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thank you so much for letting us into your homes during these truly extraordinary times. we are grateful. the beat with katie phang in for ari starts right now. hi, katie. >> hi, nicolle. thank you so much. welcome to "the beat" for the rest offuous. i am katie phang in for ari melber. we start with flashing warning signs for american democracy at a pivotal moment in the american campaign season. as of tonight president biden and former president trump have clenched the threshold for meeting they primaries. it's the earliest matchup in nearly a quarter of a century. in 2000 al gore and george w. bush clenched their nominations just four days earlier than joe biden and donald trump. of course, that election ended at the united states supreme court. and this election starts there. trump set to make the

unprecedented argument for total presidential immunity in his coup case next month, as accountability for january 6th rioters dpriends forward. just today a federal judge ordering that a trump supporter charged with firing a gun outside the capitol on january 6th be detained. as you can see that alleged conduct in these photos. trump is now actively campaigning for a second term on what he can do for those convicted rioters. this week he's promising to, quote, free january 6th convicts as a day one priority if he's re-elected. also this week trump's allies at the republican national committee hiring infamous election denier and former trump lawyer, christina bobb to be, quote, senior counsel for election integrity. we can't make it up. yes, election integrity. more on bobb later in the show. but more broadly axios today is

calling the maga takeover of the rnc involving mass laifs in a hunt for disloyal members a, quote, dry run for trump's second term plans. the former president has vowed to decimate the federal work force and install tens of thousands of loyalists in government jobs. a national version of what he's already deployed at the rnc. trump is also hoping to stock his cabinet with loyalists and vowing to retaliate against biden by appointing a special prosecutor to, quote, go after him. it's a maga fever dream, but already his hard liner allies in d.c. are thinking about making it real. new reporting indicating that top house republicans know that they don't have a case to impeach joe biden. he's come up with a cynical exit plan of sorts. it entails making criminal referrals to the doj in hopes that a trump doj would bring

indictments. again, this is despite knowing they have no evidence of any wrongdoing. house oversight chair james comer is now getting pretty explicit about this. >> at the end of the day what does accountability look like? it looks like criminal referrals. it looks like referring people to the department of justice. and if merrick garland's department of justice won't take any potential criminal referrals seriously, then maybe the next president with a new attorney general will. >> so none of this is hidden. donald trump and his allies are campaigning on election lies again and promises of firing nonpartisan civil servants, exacting political retribution, and freeing rioters. welcome to day one of the general election. joining me now is maya wily, former united states assistant attorney in the southern district of new york, and ruth, new york university history

professor. my thanks to both of you for getting the show started this evening. i would add ruth is also the author of "strongmen, mussolini to the president." which is the kind of point about the conversation you and i are about to have together. i mean considering what's happening at the rnc do you think calling it a, quote, dry run for trump's second term plan is an accurate depiction? >> absolutely. this is a process of what we call autocratic capture. and while he's waiting to he thinks come back to power, he is exerting -- he's domesticating the party -- he's already domesticated the party and now it's time for the rnc and the larger extension of the party. and of course, putting a family member, laura trump, in charge is a page out of the authoritarian play book. normally it's sons-in-law, and we already had ivanka and jared in the last administration of

trump. and now it's a daughter-in-law, but she's there because the intent is to funnel all donor moneys to solve trump's personal legal and financial problems. and this is classic authoritarian playbook stuff. you personalize politics by turning the mechanisms in the party and later if he gets enough government to serve your personal needs. so that's what's going on with the rnc. >> maya, we've seen what can happen with trump in the oval office during his first term, the havoc he was able to wreak. what are the guardrails that could be available to prevent donald trump from pretty much hollowing out the united states government the way he's currently doing to the rnc? >> well, that's a really important question. and we should start with the

fact that federal employees, they're also civil servants, some of them are protected from civil servant rules, so the idea of cleaning them out, there's a difference between appointed positions, meaning the positions that the president gets to fill, the positions that require consent of the senate, which is a guardrail as well for those appointed positions. but then there's just the regular folks who do the work every day, one administration to the next without regard to party or politics, and that's a huge percentage of who our federal workforce are. and so the way you get rid of them is actually by doing some things youp shouldn't be doing in and of itself, which is trying to find ways to push them out you shouldn't be using. what i find ironic about this whole thing. the senate is going to matter for advice and consent, how much that matters in terms of supreme court, but also whether or not

we're having oversight hearings in the house, so the balance of power in the branches of government matters. you know, and whether the supreme court is going to care about its public approval ratings is going to matter a lot because that's a guardrail. but when it really comes back down to it, remember one of the authoritarian things donald trump has done is to drive conspiracy theories including the notion of the deep state, which is part of the way it was utilizing this conspiracy theory that somehow government is working against the american people for some other interests. all they've done is show a play book where they're trying to create their own deep state. and that's the height of hypocrisy and irony. >> you know, ruth, this week we also learned of ex-trump advisers warning about trump's fondness for dictators -- nothing new to those of us that are paying attention. but trump saying that, quote, hitler did some good things.

ruth, we have this conversation often you and i. and i listen to you very the intently when you're on other programs on this network to talk about how much of a red flag this is. but to now have these private musings become public, just confirming the public musings we've heard from donald trump, how alarmed are you now? or are you not surprised by what you've heard? >> well, i put trump in my book "strangmen" which goes from mussolini up to hitler. it was the first book to include lim in that authoritarian history, so i'm not surprised. but it's obviously disturbing. what he's doing by praising dictators is ultimately he's sending messages to those dictators, the ones who are alive such as putin and xi, who he's lavishingly praising. the one he needs or he's helped with in the past. ultimately all this ceaseless

praising of dictators is actually an attempt to re-educate or condition americans to want authoritarian rule and want him as a strong man, and to disabuse them of democracy and tell them that -- even the leader of north korea who runs a sort of semicriminal state, trump says we fell in love. so nobody is off-limits. saddam hussein has been praised for being tough on terrorists. and so all of this is designed to put these kind of pariah, murderous dictator figures in a good light, in a positive light. that's very disturbing, and it's trump telling us this is the model he's going to follow, and this time there won't be as many checks on him if he comes back. >> yeah, and that's -- maya, to ruth's point i asked you about those guardrails. they're hanging by, you know, the skin of their teeth. and i will admit, maya and ruth,

i'm guilty of the following. i'll be working and i'll look up and i'll read a chron. and it'll be trump expressing his ademeration for putin and victor orban. have we become numb to what's going on? it is a constant drum beat of trump, shocking things. that's only a headline for a day, maybe two. and then, poof, it fades into the ether. >> let me answer this way, i do think there's a lot of exhaustion but let's remember democracy is not a promise. it's a principle, and the only way we held onto it is because we decide we are going to. but one of the things we should

be encouraged by, remember we saw this in the mid-terms in '22. people do understand what it means to be told the government can get between you and your doctor and your health care and whether you can protect your own life if you are a woman who has serious health concerns and would like to choose an abortion. that has been an incredibly motivating factor in people's desire to protect democracy, and that is across politics. the same thing with fighting hate and bias and the rise of extremism and hate. i mean we saw how donald trump in a moment in which we were struggling to survive and literally hundreds of thousands of people were dying, and some of our cities we were seeing refrigeration trucks, but what was trump doing besides denying it, he was stoking anti-asian hate, and we were watching literal violence increase against asians.

we've heard him use the language that incites white supremacists and neo-nazis, not just putting bad people on both sides as he said in charlottesville when he was president, but even since when he actually is talking about pardoning people from january 6th. remember who the foot soldiers were. it was extremists like the proud boys, the gateway group to white supremacy. it was the oath keepers. it was folks who were organized to divide us and drive hate. and we have seen the incredible rise whether it's anti-semitism, whether it's anti-black violence, anti-gay and lesbian. all of these are on the rise because of this, but it has become a galvanizing moment for so many about stepping up into this democracy and saying, no, no, no, it may not be a promise but it's ours, and we're going to fight for it. >> maya, i have to thank you for that for reminding us there are people willing to step into the

breach and defend what is our democracy. i want to say thank you for giving us perspective. maya, you're going to stay with us because we're going to take a look at the news today in the georgia rico case a little bit later. and also coming up why experts say trump is in a lot more financial trouble than he's actually letting on, with tons of legal bills coming dune. plus amid so much gop dysfunction, we're going to explain why one gop lawmaker it is talking about mike johnson in the same breath as hannibal lector. >> i ate his liver -- and new questions about ted cruz and his role in pushing the trump plot to steal the election. we'll talk to the democrat who's running against him and trying to turn texas blue. all of that and more when we're back in just 60 seconds. that a

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. today the judge overseeing trump's georgia rico case dismissing some of the charges. judge mcafee quashing six counts against trump and some of his codefendants, saying the charges, which alleged they had solicited georgia state officials to break the law, lacked sufficient detail. one of the charges getting thrown out when trump pressured election officials to, quote, find the votes needed to overturn the election. the prosecution now has to decide whether to seek reindictment on those counts, appeal mcafee's decision or maybe simply just cut their losses. trump himself, though, still faces ten counts including violating state rico, conspiracy, and false statement. this news comes as we are awaiting another very important ruling from judge mcafee, whether to disqualify d.a. fani willis from this case, the judge discussing this looming decision

on a local georgia radio show. >> i gave myself a deadline because i knew everyone wanted an answer. and i'll tell you an order like this takes time to write. the result is not going to change because of politics. i am calling it as best i can and the law as i understand it. i still feel like i'm on track to having that done by the deadline i put on myself. >> and we're back with maya wily. maya, thanks for sticking around for this important conversation as well. so your thoughts about the dismissal of these particular charges after you've now had the chance to look at the order that mcafee entered. >> well, you know, first of all, we can all say that it's a hard order to understand in certain ways in term of these counts that have been dismissed based on the content that got alleged in them that are really

irrefutable because they're a matter of public record. if we put that aside because i think it's important to remember what the judge says in the order, he says, look, there is -- i am not speaking about the evidence here. there is an abundance, as he used the word abundance, that's a quote, of conduct that are overt acts. and he makes very explicit he is not speaking to the issue of the overt act to your point of this racketeering charge, this charge we typically see with mobsters. and he is reinforcing -- he is reinforcing the counts that remain. and to your point, katie, the fact that defendant donald trump is still defendant donald trump and went from 13 to 10 and still has a rico charge against him and still has a judge saying abundance of conduct, lots of overt acts, remember the counts that are still here in this indictment are things like him

trying to directly -- donald trump directly trying to influence electives in the statehouse of georgia, literally, directly or impersonally telling the georgia a.g. not to try to get between other attorneys general from other states trying to interrupt the certifications of these elections through a lawsuit. i mean they're pretty damning, and they are still in this case. and as you point out i think so rightly, the prosecution has this opportunity to do what essentially the judge has said, which is you can fix it. you can fix it if you want and bring them back, and there will still be evidence of conduct i think anyway you slice it. >> yeah, maya, i appreciate the reassurances about the nature, the quality and the amount of evidence against donald trump and the other defendants in this case. that rico case remains, those overt acts alleged remains.

the call itself to brad raffensperger, for example, still a part of the evidence. i do want to obviously switch dpeerz for just a second to the bigger looming issue which is who is going to be the lead prosecutor on this case. we now see a few of these counts had been dismissed or quashed by judge mcafee. we should see a ruling from judge mcafee whether to disqualify fani willis from this case. i know i'm asking you to read tea leaves, maya, but what are your thoughts on what you expect to see happening? >> i certainly don't think there's sufficient evidence to disqualify fani willing in this case whatsoever. certainly i can't read the tea leaves, but my hope is the judge acknowledges that. and what the judge is writing now is a very sound opinion about why. but, look, this is -- if this does get removed, i just think that is not doing a service to the people of georgia in the

sense that once there's a decision about where to send it, it essentially takes what has already been an indictment this very judge calls abundant in terms of the conduct and the overt acts in this very, very sizable rico case and says we'll turn it over and put it in a situation where they have to go through again. >> maya, to that point we don't know how long that would take to get reassigned, if disqualification happens who would get it, and whether the d.a. would be able to pick up the mantle on those exact charges and continue to the very end. thank you for sticking with us. i appreciate you. it's good to see you, my friend. and coming up, why experts are saying that trump's cash crunch could be way worse than he's letting on as his legal bills continue to mount. plus, the unraveling of the

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visit xfinitymobile.com today to learn more. . house republicans are imploding and openly revolting. today the conference traveling to west virginia for their annual policy retreat, but fewer than 100 members are even attending the event. that's less than half of the

conference. one lawmaker telling axios, quote, i'd rather sit down with hannibal lecter and eat my own liver. and now the gop majority is ink shrinking even more. colorado republican ken buck announcing that he's leaving congress in just a matter of days, torching his party on the way out. >> what has frustrated you so much about this era of politics and this -- particularly congress, what's made it so difficult? >> you really need me to say that? you need me to explain what's so difficult about this place. this place just keeps going downhill and i don't need to spend my time here. a lot of it is personal, instead of having decorum and operating in a professional manner, this place has devolved into this bickering and nonsense. >> another congressman, chip roy, also slamming his own party for failing to act on the border. >> in 2018 we have the house, we

have the sept, we have the white house, and we have a bigger majority than we have today, and we utterly failed to secure the border, totally dropped the ball. >> joining me now is jonathan capehart the host of the sunday and saturday show with jonathan capehart. and katie cay, nbc news u.s. special correspondent. my thanks to both of you for joining me. jonathan, i'd love to start with you. hello. how much of the gop's paralysis in your opinion comes from trump's just total domination of the party now or from a lack of spine? i feel like we see these things like ken buck saying what he's saying now, jonathan, and yet it seems to be too little, too late because he's saying it on the way out. >> he's saying it on the way out, but that's not because he wasn't trying to get stuff done. i think it's both. i think it is a lack of spine on the part of speaker johnson and his leadership team, but it also

speaks to donald trump's influence not just over speaker johnson, who he talks to on a regular basis, but also on the part of the senate. the senate was putting together probably the most conservative immigration bill in decades negotiated by one of the most conservative members of the senate, oklahoma senator james langford. and donald trump picks up the fen or goes out on his social media platform and says don't do it, don't vote for the bill. and the senators don't. it doesn't even get out of the senate to go to the house where speaker johnson said he was already going to kill it. and so this just speaks to donald trump's complete takeover of the republican party in the house, in the senate, the republican national committee. and some -- some could argue the supreme court, but maybe i

shouldn't go that far. >> katty cay, could them not going to the retreat be seen as a sign of speaker johnson's weakness? really, it's hard to imagine this would even happen under kevin mccarthy's tenure. >> yeah, it's a nice hotel. i've been there. it's hard to imagine they're not going because they don't want to spend time at the green breyer. they're not going as that anonymous member of congress republicans said because they don't want to spend time withy each other because there's so much -- we talk about the dysfunction between and the polarization between the republican and democratic parties, but you look within the republican party. there is so much polarization within that group that these members really don't have very much in common with each other. it might not have helped that the star speaker, larry kudlow, dropped out in the last minute. i don't know if that was partly what it was. but when you have members of

congress saying, listen, my big fear is being primaried on the right. not with someone who disagrees with policy, but someone who has to shout and scream. well, shouting and screaming doesn't suit many members of congress. they try to come to washington to get things done. and if you look at any bar chart of the amount of bills being passed last year in congress, it falls off a cliff. it's the lowest number in decades, and that is intensely frustrating as clearly ken buck thinks. >> you know, jonathan, to katty's point, they may not like each other, and yet for some reason when there's a common denominator behind the they can unite, they seem to get their uknow what together to be able to do that. you had an exclusive interview sit down with president joe biden immediately after he had delivered that really fiery "state of the union" speech. and you asked him about the gop and its response to the threat that putin is posing not only to ukraine but to democracy at

large. and we wanted to take a quick listen to what president biden had to say in response. >> well, i think some still stand for it but they're pretty much intimidated by trump right now. yesterday he spent time at his mansion at his resort with orban. he talks about his great respect for the president of north korea. i mean, he praises putin. it's a different world. >> jonathan, i know you yourself have had the privilege of having conversations with ruth and others to talk about how trump sees himself in such an authoritarian light. but like i just said, the gop figures it out, though, when they can get together and not pass aid packages to help ukraine, right, holding that hostage because of border deals. how much should americans be concerned that the gop actually views putin as an ideological ally at this point? >> well, i mean, i think the

evidence of that is very clear. part of the question i asked the president was how did it feel for him to, you know, talk about protecting democracy, talk about the threat that russia poses, talk about the threat to our own democracy, how did it feel to say all these things to -- in front of a party where they used to believe in those things? and, you know, for him that's what's so galling. we used to know what the republican party stood for. and the republican party that we grew up around between two terms of reagan, a term of h.w. bush, two terms of w., you know, russia was not a friend. putin was not someone we could do -- we learned over and over again couldn't do business with. and so i think with the president's fiery "state of the union" address, his multiple speeches about the threats to american democracy at home but

also abroad, yes, the american people should be very worried about a second trump white house because he's making it very clear that if he gets another term, there will be lots of meetings and lots of phone calls and lots of back slapping with leaders of north korea, of russia -- russia taking over ukraine, orban being even more ascendant. it'll be a rogue gallery of -- of -- i can't even get the words out of my mouth. i would say a rogue gallery of american allies, but they would be allies who are anti-democratic. >> maybe the new version of the axis of evil. katty, i do want to ask you that was a fiery, impressive "state of the union" speech for president biden, huge fund-raising numbers coming out of that speech last week thursday. the question for you is how does biden keep that momentum going?

how does he keep that energy going across the finish line? >> they're going to have to keep him out in the public eye. they're going to have to try and use the vice president as much as they can. there has been some tension between the president's team and the vice president's team. that has to go for the good of the re-election campaign, and they need to use video as much as they've been doing and message as much as they can, remind the american public of the achievements, lay out the next four years and keep the focus on donald trump. when i speak to people around the biden team what they hope is that the trump amnesia goes away. the more people see donald trump, the more they see victor orban down in mar-a-lago as jonathan was saying, the more they hear him say things like we're going to pull out of ukraine funding immediately after if i get re-elected, all of that and then the kind of things he says that annoy suburban voters, suburban women

voters in particular. they want trump to be trump, and the biden campaign will try to go to trump as much as they can to being the more extreme version of himself and hope that does what he needs to do and diminish the focus on his age, which the "state of the union" seems to have helped with. >> absolutely. jonathan capehart, my weekend friend, nice to see you during the week. and katty kay, i appreciate both of you. and still ahead ted cruz is scrambling as the house democrat runs to flip his senate seat. but first we've got new details about just how dire trump's finances are as he juggles astronomical legal fees in a campaign that's now in full swing.

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donald trump's legal fees are piling up, approaching $600 million as you see there on your screen. and a new piece in the atlantic saying that, quote, his empire currently faces perhaps its greatest threat so far. trump still trying to secure that massive bond in his civil fraud trial. new york attorney general letitia james saying this. >> if he does not have funds to pay off the judgment, then we will seek judgment enforcement mechanisms in court, and we will ask the judge to seize his assets. >> joining me now is david

graham, staff writer at the atlantic. he wrote the piece that we just referenced. david, it's good to have you here. look, let's speak frankly, right? how dire is trump's financial situation at this point? >> you know, i understand it was dire, and then speaking with experts, i was surprised by how dire they saw the situation. it's not just that it's huge sum but he has few avenues to solve it. he has to get bond, he doesn't have a lot of cash on hand, his chances of appeal are low. on all fronts he faces a lot of danger and not a lot of escape routes. >> you know, david, during a gop debate in 2015 then fox news host chris wallace confronted donald trump about how his companies had declared bankruptcy in the past and exchange between these two men was heated. take a quick listen. >> trump corporations, casinos and hotels, have declared bankruptcy four times over the last quarter century.

>> i have never gone bankrupt, by the way. i have never. but out of hundreds of deals -- >> sir, that's your line, but your companies have gone bankrupt. >> what am i saying? out of hundreds of deals that i've done, hundreds, on four occasions i've taken advantage of the laws of this country. >> it may not have been the personal bankruptcy, david, but it was still bankruptcy at the hands of a man who declares himself to be in such a financial genius. i understand personal bankruptcy is not going to be an option for donald trump because it's not brandon point, right? it's going to cost too much damage to that brand, but he's a huge judgment dinner right now. it's not just the judgment but the fees themselves. >> bankruptcy would be challenging for him because it's his personal brand. it's challenging because there are debts you simply can't discharge to bankruptcy, fraud is one of those. it's also challenging because he'd have to open up his books

to bankruptcy. it's not an alluring option. it's the only thing he'd only go to if he had no other choices. but it's right, the suns he's facing are just so large, and we know he doesn't have the money on hand because his lawyers said so in court. in his deposition last year he said he had $400 million cash on hand and then asked his bond to be reduced to something like $100 million because it's impossible to come up with that much money. >> david, we've seen him go through the hoop jumping to secure just shy of $100 million assurety bond in the e. jean carroll second defamation verdict. that first defamation verdict trump himself had to put the cash up himself, $5.6 million to be able to chase down an appeal in that verdict. do you think in your opinion that donald trump's going to be able to find assurety willing to help him post the bond to appeal that civil fraud judgment? >> you know, never say never,

but i think there are a lot of challenges to that. there are a lot of reasons why an assurety company simply wouldn't want to be involved. trump is a somewhat toxic client. we've seen some backlash in the last couple of days to the parent company of the bond company of the e. jean carroll case. people know he can be hard to collect from anyway since he could be the president, he could use that as a way to try to get out of it. a lot of reasons why a company wouldn't want to do business in this situation. >> david graham, i'm out of time. would love to have you come back and chat about this. i will note for our viewers chub actually had to issue a letter to its shareholders and frankly anybody doing business with chub to explain why it actually helped post assurety bond. david, thank you for being here. appreciate it. and up next i'm going to be joined by a special guest who is challenging proponents of

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talk to your doctor [ laughing ] ♪ i am, said i ♪ ♪ and i am lost and i can't ♪ punch buggy red. ♪ even say why ♪ ♪ i am, i said ♪ ♪ ♪ the quest for accountability for january 6th is reaching many aspects of the coup plot. over sentenced in connection with that day. and next month, the united states supreme court will hear arguments on whether donald trump can be prosecuted for his election crimes. but the reckoning has not reached all of the key players. including lawmakers, like senator ted cruz, who challenged

election results on january 6th and embraced the big lie. the evidence revealed right here on "the beat" through a recorded phone calls of ted cruz speaking with a fox host right after the 2020 election. >> we were leading in north carolina and michigan and wisconsin and pennsylvania. and then -- then we saw the numbers shift dramatically, along with a lot of conduct that raises very, very serious questions. and so i understand his frustration, and he's prepared to fight to ensure the law is followed. and i -- i told him when i spoke to him anything i could do to help, the answer is yes. >> trump's maga takeover of the gop is ramping up. now, one of the few measures of accountability left will be at the ballot box. joining me now is democratic

congressman from texas, colin allred, who is challenging ted cruz for his senate seat, a seat which cruz narrowly held on to in 2018. congressman allred always so good to see you. look, to that point, right, cruz narrowly holding on to that senate seat during the last election. we have seen traditionally solid red and blue states become battlegrounds in the trump era. the last time a democrat won a senate seat in texas was 1988. so colin, is 2024 the year that a democrat is going to win in texas? >> it is. it is the year. i'm glad that you've framed this segment this way because you're right. the ultimate accountability for the folks who -- for the first time in american history ensured that we didn't have a peaceful transfer of power, is at the ballot box. if you try and overturn an american presidential election, you should not be returned to the united states senate. and i was there on january 6th, as i think you know, katie. i was on the house floor. and you know, i experienced it

both as a member of congress but also as a father and an expected father. my wife was seven months pregnant with our son cameron. and when you're the only former nfl linebacker in the room and mob at the door, a lot of your colleagues look to you to defend them and i thought i was going to have to. at the same time, ted cruz, after he whipped up that mob, been of the architects, he was hiding in a supply closet. and in the selection texans will reject him. >> in a time when the environment really is so polarized, colin, you run on a platform of bipartisan work. you've actually been on record supporting some of the gop kind of measures and policies. those that you know would benefit your constituents. how do you reconcile that? how do you continue to keep that bipartisan kind of interest for cooperation to get things done when things are just so far apart? >> well, i do think that at times it seems like it's getting

harder. but, there's still an appetite out there. and i think of the single mom who is probably working one or two jobs, like my mom was. who is hoping that her elected officials are working as hard as she is to get things done and help her and her family. i don't pursue bipartisanship just for the sake of bipartisanship. i pursue it because that's how we pass legislation that helps people that puts investments in our communities. that's how it gets done. you know, ted cruz has been the exact opposite. and i -- i want to stress that. this is the most extreme senator in the country. the most divisive senator in the country. i'm running to bring folks together to restore our freedoms in texas. we're experiencing a near total ban on abortion looks like. this is a bipartisan issue in our state. and i do think that in this election you'll see folks who will come out and will decide that they have had enough of this extremism and divisiveness. they like somebody to appeal to our common values. >> and we have to talk about the border, right, because it's texas. it's kind of ground zero when it

comes to the border battle. i know you have some pretty kind of clear views on what you think needs to be done. your on the newly-created democratic border security task force as well in the house. talk about the fact that ted cruz, you know, didn't support that bipartisan border bill at the end. >> yeah. well, i've been saying -- i mean this. i don't know why ted cruz refuses to secure our border. i don't know why he refuses to hire hundreds of more cpp officers, why he refuses more immigration judges, why he refuses the administrative staff help us faster process asylum claims. we lad a record number of crossings in december. we have a crisis at our border. we can respond consistent with our values. we're big enough and great enough country to do this in an orderly fashion, make sure to take care of our border communities who bear the brunt of our inaction. when we're not acting, that burden falls on them. but we don't have to do it with barbed wire, inhumanity. that only reduces who we are.

and that's what, you know, ted cruz and his ilk are always pushing is that, well, if we just are cruel, then that will somehow mean a more secure border. it doesn't mean that. but it also hurts all of us. it hurts our standing abroad, us here in our own hearts in terms of what is being done in our names. >> congressman colin allred from the great state of texas. i thank you for being here. to be clear, there is an open invitation for senator ted cruz to come on to "the beat." thanks, congressman. i appreciate it. we'll be right back. >> thanks. appreciate it. we'll be right back. >> thanks. it's easy to get lost in investment research. introducing j.p. morgan personal advisors. hey david. connect with an advisor to create your personalized plan. let's find the right investments for your goals okay, great. j.p. morgan wealth management. (man) excuse me, would you mind taking a picture of us? (tony) oh, no problem. (man) thanks. (tony) yes, problem. you need verizon. trade-in that old thing and get a new iphone 15 pro with tons of storage. so you can take all the pics! so many selfies.

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that does it for me. be sure to catch the katie phang show. "the reidout" with joy reid is up next. ♪♪ tonight on "the reidout" -- >> america's hospitals are already straining. in hard-hit