reza aslan joins me to talk about what happens next. good evening and welcome to the show. war crimes that s what russia seems to be carrying out in its war against ukraine. earlier today russian forces bombarded the city of zaporizhzhia, killing 17 people and wounding dozens of others. the shelling was concentrating on number apartment complexes in one of zaporizhzhia s most densely populated residential areas. marking a clear instance of vladimir putin s invading army roth laws of war. upstanding doubly, the strikes serve as a particularly dastardly reprisal for ukrainian military games on the battlefield against russia in recent weeks. the most noteworthy of which occurred yesterday, when ukrainians destroyed a massive brae ridge linking rachel what the kremlin peninsula. a critical surprise route for the kremlin s forces. as you might imagine, a thin skin putin is not taking this well. on the contrary, he s renewed his nuclear saber rattling. unnerving western a
Play loop. that s why we re so excited that you came on the show to talk ukraine, gop, and star wars. we re sadly at a time. but i appreciate you joining me, mark hamill. a bank you so much for having, me mehdi. i had to say it, forgive me for that, coming up what happens when republicans mainstream, what happens when public ovens mainstream threats, violence, and all out civil war. and important discussion after the bag. jungle way, we re just getting started. jungle way, we re just getting started. (vo the new iphone 14 pro is here. and right now business owners can get it on us at t-mobile. apple business essentials with apple care+ is included so you can easily manage your team s devices, here, and here. all on the network with more 5g coverage. it s the ultimate business trifecta, with the new iphone 14 pro on us. only from t-mobile for business.
Reporter at vice news, where she has been covering right wing extremism. elaine let me start with you, give me a sense of the atmosphere at trump s crazy rally. did it feel any different from the previous crazy rallies? yeah, thank you for having me mehdi. so it was standard in a few ways. there were red hats. there was chanting, there was pointing and booing at the press where we were sitting. but it was different in a key way. which is that i think it felt, at least to me, a lot more sinister. i talked to so many people there. and every person that i spoke with said that they did not think joe biden was the rightful president. that trump actually won and the democrats had stolen the election. and a few people went beyond that to say, they truly and deeply believe that the 2020 election will be decertified in the next couple of years and trump will be reinstated as president. and i know that we know this is true.
You read stories like this all the time. about people who believe this. but to be in a crowd surrounded by thousands, upon thousands of them, telling you the same thing, the same lies. it is really something else. and it really does not bode well. i think it felt very sinister. sinister indeed. tess, you have been reporting on the oath keepers organization. which is a very sinister organization. how big and widespread is this group? how surprising is it to see a trump endorsed oath keepers candidate for elected office? thanks for having me mehdi. in terms of membership numbers, that is difficult to say. because i almost take membership numbers quoted by the leaders with a grain of salt. they tend to inflate them to make themselves look more powerful. one key thing is, as elaine pointed out, from the arizona rally, the way to achieve legitimacy in the gop these days. is to rally behind trump s election lies. and many people rallying behind trump s election lies are