root out the communists, marxists, fascists, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country. the threat from outside forces is far less sinister and grave than the threat from within. >> calling your political opponents vermin and the threat from within, we've heard that before. adolph hitler referred today to jews as vermin worthy of eradication. donald trump is following some appalling and notorious footsteps of the most violent dangerous men of the 20th century or at least some of them. and trump didn't end there. here he was in the very same stump speech talking about the home invasion and the brutal attack on speaker nancy pelosi's husband, an attack that was carried out by a rightwing extremist. >> nancy pelosi was a crazed lunatic. she's a lunatic. she is a crazed lunatic. what the hell was going on with her husband? let's not ask. let's not ask. i withdraw that statement. by the way, she's got a wall around her house. obviously in that case it didn't work very well. >> nancy pelosi is a crazed lunatic. that kind of glorification of violence, that call to abandon empathy, to stop seeing our shared humanity, that is no longer just donald trump. that rhetoric and that behavior has invaded trump's entire party. here was trump's closest rival for the republican nomination, governor ron desantis in a radio interview today mocking former governor nikki haley for expressing grief over the killing of george floyd in 2020. >> you know, i remember when the george floyd riots were happening. i called out the national guard. i said i'm standing with police. she was tweeting that it needed to be personal and painful for every single person. and i'm thinking to myself why does that need to be personal or painful for you or me? we had nothing to do with it. it just shows an example of her adopting this left-wing mind set and accepting the narrative. we need leaders who are going to fight the narrative. >> now, the narrative to be clear here according to a jury's verdict was that george floyd was brutally murdered as on lookers begged the officers who pressed his knee into his neck for nearly 9 minutes, as those on lookers begged for them to stop. according to ron desantis any pain, any perceived pain of the public murder of an innocent american means you're somehow capitulating to the left-wing and its agenda. this is trump's effect on the republican party, a party appears to be turning into something brutal and cruel, where violence isn't just an accepted outcome in american life but a necessary outcome. nowhere was that more on display than in the halls of congress today. for months now republican senator mark wayne mullen has been in a feud with the head of the teamsters union because the union president referred to him as a greedy ceo. today the head of that union testified before the senate, labor and health committee where the senator revisited their dispute to settle it anytime, anyplace cowboy. >> this is a time, this is a place you want to run your mouth, we can be two consenting adults. you want to do it now? >> i'd love to do it now. >> stand your butt up now. >> you are a united states senator. sit down. >> you are a united states senator, sit down. the wheels are coming off here. a chain reaction that started with donald trump now has republicans not just ready to brawl with democrats but brawl with each other. just a few hours the republican leadership under speaker mike johnson could not agree on a way to fund the government. so they had to do what they always have to do in this congress, which is to rely on democrats. with 209 democratic votes, and 127 republican votes, the house managed to pass a resolution to fund the government for a few more months after weeks of infighting among republicans. if you are republican right now, this is all completely embarrassing. the party ousted its last speaker for relying on democratic votes to get something done, then held the government hostage while trying to figure out who could lead the republican conference, finally electioning a hard liner who once again had to rely on democratic votes to get the thing done. if that all wasn't just shameful enough for the gop, the last republican house speaker, kevin mccarthy, is reportedly lashing out at the members who cost him that job in the first place. and when i say lashing out, i mean that literally. today an npr reporter was interviewing republican congressman tim birchett when he claimed former speaker of the house kevin mccarthy intentionally elbowed him in the kidney. here's the audio of that incident captured by npr. >> why'd you elbow me in the back, kevin? hey, kevin, you got any guts? jerk. >> has he done that before? >> no. >> huh, that's something new. >> the reporter said it right there. what kind of chicken move is that? you're pathetic, man. >> kevin mccarthy later denied that he hit congressman birchett with yet another display of embarrassing machismo. >> show me a reporter who saw that. >> he said he was in pain, that you hit him so hard in the kidneys. >> joining me now is congressional correspondent who was the reporter talking to the congressman birchett at the time of that incident. did you see congressman mccarthy run up on him as you were interviewing him in. >> i was focusing on birchett. he was coming from a long hallway a distance from where republicans were meeting. i was fully focussed on him. he maybe said one sentence to me before he lunged towards me. we were like a foot apart and it was such a shock. i remember birchett yelling out to mccarthy initially saying, hey, kevin, didn't mean to elbow. and then he switched and said why'd you elbow me in the back, kevin? and i started to look at that point and that's mccarthy, his detail, and they had walked by. initially i thought it was a jock, maybe a joking shove of some kind, a bump. but from what it looked like from my perspective mccarthy had shoved into birchett and appeared to be an elbow as birchett claimed. >> you think about this incident you captured both in audio and on social media and we're now talking about it with a quote from former congressman republican adam kinzinger who spoke about once i was standing in the aisle as mccarthy passed with his security men and some of of his boy,s mccarthy veered towards me, hit me with his shoulder and kept going. is body checking fellow republicans who run afoul of them a thing? how much is this something he does? have you heard of this before? >> not before today. it has been a concern for me in terms of how high-tensions have been running especially within the house republican conference and especially since mccarthy was ousted. i have been worried about physical altercations with members. i wrote a piece last week about members and republican fighting. i was worried it would build up to a moment. it was very surreal it happened today play out in front of my eyes today. in terms of mccarthy's history, no, i was not familiar with it. i heard about kinzinger's experience today from his book. it was shocking to hear that case today. >> can you talk about the tenor -- well, the temperature inside the republican conference. wer seeing the explosions of anger in the senate and the house. the front runr for the republican nomination makes anger part of his brand. what is the net effect of all that in terms of the legislative body? how does it feel in congress right now? >> yeah, i think we're seeing it play out. this is the perfect storm and building all year. house speaker mike johnson spoke to it earlier today before i shared what i'd seen, and he was talking about this pressure cooker in the house. it's something we've been wondering about especially october and mccarthy canceled two weeks of recess and the work, the tension, the struggles we saw the republican conference go through in october, it exacerbated a lot of the sore feelings there earlier in the year they played out. now republicans were worried about death threats from fellow republican constituents. and so it is very worrisome. in some ways it is not surprising to see this play out now. but in others, it's very shocking. >> claudia, may i suggest elbow pads, shoulder pads, whatever you need to keep doing your job with this essential reporting. thank you for your time tonight. >> thank you. >> join me now is jemele buoy, "the new york times" opinion columnist. his latest piece out today titled trump wants us to know he'll stop at nothing in 2025. jumel, thank you for joining me. i can think of no better person to break down what exactly has happened today the grand ole party, if you will, under the tutelage of donald trump. first of all, what did you make of the fireworks, i guess is the euphemistic term? >> on one hand you can attribute the aggression as the real anger and disdain that appears to be in the republican conference as the energy released by trump. on the other hand, i remember the 2010, 2012 cycle of the tea party and everything. i remember the extent to which those members were really hyperbolic and aggressive. i think the difference between now and then, there are no really moderating courses within the republican conference to the extent there were some prior. there's nothing really to bring the temperature down, and you have a new crop of members who really don't seem to be interested in governing whatsoever. and so all of that together just means you have the kind of situation where you're going to have to firework said that we saw today. >> i do wonder, you know, i totally agree with you there's mow moderating influence, but it seems like it's a step beyond that when you talk about 2010 and of course joe wilson saying you lied today president obama. outbursts have been the gop thing. we seem to be at a moment where anger and violence and outbursts are incentivized. i'll go back to the piece you wrote today in "the times." it is neither exaggeration nor hyperbole to say it looks -- trump's plan should he be re-elected looks an awful lot like a set of plans meant to give the president the power and unchecked authority of a strong man. i feel like having a sort of idol who's a strong man or wants to be an even more unchecked strong man almost gives license and encourages his foot soldiers to be miniature or happy versions of strong men. >> one thing you see throughout the republican party is just a rejection of the idea of persuasion, a rejection they would do any kind of attempt to speak to someone who disagrees with you on on an equal basis and bring him to your side. within the republican party we're witnessing it right now we're it's not just an objection what even amongst republicans, no attempt to do anything to reach out to people, to persuade people. but then broadly, the republican party nationally, there's trump and the notion of trying to seize power is in some stense a rejection of the idea that you should do any of it work of democratic life. there are state legislators who create these intense partisan gerrymanders to nullify voters. we're just going to dominate over everyone around us, and this really does seem to be the dominating ethos of so much of the republican party. and it's hard to know what to do about it other than just sort of observe it and hope that it burns itself out. >> well, yeah. i mean, i will also say to the point of there's no working cross the aisle, there's no democracy worth preserving. the reason the republicans aren't shutting down the government is because democrats stood up and saved their butts. i mean like the irony here as trump is vilifying the fascist left is the fascist left is actually saving your butts in congress and asking nothing other than a functioning government. i got to ask you jamelle, this is senator mark wayne mullen, again senator mark wayne mullen on news max today sort of making a historical reference on why it's fine to come to blows in the u.s. senate. let us take a listen. >> could you guys go bare knuckle if you wanted to? >> we looked into the rules. you got to remember president andrew jackson challenged nine guys to a dual and won nine times. at a white house dinner jackson jumped up and literally ran across the table and knocked the guy out. and so at the end of the day there is precedence for it if that's what someone wants to do. >> just a word on precedence, if presidents are taking their cues from andrew jackson we have a problem. talk about two chapters of american history are probably not where you want to be drawing your marching orders from, jamelle. >> i don't know i want to compare myself or look on preston brooks caning of adam summoner. through glorification, this willingness to speak violently, act violently it speaks to not just maturity but a rejection of the basic premise of democratic life, lowercase "d" democratic life, which is we're going to talk to each other and attempt to persuade each other and engage each other as equal. in the same way that brook' caning of summoner was a statement i don't feel you're an equal and i don't feel an obligation to. you can't run a legislative society, you cannot run a society that way. >> it's not just congress, you cannot run a society like that. thank you for your wisdom and thoughts this evening. i appreciate it. >> thank you. we have a lot to get to this evening to including president biden who is drawing a serious contrast with his predecessor, donald trump, on maybe the most important, the most urgent issue of our lifetimes. plus, the leaked tape of jenna ellis and sidney powell telling georgia prosecutors what they knew about the conspiracy case and what trump knew. that's next. i got this $1,000 camera for only $41 on dealdash. dealdash.com, online auctions since 2009. this playstation 5 sold for only 50 cents. this ipad pro sold for less than $34. and this nintendo switch, sold for less than $20. i got this kitchenaid stand mixer for only $56. i got this bbq smoker for 26 bucks. and shipping is always free. go to dealdash.com right now and see how much you can save. tiny, branch, poppy on another musical adventure. you see that button? yeah. press it. hold onto your cupcakes. ♪ ♪ ooh! too much hustle is a thing. look at that. i was with my team when that emergency motion got filed. i'm not happy that my colleague got to do the story. >> that story fulton county d.a. is referring on effectively confession from some of trump's codefendants who accepted plea deals in georgia's election interference case. and from what we have seen and what we have read, there are both colorful details and substantive revelations. and the colorful category, the fact that sidney powell's fest time meeting codefendant scott hall happened to be at an alligator hunt. as for substantive president trump asked kenneth chesebro four or five questions about the mat of arizona, and chesebro described for trump his memo on the fake elector scheme. there was also a coup plot revealed to jenna ellis at a white house christmas party. this is what she told reporters about a conversation she had with top trump aide dan scavino. >> he said to me in a kind of excited tone, well, we don't care and we're not going to leave. and i said what do you mean. and he said the boss, meaning president trump, the boss is not going to leave under any circumstances, we're just going to stay in power. and i said to him it doesn't quite work that way you realize, and he said we don't care. >> joining us now is mimi roca, a former u.s. attorney in the southern district of new york. mimi, thanks for being here. let's first pick up where jenna ellis left off there. this idea dan scavino told her we're just going to stay in power. seems like a searing indictment. can it be used in court? is it hearsay? how does this qualify as a piece of evidence? >> the fact you know to ask if it's hearsay. so, first of all i would say, yes, i mean this is damaging testimony if it comes in. why? because it shows that this was a plan. it wasn't that he really believed he had won the election but rather this was the plan. i think her testimony in one of the questions was why did he listen to you, why not some other lawyers? well, because we were telling him what he want today hear. >> that was sidney powell that said that. >> yes. and that would negate advice of -- >> of counsel. >> exactly. and sticking your head in the sand, which you can't do, all of that. so substantively this is very bad for trump 100%, but the fact it's out is very bad i think for the prosecution. >> can you talk more about that. obviously fani willis is not happy about this. she wants a protective order. she filed an emergency protective order on top of the protective order she already asked the judge for. a decision is going to be made in two weeks about that. why is this bad for her beyond people knowing what the goods are that she has, or is there not a beyond? >> well, it's mostly that because it's not just people. now, the defense -- the people that she is prosecuting have a complete preview of some of the most as we're discussing damaging testimony. now, maybe they already knew this. they know it through discovery, the defendants who it was given to, but now everybody knows it. and the jury pool knows it, and so it's a better argument for -- to the defense for a tainted jury pool. it prejudices, arguably, a jury. all the arguments why in every court that trump is facing prosecution people are arguing that he should be limited into what he can say publicly, because this is the same thing, right? you have public statements going out that are prejudicial to him. this is the kind of thing as a prosecutor you see this gets out, and your heart starts having palpitations. it's not good to have this out there i don't think. >> does the release of it by one of the defendants who had access to it during the discovery process, does it count as witness intimidation putting it out there like that, suggesting to other witnesses don't talk? >> i mean her argument and her motion is it's clearly intended to intimidate witnesses. i don't know that i agree clearly, but it certainly can have that effect, right? because if you're someone who's going to cooperate, you're saying well, wait a minute i thought what i told you is kfrmgs at least until and unless there's a trial, which there may or may not be. we say that to potential cooperating witnesses all the time as prosecutors. we say what you tell us we'll keep as confidential. yes, we'll have to turn it over to the defense, at some point. it mayo may not go to trial so you may not -- there's a lot of steps to it becoming so public. ando the impact of that one on someone's willingness to come forward and tell you everything. and two, in this particular circumstance of the reality of the world that we're in, we know that people who support trump and follow trump and believe this is not a prosecution with integrity will come after people who are saying things because they're saying something bad against trump, not necessarily because of, you know, anything else. >> i do have to ask you just because it seems like the first evidence, though, leaked and though problematic for fani willis, the first evidence that we may have connecting trump to the fake electors plot is maybe given by kenneth chesebro who in his proffer agreement in the videotape says he has a conversation with the president about the matter of arizona and then describes to trump his memo on the fake elector scheme. how meaningful is that setting aside the obvious concerns about witness intimidation and what it does to the prosecution? >> again, i think substantively all of this is good evidence for the prosecution. it doesn't mean that there isn't a defense, doesn't mean there isn't evidence that trump and others could put on, but it is good evidence for the prosecution, which, again, is actually why i think the prosecuti