so cold that i had to dress like this. even in the middle of the day. see the sunglasses? it's noon. if you're counting, that's two hats and two hoods over the two hats. but you know what, when you can, get out there, even in the cold, it is worth being out there. especially when look, it worked. it never works for me. i am terrible at fishing. and, yes, this little guy went right back in after kindly poeszing for this picture. so i'm very thankful for his visit to me this weekend. i'm thankful to have a few days off this thanksgiving. if you did get some days off and part of what you did is you dropped out of the news cycle a little bit, i should also say that there's one very big story that you might think ended

before thanksgiving but it really didn't. it didn't end last week. it has rolled right through the long weekend into today. and it now looks like there is no telling when or if it's going to end any time soon. this is the st. louis galaria mall which is located in richmond heights, missouri. and this is what that mall looked like the day after thanksgiving. this passed friday. on the biggest shopping day of the year. on black friday, the day after thanksgiving, hundreds of protesters marched through that mall, made their way to the third floor of the building and then they laid down. they staged a die-in for 4 1/2 minutes.

they moved the group down to markt street. in san francisco, some of those protests did turn violence. several businesses were vandalized. there were some reports of broken windows, some bottles and rocks thrown. several arrests made at night in san francisco on friday. also, in chicago, about 200 people who marched from the city's magnificent mile shopping district in the afternoon. they marched from there and that was described as a day of awareness and engagement from chicago. about half of that group kept marching onward to a wall mart store almost four miles away. they were chanting hands up, don't shoot. they were chanting things like no justice, no profit. they ultimately closed down that mall for the night. about half of that group kept marching onward to a wall mart store almost four miles away. they were chanting hands up,

don't shoot. they were chanting things like no justice, no profit. in seattle, same day, on friday, more than 200 protesters gathered in seattle's downtown, in the rain. went to the seattle public tree-lighting ceremony and made their presence known there. protesters made their way to the west lake credibilitier mall. on friday, they were chanting black lives matter. shortly before 6:00, seattle police started turning shoppers away from that mall. they ultimately closed down that mall for the night. as you can see, arrests were made in see atle. that was all just on friday. on the so-called black friday, the day after thanksgiving. that big pseudoholiday and big shopping day. the following day, on saturday, protesters were out in the washington, d.c. region. they met around noon. they made their way, then, to georgetown.

and then the d.c. area protesters went out to pent gone city, virginia. hundreds of protesters staged a protest and a die-in outside in the streets. protesters then made their way inside the fashion center, pent gone city mall in virginia where they held another die-in inside of the mall, like some of the ones we saw in the saint lewis region. on saturday, on the west coast, in portland, oregon. a big bunch of protesters laid down in the streets at the intersection of southwest eave and main street in portland. they refused to allow plifs to clear the streets. later that night on saturday, some of the protests did get rough and tumble. there were objecteds thrown at police. police did make arrests on saturday night in portland. that was sart e saturday. on sunday, yesterday, another group of protesters in the d.c. area formed a human chain across

interstate 395. again, this was in d.c., yesterday. they shut down both the north and southbound lanes flt police did make arrests there, as well. also, yesterday, at the nfl, protesters gathered outside the st. louis rams football stadium where they had a game against the oakland raiders. protesters were met by police in riot gear. inside the dome in st. louis, a group of players entered sunday's game out of the tunnel with both hands up, recreating the symbolic hands up, don't shoot e shoot cry of the ferguson protesters. those five rams players had their hands up as they exited their home field tunnel to start the game. they later said it was an anti-violence protest. then, today, this was the scene

early this morning at washington d.c.'s 14th street bridge. a group of about 20 protesters staged another lie down, basically. another die-in at the middle of the road during the opening of the 14 et street bridge. they shut down that bridge at the height of rush hour in d.c. early today. protesters in d.c. then moved onto shut down traffic at another key spot, the 12th street tunnel outside the department of justice in d.c. protesters laid down on the ground on pennsylvania avenue. and then a couple dozen gathered holding hands, chanting. that was today at the department of justice in washington. on the west coast, newton station today, a group of protesters gathered and drew chalk outlines of bodies on the sidewalk. in new york, protesters were

marching from union square to times square in new york city today. this was time to be part of, essentially, a nationwide demonstration that was called hands up, walk out. people were called onto walk out of their colleges and their high schools and their businesses. at 101 p.m. eastern time today. this was the scene in harvard square in massachusetts where 500 students from harvard university and from local high schools took to the streets today. this was the university of massachusetts at amhearst today. this was the university of colorado at bolder today. this was in texas, texas a&m today. this was jackson university near mississippi today. this is 23erg son at the university of st. louis. the response to what happened in ferguson, missouri, and the decision to not indict that police officer for killing michael brown, that news did not end last week. today, president obama held a cabinet meeting on the subject.

he announced specific new reforms and a specific new request to congress on the issue of police reform. local police using military tactics and military equipment against protesters. he asked for a specific allocation of funds from congress to fund body cameras for tens of thousands of police officers across the country. president obama today also hosted a long, personal meeting with a number of civil rights leaders, to talk about distrust between communities of color and police departments. part of the agenda, we're told, is how to try to learn from places where it's not as bad as it is in the rest of the country. how to try to learn and make progress based on some places in the country who may be handling this i shall shoe better than others. that indictment decision was a long time ago now. the protests are not over.

and, frankly, the beef has not been resolved. it's something that can't be undone in the individual case of michael brown, but that continues in a way that is unabated, unresolved and unanswered, thus far, in terms of the long standing dispute between communities and the police departments that don't feel protected by them. they feel that they need protection from police. what happens next? what's going to happen in terms of our national response to what has happened already? and to what will,undoubtedly, keep happening unless we change. joining us now is maria theresa cumar. >> she was at the meeting today. maria theresa, it's really nice to see you. thanks for being here. >> thank you for having me, rachel. >> i feel that part of it is a big, long holiday weekend. if you haven't been checked out,

i'm not sure that everybody knows that these protests have been unabaited and big and really continuing in the same tenure for a solid week now. this isn't just a mooifment. this is a reaction. >> that's absolutely right. i filled in yesterday from el paso. even in el paso, there were protests. small in scale, but right on the border. i think what ferguson is is an example where you have communities that don't feel safe, as you mentioned. that they don't feel safe. they don't feel protected. they don't feel like they can call 9-1-1. they're not on anyone's side. feeling that he was targeted because of his race. more importantly, he also acknowledged that we have to work closely with law

enforcement because they can do their job better. and one way to do that was to bridge commune kagsz. that was the first step that i was able to witness. it was the first step in a longer conversation but a brave step. no one ever wants to say that we're post-racial. and he basically said look, guys, we're not. let's have this conversation now. >> the way the white house addressed this issue of distrust between communities of color and police departments. in terms of that distryst, obviously, it's, you know, the way you get passed distrust is by showing good faits. in toerms of the mix of people in the room, what was that sort of mix of people and how did that confers go today? >> that was what was always fascinating. it was not always the vice president, but, in the room, you had law enforcement and eric holder. you had arnie duncan.

you had had a professor from harvard. you had religious leaders. you had the civil rights organizations, nclr, the advancement project, but then you also had young people in the room that are at the forefront of the ferguson protests that is a young, newly-elected official that was present along with phil agnew. it was a real representation of america. they're not comfortable conversations to have. it also demonstrated what a priority it is for him to try to fix this. he recognized that they're not able to do this in his term. but they'd like to get the conversation going. they're making deep-seeded policy changes. that's when you can start changing the current practices. i was relieved because one of the things that he emphasized was that eric holder was leaving the meeting because he was going down to atlanta and starting a series of confers around the

country to hear best practices not only from communities and where it's working, but also for where it's not working. they also want to be heard. i think that providing that space from the administrative level, you're sending a drekt message that they're not going to take any chances. and it has to get fixed. >> there's never going to be a magic wand. but unless the conversation can start and whether people can feel mutually respected, that's what they're turning toward. >> maria, always great to see you. thanks for being here. >> thank you, rachel. thanks for having me. >> we've got lots more ahead tonight. including an incredibly rare example of a political apology that didn't seem incredibly disingenuous and terrible. maybe? arguably? also, some sincere comments from michelle bachman. and no, i'm not drunk. i'll be right back. clinically proven neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair.

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the danish have a word for dealing with this time of year. not like the danish meaning like the pastries, i mean, like, people from denmark. their word for this time of year looks like hygge, i think, to us english speakers. but to the people of denmark, the word is pronounced more like "hugga." i lick to think it has something to do with if word hug. hygge means something basically to coziness or cuddling. it comes from when the earth telts away from the sun.

this time of year, in cold, cold denmark, they rely on this word. they rely on hygge to keep the dark away. to keep the dark away from winning and defeeting us all. look at this. it can be so dark in denmark this time of year, that for the few moments when it is light outside, they swadle the babies up and roll them outside for nap time. out doors in the winter in their strollers. just so the little buggers can get some precious moments of sun. you can't afford to sleep through the sun when there's that little of it. in our country, we do have places that get very little sun this type of year, like alaska or maine or pretty far north. but we also have a whole swath of our country that we call the sun belt. hello, arizona. here comes the subject e sun. even in wintertime. they have acres and acres of sun-baked desert. they play in sun devil stadium.

when the washington state husky ran away with the arizona sun devil this year, that was just a chew toy version. the real sun devils won the game by 14 points. arizona really is one of those places where the sun wins. the sun is the whole point of the arizona state flag. your baby can safely sleep inside. for many thousands of people who love arizona and who move there from other less warm parts of the country, the sun is basically the whole point of arizona. the last year in arizona, the sun nearly lost a round. >> we've seen this before. >> the true engine of economic growth will always be economic companies like solyndra. >> now, getting rich off of hard-working arizonans. we don't need this california-style corporate welfare in arizona. get the facts of out-of-state

solar companies as azsolarfacts.com. >> solar companies. conservatives last year came up with a plan in arizona to demonize solar energy. to specifically find people $50-100 every month for the crime of using solar power in arizona in the land of the sun. the original plan was that you would have to pay $50-100 every month to use solar power in arizona. eventually,the fine got whittled down to $5. it's basically a $5 fee that you have to pay if you want to use the sun as a source of energy in arizona. amazing. now it's happening again in the state that's more synonymous with the sun than arizona. >> have you tried chilled orange juice from florida?

we chill and ready to serve. you can buy it at your food store or have it delivered at your door. and it's got everything, too. vitamin c, quick energy and wonderful flavor. it's packed with that florida sunshine. >> packed with that florida sunshine. florida is, technically speaking, the sunshine state. that's their official state nickname. and they do not mean it as a me for. they mean it as a founding principle. a main attraction of what florida is. the florida department of citrus has a new branded avengers character called captain citrus, who runs on solar power. the circles on his hands are solar pods. maybe it's my solar pods, but you're going down. florida is so much the sunshine sfat, that the with whole ad campaign for the city of ft.lauderdale is find your sunny. you can find it at sunny.org. explore your sunny side in

florida, the sunshine state. so, now, naturally, because it's florida, florida has declared war on the sun, even though it wants to be known as the sunshine state. this past week, very quietly, just before thanksgiving, florida, incredibly, decided to kill solar power in the state of florida. they voted to kill, entirely, the rebate program in the state. they basically should stop their efforts to conserve energy. duke energy had pledged that by five years from now, they would come up with a way to conserve 333 gigawat hours of energy. florida decided to cut that from 333 to 21. tampa electric, they pledged to save nothing over the next five years. now florida says they have to save less than half of nothing. look at the numbers from florida power and light. florida power and light was going to find a way to save 229

gigawatt hours of energy. now florida says don't sweat it. they dropped that goal from 229 hours to 4 hours. and they killed the program for solar power in the sunshine state. power companies, utilities, they make the money by selling power. the more power you use, the more they can sell you. and, therefore, the more money they make. if you make the power yourself from the sun, the solar panels on your roof, or if you or they or anybody finds a way to use less power, then they're selling less power and they make less money. so, florida, right now, at the rest of the utility companies, right before thanksgiving, very quietly, just decided to stop conserving energy as a state policy. they're no longer even going to in the sunshine state. it's amazing. it's interesting here in the

politics. a group called the green tea coalition. yes, they are, in fact,a tea party group that is super-right wing. making their own electricity and people having choices on how to make their own electricity. even finding people for using the sun, trying to make everybody use fossil fuel power from power plants and as much of it as possible, this is a thing now in republican politics. it's not getting a lot of attention. they have just done this in arizona this past year. they are gearing up again to try to do it in kansas and now they have done it in the biggest state. now they have done it in florida. in the sunshine state they have decided they are against the sun. i don't know what captain citrus' politics are, but i can expect he's going to be pretty mad.

so there's a thing we do periodically when the news calls for it. it's a thing we call abds now here's the thing. so, without further adieu, and now, here's the thing.

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governor mark sanford's office did not know where he was, his family did not know where he

was, the state agency tasked with protecting him didn't know where he was. the governor of south carolina just went missing. the only explanation was that the governor was unreachable because he was hiking the appalachian trail. mark sanford was not hiking the appalachian trail. he was, instead, in argentina visiting his secret girlfriend. when he finally returned, mark sanford had to face the music. he had been found out. he called an afternoon press conference. he admitted to lying about it. and, in so doing, in apologizing, mark sanford coined one of the best phrases i have every heard fall out of a politician's mouth. it is perfect in every way. watch. >> i'm a bottom line kind of guy. i'll lay it out. it's going to hurt and we'll let the chips fall where they may. let me, first of all, apologize to my wife, ginnie and our four

great boys for letting them down. i would also apologize to my staff because, as much as i did talk about you on the appalachian trail, that was one of the original scenarios. i'm here because if you were to look at god's laws, in every instance, i am protecting people from themselves. i think that that is the bottom line of god's law. it's not a moral, rigid list of dos and don'ts for the heck of dos and don'ts, it is, indeed, to protect us from ourselves. and the biggest self of self is indeed, the self. >> the biggest self of self is, indeed, self. mark sanford. mark sanford's, i fled the state to have an affair press conference was epic. he apologized to his wife, he apologized to his kids. he apologized to his staff.

he apologized to even, "all people of faith across the state of south carolina." atheists? eh. it was a 20-minute long mea culpa from south carolina. that was the exception rather than the rule, right? it's almost normal in politics these days when you have to apologize for something to give these turs, terrible, disingenuous nonapologies. when you do something wrong or say something wrong, you say i'm sorry if you were offended. i'm sorry that what i said was taken out of context. i'm sorry that i misspoke. obviously, i didn't mean that terrible thing that i said. shame on you if you did mean it. how could you think of that. you should apologize to me. that's sort of the norm. occasionally, though, you get the full appalachian trail. occasionally, you get the full-on, i screwed up apology.

see, he would have fixed all of these problems with a little dose of good ole down home apartheid. that would have been better. trent lock apologized. he started off with the normal, terrible political apology. i apologize to anyone who was offended. but, then, he kept doing it over and over again. then he essential decided to do over his apology in which he offered a pretty thorough objection to his own views at length. this is what he did with the tv network, bet. >> the important thing is to recognize the hurt that i caused and ask for forgiveness and find

a way to turn this into a positive thing and try to make amends for what i've said and for what others have said and done over the years. a lot of what i think is wrong here is not enough communication, not enough understanding of how people feel and how, you know, there has been immoral leadership in my part of the country for a long time. >> were you a part of that? >> yes, i can't deny that. and i, you know, i believe that i have changed and i'm trying to do a better job. yes, i believe i'm a part of the region in history that has not always done what they're supposed to have done. >> were you a part of that? >> yes, i can't deny that. trent lock made those comments about strong thurman and segregation in december, 2002. within a few weeks, he had resigned his leadership post in the senate and then later resigned from the united states senate all together. in the history of good or at least thorough political

apologies, there's mark sanford's rambling 20 minute apology to essentially everyone he has ever come into contact with. there's trent lott apologizing and then very quickly going away in 2002. honestly, there's not a whole lot of other political apologies. they're always disingenuous and terse. and that's why they don't work. previously unknown house republican staffer who has now, at least for a moment, become nationally famous. on wednesday, we got the traditional pardoning of the turkey ceremony. president obama pardoned two turkeys, mack and cheese. they will now get to live out the rest of their days in a turkey farm in west virginia. we all feel great about that while we eat other members of their species. it's like this pageant of mercy. president obama's daughters, sascha and male arksz, they attended the turkey pardoning.

they put up a brave teenage base about the whole thing. but after it was over, they were targeted by the communications director for a republican congressman. her name is elizabeth laughton. she's communications director. and ms. laughton wrote online, dear sascha and malea, you're a part of the first family. try showing a little class. at least respect the part you play. act like being in the white house matters to you. dress like you deserve respected, not a spot at the bar. for all the obvious reasons, the staffer did ultimately apologize online. this is a communications director for a serving member of congress. but political apologies are notoriously terrible. here's how hers went in part.

that staffer not only issued that length thi apology, but earlier today, she officially resigned from her job working for that member of congress. so the status of political apologies. does an apology help even in a situation like this? why did this happen in the first place? is this happening in washington because the apology was actually

followed by a ree resignation? joining me now is msnbc contributor, gene robinson. thanks for being here. >> great to be here, rach. >> i have to say, people apologizing isn't a political news story, but this is a way that the obama family is treated in politics, and whether or not we're getting any better at apologizing for doing terrible and stupid stuff. >> well, first of all, i thought it was a pretty bad apology, to tell you the truth. for this reason. she didn't apologize to them. she should have apologized to the people she offended. she offended sascha and malea obama. she doesn't mention them in her apology. she should address her apology to them because those are the people she offended with words, as far as i'm concerned, beyond the pale. this president is treated differently. let's face it.

and that's fine. he can deal with that. but to treat his daughters that way is just way beyond. and that line about dress for respect and not for a spot at the bar, boy, at my house, that occasioned some slamming down of things. it plays into this subconscious stereotype of black women as want sensuous. so where did that come from out of her? i think she should have just apologized to the family and good-bye. >> well, she did end up saying good-bye in terms of leaving. she did apologize to the family. she did leave her job. i wonder, because she has quit, because this happened, people

were very angry. she apologized, more or less, and now is gone. i wonder if that is actually sort of an important sign that there is still a morae in washington about the president's family. this president and lots of presidents have had terrible attacks and this president has had worse attacks than presidents before him for a number of reasons, including race. and i wonder if we see a re-upping of that line that says leave the children out of this. we've seen it violated in the past, but there are consequences when that happens. >> well, i hope we have. and, look, with chelsea clinton was subject to ugly criticism when she was in the white house. totally uncalled for. the bush daughters. the same thing as they went through their late teen years in the white house and were sublted

to a kind of scrutiny that was often mean and there was a sort of self-correcting mechanism. i sincerely hope it has kicked in here and the fact that with laughton resigning so quickly, indicates that some things are sacred in washington. and you don't go after the president's family, whatever you think about the president, you don't go after his young daughters in that way. 13 years old and 16 years old, it's just not allowed. >> we have been led to believe, then, nothing is sacred in washington or in politics, probably. but i think this is a story that tells us that principle does still hold and that ought to be recognized and put a rubber stamp on it. i would also say that we should coin a eugene robinson rule that you have to apologize to the person, too. >> it's just a good idea. >> gene, thanks for being here. i appreciate it. >> great to be here, rach. >> the good thing about winning something is obviously that you

won a thing. the bad thing about winning something is now that you have that thing which means if you are not careful, you can break that thing. breaking the trophy in grand style coming up next.

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in 1947, a trophy called the

gray cup, the canadian football league's trophy was almost destroyed in a fire. since 1947, that trophy has been broken six different times by teams celebrating when they won it. in 1978, it was dropped. it was sat on, head butted. in 2006, the players tore the cup from its base while celebrating their win and kept on celebrating. after all they just won the championship. in 2012, a player accidently ripped one of the handles off of the cup. can you see it in his right hand. that doesn't belong there. that brings us to yesterday when calgary won the gray cup. and in their celebration for the sixth time, amid all the jubilation over winning the cup, they, again, broke it. you can see it sort of coming

loose and wobbling around on its base. the celebration continued into the locker room, and the cup broke all the way off the base and the players turned it into a giant beer goblet. hockey fans have seen the memorial cup snap-in front of their eyes. oh, look at their faces. fans watched the copa del ray. even taylor swift broke one of her trophies. the crowd gasps in horror after she drops it. people spend all this time and effort, sometimes their entire careers trying to win this thing. once they get it they immediately break the thing that they just won. hold that thought.

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when you win something, yay, you won. that's it. it's often your first opportunity to break the thing that you have just won. in sports, like in last night's canadian football championship, it was a chance for the winning team to brake the championship trophy that they had just won. it's the sixth time the winning team has broken that specific trophy the night they won it. but it happens in other places too. when eddie george won the heisman trophy, he broke off part of the heisman's hand. two years ago, the father of the long snapper on the alabama football team tripped over a rug, fell onto a display table and shattered the crystal football thing that you win for winning the bcs in college football. it's great to win, you can win, but once you win you also have

the opportunity to break the thing that you just won. the republicans in congress just won congress. you see where this is going. republicans won control of the house in 2010. the two sessions of congress that have happened sense then have been the two least productive congresses in the history of the united states congress. today, though, the congress did come back to town and go back to work. and that makes this next couple of weeks a really interesting time. because in ten days, in ten days, the government will shutdown unless government passes a spending bill to keep the lights on, and a significant number of republicans don't want to do that because they're mad at president obama about immigration. they've only got ten days to sort it out before another shutdown. and it's their call, right? they want it. they won congress. so that means it's their opportunity to break it if they want to break it. now, though, on the other side of congress, there's a whole new

way that they might go. if you ever think about being a united states senator, you should know that senators basically never work more than two weeks without then immediately taking a whole week off to recover. nice gig, right? but when the republicans take over in january, look what they have started for the start of the year, to work six straight weeks. and most of those weeks will last five whole days. when's the last time a senator worked on a friday, let alone six fridays in a row. this schedule is going to be waterloo for the united states senate. no way they work six straight weeks without at least one of them from each party keeling over. no way. and before they even get to that, over the next two weeks, they need to pass the bill that keeps the pentagon going, a big tax bill, a number of nominations, a veteran suicide bill that they better pass if they don't want veterans mad at them. and they have to keep something

to keep the government running, and that all needs doing before christmas and before the senate is scheduled to work six straight weeks in a row. who thinks they're going to make it? "first look" is up next. good morning, everybody. right now on "first look," ray rice and his wife. the couple at the center of the storm over domestic violence and the nfl speak out for the first time. >> and i'm hardly sorry for everything that, you know, i had to put my family through. plus, more fallout for bill cosby in the wake of a growing sexual assault scandal. and captured on video, the horrifying moment, a police helicopter explodes into flames. good morning, everybody. thanks for joining us. i'm betty nguyen. former baltimore ravens running back ray rice is breaking his sigh clens in an exclusive interview with matt lauer. this comes after that infamous video knocking out his now wife in a casino elevator. the act got rice suspended