tv The Rachel Maddow Show MSNBC May 16, 2020 9:00pm-10:00pm PDT
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always great to spend fridays with you. dr. zeke emanuel, thank you. if you want more of his insights into the coronavirus, check out his podcast "making the call" new episodes every wednesday. i'm ali velshi. catch me tomorrow at 8:00 a.m. eastern. more than anything, this pandemic is fully finally torn back the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what they're doing. a lot of them aren't even pretending to be in charge. if the world's going to get better, it's going to be up to you. with everything suddenly feeling like it's up for grabs. this is your time to seize the initiative. >> good evening and welcome to a special edition of what we like to call p.m. joy. if you've been watching donald trump's twitter feed, you know there's still no one who angers, enranges, and triggers trump and
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his followers more than former president barack obama. after addressing hbcu college graduates earlier today, he's about to take over practically every television network, including this one. in our next hour, president obama will deliver a virtual commencement speech to the graduating high school class of 2020. his address will be part of a star-studded event called "graduate together" which will feature educationtist and nobel prize winner malala yousafzai, singer and producer pharrell williams, nba star lebron james, and many, many more. now, one would think that a prime time speech of this magnitude meant to uplift the 3.7 million high school seniors graduating during a time of such uncertainty, you would think that would be delivered by the current president of the united states. but instead, it's former
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president barack obama who was tapped for the address. possibly because there is arguably no other president and first family as widely embraced by the culture today than the obamas. and that fact just infuriates the right. if you look back on obama's term, people screaming no to health care to the ones today protesting to reopen the country despite a deadly pandemic, there's a strong anchor that many probably don't understand. i mean, their party, the republicans, have control of the white house, the senate, the majority of governorships, and the supreme court. what is there to be so angry about? a big part of that anger stems from their alien nation. a lot of the culture surrounding lgbt rights, women's rights,
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have been decisively won by the left. resounding impact of those movements can still be felt today and young people and people of color have shattered and rejected decades-long traditional norms and standards in media and entertainment. we now live in a world where ariel from the little mer maid is black. where idris elba is a total viable fan favorite to become the next james bond. and where more women are taking on roles originally written for men. so despite the fact that republicans rule the country, the one thing they cannot command is the culture. joining me now is staff writer at "the new yorker." karine jean pierre from moveon.org and author of moving forward. and "washington post" columnist and author of "code receipt." let me go to my historian first. when you see republicans despite
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the amount of control and command that they have over the politics, the look on the face is always anger, rage, just pissed offness, if that's a word. and that's a sensitivity alienation, people complaining about the culture. and i feel like that's where it comes from. what do you make of my theory on that? >> i think that's part of it. i think the culture is a significant part of it. but i also think that w. said the condition understood people is not to be understood purely in socioeconomic terms. they understand their condition not only in terms of what they have, but in direct relationship to what african-americans have. so it's a relative idea, which
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is one of the reasons why i think inherently just the fact that barack obama was ever elected became a signature fire to people that they had lost status in some kind of way. so the cultural things certainly don't help, you know, and one of the things that was most defining, one of the most defining stats of the obama era was that significant plurality of white people who felt whites were the most disadvantaged racial group in the united states. and so if you have people thinking like that, it's not that far belief that you would see the kind of rage of entitlement, ratio entitlement that underlies so much of what we see in terms of the political protests and the death cult around donald trump. >> right. barack obama being president, karine, felt like to so many people on the right just a kick
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in the teeth to sort of whatever they thought of as what the culture should have been and the reaction to him was trump, right? and it's ironic that trump was vehicle for it because at one point donald trump actually had resonance with the culture. he had 65 different hip hop songs, the "apprentice," i didn't watch it, but a lot of black people watched it. and then it crashed. there is this story about his vandalized hollywood star where he was a part of that and then he's not because once he showed the outright racism and birtherism saying mexican were rapists, that was the end of that. >> he showed his face on. i was on the obama campaign at that time working in chicago. and when he took on that mantel, became a spokesperson, basically the grand wizard for birtherism, that's when he showed himself in
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a real way. we heard stories about when he first went into business and not allowing people of color, black people to be residents in his building. that's one thing. but in the most recent current time was birtherism. look, when you look at those protests, joy, of those folks who want to take over the capitol because they want to reopen the government, they're mostly white men, and they're mostly angry and they have so much hate and what donald trump does is he plays intentionally into that and he uses it to his own benefit. because many of those folks out there, they're not those single mothers living paycheck to paycheck. they're not working in restaurants. they're not working in hair salons. they are not really wanting to reopen the government for us to be where we were back in january. they want us to be where we were back in the 1950s. and here's the thing. republican party used to be or
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have devolved from being a party of ideas, although i don't agree with their ideas, they have gone from that to a party of grievance. this is what it is. they have this grievance that they need to tell us about. and so when you see them navarre hateful way clearly, and when you see the nazi flags and the ac 47s, that is where they are. they are angry, there's the hatred, and it's not about coronavirus and the government, it's about this fo fomenting us versus them. >> they're not protesting to demand to be meat packers, they're demanding meat packers get them their stakes. you've written about the right and the way that it has gone. and this sort of alienation culture that i think both julani
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and karine are talking about, that donald trump is alienation embodied, and i wonder why his having acceded to power didn't go even a little bit. >> because i think it's been a politics of grievance going all the way back to the civil rights years, to the george wallace movement to richard nixon's southern strategy. it's said often because it's true that there was a lot of racial politics being played on the right and in the republican party before trump. but it was a dog whistle and he uses a bull horn. but you still have to ask yourself why in the world is he going after barack obama right now because barack obama is actually very popular. i looked today at a u gov poll. it shows that 55% of americans have a positive view of obama. this was an average of polls 1919 to early 1920.
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only 33%, basically the trump base, are negative on him. and i think that picking this fight is really risking nuclear conflagration. i think obama, as you suggest, represents a whole series of things that trump is trying to demonize. he wants a culture war about race, about generation, because young americans across racial lines like obama about culture, and just about the fact that obama is cool. i can think of only two reasons he's doing this. one is he knows how much trouble he is on the virus, and he needed something really big to distract attention. and going after obama is pretty big. maybe as big as he can go. but the second is he's losing support among older white people, older whites are his most important constituency and
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they have heard what republicans and trump has said about, well, we'll sacrifice people to keep the economy moving. they are the people. so by picking a fight with obama by picking a culture war, he pulled back some of those folks who have said, you, mr. president, you are not operating in my interest. >> the shiny black key strategy. and i think one of the other issues, e.j. is on the issue of competency. on the pandemic in particular, it shows that his competency is extremely lacking. here is president obama warning back in 2014 about pandemics. take a listen. >> there may and likely will come a time in which we have both an airborne disease that is deadly.
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>> and in order for us to deal with that effectively, we have to put in place an infrastructure, not just here at home, but globally, that allows us to see it quickly, isolate it quickly, respond to it quickly. >> karine, you worked in the administration. that is what gets them, right? he would have been prepared. >> he would have been prepared. he had a pandemic office ready to be -- to deal with these issues, this pandemic clearly that we're no now that donald trump dismantled from anything that is connected to president obama donald trump dislikes and takes down. i want to say one more thing about the republican party that i was saying earlier in 2011 when birtherism went to its full-fledged kind of strength. donald trump led that. in 2012 it was mitt romney after donald trump showed his racism who was the republican nominee who went begging for donald
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trump's endorsement. republican party are so tied into this. they so own this, and now they can't run away from this. >> yeah. let me play a little bit more of -- absolutely. they can't run away from obama because he's speaking. i'm sorry, mitch mcconnell. here he is speaking at graduation earlier today. >> now, look, i know this isn't the commencement any of you really imagined because while our hbcus are known for academic rigor, community, higher purpose, they also know how to turn up. you're being asked to learn medal of a pandemic and terrible recession. timing is not ideal. let's be honest. a disease like this just spotlights the underlying inequalities and extra burdens that black communities have historically had to deal with in this country. >> first julani and then ej.
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what do you think will be the political outcome of this speech today? >> sure. first, i'd be remiss if i didn't mention i was a proud graduate of howard university, a hbcu in washington, d.c. so i was proud to see barack obama give that address today. on the other side of it, i think that this is the kind of damning by comparison. we see what a president, what a statesman looks like, a person who can unite the country in a time of crisis and address, you know, students who are feeling like they've had to make a sacrifice that they didn't intend to make but never anticipated making, and give up a day that's where are momentous and significant to them and their families, and he's there to soothe them in a way, to talk about the bigger objectives, and to do the things that leadership
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does. so implicitly, he doesn't have to ever say the words donald trump or anything about what's going on right now. just by the mere comparison of what he's able to do and what donald trump is quite frankly completely incapable of doing makes the point. >> yeah. e.j.? >> i think there were two overwhelming facts that hit people in the face in this period. one is we simply need strong, competent government. i thought the most devastating line obama spoke today, you played it earlier, a lot of them aren't even pretending to be in charge, and that's how a lot of people, including people who supported him, feel about donald trump. but the other is the inequalities we knew that were there of race and economics are devastating our country right now because people at the bottom are suffering so much more and that's a point obama also underscored and will probably
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underscore again later. >> absolutely. lebron james, shaquille o'neal, the jonas brothers, alicia keys, they weren't really trying to roll with donald trumpment they're rolling with obama. thank you, julani cobb, karine will join us later. coming up, the senator who joe scarborough dubbed moscow mitch has to stick his neck out and apologize to the man that he failed to turn into a one-term president. ? at mercedes-benz, we got to work. mercedes-benz usa and its dealers have quickly mobilized to help our local heroes. by giving front liners a lift, contributing to relief efforts, making vehicles safer for first responders and customers, and sometimes simply serving up a hot meal. coming together to lend a hand is what this country's always been about. americans have never wavered in crisis
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. i think president obama should have kept his mouth shut. i think it's a little bit classless, frankly, to critique an administration that comes after you. >> senator mitch mcconnell is big mad at president obama for daring to critique trump's coronavirus response. with obama calling it an absolute chaotic disaster in a
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leaked private call. we've long known there's just something, i don't know what it is, about president obama that just gets under trump and company's skin and stays there. which is perhaps why we saw republicans turn to the old ploy of attacking president obama's legacy rather than talking about president trump's handling of the crisis. >> currently the obama administration did not leave to this administration any kind of game plan for something like this. >> well, of course none of that is true. not in the very least. and it was mcconnell who had to snap his mouth shut after admitting he was wrong. >> you said that the previous administration didn't leave a plan. they pushed back against that. >> i was wrong. they did leave behind a plan, so i clearly made a mistake in that regard. as to whether or not the plan was followed and all the rest, i don't have any observation about that. >> oops.
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joining me now is jonathan kay, part of the "washington post" and michael steele, host of the pad cast "man of steele" a. michael steele, let me read you your tweet. we don't read his tweets, we're going to read yours. he tweeted i'm sure mitch is aware that a grown ass -- i'm on cable -- black man who happens to be a former president had agency to speak his mind, especially since his successor has yet to keep his mouth shut about him. classless, question mark? you were talking about mitch mcconnell being angry that president obama is still speaking. what do you make of him having to, like, walk back his little no-plan statement? >> well, he had to because the reality and the truth and the facts belied the comment. the fact of the matter is the prior administration did leave not just a plan, but it left a department to deal with it.
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and so, you know, he had a pandemic agency that was set up to deal with it, which was s summarily shutdown in 2018. this continuing to look backwards toward the obama administration instead of dealing with the truth that has long since emerged about the current administration has run its course, not just with me and folks who have to deal with this every day, but i think also with the american people. but for me, that comment was the height of an insult because any white man of a certain age and mitch mcconnell, like donald trump, is of that age, knows that stating that a black man should keep his mouth shut has more than just connotations behind it. and i think that we as a country need to be very clear about the fact that that comment would for
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it not have been said or applied to george bush. if george bush had made a comment, there's no way in hell he would come out and say that george bush should keep his mouth shut or that he was acting classless. so let's be clear about this. that's why the backtrack was as quick as it was when you realize i done stepped not just in it, but i'm all up in it. >> he's a man of the south, mitch mcconnell. by the way, i won't take credit for this, but somebody on twitter also said president obama and the administration left the plan in one place that trump would never find it, in a book. i'm just repeating it. let me let president obama keep on speaking. here he is in his earlier today hbcu graduation speech. >> let's be honest. a disease like this just spotlights the underlying inequalities and extra burdens that black communities have historically had to deal with in this country.
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we see it in the disproportionate impact of covid-19 on your communities just as we see it when a black man goes for a jog and folks feel like they can stop and question and shoot him if he doesn't submit to their questioning. >> jonathan, first of all, his room is almost as nice as yours. but also, you know, in a time where you have disproportionate deaths among black people, people of color, it is striking to not have that kind of compassion that could speak to that. and i think that's one of the things that feels like it's so lacking. >> yeah. listening to that clip, you know what i thought of? i thought of that time when i was in the white house press briefing room in the days after the zimmerman verdict and zimmerman was found not guilty, and the president came into the room and spoke from the heart for what it meant for that to happen and what it meant to
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significant "portion of the country that was dismayed with what happened there of we are like a dried to the bone plant that's been sitting in the desert, we as a nation. we have our former president who when he speaks, every time he speaks, because he's a decent man and a man of compassion and empathy, he's like water on that driedup plant. and it's in high relief because we don't have a president who has empathy. you know, i want to jump in on michael steele's excellent comments about the majority leader and what he said and the connotations of what he said. i've read lots of books about the forgotten people who president trump reached out to and pulled out to vote. but there were two books in particular that i found very helpful in understanding what we're going through. one is "white rage" by carol
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anderson. and the one is "white fragility." robin deangelo quotes carol anderson in her book. carol anderson argues, quote, the trigger for white rage inevitably is black advancement, it is not the mere presence of black people that is the problem, rather black presence with demands for full and equal citizenship. it is blackness that refuses to accept subjugation to give up. despite all this, a black man was elected president of the united states, the ultimate advancement, and thus, the ultimate affront. that perfectly crystalizes everything that happened during president obama's tenure, everything that president trump -- donald trump was saying as a private citizen, and as president of the united states against barack obama. >> amen.
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i'll play one more clip of president obama really quick and then i'll come to the chairman. >> rather than just say what's in it for me, or what's in it for my community and to heck with everybody else, stand up for and join up with everyone who's struggling, whether it's immigrants, refugees, the rural poor, the lgbt community, low-income workers of every background, women. look out for folks whether they are white or black or asian or latino or native american. >> and, you know, chairman steele, i will say there were a lot of people who were not too mutual fund by havi amused when president obama was in the white house. and i want to just say to you, that's me saying -- i won't put that on you, but you understand that at least try to say that there should be some outreach to the community that you just
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heard named there, that the republican party should stand for something other than simply white fragility and self-victimization. so i'll giving you the last word on this. what does it mean to have that message also gone from the republican party along with, you know, anyway, along with what jonathan said earlier? >> i appreciate that. it's a powerful loss. i mean, it's a loss of perspective, a loss of history, a loss of understanding within the party itself, what our journey from our founding in 1854, our first presidential election, which, you know, 160 years ago today began the convention that nominated abraham lincoln. so, you know, this is a historic perspective that we've lost sight of and what it means ultimately as a nation. but more specifically as a party to play a role in the very things that barack obama said.
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look, i have my political as well as policy battles with the obama administration. but it never got to the point where we see it as down, and that's what's so harming for the party as a whole. >> indeed. michael steele. jonathan will be back a little bit later on. coming up, trump america's science-free drive to reopen the economy. what could go wrong? that's next. hey, can i... hold on one second... sure. okay... okay!
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. joe biden is facing growing calls to tap a black woman as his running mate. tomorrow i'll talk to one of the leading contenders, gubernatorial candidate stacy abrams will join me to discuss her fight to protect voting rights ahead of the 2020 election and whether she's the right pick to be the former veep's veep. more "p.m. joy" after the break. indistinct talking on tv ]
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. [ . that was the scene outside a restaurant in denver. no physical distancing and hashedly anyone wearing protective face coverings. i guess thinks this viral video. japanese news outlet nhk showed how easily viruses and germs can spread at a buffet or restaurant. yeah, thachz. this should be required watching for every state official who is weighing when and how to reopen
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their state economy. scary. joining me now is congressman from colorado. colorado has already had 1,000 fatalities, more than 21,000 people infected. yet i want to show you the governor of colorado, jared poll lis, talking to donald trump this week. >> when are you thinking of opening -- explain what you're going to -- >> most businesses are open in colorado. pretty much everything except for those social distances like bars and nightclubs, a few places have restaurants open. we're working on the rest soon. but offices, manufacturing, salons, pretty much all people are back. in a safer way. >> he whips off the mask, he's leaning back like it's all good. what is going on with your governor and what's going on in your state? >> it's good to be with you, joy. look, i think the governor has done a great job. i think he's tried to roach this in a thoughtful way.
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he was actually practicing what we preach in terms of wearing his mask in that meeting unlike the president, of course. >> he was for a minute before he took it off. >> well, i will say this. i think the approach he's taken in colorado has been a data-driven approach. now, he is following the advice of epidemiologists and the public health experts. so the safer at home order that he issued, which replaced the stay-at-home order, has enabled the state to reopen in part, but as he stressed, there are a number of different limitingtations and safeguards. video you showed at the beginning of the program alarmed us all regarding the castle rock establishment. that was in violation of the safer at home order that the governor had issued. my understanding is that the license of that particular restaurant has now been pulled. so look, in colorado commercial employers are open but are only able to have 50% of their workforce in their offices. there are, again, very rigid and
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robust safeguards that are in place in terms of social distancing for those employers. and the governor has made it clear that the to the extent that the data shows an increase as the curve begins to go back up, then it may be important for us to then change the safer at-home guidelines and perhaps revert back to a stay-at-home order. so i think doing this in a step-by-step, phased approach has been a thoughtful, balanced way to approach some very tough choices and tough decisions. >> let's hope that he does a little bit better with his own permanent mask use policy. but let's talk about denver public schools. i grew up in colorado. i went to denver public schools. are schools -- donald trump talked about reopening schools this fall. what is the outlook? >> you know, i don't know that there's a solid answer to that question as of yet, joy. i think that the governor is going to work in close coordination with the school
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superintendents, skoebchool boa and there's no announcement as to what the school year will look like in the fallment, again, he's going to rely, i suspect, on the data and we'll see over the coming weeks just how much progress we make in terms of overcoming the challenges that have been presented by the covid-19 pandemic here in our state. >> all right. well, we shall see. thank you so much for sharing time with us this evening. stay safe. coming up, a bunch of -- thank you. a bunch of celebrities and president obama will be on almost every tv in america. that's a lonely old man eats a big mac in bed. that's next. we're automatically refunding our customers mac in bed. that's next. iums.as a lonely olg mac in bed that's next. libertymutual.com/covid-19. [ piano playing ]
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more than your senior year. >> you pushed the bounds of what it means to be a hero. >> we understand that it together. >> take the torch and leave your mark. [ speaking spanish ] >> the world is yours now. >> because with so much uncertainty, with everything suddenly up for grabs, this is your generation's world to shape. >> in just a few minutes, president barack obama will be delivering a commencement address to the nation's graduating high school seniors in a multinetwork special called "graduate together." the special will have music performances and appearances from tons of celebrities. but the real draw is the man that some call our forever president. karine jean-pierre is back with me. karine, your former boss tweeted about his commencement plans back on may 5th. i've always loved joining commencements, the culmination of years of hard work and
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sacrifice, even if we can't get together in person this week, michelle and i are excited to celebrate the nationwide class of 2020 and recognize this milestone. this is going to be pretty epic, ma'am. very epic. your thoughts? >> it's going to be pretty epic. gosh, very excited. we're excited. we need this right now so much. just a competent president that could call to our better angels is so missed. but, look, like you stated earlier, joy, this is unprecedented. we essential have a former president, president barack obama giving a national address that will be aired on almost every network. look, i do not know what president obama is going to say, but having worked for him, i will bet that he is going to try to unite us, give us a unifying message, call on our better angels, but do this call to action that he does better than anybody else, really, and that is speaking to you are own individual agency, making sure
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that we are doing everything that we can to change the world. in other words, it will be completely opposite from what we hear from donald trump, which is, hey, divisiveness, which is erratic ramblings that we see in person or on twitter. and so, you know, we are about to be treated for, i think, something that we all missed and needed, and i will say this. after obama speaks, i think the country will be looking back and longing for a day where we had a president that could actually make sense in one sentence and just care about people and unifying people. >> oh, full sentences, how we miss you. full sentences. you know, jonathan, as lebron js is the executive producer of this. that'll troll him. you got not only president barack obama and lebron, you got -- just name all the people
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on it, alicia keys, julianne moore, shaq, lena waithe, malala yousafzai, zendaya, i could go on, it is literally the culture all combined together with the president. you know, what else could we be missing? this is what makes the right so mad. >> right. and i responded to a tweet earlier. i can't remember who. i think someone sent a tweet asking -- this is going to drive crazy. and i retweeted and said, hey, i predict live reach tweeting and post-live event tweeting. it's bound to happen. >> because he's going to watch, jonathan. he's going to be act like he's not going to sit there and watch it, but he's going to sit there and watch it and live tweet it. >> yes, yes. just to draw attention to himself. >> his worst nightmare. >> it really is.
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but you know what else president obama is going to do? i agree with everything that karine just said. but what president obama does better than anybody else is he reminds us of who we are as a nation. he reminds us of, you know, yeah, we're not a perfect nation, but we are better than where we've been. we can always be better than who we are, and because of who we are as americans, because of the history of this country, because of the importance of this country in the world, that we are called to a higher purpose. that is why we are called to a higher purpose. so i agree with karine. he's going to get out there and he's going to tell the class of 2020 that, yeah, we're going through a hard time, but, you know, there are things that you must do. your country needs you. your culture needs you. and to have someone that hopeful, that optimistic --
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remember, one of the complaints about president obama was it was he was always relentlessly optimistic even when the news around him is bad. it's worse than at any point ever in this country's history, but certainly during his administration, and so, yes, we need to hear him, we need to hear his message tonight. >> yeah. you know, karine, "becoming" is on netflix and the national review is tearing up their old magazines and burning, they're so mad she's even existing in public. they are back, the obamas have decided, wasn't thbeing quiet, fine, but they're back and the culture is actually yearning for that kind of a president again. and so i think what does it mean sort of bigger picture? especially to these poor high school kids that can't even have a graduation? these poor kids. but this is -- they are back in a lot of ways. >> yeah, they are. we have to remember michelle
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obama is going to be also speaking this evening as you just read from the tweet he put out weeks ago. look, i think he will say to all those young people who feel like they have lost so much in this moment, which i understand they have. there is no better time for them to change the world with technology, with what we have, to reimagine and be innovative. we have the tools to do that and he will call on them as future leaders, the ones who are going to take us out of where we are today. and i think that is the thing he will speak to them and touch right there in their hearts and use that to lift them up as we go into, you know, the rest of this year, which has been tremendously difficult. >> yeah. can you just speak to that a little bit too, jonathan? you know, this generation, they've had it rough. like, this generation experienced the great recession
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and watched their parents really struggle in that. and then you had this hopeful sort of obama moment of eight years of having this first black president only to now have the economy just dissolve in front of them as they're graduating from high school and looking at college. they're probably going to have to do college on virtual. this is a generation, they've taken a few punches >> right. but again, to echo -- because, you know, why have me on? have karine on because she has all the great points. there is no better time to take the leadership -- >> i do have a beautiful background, jonathan. >> jonathan, you know we have you on because we want to see your room. we love it. room raiders is writing down. i did ask jonathan who made those shelves. that's a true story. go on. >> anyway, this is the time for them to -- they want to change
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the world, well, guess what, the world is basically on fire. it is in desperate need of leadership and people who are innovative, who are entrepreneurial in the sense that they see a problem and they dive in and try to solve it because as long as i've been alive, i've never witnessed a time when the white house was completely awol from protecting the country. pitting governors against each other for ventilators and for masks and ppe? it's insane. and so class of 2020, here's your opportunity. >> yeah, absolutely. karine, we're almost out of time. do i have time to ask? i won't even ask. i'm going to say karine john peoria's book is an extremely hopeful tone that i would highly recommend that you give to your high school graduate because karine, you give a lot of us
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hope as well. your book is outstanding and i think delivers a lot of the messages that we're going to hear reflected tonight. karine jean-pierre, and jonathan capar and that room. thank y'all very much. your room is cute too, karine. thank y'all. more "p.m. joy" after the break. thousands of women with metastatic breast cancer, which is breast cancer that has spread to other parts of the body, are living in the moment and taking ibrance. ibrance with an aromatase inhibitor is for postmenopausal women or for men with hr+/her2- metastatic breast cancer, as the first hormonal based therapy. ibrance plus letrozole significantly delayed disease progression versus letrozole, and shrank tumors in over half of patients. patients taking ibrance can develop low white blood cell counts, which may cause serious infections that can lead to death. ibrance may cause severe inflammation of the lungs that can lead to death. tell your doctor right away if you have new or worsening symptoms, including trouble breathing, shortness of breath,
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stacey abrams joins me live. and then we'll have magic johnson. good evening. and welcome to our continuing special coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. i'm ali velshi. you just watched "graduate together." a first of its kind national ceremony in which president obama honored high school graduates of the class of 2020. and, in an address to college students earlier, the former president called out a lack of leadership amid this pandemic. >> more than anything, this pandemic has fully, finally, torn back the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what they're doing. a lot of them aren't even pretending to be in charge. if the world's going
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