good evening and welcome to "politicsnation." tonight's lead, holding pattern. as americans' minds clear from what i hope was socially distanced celebrations, millions of those minds are coming right back to the same troubles that defined the last year. and so i'd really like to start this first show of 2021 with hope. we're seeing two scenarios unfold in our country, the trump

administration in its literal last days contesting the election at every turn, while an unprecedented campaign to eradicate a historic plague takes shape by the day. related or not, it's poetic. but as the vaccine teases prematurely at life beyond covid, the republican party cannot bring itself to face life without donald trump and it's turning on itself in the process. congress now bracing for an unexpected fight next week when it convenes to certify joe biden's presidential win. nbc news reporting today that nearly a dozen gop senators are now calling for an emergency audit of the results, planning to vote to reject electors from a handful of so-called disputed states. these gop senators, of course,

join the president in that objection as he travels to georgia monday for a rally ahead of tuesday's senate runoffs, casting doubt on his massive early vote. but not likely to say anything about the surging covid numbers, the rightful criticism of vaccine rollout on his watch, or the fact that embattled gop senator david perdue cannot campaign with him because he's in covid quarantine. more on all of that later, because with the new year and the prospect of a new senate, two things on my mind this week. first, there's absolutely nothing mitch mcconnell and his caucus won't deny the american people, no matter the circumstances, no matter the cynicism. but second, as we watch the senate runoffs in georgia break records with black women's help, i'm reminded our nation's upper

chamber will soon have no black women at all. but as i said at the top, hope, because in just 18 days kamala harris becomes madam vice president, and in less than a week she could become the tie-breaker for a very different senate majority. joining me now is minnesota senator amy klobuchar. senator klobuchar is ranking member of the rules committee and will be one of the four lawmakers tallying the electoral votes on wednesday. happy new year. thank you for being with us, senator. >> thanks, al. happy new year to you and thank you for leading with hope in the middle of all of this. >> let me go to the point. earlier this week you called the news that missouri gop senator josh hawley will object to the certification of joe biden's win in pennsylvania, quote, a coup

attempt, and now nearly a dozen of your colleagues in the gop senate caucus are calling for an emergency ten-day audit of electoral results in states where congressional republicans insist the results are subject to dispute. all this less than a week before certification and two months after the election. as the ranking member of the senate rules committee, did you and your colleagues expect this? >> i'm not surprised given how donald trump continues to deny the clear results of this election. but i want to make one thing in light of your call for hope here, let's make this clear. joe biden and kamala harris are going to be inaugurated and sworn in in her moment as the first african-american woman vice president on january 20th. democracy will prevail, and this is nothing but more than a publicity stunt. because these senators, unlike

some of their republican colleagues who are standing up like ben sasse, collins collisu and others are making clear it's joe biden's victory and they will uphold the votes of the people. the other thing about this, look what they're calling for, al. they're calling for this emergency audit. give me a break. in the disputed states there have been counts and recounts. georgia did a hand count and two recounts, and the republican secretary of state certified those results. you look at arizona where eight lawsuits were rejected. you look at michigan, eight lawsuits rejected. you look at wisconsin, seven lawsuits rejected. this has gone through the certification process. our job is to accept it. they will, i am sure it appears object, but democracy will prevail in the end. it's undemocratic and un-american, but fortunately for us it will be unsuccessful.

>> as gop senators lay themselves on the line to deny the will of the people, i want to move on to the senate races in georgia. take a listen to democratic candidate reverend raphael warnock with my colleague, tiffany cross, earlier today. >> i know a little bit about voter suppression. i have worked to register hundreds of thousands of new voters in this state. i've taken on for years the ways in which we've seen these kinds of tactics intended to diminish certain parts of the electorate. we need folks to show up on tuesday. >> now, madam senator, how important is tuesday for democratic priorities in congress? >> this is it. this is the moment. and we got this fantastic --

[ no audio ] -- and we could win this election but only if people vote. so i urge your viewers if they are in georgia, of course they must vote. also, if people have friends there, if they can call people, if they can email them, if they can text them, that's what we need because everything -- [ no audio ] >> all right, senator klobuchar, we're having some sound difficulties -- >> i hear that. >> but thank you for your time with us this evening. >> it was just great to be on. we'll have to do it again when we don't have technical issues. but i love being on your show. thanks, al. >> we definitely will do that. joining me now is levar stoney, mayor of richmond, virginia. thank you for joining us, mr. mayor. >> thank you for having me. happy new year. >> happy new year to you as well. you centered on your struggles to keep your city afloat

fiscally after covid ravaged it economically for the past year. cities and states are not slated to get a lot of help from this next round of federal covid relief. what does that mean for you as mayor of richmond, your streets, your ability to fight covid locally, in a city that is more than 50% black and latinx? >> reverend al, it puts us in a serious bind. you know, the fact that this current package doesn't have dollars for local governments really puts our local governments at a disadvantage. you've seen since march we've been on the front lines and fighting covid-19, but also on the front lines of also the fight against racial injustice as well. you know, back in march of 2020, i put together a budget base in equity that had major investigates as a sort of equitable policies that will

provide for the sort of lifting up of black and brown communities and we had to wipe $40 million from that budget because of it. so looking at this now, we need the sort of help that businesses and corporations particularly got back in 2008 at the end of -- during the recession about a decade plus ago. and right now the federal government's basically left us all, you know, in the rain out to dry. >> you brought up racial justice that you're fighting. your city was already dealing with its racial past as the capital of the old confederacy and home to several confederate monuments, many of which were taken down during your first term. then richmond had its own protests after george floyd, breonna taylor, and others were killed by police last year. now you have the president vetoing a national defense bill because it renamed military

bases honoring confederate generals, several of which are in your state. as mayor of a major city in the so-called new south, what's your take? as we are seeing those kind of racial politics fail, are we at least falter into the new south? >> what you're seeing from president trump and his administration is once again they are on the wrong side of history. there should not be a base in the united states of america named after a general or soldier from the confederate states of america. bottom line, i removed those monuments first because it was an emergency -- a public safety emergency. but also it was the right thing to do. 150 plus years ago the civil war ended, and those monuments were erected after the civil war. people want to know why those

monuments were erected and why they to do on grand boulevards in the commonwealth of virginia is because they were there to put black and brown people in their place. and i can't -- i venture to say it's the same way why they were renamed some of the military bases throughout the south and other places. it's wrong and i'm glad that members of congress stepped up and vetoed the president. >> and i might add, aside from the racial aspect, these are generals of people leading an army to overthrow the u.s. government. it's treason. aside from honoring people that were racist, they were committed to treason of the united states by their actions. >> that's right. there's no -- i can't think of any other country particularly in the western world but in the whole globe that would honor those who had betrayed their own country and actually commit full-on treason.

so i think the congress did the right thing in vetoing the president. we are on the pathway, on the steps towards reconciliation and healing. that healing means that we have to reconciliation with the fact that there are a number of schools, streets, facilities named after confederate generals and we need to move beyond that and moving forward. i think that's exactly the steps that this city will take moving forward. >> now, we're out of time, but i must ask you. there's been by any number of studies the fact that disproportionately black and browns have been the victims of covid-19. now the vaccine is coming out. how is the vaccine rollout working in richmond? how do you deal with those communities that were hardest hit having access to the vaccine equal to the need that they have

in their communities? >> reverend al, thank you for asking you that question. it remains the number one priority for me and my administration. i was re-elected in november. i get asked the question about what's my number one priority on my agenda, and that is ensuring we get shots into arms. there is a true reluctance out there among the black and brown communities in richmond because we've been the victims of a number of injustices in the health care and medical world in the past. and so myself along with a number of other leaders will do our best to ensure that we give our people the facts, straightforward information, none of this misinformation that's out there about this vaccine. the more individuals who receive the vaccine, the quicker we can return to some sort of normalcy here in the city of richmond. >> mayor will levar stoney, thau for being with us on this first "politicsnation" of 2021.

coming up -- happy new year to you. coming up, they say guise are never easy, but we're talking about trump and 2020, so you won't be too hard at saying goodbye to that. but first, my colleague richard lui with today's top stories. >> good day to you. some of the stories we're watching this hour for you, the u.s. finished 2020 with the deadliest and most infectious month of the pandemic to date a record 6.4 million tested positive in december. more than 77,000 people died in that one month. that's more than the number of deaths in both october and november combined. overall the u.s. has now surpassed 20 million cases, more than 349,000 people died. hospitals are on high alert for a new, more contagious covid-19 strain, meanwhile. first surfacing in the u.k., it's now in colorado, california, and florida.

vaccinations continue, but only 2.8 million people have the treatment so far. the trump administration said it wanted at least 20 million people vaccinated by the start of the new year. iran says it plans to enrich uranium up to 20% at its underground nuclear facility. this pushes its nuclear program closer to weapons-grade levels. iran and u.s. tensions remain high. president trump withdrew the u.s. from tehran's nuclear deal in 2018. an army soldier and a 16-year-old boy have been charged in the murder of hayden harris. the 20-year-old corporal was found shot to death and buried under snow two weeks ago today. both the soldier and teenager face multiple charges, including felony murder. more "politicsnation" with reverend al sharpton right after the break. file payroll taxes. that means... world domination! or just the west side. run payroll in less than five minutes with intuit quickbooks.

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. for the first memo to trump of the new year, i want to take

a quick stroll down memory lane, mr. president. i'm sure you know this. people around the world are bidding farewell to 2020 in colorful fashion. and mr. president, each time you hear someone say good riddance, 2020, we won't miss you, i want you to imagine your own name in place of the year because many of the events that made last year so unbearably awful was caused by you. and those that weren't, well, you made sure to make them worse. let's start with the most obvious, your absolutely failure in the face of the covid-19 pandemic. sure, you didn't create the virus, but your constant politicization of public health measures coupled with your bald-faced lies about the severity of the crisis resulted in the out-of-control catastrophe we're dealing with now. perhaps most egregious was your

refusal to take responsibility as the leader of this country. president harry truman popularized the phrase "the buck stops here." but in your administration, the buck stops anywhere else. your skaiffavorite scapegoats w the states. you blamed blue states for death tolls, even as your task force ignored our suffering for political reasons. and even now you're blaming your failed vaccination rollout on individual states despite the fact that your task force had nine months to come up with a plan. never forget, your malfeasance and your incompetence has cost i lines. more americans died in 2020 than in any year in our history. but you weren't content with nearly 4,000 deaths each day as 2020 drew to a close.

no, mr. president, you tried your very best to make american democracy a casualty as well. following your landslide loss to joe biden, you have attempted every dirty trick in the book to have the votes of millions of americans thrown out. and you're still not done. your enablers in congress are planning to drag your traitorous coup attempt into 2021 on wednesday by objecting to the lawfully cast votes in the electoral college. but in the spirit of the new year, i have some good news for democracy. your last gambit is going to fail, just like all the rest, just like 2020, mr. president, your time is over. and in the grand tradition of that other 21st century democratic president, joe biden will set to work cleaning up the unholy mess made by his

republican predecessor. unfortunately, the nature of your failure means that cleanup will take some time, and thousands of americans will die from this pandemic you never tried to control. even after you're booted from the white house for good,. but this year at long last, we'll have an actual leader in our fight. so good riddance to covid-19, to 2020, and, mostly, to you, mr. trump. we'll be right back. ♪ aging is a journey. you can't always know what's ahead. since 1995, seniors have opened their doors to right at home for personalized care. to be their guide. to steer them through uncharted territory.

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no, we're not at all. we have it totally under control. it's one person coming in from china and we have it under control. >> exposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way. and then i see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute, one minute. is this a way we can do

something like that by injection inside or -- or almost a cleaning. >> they can try to steal the election from us. if you count the votes that came in late. >> the worst aspects of 2020 will be inexorably tied to history to the worst failings of our outgoing president, donald j. trump. that infamous combination of laziness, egotism and cruelty has come to define donald trump's political career, truly laid bare his unfitness for office in a year full of bona fide crisis. joining me now to discuss the year in trump is my panel, zerlina maxwell, host of "zerli "zerlina" on peacock, aaron haynes, editor at large of the

19th and msnbc contributor, and till miller, writer at large and director for jeb bush's 2016 campaign. happy new year to all of you. >> happy new year, rev. >> same to you, rev. >> happy new year, rev. >> thank you. now, this president never really applied himself to the coronavirus problem. but he really checked out at the end of the year with over 77,000 deaths recorded in december alone with no federal leadership. is this his legacy? let me go with you first, zerlina. >> yes, i think this is his legacy, rev. it's a legacy of failure, of incompetence, of cruelty, of the inability to do the job, but also an unwillingness to do the job, rev. he's working pretty hard every day both at golf and at overturning a democratic election instead of working hard to protect the american people,

to help the states get the appropriate funding they need to distribute the vaccine efficiently and equitably. and i just think that america has pretty much reached a breaking point when it comes to the tragedy that covid-19 is essentially the equivalent to a 9/11-type event in loss of american lives every day and a president who has stopped doing the job he's trying to keep. >> tim? >> absolutely. look, i think about this in images. a lot of times in politics, the image is really what stands out. i just imagine two decades from now donald trump's standing in front of those maskless hordes holding an irresponsible campaign tour all around the country and bringing it to the white house itself where, you know, he was not only responsible for all this death

and economic decline throughout the country because of his bad policies, but because of his personal recklessness. i just think the people will look back at that image and be astounded. if you combine that with the laziness and obviously this ham-handed effort to overturn the election, i think that'll be something that people look back at and it will just be a shocking, alarming image. >> errin haines? >> yeah, rev. i think it's just to your point, you know, as he's writing the final chapter of his legacy, president trump is sticking with what he's done for the pandemic pretty much for the entire time. in terms of his presidency, this has really been an à la carte president. president trump being presidential means doing the things that interest him and not really focusing on the things that do not interest him. what we've seen this year is

that this pandemic from both a public health perspective has not really interested this president in the waning days of his presidency he has chosen to focus instead on false claims of voter fraud, claiming to win an election that he actually lost and that we know that he lost as a matter of fact and not a matter of opinion. and, you know, focusing on things like pardons and executions in the final days of his presidency. and so with that being the case, what you have is americans looking ahead to the incoming president. if president trump is not going to be responsible in a pandemic that is impacting millions of americans whether they get sick or not, they are tending to listen increasingly to the person who is doing that, and that person seems to be president-elect joe biden. >> now, in the midst of one of the biggest protest movements the world has ever seen, this president tweeted an explicit

threat to people demanding civil rights. he said, quote, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. this earned him his first content warning from twitter. why did this moment feel so galvanizing, tim? >> look, i think that there was a lot of legitimate fear about what the president was going to do at that time. when these protests righteously started up in the wake of george floyd and breonna taylor's death at the hands of police, i think that people were concerned that this president was going to escalate the violence. he just tweeted it out from the white house that he was considering escalating the violence, and then they followed up on escalations. so if you combine that tweet with his action in lafayette square with innocent protesters exercising their first amendment rights and he had his attorney general and assorted thugs gassing and shooting rubber

bullet grenades at these peaceful and innocent protesters right outside the white house, i think that tweet and that action will also stand the test of time for this year as things that will always be to his shame and to the administration's shame. >> erin, why? >> again, what we're talking about is really a full-circle moment, you know, in the last year of his presidency. in the national reckoning of race, president trump could have chosen to join that, talk about the systemic inqualities presented during the pandemic. instead he doubled down on his -- headed into his 2016 election, talked about law and order -- groups like black lives matter and black americans who were -- saying that that was not necessary and that we were talking about bad apples as

opposed to a systemic issue, embracing confederate statues as part of the country's legacy and history. so these were things that certainly were not new, but when there was a new moment and a time to make a new choice, we saw a president who was consistent with what he has done throughout his presidency and, indeed, for much of his adult life. >> zerlina, why was this a galvanizing moment? and the took the course to overturn an election. what does this attempt to subvert the will of the people say about president trump and the party apparatus backing him? >> well, it tells me that president trump is a sore loser. he thinks of losing as showing weakness as a human being, maybe that's true, but in this

particular context, he has to look at the facts and the data and understand that he lost the election. and he needs to move on. i'm sorry he fears prosecution and that's why he wants to keep this particular job, but the american people have spoken. certainly there are 70 plus million americans who voted for this president, even though his message was racism and natural herd immunity, which would result in millions of deaths. and so i think that we still have a lot of work to do in terms of bringing the country together, but understanding that the pandemic was the great equalizer in the sense that everybody's life will forever be changed and it revealed those systemic inequalities that every single one of us have been talking about for years and years and years, and the pandemic allowed us to see it clearly for the first time. so many americans -- and i think the death of george floyd happening in the middle of the pandemic demonstrates that america still somehow finds the time to kill unarmed black people, even when we're in the

middle of a plague. so i think that donald trump hopefully will be in the rear view mirror very soon. he'll be loud, but we don't have to listen to him, rev. >> all right. zerlina, erin, and tim, stay with us. after the break, despite all the noise of 2020, how we manage to turn up the volume of the race and criminal justice conversation. you don't want to miss this.

. all over the world, george, they're marching with your name. you touched the world in south africa. you touched the world in england. you touched every one of the 50 states, even in a pandemic. people are walking out in the streets, not even following social distancing because you've touched the world. and as we lay you to rest today, the movement won't rest. until we get justice. >> the killing of george floyd set off a worldwide movement in 2020 as millions of people of all races cried out together that black lives matter. thousands of people gathered in washington, d.c., last august in a commitment march. we wore our masks and socially distanced, but we would not allow a pandemic to stand in the way of our fight for justice.

2020 was a year where the fight for civil rights crossed boundaries of race, class, age, and geography, and that fight is far from over. my panel is back to talk about the year in race and criminal justice. zerlina maxwell, host of "zerlina" on peacock, errin haines, editor at large of the 19th, and tim miller, writer at large at bulwark. we called on americans to never forget the victims of racism. listen to this. >> we've come to washington by the thousands. we're going to call they name. we gonna call they name. we'll never let america forget what you done. call their names. >> george floyd, breonna taylor,

jacob blake, these are some of the victims of police violence in 2020. where do we go from here? zerlina, i don't know anyone that called their names more than you have and they happened their names resonate around the world. where do we go from here? >> i think we go forward, rev. and i think that this year essentially revealed all of the systemic inequalities so clearly. for the vast majority of americans, maybe some who were so busy in their daily lives they couldn't see it or they were unwilling to see it. as i talked you to right now, rev, i'm sitting in front of a photo, which you can't see, but i'm sitting front of a photo of any grandfather who marched in selma. it is my duty to speak the names of those who lost their lives, who are those pushing the country forward to an equitable

future. it's horrible to see that even in a pandemic police killed black people, but it was wonderful to see that even a large majority of white americans and people from all backgrounds saw that that was just injustice that they could not tolerate and they were willing to risk their lives in a pandemic to stand up on behalf of all those you named, and that is something that we should take forward into the future. >> tim, i agree with zerlina. i've never seen -- i've been out here on the front lines for decades. as many whites i've seen throughout the marches and all over the world world, including the commitment march i cited, large amounts of whites joining in, participating, even in the middle of a pandemic. why do you think that was the case this time? >> thanks, rev. first i want to say i'm humbled to be part of this conversation with you all. i was a humble marcher back this summer. but here's what happened.

this story -- these stories resonated with communities that they hadn't resonated before. there were black lives matter marches in small towns across the south and midwest. we did focus groups with republican voters where we heard from republican white mothers and fathers who were moved by the protests, whose kids were teaching them about the importance of this issue of police violence. and they actually were changing their opinion on trump more on that issue than other issues. i thought that was encouraging. and so it was hard work of you all, of people of color, of the leaders of these protests, i think, that struck a chord. it's sad this tragic death had to be what struck it, but in an ugly year, we have to make a little space and room for recognizing that progress. and i think that was a big step forward that crossed racial, age, and geographic lives.

>> errin, i think decades from now, long after they forget those of us that made speeches or sermons that we gave, they'll be reading errin haines in your depicting of this era. why did you have such passion and ably put into your writing as a celebrated journalist what this was all about? what does this really mean and what does it mean to you? >> thank you very much, rev. those are kinds words. you have been such a huge part of my ability to speak truth to power on these issues for as long as, unfortunately, as we've had to do this. i for as long as i can remember, i know you've been somebody who's been on the front lines pushing back and calling for the police reforms in black communities across the country. >> thank you for that. that's because zerlina gives me time off my radio show just once

in a while. but go ahead. >> i think, you know, this -- our job -- you know, as journalists -- we want to leave an accurate record for those coming behind us about what was happening -- and while -- follow the issue of -- disparities in our lifetime, be able to bear witness and be able to speak for those communities whose stories are not told nearly often enough. yes, it was certainly the most egregious cases that broke through the headlines, even in the middle of a pandemic this year, but we know that this is an all too common occurrence in our country, so to continue to try to literally write

w-r-i-t-e, the wrongs happening around the unrelenting killing of black folks in america by law enforcement vigilantes, what we haven't had, what we had this year that had been absent in years prior was a captive audience that had to watch this on television screens on a daily basis. so they couldn't look away, and i think that that was the difference that did help us get to a tipping point, at least in terms of awareness. but now i think as journalists and other folks who are pushing for things to be different in this country going forward, a new normal, both in terms of the coronavirus and systemic racism, you know, accountability has to be the next focus. and i know that that's something that you are already focused on. it's certainly something that i think journalists who are covering this incoming administration have to be focused on because what happens next now that everybody is aware of the problem and understands that something needs to be done

about it, black lives matter was an open question, rev. and now it is much more accepted fact. so what we all do with that newfound momentum in this country is certainly something that remains to be seen in 2021 and beyond. >> now, zerlina, i'm going to give you the last word on this as you come from the lineage of protesters. is it now on this incoming administration to legislate what many of us have been saying in the streets for the last year in a pandemic? otherwise it will end with a disappointment because, unless we can really change the legislation of policing, then we rightfully will be disappointed in this new administration. >> absolutely, rev. but i think that is a question that voters on tuesday will answer in the state of georgia because biden and harris'

ability to get anything done like passing the george floyd and policing act through the senate rests upon the two senate seats in georgia. and so if the democrats are able to pick up those two seats and kamala harris can break the tie in the is a bigger chance for the biden/harris administration to be able to move forward on specific policy issues. but also, i think there needs to be a cultural piece to this, which i think this year did a lot to push forward, which is that a vast majority of us can finally see the problem and understand it needs solutions. >> all right. you weaved it into georgia. i was thinking as i was looking at the capitol behind you and the sign behind tim, the frame of jet magazine with stevie wonder. but her mind is really singing ray charles "georgia on my mind." i know what she is humming to herself. zerlina maxwell, errin haines

and tim miller, thank you all for being with me, and happy new year. up next, my final thoughts. stay with us. stay with us for world war ii. she was only 17. bring your family history to life like never before. get started for free at ancestry.com it's not just a sandwich, far from it. it's a reason to come together. it's a taste of something good. a taste we all could use right now. so let's make the most of it. and make every sandwich count.

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as the clock struck midnight on new year's eve and we started a new year, many of us exhale that 2020 was over and that we would leave all of the bad events and the bad circumstances of 2020 behind us. but we are not sure of that, because even during the holiday, we saw a 14-year-old young man named keyon harrold jr. assaulted in an apparent racial attack in a hotel in new york where a young white woman said he stole her cell phone that really ended up not being stolen. and she continued to fight this young man, and he had no

response but his father and him and his mother, both award winning artists asking for justice. early this week i will join the family of andre the state of ohio, in columbus, ohio, as this young man is being laid to rest, andre hill, who was shot unarmed and killed by policemen in columbus, ohio. and they will lay him to rest this week. so whether it's racial harassment, whether it's police killing, we still must fight. time in and of itself is neutral. the fact that the calendar changes is neutral. it's what we do with the time that means we could say goodbye to the past atrocities, the past burdens. and what we do with the time we have will determine whether we have a brighter future. happy new year. let's make it a happy new year.

let's go to work. that does it for me. thanks for watching. i'll see you back here tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. eastern. up next, my colleague alicia menendez picks up our news coverage. ily and automatically pay your team and file payroll taxes. that means... world domination! or just the west side. run payroll in less than five minutes with intuit quickbooks. it's time for theraflu hot liquid medicine. powerful relief so you can restore and recover. theraflu hot beats cold.

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hello and happy new year. i'm alicia menendez. as we come on the air, nearly a dozen republican senators now threaten to object to certifying joe biden's electoral victory. theian