they focus on our safety... so we can focus on this little guy. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ >> john: it's been a very busy news week. we promised it would on monday. we have one more day left. so i think that we're probably expecting that tomorrow will be just as busy as today was. >> sandra: happy friday eve. i look forward to seeing you tomorrow and everybody. set your dvr, never miss report report. i'm sandra smith. >> john: we say that. people think you're talking about the actual evening, friday. we're talking about like new year's eve. tomorrow will be friday. so right now this is friday eve. we'll see you again tomorrow. i'm john roberts. "the story" with martha starts right now. >> martha: all right. thanks. good afternoon. i'm martha maccallum. this is "the story" that's breaking right now.

a hearing now over, now complete, for the day in florida. that is where former president donald trump has been all throughout the day. his attorneys have attempted to convince judge ilene cannon to toss the 32-count criminal case against him involving classified documents found at mar-a-largo. andy mccarthy joins us in moments and also later we will speak with the new rnc co-chair, lara trump, who is here with us on "the story" as well. a big sign of where democrats are putting their focus as november approaches. moments ago, vice president harris in an unprecedented move for president or vice president. she has visited a planned parent hood in minnesota. as i said, this is not happened before for a sitting vice president at an abortion clinic. watch this. >> in this environment, these attacks against an individual's

right to make decisions about their own body are outrageous and in many instances just plain old immoral. how dare these elected leaders believe they are in a better position to tell women what they need? >> martha: reproductive rights, a winning issue for the democrats in 2022 in the mid-terms after the dobbs decision came down from the supreme court. in new fox news polling, it shows 10% of voters say this is the most important issue that drives their vote. you can see the economy and immigration above those on our list there in the most recent polling. let's bring in shannon bream, chief legal correspondent and anchors of "fox news sunday." good to have you with us. president obama spoke before a planned parenthood conference

when he was president. this is the first time we've seen a vice president visit a planned parenthood clinic. what does this tell us about the focus for 2024? >> you hit it on the head. this is something to continue on the campaign trail. it is what democrats know has worked for them in many special elections, the mid-terms. they believe this was an issue that galvanized their base. remember, when she showed up today and the vice president was speaking about this, she said i'm doing this as an example of this clinic being especially busy because the states around this one have put limits driving women this to clinic. she talked about states that have limited abortion in different ways. said that basically republicans are trying to take away your rights, your access to healthcare. a number of states, pro choice advocates are trying to get these measures on the ballots because it drives dems out to get their vote. >> the first lady speaking about it as well.

here's jill biden in christina ago luilera in an instagram pos >> extremists are working harder than ever to drive us back to a past that we thought was long over. >> we say our reproductionive healthcare decisions should be made by us and our doctors, not politicians. >> shannon, it's interesting to see how long-lasting the impact of this is. right? obviously in 2022, republicans felt like they should just ignore it and it would go away, i think, based on what we reported on back then. now you see this push from the nrcc that oversees congressional races and advice to them that they're encouraging their members who are running obviously every two years in the house to speak about it, to be articulate about it and to try to meet people where they are a bit on this issue, right? >> yeah, martha, you and i remember where the conversation

from president clinton was let's make this safe and illegal. now demand you have access and to all reaches of a pregnancy. we have stays that allow abortion up until the ninth month. republicans have to do a better job with the conversation about where the line should be drawn. >> martha: absolutely. we do remember that they should be safe, legal and rare. thanks, shannon. we want to go to this breaking news. nashville police providing an update on a missing student, riley strain, last seen with his friends friday night in downtown nashville. >> we have utilized my cold case detectives on foot, travel through the area. we have used aviation as well as our police boat, which as he mentioned has sonar. in the past couple days, we've involved the office of emergency management. they have a boat with sonar. they also have a drone. we've had the drone operator

come out here. we've been utilizing our downtown partnership people and trying to make contacts of citizens waking through here and those in home less camps and reaching out to bars and businesses down here, which like to point out that they have been extremely cooperative with us. i'm open to any questions you have. >> [question inaudible] >> so the last thing on the phone information, all the pings -- apple has been very helpful with us. we're waiting on phone record information. we're waiting on that data. the last ping that they had was off of a cell tower near top golf, which is on the other side of the river. the radius is about two miles. doesn't give us a direction of travel or more detailed information.

we just know that that is the tower that it hit off of. we're waiting on the phone records. we don't have the information back on the apple watch. i didn't know this. i'm not an apple person. apparently it has its own separate phone number. that's one thing we're waiting on as well, data from that. it doesn't tell us why they wentz down. could have a number of reasons of why both of those went down from -- we don't know how long he had them charged to turned them off. any number of things. the data right now, the rest of it, phone records we're still waiting on. we know the last ping was between 9:55 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. the last phone conversation by one of his friends was during that same time. that was the last time anybody had any kind of interaction with him on the phone. >> [question inaudible] >> thank you. with the camera footage we have

right now, the last known footage was coming in this direction, which is toward us in a northerly direction. came him at the woodland street bridge travelling this way. he was on foot. nobody else was around him that we can see. we have cameras on the back of the birch building here, the courthouse, but doesn't catch him crossing the path of that. that would have caught anybody on either side. we're back canvassing, going back, the possible route he may have taken from broadway up third, down towards church street, down in this direction to look for any other cameras we may have missed as well as look for any other potential employees in the businesses that we can talk to you that may not have been here the past few days but might have been here friday night. we're still going back and look for more cameras and more witnesses. >> [question inaudible]

>> no, there's no indication whatsoever there's any kind of foul play or any kind of person involved. those things can change. we just don't know. right now all of our resources are dedicated to finding him. we're not conducting a criminal investigation of any type. so we're utilizing all of our detectives and resources in just looking for him. like i said, there's no indication he was in a fight or argument with anybody on the street as far as we know right now or anybody in any establishment. he may have visited. so we're looking at this as a missing person case. >> [question inaudible] >> so we don't believe based on the information we have so far from financial institution that he utilized any kind of ride share. however, i know -- i believe the

family of someone reached out asking if they may have caught him on video because as we all know a lot of the ride share partners will have dash cams. people have reached out to them. if you see anything, can you send it to us, send it to the police department. we have not seen any evidence that he would have used that. all the footage so far, he was walking. there's no indication that he got in a vehicle, whether a cab or ride share. of course, until we get his phone records back, we can't see if he utilized one of those applications as well. >> [question inaudible] >> martha: what a terrifying situation for the family of this 22-year-old senior at the university of missouri. he was on spring break with his friends. campus -- his mates from the university of missouri. he left luke bryan's bar according to the records. he was asked to leave the bar. they were all out drinking and

having spring break fun that night in nashville. so he -- according to the records, he told his friends that he was going to walk home to his hotel. they checked on him. said yeah, i'm going back to the hotel. that is the last that they have heard of him. that happened friday night. so that is the update that we're getting. we understand he's very tall. north of 6'5", i believe, according to the reports, blond hair. you can see pictures of him smiling. he's a 22-year-old senior at the university of missouri. our hearts go out to his family. they must be frantic as the search goes on. if we get more information, we'll bring it to you as they search for riley in nashville. university of missouri, 22-year-old. all right. let's get back to some of the other breaking news that just has come through a short time ago. here's the first images of the inside of the courtroom as judge

cannon in florida says she's going to rule promptly on whether or not to toss out the case against former president trump involving his handling of classified documents. andy mccarthy is here and later we'll talk to lawyer are trump, the rnc co chair.

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♪ i'm lowering my a1c! ♪ jardiance works twenty-four seven in your body to flush out some sugar. and for adults with type 2 diabetes and known heart disease, jardiance can lower the risk of cardiovascular death, too. serious side effects may include ketoacidosis that may be fatal, dehydration that can lead to sudden worsening of kidney function, and genital yeast or urinary tract infections. a rare, life-threatening bacterial infection in the skin of the perineum could occur. stop jardiance and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of this infection ketoacidosis, or an allergic reaction. you may have an increased risk for lower limb loss. call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of infection in your legs or feet. taking jardiance with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. ♪ jardiance is really swell ♪ ♪ the little pill ♪ ♪ with a big story to tell! ♪ >> martha: former president trump and special counsel jack smith facing off in court today in florida. the former president trying to

get his classified documents case thrown out. andy mccarthy standing by, former assistant attorney. first to steve harrigan who has been reporting on this throughout. he joins us now from the courthouse in fort pierce, florida. hi, steve. >> martha, former president trump and jack smith were in the same courtroom for several hours today. no sign of any exchanges between the two or even if the two even looked at each other. the fight by trump's lawyers was to try to get this documents case dismissed. they made the argument that every president going back to george washington had done the same thing trump had done with documents. the prosecution said on the contrary. trump knew what he was doing was wrong and repeatedly failed to return highly classified documents. perhaps the key question by judge cannon, she said the defense at one point, you're making a strong argument for trial but i fail to see how this gets me to a dismissal. giving a big hint that dismissal is a very big swing, a very tall

order. they could get this case delayed to july or august. trump supporters are now are filing out. they've been here honking away in support of the former president. back to you. >> martha: let's bring in andy mccarthy, former assistant attorney and fox news contributor. great to have you with us today, andy. so it's interesting. judge cannon made some interesting points that came out of the courtroom. one of them was she said is this motion premature? are you bringing this before me before we hear anything about immunity from the supreme court? it really feels like the motivation for this was hot on the heels of whatever everyone just watched with robert hur and how he made his decision in a similar case against the current president. >> yeah, it's a lot to sort out. the thing is the immunity issue before the court involves official actions of the

president during the time of his presidency. the charges in jack smith's florida indictment involved documents that president trump was able to get because he was president, but the actions are in his post presidency. the illegal or the allegedly illegal retention and the obstruction of the grand jury investigation. so they're different issues. sounds like what judge cannon is honing in on is that the trump defense has been making claims all along about the former president's handling of these documents, including suggesting that he may have declassified a number of them. that's the kind of thing a judge can't make a decision about without taking testimony. what this motion was about today is to try to get the case kicked out on the papers, and the legal arguments. sounds like she's leaning against that. she wants to hear evidence. >> martha: what i'm hearing from you, it does and sound as if the

immunity issue is something that she is leaning on or waiting for. it sounds from what she said as though she will treat this case on the merits, on its own. she doesn't feel the need to rush it based on anything. and that one of the determinations that will be fleshed out in this trial and based on what you just said is whether or not he designated any of these documents as personal records. his team said that they have the authority to have done that. the special counsel's team says that he could have -- that he -- that trump himself said he could have declass need the documents when he was president but he didn't and now he can't according to his testimony. we heard a lot about personal records and biden assuming that they were all his. how do you think that will hold up in this case for the former president trump? >> where biden made that

argument is about the notes that he had taken about classified documents. the crux of the case against trump are the agency records, which are not covered by the presidential records act. presidential records act is really meant to sort out the information that is generated by a white house so that you can figure out what is government property and what is the president's personal property. most of what is at issue in the case is actually agency documents, specifically intelligence reporting from our intelligence agencies which really aren't meant to be covered by the presidential records act. the former president and his counsel have a theory why that should be covered. sounds like judge cannon is saying she wants to hear some evidence to support what their arguments are. >> martha: all right. i'm going to swing you to the hush money case, andy. i want to read to you a headline that we just got.

just to remind everybody at home, this is the new york case that was brought in the matter around stormy daniels and whether or not -- and the check that was given to her, which was seen as hush money payment that was funneled as a legal payment. that is the question here. whether or not the hush money was disguised as a legal payment. what we're just learning is that the manhattan prosecutor, alvin bragg's case, is now seeking a 30-day delay of this trial, which was supposed to be the first one. supposed to start march 25 here in new york. so would have been the very first one to go to trial. the prosecutors that brought the case asked for a 30-day delay, a startling development in this first prosecutionbased on new material that they want time to deal with, andy. your reaction to that as you hear it right now. >> yeah, very interesting. it sounds like they apparently

have come upon some factual evidence that we presume. i thought that there would be some litigation over the fact that at the 11th hour former president trump is trying to extend his immunity argument to the manhattan case as well. he's asked for a delay on the basis of that after getting some discovery about some of what bragg planned to do at the trial, which he thinks intersects with his authority while he was president. this doesn't sound like that. this sounds like they actually have some factual information that last come to their attention that they have to sort out and decide what effect it has on the case. it interesting to see what the judge does. >> martha: indeed. all of these delays, i think it's fair to say, work for the former president. he wants to see these pushed as close to or after the election in every way possible. it says just to fill in you and our viewers before we move on

here, it says that this is so that the defense can review a new batch of records. it only recently obtained these records from federal prosecutors who years ago investigated the same hush money payments at the center of the case. seems weird that they wouldn't have had all of the information related to that former case and why that would be suddenly discovered at this stage of the game is a question that we'll leave for another day as we get more information on it. thanks, andy. good to have you with us. >> thanks, martha. >> martha: so in the other case, it's hard to keep track of all of these, any minute now we could learn whether d.a.fani willis will be off of the case that she brought in georgia against the former president in the election interference case there. she's facing misconduct accusations because of her relationship with a special prosecutor, nathan wade and the vacations that they took together after she hired him and he was paid state dollars for the job she helped him get. they both testified the

relationship began after he was hired and willis testified that she paid for her share of the trips in cash. the judge said that he hopes to announce his decision on whether or not she and he will be allowed to stay on this case by tomorrow, which is friday, of course. we expect it could come through as early as this afternoon. jonathan serrie reporting live from the fulton county courthouse in atlanta. hi, jonathan. >> hi, martha. all waiting outside of the courthouse for this decision that could come down today or perhaps as late as tomorrow evening. that was the deadline that judge scott mcafee set for himself. he said that he intended to stick to that self-imposed deadline while giving an interview to a local radio station. wsb, last week. the judge also said that the fact that he faces a contested special election in may is going to have no bearing on his decision, that it will be nonpolitical.

in fact, he drafted an outline for this decision, sort of a rough draft before he even knew that he was going to face a challenger. this judge was appointed by the governor, brian kemp, just over a year ago. in order to keep his position, he has to go through with the special election in may. another local attorney recently announced that he intends to challenge the judge in that election. as far as disqualifying fani willis from serving as the chief prosecutor in this case, the allegations from several defense attorneys are that she had a conflict of interest both legally and financially because of her romantic involvement with nathan wade, the attorney that she hired as a special prosecutor, but again, willis and wade deny there's any conflict and insist the romance began after she hired him. martha? >> martha: jonathan serrie, thanks very much.

we'll go straight back to the courthouse if we get breaking news on judge mcafee's decision in that case. we also have a lot to get to with shark tank investor kevin o'leary as bernie sanders makes the case americans should be working less, 32 hours. we're going to talk to him about his idea that he wants to buy tik tok when we come back. >> we held a hearing on a 32-hour work week because what we have seen is that over the last 50 years, despite a huge increase in worker productivity, almost all of the wealth has gone to the top 1% while 60% of the people living paycheck to paycheck. many of our people are exhausted. we work the longest hours of any people in the industrialized world. it's time for a shortened work week. >> seems like democrats wants businesses to be taxed more, paid more -- >> that's not assumption -- >> lower prices and now pay people not to work. >> what i would like to see --

>> how are businesses going to survive? that's the question. how can businesses survive those proposals? >> when they pay an effective tax rate, i think we have a real problem in our tax system. i think billionaires have got to start paying their fair share of taxes. thank you. accept the trade offs of treating? or push through the pain and symptoms? with ubrelvy, there's another option. one dose quickly stops migraine in its tracks. treat it anytime, anywhere without worrying where you are or if it's too late. do not take with strong cyp3a4 inhibitors. allergic reactions to ubrelvy can happen. most common side effects were nausea and sleepiness. migraine pain relief starts with you. ask about ubrelvy. learn how abbvie could help you save.

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it's a great business. i'm going to put together a group to buy tik tok. >> you're trying to buy tik tok? >> i am. it should be owned by a u.s. business. there's no way that the chinese would ever let a u.s. company own something like this in china. >> have you already put a group together? >> i'm working on it. >> you're exploring a group. >> i've spoken to a bunch of people. >> let's bring in kevin o'leary, "shark tank" star and investor. great to have you with us. it's great to see you and the former treasury secretary that are interested in taking this and making it an american company. how far have you gotten in this process and that mr. mnuchin will be interested? >> there's a lot of competition. we all face the same challenge. in the end, there's probably only going to be two at the table. here's the problem. we don't know how to deal with the fact that the database, the

texas project it's called of american people that is sitting in american servers in texas. that's fine. the algorithms that make this work, they're not here in america and will never get here. the chinese are never going to sell that. they passed that law in 2017. made it even harder in 2019. they do not allow companies like byte dance to sell this product anywhere. the challenge is putting syndicates together that will buy this not knowing really what the cost is to recreate the algorithm that makes this platform work. i remind everybody, in recent times, the last transfer of ownership of a significant social media platform was twitter. syndicated at $42 billion. today trading it between 12 and 18 on the mark to market for those investors on the debt and inequities side that paid for it. it's private. you took it public, probably would be down 60%.

they tried to change the algorithms on that. it's not clear how that will work. here's the real problem. you have to sell this new code, this new company, this new american version to all of the users, the five million small businesses, the advertisers and that's where you have to choose your syndicate properly. who will do that? i think i'm a pretty good steward of that process. let the competition begin. >> martha: i think you could market it in a way that is patriotic and that promises a seamless crossover from one platform to the other, which is a little bit tricky. here's what rand paul said this morning. he said this is completely un-american to try to ban tik tok in the united states. watch this. >> this company is owned by not the chinese communist party, but 60% are international investors,

two are the two inventors that are chinese software engineers and 20% is owned by their employees, including 7,000 americans. all of those people, if you accuse them of sharing data, you have to prove it. you don't get to accuse somebody and take their company. >> martha: what do you say to that, kevin? >> it's a difficult challenge. he's right. look at dance byte. there's many american investors and g-42, also outs of the united arab emirates. they're all shareholders. the chinese government passed a law on a domestic chinese companies including this one, dance byte. they can't transfer technology. what congress is worried about is a concept called cognitive warfare. this is why the indian government when looking at tik tok said no. they weren't going to let it happen. there's no tik tok in india. so unless you resolve this concept of cognitive warfare, in

other words, stop it from happening in the u.s., this thick is going to pass the senate, too. the games will begin. yes, i'd like to buy it. >> martha: thanks, kevin. we have breaking news. we're going to stay on that story. hope you come back soon. lindsey graham, the senator from south carolina speaking after chuck schumer said israel needs to hold new elections after the threat from hamas is reduced. schumer called benjamin netanyahu a major obstacle to peace. >> recognize the one and only jewish state. that's no easy thing for the crown prince to do. we're trying to get israel to take a leap of faith here that it doesn't have to be this way all the time. to do sol things that would allow palestinian community to reorganize. 75% of the israeli people do not support a two-state solution now. they have been terribly wounded. there's no support by any

politician in israel, gantz, anybody, to unilaterally declare a palestinian state. five presidents have said that if there's ever a palestinian state, it will come through direct negotiations without conditions between the parties. the trump administration, jared kushner had a plan to establish a palestinian state that prime minister netanyahu agreed with. the point here is what should america be doing now? america should be helping israel without qualification. we should be trying to find a way to ease the suffering of the palestinian people and the best way to do that is to destroy hamas. the reason so many palestinians have been killed is because hamas uses them as human shields. we live in a world that is literally upside-down. we're having prominent democratic members, people i

respect, calling on the israel people to take their government down. i can't believe it. i thought it was a joke. i thought somebody was pranking me this morning. this is a departure in a very serious way about how the united states interacts with its allies. i think its done enormous damage to very delicate negotiations. i hope that senator schumer will re-visit this. i don't know who he's trying to please by saying that, but they're not worth pleasing. i don't know who you're trying to please by saying that the israeli government needs to cease to exist as it is today and the israeli people need to find somebody better in the eyes of senator schumer. i'm not asking the israeli people to elect somebody i like. i asking them whenever you have an election, elect somebody that you like. i'm not asking the people of

israel to bow to my view of how to settle this matter after the largest loss of jewish life since the holocaust. i want to give unconditional, unqualified support to the people of israel to destroy hamas after world war ii, if anybody suggested to america that we need to take our foot after the gas when it came to destroying the nazis and the japanese, you would have been run out of town. what won the oscar? a film called oppenheimer talking about how the atomic bomb was created and used by our country to destroy two cities in japan to end the war. you have to understand and you do, mr. president, you have done your homework. you have to understand that october 7 to the israeli people is pearl harbor and 9-11 or

ste steroids. it was an attempt by hamas to break the back of the jewish people, to brutally rape and murder in a fashion that they want the world to see. so the israel perspective on what to do is similar to what we thought we should do after world war ii. total complete victory. everybody mobilize, do what you have to do to end the war, to take the nazis down and the imperial japanese army destroyed unequivocally. millions of people were killed in world war ii. war is literally hell. but when you have been attacked the way we were on pearl harbor and 9-11, you have to respond forcefully.

make sure it never happens again. the only way israel to to is to destroy the military capability of hamas. so why did this happen, mr. president? i believe that the great satan, which is iran, wanted this to happen to prevent the reconciliation between saudi arabia and the state of israel ending the israeli conflict. a nightmare for the ayatollah, the arabs and the jews make peace and economically integrate leaving them behind. so israel has signed agreements with six of their arab neighbors under bibi's leadership. when i go, i meet with all of the leaders. it's not about bibi. it's not about gantz. it's about our relationship. if it's gantz or -- >> martha: senator lindsey graham from south carolina as the battle heats up between

senate majority leader chuck schumer of new york and senate minority leader, mitch mcconnell and now lindsey graham as well after schumer called for essentially the israeli people to remove benjamin netanyahu from leadership in israel and to replace him. he has had some very vociferous push back. lindsey graham continues his speech on the floor of the united states senate. coming up, we will speak with rnc co-chair newly installed lara trump coming up next. (man) excuse me, would you mind taking a picture of us? (tony) oh, no problem. (man) thanks. (tony) yes, problem. you need verizon. trade-in that old thing and get a new iphone 15 pro with tons of storage. so you can take all the pics! so many selfies. a preposterous amount of pano! that means panoramic. and as many portraits of me as your heart desires. (woman) how about none? (boy) none. (man) yea none feels right. (vo) trade-in any iphone in any condition and get a new iphone 15 pro and an ipad and apple watch se

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>> martha: so the republican national committee denying records that they plan to shut down community centers focused on reaching out to minority

voters. polls show former president trump gaining ground among minority voters. 23% of black voters say they support him in a new recent "new york times" sienna poll. more than double the 8% that voted for him in 2020. those are huge jumps among black voters. president biden's support dropping with black voters. almost 30 points. this is a huge dynamic to watch in the 2024 election. the former president is leading among hispanic voters by six points after losing that group by almost 30 points back in 2020. so let's bring in the rnc co share, lara trump, the former president's daughter-in-law. thanks for joining us today. >> thanks, martha. great to be with you. those numbers are a very big deal. it's why you see the panic on the democrat's side. the trust is you can lie to people for so long until they wake up and realize this is not working.

peel across this country are feeling the negative impact of joe biden and his presidency. 65% of the country said we're on the wrong path. the amazing thing. people can compare two presidents. donald trump was president for four years. joe biden has been president for three years. you can see the disaster that has ensued in three years times. people want change. they want donald trump back. >> martha: you have a new rule as co chair of the rnc. there's a lot of discussion about fund-raising and how the dnc has brought in more money than the rnc. a report in "the new york times" that republicans closed several minority outreach centers in battleground states more than a year ago. you weren't there at the time. didn't retain the minority media outreach directors. what do you say about the reports? how significant are these outreach centers are? do you need them or don't need them? what is the plan?

>> yeah, well, we are keeping those all open. i can report that today. that is incorrect. i think it's very important. as i just said, doesn't matter who you are in this country, everybody understands what is at stake, i think, in this upcoming election. it's minority communities that have been significantly impacted by the pad policies of joe biden. as you just read, you had 8% black vote for donald trump in 2016. right now he's polling at around 23%. that is huge. that is very detrimental to the democrats. it's something that we're paying a close attention to at the rnc and at the trump campaign. this is a wide open tent. the idea that this is a party closed off to anyone is false. we want everyone to come in, we want everyone to vote because we want everyone in this country to succeed. so those reports are not correct. >> martha: okay. thank you for clearing that up. so let's take a look at this from jamie harrison, who is the

chair of the dnc. here's what he had to say. >> as they say, the rnc is down bad. they're taking out lines of credit, laying off staff. they can't even afford to spend money on their racist down ballot. but this is the good thing. they are paying donald trump's legal bills. so as i said, with you earlier, man, go, lara, go. you're doing it, girl. you're knocking it out of the park. keep doing it. >> martha: what is your response to that, lara? >> that's cute. we're not paying legal bills from the rnc. i had 2.7 million pledged to me. it was our largest digital fund-raising weekend since 2020. so we're getting to work. while things may be changing at the rnc, they're changing rapidly. one of the things that is changing is going to be our fund-raising. so they can sit back and watch and i can promise you we're paying attention not just to the top of the ballot but the down ballot races as well.

>> martha: the folks are very interested in the support from the rnc. we'll hopefully continue. i want to talk about voting and what you're doing in that area. thanks very much, lara. good to see you. >> thanks, martha. >> martha: coming up, more than a dozen former and current female collegiate athletes are taking action against the ncaa. this is a huge move in this fight. they are claiming that the ncaa violated title 9 by allowing biological males to compete in college against women. a story exclusive with the two swimmers who have launched this suit today, riley gains coming up next. (sigh) if you struggle with cpap... you should check out inspire. no mask. no hose. just sleep. inspire. learn more and view important safety information at inspiresleep.com >> woman: why did we choose safelite?

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>> martha: a first of its kind lawsuit. former and current athletes allege that the ncaa's

transgender policy is a violation of title 9. deprives women of their constitutional rights. at the center, leah thomas that the results in the swim championships impacted my two guests. riley gains, a former university of kentucky swimmer and host of the gains for girls podcast on outkick. and rika george swam for virginia tech. both are part of today's vialer. thanks for joining us today. riley, let's start with you. what is the goal of this lawsuit and if you win, who would be impacted? >> well, thank you very much for having us on. the ncaa's most basic job is to protect the fairness and safety of collegiate sport. instead of what we faced, countless other females face at

the hands of the ncaa is discrimination against us on the basis of our sex. which is of course everything that title 9 was passed to prevent from happening. so the ncaa is failing on their most basic duties to provide fair, equal and safe competition for women and for everyone. who this would impact? what we're hoping for is one, accountability, two responsibility and three, for the ncaa to implement title 9 by its original intent. so it would impact every athlete who competes at the collegiate level and future athletes that hope to compete at the collegiate level. >> martha: so i don't know if you've seen any response from the ncaa on this lawsuit yet, have you? >> no, i haven't. >> martha: all right. tell me a little bit about -- in some ways when i read the stipulations on all of these programs about testerone levels

that have to be tested in order to allow some of these trans athletes to participate in competition. i'm wondering if some of these programs might not welcome not having to go down that road anymore. it's very complex situation that they got themselves tied up in with all of these different regulations. i wonder how you think this will go over with the universities, whether they fight it hard or might welcome it? >> yeah, i don't know personally how it's going to go down. but i hope for the best that each university will have the opportunity to use their resources, everything to go down this path and how future athletes will have an equal opportunity when it comes to racing against somebody that is a biological male in female sports. >> martha: when you look at charlie baker, the conversation that he had with mike lee, lee asked him, has the ncaa assessed

the physical, emotional harm of the transgender inclusion policy on female athletes? what are the findings? if not, why not? baker said there was no research related to their current policy in that regard, riley. what do you think about that? >> well, i'm not surprised. this is the same approach that former president mark emmert had and now charlie baker. what we've seen with the ncaa, it's full of cowards, spineless, morally bankrupt cowards at that. so look, we're hoping that they do the right thing. i believe that people within the ncaa are hoping that this is a successful lawsuit. i don't think that they want too be troubled with making this decision. puts them, puts charlie baker in a difficult position. same thing these states that prevent males from competing in women's sports at the state level. i believe the ncaa wants these states to get this legislation through so it takes it off of their plate. again, they want to avoid accountability and

responsibility at all costs. >> martha: yeah. reka, your final thought on that. do you think that this is something that will be successful? >> i really do believe that it's going to be successful. we have a great group of women standing up and speaking for others. you know, we gave the opportunity to people to support us, they can be a part and get more information on the case going forward. >> neil: thanks, reka and riley. you deserve a lot of credit, both of you, for pushing this forward. we'll watch where it goes. thanks very much, ladies. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> martha: all right. so that is "the story" on this thursday, march 14. the story goes on. thanks for being here today. look forward to see you tomorrow, friday. mea meantime, "your world" starts right now. >> neil: thank you, martha. let us be brief.