"the 11th hour with brian williams" begins now. good evening once again. day 80 of the biden administration. tonight, we're hearing from embattled congressman matt gaetz tonight we are hearing from embattled congressman and trump loyalist, matt gaetz himself. he spoke publicly for the first time since the reports surfaced of an ongoing justice department investigation into sex trafficking, involving a minor and allegations of payments for sex and possible public corruption involving a state senate campaign. gaetz took to the stage at a save america summit hosted by women for america first at the trump doral hotel. >> i am built for the battle and i am not going anywhere.

distortions of my personal life and wild, and i mean wild conspiracy theories. i won't be intimidated by a lying media and d.o.j. officials and the crooks he is working with. when you see the leaks, lies, falsehoods, anonymous sources and insiders forecasting my demise. know this, they are not really coming for me. they are coming for you. >> earlier today the house ethics committee announced their own investigation into gaetz for sexual misconduct and his office responded with this statement. once again the office will reiterate, these allegations are blatantly false and have not been validated by a single human being willing to put their name

behind them and hired two new york white collar defense attorneys. the white house is looking to the future of the supreme court. the president ordering a 180-day study on potentially adding more seats and whether there should be term limits for justices. the president is asking congress to sign off on a $1.5 trillion spending plan concentrating largely on domestic programs on top of his $1.9 trillion stimulus package and a separate plan to spend another trillion on infrastructure.

jurors heard from the medical examiner who conducted the autopsy on george floyd. >> as a medical examiner we applied the term homicide when the actions of others were involved in an individual's death. in my opinion the law enforcement restraint and neck compression was just more than mr. floyd could take. >> the medical examiner noted other factors might have contributed to floyd's death. >> so, in your opinion the heart disease as well as the history of hypertension and the drugs that were in his system played a role in mr. floyd's death. >> in my opinion, yes. >> the jury also heard from a patholgist who was definitive

when it came to the role of the police. >> do you agree with dr. baker's determination on the cause of death? >> yes, i do. in this case the primary mechanism of death is low oxygen. there is no evidence to suggest that he would have died that night except the interactions with law enforcement. >> the defense is expected to begin their case next week. the ongoing battle against the pandemic, covid case are rising across the nation. pfizer is asking the fda -- that request comes as deliveries of johnson & johnson single shot vaccine are expected to drop by more than 80% due to ongoing manufacturing problems. the white house says that health

officials are working to make sure that the situation does not impact the mass vaccination drive. >> johnson & johnson, the company is working closely with the fda to resolve any manufacturing issues. johnson & johnson has reiterateds it commitment to provide at or near 100 million vaccine doses by the end of may. >> let's bring in peter baker, the chief white house correspondent for the "new york times," eugene daniels and danny savalos, a veteran criminal defense attorney who tried cases ranging from white collar crimes to first degree murder. peter, i am not going anywhere. matt gaetz is taking a page out of the donald trump crisis playbook, maybe ignoring the fact that using the playbook cost trump his job. what is the gaetz' strategy and

how does or does not trump play in to it? he wants to associate himself with the trump base of whom he has been a leading champion saying it is all political and the same kind of persecution. the problem is that he hasn't been embraced by many of the figures in trump's world. he denies the charges. trump didn't say he believed them. he didn't come to congressman gaetz's defense in any way. the congressman is trying to put himself in the position of another victim in the trump view

of the people are out to get him. >> and everybody hahas been following the story, all of this comes on the heel of joel greenberg, the tax collector that has been charged with many of the kinds of things involved in this story. his lawyer suggesting he will make a deal with prosecutors saying that i am sure matt gaetz is not feeling comfortable today. mikan cohen, issuing a kind of warning for him earlier tonight. take a listen. >> well, he is learning nothing but gaetz's behavior was so brazen and stupid that it boggles the mind. the only reasonable expectation of his behavior is that he felt he would be protected by donald trump and his corrupt justice department. he must have been petrified when donald trump lost the election.

i explained that i know the playbook and it did not work for me and it is certainly not go to work for you. matt gaetz needs to smarten up and understand that he is in very serious trouble. >> eugene gaetz hired a couple of big p.r. lawyers. you saw him in that speech that you guys showed. he does not seem to be going anywhere. doubling down. tripling down. daring people to come after him. some of my colleagues were in contact with people that claim to be representing gaetz.

talking about the relationship between former president trump and matt gaetz could get them sued. we heard stories about that. so, it is all of the same vain. and this idea that gaetz is going to hide. that he is going to go away. he is going to continue to go out and tweet and talk about things. a already would probably tell you not to do things like that but the house ethics committee talking about an investigation into the things that are happening and the allegations. that doesn't usually happen unless the justice department says they are doing something. mccarthy, also not supporting him, saying if the serious

allegations were true he would be pulled off of his committee assignments. he is having a hard time finding friends and you don't have republicans calling for his resignation just yet. i think that is something that he will hold on to. obviously we are looking at whether or not there will be a plea deal. what the next move might be for prosecutors. if there are these discussions going on, what kind of conversations are they and how long could it be before we know. it involves illegal sexual activities. paying for sex. sex trafficking.

matt gaetz might have paid money that might have ended up in the hands of women. so far no crime yet but will any of these people, including this greenberg character or any of the women, will they turn on him? will they enter into a plea deal and become cooperating witnesses against matt gaetz. that is the biggest factor. there is nothing so devastating than one of your old buddies or someone you knew coming in to court and even they are under a plea deal and only there to benefit themselves, there is something about them pointing at your client saying that is the guy that done did it that really resonates with the jur i. >> now we have the house ethics committee looking into this.

whether he shared inappropriate images with other members on the house. what are we likely to learn and what could it mean for matt gaetz? >> i think they are go to wait and see what the prosecutors do before coming to any conclusion of their own. they don't have the resources or the tools to do the investigation that the prosecutors have in front of them. not like they are going to call as witnesses matt gaetz' running body or the women they are allegedly involved in this thing. but i think the real case for gaetz and the real worry is the criminal side of this.

d.a. looking into donald trump. the "washington post" reports tonight about payments to a ceos son. trump's company paid a skating rink manager more than $200,000 in annual salary, $40,000 yearly bonuses and provided free company-owned apartments for his family. i mean much like with gaetz, the "washington post" is reporting that prosecutors are maneuvering to secure allen weisselberg's cooperation. that 's the son. >> no question there are major troop movements in the manhattan d.a. office as they bring on people specially suited for this white collar investigation of the trump industry's finances. allen weisselberg features prom nantly there. but the key is showing that he

knew about it and was willfully blind to the activities if they are criminal activities. there are many strata of people that could be responsible. the key for prosecutors is going up the ladder and connecting the guy at the top to bad behavior. if so they may have a crime there. you see them looking into the tax and the business records. it could be something as simple as inflating your value to get favorable loans and deflating the value when the tax man cometh. >> there are other things going on not involving court cases. is this likely to go anywhere?

>> no. i don't think it is going anywhere. if you want to do something like this you don't appoint a commission without making recommendations. you are not going to take an action without a recommendation. this is out there to fulfill his campaign promise to look at it and he knows he only has a 50/50 senate, barely a majority of democrats in the house. the last president that tried to pack the court was f.d.r. he had a lot bigger majority. i don't think that it is intending to go anywhere. just trying to satisfy the progressive wingive the party which is frustrated that a seat was stolen by mitch mcconnell when he refused to consider barak obama's appointment and nomination of merrick garland in 2016. this is more for show than an actual serious initiative at this point. >> the more immediate biden

challenge is his budget proposal, the $1.5 trillion spending plan. on top of the $.9 trillion stimulus package. what is he going to get? >> probably not what he was looking for. when presidents put out their budgets congress says that is nice and does what it wants. but what is really fascinating is that as you laid out all of these trillions of dollars that biden wants to spend as president, he is completely leaning into the idea, and democrats are doing it, that the government should be bigger and that is the only way to go and see the success of the country. economic success, the success for you and your families to grow and pull people out of poverty. that is something a little bit

risky. however after the year in the pandemic where people have seen the government do things they have before. that has been very popular. it is a bet for him to make it like peter was saying slim majorities in the house. barely a majority in the senate there with the vice president casting the tiebreaking vote. would it be something to watch as he pushes all of the money. this tells us what he wants to do as president when it comes to things that are not reactionary. the covid relief bill. even the infrastructure, things that need to be fixed. this is going to be something we will be watching and seeing if congress agrees with him on it. >> yeah. if congress agrees on it and how much mojo he gets out of his approval ratings which remain

around 50%. coming up, more on the disturbingly familiar themes emerging in the defense of derek chauvin. will they leave a reasonable doubt with the jury. matt gaetz is not making things easier. two political insiders join us for a look at the challenges facing the g.o.p. the 11th hour is just getting underway on a friday night. r is underway on a friday night hooh. that spin class was brutal. well you can try the buick's massaging seat. oohh yeah, that's nice. can i use apple carplay to put some music on? sure, it's wireless.

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>> mr. floyd's use of fentanol did not cause the neck restraint. >> it was not the type of death that has been reported where someone becomes very sleepy and phensort of just gradually, calmly, peacefully stops breathing. this is not that type of a breathe. >> day ten of the derek chauvin trial, witnesses both agreeing it was pressure on george floyd's neck that led to his death. yet chauvin's defense attorney pressed on the drug use and the condition of the heart. the defensive strategy has drawn parallels to a long history of painting black men killed by police as criminals and drug addicts. here is britney cunningham, a

veteran activist on matters of race and justice. now the host of the podcast "undistracted." when the testimony today began to turn towards george floyd's health and the presence of drugs in his system, i mean britney, what did you hear in terms of the focus of the trial by the defense? >> i heard the same thing that i heard when i read the headline in 2014 calling michael brown jr., killed by darren wilson no angel. this repetitive engagement of placing the victims of police violence on trial. especially when they are black and they are black men, that is repeated history in this country. i think that it was important that earlier in the trial the

judge clearly stated that there was only certain testimony he was go to allow in because we should all be getting the message that george floyd is not on trial. i am clear to name it the derek chauvin trial. george floyd is not the person who engaged in a criminal act and cost someone their life. he continues to suffer as does his family. this is repeated for us. we knew it was coming because it always does. it is important for the judge and for the country to hold the line. >> there is another part of it too. the first of it being the drugs and the bad heart. the second part is the angry mob theory. the suggestion that people that were yelling their concern for george floyd was somehow distracting the police from paying attention to what was happening to floyd. >> i mean if the police are not able to do their job while

passers by and bystanders are not angry but trying to save a man's life what in the world are we pouring machine millions and millions into training them for. if the commitment is to serve and protect, that has to be what plays out. if it doesn't, you can't convince me there is a great distraction that does not allow you to do your job. we have to look at an institution that grows it budget and have people like derek chauvin saying it was impossible for him to do his job because people were taking issue putting his knee on the neck of a man almost for nine minutes.

his fellow officers stood there and watched. that means chauvin and the other officers and the entire system is guilty. no matter what the outcome is, we have to continue to hold the system accountable. >> it is one of the folks standing on the sidewalk that took the video that made george floyd a household name and may if it goes to trial. and it was fascinating to hear this from the patholgist on the stand. dr. lindsay thomas. >> there never has been a case i have been involved with which had videos over such a long time frame from so many different perspectives. >> they are so powerful but

backed up by medical and viens misdemeanor. do you think the defense made progress today? is there a gap in the case you are looking for prosecutors to fill. we knew that baker had made statements that the prosecution wasn't too thrilled with. that is why you see them calling him as a witness after two powerful scientific experts in the form of what we saw today. and then, you can see baker who said things in the report that were not great for the prosecution and the defense made a little headway asking the

question were drugs a factor in death. the defense has to get past the idea that the knee in the back of the neck was a substantial factor in george floyd's death. the defense, in a way, has the burden. they have to show the knee in the back of the neck was no factor in the death of george floyd. that is why they are raising drug abuse and that is why they are developing the causation defense. if successful causation is a get out of jail free card. >> coming up in the words of one prominent newspaper, all

republicans roads lead to mar-a-lago. mar-a-lago

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and i made sure my mom and dad got the vaccine. because these vaccines are safe. ♪ ♪ >> former president trump's mar-a-lago club in west palm beach has a busy week ahead. saturday night the republican national committee reserved mar-a-lago for a 400-person banquet.

the price tag for the dinner, more than $100,000. the g.o.p. is still donald trump's party, still finding ways to pay donald trump money. a veteran of the reagan and bush administration. great to see you guys. jason, give me your assessment. how much power does donald trump still have over the republican party? he has all of the power until they come up with another leader. josh hawley, ted cruz, none have the charisma or reputation of donald trump. it is not uncommon for the last

president from the party to be the party leader. he is disgraced and hated with a large chunk of the population. i don't know why republicans keep going to the same well. i don't think they have a lot of ideas. we saw that last fall. they literally had no party platform other than reaffirming their loyalty to donald trump. they will stick with it as long as they can. what they can't accomplish in the ballot box, trump is the number one way to get it done. >> you have a message with the group that you work with. i want to play just a little bit of it. >> lindsey graham, ron johnson. they are go to mar-a-lago to kiss donald trump's ring.

to pledge their loyalty to a man that insighted a mob against the capitol and tried to cancel our democracy and turned the republican party to the immorality party. >> bill, who is your audience here? tell whaus something like that might be able to accomplish. >> i hope it remains a reminder to everyone that it is still trump's party. after november 3rd, the big lie and the insurrection.

marco rubio and lindsey graham, both very critical of trump. and kevin mccarthy, the house republican leader. five years ago you would say this is the mainstream of the republican party and it is the mainstream of the republican party. that is what is so terrible. hopefully this might cause people to think is this where we want to go. trump, they all like trump better than i did. they were willing to defend it. but if they want to stick with this? >> time after time they had the opportunity to step up. i mean you have gaetz who is defiant. you and i are old enough to remember when a sex scandal would take down a politician. what is this going to tell us about senate republicans?

it is terrible. who even said we don't know what illegality. is this a suitable behavior for a member of congress? the ads that went from trump to the congressional committee. they will say if you don't keep the box checked. we will tell him about it. that is gone from trump throughout the party, i'm afraid. >> gaetz is fundraising off of this, you know.

comparing what he is going through to the russia hoax. if you can bring yourself to vote for donald trump, anything that comes from him are people you can accept. matt gaetz, marjorie taylor greene, you know, you don't care about sexism. you don't care about adultery. i said this all along with matt gaetz. when it comes to the republican matter, you can get away with being roy moore, you just can't be larry craig. you will have a large number of republicans who will blame the young women and call it youthful highjinx and say it is all a scam. i think matt gaetz will have too many legal problems to have any

respect in the caucus. but it does not change the republican party for these kinds of people. there is always someone willing to lineup to be the next newsmax superstar of the republican party rather than actually trying to pass policy. is he going to lose his job? >> i think he is going to eventually resign. it does not mean that in a year and a half he won't have a job somewhere. there is no shame for these kinds of situations. he will claim the deep state

destroyed him. i am waiting for the matt gaetz show to begin in the springtime of 2023. >> jason johnson, great to see you guys on a friday night. i don't know if bill will be able to go to bed tonight. anyways, thanks to both of you. coming up, we are going to talk to one of my msnbc colleagues who wrote a book about his personal journey told during a tense time in the asian-american community. e asian-american community.

unfortunately this past week saw even more reports of crimes against asian-americans. our local affiliate in new york city reports two days ago a 25-year-old victim was sitting outside an ice cream shop when a stranger made anti-asian comments and then slapped her. a survey found anti-asian hate

crimes rose by 150% in some of the nations largest city last year. great to see you richard. thank you for coming on. before we get to the bottom line premise of your book, i was struck by a passage that was so timely where you write i have had trouble my whole life knowing what asian-american means. doesn't asian equal chinese. that is what i passively assumed as a kid. no. asia has more than 50 different countries. tell us about your experience and thoughts growing up and your thoughts about what we are all seeing today. >> it is one of the situations where what the term asian-american means has 50 different origin countries. rhetoric like china virus and

kung flu. it is aimed at one group but all 50 experience the anti-asian trend that we are seeing right now. you brought up one that was just getting ice cream in new york. the home depot where a 28-year-old individual, someone screams anti-asian words, picks up a piece of wood and comes after him. the nypd hate crime officer who was threatened himself in the last day or so at penn station. when we see all of these, we question ourselves. are we here despite being american. that is what every single asian american goes through when you see the stories. >> and your book began really with many questions that you had of yourself. it wasn't what i expected. there is a lot of research and a

lot of science behind selflessness that is in this book and started when your dad was diagnosed with alzheimer's. is that a time your career was on the move and you had to make a choice to stay on your path or join 53 million other americans and become a caregiver. what did you discover? >> first of all, you and i worked together on many years. that was before my father was diagnosed. i had to ask if i could work or two three days a week. and that decision and the long journey of becoming a journalist is not an easy one. to say you only want to work one or two or three days is very clarifying about what you care about. some of the things my father fought for for me growing up. he is now in year eight. he gained a pound during covid.

i call him fatso because every pound counts. >> progress. >> absolutely. >> listen. i wish that we had more time. but people that are in the situation with care giving, everybody knows someone in that situation. really it is a much bigger book about how when you put yourself out there, there are so many things you can do and there is research that backs it up that could be life changing. in the time of covid when a lot of people are looking to see how do i get out of this depression and make this opportunity something. this is the book for them. congrats, richard. the book is "enough about me" good to see you richard. best to your family. and coming up, holding the january 6th rioters accountable. nbc news is taking part in a

special investigation to find those that stormed the capitol. richard engel brings us the story when "the 11th hour" continues. ory when "the 11th ho" continues.

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>> three months since the deadly insurrection at the nations capitol and the search to hold those accountable continues. this week ten democratic lawmakers joined a federal lawsuit accusing donald trump and rudy giuliani of inciting the deadly mob. this sunday at 10:00 p.m. eastern we will get a closer look at the critical moments of the attack through the eyes of the attackers as well as the key leaders involved. tonight richard engel has a preview of his upcoming special "on assignment, our house." a joint investigation by nbc news all of it into the u.s.

attack on the capitol on january 6th. richard, good evening. >> reporter: this project took a long time. when you are dealing with thousands of hours of video, cell phone video taken by the attackers, you have to put it in chronological order and match events to events and use the video to identify the same individuals who keep popping up in different locations. sometimes you have to slow down the video to understand what is going on. everyone by now watched these videos that the tackers took during the capitol riots. they were shaky and full of profanities. we went through together with the investigative group, all of these videos and we tried to make sense of them. when you laid them out and put them in order, like a puzzle piece. when you put all of the puzzle pieces out, you start to see patterns. those patterns were key events and key moments that allowed the attackers to get in to the capitol and carry out their

rampage until they were eventually pushed out. it also highlighted some individuals who pop up again and again, whose stories were typical of the type of people that took part in the assault. one of them is jessica watkins. a group forms a stack. a military formation used to enter and clear buildings. in the stake is jessica watkins. 38-year-old jessica watkins served in the army and deployed to afghanistan. watkins is a transgender woman who received an other than honorable discharge when the army determined presenting as a female was unacceptable. she ran a bar in ohio with her boyfriend.

earlier on january 6th she was at president trump's "save america" rally, providing security she claims with a group called the oath keepers, a militia largely made up of former military and police. as watkins walks from trump's rally by the white house to the capitol, she speaks on a walkie-talkie app on her phone. the conversation suggests advanced planning. >> what kind of numbers do we have going to the capitol? any estimates? what percentage of the crowd is going to the capitol? >> one hundred percent. it is insane. we are about two blocksa, way from it now and police are doing nothing. they are not even trying to stop us. >> reporter: jessica watkins is in custody. some people face up to 20 years in prison. fascinating stuff, richard

engel, thanks for the preview. you can see it this sunday night, 10:00 p.m. eastern only here on msnbc. coming up, a look back at the life of prince philip when "the 11th hour" continues. p when "th 11th hour" continues hooh. that spin class was brutal. well you can try the buick's massaging seat. oohh yeah, that's nice. can i use apple carplay to put some music on? sure, it's wireless. pick something we all like. ok. hold on. what's your buick's wi-fi password? buickenvision2021. oh, you should pick something stronger. that's really predictable. that's a really tight spot. don't worry. i used to hate parallel parking. (all together) me too. hey. you really outdid yourself. yes, we did. the all-new buick envision. an suv built around you... all of you.

>> the last thing before we go tonight is the passing of prince philip. buckingham palace announced earlier today that queen elizabeth ii's husband of 73 years has died. prince was 99 years old. the prince was used to be recognized everywhere he was. well, almost everywhere. >> it has been nearly 40 years

since the first time that i came to washington. i came with the queen in president truman's day. just makes you realize how old i am. just at that time if you remember there had been a general election at home. winston churchill, his party just got back in again. while we were here in washington, some splendid rather elderly lady who i don't think knew what was going on. she greeted the queen saying i am so pleased your father has been reelected. someone standing next to her got really embarrassed. no, no dear. that was winston churchill. she turned to me and said i am so pleased to meet you. >> that's prince philip speaking

to reporters in washington 31 years ago. and that is our broadcast for this friday night and thank you for being with us. brian will be back on monday. on behalf of all of my colleagues at the networks of nbc news, good night. networks o nbc news, good night good night it was like being in a mom was never late. mom didn't miss appointments. she didn't just disappear. >> a mother of two disappears. >> she waved a quick good-bye, walked down the stairs and out the door. >> but she wasn't the first to vanish. this was a town that appeared to ben haunted by a serial killer. >> it becameri sickening to hea that another girl had gone missing. >> was wendy another victim or could she have been targeted by neighbors she tangled with. she made an enemy? >> she made an enemy for sure. >> ormy maybe t