Summary
Rep. Matt Gaetz speaks to conservative women`s group while facing a sex trafficking investigation. President Joe Biden orders study on Supreme Court. Biden reveals portions of budget plan. Derek Chauvin jury hears testimony from medical experts. Pfizer asks FDA to OK vaccine for kids 12 to 15 years old. RNC has reserved Mar-a-Lago for 400-person banquet Saturday night. Crimes against Asian American have spike in the wake of racist rhetoric around COVID pandemic.
Transcript
ALI VELSHI, MSNBC HOST: -- about making history and her new controversial agenda to pair police with social workers in the fight against crime in her city. And Senator Bernie Sanders joins me to discuss how a big -- how big a blow to unionization efforts the loss of a vote in an Amazon plant was and what he thinks he can do in an effort to get Biden`s infrastructure plan passed. Velshi air Saturday and Sunday mornings 8 a.m. Eastern right here on MSNBC. The 11th Hour with Brian Williams begins now.
CHRIS JANSING, MSNBC HOST: Good evening, once again. I`m Chris Jansing, in for Brian Williams. Day 80 of the Biden administration.
Tonight, we`re hearing from an embattled Congressman and Trump loyalists Matt Gaetz himself. He spoke publicly for the first time since those reports surfaced of an ongoing Justice Department investigation into potential sex trafficking, possibly involving a minor.
Federal investigators are also said to be looking into allegations of payments for sex, as well as possible public corruption involving a state Senate campaign. A couple of hours ago, Gaetz took to the stage at a Save America Summit hosted by the conservative group women for America first and held at the Trump Doral hotel.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MATT GAETZ (R-FL): I`m built for the battle and I`m not going anywhere. The smears against me range from distortions of my personal life to wild and I mean wild conspiracy theories. I won`t be intimidated by lying media. And I won`t be extorted by a former DOJ officials and the crooks he is working with, the truth will prevail. So when you see the leaks, and the lies, and the false hoods, and the smears, when you see the anonymous sources and insiders forecasting my demise, know this, they are really coming for me. They`re coming for you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JANSING: Earlier today, the House Ethics Committee announced its own investigation into Gaetz for sexual misconduct. His office responded to that with this statement. "Once again, the office will reiterate these allegations are blatantly false and have not been validated by a single human being willing to put their name behind them."
Gaetz is now lawyered up. He`s hired two New York white collar defense attorneys, including Marc Mukasey, who has also represented the Trump Organization.
The White House, meantime, is now looking to the future of the Supreme Court. The President ordering a 180 day study on potentially adding more seats and whether there should be term limits for justices. During the campaign, Biden said the judicial nomination process was, "getting out of whack."
The President today also unveiled parts of his first budget proposal. He`s asking Congress to sign off on a $1.5 trillion spending plan that concentrates largely on domestic programs. This would be on top of his $1.9 trillion stimulus package and the separate plan to spend 2.3 trillion on the nation`s infrastructure.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I look forward to working with Congress to advance these and other priorities. I think we`re going to be able to get. I`m hoping we will have bipartisan support across the board.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JANSING: This was also day 10 of the Derek Chauvin trial. Jurors heard from the medical examiner, who conducted the autopsy on George Floyd and signed the death certificate. The doctor stood by his original ruling that Floyd`s death was a homicide.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ANDREW BAKER, CHIEF MEDICAL EXAMINER HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA: As a medical examiner, we applied the term homicide when the actions of other people were involved in an individual`s death. In my opinion, the law enforcement`s of dual restraint and the neck compression was just more than Mr. Floyd could take.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JANSING: But under cross examination, the medical examiner did note other factors may have contributed to Floyd`s death.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So in your opinion, both the heart disease as well as the history of hypertension and the drug, the drugs that were in his system played a role in Mr. Floyd`s death?
BAKER: In my opinion, yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JANSING: The jury also heard from a pathologist who agreed with the medical examiners overall finding. She was definitive when it came to the role of the police.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you agree with Dr. Baker`s determination on the cause of death?
DR. LINDSEY THOMAS, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: Yes, I do. Cardiopulmonary arrest, complicating law enforcement`s of dual restraint and neck compression. In this case, I believe the primary mechanism of death is asphyxia or low oxygen. There`s no evidence to suggest he would have died that night, except for the interactions with law enforcement.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JANSING: The defense is expected to begin presenting its case sometime next week. As for the still ongoing battle against the pandemic COVID cases are still rising across the nation. Pfizer is now asking the FDA to allow its COVID vaccine for kids ages 12 to 15. That request comes as deliveries of Johnson & Johnson single shot vaccine are expected to drop by more than 80% next week due to ongoing manufacturing problems. The White House says health officials are working to make sure the situation does not impact its mass vaccination drive.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On Johnson & Johnson, the company is working closely with the FDA to resolve any manufacturing issues. Johnson & Johnson has also reiterated its commitment to provide at or near 100 million vaccine doses by the end of May.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JANSING: With that, let`s bring in our leadoff guests on this Friday night, Peter Baker, Chief White House Correspondent for The New York Times, Eugene Daniels, White House Correspondent for Politico and co-author of each day`s edition of Politico Playbook, and Danny Cevallos, a Veteran Criminal Defense Attorney who`s tried cases ranging from white collar crimes to first degree murder.
Great to have all of you here on a Friday night. Let`s turn Florida, Peter, I`m not going anywhere. I mean, Matt Gaetz clearly is taking a page out of the Donald Trump crisis playbook or maybe ignoring the fact that using the playbook actually cost Trumpest job. But give us the big picture, what is the Gaetz strategy? And how does or does not Trump play into it?
PETER BAKER, CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Well, of course Congressman Gaetz wants to make this all about Trump and the anti-Trump firm rather, he`s trying to associate himself with the Trump base of his of whom he has been a leading champion, obviously, in the last four years and saying this is all political. It`s all the same kind of persecution that they went after the president that the supporters really, you know, admire.
But the problem from him is that he has not actually been embraced by many of the figures in Trump`s world. Trump himself has only issued a two sentence statement, which basically said no, he didn`t directly ask me for a blanket pardon. And it should be remember that he denies the charges. That`s all that Trump said, he didn`t say believed him, he didn`t say he`s being unfairly treated. He didn`t come to Congressman Gaetz`s defense in any way and neither that matter of most of the people in the Trump orbit. So what you see the Congressman trying to do today is put himself in that position as get another victim in the Trump view of the, you know, the people were out to get them.
JANSING: And for everybody who has been following the story, of course, all this comes on the heels of Joel Greenberg, the Seminole County tax collector who has been charged with many of the kinds of things that are involved in this whole story, his lawyer suggesting that he`ll make a deal with prosecutors and saying, "I`m sure Matt Gaetz is not feeling very comfortable today." Had Gaetz`s longtime sparring partner, Michael Cohen, issuing a kind of warning for him earlier tonight with our email. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL COHEN, FORMER ATTORNEY TO DONALD TRUMP: He`s learning nothing but Gaetz`s behavior was so brazen and so stupid, that it actually boggles the mind, because the only reasonable explanation for his behavior is that he felt that he wouldn`t be protected by Donald Trump and his corrupt Justice Department. So he must have been petrified when Trump lost the election there following Donald Trump`s playbook. And as I explained before the House Oversight Committee that I know the playbook and it didn`t work for me, and it`s certainly not going to work for you. So Matt Gaetz really needs to smarten up and understand that he`s in very serious trouble.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JANSING: So we did report, Eugene, Gaetz has hired a couple of big time lawyers. He also hired a P.R. firm that includes a former contestant from the apprentice. So when he said tonight that he`s built for battle, he does seem to be organizing his troops, what do you think we`re going to see?
EUGENE DANIELS, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, "POLITICO": I think we`re going to see more of the same, right? You saw him in that speech that you guys show. And as Peter was saying, he is - he doesn`t seem to be going anyway. He`s doing the Trump thing of doubling down, tripling down, flooding the zone, and more importantly, daring people to come after him, right? And, you know, some of my colleagues got in contact with some people who represent, claim to be representing Gaetz and would say, how close they are but saying that, you know, asking questions, or talking about the relationship between former President Trump and Matt Gaetz could get them sue. We wrote stories about that at politico.com. And so, it`s all of the same vein. And this idea that Gaetz is going to high, he`s going to go away, he`s going to continue to go out. He`s going to continue to go tweet and talk to think even if a lawyer would probably tell you during this time to not do things like that.
And more importantly, what you know, we talked about earlier, the House Ethics Committee talking about an investigation into these things that are happening, these allegations, that doesn`t usually happen, unless the Justice Department says they`re doing something, and they have yet to do so. And so there`s a lot going on here, and also the minority leader in the House, McCarthy, also not really supporting him saying that if these, you know, he called them serious allegations, and if they were true, who would be pulled off of his committee assignments? So he`s having a hard time finding friends. But also you don`t have Republicans calling for his resignation or anything like that just yet writ large. And that`s something I think that he`s going to hold on to.
JANSING: So Danny, what are you watching for? Obviously, we`re looking for whether or not there`s going to be a plea deal. We`re looking for what the next move might be by prosecutors. But I guess big picture, if there are these discussions going on? What kind of conversations are they? And how long could it be before we know?
DANNY CEVALLOS, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Here`s the key. And among the many federal laws that address what Matt Gaetz is being investigated for, whether it`s the man act, whether it`s section 1591, it involves illegal sexual activities paying for sex, sex trafficking, none of them criminalize lawful sex. So for now, the only information that is being reported is that yes, Matt Gaetz may have paid money that through Venmo, or some other app that may have ended up in the hands of women, so far, no crime yet. But the real key for me as a criminal defense attorney, especially, is will any of these people, including this Greenberg character, or any of the women, will they turn on him? Will they enter into a plea deal? And will they become blue operating witnesses against Matt Gaetz, because that is the biggest factor. There is nothing so devastating to a criminal defendant than one of your old buddies, or somebody that you knew coming into court. And even though they`re under a plea deal, and even though they`re only there to benefit themselves, there`s something about them pointing at your client, and saying, that`s the guy that done did it that really resonates with the jury.
JANSING: So simultaneously, now we have, Peter, the House Ethics Committee looking into this, not only sexual misconduct, but things like whether or not he shared inappropriate images with other members of Congress while on the floor of the house. I mean, what if anything though, are we likely to learn out of this? And what could it mean for Matt Gaetz?
BAKER: Well, I think the House Ethics Committee is going to probably be a lagging indicator. They`re going to wait and see what the prosecutors do before coming to any kind of conclusion of their own. They don`t have the resources or the tools to do the kind of investigation that presumably the prosecutors have in front of them right now. It`s not like they`re going to call as witnesses, you know, Matt Gaetz is running buddy or the women who are, you know, allegedly involved in this thing. So they`re going to basically be open a case so that basically, if there are charges if there is progress toward this case, they can move in and perhaps issue, you know, some sort of a judgment of some sort. But I think the real case for Gaetz obviously the real worry for him is the criminal side of this. That`s the thing where he faces serious jeopardy.
JANSING: Danny, there`s more reporting on the Manhattan DA looking into Donald Trump and The Washington Post reports tonight, about payments to a CEO son, "Trump`s company paid a skating rink manager more than $200,000 in annual salary, $40,000 yearly bonuses and provided free company on departments for his family, according to testimony of the employee, Barry Weisselberg, and his financial documents." I mean, much like with Gaetz, The Washington Post is reporting that prosecutors are maneuvering to secure Allen Weisselberg`s cooperation. That`s the son. Where could this be going?
CEVALLOS: There`s no question that in the past month, there have been major troop movements in the Manhattan DA`s offices. They bring on people specially suited for this white collar style investigation of the Trump industries finances, and Allen Weisselberg features prominently there. But the key in ascribing criminal responsibility to someone like Trump is showing that he knew about or was willfully blind to these activities, if they end up being criminal activities.
As with many large companies, there are many strata of people that could be potentially responsible and the key for prosecutors is going all the way up that ladder, and somehow connecting the guy at the top to the bad behavior. And if they can do that, if he was aware of and condoned it, and there was something untoward, then they may have a prime there. But you see them looking into tax records, business records, it could be something as simple as inflating your value to get favorable loans and deflating your value when the tax man come.
JANSING: And there are other things that are going on that don`t involve court cases, but in this case, Peter, involved the highest court in the land with President Biden, as we said, ordering that 180-day study of adding seats to the Supreme Court. Is this likely to go anywhere? How big fight could this shape up to be?
BAKER: No, I don`t think this is going anywhere. If you really wanted to do something like this, you don`t appoint a commission, stake 180 days to study it without making any recommendations. This commission was told not to make a recommendation. You`re not going to take an action without a recommendation. This is just out there to fulfill I think his campaign promise to look at it. You know, he`s only got a 50/50 senate with the Vice President breaking the tie. He`s got a barely a, you know, a majority of Democrats in the House. The last Democrat, the Vice President who tried to pack the court was FDR, didn`t work well in his favor. And he had a whole lot bigger majorities. So I don`t think it`s actually intending to go anywhere. I think it`s just trying to, you know, satisfy the progressive wing of his party, which is frustrated that a seat was stolen from them, as they view it by Mitch McConnell, when he refused to even consider Barack Obama`s appointment nomination of Merrick Garland in 2016. But I think this is more for show than it is for, you know, an actual serious initiative at this point.
JANSING: No show here, Eugene, the more immediate a Biden challenge is his budget proposal, the one and a half trillion dollar spending plan that largely is about domestic programs, on top of the $1.9 trillion stimulus package, 2.3 on infrastructure, what`s he going to get?
DANIELS: Probably not exactly what he`s looking for on this, right. When presidents put out their budget, the, you know, the Congress says that`s nice and kind of does what it wants. Right now you have a Congress that has been working mostly in lockstep with this president, only three months into this presidency. But what`s really fascinating is that as you`ve laid up all of these trillions of dollars that Biden wants to spend as President, he`s completely leaning into this idea. And Democrats are doing good in ways that they haven`t before, that the government should be bigger, that that is the only way to grow and cement the success of the country.
The economic success and success for you and your families to grow -- pull people out of poverty. And that`s something that is a little bit risky, however, after the year in this pandemic, where people have seen the government do things that they haven`t before, and that has been very popular. I think the Biden ministration Democrats writ large are counting on that where people don`t, even Republicans, to maybe be rethinking the way that we think about government. It`s a bet for him to make, like Peter was saying versus the majorities in the House. And, you know, they are the majority in the Senate there with, his Vice President casting that tie breaking vote. And so would it be something to watch as he pushes all of this money, but this is, you know, this tells us what he wants to do as president when it comes to things that aren`t reactionary, right? The COVID Relief Bill is reactionary. Even the infrastructure, by definition is looking at things that are already broken and that need to be fixed. So this is going to be something that we`re obviously watching and seeing if Congress agrees with him on it.
JANSING: Yeah, if Congress agrees on it, and how much mojo he gets out of his approval ratings, which remain well over 50%. Eugene Daniels, great to see you, Peter Baker, thank you as well, Danny is going to stay with us just a little bit longer because coming up more on the disturbingly familiar themes emerging in the defense of Derek Chauvin. Will they leave a reasonable doubt with the jury?
And later, a bumpy road for the Republican Party and Matt Gaetz isn`t making things any easier. Two political insiders will join us for a look at the challenges facing the GOP. The 11th Hour is just getting underway on a Friday night.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
A. BAKER: Mr. Floyd`s use of fentanyl did not cause the sub duel or neck restraint. His heart disease did not cause the subdual or the neck restraint.
THOMAS: It was not the type of death that has been reported in fentanyl overdose, for example, where someone becomes very sleepy, and then just sort of gradually, calmly, peacefully stops breathing. This was not that kind of a death.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JANSING: Witnesses, day 10 of the Derek Chauvin trial, both agreeing it was pressure on George Floyd`s neck that led to his death. Yet Chauvin`s Defense Attorney once again pressed doctors about Floyd`s past drug use and the condition of his heart. Vox writes, "The defense`s strategy of focusing on Floyd`s drug use has drawn parallels to a long history of painting Black men killed by police as criminals and drug addicts."
Here with us again tonight, Brittany Packnett Cunningham, a veteran activist on matters of race and social justice, and former member of President Obama`s 21st Century Policing Task Force. She`s now the host of the podcast, Undistracted, also remaining with us, our Legal Analyst Danny Cevallos.
Great to have you here, so when the testimony today began to turn toward George Floyd`s health in the presence of drugs in his system, I mean, Brittany, what did you hear in terms of the focus of this trial by the defense?
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM, FORMER MEMBER OF OBAMA POLICING TASK FORCE: I heard the same thing I heard when I read a headline back in 2014, that called Michael Brown Jr., who is killed by Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson, no angel. This repetitive engagement of placing the victims of police violence on trial, especially when they are black and they are black men, as Vox already said, that is repeated history in this country. I think it was important that earlier in this trial, the judge very clearly stated that there was only certain testimony that he was going to allow him because we should all be getting the message that George Floyd is not on trial. That`s part of the reason why on my podcast and in other spaces, I`m very clear to name this the Derek Chauvin trial because George Floyd is not the person here who engaged in a criminal act, and it cost somebody their life. In fact, he is the one who continues to suffer, as does his family. So this is repeated for us. We knew that this was coming, because it always does and it`s important for this judge and most importantly for this country to hold the line.
JANSING: There`s another part of this to, the first of it being the drugs, the bad heart. But the second part is this angry mob theory which I`d like you to address, the suggestion that people who were yelling their concern for George Floyd were somehow distracting the police from paying attention to what was happening to Floyd.
CUNNINGHAM: I mean, if the police are unable to do their job while passersby and bystanders are not angry, but actually trying to save a man`s life, then what in the world that we`ve been pouring millions and millions and millions of dollars into training them for? The idea that people who are licensed to carry guns in our communities shouldn`t be held to a higher standard is preposterous. If the commitment is to serve and protect then that actually has to be what plays out. And if that does not play out, you can`t convince me that there`s some great distraction that doesn`t allow you to do your job.
Fundamentally, we have to look at an institution that continues to grow its budget, but then have people like Derek Chauvin say that it was impossible for him to do his job humanely, because people were taking issue with him, putting his knee on the neck of a man for almost nine minutes. Either he followed his training, and Derek and the other officers and the entire institution of policing are guilty, or he went beyond the scope of his training. But his fellow officers just stood there and watched and endangered others who tried to stop them, which also means that Chauvin and the other officers and the entire system is guilty. No matter what the outcome is, we have to continue to hold the system accountable.
JANSING: And let us not forget that it`s one of those folks, who was standing on that sidewalk who took the video that made George Floyd a household name, who may well have meant that this went to trial. And it was fascinating to hear today this from the pathologist who was on the stand, Dr. Lindsey Thomas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
THOMAS: There`s never been a case I was involved with that had video and frame and from so many different perspectives.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JANSING: The thing about the videos, Danny, is they are so powerful, but they`re backed up by medical and eyewitness testimony. Apparently the jury yesterday was wrapped when a world renowned pulmonologist went through in excruciating detail exactly what George Floyd had to endure. Do you think the defense made any progress today? Is there a gap in the case you`re looking for prosecutors to fill when they come back on Monday?
CEVALLOS: The defense made a little headway today. But that was to be expected. We all knew for some time now that, Baker, the medical examiner had made some statements that the prosecution probably wasn`t too thrilled with. That`s probably why you see them, calling him as a witness after two really powerful scientific witnesses we saw today, forensic examiner, and then you see them, has said things in his report that weren`t, so it`s made a little headway by asking the questions well, was fentanyl were drugs a factor in death? And he had to admit, yes, they were. But that`s not going to be quite enough for the defense. The defense has to get past the idea that the knee in the back of the neck was a substantial factor in George Floyd`s death.
In Minnesota, if it set the event in motion that led to his death that`s enough for conviction, and so the defense in a way has the burden, which is a rare thing for the defense because it never has the burden. But in this sense, it has to show that the knee and the back of the neck was really no factor in the death of George Floyd. That`s why the raising drug abuse, that`s why the raising a 90% occlusion of his vessels in his heart, and that`s why they`re developing the causation defense. If they`re successful, causation is a get out of jail free card.
JANSING: Danny Cevallos and Brittany Packnett Cunningham, thanks to both of you.
Coming up, in the words of one prominent newspaper, all Republican roads lead to Mar-a-Lago. We`ll assess the political power of the twice impeached former guy in Florida when the 11th Hour continues.
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JANSING: Former President Trump`s Mar-a-Lago Club in West Palm Beach has a busy weekend ahead. The Washington Post reports quote, Saturday night the Republican National Committee has reserved Mar-a-Lago for a 400 person banquet. The price tag for that dinner more than $100,000 according to a person involved in the planning. The GOP is still Donald Trump`s Party. The clearest proof of that it`s still finding ways to pay Donald Trump money.
Back with us tonight, Jason Johnson, a campaign veteran and journalists, contributor to The Grio and Professor of politics and journalism at Morgan State University. Bill Kristol, the author and writer and thinker and Politico, a veteran of the Reagan and Bush administrations and editor-at- large of The Bulwark. Great to see you guys.
So Jason, give me your assessment. How much power does Donald Trump still have over the Republican Party?
JASON JOHNSON, PROFESSOR AT MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY: He has all the power and until they can come up with another leader. The people who are the supposed the arrow parents of Donald Trump, Josh Hawley, you know, Ted Cruz, DeSantis, none of them have the charisma. None of them have the reputation. None of them have the Q rating of Donald Trump.
So it`s not uncommon for the last president to, you know, from that party to still be the party leader. The problem is, he`s disgraced and he`s hated and he`s lowed by a large chunk of the population. And he has been contracted consistently with a much more calm and seemingly thus far competent president of the United States and Joe Biden.
So, I don`t know why Republicans keep going to the same well, but I don`t think they have a lot of ideas. And we saw that last fall. They literally had no party platform other than reaffirming their loyalty to Donald Trump, so they`re going to stick with this as long as they can, and what they can`t accomplish in the ballot box. They will accomplish through voter suppression or violence. And Trump`s the number -- one number one way to get that done.
JANSING: You have a message for them, Bill, with this group you work with called the Republican Accountability Project. This new ad you`ve got out, I want to play just a little bit of it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio, Kevin McCarthy, Ron Johnson. What are they doing this weekend? They are going tomorrow Mar-a- Lago to kiss Donald Trump`s ring, pledged their loyalty to a man who incited a mob against our Capitol, to a man who tried to cancel our democracy, to a man that has turned the Republican Party to the immorality party.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JANSING: Bill, who`s your audience here? Are there still people who don`t have a firm enough opinion of Trump or the direction of the Republican Party? Tell us what something like that you think might be able to accomplish?
BILL KRISTOL, THE BULWARK EDITOR-AT-LARGE: I think it`s useful reminder, I hope to some people and how much the party remains Trump`s party despite everything he did, not just as President, not just neglect and of COVID and all this, other logistical act, but the otter mishandling of the pandemic. And then of course, after November 3 the big lie interaction and yet, and yet, and if you`ll notice the ad we don`t we have other ads where we criticized, of course, Mark Gates and Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene and all those characters.
But who`s in this ad, Marco Rubio, Lindsey Graham, both ran for president in 2016, very critical of Donald Trump. Ron Johnson, who was a kind of mainstream senator from a swing state, and Kevin McCarthy, the House Republican leader, these are the -- five years ago, you would have said this is kind of the mainstream of the Republican Party and actually is the nation of the Republican Party. And that`s what`s so terrible.
And so hopefully, an ad like this might cause a few people to think is this where we want to go. I mean, Trump may be, you know, they all like Trump.
JANSING: But Bill --
KRISTOL: They were willing to defend it. But they want to stick with this.
JANSING: Time after time after time, they`ve had an opportunity to step up, including after the insurrection at the Capitol. I mean, you`ve got Gaetz, who`s defiant tonight. Congressman Adam Kinzinger is the only Republican calling on him to step down. You and I are old enough to remember what a sex scandal would take to a politician. What`s the Gaetz situation going to tell us about congressional Republicans about Senate Republicans?
KRISTOL: About no person listening to see Jason`s ready to say something? Yes, no, it`s terrible. Well, who has called -- who`s even criticized it, who said, we don`t know if there`s only got exactly the legality or what illegality, but is this behavior, resistance suitable behavior for a member of Congress? What about all the embezzled the grift of the Trump fundraising having to give back $120 million?
Those ads that went from Trump to the (INAUDIBLE) is very revealing, I think to the Republican National Congressional Committee, the same sort of dishonest ads where they automatically sign you up each month and then double your contribution and say, if you don`t keep this box checked, which doubles your contribution and keeps it makes it a monthly contribution, then you`re defecting from Donald Trump. We`re going to tell him about it. I mean, the thuggishness (ph), the kind of cult of personal, the creepiness that`s pervade, that`s gone from Trump throughout the party, I`m afraid.
JANSING: And Matt Gaetz is, Jason, fundraising off of this, you know, comparing what he`s going through to the Russia hoax.
JOHNSON: Yes, well, Chris, I`m not surprised by any of this. Look, if you can bring yourself to vote for Donald Trump, then any of the sort of accolades that come from him are people that you can accept whether it`s Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Greene`s, you know, who`s running -- who`s ahead in the polls right now running for Senate in Missouri. You don`t care about sexism, you don`t care about misogyny, you don`t care about adultery. And I`ve said this all along with Matt Gaetz.
When it comes to the Republican Party still, you can get away with being right as long as this scandal has to do with him engaging (inaudible) Republicans who are perfectly fine with it, who may or may not be associated, who will call it useful hygiene`s (ph), who will say that it`s all a scam, et cetera, et cetera. I`m not surprised.
I don`t think Matt Gaetz will be able to get out of this. I think at some point, he will eventually have too many legal problems to continue to have any respect within the caucus, because he doesn`t have much to begin with. But it doesn`t change the overall fervor of the Republican Party for these kinds of people. Somebody else will step in and be Matt Gaetz, Matt Gaetz came in because Devin Nunez has sort of fallen off. When he falls off it`ll be Marjorie Taylor Greene. There`s always somebody willing to line up to be the next internet, Fox News, OAN and Newsmax superstar of the Republican Party rather than, I don`t know, actually trying to pass policy and make the country functional.
JANSING: I mean, we`re out of time, but do you think he`s going to fall off? Do you think that this is going to have an impact on him? Is he going to lose his job?
JOHNSON: Honestly, I think he`s eventually going to resign. I don`t think he`ll be able to run again because somebody will probably primarily by next year. But it doesn`t mean to end a year and a half, he`s not going to have a job somewhere, someone`s going to give them a podcast, it`s going to be on YouTube, because there is no shame anymore for these kinds of situations. And he`ll claim that the deep state destroyed him and that they faked his Venmo and at all this is ridiculous. I am waiting for the Matt Gaetz show to begin sometime in the spring of 2023.
JANSING: Jason Johnson, Bill Kristol, great to see you guys on a Friday night. I don`t know if Bill is going to be able to go to bed tonight. But anyway, thanks to both of you. And coming up, we`re going to talk to one of my MSNBC colleagues who were to book about his personal journey told during a particularly tense time in the Asian-American community when The 11th Hour continues.
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JANSING: Unfortunately, this past week saw even more reports of crimes against Asian Americans. Our local affiliate in New York City reports that just two days ago, a 25-year-old victim was sitting outside an ice cream shop when a stranger made anti-Asian comments and then slapped her. A recent study found anti-Asian hate crimes rose by nearly 150 percent in some of America`s largest cities last year.
I`m so pleased to have my friend and colleague Richard Lui joining us tonight. He`s out with a new book called "Enough About Me, The Unexpected Power of Selflessness."
Great to see you Richard, thank you for coming on. And before we get to the bottom line premise of your book, I was struck by a passage that`s so timely where you write. I`ve had trouble my whole life knowing what Asian American means. Doesn`t Asian equal Chinese? That`s what I passively assumed as a kid. No. Asia has more than 50 different countries.
Tell us that about your experience growing up and your thoughts about what we`re all seeing today.
RICHARD LUI, MSNBC HOST: Yes, Chris, and thanks for having me tonight. And it`s one of those situations where, you know, what the term Asian American means actually has 50 different origin countries. So when you have rhetoric like China virus and Kung Flu, you know, although it`s aimed at potentially one of those groups, all 50 groups experience that hate incidents, that anti-Asian trend that we`re seeing right now.
You brought up one who was just getting ice cream here in New York, there`s the Home Depot or another individual 28 years old, and suddenly screens, also anti-Asian words towards him, and then picks up a two by four piece of wood and comes after him. There`s the hate crime, New York PD, NYPD hate crime officer who actually got threatened himself in the last day or so according to local reports at Penn Station.
So when we see all of these, Chris, we question ourselves, are we here, despite being American, that is what every single Asian American goes through when we see these stories.
JANSING: And your book began, really with a quite many questions that you had of yourself. And it wasn`t what I expected. There`s a lot of research and science behind selflessness that`s in this book, and it started when your dad was diagnosed with Alzheimer`s. It was at a time when your career was very much on the move. And you had to make a choice, as you put it to stay on your path, or join 53 million other Americans and become a caregiver. What did you discover?
LUI: You know, first of all, Chris, you and I had worked together for many years on your show. And I remember that.
JANSING: Yes.
LUI: That was before my father was diagnosed. And then he got diagnosed Alzheimer`s, and I had to ask if I could work two or three days a week basically, in our kind company said yes. And that decision, you know, that long journey of becoming a journalist and broadcast journalism is not an easy one.
And so to say that you only want to work two or three days is, I think very clarifying about what you care about. And some of those things that my father fought for, for me growing up, I knew I had to fight for him as he was going through the journey of Alzheimer`s.
He`s now in year eight. He gained a pound, Chris, in the last year during COVID. So I call him fatso. But that`s because, you know, every pound counts, right? Every pound counts.
JANSING: Yes. Progress.
LUI: Absolutely.
JANSING: Well, listen, I wish we had more time. But people who are in this situation with caregiving, everybody, I think, knows somebody who`s in that situation. But really, this is a much bigger book, about how when you put yourself out there, there are so many things you can do. And there`s research that backs it up. That can be life changing.
LUI: That`s right.
JANSING: And I think in the time of COVID, when a lot of people are looking to see how do I get out of this malaise? How do I get out of this depression? How do I make this opportunity something? This is the book for them. Congrats, Richard Lui. The book again is "Enough About Me, The Unexpected Power of Selflessness." Good to see Richard.
LUI: Good to see you, Chris. Thank you.
JANSING: Best to your family. And coming up, holding the January 6 rioters accountable. NBC News is taking part in a special investigation to find those who stormed the Capitol. Our Richard Engel brings us the story on The 11th Hour continues.
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JANSING: Three months since the deadly insurrection at our nation`s capital and the search to hold those accountable continues. This week, 10 Democratic lawmakers joined a federal lawsuit that accuses Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani of inciting the angry mob on January 6, as more arrests are made in connection to the violence at the Capitol, this Sunday at 10:00 p.m. Eastern, we`ll get a closer look at the critical moments of the attack through the eyes of the attackers as well as the key leaders involved.
Tonight NBC News chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel has a preview of his upcoming special On Assignment, "Our House." A joint investigation by NBC News, open source website Bellingcat and its volunteers, all of it into the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6. Richard, good evening.
RICHARD ENGEL, NBC NEWS CHIEF FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT: Chris, this project took a long time when you`re dealing with thousands of hours of video, a lot of it`s cell phone video taken by the attackers, you have to put it in chronological order, you have to match events to events, you have to use that video to help identify the same individuals who keep popping up in different locations. Sometimes you have to slow down the video to understand what is going and if you watched it everyone by now has watched these videos that the attackers took during the capital riots.
They were shaky. They were full of profanities. So we went through a together with Bellingcat, the investigative group all these videos and tried to make sense of them and when you lay them out, put them in order. You like a puzzle piece. When you put all the puzzle pieces out, you start to see patterns. And those patterns were key events, key moments that allowed the attackers to get into the Capitol and carry out their rampage until they were eventually pushed out.
It also highlighted some individuals who pop up again and again whose stories were typical of the kind of people who took part in this assault, and one of them is Jessica Watkins.
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ENGEL (voice-over): A group forms a stack. A military formation used to enter and clear buildings. In the staff is Jessica Watkins.
38-year-old Jessica Watkins served in the Army and deploy to Afghanistan. Watkins is a transgender woman, and according to her own account, she received another than honorable discharge. When the army determined her presenting as a female was unacceptable.
She ran a bar in Ohio with her boyfriend. Earlier on January 6, she`d been at President Trump`s Save America rally providing security she claims with a group called the Oath Keepers, a militia largely made up of former military and police.
As Watkins walks from Trump`s rally by the White House to the Capitol, she speaks on a walkie talkie app on her phone. The conversation suggests advanced planning.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What kind of numbers do we have gone to the Capitol? Any estimates? What percentage of that crowd has gone to the Capitol?
JESSICA WATKINS, MEMBER OF THE FAR-RIGHT OATH KEEPERS: 100 percent. Everybody`s marching on the Capitol. All million of us. It`s insane. We`re about two blocks away from it now. And police are doing nothing. They`re not even trying to stop us at this point.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
ENGEL: Jessica Watkins is in custody facing charges. More than 400 people have been charged with the Capitol assault and some face up to 20 years in prison. Chris.
JANSING: Fascinating stuff Richard Engel. Thanks for the preview and you can see On Assignment with Richard Engel this Sunday night 10:00 p.m. Eastern only here on MSNBC. Coming up, a look back at the life of Prince Philip when The 11th Hour continues.
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JANSING: The last thing before we go tonight is the passing of His Royal Highness Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Buckingham Palace announced earlier today that Queen Elizabeth II husband of 73 years had died. Prince Philip was 99 years old. And you can imagine being royalty, the prince like his wife, was used to being recognized everywhere he was well, almost everywhere.
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PRINCE PHILIP, DUKE OF EDINBURGH: It`s very nearly 40 years since the first time I came to Washington. In fact, we came here, I came with the Queen before she`d succeeded in President Truman`s day. So just makes you realize how old I am. And it was a splendid day because it just at that time, if you remember that there was -- there`s been a general election at home. And Winston Churchill adjust his party just got back in again.
And while we here in Washington, some splendid rather elderly lady, I don`t think I knew what was going on, she greeted the Queen by saying I`m so pleased your father`s been reelected. Somebody standing next to her got really rather embarrassed knew much better about. He said no, no dear, that was Winston Churchill, says he turned to me who I`m so pleased to meet you.
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JANSING: That`s Prince Philip speaking to reporters in Washington 31 years ago. And that is our broadcast for this Friday night. Thank you for being with us. Brian will be back on Monday and on behalf of all my colleagues at the networks of NBC News, good night.