good morning. saturday, march 23rd. i'm allie velshi. a critical, extensive deadline for donald trump with letitia james, clicking on roughly $1/2 billion the former president owes new york state following last month's judgment against him in the civil fraud case. that could mean seizure of some of trump's most prized properties the former president is not able to put up either money or a financial guaranty while he continues to appeal

the case. it looks like that is where things were headed after his lawyers submitted a court filing this week, saying the client couldn't find an insurance company to underwrite a bond for the massive penalty. early yesterday morning, the former president appeared to undercut the claim in a post on his social media, through truth social that, quote, through hard work, talent and look, i currently have almost $500 million in cash, end quote then, hours after that post, shareholders of the company called digital world acquisition corporation voted to merge with the trump media and technology group, which owns the social media platform truth social. the newly merged company will likely go public next week, a move that could result in a massive financial weight full of over $3 billion for the former president. trump won't be able to take out

any of that money in time to pay the penalty he owes new york , but it offers him a lifeline at a vulnerable time. i'll explain how in a minute. that merger between trump's source who's parent company and digital world acquisitions was two and half years in the making, but there's a story to be told that provides important context to trumm's current situation, and it involves tiktok, a conservative pack, and a really rich man named jeffrey yass, of financial from susquehanna international group, conservative madonna, major donor of some $33 billion stake in the chinese parent company that owns tiktok, byte dance. reuters identify yass as the top donor of this election season having donated , quote, more than $46 billion to republican causes so far in the 2020 election cycle, data from

political donations tracker open secrets shows. that includes donations to four of trump's republican rim area opponents, ron desantis, novak ramaswamy, chris scott and even chris cristi was a prominent trump critic, but notably, yass has not given any money to the former president himself. yass is also a major donor to the conservative nonprofit group , club for growth. in 2023 alone, yass gave $16 million to the political action committee affiliated with club for growth. as nbc news points out, quote, the organization and its related groups have also worked hard to mobilize opposition to a tiktok ban on capitol hill. it was through the club for growth that trump and yass recently got acquainted . this is where things began to really catch critics' attention.

trump had a falling out with the club for growth during the 2022 midterms with the two camps splitting on him to support inky races. but earlier this year, they met with a little help from jeff yass, one of the people who reached out to the former president about attending club for growth's retreat this year. march 1st, trump accepted the invitation to attend the growth retreat in palm beach and give a speech at the gathering, during which he gave yass a shout-out, calling the billionaire, quote, fantastic . then, 6 days later, march 7, trump suddenly announced he change his mind about tiktok, and came out against banning it . just as bipartisan efforts to force bytedance to digression tiktok was getting the house in the house of representatives. this was an insignificant reversal, especially while and president 2020, he signed an

oath, quote, the united states must take an aggressive action against tiktok to protect our nation security, end quote. trump's flip flop on tiktok was baffling even amongst allies and supporters. steve bannon in the trump administration, suggested trump trenches stands for, quote, the yass coin. apparent insinuation that jeff yass has influence over the gop nominee. trump, however, batted away the accusations . >> mr. president, you recently met with jeff yass, hedge fund manager, a stake in tiktok, huge gop donor. steve bannon has suggested you have been paid off to switch your review. how did review change? how did that come about? did you have a conversation with jeff yass about it? >> i didn't. i said, hello to him, but his wife was lovely. it was a meeting that lasted a few minutes. the only one i met was -- i met them both -- i don't think i ever met them before, but he never mentioned tiktok.

>> interesting. that brings us back to yesterday's merger between digital world acquisition and the trump media and technology group. it's a huge development, as the embattled ex-president continues to face a litany of ongoing legal and political issues, with trump's recent association with yass being important to note, because as the "philadelphia inquirer " reports, quote, jeff yass' firm was the largest institutional shareholder as of tuesday in the company that has merged with truth social. susquehanna has held the stock since the merger between digital world acquisition core and trump media was first announced in october 2021, end quote. a lot of back on here that leads to an interesting story. national politics reporter covering the white house with us, for axes, and ceo of citizens for responsible for

the and ethics. good morning to both of you. when we start with you, no. shortly after the merger yesterday, your organization, crew, quickly called attention to the fact that yass' but he was the biggest social investor in the company with him truth social is merging, digital world acquisitions. wanted you think that's important information for people to know? >> there's a lot going on here. a lot of it is pretty baffling. as you said, at this. , truth social has not made a lot of money or necessarily demonstrated them is going to be a very successful business, yet you have these investors essentially guaranteeing a massive financial influence from donald trump. what's going on involving them? this connection to jeff yass suggests a couple of things. one is that it may be that major republican funders are,

essentially, giving a huge windfall to donald trump, either because he is the republican candidate and they want to be supportive, or because it might allow them to influence him, and that gets you to the point, you were explaining before, as far as bytedance. donald trump made this kind of inexplicable flip flop, and we don't know if that is because his business and finances are getting this huge help from a number of folks, predominantly including jeffrey yass. donald trump has made clear for years that he is open to being influenced by whoever supports his company financially, whether it's for governments, individuals, or other openings, this appears to be, potentially, the latest example of it. >> sophia, we don't know what we don't know. i have everything out there that we do know, based reporting of things out there, but it seems that bytedance,

parent company of tiktok and tiktok, are central to this whole thing. you have got trump social, jeff yass, all that other stuff, but there's is weird tiktok flashpoint in the middle of all this. what you make of all of it? >> yeah. trumpelmann truth social post, that one post coming out against the tiktok office that is made a splash. it made it much harder for this ban in congress to pass the senate. it already passed the house, and trump's allies tell me that they're not voting against it, but everybody knows where trump's is. it really came as a shock. you got trump saying that it's about facebook, it's about the young voters. yes, it is true, it could be about that, but trump is a smart guy. he doesn't need to talk to jeff yass to know where jeff is. if trump wants any money from jeff yass, so far, he's not gotten any directly, then trump needs to make some amends. that is a really dangerous thing for american voters.

>> right. let's pursue that, no up. what's the dangerous part about it? we identified something here. we identified linkages between donald trump and tiktok, bytedance, jeff yass, the club for growth, people who have , perhaps, not completely aligned interests, and then money comes into play. trump needs it, jeff yass and others have it. tell me what accountability structure should look like in a situation like this where we have not identified any wrongdoing whatsoever, nor any illegality? >> well, i think there's been a huge danger to the country for years now for donald trump wielding the enormous political influence that he has, potentially not based on what's in the interest of the country, but rather, what's in his financial interest, in his business interest, whether that was saudi arabia, florida, his hotel, businesses paying to

host conferences and his resorts in florida, this may be the latest example of that, that donald trump isn't in office right now as sophia pointed out, he's enormously influential on republicans in congress. if you building that, it could benefit somebody who could be contributing to a major financial windfall at a moment when he needs it most, and that is usually important policy in the united states, being influenced by donald trump's financial influence, and that's something that just becomes much more of a danger should he become president again. >> sophia, i'm one of the people who thinks there should be some good regulation of social media in this country. i'm not an expert enough to know what that should look like, but the way the tiktok conversation has gone down doesn't give me a great deal of confidence despite trump's reversal, the delta force

bytedance to divest of tiktok and maybe have americans buy it did pass with a bipartisan majority in the house. regardless, the fate of the story remains unclear, but now, with trump's's flip flop, what do we think happens here? >> now, it turns to the senate. i think the senate has said that they want to hold a hearing. they held a tiktok briefing when they heard about the national security concerns, and the senate wants to write its own bills. this thing is not kind of done just yet. we really don't know if enough senators will vote for the tiktok ban. >> noah, quickly before we go, i want to switch gears for a second. earlier this week, the supreme court denied kelly griffin's appeal regarding being banned from public office for partaking in the january 6th insurrection. it is a case that is similar to and related to the ballot challenges against ballot for donald trump you were involved in.

what is your take on this? >> two significant things come from this. one, and has not been made clear as a decision, trump v. anderson case, seeming to suggest that states can still use the 14th amendment to ban from office as well because they engaged in the january 6th insurrection in state office, which is still open to that constitutional tool, preventing them from serving in office. the second thing is that this could have been a backdoor way for the supreme court to exonerate donald trump to say that this was not an insurrection, and so he was not engaged in violently, in a personal way, didn't engage in insurrection. they didn't do that, and that really underscores that even though the supreme court let donald trump off on a technicality, they did not exonerate him and did not say this is an insurrection, didn't say that he didn't engage in

this. that would be really important as a factor everybody needs to keep in mind. >> we appreciate the time you have both given us this morning. thank you. sophia cai, national report for exes, noah, first it sends of responsibility and ethics in washington, also known as c.r.e.w. electric vehicles with donald trump's ridiculous rhetoric. and on-call to order this week no banned book club. on the bill, george orwell's "1984," as important and relatable as ever. the latest on the terror attack that rocked moscow yesterday.

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turning now to the terror attack in moscow. according to russian state media, 133 people are dead from yesterday's shooting during a concert at the concert hall located in the outskirts of moscow. scores more wounded. officials expect the death toll to rise. marshals say camouflage-client goodman used exported and automatic weapons in the attack and proceeded to set the venue on fire with people still inside before successfully fleeing the scene. the kremlin announced this morning that 11 people had been detained in connection with the attack, including the, quote, four terrorists directly involved without elaborating or offering more details. a branch of ices that operates in afghanistan, pakistan and iran offered a claim of responsibility without evidence. this ices claims appears genuine without evidence. notable, official say it is related from our seventh security alert issued by the u.s. embassy in moscow, warning american citizens of, quote, reports of extremists have, no plans to target large gatherings

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according to the most respective measure of these things, one hundred percent of the population of gaza is at severe levels of acute food insecurity. that's the first time an entire

population has been so classified. >> 100% of gaza's population is currently facing severe levels of acute food insecurity. that is a staggering milestone and a chilling first in recorded history that lays bare the gravity of this crisis. secretary antony blinken was referring to a united nations backed assessment released earlier this week, which also warns that famine could overtake northern gaza as soon as this may. 70% of the population there is already facing what's called catastrophic hunger, many people have started to starve these things start to blend, sopik hunger, food insecurity, their stammen, and it's all bad. for weeks now, people throughout the enclave have been reduced to even birdseed, animal fodder and weeds. the u.n. estimates, without

immediate intervention, gaza could witness over 200 deaths per day, not for bombs or from weaponry, from starvation. 200 deaths per day from starvation. many aid workers say famine is already underway in gaza, including leading famine expert, alex duvall, who predicts this will be the most intense famine since world war i. caused by drought, or failure of crop. experts warned that israel plans for a ground offensive in the southern city of rafah, which could hasten the arrival of the famine. recent media coverage is focused on proposals like floating piers, airdropped, and workers see these headlines overshadow the unfolding crisis on the ground and warned that the efforts will not avert famine without an immediate end to the war and a massive influx of eight. let's talk about that aid. 500 trucks per day are needed to avert famine, but an average of fewer than 200 trucks are

actually getting through. some days, no trucks are getting through. despite desperate pleas from eight workers, israel has refused to open more land crossings. meanwhile, the death toll in gaza has surpassed 32,000, and no signs that the bloodshed will end anytime soon.friday, both russia and china vetoed an american backed united nations resolution that called for an immediate cease-fire. more on this, i'm joined by the president and ceo of the international rescue committee, former foreign secretary, author of rescue: refugees and the political crisis of our time." thank you for joining us. great to see this morning. >> thank you, trevon me along, ali. thanks for drawing attention to what is, in some ways, come located situation very simple complications we need to address. >> you said that well. that's it the right. it is a superconductivity

situation, right now, we have a problem that can be sold. you just released, in fact, an important national security memorandum, alongside other prominent ngo's this morning, including action against hunger care and save the children. i want to read you a little bit from it. you are talking about the fact that, under a new policy directive from president biden, national security memorandum 20, u.s. security partners must now provide written assurances that they will use u.s. security assistance in accordance with international law and facilitating humanitarian assistance, and in the coming weeks for the u.s. government, they will assess these assurances from israel. tell me about that. >> there are two aspects of this that are very, very important. first, it is important to understand the technical assessment published last monday that produced these three gradations of food insecurity, level five, which is famine, 1 million people facing that, then there's the catastrophic level, the emergency level 4

and crisis level 3, where people don't know where their next meal is coming from. then as i get to the total of the whole gaza population, 2.2 million palestinian civilians -- and let's not forget the hunger and hostages. they are facing this catastrophe. the second part is where the national security memorandum comes in, and where it's important, to be clear, this is not about whether or not there's a cease-fire. it's whether or not aid is allowed to flow. at the moment, there are significant blockages on aid flows erected, but as bureaucratic constraints made by israeli authorities, first, the number of trucks allowed in. secondly, the time it takes to that to the amount of material in the trucks, which is excessively long backups. third, critically, trump is being turned back because there is an allegation of one item in the truck might be, cortical, dual use. in other words, a pair of scissors that would be used for

military purposes when, in fact, it is medical purposes. gets turned around, and the whole truck gets turned around. even once the trucks get across the border, what about the ability of the trucks to drive to northern gaza, where they are desperately concerned about serious lipids at the moment -- world food program trucks are being turned back. finally, how do civilians get to ask is the aid once the truck arrives without proper arrangements for that? these are practical things that could be done even with the cease-fire negotiation we have called for being conducted. >> that last part is really, really important. the infrastructure inside gaza for the distribution of food, aid, fuel, medical care is a big problem, because israel has not been active on that front for many years because israel has not had a presence inside gaza. the u.n. has, and is the main distributor of that sort of thing, not counting hamas, but now that infrastructure has largely been destroyed.

so, it came up when the pallets are being dropped -- the air drops -- a pallet drops, but to people with guns surrounded, and people who were starving continue to starve. >> that's a very important point. the human infrastructure of people, many of whom are in local partner ngo's office with us, we had an emergency medical team in a hospital in gaza but also a local parliament. this goes to the core of the argument about why the air drops and what has been proposed as the fourth or fifth best option. second and third best options are to use the land routes with more crossings, clearer removal of the bureaucratic impediments , and the use of trusted, vetted local partners who can then deliver the aid in an organized way, because just to make the obvious point, trump on a beach is a recipe for chaos. >> right. >> aid delivered through trusted partners, through agreed routes, where the is organized access, especially

for the most vulnerable, makes the most sense and is a practical thing that can be done, alongside this desperate need for longer-term settlement >> this is not a broad area of disagreement, david. you and other ngo's agree that the united nations and the united states seem to understand it, and there are certainly people in government here who are pressing the administration to say israel is not an adversary, not a country where you have to go over enemy lines to drop aid or do these things. why can't we switch to the more direct way of offering aid? saving innocent palestinian lives is not the same as acquiescing to hamas and agreeing to their terms on anything. we're talking about saving people's lives. >> you have put this well. one thing that i think isn't clear, hasn't been mentioned so far, there was less aid in february than there was in january. about 1/2 as much aid going in

in february as in january. that's why you are ending up in this desperate situation. i'm afraid a lot of responsibility does come down to the invasion and of the u.s. administration with the israeli authorities and the united nations. they are the big players in this alongside qatar and the gulf countries. honestly, the bureaucratic pediments are actually causing lives -- costing lives today -- and that's what needs to be central. the national security memorandum , secretary blinken put out is very significant. it does apply to u.s. responsibility, and it's important to remember that these civilians don't just have a moral right to aid, they have a legal right to aid as well, and that's what we're calling for to be upheld. >> david delbene, thank you for joining me. we have important things to continue to discuss. i was appreciate the time you have taken for our viewers. david miliband, president and ceo of international rescue committee, former foreign secretary for the united

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after midnight, the senate narrowly avoided a government shutdown by sending a massive $1/2 trillion spending package to president biden's desk, putting an end to a cycle of temporary stopgap bills that fully funneled the government through september. this isn't something republicans should be sobering. a majority of house republicans voted against the bill, 185 democrats, along with 101 republicans who got the bill over the finish line. despite the high cost and, from the funding fight, which dates back to last october, and the ouster of the former house speaker kevin mccarthy, the final spending package does not differ all that much from what biden and mccarthy agreed to last fall. friday's vote was not without

incident either. moments after the spending package squeaked through the house, representative marjorie taylor greene filed a motion to vacate against speaker mike johnson. that's the same process that got mccarthy removed as speaker, but greene insists that her motion to vacate is more of a, quote, warning than a pink slip, even though that's not actually what a motion to vacate is predrawn, from capitol hill, nbc news' congressional correspondent, julie sure can. good morning, julie. democrats helped in the house. they helped push this over the top as you have reported, the house has now taken a two-week break. they have not addressed the underlying issue of ukraine eight, which is very, very serious, so what is the plan now for that funding for that part of the world? >> ali, that is the million- dollar question. sources close to the situation, that we use the two weeks to pull all the resources -- they have heard a lot -- from the members of the conference from

republican number is in the house to piecing together either for a standalone for ukraine or to tight with the issues in israel, humanitarian aid in gaza democrats so desperately want. issues in taiwan and the indo pacific, and now, also border security provisions. republicans rejected a bipartisan deal a couple of weeks ago. now, they are demanding more enforcement the tied, once again, to ukraine. johnson has a lot of work to do. as you mentioned, the motion to vacate threat comes not for ukraine aid, as we expected, but for funding the government. it's a negative sign for aid to ukraine. however, i will tell you, johnson and conservative republicans lose leverage to try and piece together their own package for foreign aid, not just putting the $95 billion senate passed bill lingering in the house for weeks .when you have people like marjorie taylor greene and other hardliners potentially threatening to throw johnson out, especially when he has a one-seat majority in a couple of weeks. we talked about, earlier this

week, mike gallagher from wisconsin, we know that congressman would retire. he announced yesterday he's actually not going to wait until the end of the year. he will leave in mid april. not only is he going to leave in mid april, ali, he will leave at a time that it will ensure that the seat cannot be filled for the rest of the year. this puts johnson in an incredibly tough spot, and marjorie taylor greene said, yesterday, she does not want to throw the house into chaos, but that is exactly what she's doing if this motion debate go forward. because of the one-seat majority because johnson effectively loses all coverage. >> this, very unusual situation, continues to get more and more usual. overnight, julie, it looked for a few moments like this was going -- they were going to victory and defeat from the hands of victory. looked like a shutdown might have been technically and inadvertently. >> president biden hasn't signed the 1012 page bill yet. the text was released overnight for wednesday into thursday, and then they passed in the house about 32 hours later,

then the senate cleared it overnight. had to toe before i went to bed last night, for sure, i thought they were sitting down. i woke up in the middle of night to see the senate voting on the bill, processing it in part because they're motivated by the two-week recesses that come up.certainly, the shutdown has been averted, they will go into effect until monday, signed before that. we'll see what happens, but no more shutdown talk until october at least. >> we hope, julie. vicki, my friend. nice to see you, as always. nbc's julie sirkin at capitol hill. still to come, president biden's latest leweling on electric vehicles been called the most import climate regulation bill in the history of the country. donald trump disagrees but he has never been a leading mike on climate, signs, technology, or even household appliances. >> seats, toilets, light bulbs. but seats, toilets, and showers. you don't get any water.

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relations aims to ensure that the majority of new cars sold in the united states by 2032 are electric vehicles or hybrids. the rule sets a cap on the amount of tailpipe emissions an auto manufacturer can produce, requiring automakers to make and sell more electric vehicles. when he first entered office, president biden pledged to cut greenhouse emissions nearly in half, and this big mission could play a big role in that goal. the epa estimates this shift to electric vehicles will avoid $7.2 -- 7.2 million metric emissions from the united states, which is why some experts are calling this the single most important climate regulation in the history of the country. biden's general election opponent is not on board with the push towards electric vehicles. >> we are a nation whose leaders have electric cars, despite the fact that they don't go far, cost too much, and whose batteries are produced in china, with materials only available in china. on day one, i will terminate?

joe's ridiculous electric vehicle mandate. it's so ridiculous. >> china. donald trump has become somewhat obsessed with electric vehicles, claiming without evidence or reason that they will, quote, kill the auto industry and assassinate jobs. this is the same man who claims that wind turbines cause cancer and you need to flush the toilet 10 times for them to work, which i think you should see your doctor about. he also has something else about showerheads he talks about. about all the nonsense and electric vehicles, the auto industry has been crystal clear that electric vehicles are the future. it's the logical economic path, albeit perhaps an interim path, so we were not using fossil fuels at all, but it's a crucial transition to confront, change. it's a crisis that's primarily fueled by oil and gas emissions in the first place. trump has promised to immediately reverse all of

biden's climate policies if he is reelected. not just this one. divided's ambitious regulation will even make it to 2032 remains a question. joining me now, michael maine, cofounder of real,. org for the penn center of sustainability and the media, several books including" operator moment: how lessons from earth's past can help us survive the climate crisis." michael, thank you for being with us. >> great to be here. >> i was going to say come on one hand, you have to convince people that this is really very serious. i'm sure you have come out with all the stats about how this, that we're in is more serious from a climate perspective than any other moment we may have had. on the other hand, you always remind me there continues to be helping things we can do. i thought, that this qualify, would michael mann say this is what we should have?

>> absolutely, ali. as part of the english reduction act, those provisions have the potential to decrease carbon emissions by almost 40% by 2030. that's important, because you alluded to this earlier. we got to lower carbon omissions by 50% by 2030 if we are to remain on track to limiting warming below our catastrophic 3 degrees fahrenheit. so, that is not quite enough. inflation reduction act, on its own, isn't wide enough, but these additional policies will slash carbon emissions in the transportation sector. asportation's responsible for about 37% of our carbon emissions in the u.s., which is the single largest sector of carbon emissions, and targeting that sector, in particular, really does offer the hope of us meeting that obligation to lower carbon emissions by 50% by 2030. if we can do that, we maintain the sort of leadership that will bring other countries to

the table and allow us to meet the larger challenge of lowering carbon emissions enough globally to avoid, again, catastrophic levels of warming >> we have to be clear, electric vehicles generally use electricity still produced by carbon fuel sources, so it's not the end goal, but literally speaking, transferring from a combustion engine to an electric vehicle has very little effect on an individual. this dark future that donald trump pretends about how they're going to take away our cars, it's just not true. a human could make the move from a gas combustion engine to an electric vehicle almost seamlessly. >> absolutely. you know, when you do make that transition, you find you really like these vehicles. that'll make as much noise. they're just a much smoother vehicle in how they operate. if you are somebody who likes a powerful car, you like to go fast, there are electric

vehicles that now actually out- compete standard gas engine vehicles when it comes to performance, and here's the thing. you alluded to this, ali. it's part of the more confidence of strategy. we need to -- as we say -- the carbonized the transportation sector. so, we have to stop generating carbon emissions from transportation, but we need to make sure, if we're moving to electric vehicles, that that electricity isn't coming from fossil fuel burning so, we need to electrify transportation, and we need to the carbonized the power sector, and that's the other thing that's targeted, for example, by the inflation reduction act, providing incentives and, in some cases,, please to move the electric power industry away from fossil fuel burning towards clean energy, and so

here, we have got incentivized -- the electric power company -- to move to mental energy and we've got to incentivize the transportation industry to move towards electric vehicles. the administration is doing both. we've got to start the choice here, as you have laid out. we have got to elect a president this next election who is willing to take bold action to move us forward on climate or we can, instead, elected president will turn over the rein of government over to polluters who don't have the climate in interest. >> here's the thing about your circle, googling climate as existential, and possibly the most important thing we face, and some are frustrated with this administration for not having moved fast enough. some are so frustrated they have suggested they might sit the election out or sit on their hands, not necessarily for donald trump -- what are the biggest issues, climate, that

would be an unreasonable political decision to make. what you say to people like that i don't think the biden administration has done enough and might not vote for him? >> yeah. if ever there was an example of the perfect being the enemy of the good, that's what we have here. it is a stark choice. biden has led us forward on climate, perhaps not as much as some climate advocates had hoped. on the other hand, trump will reverse all the progress that's made. there's this project, 2025, your viewers may have heard of. the sickly, it is a document written by the koch brothers, by polluters, as to what they want done if they support donald trump to be their candidate, so there's this unholy alliance that's been reached between polluters and donald trump, you know, if he's reelected, they're going to put in place an agenda which basically gets rid of the epa,/is the epa's ability to regulate carbon emissions.

that's going to eliminate that national oceanographic and atmospheric administration, because they like the fact that government agencies are actually tracking the climate, monitoring the climate. that's what noaa does. you can go down the list. they're going to reverse all the progress we have made over the last decade or more with the united states, if that happens and the united states sees the leadership role, that is going to provide other countries for an excuse not to meet their obligations. the united states absolutely has the lead. we can do that with -- we can't do that with donald trump as president. we can do that with joe biden as president. >> michael, good to see you as always. thank you for joining us this morning. dr. michael mann, author of multiple books, from the university of pennsylvania, including "off at a moment: how earth's past can help us survive the climate crisis."

coming up, the mercenary area of donald trump. the story of tiktok, truth social, and multibillion-dollar deal. plus, a terrifying real account of post-rural america that exposes just how quickly this country is sliding towards reproductive dystopia. and today's banned book club, george orwell's masterpiece, "1984." it's important and continued importance on another hour of "velshi," which begins right now. good morning, saturday, march 23rd. i'm ali velshi. a critical and offensive deadline --