left, like, what do you put on that generation of children that are witnessing this level of draw trauma and, destruction, and death? >> -- and peter beinart, thank you both, appreciate it. that is all in on this tuesday night. alex wagner tonight starts right now. good evening, alex. >> thank, you my friend, we have a lot to get to this evening. thank you tom for joining with me tonight. this time of year, four years ago, democrats were preparing to impeach donald trump for withholding aid to ukraine in an attempt to get political dirt on joe biden. the republicans were not surprisingly outraged. but there was one republican congressman in particular who had a very specific reason for opposing trump's impeachment, a reason that he repeated over and over and over. but >> the founding fathers, the founders of this country, warned against single party impeachment. they said it would be bitterly divisive, protect perhaps irreparably divisive for the country. the founders of this country warned us against the single party impeachment, because they feared it would bitterly amber helps irreparably divide our nation. >> the founders of this nation warned against a single party impeachment. you know why? you guys guys know why. they feared it would bitterly and perhaps irreparably divide our nation. >> the founding fathers warned us, i mean they feared a single party impeachment. they knew that it would bitterly divide the country. it might be irreparable damage to the country. >> the founding fathers. no single party impeachments. if an impeachment isn't bipartisan it should not happen. so spoke the founding fathers. and that was the message from louisiana congressman mike johnson, and congressman johnson was especially concerned about an impeachment happening the december before an election year. we >> if you don't like the president, he goes on the ballot again after four years. we have an election in 11 months. let the people decide this. >> today we are once again 11 months out from the presidential election. speaker mike johnson has decided that he wants to go ahead with a single party impeachment of the sitting president. today republicans in the house passed their impeachment resolution through the rules committee, and they plan to vote on that resolution in the full house as soon as tomorrow. but unlike the impeachment of donald trump, republicans do not actually know what their impeachment is about. they have not actually found any conclusive proof of wrongdoing by president biden. and now speaker johnson says, well, that's the point. speaker says the reason republicans need to impeach president biden without evidence is because the administration has not helped them find that evidence. >> the impeachment inquiry is necessary now, as we just explained, because we've come to this impact impasse. the white house is impeding the investigation. not allowing witnesses to come forward and thousands of pages of documents. >> they have no choice. the white house isn't providing enough documents or witnesses, so the impeachment, it just has to go forward. i wonder what 2019 mike johnson would have to say about that? >> the democrats could and should have just simply gone a few blocks away to a federal court to get him expedited court order compelling the extra documents and information they requested. that's what's always been done in the past. but they didn't do that here because these democrats don't have time for it. they are trying to meet their own arbitrary completely reckless and machiavellian timeline to take down a president that they loathe. mike >> johnson is in way over his head right now. as he and the republican party barrel toward and unfounded preach impeachment inquiry, the entire world is waiting on this congress to take action. to the ukrainian president zelenskyy was in washington d.c. timid with both president biden and speaker johnson about desperately needed aid. right now russia is ramping up its military offensive in ukraine in what u.s. intelligence says is an attempt to undermine support for ukraine and western nations. like this one. new democrats support sending ukraine assistance immediately, but house republicans, under the leadership of speaker johnson, have refused. they are instead demanding the democrats reach a series of extreme border policies before signing on to any ukrainian package. policies like bringing back trump era covid restrictions on immigration, mandating electronic monitoring of immigrants of in the u.s. including children, and expediting deportations. so there are some huge looming issues right now. peoples lives are hanging in the balance here. but as of this moment, congress is scheduled to leave washington at the end of this week, not to return until next year. with senate majority leader chuck schumer is calling on congress to stay in session throughout the next week but there is no indication that republicans will agree. time is running out, and right now their top priority is impeaching president biden. but they can't really tell you or anyone why. joining me now is former speaker of the house, now speaker emory to, emerita, nancy pelosi. thank you for being here speaker pelosi. it's wonderful to have you anytime but especially in a time like this one we're trying to make sense of what is going on with your colleagues across the aisle. i wonder what you think of this impeachment push and whether the gop is trying to render the concept of impeachment effectively meaningless. >> well, thank you, it's nice to be with you, alex, especially in this difficult time for our country, when we have so many needs that we have to, meet so many challenges to democracy in ukraine and in our own country and that the speaker is going down this path. he says he has no choice. the fact is he has no respect. no respect for the constitution of the united states, no respect for his own members. those he's asking to vote for an impeachment with no basis. you reference when we are obese the president years ago because of his refusal to implement the, send the aid to ukraine that was voted by congress and he was supposed to sound but was threatening to withhold it unless he got certain favors done for him. by president zelenskyy. but he said to me, what's the problem? it was the perfect call. it was perfectly impeachable. and so they have no basis. moved their excuse for having no basis is they have no basis, and they are saying to these people, nearly 20 of them, 18 of them are in districts that president biden won. so it's going to be a hard sell for them to go home and say why they went down this careless path. it let me just say one more thing. you ran all the statements that he made about he shouldn't have a one party impeachment. well our founders knew that we could possibly have a rogue president but they didn't think we would have a rogue congress at the same time. in addition to that, so my senator -- manchin did on the floor, this speaker a few congresses ago introduced a bill that said you can't have more than one subject in a bill. and yet he is putting immigration on the ukraine bill. >> i just want to follow up on something you mentioned which is the cliff that it appears speaker johnson is leading his by in district republicans over on this impeachment inquiry vote. kevin mccarthy, when he was speaker, if you can remember, it happened very quickly it was over before it began in many ways. but in his speakership he understood the political reality that it would not be good for those centrist republicans to vote on the biden impeachment. speaker johnson does not seem to understand the political reality of that. what fortune awaits those republicans who vote yes? >> they have made a decision to go all out with donald trump. donald trump has instigated this, encouraged it further, and now they are all just going down the donald trump path. that is not a good path in some of these districts. we fully intend to win the house in this next election but in the meantime we have plenty of work to do instead of this impeachment. what do they have to offer? i like the even call him president trump on the same sentence but the former occupant occasionally of the white house would say much to overturn the affordable care act. others will say we have to pass it. a total ban on abortion in our country, and these are the kinds of things they have in store for women and families, the kind of kitchen table issues that they have in store, should they win, which they must not. but in the meantime, to keep people distracted and to look effective, to their base, this is red meat to their base, mertz impeach the president. for no basis. no respect for the constitution, no respect for the auspices of president, and no respect for the house of representatives and their own members. >> i want to focus on that last bit. the lack of respect for the actual office that these republicans hold, this congress is on track to be this, i think it's the second least productive congress in modern american history. a lot of excuses are made for that on the right, which is, oh, it's a slim majority, et cetera, and you are speaker of the house with a very slim majority are managed to get many things done. what would your advice to the current speaker of the house be if he wanted to get anything done? >> in addition to what some of those republicans have said about their slim's already, some have been bragging that they sent all these bills over to the senate. ridiculous bills that are never going to see the light of day, but as some of them said, we've done a lot of things. when one stat person said we meet santa letter got the mask mandate removed. we sent a later letter about this or that and now we're going to have a hearing on it. their standard for accomplishment is very law. but they're anti-governance. if you remember that they are anti-governance, this is a good thing for them, that they are accomplishing nothing. >> -- >> nothing. good >> and you mentioned some of the priorities for these republican lawmakers in a vacuum. the most egregious things really stand out. among them their war on reproductive freedom and the most recent comments from their titular head, bill they're informal head, their front runner, donald trump, who wants to replace obamacare. >> yes, imagine that. imagine that. when he was president he said repeal and replace he had no replacement. he just wanted to repeal. and it was defeated and he was defeated not move just by our incitement of rainbow by outside mobilization, the grassroots people that benefit, the people who benefit from the affordable care act. it wasn't about them talking about provisions it was them talking about their personal experience. and that is what we intend to do. we've already launched the same campaign we did then and will come full bloom around martin luther king weekend to again have the outside mobilization to protect affordable care act which is brought care to millions, nearly 20 million more people in our country, and again, benefits, including me the most important one that affects so many people as a pre-existing condition, the benefit of saying if you have a pre-existing condition no longer can you be deprived of care. and we have no more time limits, whether it's annual or lifetime time limits. the list goes on about the benefits that would be overturned as well. these are kitchen table issues, as are the issues that you referenced earlier about a woman's right to choose. kitchen table issues. it's an economic issue. all of it for families about their health, their financial well-being, their freedom. we fight for democracy here in our country. ukrainians are fighting for their. we are fighting for freedom here, whether it's freedom for lgbtq communities, whatever. the freedoms that people want to read a book, to even read a book, for your child to read books in school that have been classics and are now burned. >> something tells me that former speaker nancy pelosi is ready to talk book bans, women's bodies, and health care as much as republicans will latter. speaker nancy pelosi it is an honor and thrilled to have you on this program. thanks for making some time tonight. i really appreciated. >> my pleasure. but remember, the longer they take with ukraine, more women will be rain, four people were, die where children will be kidnapped, and it will be all on them. we have to get them to move. thank you for giving some more exposure to this issue tonight. thank, you alex. >> thank you for all you do. i appreciate it. joining me now is new york times columnist michelle goldberg. michelle, it's great to see you here, to sort of unpack what we just talked about. first, so many things to talk, about first the impeachment push, as zelenskyy is effectively begging hat in hand for the u.s. congress to do something about an incredibly desperate situation over in ukraine, this cynicism, to me, is astounding. i wonder if you think if it resonates the way it can and should with the american public. >> i think the american public is so polarith i'm not sure, i mean, i think they're still in middle. on ukraine aid specifically, i do think that there are people who are right leaning who are inspired by the heroism of the ukrainian people, absolutely. but one function of donald trump has been to polarize a lot of the republican party in favor of vladimir putin. there's a connection between this cynical impeachment push and the decreasing willingness of republicans to support ukraine. it's true that we can't articulate what republicans are impeaching joe biden for, which is telling, but at least part of the impeachment push is a resurrection of this conspiracy theory that got donald trump impeached. donald trump is impeached for trying to strong-arm zelenskyy to implicate biden in his bogus corruption scandal. the republicans are once again trying to implicate biden in this bogus corruption scandal and sort of act as if donald trump's accusations had been legitimate. that is part of the same sort of, they are caught up in anti ukrainian propaganda, both in terms of impeachment, but also much more seriously in terms of their willingness to abandon ukraine at this critical junction in the war. >> that they'll sacrifice lives for political gain. which we by the way saw during covid but this is just another example even if they're not necessarily american lives. i do have to ask you about the impeachment push. i feel you give some strategic credit to republicans. there's like a comments read between trump's impeachment and bidens. i really do worry that the more you say biden was impeached and trump was impeached, it renders the gravity of it somewhat meaningless. >> that's why they're doing it. >> yes. and i worry that it's going to be quite effective. >> yeah, i do too. we people will say they were both accused of different things. it's very clear that the reason that, and i think some republicans and said this, we want to give trump ammunition to say, to impeach presidents running against each other and so just kind of lessened the gravity of his double impeachment. but at the same time, yes, it's hard for people to keep straight, especially when it comes to ukraine and burisma and victor shokin and all these foreign names in moving parts and people become very cynical and just think they're all corrupt. they must have both done something. there must be something shady going on with ukraine, which got them, i think, leads into, well, maybe it makes sense that we've given them enough money. >> i wonder, in terms of managing the funding to ukraine, which seems warranted and desperately needed, whether it was a mistake. former speaker pelosi mentioned it was a mistake to tie immigration and all of this but it was president biden who initially basically attach the immigration funding to the ukraine funding, gaza finding. what does that look like? does it look like a mistake? now >> i think it looks like it's giving republicans, i mean, i can't see if it's a mistake that can't see if it would get this funding in the absence of this. but i do think that it's given republicans this enormous leverage because negotiations are often about who cares more. they really don't care that much about ukraine if at all. they care a lot about the border. and so they are willing to, they are quite willing to play chicken with the future of ukraine as a nation if it means they're going to get the border funded. >> the sweetener's draconian border policy. that's where the modern republican party is at. michelle bull goldberg, you're not done with us here, i would bring you back in a few minutes to talk about another massive story in tonight's news, and that is the nightmare in the state of texas as elected officials in the states -- start directing reproductive health care. but first, the supreme court may soon be deciding whether donald trump is immune from prosecution. we're gonna get the latest on that from neal katyal. that's next. katyal. that's next. that's next. >> because i switched to every-other-month cabenuva. for adults who are undetectable, cabenuva is the only complete long-acting hiv treatment you can get every other month. it's two injections from a healthcare provider. now when i have people over, hiv pills aren't on my mind. don't receive cabenuva if you're allergic to its ingredients, or if you're taking certain medicines, which may interact with cabenuva. serious side effects include allergic reactions, post-injection reactions, liver problems, and depression. if you have a rash and other allergic reaction symptoms, stop cabenuva and get medical help right away. tell your doctor if you have liver problems or mental health concerns, and if you are pregnant, breastfeeding, or considering pregnancy. some of the most common side effects include injection-site reactions, fever, and 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