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Bannon surrenders on contempt charges. Biden signs $1.2 trillion infrastructure package. Rittenhouse jury deliberations to begin tomorrow. Closing arguments in Kyle Rittenhouse trial. Judge dismisses underage weapons charge. Judge says jurors can consider provocation and lesser charges. Rittenhouse prosecutor say you lose the right to self-defense when you brought the gun. Defense attorney claims every person who was shot was attacking Kyle. Former Trump White House Chief of Staff defying subpoena.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:00:00]

ARI MELBER, MSNBC HOST: Thanks for watching THE BEAT with Ari Melber. THE REIDOUT with Joy Reid is up next. Hi, Joy.

JOY REID, MSNBC HOST: How are you doing, Ari? Thank you very much. Have a great evening.

All right, good evening, everyone. We have a lot to get to on this very busy Monday. Former Trump Adviser Steve Bannon surrendered to FBI agents this morning and later appeared in court to face criminal contempt charges for defying a congressional subpoena.

And this afternoon President Biden celebrated a major achievement at the White House surrounded by a group of bipartisan lawmakers. He signed into law a massive infrastructure bill that will invest billions of dollars into roads, and ports, broadband internet, clean water and a lot more. And we`re going to get to both of those developments.

But we begin THE REIDOUT tonight with the closing arguments in the Kyle Rittenhouse murder trial in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Just minutes ago, jurors were handed the case and the fate of Kyle Rittenhouse`s future now rests in their hands. Earlier today, Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger delivered the dramatic closing arguments for the prosecution. He argued that Rittenhouse was in a state of liven carrying a gun he shouldn`t have and pretending to guard an empty business he had no connection to and even lied about being an EMT. He argued that Rittenhouse was no hero.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THOMAS BINGER, KENOSHA COUNTY ASSISTANT DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Now you`ve heard the everyday and it`s time to search for the truth. So, consider, for example, whether or not it`s heroic or honorable to provoke and shoot unarmed people. Consider it, whether it makes someone a hero when they lie about being an EMT.

In this entire sequence of events from the shooting of Jacob Blake on Sunday, August 23rd, 2020 all the way after that, everything this community went through, the only person who shot and killed anyone was the defendant.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

REID: After shooting Joseph Rosenbaum several times, Rittenhouse took off running as the crowd grappled with the prospect of an active shooter, Rittenhouse lied to the crowd and told them that Mr. Rosenbaum had pulled a gun.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BINGER: The defendant flees, callously disregarding the body of the man that he just shot and killed. And as he`s running off, he`s lying to the crowd about what just happened. This is exhibit number 12.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

REID: Earlier in the day, the prosecution asked the judge to let the jury consider lesser charges if they move to acquit on the original counts. The judge agreed. Rittenhouse`s attorney unleashed a viscous rebuttal calling the prosecution`s case garbage and a rush to judgment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK RICHARDS, RITTENHOUSE ATTORNEY: This is a political case.

The District Attorney`s Office is marching forward with this case because they need somebody to be responsible. They need somebody to put and say we did it, he`s the person who brought terror to Kenosha. Kyle Rittenhouse is not that individual. The rioters, the demonstrators who turned into rioters, those are the individuals who bring us forth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

REID: This has been one of the strangest trials in recent history, just to be honest, with Bruce Schroeder`s odd behavior taking center stage. Just moment before the jury, was set to hear the closing arguments, he dismissed a count of possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under 18, a misdemeanor that had appear to be among the likeliest of a charges to net a conviction for prosecutors. And here is one of the instructions that he gave jurors on the question of self-defense.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUDGE BRUCE SCHROEDER, KENOSHA COUNTY, WISCONSIN: When you address the charged crime, if in your discussions you conclude that the elements are present and the defendant was not acting lawfully in self-defense, then you need not go further. You can return your verdict of guilt based upon that conclusion. If in your discussions as to any individual count of those with multiple possible verdicts in your initial discussion if you decide that the defendant acted lawfully in self-defense, you`re done and you can return to that guilty verdict without considering the lesser offenses.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

REID: Now, through this trial, the judge has issued rulings that seemed to favor the defense. He yelled at the prosecutor and forbade the state from referring to the people killed by Kyle Rittenhouse as victims, ruling the terms is too, quote, loaded. He also made a joke about Asian food and his phone rang during a trial playing a (INAUDIBLE) that`s been heard a Trump rallies because that is just the kind of trial that this has been.

[19:05:00]

And with this trial now nearing its end, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers said that 500 National Guard members will be prepared for duty in Kenosha if local law enforcement requests them.

Joining me now, Paul Butler, former Federal Prosecutor and Georgetown Law Professor, and Katie Phang, Trial Attorney and MSNBC Legal Contributor.

And I just have to ask you, Paul, because I watched a lot of trials going back to the O.J. trial when I was just watching it as an interested observer, not a journalist, I`ve never seen anything like this, especially the instructions to the jury that became this whole other sort of mini-trial without the jurors present. Can you please try to explain to us what happened there had and what this judge was doing and whether it was normal?

PAUL BUTLER, MSNBC LEGAL ANALYST: Well, I`m glad you didn`t ask me to explain the judge`s instructions because I could not do that. I`ve tried a bunch of cases as a prosecutor. I`ve taught criminal law school for years. I didn`t understand half of what the judge was saying.

REID: I didn`t either. Okay, good. At least it wasn`t me. I thought maybe I just didn`t go to law school to understand it.

Katie, could you make any better sense of it? Because -- so the thing is that I don`t understand. Having -- you know, I`ve been in a grand jury. Normally, lesser includeds are the way prosecutors kind of guarantee conviction, because if they can`t get you on the top charge, there are all these lesser included things that they could actually -- the jury could then consider, say, maybe I don`t think you murder the person but I think you did reckless endangerment or manslaughter. He essentially said wipe it all out if you think he acted in self-defense in the charge. Did that strike you as strange?

KATIE PHANG, MSNBC LEGAL CONTRIBUTOR: It did. And, you know, what we`ve noticed is that, he doesn`t like to read stuff and he really should because there is a reason why the jury instructions have been printed out for everyone to be able to see. The way that he has these random rambling dissertations from the bench trying to explain key concepts of law is really where this trial has gone totally awry.

But with regards to the lesser included, you can`t just make the summary statement from the bench that if you find it it was self-defense and it completely eradicates all the lesser includeds and the fact he`s allowed lesser included should be given to the jury. I think that there`s been inconsistent behavior, conduct and rulings from the bench, even recently we just saw some stuff that was going during closing arguments.

But I think that the jury is sufficiently confused and that`s what gets scary when you`re a prosecutor. If you got a jury that`s confused, sometimes the easy out is to just let it go. And that is the real fear that the prosecution has at this time.

REID: Absolutely. And, Paul, especially when you`re talking about a teenager who -- he`s going -- there`s 18 jurors right now in the pool. It will go to 12. Just the math tells you this could be an all-white jury. There is only one black person in the pool. So, he might get an all-white jury of people to whom, to them, he looks like their son, right? And so now the question is what do you believe is more logical?

This was -- let me play a little bit of what the prosecutor said. This is Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger, and he talked about who provoked the initial reaction with Joseph Rosenbaum. This is cut one. Listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BINGER: They know you can`t claim self-defense against an unarmed man like this. You lose the right to self-defense when you`re the one who brought the gun, when you`re the one creating the danger.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

REID: And then he shows all this video that I thought was actually very powerful in showing that Rittenhouse shoots Mr. Rosenbaum and then he runs and then the crowd starts pursuing him thinking he`s an active shooter. And so there are people there who have their own guns because they`re thinking I`m going to approach this danger. He`s the active shooter. People ask him, did you shoot someone? Did you shoot someone? And then he reacts to that with the second two people.

Think about the mindset this person has just killed one person. And then when two other people approach him, he shoots one of their arm almost off and he shoots the third and kills him.

And so what the prosecutor I thought pretty effectively argued is that he`s the only one who is dangerous in this situation. The other people are not attacking him. He`s the danger. Did that strike you as a strong argument?

BUTLER: It did. You know, the judge, as we noted, has been extremely tough on the prosecution but he finally cut them a break with this provocation instruction. If the jury finds that Rittenhouse was the initial aggressor, then he can`t claim self-defense. So, in closing, the prosecutor spent a lot of time arguing that it was Rittenhouse who started the fight and that it was really his victims who had the right to self-defense, not the defendant.

So, the jury will decide based on the witness testimony and video. It`s all open to interpretation. One witness said that this first victim, Rosenbaum, threatened to kill Rittenhouse but the prosecutor said today that never happened.

Another government witness said that Rosenbaum lunged for the gun but the prosecution witnesses said -- another prosecution witness said that Rosenbaum was a babbling idiot who was harmless.

[19:10:08]

So, during jury deliberations, the jury will have to decide who it believes.

But, Joy, I agree with what you said in the beginning, that this was a good day for the prosecution. If it had tried the whole case as strongly as it delivered its closing, then Mr. Rittenhouse would soon be on his way to state prison.

REID: You know, that reminds me of, Paul, you know what I`m saying, the Zimmerman trial was like that. The whole time I think where do the prosecutors go to school? And then in the end, they delivered these wonderful closings but they had already done so poorly going in. And, anyway, we`ll see how, if it turns out differently.

Katie, let me let you talk about what the defense was doing. Because they seem to be trying this as a political case trying to appeal to any sort of Fox News viewers on the jury, let`s just be blunt, who might think when the looting starts, the shooting starts is a good thing to say, you know what I mean? And if they characterized the people who were shot as the bad guys and you think this guy is a hero like the people at that other network do, that`s your jurors.

So, let`s play a little bit -- this is Mark Richards, is the name of the attorney, and this is what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK RICHARDS, RITTENHOUSE ATTORNEY: If they want to be the heroes and they want to beat somebody and do what they`re going to do to them, they better be right, and they weren`t. Kyle Rittenhouse shot Mr. Rosenbaum because he was attacking Kyle. Every person who was shot was attacking Kyle.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

REID: Okay. I`m going to ask what you make of that argument, Katie.

PHANG: Okay. Let`s be clear. You don`t have to have a judgment about whether or not the protests were good or bad. What they did on the defense is they basically wanted to inflame the jury to think that it was totally fine for Kyle Rittenhouse to come in on his white horse, this knight on the white horse to save that community of Kenosha, which he had no business being there in the first place, right?

So, putting aside whether or not you want to have a qualitative value judgment about what was going on in terms of those protests, Kyle Rittenhouse`s behavior had to be reasonable that evening in question. And he was not physically harmed. You have two dead people, multiple injured others. And the reality is, it was hands, feet, a skateboard. Hands, feet and a skateboard versus an AR-15, that`s what that was.

The thing that we heard in the rebuttal close I think that really made sense and that would counter what the defense was attempting to do today was the fact that they called Rittenhouse a chaos tourist. Kind of reminds you a little bit about the January 6th insurrection, right? This idea that you had people that showed up armed to do harm, and that is exactly what Kyle Rittenhouse did as a chaos tourist. He showed up, he didn`t mean to improve the community, and you know what, if the jury listens to the law and applies the facts and the evidence to the law, then they should be able to come back with at least one conviction. Because, remember, each victim is separate count. It`s not all of the victims under one count. And so the prosecution actually has more than one bite of the apple to be able to convict Kyle Rittenhouse.

REID: Yes. And last word to you on this, Paul, because here is the sort of elephant in the room. You know, all of the people involved in this are white, you know, and the thing I noticed was not said and I saw it on the paper but never said out loud by the prosecutor was Black Lives Matter was involved. He left that characterization aside.

And so in this case, I hate to say it, if the victims were black, I would be 100 percent sure how this case would ended, I would be, at least in my own mind. But in this case, it`s complicated a little bit because the people who he shot were members of the community who also somebody could maybe relate to. Do you think that that ends up mattering because race is off the table here in terms of this jury?

BUTLER: So, this was a protest about Black Lives Matter situation in which African-American person was killed by a white officer or was shot by a white officer. The through line between the Rittenhouse case and the Georgia case of Ahmaud Arbery`s killers is guns. How many Americans are walking around strapped down with firearms trying to act like cops, paying more attention to black people, trying to guard people`s property or police protests march. And these people knowingly put themselves in harm`s way and when they do that, they then say they feel threatened and use their guns to kill.

And the concern, Joy, is that the defendants are allowed to get away with this we should expect to see more cases of armed vigilantism just like this.

REID: And as you, this sort of -- yes, this is the society they`re trying to create, this sort of violent tourism, wherever you want to go and you be the police, that is what everyone should fear. Paul Butler, Katie Phang, thank you all both very much.

[19:15:01]

Up next on THE REIDOUT, Steve Bannon surrenders to face charges of contempt of Congress as Trump`s inner circle in just closer to accountability for January 6th.

Plus, President Biden signs the government`s massive investment in infrastructure but Republicans want to punish -- they want to punish the handful of their party members who supported it, you know, punishing for getting bridges for their own community.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg joins me on this historic day for the Biden administration.

And tonight`s absolute worst, they`re actually trying to destroy democracy. Now, one of Trump`s tough guy wants the government to dictate how you worship.

THE REIDOUT continues after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

REID: The wheels of justice may turn slowly but they are turning when it comes to the select committee investigation of January 6th. Steve Bannon surrendered the federal authorities this morning after being criminally indicted on Friday on charges of contempt of Congress. And no surprise, he gave us a self-aggrandizing press conference portraying himself as a MAGA martyr while defiantly pointing the finger at everyone but himself.

[19:20:05]

A year in prison might go a long way toward deflating that ego and also and also getting him some different-colored shirts to layer.

Of course, Bannon isn`t the only Trump ally at risk of criminal charges for defying Congress. Trump`s former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows appears to be following in his footsteps, refusing to comply with a subpoena from the select committee. And, like Bannon, he neglected to even show up for his scheduled deposition last Friday.

And now Congressman Adam Schiff is making it clear that Meadows is next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): I`m confident we will move very quickly with respect to Mr. Meadows also. But we want to make sure that we have the strongest possible case to present to the Justice Department and for the Justice Department to present to a grand jury.

When, ultimately, witnesses decide, as Meadows has, that they`re not even going to bother showing up, that they have that much contempt for the law, then it pretty much forces our hand.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

REID: Now, the almost two dozen other Trump allies under scrutiny by the committee have a choice to make. They can either comply with their subpoenas or risk the same fate as Mr. I Made Breitbart the Home of White Nationalism, AKA, the alt-right.

This comes as outgoing Republican Congressman Anthony Gonzalez sounds the alarm that January 6 was just a dry run for an actual coup in 2024.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ANTHONY GONZALEZ (R-OH): It looks to me -- and I think any objective observer would come to this conclusion -- that he has evaluated what went wrong on January 6. Why is it that he wasn`t able to steal the election? Who stood in his way?

Every single American institution is just run by people. And you need the right people to make the right decision in the most difficult times. He`s going systematically through the country and trying to remove those people and install people who are going to do exactly what he wants them to do, who believe the big lie, who will go along with anything he says.

Do the institutions hold again? Do they hold with a different set of people in place? I hope so. But you can`t guarantee it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

REID: The truth is, the big lie is still sweeping the GOP. In fact, more Republicans now believe that nonsense theory that Trump will be magically reinstated by the end of this year; 28 percent of Republicans believe that now, up from just, well, an equally bad 22 percent last month.

It`s a reminder of why the work of the January 6 committee is so important.

Joining me now, Kurt Bardella, adviser to the DNC and DCCC And former spokesman for the House Oversight Committee, and Ben Rhodes, former deputy national security adviser and MSNBC political contributor.

And, Kurt, you worked on that Oversight Committee.

You know, it`s fairly clear, there are already the soft rumblings of threats, that, if Kevin McCarthy is the next speaker, they will disband this committee. I think anyone should understand that.

But dream with me, if you will. What would they theoretically do? Wouldn`t -- isn`t it clear that what Republicans would do is suddenly believe in subpoenas and start making up things to investigate about Democrats should they get control of the House?

KURT BARDELLA, DCCC ADVISER: Joy, if Republicans regain control of the House, they will continue what they started during the Barack Obama years and issue a tsunami of subpoenas, a tsunami of hearings, an avalanche of depositions, invented accusations, invented controversies, just like they did to Barack Obama`s entire presidency.

Every Cabinet secretary, every relative, every single person that has any association to this current administration will come under target. We have seen that anyone involved in Trump world will not hesitate to abuse their power, use their office, use their leverage, use their authority to do whatever they want to Trump`s enemies, to perceive enemies.

They made enemies list when they were in the administration. They will advance that. They will do everything that they can to target and go after every single person that they perceive to be a threat to them. And, really, what that means, a threat to them are people willing to stand up for democracy, people willing to defend democracy, defend checks and balances, respect our institutions, try to hold up the pillars that keep our society going.

Steve Bannon has said all along that his intention is to act as a Leninist and to tear down and destroy the structures of our institutions and establishment. He announced that in 2017. What we are seeing now happen with Donald Trump, with the Republican Party, with Steve Bannon`s defiance is a deliberate effort to make good on that threat that he made.

And that`s what the Republican Party is all about right now. And that is why it is crucial that we hang on to the majorities in Congress, because, if we lose them, if we give these Republicans an inch, if we give them a return to power, they will never let it go ever again.

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Transcript: The ReidOut, 11/15/21 - MSNBC