nermeen: could you explain who is richard spencer and who is cantwell? >> richard spencer rose to fame shortly after donald trump was elected. he was for a momenthe poster y of the freshly scrubbed preppy new face of white supremacy. he is credited with inventing the term "altar right," which was supposed to be the freshly scrubbed nazi. right after the election, he led sort of victory party where people gave the nazi salute and shouted nazi slogans. th is richard spencer. he has fallen from grace. he is representing himself. his wife left him with allegations of terrific abuse and is penniless. chris cantwell rose to fame around the same time as a shock jock entertainer. yes this podcast. that he is a funny, funny guy who happened to show up in charlottesville armed and who after he was pepper sprayed as part of the violence, there was a video of him that went viral of him sobbing and crying about turning himself into the police. i think in a sense, both of them are iterations of this phase of what tried to be cool, hip proud what your -- boi era, funny

nermeen: could you explain who is richard spencer and who is cantwell? >> richard spencer rose to fame shortly after donald trump was elected. he was for a momenthe poster y of the freshly scrubbed preppy new face of white supremacy. he is credited with inventing the term "altar right," which was supposed to be the freshly scrubbed nazi. right after the election, he led sort of victory party where people gave the nazi salute and shouted nazi slogans. th is richard spencer. he has fallen from grace. he is representing himself. his wife left him with allegations of terrific abuse and is penniless. are also on trial for murdering in this case, ahmaud arbery and contendi self-defense. talk about rittenhouse and his self-defense. >> i thinkou made this point in your lead and that we have now reached a moment where people are claiming self-defense when they brintheir own weapon -- in the case of rittenhouse, across state lines, web and he was not legally entitled to own they bring their weapon into a public setting and in they claim self-defense because they f

. >> reporter: richard spencer is one of the 24 named defendants. a well-known figure in the altd right community, i spoke with him five years ago after he hailed trump with a nazi salute. >> hail trump. hail our people, hail victory. >> you gave a speech and you said hail trump, hail victory. you laugh. why? >> because that was said in a spirit of irony and xub rans. >> what is exuberant and fun about mass murder? >> i said hail trump but held up a glass of whisky. >> it's not a roman salute, you know that. it's a nazi party salute. are you trying to normalize racism? >> absolutely. i'm trying to normalize my ideas of the alt-right. i don't want the alt-right to be a fringe movement. i want it to be a dominant movement. >> one of the reasons extremism has grown and thrived is because of the lack of accountability. so holding spencer and the other defendants accountable is to counteract that. >> another aim of the lawsuit is to do financial harm to these organizations and individuals. >> historically, civil litigation has played such a crucial role

richard spencer, one of the most far right leaders, questioned about white supremacist on the stand. he asked him what he thought of spencer back in 2017. he answered quote, kind of always viewed you as a bit of a dandy. >> over the last few decades, we've seen a rise in these younger, more polished suit and tie white supremacists. the richard spencers of the world. >> and spencer seemed to admit in court he didn't want to engage in the fighting. he said to him, quote, there was a discussion during your testimony about relying on people at this rally. could you rely on me? he said no. the trial has also exposed distrust among white nationalists. the charlottesville organizers have long said they didn't know the white supremacist who ran his car into a woman killing her. says this case has revealed a fracturing among some white nationalists. >> since the beginning, this trial, or since the beginning, this case has really led to a number of these defendants really pointing fingers at each other. trying to blame them for violence they were all a part of. >> richard spencer, jason kessle

prominent white supremacists richard spencer, jason kessler, and christopher cantwell and eight other defendants were also ordered to each pay over $500,000 in punitive damages. while it is unclear how much money the men will actually pay, many observers are creeping the disch editing the civil lawsuit with helping to bankrupt numerous far right institutions. we are joined now by nicole lewis, senior editor of jurisprudence at slate. welcome to democracy now! in a moment we will go to georgia with you to talk about the ahmaud arbery trial, but right now talk about the significance at this civil suit of the jury finding these men guilty and what $26 million means. >> the lawyers for the plaintiffs said this judgment, this amount of money really sends a message to other people whom i think they want to show up and commit violent acts in a cities, that they can't get away with it. that they want to get up scot-free, there will be some repercussions. 26 million dollars is a lot of money, but there is a big question about will these defendants be able to pay it? chris cantwell james fields

richard spencer talked about how this case has financially devastated him. a number of defendants talked about how this case dismantled some of their hate groups. so even before trial we've seen the impact civil litigation like this can have. now with these multimillion dollar judgments, it will send a very clear signal of course to the defendants, these are not just compensatory damages but punitive damages meant to help deter them from doing something like this moving forward. but it also sends a clear message to other extremists looking on that if they're part of the racist, anti-semitic, violent hate there will be consequences. >> all right, your group secured a big victory today. thank you for making some time with us. >> thank you so much, chris. >>> coming up, will president biden's big announcement today bring relief to rising gas prices while easing his political pressure? these are questions john podesta used to face. he's here to share his experience with me, next. is ex perience with me, next i am robert strickler. i've been involved in communica

there was this amazing moment, lawrence, where, you know, richard spencer, the person who invented the term alt-right was questioning jason kessler, who was the sort of local leader of the 2017 rally, and they got into this kind of slap fight about who hated each other more and who said more hateful things and who was a bigger psychopath. and you have to think they are working out their huge egos and their own issues and own pursuit of fame, but at one another's expense, and it really has this kind of scorpions in a bottle vibe where nobody emerges unscathed. they just can't help themselves. >> dahlia lithwick and tyler hammill, thank you both very much for joining us. really appreciate trjts thank you. >>> coming up, florida's republican governor is trying to pile regulation on top of regulation for businesses in florida that are trying to survive the covid pandemic. the same republicans who claim that government regulation is socialism now just can't get enough of it. that's next. ebenezer. ebenezer. ha ha ha ha. marley? first you will see the past. excuse me! coming through! ugh! an

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the two dozen defendants include some prominent white nationalists, including richard spencer who coined the term "alt-right" and christopher cantwell who became known as the "crying nazi." because of his emotional video that he posted after he was sought for arrest in a separate incident. the case was brought under a 140-year-old law known as the ku klux klan act that allows private lawsuits against people who conspire to violate civil rights several of the defendants told the jury, yes, they were violent. some even bragged about it but they say there was no conspiracy and that their exchange of racist social media posts amount to protected speech lawyers for those who filed the lawsuit say each of them should be awarded at least $3 to $10 million in damages. >> the damages that are sought here are sufficiently large to put the individuals and the groups that are accused into bankruptcy, to financially ruin those groups to prevent them from engaging in this kind of action in the future. >> reporter: the jury will likely deliberate several more days in a trial that could set a pattern fo

richard spencer said this is going to be a racial holy war. so, those do go to evidence that it ain't just that you're racist and anti-semitic and hateful and don't believe in history or truth. that you actually did commit violence. >> jordan, so, a lot of us have seen sort of the reporting out of wisconsin that you have a judge who says, oh, you can't call the people that kyle rittenhouse shot victims and language and dialogue is important in these cases. as somebody who studies and follows sort of right-wing extremism in america, how alarming is it to you -- how alarming is it to court observers that in the early part of this trial, the judge let these guys basically do this frick and frack show of hitler love for an hour? like, did that in any way diminish the case or in any way distract from how serious these charges are? because i don't understand why the judge even allowed them to do this. >> well, i think the judge is deferential to the two defendants, richard spencer and chris cantwell, who are defending themselves in the sense that he

i happen to be with former secretary of the navy, richard spencer the weekend. he was essentially fired and he had made a statement that a tweet from president trump didn't constitute a command in the chain of command. and then he called me later that night and said, steve, i guess i was wrong, a tweet is a command and, and he was fired. and so i'm interested in the wild lenise of the chain of command . i knew the eddie gallagher story. this is another chain of command story. we see stories about sexual assault against women and being told, hey, let the chain of command what are the problems as you see it in the so called chain of command narrative from the pentagon. right, so the story of eddie gallagher is the story of one art, navy seal chief, who's accused of killing women and children, and a and a p o w. while he was in iraq fighting isis. and that may seem like a very different story from an aaron ground strike that are air strike that, that hit, you know, hundreds of miles away. right. but in a lot of ways, they're very similar because they reveal this cu

i happened to be with former secretary of the navy, richard spencer the weekend. he was essentially fired and he had made a statement that a tweet from president trump didn't constitute a command in the chain of command. and then he called me later that night and said, steve, i guess i was wrong, a tweet is a command and, and he was fired. and so i'm interested in the wild lenise of the chain of command . i knew the eddie gallagher's story. this is another chain of command story. we see stories about sexual assault against women and being told, hey, let the chain of command what are the problems as you see it in the so called chain of command narrative from the pentagon. right, so the story of eddie gallagher is the story of one art, navy seal chief, who's accused of killing women and children, and the, and up p o w. while he was in iraq fighting isis. and that may seem like a very different story from an area ground strike that are air strike that, that hit, you know, hundreds of miles away. right. but in a lot of ways, they're very similar because they reveal th

i happen to be with former secretary of the navy, richard spencer the weekend. he was essentially fired and he had made a statement that a tweet from president trump didn't constitute a command in the chain of command. and then he called me later that night and said, steve, i guess i was wrong, a tweet is a command and, and he was fired. and so i'm interested in the wild lenise of the chain of command . i knew the eddie gallagher's story. this is another chain of command story. we see stories about sexual assault against women and being told, hey, let the chain of command what are the problems as you see it in the so called chain of command narrative from the pentagon. right, so the story of eddie gallagher is the story of one art, navy seal chief who's accused of killing women and children, and the, and up p o w. while he was in iraq fighting isis. and that may seem like a very different story from an airing ground strike that are air strike that, that hit, you know, hundreds of miles away. right. but in a lot of ways, they're very similar because they reveal t

i happened to be with former secretary of the navy, richard spencer the weekend. he was essentially fired. he had made a statement that a tweet from president trump didn't constitute a command in the chain of command. and then he called me later that night and said, steve, i guess i was wrong, a tweet is a command and, and he was fired. and so i'm interested in the wobbly ness of the chain of command . i knew the eddie gallagher story. this is another chain of command story. we see stories about sexual assault against women and being told, hey, let the chain of command what are the problems as you see it in the so called chain of command narrative from the pentagon. right, so the story, eddie gallagher is the story of one, a navy seal chief who's accused of killing women and children, and a and a p o w. while he was in iraq fighting isis. and that may seem like a very different story from an area ground strike that are airstrike, that, that hit, you know, hundreds of miles away. right. but in a lot of ways, they're very similar because they reveal this cultural cl

spencer, jason kessler and christopher cantwell. the damages will go to the plaintiffs who include some of those most severely injured in the car ramming and brawling. >> we did a decent job on the defense side cutting the damages down to side, even though it is many millions of dollars. >> reporter: this civil trial an effort to financially cripple the white nationalist movement. >> it sets a precedent which is if you conspire to commit violent acts, especially on racial grounds, you should expect that plaintiffs will file suit against you under these federal and state laws in the future. so the trial in that way is a deterrent against future white supremacist conduct of the kind we saw in charlottesville in august 2017. >> the attorneys for defendants, at least two of the attorneys for the defendants have told us a short time ago that they are going to try to reduce the amount of damages, to reduce those dollar amounts assessed to their clients in this case. some of these people, these white supremacists have already been financia

richard spencer says he hates the outright and it hates him back. one defendant has been talking to me about the long term consequences of this. he got fired from mcdonald's because someone saw him on the news and figured out he was a professional racist. so yeah, a lot of these guys are out of the movement but the old money white nationalists behind the skoencenes who funded and nurtured them weren't involved in this case so they're still out there. >> you were there that night in 2017 and you're there tonight. i imagine there are more chapters in the future you'll be covering as well. we appreciate the work you're doing on this. >> thank you. >> as we mentioned one woman was killed during the 2017 rally. she was a 32-year-old paralegal killed when one defendant drove his car into a crowd of counterprotesters. he is serving multiple life sents. we are honored her mother could join us tonight. very nice to see you. we appreciate you being with us. when you heard what the jury decided today what went through your mind? >> my first question was trying

only defendant richard spencer comes from a large amount of family money. on top of that, on the conspiracy claim, the compensatory damages were quite low, but the punitive damages were really high. the supreme court says that ratio has to be a lot smaller. it's possible that the judge will lower the damages on that claim. and finally, fields is responsible for half of it. he's in prison for life. it's going to be really hard to get money out of that. >> definitely a certain symbolism there. elle, thank you. >>> after spending 43 years behind bars for a crime he didn't commit, a missouri man is finally free today. kevin strickland left the western missouri correctional center yesterday afternoon. he was convicted in 1978 o of trfal homicide after the lone survivor of the shooting falsely identified him as the shooter. strickland talked about the moments he missed behind bars. among them, his mother's passing. he also talked about the moment he was finally able to visit her grave. >> to know my mother was underneath that dirt and i hadn't got a chance to vis

. >> defendant richard spencer blamed other organizers and invoked jesus and he argued he never wanted violence. but he grew visibly frustrated when the judge told him he couldn't quote donald trump since that wasn't part of the evidence in the trial. >> you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides. >> reporter: some of the nine plaintiffs testified about the injuries they suffered, not just from the street brawls but when james field plowed his car into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing one. natalie romero suffered a skull fracture. thomas baker said he thought he would die and still has hip pain. and marcus martin said his leg was broken as he has told cnn. >> there's a lot of pain. there's a lot to cope with. >> reporter: if the plaintiffs win, it could be financially costly for some of america's notorious white supremacists. >> if this can help cripple that even a little bit, this is a victory against those who want to continue the polarization in this country, to normalize their hateful views, and the violence that is often not far behind. >> reporter: one of

richard spencer for his part is trying to take head on a leaked audio call at the early piece of tape from the end of the rally in which he's ranting about how people of color and jews look up to faces like his. he's tried to say that an example of childlike rage and powerlessness. but in the moment, he's not ranting that it is bad that heather heyer died, he's ranting he was and the to -- he wasn't able to do more. >> i thank you both for all the work you've done. elle reeve, jason carroll, thank you. >>> here's what else to watch today. >>> and just ahead, the kyle rittenhouse jury goes back to work in a little over an hour. >> cnn speaks with nascar driver kyle larsson, who just won his first championship after a racial slur scandal. hear what he told us. what does the future of strength look like? ♪ it's a personal trainer that assesses your strength and adds weight as you progress. it's dynamic weight that adjusts for you in real time for a more efficient workout. c'mon! and it's a roster of coaches that motivate you to get stronger, faster. the future is strength you can feel

spencer, jason kessler, and christopher cantwell. the damages will go to the plaintiffs, who include some of those most severely injured in the car ramming and brawling. >> i think we did a decent job on the defense size cutting the damages down to size even though it is millions of dollars. >> reporter: t >> it sets a precedent, which is if you conspire to commit violent acts, especially on racial grounds, you should expect plaintiffs will file suit against you under these federal and state laws in the future. so the trial in that way is a deterrent against future white supremacist conduct of the kind we saw in charlottesville in august 2017. >> reporter: two attorneys for white nationalists told us after the verdict that they're going to try to get the damage assessments against their clients reduced. this and other similar lawsuits have already succeeded in financially crippling some white supremacists but it's not over for them. regarding those two counts the jury was not able to reach verdicts on, those federal counts of conspir

including fairly notorious white supremacy's leader richard spencer, and kris campbell. but even before this trial we saw major financial impacts, operational impacts on these defendants. our plaintiffs won five figure sanctions against certain defendants for lounging court orders. richard talked about how this case is financially devastated. him a number of the defendants talk about how this case had already dismantled some of their hegar. so even before, trial we've seen the impacts, civil litigation can. have and now with these multimillion dollar, judgments we will have a far greater impacts, sending a very clear signal of course did the defendants. these are not just compensatory damages for our plaintive endure, steep a punitive damages to help to deter them for doing something like this moving forward. but it also sends a clear message to other extremist looking, on that if they are part of this sort of racist, antisemitic, violent, hate. there would be consequences. >> all right amy spitalnick, their group secured a big victory today, thank you for making some ti

. >> right, there was this amazing moment, lawrence, where richard spencer, the person who spa invented the term alt-right was questioning jason kessler who was this sort of local leader of the 2017 rally. and they got into this kind of slap fight about who hated each other more. and who said more heart hateful things, and who was a bigger psychopath, and you have to think, they are working out there are huge egos and their own issues, and their own pseudo-fame. but at one another's expense. and it really has this kind of scorpions in a bottle vibe, where nobody emerges unscathed, they just can't help themselves. >> dalio lift quick, and tyler hamilton, thank you very both for joining us, we appreciate it. thank you >> thank you. >> coming up, florida's republican governors is trying to pile regulation on top of regulation for businesses in florida that are trying to survive the covid pandemic. the same republicans who claim that government regulation is socialism, now just can't get enough of it. that's next. ge enough of it that's next. that's next. actual neuroscientist. and i love t

spencer, the person who coined the phrase "alt-right," this text message read, "i'm willing to risk a lot for our cause, including incarceration. i want to coordinate and make sure it's worth it for our cause." again, reminding jurors of these text messages, all of the totality of evidence that they presented throughout this trial, asking jurors, they say it is a reasonable foreseeability given all the evidence that was pre presented to show these men conspired to commit acts of violence. of course the defense will get their turn later this afternoon. kate? >>> coming up for us still at this hour, house republicans are standing by and supporting congressman paul gosar despite being censured for posting that violent video depicting him killing a colleague and attacking the president. political extremism reaching new lows in america. that's next. ♪ so light 'em up, up, up light 'em up, up, up ♪ ♪ light 'em up, up, up ♪ ♪ i'm on fire ♪ ♪ so light 'em up, up, up light 'em up, up, up ♪ ♪ light 'em up, up, up ♪ ♪ i'm on fire ♪ ♪ oh-oh-oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh-oohohh â™

spencer, a white nationalist. the text message said the following from cantwell. i'm willing to risk a lot from our cause including violence and incarc incarceration. i want to coordinate and make sure it is worth it for our cause. now, at the end of the day here, jurors have to consider a preponderance of evidence. so basically what that means is jurors have to ask themselves, is there a 51% chance or greater that they heard enough evidence to convict these defendants on these particular types of charges. and so that gives them a lot of wiggle room here, just 51% leaves the door really wide open here. guys, back to you. >> yeah, a lot of important trials going on right now that the country is watching. jason carroll, thank you for the important announcement from charlottesville. >>> we have breaking news. more than half a century after the assassination of civil rights leader malcolm x, two men accused in his killing have been exonerated. we're live outside that courthouse. the new sensodyne repair and protect wi

richard spencer has already said this trial has wrecked his life. there are others who are absolutely impeckunious. if they rattle around in the couch cushions and they find some money, that will all go to the plaintiffs who are very much deserving of it. but i think the larger point is this trial was meant to really surface and smoke out the interactions between these groups, the funding sources, the planning. all of that absent the money judgment has been really surfaced. and as i said, none of them look cool. none of them look glamorous. they just look like a bunch of losers. and if they can scrape up the cash to pay the judgments, awesome, but even if they don't, they still just look like losers. >> paul butler, what do you make of the subpoenas issued today by the january 6 committee? they seem to be now working off what has been found the prosecutors in the attack on the capitol? >> you know, lawrence, it's kind of what dahlia just said. investigators are also looking for interactions, relationships between these groups, funding, money sources

richard spencer has already said this child has wrecked his life. there are others who are absolutely, if they find money, if they rile round in the not seek out corruption, and they find the money. that will all go to the plaintiffs who are very deserving of it. but i think the larger point is, this trial is meant to really surface and smoke out the interactions between these groups, the funding sources, the planning. all of that, absent the money judgment, has been really serviced. as i said, none of them look cool, none of them look glamorous, they just look like a bunch of losers. and if they can escape the cash to pay that judgment, awesome, but even if they don't, they still just look like losers. >> paul butler, what do you make of the subpoenas issued today by the january six committee, they seem to be, now, working out what's been found by the prosecutors of the attack. >> you know lawrence, it's kind of wood dahlia lithwick just said. these will -- relationships between these groups, finding money sources, it's starting to look like everyb

spencer, jason kesler, chris campo and the res of the defendants in this case. the fact they said, we had nothing to do with this, we didn't know james field, the jury found there was still a no conspiracy among all of the defendants. so that is a very core part of the verdict that happened today. >> karen dunn and roberta kaplan, two very accomplished litigators, even before you got to this moment. but if you had done nothing else in your lives except this, you guys always will be known as the attorneys that sued the nazis and freaking won. congratulations on this verdict. i know these are, as we have been talking about, these are in some ways first steps and there's more to come. we will have you back to walk us through that when it happens. good luck to you both. >> thank you. >> thank you so much. >> all right. >>> in just a minute we will be joined live here by hillary rodham clinton. we have a lot to ask her about, obviously. we will be right back. stay with us. -had enough? -no... arthritis. here. new aspercreme arthritis. full prescription-strength? redu

spencer, the guy who coined the phrase alt-right. james fields, the man who drove the car into the crowd and killed heather hire was a defendant in this case. he's serving life in prison. remember, this is a civil case. he had a punitive damage case against him. this is not the perfect victory the plaintiffs wanted. the jury was deadlocked on two counts of civil conspiracy, but it is a significant victory for these plaintiffs who were trying to send a message. i don't think they expect these organizations will be able to pay all these millions of dollars, but the idea here was to hold them accountable and send a message that beyond the criminal arena, there are consequences when you engage in a civil conspiracy to promote racially motivated violence, because that was the allegation here. the defendant said no, this was just free speech. we may be racist but we didn't conspire for this to happen. this jury clearly found that they did, that they committed these civil violations and they should pay millions of dollars as a result, katy.

he even suggested releasing misinformation that richard spencer was at a bar so anti fascists would come up to them and confront them. a lot of them are making dark jokes, one joked about having ruined his life, another wondered what it would be like to owe $30 million when he only had $200 in his bank account. >> uh, making jokes about something like this, when there was someone who died and so many people hurt. the jury deliberating. can you explain some of the factors that might lead to a longer deliberation for that jury? >> reporter: so the jury has to decide what role each defendant played, and what responsibility they bear, if any. then decide what each plaintiff is owed, if anything. one juror was dismissed for being exposed to covid. a defense lawyer told me that he thought that juror had been one of the most favorable to their side. beyond that, we just have the juror questions to go on, because two defendants failed to participate in the discovery process, they didn't turn over their documents. the judge has ruled that it is fact, or it could be assumed as fact they conspired

the defendant is richard spencer. okay? one of the dozen. he defied the judge repeatedly, ignoring his order not to mention trump's "good people on both sides" quote because it was never part of the evidence. a defense lawyer told the jury that all his clients agreed to do was get in a fistfight. i guess no one told that to the guy who rammed his car into heather heyer and dozens more. now, here's an interesting point. you don't have to be in a civil war to be in a real war on civility as well as rule of law in this country. and that brings us to january 6. i've never seen a situation more underplayed for political effect in all my years doing this job. you've got more than 660 defendants charged, and one of the toughest felony sentences yet goes to the face of the absurdity of that day, the qanon shaman, jacob chansley. >> yeah! >> yeah, that's him. the judge who handed down the 41-month -- it's three-plus-year sentence said for good or bad he made himself the very image of this whole event. he's actually a good face for it, if you think ab

spencer, james spencer, and the rest of the defendants in this case. so the fact that they said, we had nothing to do with this, we didn't know james yields, the jury found there was still a conspiracy among all the defendants. so that is a very important part of the verdict that happened today. >> carried doug, and roberta kaplan, two very accomplished litigators, if you've done nothing else in your life except this you guys will always be known as the attorneys who sued the nazis and one. congratulations on this verdict, and i know these are -- as we've been talking about, these are in some ways first steps, and there's more to come here. we'll have you back to walk through that when it happens. good luck to you both. >> thank you so much. >> all right. in just, a minute we're going to be joined live here by hillary rotem clinton, however a lot to ask about obviously. stay with us. obviously stay with us stay with us ♪♪it's a most unusual day♪♪ ♪♪feel like throwing my worries away♪♪ ♪♪as an old native-born californian would say♪

spencer, jason kesler, chris campo and the rest of the defendants in this case. the fact they said, we had nothing to do with this, we didn't know james field, the jury found there was still a conspiracy among all of the defendants. so that is a very core part of the verdict that happened today. >> karen dunn and roberta kaplan, two very accomplished litigators, even before you got to this moment. but if you had done nothing else in your lives except this, you guys always will be known as the attorneys that sued the nazis and won. congratulations on this verdict. i know these are, as we have been talking about, these are in some ways first steps and there's more to come. we will have you back to walk us through that when it happens. good luck to you both. >> thank you. >> thank you so much. >> all right. >>> in just a minute we will be joined live here by hillary rodham clinton. we have a lot to ask her about, obviously. we will be right back. stay with us. ♪♪it's a most unusual day♪♪ ♪♪feel like throwing my worries away♪♪ ♪♪as an old native-b

he did stop richard spencer a few times during opening statements spewing hate. getting back to the big point, i sort of agree with tom. i don't think they are just doing this to troll us. they're embracing violence as part of the arsenal of weapons they prepared to use against democrats going forward. that's the reality. this is not oh, democrats don't like people getting killed in the streets so we'll troll them. it's deep within that. you have in the same week last week over 200 republicans defending paul gosar by refusing to condemn him when he put out a fantasy enough video literally killing a.o.c. trump had a statement afterwards i stand with paul gosar. you have j.d. vance that garbage going on and 55% of voters in a july poll saying january 6th was not an act of terrorism, it was an act defending freedom. we have a gop that's not just authoritarian. authoritarian plus violence equals fascism. that's what we're dealing with. so i don't think they're just trolling us. i won't be surprised the next rnc they have kyle rittenhouse reenact the next shooting. i

two of the defendants, white supremacists christoffer can't well and richard spencer defended themselves during this trial. now, during the trial some of the white supremacists even turned on themselves in court, confronted each other in court. and used the trial as a soap box to spout off their views on racial hatred. it is important to note that the jurors have to weigh just a preponderance of the evidence, meaning that it's not necessary for them to determine beyond a reasonable doubt that these defendants conspired to commit racial violence. they only have to determine whether there was about a 51% chance that they did that. one interesting note, too. one of the plaintiffs' attorneys roberta kaplan has asked the jurz to award the people who were actually hit with james fields' car that weekend $7 to $10 million each in compensatory damages and has asked for the jury to award others who were injured that weekend 3 to $5 million. now, as for punitive damages, roberta kaplan did not put a figure on that, saying to the jurors, just consider what it would take to make sure these defendant

richard spencer says he hates the alt-right and it hates him back. matt hoeinbach has been talking to me about the long-term consequences of this. during this trial, he got fired from mcdonald's because someone saw him on the news and figured out that he was a professional racist. so, yeah, a lot of these guys are out of the movement but the old money white nationalists behind the scenes who funded them and nur thured them, they weren't involved in this case and so they are sill out there. >> elle reeve as i said, you were there in 2017. you are there tonight. i imagine there will be more chapters in the future you will be covering as well. we appreciate the work you are doing on this. >> thank you. >> as we mentioned, one woman was killed during that 2017 rally. her name was heather heyer. a 32-year-old pay la legal. she was killed when one of the defendants drove his car into a crowd of counter-protestors. that man is now serving multiple life sentences. we are honored that heather's mother, susan, could join us tonight. susan, very nice to see you

spencer who kind the term alt-right and defended himself in the trial and a man named jason kessler, a guy named christopher cantwell who became known as the crying nazi because of a video he made. he also defended himself in a very bizarre trial. the answer to your question is the plaintiffs don't expect that these defendants are going to be able to pay $25 million in damages. in fact, almost half of that money was leied against james fields, the man who drove the car into the crowd and killed heather heyer and injured many other people. he's serving life in prison, so he doesn't have $12 million. but the point here is to bankrupt these defendants. these judgments will follow them around for the rest of their lives, and to send a message that this kind of conduct, conspiring to commit racial violence can't be tolerated and needs to be punished, even if it's not in a criminal context, chris. >> you do wonder is there any real legitimate expectation that somebody who is thinking about doing something like this is going to say i better not because i might go to court and i might end up

spencer, he kind the phrase "alt-right." he's a white nationalist neo-nazi christopher cantwell. in terms of compensatory damages, each one is facing $700,000. as for some of the groups, they are looking at at least $1 million in compensatory damages, and one more that i want to tell you about, james alex fields. i have to backtrack just a little bit, alisyn. folks may remember he was the one during the criminal trial who was convicted, now serving several life sentences, for driving his car into counterprotesters, killing heather heyer, and injuring several others. again, that was during the criminal trial. here during the civil trial, he was found liable for at least $12 million in damages, but the headline here, attorneys here for the plaintiffs were really looking for those first two claims, the ones that i told you about, the conspiracy claims. that's -- those are the claims that were the most serious. those were the claims that plaintiffs were really looking to get the big numbers for. they were asking for anywhere bet

richard spencer used to be a thought leader in the white supremacist movement. now, who knows? a lot of people don't think he should be in the space anymore. they'll get rid of leaders and keep the message, push the message forward. they'll find new heros, whether the people want to be heros or not. people like kyle rittenhouse, who i'm sure doesn't want to be the center of a white supremacist movement. they have lionized this man and created some hero worship around him. they are creating new figures, new caricatures in real time, and they're doing it using these spaces in these, you know, communications that built up over the last four, five years. it is absolutely larger than ever. it is absolutely more atone to regular american civilians. that's the difference. it's not a fringe thing. they're trying to take over contemporary, mainstream politics. >> frightening. ben collins, thank you so much for your reporting. thanks for being on this morning. >>> still ahead on "morning joe," the man accused of driving his suv into a crowd at a wisconsin christmas parade makes his first

owner earl spencer, sharing this video, said fortunately no animals were hurt. others blocked roads around the country with police reporting multiple incidents and more than 200 emergency calls. the bbc presenter reverend richard coles tweeted this picture of a tree outside st mary's church that was hit by what he described as a tornado. this is what we call straight line wind damage where heavy bursts of rain bring down heavy winds from higher up in the atmosphere and that causes the damage. i wouldn't rule out a couple of brief tornadoes but most places probably didn't see a tornado, just very strong winds for a few minutes as that came through this morning. many are pointing out the irony — severe weather preventing travel to a climate conference. lots of problems with the weather over the weekend. carol can explain what's happening today and for the next few days. good morning, carol. forsome of next few days. good morning, carol. for some of us it's a quarter start to the day as you can see from this weather watcher picture taken in santelli ike but there

owner earl spencer, sharing this video, said luckily no animals were hurt. others blocked roads around the country with police reporting multiple incidents and more than 200 emergency calls. the bbc presenter reverend richard coles tweeted this picture of a tree outside st mary's church that was hit by what he described as a tornado. this is what we call straight line wind damage where heavy bursts of rain bring down very strong winds from higher up in the atmosphere and that causes the damage. i wouldn't rule out a couple of brief tornadoes in there but most places probably didn't see a tornado, just very strong winds for a few minutes as that came through this morning. many are pointing out the irony — severe weather preventing travel to a climate conference. we will be live in glasgow at the top of the hour. now it is time for a weather update. hello. this week looks set to be one of sunshine and blustery showers, windy at times. cool by day, that she fog at night. the pressure that brought the heavy rain yesterday moving north. it is still windy, espec