it's the end of an historic, turbulent, and, at times, frightening year. a year, that gave us the rise of a pandemic and the end of the trump presidency. now, for the next hour, sit back and relax. we are bringing you interviews with some of the smartest, most interesting, and entertaining people around. in a moment, my conversation with the great rachel maddow on the american politician, who has rightfully been called trump, before trump. former vice president agnew.

>> you are right. he did it in a way that was sort of erect and correct and articulate. >> later, "morning joe" himself joe scarborough joins me on his new book about president harry truman. >> he came from missouri. his parents were both pro-confederate. he -- he -- he had a racist background. and here is a guy, in 1948, election year when he knows it is going to hurt him politically, he moves to integrate the armed services. >> also, michael eric dyson takes on senate-majority leader mitch mcconnell. >> he is enacting some of the worst practices we have seen in the history of this nation, in regard to a center blocking the coming to fruition of legislation that could relieve the -- the hurt and suffering of black people. >> and at the end of the hour, the amazing, leslie jones. need i say more?

>> i let them know that i was not going to do any interview first, but yours. that's right. because i love joy. joy to the world, to the fishes in the deep, blue sea. i lovejoy! >> first up, though, my recent conversation with the great, rachel maddow. >> donald trump's presidency has felt unprecedented, in so many ways. but before there was a donald trump attacking the norms of our democracy, there was a spearspearo spearow agnew. >> if you want to discover the source of the division in our country, look no further than the fake news and the crooked media. >> liberalism, today, translates into a pussyfooting on law and order. >> they don't think they are

politically good. >> conduct of high individuals in the department of justice is unprofessional and malicious and outrageous. >> our justice department and our fbi have to start doing their job and doing it right, and doing it now. what's happening is a disgrace. >> in her new book, "bag man," the wild crimes, audacious coverup, and spectacular downfall of a brazen crook in the white house. which details the often-overlooked story of the bribery scheme. then vice president agnew ran from inside the white house. the playbook agnew wrote to try to save himself has left its own, long legacy for the elected official who prides himself on busting through political norms. if saving yourself means undermining the institutions of democracy, the department of justice, and the free press, for starters, well, fire up the

backhoe. i am joined, now, by the most of the rachel maddow show. the great rachel maddow. rachel, thank you so much for being here. i have to start, before i even jump into the book, by asking you how is susan? >> susan. first of all, thank you, thank you, thank you, for all of that. i have never seen the juxtaposition in tape there of agnew and trump. i have done it in print. i have never seen it laid out like that, in tape. it's fantastic. their delivery is actually has such echoes. that was amazing. but susan is much better. she's dealing with the long tail of the symptoms from covid, but we are not scared in the way that we were. and we are out of the woods, as they say. and so, boy. we -- you know, it took us a full week to eat through the gift package that you sent. but we buckled and we did it. so, thank you. it was so sweet of you.

>> i can only be counted on for food and drink. like, that is what i can do. we are very happy to hear. that is the first and most important thing. so i had to get to that. and i have to give it to up rachel, who's also named rachel who produced this segment. you know our producers are everything. so, she found that incredible video. and so, the thing that is so amazing about these two. you write in your book and you say it all the time, history's here to help. history is also here to freak us out. because as i am reading through this book, it's freaky. agnew is basically a more articulate version of donald trump. attacking the press. the racism. the anti-semitism. saying everybody loved me until i get into the white house and everybody hates me. the attacks. they are so symmetrical. >> it's interesting to me because a lot of times, you hear very smart people talk about what trump is trying to do to undermine democracy now.

and the way he plays very fast and loose with authoritarian trend lines and all the stuff he pushes at. a lot of smart people will say, yeah, this is buffoonish and it's easy to laugh at trump doing these things. but what about when the slicker version of trump comes around, the more articulate trump tries to do these things? that already happened. agnew was pushing all the same levers that trump is pushing. but, you're right, he did it in a way that was sort of erect and correct and articulate. and he still was seen as a crook in office because of it. so, it may -- it's sort of comforting to me because there really isn't anything new under the sun. but the lesson of how to deal with guys like that is not that they go away on their own. or they can be sort of, i don't know, neutralized by the passage of time.

he was as malignant as trump is but there were good people in office who put country above party, and they fixed it. >> absolutely. and i think that is the story. you do write in the book and you say in the podcast. you know, it is the story of these -- you know, the guys who stayed straight ahead, stared straight ahead, and did their jobs that wind up fixing this. let's talk about the actual scandal, itself. because it's a wild -- i mean, at one point, george herbert walker bush shows up. this is like a netflix series, all in a book. but i mean, the fact that you have this crook operating a bribery scheme that dated back to when he is governor of maryland. a state you -- people don't realize how corrupt maryland politics is and has been but it was supercorrupt. well, i should say has been. but, talk about the fact that you have this happening, kind of, simultaneous with watergate but they're not connected. >> exactly. and that is part of what i think was sort of forgotten in the

history of agnew. people, if they remember him at all, they think it must have been a watergate-adjacent thing, right? there are a lot of people who got charged in watergate-adjacent things. all the people involved in the crime and his attorney general went to jail. you remember, you assume that it must have been that way for agnew, too. no. totally separate, original scandal, taking bags of cash as kickbacks for government contracts. and he started doing it as baltimore county executive and he did it as maryland governor. and he kept taking the bribes. literally, envelopes stuffed full of cash, while he was in the white house. and so, that's what confronts elliot richardson, who is kind of one of the heroes of this story. one of nixon's attorneys general. one, who didn't go to prison. one who nixon, in fact, fired for not doing his bidding. and richardson is like, all right, i'm getting crazy phone calls, every day, from nixon. nixon, at one point in the story, is in the hospital with

pneumonia. the watergate stuff is gearing up and getting bad. and nixon is going kind of nuts. it's clear that, like, nixon's holding on by a thread, in terms of the presidency. well, what happens in nixon goes? agnew goes into the oval office. and he knows that agnew is taking cash bribes and is a whole different kind of felon. so, that becomes this real national security imperative. the idea that the country might collapse, if -- if a president is forced out for being a crook, immediately elevating his vice president, who then has to be forced out for being a crook. i mean, what -- what happens? so, it -- it really put the fire, i think, under richardson, in terms hof how to deal with i. that's one of the things there isn't a parallel with trump because there is no way to force him out of office with exchange for facing indictment but that's where they landed with agnew. >> you know, the thing that is, also, fascinating. the country confronted, previously, this question about

whether or not you can indict a president. but there is also that sort of olc issue of whether or not you can indict a vice president. and you have agnew and nixon both asserting that you cannot, right? that they are protected, absolutely, by the office from indictment. talk about how that connects us to where we are now because there has been a lot of this talk about whether donald trump, who is, also, seen by a lot of people as corrupt, maybe criminally corrupt, could be indicted. particularly, on, let's say, something like obstruction where he says to have been dead to rights named in the mueller report. talk about how the agnew scandal relates to that. >> yeah. and i would also say you can also call him individual number one. right? he is already named in the michael cohen hush money -- the case in which michael cohen went to prison, he is named by prosecutors as having been the person directing the commission of those felonies. but this is some of the stuff that made me want to write the book, in addition to doing the

podcast. because mike and i advanced the reporting on this, even after the podcast and came to what i think is sort of an unsettling revelation about that. presidents do have a get-out-of-jail-free card. where that comes from is the agnew scandal and specifically from nixon and agnew hating each other. at one point, agnew goes to the democratic speaker of the house, and says, basically, i'd like to you impeach me. and the speaker of the house is like, uh, no, i don't want to do that. but he thought if he got impeached, that would keep him from getting indicted. they go to his -- his lawyers are arguing, no, no, he can't be indicted. he can only be impeached. they go to the counsel at the justice department and what the office of legal counsel comes up with, they check with nixon to find out the way nixon wants it to come out, right? and what they come up with is that the vice president can be

indicted and the president cannot. and that was specifically because nixon didn't want the impeachment machinery to start for agnew. but he didn't -- if agnew was going to get indicted, he didn't want to get indicted, himself. that was just nixon trying to save himself in the face of his gangster vice president getting thrown out of office. it wasn't like some founding fathers on a tablet given to moses sort of thing in the constitution. the get-out-of-jail-free card that is keeping donald trump from getting indicted by mueller and by sdny derives from this ridiculous, craven fight between these two felons. >> it is amazing. this era has been so toxic. but like, the '60s and '70s keep coming like, hold my beer. you think it's crazy now? we'll show you crazy. we are going to show it to you. you are great, rachel. what an incredible book. congratulations on "bad man." no one can borrow my copy. but still, read it.

still ahead on our reid out holiday special, more of my most interesting, enlightening, and hilarious interviews of 2020. joe scarborough joins me next. stay right there. joe scarborough joins me next. stay right there up at 2:00am again? tonight, try pure zzzs all night. unlike other sleep aids, our extended release melatonin helps you sleep longer. and longer. zzzquil pure zzzs all night. fall asleep. stay asleep. honey honey? new nyquil severe honey is maximum strength cold and flu medicine

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in his new book "saving freedom," truman, the cold war, and the fight for western civilization. how the truman doctrine has shap shaped u.s. foreign policy and america's role in the world for the last seven decades. prevented his administration from making progress on any, significant foreign-policy issue, over four years. back with me now is joe scarborough and author of "saving freedom." which i am in the midst of reading, joe, and i am enjoying it, a lot. i, actually, am really intrigued by harry truman. i am a history buff, anyway.

but he is an interesting figure to me because he is this guy, he's this sort of racist senator from missouri. who writes his wife, in his little note to her about n words and china men. and then, comes and does more for black americans than fdr did. you know, allowing black people to actually get into the military and the federal workforce. that actually ends up doing a lot and changing. how -- how do you think he, also, changed our foreign policy? >> well, i want to talk about that first, though, because it's fascinating to see how much he grew. he came from missouri. his parents were both pro-confederate. he -- he had a racist background. and yet, here is a guy who, in 1948, election year, when he knows it's going to hurt him politically, he moves to integrate the armed services. and sure enough, strom thurman

breaks out. he is getting attacked by henry wallace on the left and strom thurman on the right. and frankly, he just didn't give a damn. he thought it was the right thing to do, given the service that black americans gave during world war ii. and -- and he thought it had to be done. and -- and it's another example of how harry truman grew in his life. this was a guy that was mocked and ridiculed when he came to washington, d.c. he was called a rube by "the new york times." a mousey, little man from missouri. and yet, after he got elected -- or -- or after he became president of the united states, after fdr's sudden death, he had to guide this country, not only through the end of world war ii but, also, into a very turbulent peacetime when americans and, especially republicans in the senate were isolationists, they didn't want to be bothered by europe. they didn't want to be bothered

by the rest of the world. they had just gotten past defeating hitler. and yet, joe stalin, joseph stalin and the soviet union, actually posed a great risk to freedom, not only in central europe but western europe and across the world. and truman marshalled the resources and the support from republicans and democrats, alike, to actually stand up. and contain the soviet union spread and to ensure freedom in europe. and -- and created, really, more than any other president over the past 75 years, created the world that we live in today. >> you know, and it's interesting because there's ambivalence about him, too. right? there is hiroshima and nagasaki, you know, which one might argue was incredibly cruel to have done. we, the only country that's used nuclear weapons. but he also is somebody that did grow as president. contrast that with the current guy because he's not growing. >> well, i mean, it -- it's hard to contrast it with the current guy because truman believed in

plain speaking. he said the buck stopped here. he actually liked making difficult decisions, and slept better at night after he -- he did what he thought was the right thing to do. he didn't blame other people for his mistakes. he took responsibility and i believe, at the end, he changed the world for the better. >> he was an adult. joe scarborough, it was great -- it helps. author of "saving freedom, truman, the cold war, and the fight for werstern civilization" still ahead, michael eric dyson says he has proof that whiteness is america's religion. we'll be right back. is america's religion. we'll be right back. - [narrator] this is steve.

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in the opening of his new book, michael eric dyson rights directly to elijah mcclain. a 23-year-old black man who died last year in police custody. dear elijah, we are about to see if it is true, that we are one. to see if your death and ahmaud arbery, george floyd, and untold others, are viewed as worthy of moral revulsion and, from there, the change of practice and belief that would prove a real reckoning is taking place. congress has not, yet, passed comprehensive police reform and not because the house hasn't tried. in grim-reaper mitch mcconnell's

senate. and i am joined now by michael eric dyson, distinguished professor at vanderbilt university and the author of "longtime coming, reckoning with race in america." it is good to see you. we are going to talk about the book but i wanted to, very quickly, ask you what do you make of this attempt by mitch mcconnell to re-brand himself? in part, by touting police reform. having signed a police-reform bill. we know he blocked the one during president obama's tenure and that the house had passed a much more comprehensive ones with choke-hold bans and banning no-knock warrants and getting rid of qualified immunity. they passed in the senate and shoved tim scott out front to be the face man for it. do you think there is a way mcconnell can launder his reputation, based on that? >> no. it's utterly ridiculous. first of all, this is revisionist history, before our very eyes. usually, people wait a couple of years, a few years, to try to tell the story, again, of what

they did and did not do. and yet, mitch mcconnell here is caught in the very vice grip of a kind of revisionist esthetic that says we are just going to paint everything like we did it great back then, like we are doing it great right now. he surely isn't as great as he thinks he is right now. and to stand in the way of making sure that a comprehensive piece of legislation passes, after one of the most rancorous and horrible summers that we've ever endured in the long trek toward transformation in this country, suggests that mitch mcconnell is not only tone deaf but he is color blind, in the worst sense of the fashion, in the worst sense of that word. he refuses to acknowledge the persistence of color in this culture. he refuses to acknowledge that black continues to be a thing that generates such deep and profound opposition that a policeman could put his knee on the neck of a black man laying

on the pavement and asphyxiate him, before our very eyes. mitch mcconnell is in -- if -- if -- in one sense, unwitting but, in another sense, accomplice. and now, to portray himself has somehow martin luther mcconnell is deeply problematic. >> and you know, your new book, you talk about reckoning with race in america. and, you know, i think about mitch mcconnell's centrality in the story of race, just in the last ten years. his blanket opposition and filibustering. using that good, old-fashioned, southern technique. this is a man who is originally from alabama who used the filibuster against president obama, who said you can't even put anybody on the federal court. you don't have the right. you're not a real president. and then, to try to tout his deputy becoming attorney general of kentucky. and then, for that black man to lie about the grand jury proceedings so that he could let

white officers off for killing breonna taylor. i feel like mitch mcconnell is just a center to the dwe have seen. >> fast terror is when bombs drop, they lynch black people, and hurt us very explicitly by the police who hurt and harm and kill us. slow terror is kicking kids out of school, denying them opportunity to be fed, both mentally and physically. mitch mcconnell, in this sense, if donald trump is a fast terrorist, is a fast racist, then mitch mcconnell is taking a slower train toward racial revulsion. he is enacting some of the worst practices we have seen in the history of this nation, in regard to a senator blocking the coming to fruition of legislation that could relieve the -- the hurt and suffering of black people. and to proudly stand up and say that he wanted to make obama a one-term president.

this shows us that the real religion in america is whiteness. the real politics in mitch mcconnell's orbit are whiteness. the worship of white ness at th altar of whiteness, genuflecting before the god of whiteness. and but mitch mcconnell is part of that womb. mitch mcconnell gives life and breath to the very denunciation of blackness that donald trump has been so vehemently denounced for. and, look. he then puts forward a black-face representation, literally, in daniel cameron. so, there's siren trill quizm going on. this is the worst we have ever seen and pulling those strings is one of the most -- was one of the worst white supremacist enactments we've seen in the last 15 years in american politics.

>> you know, you -- you -- you write about reckoning with race. talk to me about how we do that when somebody like this guy can start at the march in washington at 20 years old, and get all the way here, right? get all the way to the place where he is denying a black president's humanity, and right to even occupy the office. if he can fall that far. i mean, this guy was against -- he was for having sanctions on south africa. that's an actual, true thing. for him to have devolved into whatever this is that mitch mcconnell is now. blocking the john lewis bill on voting rights from getting to the floor. blocking people from getting rent relief. people are hungry. people are standing in food lines. people are suffering, and he doesn't give a damn. if people could devolve that much, i don't know how we reckon with race in america. >> he happened to be there. he was accidentally there. he did not deliberately go to attend the march.

he even admitted that he couldn't hear the words martin luther king jr. uttered that day. and this many years later, he still cannot hear the resounding echo of an edifying, sonic appeal from a majestic trumpet of conscience, like martin luther king jr. he still is tone deaf. he still is incapable of listening to the cause and cries of black people who say, what will be done in the senate to at least acknowledge the centrality of race and the degree to which black people continue to be punished by legislation and practices on the street? so, mitch mcconnell ain't never been there, for real, to begin with. and even now, yes, how we reckon with it because black folk know this ain't the first time we done seen this. we have seen this from get-go. we have seen this, from the very beginning. white people, who pretend to be our friends, and then stab us in the back. and what we understand is that mitch mcconnell is showing us that diversity, by itself, without equity, without justice, means nothing. think about it.

the police people who killed george floyd. two white men. a black man. an asian man. that's diversity. but diversity toward an unjust goal. that's diversity. but without equity being embraced. so, mitch mcconnell is articulating the noble ideals and words, but he is falling short on their followthrough. but black people always been dealing with this, from the very beginning. this ain't the first time and we gonna keep on standing up. we believe in people who transcend barriers and we know that -- will survive. >> the book is longtime coming, reckoning with race in america. another, must-read book from michael eric dyson. my friend, thank you very much. really appreciate you being here tonight. don't go anywhere. my interview with comedian, leslie jones, is up next. you do not want to miss it. stay with us. ot want to miss it stay with us

the pandemic has -- has

upended all of our lives. the past ten months have been a stream of unrelenting pain and agony, quite frankly. trump's abysmal performance in the face of the pandemic has only added insult to injury. but, rest assured, all is not lost. there are glimmers of hope and joy out there. take, for example, comedian leslie jones, formerly of "saturday night live" and the current host of abc's supermarket sweep, who's made her cable-news commentary a favorite spectator sport. >> i came just so i could see you again, katy. fire. it's what i think when i see ya, katy. he's a trump impersonator. how disgustingly sad. what part of georgia is this? mitch mcconnell crying is like the devil weeping over not being able to kill 50 more people. hey, you guys, is that geraldo

rivera? wait a minute. >> he can't even read this chart. >> this is exactly what we supposed to be doing. just like he said. the government's supposed to look like what america looks like. man! i'm loving it, biden and kamala! >> and ms. jones is putting her talents to good use. she just wrapped up an instagram live event with democratic candidate jon ossoff. and leslie jones joins me, now. okay. ms. leslie jones, i have to tell you, this is proof that god changes things because i was like, please, can we just book leslie jones? because your commentary about politics is my favorite thing in the entire world. i pretty much only want to listen to you talk about politics. how did this begin? how did you start on this journey of commenting on everything that happens in politics on msnbc? >> okay, first of all, joy, i let them know that i was not going to do any interview first but yours. that's right. because i love joy. ♪ joy to the world, joy to the

fishes in the deep, blue sea ♪ i love joy. >> i love you, too. i got a chance to see -- uh-huh. >> no, it started -- i saw you, one day. i saw you and i was like, oh, my god, and just started watching. and i think, at the time, steve was at the board and i was like, who is this guy? he's absolutely thorough and awesome. who is he? he looks concerned. i need him in my life. and that's how it started. >> so, let me quickly play a little montage for our audience who has not heard some of your commentary about all those on msnbc. here it is. >> oh, my god. >> they are brother and sister, seriously, because they have both the sarcasticness and passive aggressiveness that we need when we're getting some [ bleep ] off our chest. this is lawrence. i like that guy. he's very common.

brian is -- is petty. i love him. i bow at the altar of the mag n magnificence of the geometrical -- it's just she's not even moving. >> it means there's some [ bleep ] that needs to be read. i'm only here for nikki today. maybe, he has a whole bunch of these pants. i don't know. but he's my hero. he is my hero right now. joy! joy, do you see him, joy? joy, do you see that purple suit? joy, do you know you talking to morris day? >> okay. i fell on the floor. i mean, literally. i watched that about 400 times because he really did put that purple suit on. he meant it! >> it's not purple. it's blue. it's blue, leslie, i promise. >> he really, truly did. he did it with authority.

but when you look at politics today, i've -- i've had the blessing of seeing you do comedy live, and you are obviously hysterically funny. but how do you find your ability to laugh at the way things have gone over the last four years? how have you preserved that, just for yourself? >> because i'm 53 years old, joy. i've been -- i've been through a lot of presidencies. you know what i'm saying? you know, i was around with reagan. i've been here a long time. and i have a great sense of humor and you have to have a great sense of humor in life because it -- either you gonna cry all night or you gonna laugh. i rather laugh. you know? >> yeah. >> it's -- it's -- you know, my favorite thing to do is to do crowd work and the person that i am talking about, make them laugh the most. i -- i just -- i find joy in doing -- joy -- joy. i find joy in doing it. it's so fun, and it makes everybody happy.

and, look. joy, people who didn't know each other before, now know each other. like, all these people that come. i don't know them. albright. i didn't know she was somebody. i just thought she had a dude on her jacket. you know what i'm saying? like i love it. i love that they love it. >> and you are making people love politics. so, i have to ask you. you were just in georgia. you did an event for -- not in georgia but you were doing an event for jon ossoff. i don't know if you got a chance to watch this debate that took place this past week. but let me just play a little bit of it for those who didn't see it. take a look. >> our senator has been absent, is absent, doesn't think he needs to be here answering questions. doesn't think he needs to be in washington passing relief for the people. >> when you receive the private briefing regarding the coronavirus pandemic, you dumped millions of dollars of stock in

order to protect your own investments. and then, weeks later, when there came an opportunity to give ordinary georgians an extra $600 of relief, you said you saw no need and called it counterproductive. why do you think it's counterproductive to help ordinary georgians in the middle of a pandemic? >> what do you make of this -- of this race? and what do you think the stakes are for -- for the country? >> well, i think everybody needs to know that the people that are in senate now that -- that needs their place taken are not taking care of this country. that's what we need to look at. i mean, it's very obvious. we have people who have died. we have people who are unemployed. we have people who are hungry or losing their jobs, losing their businesses. and these -- all these people pay taxes. we were looking for america to take care of us. that's the first thing. second -- second of all, what's at stake is -- is our democracy.

and -- and -- and -- you know, how can you not look at these two candidates, and not want them to represent your state? jon ossoff. what? what a man, what a man, what a man! that's what we want our senate to look like. we want our senate to look like that. >> yeah. and let me ask you this because, like i said, i've gotten to see you in clubs, in comedy clubs. and there are so many performers who are hurting right now, who really depended on live performances and nightclubs and on the places where you have done so much work to get where you are today. >> uh-huh. >> does it frustrate you and enrage you that it's so hard to get our representatives to just pass a bill that can help folks like that, the people who are suffering that way? >> you know what, i'm more mad about? i'm not as mad at them as i'm mad at us, as the people, for not making 'em do it.

do you understand what i'm saying? how are we divided right now? that makes no sense. how we made this pandemic a political thing, makes me absolutely enraged. and it -- it makes me go, okay, is half my country selfish? are y'all selfish? are y'all not thinking -- like, are you really not taking this serious after you've seen 300,000 people and just the -- the -- the sight of seeing bodies in a freezer truck, joy. how does that not break your -- break whatever it is, even if you don't believe -- i'm going to wear a mask because i am aware of the bad stuff that's going on. come on. when are we going to start thinking about each other instead of our own agendas? >> i have to ask you one question about supermarket sweep. i would be remiss if i did not ask. okay. so you need to give some advice. if i was, say, on supermarket

sweep, would it make more sense, logically, to go for the big, mega-pack of diapers? or go for the ham? because i feel go for the ham is the way people want to go but which way should you go? >> well, hams. i think the hams are priced at $65. and the diapers are priced at something like $47. so, it's always good to go for the meat, first. the meat, meat. and then, plus, we have a lot of items that are marked with the gold -- with the gold sticker so you know that it's over $100. so, it's always good to go for the meat because they got $300 meat over there. it's always good to go for the meat first. i understand that diapers cost a lot. >> amen, leslie jones, i love you and there's nothing you can do about it. i adore you. thank you so much for being here. you have literally made our night. you might've made my year. i am retiring now, though. i am retiring now because you

came on my show. before we take a quick break, take a look at some of our favorite moments from the first six months of "the reidout." good evening, i'm joy reid, and welcome to the reid out. my first guest is the man who will face donald trump in november. former vice president, joe biden. former secretary of state, hillary clinton. senator kamala harris of california. joining me now, stacey abrams. speaker of the how iuse, nancy pelosi. co-founders of the black lives matter movement. breaking tonight, from the streets of kenosha, wisconsin, where protests are continuing after another police shooting of a black man. the most volatile, postelection transition period in modern, american history. >> we have some breaking news that we have to report to you. unfortunately, that news is that ruth bader ginsburg, associate justice of the united states supreme court, has died apparently. a short time ago, donald trump left the white house and was flown to walter reed medical

center in bethesda, maryland. it was described as a precautionary measure, after he tested positive for the coronavirus. there are moments in this job when you realize that you're witnessing some of the great horrors of history. this is a president, who was just hospitalized for an intensely contagious disease. he is still highly contagious. highly contagious. he took off his mask. a highly infectious person, standing there, surrounded by many, other people. i am joined by former deputy assistant to the president in the trump administration. do you accept and believe that joe biden is the president-elect of the united states? >> well, i think we should just let the -- the nation kind of run its course on the investigations and lawsuits. >> what -- what investigation, specifically? >> well, i mean, there's a number of lawsuits that we filed

that -- >> give me a specific one. name -- name me one. name me one that has not already been thrown out. >> i'm not going to get specific. i'm just saying, very generally, on the -- >> but you're the one who said it. but hold on. you said that you think it should run its course in all the investigations. so, you ought to know what investigations you mean and what you are alleging happened. >> i -- i wasn't being specific. i was meaning that, generally. >> i am joined now by cori bush, the democratic primary winner. you are a working-class woman. do you think that that's what's missing in congress? so many of those people are millionaires and multimillionaires. so many of them are disconnected from the idea that $600 in your unemployment check could make all the difference in the world. that's something they can't relate to. do you think the fact that you can relate to those kinds of struggles. do you think that will make you a different kind of congresswoman? and in what way would you be different? >> yes, it will make me a

different congressperson. for me, being someone who has lived out of my car. you know, let me tell you, that pain of the struggle that i've been through. i can still feel that pain right now. so, that pain is walking with me into the doors of -- into the doors of congress. and -- and that's what's going to feed me. that's what's going to fuel everything i do. >> i am joined now by jacob blake's father. i want to talk to you just a little bit about how jacob is doing. how are his spirits? and what is his prognosis for recovery? >> he's heavily sedated. so, he's in and out of consciousness. and we just -- you know, he's hanging on, joy. and he's hanging on so tough that they can't write him off. he's a tough, young -- he's a tough guy. >> if he is paralyzed, shackling him makes no sense, right? he's not going anywhere. >> well, it made no sense, joy, for the seven shots in his back. that made no sense. >> right. >> none of this makes sense to me.

>> kamala harris has now made history as the first black woman to join a major-party ticket. today, former vice president joe biden has chosen senator harris to be his running mate. for a lot of black women in america today, this is the the affirmation. never again will little black girls and brown girls and white girls and asian girls ever think of the vice president of the united states and not see themselves. vote for all the people who were denied for centuries this basic right of citizenship, the enslaved and their citizens. they still had to fight for the vote 100 years after the 13th amendment. women who went to jail for demanding suffrage and only got it on the 19th out of 27 amendments to the constitution. vote because our rights matter. our lives matter. our planet matters and because you matter. there is more to come on our reid out holiday special. don't go anywhere. your teacher.

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♪ on the third day of croodsmas my neighbor gave to me ♪ ♪ three.♪. dun, dun, duns. ♪ 2 shrieking girls

♪ and a... whoa, peanut toe. ♪ in a pack of croodaceous families ♪ go to watchcroods.com. 2020, what a year it has been. despite the virus and the horrors that have come out of this white house, we managed to launch this very show from our home six months ago now. now you see me here each night, but this show wouldn't come together without my wonderful staff and crew. executive producer tina urbansky. senior producers. line producer robert lion. segment producers tiffany, valerie, kai, will, jonathan and rachel. our booking producers, bridgette, kier.

associate producers, adam, lauren, henry. digital producer, geet. news associate esohe and 2020 interns samuel jacob and jessica. our directors are sterling brown, darin. technical production manager is chris. technical direct rs, bob, emily, leisel and dane. audio engineers, rob alexander and dan and stage managers, louisa, thomas and jaclyn. steadi cam operators, kareem. video and lighting, rachel and douglas. graphics play back, lindsey, rebecca, deidre.

video play back, mary. teleprompter is march questions and jesse. editors, evan, caroline, katie, jim, kim. annette, nicholas, steve, andrew. art directors, markus and matt. graphics coordinator alex. graphic artists mia dan, antonio and teddy and a special thanks to msnbc president. all hands on. happy holidays to you and your family and let 2021 bring better days. [♪]

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tonight on a special edition of "all in." 2020 is ending, the trump presidency is ending and american democracy has dodged a bullet. as we enter 2021 it's time to fix the system. >> in my own lifetime republicans have only won the popular vote once. >> even if you're from a small town like me with more elk than people or a big city, your vote should count equally. tonight we'll talk about big structural changes we can make to protect our democracy, like abolishing the electoral college, adding more supreme court justices or adding two more states to change the