upon being released from federal prison after a 12year stint that ended in the early 70s, one of Carmine Galantes first acts when he got out of prison after 12 years was that he blew up a mausoleum containing the remains of one of his mob rivals, a guy who had died the Previous Year while carmine was still locked up. See, carmine was in prison, so he never got a real chance to whack the guy while he was alive, so once carmine got out of prison, he whacked the guy, anyway, at the cemetery where he already lay dead. He blew up his mausoleum. Better late than never. That was 1974, i think . Five years later, in 1979, carmine the cigar galante, was eating on the back patio at a place called joe and marys Italian American restaurant in bushwick, brooklyn. He was eating a meal with two other guys from the bonano crime family, and on that hot day in july, in bushwick, brooklyn, at that nice restaurant, enter guys in ski masks carrying multiple guns. And Carmine Galante and the other bonano crime family guys who were eating with him, all three are killed in a massive hail of gunfire at this restaurant in brooklyn. Carmine galante was photographed dead at the scene of the crime with a cigar still clamped between his teeth. The man ultimately prosecuted for his murder i kid you not his name was wakwak. His name was bruno indelicato, which means he did not even need a nickname. His mom probably named him that specifically to make it too superfluous to make it specific naming that young man. But in the mob in the 1970s, they didnt care. Bruno indelicato was called whackwhack, and he was charged and convicted of Carmine Galantes murder and the murder of the other two bonanno crime family guys who were at that table with him that day at that restaurant. Each of those three murders was treated as a constituent element of bruno indelicatos ultimate conviction on racketeering charges. What is racketeering, right . It means, basically, not just crime, but crime as part of an organized enterprise. Thats why they use it against the mob so much, right . Considerably tougher penalties for crimes that get prosecuted under that racketeering umbrella. Heres the thing, though, mr. Whackwhack, bruno indelicato, had a really good lawyer at the time who eventually argued in his case, as it made its way through the court system, that although this looked at the surface like an incredibly blackandwhite case i mean, literally, this is whackwhack puts on a ski mask and shoots the cigar at an Italian Restaurant in bushwick, right . Like, it doesnt sort of get more blackandwhite than that in terms of mob hits. But his lawyer was good enough to complicate the circumstances considered by the law to a considerable and lasting extent. His lawyer used that crazy case to force an entire 12judge panel of the federal Appeals Court in new york, the second circuit, to reckon for the first time in that case, in brunos case, with the real specific Legal Definition of racketeering. Racketeering had been used in the law for quite some time, but it was that case that led to the first legally tested, specific, rigorous definition of racketeering under u. S. Federal law. That lawyer for bruno indelicato, mr. Whackwhack, the lawyer for him, who turned that gangland blood bath case into a legal landmark that Still Matters today, that changed forever the way racketeering is used in u. S. Federal law, hes still around. That lawyer, as a prosecutor and then as a defense attorney, litigated dozens of organized crime cases, including some of the highest profile cases in the worst of the mafia wars in new york city. As a prosecutor, he ran both the appellate unit and the criminal unit at sdny in two different stints in that storied u. S. Attorneys office. He ran both of those divisions at sdny. With all of that experience as a prosecutor, he is now one of the highest profile, bigdeal, whitecollar defense lawyers at one of the fanciest law firms in new york, a firm called paul weiss. And that lawyer just got a new job. The New York Times reporting tonight that earlier this month, he was sworn in as a special assistant d. A. , which seems like an unlikely title for a guy with that kind of pedigree and that kind of history, but thats what he is now. Hes sworn in as a special assistant d. A. At the state Prosecutors Office in manhattan. He has taken leave from his very fancy private firm, and instead, taken a temporary gig to assist prosecutors in that office. He has upended his whole life in private practice, put Everything Else on hold. Hes been sworn in with this special status. Also, he can work with state prosecutors in new york on precisely one case. And that one case is the investigation under way in that office of the trump organization. This is the ongoing criminal investigation of former President Trump and his business. It reportedly includes allegations of tax fraud, bank fraud, insurance fraud. It started with an investigation related to the hush Money Campaign finance felonies for which Michael Cohen went to prison and which led prosecutors to describe President Trump as individual one, an unindicted coconspirator. That investigation by state prosecutors has since reportedly expanded to include wider allegations about, basically, the president and his Company Allegedly keeping two sets of books for various trump properties, including trump tower, so they could, according to investigators, potentially defraud tax authorities and defraud banks and defraud Insurance Companies by using two different sets of books with two different sets of valuations for all of the trump major properties. The times reporting tonight that the case has recently generated more than a dozen new subpoenas. This is also the case that produced subpoenas to Financial Firms for personal and Business Records and tax records related to the former president. Lower courts have ruled that those subpoenas are valid and should be enforced and these state prosecutors should get access to those documents. Both cnn and the New York Times are reporting in depth tonight on the mystery surrounding whats happening with those subpoenas and whats happening with that case in the United States Supreme Court right now. This new york state investigation of President Trump is one of two live criminal investigations that hes facing that we know about. One of them is the criminal investigation that has just been opened into his conduct in georgia, in terms of him pressuring Georgia State officials to basically corrupt the election outcome in that state. The other is this new york investigation into potential financial crimes tax fraud, bank fraud, insurance fraud. Well, those new york prosecutors need the president s financial records in order to press this case, and they say they need his tax records in order to press this case. They have issued subpoenas for those records. Lower courts have said they should get them. But since october, theyve been waiting on the Supreme Court, the United States Supreme Court, to find out if theyre getting those records that have been subpoenaed. Lower courts say they should. The Supreme Court is just sitting on it. The Supreme Court somewhat inexplicably sitting on this request to deal with that matter for four months now. It is an unusual and as yet unexplained delay from the Supreme Court that is having material consequences for what seems like a very live, very active, and newly ambitious investigation, a criminal investigation of the former president in new york. Even as that new york Prosecutors Officene serious, to assemble that case against mr. Trump, the Supreme Court is sitting on the documents that they need for their investigation. Meanwhile, the wheels of justice do keep turning. This, for example, is a peek at the fbis main twitter feed, even just tonight. The fbi, multiple times per day now, is churning out new, basically digital wanted posters for people captured on tape taking part in the violent sacking of the capitol by the protrump mob that mounted that assault on the u. S. Government on january 6th. They put out new pictures, basically new wanted pictures, every single day. And the president s culpability for that grotesque crime remains at center stage, particularly as more and more of his followers get arrested and charged every day, so many of them telling the court after theyve been charged that the reason they were there is because they thought the president was telling them to be there. Right . He stays at center stage as long as people are getting arrested, as long as the fbi keeps asking the public for more and more help finding these trump rioters so they can get arrested. As the daily beast reports today that President Trump is telling people around him at maralago now that hes worried hes going to be investigated and sued for the rest of his life. We reported earlier this week on the first civil lawsuit brought against the president for the january 6th attack, a suit brought by congressman bennie thompson, chairman of the Homeland Security committee. I say it is the first civil lawsuit brought against the president for the events of january 6th. I can tell you right now, it will not be the last. Joining us next, im here to say, for the interview tonight is the veryhighprofile, very accomplished outside counsel who was brought in to help coordinate the impeachment trial of the president for the january 6th attack. His name is barry berke, and he joins us for his First Television interview since this all went down. Im really looking forward to talking to him. Thats next. Looking forward to talking to him thats next. 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When you switch to xfinity mobile, youre choosing to get connected to the most Reliable Network nationwide, now with 5g included. Discover how to save up to 300 a year with shared data starting at 15 a month, or get the lowest price for one line of unlimited. Come into your local xfinity store to make the most of your mobile experience. You can shop the latest phones, bring your own device, or trade in for extra savings. Stop in or book an appointment to shop safely with peace of mind at your local xfinity store. At the conclusion of President Trumps second impeachment trial, the house impeachment managers took a team photo. Lead manager jamie raskin is there on the far right side, along with the rest of the team. You recognize ted lieu, cicilline, madeleine dean, congressman castro, delegate plaskett, congressman swalwell, congressman neguse in the back. We know all their names and their faces. But take a look at the very tall guy in the back. That is another member of the team who is not a member of congress. That is barry berke, chief impeachment counsel to the house managers. He helped craft those gutpunch legal arguments that you heard them all make. He, you might remember, played a similar role during Donald Trumps first impeachment trial with the house judiciary committee. Joining us now for the interview is barry berke. This is his First Television interview since the trial resolved. Mr. Berke, thank you so much for the time. Its a pleasure to have you here tonight. Rachel, its a pleasure to be here. Thank you. I want to give you a chance to sort of set the record straight and help us understand from your perspective the import of the trial. Obviously, the president was acquitted. There were 57 votes to convict him. They needed ten more than that to get a conviction. But all these republican senators who voted to acquit him basically explained that they voted to acquit on a technicality, that they didnt believe they had jurisdiction to vote to convict him. Thats, i think, the american takeaway of this, he got let off on a technicality, but he did it. Is that how you saw it from inside the process . I saw it very differently, rachel. I understand why you say it that way, but remember, the issue of jurisdiction had been resolved. So, for the jurors to say they were relying on jurisdiction was for them to violate their oath. I was in that Senate Chamber every single day, and our goal was to try a case like we were prosecuting a violent crime, and i felt with our extraordinary house managers, our incredible lead manager, jamie raskin, we proved that case. We proved with overwhelming evidence that former President Trump enflamed his base over time by telling the lie that the election was stolen and rigged. He incited them by telling them to stop the steal, which is something he said they made up. He made it up. He then encouraged violence leading up to the day of january 6th, so he knew when he used those words of violence he would be setting them on a violent path, which they did. And when they started to attack the capitol, our elected officials, the brave officers, he further incited them by repeating the lie, further attacking his Vice President , who was subject of this and he did it repeatedly. I looked at those jurors, all 100 of them, and i saw that they were fixated on the evidence. And i believe in my heart that if those jurors had the courage to be true to their oath and voted their conscience, we would have convicted by a large margin. The issue of the president s culpability is still banging around like a live wire right now. Theres going to be it looks like theres going to be a 9 11style truthfinding commission in congress to try to get to the very the Core Foundation of the factual evidence here. Theres also the question, as you just described it you said you prosecuted this essentially as a violent crime. There is still a live question as to whether or not theres enough evidence to look at this as a potential criminal act by the president that should be handled in a court of criminal law. That was raised, in fact, by the Senate Minority leader, mitch mcconnell. How do you feel about that . I feel there is certainly evidence that should be the basis for an investigation of the president s conduct. He had knowledge throughout. And you know, most crimes at the heart have lies. When you talk about the new york investigation bank fraud, insurance fraud, tax fraud those are all lies. We saw in this trial that the president was prepared to lie in order to interrupt our democracy, to try to prevent the peaceful transfer of power. He was prepared to lie in order to further incite an insurrection. So, i think all that conduct would be fair game. And ill say this, rachel, i do think that in our country we generally give the benefit of a doubt to a former president , that maybe if they engaged in wrongdoing, we should not prosecute them after they leave office. I think given the president s extraordinary conduct, his unconscionable behavior in causing over 140 Police Officers to be injured, people killed, our elected officials en masse so close to being in harms way, that he has lost that benefit of the doubt. So, i think you will see the Commission Look more deeply at some of the evidence that we gathered but did not present at trial because we didnt need to. I think you will see the criminal investigations go on and look into his conduct on january 6th. And i think the other criminal investigations related to his seeking to intimidate and threaten Georgia Election officials to find votes that didnt exist, the lies that would be the basis for a crime for anyone else if they did it in connection with bank loans or other financial transactions. I do think that this trial opens that whole pandoras box for President Trump, because he engaged in conduct where he misused his power in such a forceful way, and the harm was so great. And i walked the halls of the capitol every day to the senate floor and i pass the victims of his attack, people who suffered, people who are still suffering. There are folks who committed suicide because they were so traumatized by trying to defend the capitol. This is all because of one man. So, i feel that i was part of something that was a great success. Im very proud to have worked with our house managers and lead manager to prove beyond any doubt that President Trump instigated this insurrection, he did it for his own personal benefit to try to prevent the peaceful transfer of power, and he did it, despite the great harm he was causing and with knowledge he was causing it. So, i think this changes everything. So, while we did not have all the senators who voted i think the way that they knew they should have voted, i still think that this will have a huge effect on the future of donald trump and the future of the republican party, and again, i was humbled to have been part of it. This idea of the impeachment trial and the evidence that you collected, including, as you said, some that you did not present, being a sort of pandoras box for the future of this president i think cannot be overstated. Barry berke, chief impeachment counsel to the house managers during President Trumps impeachment trial. Barry, thank you for your service and thank you for helping us understand it tonight. Its nice to see you. Thank you. Thank you so much, rachel. Nice to see you. All right. Much more ahead. Stay with us. Much more ahead. Stay with us to make this work, nasa scientists had to send the perseverance, a Martian Rover basically the size of a mazda miyata, they had to send it 300 million miles through space. That was the easy part. A spacecraft carrying the rover was going about 12,000 miles an hour when it got to the martian atmosphere. Then, in the span of just a few minutes, perfectly timed, it had to slow down from 12,000 miles an hour to a snails pace so it wouldnt bullet into the surface of mars and explode on impact. It worked. It made that descent, all while enduring temperatures of more than 2,300 degrees fahrenheit, the equivalent of traveling through moulton lava, right . Then it had to stick the landing, which is no small thing when youre trying to park this thing from 300 million miles away in an ancient lake bed littered with cliffs and craters and sand dunes and all sorts of other things that could trip it up. Nasa scientists figured out how to make all of this happen. They freaking did it. Touchdown confirmed. Perseverance safely on the surface of mars, ready to begin seeking the sand of past life. [ cheers and applause ] now that perseverance has landed safely in its new home, its going to srch for evidence of ancient life on mars. Its going to collect samples that will eventually be returned to earth by the 2030s. Start getting ready now. The perseverance is also equipped with instruments that will attempt to convert martian Carbon Dioxide into oxygen, which could be a gamechanger in terms of future human exploration of mars. Little helicopter tucked under its belly. If all goes as planned, that little chopper will take part in the first powered flight on another planet. We can send a rover to a planet 300 million miles away and land it like a feather. We can create oxygen over there. We can fly mini helicopters in the martian sky that work for us and send us things. And we cant provide water and power to people in texas when its cold. Its absolutely flabbergasting day in the news today. Y flabberg day in the news today. Thats going to do it for us tonight. Tomorrow, something to watch for. Tomorrow, the United States of america will officially rejoin the paris climate accord. Back to the land of the living. Well see you again tomorrow. Way too early with kasie hunt is up next. Texans deserve answers about why these shortfalls occurred and how theyre going to be corrected, and texans will get those answers. The governor of texas promising answers after massive problems stemming from winter storms. Some of the power is back on in the state, but now millions are facing a water crisis. The question is, how long will it take to get power and water fully restored . Plus, texas senator ted cruz facing a firestorm of criticism after boarding a flight to cancun while millions suffered through the cold
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