forces of good, i guess, is my idea. >> it's a really, really good idea, i think. i really enjoyed the piece. you can read it at vox.com. david roberts wrote it. david, thank you so much. >> thanks, chris. >> that is "all in" for this evening. good night. happy holidays. we're almost at the end of a year like no other. a presidency like no other. this year has been so long it felt like it ate its own tail and become a never ending swirl. there would never be any point of finish. it will finish. do you believe this year started with the impeachment trial in the senate? the night before the impeachment began i sat down with an interview. he worked hand in hand with rudy

giuliani the personal lawyer. pushing the scheme for which president trump was impeached pressuring ukraine to announce investigations into the biden family to hurt him in the 2020 election. he met with trump on multiple occasions. carrying out this ukraine scheme on his behalf. there were a million photographs of them meeting together. when they were arrested and charged with multiple campaign finance felonies, and the ukraine scheme got laid out in the indictment, he learned the hard lesson so many trump folks have learned over the years. particularly over the course of the presidency. while trump demands absolute loyalty, for you, you get nothing. loyal goes to him never from him. president trump claimed he didn't everyone know him.

had nothing to do with him. never met the guy. or didn't remember him. that must be a shock or something. we close in on the end of this thing, we're going to revisit three interviews. that we did this year with there people close to trump in all different ways. they all decided to speak publicly against him. either because he abandoned them or felt they could no longer keep silent. we spoke with michael cohen. trumps right hand man to serving a prison sentence. mary trump the president's niece. who broke her silence after a lifetime of her uncle's vindictiveness. we'll start with lev parness. who i spoke with in january. he had been indicted on several

campaign finance charges he has since been indicted on additional fraud charges. we sat down together on the actual eve of president trump's senate impeachment trial. >> why do you want to testify? >> i want to get the truth out. because i feel it's important for our country. it's important for me. it's important for the world to know what transpired and what happened. there's a lot of things that are being said that are not accurate. and i want to make sure they are accurate. things happen that need to get out. i think the world needs to know. >> what do you think is the main inaccuracy or lie that's being told that you can correct? >> that the president didn't know what was going. president trump knew what was going on. he was aware of all of my movements. i wouldn't do anything without the con set of rudy giuliani or

the president. i have no intent no reason to speak to any of the officials. they have no reason to speak to me. why would the inner circle meet with me. who am i? they were told to meet with me. that's the secret they're trying to keep. i was on the ground doing their work. >> in terms of the president what he has said about you, he said about you i don't know them. i don't know about them. i don't know what they do. you're saying that was not a true statement. >> he lied. we're not friends, i mean me and him didn't watch football together. we didn't eat hot dogs. he knew who we were. especially me. i interacted with him at a lot of events and spent one on one conversations with him about

gatherings where they had special round tables and six people at the table. we had several of those. and i mean, i was more than four or five days out of the week. i was in constant contact with them. i was with rudy when he would speak with the president plenty of times. it's just ludicrous. >> how would you know he was on the phone with the president? speakerphone? >> several times it would be on speakerphone and start the conversation on speaker. and then take it off and go somewhere to talk to him. a lot of times it's on the golf course. especially i remember during the mueller times when rudy said something he didn't appreciate and he was screaming at him so loud. i watched the impeachment and saw the testimony about the sullivan i could understand that

you could hear president trump talking next to him. i heard him several times. >> he speaks loudly on the phone. >> very loudly. >> the president knew about your movements and what you were doing, are you saying specifically i want to drill down on that, the president was aware that you and mr. giuliani were working on this effort in ukraine to hurt joe biden's political career? >> yeah. it was all about joe biden and hunter biden. and also rudy had a personal thing with the manafort stuff. the black ledger. that was another thing. it was never about the corruption, it was strictly about the briz ma. >> your attorney told the full federal court in new york that you were both rudy giuliani's clients and you were working for mr. giuliani in his capacity as personal attorney to the

president. >> correct. >> which by the makes it seem like you were working for the president of the united states. >> absolutely. >> did everybody in the government or mr. giuliani actually convey to officials in ukraine that you were there as a representative of president trump? >> absolutely. each of the officials. several times. at the time the general. the first thing i did is introduce myself and tell them i'm here on behalf of rudy giuliani and the president of the united states and i'd like to put you on speakerphone. which we done. rudy relayed to him we were on behalf of the president of the united states. >> you were there to speak on his behalf. >> yes. those exact words. >> in may of last year mr. giuliani started speaking with reporters. about his plan to travel himself

to ukraine to try to enlist the ukrainian government assistance to help his compliant, president trump. in his reelection effort. he said he was going to ukraine to try to get them to announce investigations into vice president biden because that would be helpful to his client. the resulting fire storm of kritism his trip was called off in may. he called off the trip, mr. giuliani made public statements criticizing the new government of ukraine. saying that the new president was surrounded by enemies of the united states. for ukraine, that was a big deal. ukraine is a country at war with russia and dependent on the reality and perception of having strong support from the united states government and when mr. giuliani as the president personal attorney started making public claims that the new ukrainian president was surrounded by enemies of the united states of america, that's why he wasn't going. the ukrainian government kind of

freaked out. that criticism from the new u.s. administration for their new president that's a potential death sentence for the country. at the time that happened, parness was in ukraine. in kiev. he told me today that he was tasked by rudy giuliani in that moment to crank up the pressure on the government of ukraine. to make efb more insis tant and obvious and more ownerous this threat and demand that ukraine must announce investigations into joe biden or else. >> did you meet with the ukrainian official? >> yes, i did. >> he's a senior aid to president zelensky. >> it has been reported as far as we understand for public reporting that you conveyed to shafr the exact prquid pro quo.

or military would not be released to ukraine. is that accurate? >> it was more than that. basically the message i was gave was a harsh message. not in a pleasant way. >> who told him to give it to him in a harsh way? >> mayor giuliani. the message it wasn't just military aid it was all aid. the relationships would be sour. we would stop any kind of aid. >> unless? >> there was an announcement made -- several demands at that point. the most important is the announcement of the biden investigation. >> did you also convey to him that the u.s. government would stop showing support for mr. zelensky and not attend the inauguration? >> that was the big thing. that was the main -- it wasn't because at that time you have to

understand the way ukraine is. president president zelensky winning on that platform and not having experience. and being at war with russia. the number one thing is not even aid. i know it sound crazy. it was a support from the president. by having white house visit. by having a big inauguration. by having the dignitaries. that was the key. they were aware because of the conversations with the embassy that vice president pence was supposed to come to the inauguration. it was discussed. and they were planning it out and working on days that would be good for him. at our meeting -- it was a heated conversation. telling him what needs to be done. basically me. and at the end of the confers i told him that if he doesn't the announcement was key because ot

inauguration. pence wouldn't show up nobody would show up. >> unless he announced an investigation into joe biden. pence would not come. >> particularly vice president mike pence. >> the day after that meeting that you had -- >> sunday the 12th. >> i believe it was the following day that in fact, vice president pence visit to the inaugust reinking was can telled. >> after my phone call. the conversation i laid out was what i was told to do wi giuliani and the president. and after ward i relayed back to them saying he will get back to me tonight and we'll meet. then around 8:00 or 9:00 at night i text him saying any word? what's the situation? at that point because you can see when the person disconnects you. he disconnected me. blocked me. and i understood that was a no. i called back and said no go.

i remember rudy going okay they'll see. and pence to my word trump called up and said make sure he doesn't go. >> ewe believe the trip was cancelled because they didn't agree to announce the investigation? >> there's other the chain of events that was the key to where we are today. after that, take a look at what transpires. within the next couple days they realize that now they get word because obviously pence cancels they get word pence is not coming. they realize what i was telling is true. >> vice president pence has his planned trip cancelled. after you were unable to get the government to commit announcing investigations into joe biden. do you know if vice president pence was aware that that was the quid pro quo? that was the trade and in fact why his inaugural visit was

called off? >> i'm use a famous quote. everybody was in the loop. >> you believe pence knew what he was -- knew his trip was contingent on investigations announced? >> again, i mean, i know he went to poland also to on trumps behalf. he couldn't have not known. >> part of the conversation with giuliani associate lev parness. that was that conversation was on the eve of president trump's impeachment trial in the senate in january. the day we aired that interview we heard from giuliani. who denied to us that he had ever told ukrainian officials that lev parness spoke as a representative of the president. and of course in the trump impeachment trial the republican controlled senate refused to call parness or any actual witnesses to testify. on anything. they just voted to acquit the president without hearing from nen.

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in september, i spoke with michael cohen, president trump's former attorney and -- what do we call it -- enforcer, pit bull. over this summer, michael cohen was released from prison. he was put in home confinement instead to serve out the rest of his sentence for multiple felonies, including campaign finance charges. those were for help covering up hush money payments that were made to silence two women who said they had affairs with president trump before he ran for president. prosecutors in the cohen case in sdny, southern district of new york, said that president trump is the person who directed the commission of those felonies, but michael cohen is the one who went to prison for them. while in prison, mr. cohen wrote a memoir about his time at trump's side. >> in terms of your life now and what your life is like under

home confinement and releasing this book, i know there are multiple ongoing investigations that seem to have been triggered by or that intersect with the testimony that you've given, you know, investigations, and i know you can't talk about ongoing, live investigations. but are you in an ongoing way working with any investigators or providing testimony or is that still part of your life, or is that something that's in the past? >> so you're right. i'm not permitted to discuss them other than to say that there are ongoing investigations into all of the actions that everybody has heard about for so long, including the supreme court case that now exists in order to obtain mr. trump and the trump organization's tax returns. >> you write in the book that you didn't have access in detail

to trump taxes, but we know that you had access to financial documents from the trump organization because you testified about it in great detail, in poetic detail in front of congress in terms of basically what you described as sort of tax fraud or insurance fraud, potentially bank fraud or efforts at that by the trump organization as the president routinely inflated or deflated the value of his assets depending on who was asking. if cy vance or other investigators do get access to the financial records that you testified about, what do you expect? do you think that's stuff that's going to be beyond the statute of limitations? do you think that will be stuff that poses a threat to the president now? >> yeah, i think it poses a tremendous threat to the president, which of course is why he elected not to release his tax returns. other than that, again, there are ongoing investigations, and it's probably best if i don't discuss any of the terms. >> i hear you.

>> or any impressions they've put before me. >> let me ask you about the campaign finance charges which you pled guilty to. the thing that i have never understood -- and i have pursued this story as hard as i've pursued anything in the trump era, and nobody's been able to explain this to me. why were you the only one charged? you write in great detail about sort of coming up with this plan to cover up the payment, which was an illegal payment, with allen weisselberg. we've seen the checks you provided to congress, at least one signed by one of the president's sons. it's clear that the trump organization was used to sort of launder that payment. it's clear that ami and david pecker were involved in strands of this scheme. why is michael cohen the only person who was charged? >> because they elected to make me into the scapegoat. i did what i did. i took responsibility for it. but mr. trump, allen

weisselberg -- you know, just to correct you for a second there, rachel. it wasn't just don junior's signature that was on some of the checks. the president's signature was on two of the checks. >> mm-hmm. >> at the very beginning, which i provided to congress as part of the open house testimony. why i'm the only one, it doesn't make sense. as i stated, i was acting at the direction of and for the benefit of mr. trump. and how i became -- i'm not the one who had the affair. he did. i'm not the -- i am the dummy who paid $130,000 to keep it quiet, but this was my conversation with mr. trump, with allen weisselberg, and others, and i did it in order to protect him. and i guess the thank you that i got from my loyal boss was, michael cohen should, as i once said, take a bullet for him and lose everything, lose my

freedom, my company, my law license, my family's happiness, everything. i'm with you. i don't understand it. >> the president is at least, though, named as "individual 1" by prosecutors and you, in your allocution, made very clear what you just made clear here, the fact that this was directed by him, for his benefit, and you were acting out his wishes, and so he's therefore the most culpable person. you make a point as almost the very last thing you say in the book, which i wanted to ask you about, because i think it may relate to this. the president is named as individual 1. you went to prison for those felonies. he's clearly the person who directed the commission of those felonies. but you say at the very end of the book that the president and attorney general william barr ousted the u.s. attorney in the southern district of new york and tried to install effectively the president's golfing buddy as the new u.s. attorney there because the president, in your view, wanted to arrange for himself to be indicted while

he's still in office because that would give him the opportunity to pardon himself after he lost the election. i just wanted to make sure that i understand the point that you're making there, just ask you to elaborate on that a little bit because i'm not sure i understand. >> my theory is that if he loses, there's still the time between the election and the time that the next president would take office. and in during that time, my suspicion is that he will resign as president. he will allow mike pence to take over, and he will then go ahead and have mike pence pardon him, and it's a very -- let's just say it's a very nixon type of event, and it was probably discussed between roger stone and president trump at some point that this is certainly one way to avoid any potential prison time. >> i suppose if he was going to do something like that, he could arrange for the type of pardon that nixon in fact got, where

nixon hadn't been charged with anything. it was a prospective pardon that he basically arranged from ford so as to make sure that he'd never be indicted after he left office. i suppose that same sort of arrangement could apply there even if he wasn't in fact charged. >> though we have to remember that it doesn't apply to state charges nor does it apply to the charges that will be brought by cy vance's office. >> yeah. let me ask you, michael, about something that you describe in detail, which is also something that i spent a long time chasing, which is this unusual story -- this is page 249 of your book, chapter 12, which has got a lot of great stuff in it. >> i'm glad you enjoyed it. >> i was like, ooh, 12, this is my jam. this is the part for me. so you write that the president effectively sort of flipped a house in palm beach. you describe it as an architectural nightmare, which i found effective. but he made a profit on that in excess of $50 million.

and what you write about in chapter 12 is the president told you that although the person who bought that house from him for this $50 million-plus profit was a russian fertilizer billionaire, the president told you he believed the actual money was putin's. quote, the oligarchs are just fronts for putin, trump told me. he puts them into wealth to invest his money. that's all they're doing, investing putin's money. then you say in your words, trump was convinced the real buyer of that house was vladimir putin. was he speaking seriously and literally there? did he actually think that putin had arranged this $50 million windfall for him? >> well, i don't -- i don't know what he was thinking. i can only tell you, which i did in the book -- i can recount the conversation. he believes that all of the russian oligarchs are basically pawns of vladimir putin. he controls all of them, i guess very much to the same extent that mohammed bin salman had the ability within which to lock up all of his relatives and other

members of the royal family for money, right? trump is keen on this power and whether it's mohammed bin salman, kim jong-un, it's the power he's so involved with and so in search of that this is exactly what he believes. he believes that putin controls all of russia and all of its wealth. and anything like the purchase of this -- of this home had to have been through or with the permission of vladimir putin. >> and he -- you elaborate on that idea some when you talk about what you think was trump's sort of orientation toward putin and russia during the campaign. you say, when trump lost the election, he expected to lose the election. he wanted to do all he could to enable him to be able to borrow money from people in putin's circle, and that meant sucking up to the russians. a large part of the posturing

and praising of putin was a way to keep the trump organization's options open with the russian leader. so was he -- he was explicit with you about this, or you were discerning this in terms of what you thought was behind his behavior? >> no, this is what's behind his behavior. donald trump, again, they're looking for -- to do a project in russia for many, many years, even prior to my joining the trump organization in 2007. he's fixated on the wealth of vladimir putin and all of the opportunities that come with it. you have to remember -- and i've said that many times, and i've said it under oath to the house and the senate as well as my open testimony. donald trump never thought he was going to win this election. he actually didn't want to win this election. this was supposed to be -- and it's how he started it -- the greatest political infomercial in the history of politics. so if you take that line and you -- and you add to it the

trump tower moscow project, you'll understand that this was a branding deal. that's all that the presidential campaign started out as. this was a branding opportunity in order to expand worldwide. >> the trump -- >> there's only one problem. there's only one problem. he won. >> oops. the way you describe the trump tower moscow project is grander than i had previously understood. 120 floors. you know, the free penthouse for putin. luxury condos, a hotel. a gigantic spa. >> is that not a brilliant idea by the way? if you want to raise the price per square foot, you give to probably the richest man in the world and certainly the most powerful in russia the penthouse apartment. so what does that do to the square footage of everything underneath it, right? it makes it enormously expensive because he'll just tell all of the other oligarchs, buy it or they'll just want to buy it on

their own. so it's a brilliant move. it's just -- it's just not if you're running for president. >> that was part of my conversation with former trump attorney, now convicted felon michael cohen. more ahead. stay with us.

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there is something that you describe in terms of the president's mind-set that stuck with me in a way that i feel like it resonates as very true, and i don't -- i can't quite put my finger on how it works. and it's about the birtherism thing, about his -- what you describe as his obsession with president obama and his sort of almost desperate need to undercut president obama in some way. and you said in the book that the president didn't necessarily actually believe that president obama was born in a foreign country, but he liked the effect that it had for him to advance this theory. on page 114 of the book, you said, he liked doing things like that. quote, the more divisive, the better because it would arouse strong feelings for those who took his side.

i think a lot of us observing the trump presidency have seen how divisive he is, how he tries to pit people against each other whenever he can. how does that work in his favor. >> donald trump is like a cult leader. he's very stalin-istic in the fact that he repeats things over and over and over again with the theory that if you continuously say the same thing over and over, people will start to believe it, you know. i talk about a lot of his sort of proclivities and the things that he thinks and how he thinks. if you look at just the books that have come out recently, mary trump's book, stephanie winston wolkoff's book, my book, it's kind of like the trifecta of truth. we all seem to be pointing to the same thing. he is devoid of empathy. he doesn't care what he says. he doesn't care who gets hurt so long as he wins.

and when he saw that his poll numbers and his popularity and the number of times that he's gracing the front cover of the newspaper is increasing, he just added on to it. all of a sudden he was sending people to hawaii to go check. that's a lie. he never sent anybody anywhere, right? he just said it, and everybody sort of bought into it. of course donald trump sent somebody. he's rich, right? who wouldn't send somebody if you wanted to prove your point? donald trump didn't do it because he didn't want to spend the money, and he didn't believe it. you know, his hatred for barack obama is plain and simple. he's black. he went to harvard law. he graduated the top of his class. he's, you know, incredibly articulate, and he's all the things that donald trump wants to be, right? and he just can't handle it. so what do you do if you can't handle it and you're donald trump? you attack it, the same way he attacks my credibility all the time.

all of a sudden i've become a convicted liar. why am i the liar? at the end of the day, who did i lie for when i lied to congress? i lied for the benefit of and at the direction of donald j. trump. so again, very much like your very first question when we started, why am i the one who's taking all of the, you know, responsibility? i took my own responsibility. but now it's time for him and his sons and allen weisselberg and all of the other people that were involved, it is time for them to now face, you know, the consequences. it shouldn't just be me. >> when you say that you were directed to lie to congress by him, were there people who conveyed that message to you directly? are there people who were involved in basically getting you to lie to congress or telling you to lie to congress who should also be held accountable for that? >> well, all those names have already come out. so the answer to that is emphatically yes.

they changed the document. it was all part of a joint defense agreement. you know, many of these recordings that you're going to hear on other stations have been given to that station and to the moderator by the trump organization and don junior and others. it's -- i mean look at the way that they behave. he behaves exactly the way that i described him. he's like a mob boss. if you cross him, you're going to get it, and he's going to inflict as much pain and as much damage as he possibly can. the problem is you can't -- you can't damage me anymore as i write in my prologue. you know, i'm broken broken. i mean to be away from my family for -- for what? to lose my law license, my business, finances, my family's happiness. you know, what do you think that you're going to do with your ridiculous tweets? and by the way, you know, in his tweet of today, as i pointed out, he doesn't even spell

properly. you know, liar is l-i-a-r. if you're going to call me something, at least have the decency to spell it right. >> over time, do you feel like his sentience has declined, what you described in terms of him spelling or the way that he speaks or sometimes has trouble with words? is he as -- has that changed over time? is he the same person when he speaks now that you recognize from your time working with him all those years? >> he's not the same person that i knew going back years ago. he was always gruff. he was always a certain way. but the power that he now has, has gone to his head. he wants to be an autocrat. he wants to be the president of this country for life. he wants to be just like putin, just like kim jong-un, just like maduro, just like mohammed bin salman.

he craves this. he doesn't want to run for president. that's why he says what about 12 more years, 12 more years. he's not joking. understand donald trump doesn't have a sense of humor. he doesn't laugh. he doesn't tell jokes. he doesn't have a sense of humor. he means it when he says it, and my book is intended to really open the eyes of the 38%, that base of his that no matter what donald trump does, it's acceptable to them. and he doesn't care, and they don't care. and he wasn't joking when he said again that he could kill someone on fifth avenue and get away with it. he means it. >> that was more of my interview with president trump's former personal attorney, michael cohen, who is serving out the remainder of his three-year prison sentence in home confinement. when we come back, what ended up being the national debut of mary trump, the president's niece, and the incredible story that she had to tell. that's straight ahead.

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when i first interviewed mary trump, president trump's niece, which was in july, she provided some unique insights into her uncle's catastrophic handling the coronavirus pandemic. she also had a prediction about his post-election behavior that has turned out to be shockingly accurate. watch this. >> in terms of the work that he is capable of, you spent some time in the book discussing the president's terrible, consequential mismanagement of the coronavirus epidemic, and you spend a few pages kind of marveling at the fact that it wouldn't have been hard for any president to be kind of a hero here, right? to use the defense production act to produce more supplies and tests and ppe. i mean you just have to listen to the scientific experts and, you know, amplify their message and do what they say. you can activate the gears of government that are supposed to turn during this kind of crisis. but instead he didn't, and you kind of, as i said, marvel at that in the book.

but i think the country along with you is kind of stuck on this open question that you are asking here about why and how he has bungled this crisis so badly, just now openly musing that it will go away on its own as if that's the only thing that he's capable of doing. i wonder if you can just talk a little bit about why you wrote this part of the book and what you think the answer might be to that question about why the president has made all the wrong decisions around this crisis and done so little work to fix anything. >> i thought it was very important to address this because, of course, it's ongoing. even at the time i was writing, we were -- i think in new york we were past the worst of it, but it was clear that the rest of the country was not doing what it needed to do. i want people to understand what

a failure of leadership this is and the reason he's failing at it is because he's incapable of succeeding at it. it would have required taking responsibility, which would, in his mind, have meant admitting a mistake, which in his mind would be admitting weakness, which in my family was essentially punished with the death penalty, symbolically or otherwise. what i think we need to grapple with now is why so many people are continuing to allow this. the fact that he is dividing us at the expense of people's lives, i mean, what? we're 140,000 americans and counting are dead, and the vast majority of those people did not need to lose their lives if only donald had said, listen to the

scientists. wear a mask. stay home. the fact that this is continuing, people are dying every day. there are states in this country that are absolutely out of control. and to curry favor with donald, certain governors are continuing to ignore the science and more people are getting sick, and more people are going to die. it is utterly insane at this point. we need to wake up, and instead of taking it seriously, instead of standing aside and letting the experts take over. donald is hawking black beans. it's -- you know, the -- it would be absurd if it weren't so devastating. >> your uncle, of course, has a very reasonable chance at winning a second term. any incumbent president does, even one with sort of upside

down numbers like he has right now. >> mm-hmm. >> what do you think the consequences of another four years of a donald trump presidency would be. you write about that in the book as if you are genuinely fearful that a second term could be qualitatively more dangerous fo qualitatively more dangerous for the country than his first term was. >> yeah, and i want to make something really clear. this is beyond partisanship. this is so beyond party. we need to be thinking about this as americans. we need to be thinking about who we want to be as a people going forward. i hear people say all the time this is not who we are. this is exactly who we are right now. so continuing along this path, which is exactly what would happen if donald were to be elected in 2020 would i absolutely believe be the end of the american experiment. i do not believe there is any coming back from this. there are too many enablers who

are for whatever reason continuing to enable him. bill barr has gutted the justice department. mike pompeo has gutted the state department. we are in serious, serious danger here. and unfortunately, that is no longer hyperbolic. that's just the way it is. >> do you share the concerns that some people have voiced that if your uncle loses the election, that he might try to not leave the white house, that he might try to hold on to power through some extra democratic means, by force? do you think that sort of worry is hyperbolic at this point, or is that the sort of thing that you're concerned he might resort to? >> no, i think it's perfectly reasonable to worry about that, but how he responds depends a

lot on how if he loses, how badly he loses. i think the more resounding joe biden victory, the less likely it is for donald to stick around. he is somebody who needs to be right all the time and needs to be winning all the time, will need desperately to spin away from a crushing defeat, and i don't know what form that would take, but that as far as i'm concerned is the only way to not guarantee, but at least give us a better possibility that there will be a peaceful transition after the election on november 3rd. >> shockingly accurate, actually. almost to the point of being uncanny. we've got more just ahead. stay with us. so you want to make the best burger ever? then make it!

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all right. one last thing here tonight as 2020 is coming to a close. we do this once a year, and it's my dad's favorite thing we do on the show all year, every year. 2020 is finally ending. i swear. thank you so much for sticking with me on this show throughout this often unspeakably awful, sometimes historic, always very newsy year. but i also want to take a moment to thank the team of people without whom i actually could not have gotten through this year. they are very, very smart. they are funny. they are weirdos, and i mean that in the best possible way. they work incredibly hard. and this year 2020 has demanded that they get more creative and more flexible and more resilient than they ever thought they would need to for a job like this. so i just want to say thank you to these terrific folks who make it possible for "rachel maddow show" to exist. this whole thing could happen without me, but there is no way

i could do this without them. and you should know who they are. here they are, my heroes. ♪ ♪ ♪

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