>> thanks so much for watching and there will be another season of special forces? >> i hope so. >> she will be on brian's radio show. >> that will be great. wearing the same outfit. >> bill: good morning, everybody. 9:00 in new york. big morning here in "america's newsroom." moments away ron desantis is on deck. a lot to get to to the governor in florida. is he running in 2024? we'll hear from the governor in a few moments. first there is this today. closing arguments underway in the alex murdaugh trial. prosecution wrapped yesterday. defense is up in a few moments. what will they say to defend the man accused of murdering his wife and son? we'll find out together. good morning at home. >> dana: i'm dana perino and

this is "america's newsroom." so finally the prosecution will rest its case. after the jury took a field trip to the crime scene. they toured the kennels where they say alex murdered his son and wife. >> he told investigators he wasn't near there. he had to reverse that story on the hand. they paint him as a serial liar with the means, motive and opportunity. >> this defendant, on the other hand, has fooled everyone -- everyone, everyone who thought they were close to him and everyone who thought they knew who he was. he has fooled them all. and he fooled maggie and paul, too. and they paid for it with their lives. >> dana: team fox coverage. nancy grace is here with analysis. let's begin with jonathan serrie in atlanta to set the scene for us. >> good morning, dana and bill.

in their closing arguments, the defense for alex murdaugh are expected to push their theory that perhaps two shooters were involved with the murders of maggie and paul murdaugh and that the initial crime scene investigation was at best incomplete. the jury's tour of murdaugh's hunting estate came at the request of the defense. it was an effort to show the vastness and remoteness of the property. they may try to plant the idea that if the defendant went back to the family home he might not have heard gunfire at the kennels when his wife and son were killed. different portrayal from the image the prosecution tried to convey yesterday in closing argument. the image of a prominent attorney who would lie to, steal from and yes even kill those closest to him to escape the legal and social consequences of his many alleged financial crimes. >> he is the kind of person for

which shame is an extraordinary provocation. shame is an extraordinary provocation. his ego couldn't stand that and he became a family annihilateor. >> court expected to reconvene at 9:30 eastern time this morning. closing arguments will take somewhere between 2 and 2 1/2 hours, dana and bill, back to you. >> dana: we answered a question we asked ourselves, 2 and 2 1/2 hours. >> bill: nancy grace joins us outside the courthouse. will they buy the argument that the ranch is so expansive that you can be in the home across the way and not hear gunfire from inside those kennels? >> i do not believe that they will. it works in the state's advantage. if you take a good long look at moselle, that driveway is very,

very long flanked by pine trees on either side. think about it, the timing doesn't work for murdaugh. he is there and he denied it for well over a year until multiple friends and family identified his voice in the video in the kennels. he is placing himself with his voice at the murder scene the night of the murders about four minutes before the murders occur. now, to the driveway, so where did the killer come from? did they pass each other in the driveway? it is unfathomable that is his argument. the defense will have to get in front of the jury. it will be griffin, not hart. one lawyer is doing it. second chair griffin. they will argue yes, he lied to everybody in his life, stole from clients dying of colon

cancer. lied to his wife, family and partners but guess what today to you he is telling the truth. good luck with that. >> dana: how do you think the prosecution did when they wrapped up this case yesterday? >> i think they did a really good job. what is happening right now and we saw especially here is a great example in the simpson case, when you have the defendant dead in the water, they turn and attack like an animal caught in the corner. they're blame sled and police and everybody but him. they are saying it was a sloppy investigation, a bad investigation. i always love it when defendants take all of these really believable decent characters and say they are all lying. he is the only one telling the truth. he has blamed the cfo at his law

firm, he has blamed his sister-in-law, a caretaker for his mother. a host of people. they are all lying on him and he is the only one telling the truth and he is the one the jury should believe. but i do know this. there is already dissension in the jury. some eyes and ears told me two jurors have had an argument including a curse word. what are they arguing about? their drink order, sandwich menu? i don't know. if they are arguing now what will happen in jury deliberations. >> bill: you told us one of the jurors gave a box of kleenex to alex murdaugh when he was on the stand. that's the only time i've ever heard that. carleton county is sparsely populated with 40,000 people total. what is your observation of the jurors as they were listening yesterday to the state's final argument? >> i made notes on that and i see an alliance on the front war

of four juers ores are pro-state but the state needs 12. the defense only needs one. and i see one on the back row, a white male wearing a lumberjack shirt yesterday. he wouldn't look at the prosecutor during closing arguments. have the courtesy to pretend you are listening. he was looking that way, down, this way. would not meet his eyes or look at him throughout the closing arguments. i didn't like that. remember, it only takes one. everywhere i go, whether it is to mcdonalds or hardee's or mexican restaurant, everybody comes up and says i work with the murdaughs and knows them and they all have the same impression, that the murdaughs believed they owned this county. i wonder if it will work on the jury? >> dana: nancy grace, good to have you and thank you for being

in the courtroom to bring us all this great reporting. we'll talk to you soon. >> thank you for inviting me. i'm headed in right now. >> dana: another tragic reminder on the danger law enforcement faces every day trying to keep us safe. a 32-year-old chicago police officer shot and killed in the line of duty yesterday. cops claim he was chasing a suspect during a domestic incident call when the two exchanged gunfire. the suspect was wounded and the city now in mourning again. >> they were there to protect this victim and willing to put their lives on the line for the victim. unfortunately, as they identified him, he turns and immediately without warning or notice shoots at the officer. >> dana: police superintendent david brown is resigning from the force on march 16th, a day after mayor lori lightfoot's losing bid for re-election. consequences there. >> bill: they need leadership in

a big way. who will save chicago? the vallas/johnson showdown is a clear contrast. it will test whether or not chicago can start on the road to recovery or continue its tragic fall. in 2021, 800 murders took place in the city of chicago. >> dana: right. >> bill: that's why lightfoot lost. maybe this is time to turn things around. dana, for 12 years we sit here every monday morning and talk about how many people were shot and killed over the weekend. >> dana: they voted for change and see if they get that. a runoff in a few weeks. >> bill: pennsylvania man now arrested for having an explosive device if his checked luggage appearing in court virtually this afternoon. the device had two fuses and contained powder used in commercial-grade fireworks. nate foye is on that with details. what did you find out, nate?

>> good morning. not only is this man accused of trying to bring an explosive on the plane but left the airport five minutes after authorities found it and paged him over the airport's p.a. system. he was arrested later that night. mark is entering thely high valley intervoshell nall airport. he had a ticket to sandford, florida north of orlando but never got on the flight. inside the lining of his suitcase officers found this, a confirmed explosive device with multiple fuses, a lighter, a wireless drill and two electrical outlets taped together. the criminal complaint mentions powder found inside the three inch compound. both the black powder and flash pouter are susceptible to ignite from heat and friction and posed a risk to aircraft and passengers. the 40-year-old lives in pennsylvania and this morning

the former police chief tells fox that he never showed any indications of doing something so stupid. he is in custody this morning and appear virtually in court at 1:30 this afternoon. >> bill: wow. we'll follow it. strange stuff. nate foye thanks here in new york. >> dana: seven people hospitalized with minor injuries after a flight from austan to texas suffered severe turbulence. you can see what happened. passengers say the plane went into free fall 90 minutes into the flight as dinner service was underway. turbulence happened at 37,000 feet over tennessee. the plane then made an emergency landing in virginia. the f.a.a. is investigating that incident. >> bill: how would you react to that if you were on the flight? >> dana: very upsetting. disrupt your plans but got there

safely. looks like everyone was wearing their seat belt. >> bill: moments away from hearing the defense arguments in the alex murdaugh trial. how will they try to keep him out of prison for life? we'll take you there when it begins. >> dana: a stunning lack of arrests on pro-life pregnancy centers. garland's answer, was it satisfactory? >> bill: the biden white house dismissing an op-ed written by ron desantis. he is here to respond and how he is ruffling some feathers in washington, d.c. >> it's cool to have two people in my state that could be president. i don't know about new york. that's all i'll say, though. >> desantis? stop. by who? >> the man at 1600? >> please.

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>> bill: a bit earlier today. secretary of state blinken met with his russian counterpart in india. first face-to-face meeting since the invasion of ukraine a year ago. u.s. officials telling fox news the two spoke for about ten minutes blinken telling lavrov that russia should reenter the nuclear start treaty and release the detained american paul whelan. we'll see what comes of it, if anything. >> it's cool to have two people in my state that could be president. i don't know new york. that's all i'll say, though. >> who could be president? desantis? >> biden passed three bipartisan pieces of legislation during a global pandemic opening back up the schools.

>> are we talking about the infrastructure bill? that's what we talking about? >> desantis ain't even. >> in what world? bizarre owe land? >> fun in d.c. who says the two parties can speak to each other. byron donald and jamal bowman in friendly debate about our next guest who made waves with his new back. florida governor ron desantis. your book is doing extremely well called the courage to be free. welcome this morning. >> thanks. good to be with you guys. >> dana: i wanted to ask you about something that came up yesterday from president biden. he was at the house democratic retreat and he is repeating a familiar refrain that he will use against republican. listen to president biden here. >> president biden: during the state of the union i was pleased to see so many republicans stand up when i asked them to join us in rejecting cuts to social security.

they all stood up. the interesting thing is they won't be able to forget it's all on camera. >> dana: i want to know how you as the governor of florida might react to that and news a bipartisan group is looking on capitol hill is looking at the possibility of the increase in age to get social security to 70 years old. >> biden when he was in the senate took a lot of positions that would have reduced social security benefits for current recipients. he wanted to freeze social security payments. if you have inflation it would cause seniors to lose ground. i have more seniors here than just about anyone as a percentage. we're not going to mess with social security as republicans. i think that's pretty clear. if you look at the last 5 or 6 years, dana, we've had an unprecedented binge in discretionary spending. they would blame social security or medicare for budget woes. the reality is they've printed

trillions of dollars and that is really fueling the inflation. not only that, the discretionary spending is funding agencies that are doing things that are hostile to the rights of the american people and have been weaponized against factions of the society that the elite ruling class doesn't like. >> bill: congratulations on the book. it is selling well. i think you are well aware of that. on page 81, you talk about your first victory as governor in -- it with as a close race. you describe it as the most consequential in florida history. that's saying a lot. you give a nod to donald trump and the support he gave you during that campaign. he has talked about that in different venues in different ways since then. in 2023, how much do you believe a trump endorsement matters in american republican politics

today? >> you know, i don't know. i think our voters always make their own decisions and they consider obviously endorsements. at that time when he was president his was the big one. but our voters want to look at you and size you up and they take the responsibility very, very seriously. but when i wrote that in the book about the consequential the fact is there was a big difference between me and my democrat opponent in 2018. you couldn't have been any different. that would have been consequential no matter what. when we had the covid pandemic there was a difference how i ran florida and one who would have replicated the new york and california models. that caused people to flee the states to florida. i don't think we would have been able to survive the way those states handled it and the way we did it, we're booming, bill. the number one fastest growing state leading in net in

migration. record budget surplus, low taxes, full employment. a point and a half below the national average. i think it all goes back to that election and now just as republicans, what have we done with florida? when i got elected it was a one-point race almost every election between governor and president. we were able to go from winning by 32,000 votes to winning by over 1.5 million votes sweeping hispanics by over 60%, winning miami-dade county by double digits but we built an infrastructure for republicans to where florida should no longer be considered a swing state. it is a state that we have the strong advantage in now. >> dana: you mentioned the strength of your economy and what you think you've been able 20 do there in florida and you have a lot of results. when you look ahead, do you think that somebody like you as governor could then maybe run and take that blueprint and make florida's model resonate across

the united states? >> well, i think there are a couple of things from the book i point out. one is we were really going against elite opinion on a lot of things we were doing. us. we were taking on issues that had broaree across party lines. parents rights in education,e i woke indoctrination. standing up for law and order. it is one of the reasons why i actually won a lot of single moms in our election because we were doing that. so i think there is a strong anti-woke majority out there across the country. i think it is one of the reasons why florida's story resonates and we had a specific approach to leadership. i didn't take a poll my entire time of governor as issues. i wanted to lead and produce results and confident people would back me if results were good. a leader's job is to lead public opinion and get out in front of

it and the second thing that we did is we had personnel working for us who believed in the mission and anybody who didn't, if anyone tried to leak or do anything we got rid of them and for the last four years i didn't have a single leak in my administration. you can have a best decisions in the world. if you don't have people that will carry out that and implement it, then it is not going to amount to very much. so we had that. when i would come out and announce our next step people could take it to the back it would be executed quickly and results would follow. >> bill: you had a state house favorable for you. a lot of people argue once you get those votes, you can pass a lot of things. i think there will be news out of tallahassee in the coming days and weeks because of that. on dana's point here the last chapter in your book is 6 1/2 pages long. it is the shortest chapter. the title is make america florida. now, in your view what does that look like and in your timeline

when do you make the decision on that? >> sure. part of the reason i titled it that is because as we got to the end of 2020, you started to see the hats and shirts and flags in florida and even in other states. i had nothing to do with it. this was all organic where people were basically saying the country has problems obviously. we've seen that over the last two years. but florida can do it right. why is it that florida can do it right and we have other good republican states that can do it right yet the biden model is failing our country, failing states like illinois and california. what is it about florida? so we talk about some of those things. but i think it has been a leader to not only be a model for other states, i do think it could be nationally. we will be working through over the next few months as you said, have the legislature -- i didn't always have such a favorable legislature. when we came in we had a narrow

majority and able to get a lot done. now we have super majorities in the legislature with such a good 2022 election. we'll have the three-month run that we will be able to deliver more than we've already delivered and we delivered more than just about anyone. i think that will be something that you win the election, it is vindication for the four years and i was glad to do that because a lot of people wrote me off during covid when we were charting our own course. but it really gives you an opportunity to do this. that's my focus. on the other side of that assuming we've been successful we'll look at what it would mean for national. >> bill: sounds like late summer. am i right? >> i don't know. i could come on your show between now and then and talk about some of the legislature i will be signing over the next few months if you guys are interested, let us know and we would love to do it. >> dana: the entire country will be interested in watching that and they are reading your book as well. thank you for joining us this

morning. >> thank you. >> bill: thanks. >> dana: take care. >> there is only one person who had the motive, who had the means, who had the opportunity to commit these crimes. >> bill: you can hear a pin drop yesterday. lead prosecutor making closing arguments in the double murder trial in south carolina. the jury set to hear the defense's closing arguments only minutes from now. we'll take you to the courtroom then. scales of justice are supposed to be impartial . senate republicans accusing the a.g. merrick garland of favoring the far left. senator mike lee will make his case for us in a moment. month? very car loans can be expensive, and the payments high. consolidate that car loan into a newday home loan and save hundreds every month.

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♪ inner voice (kombucha brewer): if i just stare at these payroll forms... my business' payroll taxes will calculate themselves. right? uhh...nope. intuit quickbooks helps you manage your payroll taxes, cheers! with 100% accurate tax calculations guaranteed. >> there have been over 81 reported attacks on pregnancy centers, 130 attacks on catholic churches since the leak of the

dobbs decision and only two individuals have been charged. how do you explain this disparity? >> there are many more prosecutions with respect to the blocking of the abortion centers but that is generally because they are -- those actions are taken with photography at the time during the daylight. >> dana: republicans on the senate judiciary committee yesterday accusing attorney general merrick garland of aggressively prosecuting conservative protestors while turning a blind eye to attacks on pro-life centers and protests of the homes of supreme court justices. senator mike lee is here. let's start with the pregnancy centers. what you laid out in terms of statistics was quite a disparity. do you think that he was -- that he even knew it was that many in terms of a difference? >> i certainly hope he knew that it was that many. a lot of us have been bringing attention to this for a long time. in any event, the defense is

preposterous. the distinction is absurd. at best what he is doing there is assisting the criminally minded in scheduling their criminality. look. it really defies reason and logic to suggest that we can't find, detect, arrest and prosecute people who commit their crimes at night. especially given if we know they are doing this at night should make it that much easier to look out for them. we live in a day in age where we can find security camera footage and track people down. the department of justice does this all the time. why not with respect to the pregnancy centers and the catholic churches that have been vandalized? >> dana: what about his answer in terms of the attacks or -- not attacks. possible attack against bret cavanaugh. the protests against the homes of supreme court justices. he said he did send some security there. but there was no arrests ever made. we know it is not legal to actually protest over a

justice's house like that over decisions being made at the supreme court. >> it is a crime under 18us c-section 1507 a federal criminal offense. great he sent u.s. marshals over there. they aren't there to be the welcome wagon but to make sure the law is observed and that the rights and safety of the justices are being protected. so why it is that none of those marshals have ever made a single arrest while these crimes are being committed under their noses is beyond my ability to understand. in any event, regardless of whether the marshals ever made a single arrest the department of justice can still track down the people and prosecute them given the fact that most of these people filmed themselves and post the videos. we can find these things out and we can discover their identity and prosecute them. i guarantee you the minute we start doing so, these protests will end. they have been going on constantly ever since dobbs.

>> dana: if you were to make 1 or 2 arrests it would send a signal and end. the protests at the justices homes continue and disruptive to families and children. want to move to another topic. you have been dogged in your determination to try to make sure that lieutenant ridge, one of our own, there in jail in japan and you would like to see the white house do something more. here is what you said about him. listen up. >> we've waited long enough. rich has waited long enough and his wife britney has waited long enough. their children have waited long enough. all three of them. we're done waiting. >> dana: the "wall street journal" writes japan, u.s. and the lieutenant no doubt tokyo is fearful of a domestic -- he paid a steep price for the action. it is a political tinder boxed.

do you have any indication from the white house or state department they are taking this seriously enough to understand it could have diplomatic consequences with one of our great allies? >> i certainly know the white house has been engaged and i appreciated that engagement and created a task force to work on it. here is the thing. we have to remember our request at this point is simple. he should never have been put in jail in the first place. he had a medical emergency that caused him to lose consciousness before the accident. regardless of that we're beyond that. all we ask for now is that he be transferred to the united states to be placed in u.s. custody to complete his sentence. that's it. the fact that japan hasn't complied with this and the fact that japan repeatedly violated his rights over and over and over again in order to secure this conviction, extracting and extorting a confession of sorts without an adequate interpreter

on hand, without legal counsel after subjecting him to interrogation standards in this country would be regarded as barbaric and illegal. only adds flavor to the fact we need him transferred over so he can at least complete his sentence under u.s. authority. >> dana: at this point do you have any next steps or is it just wide open and we're just waiting? >> look, i began yesterday opening a discussion on the senate floor about the fact that it is time for us to revisit our status of forces agreement with japan. this agreement is way too favorable to japan and way too harsh on americans. in japan has exactly one overseas military base in jabuti. it immuneizes all japanese personnel. it ought to be acceptable to them they give us the same

consideration. or at least what we get in korea. this is not fair. look, there is no doubt this relationship is important to both countries. it is especially important to japan and we need to not overlook that fact and we need to demand japan bring his majesty home and hand him over. >> dana: the status of forces agreement you took me right back to my old days when i used to say that all the time. thank you, senator mike lee. >> bill: 20 minutes before the hour now. norfolk southern ceo in store for a tough round of questions testifying before a senate panel next week on the railway disaster in ohio. state lawmakers in neighboring pennsylvania they have voted to issue him a subpoena to appear in harrisburg as well. garrett tenney is live in chicago with more on how it will all go. good morning. >> good morning. next week a busy one for norfolk southern ceo. a week from today he is

scheduled to testify on capitol hill and a day before that subpoenaeded to appear at a pennsylvania senate hearing. the railway will face tough questions tonight since its disaster at a town hall in east palestine which the epa has ordered norfolk southern to attend. a few weeks ago the railway didn't show up to the last town hall out of concern for the safety of its representatives it said. folks we spoke to there were furious they refused to be there to answer questions about the disaster that it caused that is completely upended life in this town. tonight they'll get their chance to ask those questions. yesterday ohio governor mike dewine along with e prick a and other officials returned to east palestine to survey the cleanup and the update on latest testing results. >> epa has conducted 585 home reentry screenings to date and continues air monitoring at 16 stations within the community.

there have been no exceedenss for residential air quality standards and outdoor air quality remains normal. >> the results aren't entirely comforting. other studies have found long-term exposure could pose risks to their health. this morning on "fox & friends" governor dewine said he spoke to the epa about that. >> what they tell us is that for the short term, you know, this is no problem. should not be a problem. if that persists for year after year and people continue to breathe that, yes, it would in fact be a problem. look, we're doing everything we can to monitor the air. >> while officials say the municipal drinking water is safe there are concerns about the private wells since just this week testing from at least ten private wells came back with trace detections of some contaminants. >> bill: garrett, thanks. a busy week as you point out.

>> dana: take you down to south carolina to the closing arguments in the murdaugh trial. some back and forth going on now about a juror. let's listen in for a moment. >> and we'll bring the juror out to inform her she will no longer -- her services will no longer be needed. we will then replace her with an alternate juror. any additional comments by the state or the defense? >> not from the state. >> we do not accept from your ruling. i have sat through everything you sat through and it is muddled but we would defer to your judgment. however, i think it's important for me to note for the record the interviews of these two people were done by sled agents, one who was named as a witness in the case and the other who is -- was listed in the notes as being one of the investigating officers to note that again sled has made some another bad

judgment in this case. i'm not accepting from your ruling i'm pointing out this is just a continuum of a calamity of errors, thank you. >> the court has not had any discussion with any sled agents concerning this issue. and all the inquiries by the court has been directly with the suspected parties involved and with the juror. and this is a matter that this long trial with the intense publicity has certainly difficult for any individual to not have some exposure outside of the courtroom to information concerning the case and to also be tempted to engage in

discussions with others. but it is improper, it is contrary to my instruction to the jury daily, multiple times per day, and this juror unfortunately violated that order. so if you will bring out juror number 785. and sir -- he is gone? just make sure she brings everything with her. she will, i'm sure.

>> bill: this is our understanding. apparently one of the jurors, a woman, had engaged in improper conversation and she is about to be taken off this case. there are two alternates. one will be elevated from that group. >> dana: yeah. improper conversation, i imagine that means she -- i shouldn't speculate. to be kicked off a case means you were talking about the case outside of the jury and that's not allowed. >> bill: jonna spilbor is watching with us and listening. jonna, wow, at such a critical stage in this trial where the defense is about to deliver their argument as to why murdaugh should not be found guilty of double murder what do you make of this move? >> well, then there was one

because if we lose this juror, i think we're down to one alternate. depending how long deliberations take and who else gets sick this is -- we're really on unsteady ground right now. and also my question is, who did this juror talk to? look, don't think these jurors don't go home and talk to spouses over dinner about their thoughts. you know that's happening. you don't get caught doing it. you shouldn't be doing it. who did this juror talk to and how could you not know that you cannot speak about this case outside of that courthouse or even inside the courthouse at this stage in the game? it's very frustrating as an officer of the court myself after a six-week long trial with all of this evidence coming down to this is very concerning. >> bill: stand by and we'll see what comes of this. we know two things. it is a woman juror number 785. the judge is taking her off the

case. we'll see how it turns out. jim griffin will make the presentation on behalf of the defense when they start. >> dana: we'll continue to monitor it and be back in a few minutes. so no matter what the market's doing, he's ready. and that's... how you collect coins. your money never stops working for you with merrill, a bank of america company. why are 93% of sleep number sleepers very satisfied with their bed? maybe it's because you can gently raise your partner's head to help relieve snoring. so you can both stay comfortable all night save $1,200 on the sleep number 360 i10 smart bed. only for a limited time. moderate to severe eczema still disrupts my skin. despite treatment it disrupts my skin with itch. it disrupts my skin with rash. but now, i can disrupt eczema with rinvoq. rinvoq is not a steroid, topical, or injection. it's one pill, once a day. many taking rinvoq saw clear

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>> bill: from chicago lori lightfoot is the first chicago mayor in 40 years to lose a re-election bid and now she is blaming her loss on racism and gender saying i'm a black woman in america, of course. outkick founder clay travis here. she was asked by a reporter if she had been treated unfairly and that's where the comment came. i'm a black woman in america, of course. what do you make of that? >> well, i think you have to go back to her first election, bill. thanks for having me. she won of the she won all 50

chicago wards in 2019 and she won that runoff election in 2019 with 73% of the vote. so my question for lori lightfoot would be if 73% of voters, all 50 wards, virtually every precinct in chicago voted for you in 2019, why were they not racist and sexist then such that by 2023 you only got 17% of the vote, that is 83% of chicago voters chose not to bring you back as an incumbent for the first time in 40 years. bill, i would submit the data there would reflect it was because she did an awful job as a mayor and the people of chicago weren't choosing anyone based on their identity. they are searching for competence. she was an incompetent mayor,

the worst in 40 years. went from a landslide victory in 2019 to a landslide beating in 2023. feels to me the people of chicago just judged her on the merits of her performance and it was not good. >> bill: the performance is a five-letter word crime. look at these numbers. the number of people murdered in chicago last year 695 in 2022. the year before that they had more than 800 murders in chicago. here is the tribune headline you were discussing. in four years lightfoot went from break-out political star to divisive mayor of chicago beset by pandemic and crime. she was unable to do the job on the number one issue that people in the city care about now. >> that's right. i think it is emblematic of 2024. we've been asking why no reckonings over the poor leadership of people in positions of power during covid?

all incumbents have been reelected in a post covid landscape. maybe lori lightfoot is evidence that people are taking a step back and looking for competence over identity, right? this past i would say 5 or 6 years your identity has mattered more than what your actual competence is. certainly this is an issue for the biden administration at large. the fact that lori lightfoot, who was trumpeting the fact she was the first black lesbian mayor of a major american city. as soon as she loses falls back on oh, people aren't choosing me because of my race, gender, maybe sexuality. it's actually a huge attempt by her to deflect blame on the reality as you said, bill, in virtually every single category she failed as the mayor of chicago and democracy demands that if you fail, you lose your job. that's the purpose of having an

election. >> bill: back inside the courtroom of south carolina. caldwell lost his brother in chicago. >> he was murdered june 24th of last year. he would have been 19 years old two two mon mondays ago. this mayor at the end of her term was very clear to me her message i believe was black lives didn't matter to her. it didn't matter to her. black votes mattered to her. >> bill: she campaigned trying to get the vote from the south side. nice to see you. we are off to the courtroom in south carolina and we'll talk again real soon. thank you. >> dana: closing argument starting just now. >> what we're here to do this morning is review the evidence with you that you've heard in the courtroom over the last six weeks.

in reviewing this evidence my goal is to address questions that you may have about what you've heard and the jury system that we have frankly is the greatest criminal justice system in the world. the only system jury system, that criminal defendant's fate is put in the hands of his or her peers. in this country, we don't leave the decision of guilt or innocence up to a governor, attorney general, prosecutors, to the presiding judge. you, ladies and gentlemen, make that decision. and as perfect as our jury system is, there is one thing i wish it provided, an interchange during the course of the trial between us. you are sitting there and listening to what we say and we don't know what questions you have and what you want answered?

by the same token, you know, we may have questions of you that we can't ask. here is my opportunity to try to answer the questions that i think you have. there may be some things that i go over that you've already decided. and i'm wasting your time. if i do that i apologize. i truly do. but this case is so important i don't want to leave anything out that one of you may have a question about. i think i can probably speak for everybody in this courtroom there is one thing that we on this side have no question about. it's that y'all have been ideal jurors. we have been here six weeks and each of you have come every day on time and you have been very attentive. it has not gone unnoticed and we appreciate you for your service. we know what a sacrifice it is

being away from your home, your work, your family, your personal obligations, maybe some of you missed vacations. but you've been here in a three-week trial and here we are at the end of six weeks. i want to thank you personally and on behalf of all of us and especially on behalf of alex murdaugh. in his opening statement it was explained the law governing your service requires each of you to engage in an unnatural task. in every criminal case, jurors are required to begin the process by presuming the defendant innocent. in this case, you were required under your solemn oath as we began to presume alex murdaugh innocent of these charges. and frankly that's not natural. when you hear on the news a crim