the scandal surrounding congressman matt gaetz offer very rare and surprising aspects today. gaetz, as you heard coop say, wrote an opinion piece denying he s paid for sex, denying he s slept with a minor as an adult himself, and vowing to stay in office. while he was busy invoking drain the swamp language and playing the victim of the media, including me, what was very surprising is what he barely mentioned the extortion plot against him. he said that was what this situation is really all about. tonight, you may learn why he s gone quiet about the extortion case. in a tv exclusive, we have the man accused by congressman gaetz of extortion. that man s name is bob kent. and he tells a very different story about his dealings with the gaetz family and about how serious the allegations are against the representative. that s coming up. and you will want to hear what he says. first, we already heard and saw something shocking today. it happened in the george floyd murder trial. t
drugs in his dealings with young women. also they have looked at whether any federal campaign money was involved in paying for travel and expenses. this comes on the same day gaetz added a new attorney to his case who has sig isn t experience in white collar cases. news continues. i ll hand it over to chris for cuomo prime time. good to see you. hope you had a good easter. we have a key player in the gaetz situation tonight so people are going to want to see that. i m chris cuomo. welcome to primetime. whether you celebrated easter or not, may this season of renewal and rebirth fuel this season for all of us. i was supposed to be off, but we were able to bring you something and it was critical to a big story, in fact, both big stories in the news tonight, there george floyd murder trial and the scandal surrounding congressman matt gaetz offer very rare and surprising aspects today. gaetz, as you heard coop say, wrote an opinion piece denying he s paid for sex, denying h
exclusively as he can afford to, about how to protect the franchise, because it is apparent to me and many in the civil rights community that he will have to, since senate democrats cannot get their act together. meanwhile, the entire republican party only has variations on one goal, set the table for donald trump or one of his prototypes in 2024, while retaking the u.s. house and senate in this november s midterm elections, and brand new numbers from nbc news contend that democratic voters may not have the enthusiasm to stop them. 72% of americans say the country is headed in the wrong direction, according to the poll, and that s just one percentage point higher than three months ago. 76% of americans say our democracy is in existential peril. i reiterate my charge, in solidarity with the civil rights community, calling on president biden to issue what executive orders he can to protect and, frankly, enhance our voting rights. my next guest, a civil rights champion, now a co
clear and present effort to subvert the constitution, itself. you guys, this is unprecedented in every single way. now, meanwhile, on capitol hill this week, the senate passed a measure that raises the debt ceiling to early december. now by doing the, they have set off a global financial disaster that could have crippled things like social security and medicaid, federal and military salaries and food stamps and all this could have happened for absolutely no reason. so, now that the country has been kicked down the road. let s talk about what s in your wallet? the president hit the road negotiating what s in that reconciliation bill you guys keep hearing about. he is negotiating with his own party. there is a lot in this legislation that is going to directly impact up. but if an effort to lower the price tag, democrats are in the midst of adjusting the cost. but as congresswoman camilla jayapal points out to cbs news. you can t pit child care against pr-k. we can t put pre
[applause] coming up, texas governor greg abbott on sending a tenth bus filled with the migrants right to joe biden s doorstep in washington d.c. also the king of disinformation, lectures us on disinformation and censorship. the first amendment is a check on the power of the state. it does not apply to private companies like facebook or twitter. it is not necessary for people to believe this information in order to weaken democratic institutions. you just have to flood a countries public square with enough raw sewage. maria: he should know after he and hillary clinton allegedly failed to government agencies and that mediate with the big lie of trap collusion. coming up former director of national intelligence john ratcliffe on durham s findings and biden s a dangerous iran deal. then, the poorest of them all, joe biden doubles down on the influence peddling cover-up. great pleasure being enlisted as a poorest man in congress for 36 years. i still have made more than an