♪ 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. and for the next hour, sit back and relax. we're 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 spire row agnew. >> and agnew was pushing all the

same levers that trump is pushing, but you're right. he did it in a way that is sort of ear dike and erect and correct and articulate. >> later morning joe himself joins me on his new book about president harry trueman. >> he came from missouri. his parents were both pro-confederate. he had a racist background. and yet here's a guy who in 1948, election year, when he knows it's going to hurt him politically, he moves to integrate the armed services. >> also author 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 senator blocking the coming to fruition of legislation that could relieve 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. because joy to the world, joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea. i love joy! >> 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 spiro agnew. >> the narrow and distorted picture of america often emerges from the televised news. >> 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 critical issue of law and order. >> the words "law and order" are words that democrats don't like to use. they don't think they're

politically good. >> the 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 cover up and spectacular downfall of a brazen crook in the white house" which details the often overlooked story of the bribery scheme then vice president spiro agnew ran from inside the white house. rachel maddow writes the play book agnew wrote to try to save himself has left its own legacy for the elected official. it's a straightforward set of plays if saving yourself meaning undermining the institutions of democracy, the department of justice and the free press for

starters, well fire up the backhoe. i'm joined by the host of "the rachel maddow" show, rachel, thank you so much for being here. i have to start by asking you how is susan? >> susan -- thank you, thank you, thank you for all of that. i've never seen the juxtaposition of trump and agnew. i've done it in print. i've never seen it in tape. it's fantastic. their delivery has such echos. that was amazing. but susan is much better. she's got -- she's dealing with the long tail of the symptoms of covid which i think a lot of people with symptomatic covid have to deal with and that sucks. but we are not scared in the way that we were and we are out of the woods, as they say. boy, we -- you know, it took us a full week to eat through the gift package you sent. so, thank you. >> one thing i can be counted on -- i can only be counted on

food and drink. this is the thing i do. i can do food and drink. that is wonderful to hear. we're very happy to hear that. that is the first and most important thing. so, i had to get through that. >> thank you. >> i have to give it up to rachel who's also named rachel who produced this seg. . our producers are everything. she found this great video. the thing that's amazing about these two, you write in your book and say it all the time, history is here to help. history is also here to freak us out. as i am reading through this book and dog earring it and destroying it so no one else can read it, it's freaky. spiro agnew is a more articulate version of donald trump, attacking the press, racism, antisemitism, saying everybody loved me until i got to the white house. they're so symmetrical. >> they're so -- and 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 right now and the way that he plays very fast and

loose with authoritarian trend lines and all the stuff that he pushes at. and a lot of smart people will say, well, yeah, this is buffoonish and this is obviously going to fail 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 version, the less ham fisted version of trump comes around and tries to do these things. history is here to remind us that already happened. agnew was pushing all the same levers trump is pushing, but he did it in a way that was aerudie and erect and correct and articulate and he still was seen as a force from office because of it. it's sort of comforting to me because there isn't really 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 not that they can be some sort of -- i don't know, neutralized but the passage of time. he was as malignant as trump is but there were good people in

office who put country above party, who put duty above partisanship and they fixed it. >> absolutely. i think that is the story. you do in the book and the podcast that it is the story of these guys that stared straight ahead and did their jobs that wind up fixing this. but we have to count on there being enough of those to save our democracy. let's talk about the scandal itself. it's a wild story. at one point george herbert walker bush shows up. it's a netflix series in a book. the fact you had this crook operating a bribery scheme that dated back to when he's governor of maryland -- people don't realize how corrupt maryland politics is and has been corrupt -- i should say has been. he's operating as a corrupt figure, he gets in, there's a bribery scandal. talk about the fact you have this happening simultaneous with watergate but they're not connected. >> exactly. and that is part of what i think is forgotten in the history of

agnew is that people -- if they remember him at all, they think that it must have been a watergate adjacent thing, right? >> right. >> there's a lot of people that went to jail or got charged with watergate adjacent things, nixon and the cover up and all the people involved in the cover up of the crime. the attorney general went to jail. you assume it must have been that way for agnew too. nope. totally separate original scandal taking bags of cash as kick backs 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 envelope stuffed full of cash while he was in the white house. so, that's what confronts elliott 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 fired for not doing his bidding. 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. richardson is clear that nixon is holding on but a thread in terms of the presidency. what happens if nixon goes? agnew goes into the oval office. and he knows that agnew is taking cash bribes as vice president. it's a whole different kind of felon. that becomes this real national security imperative. the idea that the country might collapse. 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 happens? so, it -- >> yeah. >> it really put the fire under richardson, i think, in terms of how to deal with it. that's one of the things where there isn't a parallel with trump because there's no way to force him out of the office in exchange for indictment. but that's where they landed with agnew. >> the thing that's also fascinating is this country confronted previously this

question about whether or not you can indict a president. there's also the 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're 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's also, as seen by a lot of people, as corrupt, maybe criminally corrupt, could be indicted, particularly on something like let's say obstruction where he seems to have been dead to rights named in the mueller report. talk about how the agnew scandal relates to that. >> and i would say you could also call him president individual one. he's named by federal prosecutors in the michael cohen hush money case. the case michael cohen went to prison. he's named as the person as directed the commission of the felonies. it's a live issue with trump. but i think this is some of the stuff that maybe you want to write the book in addition to doing the podcast because we

advance the reporting on this even after the podcast and came to what i think is sort of an unsettling revelation about that. presidents, including donald trump, do have a get out of jail free card from the justice department because there's this office of legal counsel policy that a president can't be indicted. where that comes from is the agnew scandal. and specifically where it comes from is nixon and agnew hating each other and nixon and agnew having these separate scandals at the same time. at one point, agnew goes to the democratic speaker of the house and says basically i would like you to impeach me. and the speaker of the house is like, ah, 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 lawyers are going no, no, no, he can't be indicted. he can only be impeached thachlt go to the office of legal council at the justice department and say settle this once and for all. they check with nixon to find out the way he wants it to come out.

what they come out with is 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 because he thought that would throw him out. he didn't want to get indicted. that was nixon trying to save himself in the fiefs his gangster vice president getting thrown out of office. it wasn't like some founding fathers on a tablet given to moses in the constitution. the get out of jail free card that is keeping donald trump from getting indicted by muller and by sdny derives from this ridiculous craven fight between these two felons. >> it is amazing. this era has been so toxic, but the '60s and '70s keep coming like hold my beer. we'll show you crazy. we're going to show it to you. you're great, rachel. what a great book. congratulations on "bag man." no one can borrow my book because i've destroyed it. still reading it.

>> still ahead on our reid out holiday special, more on enlightening and hilarious interviews of 2020. joe scarborough joins us next. stay there. joe scarborough joins us next. stay there even hanging with your dog. so, what are you waiting for? download now and get your first stock on us. robinhood. ♪ then the back ms, safeguard hand soap with micellar deep cleansing washes away germs and impurities down to the pore. leaving hands hydrated and cleaner than ordinary soaps. safeguard against germs. for the better. whatever question i have i feel like there's an avenue to seek the answer. hit that app and you start a story, you're on an adventure. download a new book within seconds and it's ready to go. there's something for everybody on audible. i like short stories. short stories are easy. they're quick. i like long and like intricate stories,

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in his new book "saving freedom: truman, the cold war and the fight for western civilization" joe scarborough. he notes that in contrast, while trump's america first theme initially struck a nerve with voters, his ignorance of history and lack of diplomatic skill prevented his administration from making progress on any significant foreign policy issue over four years. back with me is joe scarborough, host of "morning joe" and author of "saving freedom: truman, the cold war and the fight for western civilization" which i am reading. i love it a lot. i am intrigued by harry truman.

i'm a history buff anyway but he's interesting to me. he's a racist senator from missouri who writes his wife about n-words and chinamen and then comes in and does more to advance the cause of racial equality for black americans than fdr did, taking -- allowing black people to actually get into the military and the federal work force. he ends up doing a lot and changing. how do you -- 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's 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, they walk out of the convention of '48.

so, he's getting attacked by wallace on the left, henry wallace on the left and strom thurman on the right and dewey, the republican and frankly he didn't give a damn as clark gable might say. he thought it was the right thing to do given the service that black americans gave during world war ii and he thought it had to be done. and it's another example of how harry truman grew in his life. this was a guy who was mocked and ridiculed when he came to washington, d.c. he was called a ruby "the new york times." he was called a mouse si man from missouri. 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 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's spread and to ensure freedom in europe 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. there's the hiroshima and nagasaki which one might argue which was incredibly cruel to have done. we are the only country to have used knew cler weapons. he is somebody that did grow as president. contrast that with the current guy because he's not growing. >> it's hard to contrast with the current guy because truman

believed in plain speaking. he said the buck stopped here. he liked making difficult decisions and slept better at night after he did what he thought was the right thing to do. >> yeah. >> 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 -- >> he was an adult, yeah. >> it helps. author of "saving truman." y'all pick it up. still ahead michael eric dyson says he has proof that america's real religion is whiteness. we'll be right back. teness we'll be right back. every min. understanding how to talk to your doctor about treatment options is key. today, we are redefining how we do things. we find new ways of speaking, so you're never out of touch. it's seeing someone's face that comforts us, no matter where. when those around us know us,

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in the opening of his new book, michael eric dyson writes directly to eli jack mcclain, a 23-year-old black man who died last year in colorado police custody. quote, deer elijah, we are about to see if it is true that we are one, to see if your death and those of ahmaud arbery, george floyd, breon at that taylor, and untold others are viewed worthy of moral revulsion and from there would prove a real reckoning is taking place place. congress has not passed reform and not because the house hasn't tried. they've met their untimely death

in grim reaper mitch mcconnell's senate. i'm joined now by the author of "long time coming, reckoning with race in america." michael, my friend, it is good to see you. we're going to talk about the book. but i want to very quickly ask you what you make of this attempt by mitch mcconnell to rebrand himself in part by touting police reform, having signed a police reform bill. we know he blocked one during president obama's tenure. and if the house passed a comprehensive one with chokehold bands and no knock warrants and getting rid of qualified immunity, they passed a weaker bill in the senate and shoved him out front to be the face man for it. do you think there's 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 oof years, a few years to try to

tell the story of what they did and did not do. and yet mitch mcconnell here is caught in the vice grip of a revisionist aesthetic that says we're going to paint everything like we did it all great back then. it 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 rankerous and horrible summers we've endured in the long trek towards transformation in race in this country suggests that mitch mcconnell is not only tone deaf but color blind in the worst sense of the fashion, in the worst sense of the word. he refuses to persistent 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 policemen could put his knee on the man of a black man laying on

the pavement and asphyxiate him before our very eyes. mitch mcconnell is -- in one sense unwitting and another sense a conscious accomplice in refusing racial progress in this nation. and now to paint himself, to portray himself as somehow martin luther mcconnell is deeply profound and problematic. >> in your new book, you talk about reckoning with race in america. and i think about mitch mcconnell's centrality in the story of race just in the last ten years, his blanket opposition in filibustering, using the good old fashioned southern technique, a man originally from alabama, who used it against president obama who said you can't put anybody on the federal court. you don't have the right. you're not a real president. then to try to tout his deputy becoming a attorney general of kentucky and 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 as cent tore the sort of, you know, dim in addition of black live that we've seen over the last ten years as trump. >> there is no question about that. on the one hand, i talk in the book about faster error and slow terror. fast terror is when bombs drop and they hurt black people by the police who hurt and kill us. slow terror is throwing kids out of school, denying them opportunity to be fed mentally and physically. if donald trump is a fast terrorist, mitch mcconnell is 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 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 whiteness at the altar of whiteness, before the god of whiteness. and thereof donald trump is a product of a womb that has disfigured this person in terms of politics, 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 vehemently denounced for. then he puts forth a black face representation in daniel cameron. there's a ventriloquism going on. daniel cameron's mouth is moving, mitch mcconnell's thoughts are coming through his tongue. pulling those strings is one of the worst white sprupremacists that we've seen in the last 15 years in american politics. >> and you're writing about

reckoning with race. talk to me about how we do that when somebody like this guy can start off at the march on washington at 20 years old and get all the way here, right, get all the way to the place where he's 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. do you have an answer for that in this book? >> well, this is true. first of all, he was mistakenly there. he wanted to be there. he was accidentally there. he did not deliberately go to

attend the march. he even admitted he couldn't hear the words "martin luther king jr." uttered that day. and he still cannot hear the resounding echo of a trumpet of conscious like martin luther king jr. he still is tone deaf. he still is is incapable of listening to the calls 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 in race. so, mitch mcconnell is articulating the noble ideals and words, but he is falling short. black people have been dealing with this from the very beginning. this ain't the first time. we believe in a god and people who transcend barriers and we know blackness will survive. >> the book is "long time coming: reckoning with race in america" another must-read book by michael eric dyson. don't go anywhere. my interview with comedian leslie jones is up next. you do not want to misit. next. you do not want to misit . so, yt investing today wherever you are -

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the pandemic has upended all

of our lives. the past ten months have been a stream of unrelented 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 lesley jones, formerly of "saturday night live" and current host of abc's "supermarket sweep" who has made her cable news commentary a favorite spectator sport. >> i came just so i could see you again, katie. fire is what i think when i see you katie. he's a trump impersonator. how disgustingly sad. this is what i want to know, georgia? what part of georgia is this. mitch mcconnell crying is like the devil weeping over not being able to kill 50 more people. is that gentlemen ral doe

rivera? wait a minute. he's a [ bleep ] trumper? he can't even read this chart. this is exactly what we're supposed to be doing. just like he said, the government is 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 joins me now. mrs. lesley jones, sri to tell you, this is proof, i was like please can we just book lesley jones. 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 on politics on msnbc. >> 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.

because -- ♪ joy to the world ♪ joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea ♪ i love joy! >> i love you too. i've got the chance to see -- mm-hm? >> oh, no, it started one day, i saw you, i was like oh my god and started watching. and i think at the time steve was at the board and i was like who is this guy? she'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 passiveness aggressiveness that we need when we're getting some [ bleep ] off our chest. this is lawrence? this is lawrence? i like that guy. he's very common.

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

but when you look at politics today, i've been -- 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 that 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? i was around with reagan. i've been here a long time and i have a great sense of humor. you have to have a great sense of humor in life because either yo gone cry all night or you're gone laugh. i'd rather laugh. it's -- you know, my favorite thing to do is to do crowd work and the person i'm 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. all these people who come -- i don't know them. madilyn albright, somebody told me, i didn't know he was somebody. i just thought she had a dude walking on her jacket. james cardinal, oh my god, i couldn't believe it. i love it. i love that they love it. >> and you're making people love politics. so, si have to ask you, you wer just in georgia 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 play a little bit of it for those who didn't see it. talk 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 lawsuiter when there came an opportunity to give ordinary georgians an extra $600 of relief, you said it was no need and it's counterproductive. why do you think it's counterproductive to help ordinary georgians? >> what do you make of this race and what do you think the stakes are for the country? >> well, i think everybody needs to know that the people are incented now that need their place taken are not taking care of this country. that's what we need to look at. it's very obvious. we have people who have died. we have people unemployed, hungry, losing their jobs, losing their businesses. and all these people pay taxes. we were looking for america to take care of us. that's the first thing. >> yes. >> second of all, what's at

stake is our democracy. 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, what a man, what a mighty good man? guys gier guys, guys, 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. like i said, i've gotten to see you in clubs n comedy clubs. and there are so many performers who are hurting right now who really depending on live performances in night clubs, on the places you have done so much work to get where you are today. does it frustrate you and enrage you that it's so hard to get our representatives to just pass a bill that could 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 them do it. you understand what i'm saying? >> yes? >> how are we divided right now? >> yes. >> that makes no sense. how we made this pandemic a political thing makes me absolutely enraged. >> yes. >> and it makes me go, okay, is half my country self-ish? are y'all selfish? are y'all really not thinking? you've seen 300,000 people -- and just 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 just because i don't want to be part of the bad stuff that's going on. come on, you guys. >> yeah. >> when are we going to start thinking about each other instead of our own agendas? >> absolutely. >> it's ridiculous. >> amen to that. sri to ask you one question about "supermarket sweep." i would be remiss if i didn't ask. if i was on "supermarket sweep,"

would it make more sense logically to go for the big megapack of diapers or go for the ham? i feel like go for the ham is the way people want to go, but which way should ugo? >> well, the 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 plus we have a lot of items that are marked with the gold sticker so you know it's over $100. so, it's always good to go for the meat because they got $300 meat over there. they got -- all the steaks are $65. it's always good to go for the meat first. i understand that's a lot. >> i love you. amen. lesl lesley 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 made our night. you might have made my year. i'm retiring now though. i'm retiring now. 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 reidout." my first guest is the man who face donald trump in november, former vice president joe biden. joining me now is stacey abrams. alicia garza and pra trees colors. from the streets of kenosha, wisconsin, where protests are continuing after another police shooting of a black man. modern american history. we have breaking news that we have to report to you. unfortunately that news is that reasuth bader ginsburg, associa justice of the united states supreme court has died apparently. 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'm joined by duron smith. do you accept and believe that joe biden is the president-elect of the united states? >> well, i think we just let the nation kind of run its course on the investigations and lawsuits. >> what investigation specifically? >> well, i mean, there's a number of lawsuits that we filed

that -- >> give me a specific -- name me one. name me one that has not already been thrown out. >> well, i'm not going to get specific. i'm just saying very generally on -- >> but you're the one who said it. you said -- but hold on. you said but you think it should run its course in all the investigations so you want to know what investigations you mean and what you are alleging happened. >> i wasn't being specific. i was meaning that generally. >> i'm joined now by corey bush, the democratic primary winner in missouri's first district. you're 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 are disconnected from the idea that $600 extra 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 you can relate to those kinds of struggles, do you think that will make you a different kind of congresswoman? and in what may will you be

different? >> yes, it will make me a different congresswoman. me being a person that has lived out of my car, the pain and struggle i've been through, i can still feel that pain right now. so, that pain is walking with me into the doors of congress. and that's what's going to feed me. that's what's going to fuel everything i do. >> i'm 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 skpand out of consciousness just, he's hanging on, joy. he's hanging on so tough that they can't write him off. >> if he's paralyzed, shackling him makes no sense, right? he's not going anywhere. >> it made no sense, joy, for the seven shots in his back. >> right. >> that made no sense. doesn't none of this make 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 ultimate 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 descendants who sill have 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 our constitution. vote because our rights matter, our live matter, our planet matters and because you matter. there is more to come on our reid out holiday special. don't go anywhere. out holiday l don't go anywhere.

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2020, what a year it has been. and despite the virus and the horrors that have come t out of this white house, we managed to launch this very show from our homes six months ago now. you see me here each night but this show wouldn't come together without my wonderful staff and crew.

and thank you to everyone involved in the making of the reid out. thanks at home for watching. happy holidays to you and your family and make 2021 bring better days. ng better days. even hanging with your dog. so, what are you waiting for? download now and get your first stock on us. robinhood.

for bathroom odors that linger try febreze small spaces. just press firmly and it continuously eliminates odors in the air and on soft surfaces. for 45 days. tonight on a special edition of "all in," 2020 is ending, the trump presidency is ending, and american democracy has just dodged a bullet. now 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 than 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 abolish the electoral college, adding more supreme court justices or