The air tonight. I can tell you i have an endless appetite to watch blue iv content, shes only Getting Better and more fantastic every show. On that note, i wish you a very good night. From all of our colleagues across the networks of nbc news, thank you for staying up late. I will see you at the end of tomorrow. Thank you athome for joining us tonight, good to have you with us. We are a big country, 330 million people. Very diverse, very heterogeneous in terms of everything, in terms of backgrounds, tradition, the way we live, our values, our opinions, but for all of our diversity, i think we americans can all probably agree, we can all come together around the somewhat obvious idea that if there is one Consumer Product america needs, one thing we are missing as a country, it is probably a gun that is specifically designed for babies. A gun specifically designed to be wielded by babies, specifically an Assault Rifle style semiautomatic long gun made to look kind of like the civilian version of u. S. Military issued rifle, but the sized down, so like toddlers can use them, not toy guns, not super soaker, squirt guns, not bb guns, not kept guns, real guns that fire real bullets. Youve heard of the ar15, well now meet that j. R. 15, as in the junior ar15. The company that makes it is just super cute about the whole idea. They call themselves the tactical, not we won as a little one. Until recently, they had low goes for the little girls and little boys version of this gun for babies. The locals were this little kids skull and crossbones with pacifier four boys, and this little Skull And Bones pacifier with a crossbow on it pacifier for girls. Why should any kid have to wait until they are done with that Heating Process before they can start carrying their own Assault Rifle . They advertised the j. R. 15 as smaller, safer, lighter. They apparently recently did drop the pacifier locals and east we do Cartoon Fountain their advertising. It is not like there are no longer claiming this is an Assault Rifle for babies. They could change their marketing of it. They could say its for a different purpose, they could say theyre making this many sized Assault Rifle for people with unusually short arms. Hey, are you built like a trex . Hard time reaching the Steering Wheel and pedals at the same time . Have we got the Assault Rifle for you. They could marketed for people with lower body strength. Cant handle a gun that weighs more than two pounds . Find yourself unable to lift a carton of milk anymore . Dont worry, it doesnt mean you shouldnt have a Semiautomatic Blowback ActionAssault Rifle of your dreams. Specifically designed for you, great great grandma. When they drop to the pacifier logo, explicitly targeting the gun to the teething towns are market, that might have seemed like it was signaling they were abandoning the whole idea of Assault Rifles for kids. It turns out they just dropped the pacifier logos and the cartoon font they are making clear it is not just where people with little, tiny arms, not just for people with very poor upper body strength, it is still definitely for preschool. Stilthe reason you can tell it s there targeted market for this gun, it is because this is the image that pops up on this last splash page of their website. Clear enough . Here is another view of the same target consumer, maybe she is, what, five . I think she is five. If america is now marketing smaller, lighter, fully functional semiautomatic Assault Rifles for five year olds, i mean, what is next . Why would we stop there . If they want to get the full market share that might be available to them, they could do a smaller one that babies could use in the crib, maybe they could fire it with their feet or something. The junior ar15, the jr15 four toddlers is a real thing. For its part, the company who makes this kid a gun says the reason it is so great for kids is not only because it only weighs two pounds, and is sized for little fingers, little arms, and little hands, but they are very hot to tell you it has a Special Safety Features. A Special Safety Feature appears mostly to be a second deliberately awkward safety knob on the other side of the gun from the regular safety. Surely, kids wont be able to figure that one out on their own. The website, snapped outcome, which debunks thick, things in the news and fix things on the internet, they had to do a snopes post not longer assuring people that, no, it is not a projected plot line from the substance or a bright movie written to dramatize how and say things could get in this country. Its a real thing, true, the jr15 a real rifle designed for children . True, yes. It is in the news today because, in the great state of illinois, where there is a pugnacious democratic governor, and a democratic legislature, in illinois, they are about to pass a new law that would ban gun marketing, good gun advertising, that markets guns to kids. This is the poster child kid Assault Rifle for that new law. Of course, theyre not banning the gun itself, have been fourth and we cant do that in this country. Asked the u. S. Supreme court. They are trying to ban the advertising of these Assault Rifles for babies. California passed along the same lines last year, now other blue states, including illinois, are following suit. Gun Rights Groups and their republican supporters are absolutely outraged. They are absolutely against any such move. Why on earth would you want to limit any sort of communication or marketing targeting children with this sort of thing . From their perspective, hey, what could possibly go wrong . To this day, people dont believe me when i tell them what it is that republicans did first the last time they got full control in washington, the last time they got control of both the white house and congress. You remember when that was . That was the result of the 2016 election, and there was so much shocking consternation over what candidate donald trump had said he was going to do with the presidency, and what he had campaigned on. There was so much shock and surprise over the election, the election outcome, particularly at the president ial level, but the election outcome was republicans not only got the white house, they got the house and the senate. A. Amid all the consternation and shock, and all of the rapid change that pretended, no one remembers what they actually did with that power once they got it. Its true, its as real as the ar15 military style Assault Rifle sized down for preschoolers. The substantive thing that new congress did in 2017 when they got full control in washington, the republicans passed legislation that would facilitate access to firearms for people who had been formally adjudicated to be mentally ill. Not just people who seem a little off, but people who were formerly adjudicated by the government to be mentally ill and unable to handle their own affairs. The first thing republicans did with full power in washington was to make it easier for officially crazy people to get guns. To this day, people not believe it, but look it up, it is true. Now, naturally, along that same plotline, we have kids sized fully functional semiautomatic military style Assault Rifles that fire real bullets. California, last year, and illinois, now, are trying at the state level to block the marketing of those. The guns exist, and gun groups and republican supporters are very much opposed, even to trying to regulate the advertising around this new product. I understand, i think i understand perhaps as well as anyone, im going to guess, that National LevelAmerican Politics is hurly burly right now. Im here to tell you what is going on in the states, in many cases, it is just as wild. It doesnt get enough attention, i think, even when it directly illuminates or relates to, or is the manifestation of what is going on at the National Level. So, take the fully functional military style Assault Rifle for children example, for one. Take florida, for example, where the Florida Republican governor is not running a great president ial campaign, but he is trying, and doing better than any other republican at mounting some kind of showing against former President Donald Trump. Against former president donal the strongest wind brought under desantiss sales in this primary, the strongest wind in his sails for the purpose of motivating the conservative Republican Base has been his claim he would make america more like florida. Make America Florent again. Ron desantiss pitch for the presidency has been, at its most successful, that his leadership in florida is a success story, hes been electorally successful in florida, florida has turned deep red. He has won reelection by a lot there. If you put him in charge in washington, he would do the same thing for the whole country, and he could put in place that kind of governance he is able to pursue in florida because he has been so successful there. That has been the best version of Ron Desantiss pitch to be president of the United States. The problem is part of the reality going on in florida under Ron Desantiss leprosy. Now they have got leprosy, not a metaphor, actual leprosy. Headlines, Central Florida is a hot spot for leprosy, report says. Headline, what is behind the increase in Leprosy Cases in florida . Headline, as Leprosy Cases rise in florida, what you must know about the infectious disease. Florida has a leprosy problem, florida also has a malaria problem. Headline, alert issued after locally acquired Malaria Cases confirmed in florida, headline, malaria confirmed in florida. Mosquitoes after several cases. Health Officials Say florida, Malaria Cases contracted and transmitted in sarasota which hasnt happened since the 1950s. So, poorer florida. Not good news, right . Leprosy and malaria both, a, in america, be, in the 21st century, and, see, in the same state at the same time. Terrible news for florida. Particularly terrible news because it is happening at a time when rhonda scent is as the governor of florida, because, under rhonda scent is as governor of florida, Florida State government is missing its top to Public Health officials who would be responsible for containing outbreaks and dealing with that marching epidemics. Florida doesnt have anybody in those jobs anymore because who on earth would want to be a Public Health official working for Governor Ron Desantis . His whole make America Florida Gambit is largely based more than anything else on him being a Covid Contrarian who now retroactively insists that covid wasnt a thing, and who handpicked a Surgeon General for his state after the man came forward as part of a group of Covid Truther quacks who, among other things, insisted that some disease, lets be honest, it is caused by sex with demons. If we could get a handle on that problem, i would you need vaccines . Stop it with the demon sex, you perverts. Rhonda santas is running for president in large part on the basis for his farsighted wisdom on covid in florida. His handpicked Surgeon General came out in florida and made it the official recommendation of for that young man shouldnt be vaccinated against covid. Why . Its so dangerous. It falsify the data that supposedly justified that conclusion. He remains the Surgeon General of florida today. Why wouldnt he . Ron desantis loves him in that job. Dont worry, though. Now that its leprosy and malaria in florida, im sure they will do great with it. Ron desantis will then take that model to the whole country, go up. We are seeing interesting stuff in the states as it relates to the most burly thing in National Politics, which is the legal problems of the republican president ial front runner. Well have more coming up later on in the show. Even as former President Trump is charged federally for, among other things, allegedly overseeing a plot to sneak fake votes into the Electoral College count, the local republicans who signed up to be those fake electors in seven states, they are now facing an array of criminal investigations, and, in some cases, charges themselves. And three states now we have either overt confirmation or clear indication that the fake republican electors are the subjects of open criminal investigations at the state level. That is arizona, new mexico, and georgia. One other state, weve got, and the Attorney General there wont say either way whether there is an open criminal investigation. Its another state in michigan, all 16 fake republican electors have been now charged with felonies under state law. Have been now charged with depending on how things proceed and all these other states, we are looking at, potentially, dozens of local republican activists and minor officials, the trumpiest of all, right . People devoted to donald trump who could be looking at felony criminal charges, for their part in the thick electors scheme that the Trump Campaign told them to carry out. They were 84 people who signed up to be fake electors. Just as its possible to look at donald trump as the 1098 defendant to be charged in the january 6th investigation, as abc news this Jonathan Carl has been saying, we may end up seeing trump as the 85th person involved in the vehicle afters scheme to also face potential criminal liability for having jumped off that particularly illadvised legal huff. Everybody else is going to have to face trial for this stuff, but he is not . The way things are being charged at the federal level, the way it looks like whats going to happen on the federal electors things in terms of criminal charges, its going to happen there are open pending Law Enforcement decisions on this now in wisconsin, in new mexico, georgia, which means that part of the overthrow the Election Criminal Liability Saga is worth watching not at the federal level but in those individual states. This is my pitch for watching whats happening in the states as a reflection of and, in some cases, as the most peaking manifestation of whats happening in National Politics. Of all the states right now, if youre picking a single one to keep eyes on, right now, as in tonight into borough, they want to watch, i think is ohio. This is a fascinating story about ohio. But it is also national news. Because ever since the conservatives on the u. S. Supreme court Overturned Roe last year, last june, republicans all over the country have been tempering their glee over that long saga achievement, and finally, now, they can ban abortion. Theyve been tempering their glee over that with their worry over how much the country hates that. However much they, republicans, want to ban abortion, the country really, broadly, does not want that. Most worryingly for republicans, this is something americans are proving their willingness to commit to in the voting booth. You can see it in the plain numbers. Since republicans got their wish, and Overturned Roe, there have been six states in which theres been a statewide vote on Abortion Rights, six of them. In all six, Abortion Rights have won by a lot. It happened in swing states, like michigan, it happened in the liberal states, like california and vermont, it happened in conservative states like montana, kentucky, kansas. Every single state where there has been a statewide vote on Abortion Rights since they Overturned Roe. Every time voters have voted, been able to vote on this issue, they have voted for Abortion Rights and against republican candidates, over, and over again in all the states that have voted on it. That is about to happen again in the great state of ohio. This november, the upcoming november, ohio voters are set to vote on a statewide Ballot Initiative that would amend the State Constitution so it protects Abortion Rights. Now, republicans in the ohio legislature, and governor an ohio, they have instituted and all about total abortion ban in the state. Ohio voters dont like. It ohio voters are very likely going to overturn, theyre going to vote to overturn ohios abortion ban when they go to vote on it in november. Everybody knows th