good evening, and welcome to "politics nation." tonight, i start with a big announcement. in honor of black history month, this week, i will travel to washington, d.c. to conduct an exclusive interview with the first black vice president of the united states, kamala harris. it will be her first interview in the ceremonial office at the white house. and you'll be able to watch it next saturday right here on "politics nation." it was two years ago today when i spent time with the then-senator and presidential candidate, kamala harris, north of the studio at harlem's famous

silvia's restaurant. this week's interview will bring it a full circle. so stay tuned. next saturday, 5:00 p.m. eastern, on "politics nation," right here on msnbc. and now, to tonight's lead. the new normal. one third of president biden's first 100 days have already gone by, and to his credit, the president has met the albeit, not without brewing fights within his own party over the scale and scope of his proposed solutions. has the nation mourns the breaking news that more than half a million americans have died from covid, as of today, the president is ramping up his ambitious vaccination efforts and paying attention to the growing racial disparities in the vaccine's distribution. ane bit, i'll talk to chicago

mayor lori lightfoot about how her city is getting the vaccine to black and brown residents who need it most. but back to politics first. because as president biden pushes forward on covid, he's already pulled back from more ambitious offerings on raising the minimum wage and reducing student debt. drawing criticism from progressive democrats in congress who say this is the time for full force, not half measures. joining me now is congresswoman ayanna pressley, democrat of massachusetts. congresswoman pressley, thank you for being with us this evening. >> good to be with you. >> you have introduced a house resolution this week that essentially calls on the federal government to guarantee every american a job. i would imagine it's designed to address the present damage of covid, but it's not an entirely

new idea. we both know it has a history among black economists and civil rights leaders going back at least a half a century. what does your resolution propose, and why now, congresswoman, as we're in the grips of what we're in? >> well, thank you, rev, for providing that important historical contextualizing. i want to speak their names. from sadie alexander, the first black woman to earn a ph.d. in economics, to baird rusten, to dr. king, to coretta scott king. as you remind us, having brought us all back for a second march on washington, it was always about a march for jobs and freedom, for economic justice. dr. king spoke about the three evils, economic exploitation, poverty, racism, and militarism, and said as long as you have one, you will have the other. coretta scott king spoke about the need to alleviate human suffering. a federal job guarantee guards

against economic exploitation and allows each person their dignity and their humanity to be affirmed in every adult who seeks full employment, having an opportunity for a public job that would be legally enforceable and funded by the federal government. and that would affirm living wages, decent working conditions, health care, and i think within the context of talking about building back better, and having a just and equitable economic recovery, in talking about climate justice goals, racial justice goals, economic justice goals, that a federal job guarantee should be a part of that solution in thinking big. and finally, rev, we have been here before. we know under fdr, programs like the wpa and the civilian conservation corps were very successful. but they were not sustainable.

>> and you mentioned the second march we had last year that you spoke at. and you spoke around these things there. it amazes me how people talk about martin luther king in such great esteem and then don't deal with the economic program him and mrs. king and others advocated, which your resolution capsalizes at this time in the middle of a pandemic. they were advocating that when we didn't even have the kinds of things that have acerbated the problem. and let me raise this, black women are the most educated demographic in america. they also carrying the heaviest proportion of student debt in the nation. you have been out front on this issue. student debt, student loan debt, and last month, you tweeted, quote, to thank black women, cancel student debt, all of it. on friday, 17 state attorney generals led by your ag, maura

healey, in massachusetts, and tish james here in new york, sent a letter to congress calling on president biden to forgive up to $50,000 in student debt per borrower. three days before the president said bluntly that he would not do that. in part, it could apply to high earners from ivy league schools as well. of course, many progressives are not happy with that logic or that decision. i would like to hear your thoughts on the disconnect, congresswoman. >> rev, you know, my eyes were failing me, so i'm not sure which tweet you pulled up, but i have also tweeted when it comes to thanking black voters and thanking black women to save your words of appreciation. policy is our love language. and canceling student debt is an economic justice issue, a racial justice issue, and it must be a part of a just and equitable economic recovery from this pandemic. this is a nearly $2 trillion

crisis. and so the narrative that president biden was pushing in that town hall is a misleading characterization. and i'm glad that his press secretary walked back what he said at that town hall. first of all, he does have the authority. congress gave him that under the higher education act. so he absolutely has the authority by way of executive action to cancel $50,000 worth of debt. and who stands to benefit from that? 80% of the lowest income households stand to benefit from that. 40% of households who have student loan debt but never even earned a degree. those who have been preyed upon by the deceptive business practices and predatory lending of for-profit colleges and universities. and black student borrowers, rev, 85% of us have no choice but to take out loans. and then we're five times more likely to default on those loans

than our white counterparts. >> you have said you defaulted yourself. i mean, you have used yourself as an example in a very open and, i think, courageous way. >> well, you know, i'm no anomaly. again, 85% of black students have no choice but to borrow because of policies like redlining, which obstructed our family's abilities to build generational wealth. i grew up in a female parented household, and i had no choice. then i defaulted. and again, we're five times more likely to default than our white counterparts. so president biden must cancel student debt by executive action. $50,000 will go a long way in a just recovery from this pandemic, and also on realizing those expressed racial justice goals. given the disparate impact of financial burden for black student borrowers. but again, rev, this is a $2 trillion crisis. so i'm talking about educators in my district who lost their

licenser to teach because they defaulted on loans they incurred to be educators. i'm talking about people in my district, 76 years old, rev, still paying on student loans. the fastest growing population of student loan debtors are 50-plus. >> that's right. >> it's not even just a millennial or gen z issue. >> i'm out of time, but i have to bring this up with you. briefly on thursday, the web portal for vaccine appointments in your state crashed after more than 1 million additional massachusetts residents became eligible at the same time. you and other massachusetts democrats have pointed out racial disparities already present in the vaccine has been administered in the way it has been administered in your state with data suggesting that white residents are several times more likely to be vaccinated than black and brown ones. briefly, what can be done to fix this? >> yeah, again, every inequity

has been laid bare and exacerbated in this pandemic. that's why early on i was calling for the collection of equitable data to directly inform our response. more recently, i called for the anonymized collection of racial demographicidaty when it comes to vaccine recipients. but that response, systems crashing is unacceptable. everyone needs to be able to get the vaccine and to get it quickly to stop the spread of this virus, especially with new variants emerging. this is about saving lives. and what we're seeing trending is vaccine redlining. so one way we get at that, the chief way we get at that is to insure equitable access. what we're proposing is there be a system whereby people can preregister and they'll receive notification when their slot comes up. and there's availability for them in proximity. >> all right. thank you for being with us this evening, congresswoman ayanna pressley. >> thanks. moving now to talk about new

strategies to overcome black hesitancy in the vaccine, is chicago mayor lori lightfoot. madam mayor, following early reports that black and brown chicagoans were being left behind in the covid vaccination process, you were able to announce improvements this week. you called that new approach equity based. what does that look like on the ground? >> well, what it looks like is being, putting equity at the center of your vaccine distribution, and being systematically intentional about going into black and brown neighborhoods with trusted community partners, spreading the word about why the vaccine is safe, using local trusted th people who get the vaccine, and letting them spread the gospel. we have been going door to door in black and brown chicago, talking about the vaccine. months before we even got it.

we built these tables at the start of the pandemic, and we have been very, very fortunate to have great partners on the ground in neighborhoods across the city that have been most hard hit by covid-19, and that hard work of going door to door, holding community meetings, educating people about the virus, about the vaccine, bringing them into care, is now finally bearing fruit. we started out vaccine distributions with under 20% of black and brown chicago getting the vaccine. we now have in recent weeks have been over 50%. that's a remarkable turnaround. but that's because of all of the hard work of so many people across our city. you have to put equity first, and you have to be intentional and unapologetic about it. >> and intentional along with those trusted representatives in the community that you're saying helped you turn these numbers around in a very important way.

now, the issue of vaccine inequity has been a nationwide problem with just over 6% of shots so far going to black folks. what unique challenges are you facing in chicago, and what advice do you have for other mayors? >> first of all, we've got to improve the number of vaccines that we're getting every week, and i know that the biden administration is hard at work on that. they walked into a disastrous situation, particularly that there wasn't any covid stockpile. or vaccine stockpile. that's a significant problem, but really, there's no secret sauce other than making sure that you put equity first, you follow the data. you understand where the challenges are, and you build those tables at the grassroots level. that's the way you do it. you know this from your own experience. it's community organizing 101, but in the middle of a pandemic, you have got to win people's trust. that's the only way you get

there, and you have to focus every single day on building those bridges and partnerships at the community level. >> now, given that this pandemic has disproportionately impacted black and brown communities, what is your approach to vaccine hesitancy? do you think your choice to be vaccinated publicly will help in that area? >> well, i sure hope so. i wanted to make sure that i showed people that i was taking the vaccine myself. i talk a lot about my family members, my 92-year-old mother, because i want people to see somebody who looks like them in the same circumstances telling them that the vaccine is safe. but really, it's about getting those people in the neighborhoods vaccinated. when they're vaccinated, when they feel comfortable, they see their neighbors, we're starting to see people come off the wall and get the vaccine. i was in a neighborhood of mostly latinx, but some black

folks, just on friday when i got my second shot. and we were in a vaccination site, and the entire time we were there, people were coming in. and what we have done, we call it protect chicago plus. we're going into the 15 hardest hit neighborhoods in our city, which are black and brown, we're breaking down barriers. it doesn't matter what age you are, it doesn't matter what occupation you are. we want to get those people in those neighborhoods vaccinated because the data tells us that if we get people in the hardest hit neighborhoods vaccinated, we're going to stop the spread. and that's what this is about, saving lives, stopping the spread of the virus, and bringing those people that are most vulnerable into care through the vaccine. >> and i think that is the bottom line. we can differ on a lot of things, but saving lives should be something that everyone can unite around and handle our differences and our different

views at another point. thank you very much for being with us this evening, chicago mayor lori lightfoot. >> thank you, reverend. i appreciate it always. >> from chicago to texas. i want to bring my panel in. michelle goldberg, columnist at "the new york times," and an msnbc contributor. and tim miller, writer at large for the boardwalk. tim, let me start with you. despite the fact that only a fifth of texas energy is generated from renewables, the republican power structure up to and including the governor, has been trying to blame grid failures on green energy like wind turbines and, i mean, will texas voters hold them account for this deception and years of ignoring the real problems? . it's possible. rev. look, texas has been getting bluer and bluer. i think you look at the houston metro, for example.

you're seeing a lot of democrats in the congressional seats around there and local government. so you know, look, i think so. if you take what ted cruz has been saying, you know, over the past five years, and same with greg abbott, they have taken every opportunity to brag about the deregulation they did of the energy industry in texas. they have been dunking on california any time that they have had the opportunity. california has given them a couple good opportunities. and now, you know, the texans are freezing. now that they are being surprised with thousands and thousands of dollars in heating bills that many of them can't afford, you know, you're seeing them trying to either, a, point at the democrats like greg abbott did on fox news saying this was aoc's fault in a state run by republicans, or ted cruz trying to backtrack and saying this is unacceptable. now we do need regulation. so look, i think that you can see that they have boxed themselves into corners. texas is still very much a red

state, so i wouldn't expect it to change overnight, but i would expect ted cruz and greg abbott's numbers to go down as we monitor that in the coming weeks. >> michelle, following the weather emergency in texas this week, former senator and presidential candidate beto o'rourke organized hundreds of thousands of wellness checks in the state. he came close to unseating ted cruz in 2018. so what would his chances of -- would they improve, let's say, if he decided to challenge republican governor greg abbott in 2022, in your opinion? >> look, i think what beto did is the strongest possible rejoinder to people who said, well, really, what could ted cruz do if he had stuck around? right? what's the big deal if he goes off to cancun? beto, who has no government job, no public role, is out there doing what a representative of texas should do.

you know, look, i think texas continues to break democratic hearts. you know, people keep thinking that it's on the verge of becoming a blue or a purple state. and it doesn't happen. but the lesson of a state like georgia is it doesn't happen and it doesn't happen, and it doesn't happen until it does. so whether or not it's going to be beto, you know, if you have the right people out there organizing all of the people who have, you know, suffered and been through kind of hell and lost homes and lives and livelihoods these past weeks, it can be done, but it's not going to happen by itself. >> now, tim, ted cruz is under fire, michelle alluded to it, under fire this week for flying to cancun in the middle of a crisis. was he already famously one of the most despised people in washington? i mean, even within his own

party, was cruz's mexico trip the final nail in the coffin for his larger political ambitions? >> unfortunately, i think he's dracula, al. i don't think we have nails in the coffin quite yet. there was hope maybe trying to overturn the election a couple weeks ago would have been the nails in the coffin, and now going to mexico is. he's not on the ballot for a while. i don't think his aspirations of the higher office and the presidency is ever going to happen for him, but he's going to be a survivor in the senate seat. i think in order to get rid of him, to michelle's point, democrats have to win over some traditional republican voters. texas is still going to bow a red state. you need to up the turnout, do the organizing beto is doing, and win over traditional voters who don't like ted cruz that much. there is a potential opportunity there, but he's -- we're stuck with him for a little while. >> michelle, as you just said, i

want to come back to it. it seems like every election cycle, we hear this could be the year texas finally turns blue or purple. but as the state's demographics shift and they seem to shift in that direction, the state has been passing voter suppression initiatives. will this crisis be the thing that finally convinces a critical mass of texans that the gop does not have their interests at heart? >> you know, i don't think we know, and partly we don't know because we don't know who the candidates are going to be in two years and in four years. one of the hard lessons of the last election is that demographics aren't destiny. democrats can't just count on the growing nonwhite share of the population to carry them over the finish line when plenty of imimmigrant communities are quite socially conservative and have been won over, as we know,

donald trump actually made gains in the border communities of texas. and so you know, again, democrats can't count on texas just becoming purple by nature of the demographics. they have to go out and they have to organize those communities and really make a case connecting the imizeration in people's lives to policies champions by these republican politicians. >> all right, i have to leave it there, michelle goldman and tim miller, thank you both for joining us this evening. coming up, trump usedying ts flying ted. senator cruz is under fire yet again, this time for leaving his state cold in a crisis. but first, my colleague richard lui with today's other top news stories. richard. >> good sunday to you. some of the stories we're watching for you this hour. a grim milestone to report this afternoon. half a million people have now died from covid-19 in the united

states. that's more than any american war since the civil war. confirmed cases nationwide now over 28 million. food and water shortages in texas continue in the wake of this week's massive winter storm. millions are still under a boil water notice while grocery store shelves remain bare. some texans now face massive energy bills as widespread power outages create price spikes. the governor announced today the stop customer disconnections for nonpayment during the crisis. the faa has launched an investigation into what caused a united airlines plane's engine to fail shortly after takeoff saturday. the audio from the cockpit reveals the pilot called mayday as one of the engines exploded and caught fire, you see here. the plane made an emergency landing safely at denver international airport. debris from the boeing 777 rained down on the denver metro area, striking several places, including the front yard of a

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for this week's gotcha, i want to discuss the junior senator from texas, ted cruz, who this week left his state in the middle of a crisis to go to a resort in cancun. this while millions of his constituents were left freezing, without power or water, due to a severe winter weather. when his getaway sparked outrage across the country, senator cruz responded by throwing his own daughters under the bus. >> well, texas is going through horrific storms. and millions of texans have lost power, lost heat. and have been hurt. and our family was among them. we had no heat, no power. and yesterday, my daughters

asked if they could take a trip with some friends. and heidi and i agreed so i flew down with them last night, dropped them off here, and now i'm heading back to texas. and back to continuing to work to try to get the power on. what's happening in texas is unacceptable to a lot of texans hurting. >> almost no one has come to the defense of ted cruz. not even his own republican colleagues who in the past have had this to say about the senator. >> if you kill ted cruz on the floor of the senate, and the trial was in the senate, nobody could convict you. >> but don't be fooled. this story is bigger than ted cruz. another republican, the mayor of a small town in west texas, had to resign this week after telling his residents to stop whining about the cold and power outages, suggesting only the strong would survive.

the same attitude prevailed up and down texas state government, which is controlled by republicans at every level. texans were warned a full decade ago about its power grid could not withstand severe weather like we're seeing this week. and republicans ignored the warning, kicking the can down the road in favor of dereulation and ever growing oil profits. the state's so-called leaders including governor greg abbott, have been blaming renewable energy for the crisis, even though the state runs primarily on fossil fuels. and this dereliction is hardly new. texas republican leaders have been mocking other states for their natural disasters for years. their favorite scapegoats include a second term congresswoman from queens and a green new deal that doesn't

exist yet anywhere in the country. but it turns out the joke was on them. representative alexandria ocasio-cortez actually was involved in this crisis. doing the hard work republicans wouldn't do. while senator cruz was dropping off his family at the ritz carlton in cancun, she raised over $3 million for constituents in the lone star state. so to ted cruz and his fellow republicans in texas, let me say this, the time for rip ocerousy and victim blaming is over. you have spent years ridiculing the idea that government can help and protect people even as you have seized the levers of power to enrich yourselves. and now, even in the middle of rolling blackouts, millions of texans and hundreds of millions of americans can see the light

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i know how this story is going to end. the first will be last. the last will be first. justice is going to come. justice is going to come. justice is going to come. >> it's black history month, sunday here on "politics nation," and tonight, we pivot from celebrating a person or a group to an institution. because the church has been the nerve center of black america since the nation's founding, producing many of our leaders and providing cover of every kind from the storms of slavery,

jim crow, and the violence of the civil rights era. this week, pbs preneared its brilliant four-part documentary, the black church, this is our story. this is our song. and because i spent a little bit of time in the pulpit myself, i was honored to say a few words for it, as you have just seen. joining me now is stacey l. holman, director and producer of the black church, this is our story, this is our song. can you tell us what brought you to this project and why now this story about black faith throughout history? >> hi, reverend al. so great to see you again. and this came through dr. henry ieu lewis gates. he grew up in a predominantly black church, and this story was dear to him. when i became a part of the

series, i came off directing hour three of reconstruction, and myself history of growing up in the black church seemed like a perfect fit. because this was a personal story, because both of us had a history in the black church, we felt that, you know, it was important for us to really share this experience, to really tell the story, which is not just about the black church. it's american history. and the timing is always perfect to talk about the black church. >> as i mentioned before, the church has always played a dual role, acting as a house of worship while at the same time organizing black communities politically. i don't think it's fully appreciated just how many of our leaders, men and women, have come out of the church from denmark veasey to dr. king to now senator rafael and today, people continue. bill gray, i mean, and our civil rights leaders from dr. king on

to ministers that use the pulpit now, w. franklin richardson, i mean, the list goes on and on, and i know part of your difficulty was getting everybody in just four hours. >> oh, i mean, it was an ambitious project. this is just the tip of the iceberg. what we want to create is not just only tell just the breadth of a story but start a conversation about the black church. so people can dig in deeper, they can learn more about denmark veasey, they can learn about the women who were incredible influences and important to the infrastructure of the black church. so we just encourage people just to continue to dig and to search and to learn more about this institution. 400 years in four hours. there's no way. very ambitious. >> let me ask you this. my mentor brought me into civil rights at 12, dr. william augustus jones. he used to always say, al, the black church can do things because of its independence.

it is supported by its parishioners, so nobody can call us and tell us what to do or not do because we are self-sufficient. do you think people really understand that is why black education in terms of colleges and black economic institutions, black banks, black businesses can start in the black church, because it was its own boss and no one could stop them, as dr. jones would say, they can't cut us off because they didn't cut us on? >> i agree. i mean, i think it's the agency. it's black agency. that's what the black church has been an example of. i think today people may not recognize that. that's why the series is so important at this time at this moment. if you look at history, the attacks on african-americans, where has it happened a lot? in the black church. they know once they hit that, once they target that, they know they're really hitting a nerve. so i hope that a younger

generation, a millennial generation is really seeing how this institution is still relevant, and the importance of it and how we can learn from it. >> one of the things i liked also is you showed a lot of the younger generations that listened to kirk franklin and others because i think there's a misperception that all of the young people of today have left the church, and that's not true. i think that a lot of our churches, if i look around the country from a rudy mckissic to jamal bryant to others are drawing young people on a consistent basis than some of our rock artists but it's a hidden secret until now you come out and expose it. the black church is still the largest gathering place of blacks on a weekly basis in the united states. >> it is, and it's always been the center of anything. if you want to get a group of people, where do you go? you go to church. it will always be that center of attention and always be that place, a gathering space, regardless. and even, i look at tracy

blackman, reverend tracy blackman, who talks about even black lives matter. she said they didn't leave the church. black lives matter was church. we have to realize the church is not confined in four walls. the church is -- what's happened at hush harbors in the 1700s, we'll have church wherever we gather. >> and there are different phases, it's always been different denominations, different styles. some pastors, some don't, some are lgbtq, some are pentecostal, some do civil rights work. you covered that well, like what i do. we're not monolithic, but we're clear that that has been the independent base and remains that until this day. i thought it was important that we capture that and show it to the world. stacey l. holman, we thank you for your time this evening. coming up, a shocking look behind the scenes of one of the most iconic tv news magazines. a former "60 minutes" producer

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so you can be certain your taxes are done right, guaranteed. for over half a century, americans have tuned in every sunday to watch "60 minutes." the groundbreaking show set the standard for tv journalism and helped raise the profiles of pioneering african-american and female reporters, such as ed bradley and leslie stahl. but behind the scenes, the

picture was different, and a new book, one culture as discriminatory and abusive. joining me now is former "60 minutes" producer ira rosen. the author of "ticking clock, behind the scenes at "60 minutes." >> thank you for being with us, and please tell our audience briefly what the book is about and also how i'm a part of it, let's have full disclosure, because i want to get into other areas. >> absolutely. i mean, the book is a producer's perspective of putting together the show. and the producer is underappreciated in a lot of what we do, and what i try to do is tell stories about what the producer's roles in putting the stories together. certainly, you and i had done a story once before where i produced a story which leslie stahl did with you, and you know how hard we work and what we do

behind the scenes to make that happen. >> right. now, what is the impact of having more people of color and women, both in front of the camera and behind it? on all news shows and newsrooms, and especially on shows like "60 minutes." >> you're exactly right, it has a huge impact. "60 minutes" in 53 years has had only two black correspondents, ed bradley and the great bill whittaker, who i was fortunate to work with. they have -- they currently only have one black producer full-time on the broadcast. and as great a show as it is, you know, we learn from each other. and they need to do better. they have had no asian correspondents on that broadcast in 53 years. they have had no hispanic correspondents on the broadcast in that period of time. i have learned enormous amount working with bill whittaker. he's made me a better journalist

through his stories. i mean, you may not know, for example, bill whittaker's dad worked in the old white establishment, the cotton club. he worked at a time there as a waiter when he couldn't even be a patron in the place. his mother was waiting for him in the kitchen, playing cards with ella fitzgerald. this was something that me as a white kid growing up in queens had no idea about. together, you know, we shared our cultural experiences. and we elevated the broadcast. and "60 minutes" i think, rev, "60 minutes" could do better in that regard. it would make it a much better broadcast. >> you shared some of the stories with me about whittaker when we have talked. but you have it all in the book. you worked as a producer on "60 minutes" for decades. they had a number of female and black tv journalists who were trail blazers in the industry,

who were still predominantly white, but behind the scenes, racism and sexual harassment were still major problems, from the time you began your career until now. have newsrooms evolved for the better when it comes to more inclusive behavior, ira? >> oh, i everybody who works in the news room. i think the idea of wrongfully convicted in jail people of color for that exchange. i think police brutality has critical sized people. sundayly awakened people to like where i have been. this has been going on for a really long time. >> you talk about how steve bannon thought early in the

president trump's presidency. >> the president doesn't listen. he doesn't read. now he's repeating the same stories that he would tell minutes apart. let me read you a line of it. the republican senators went to the white house and saw a president so repetitive and rambling, some thought he might be suffering from early alzheimer's. they knew which way the wind is blowing. they gave him a standing

ovation. they are giving him standing ovation. bannon sends me a text immediately saying you need to do the 25th amendment piece. by the way, brother, i've never steered you wrong. think about that. >> wow. >> the senior most prominent adviser for the president who is trying to blow the whistle about what's going on there. >> a lot of that and much more is in this book. it's called ticking clock behind the scenes. thank you. up next, my final thoughts. stay with us. u. up next, my final thoughts stay with us ♪ ♪i've got the brains you've got the looks♪ ♪let's make lots of money♪ ♪you've got the brawn♪ ♪i've got the brains♪ ♪let's make lots of♪

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♪♪ sfx: [sounds of fedex planes and vehicles engines] ♪♪ sfx: [sounds of children laughing and running, life moving forward] today, congressman john lewis would have been 81 years old. one of the highlights of my life of fife years ago on the 50th

anniversary of when he and ayanna pressley and others were beat on the edmond pettus bridge. i was honored to walk behind john lewis and mrs. obama. thinking that because of his suffering and her suffering and reverend williams, it made it possible for barack obama. none of us would have thought we would see a black woman become vice president of the united states. a black woman that became that graduating from an hbcu, howard university, but we see now, six years after that march, even after john lewis has gone on that kamala harris sits as vice president of the united states

and as i said at the beginning of the show, two years ago, today, i sat with her in sylvia's restaurant known all over the world. at the same table i sat with barack obama and talked about per suing the dream for president. she made it to vice president and next saturday, i will show and interview i will do with her this week in washington and the white house about where we are in black history now. what she means, what she hopes people will say about her and her uniqueness bringing into an unprecedented time and what our priorities. it's not enough to just tud stud -- study black history, you must make some and when you time comes, you must seize that time because history will be writing about what we do and don't do one day like it writes about john lewis today on his

birthday. part of our legacy in black history, in american history is to take the word possible out of the word impossible and make things happen that no one thought could ever happen but making it happen is not just being the first at something. it's about using that first to do so much that other impossibles become very possible and other firsts become even more expansive on making this a country, a nation that works for every one equally. don't forget next saturday, tune in for my whole conversation with vice president kamala harris. that does it for me. thanks for watching. i'll see you back here next weekend with the first black vice president of the united states, kamala harris. my colleague picks up our news

coverage now. thank you. i'm going to spend all week looking forward to that interview. hello. welcome to "american voices." we begin this sunday with a stark reality and a grim milestone. a few short hours ago it became official that covid-19 had claimed half a million lives in america. the front page delivering this reality with a gut punch. each tiny dot represents an american. >> we haven't seen anything even close to this for well over 100 years since the 1918 pandemic of influenza. it's stunning but it's true. this is a devastating pandemic and it's hc.