transition. >> just seems to me, we're putting so much oil on the market, how could that not affect the price globally? so it's a different dynamic pray playing out in front of us. great to have you with us. appreciate your time. that's "the ed show." "politicsnation" with reverend al sharpton starts right now. good evening, rev. >> good evening, ed, and thanks to you for tuning in. we start with breaking news on the siege in sydney. a 16-hour stand-off with a gunman holding 17 hostages in a cafe in australia's largest city. finally ending this morning in a hail of gunfire. [ gunfire ] here's what we know right now. police say two of the hostages are dead. and that the gunman was killed in the raid. they say they stormed the cafe

after hearing gun shots. >> they made the call because they believed at that time if they didn't enter, there would have been many more lives lost. events that were unfolding inside the premises led them to the belief that now was the time to deploy the number of gun shots that were heard, which caused officers to move straight to what we call an emergency action plan and that caused them to enter. >> after the raid, a number of hostages were taken out on stretchers and transported by ambulance to sydney hospitals. it was the conclusion of a stand-off that gripped the world's attention. overnight, we saw chilling images of five hostages making a daring dash to safety. while inside customers and staff were forced to hold up this islamic banner. witnesses described the first moments of the siege. >> yeah, i saw the gunman, yep. he was quite tall.

late 40s. very calm. he was just pacing. he was looking out into the lift well. and the customers were still sitting at the tables. they were drinking, but i'm not sure how alert they were to what was going to unfold. >> police identifying the suspected gunman as manuran mompt onis, he had a long criminal record, including a conviction for sending offensive letters to the families of australian soldiers killed in afghanistan. >> this pen is my gun. and these words are my bullets. i'll fight with these weapons against oppression, to promote peace. >> today the u.s. defense department told nbc news there

was no evidence the gunman had any connection to isis. but among the questions now, was he a lone wolf, or part of a larger plot? and how can future incidents be stopped? joining me now, retired atf analyst and counter-terror expert. thank you both for being here. >> thank you, rev. >> let's talk about how this all ended. walk us through the raid by the australian police. >> well, what happened, reverend al, from all the reporting, it looks like the hostage taker at any 2:00 in the morning, about 2:03 in the morning, started herding the hostages into two separate groups. so that's the activity that started everything, it looks like. and then a series of events happened. one man went out a door. and a couple minutes later, five more people went out.

australian newspapers are reporting that a man inside a few minutes later tried to grab the guy's gun. i'm not sure when. they're saying it might have happened. but the dynamics were changing inside. people were escaping out the door. one of the long riflemen looked through the window and reported a shot fired at a hostage, and then they launched the emergency assault. you can see on the video you're showing there, reverend al, the emergency assault where the flash bang devices are deployed and they set off a series of explosions. there's some gunfire in there, and there's evidence that he fired at the police. because one of the officers was wounded with a pellet. he was killed, unfortunately, two hostages were dead. the on-scene commanders were forced to make a decision. it looks like he shot a hostage.

it all started when there was some activity in there. a guy tried to get his gun away from him, or him trying to herd the people around. not sure which happened first, but it was the only response that they could do. >> leith, we watched this all night. the world was totally gripped by this. what are you learning now tonight? what has come to you now that's new? >> well, we've learned a few things just by studying what's left of his social media activities. and that is his twitter account, that has not. taken down. his latest tweet was on december 12th. but the man -- >> which was friday? >> which was friday. and the man appeared to be infatuated by radical elements like isis. he declared that the leader of isis, he asked people to pray for him. he accused the australian government of actual practicing torture on prisoners in australia and for launching what

he called terrorist campaign by allying itself with the u.s.-led coalition that has targeted -- >> but there's no evidence of a direct connection with isis or any terrorist group? >> so far there's no direct connection that we see. there's also no direct connection that we see with a larger group. it seemed that he acted on his own. >> jim, from the suspected gunman's background, he faced more than 40 charges of sexual or indecent assault. in 2013, he was charged with being an accessory to the murder of his ex-wife, and he was convicted of sending offensive letters to relatives of fallen australian soldiers. so he was certainly on the radar of authorities in sydney, right? >> that's right. they knew about him and even the reporters knew about him because of his extremist views and being public in the street, preaching in the street this extremism. and sending these letters to the

families of the australian soldiers. he was well known to the police, to the media. and i agree with leith, he's an inspired, sbrg, lone actor, much like major hassan at ft. hood, the hatchet attack on the london soldier, the canadian attack on the parliament, they're inspired actors. they're not part of the connected organization, but they're still deadly. >> isn't that even more dangerous, laith, than organized groups that can be looked upon, monitored, spied upon? that you have these lone people that no one has any way of knowing they're going to come out? how do we protect ourselves from that? >> most definitely, these are the unknown unknowns. you don't know whether they're going to strike. they leave very little evidence behind. they don't cooperate or organize

with other individuals. they don't act on behalf of a group. they act inspired by an ideology more than anything else. what we need, we need a counter narrative, a deradicalization campaign that can take off in a be in of societies where we believe isis is trying to infiltrate, or its ideology is trying to infiltrate, in australia, the united states, europe and all across the middle east. >> you were talking about other incidents around the world and some that have occurred may have been inspired by other terrorist groups. >> in may, four people were shot and killed at a jewish museum in brussels. in october, a man drove his car over two canadian soldiers in a strip mall. two days later a canadian soldier was shot and killed at the national war memorial. and today the stand-off in sydney. and here's what president obama's former deputy director

of the cia said today. listen to this. >> what concerns me the most is that we're going to see this kind of terrorism around the world and we are going to see it here, and we need to be prepared for that. it shouldn't surprise people when this happens here sometime over the next year or so. guaranteed. >> that's a very chilling, chilling statement to americans. >> right, it is, reverend al. but we've seen it before. weave seen it in ft. hood. we've seen it in the cases you've outlined. if the people don't have a direct connection to isis, if they haven't gone over there, or al qaeda, if they haven't worked with them, trained with them, you know, and they're not in contact with them, then they're inspired lone actor, but they're still deadly and they still can pop up. so the broader community of americans, and then the broader community of muslims that reject these people whole heartedly, we all have to work together to

find them and interrupt their deadly plots if we can. >> jim cavanaugh and laith alcorey, thank you both for your time tonight. straight ahead, revenge politics. why senator benter is vowing to block president obama's pick for attorney general. plus, thought elizabeth warren's white was over? think again. the power of warren and what it means for the new congress. and tens of thousands marched to end police brutality. now oprah winfrey is speaking out. more on the oprah effect on the movement ahead. i have a cold with terrible chest congestion. i better take something. theraflu severe cold doesn't treat chest congestion. really? new alka-seltzer plus day powder rushes relief to your worst cold symptoms plus chest congestion. [breath of relief] oh, what a relief it is.

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breaking news tonight, gop senator david vitter, announcing

he'll try to block president obama's nominee for attorney general, loretta lynch. but it's not about her record. it's about political revenge. that's next. [coughing] dave, i'm sorry to interrupt... i gotta take a sick day tomorrow. dads don't take sick days, dads take nyquil. the nighttime, sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, fever, best sleep with a cold, medicine.

politics of revenge. that's what we're seeing from louisiana senator david vitter. he's so mad over the president's immigration executive action, he's vowing to block his pick for attorney general, loretta lynch. vitter says, quote, we'll have the opportunity to push back on executive amnesty with one of our first major battles.

the attorney general nomination. the attorney general is one of the linchpins to obama's amnesty plan, and i'll be working to get the new congress to block this nomination. this has nothing to do with lynch's merits. it's just a childish political power play. i it's counterproductive and it's today's republican party. joining me now, dana millbank and joan walsh. thank you both for being here. this is flat-out revenge. how will it play out if he follows through with this blocking plan of his? >> i don't know. he'll get some support for sure, but look at what he didn't say in that release. he didn't say her name. he didn't say anything about her record. >> because it was all about president obama. >> right. he didn't say, we're going to talk to her about her views on immigration and executive power. there were lots of things he could have said. he didn't say anything about her record here in new york.

pro or con. she's not a person. she's a cipher. she's a stand-in for the president. she also happens to be african american. and there's tended to be a little bit of a beating up on certain nominees and black office holders like eric holder and susan rice. so this is shaping up to be another battle that can it get pretty ugly. >> but, dana, this is crazy. we are in the middle of some very serious legal questions in this country, from immigration, to policing, to wall street. and we're not dwebating the merits of the nominee, we're playing political revenge power games here. >> of course it's crazy, but you're not surprised that craziness is occurring to capitol hill right now. this is basically the ted cruz playbook. he said he wants to fight president obama in every way possible, including with the nominations. now, there aren't a lot of guys like ted cruz and vitter who want to do this.

but you don't need too many. they can't stop it permanently, but they can slow it down. you know who doesn't want to hear this, mitch mcconnell, because it's exposing a rift within the republican party. the leadership doesn't want to look irresponsible. if they go holding up confirmation of the nation's chief law enforcement official, they're going to look pretty irresponsible. >> joan, we did have a hint when dana mentioned ted cruz. we had a hint that conservative centers might go after loretta lynch over immigration. because when she was nominated senators ted cruz and mike lee asked her to put out a statement on whether or not she believes the president's executive amnesty plans were constitutional and legal. if senator vitter is getting tips from ted cruz, this can't end well for him, can it? >> you know, he's made a choice to get his tips from ted cruz. ted cruz has said he didn't think they should approve any nominees, not for

ambassadorships, not for anything, including the attorney general. so, you know, dana might be more optimistic than i am about there being really pushback among leadership. i can't see mitch mcconnell stopping -- letting his people stop this, but i can see them letting them have some fun with it. so we'll see. >> we see the revenge coming from the right. but i also want to talk about the thunder from the left. elizabeth warren taking on the gop for pushing through secret favors for big banks. >> democrats don't like wall street bailouts. republicans don't like wall street bailouts. the american people are disgusted by wall street bailouts. and yet here we are five years after dodd-frank with congress on the verge of ramming through a provision that would do nothing for the middle class, do nothing for community banks, do nothing but raise the risk that

taxpayers will have to bail out the biggest banks once again. >> this is warren's moment. and the fight is only beginning. she's trying to derail the nomination of an investment banker named antonio weiss for position at the treasury department. senator warren's arguing a wall street executive shouldn't turn around and start regulating wall street. republicans try to block nominees to score political points. this move is on actual policy. dana, there seems to be a false equivalence, linking warren's fight to the far right. >> in a superficial sense she's bucking the party establishment, the way a ted cruz bucks the party establishment, but she's not trying to throw sand in the gears here. she's stating her policy objection right up front here. i think for the democrats as a whole, it's unfortunate because they could be at this moment,

exploiting the rifts that are naturally existing on the right in the republican party as they take over congress. it would be nice to see that the white house could get on the same page with elizabeth warren and could get some of that populist energy going and back away from being just the second major corporate party in american politics. but when you have these disputes out in the open, they're losing an opportunity for unity here to exploit the republican divisions that are going to be popping up. >> but, joan, everybody's eyes are on elizabeth warren right now. how much power does she have? >> joe manchion, a blue dog, not normally with elizabeth warren, not necessarily a populist, has joined her on this one. i don't know that she can block it, but she's going to try. i know there were some progressives who hoped maybe the president would back away from

this nomination. he forced people to vote for the budget, even with the wall street stuff in it that they didn't like. maybe he would give on this one. he's not going to. that's his prerogative up. but he's going to face a fight with his party. i disagree on the issue of democratic unity. i think this is a fight worth having. sometimes fake unity has prevailed. nancy pelosi had to whip votes for things she didn't believe in over the years and i think that kind of faith unity is not going to happen and maybe some serious debate can be had. >> usually ends up with no unity at all. but senator warren, you know, they keep talking about her running for president. she was asked again today if she'd consider a run for president. take a listen. >> i'm not running for president. that's not what we're doing. we had a really important fight in the united states congress just this past week, and i'm putting all my energy into that

fight and to what happens after this. >> would you tell these independent groups, give it up, you're just never going to run? >> i told them, i'm not running for president. >> you're putting that in the present tense. are you never going to run? >> i am not running for president. >> you're not putting a never on that. >> i am not running for president. do you want me to put an exclamation point at the end? >> she says she's not running for president, dana, but is there a reason she won't put a "never" in that statement? >> because she's a politician. you're never supposed to put the never in there if you have ambition. but she's not doing anything to indicate she's running for president or that she's prepared to run for president. so i would take her at her word. that she is trying to infuse this populist energy into the crowd. i'm not sure what joan means about fake unity. i think the white house should be grasping some of this populist energy and shifting

their views to where the energy is within the party right now, i think that would be very effective. >> dana and joan, thank you for your time tonight. breaking news, breaking news. president obama's nominee for surgeon general was just confirmed by the senate with a 51-43 vote. dr. vivek murphy was nominated by president obama over a year ago and has faced steep opposition from republicans, namely because the nra opposed his nomination. murthy has been confirmed now. we'll have more on this. and ted cruz's role in his nomination ahead. murthy confirmed. also ahead, dick cheney's explosive comments about torture, innocent people, and whether he's do it all over again. plus, oprah winfrey's powerful interview with the

policing protests sweeping the country. and what president obama says is so hard about buying christmas presents for the first lady. good morning everybody.

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>> the wheels are coming off the bus of the ted cruz self-promotional tour. late friday night the texas republican took to the senate floor to protest the spending bill and rail against president obama's immigration action. >> and before the united states senate is a bill that does nothing, absolutely nothing, to stop president obama's illegal and unconstitutional amnesty. i am now offering and raising a constitutional point of order. >> another late-night ted cruz grandstand. too bad he forgot his copy of "green eggs and ham." but his show boating totally

backfired. cruz's point of order stunt set off a chain reaction in the senate procedures. eventually allowing democratic leader harry reid to set up dozens of obama nominees to be confirmed before the senate adjourns this week. nominees who republicans hope to run out the clock on. like tony blinkin, for the deputy secretary of state. and sarah saldana to head immigration and customs enforcement. and most controversial of all, vivek murthy, president obama's nominee for surgeon general who strongly was opposed by the nra. but he was just confirmed by the senate moments ago. democrats were overjoyed. it was like christmas came early and senator cruz was santa claus. but republicans weren't as thrilled. susan collins declared it

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better than the competition the first time. cascade. now that's clean. >> a disturbing new video is highlighting how the family members of police shooting victims are treated in the wake of their loved one's death. john crawford iii was shot and killed by police in august. after officers saw him carrying a pellet gun through an ohio walmart. late today we learned that john crawford's parents plan to sue the two officers involved in the shooting of their son, as well as the police chief and walmart. and now in a new video obtained by "the guard"ian newspaper, we're seeing how his girlfriend was grilled and threatened by

police for over an hour and a half right after crawford was shot dead. >> you might be on your way to jail, so i'm going to be very clear -- >> i swear to good, i swear to god, i swir to god, i have a job and a family. >> where did he get this gun? >> sir, i don't know. i swear to good. sir, i swear to god. >> you were with him just moments before this happened. you need to tell me the truth. >> i am. i am, i swear to god. >> you might be on your way to jail. that man had a weapon. but the threats and attacks didn't stop there. >> why would he have a gun in the store? >> i don't know. >> don't tell me that you don't know. that's the first thing i realize when someone's not telling me the truth. you are close to this man and

you need to be truthful to me. this might be your last chance. i'm not going to take another statement. you knew at some point he did carry a gun? >> no, sir, i swear i didn't know. >> tasha, i'm having trouble with this. >> give me a lie detector test. >> that might come in the future. >> he's grilling her as if she committed a crime. this video is disturbing. but it's part of a growing problem. people who have lost loved ones to police shootings deserve to be treated with respect and dignity, not as if they've done something wrong. joining me now are mark clq cla and former new york city police officer and former prosecutor and host of "just faith," thanks for being here tonight. faith, they say the officer didn't even tell her john

crawford was dead until 90 minutes into the interrogation. what's your reaction to this video? >> this video was so disturbing to watch, especially in light of what we know now about what happened in that walmart. but sometimes police officers have to question witnesses or suspects in a hostile manner to get information. but this wasn't one of those cases. this woman was not a suspect. there was a phone call with the walmart about john crawford. she had done nothing wrong. she was not suspected of doing anything wrong. and the way this officer is interrogating her, well, first of all, in this state, he's interrogating her about him having this gun. where did he get the gun? in his state, he's legally able to do so. even if that's true, that's not illegal in the state of ohio. and under walmart's regulations. >> because it was a toy gun. >> and on top of that, at what point after they shoot john crawford the police officers are there, they're trained to use deadly force.

they know what real guns look like. how do you not know at some point right after the shooting, that's not a real gun. it's a bb gun. it's sold in walmart. >> he basically is calling her a liar. he's the girlfriend of a man just killed, who was talking to him on the phone. she was not there, not suspected of anything. he's badgering her and basically calling her a liar. i mean, you were a police officer for many years. he even asked, was she sober. watch this. >> are you under the influence of anything? >> no. >> been drinking? >> no. >> drugs? >> no. >> your eyes are kind of messed up looking and you seem lethargic and tired, but i don't know if it's because you're upset or not. >> i mean, this is crazy. mark, is this an appropriate way for law enforcement to interrogate someone? >> not appropriate at all. what we're witnessing there on the video is termed the hard

interview. and there are occasions when police investigators, like i was a retired detective, used a hard interview to gather information, facts, some evidence. but then there are times when the investigator themselves are basically incompetent and unaware of the facts to engage in a successful or fruitful or meaningful hard interview. you can't lose your humanity and your decency and your morality when dealing with anyone, especially this young lady, who he knew had a boyfriend who had just been killed. he should have also known that the weapon in question was not a real weapon. it was a toy gun. so he went in, basically blind, if you believe him, and then used this hard interview technique. and i suspect that technique is probably used with everybody he interviews. that's his style and that's one of the problems with some investigations and with the investigators that conduct them. >> but, you know, mark, faith just talked about humanity and that's what i've been saying all

along. where does your humanity come in? ferguson, statin island choking a man. when does your humanity kick in? we're learning more about how police treated the family of tamir rice, a 12-year-old boy shot by ohio police. after he was killed, listen to his sister described what happened when she tried to run to her brother's side. >> i ran to the gazebo. and i couldn't get there all the way to him because the officer attacked me. threw me on the ground, tackled me on the ground, put me in handcuffs and put me in the back of the police car. when i come running out, they tackled me and they didn't do nothing. they was just standing there looking really lost. >> i mean, faith, her brother was dying. and they tackled her and threw her into the police car. i mean, do they have any legal recourse? >> this is a kid.

you look at her, you clearly see she's a kid. you know, these police officers, whether it's with tamir rice, or with eric garner, you see police officers and this pattern of them responding to a scene or to a call, and there's this inability to assess the situation, to assess the real dangerousness of a situation before using deadly force. so it's not surprising that they treated her that way. they just killed a 12-year-old with a fake gun because they responded in a matter of seconds decided to use deadly force on that 12-year-old, before making the proper assessment to see who he was and what he was really doing. >> in a recent case here in new york, akai gurley was killed by officers in the stairwell of his home. and "the daily news" reports that the nypd officer who shot gurley was texting his union rep as gurley lay dying. and what the officers were

incommunicado for more than six and a half minutes while their commanding officer and an emergency officer tried to reach them. mark, what can be done to ensure police treat the people they shoot and their families with more dignity? >> you have to shift the mind-set of law enforcement, which is surrounding much of what the activity going throughout the nation. you have to shift the mind-set of law enforcement to the point where they realize that what you're doing is public service. you're doing community service. you're doing goodwill. that's the bulk of law enforcement. until you shift the mind-set away from this overmilitarized, over-aggressive, in many communities of color in particular, and we have to be honest about that, until you shift away from that mind-set, you'll continue to find incidents where they don't respect the humanity, and in large part, too many police agencies, too many law enforcement agencies operate based on color and the community. what community they're in and

what color the individuals that they're dealing with are, and that's unacceptable on any level. >> totally unacceptable. >> we have to shift it back to public service. >> totally unacceptable. and i want to add, i'm not saying this about all police, not even most police. but those that operate this way needs to be held accountable. marq claxton and faith jenkins, thank you both for your time tonight. >> thank you, rev. coming up, dick cheney's talking torture. would he do it again? plus, we heard from a lot of celebrities on the movement against police brutality. now oprah is speaking out. and president obama revealed something about his christmas list. "conversation nation" is next. (vo) nourished.

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time now for "conversation nation." joining me tonight, msnbc's krystal ball, chris witherspoon and aliona minkovski. thank you all for being here. we start with dick cheney's defense of the enhanced int interrogation methods. despite all the findings in the torture report, he said he'd do to again. >> i have no problem, as long as

we achieve our objective. that's to get the guys who did 9/11 and it's to avoid another attack against the united states. i was prepared and we did, we got the authorize from the president and authorization from the justice department to the go forward with the program. it worked. we've avoided another mass casualty attack against the united states. we captured bin laden and others who are responsible for the attack on 9/11. i'd do it again in a minute. >> he would do it all over again. >> kudos to chuck, this was a great interview. and it was so luminating. he asked him, forced rectal feeding, do you think that's torture? >> cheney said no. the conditions they held detainees in where they held to death, is that torture? no. so obviously his definition of torture does not match what international standards and what the american people just at a basic level of common sense think. and on the point of whether or not it works, that was one of the things that was clarifying

about this report. no, torture did not keep us safe. it did not make us safer. >> when you see an interview like this, taking the politics out of it, does it help or hurt his side when he's saying rectal feeding is not torture? people like that were undecided, start looking at this and say, what? >> i think it's not so much what he said, but how he said it. he was very unapologetic. we know he's to blame. he was involved at overseeing the cia. so i think the fact that he was so arrogant and backed away from saying any kind of i'm sorry, i apologize, this was inhumane, it was kind of absurd. >> he didn't deny any of the allegations that chuck laid out from the report. >> i don't know why everyone is so surprised that dick cheney is not apologizing and that he'd do it again. of course he would because he was never punished for it.

and that's a key failure of the obama administration. the rhetoric the president tells us that he's opposed to torture, but the actions there just don't line up. >> what could be done? >> what could be done, you could hold somebody accountable. you could try to prosecute people. you could try to set an example. if we supposedly -- if this goes against our fundamental values as a country, then we need to prove it to the rest of the world. we are sig nattories to international conventions -- >> one idea that's been floated with, to issue pardon, because that way you're recognizing wrongdoing without going through the details, you're able to move forward but with the recognition there was wrongdoing. no one's lost their job. no one's been held accountable at that basic level of losing their job for what clearly the american people see as torture and for not to mention lying to congress and lying to the american people. >> on the scale of public

opinion, how alarmed is the public on this? is there a real backlash and a real sense of outrage that you sense in the public? >> i think you can look at it as a political story, but it's crossed into the homes of the american people. i think everybody is upset about this. there's outrage. it's absurd. you look at america as a country that protects its nation, but also protects those in other countries. and to go to other countries and do what we see has happened in these reports, it's shocking. i think people across the country and around the world are shocked. now to oprah winfrey, speaking out on the nationwide protests against police brutality. last night at a movie premiere in new york city, oprah spoke to chris witherspoon. >> my feeling is that everything is always happening exactly as it should and on time. it's not coincidence that this is happening now, but because it's happening now, people are

say paying more attention. and i think life is already there ready to teach, enlighten and open you up to the greater possibilities of what can be done, if you're willing to be awake and to see it. >> chris, great interview. she said "willing to be awake." what do you think the oprah effect will be on this? >> i think because oprah has been silent for so long. she hasn't been on instagram and talked about eric garner, michael brown, none of that. i think the fact that she's finally speaking is going to make people realize it is a national issue. it's beautiful, but it's sad that these people are gone, the families are mourning, but people are awake. they want to engage now more than ever before. >> i think when she said that now people are paying attention, it was almost implicitly saying, this has been happening a long time, but now is the time. >> this has been happening for a very long time. >> you know i know. >> well, one of the other things

that oprah has said about this too in regards to selma and the movie coming out, the movie is proof that people have been fighting for justice for so long, whether it be voting rights, or fighting against police brutality in this country, and not to take it for granted and not to forget that people risk their lives for this in the past. >> lost their lives. >> many lost their lives. >> and the other thing that was interesting about chris tying this into the red carpet interview with oprah is that in the film, they show some of the tension in the movement. and it takes away some of the romance that you get with the rewrite of history, like everybody wasn't with dr. king. there's a lot of in-fighting, there's a lot of controversy, but they still made progress. >> and he wasn't born a nationally beloved figure. it's only looking back at

history that everyone celebrates what he was able to achieve. but it's powerful to hear oprah on this, it helps to keep the spotlight on. but if people watched that video of eric garner and aren't moved to action, to recognize that there is a problem in this country, i don't know that oprah can fix it. >> everyone, please stay with me. when we come back, president obama's big christmas decision. it's about shopping. next. will that be all, sir?

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we're back with the panel, krystal, chris, and alyona. now to the holiday shopping. i have a question. i want a show of hands here. who is done with their christmas shopping? >> who hasn't started their christmas shopping? >> i've started at least. i'm 3/4 of the way through. >> we have nine shopping days left before christmas. and if you still have work to do, don't worry. so does president obama. here's what he told ryan seacrest today. >> michelle's hard to shop for. she's very fashionable and she looks good. so i'm worried about buying her clothes, because, you know, on christmas day she'll look at it and say, that's really sweet, honey and peck me on the cheek and then i never see her wear whatever i bought. so i've got to rack my brain to see what's a new idea.

>> alyona, what's your gift idea for the first lady? >> oh, god, that's tough. i think it's pretty fair to say you shouldn't be buying clothes for the first lady if you're the president. because everything she wears is judged and criticized and scrutinized. the first lady has a lot of responsibility, a lot of duties in her own right. not to mention you have to be next to the person with the most stressful job on the planet. so i think she needs a spa day. you can't go wrong with that. >> i think an all-access unprecedented beyonce tour pass, her and the girls. >> i like that. >> for her, malia and sasha. obama and beyonce. >> i like the theme of experiences and someone who needs to take a little time for herself. it is a little generic, but i think you can never go wrong for a woman with a day at the spa. little gift certificate somewhere nice. >> beyonce, i would get her extra guards at the gate to the

white house lawn. more security. [ laughter ] thank you for your time. >> thank you. when we come back, the fight for justice across the country. successful deliveries last year. 15 billion! football has a season. baseball has a season. this is our season.

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because health is everything. finally tonight, people marching for justice all across the country. on saturday in washington, tens of thousands of protesters marched right up to the united states capitol. in a rally organized by my civil rights group, the national action network. we marched with the families who have lost loved ones at the hands of police. relatives of eric garner, michael brown jr, akai gurley, tamir rice, and trayvon martin, showing the world that americans are uniting for justice. >> i stood in this city and was inspired when i saw a black man

put his hand on the bible and become president. but i've also been inspired today when i see young white kids holding up signs saying black lives matter. this is not a black march or a white march. this is an american march for the rights of american people. >> we also saw tens of thousands of protesters marching here in new york city and similar rallies in cities like oakland, boston, philadelphia, and st. louis. the calls for change are getting louder. last night the cast and crew of the movie selma wore "i can't breathe" t-shirts at the premiere. and wide receiver andrew hawkins wore a shirt yesterday that read "justice for tamir rice and john crawford." as we see these marches, people that sit on the sidelines that may or may not agree with our

raising the questions of fairness, need to ask themselves, the people young and old, the people of all races, are saying that the system is broken in terms of fair and impartial review of cases. then something must be wrong. what would make people across these lines march? the answer is, we need change. thanks for watching. i'm al sharpton. "hardball" starts right now. >> dick cheney, i'd do it again. let's play "hardball." ♪ ♪ >> good evening, i'm chris matthews in washington. dick cheney could write the book on torture made morally easy. i'd do it again in a minute he said on sunday and that's how long it took him to decide. and as cheney puts it, the torture program, as he calls it, was all his. it was all i was prepared to, and we did it, we got