up in the skies, a bird, a plane a superhero, is it a ufo? or is it another classified set of materials about ufos because we can tell you house oversight committee will have another classified briefing on ufos next week, axios reporting that part of a push by lawmakers to at least get more information, transparency on all this talk about ufos. as many reminded us, a ufo doesn't mean an alien or artificial intelligent life, foreign life, just means an unidentified object that they want to learn more about, which kind of makes sense for the government. we will see what news comes out of that briefing. "the reidout" with joy reid starts now. ♪♪ tonight on "the reidout" -- >> donald trump and the maga

republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic. there's something dangerous happening in america now. there's an extremist movement that does not share the basic beliefs in our democracy. the maga movement. >> president biden is set to deliver a dire new warning about donald trump as trump, late today, asked the u.s. supreme court to keep him on the ballot in colorado. also tonight, the outrage following the resignation of dr. claudine gay at harvard. result of dei, women, people of color, academia, all of it. plus, yet another biden administration official just announced his resignation over the administration's, quote, blind eye to the atrocities in gaza. that official joins me tonight in his first tv interview. but we begin tonight with the three-year anniversary of the greatest assault on american

democracy in modern times. the january 6th insurrection. we're just about three days away, again, from that that anniversary. and the key architects of that extensive plan, including members of congress, remain at large. for those of you who may have forgotten, roughly a dozen members of congress met with donald trump at the white house after his loss and worked with his allies to implement a plan to overturn the 2020 presidential election. the plan, cooked up by peter navarro and steve bannon, was dubbed, the green bay sweep. part of the plan was pressuring attorney general bill barr to investigate false claims of voter fraud. barr claimed those claims -- called those claims b.s. and idiotic and resigned two weeks after publicly stating that there were no credible claims of fraud. that's where republican congressman scott perry jumps into the fray. it was perry who took it upon himself to find someone within

the administration who was willing to do what barr refused to, namely to lie for the president. and perry had just the man, jeffrey clark, a former assistant u.s. attorney general in the environmental division who was more than willing to disregard his constitutional oath. clark first came to trump's attention after congressman perry recommended him to trump chief of staff mark meadows. and now, like meadows, clark is indicted in georgia for his role in the election scheme. he is also one of the six unnamed coconspirators in jack smith's indictment of donald trump. cassidy hutchinson mentioned perry and his role. she did so in her eyewitness testimony to what happened behind the scenes at the white house in the lead-up to january 6th. and here is what she told a local pennsylvania affiliate about their congressman. >> i think it is also important for central pennsylvanians to

know that scott perry was at the central -- was central to the planning of january 6th and central to the planning of operating the justice department officials to execute a plan that donald trump wanted. and what donald trump wanted was to essentially shred the constitution in any way that he could to stay in power. and scott perry has a lot of information about that. >> in her congressional testimony, hutchinson alleged that congressman perry was one of several lawmakers who sought a pardon from trump before he left office. we also learned from publicly-released text messages seized from perry's phone in connection to jack smith's investigation, that perry not only introduced trump to clark, but he also held meetings with people like rudy giuliani, sidney powell, jenna ellis and others. after failing to get clark installed at the doj, perry began implementing a second part of the plan, which centered on members of congress delaying the vote on january 6th by objecting

to the certification. part of that was helping facilitate the delivery of a false slate of electors to vice president mike pence. and here is what's ironic, perry was re-elected the same day donald trump lost. oddly enough, he never claimed his election was rigged, only trump's. meaning, he expected people to believe that only the top line on the ballot was rigged, but no other race listed below it on the same form? and perry's 100% faith in his election continues. he is running again to represent pennsylvania's 10th congressional district. but that's becoming a bit more complicated. yesterday a former democratic congressional candidate in the district filed a lawsuit calling for perry to be removed from the 2024 ballot due to the 14th amendment's insurrection clause, citing his active role in trying to undermine the 2020 results. frankly it's pretty stunning that it has taken this long ginn the long trail of publicly available evidence of perry's

role in actively undermining the election. but he's hardly alone. in this day and age, in the republican party, accountability and the constitution come second to trump, which explains why every single member of the house republican leadership has endorsed the coup president. a man who was ordered by the colorado supreme court and maine's top election official to be removed from the ballot because of his role in overturning the election and inciting the january 6th insurrection. late today the former president asked the supreme court to reverse colorado's decision, using some stunning legal arguments about what constitutes insurrection and the role of the presidency. which brings us to joe biden, the current president. who is just as unpopular as a man who incited an insurrection. biden and vice president harris will launch their re-election campaign in earnest later this week. biden will hold his first real campaign event on january 6th, near valley forge, pennsylvania, george washington and the

continental army spent a bleak army 250 years ago. there he will lay out how modern day america can face its own bleak winter. message is clear and simple, we are running a campaign like the fate of our democracy depends on it because it does. joins me now editor and chief in law fair and senior fellow at the brookings institution and cornell belcher, democratic pollster and strategist and msnbc political analyst. thank you both for being here. ben, thank you for being here in person. donald trump, his attempts to stay in power depend on a reading of the 14th amendment that excludes only one officer from the oath that he took and accountability to it, that would be the president of the united states. does that make sense to you? >> so it certainly doesn't make logical sense. there is a nontrivial legal argument that it's what the constitution says. i think it's not the better legal argument on that point. but there is an argument to be

made. as a logical matter, it makes no sense at all. >> right. >> the drafters of the 14th amendment were concerned to keep confederate actors, soldiers and politicians out of power in the new regime. and it would have been very odd for them to exclude jefferson davis. >> right. >> from that or to say that, say robert e. lee or some confederate private could run for president of the united states. that would be a very odd thing for them to do. >> yeah. >> now, ironically because of this quirk about the presidency in relation to this office, scott perry actually -- it's more clear that somebody, like if scott perry par -- depending on how broadly you construe the insurrection, it's more clear

that this covers scott perry than it is that it covers donald trump. >> it is clear. it is ironically that he would think that elections are meaningful when he wants to run and he wants to run again. let me stay with you for one moment. trump appeal to the supreme court. here is what he is saying. first, the president is not an officer of the united states. he took a different oath than the one set forth in section 3 and the presidency is not an office under the united states, therefore president trump falls outside the scope of section 3, second, the colorado supreme court ered in how it described president trump's role in the events of january 6th, 2021. it was not insurrection and trmp in no way engaged in insurrection. your thoughts on that. >> yeah. so, the first part of that is this technical argument that it kind of doesn't apply to the president. and it's a tortured, complicated legal argument that has some support in certain academic circles. it's not a trivial argument.

the supreme court will take it seriously. now, the second part of it, which is that trump didn't engage in insurrection, actually has two parts. right? one is january 6th an insurrection within the meaning of the insurrection clause. and the second is did trump engage in it? right? he didn't storm the capitol himself. he's not -- i think the argument that donald trump ironically the sillier of the arguments is actually the better one. >> yeah. >> so the argument that this -- there's a technical mismatch between the officer language, the office language, and the nature of the presidency is for obscure legal reasons actually a better argument than the argument that just is quite ridiculous actually that january 6th is not an insurrection or that president trump didn't meaningfully engage in it. >> right. >> so i think look for that weird tortured argument to the extent the supreme court wants to evade this problem and get rid of the colorado supreme court, look for that weird

tortured argument about officer actually to have more legs. it's less embarrassing -- >> if that's what they do. there's also the fun part about section 3 saying or supported insurrection. and there have been a bunch of people convicted from the insurrection act and they have all cited donald trump as the person they were doing it for. that makes it a little more difficult for him as well. cornell, to you, not to argue the legal part of it, but donald trump is also saying, his people, are saying that the reason he shouldn't be tried is that it would pose a threat to other presidents. this is what they said, 234 year untradition of not prosecuting president provides powerful evidence of it. likelihood of mushrooming politically motivated prosecutions in future cycles of recrimination are far more -- >> nixon was going to be prosecuted if he hadn't resigned. here is donald trump. he's saying you can't prosecute me because then it will mean that future presidents will be

procuted. roll it. donald trump in july. >> when i get back in office, i will appoint a real special prosecutor to investigate every detail of the biden crime family of corruption out of respect for the office of president i would never be talking this way. but once they do what they did to me and to you. >> he's promising to do what he is saying in his legal argument is the threat of prosecuting. >> yeah. well, i mean, joy, if you step back and look at this as the bigger picture, you know, again, thank you for not -- for allowing me to weigh in on the legal stuff. but let me weigh in on the political stuff. look, you know, joy, to a great extent this election and the future of our country is going to depend on people who look like you and women voters all

across this country. and think about this, think about the sort of trump dominating the conversation and his grievance dominating the conversation and it's all focussed on trump and what's best for trump. and if you're that mom, sitting at the table in the suburbs of philadelphia, or the suburbs of atlanta, right, or the suburbs of michigan, who are largely going to decide how this country moves forward, and you're thinking, how does this help me pay health insurance? you know, who is worried about her daughter and her daughter's ability to dictate what happens to her body, who is worried about quite frankly, you know, rising prices and safety issues. how is this conversation that's completely dominant on trump and his grievances how do they connect and speak to that mom who is going to determine the direction of this country.

i think -- from a political standpoint, it boggles my mind. i understand how it feeds their base, but joy, i would tell you this, i think they're going to have a hard time taking back women voters and particularly, you know, women voters in the suburbs who have swung back and forth over the last decade. they'll have a hard -- you have seen the suburbs move more democrat. and this is why, because it's the politics of grievance. it does not at all speak to the concerns of those women voters out there who are going to determine the direction of this country. >> very quickly, we don't have much time, but let me ask you each the same question. so then is your advice that it is wise for biden to focus on regular politics, what you just described as the kitchen table politics, versus making a strong argument on democracy? which is the stronger argument? >> no, because everything else falls under democracy. you cannot have lower health care premiums, you cannot have safer streets if democracy fails. particularly, joy, if you are a

black woman, the ideal that democracy will fail and this rights you've been struggling to fight for are going to go away, no. >> yeah, no, same thing to you, ben. >> yeah. so i would just say, you got to do both. eventually if you say the word democracy too many times, people's eyes will glaze over. >> right. >> if you don't say it at all, if you don't remind people what the stakes are this year, that this is the year that we go into the year as a democracy and it's a real question whether we come out as a democracy. >> for sure. >> then you have not done your job as a candidate to remind people that, you know, what this election is really about. so i would say do both. >> all right. well, we will see if joe biden takes both of your advice. benjamin, cornell, thank you both very much. up next on "the reidout," from conservative attacks on women's reproductive rights, to the coordinated offensive aimed at driving harvard's claudien gay out of academia. cancel the 20th century and all

of its progress from anyone and everyone who is not a straight white christian man after this when the "the reidout" continues. n man after this when the "the reidout" continues. upt your life for weeks. a pain so intense, you could miss out on family time. the virus that causes shingles is likely already inside of you. if you're 50 years or older, ask your doctor or pharmacist about shingles.

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campus anti-semitism as republicans claimed, but rather to put on display for the maga base the right's hatred of diversity, equity and inclusion. they really hate diversity. which, of course, is the product of the 20th century they hate so much. so, everything they do is about removing diversity. the mere presence of anyone who isn't white or male from spaces they think are reserved for white men drives them nuts. and in the wake of that hearing, the right wing anti-dei brigade got part of what they wanted. days later university of pennsylvania president elizabeth mcgill announced she was stepping down. but the two others claudine gay and m.i.t. president sally cornblue remained. claudine gay, the only black woman on the target list, became the focal point of a legion of mediocre men whose mission is to eradicate diverse people from education, from kindergarten

through ph.d.. these men accused gay of plagiarism, but first some facts are in order. harvard university itself never accused claudine gay who got her ph.d. there of plagiarism. nor did theyonclude that any issues with her academic citations, evenmounted to misconduct. as the a.p. correctly notes, the outrage came not from her academic peers but rather from her political foes led by conservatives who put her career under intense scrutiny. and the accusations of plagiarism basically came from one right wing anti-dei activist in particular who faithful readers will remember from this show as the architect of the right's war on critical race theory. good old christopher rufo, a harvard wanna be and fake intellectual who perfected a grift of ratcheting up anger about things that make middle weight white dudes like himself,

tucker carlson and himself very, very angry, like not being president of harvard or getting into harvard as a student both of which claudine gay has done and christopher rufo has not. he didn't just wage a war against claudine gay, he telegraphed every step of what he was really trying to destroy and how he was going to do it. amonth before the sham congressional hearing he tweeted about how to fix academia and said, quote, abolish dei bureaucracies and punish universities that discriminate on the basis of race. he later claimed that claudine, gay, quite yetly built a diversity empire overseeing a racist admissions program, a sprawling dei bureaucracy and an effort to dename buildings and reduce the visual presence of white men on campus. the next day he straight up admitted that he launched the story of plagiarism accusations in order to topple her.

and ultimately his grifty crusade was succesul. claudine gay resigned saying it was in the best interest of harvard not to focus on any individual. meanwhile, rufo is gloating about his transparent victory. he told politico, i've run the same play book on critical race theory, on gender ideology, on dei bureaucracy, this is a universal strategy that can be applied by the right to most issues. and now everyone on the right is high-fiving each other other the successful execution of his plan. which far from being brilliant or clever, merry requires the other side and, yes, that includes the media, to be hypersensitive easy marks. and it is important to remember that claudine gay's resignation is not an individual story. the attack on her is a symbol of a greater war against the progress of the 20th century, which these men are determined to repeal. it's not just undoing black

educational and business progress and banning accurate black history and the boogieman critical race theory. they want to force women and people of color back into their place, too. back to the kitchen and the birthing bed, presumably, serving and obeying, just like the bad old days that were only od for people like christopher. case in point,exas attorney general ken paxton's victory in court tuesday. the far right fifth circuit federal court of appeals has ruled that texas can ban life-saving emergency abortions and let women die, despite federal guidance requiring hospitals to provide stabilizing care. paxton has sued the biden administration over the guidance. there's also the case of britney watts, a black woman in ohio, who miscarried a non-viable pregnancy, a grand jury is now considering whether to indictment her under a weaponized interpretation of a state law that prohibits abuse

of a corpse. whether you're a black woman in academia or pregnant white woman in texas, the message to you is clear, know your place. and it's not just right wing men or even older people, thanks to the tucker carlson effect, it's conservative young folks, too. >> they're being fed a lie that that is the idea of freedom, that if you choose to have a life married to a man, you choose to stay home and have children, that you are being oppressed, when really we were created to do so. >> feminism is this direct punch against masculinity and the male figure in society. >> once they got that equality, they stopped wanting to be equal to men and wanted to start being superior to men. >> the lord created for two different roles. therefore i mean that meant are went to have that role which they lead us and not just in our household and in our faiths and in our country. >> uh-huh. well, if that's the case, dear,

you might be surprised to learn that the third highest-ranking republican in the house of representatives is, in fact, a woman. but at least that woman is doing her bit to help out her brethren on the anti-dei brigade. congress woman elise stefanik, harvard graduate, claiming credit for claudine gay's exit. late today, dr. gay published an op ed "the new york times" responding to all of this. after the break, we will tell you what she had to say about the success of the anti-dei bullying campaign. to duckduckgo on all your devie

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tonight harvard university's former president is speaking out about the right wing crusade that led to her resignation. in a new op ed "the new york times" claudine gay writes what happened at harvard is bigger than her. quote, the campaign against me was about more than one university a one leader. this was merely a single skirmish in a broader war to unravel pillars of faith. it's not lost on me that i make an idea canvas for projecting every anxiety about the demographic changes unfolding on american campuses. a black woman selected to lead a storied institution. joining me is professor of history, race and public policy

and director of the institutional anti-racism and accountability project at the harvard kennedy school. and erin haines, editor at large at the 19th and msnbc political contributor. thank you both for being here. it is good to see you. it's been a long time. i appreciate you very accepting our invitation. what has been the reaction on the campus to dr. gay's resignation? >> well, unfortunately campus is still closed, but from what i've read in the harvard crimson, there are mixed responses. there are a number of students, some of whom are jewish identified celebrating this resignation, achieving what they and their supporters have been calling for. and there are a number of faculty in and around boston who identify as black people and black women who see this as an outrage, as do i. >> let me go to you, erin, because you wrote a really great piece about this for the 19th.

you talk about the fact, first of all, she is now the shortest tenured president in harvard, only served for six months. christopher rufo say she built a dei monstrosity and conspiracy, she did that in six months. she must be pretty amazing. he also described pushing her out as getting a scalp. what do you make of this campaign which definitely felt like it was bigger than her but also about her and her identity? >> well, i mean there is nothing else to make of it, joy, except what dr. gay herself said. black women are the ideal canvas for exactly these kinds of attacks, which i wrote in my column and thank you so much for mentioning it, as an affirmative reaction to the dei efforts led largely by black women and that are being opposed by white, mostly white, mostly male gate keepers who, you know, want to hold on to control of power over ideas in this untry. >> and khalil, let's look at

just the demographics right now at harvard unersity, very old school, might be the oldest university in the country. is now 40.8% it 29.9% asian american despite m blum claiming asiaamicans are being discriminated against places like harvar 15.3% african-american, which is not far from the demographics of black folks in this country, 11.3% latino. 2.2% native american, 0.5% native hawaiian. it feels like that is what folks are really, really mad about. a guy named bill ackman who claims that the harvard president was hed because of dei, writing on twitter, going off on twitter, celebrating her exit. it is also not good for those awarded the office of president who find themselves in a role they likely would not have obtained were it not for a fat finger on the scale. your thoughts. >> well, listen, ackman has been crystal clear as have been the republican congressional

leaders, who staged the witch hunt that took place on december 5th. and their real target is dei, is equity, is the attempt in this country finally to reckon with a history that harvard itself has been a marked maker in producing scientific racism, who belongs on college campuses. that is not meant to be a smear of my university. that is the finding of a harvard legacy of slavery report that it released two years ago. so, this was finally a moment in harvard's nearly 400-year history to come to terms with its past and to take a leadership position in the future in terms of righting the balance of history and making good on the promise of equal opportunity for everyone. that's where we were headed. and ackman released in a statement today that it wasn't anti-semitism afterall that he was most concerned about. what he was most concerned about was he said dei, that it was at

root the problem of positioning oppressors and oppressed. and apparently people like me, who teach a class called race and racism and the making of the u.s. a global power, a class cited by virginia fox when she opened this december 5th testimony or hearing as a prime example of institutional anti-semitism is the real target of this witch hunt. and they are not going to stop. >> exactly. and you know, erin, in her piece, in her "new york times" op ed, claudine gay, dr. gay points out that it is not lost on her, her scholarship, so derided, really is about the advancement of minority folks, significance of minority office holding in american politics. that's actually what her scholarship is about. and it seems to me that what's being sort of displayed here is an open contempt for black progress, for female progress, for women's liberation, for women being able to control their own bodies, another

slavery-rooted institution in the united states. they want back the pre-20th century. >> and contempt for black excellence while we're at it, joy. i mean the bottom line is these are people who do not think that black people and especially black women, could have possibly earned any of the accomplishments that they have gotten without affirmative action and do not deserve to be in the places and spaces that they are pioneering institutions across the country. dr. gay was correct that this is not about -- this is not about anti-semitism or affirmative action and that this is just the beginning of this campaign for folks who are looking to dismantle dei on the other side of a racial reckoning, you know, that they absolutely are responding to with a parallel reckoning of their own. >> and you know, just to make it clear that it is a planned attack, this is, you know, in addition to using the word scalped, ben collins tweeted about rufo.

if you're a mainstream outlet and you're being gamed this easily by a guy who is laying out his play book days or months in advance, maybe the problem isn't the right wing grifters. maybe the problem is you. among the fellow grifters, mr. ackman is now targeting sally cornblue at m.i.t. this is not going to stop it seems to me until there are no more women, no more people of color, no more people that these men view as unacceptable because they are too modern in their demographics to be in the leadership in any way in academia. do you agree? >> i think that's part of it. but i do want to throw a little bit of caution on this point because i think that ackman and others are smart enough to recruit some women of color to stand in as the evidence that this is not about race but about qualifications. let's not forget that herschel walker was positioned as the senatorial candidate for the republican party. and while that is a laughing matter, it isn't a laughing matter. it shows you how nakedly they

will put black people as ventriloquist for fascist ideas in front of the american public as if we're dumb enough to believe that herschel walker was fit for office, which he was not. so we have to be mindful that some people of color are going to be positioned to stand in in the next round of whatever they have in mind for us. >> yep. i give you clarence thomas. professor khalil mohammed, erin haines, thank you very much. still ahead, another biden administration official resigns in protest of u.s. policies toward israel and gaza. former department of education official tyreke habash who tendered his resignation just a few hours ago joins me next. few hours ago joins me next. hi, i'm janice, and i lost 172 pounds on golo. when i was a teenager i had some severe trauma

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the israel-hamas war is setting president biden at odds with american voters, his own supporters and members of his own administration. late today, tariq habash, first generation palestinian american and biden administration political appointee at the department of education resigned over biden's gaza strategy. in his resignation letter to education secretary miguel cardona, habash wrote, quote, the actions of biden/harris administration put million of innocent lives in danger most immediately for the 2.3 million palestinian civilians living in

gaza remain under continuous assault and ethnic cleansing by the israeli government. therefore, i must resign. i cannot stay silent as this administration turns a blind eye to the atrocities committed against innocent palestinian lives in what leading human rights experts have called a genocidal campaign by the israeli government. and joining me now for his first television interview since resigning late tuesday -- late today, is tariq habash, now a former department of education special assistant. thank you for being here. >> thank you so much for having me. >> so you started out on the biden campaign as an idealist. >> yeah. >> what was the final straw in saying i can't stay here anymore? >> you know, joy, i worked on the administration's agenda for the last three years. i volunteered on the campaign helping shape the education policy agenda and we have done a lot of really great work.

unfortunately, all that great work has been completely overshadowed because of the president's complete unwillingness to demand an immediate and permanent cease fire. and it is creating immense danger for millions of palestinians in gaza but also for americans here at home. >> yeah. you cited in your letter some of the sort of restatements of false information that have dehumanized palestinians. that would include president biden who did repeat early on, you know, some things that turned out not to check out, that accused palestinians of, accused hamas of. but also just saying he didn't believe the numbers of palestinian dead, which the u.n. believes. how did that feel just as a palestinian-american to hear the president say i don't believe it? >> i mean, it's heart breaking. it hurts. it is a dehumanizing thing to hear from the president of the united states, someone who you worked so hard to campaign for and elect and support his

policies that, you know, your life is not valuable. your identity means less than other people's identities, and it's okay that tens of thousands of people who look like you and who have similar backgrounds and heritage are dying and being massacred. and that hurts. >> what was the reaction? what reaction did you get from secretary cardona when you handed him this letter? >> secretary was extremely understanding. he was very supportive. you know, i think he always talks about putting faith and family first before work. and you know, he was extremely empathetic. he cares about me. and i appreciate that. i've gotten that type of support from across the administration. from colleagues at the department of education, but also colleagues in other areas of government who have been wanting to speak out and who have been interested in dissenting. >> do you get the sense that there are a lot of other people in the biden campaign and in the administration who feel the way you do that are maybe not saying

anything? >> yeah, yeah, absolutely. i think a lot of people are saying something. i think that we've seen hundreds of state department officials sign on to numerous dissent cables that were leaked. we have seen usaid officials, we have seen white house staff, we have seen interns, we have seen hundreds of officials across the administration from dozens of agencies. this is a pretty commonly held position by a lot of the biggest supporters of the president. and the majority of american voters support a cease fire, but the president's unwillingness to move on this policy is deafening and it hurts. >> how do you square that? biden really is the empathy guide. empathy is his super power, the thing he is known for more than almost anything else. how do you square for yourself and explain why he doesn't seem to be able to project or have that empathy when it comes to the palestinian people? why do you think that? >> i don't know the answer to that to be honest with you.

i agree with you that the president has always been the empathetic person, the person you can look up to and relate to and share emotions with, but when it comes to palestinians, it seems like, you know, we don't deserve the same type of empathy and humanization that other people do. and i think that's in part due to decades of dehumanizations of palestinians by our government officials and media. it's treejsly problematic. undermines humanity for millions of people and allows for the undermining of humanity by people -- >> you know, you're the only palestinian american in the department of education, but you also worked on the campaign. this is not the most important thing, electoral politics, but it kind of is, because our democracy is at stake. -- would you vote for joe biden? >> i think that's up to him. i did volunteered to support the campaign. i supported the president for the last three years, and every

single thing i do in my professional life. and the reality is, the president is in power. he's the one whose name is on the ballot, and it's his policies. if he wants to earn my vote in the vote of millions of americans who support peace and an end to violence, that's up to him. >> we are. i think anyone, no matter how you feel about this issue, must respect somebody who's willing to take a stand. and taking a stand and walking away from your job is a big thing. tariq habash, thanks so much for being here. much respect, thank you. coming up, the florida surgeon general calls for a halt to covid vaccines while hospitals across the gym -- mask mandates amid a spike of new covid cases. -- latest threats to our health. back in a sack. threats to our health back in a sack back in a sack too hard to deal with in the beginning, but making a plan with my doctor to add precision was easy. preservision areds2 contains the exact nei recommended, clinically proven nutrient formula to help reduce the risk of moderate to advanced

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everybody seems to be slightly? it's not just anecdotal. respiratory illnesses and hospitalizations have been steadily rising over the past few weeks. what is going on? where here to tell us his friend of the show dr. -- critical care pulmonologist, an msnbc medical contributor. doctor gupta, i'm so glad you're available to talked about this today. why does everybody seem to be sick? >> well, joy, this is the first time, good evening, happy new year, this is the first time that really, in the wake of the peak of the pandemic, that we're dealing with free threats at once. this is compounding threats of

covid, flu, and rsv, all circulating now at higher levels, right after everyone's traveled at 30,000 feet, or in any vehicle. really, this week after the holidays as when you're gonna see a lot of that transmission, and that's why we're expecting things to really peak this month. critical for people, especially if you're medically higher risk, watching this right now, or have family that's high-risk, if they're sick, you get a diagnosis. don't just assume things are gonna go away by themselves. >> right. because a lot of people a sniffling, sneezing, coughing, they're having what seems like flu symptoms. even me, i was sniffing, took a covid test, not covid, not covid, it's always not covid. is it something else? right now, the covid vaccination rates, people getting their boosters, are very low. only 19% of 18 plus or getting the covid updates. influences shot, 44%. rsv, shot 17%. is it one of these three things people are mostly sick with? >> likely. there's a few other more

esoteric viruses we don't often talk about. it could be something else, but it's likely one of those three. i'm glad you raised this, because this is a question that we often get. well, gosh, what should i do? my covid at home test is negative, and while clear? should i just take some over the counter medication? the answer is no, especially if you're medically higher risk. a lot of people, joy, don't have immediate access to health care because of the country that we live in and the difficulties and health care access. so go to test to treat dot o r g, government funded program, free telehealth services, and free treatment -- if you're positive. for moms out there that are expecting, or if you are, again, over 60, have a conversation with the medical provider about new rsv preventative's. they can spare you a hospital visit, even for a young infant or for yourself, again, if you're older than 60. we're in a different era of threats, but also a different era of solutions. >> during covid, one of the nightmares was peoples extreme doubt about the vaccines, and

some people refusing to take them at all. including one doctor who is the surgeon general of the state of florida. he's now calling for all mrna vaccines to be banned. wow. your thoughts on that? >> well, you know, this is a gentleman here that i would ask everybody that's watching, even more broadly, what do you want somebody like this doctor and everything he said -- would you trust him with their medical care or the care of your loved one? i would assume the answer, to many, is probably no. he says a lot of these things, but would you ultimately trust him with direct clinical care? the answer probably is no, because a lot of what he says is not grounded in fact. he believes an hydrolase chloroquine -- he believes an ivermectin. now he's -- there's no truth to what he's saying. he's putting, frankly, a large population of at risk individuals in florida at risk. ignore it. what we really need to focus on here is a clear eyed approach to the next four weeks.

we're seeing places like the bay area -- southeast united states, places like florida, icu hospitals -- that's why we're talking about it. this is not just testing. this is what we're seeing in hospitals. >> what should people do? not people like him, but is there something we can do to sort of show ourselves up? because it feels like either there's a new covid strain out there, there's so many things out there, what should we be doing to be healthy? >> you, know it's a preventative's or boosters, still, it's not too late. masking at 30,000 feet, and again, test to treat dot o r g if you don't have health care. free access to health services, free access to treatment. >> so it's great to have you on. our doctor, gupta, thank you -- all in with chris hayes starts right now. with chris hayes starts tonight on all in. >> it should be the entire nation who determines who they want for president, whether they're guilty of insurrection or not.