to stand and honest and competent president but a very distant figure in 1981 he lost the election to be trial at the conclusion of his resignation address he demonstrated he had never lost his sense of theater and drama as he walked away from the presidency. and. its national butler al jazeera peris. this is al jazeera and these are the top stories the u.k. government has approved the pfizer and biotech covered 19 vaccine to be rolled out by mr balls johnson praised scientists for their work but said people still need to be cautious it will inevitably take some months before the most vulnerable are protected long cold months so it's all the more vital that as we celebrate this

scientific achievement we're not carried away with over optimism or fall into the naive belief that the struggle is over it's not we've got to stick to our winter plan u.s. officials say they hope to have around 40 percent of adults immunized by the end of february vaccines developed by pfizer and her expected to be approved next week that's as the u.s. hit a new daily record of more than 100000 people being admitted to hospital health secretary alexei's are says millions of vulnerable people could be vaccinated by the end of the year. u.s. president donald trump has released a 46 minute speech on social media outlining why he believes the election was stolen from him he continued to lead forward took place during the election despite the failure of several legal challenges. the afghan government and taliban negotiators have agreed on a framework for talks after weeks of stalemate negotiations in doha nato secretary

general has welcomed this as a positive 1st step the united nations has signed a deal with ethiopia's government to get unrestricted humanitarian access to the tikrit region the agreement will allow aid workers to access federally controlled areas more than a 1000000 people are thought to have been displaced by fighting which began nearly a month ago. u.s. media is reporting that saudi arabia is close to reopening its space and land borders to qatar qatar has been under land sea and air blockade by saudi arabia bahrain the u.a.e. and egypt since june 2017 senior adviser to president george bush that was in qatar on wednesday and is reported to have also visited saudi arabia. those are the headlines don't go away though the news continues on al-jazeera right after the bottom line which is coming up next.

hi i'm steve clemons and i have a question does morality matter anymore did it matter ever in american politics let's get to the bottom line. since election day a few weeks ago many american politicians have been talking about the need for the nation to heal but the rift between people inside america is really deep and there's frustration on both sides of that divide those who voted for donald trump and everything he stands for are wondering who's going to stand up for them now and millions of voters on the democratic side feel their hopes and aspirations could be dashed as well trump once told writer bob woodward that he wanted to bring out the reagan people who are americans doomed to be motivated and divided by fear and anger and is there a way to really heal the nation today we speak with one of the most unique voices

in american public life reverend william barber the 2nd is the co-chair of the poor people's campaign a national call for moral 'd revival a social justice movement that mobilizes the poor to be agents of social change reverend barber it's great to be with you today what i'm hoping to get at in that important work that you are doing is the question of what that common ground could be as you think about healing the breach and addressing at the same time many of the core problems of the nation what does that agenda look like. well steve 1st of all thank you so much and what is so interesting about that question that you just raised is that we actually have answered this asses that of ancient as our bible. asses that are as old as our constitution.

deepest religious values but the problem is one of the 1st problem is we began all of our conversations i think we have to miss ologist that constantly keep us in division maybe even 3 in light of what you just quoted from chop one is the mis ology that there is some grand place behind us behind us where everybody was unified it is interesting to me that the cost to ship began with a confession that the reason we are writing the constitution is to move towards a more perfect union which is an admittance that we were not perfect behind us it cause us to look forward and to look back what only to do as one of our great him says to me and every flaws. but instead sometimes in politics we start 1st talking about how to get back to these glorious days of american exceptionalism and i think

that is that. the 2nd mythology that i think is this notion of language of left versus right and that we say left right and centrist. often wonder where does that language come from the i know historically it comes from the french revolution those on the left or guessed the monarch in those on the right were for the monarchy i guess those in the center were for a mixture but we're not in the french revolution and to automatically try to put people in these false categories left and right and center actually i think creates division but also many times doesn't allow us to say some things are not left versus right there right versus wrong and if we look at out deep in this moral and constitutional foundations we have to be able to say some things are wrong are unconstitutional are morally. unacceptable and economically insane and

a constitutionally out of line we have to be able to do that otherwise we end up giving equal more status the 3rd thing and thing in the midst 'd of a trump ism that we have to deal with is the danger of putting all of the problems was saying that on him he is a big cause but he had a lot of enablers and just like you said in your opening when he said he wanted to bring out the rage he's not even quoting himself he's quoting pat buchanan 'd and kevin phillips and the people who or richard nixon in the 1960 to develop a strategy called positive polarization that is that has been that was designed to split the country for political power and it's been used by republicans from reagan to to to to nixon to. even george bush has used it and many of the politicians in the south so we have to these have some honest

conversation 1st if we're going to have serious healing there's a script in the bible that says only the truth will set you free and we've got some truth telling that must be done in them. so that we could at least us on this conversation about what healing these to take place like you president elect biden is not talking about left and right he's not talking about division he's talking about this is the time to come together but i think you and i both know there are a lot of americans that are not hearing those words in the same way that well you're right he says he's right when he says it's time to heal and it's admirable that he would raise that in that way. i would caution a little bit i know he says that people ought not to him if they are americans. but the awesome people who are the adversaries of poor and low wealth people and black people and moving forward in this country if they had not ever says their policy is

a certain adversarial to justice 'd and to what we are called to be. by our deepest constitutional that is and if their policy is adversarial than the question is are they adversarial or just a pos knock it i understand what he's saying in the sense that you don't just have to go around saying that evolution and nobody can work with and they're beyond change even though we have to be realistic there are some people that are totally committed we know what happened for instance when obama ran for office and while there were people totally committed we've watch what has happened in this senate over just not this truck but with the senate that totally committed to an in an adversarial way to being fat when it comes to supreme court justices we look at a mitch mcconnell he has refused to fix the voting rights act for over 7 years that's an ad political adversarial position he's refused to even let living wages

come to the floor even though we have 62000000 americans working for less than a living wage and i would say and as i have talked to people from appalachia to alabama they see that as an adversarial position and they see it as a problem that the people are in fact not acting like quote unquote americans when it comes to the least of these and as dr king once said they give 'd socialism 'd to the wealthy and then give rugged individualists to the poor and the least of these and we have to recognize that politics is about fighting for things it is about recognizing that i don't believe this disown cost center as you point out but also say that to the. but the president because there are some trying to say what you need to be essential what is a senate how do you pick it people what is the center of a status in just if you get half the thing what is dissent providing for the common

defense you give half the people common defense or promoting the general welfare so you get half the people the promotion the general welfare in a sense that's what we have now and it leans more toward the greedy take francis to 1st cares act 84 percent of that money went to corporations and bank it did not go to the people and the essential workers and those who voted and forced that are adversarial now i wouldn't call them evil and i would say they're beyond transformation i'm a preacher i wouldn't say that they that there is a possibility but right now we know that they have in tranche. added to see to war those who are being hurt the most before cove after coke so what i would say to president elect is you promised some things when you ran and you promised to fight for some people and we have seen what. evil public policy can do over the

last 4 years and how committed some people like trumpet mcconnell are they will do whatever they can with power people need to see what good people would do with power what good policy looks like you said that you want to $15.00 an hour if you do that that will heal the 'd nation because there's 'd no scaling of the soul of the nation that doesn't heal the body of the nation you said you would expand health care we need to fight for that the 1st 50100 days 1st 50 you said that you would make sure essential workers had the sick leave an unemployment and and the rent forgiveness and mortgage forgive that they must see a president now that will fight for that you said you would deal with systemic racism in terms of voting rights and police reform that needs to have. when in the 1st $5200.00 days people need to see now that there will be a true fighting for all americans if you we are our people you said immigration for reform was necessary we would stop caging and losing children we would properly

address native americans and make sure that they have what has been promised to them as the original 'd people you must do better and i think the president last night must go into the places where people have been sown lied to that they think a democratic president and vice president are gets to go to the south go to appalachia let them know that the current policies we have now are costing us a trillion dollars out of lost because of child poverty $2.00 trillion dollars in lost wages because of wage gap did ter flip it over and showed him if we expand health care how many people will be helped black brown indigenous white how many people will be lifted if we pass living wages of every race creed color and just geography it let the american people know what the cost of inequality is as joseph stiglitz says what is it costing us and if people steal their body the body of the

nation heal then the soul of the nation will be heal but it can't just be rhetoric and it can't just be some. spiritual kind of coming together that does not have a fleshy reality that does not have an embodied image be it stab this man of justice. powerful my question is a lot of americans who voted for joe biden were voting against donald trump and they were voting for what they saw as a return to normal and i know that normality is not something you think we can go back to but i'd like to hear for those people who do have that as their motivator in this moment. what cuts you think have to be made what divisions have to be made to wake those folks up thought being jesus is pretty clear. on the human condition and jesus was saying of his own ministry you know oftentimes people present jesus

as just being a nice guy who just love people and i know he was killed because he threatened the empire because his love and the kind of love connected to justice that lifted the poor the least of these all of those that have been rejected by roman polish truck to those of cicero called the tricks of the city. jesus wasn't around them jesus said to caesar's you're not jesus said to the empire it is wrong 'd to have also a few people with wealth and the rest living in desperation what jesus called the pope cos and greek those who've been made poor economic exploitation he said the nations would be judged by the least of these and that created division that's what jesus meant is that that the gospel of the truth. creates division and what he meant by that is the has to be a division from jews and so when people say for instance in america that we don't

have the resources but when code began we saw 2 and 3 trillion dollars immediately given to corporations while people who are on the front lines still have not got what they need desert division we can accept that there has to be a cutting asunder of that and exposing it for what it is every senator and congress person they get free health care they get the best health care we have to call that out how can you get the best free health care what a public option paid for by the people that's what i mean by public option and then you don't want joe constituents is to have the same thing truth and lies cannot exist together ok and be ok and that's what jesus was saying that that times that has to be a division and the true for the matter is we just can't do an election what is an election about it is a division of the asians one people group present step in for the country another group presents definition and the people decide that i do think

a lot of people voted against but that's not a small thing that is major support reject trump ism and to reject all of it is cut necked to the extremism and the division that has that gone on because copyright created himself he is an american and he was created out of the american reality at least part of it and part of that america. reality has been an american reality it is always trying to go back to division and trying to live and that the age of them believing that that is the way to have power and is as i said he spoke to an audience not that he created but it had been created for some 50 years before he ever ran for office so so division is a part of our reality even in the health we used and when i was in the country my grandmother used to have something called lancing a boil it spitting a bore so the plots could come out in order for healing to take place and in the

real sense we have to do that because in addition to the people that voted against which is huge we now know from early returns to 55 percent of people making less than $60000.00 a year poor low wealth people voted against trump. it last time brought poor low well people voted against draw the volume what this have because some 34000000 poor lower people didn't vote a 6000000 more voted this time than voted last time and they didn't vote for normal they didn't vote just to go back to precaution because pre-code it was 140000000 poor low well people in this country 43 percent of the nation 66000000 white people 26000000 black people 61 percent of all 'd black people pre-code it was 87000000 people without health care or under insured pre-code it was 62000000 people working for less than a living wage pre-code it was $4000000.00 people getting up every morning and look

at about unleaded gas and can't let it water creek cove it was $0.54 of every discretionary dollar going to the war economy and less than 16 cents of every discretion ed dollars going toward health care infrastructure and education creek hope it actually. preconditioned us. in some ways to be more be harmed by the pandemic most most public health officials will tell you that in addition to the turbulent almost criminal like in every spots to the pandemic of the top administration in addition to that it was the fishes of poverty and systemic racism that has given the opening for this pandemic to be even worse than it could have been the majority of the people that are dying seem that close here are poor and low wealth people the majority the people being hurt up poor and the wealth people who did not have the wages prior to cope and the health care

trying to cope and the sickly and unemployed prior to cope so. large numbers of people if they voted against trump they also are not voting to stay where we are i believe and a lot of people are also a lot of a what voting for us not to return to normal because normal was not good nor he was not good on a pain gives us the chance to address what the bad normal was so that hopefully we can move to some new possibilities in this nation why has the republican party been able to have such almost a monopoly on evangelical christians as a long conversation as the. trace any given his active highlight exactly brit we can't these are not new struggles you know we started out in this country saying women couldn't vote white men who didn't have man couldn't vote

black people couldn't vote black people with 3 fifths of a person and a native americans could be exterminated all of those evils people found the ways to mis interpret and engage in theological malpractise to support what they were doing you know out and tell 'd people that economics used to not be . a space branch of thinking unto itself it was a part of moral philosophy but it is hard to have economics at the bottom are lost and then also have slavery and know that morally speaking you cannot. you know support slavery deepest religious values destine do that but we've had this problem in america with twisting the script as a slave master religion the religious and religious people that stood to get what payback cooperations the stand against the new deal and call 'd franklin delano roosevelt a socialist the religion is who undergird the clay and the religion is who right

stood against mccain and when i say stay religious this notice i'm not saying christian and even this time of event well it was the way the media talks about evangelicals like how many bent but i wouldn't be counted because the weight of media often talks about evangelicals they talk about white evangelicalism which is really more of an emphasis on white and he that the tickle isn't so here's what's the problem here is just like the constitution a lot of people will say they have a religious perspective but they haven't read it can't last it up with scripture they can't line of that with the teachings of jesus or the teaching of the prophet they are right when it is a religious perspective but it's their religion it's not the religion of christan it is not the religion of judaism and just like when they say they have a constitutional position but when you read the constitution it doesn't sound anything like what they're talking about so we have a lot of people and i have to say there's a train at logan perpetrating a fraud engaging in modern day heritage and that's why more and more people are

coming out we asked the putting out a 14 point plan 1st 50 days rooted out deepest religious traditions that people's constitutional traditions this week for the bad administrations to say here are things that have to be done if we're going to be constitutional consistent marland defensible and economically saying what would be our red line disappointment for you in the incoming administration that they could get this wrong and not take the enlightened path that you're encouraging and to. well it sounds like steve you have written you have read the post 963 martin and i'm so glad you have because some people think all he said was i have a dream which is the closing of the speech of the march and wasn't it wasn't even the title of the speech the title of the speech was normalcy never again norma say never again that's why i wanted the agenda items of the march on washington was $2.00 an hour living wage which today would be 15 and then of course you know the

voting rights act and then you know dr king said we have to deal with 3 issues system poverty racism and militarism and it wasn't just dr king it was the welfare rights workers the women who pushed him to do the poor people's campaign so what he said dan is just as true now and as what jesus was saying about i have not come to bring peace but a so what's the worst thing that bad administration or in it ministration could do i through the is to set on what the pope called recently in his in cyclical the magic formulas of neo liberalism and trickle down economics which don't work because if they don't lift from the bottom and centrism doesn't do it and moderate i agree with him the old king those that are now talking about now that we've gone we've got to find some centrist 'd way we can't really push for health care for all we may have to slow down on $15.00 an hour for black people it took us from 0 to

400 years to get to $725.00 we started out making up in a slave and that some $25.00 we'd have to wait another 400 years to get 15 at that rate that's just doesn't make sense what we need to do now is take the constitution of danger united states. that says the 1st goal of a government is to establish justice and the 2nd is that a domestic tranquility in other words you can't get to the method tranquil it is without beginning with the establishment of justice and every policy ought to be examined under the lens of the cost to ship does 'd this policy establish justice not is it left not is it right not is it centrist right but does the status justice for those who are hurting the most and they're hurting not because they're immoral but because of the failure of public policy over and over and over and over

again if we don't do this even the fed chairman recently said we're not going to get the economy back that we had we know that wall street doesn't measure backstreet and dirt roads and side roads we cannot exist as a democracy a genuine democracy when nearly 50 percent of the people living in poverty and low well 8000000 have been at it since may i would say the president biden elect donovan and comma rice present that comma has. first thing you do is do exactly what you say do not listen to those who tell you to slow down this is an if the. this is a good reconstruction more people are dying poor low well people are dying if you want to heal the nation heal the body and don't have agenda of doing it for just a few or just enough that some people can be comfortable with it because those that would only be called would

a few the truth is they would be comfortable with things being as they are right and that is unacceptable dr william j. barber the 2nd thank you so much for your candor today and we look forward to seeing what you roll out the 14 point plan and other plans you have to help give counsel to this new administration coming in thanks for joining us today thank you so much and your listeners can go to w w w poor people's campaign or go w w w a breach repair or. so what's the bottom line it's hard not to be moved by the powerful moral appeals of reverend barber the spotlight is on america now and the world is watching well america come out of this divided and nasty place stronger and fairer and more just and restore its place in the world as the so-called beacon on the hill my guest believes the breach can be and should be healed that people in the richest nation in the world shouldn't have to struggle to make ends meet but that has been a long struggle and it's ongoing the election of joe biden and kamel harris is one

opportunity to begin to move on a new course but let's face it american history is also full of opportunities that were never changed and that's the bottom. december on al-jazeera it's 10 years since of revolution in tunisia ignited the arab spring al-jazeera looks back at the uprising and asks what really changed across the middle east the stream is where al jazeera has global audience becomes

a global community a year after the 1st coronavirus case in china will examine the devastation caused by the virus and the efforts made to eliminate covert 90 people in power is back with more investigative documentaries and in-depth stories climate leaders will gather online to press ahead with a new stage of the paris climate agreement and examine the possible global solutions december on al-jazeera. jump into the stream and julian on global community bio diversity is bio security it is that essential for our species to survive be part of the debate i know you heard my d.s. and he can be part of this conversation when no topic is off the table the complaints are not troll and all of these cases goal here is to terrorize and here's the other part of this there's no consequence to this dream on out is there . holding the powerful to account

as we examine the u.s. its role in the world on al-jazeera. i'm committed allendale hall the top. stories on their u.k. has become the 1st country to approve the pfizer bio tech covered 19 vaccine for public use those most at risk including health workers and care home residents will get it from next week prime minister boss johnson praised scientists for their work but said people still need to be cautious it will inevitably take some months before all the most vulnerable are protected long cold months so it's all the more vital that as we celebrate this scientific achievement we're not carried away.