legislation than anything passed -- anything passed at least the last two democratic presidents. legislatively in terms of its progressive reach, in terms of its reach to make things better for people who need the most help. it is definitely on par with the affordable care act, with obamacare. but this bill, what the senate passed this weekend, what the house will pass tomorrow, what president biden is about to sign, will hit a wider target than the affordable care act ever aimed at. as huge an accomplishment as that was to reform the absolutely broke and broken u.s. health care system to try to improve it in a fundamental way, this bill is bigger. it is aiming at more. it will strike what is hoped to be a decisive blow against the pandemic in terms of funding a coherent technocratically skilled national response. everything from testing to the vaccine rollout. we are in the middle of the largest vaccine rollout in the history of the country. this is how we're going to fund it. it will cover all of that. plus basic research. plus the cdc getting its act together on data and analytics and so much more. it will expand the reach of obamacare. for millions of americans, this thing that will pass tomorrow, it will reduce your health insurance premiums. and actually for the people at the lowest end of the income spectrum, people with health insurance thanks to the affordable care act, a lot of those folks will see their health insurance premiums go to zero because of this bill passing tomorrow. this bill radically increases access to health insurance in this country. particularly for the people who can least afford it. it is expected to cut child poverty in half in this country through direct aid to families and through big, sustained tax credits for families with kids. it is expected to add 7 million jobs to the economy. it will direct $130 billion to u.s. schools. i mean, just take that piece of it. even if that's all this bill was doing, especially after what schools have been through this past year. just that school funding alone, that $130 billion for schools alone would have democrats putting on their best twin sets and shining up their shoes tonight in anticipation of what they'll pass tomorrow. just the school funding alone is a really big deal. for everybody who has been waiting on the direct stimulus payment that will come as part of this bill, apparently if the house passes it tomorrow, and there isn't a delay in getting it to the white house for the president's signature, those direct $1,400 payments may start going out next week. people who have direct deposit set up will see the money arrive first directly in their bank accounts. people who are getting a check instead of direct deposit will get it soon thereafter. the white house explained that president biden is not planning on putting his name anywhere on the check when the checks go out. and that, you know, probably shouldn't be a surprise. it's not his style really. it is a petty move for a president to do something like that. but honestly, as i get older, as i live through more and more years of republican governance, i'm getting more and more petty all the time about stuff like this. only because republican presidents put their name on everything. democratic presidents are the ones who are all modest. right? if i was a democratic president, i would put my name on that check with a big hologram on it too. so it glowed when you open the envelope. like a greeting card that plays a song when you open the envelope and would it sing my name. bling at you, sing at you. i would do anything. i would put sequins on the thing. it would be all about remembering which party made this happen and which party all voted against it. but like i said, as i develop an increasingly severe case of the o-l-d, i'm getting cattier and pettier with each passing day and biden is not doing that. it is why he is president and nobody asks my advice on these things. get petty for once. it's okay. this is a big "f"-ing deal, as somebody once said. but tomorrow will be a really big day. while democrats prepare for that big, big day, as president biden plans his big primetime speech on covid on thursday night, which should also be a big deal, thursday will be the country, our country and every country, marking the one-year anniversary of the global declaration of the pandemic. as we head toward that on thursday, as more capitol rioters get arrested every day, including two in the past two days who apparently spent the morning of the capitol attack with former president trump's friend and political adviser, roger stone, who trump pardoned for multiple federal felonies. two of the men he spent january 6th with, who have been arrested for their roles in allegedly taking part in the capitol attack. as one of the appointees of the state department was ordered by a federal judge to remain in custody going into trial because of that man's leadership role in directing capitol rioters to attack capitol police that day. as president biden's new attorney general merrick garland is finally slated to be confirmed tomorrow. so the proverbial autopsy can finally begin as to what the wreckage is at the justice department under bill barr. so someone can take the helm of the sprawling january 6th capitol attack investigation and start once again informing the public where things are going with that. with all of these things simultaneously under way, today and tonight and into tomorrow. we are keeping our eyes on all of those things. there's been a lot of developing news over the day and the evening. i'm not sure how the show will go because we are expecting continuing breaking news throughout the hour. but even as we're keeping an eye on that, there is something else that i want to direct your attention to. because to me, this is something that was already shocking at a lot of levels. but it has just veered off in a quite unexpected direction. one that i thought was farfetched at first glance which i am now starting to realize is not nearly as farfetched as i thought. all right. the year 2000, there was a sheriff's election in dekalb county, georgia. it is a really big county in georgia. it includes a big chunk of the atlanta metro area. on the east side, the county seat is decatur. in 2000 in the sheriff's election in dekalb county, the incumbent sheriff was voted out to the relief of a lot of people. the incumbent sheriff who lost that election, his name was sydney dorsey. i say it was a relief when he got voted out because he was widely perceived to be very corrupt. he was under investigation for a whole bunch of corruption allegations at the time. having his sheriff's deputies do not only personal work for him and his family but making his deputies moonlight for his personal security business on the side. there were investigations into the contracts that he had doled out for the gigantic dekalb county jail. and whether he had corrupted those contracts, too. so he was a sheriff with a terrible reputation under investigation for a lot of things. and he was up for re-election in 2000 and he lost. he lost to a guy who specifically ran against him on anti-corruption platform. his opponent saying he would come in, clean it up, fire deputies involved in these alleged schemes with the existing sheriff. it was a close race in dekalb county but the incumbent guy lost. then after the election, before the new sheriff was sworn in. actually three days before the new sheriff was due to be sworn in, the new sheriff, the anti-corruption crusader who had won the election and ousted the incumbent sheriff, he was walking up the driveway of his house in dekalb county. it was his wife's birthday. he was carrying a dozen roses for her in his arms. she heard him drive up. she knew he was home and she heard what sounded like fireworks in the driveway. and when she went out to see what was happening, there was her husband laying in the driveway dead. he had been shot 12 times. murdered in an ambush attack three days before he was due to be sworn in to start his new job as the elected sheriff of dekalb county. and the sheriff who he had defeated is the person who was indicted for arranging his murder. the outgoing sheriff who had been under investigation anyway for all those corruption charges, he was hit with state charges of felony murder, theft, violations of oath, and racketeering. racketeering. under georgia state law. ultimately he was convicted and the sheriff got life without the possibility of parole for the felony murder charge. but then on top of that, life without possibility of parole, there is nothing on top of that really but they added additional years on top of that. the violation of oath charges and the racketeering charges of which he was also convicted put an extra 23 years on his sentence in addition to life without parole. racketeering. now, racketeering is something that we associate with the mafia, right? with prosecutions of mob bosses and big, ongoing, highly structured organized crime outfits. that's what we think of as racketeering. but in state law, in georgia law, particularly, it is applied to a much wider set of crimes than you might think. it is, i'm oversimplifying here a little bit, but it is basically applied to crimes where prosecutors think they can prove a pattern of linked criminal acts. not just one-off offenses that aren't leading toward any particular aim. and i am oversimplifying that and i am not a lawyer. do not cite me in your defense if you're picked up. but you can see the way the rico charges are used in georgia. in the headlines when there are high profile cases, and those are the charges brought. the murder of the new sheriff by the corrupt outgoing sheriff, that he had defeated in the election, that was prosecuted, as i said, both as a murder and also as racketeering. convictions on both fronts. the prosecutor who litigated the case, john floyd, defended that conviction of that georgia sheriff all the way to the georgia supreme court including the racketeering charges, defended it all the way to the top level in state law and the case stood up. and that disgraced sheriff and now convicted murderer sydney dorsey is still in prison for that crime. convicted murderer, convicted racketeer. you see racketeering charges brought in georgia in also the kinds of cases that maybe seem more intuitive. there was a big set of arrests in georgia in october. targeting a street gang. they called it operation caged doves. which seems a little melodramatic. about 46 people were arrested. and a huge, big, long string of charges brought against all of them. between them, there were four charges of felony murder, four charges of kidnapping, 24 charges of aggravated assault, 3 charges of heroin trafficking, 3 charges of meth trafficking, 3 charges of various kinds of financial fraud. but look up at the top. 92 charges of racketeering. they rolled up this whole street gang. and charged them with lots of individual crimes and then charged all of them with violations of the rico act. and it is still, you should think of it as a mafia thing, something that is used against gangs but it is more than that. in december in georgia, there were racketeering charges brought against a bunch of officials. it was a sprawling, corrupt gambling ring. centered in some convenience stores and mini marts in georgia. in 2018 there was this tidy little thing. charges brought in white, georgia. the police chief, his son-in-law, and his wife. charges were brought against the police chief and his son-in-law who was the town's only other police officer, and his wife who was also the town manager. they were, the allegations were that they were basically involved in a planned scheme to give people bogus citations, radically overcharge them for those citations, and then pocket the money. it helps to have the patrol officer, the chief of police, and the town manager all in a scheme like that. they were brought up on racketeering charges for that. racketeering charges. it is a pattern of criminal acts all leading toward a criminal purpose. and that charge is a really serious one in a state like georgia. like, 20 years in prison serious. but that charge turns up in cases of all kinds, including lots of cases involving allegedly corrupt public officials. perhaps the most surprising and most high-profile case that they turned up in was one that you will remember. the atlanta schools cheating scandal. do you remember this? this was national news. the top of the national news. when 11 educators were convicted in georgia state court in that cheating scandal in april, 2015. >> from nbc news world headquarters in new york, this is "nbc nightly news." reporting tonight, lester holt. >> good evening. it's bad enough when kids cheat in school to get ahead. but the teachers themselves, today in atlanta, nearly a dozen former educators were convicted on racketeering and other charges for their part in one of the nation's biggest cheating scandals. prosecutors say it was a massive conspiracy to make sure students passed standardized tests, even if it meant giving kids the correct answers. the scandal dates back a decade. it involves dozens of schools and a lot of grown-ups who apparently failed one of the first lessons we were all taught. >> nearly a dozen former educators convicted on racketeering and other charges. racketeering charges there, too. they weren't a gang. these are educators. corrupt educators, as was proven in court. but this was 12 teachers and other educators put on trial. the sprawling case, accusing them of basically a systematic form of cheating on standardized tests. one of the 12 teachers put on trial was acquitted. but 11 of the remaining 12 were convicted. convicted among other things on, racketeering charges. all of them. with that harsh penalty looming for all of them of up to 20 years in prison. that trial in the atlanta cheating scandal was the longest jury trial in the history of the state of georgia. and i'm not talking about the overall proceedings from the first arrest to the first court hearings to the trial to the sentencing and all the rest of it. i don't mean how long the whole thing took to be resolved. i mean just the trial itself. the day after day, in the actual courtroom fighting it out. the trial itself took six months. there has never been a longer trial in the state of georgia with a dozen defendants. an incredibly ambitious charge. the prosecutor who led the team, who got those convictions in the atlanta cheating scandal was at the time, an assistant d.a. named fani willis. here she is. the tape that we've got from that time. the elected d.a. is at the microphone leading the press conference. you see fani willis there. she led the prosecution team on the right side there. and interestingly, when they decided to pursue that case that way, when they pursued those charges against the teachers and principals and administrators who were all caught up in this cheating scandal, the prosecution team under fani willis brought in a special prosecutor specifically to make them, to help them make the case in the racketeering case. for that specific, very serious felony charge, and to see it through to conviction. that's the man, the specialist they brought in there, the guy on the left. his name is john floyd. whose name i just said a moment ago because that's the same john floyd who obtained the conviction, the racketeering conviction against the crooked sheriff sydney dorsey. in that case where dorsey murdered his would-be successor after beat him in an election in the year 2000. john floyd is the one who got that conviction, including the racketeering conviction, and then defended it all the way to the supreme court. tacked 20-plus years, tacked 20 years on to a sentence that was already life without parole because of that racketeering conviction. years later, fani willis was leading the teacher corruption scandal prosecution in atlanta, she went to him. she brought in the state's racketeering prosecution expert. she brought in john floyd to get the racketeering convictions against the teachers. and it worked. however unlikely it might have seemed to have those kinds of charges in that kind of case, he did it and it stuck and it worked. and now not that many years later, fani willis is the elected district attorney herself in the largest county in georgia, in fulton county. and fani willis has announced a criminal investigation into efforts by former president donald trump and others to corrupt the results of the presidential election in georgia. she said when she announced the opening of that investigation, that racketeering was one of the crimes she was potentially investigating in conjunction with efforts to corrupt the election results. now reuters is first to report, and willis' office has confirmed that willis has gone back to the same guy. she's gone back to john floyd who has had a hand in the highest profile and most unlikely seeming rico prosecutions in recent georgia law. john floyd who has since gone on to become a nationally respected expert on prosecuting rico cases under state law. this is his book. he literally wrote the book how to prosecute rico cases. rico, state by state. a guide to litigation under the state racketeering statutes. he literally wrote the book on how to get convictions on state racketeering laws. reuters has said that willis has including the trump investigation. the dean of mercer university law school in macon, georgia, says about this quote, it's not a stretch to see where fani willis is taking this. if president trump engaged in two or more acts that involved false statements that were an attempt to falsify material fact like the election results, then you can piece together a violation of the racketeering act. it is a felony and it can carry penalties up to 20 years in prison. the dean says there are not a lot of people who avoid serving prison time on a racketeering offense. it is honestly a shocking thing that the immediate former president of the united states is facing multiple live criminal investigations. by new york state prosecutors, by georgia state prosecutors. cnn and "the wall street journal" and other news organizations have recently reported on even more trump properties and developments and financial entanglements that have been subpoenaed as part of a new york prosecution. the new york investigation has itself brought on an experienced mob prosecutor as a special prosecutor to help them with their work there. but if georgia is looking at a potential racketeering case against the former president, now with the help of a specialist prosecutor who does this for a living, who has already successfully brought super high-profile racketeering prosecutions in that state and earned convictions on those charges, this just feels like a different level of the sort of drama and risk stratosphere here. there is a lot going on in the news right now. this is mind-blowing, though. joining us now is david cook. he's the former district attorney for the macon judicial circuit in georgia. he has known fani willis for decades. he's also known john floyd, the attorney who will help in her investigation of donald trump as a special prosecutor. i really appreciate you making time to be here tonight. thank you. >> thank you for having me. >> so i am not a lawyer. i'm not an expert in famous georgia public corruption cases. so i want to give you a chance, if i explained any of that wrong or if i blurred something that should be sharply defined there. i want to give you a chance to tell me i'm wrong. >> no, you pretty much hit the nail on the head, especially when it comes to john floyd. having john floyd on your team in a racketeering case is kind of like having the teacher help you write your term paper or having the author of the book, having the author of the textbook help you study for the test. you know that your racketeering case will be done right if you have him on the team. >> should we see it as a sign that d.a. willis is going to pursue racketeering charges that she has brought on john floyd? or will he be brought on to assess whether or not that's a realistic prospect? >> so based on the letters that i've looked at, that she sent to the governor and other public officials that you've referenced before, i think she's already seen the signs. because of that, she's brought in attorney floyd to help her make sure everything is done right. to make sure every "i" is dotted and every "t" is crossed. also, knowing d.a. willis as long as i've known her, she is used to being the starting quarterback. she's used to being part of a top team. so knowing her, i think this is part of her larger effort of making an all-star team for the office, and if needed for this case, as it is investigated. >> when you say an all-star team, do you mean that she is pulling together the sort of best in class prosecutors and advisers in terms of doing this work? obviously being an elected d.a., it is a very high-profile position. she has taken this on. it has a huge national spotlight on her. we've been talking in detail about mr. floyd being brought on on the racketeering matters. from what else you know about how she's working this case, who else she's brought into her office, do you feel like she's assembling a formidable team for georgia, of georgia lawyers? >> i know she is. in fact, another sign of that is that she just hired mike carlson to be one of her top assistants. mike carlson is the author, along with his father, of the definitive book on georgia evidence. he gets to make the best argument of any lawyer i know which is, judge, as i said in my book, of course, and you know, every judge in georgia has that book sitting on their bench because it is the definitive guide to georgia evidence. but mike is not only a scholar and noted for his appellate ability. he is also that rare academic, who is also a street fighter in the courtroom. so it is evident to me that d.a. willis is putting together the best team possible just seeing those two hires and the movement that i've heard that she's making in putting her office together. >> what do you think we the public should expect in terms of any public facing actions? we know from the letter to other public officials in georgia that she intended to take this matter before a fulton county grand jury and ask for subpoenas for documents and witnesses. we know from public reporting that i think two different grand juries were convened in fulton county last week. we therefore expect that she may be bringing grand juries as well to try to get subpoenas for witnesses and documents. but the grand jury process is secret. is this something that you think that we won't see any public signs of for months? or do you think there are things that we should look for in order to keep track of what's happening here? >> i don't think we will know exactly what is happening until the arrests are made or the indictments are handed down, if any. knowing fani the way i know her, i think d.a. willis is in addition to putting together the best team possible, she is going to follow the evidence wherever it leads and make sure every best practice is followed. so this case, if a case comes together, it will be tight. it will be done as well as any d.a. could possibly make it. and it will be obvious that it is based on the facts and the law and not on personality or any other factors. >> david cooke, former macon, georgia, district attorney. somebody who has personal connections to a lot of the people involved. thank you for helping us understand this. and as we do get further, any sort of public signs about what's happening, within the office or around this case, i hope you know that i'll call you back to help explain it to us. >> thank you so much. i would be honored. >> all right. much more to get to tonight. stay with us. with us to support local restaurants, we've been to every city. including little rock and even worcester. and tonight... i'll be eating the chicken quesadilla from...tony's tex mex...in... katy. 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because it made it easy and safe for people to vote and people liked voting that way and they did vote that way in very large numbers without any problems. and so republicans apparently believed, it must be stopped! despite iowa republicans' efforts, the secretary of state, the guy who had been so proud of iowa voters for breaking those turnout records, he did manage to send out absentee ballot applications to everyone in the state again for the general election in november. and guess what? iowa voters liked that. and they broke turnout records again. another wildly successful election for iowa. over three-quarters of registered voters in the state cast a ballot in the november election, which is huge. well over half of those voters voted early. it was smooth and no hiccups. no problems. so it must be stopped. iowa's successful display of robust, easy participatory democracy appears to have driven the republican party batty. they have decide that had too many iowans voted last year and they won't let it happen again. iowa's governor has signed a law which bans the secretary of state or anyone else from mailing out to everyone these applications for absentee ballots. that's what made it so easy for so many people to vote by mail. if do you vote by absentee ballot in iowa, it will no longer be counted unless it is received by the time polls close on election day. even if it is not your fault, it is the postal service's fault that it got there late. oh, and polls will close an hour earlier for same day election day voting in iowa. why did they shave an hour off the time people are allowed to vote on election day? no idea. the law also cuts over a week off the early voting period. when more than half the votes were cast in the last election. they're cutting nine days off the early voting period. why? and if any local elections official takes any steps to make voting easier in a county, that election official can be charged with a felony. this is really what republicans are doing. they really did look at the most successful highest turnout election in iowa's history that had no problems and they said to themselves, how can we make sure that never happens again? while iowa may be first across the finish line here in terms of getting a voter suppression law actually passed out of the legislature and signed into law by the governor, there is a very big, long line of republican legislatures on their heels. in georgia, they have passed no fewer than a dozen different voter suppression bills would limit absentee voting, early voting, more voter i.d. requirements, specifically limit sunday early voting when black churches like to bring souls to the polls events right from church to polling places. in arizona, republicans in the state legislature are batting around all kinds of head-spinning ideas, from giving themselves, giving the legislature itself, the power to overturn any election results it does not like, to tossing out any absentee ballots that aren't postmarked by the thursday before the election day? even if the ballot arrives before polls close? really. republicans are working hard on this in state after state after state. they're doing everything they can to make it as hard as possible to vote. but as i said, iowa is the first over the finish line on this. the new iowa anti-voting rights law is officially on the books, including the threat to local elections officials that if they do anything to make it easier to vote, they're going to prison. and pretty much as soon as iowa's governor finished signing that, one of the country's most celebrated, relentless, and successful voting rights litigators filed suit to stop it. marc elias successfully litigated dozens of bogus republican challenges to the 2020 elections, and republican efforts to make it hard to vote in those, too. can he stop this new wave of voter suppression laws? or does he have other ideas about how they can be stopped besides in court? marc elias joins us next. stay with us. stay with us 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 maintenance dose every 8 weeks. it helps prevent asthma attacks, improve breathing, and lower use of oral steroids. nearly 7 out of 10 adults with asthma may have elevated eosinophils. fasenra is designed to target and remove them. fasenra is not a rescue medication or for other eosinophilic conditions. fasenra may cause allergic reactions. get help right away if you have swelling of your face, mouth, and tongue, or trouble breathing. don't stop your asthma treatments unless your doctor tells you to. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection or your asthma worsens. headache and sore throat may occur. this is the sound of fasenra. ask your doctor about fasenra. if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. tonight i'll be eating a calzone from doughballs in aurora. 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[ ding ] you got paid! that means adding people to the payroll. hi mom. that means... best burger ever. intuit quickbooks helps small businesses be more successful with payments, payroll, banking and live bookkeeping. do you have a life insurance policy you no longer need? now you can sell your policy, even a term policy, for an immediate cash payment. we thought we had planned carefully for our retirement. but we quickly realized that we needed a way to supplement our income. if you have one hundred thousand dollars or more of life insurance you may qualify to sell your policy. don't cancel or let your policy lapse without finding out what it's worth. visit conventrydirect.com to find out if you policy qualifies. or call the number on your screen. coventry direct, redefining insurance. even non-credible allegations of in 2020, iowa saw its highest turnout for any election despite the pandemic. there has not been any credible or even non-credible allegations of fraud, even made up bogus ones. trump won iowa in 2020. so did beleaguered republican senator joni ernst. because iowans won in 2020, that is why they never had to endure one of those rudy giuliani side show press conferences and hearings that happened in all the swing states that trump lost. nevertheless, despite the record turnout and no claims of fraud, iowa republicans have made it their mission to enact a new sweeping bill to restrict voting rights. and the iowa republican governor just signed it into law last night. today, democratic voting rights attorney marc elias filed a lawsuit challenging the new law in iowa. it points directly to the irony of iowa republicans trying to fix an election system that even they say is not broken. this is actually really good. listen. it says, the bill's sponsors do not deny that iowa's elections are secure. instead they've asserted that additional measures are necessary to reassure iowans who turned out in record numbers in 2020 that this is the case. but it is the result of efforts to plant and sow baseless mistrust. not because there's any evidence that the integrity of the state's elections are legitimately in doubt. joining us now, marc elias. democratic voting rights attorney, the founder of democracy docket. mr. elias, it is nice to see you. thank you for making time. >> great to see you again. >> let me just ask you first if i've screwed any of this up in the telling or if it is the lay of the land with the iowa challenge that you filed and with the new law. >> as usual, you're exactly right. the republicans have gone out in search to find a problem that doesn't exist. they've passed a suppression law that no matter what else they call it, it is a suppression law. >> have you received any response from the state since filing this lawsuit? what should we anticipate in terms of public facing back and forth now that you've joined this fight with them? >> yeah. we haven't heard anything back from the state yet. at some point, i assume they will respond to the lawsuit. and then we'll go from there. the fact is that iowa had good, clean elections this november as they have in the past. and without any reason other than to make voting harder, iowa made voting harder. and that's the bottom line. in doing that, they have disadvantaged our clients and they have disadvantaged the voters of iowa. >> marc, one of the reasons i wanted to talk with you tonight is because i feel like you have been impassioned in the last few weeks about the real threat, the severity of the threat coming from all of these republican controlled states that are at least moving, one after another after another after another, bills to make voting harder. and i know this is a fight that you have committed yourself to for your whole career and this is something in which you've had a lot of success. but i feel like i'm reading in your public facing statements, real alarm about the amount of damage that can be done to the democracy right now by all the states pursuing all the different paths. >> it is just different this time. this is not to say that there are not other problems in the world. i recognize that there are other stories that have to be covered. but i am begging america and the media to pay attention to this. right now we are facing an avalanche of voter suppression that we have not seen before. at least not since jim crow, in state after state. not just iowa, not just georgia, not just arizona. it is montana, missouri, florida, texas. the list goes on and on. donald trump told a big lie that has led to, that led to an assault on democracy in the capitol on january 6th. the assaults we're seeing going on now in state capitals with the legislatures may be less deadly and less violent but they're every bit as damaging to our democracy. >> if this is a national avalanche of voter suppression as you describe it, is there a national response warranted from people who want to fight against this voter suppression? obviously you're taking this on at the granular level. when kim reynolds of iowa signed this bill, that became the first of the voter suppression laws signed into law despite all the ones that are moving in other states, you were johnny on the spot filing instantly against it. you're fighting granularly on those front lines. what can happen at the state level by non-lawyers, by citizens who care about these things? >> yeah. so two things. first, at the federal level, we need h.r. 1, and the reauthorization of the voting rights act, the john lewis bill. we need them and we need them soon. at the state level, what people can do is they can stand up. they can tell their neighbors and their friends that this is not okay. they can't avoid the hard conversation when their crazy uncle says something crazy. they can confront it. they can go to town halls and confront their local and state legislatures. now is the time to stand up in public and be heard in the town square and say we demand our democracy be protected. >> you say that we need h.r. 1. that we need the voting rights, the restoration and advancement of voting rights represented by that bill and by the john lewis bill. the reason that there is cynicism that those will ever become law, even as h.r. 1 has passed the house, is because of the existence of the filibuster in the senate and the resistance of some moderate democratic senators to get rid of the filibuster, even if they were only to sort of tailor the filibuster so it couldn't be used to block voting rights legislation. it couldn't be used to block civil rights legislation, for example. i wonder if there is something that you would say to an arizona senator, kyrsten sinema, for example, in terms of the stakes in arizona, and how that passing h.r. 1 by hook or by crook might save the country. >> here's what i say. there is a line from a supreme court decision of several decades ago that said the first amendment isn't a suicide pact. neither are the senate rules. the senate rules are there to allow for minority participation and debate. it is not a suicide pact by which democracy gets destroyed. i don't know the right mechanism. but one way or another we need to have congress vote on h.r. 1 and the john lewis bill because whatever else is at stake, without a functioning democracy, we won't have anything else. >> marc elias, democratic voting rights attorney, the founder of democracy docket. keep us apprised on this case. we boent won't let it go. and we would love to keep talking to you about it. >> thank you very much, rachel. >> all right. one quick programming note on this line, speaking of voting rights, tomorrow night we'll be joined exclusively here live by stacey abrams, former democratic leader in georgia, former gubernatorial candidate in georgia, and national voting rights leader. stacey abrams has been warning specifically about georgia republican attempts to crush voting rights for years. now that they are moving ahead with what is described as the most aggressive voting rights roll back since jim crow, she is going to be our exclusive guest here tomorrow night. we have much more ahead tonight as well. stay with us. ith us one bounce mega sheet has 3x the hair fighting ingredients of the leading dryer sheet. simply toss into the dryer to bounce out hair & lint. look how the shirt on the left attracts pet hair like a magnet! pet hair is no match for bounce. it's available in fresh scent & unscented. with bounce, you can love your pets, and lint roll less. psst! psst! allergies don't have to be scary. spraying flonase daily stops your body from overreacting to allergens all season long. psst! psst! you're good. tonight, i'll be eating the al pastor burrito from boca burritos right here in aurora. 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(trill sound) yeah! eat local! you know when your dog is itching for a treat. itching for an outing... or itching for some cuddle time. but you may not know when he's itching for help... licking for help... or rubbing for help. if your dog does these frequently. they may be signs of an allergic skin condition that needs treatment. don't wait. talk to your veterinarian and learn more at itchingforhelp.com. when we found out our son had autism, his future became my focus. lavender baths calmed him. so we made a plan to turn bath time into a business. ♪ ♪ find a northwestern mutual advisor at nm.com ♪ got my hair ♪ ♪ got my head ♪ ♪ got my brains ♪ ♪ got my ears ♪ ♪ got my heart ♪ ♪ got my soul ♪ ♪ got my mouth ♪ ♪ i got life ♪ so this is interesting. i did not know this was coming. the fbi today released more video. new fairly high resolution video of the suspect that they say left two pipe bombs near the capitol on january 6th. one near the republican national headquarters, one near the democratic national headquarters on the eve of the attack on the capitol. the fbi has been able to be very specific about the clothing. the fbi knows the exact shoes the person had on. but they do not know who the person is. and so the fbi is asking people to watch the new video they just released, hoping it might jog somebody's memory. hoping that somebody may be able to i.d. this person by their body language, their mannerisms, the pieces of clothes you might recognize. they are offering a $100,000 reward to anybody who provides information for the suspect being identified. it's been more than 60 days for the person to be at large. the person who had the means and the knowledge to make operative pipe bombs. and who placed them at political targets. it's more than 60 days this person has been at large. and all this time later, that is all we know about the status of the investigation into the mad pipe bomber of the capitol attack who is still out there. federal investigators and prosecutors handling the ongoing investigations have been radio silent for weeks. i don't know why this is but the fbi and d.c. u.s. attorney's office have not briefed the public since the week of the inauguration. why is that? among other things, that means we still have open questions about why the person who placed the pipe bombs is still at large, and also how the overall prosecution of these cases is being handled. there are hard questions that need to be asked about the number of people the fbi asked information about, and the fbi said have been involved in serious crimes that have resulted in public tips, and journalism flushing out the tips, finding the people, and in some cases, broadcasting or recording confessions from these people. but they haven't resulted in any law enforcement activity to those persons. questions need to be asked about those things. we don't know whether the overall investigation has been hampered or slowed down by the fact that new leadership hasn't taken over at the department of justice. they're still in a holding pattern. on the last point, at least, we may get clarity soon. president biden's pick to lead the council, merrick garland, scheduled to have his final confirmation vote in the senate tomorrow. on the day he is sworn in, he will take over the investigation on what happened on january 6th and everything else. and maybe that will mean a new strategy. we'll see. we hope it will mean more public facing information about the status of the ongoing investigations. because the refusal to talk to the public is not good, and so far that is happening during the biden administration, and maybe it's because merrick garland isn't there. but once he's there, no more excuses. more ahead. stay with us. re ahead stay with us have you ever seen this before? she's so beautiful. janie, check this out. >come here. >>let me see. (chuckles) she looks...kind of like me. yeah. that's because it's your grandma when she was your age. oh wow. that's... that's amazing. oh and she was on the debate team. yeah, that's probably why you're the debate queen. >i'll take that. >>look at that smile. i have the same dimples as her. (laughter) yeah. >same placements and everything. >>unbelievable. to support local restaurants, we've been to every city. including little rock and even worcester. and tonight... i'll be eating the chicken quesadilla from...tony's tex mex...in... katy. (doorbell) (giggle) do ya think they bought it? oh yeah. of course you've seen underwear that fits like this... but never for bladder leaks. do ya think they bought it? new always discreet boutique black. i feel protected all day, in a fit so discreet, you'd never know they're for bladder leaks. always discreet boutique so you want to make the best burger ever? then make it! that means cooking day and night until you get... (ding)... you got paid! that means... best burger ever. intuit quickbooks helps small businesses be more successful with payments, payroll, banking and live bookkeeping. when you switch to xfinity mobile, you're choosing to get connected to the most reliable network nationwide, now with 5g included. discover how to save up to $300 a year with shared data starting at $15 a month, or get the lowest price for one line of unlimited. come into your local xfinity store to make the most of your mobile experience. you can shop the latest phones, bring your own device, or trade in for extra savings. stop in or book an appointment to shop safely with peace of mind at your local xfinity store. tomorrow really is going to be a huge day. 9:00 a.m. eastern tomorrow, the house will gavel in for the final debate on the biden administration's big covid relief bill. we have no reason to believe there will be drama there. democratic leadership says they have the votes. biden has said he will sign it. it looks cooked but we'll see. at least at face value, this thing that is going to happen tomorrow is more wide reaching and progressive than anything from the last two democratic presidents. we will have full coverage of it tomorrow, and stacy abrams. i'll see you then. now it's time for "the last word with lawrence o'donnell." good evening. >> good evening. you know, donald trump is 74 years old and my theory is he is going to be a defendant for the rest of his life. because of just the civil lawsuits that are out there now. they take years. there will be appeals. there is eric swalwell's lawsuit, claiming damages because of the lawsuit of the capitol. that lawsuit is available to hundreds of members of congress who could each individually file one of those lawsuits against donald trump. there could be no end. >> when benny thompson filed the first civil lawsuit against trump based on january 6th, and
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