and as you point out, he seems to cross the legal line repeatedly in these phone calls. >> and it also fills in some of the pieces about who was involved in this campaign and what the pattern of corrupting events were. again, this may be a racketeering investigation in georgia based on actions and statements from the district attorney's office. but the white house chief of staff really did turn up bodily in person, surprise, at the audit in georgia when they were auditing the absentee ballots in cobb county. he showed up in person. then the next day he apparently told the president to call the investigator leading that audit while he told her what answer he wanted and how much she'd be praised when she produced that correct answer, which was that he mysteriously won the election. i mean, that's just -- it's starting to read like an elmore leonard book. >> and you hear on the phone call something you'd otherwise never hear in a phone call with the president of the united states. and that is the other person seeming to try to get off the phone, seeming to try to end the conversation, when anyone else would just be so thrilled to talk to a president. how long can i keep this going? and she's probably a republican, that's how she got appointed to that job in the republican government, and she seemed to be doing everything she can. and that's the most helpful thing she can do to donald trump-s get him to hang up before he commits more crimes on the phone. >> exactly. she's flattering him and thanking him and being like, yeah, we're just looking for the facts, mr. president, which is what you meant to say, right? that i should just look for the facts? isn't that what you meant to say, sir? got to go. >> yes. >> yeah, she's trying to help him. >> how many more tapes? we'll find out. >> all right. thanks, lawrence. >> thank you, rachel. thank you. our first guest tonight, senate majority leader chuck schumer, got judge merrick garland confirmed today by the united states senate as the attorney general of the united states. and so as of tonight the attorney general chosen by president joe biden will be overseeing all of the investigations of the insurrection of the capitol including possible trump involvement and trump white house involvement with the trump mob that attacked the capitol and killed police officer brian sicknick. today chuck schumer got congresswoman marcia fudge confirmed as secretary of the department of housing and urban development. also today chuck schumer got michael regan confirmed by the senate. as the of the head of the environmental protection agency. michael regan is the first black head of the environmental protection agency. and chuck schumer is actually a double first himself. he is the first new york senator to serve as majority leader, and he is the first jewish senator to serve as majority leader. more about that later. the most important test of a new majority leader is the very first big and controversial bill that the majority leader brings to the senate floor. and as his first test chuck schumer brought to the senate floor the single biggest spending bill any democratic leader of the senate has ever tried to pass. no new majority leader has ever had a more difficult first bill. the republican senate led by mitch mcconnell had one objective. yes, they wanted to defeat the bill, but much more importantly for the workings of the senate going forward, they wanted to beat chuck schumer on the senate floor. they wanted to break chuck schumer's hold on the senate democrats because if they could do that on chuck schumer's first big bill, then the republicans would cripple his leadership for the rest of the biden presidency and the senate would fall into chaos because the new majority leader could not deliver and could not control the senate. in all my years of working in the senate and watching the senate, i have never seen a more difficult challenge for a new majority leader. and to make it even more difficult, chuck schumer was working with zero margin of error. he could not lose a single democratic vote in the senate. no democratic majority leader has ever had a 50-50 senate. no majority leader has ever done what you just watched chuck schumer do. and he never let you know how difficult it was. "the new york times" described him as a happy warrior throughout the process. and in the end chuck schumer delivered a bill that bernie sanders on one side of the democratic party and joe manchin on the other side of the democratic party are both proud of. chuck schumer sent that 628-page bill from the senate to the house of representatives where it was passed today without changing a word of what chuck schumer sent to the house. and so in the end when president biden signs the bill, he will be signing the 628 pages that chuck schumer was able to get through a 50-50 senate. president biden, who spent 36 years in the united states senate said, i've never seen anyone work as skillfully, as ably, as patiently with determination to deliver such a consequential piece of legislation. joe biden has seen the very best senate majority leaders at work in both parties, but he's never seen anything like what chuck schumer did to get the biden covid relief bill through the senate. after marathon negotiating sessions with democratic senators before and during the legislative action on the senate floor and after a grueling all-nighter in the senate fending off republican amendments, chuck schumer was grateful for and overjoyed by each one of the 50 votes he was able to get on his first big bill, the most important test of his leadership that chuck schumer has ever faced. >> i want to say one thing. i am so proud of my caucus. i love each one of them. they are just so great. and you know what unites our caucus? everyone knows especially with 50 votes we all have to pull together. everyone knows. >> and joining us now, the majority leader of the united states senate, chuck schumer. thank you very much for joining us tonight, mr. leader. it's a real honor to have you here. first time as majority leader. >> i got a little teary watching that, so excuse me. i'm a crier. >> i know what it's like, and i was telling people on saturday when i saw that that moment is completely real. i was on the senate floor for a 51-vote win on a hugely important bill in the first months of the clinton presidency. and when you get those 51 there's nothing quite like it. you do end up loving every one of them. >> i truly do, and it's an amazing caucus. we talk to each other. we respect each other. we don't agree with each other on everything, but the bottom line is every member as you said knew that failure was not an option. this is such a major change for america. and we're delivering. i tell americans help is on the way. your $1,400 check for beleaguered people, help is on the way. your vaccines are going to get in people's arms much more quickly so we can get rid of this crisis. help is on the way. we are making the schools -- we'll allow the schools to open safer and more quickly. and maybe the most important thing of all which really i care about, and i give a lot of credit to sherrod brown and michael bennet and cory booker, ronwiden and richie neil in the house, is the eitc, the earned income tax credit and the child tax credit. if we take half the kids in america out of poverty, that's a generational goal. and you know these kids when you're brought up in poverty, you don't get adequate nutrition, you don't get adequate health care, you don't get adequate education, you don't get adequate housing and then when they're 18 and lost we became them. it's so much better for society and cheaper in the long run to put the money in now. so we are excited, lawrence. we are excited about this bill, the most important bill to pass in -- and so many other things people don't pay attention to. i had a construction worker teary-eyed talking to me two weeks ago. he said my pension is gone. he said i don't care about me, i care about my wife, my children and my parents. if i don't have that pension they depend on -- we restored it. these people put in dollar after dollar week after week and they said at least when i retire i'll have a life if not of luxury at least of dignity. it was gone. we restored it. so we have delivered for america, lawrence. and it's been the whole caucus, as you said, from bernie sanders to joe manchin. each one knew they couldn't push things too far in their direction so that the other end would fall off, and we did it. and i give them credit. i do love them all. i truly do. i know it sounds corny but i do. >> it doesn't to me. it might to everyone else listening but it doesn't to me. senator schumer, there's a room i'd love to be in someday and i used to be in it quite frequently. it's your conference room. where you meet with committee chairmen and others. but you have a leadership team that is unique in democratic senate leadership teams that i've ever seen, and it's a larger one than other leaders have had at other times. and it includes elizabeth warren. it includes bernie sanders. it includes joe manchin. all sitting at that not so big conference table that you have in that room. what is it like when you have joe manchin at the table, bernie sanders at the table? what are they like with each other, and how much did that experience with each other in that room leading up to this help get this done? >> you know what we do in that room? we encourage everyone to state their viewpoints and not to take it personally if joe manchin feels this way and bernie sanders feels that way. and then my job is to try to bring everybody together so that we see each other's points of view, respect each other's points of view, and then come up with a solution we all can support. but not something that's so watered down it doesn't mean something but something real. and i think those meetings and the general meetings -- i meet monday night with those 10. then the next day i meet with 20. and every tuesday we have a lunch and i encourage everybody to speak out. so there are no hidden grievances or unspoken desires of legislation. and it works. it works. and we'll keep working because failure's not an option. you know the thing i'm sort of proudest of, lawrence, and you've talked about this. we democrats have to show we can deliver. people are -- you ask yourself this question. why did close to half of america vote for such a horrible, evil man like donald trump? a liar, a divider, a bigot, a racist. because they didn't have hope. and when people don't have hope about the future, when people feel that the american dream which simply put is if i work hard i'll be doing better ten years from now than i'm doing today and my kids will be doing better than me, if they don't believe that they can turn to a demagogue, they can turn to a dictator. what we are showing people is government can work for them. and there's going to be nothing more tangible and immediate than checks, $1,400, and by the way there was some talk about trying to cut the children checks, the $3,000 and $3,600 lower, we didn't. and when people will get that, and they'll see the vaccines come into their arms far more quickly than anyone ever imagined as we recover from this crisis. and we will think wow, government can do something. the american people don't expect us to snap our fingers and make all the trouble go away. but they expect us to work so they give them hope and direction. and maybe that's the most important thing that happened in the last two days. they're going to see it, and i believe it'll change the political atmosphere quite a bit. >> well, i want to mention one trump voter who's very excited about this bill. and he tweeted about it today. he's a trump voter in mississippi. his name is roger wicker. and he tweeted, "independent restaurant owners have won $28.6 billion worth of targeted relief. this funding will ensure small businesses can survive the pandemic by helping to adapt their operations and keep their employees on the payroll." senator, as you know, the weird think about that is roger wicker is the republican senator from mississippi who voted to kill all of that. >> but we try to be bipartisan when we can without sacrificing the need for big, bold action. so as you know the power of majority leader has is to determine what goes on the floor. the very first amendment i put on the floor was a wicker-sinema amendment, he a republican, she a democrat, to do a restaurants act. and even though he didn't support the bill, there are bipartisan parts to this bill. and we want to show our republican colleagues we want to work with them. we're not going to say no because a republican name is on it, we're not going to do it. now, we're not going to whittle things down so that we're not getting anything done. that was a mistake of 2009 and 2010. but we do want to work with them. so i'm proud of the fact wicker was on the bill. and yes, he didn't vote overall for it. he should have because of so many other good things. but at least we're showing him when he has a good idea that is sort of bold and the restaurants needed help we're not going to just say go away. maybe that'll lead to more. who knows? >> senator schumer, we're going to squeeze in a commercial break here. when we come back there's a couple of things i have to ask you about. the filibuster rules and the "albany times union" tonight has new reporting on governor cuomo. i want to get your reaction to that. please stay with us. we're going to be right back with majority leader chuck schumer. 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. 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(ding)... you got paid! that means... best burger ever. intuit quickbooks helps small businesses be more successful with payments, payroll, banking and live bookkeeping. chuck schumer was in hiding when he learned that he was moving up from minority leader to majority leader of the united states senate. it was on january 6th in the middle of the invasion of the capitol when jon ossoff was declared the winner in the senate race in georgia that gave the democrats 50 senators after raphael warnock had been declared the winner the night before. mitch mcconnell was in the same location in hiding with chuck schumer when they both got that news. senator mcconnell offered senator schumer his congratulations. chuck schumer was told later that when he was in hiding and the attackers of the capitol was searching for the house and senate one of the people who invaded the senate was heard saying, "where's the big jew?" chuck schumer is the first jewish senator to lead the united states senate, and that was not lost on trump supporters who invaded the capitol wearing clothing that celebrated the holocaust. robert keith packer was wearing his "camp auschwitz" hoodie. what would he have done if he had found chuck schumer? nazis invaded the capitol of the united states in 2021 looking for chuck schumer 76 years after nazis were rounding up and executing members of chuck schumer's family in nazi death camps. and after those nazis left the capitol on january 6th, chuck schumer went right back to work. in 1950 brooklyn was not yet the coolest place in new york city when chuck schumer was born there. abe and selma schumer's son took his schoolwork seriously, got perfect s.a.t. scores, went to s harvard college and harvard law school. and the rest is history that chuck schumer continues to write for himself and for the country. if you ever have an emergency in your home and you need a plumber or an electrician, that person for that day becomes the most important person in your life. and there is no emergency quite like needing an exterminator to come to your house or your apartment, and that is what abe schumer spent his work life doing in new york. when abe schumer was on the way, you knew that help was on the way. and today abe's son is delivering help to a lot more people. >> so this is a wonderful day for america. this is one of the most consequential pieces of legislation we have passed in decades. and you know what we can show, america? that we can get things done to make their lives better. and we will continue to do that through the rest of this session. help is on the way. back with us senate majority leader chuck schumer. and senator schumer, the filibuster rules seem as though there might be some movement. we've heard recent statements by senator manchin saying there are adjustments that he can make. can you make any more progress in the senate if you don't have some changes in the filibuster rules? >> well, look, here's our bottom line. and i think every democrat shares this, praise god. and that is that we need big bold change. america, as i mentioned, not only because of the covid crisis but because people do not have that american optimism and they turn to demagogues like trump. and if we don't do anything, lord knows what will happen in four years. and we could lose the majority in two. so getting things done is very important. now, the wish of a good number of our colleagues, maybe most, is that we work with republicans to get those things done. but if we can't, failure is not an option and we will have to put our heads together as a caucus like we do now, and we will have to discuss, for instance, how we can allow georgia, who imposed racist, despicable rules that could very -- you know, the idea that souls to the polls, the churches, the buses that leave churches on sunday after church and go to the polls. and now all of a sudden the georgia republicans say we shouldn't allow early voting on sunday. that's racist. you're racist, plain and simple. and what are we going to do? are we going to allow that to happen? it will make it much harder for raphael warnock to win re-election two years from now. they're doing it in other states making it harder for other democrats to either win empty seats or retain. we'll have to sit down as a caucus and figure it out if republicans won't come our way, and we're going to test them out of course before we go forward with this. but the bottom line is very simple. we will put our heads together. everything will be on the table, and i will do everything i can to make sure that failure is not an option, that we solve these kinds of problems. >> and senator, let me turn to a new york issue, the albany times union, a newspaper i know you read every day is reporting tonight new information about a new accuser of governor cuomo. you have said up to now that let the investigation take its course. is there anything about these new allegations that is changing your view of this? >> well, everyone of these allegations is really serious, really troubling and needs to be carefully, carefully looked at. i have always said that