The Closing Observe With Lawrence O’Donnell – March 1 | Audio Entirely

Now it's time for the last word with Ali veli in for Lawrence good evening Ally uh I I appreciate everything it was a fantastic show highly distracting for me trying to prepare for this show but the points you just made about Alexa naali and Russia would be important just in another country but to imagine that in a country that does not enjoy democracy.

These protesters came out or whatever funeral attendees if you want to call them came out and risked their Safety and Security to protest for democracy is remarkable lesson for us here in America about what's going on it is a really we felt it was a really important note to end the week on cuz I know it's been a tough week for people and it sometimes.

Feel like the system isn't working but it's really important to keep that that struggle in mind thank you for doing that we're going to pick up exactly where you left off have a great weekend we'll see you next week have a good show Russia without Putin that was also one of the chants shouted by the thousands of people who turned out today for the.

Funeral of the opposition leader and the Putin Nemesis Alexa naly thousands of people who knew that they were risking their freedom possibly their lives to say that alexe navali who was harassed poisoned imprisoned and ultimately killed is proof of what happens to those who defy Vladimir Putin in Russia naval's wi Widow ulia and their two.

Children did not attend the funeral because of fears of their own safety Russian police patrolled the funeral they stopped mourners from entering the church unable to view as you just saw the open casket we Val's body was covered with red and white roses the New York Times reports data showed that cell phone service in the area had been.

Reduced to the lower band with 3G standard and described it as a mobile shutdown that's what it means to live in Russia with Putin despite this a quarter of a million people streamed naval's funeral and that is Putin's worst nightmare Vladimir Putin is running for reelection right now the election is in two weeks even in death Alexa naali who.

Dared run against Putin in the last presidential election in 2018 was able to speak through his supporters today defiantly objecting to Putin's Rule and today Vladimir Putin who is essentially running unopposed this year made a martyr out of his enemy today Alexa naval's protest against him was louder and it was multiplied in the voices that.

Shouted we won't forget and Russia will be free at his funeral today back here it's a reminder to not take our own democracy for granted especially in an election year when the presumptive Republican nominee Don Donald Trump is a Putin Fanboy Trump loves Putin's impunity which he perver perversely calls strength he promotes a.

Similar authoritarian Vision here in America undermining Law and Order and dehumanizing people threatening judges and prosecutors just last night on Fox Trump said presidents in America need full immunity in order to take quote severe actions you're trying to do something good for the country even if it's severe.

The severe may be a great thing for the country they have to have presidential immunity severe like what mass deportations shooting protesters jinning up mobs of to execute vice presidents and Generals who try to stop him that is how people live in dictatorships in Russia with Putin where the general.

Who defies him goes down in a plane crash and the candidate who uh runs against him dies of sudden death syndrome in a remote siberian prison this is who Donald Trump sees as a hero according to the former Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull I mean I've been with Trump and Putin uh Trump is in awe of Putin he's.

Uh when you see Trump with Putin as I have on a few occasions he's like the 12-year-old boy that goes to high school and meets the captain of the football team my hero it is really creepy Donald Trump wants to help Putin end NATO Donald Trump wants to help Putin defeat democracy in Ukraine and most republicans in Congress who live in.

A free country who have so much less to fear than every ordinary person who showed up at naal funeral today continue to help Donald Trump's dark vision of a world more like that of Vladimir Putin leading off our discussion tonight is the retired lieutenant colonel Alexander vinman he served as director of European Affairs at the National Security Council.

During the Trump Administration and MSNBC International Affairs analyst Michael McFall who served as US ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014 gentlemen thank you for joining me for this important uh leadoff discussion tonight colonel vinman you are one of those people who who you came from a part of the world that was not enjoying.

Democracy and you saw something as a as a person who worked in in in the administration you saw something that felt dishonest and you stood up you had something to lose and you did lose something you lost your career um for doing it but that was what you when you said we can't have this lawlessness that goes on in the other parts of the world.

In America well I think you know in a lot of ways we're seeing both Trump telegraphed the kind of world he wants to live in and then we don't have to use our imagination too hard because we could see that world manifest in front of us because he he Trump tells us he wants to emulate Vladimir Putin and in.

That we see what life could be like we see a world in which um Trump would like to eliminate his opposition he'd like to imprison them poison them potentially murder them Mass deportation we saw that play out in regards to Russia and what I fear and what I frankly desperately hope doesn't happen is that we don't have to have our population come out in the in.

Thousands or tens of thousands to protest against uh barbarism in the United States uh it's it's striking that over the course of two years of war Putin has done everything he could to suppress that population to oppress that population and think he's cowed them and clearly that's not the case people were out on the street chanting.

Against the war chanting for um for Alexa Nal and for a different vision of Russia and again I do do not wish to see anything like that happen in the United States and that's why you hear me and you hear Ambassador McFall who I had the privilege of of serving with in Moscow uh are so focused on making sure that war over there doesn't come home to the.

United States that our troops aren't getting don't get pulled in and that we protect democracy at home Ambassador let's talk about this idea that we are two weeks away from an election in which there has never been any doubt that Vladimir Putin will be the Victor why does this stuff still happen why are those people prepared to go out there.

They know who the next president of Russia is going to be they know from as Colonel vinman said they know from the outbreak of the Ukraine war and other uh demonstrations in favor of naali or supporting his efforts they know you can go to jail for this in Russia and yet they come yet they come knowing that they may face arrest or harassment or.

Worse well I have deep admiration for all the people that did come on this horrific day for all of Russia uh for the novaly family for me personally I knew I know the novali family I knew alexe personally for many years he was a tremendously talented leader he was the Mandela uh he was the haval he was the.

Valena uh of his country with one horrible tragic difference he was killed in prison he was not released and to answer your question uh I would say uh just remember what navali said in the movie at the end of it if they have to kill me and if I'm dead that means we're stronger than than you know we are than you that we're stronger than you think.

We are uh something to that effect and I think what you saw today because you're absolutely right every single one of those people are being photographed they can go to jail for years for what they were chanting I have friends in jail in Russia right now who have gone to jail for years for chanting what they said but they are defying him and for.

Everyone that was there there are many many more sitting in their kitchens that are afraid but have exactly the same preferences and I think we have to remember that not all Russians think like Putin not all Russians support Putin uh uh Vladimir karura told me uh Colonel vinman he told me years ago he said when when talking about these.

Stories don't say Russians talk about Putin talk about the Russian Administration don't paint all Russians with the same brush and the same thing can be said for America right now for a lot of people around the world who are looking at us saying what are you people doing it's not all of us people there are people in America who protest every.

Day there are people who protest the injustices who are who fight it by running for office who fight it by being in office um so this is this is not a fight we have lost in America yet we have the vote our vote actually does matter and we can make changes but it takes acts of courage to do this I think that's true I think frankly we we might.

Have only one more vote left that really matters Ms if uh if Trump comes to office he's already declared that he intends to be a dictator uh the president and the chief executive is invested with in Broad powers and uh it's not easy to undo American democracy that's been around for nearly 250 years but a lot of damage has been done and.

And president Trump has every intention to do that so we have one more vote we need to make sure our population shows up so like this we don't have to face th those challenges in the oppression that you know the the Russians are facing I think the fact is that between now and then it's going to be a particularly different difficult period there are.

Steps that need to be taken to make sure that the war in between Russia and Ukraine doesn't spill over doesn't magnify that the highest risk of that happening frankly is if Ukraine doesn't get support the Republican Party must show up in uh in an effort to support and Advance US National Security and pass a Ukraine Aid package a same Aid.

Package that would support Taiwan and Israel but it's critically important that Ukraine gets Aid otherwise there's a very very big risk that that the war can spill over president mcon of France alluded to something of this nature worst case scenario in the absence of the of the US in which Europe has no.

Choice but to face off against Russia in Ukraine so like this they don't have to face up against Russia on their own territory so this is an important point you bring up because one would say president mcon uh Ambassador is the president of France a NATO country why would Russia go into a NATO country I want to remind our viewers of what.

Donald Trump said uh on February 10th in South Carolina uh about uh a a nameless NATO leader who said if you know if we don't pay what you say we're supposed to pay which is a sort of a misrepresentation to start with uh will will you protect us if if Russia does something and here's what former president Trump.

Said no I would not protect you in fact I would incourage them to do whatever the hell they want so there you have it uh Ambassador as the colonel says we don't have to really uh stretch our minds too much to imagine what Donald Trump would do in these cases because he tells us what he would do well he does and that is really scary.

For me for the following reasons um he may say that and he may encourage Putin to go in to one of the countries on the border there but the idea that we will stay out of that conflict that is naive Beyond uh imagination it reminds me of the 1930s when people just like Trump said that's not our problem over over there doesn't matter what the Italians.

Are doing in Ethiopia or the Japanese in China or Hitler in Poland and then it became our problem right and I was just in Munich last week speaking to leaders from that part of the world and in vnus the month before they are scared to death of that scenario when Putin tests our commitment to Article 5 and we have a president perhaps like Mr Trump and it.

Is naive for Americans to think that we will be able to keep out of a war in Europe better to be strong now Ronald Reagan said it peace through strength than to wait for that scenario to play out and don't believe me just go back and read what happened in the 1930s punctuated uh by what happened to us in 1941 Ali Ali if I could come in on this.

I just want to I mean the danger is frankly more real than that this is not a what if scenario what happens if Donald Trump is back in office in 2025 the threat is real because what Donald Trump has done is he's offered a signal that the Republican party not just Trump in the future but the Republican party today would not show up in the event of.

An attack on NATO and that's a that's a recipe for disaster that's an invitation for Putin to test that resolve he's been wanting to destroy NATO for the whole time to test that resolve and that's a recipe for our troops to be in danger today because we would defend him but he might not perceive it that way and that's the same kind of scenario that.

Unfolded in the month weeks and months before February 2022 where where Putin believed he saw the signal that the Republican party that the political establishment in the United States wouldn't show up and he struck he struck out at Ukraine we are kind of in that same situation now it is very dangerous it is very real and even in the num.

Months before this election I think our troops are now in much greater danger than they were beforeand that's a remarkable perspective on that Ambassador you you and Colonel vinman are both students of History uh one doesn't have to go too far back in history you can go back to uh September 11th 2001 to the one and only time that.

Article 5 the mutual defense uh article in of NATO was invoked and it was in invoked in the defense of the United States of America by every other member Nation who said you have been attacked so we have been attacked we're here for you that's right I'm glad you reminded me uh everyone of that I don't think Mr Trump understands that and by the way.

They didn't just invoke Article 5 they send their soldiers to fight with us and to die with us in Afghanistan so when I hear all this debate about one 2% 2.1% I want to remind everybody that our NATO allies died for us we have not had to fight for them and we're all better off the one great Advantage we have as the United States of America when dealing.

With Russia or dealing with China are our allies it's our one superpower we have allies and they don't so why Donald Trump doesn't understand that basic fact about our national security I know the Republicans do around him I know they're just afraid of him uh I wish they would speak up um and it and to go back to your analogies between Trump and Putin I.

Actually wrote a piece about that Ollie in February of 2007 17 and it wasn't uh how in Russia the Civil Society activists were the opposition parties were there you know who was quiet it was the people in his party the oligarchs uh and those that allegedly listen to his Christian values right well he's not so bad he's going to cut our taxes and he.

Speaks about Christian things that we care about that's what they said in their early years of Putin and it's aily uh similar to what I hear now so those people being silent that need to speak up before it's too late gentlemen we appreciate your your time your expertise your commitment to democracy Alexander vinman and Michael McFall thank you all.

Right coming up we'll bring you the latest defendant Trump developments today as Donald Trump and Jack Smith were in the same courtroom Andrew Weissman and Katie Fang join us next it was a big day in court today for two of the four criminal cases against Donald Trump both could have major.

Consequences for how these two cases play out and when it's now up to Judge Scott McAfee to decide whether to disqualify The Fulton County district attorney fonnie Willis from Prosecuting Donald Trump's Georgia inter election interference case during closing arguments today defense lawyers for Donald Trump and other co-defendants.

Alleged that she financially benefited from a romantic relationship with the lead prosecutor Nathan Wade creating a conflict of interest that should disqualify her but the state pushed back arguing that the defense had not met their burden of proof to disqualify fonny Willis and discrediting the defenses star witness who this week.

Admitted that he was speculating about the details of their relationship the judge said he will make a decision within two weeks as the New York Times notes the stakes are high if Miss Willis is disqualified from the case her entire office would be too and the case would probably be turned over to a district attorney from another jurisdiction the.

New prosecutor could choose to continue the case as planned modify the charges or drop them meanwhile in Fort Pierce Florida Today special counsel Jack Smith and Donald Trump faced off in the same courtroom in front of a trump appointed judge Aileen Cannon to determine when the trial of Donald Trump's mishandling of classified documents will begin Jack.

Smith's team argued that the trial should begin on July 8th but in front of Judge Canon today Donald Trump's lawyers again pushed for the trial to be postponed until after the election calling it unfair to take Donald Trump Trump off the campaign Trail and claiming that a July trial would be unworkable given Donald Trump's hush.

Money trial in Manhattan that will begin later this month Trump's lawyers told judge cannon that if the trial had to be before the election the earliest they could do is August 12th Politico reports that in some of the most pointed language of the hearing Jay brat a prosecutor on Jack Smith's team criticized Trump's delay tactics saying.

Quote what it really seems to me is that dates those were fake dates and really almost bad faith dates we just need to bring this case to trial this summer judge Canon also raised the issue of the Justice Department's 60-day rule an internal guideline that prosecutors should not take any legal action within 60 days of an election to avoid.

Impacting the result according to Politico quote that provision does not apply in a case that has already been charged brat responded adding that the special Council team had consulted with the justice department unit that handles most cases involving politicians and candidates the public Integrity section quote it does not apply to setting a.

Trial date end quote judge Cannon did not indicate how or when she would rule joining us now is Andrew Weissman former FBI general counsel and former Chief of the Criminal Division of the eastern district of New York he's an MSNBC legal analyst and the co-host of the important MSNBC podcast prosecuting Donald Trump he's also co-author of the new book the.

Trump indictments the historic charging documents with commentary end quote and joining us from Atlanta Georgia is Katie Fang an attorney and the host of the Katie Fang Show on MSNBC uh I don't I don't know how you're awake Katie uh both of you have been working remarkable hours Katie let me start with you and and Georgia and the stakes in this case.

And what you heard today and what it makes you think so it was closing arguments Ally and it was 3 hours of closing arguments which was remarkable but not really if you consider the fact that there are so many defendants and I guess the footnote to that would be the import of this case I mean it started with 19 codefendants.

It's a RICO case with multiple other offenses you've already had four of those codefendants played out some of whom were critical to the scheme to defraud and to try to overturn the Georgia election results and the reason why I talk about that is because we cannot lose sight of the fact that that is what this prosecution is about we.

Have taken somewhat of a circus Sideshow detour over the span of a number of weeks now to be able to litigate a motion to disqualify which in any jurisdiction would be serious but in this particular jurisdiction it has such import as you discussed in the setup alley because if fonny Willis is disqualified under Georgia law and.

Procedure her entire office is disqualified and then you have to wait an innumerable amount of time for a reassignment and then the ultimate prosecutorial discretion of that new DA as to whether or not they want to pursue all of the charge and some or none but after these three hours of closing arguments what we were left with those.

Of us that have been carefully observing was the fact that judge McAfee had a series of questions that he peppered to the defense and not so much to the state and what he focused on for me as a lawyer and somebody who tried cases um in multiple courts is the following you know you have to have a burden of proof You Know Jack Smith for example when he.

Takes Donald Trump and others to trial will have the burden of proof to prove his case Beyond and to the exclusion of every reason reasonable doubt it's a lower burden in this evidentiary hearing scenario but there's a burden nonetheless but it's not on the prosecution it's on the defense and when you heard the judge ask the defense.

About whether or not you know they understood that something that is suggestive of wrong doing is not a preponderance of the evidence standard it made you stop and consider the fact that the judge is carefully weighing the evidence in this case the testimony that's been provided by a number of witnesses including da fonny Willis.

Herself and special prosecutor Nathan Wade but it's worth mentioning quickly Ally that the star witness for the defense and in fact he was called the star Witness by the judge himself because there was these huge promises that were overd delivered by the defense in terms of Terrence Bradley the former divorce attorney for Nathan Wade he's.

The only witness that took to stand twice during the course of this evidentiary hearing and he was just a big wamp wamp for the defense in the end he refused to corroborate or to affirm what the defense said which is that he had provided all of this very salacious kind of information behind the scenes about his former client Nathan Wade the.

Defense is saying that fonny Willa still got a personal financial benefit but when the judge asked the defense well can you define that the defense said well it's like obscenity judge you know it when you see it I mean Ally that that's not an evidentiary standard that's not evidence and I think that is what is going to be the important thing.

For the judge what is the evidence can you tune out the White Noise can you tune out the pressure all of the potential Optics of a decision and can you base it on the evidence and I submit to you that I think the judge in this case is is going to do that and we're going to get a ruling in the next two weeks that much he's told us Andrew what.

We don't have uh is is when the Florida judge uh aen Cannon is going to give us a ruling and look one of the things she's become known for is she takes her time with stuff and and has been somewhat sympathetic to the uh the the the the Trump uh legal teams constant requests for more time and more things uh but today they got shut down at least.

On one front by by the Jack Smith team about this idea that you can't start a trial within a couple months of an election um obviously you know a lot about these things sure um I think that there's no question that judge canon in her rulings uh has favored the defense even her reasoning has gone out of its way to.

Find fault with the government and to side wherever possible with the defense in ways that I think continue to be pretty shocking remember she is the judge who was reversed twice by the 11 circuit before the case was indicted um we do not know the trial date she did make various comments saying that she thought that the date that was sought by.

The government in July was unduly uh optimistic uh and she asked a lot of questions of the defense about not having a trial at all and certainly not in the least up to the election uh I was surprised she even brought up the doj internal rule because the internal rules of the department don't in any way give rights to the defense they're not.

Enforcable in any Court they're just internal guides to the Department of Justice um and that's something that the judge knows very well having worked as a prosecutor um so it really was none of her business to raise that and also the rule simply does not apply the rule is about not taking overt actions uh with respect to someone who's a political uh.

Candidate shortly before an election why because you want to give that person an opportunity to have their day in court well this is the reverse this is an overt case where the government is seeking to have that trial seeking to have a day in court so um there was every reason for this not to apply and not for the judge to raise it in court.

Yeah I I uh as a as a simple non-legal guy I struggle with this whole idea that didn't we work really hard to make sure people can get their day in court and get it uh in a uh you know on a speedy basis uh Donald Trump turns everything on its head thanks to both of you we really appreciate this Andrew Weissman and Katie Fang we appreciate your your.

Incredible coverage and Analysis coming up today President Biden announced that the United States military will AirDrop food and supplies into Gaza we're going to discuss what that means for the people of Gaza next with the piter prize winning columnist Nicholas Kristoff today President Joe Biden announced that the United States will begin airdropping.

Food Aid to the people of Gaza we're going to join with our friends in Jordan and others and providing airdrops of of additional food and supplies in addition to expanding deliveries by land they said we're going to we're going to insist that Israel facilitate more trucks and more roots to get more and more people the the help.

They need no excuses because the truth is Aid flowing to Gaza is nowhere nearly enough now it's nowhere nearly enough innocent lives are on the line and children's lives are on the line we won't stand by and let till they till we get more Aid in everything we should be getting hundreds of trucks not just several and uh I won't stand by we won't.

Let up and we're not going to pull out uh trying to pull out every stop we can to get more assistance in the airdrop announcement comes after more than a 100 people were killed on Thursday when Israeli troops opened fire as people waited for a food Convoy in the north at the start of this week President Biden said negotiations for a ceasefire were.

Close and could be agreed to by Monday tonight President Biden provided this update on the Monday timeline no I was just saying it looks like we're still it's not there yet I think I think we'll get there but it's not there yet I'm not and it may not get there now joining us now is the New York Times.

Columnist and poiter prizewinning journalist Nicholas Kristoff uh there there's a lot here to unpack and Nick you wrote a opet on this in the New York Times we don't even have to have an interview we can just read the title of your oped it says Biden can do better than airdropping food to Gaza um there's a lot that we can do better on uh.

President Biden said we will will not stand by we will not led up except we have stood by and we have we have stood by exactly yeah I mean we have stood by and there is some inherent contradiction in us helping provide the Weaponry that creates the destruction and helping provide the Diplomatic protection to Israel as it as it blocks Aid and then.

Us moving in to try to drop Aid on a crisis that we have helped create and one in which many of the victims are children who uh bear no responsibility for the terrorist attack on October 7th let's talk about um what we can do better and I look I will give Joe Biden credit for being possibly the most optimistic man on Earth in thinking.

There's going to be a deal there there are the outlines of a deal it's not coming together and Benjamin Netanyahu says as often as he has asked that it's not the kind of thing he's going to do so let me say what you've written about in your article you've said the simplest path forward would be for Biden to insist that Israel open more Crossing.

Points allow many more trucks through permit civilian police escorts and accept that unra and Aid groups will play a central role in food distribution that would be less visual than an airdrop but it would save far more lives expand on that please so one reason for the tragedy yesterday was that uh Israel apparently.

Did not want to have food a delivered through uh unra the the UN organization that it is um made a lot of allegations against and uh May well have had 12 people participate in the October 7th attacks it has also been reluctant to work with traditional Aid agencies um and so it apparently had contractors protected by Israeli tanks try to go in.

Um and look you know the people who know how to deliver Aid are those Aid agencies including under they have that that those people on the ground that Network and what you need to make airdrops work and I've seen them is also that group you know those people on the ground who collect uh pallets when they're dropped who protected from just.

Some random gunmen seizing it you know if you just drop food Aid who's going to get it it's going to be Hamas not most vulnerable people and right now the most vulnerable people in Gaza are kids um and you know the toll there it just you know I mean I've covered a lot of crises around the world but I you know 250 children under the age of one have died.

So far in Gaza can't think of any recent conflict in this Century in which that many kids have died that quickly in a war so you're not you know you're not just a columnist as you said you have you have covered some of the worst things on Earth you have gone to cover the stories that most people have forgotten or never even wrote about in.

The first place uh the the the metrics you use for this you just described one about the number of kids killed I saw one the other day I haven't I haven't run it down but it says that starvation is growing at a faster rate than it's ever grown at any point in history in Gaza just the rate at which people are going from people who would have a meal.

To eat or enough calories to survive to the rate at which you are more likely to die of starvation or disease or illness than than from a bomb uh is is increasing uh faster than it's ever increased anywhere in the world that that appears to be true we don't have good metrics on malnutrition but it certainly seems to be expanding.

Extremely quickly and one of the things we've learned is that severe acute malnutrition uh you know it kills kids extremely quickly and it it's once you let it get out of control it's very hard to reverse it could kill kids on a much much greater scale than anything we've seen so far and the kids who are most vulnerable are those from about six.

Months to about three years of age um but you know already I mean here's another metric um the worldwide in 2022 in all conflicts all around the globe about 2,900 children died according to the United Nations well now in just five months in Gaza alone uh we've had 12,500 children die um you know the UNICEF calls it the most.

Dangerous place in the world to be a child there are a lot of dangerous places um but uh Gaza it says is now number one well a number of important columnists like yourself have have chimed in in the last few days to say it it's time for a different approach with Israel and for whatever reason Joe Biden's been been been slow to do that.

He says he uses the words that say that they're going to apply I'm sure behind the scenes that's what's going on except it's not working with Netanyahu what does success look like on that front what is that is that picking up a phone call what happens to say the the the unrestricted Aid that the United States provides to Israel will actually stop if.

That's the only thing that's going to stop your guns from killing gsin that's what's going to happen so we have seen in the past uh American administrations apply greater pressure and it uh you know it's hard to do politically uh it Netanyahu is a difficult interlocutor but it can work and right now uh President Biden has in.

Over the last month or so he's begun to say some sympathetic things but we haven't seen a change in actual policy in his ability to in his willingness to use leverage to try to get Israel to provide more Aid to uh slow the scale the the scale of the bombing and you know for example if uh military equipment going to Israel uh were.

Suddenly tied up in a little more red tape so there was a Slowdown in deliveries I think that would be a message that would go to the IDF and I think the IDF would in turn send that message on to Netanyahu um you know ironically one of the few practical specific actions that President Biden has taken Vis A V Gaza has been to.

Suspend funding for precisely the UN agency unra that is there to combat uh starvation and and um I find this incredibly dispiriting President Biden has a great deal of political capital in Israel because of the enormous you know empathy he showed at the beginning but he hasn't been willing to translate that uh that political Capital he has across.

The Israel to either greater movement in the West Bank to protect people there or most importantly to try to revert starvation in Gaza he does appear to be working toward or at least he thinks there there might be a deal to be had and boy that would be a a bright light if there were a ceasefire and those hostages uh were released who knows.

Thank you my friend as always Nick Kristoff is a politer prizewinning journalist and a New York Times columnist coming up the most important undercovered battleground of the 2024 election with Republican dysfunction in the house Republican obstruction in the Senate and right-wing extremism controlling the Supreme Court State.

Legislatures have never been more important for protecting democracy Reproductive Rights and more that's next Donald Trump is dangerous to women and to our families we simply cannot let him win we can't wake up on November 6th like we did in 2016.

Terrified of the future ahead of us thinking oh my God what just happened what are we going to do now we must reelect Joe Biden and KLA Harris I was first lady Joe Biden today speaking at the first stop on her women for Biden campaign event in Atlanta Georgia with a warning for a second Trump term women's Reproductive Rights.

Proved in 2022 and in several special elections to be an animating issue for voters across the country and while Republicans are confronting the political Fallout from conservatives on the Supreme Court striking down Ro v Wade Donald Trump appeared on Fox yesterday to raise the possibility of a National Abortion ban if he's elected.

Today CVS and Walgreens announced that they will begin filling prescriptions of the abortion pill Miffy prone this month in states where abortion is legal and while that's welcome news it's just more proof of The Nightmare of uneven Patchwork abortion care uh reproductive care in post row America and it comes as the Supreme Court plans to hear.

Arguments against the abortion pill later this month the ramification of Republican policies in the wake of Rose reversal extend far beyond abortion just two weeks ago inv vitro fertilization was effectively stalled in Alabama after that State's conservative Supreme Court ruled that embryos were children at a campaign event in Durham North Carolina.

Today vice president kamla Harris laid the blame Square on one person Donald Trump for the erosion of women's Reproductive Rights let's remember um that the architect of where we are now and The Taking of these freedoms was the former president of the United States who has boasted about the fact that he.

Essentially handpicked three members of the United States court with the intention that they would undo the protections of roie Wade and the work that we have to do at this point is about rest ding these fundamental rights and freedoms for the people of our country joining us now is the president of the democratic legislative Campaign.

Committee Heather Williams Heather good to see you thank you for being with us you know one of the things if if you open your fridge door and you get a smell and you can't figure out what's spoiled if you if you rummage around a little bit you sometimes you find something you weren't looking for and in this case it's the states in many cases.

It's state legislator when when row fell there was this idea that everybody will just do this for themselves we're just giving the states the the right to do it and what we learned is the States can be Draconian yeah well I'm very happy to be here with you tonight and that is absolutely right so we at the dlcc are the Party Committee responsible for.

Building power in the states and really setting the national agenda and what we know is that when the Supreme Court decided on dubs when they decided on row so much of the work moved into the states the Mandate moved to the states and we're seeing States act on this day in and day out we're seeing Republicans roll back our rights and we're seeing.

Democrats in power preserving them we know that the states is is moving policy that affects our lives so closely and daily and that it is everything from abortion rights to gun safety to climate to voting rights all of that is happening in your backyard in your States and and for folks who don't come out they're not motivated by their state.

Elections uh it's important to point out their number of states for instance that at a Statewide level where a a Democrat is elected and yet they've got a republican majority in the state house or legislature or Senate uh in some cases super majorities from the dccc's strategy memo I want to read this to stop this Crusade of dangerous.

Legislation from becoming law restoring The veto power of democratic governors in red States is essential the dcc's 2024 Target map includes Kansas North Carolina and Wisconsin to break up or even prevent Republican super majorities and Empower democratic government tell me about this yeah so um Power in the states is so important and we think.

About power in the the perfect way right which is democratic Trifecta um we think about it in terms of flipping majorities but then there's this really important piece of protecting Democratic Governor's veto power last year we saw in North Carolina um one vote decide abortion rights for the you know nearly 10 million people that live in North.

Carolina they rolled it back with one vote and and moved in abortion ban so um you know protecting our Democratic Governors who are working so hard um to ensure that uh you know our rights are preserved is is really critical a lot of this when you say how is it that um you know there's a Democratic governor in this place with a republican super.

Majority it's because of redistricting because if you vote for your Governor everybody in the state gets to vote the redistricting has no effect on you when you're voting for your your state representative redistricting does affect you that's exactly right and that is why it is so important that um when folks go to vote that they're not just voting top.

Of the ticket for their governor or for the president that they're voting all the way down I feel like I cannot stress enough how impactful the states are on our everyday lives and how the issues that we matter most are being decided there and if folks are interested in learning more um getting involved in their local races they should head to.

Dccc.org uh Heather uh thank you for this uh thank you for uh for making some of these things clear to us because the answer still lies with people making these decisions to go to the polls and to change the outcomes Heather William uh Williams is the president of the democratic legislative Campaign Committee dlcc we'll be right.

Back and that's tonight's last word uh the brilliant Michael ludic judge Michael ludic the conservative jurist joins me tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m. on veli you can see my shows Saturdays and Sundays 10: a.m. to noon Eastern right here on MSNBC

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