now. >> we will have the aclu on later on in our hour to talk about that and whether there might be a lawsuit coming for the biden administration. thank you, my friend. today has been a lesson in how every accusation from the republican party these days is actually a confession. >> are you weaponize thing the house the same way? >> no. >> you say democrats are weaponize in the doj to get what they want. are you doing it on a bigger platform in the entire house of representatives? >> no, there is a clear distinction between what we are doing and what they have done. they are undermining people's faith in our institutions, the system of justice itself. what we are doing is the opposite. we are trying to adhere to the rule of law. >> that was republican speaker of the house mike johnson this afternoon saying the republican party is just trying to adhere to the rule of law. a few hours before that interview, speaker johnson made a huge decision which shows that is plainly not the case. as speaker of the house, one of the most important things johnson does is decide who from his party sits on house committees and among the most important committees for the rule of law in this country is the house intelligence committee. today speaker johnson appointed far right congressman scott perry and far right congressman ronny jackson to the open seats on that committee. when i say this decision flies in the face of the rule of law, it is not only because. and jackson are big-time election deniers, they most certainly are. there are also the individual actions these congressmen have taken that demonstrate just how much little respect they have for the rule of law and democracy as a whole. congressman scott perry had a significant role in the attempt to overturn the 2020 election. he was the congressman who tried to get trump's chief of staff mark meadows to investigate the conspiracy theory that italian satellites were swapping out trump's votes for biden votes. he is the congressman who met with mark meadows before mark meadows literally set fire to papers in his office. he was the congressman who introduced an obscure employee named jeffrey clark to president trump in an effort to get him to appoint the malleable mister clark is attorney general and help steal the election. trump ultimately did appoint him to serve as attorney general for one hot second, by the way. we know that now. congressman perry was also one of the people president trump talked with about going to the capital on january 6 and one of the people who asked president trump for a preemptive pardon after january 6. and then when the house january 6 committee subpoenaed congressman perry to ask him about all of the above, perry refused to comply. but wait, there is more. last year the fbi seized congressman perry's cell phone as part of the special counsel investigation into attempts to overturn the 2020 election. to this day congressman scott perry is in an ongoing lawsuit against the department of justice, trying to keep the doj from using the information on his phone. but, rule of law. this guy is one of the guys speaker johnson believes should be overseeing the fbi and then there is the other guy, congressman ronny jackson. he was the white house physician under president trump. you remember him? he's the one who put out glowing statements about how healthy president trump was and how he just might live to be 200 years old. ronny jackson is now a far right congressman from texas who pushes conspiracy theories and says fellow dr. anthony fauci belongs in jail. here was congressman jackson responding to trump's guilty verdict last week. >> president biden should be ready because on january 20 next year when he is former president joe biden, what is good for the goose is good for the gander and i will encourage all of my colleagues and anybody i have influence over as a member of congress to aggressively go after the president and his entire family. >> subtle. these are the guys speaker johnson is giving a seat on the committee that oversees our nation's intelligence agencies. one congressman who is not only actively involved in the plot to overturn the 2020 election, but actively refusing to cooperate with law enforcement about all of it. and another congressman who last week on television said congress should be using its powers to go after president biden and his family. >> look, we are the rule of law team. we believe in the rule of law. >> team rule of law. yesterday speaker johnson laid out plans to weaponize the house oversight powers for retaliatory investigations against democrats and president biden as sort of a republican response to trump's conviction by a jury of his peers in new york city and you can bet that a good chunk of those investigations will probably come out of the house committee on the weaponization of the federal government. again, every republican allegation is actually a confession. but what makes all of this so much worse is that these revenge fantasies aren't just coming from speaker johnson and fellow republicans in the whack you do house conference. this is where the whole party is. the gop is the party of vengeance. this is what florida senator marco rubio said after trump's conviction. it is time to fight fire emoji with fire emoji. >> i'm talking aboutfor tat. you wait and it won't be hunter biden the next time. it is going to be joe biden. it could be barack obama. it could be hillary clinton. >> you have to get in the game, republicans. his every house committee using its subpoena power in every way it needs to right now? starting every investigation they need to right now? >> we need brave district attorneys in the united states to step forward and take aggressive action. >> they need to be put on defense and the only way is to hit them with a blowtorch. >> it is a terrible precedent for our country. it is a terrible, terrible path they are leading us to and it is very possible that it is going to have to happen to them. >> joining me now is massachusetts senator, democrat elizabeth warren. senator warren, thank you for being here. i remember a time when marco rubio had at least a residence on earth one where facts are facts and reality is reality. i have to get your thoughts on his statement, his tweet today, saying our current president is a demented man propped up by wicked and deranged people willing to destroy our country to remain in power. it is time to fight fire with fire. your thoughts, senator? >> this revenge fantasy is truly alarming. i understand that these are people who have taken their loafs of loyalty to donald trump, not to the constitution. not to the people, but to this one man. they suck up and do whatever it is that he wants them to do, but the direction this has now gone. look, we all understand using our court system for retribution is wrong and there is absolutely zero evidence that the 34 felony convictions against donald trump had anything to do with political retribution. and yet the republicans in this moment have decided that the only way they can explain that their candidate is a convicted felon. can i say that again? a convicted felon who has said he wants to be dictator on day one. that the only way they can explain that is to head off and they are planning to do retribution and somehow they think that will spill backwards into what happened in the courts in new york. none of this makes any sense. except to say it is about tearing down our government. it is about tearing down our institutions and i believe the reason they want to do that is they don't want a government that functions. we are trying to show that we can actually make government work for people. we can actually make government the an instrument of roads and bridges and things that work better for america. we can cancel student loan debt and get $35 insulin. the kinds of things joe biden has been doing. what these republicans want is they want to use government for power. for donald trump and for themselves and that is truly a threat to our democracy. >> i would love to follow up on that because now scott perry and ronny jackson are going to be sitting on a house committee that oversees spy agencies and has access to sensitive and classified information. as a prominent democrat, does that scare you? >> yeah, it really does. i am alarmed by every step they are taking and by the fact that people who are less and less attached to reality are moving into ever more powerful positions in the house of representatives and i worry that we are getting some evidence that the senate on the republican side does not look like it is our bind. this is an alarming moment. five months from today we will have an election and when people say democracy is on the ballot, this is a big part of what we are talking about. you believe in government? do you try to support government? you make your loyalty to the constitution and people of the united states or is it all about one man and however much you have to distort the facts? however much you have to lie. however much you have to engage in ugly and mean retribution fantasies, you will do it if it satisfies that one man. that is the choice in front of us and i've got to say i'm glad i'm on the democratic side. i am with joe biden who is at heart a decent and good man who wants government to work for you. >> i have to ask, because as we talk about republican revenge fantasies, senator katie britt, another colleague in the senate, called democratic efforts to pass protection for contribution -- contraception on the senate floor part of a summer of scare tactics. first if you could, respond to the notion that protecting contraception is a partisan scare tactic. >> okay, let's be really clear. what she is really saying is if we talk about what the republicans are threatening to do, we really will scare america and i think that's right. look at it this way. what have the republicans done so far? well, they told us to an a half years ago nobody would touch roe versus wade. donald trump gets this extremist supreme court in place and the first chance they get they pitch out roe versus wade. they don't take a little bite out of it. they just throw the whole thing out and while they are throwing it out, clarence thomas says as long as we are throwing it out, let's take a look at throwing out griswold, which 10 years earlier had protected access to contraception. in addition to that, the speaker of the house and a majority of republicans in the house of representatives are cosponsors on a bill about life begins at conception that would actually make illegal certain forms of contraception. iuds, plan b. in addition to that there are extremist group out there that are aggressively lobbying to take away access to contraception and then we've got donald trump himself who just two weeks ago said he was going to take a look at putting restrictions on contraception and then as if all of that were not enough, understand that today in the united states senate, all but two republicans, when given a chance to vote on what about a federal law to protect access to contraception, that is all the bill really said. only two republicans said i will support that. the rest of them voted no or ran for the hills, so they would not have to say in public how they feel about taking away access to contraception. you better believe that americans should be scared about what republicans want to do, because they are coming after abortion everywhere in this country. they are coming after ivf in this country and they are coming after contraception. not just red states, but nationally. red states, blue states, purple states, everywhere. it is an extremist agenda and america should be alarmed. >> senator elizabeth warren, thank you for joining me and offering your wisdom and perspective. really appreciate your time. >> you bet, thank you. i want to turn now to an opinion columnist for the new york times. thinking for being here. we were talking to senator warren about revenge fantasies and i think part of the reason we have seen such a shocking response from the republican party is because they are legitimately shaken by the 34 felony counts. how do you interpret what is an unprecedented, spoken out loud plot to break the law in service of a partisan agenda? >> i think that is absolutely right. i think this roar we are seeing from republicans, this furious anger over the conviction, is an expression of the fact that they are more than aware that it is not good for your party's standard bearer to be a convicted felon. it is not good and to go through the polling so far, it is not good when consistently majorities of americans are saying that seems about right. it seems about right that donald trump is guilty of fraud and the conviction was the right choice. honestly it is somewhat surprising among the public about the justice of this ruling and i will note that you have not really seen republicans and actively deny the charges against trump. you have not seen republicans try to speak to his good name. to say donald trump could never have done what he was charged with that the jury found him guilty of. to me that is a clear sign that republicans know this is not an ideal situation. >> you have an opinion piece i will read an excerpt of. the myth is that donald trump is immune to scandal and there is nothing that could undermine his political prospects. the truth is very far from the myth. yes he has shameless and surrounded by cult of personality, but neither makes him invulnerable to the blows of political combat. and then the polling you were talking about. this is the new york times polling. before the verdict trump was up by three points. after the verdict two years up by one point. i know that is not a sizable enough margin to assuage folks, but the fact is we are a couple of days out and it is, however incremental, having an effect, especially among young, nonwhite voters who were largely disengaged from the political process. how do you read that? >> i think we are still at this stage in the election where your typical voter, most voters, are not paying all that much attention. as we move into the summer and fall i expect we will hear a steady drumbeat about the president being a convicted felon. his sentencing is in july before the republican national convention. that will be a big moment. i expect as more voters tune in and begin to internalize what they learn about trump, they will think seriously not just about their preference, but their vote intention. this sort of thing might at the very least keep trump from consolidating voters he needs to actually win the election. the way i have been thinking about it is if trump were acquitted, right, we would all recognize this was a big victory for the former president. so him being convicted on 34 counts, i've got to be honest. i was surprised that it was all 34. him being convicted, it stands to reason that it is an obstacle to his efforts to win a second term. >> right. it says something about the world we are living in that we have to reiterate that maybe getting convicted on 34 felony counts is not a boon. however i will say in one of the tightest senate races in the country, what is it? jon tester and tim sheehy is trying to run on trump's convictions. jamelle bouie with the new york times, thank you for being here. >> thank you. we have a lot this evening including revelations about a secret plan to influence lawmakers like hakeem jeffries. we will tell you what that plot is. plus the judge overseeing the criminal prosecution of donald trump in florida makes the latest in a long series of decisions that seem to be helping the guy who appointed her. that is next. but we got to sell our houses! 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