the u.s. is not boycotting the beijing olympics full stop, u.s. athletes will still go and still compete, but there will be a full scale diplomatic boycotting. no u.s. government officials will attend. and again, the timing here, the announcement about that today, ahead of the democracy summit at the end of the week, if taking action to promote human rights is one of the themes of the big democracy summit that president biden is hosting, while this announcement about the beijing olympics diplomatic -- is something concrete that he and the u.s. government can point to. to say hey, we are not just talking about this. we are walking the walk on that point. there's human rights, second point was corruption. corruption is the under appreciated, but constant companion to authoritarian government. you don't get one without the other. and you don't get the other without the first one. but today, the biden administration rolled out a new long u.s. government strategy against corruption. this is a 30 page document, not a whole new approach to fight. it incl

whether or not u.s. elections, u.s. small d democracy should be a tech know accuratic nonpartisan thing. today in the january 6th investigation, the investigation into the violent attack by trump supporters on the u.s. capitol in january to try and stop the election being certified. today former president trump's white house chief of staff mark meadows, he declined to appear for testimony that he had been subpoenaed to give this morning. the investigation says that mark meadows is therefore likely to be found in contempt. he's potentially going to be criminally prosecuted for contempt. but mr. meadows ended the day today by suing the committee that's conducting the investigation in what appears to be an effort to drag this thing out, to slow it down. on top of that, in another surprise today we also learned that before mr. meadows decided to bail on his subpoenas and sue the investigation, he did hand over some materials to the committee that they find useful for their investigation. in a letter to mark meadows' attorne

supreme court, and the three-judge panel on this u.s. circuit court of appeals, they ruled unanimously tonight that the trump white house documents do indeed have to get handed over to the january 6th investigation. they did pause the effect of this ruling for two weeks to give trump the opportunity to appeal this ruling up to the supreme court if he wants to. and presumably he wants to. i think one of the things we have learned over these last five or six years with trump as a political actor is he sees the court system as a giant brake pedal on the bumper car that is his life in the public eye. if you're in trouble for something, you tie it up in court. somebody wants to ask you questions about something, you don't want to answer questions, tie it up in court. somebody wants you to answer for something you have definitely done, tie it up in court. hope it takes as long as possible so the other side runs out of patience or runs out of money or stumbles into a technicality or if you're really lucky, the time will run out on whatever the

u.s. yesterday just reported its highest ever single day record for new covid infections. new cases drawing less of a curve, more of a straight vertical line. new cases in the last two weeks are up by 100 and 26%. the world health organization said today that they are anticipating a quote, tsunami of new cases worldwide over the next few weeks. but so far, thankfully, we have not seen a tsunami of new hospitalizations and deaths along with the spread of omicron. the hospitalization rate is in fact up over the last two weeks, but only by 11%. much below the rate of new infections. daily deaths remain essentially flat. now today the head of the cdc stressed that that might be a good sign. that the omicron variant is potentially more mild than previous iterations of the virus. even so, such an astronomical caseload, regardless of how sick people get, means a serious disruption to everyday life. we are already seeing that across the country. take for example new york city today, the subway whi

congressman gallego who is a u.s. marine said the u.s. should provide ukraine better weapons so the ukrainians can better defend themselves against russian troops. turns out not everybody in russia appreciated the comments from the congressman including one member of the russian sort of pretend parliament who went on state sponsored russian tv last week to declare as punishment for those comments about ukraine congressman ruben gallego should be, a, placed under surveillance and, b, kidnapped. i think it is fair to say to congressman gallego was less than fazed by that threat from the russian parliamentarian and tweeted in response, f around and find out with an american flag emoji. it is sort of hard to know if that was the sort of thing designed to have a nice, domestic shelf life on russian state tv or if this is an actual thing to worry about from the guy in the russian parliament but since that initial weird threat of violence from that russian politician toward a sitting u.s. congressman things have escalated for the worse. that sam

we are at the lowest point we've been in the u.s. russia relations since russia became an independent country 1991. i don't think that is a serious threat. i think the real threat, and the real danger would be -- a conventional war in europe. that is what we are talking. about this isn't just gonna be weeks of fighting. even if russia occupies parts of ukraine, ukrainians will continue to fight. and that is the nightmare scenario that i think all rational actors and ross cow, brussels, and washington want to avoid. and that's why i hope these negotiations in january will be successful. >> we will have to wait and see how this plays out. -- former u.s. ambassador russia, thank you so much for joining us. this evening. thank you for joining us happy near to you. >> next year will mark a year since the -- the threats and violent rhetoric surrounding that they haven't gone away. in fact, they become much harder to prosecute. we'll have more on that next. xt i could use some help showing the world how liberty mutual customizes their car i

he is testing the u.s. government and the international community to see what he can get away with it. he has 175,000 troops massed on theborder with ukraine. what is the right way to handle this. joining us now is fiona hill. she is the author of "there's nothing for you here," finding opportunity in the 21st century. thank you for making time to be here tonight. >> thanks so much, rachel. glad to be with you. >> let me ask you if i'm framing this the right way. it seems to me, from just the layman's perspective, that president putin has the world's attention. and he got one-on-one attention from the president of the united states today. and he has the whole world guessing whether or not he is going to do something crazy militarily toward ukraine. but he seems to be enjoying and has been seeking the attention he got from it. is it fair to portray it that way? >> look, he does want to get attention. he wants attention for a particular purpose. putin has been signaling for quite some period time, going back

they should not listen to u.s. military orders. they should instead follow him and the oklahoma state government. and they should not worry about having to get vaccinated against covid. even though there is a military rule that says all troops need to do that. that was a bizarre fight for the republican governor of oklahoma to pick that story. if national guard troops are mad at the republican governor right now there is a very good reason for that. we've got that story ahead for you again tonight as well. now, we've also got an update for you tonight on a public health official, who we've had on the show several times. someone who has been a real asset in the fight against covid-19, among other health challenges. he's been blunt, unafraid. to keep putting public health first. to not sugarcoat it. to not excuse political actions. he has been kind of a beacon. especially in his part of the country. he has now been removed from his job. told to resign. he says, for political reasons and he will be joining us tonight to explain. so th

as the u.s. suffers its first death from the strain, the question is what's being done to make sure hospitals are ready. >>> and

the president said the u.s. government will be buying 500 million of those at-home test kits and will mail them for free to any american who wants one. that is set to start next month in january. that seems like a big undertaking. he announced there will be federal testing sites across the country. one of them in new york city before the end of this week and it's already tuesday. the president today also tried to reassure those of us having flashbacks to what life was like at the start of the pandemic. he said today that despite this new surgery, we are in a much different position than we were two years ago. >> another question that folks are asking is, are we going back to march 2020? not last march 2021, but march 2020 when the pandemic first hit. that's what i keep getting asked. the answer is absolutely no, no. this is not march of 2020. 200 million people are fully vaccinated. we're prepared. we know more. we just have to stay focused. >> we do have tools to fight the virus today that we did not have at th

barring an appeal to the u.s. supreme court. for the record that will be december 23rd and one that be a fine start to the mayor christmas for everyone? presumably, he is going to appeal to the supreme court. he will do so in time, to stop the documents from being handed over. as to what the supreme court will do, with his appeal and how fast they'll move if they do take the case, i really don't know. other federal court judges in the district court and the appeals court, in washington d.c., they have been willing to hear this on a hurry basis. a really fast basis. i think, in part, according to the rulings because the judges have recognize the urgency of this investigation. because, the seriousness of january 6th and also because the investigation will probably get kneecap if the republican take over the house and shut it down. if they win the midterm elections. i don't know if the supreme court would take up the appeal from trump, at all. if they do take it up, i don't know what kind of pace they will take it up on, or if they

so the u.s. government can point to what we're doing on each of these three points on human rights, anticorruption. what is the third one? oh, right. defending against authoritarianism. that one, on the last one, what is the biden administration going to be able to say about its actions there? about its priorities there, about how it is walking the walk and not just talking the talk? defending against authoritarianism. that one is not that easy. because on that one we do have our own significant very live domestic challenges. i mean, just today's news alone on that front shows, gives you a sense of how big and how active the challenge is within the united states. here is one little piece. the conventional wisdom in washington of course is that the republican party is likely to take control of congress at least the house in next year's elections. historically speaking they have a good chance of doing that. if that happens that will mean any senior republican, anybody who is, you know, the top repu

u.s. sales company? there was also a company run by the same guys in shanghai, that claimed to be developing autonomous drone software. pretty cutting edge stuff. well, that company who, it had zero employees. maybe the drones were so autonomous they were going to design themselves. really cutting edge. so the sec looked at these publicly traded companies in the united states that all appeared to be fake. and the sec determined that these were fake companies, yeah. these guys in china were not running companies selling smart phones or drones or cupcakes with or without touch screens. but if you are running, you know, publicly traded entities, there is a lot of rules about not being fake! [laughs] and the sec stepped in and more or less kick those companies off the stock exchange, issuing what is called a stop order. the sec forcibly stop those companies from selling more public shares. and stop orders are a serious thing and they are a rare thing. in the past ten years, something like 35 companies total

the u.s. justice department brought charges. but that physical attack really appears to have been just one part of a larger effort to flip the election results and keep trump in power even though he had lost re-election. the u.s. justice department for all of those prosecutions against allse of those individuals, they have shown no outward sign at all that they're investigating anyone other than those individuals, that they're investigating any other part of that plot to flip the election results. the u.s. justice department appears to d only be investigating, only be prosecuting rioter who is physically entered the capitol. nothing to do with the broader scheme to intimidate election officials, which in every state in theof country and under fedel law is a crime. so, you know, it is possible that the justice department is looking at that, and that may be we don't know about it. as far as we can see, there is nothing there as far as potential prosecutions. that left it to the january 6th inves

the day before the u.s. capitol was attacked by trump supporters. he says he briefed republican members of congress using this document on january 5th. and this document, this powerpoint document he apparently used for this briefing is facially insane. it demands that the president should declare a national security emergency, whatever that is. it demands he should federalize the national guard all over the country and have the national guard go seize ballots, go seize votes. should declare all votes cast on voting machines to be invalid. okay. and then the powerpoint helpfully points out once all of those ballots are taken away, not only does, quote, trump almost certainly win, but quote, additionally, u.s. senators, u.s. house races, state and local races now turn to republican as well. now turn to republican. see, if you just declare an emergency, have troops take all the ballots and declare most votes don't count, it's easy. republicans win everywhere. and you know, it's got this really weird stuff about how it's china who really ran the electio

it is also a federal crime although the u.s. justice department appears to be preferring not to notice that. georgia prosecutors are already looking at the commission of this crime in georgia. what we are learning is that there are multiple other states where state prosecutions appear to be possible. joining us next is "the washington post" reporter who has been on this story from the very beginning and who has been a one-woman scoop machine in terms of reporting details of the january 6th investigation ahead of many of her colleagues. she joins us live here next. stay with us. o man, that's a whole lot of wrinkly at least my shoes look good! looking good start with bounce wrinkleguard, the megasheet designed to prevent wrinkles in the dryer. ♪ ♪ ♪ hey google. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ this is the sound of nature breathing. and this is the sound of better breathing. fasenra is a different kind of asthma medication. it's not a steroid or inhaler. fasenra is an add-on treatment for asthma driven by eosinophils. it's one mainte

attacking the u.s. capitol, a crowd in suburban atlanta was attacking ruby freeman's house. surrounded her house on foot and vehicles shouting at her through a bullhorn. by then thankfully ms. freeman herself had fled her house for an undisclosed location. she fled on the advice of the fbi and did not return home for two month. her daughter changed her appearance dramatically and avoided going out in public. ms. freeman closed her business. it's the stuff of nightmares. you're going about your life doing your civic duty and have your whole world turned upsidedown because the president of the united states and his supporters decided you'll be their punching bag, their boogie man in this effort to create a fantasy of a stolen election so he can try to cling to power. in the process fulton county, georgia became what reuters calls, quote, a hotbed of threats against election workers. how do you operate a democracy in this atmosphere of threat? fulton county, georgia is also the place where most democrats are in the state of georgia. if operating an election in fulton county is

u.s. sales company? and there is also a company run by the same guys in shanghai, a different company that claim to be developing autonomous drone software. pretty cut ago cutting-edge cuff. and that company had zero employees. maybe the drones were so autonomous they were going to design themselves, really cutting edge. so the sec looked at the companies, publically traded companies in the u.s., and they determined, yeah, these were fake companies. these guys in china article not running companies selling smart phones or drones or cupcakes or touchscreens. but if you are running publically traded entities, there are a lot of rules about not being fake. so the sec stepped in and more or less kicked them off the stock exchange. for a couple of them, they issued what is called a stop order, and they forcibly stopped them from selling any more public shares. and stop orders are a serious thing and a rare thing. and in the past 30 years, 35 companies total have gotten stop orders. of the 35, at least 3 them

we would have asked him about text messages sent to and received from a u.s. senator regarding the vice president's power to reject electors, including a text in which meadows recounts a direct communication with president trump.a according to mr. meadows and his text messages, quote, thinks the legislators, meaning the state legislators have the power, but the vice president has power, too, end quote. remember the whole ball game here, the whole goal of the plot leading up to january 6th was to try to get republican officialst in the states to provide the means of overturning the election results in just enough states so that trump could be declared the overall winner. r they wanted republican officials in swing states that voted for biden to declare there was fraud and there results in those stat should, therefore, be considered invalid. they wanted republican legislators in those states to then send trump electors to congress instead of biden electors which would have the effect of declaring trump the winner in those states. i mean, that's what trump's call

john lewis was never a u.s. senator. he served in the house of representatives for over three decades. he then said to throw his name on a bill for voting rights, i think that's a shame. it just doesn't fit with what john lewis stood for. voting rights was the cornerstone of john lewis' life's work, one of the key figures responsible for the voting rights act, the landmark 1965 voting rights act. even if you can't wrap your head around all of that, it is this next part of the herschel walker interview that will make your head spin. >> let's go to the voting rights, if you want to talk about voting, first of all, you want to get people to vote because if they're legal to vote, you want to try tone courage people to vote, that's the most precious thing you have. not encourage, but encourage and what i mean by that is, you know, you get things done now, don't talk about it after, or talk about it during. but get it done right now. and no one is not legal to vote, why don't we go in and get the i.d.s and get everything done

beyond the people who physically put themself in battle with police officers or at least inside the u.s. capitol on january 6th. that said, the congressional investigation looking at january 6 we now know as one incident in a larger concerted plot to falsify the election results and overthrow the u.s. government. they are increasingly talking, and liz cheney, the vice chair, increasingly is talking in terms that echo federal statutes about potential criminal liability for those at the top of the sort of, organizing effort there. she specifically named trump in conjunction with that criminal statutory language. is she stretching? is she reaching? or is the kind of implication she's casting there within what seems reasonable to you? >> it seems reasonable to me. let me give you a little bit of context, rachel. congress doesn't have the authority to prosecute anyone for anything ever, but that doesn't mean they can't talk about what happened. what happened appears to be an attempted coup. that authority to investigate and prosecute, not just investigate, but investigate and prosecute lies

the family of rosanne boyland who died on the steps of the u.s. capital wants to see those responsible for stoking the big lie and planning the january 6th rally held accountable. as i documented in my recent msnbc podcast "american radical," rosanne drove to washington, d.c., from georgia to attend the rally on january 6th. she was one of four people who died at the capitol that day, but to this day her family remains unsure how she ended up there. her younger sister, blair, told me she believes that former president trump actually played a decisive role in her sister's journey to washington and ultimately her death. >> do you think there is a direct correlation between president trump and what he was saying about the election fraud and what your sister believed? >> oh, yeah, definitely. i think, you know, if he hadn't have said anything, i mean there wouldn't even have been an event up in d.c. on january 6th. so she wouldn't have been there and she wouldn't have died. >> now, the older sister lonna cave and her brother-in-law justin believe janu

it not be. >>> chuck rosenberg, former u.s. attorney, former senior fbi official and justice department official. chuck, your charity is unpeachable forgive the phrase. and it's always good to have you here. that can. >> much more to come here tonight. stay with us. to come here tonight. stay with us to help block out food particles. so he can enjoy the game. super poligrip. music: ♪ “i got you babe” by etta james ♪ get groceries, gifts, & more fast and easy so last minute guests are the only thing you'll be waiting on ♪ ♪ joy. fully. are you tired of clean clothes that just don't smell clean? what if your clothes could stay fresh for weeks?♪ now they can. downy unstopables in-wash scent boosters keep your laundry smelling fresh waaaay longer than detergent alone. pour a cap of downy unstopables into your washing machine before each load. and enjoy fresher smelling laundry. if you want laundry to smell fresh for weeks make sure you have downy unstopables in-wash scent boosters. shop online for downy unstopables, i

and congress, especially the u.s. senate, has to understand that action is vital. and we're seeing that play out with the gerrymandering. we're seeing it play out in how election workers are under attack. and we're seeing it play out in the conversations about whether we have a real democracy. i have faith in our leaders, because i have faith in our people. americans will not stand for the fall of our nation, and i believe that we will continue to lift our voices. but more importantly, we have seen 50 senators say time again that they're going to put patriotism above partisanship. and my hope is that they will be joined. and if they are enjoying, then at least we will see action taken, because whether or not people want it done, we know we need action to be taken. ken. >> stacey abrams, newly declared candidate for governor of georgia. this race was a barn burner in every possible way in 2018. this year, i can guarantee is going to be all that. more stacey, thank you so much for being here tonight. we look for to having you back. good luck with your campaign. >> th

he wanted to try to use the part of the u.s. justice system to essentially force or induce the states that trump laws to nevertheless give trump the electoral votes. jeff clark, that previously low profile former justice department official, he has refused to comply to subpoenas in this investigation. just like trump advisor, steve bannon has. bennett has you know has been hit with charges for rejecting those subpoenas. tonight, just before we got on the, at the january six investigation released its formal report on jeffrey clark rejecting the subpoenas. they are going to vote on this tomorrow at the end of the day. if past is prologue, that but will probably be overwhelming if not unanimous that jeff clark should be referred to as the u.s. justice department for potential prosecution. at they referred for steve bannon. we ultimately followed up, and brought out that indictment. here is part of what that report says about why jeff quite got subpoenaed by this investigation in the first place. it's at first, according to the doc

it is warning u.s. citizens to not travel. do not travel to ukraine, quote, due to increased threats from russia. so that threat of russia potentially invading ukraine looms in the background. but there is also something bizarre to know about going on between the u.s. and russia. that involves a member of congress. i don't know if this is received a lot of attention widely but it is worth watching from here on out. earlier this month, democratic representative name reuben got led a trip. congressman gallego said the u.s. should provide the ukraine with better weapons. so that the ukraine can defend themselves against russian troops. turns out not everybody in russia appreciated those comments from the congressman. including one member of the russian dumas. their pretend parliament. he won on state sponsored russian tv to declare that as punishment for those comments about ukraine, congressman reuben got legal should be, a, placed under surveillance. and be, kidnapped. he should be kidnapped. i think it's fair to say that congr

do you think the threat of a potential rupture between the u.s. and russia if the u.s. issues sanctions, if there is some kind of followup action by russia, is that something to take seriously? should that concern us, and what might that look like? >> it's pretty hard to think about how worse it could get. we're at the lowest point we've been in u.s./russia relations since russia became an independent country in 1991. i don't think that is a serious threat. i think the real threat would be and the real danger would be a conventional war in europe. that's what we're talking about. this isn't going to be just weeks of fighting. even if russia occupies parts of ukraine, ukrainians will continue to fight. and that is the nightmare scenario that i think all rational actors in moscow, brussels, and washington, want to avoid. and that's why i hope that these negotiations in january will be successful. >> we will have to wait and see how they play out. ambassador michael mcfaul, former u.s. ambassador to russia, sir, thank you so much for joining us this evening. happy new year

the u.s. justice department has brought criminal prosecutions against more than 600 americans who took part in the physical attack on the capitol on january 6th. but that physical attack really appears to have been just one part of a larger effort to flip the election results and keep trump in power even though he lost re-election. the u.s. justice department for all the prosecutions against all of the individuals, they have shown no outward sign at all they are investigating anyone other than the individuals, that they are investigating any other part of the plot to flip the election results in georgia and in other states. the u.s. justice department appears only to be investigating, only to be prosecuting individual reiterers who physically entered the capitol. they have shown no outward sign having to do anything with the broader scheme to intimidate election officials and force the election results to be overturned which in every state in the country and under federal law is a crime. so, y

these stones, symbols a violent insurrection against the u.s. government, they're having their moment right now as well, which may not be equally since. just yesterday, enrichment, were junior, they started dismantling the pedestal that had once held a giant statue of the head of the confederate army, robert e. lee. that statue itself came out in september of this year. democratic virginia governor ralph northam announced this weekend that the pedestal on which the lease statue stood, that pedestal also start to come down in richmond. they apparently started dismantling yesterday. they see it will be gone by the end of the year. in july of this year, you might remember, they also brought down the robert e. lee statue that stood in charlottesville, virginia. it was all the way back in 2016 that high school students from charlottesville petition to have that robert e. lee taken down. the city council voted the following year, 2017, that it should be taken down. but while the whole question of what was going to happen to that statuesque up in legal

we've got georgia u.s. senator the reverend raphael warnock joining us live tonight in just a couple of minutes. and the reason he is joining us is because as this january 6th investigation turns to the bigger picture, right? not just the immediate violent acts in the capitol that day but the plot that the capitol attack was part of, as the january 6th investigations -- the january 6th investigation turns out to go sort of root and branch after the whole big plot to use fake fraud claims as a pretext for rejecting the election results, for toppling the u.s. government and installing a losing li candidate as president. as the january 6th investigation is moving away from the simple idea of incitement to violence, incitement to riot and it turns instead to uncovering this months-long complex plot that involves not just the president and not just multiple n administration officials but apparently multiple members of congress as well, there is this incredible new level of drama s and anxiety in washington over

in fact, the u.s. capitol police chief expects the agency will have handled more than 9,000 threats in 2021. that is more than double, double the number of threats they handled just four years ago. quote, so far, the bitter fighting this year hasn't turned physical, and it is important to note here the "journal's" use of the word so far. if anything, the next congressional elections look poised to make the atmosphere in the halls of congress even worse. here is the lead in "the washington post." quote. the defiant far-right acolytes of former president donald trump in the house republican caucus have embarked on a targeted campaign ahead of the midterm elections to expand their ranks and extend their power on capitol hill. the effort backed by trump and guided by house members such as georgia's marjorie taylor greene and north carolina's marjory cawthorn is part of the movement to purge the gop of those not deemed loyal to the former president and his false claims that the 2020 election was, in fact, r

pursuant to three u.s. code section 11 in close please find, wisconsin's electoral votes for president and vice president. there was no such thing, enclosed with that document. there was a forged documents saying wisconsin's electors voted for trump. which was not true. those were not real electors. these documents were forged to make it look like wisconsin was officially saying trump won the state, when actually biden did. it's amazing that they did that, in the milwaukee journal sentinel, who had this scoop that the republicans had done that secretly behind closed doors. while the real electors were meeting down the hall, they had this no toward the end of their reporting that day. again, this is just over a year, ago this was december last year quote. the electoral college votes now go to congress, will count them on january six. vice president mike pence will fight preside over the tally. some republicans have raised the possibility of having members of congress challenge the results of some states. and

they pled with u.s. senators to pass federal legislation to protect the right to vote in every state, even those controlled by republicans. they delayed the passage of that voter suppression bill in texas by weeks and weeks by fleeing themselves across the country to take that stand. these are students all over the state of oklahoma this fall participating in a surprisingly large and sustained series of high school student walkouts, to protest the scheduled execution of a man named julius jones. julius jones had been on death row in oklahoma for nearly 20 years for a murder he says he did not commit. serious questions have been raised about the fairness of his trial and whether or not he's truly guilty of the crime for which he's been sentenced to death. lots and lots of people in oklahoma mobilized this year to try to move the governor to please not kill this man, please call off the execution. in the end it worked. hours before the execution was scheduled hundreds of people gathered at the oklahoma sta

but additionally u.s. senators, u.s. house races, state and local races, now turn to republican as well. now turn to republican. see, if you just declare numbered and, see how troops go take all the ballots and declare that most votes don't count that it's easy. republicans win everywhere. and it's got this really weird stuff about how it is china who really ran the election except when we say china, kind of what we mean has been [inaudible] . even though those are very far apart on the globe. it's the same. the powerpoint has an inside picture of the brother of the vice president of venezuela. it describes him as the likely mastermind of the whole election plot. that said it also says that china is the mastermind of the election plot. it least, that's what i think that this means. quote, china has leverage. venezuela, as well. china uses venezuela like a fork. so it's venezuela who is the mastermind, but he is just a tool being used by china. again, this is something that is reportedly briefed to republican members of c

he spent 30 years in the u.s. senate, eight of them as majority leader. he spent another five years in the house before that. and he earned a reputation as a gritty, determined, behind-the-scenes fighter in the capitol. now, that reputation was never more deserved than when he managed to steer president obama's landmark healthcare bill through the senate in 2009 over unified republican opposition, possibly his greatest legislative achievement. but harry reid was also -- will also be remembered for presiding over the senate during a time when republican reached new heights under president obama who reid had encouraged to run for president. i had the opportunity to speak to senator reid last year. do you feel that the republicans have adequately resisted in any way, shape, or form what the president has done and said to try and paint this electoral system as rigged? >> the united states is a country that people look to with envy because of our two-party system. it's worked out well. i believe in the two-party system. the republican party, the democratic par

it is, however a basic principle that the u.s. constitution is the fundamental and paramount law of the nation and the province and duty of the judiciary to say what the law is. indeed, if the legislatures of the several states may, at will, annul the judgments of the courts of the united states and destroy the rights acquired under those judgments, the constitution itself becomes a solemn mockery. the nature of the federal right infringed does not matter. it is the role of the supreme court in our constitutional system that is at stake. that was chief justice john roberts today, mr. under statement, nevertheless saying that letting texas ban abortion this way means state can just over rule the constitution now. states can overrule the federal court. supreme court doesn't have to be obeyed anymore, not if this is how it's going to go from her on out. chief justice mayore was on the side of the argument, as well and said, quote, the court should have put an end to this madness months ago before the ban first went into effect. it fa