important news. catch it streaming live at 6:00 p.m. eastern at cnn.com/fullcircle or watch it there and on the cnn app at any time on demand. another night of major breaking news, which continues, so let's head over to chris for cuomo "prime time." >> all right. thank you very much, john. i am chris cuomo and welcome to "prime time." we do have breaking news. in 24 hours, just the past 24 hours, this president has vetoed pay for the military, stalled relief for millions of you and issued the most toxic tally of pardons we have ever seen. 26 new trump pardons tonight, gifts to many convicted criminals that you know well who did horrible things. many admitted it, and then he left to go golf in florida. after vetoing pay for the

military, after leaving relief in limbo, millions of americans don't have food for christmas, let alone money for heat or gifts. and he knows it. and he doesn't sign the relief bill. and he doesn't veto it. so he knows nothing will happen. there is a gift in this moment, and i hope you decide to accept it once and for all. it is the gift of ultimate clarity about this outgoing president. democrats, independents, real republicans, you all now know just based on the last 24 hours alone this guy is the worst ever. he is the worst president we have ever seen, period.

he has not only proven to be incompetent, but he is indeed truly inhumane. he has denied the hungry. he has denied our warriors. he has denied a pandemic, and he does not give a damn about anything but lying about it all and faking his own greatness. that is the truth. it is demonstrated by everything we have seen. it must be his legacy. and those who have ignored or empowered him. those who have solicited this brand of his own horrible actions towards others are complicit. he must be remembered as the worst, if only for this alone and if only this is what we had seen it would already make him the worst on top of years of

perfidy of deceit of lies of viciousness of those who need protection consistently. you literally have seen nothing to feel any other way. and, yet, you do. but no more. this has to be a bottom. he must be seen as the worst, and we must run away from him and this type of behavior as fast as we ever collectively as a country before. anybody who wants to continue his kind of just crooked ways must be condemned and early because this cannot be repeated. that would be a shame on us. the headliners he pardoned tonight, those who kept their mouth shut, family by extension, paul manafort, roger stone and charles kushner.

that is the father of his son-in-law jared. law and order, the pro law enforcement president, give me a break. he just undid hard work of law enforcement who made the cases against these crooks. he just undid it. not because there are new reckonings in the case, but because it is all about him saving face. they were indicted by bob mueller. they went to trial. they were convicted by juries of multiple crimes. stone a long-time ally. manafort his former campaign chair. and kushner, i'll give you the thumbnail. he pleaded guilty to tax evasion and retaliating against a federal witness and lying to the fec. he was prosecuted by chris cristie and christy of course

became trump transition chair. what's so bad about that? it's his son-in-law's brother. isn't that the right thing? kushner is no ordinary white collar criminal. this man set up his own brother-in-law with a prostitute and then sent the video to his sist sister. that is the kind of thing that only trump would see a pardon available. he commuted stone's sentence, threatening a witness earlier this year before he was set to surrender. we know why he did it. roger stone is many things, but one of them is royal to those that he sees as on his side. this is no mercy pardon. these are the wars.

you notice what manafort never did, right? never talked about manafort, not a word. republican senator ben sasse put out a statement tonight calling it, all rotten to the core. welcome to the party, brother. welcome to the party. time is over for your delicate future. you have a potential future in this country. you should have been saying that all along. by the way, sasse has been one of the most rational. we now should have clarity. trump is the worst. we have never seen anything like this. this kind of sensitivity to humanity. this disrespect of justice. he is literally no friend to justice, and he's a president. think about it. the pardons have implications, and we will discuss them tonight with some of the best minds in the business. but you have to just keep your

eye on the urgency that this president has just ignored. the man has gone to florida after blowing up the relief bill. he won't sign it. he stalled it. he did veto pay for troops, so at least congress can work on overriding it. but if you're going to do something about the relief bill, you got to do it. walk the walk. why didn't you veto the bill? why didn't you then, if you are not going to veto it, tell mccarthy to meet pelosi on the floor and vote it out? why didn't you make a deal? why did you leave? why did you leave? if you believe in a god, i don't care what your religion is, who does this? by all accounts, you are not working on a deal. every day you golf. every day you delay is another day of paralyzing pain in a

country that you owe, and you know this. and you won't veto so that there could be some kind of action. you won't tell your minions to meet pelosi. what is this about? how can the answer not be you? how can the truth not be you wanted to look the part of the hero just when you are trying to undo democracy even though you torpedoed a compromise that has been months in the making that you ignored while you people helped negotiate. it is the worst thing you could do in this situation. and you made this situation. you ignored this pandemic. you made a bad play. you thought if you ignored it, it would go away and the economy would be okay and you doubled down on dumb and this time you bit all of us in the ass. then you leave almost assuring no action on the relief.

at least you vetoed the national defense authorization act so you could set up a possible override. yeah. it will pit some members of your party against each other anyway. but they need to do that anyway. are you really just retrumplicans? you seem confused. well, you should have clarity, too. this man is the worst. he has been terrible for your party because nobody knows what the hell you are about anymore, and neither do you. why did trump really veto this bill? a lot of people in his own party say it's to show mitch that mitch should have helped him more in overturning the election. can you imagine what it means about where the hell we are in this country that republicans can say that with sober mind? people are starving. and what he just did with the ndaa, the national defense authorization act is even weirder. why?

well, he doesn't like this section 230. this fringe. look, of course we have to figure out what to do when it comes to what's right and wrong on the internet. is it really like newspapers or not and the right of the a publisher, are you publishers. we have to work through it, but not this way, not right before christmas, not when you are going to leave town, not with people starving. he is the worst we have ever seen. and the only reason you would defend that is because you don't want to give in to the status quo. but what are you saying when you decide to reject the status quo by making it worse, by injecting the political equivalent of a virus into our political corpus? and that's what trump is. he is not a cure. he has never been a cure. he was never going to be a cure. he was injected as a virus to make the system sick, and he has. and now we are on our knees in

this country. and the only chance for us to get to a better place is to recognize what we have had all along. the ability to come together, to be about a common cause and to demand better from the men and women that we invest with power to do our business. if you expect nothing, you get this. we must change. let it be a gift to us before this christmas. he is the worst. we must get better from here. now let's discuss the business at hand. let's deal with it in a way the president refused. we're going to start on the implications of these pardons. norm, i want to start with you because you are part of the impeachment process. and you warned about this all along, that of course manafort is not going to talk. of course none of these guys are going to give. they know trump will take care of them, and he has.

>> well, chris, thanks for having me back on the program on this historic night. you are right to be angry because the republicans in the house of representatives and in the united states senate are presented with overwhelming evidence that this day would come. this is just another piece in the trump puzzle of corruption, chris, of using government to reward himself and his cronies. we talked in the impeachment about abuse of power and obstruction. that's what you have now with both stone and manafort, special counsel robert mueller laid out the evidence of a quid pro quo, of holding back, of refusing to fully testify in order to have this day of a pardon from trump. so we're right to be angry. unfortunately, i wish i could

tell you it's the culmination, but i fear there will be more of this ill legality and more chaos ahead. i will tell you the points you made in your opening are connected. i believe this is part of trump lashing out. he knows this is going to hurt mitch mcconnell. it will hurt the republicans. georgia is a law and order state. this will hurt the election in georgia, the runoff. he's sending a message pause they have accepted joe biden as the president-elect. he's going to punish his party. it is a new low, and that's saying a lot in the trump administration. >> look, it is hard to argue otherwise. i'm pulling my hair out here. it is hard to argue otherwise because he didn't achieve anything earlier. you want to give people 2,0$2,0 who is going to argue for more, except his own party. there is an exercise you understand in politics called a

pocket veto where the president holds the threat of veto out over you until you change it. but he's not doing that. he left. andrew, the problem we see here is who is left to reward? bannon? bannon is the only guy who is not on this ugly list of people who do bad things and get away with it. and how can he not pardon bannon? not only is bannon his boy, but he's doing exactly what trump likes to be doing right now apparently with his own fund-raising, which is put money into a vehicle where you have great discretion as to what you can do with it. bannon found a way to even go beyond what's pretty loose to begin with. >> yeah. that's absolutely right, chris. you know, where does he go from here? it's a good question. i think with tonight's pardons, manafort and stone, he's basically completed the obstruction of justice detailed

in the mueller report. so all the republicans out there who said the mueller report didn't prove anything, this is the final keystone in that case they were building for obstruction of justice. the pardons that were dangled have been delivered. where does he go next? bannon is an obvious possible recipient. rudy giuliani, we were told there has been reporting that giuliani is interested in a pardon. he certainly could use one as investigations in new york continue to heat up. there is really no limit. we have talked about friends and family members who he thinks he might want to just secure with prospective pardons. there is certainly no limit in terms of the disgrace that this president will subject himself to to reward his friends and try to punish his enemies. >> both of you, norm, i will bounce it to you but andrew speak up as well if you think of something norm doesn't say. am i wrong? i'm 50 years old.

i went back to clinton. i looked at obama. i looked at bush. i looked at bush sr. he had a couple questionable pardons. but in totality, norm, have you ever seen anybody do this kind of self-serving forgive ps like trump has? it has to be the worst. who am i missing? who am i leaving out? >> there is no comparison anywhere in the almost 250-year history of our country to this, chris. you know, ford pardoned nixon. but ford did it with the best of motives, to help the country. bush pardoned the series of others in his administration, but nothing like this. and to add to what andy said, what's ahead?

today we have the pardon of charlie kushner. what's ahead, i believe, will be the pardon of jared kushner and his wife, ivanka trump and other members of the trump family. today we have the pardon of trump cronies. what may very well lie ahead is the pardon of trump himself, a constitutional abhorrent self-pardon. there may very well be serious legal issues. trump is, even with these pardons, raising the spector of a quid pro quo of new crimes. so the chaos and illegality is just accelerating. >> norm, thank you. andrew, give me a quick button. >> yeah. come on, chris. this is -- there has never been anything like this. this guy is actively using the pardon to undermine justice. he's rewarding people who refused to cooperate, refused to provide information, who actively lied to prosecutors and to courts and judges. we have never seen a low like

this. buckle in. we may go lower. >> gentlemen, thank you very much. norm eisen, andrew mcgabe, blessings to the families. now, look, i mean what i say. you got to see the gift in this. this is the worst we have ever seen, just the last 24 hours. the rejection of law and order. the rejection of the poor and the needy in this country. you can't make sense of it. i know you are out there, saying, oh, we wants $2,000. what's wrong with that? nothing if you do something with that. now he has a chance and he left. how do you see any virtue in this? what is his end game, or is it really just this fancy for vengeance and punishing everybody? anthony scaramucci with the insider's head on this next. research shows people remember commercials with nostalgia.

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trump has no bottom. but this must be the bottom for us. recognize these last 24 hours or basically what you get when you don't believe in better from the system anymore, when you think integrity is gone, when you think character doesn't matter, that everybody is on the take, everybody is working for something that doesn't serve your interest. this is where we arrive. i'm not blaming you. you don't blame the victim.

but we have to see it as the bottom, and we have to build back from here and we have to make sure this never happens again. and you never allow anybody who even sounds like this guy to do anything in any position of leadership. why? because of the hurt, the millions hungry in this country in a way i have never seen in my lifetime, and he just leaves to play golf. a thumb in the eye to mcconnell. hey, don't help me overturn, like some chump where he and i grew up. those guys deserve no respect in that neighborhood and they don't deserve any now. no, he isn't. he talked the talk. he had a chance to walk the walk. he left. the only people he helped are the worst of people, who are his allies with this wave of new pardons. what is really his play?

anthony scaramucci joins me now obviously in touch with people in and around trump. there are people trying to talk sense to him. i guess we got our answer, right? >> yeah. no. he doesn't care. he's not listening to any of those people. but those pardons, as shocking as they are, are a precursor to more shocki inin ining pardon. you are right about the elitism. imagine americans out there struggling and watching this saying wait a minute, there is a totally different set of rules for these people, totally not what i learned about america, totally not what i learned. he's digging in and doing it with impunity. the ridiculous part about this, he raised a quarter billion dollars off another group of people that bought into this cult itch nonsense of behavior. you have more egregious behavior

coming. he's admitted he's out of there. he's making a decision to go to the inaugural or not. i think he goes, chris. he's an attention hog. he will try to make it about himself. my guess is he'll leave a lot of wreckage. i've said this before and i'll say it on your show. we will likely need a constitutional amendment when this is over. we haven't had a massive amendment since the voters rights act. we haven't had a real big one in 55 years. we had one in '93, but it was more administrative. >> right. >> we will need something to check his power or to check a president like him, god forbid we get another president like this. >> biden should point at him and say you deserved better than this. i know the gop. i know republicans. i know what they're about at their best, and i will be there for you restoring those virtues.

i would point at his ass. >> maybe he'll do that. >> i don't think biden will do that because he's better than i am. he will try to move passed that and the best way to do that is to ignore trump. >> sometimes you need people like you and me to get in there and rough people up like this. this guy is a disaster and he's really hurt the country. it is not just the republicans that he's hurt. he's hurt the entire country and he stained us in terms of our perception, the way people perceive us around the world. >> he has proven himself in just the last 24 hours to be the worst. chris cristie prosecuted charles kushner, okay? his crimes, the felonies, are garden variety. the man is not. this isn't me passing judgment. listen to chris cristie talk about this president. >> i just think that it was so

obvious he had to be prosecuted. if a guy hires a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law and videotapes it and then sends the videotape to his sister to attempt to intimidate her from testifying before a grand jury, do i really need any more justification than that? i mean, it is one of the most disgusting crimes that i have prosecuted when i was u.s. attorney. and i was u.s. attorney in new jersey, margaret, so we had loads of disgusting crime going on there. i just laid out the facts. confronted with those facts, i had a moral and an ethical obligation to bring that prosecution. >> i mean, just on this one case alone, that's an interview there with margaret hoover here at cnn "firing line" on pbs. let's say you were back in the box and you have to defend this pardon. how do you defend him? >> you would try to avoid reporters and you would, you

know, hide, blame it on the christmas holiday. i mean, that's all you could do. he's got a few people i guess that will defend it and say these people are unfairly treated and go into the conspiracy and the scam and so on and so forth. one thing governor chris cristie would say here is that the whole thing with donald trump has been transactional. i think even people like governor chris cristie who were trying to be good republicans and supported him started to recognize that the whole thing is transactional. he'll turn on anybody in his path, senator mcconnell. >> right. >> the whole thing is just transactionally disgusting, chris. >> the only problem with the analogy -- i don't disagree with it. but that's an okay explanation for a pit viper. it is not an explanation for a human being. human beings have sensitivity unless they're sociopaths.

this man turned his back on the most profound need we have seen in this country in a generation. they don't want him in the community. but he's golfing while leaving in limbo relief for the worst hunger we have had in a generation. anthony scaramucci, i know how important it is to christmas. i know how important christmas eve is to you and your family. thank you for making time for me. >> merry christmas. >> give a hug to dee and the best to your mother. it's not easy to get people to come on. this is our last show. this is going to be a different christmas. i will talk to you at the end of the show, why this is such a different christmas for me. i got to be careful because the combination of what i'm seeing happen right now and not having the power to do anything about it except praying on your mercy to demand better than this. i don't know what else to do. i have never seen anybody do this. i have never seen anybody abandon people in need like this ever. we are now going to be on the verge of a government shutdown.

they only bought themselves a few days. a government shutdown in the middle of a pandemic with millions starving? and the delayed -- i mean the excuse for the relief in the first place they delayed months and now a president does this? where are we going to go? what is congress going to do? we have two leaders that helped make the deal that trump just threw into limbo. we have a democrat and a republican. is there a chance of getting to a good place now? next. ♪ ♪ light it up like dynamite ♪ (this is ah) ♪ light it up like dynamite ♪ so watch me light the fire and set the night alight (alright) ♪ ♪ shining through the city...

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supposed to put it first. now he has left to golf. what will congress do with this? let's bring in the co-chairs of the so-called problem solvers caucus. gentlemen, good to see you both. >> good to see you. >> good to be with you, chris. >> let's deal with motivations here that understand the state of play and what you can do. so first question to you, tom. i do not bring you here as a retrumplicans. i do not see you as that. you work for your proarty's priorities. do you believe that this is just a symbol by trump, a thumb in the eye to mcconnell that you don't pretend to work me over and ignore my wants and get away with it and that he will leave this bill alone and eventually sign it? what is your thinking? >> first off, obviously this caught everybody blind sided in regards to the decision.

we thought we had this deal done. but we're not going to give up. as to why the president did this, you know, we're still trying to figure that out. he's raised concern with other parts of the bill that have nothing to do with covid-19 stimulus relief. i will just tell you, we're going to continue to work at it. josh and i have been working since yesterday and the problem sol vers caucus had a meeting last night. i have been in d.c. for ten years. all i got to tell you is i keep putting the people's priority first and whatever happens i keep focussed, eye on the prize, deliver this for the american people. >> have you reached out to the president and said, don't do this. not this way. you guys were at the table, mr. president. you may not have been paying attention, but your staff was here. the ominus funding bill f you didn't like it, you should have spoke up earlier. january 3rd, you guys are all scratched because the new congress comes in. does he know this? >> i have delivered through our

relationships and people we have been working behind the scenes for the last nine months on this deal to express that frustration and that we need to focus on the american people who are suffering and that we did this deal, we negotiated in good faith. but that's one of the problems, chris, we're also trying to solve. jamming all this legislation to the end of the year, shame on congress we're always doing this and that's what i'm trying to change. >> now, tonight is not the night. but i invite you both back on to talk about two things. one, you can't have a four corners strategy anymore. it can't be the republicans -- the leadership on one side and the minority on the other. you guys chirp and they pretend to listen to you and dump a 6,000 page bill on your lap and you don't have time to deal with it. i want to know and i want days to review your fish feeding thing or your bridge or whatever it is that will be the bill. you have your ear marks but they're not transparent. i'm on it. our team will be on it.

josh, $2,000 for families. yeah say the democrats. where was that idea sooner from trump? pelosi was pushing very hard to know where the president was on it. they wouldn't say where he was on it. wasn't this all done in full view of his own staff? >> they were at the table. what's so frustrating about this, as tom was talking about this, we worked for months on this, democrats and republicans, not just in the house but in the senate, too. we had a deal. what's unbelievable, as you just pointed out and you have 322,000 people who died. you have people in food lines for the very first time. 30% of small businesses in new jersey gone out. and now you are going to put a big lump of coal in people's stockings for christmas, go to march ra lag go. we have to get this done. people can't afford for us to wait weeks. what we need right now is just to take a breath, deliver the bill, sign a bill and deliver relief for the american people.

>> or he has to veto it and you guys can quickly move or overcome it. has any word come to you, josh, that any republican lead r ship has been told to meet pelosi for unanimous consent? >> as you know, we will be introducing a motion for yunous consent on the $2,000. if that's what the president will like, we will surely put up more resources in addition to unemployment increase and support for small businesses and food and aid to our schools and getting out the vaccines. it is all part of this bipartisan package. if it is about more resources directly to people, of course we're there. i hope the other side will be there. tom and i actually got behind putting direct resources to americans and got on legislation early. that's something that's important to us. so if that's what this takes, then let's get it done. but the idea we will do nothing right now, you have 14 million people who will go off unemployment on the day after christmas. people are going to be evicted

from their homes. so we have got to act. >> yeah. >> if it's more resources, let's do it. >> and the government is going to shut down. >> have you heard any word about trump pushing you guys to meet pelosi on the floor? >> i think there will be an exchange tomorrow on the unanimous consent to raise the cash, the $2,000. we talked about that, and i agree with him in direct payments. however, what we would see then is the counter response to that as we put this deal together. when you talk about direct payments, then you will have to have a conversation about unemployment benefits going up $300 per person. if they're getting $2,000 direct payments, then people rightfully on our side will be arguing then the employment benefit doesn't have to be as high as $300 increased a week. that's why this deal needs to stay together because this is months of negotiation, and we found the sweet-spot. we found where common ground could be reached. if we want to have a conversation about increased checks, that really should be a separate issue.

let's deliver what we can agree upon today. don't let perfect be the enemy of the good and move forward and get it done because it is ready to go. >> what do you say to members of your party who say trump is a hero for doing this? >> i say look at the big picture. look at what we have done on the covid stimulus relief. don't mix the two together. they're mixing a lot of the spending bill and a lot of those issues on foreign aid. that is in part of the relief bill that covid has. that has nothing to do with the covid relief. there is no money going to foreign countries in exchange for what's going to americans under the relief bill. these are completely separate issues. keep them separate. don't mix it up. don't confuse people. read the bill. study the bill when it comes to the relief that's been out there and you have been negotiating for months. we put this together with a bipartisan group in the senate. that has been out there. >> josh, tom, you know i'm always a phone call away. josh and tom reed, if you can let me know what's going so i

can get people to know where the virtues are in all this, let me know and we'll go. all right? good luck with your work going forward. i hope business changes for you guys because we just can't get to a better place this way. be well. >> put the american people first all the time, chris. no doubt about it. >> all right. look, trump says the same thing. i'll always be fighting for you. how are you fighting if you are in mar-a-lago. what message was that send? why didn't you fight for this months ago? it is still a delay we didn't need. it still wasn't done the right way. that's not nitpicking. if you think it is, ask some of the people on those food lines whether or not they have days to play with. and my next guest argues that this president has actually done the republicans a favor by dividing his party. why? tom friedman, if friedman can

put context to this in a way that doesn't make my hair fall out, it is a christmas gift to me for sure. next.

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all right. let's bring in tom friedman, new york times genius, sage of the country helping us understand ourselves, especially in a time of crisis. hot, flat and crowded, one of his many offerings to our collective intellect. i hope the festival of lights was good for the family. my suggestion is the last 24 hours alone have been a clear illustration and a condemnation of this president as the worst i have ever seen in the office. your thoughts? >> you know, chris, right now we actually don't have a president because a real leader, what would he be doing right now? first of all, he would be

galvanizing the national security establishment to respond to what may be the greater cyber attack on our country whatsoever. number two, he'd be galvanizing the congress to get the most efficient stimulus possible. and, three, he would be basically leading the country to wear a mask, do absolutely the wisest, smartest, hardest things as we head into a january which could give us more coronavirus than any time since this began. that's what a real leader would do. what we have is a guy that's indulging his appetites, his immorality and his obsessions. >> he is the worst, period. i have always gone on the analytic nature of what the facts are before us. the facts are now clear. i'm hoping that the gift in this for people is clarity in this, for republicans most of all. just to be clear, let's say they

go back to the table before january 3rd and they give more money to families. great, great. still i don't see how that's a win for trump when he could have made moves for months and didn't on purpose because he was focussing on making moves for himself, most recently in attacking our democracy. this is not the way he needed to get to where we needed to be. >> when you're talking about spending a trillion dollars or much more than that, i mean, you really want to do this in a thought out, you know, well planned way, trying to understand all the tradeoffs. that's what the problem solvers caucus was doing. if we can get to a bigger number and it works for everybody, but the idea of trying to scramble to do that over christmas, you know, good luck. i hope it works. i hope people are hurting as much as they can get. >> how do we get better? i was talking with these guys maybe too in the weeds. you know what members of

congress want to put in the bill so there is not just 5,000 pages with five hours to read it after everything is always hidden in it, that would be a good thing and obviously not having just the leadership negotiate things, you know, have it be more in front of the american people. but culturally, my hope is that this guy has taken us so low that we see the danger in it. but i guess there is just as good a chance how do you see it? >> that is what i wrote about in my column today. trump is stressing out the republican party. he has drawn a clear fracture after this why election between what i call principled republicans people who stood with the constitution, respected and defended joe biden's victory, and the unprincipled republicans who basically indulged the president's fraudulent claims of fraud. there is a fracture there. if you look at some of these states that is becoming very wide. frankly i hope it blows up the party. i hope basically the decent, the

disciplined, the professional republicans, people who basically row spectromet basically respect the rule of law will break off and create a principled conservative party. we need a principled conservative party, a principled party that can collaborate with a principled center left party. i think that is what biden represents. what you saw in the problem solvers caucus in the house and their sort of parallel group in the senate was actually that group, a small group of republicans, a bigger group of democrats who came together around the center and did it from the bottom up. it was not the top down. that's how we get big, hard things done. what is going to happen when trump is out of power is he'll keep hammering on this party. he is going to keep stressing that republican party. follow me. don't collaborate. do this. do that. i think people in that party have to ask do you want to spend the next four years hiding from

him, afraid to answer to reporters? are you going to break off? chris, if you just got like three senators and 20 congressmen who split off and created a center balance between the center left and center right they would be king makers for the country. that is my hope. that's what i want from santa for christmas because that is the only way we can get big, hard things done. i think we have the potential here because i think trump's gift to the country is he is going to blow up what has become a trump cult and actually get some principled conservatives to start a principled conservative party. what a blessing that would be for the new year. >> what extraordinary power in the hands of a few it would be because they would be able to balance the scales. you'd have left and right and then those determined on being reasonable. exactly. >> i hope you appreciate who you

are to this country right now because this is a time to be remembered and you are somebody who will stand out as someone who spoke reason in the darkness. thank you very much for being on the show. >> means a lot chris. thanks very much for having me all year >> i have a special message about a christmas that is absolutely have to be different, next. xfinity customers, stream hbo and more

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christmas has to be more this year. we're all so hungry too many, literally millions. those blessed to sustain we're yearning for better. for good views outside our homes and pod, for a chance to dream of nonnightmare scenarios and yes for a society that is something better and sweeter than it is today something not just against itself but for something that matters. we are in hard times. these will be the days that generations to come will read about and we will be defined by them. i've never had a year like this personally. covid shook me up physically, emotionally, made me think the basement became not just a hospital room but a crucible for my body and mind. i think differently, i prioritize differently, i love

differently i live differently. being down the way i was changed how i was when i got back up. in fact, i'm doing something i never wanted to do before which is i'm going to write a book about the denial i dealt with myself and what was going on with me and my life that i saw echoed in the other echelons of society. the denial we were in as a people. how susceptible we were to this pandemic. why it hurt us so badly. why it continues to. what it means about us and our government and we have to see a way better than this. we have to. because we can't live like this. my hope is we see this house is divided and as such can no longer stand. let trump be our bottom. he is the worst. don't let it be an echo effect. don't let it be about copy cats that try to grab the same zeitgeist. he like covid of a virus inserted into a body to make it sick and he has made us sick. now the question is how will we

get back up? we will survive him. we will survive all of this. but how? we got to build back trust by listening to those in pain. white, brown, black, green, yellow, whatever color whatever creed you have to listen. you have to respect pain where you find it. everybody is entitled to their own feelings. you got to hold those in power to do our bidding. you have to expect more and expect better even though it hurts to be disappointed. we have to. my toughest year, which was this year because i've been so lucky in my life, it was made from toughest to best in my business because of you. you did for me what i'm asking you to do for each other. you saw that i was down and even if you hadn't liked me before you decided to like me then because you felt i needed it. you encouraged me. and then when i was getting back up you counseled me. if you liked what i said, if you didn't like it. if i was focusing on the right

things, you pushed me not to get better -- nobody will ever out work me to do right by what opportunity you've given me. i just hope we do the same for each other. i wish you a merry christmas and a happy new year. let's get after it. thank you for watching. cnn tonight with d. lemon. >> that was beautiful. thank you so much, chris. merry christmas to you. i can't wait to read the book you are writing and see that reflection. i'm sure it will resonate with everyone. this is a year where everyone is reflecting. thank you. and merry christmas. >> i think the title is going to be, don't be me. >> now i'm really going to read it. >> i'm always a fan. i count you as a friend. it is great to be with you here and on sirius xm. you represent the best of us. i'll watch you tonight. have a merry christmas. >> i appreciate that. i feel the sam