hi, mehdi. >> hello. i hope you're well. thank you so much for that. have a great rest of your sunday. tonight on the mehdi hasan show republicans won virginia by running against critical race theory. what is it and how did the right make it into such a bogey man? i'll ask one of the co-founders of critical race theory. plus the bipartisan infrastructure bill finally passed in the house. what does this mean for biden's build back better plan? i'll ask quote-unquote moderate congresswoman susan wilde. did progressive politics take a hit in tuesday's elections? not in philadelphia. the progressive prosecutor was easily re-elected as da and joins me tonight to talk criminal justice reform, defund the police, and more. good evening. i'm mehdi hasan. since darkness fell an hour earlier today it seems appropriate this daylight standard evening to begin by playing the blues. upon occasion the late legendary

bluesman bb king would jam with an amateur guitarist and singer named lee atwater. king and isaac hayes were among the many artists who appeared on lee atwater's 1990 album "red hot & blue" but it was his day job where he made his mark as the dark soul of the modern republican party atwater was a preeminent political strategist who mastered and perfected the art of talking about race without talking about race. he did it in south carolina to a democratic congressional candidate named tom turnip seed. yes that was his real name. by having phony push pollsters call up voters, white suburban voters to inform them turnipseed was a member of the naacp. that was a bad thing in his view and that was supposed to be the point. it was the lynchman of the strategy known as the southern strategy that republicans would increase their support among white voters by appealing to racial resentment and suspicion

toward african-americans but never do it directly or openly. that would lead to backlash. in 1981 atwater gave an infamous interview obtained about a decade ago by the nation magazine on the coded language republicans would use instead. >> you start out in 195 by saying -- by 1968 you can't say -- that hurts you. back fires. so you say stuff like forced busing, state's rights and all that stuff. you're getting so abstract now that you're talking about cutting taxes and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a by product is blacks get hurt worse than whites and sub consciously maybe that is part of it. i'm not saying that but i'm saying if it is getting that abstract and that coded that we're doing away with the racial problem one way or the other, you following me? because obviously sitting around and saying we want to cut taxes,

we want to cut this, is much more abstract than even the busing thing. and a hell of a lot more abstract than -- you know. so any way you look at it, race is coming on the back burner. >> hum. sound familiar? as a strategy? by now atwater and his views on growing the republican party and his white voter base earned him a national reputation, a job in the reagan white house which was already no stranger to using coded language on race. by 1988 lee atwater was in charge of getting then vice president george bush sr. elected president. the lasting image in that campaign besides this one of the democratic candidate michael dukakis driving a tank was a black man named willy horton who committed rape while on furlough from prison because of a program started by a republican governor of massachusetts. funny how that didn't make it into the pro bush campaign ads

against dukakis. >> bush and dukakis on crime. bush supports the death penalty for first degree murders. dukakis not only opposes the death penalty but allowed first degree murderers to have weekend passes from prison. one was willy horton who murdered a boy in a robbery stabbing him 19 times. despite a life sentence horton received ten weekend passes from prison. horton fled, kidnapped a young couple, stabbing the man and repeatedly raping his girlfriend. weekend prison passes. dukakis on crime. >> that was one of the first independent pac ads run and paid for by an outside group. if you think atwater didn't know about it ahead of time, wink, wink, nod, nod, keep in mind that at the time he also said this. by the time we are finished they're going to wonder whether willie horton is dukakis's running mate. bush sr. came from behind in the polls and won the white house with an electoral college vote of 426 to 111. it was a blowout. lee atwater had no misgivings about the dirty tricks he used

to secure that victory. >> the architect of the evil campaign, you are proud this morning of the achievement. are you as proud of the fak ticks? >> brian i think we ran a very good campaign. if the american people truly thought he was running a negative campaign they would have reacted negatively. >> lee, in fairness, i'm not sure that is true. in poll after poll they did say they didn't like the negative campaign and did blame mr. bush more than mr. dukakis. we aren't going to argue the merits. i'm just asking you are you proud of every tactic you used? >> i am very proud of the campaign. >> after running that campaign atwater could write his own ticket. he was a political strategy superstar and for his next act joined the political consulting arm of the law firm manafort & stone yeah that manafort and that stone. while his direct work wouldn't continue much longer and he died a few years later of brain cancer, his influence is seen and felt in republican national politics for decades.

the only difference on the timeline from atwater to protegee karl rove in the bush jr. white house to former partner paul manafort on the trump 2016 campaign is that as president, the donald didn't even bother using coded language. he said outright that white nationalists were very fine people and told freshmen congresswomen of color the squad they should go back to where they came from. openly and crudely racist comments. it became clear that the modern day post republican party if we can call it that has returned to the safer shores of the lee atwater playbook. glenn youngkin who like bush in 1988 came from behind in the polls to win last tuesday in virginia didn't campaign with trump or call african countries s hole country atwater style he went for the racist dog whistle not the bull horn. because he went all in on critical race theory, which is

nothing if not a buzz word for all the words you aren't allowed to say and for all the history you aren't allowed to teach about america's racist past. as a wedge issue it really motivated white voters. according to exit polls among voters who said parent should have a lot to say in what schools teach 52% youngkin got #90% of the white vote and only 19% of the black vote. as many note the thing about critical race theory is it is not about critical or theory. it is almost entirely about race. joining me is kimberly crenshaw executive director with the african-american policy forum and a law professor at columbia university and ucla and host of the podcast intersectionality matters. she is one of the co-founders of critical race theory. given what we saw in virginia, let's talk about this academic legal theory you helped co-found

in the '80s now on everyone's lips yet a lot of the haters admit they don't know what it is. listen to tucker carlson on fox. >> i've never figured out what critical race theory is to be totally honest. they are teaching some races are morally superior -- >> can you briefly for our nonacademic viewers and tucker carlson define what critical race theory is and is not? >> thank you so much for asking that question. since so many people don't have a clue yet they know they are against it. critical race theory is more of a way of looking at the world we have inherited after a legacy of segregation, slavery, manifest destiny, genocide, basically links contemporary issues around racial inequality to the laws and policies that produced those very inequalities in the past. it is basically looking at the

ground upon which we stand excavating those aspects of our history that produced many of the problems we still deal with. if you want to have some understanding about for example the difference between black and white, well, you can't talk about that without talking about how the suburbs were built and excluded african americans. it is basically just looking at history to understand our present. that is it that's not why they are against it. >> just to be clear critical race theory does not as republicans and even some self-proclaimed liberals like bill maher claim that white kids are taught they are oppressors and black kids that they are victims. that white kids are made to feel guilty or feel evil because they're white. >> so look. the oldest page in the book pushing back against racial integration has been to frame it as an attack on white people.

civil rights laws were framed as discrimination against white people. integration of schools was framed as an attack on children. reconstruction was framed as an attack on white women. the only thing shocking about it honestly is it is so easy to repeat them and rehearse them. one can understand why bill maher actually repeats that stuff because he probably never learned what the truth is. and if the other side gets its way, which is to completely ban conversations, books, histories, that tell this story, then a whole nother generation will believe these lies and not be able to understand that the true threat that we face right now is the threat of authoritarianism. that is what this is about. the road to authoritarianism will be paved through white supremacy. >> a lot of people, journalists,

including myself at times instinctively respond to right wing attacks on critical race theory by saying again and again, well, it isn't taught in k-12 schools, which is true. but is that a mistaken response because it feeds into the idea there is something inherently nefarious and evil about crt and it should be kept far, far away from our innocent kids. >> yeah, well, mehdi, it is a catch-22. i've said it myself. i might have said it on your show before. the truth is the course critical race theory, the cases we read and analyze are graduate level courses. of course no students in k-12 are taught the dread scott case that said black people could never be americans, right? but what is taught is the history of slavery, a little bit. what is taught is the trail of tears, a little bit of it. so the point is that there are moments where our young people

should learn our history. they should understand the ground upon which we stand is ground that is soaked in blood of theft and a whole range of other things that shape what our society looks like. what the other side doesn't want, they don't want to talk about diversity and equity and social justice. these are the terms that they have said to parents if you see this in any of your children's work, this is critical race theory. so part of the reason why it is important to say, critical race theory isn't taught as critical race theory is they are just stealing our frame. we've been working 30 years on this and someone got the bright idea they would just misappropriate critical race theory and throw it on top of everything they don't like and count on the media to say, hum. what is really going on, rather than asking who are these people? what is their money? what is the objective behind it?

>> i mentioned lee atwater and how he was clear about why they used racist dog whistles and not the "n" word. the reality is racial appeals work in this country because there is still a lot of racism or racial resentment in america today but a lot of politicians including democrats are uncomfortable suggesting a lot of white voters are susceptible to racist dog whistles. we in the media hide behind these euphemisms. >> that is precisely what critical race theory has been about all these years. many have been focused on how the inability to talk about race, the inability to see how it is structured in our society, the inability to think about racism as anything other than moral terptitude or a psychological problem has made it impossible for the mode ya and others to identify racial

projects when they are happening. it is an open field for the lee at watters. of course they'll wrap a whole agenda around a racist appeal because they know we can't defend it as long as we abide by the idea if we don't speak it and don't hear it and say it, it doesn't ekkist. that is not an approach to deal with racism. we saw that on january 6th. the confederate flag marching right back into the capitol. if we don't have the ability to address racism we won't be able to save our democracy. >> there was a line doing the rounds on twitter that the panic over critical race theory is a reminder of why we need it which i thought was rather apt. isn't it funny the books they're always offended by or consider ek plis it are books like "beloved" from toni morrison, always seems to be books from black authors or black, historical things. funny, that. >> well, that and also if you look at the list of 800 books

texas is reviewing to determine whether or not those books should be taught because they cause discomfort, those books are all about social injustices even all the way down, you know, to a book by ruby bridges who integrated a white school when she was 6 years old. they don't want to teach those books. nobody has to find the actual definition of critical race theory. this is the talk you have. these are the histories that are ours. this is what is motivating the racial justice movement. don't let them take away what we want to pass on to the next generation. the ability to read our history and to know where the fight has to be. >> we have to leave it there. thank you so much for being with me tonight and breaking it down so well. appreciate it. still ahead, democrats are finally, finally passed the infrastructure bill in the

house. can they now get the much bigger and let's be honest budget reconciliation bill through as well? congresswoman susan wilde joins me next to discuss. plus, anti-trump republicans like adam kinzinger have become heroes for many liberals but standing against trump and trumpism isn't enough to make you a defender of democracy. i'll explain in tonight's 60-second round. ♪ there are beautiful ideas that remain in the dark. but with our new multi-cloud experience, you have the flexibility you need to unveil them to the world. ♪ unconventional thinking means we see things differently, so you can focus on what matters most. that's how we've become the to unveil them to the world. leader in 5g and a partner who delivers exceptional customer

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back during barack obama's second term the president invited a small group of progressive economists to a white house brain storming session. their mission? to advise the administration on the best ways to accelerate economic growth. according to the "new york times"' paul coregman who was there president obama began the meeting by saying don't tell me i should spend a trillion on infrastructure. i know that but i can't. this week president joe biden did what obama and donald trump both said they wanted to do but

couldn't. he got an historic, $1 trillion infrastructure bill passed through congress. the package includes 110 billiond for roads, bridges, and other major projects. $66 billion for passenger and freight rail. $39 billion for public transit. $65 billion for broadband and $55 billion for the replacement of lead pipes. that is real achievement and real money but the real measure of biden's presidency will be whether he gets the much bigger build back better bill through congress as well which has far more real money for real people and for the climate. right wing democrats in the house and senate keep throwing up road blocks to it. one, quote-unquote, moderate democrat who supports the build back better bill despite sitting in a swing state is pennsylvania representative susan wilde and she joins me now. thank you for coming back on the show tonight. apart from congresswoman alexandria ocasio cort ez and other members of the squad most progressives supported the bipartisan infrastructure

framework. the chair of the house progressive caucus said yesterday that was because they trust joe biden to deliver on the build back better bill. it is almost an act of faith now in both joes -- biden and manchin. do you feel you can trust them or could manchin just tank this bill tomorrow morning the build back better bill? >> well, president biden has, thank you, for having me back, president biden has obviously gone somewhat out on a limb and i hope that it will have the receipts to show that woe can all trust him that joe manchin and kyrsten sinema will vote for the build back better act. i am pretty confident that the president would not have made that assurance to the cpc if he didn't feel pretty certain he could deliver. i think we will get it done. i'm happy about that. >> as you say the president knows something we don't. if he doesn't get it done there will be a lot said about what was said in the last 48 hours to

get the first bill through. let's talk about the direction of the party. both the "new york times" and the economist have published resented torials arguing the democratic party moving too far to left and that position has become almost conventional wisdom if parts of my industry. i wonder though. democrats championing policies like medicare negotiating lower prescription drugs prices or paid family leave, are they left wing policies or are they policies that you in a swing seat would like to run on next year to get re-elected? >> you know, thank you so much for setting it up that way, mehdi. because i have to tell you that was going to be my exact question. why are we thinking of these as leftist policies? i think you know one of my number one priorities is reducing prescription drug prices. i have an inorder nant number in my district who are insulin dependent and have told me stories that would make you cry

about their inability to afford insulin? is that a leftist policy? that crosses party lines. i talked to democrats and republicans struggling with that. we've got to bring an end to these labeling and quite honestly a lot of the media has been complicit in it. we democrats have to fight back. and make sure that people understand that what we are fighting for are things that are going to affect the lives of ordinary americans. i don't say that disparagingly. i consider myself an ordinary american. these are the things that are going to matter to people if they're going to be able to start their children in preschool at age 3, gasp. >> is that a horrible thing? is that a lefty policy? no. it is a reality that children are going to benefit from this. our society will benefit from it. >> when i see your colleague abigail spanberger in a swing seat in virginia she said to the

"new york times" no one elected biden to be fdr and you see a few other people saying we wait for a congressional budget score. i'm just a journalist. you tell me. when you go around in pennsylvania do people say we want paid leave, lower prescription drug prices, or do they say, congresswoman, what is the latest on the congressional budget score? >> let me just say this. i think we get way too caught up in washington in the weeds. the average american is not watching every single episode of news and getting into the nitty gritty and quite honestly a lot of people aren't even aware there are two different infrastructure bills. what they want to know is what is washington going to do for me? that is what we need to really be focused on. both the infrastructure bill which by the way i know there is this tendency to talk about it as hard infrastructure versus human infrastructure and all that. the reality is that both bills

do a tremendous amount for average human beings here m this country. and so we've got to think about talking about the way that it is going to impact people's lives. if people are going to be able to get back into the work force without spending more than they currently spend on their rent or mortgage for child care that is a great thing. it is great for employers, great for people who want to go back to work and really great for the children of america. let's start thinking of it that way. let me just say this, mehdi. it is not this massive spending bill. let's talk about it as an investment in america. you know, i could go decades without ever replacing the furnace in my house but i'll pay the price for it. we have in this country in the form of crumbling rods and bridges. >> we are out of time but very quick question.

do you buy the argument that some of your senators have put forward that if they pass the bill in the house you'd have won virginia last tuesday? i don't buy that. just wonder if you do. >> i don't buy that argument. i think when you are a candidate in virginia and you don't visit hbcus in your district, democratic candidate, and you allow your opponent to control the narrative about education when we democrats are the party of education, that is what lost that race. >> well said. thank you for your time. appreciate it. >> thank you. always a pleasure. >> still ahead don't lecture someone on the importance of democracy if you're not willing to stand up for voting rights. i'll explain who i'm talking about in tonight's 60-second rant. plus one year after rudy guiliani's infamous press conference at four seasons total landscaping not the hotel after that took the internet by storm meet the family behind the small business that was thrown into the national spotlight. don't miss four seasons total documentary tonight on msnbc at

10:00 p.m. eastern. but first, richard lui is here with the headlines. >> good evening to you. some of the stories we're watching this hour, a missing north carolina teen was found after using a viral tiktok hand signal for danger. the teen was inside a silver toyota in kentucky. her hand signals caught the attention of a nearby driver. that perpetrator was arrested and faces charges for unlawful imprisonment. a major storm causing flooding on the southeast coast of florida saturday. the national weather service reported high tides and 3 to 5 inches of rain in the jacksonville area. coastal flood warnings and advisories remain in effect until monday. an fda emergency authorization for covid antibody treatments could be on the way. research suggests they can provide substantial protection for those with weak immune systems. infectious disease experts stress that antibody treatments should not be used as a vaccination alternative. more of the mehdi hasan show right after this break.

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welcome back. it is time for what i call the 60-second rant. republican house members adam kinzinger and liz cheney have become heroes for many liberals. and i admire them for that but this morning on twitter congressman kinzinger called me a democracy threatening den ire because i reminded liberals congresswoman cheney voted against the bipartisan infrastructure bill. what? i was sounding the alarm about trump and democracy back before you were when you were happily voting with trump 90% of the time and when you both refused to impeach first time around over ukraine. do you remember that? though you both sit on the 1/6 committee and oppose the big lie that doesn't necessarily make both of you defenders of the democracy. both of you voted against the john lewis voting act. you both seem fine with that

ongoing gop assault on our election system. great. stand up for trump but unless you stand up for voting rights, without voting rights they're worthless. tuesday's elections were classified by many as a failure for progressives especially criminal justice performers but not everywhere. next i'll take you to philadelphia where a very progressive district attorney cruised to an easy and important re-election victory. did you know the mehdi hasan show is available as a podcast? now you can listen on the go any time. listen for free wherever you get your podcasts.

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it looked to some like nothing but bad news for the left on tuesday. in minneapolis, voters rejected a proposal to replace the city police department with a new department of public safety. atlanta's mayor had already announced she wouldn't seek re-election last week in part because of an uptick in violent crime in her city. and in seattle, lefty seattle, a republican will become the new city attorney on the back of a law and order campaign. these election results from last week are begging the question have the democrats gone too far to the left on policing and criminal justice reform? well, hold on. not so fast. in austin, voters also rejected a ballot proposal that would have forced the city to hire hundreds of new police officers. and in philadelphia progressive

prosecutor larry krasner a leader in the national criminal justice reform movement easily won re-election for the city's district attorney job. put together what do the result say about the state of race and crime and policing around the country? who better to ask than the philadelphia district attorney larry krasner who joins me now. thanks so much for coming back on the show. first off, congratulations on your re-election. you faced quite a few head winds, homicides are up in philly. shooting incidents are up this year compared to last. the conviction rates for illegal gun possession were down from 63 to 49% over the first two years of your first term. given these factors and all the criticism how did you get re-elected? >> very easily as it turns out, 2 out of 3 votes in the primary and almost 3 out of 4 in the general election. if you look at areas most affected by gun violence we were taking 80%. there is a lot of talk right now

about one yo lex cycle but i think people are really missing the point and it is very, very good new. ten years ago there were no progressive prosecutors. two years ago 10% of the u.s. lived in a jurisdiction with a progressive prosecutor and right now, 20.1% of the u.s., 70 million people live in a jurisdiction where they have elected and re-elected progressive prosecutors. if you were to pick a political party that is the most successful in the united states me and my progressive prosecutor buddies should shake hands because we would be it. the republicans can't touch us and neither can the democrats. as we focus on something as obscure as the city attorney in seattle understand she is not the chief prosecutor in seattle. she just prosecutes misdemeanors. mostly she does civil cases. the prosecutor there is a progressive. he's been there for a very, very long time. you know, his policies on drugs are fabulous many guided by his own experience with the

addiction and the death of his sister. we are winning. progressive prosecution is winning all over the country. >> the police union in philly spent a lot of money on your opponent in the primary. the mayor, the police commissioner critical of you for not prosecuting illegal gun charges aggressively enough. you responded by saying the police weren't giving you strong cases to prosecute but after having beaten the police department's preferred candidate what does your re-election say about the relationship between your office and the police department? >> so the relationship between my office and rank and file police and the commissioner has been pretty good for quite sometime, we have our disagreements but for the most part agree, the relationship between my office and the head of the police union is terrible because this is someone who basically is giving a big hug to the proud boys and defends nazi tatoos on the arms of police officers literally invited the proud boys into fop hall where

they drank with the members in the members only section. somebody who endorsed donald trump. he never used the word murder to describe what happened to george floyd nor has he condemned the insurrection. these police unions all over the country are run by retired membership and obviously the politics and demographics of that are meaningful. meanwhile the black officers association has endorsed me twice. in two separate yo lexs in a very diverse city where there is an increasingly large number of black officers. some of this stuff is more of a cartoon than reality. we are seeing an amazing increase in the number of progressive prosecutors in the u.s. if you go to georgia right now you'll see they used to have essentially one and now they have a whole club of progressive prosecutors in georgia. >> just to jump in you mentioned

1/6. at an event you spoke about how saving democracy and briefly elaborate. >> look at philly. used to be when you had a bunch of traditional prosecutors, in this election where i just won you'd get 9% or 12% to vote. this year it was over 20%. every single time we have been running our movement for criminal justice reform two primaries and then two general elections since 2017 every single time we've seen bigger and bigger turnouts. more and more people voting. that is because criminal justice reform like some other issues go directly at reluctant and unlikely voters. conventional analysis is just wrong. once again we must fight over the middle. democrats have to be republican like so they can have a tug of war over reagan democrats. that is completely wrong. what we need to do is bring out more votes and the fact is the votes are there but you have to talk about things that matter to

people. one of the things that truly matters is criminal justice reform. it has affected so many of them in negative ways. there are other enormous issues like rent control in minneapolis which just succeeded or student loans for so many young people who will participate if they have a stake in it. >> almost out of time but very briefly minneapolis voted against replacing the police department with a new department of public safety. the media, a lot of politicians announced this is the end of defund the police. in austin they voted against expanding the police department, voted against giving more money to the police. how do you read these result when it come to the police budget debate briefly? >> in minneapolis they also voted for rent control which is a very progressive agenda item. when they put that on the ballot they got 43% in favor for a ballot measure no one had seen in minneapolis before. we're to the going to win every single battle but the war is clear. it is that we went from no

progressive prosecutors to 70 million people living in those jurisdictions and every reason to think if you give it two or four years we'll continue to see it sweep further. we have to bring out reluctant voters, never voters, and the only way to do it is to talk about issues that matter to them. >> well said. thank you for your time tonight. coming up, the woke, this week the supreme court will consider whether the federal government can hide behind a state secret defense when asked to answer for its post 9/11 spying on muslim americans. i'll share my thoughts on that neck. plus -- >> i am sorry jim. i'm going to stop the subsidy to pbs and other things i like pbs. i like big bird. i like you too but i won't keep spending money to borrow money from china. >> how republicans went from loving "sesame street" and big bird to turning him into the new bogey man.

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tomorrow the supreme court will hear opening argument in the case of fbi versus fazaga with much of the attention during this new scotus term on guns and abortion and voting rights you may not have heard of this case but for millions of americans who happen to be muslim it matters a lot and should matter to all of us who care about civil liberties because at the center of the story is this man, a body building enthusiast and informant for the fbi during what they called operation flex because he worked out so much and flexed his muscles. get it? such jokers the fbi. in 2006 he was sent by the bureau to infiltrate approximately 10 different southern california mosques after publicly converting to islam he was embraced by the muslim community in the orange county area. in addition to collecting hundreds of phone numbers and e-mail addresses he began

secretly recording conversations with his new friend and as an excellent piece reports in huff post many koergs turned to jihad and violence and islam. alarm bells went off for the southern california muslim community. they distanced themselves from him and reported him to the fbi like good citizens. time and time again he was rebuffed in his inquiries about violence but he wasn't deterred. he continued making threatening comments reportedly even going as far as talking about orchestrating a terrorist attack here in the united states. when the fbi failed to do anything about him is when some in the community began questioning whether he was an informant. his cover was eventually blown and operation flex fell apart. he was sent to prison for an unrelated issue. after getting out he formed an unlikely partnership with the aclu in a class action suit against the fbi to get details about this spying operation. there is still so much we don't know about the fbi's post 9/11 spying programs. the case at the supreme court tomorrow is in part about making

some of that information public. here is what we do know. they spied on innocent american citizens. innocent american muslims because they were muslim. because they were brown. they infiltrated muslim student groups and mosques and young muslim men were often detained without charge. it is difficult to over state the harm that was done to muslim american communities in this country. the collective blaming and suspicion not to mention violation of basic constitutional rights. one of the plaintiffs in the case that kicks off tomorrow has said it forced him to question everything in his life and left him paranoid. he wondered whether his non-muslim friend viewed him this way and whether his own community blamed him for being so close to monteigh. that is heart breaking. we live in an age where often white republicans endlessly whine about tyrannical government and say their liberties are under attack because somebody asked them to

wear a mask in a grocery store or their employer asked them to get vaccinated or their teenage kid was assigned beloved in high school. go ask your muslim neighbors about what it is like to be spied on and entrapped by the fbi and the big brother surveillance policies that you republicans voted for and backed in the name of fighting terrorism. when you've done that then you can come back and talk to me about how this is an infringement of your liberty. coming up at the top of the hour on ayman, huma abedin joins the show to talk about her new aptly titled memoir plus brad raffensberger about the former president trying to escape criminal charges. don't miss it at 9:00 p.m. eastern. i'll be back with more after this short break. do not go away. liberty mutual. they customize my car insurance,

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thank you for watching. we'll be back here next sunday at 8:00 p.m. eastern. now time to hand it over to ayman. good evening. before i hand it over have you seen this tweet of senator ted cruz railing against one of the big villains of our time? i'm talking about big bird. >> yeah. >> big bird. the lovable, very imaginary character who tweeted out that he got the covid vaccine to encourage kids to get it, too, and cruz smacked him down and

ashamed big bird's tweet as government propaganda. you can't make this stuff up can you? >> no. the crazy thing is it is an imaginary character and you are tweeting it out as if it is real government propaganda and then when you look at some of the other tweets from some of the other right wing conservatives and members of the media that went after big bird, they're calling it pure evil. just imagine calling big bird pure evil. they have no shame when they are going after something just to simply argue with science. i don't understand it, mehdi. >> maybe they think dr. fauci is hiding inside the big bird costume like a two for one bogey man. what is so interesting though is we laugh about this stuff but it kind of reveals who they are. because till now ted cruz hasn't said we are not antivax.

we support liberty. we are antimandate. big bird was just saying it's good to get vaccinated. i got vaccinated. it was public health messaging. big bird has been doing this since 1972. we have a clip. >> well, all kinds of people in a line. they don't look like they're buying candy. there is a sign that says don't wait. vaccinate. oh, and there goes a boy with a balloon. >> was p pure evil? a communist? government propaganda? this is what big bird dozen. he helps kids with public health. >> to your point he is not out there -- children are affected by this and yes i understand people are saying children, you know, they're not at the same risk level as adults and i get that. at the end of the day to your point he is just asking kids to go out there and encourage them not to be afraid of getting

vaccinated. it is one of those head scratchers i have to admit. bizarre. thank you very much. great opening monologue about critical race theory. thanks for the spotlight on that. coming up republicans continue to sow doubt in our elections as the criminal investigations into donald trump's efforts to overturn the results in georgia heats up. georgia secretary of state brad raffensberger will join me live in a moment to talk about that and much more. plus this week the supreme court heard arguments on two of the most devicive hot button issues in this country -- abortion and the second amendment. we'll look into what they asked and what it might tell us about how they will rule. and huma abedin is out with a new memoir. later this hour a candid interview about her life in the spotlight and her advice to democrats dealing with tough election outcomes. let's get