want to pay for pete buttigieg to get awards for the way people have sex. >> tonight, the high stakes of having these people control the government. >> what house republican told nbc news, the caucus is ungovernable. another put it mor pointedly, i don't think the lord jesus himself could manage this group. >> then, the trump threat becomes an explicit promise. >> if i happen to be president, and i see somebody who's doing well, and beating me very badly, i, say go down and indict them. >> tonight, the republican front runner has already used his doj to take out enemies. plus -- >> governor andy beshear, a real man wouldn't let man steal trophies from -- >> republicans keep losing the culture wars elections across the country. and i witnessed the horrors of war, my interview with one of the few journalists who experienced the hamas attack on october 7th. all in starts right now. >> good evening, from new york, i'm chris hayes. the federal government of the united states is one week away from being shut down. yes, i know you're thinking, here we are again, thanks to a chaotic and incompetent republican-controlled house of representatives. this is due, this time, in some part, to the fact that they've got a brand-new speaker of the house in charge, maga, mike johnson. who has a literally zero experience in house leadership. he's never served as a party whip, or a conference chair, or even share to committee. that guy is essentially flying by the seat of his pants. he is going to have to unite this unruly conference, into something that can legislate. and as democratic congressman, sean captain, noted on the house for this week, it's not going great. >> as you know, we operate on a september 30th fiscal year. here we, our 39 days later. the majority has yet to even propose a way to keep the government open. the last september, i kicked the can down the road, kept the government open for 45 days. in the words of mr. santos, that made you all big mad. -- now you have a new speaker. a lot of you are still big mad. so instead of working, we are sitting here, this, week it debating nonsense. so today, we are voting on a bill that would defund the ability of regulators to develop consistent climate accounting rules, instead of doing the work of the people. mister speaker, science is real. we have real challenges, please stop being big man. >> as a congressman alluded to, there, here's what's happening right. now there's basically two tracks for this narrow house republican majority. the track they are currently on is one where they ignore their actual responsibilities, and instead, push an agenda fox news culture war nonsense. congressman casten expanded on that strategy, in a very funny twitter thread, setting examples like the house republican plan to defund the office of gun violence prevention. an amendment to change white house press secretary, karine jean-pierre's salary to $1. ha. an amendment to set the salary of the chairman of securities exchange commission to $1. there's also some big business interests going on here. house republicans -- slash the budget of the consumer product safety commission, the folks who decide if baby toys are safe for market, among other potentially hazardous products. they also tried to illuminate something they've been trying to get for ever. the consumer financial protection bureau, entirely, not of, course an agency -- predatory and unfair practices. additionally, just to make sure donald trump is appeased, the third ranking republican in the house, who you really think would be concentrating full-time on the congress, at least a, fonac has taken the time to file an ethics complaint against the judge overseeing the ex president civil fraud case. that was not just this week so that's one track for the party. pushing the stuff, doing the business of big business. while the clock ticks towards another shutdown. the other track is the actual important one. that's the track where republicans, set aside all their various culture war amendments, and study pranks, in order to find a way to fund the various parts of the u.s. government using the power of the purse, given to them, by the founders in article one of our constitution. thon this issue, the important stuff, the bedrock, stuff mike johnson is just absolutely flattering. now he insists the house must pass separate bills. not on the bus, but appropriations bills from the various different agencies and entities, to find the various parts of the government, instead of getting it all done in one big omnibus. okay, fine. got a passing individual bill. what happened this week? so, far republicans have tried to tear up two of those, and then pulled them at the last minute. two separate must pass bills from the floor got pulled, why? because they don't have the votes. they don't have the republican votes. if this all sounds a little familiar, it's because it is exactly what started us down the road to begin with. you might remember, roughly two months ago, when former speaker, kevin mccarthy, was trying to get funding bills passed before a looming shutdown deadline. his successor, mccarthy ran up against the basic problem of the heart of this narrow house republican majority. when it comes to the actual, real, brass tacks business of the u.s. congress, funding the government at different levels for different programs and bureaus, there are two irreconcilable wings the republican party. whatever compromise you think you can come up with, you will face one group that will run against you, because they think you're spending too much. or another group that will vote against you because they think you are not spending enough. meaning, you cannot pass spending bills, unilaterally, on a party line vote with this republican majority alone. it just doesn't work. mathematically. this is a point that democratic senate majority leader, chuck schumer, try to stress to the new house speaker this week. >> the only way, let me say the third time, the only way we have voided shutdown is with bipartisan cooperation. just as it was true in september, and it will be true in the future. i implore speaker johnson and our house republican colleagues to learn from the fiasco of a month ago. >> yes, learn. we went through this. remember, the debt ceiling thing, they worked out a deal, with spending levels. then they tried to mccarthy and the house caucus were going to undo that deal. it doesn't work. you can't do it alone. it's that simple. if speaker johnson wants to keep the government open, he will need to reach across the aisle for democratic votes. but if he does that, oh, then he becomes a sellout. the party fringe will say johnson has betrayed the mega party. -- they'll revolt against him. we know this, of course, because it just happened. kevin mccarthy could not keep the government funded with just republican votes. so he made a deal with the white house and the senate democrats to keep it open for 45 days. he brought that up to a vote, and it passed. huge bipartisan majority. an extreme minority is now a majority, then fired him because of it. that compromise strategy is the only way to pass spending bills in the house. mike johnson knows it. everyone in leadership knows. it everyone on capitol hill knows it. if he does it, he runs the risk of being seen as having betrayed the conservative cause. i'm not fighting enough, of being a sellout. so here we are, one speaker has already been fired. at least three others failed to secure the gavel during that torturous three weeks. after 21 days of a speaker list south, this backbencher, with no experience, is now in charge. yet, nothing has changed at all. they're in exactly the same position they were, without kevin mccarthy, in september. instead of doing anything about, that they are taking symbolic votes to defund the folks who make sure there is no lead paint in toys. congressman, jamie raskin, it's a democrat in maryland. he served on the january 6th committee. he's now the top democrat on the oversight committee. he joins me now. am i -- did i get anything wrong there about the way this math works? >> no, i think you've got it all right. my only caveat here is i don't know that the conflict within the gop is between those who want to spend more, and those who want to spend less. as we saw during the trump administration, they don't really care about deficits. that all goes out the window. what's really happening here is you have a kleptocrat, donald trump, who runs the gop. he's in it as family business. he's a guy who does take $1 for his salary. annually, when he's president. why? because he's collecting tens of millions of dollars from the autocrats of the world, saudi arabia, united arab emirates, indonesia, egypt, you name it. how does a person like that form a working majority with the gop? the kleptocrats have to reach out to the theo crowds. that's where mike johnson and the right-wing, white christian nationalists come into. it the problem is that those people really want to legislate antiabortion, like mike johnson, whose position is no abortions in the country at all, with no exceptions for rape or incest. they start attaching graffiti, all of these antiabortion amendments, all of these homophobic anti-gay amendments. anti-diversity equity inclusion, there are about a dozen republicans left who are in no on a completely gerrymandered districts. in other words, they are not in districts that have been drawn bright red in the image of donald trump and maga. those people don't want to be voting to ban abortion in the district of columbia. they don't want to be bashing gay people, they certainly don't want to be legislating against choice across the country. that's the fix that they are in. those people's political future depends on moving away from mega. but maga will only give their votes if they get that stuff. >> that's super limiting. there's all these poison pill culture war amendments they went to attach, and there's some group of the caucus that just can't vote for them. my understanding to is that those top line numbers for all the funding this year that was worked out in that get ceiling deal, between mccarthy, and biden, and the senate, those are the numbers. they are the numbers there working off in the senate. but there's a faction of the house that won't think those numbers are too big and wants to cut. if they do, that the appropriators don't want to cut that much. so, they are irreconcilable. >> that's true to. there's a faction of the freedom caucus, the chip roy people, who will not vote for those numbers if it's a democratic administration. >> right -- >> if it's with. trump of course, the vote for those numbers. and much more inflated than that. but that's true. in other words, they want to show that somehow they are slashing into the social budget. they want to cut s.n.a.p. benefits. they want to dismantle anything the government does that doesn't directly benefit donald trump, and it doesn't directly benefit them in the corporations that they serve. that's a problem too. what we've got is a rule or ruin mentality. either trump is going to be in, and he's going to rule all the way to the point of dictating who gets prosecuted, and who doesn't, we already saw with roger stone sentencing, for example, how micro he wants to get, in terms of telling the department of justice what to do. or, if they can't roll, they're just going to ruin everything. they'll shut the government down, they'll impeach joe biden for absolutely nothing. they'll just be a wrecking ball against democratic purposes. >> i don't think the main story here is the personalities that issue, or their experience. i don't think the most gifted legislator in the world, nancy pelosi, for example, if she was trying to whip this caucus, would have that much success. but i also think that one of the things i've learned in my life is, you know, there's certain technique and expertise that comes with any craft. whether you're building cabinets or you are teaching kids, your working as a crossing guard. serving food. that, sure as heck, is, true for trying to get a caucus together. it just seems like as all of the people to try to do this, you served in congress, he's starting from zero on the task at hand. >> i mean there are complicated rules and traditions in relationships that actually govern the real legislative process. someone like mike johnson says the bible comes first, over the constitution, then the constitution. then the laws and the rules and regulations. by the time you get down there, it's too late. they are sending us something, i don't even know what it is, a few days before the government is about to shut down. they don't have respect for the actual legislative process. >> congressman, jamie raskin, thank you so much for your time, sir. i appreciate it. still ahead, how donald trump has always tried to use the justice department as a congressman was just saying, to punish his enemies, to protect his friends, and how he's announcing plans to finally achieve that goal completely, in a second term. that's next. 's next. le ways of doing things. america's plastic makers are investing billions of dollars in new technologies and creating plastic products that are more recyclable. durable. and dependable. our goal is a cleaner, healthier planet for generations to come. for a better tomorrow, we're focused on making plastics better today. i work hard, and i want my money to work hard too. so, i use my freedom unlimited card. earning on my favorite soup. aaaaaah. got it. earning on that éclair. don't touch it, don't touch it yet. let me get the big one. nope. -this one? -nope. -this one? -yes. no. what? the big one. they're all the same size. wait! lemme get 'em all. i'm gonna get 'em all! earn big with chase freedom unlimited. how do you cashback? chase. make more of what's yours. detect this: living with hiv, i learned i can stay undetectable with fewer medicines. that's why i switched to dovato. dovato is a complete hiv treatment for some adults. no other complete hiv pill uses fewer medicines to help keep you undetectable than dovato. detect this: most hiv pills contain 3 or 4 medicines. dovato is as effective with just 2. if you have hepatitis b, don't stop dovato without talking to your doctor. don't take dovato if you're allergic to its ingredients or taking dofetilide. this can cause serious or life-threatening side effects. if you have a rash or allergic reaction symptoms, stop dovato and get medical help right away. serious or life-threatening lactic acid buildup and liver problems can occur. tell your doctor if you have kidney or liver problems, or if you are pregnant, breastfeeding, or considering pregnancy. dovato may harm an unborn baby. most common side effects are headache, nausea, diarrhea, trouble sleeping, tiredness, and anxiety. detect this: i stay undetectable with fewer medicines. ask your doctor about switching to dovato. the long-lasting scent of gain flings made it smell like dave was in his happy place... ...the massage chair at the mall. but...he wasn't. gain flings with oxi boost and febreze. when migraine strikes you're faced with a choice. ride it out with the tradeoffs of treating? or push through the pain and symptoms? with ubrelvy, there's another option. one dose works fast to eliminate migraine pain treat it anytime, anywhere. without worrying where you are or if it's too late. do not take with strong cyp3a4 inhibitors. allergic reactions to ubrelvy can happen. most common side effects were nausea and sleepiness. migraine pain relief starts with u. ask about ubrelvy. learn how abbvie could help you save. hey, doc, if you had to choose, would you give yourself a root canal or run payroll? oh, run payroll. paying my team with gusto takes just a few clicks. they automatically file my taxes for me too. can i run payroll too? choose payroll without the pain. >> they weaponize the justice department. they've weaponized the fbi. and they've come at me with the worst indictments. they've done something that allows the next party, i mean, if i happen to be president, and i see somebody who's doing well, and beating me very badly, i say, go down and indict them. mostly, that would be, you know, they would be out of business. they beat out. they'd be out of the election. >> donald trump continues to be very outspoken about his plans, if he's reelected, to complete what he started on january 6th. to end american constitutional governance as we know it. and replace it with what would amount to a american presidential dictatorship. in an interview with univision that aired last night, he couches his plans to use the doj to go after political enemies by saying basically they started it,, they being the current administration. but the plain fact is that trump already did this as president publicly, all the time. berating and badgering his attorney general, jeff sessions, not behind closed doors. but on twitter. to open investigations into hillary clinton, including on an almost daily basis during one period in july, 2017. he ordered an investigation into political opponents, and got some of them through. there was a yearlong investigation that the clinton foundation, that came to nothing. remember that one? he got as attorney general, billarr, to appoint a special counsel to investigate the origins of the russia probe. and what became one of the most disastrously failed investigations that turned up nothing, went longer than mueller, and got a bunch of acquittals. donald trump has already tried this. what he is saying this time, and what they're planning this time, quite plainly, is that they're going to make sure they staff the department of justice with people who do what he tells them people who always say yes. ian bassin served as associate white house counsel to president obama. he's now the founder and executive founder of protect democracy, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to fighting authoritarian threats to our democracy. he joins me now. ian, at some level, it's not new, and it's not shocking to hear him say this, but i do feel like you have to listen to what they are saying, he, and people around, him about what they intend here. they are not being particularly coy about it. ey are not bei ng particularl coy ab>> no, it's very troublin. because the cornerstone of our law enforcement system is that law enforcement is conducted independently, and at arms length, from politics. there's a couple ways you could design a system. you could say that the power of prosecuting and imprisoning ones citizens could be -- wielded by their. well whoever they want to go after, they could do. it we've chosen as a country to not adopt that the system. you can make a different choice that some people could never be prosecuted, former presidents, will never prosecute them, they'll be above the law. we've chosen not to adopt that system either. what we've chosen is to adopt a system in which people are prosecuted after independent investigation, application of law and facts, and the same procedures are followed for everyone. it's that system that has resulted in donald trump being indicted multiple times. he's trying to pull the wool over american's eyes, and hoping he can muddy it up, say, no, that's not what happened. i get to use the first system. i get to do whatever i want. that's not the american system, that's the russian system. >> as a comparison, the department of justice is a unique instrument in all this. i spoke about this the other night with eric alter, just because it's not in the united states constitution. it wields tremendous power. it's part of the executive but we needed to be independent in some sort of core faction, even though that isn't quite constitutionally spelled. out obviously, due process is. here's merrick garland,, right in his memo to doj personnel in