>> the january six committee releasing more than 100 interview transcripts. but trying to get as many as possible before tuesday when republicans take over in the house. every day brings new revelations, so what will the department of justice do with it all. let's talk about what we have learned with former congressman charlie dent, also cnn senior political analyst ron brownstein, molly john fast and former federal prosecutor sham wu. great to see you all, let's look at a couple other things that have been revealed today by the committee and one i think particularly interesting one is don junior, and the text that don junior responding to mark meadows. i want to juxtapose what he sent the day after the election and after his father lost the election, and then what he sent on january six because i think there is an arc between these two. the first one that he sends that he claims is not his writing, and it does not sound like his voice, frankly, and he

also claims he does not remember who sent it to him. it says, we have operational control, total leverage, moral high ground, potus must start a second term now. state assemblies can step in and vote before the electoral slate. republicans control 28 states, democrats 22 states, once again, trump wins. that's the road map the day after the election, ron, for how to keep donald trump unconstitutionally in office. okay, fast forward to january six, when they tried some of these things instead of a donald trump jr. is texting a different tune. here it is. we need an oval address. he has to leave now, it's gone too far, it's gotten out of hand. i mean, what did they think their shenanigans would lead to? >> it led to chaos and violence. >> yeah, there is a dangling threat in the first series of text or emails that i cannot imagine the special counsel will be interested in investigating because as you know, donald trump jr. is really the first one to suggest,

this in the report, suggests the strategy of trying to the stable -- and simply substitute donald trump electors for joe biden electors based on the actual verified results in their state. in this deposition, he is asked about that because as you point out, this is very specific and in language that does not seem to flow naturally with donald trump jr.. he says, alison, andy deposition, that is, quote, a cut and paste job. he acknowledges that, it came from somewhere else, but then he insists that he can't remember where it came from. in fact, if you take out the words, i don't remember, i don't recall, i can't remember, this hundred five-page transcript might be down to five pages from donald trump jr.. but the fact is, i cannot imagine the special counsel is going to allow this to simply drift away, this idea that he can't remember where the idea

came from, that ultimately led to the fake electors scheme that they are investigating. he is very clearly suggesting it came from somewhere else, he is not saying where. >> molly, maybe we can jog his memory, because the language in that first one, we have operational control, total leverage, it's the grandiose language that we heard pretty soon after the election from people like rudy giuliani and or steve bannon. i mean, it's not a stretch to think that some of those folks were texting don junior these suggestions. >> yeah, it's a little heady for don jr. to know how many states there are, but i do think that there are a number of people advising him, and he was talking to congressman, talking -- has a bunch of lawyers, and there are many members of trump world, some of whom have

received pardons who were of eyes in this. reading that deposition, we really do see, he was very involved in all of this. i think that ultimately, he got very over his head. >> charlie, then it goes wrong, it goes horribly wrong, and that is when don jr. starts texting mark meadows that somebody's got to stop this, this is out of control. >> these guys like donald trump jr. and others instigate this whole postelection scenario that is father should not leave office, that he won and all this nonsense, and then on january six, they're shocked that their followers are at the capitol, ransacking the place and insulting up serves and attempting to harm members of congress. these guys are trying to wash their hands of what they had done, and with respect to the

fake electors, i have to think that the grand jury and doj are looking closely at that scheme. in fact, one of the fake electors, the chair of pennsylvanian fake electors -- because there is not a trump secondment. i'm here to tell you, i know that guy was close to donald trump jr., and so, i am just saying that donald trump jr., he has sumter on his hands here, and it's probably a good thing you cannot recall anything because i think he's got some explaining to do. >> sham, that leads us to you. with all of this evidence, now what is basically the question? and what accountability will there be? so, don junior, mark meadows, donald trump, who will be in trouble?

>> i would say meadows leads that pack, trump senior, next with don, probably lower down there. tehran's point, absolutely, a special counsel will be very interested in that, but there are tools to compel further disclosures. actually, it's really interesting, alison, because you're seeing some of the advantages of congressional investigation, where they have these free willing depositions with witnesses lawyers being present. it's not as intense or curated of an experience as a grand jury. it was a grand jury to begin with that most likely said nothing, constantly pleading the fifth. here, they're able to tease a bit more out because of the cut pace jobs, where did you get it from, he can't remember. he's giving people some leads to look at, probably inadvertently. that is one of the big differences between the congressional investigation and the grand jury one.

of course, double edged sword for doj, they have all this testimony now, and they have to reconcile it and look for inconsistencies, possibly some things are -- some things are just a little bit ambiguous for them, so it's a big job. certainly, i would say that the theme and all these transcripts coming out is that all routes flow towards mark meadows. i think he's number one on the hit list. >> that's interesting, sham, here's a follow-up. what does that mean, what does his triple look like? >> it looks like they would be treating him quite seriously in terms of potential charges. again, at this point, it moves to the criminal aspect, i don't think they're powers of compulsion grow any greater.

really, if people circle the wagons, he will plead the fifth, but if they have a conversation with his lawyers and say, look, we dickey have enough to indict your client, do you want to cut a deal and cooperate, that's very different than any posturing he might make before a congressional committee, so i think that is what it looks like, what kind of charges they may bring and what most importantly, practically as a prosecutor and defense attorney, what kind of conversation are they going to have with his lawyers? >> ron, i keep reading this one that is an exchange between christina bobb, one of the lawyers and lindsey graham just because i think it's so, it's theater of the absurd, so telling they were even, the way i interpret what senator graham was saying to christina bobb here is that he was basically calling her bluff. so he says, christina bobb, the part of the transcript that he testifies to, senator graham was saying, get me your information, get me five dead voters, give me an example of illegal voting. give me a small snapshot that i can take and champion, and i think that senator graham is savvy enough to know that, she would never be able to produce five dead voters, so he was

saying, i am happy to be a champion, knowing that that would not happen. >> i don't know if i interpret that. that is a reasonable interpretation. you can also be saying, just give me anything, and i will be willing to go out and defend donald trump, but it really goes to your point a minute ago about accountability. obviously, criminal liability is one form of accountability, but as the committee itself noted in the report, it's not the only form of accountability, and they talk about sanctions against lawyers who were involved in the effort to overturn the election. where they are in conspicuously silent is what if any sanctions should there be four members of congress who participated in this? i think charlie was part of an open bipartisan letter of former murders who said, look, people have been sanctioned for a lot less for participating in an effort to overthrow the election. the committee chose to really stay away from the issue of other members of congress and it. they did not bring a lot of texture meadows or members of congress to even declare martial law to prevent the transfer of power, but this issue of whether other members of congress, and there were dozens, as well as dozens in the states who participated in fake electors, is the only question there whether or not there committed a crime or is there a question about whether

there should be accountability and other forms? as i sit, the committee's firm on that point about lawyers. it's much more vague about members of congress, but i think that is an open question that needs to be addressed. >> molly, i do want to get your thoughts on that, but sham, what is the answer to that? what about accountability for congress? >> i think it is purely a political aspect, it could be referred to the house. i think the committee, which has been somewhat toothless in the past, and to ron's point, i think you're seeing some of the advantages of congressional investigations, and you're seeing some institutional bias there. from an outsider looking at this, it definitely should a light on fellow members of congress. >> quickly, molly, go ahead. we've heard that representative

latter milk was giving tours. there is definitely members of members of congress who spoke at the stop the steal rally. there's certainly members of congress implicated, so it is a bit strange that there is not more on that. >> charlie, i quickly want to get to you because you are on the ethics committee. was it to this in this case? >> well, the committee is basically constructing between five republicans and five democrats. if one side chooses not to play ball, there is not going to be any type of sanction. i have my sense on this issue that if it were these members before the committee, i thought that there would be any sanctions on this one. i just don't know how they will come to an agreement, unless they have really damning information on the role of a particular member in terms of inciting this insurrection. i don't see them coming to an agreement. >> okay, friends, thank you so much for all of your insight on this. >> meanwhile, president biden

is in the virgin islands tonight, where sources say he and his family are mulling the pros and cons of his reelection bid. but with the decision all but made, what has he accomplished in these two years? what kind of challenges will he face in the next two years? we have all of that ahead. about two years ago i realized that jade was overweight. i wish i would have introduced the fresh food a lot sooner. after farmer's dog she's a much healthier weight. she's a lot more active. and she's able to join us on our adventures. get started at longlivedogs.com (music throughout) get the royal treatment. join the millions playing royal match today.

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chris, great to have you here. is there any doubt in your mind tonight that joe biden is running for a second term? >> you know, there's almost no doubt that he is going to run. unless there's something very strange in the water down there in st. croix, where he's talking this over presumably with doctor jill biden. she's the only one, by the way, who could change his mind on this. i don't think she will. >> she is on board, right? that's when some of the reporting, that she's been on board. since the midterms, they felt some momentum about this? >> well, there's no question that joe biden feels the wind at his back. without a doubt. look at them in terms, the way they defied all the odds, i think that joe biden and the white house are also celebrating and hoping to exploit what has become a political fact of life, and that is that joe biden's opponents have underestimated him at every step of the way. throughout his career. you know, they're learning a hard lesson right now and they may well pay a heavy political price. >> you have just spent a lot of time reporting on the inner

workings inside the biden white house, you said the biden presidency is the most consequential of your lifetime. you liken his legacy just laid a record to that of lbj, how so? make the case. >> it's without a doubt been a tale of two presidencies. i read about this in great detail in my upcoming book, the fight of his life, inside joe biden's white house, unfortunately, my editor would kill me if i told too much about it. >> why can't you come on and just spilled the tea with us. >> this is not out until january 17th, and viewers can preorder it. >> i see you're getting in the plug, you're publishers gonna be very happy. >> but having said that, there's just no question about it. the second year of biden's presidency has been as

consequential as any year of any president in modern history, from rallying nato to defend ukraine against vladimir putin, to passing a legislative agenda that does rival lbj. so, i think that's where they have the wind at their back, there are plenty of challenges ahead. god knows. just to name a few, first biden's gonna try to avoid a recession, he's got to tame inflation, he has to implement all of that legislation because it doesn't mean anything until the rubber meets the road. he's gotta keep your nato unified against letter approved and, no easy task. and he also has to continue to be aware of the threat to democracy in the form of trumpism. it hasn't got away. and one real challenge will be trying to unify the country in the event that trump is prosecuted and state in federal court, which i think it's almost inevitable. that's going to be a high wire act for this president. and finally, if i could add one more thing, there's a really big personnel challenge coming up. biden's white house chief of

staff, ron klain, isn't a lot to do with the presidents success, may well be approaching a port where he wants to move on. there's a reason why white house chief of staff last an average of 18 months. he's been there for two years. if he leaves, it's going to be awful big shoes to fill. >> what changes if he leaves? >> everything. the white house chief of staff is the second most powerful job in government. i think one of the reasons that biden has been successful is that klain has known the president for 30 years. he knows capitol hill. he knows how to run the white house. he was the most qualified person ever to step into that job, having worked for nine previous white house chiefs, if you can believe that. and the results show. the first year was not without a lot of real problems and challenges from afghanistan to the delta variant.

everything else. but at the two year mark, you really have to put ron klain in elite company with some of the best weight have chiefs in history. >> one of the things we know in your upcoming book that i think is really eyebrow raising is that president biden doesn't trust some of his secret detail. that sounds like a problem. so, what's that about? >> if that's true, it's a real problem. it's just almost hard to imagine. the secret service is their, first and foremost, to protect the president's life. but they're also they're -- expected to keep secrets. that's about all i can tell you

without getting into the details of the book, which i promised my editor i wouldn't do. >> that is a good tease. we'll be buying the book on january 17th, it's called the fight of his, life inside joe biden's white house. thanks very much for talking about this. >> you can preorder it. thanks so much. >> really interesting. meanwhile, southwest airlines claims it will operate a normal schedule tomorrow. as it faces a sharp warning tonight from the federal government. up next, one passenger's personal story of going through the southwest travel chaos, and it's not over yet.

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>> southwest airlines says it will resume normal service tomorrow after eight days of travel chaos. that stranded hundreds of thousands of passengers. more than 2300 flights were canceled today. now, the transportation department is warning southwest, it may level steep fines if the airline fails to follow through on promises to reimburse passengers and return their bags. more tonight from cnn's lucy kavanav. >> eight days in, and finally southwest is planning to return to normal operations friday. issuing a statement saying, with another holiday weekend full of important connections for our valued customers and employees, we are eager to return to a state of normalcy. but today, it's still chaos for southwest passengers. >> the anxiety level it has become crazy. >> one of the country's biggest carriers canceling nearly 2400 flights thursday, capping a week of travel misery that stranded thousands more. >> it is very devastating,

southwest actually big ben off light for january 2nd. my wedding is tomorrow, december 30th. >> soon to be married katie, was scheduled to fly out of st. louis with family for her own wedding. but southwest cancellations meant she had to meet -- miss her meeting her fiancée at the altar in belize. when southwest told or she may build a re-book -- >> they did tell us, when it went in the system, it would not actually come to me. we wouldn't be able to book those. because they had overbooked. >> but for some customers the most emotional reunions seen at airports have been between people and their bags. >> i just haven't had this bag in a week, oven wearing other peoples clothes. >> southwest first placed all the blame for stranded flyers their lost bags and it's ability to get people new flights on bad weather. but airline ceo bob jordan admitted the companies systems were too outdated to deal with

any big disruptions. >> the tools we used to recover from disruptions service will, 90% of the time, but clearly, we need to double down on our already existing plants to upgrade systems for these extreme circumstances. so that we never again face what's happening right now. >> southwest pilot and flight attendants union say they've been ringing the alarm about the out dated system for years. >> we've been harping on them since 2015-ish. every year, we've seen some sort of meltdown happen. >> these executive should've committed to ensuring that our i. t. infrastructure would be able to -- and change in the way we operate our flights. >> southwest has promised to reimburse customers, but good luck reaching an agent on the phone. let alone in person. >> it's so annoying. and nobody is giving us any direction. >> those unable to fly home or finding creative solutions. >> i actually went up to the

attendant and i said, is anybody going to denver? >> this -- was traded in minnesota, unable to find a flight or rental car to get home. until a complete stranger offered to drive the couple back to denver. >> i think people are hesitant in this day and age to lean on a stranger. in our case, it could not overturn any better. >> southwest is busing some passengers from airport airport in order to bring some relief admits the total meltdown. >> i'm still stranded, i need to drive nine more hours. i'm upset. i'm stressed. i'm tired. and i hate this. >> the transportation department formally warning southwest airlines, it will take action if the airline does not follow through on promises to reimburse passengers for alternative transportation, hotels, meals, not to mention baggage reunification. and take a look behind me, this mountain of suitcases is a symbol of the cascading effect of all of these travel nightmares a lot of folks still trying to get reunited with their bags, southwest did hire extra staff to sort through all of these pieces of luggage, of course, despite the promises of getting back to normal, on friday it is going to take days

for him to get reunited with their bags. alison? >> lucy, thank you. for showing all of that. and joining me now is deb haines, she's where the southwest passengers who can relate to that very trying story. deb, oh my gosh, your story is so frustrating. let's to share with everybody. on friday, you are supposed to be flying from denver to seattle. and your flight was canceled. two days before christmas, your flight was canceled. it was rebooked for monday. after christmas. >> yes. >> how did that sit with you? >> it was very sad. my daughter is a travel nurse out in seattle. and my neighbor's kids are out in seattle as well. we were trying to get the families together for christmas. we had an airbnb booked. in leavenworth, washington.

it was gonna be a magical weekend. it was a huge let down. -- >> because you showed up. so you went, just to tell, it gets worse. you went back to the airport on monday for that rescheduled flight, and your flight kept getting delayed, how long did you wait on monday? >> we were in the airport a total of 12 hours, we waited for about six hours at the gate before they finally canceled our flight. and then went to try and figure out the baggage, and were told to wait in a three hour line to put a claim in. but that our bags were going to go ahead and go to seattle regardless. >> how is it possible that your bags flew to seattle but you are not able to? >> i'm guessing they didn't fly. i've heard multiple things, maybe they were trucked or different things. regardless, we don't know where the bags are.

we have a claim in on them, and hopefully, we'll see them soon. >> so tonight, as we speak, you have no idea where your luggage is? >> no idea. >> what has southwest told you about where your luggage is? >> they've told us that they're trying very hard to reunite us with our bags. >> i mean, deb, that is so frustrating. did you have valuables in those bags? if you have things you'd like to see again? >> i would certainly like to see them all of our christmas presents are in the bags. so we have the tree up, we're getting a weighted out. hopefully, have christmas eventually. >> oh my gosh, deb, you are so good spirited. you are clearly the patience of jobe, more than i would. but this is ridiculous. it's ridiculous that you never got on your flight and yet you are still separated from your bags, and they have no idea where it is. are they going to, are they offering you any kind of compensation? what are they telling you? >> not yet. i'm hoping that if they cannot

find, it they will. but not yet. it's very hard to get in touch with anyone from the airline right now. >> so, what happens when you call them? >> let's see, last thursday night, i was on hold for four hours and kept getting disconnected every hour. and today, we finally did get in touch with them after about an hour and 15 minutes, which i thought was pretty good. >> and that's when they said, what? >> that's when they said, put in the claim if you've done that online, that's all we can do right now. we did that. and got an email back saying, they are trying to find our bags. >> deb, you missed being in christmas spending christmas with your daughter and your family in this whole trip that you had planned, you've been parted from your christmas gifts and your belongings for all of these days, they can't offer you any idea of where your bag and your luggage is, you've spent hours at the airport and on the phone with them, is there anything -- how could they compensate you for this?

what would you want out of southwest at this point? >> i guess reimbursement for our flights to get us our bags back and i guess that's all. >> that's the least they can do. that's the least they could do, of course you need reimbursement. for your flights. of course you need your bags back. i'm looking, as you're speaking, we have pictures i guess of your kids who are celebrating christmas without you guys? >> yes. >> so, what did they do. >> they were in seattle, our neighbors kids and my daughter were in seattle and then my son was here with us. >> well, they look at them and a great time. >> we tried to make the best of it. >> yeah. so deb, will you ever fly southwest again? >> yeah, i've been thinking about that. i just think it's too soon to tell. >> well.

you are a patient woman. deb, we're gonna check back with you. i really, really hope they can find your bag in your christmas gifts. and i hope they come up with something, you're just one, as we said, of hundreds of thousands of passengers who have had allows the christmas. deb, best of luck. let us know what happens. >> thank you, thank you so much. >> all right, take care. >> okay, you do. >> so, was it will smith slapping chris rock at the oscars or was it the student who complained about their university being too hard? up next, our panel is back with some closing arguments on some of the hottest debates, not political once, other debates of 2022. debates of 2022. debates of 2022. debates of 2022. debates of 2022.

>> as 2022 comes to a close, we take a look back at a few of the biggest debates of the year. not political debates. culture debates. these come courtesy of the new york times opinion pieced, quote, the 22 debates that made us rage, roll our eyes and change our minds in 2022.

from the will smith slap to hybrid work to how hard schools should be for students. let's put a few of these back on the table for a few minutes and back with me now, charlie dent, ron brownstein and molly jong-fast. great to see you guys again. charlie, the will smith slap, that went on for so long about what that meant, and what should happen to will smith. i'm not sure we ever resolved that one. that one was such a shock to the system when we all saw that at the oscars. >> yeah, i think that will smith had a sterling reputation up to that point. and everybody, including me, i'm a guy from the philadelphia region morales, and to see that i was really shocked. that will smith was a philly guy, we're all sympathetic to him. that was inexcusable. a look at that and said, boy, it looks like simple assault from where i'm sitting. you can't go up in smack a speaker like that. and an event. an appropriate response would've been if he didn't like

the jokes mocking his wife to that condition to cause or lose his hair, he and his wife could've simply left the event. and put out a statement. no, he did that and i just thought it set a terrible signal to a lot of folks, this is an appropriate way to respond to some speech that you found distasteful. i thought was awful. >> molly, it was a shock. i'm not sure we have resolved it. in other words, will smith has apologized. he has been banned from the oscars. i'm not sure that it has been resolved at the end of this year. >> a lot of these things were actually culture downstream politics. a lot of them were about culture, but they were also a lot of things that got folded into the culture wars to. >> but how is this about politics? how does this one? >> because people -- there was this people who supported the guy who got slapped, and the people who

supported -- there is a lot of team people got on different teams and what's the punishment enough? you know, i do think there was a sort of posturing that sort of vaguely political implications. >> i think everything right now is through the lens of politics. when you say the teams, that our country is so team centric right now, in terms of divisions, ron, i agree with that. we see everything. are you on harry and megan's team? are you on the british royals, everything is like that. i want to move on to the school stuff, unless you have anything you want to to say? >> just real quick, i'm not really sure there's debate there to echo charlie, if chris rock wasn't a comedy club and i got up to the table in the third row and walked on stage in slapped him, he'd be in jail. he'd be on trial. the only question really is why will smith didn't face those consequences. other than that, i'm not sure there's much to debate. >> i think people were just so

stunned, that's my theory, but i hear you. >> if you are global movie star you probably be on trial. >> okay, here's another thing that we've debated that obviously there were so many cultural debates about schools this year. and who controls what our kids are learning and if something is too woke, this when they got the new york times attention, it was weather school is too hard. and at nyu, there was a crop of kids, molly, that did think that their professors, this was a professor in an organic chemistry class, they thought he was impossibly hard. they signed a petition. we urge you to realize that a class with such a high percentage of withdrawals and low grades has failed to make students learning and well-being of priority and reflect poorly on the chemistry department as well of the institution as a whole. i believe they got him fired. and his, quote, they weren't coming to class, that's for sure. because i can count the house. dr. jones said in an interview, they weren't watching the videos, and they weren't able to answer the questions. so, this is the debate about whether or not kids are being to molly coddled and they're

not tough enough. your thoughts? >> i think, look, we have a problem, which is that a lot of this higher ed has become like a business. it's very expensive. and the students in the parents of our customers. so, you ultimately find yourself in a situation where the goal here is learning, but these people are paying thousands of dollars with sometimes very mixed results. it's not like a college degree guarantees you'll have a great career. so, i do think you find yourself in a situation where you have these consumers who are not happy with the product, and because they paid so much money, you're in an impossible situation. i still feel like i don't know quite enough about this general situation to know exactly what

happened. there were some other reporting around this that said maybe there is other stuff. but yeah, it's never good when students get teachers fired. almost never good. but there are probably some exceptions. i just think that in this situation, you have the schools that are so expensive, and the students who are very emboldened. >> charlie? >> look, welcome to organic chemistry. that's a course that used to weed out students who are gonna go to medical school. i started engineering, i wasn't very good at it. i'm glad i got out. i would've been we did, at a place like -- university, where most my family went. you want to be an engineer? you know the dean told you first day? look to the left, look to the right, and one of his daughter to be an engineer when this is all over. that's how they dealt with it. they're trying to train edging educate engineers, and good once. at a risk cut over some of the stuff. i don't think we should be calling people. i wasn't a terrific student, i'll be very honest about that. but you know what? we have standards for a reason,

and maybe there are some difficult professors, but i think you should be firing them in a organic chemistry professor because some students didn't show up to class and he was rough. okay, welcome to higher education. >> i love when we get to the charlie confessional part of the evening. that is one of my favorite parts of this program. >> -- i love it. >> go ahead, ron. >> i was hoping that molly was gonna respond to mollycoddle -ing, what she thinks of that. i don't know of the specifics on here, but i do think the underlying point of this in the new york times is suggesting, as is often suggested, is that generation z is molly coddled and handled with kid gloves. and a bunch of snowflakes. which i think is a fundamental -- sure, their individual cases, but it's a fundamental diagnosis of the situation that they are in. facing much higher, as she noted, tuition bills, not only fancy private schools like and what you, but tuition is now double the share of the funding for state universities than it was when the baby boomers went

to college. we shifted so much of the burden from the community with these individuals and families, many more of whom of graduating with debt, struggling to have assets to buy houses, much less likely to own houses. the underlying implication of this, from the new york times, is basically, these kids have it so easy, boy, we should be tougher on them. the baby boomers benefited from an awful lot more of public investment in their success, and now it's the baby boomers were basically saying the next generation or getting off too easy. and it's just simply a total misdiagnoses of the conditions they face. >> really interesting. okay guys, you're not done, i have another culture question for you. stick around. because up next, we used to really envy the superrich. now, we really hate them. but we love poking fun at them. why americans seem to be enjoying their love to hate the superrich moment. and we'll show you examples.

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♪ ♪ >> remember back in the 80s and 90s, when we used to love to watch the exploits of rich people? shows like dynasty and lifestyles of the rich and famous? and later, gossip girl and crazy rich asians? now, many of us love hate watching rich people. that's why satires like white lotus or glass onion or knives out mystery or all the rage. >> welcome to the white lotus in sicily. >> it's like you sold your company, you've got rich. and now he's your best friend? >> there's a lot of you are gonna be hanging out with now? >> ladies and gentlemen, this is it. >> you expected a mystery? ♪ ♪ ♪ [inaudible] >> this is not a game.

>> i'm back with charlie dent, run brownstein, and mullah jong-fast. how many of you are white lotus fence? >> all of us. ron, what's so delicious about it? i find it delicious to, but it's also cringey to see the bougie behavior of white privilege, basically, and rich people and helicopters they are. >> it is a sign of the times. i described it, i was talking about not about it, i described it as occupy wall street made into a mini series. the 99% against the 1%. and he corrected me. given who watch as hbo, the white lotus's really inviting the rest of the top 10% to score the 1%. which in some ways, is revealing where we are as a society. i think zuckerberg in the whole drama around facebook and 16 and 20 followed by -- has been a culture turning point. you go back to the 90s, we

thought the tech barons were in particular, which is of course more than knives out sequel, we heard that tech bear introduce of us. steve jobs was the future. now, they look much more like a threat to our future than the salvation, and you're seeing that i think above all more than anything else, it's a shift in attitude for the top one tenth of 1%. >> that's really interesting, i was wondering what the tipping point was. where it shipped to hate watching it being cringey. molly, what are your thoughts? >> i mean, i think there's a history, there's a long history of americans and brits living satire, and skewing the rich from evelyn waugh down. i think there is a literary tradition and a television tradition there. i do think what ron said is really important, there was a moment when we thought all of these tech oligarchs would be

doing -- giving all their money away and solving the world's problems. instead, they've largely caused many problems. i was impressed with glass union, because when i watched it, i couldn't believe how close it was to the elon musk story. >> charlie? >> my reaction was, look, i enjoy the shows. they're interesting. but i think there's a concern that there are a lot of wealthy people who maybe flaunt their wealth too much, and i think that's a bit of a change for a light guy like me you comes from pennsylvania german country, you have a lot of very understated people who've accumulated a lot of wealth, you never knew it until they died. that's kind of what i'm used to. people like that who are very modest, at least they appear to be quite modest, and squirrelly their money and didn't talk about it. it just wasn't something they would do. and they would never fought it. and sometimes with these shows, you always hear about the ugly american, the american goes abroad and behaves like a jerk.

because they have money and offend everybody. i think there's a little bit too much of that in our society, and that's kind of the serious point of this. i enjoyed the shows. >> college is a real quick, the white lotus's net is cast pretty broad. it's not just anti-rich rich, it's hard to find a fully sympathetic character in either season. it's a pretty bleak view of human nature overall, with certainly, it gives you that joy of seeing the very, very rich are just as miserable, if not more miserable, then you are. that's how the christmas present of the show. >> still his mom died in, spoiler, sorry. >> well, i hope everybody finished the season. because charlie just told you what happened. i just thought it was delicious. i think the acting is so great, it's just so delicious, yes cringing, yes a little too familiar. rings true, some of the really obnoxious behavior, but just so, so well done.

all right, friends, thank you very much. great to spend tonight with you. thanks so much, everyone, for watching. before we go tonight, here's a look at the new cnn film, dion warwick. don't make me over. be sure to tune in new year's day at 9 pm, right here on cnn, for the premier or victor blackwell as a closer look. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> dion warwick is a global music superstar. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> but her impact extends far beyond music. warwick's singing career started at a grandfathers church in new jersey. her talent and drive propelled her from the church choir to the most famous stages around the world. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> but when she started touring in the south, warwick encountered a level of bigotry

that she had not seen growing up in the north. her response was clear, -- >> blacks were on one side, the whites were on the side. the stage was straight ahead. and remember saying, dion, do not turn your back on the white folk. the first thing i did when i went out there, walk straight to the band and turned my back and played to the ones that look like me. >> it's a state of emergency. >> when the hiv aids emergency struck in the 80s, warwick was quick to act. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> i became very, very vocal and very public with the aids issue, based on the fact that we're losing so many people. ♪ ♪ ♪

something's got to be done. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> dallas deftly a hero of mine. and a hero to a lot of people. she was really the first person in the music business to actually speak up about it. >> my role as ambassador helped. >> her efforts prompted then president ronald reagan to name her as u.s. ambassador of health, to advocate for aids awareness and research around the world. today, warwick continues to make an impact through her colorful twitter commentary. collaboration's with young artists. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> pop culture presents. >> dion, where you perfect? >> darling, i'm not perfect. i'm just very, very good. >> and ongoing charity work. and it 82, she continues to share her legendary music with audiences around the world.

♪ ♪ ♪ >> victor blackwell, cnn. ♪ giorgio, look. the peanut butter box is here. ralph, that's the chewy pharmacy box with our flea and tick meds. it's not peanut butter. i know, i know. but every time the box comes, we get the peanut butter. yes, because mom takes the meds out of the box and puts them in the peanut butter. sounds like we're getting peanut butter. yes, but that is the chewy pharmacy box.

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>> welcome to all of