i live in a suburban place. and it's done it for me. >> all right. jay, thank you for joining us tonight. i should say thank you again for joining me on my podcast. that episode is out now with other great interviews. this week i spoke with documentaryian about the art of filmic maer. listen with my conversation to al roker or any one of the episodes that cover topics like health care in america or america's favorite fighting frenchman. hope you check it out. i wish all of you a safe and happy thanksgiving holiday. my favorite holiday. let's all be good to each other. that is "all in" for this evening. "the rachel maddow show" starts now. good evening, ali. >> long drives or e-bike drives, you're looking good, chris. you may not get fully sweaty, but you're putting some effort

in there. more than i am. >> thank you very much. have a great holiday, man. >> you have a good one, my friend. thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. rachel has the night off. she'll be back on monday. the law stated -- >> that was georgia's citizen's arrest law. it enabled any ordinary citizen to capture any other ordinary citizen if they claimed a person committed a crime. it was made the law of the state in 1863. it's no coincidence that that law was put into place that year, 1863 was codified, the law was codified just after president lincoln signed the emancipation proclamation and enslaved people in georgia started fleeing their captors.

one cornell law professor put it bluntly. and it remained the state's law during jim crow when it was used to justify the lynchings of four black people in january of 1912. it was used again to justify the killing of two black couples in july of 1946. black couples who were dragged from their cars and shot dozens of times by white men. the naacp documented more than 530 acts of lynching in georgia alone between 1882 and 1968. the violence was second only to that of mississippi. the law helped excuse that violence. what a terrible old law. the problem is, that law was still on the books in 2021. this spring, the state of georgia repealed that law and it only happened because of a tragedy that took place in february of 2020. it was then that three white georgia men chased down a

25-year-old ahmaud arbery while he was jogging through their neighborhood. when he didn't stop, when they ordered him to, they trapped him with their trucks and shot him dead. they claimed they were attempting a citizen's arrest. they say they assumed ahmaud arbery was responsible for local thefts they had been hearing about for weeks before seeing him jog by. they just assumed it was him. they did not investigate. they did not have evidence. they assumed it was him and assumed they had the right to capture this black man to make a citizen's arrest. when georgia governor kemp finally repealed that civil war era slave catching law this past may, ahmaud arbery's mother, wanda cooper jones, made the significance of that repeal crystal clear. she said, unfortunately, we had to lose by son in this matter. had this bill been in place, i think it would protect young again jogging down the street. her son was not protected in february of 2020. those three men gunned him down in brunswick, georgia, and

killed him in cold blood. those three men have been on trial for more than two weeks on charges of felony murder, aggravated assault and false imprisonment. they claimed they had the right to chase and detain ahmaud arbery because of that law, and claimed that mr. arbery was shot in an act of self-defense. the prosecutors argued their actions didn't meet the standards of that law, and the defendants attacked ahmaud arbery because he was "a black man running down the street." today, after ten hours of deliberation, the jury reached a verdict. they found all three men guilty of felony murder and false imprisonment. they found travis mcmichael guilty of all nine counts in the indictment. this was the scene outside the courtroom after a judge read the verdict. cheers and chants of "whose streets? our streets." the people unite willed never be defeated. and say his name, ahmaud arbery. ahmaud arbery's parents walked out, hands raised with their

attorneys and al sharpton, who has been supporting them in the courtroom during the trial. he's been there, despite the repeated and bizarre objections of one of the defense attorneys. both parents and one of their attorneys, ben crump, spoke after the verdict and expressed relief and gratitude that this time, in this case, these white men would not be allowed to murder a black person with impunity. >> i never saw this day back in 2020. i never thought this day would come. but god is good. >> yes, he is. >> i just want to tell everybody thank you, thank you for those who marched, those who pray, most of all, the ones who prayed. >> yes, lord. >> thank you, god. thank you. >> i don't want to see no daddy see their kid get lynched and shot like that. so it's all our problem. so hey, let's keep fighting and making this a better place for

all human beings. >> i tell you all, we -- we -- we, together, did this. we all together, black, white, activists, faith members, lawyers, prosecutors, we did this together! we said, america, we will make us better than what we saw in that video. >> we did this together. the naacp released a statement noting the generations of black people in this country, dating back to its founding, back to emancipation, back to the first citizen's arrest law, generations of black people without ever seeing anyone held accountable. the generations of loss that have fueled protest after protest after protest. the verdict in the trial over the killing of ahmaud arbery is long overdue. long overdue

>> the white house also weighed in -- >> and to be clear, the biden justice department has been forceful on this issue. in april, the doj charged the three men who killed arbery with federal hate crimes. they will be tried in federal court in february. that decision to federally

indict those men was a string of actions to investigate the killings of black citizens. in may, the doj decided to indict the officers involved in george floyd's murder, as well. they were arraigned in september. they pled not guilty. derek chaufen's trial was one of the few times in recent history that a white police officer was found guilty of killing a black person. he was the first ever police officer to be convicted of killing a black person in minnesota. but to many it felt like a surprise. an exception. despite the wealth of video evidence of that crime. earlier today, just after the georgia jury asked the court if it could review video of ahmaud arbery's murder, ben crump reflected on the killing of breonna taylor and george floyd. >> thank god that there's video. we think about george floyd and how consequential that video was. we pray that the video here will help them arrive at a just verdict.

but reverend al, i can only think about all of the people, the marginalized people of color who did not have video. i can only think of them, never, ever having a chance at court. and i don't want us to have this precedence where if minorities are killed by white people, that we have this high standard, where we have to have a video to get justice. i'm thinking about breonna taylor, i'm thinking about so many others where there was no video. >> ben crump, trying to figure out if a precedent is set, where you have to have video to hold someone accountable for killing a black person, just like george floyd. the video of arbery's murder was pivotal. no one was arrested until the

video was released and circulated, which took more than two months after the killing. that video sparked nationwide protest and activism. it was a key piece of evidence in this trial. like george floyd, the video of ahmaud arbery's murder sparked a national outrage. people protested throughout the summer of 2020 in the name of george floyd and ahmaud arbery. and the countless other black people who have been killed by white police and vigilantes. an attorney seemed acutely aware of some of the similarities between this case and the murder of george floyd. when protestors showed up outside the courtroom and black pastors sat inside the program, the defense attorney tried several times for a mistrial. solely based on the presence of black people supporting the arbery family. he tried over and over and over again. he failed every time. during one of his hail mary attempts, he referenced the george floyd murder trial, implying that the influence of

black protestors had an affect on the verdict. he seemed increasingly worried that george floyd's murder really had reignited a civil right's movement and his case might become part of that movement, too. now seven months after a guilty verdict following george floyd's murder, we have another guilty verdict, for these three men in georgia who claimed to be arresting a fellow citizen. what does it mean? is this a turning point? joining us now is gwenn keys flemming, a district attorney in dekalb county, georgia. thank you for being with us. i want to ask you how you think about this verdict? were the facts in the case so blatant that reasonable people would have expected to -- the defendant to be found guilty, or was this the case of a prosecution making a strong case and overcoming systemic bias in the system? >> i think it's a combination of both. and i'm glad to be here. thank you for having me this evening.

this is a case where, as you set it up in the beginning, this is a reckoning. justice was served today. and i think it is telling that we are at a point in this country that we have to recognize that, through video, we're able to see various things that heretofore have just been presented by various witnesses or just having that video was so powerful. and you'll notice the jury today asked to see it several times again before coming back to their verdict. but i do think we have to be careful that it doesn't set a standard going forward, and we have to deal with the root causes of racism. and in this case in particular, there were overtones from jury selection all the way through closing arguments. and it was really reprehensible. so it's good to know that the jurors were not persuaded by all of that rhetoric and stayed true to the law and the facts as the

prosecutor laid them out. >> but ben crump is right, for all of those people who didn't have video, there are virtually -- there is virtually never a conviction, whether it's police or people that take the law into their own hands. there has been a line that's been repeated over and of in this country for decades. that police and other people don't get -- people don't get shot or killed for doing nothing wrong. >> i think you're right. and that is the problem. we need to be able to get to the point where, when we say these crimes, racial crimes are happening, they are believed. that it is not required to actually be on video. but in a courtroom, as a former prosecutor, having video, or having audiotapes or having things that captured all of the emotion of the moment, those are priceless in helping any prosecutor really convey what happened, and probably more importantly, refuting what a defense team may try to come in

later and try to retool the facts or restate the facts in a way that's beneficial to them. >> throughout the trial, the defense counsel in particular for roddie bryan, the third man charged, repeatedly raised the issue of black pastors in the classroom. one he was referring to was reverend al sharpton. he called them and other advocates for the family a literal mob. i was surprised that he used the term. he said his client was being lynched. i thought that was some choice language. this happened outside the presence of the jury. they may be hearing those words for the first time after rendering their verdict. what do you think of that strategy, and do you think the social justice movements of the last year and a half triggered, in part, by ahmaud arbery's death, do you think they have actually changed the justice system, they brought a new consciousness to juries? >> i don't know that it's gone that far. i think it has raised the

awareness of the issues. but, again, those are just examples of how the racial undertones and possibly the thoughts of the defendants were then carried on by their defense counsel. to be able to label and try to exclude only black pastors when so many pastors were absolutely disgusted by these facts. that, again, is the racial undertones. to strike so many qualified african americans from the jury. again, the prosecutor started the trial and said he thought there might have been intentional discrimination, but let the case proceed. all of these things are still evidence that there is systemic racism that the system does not always work for african americans. and we need to get to the heart of it in order to be able to have a justice system that really works for everyone. >> gwenn keys-flemming, thank you for your time.

thank you for joining us tonight. joining us now is derek johnson, the president and ceo of the naacp. thank you for joining us. when ahmaud arbery was killed, the mcmichaels and roddie bryan gave their story to police. greg mcmichael called the local prosecutor, who allegedly advised him on what to do. police took their statements. they admitted they hadn't seen ahmaud arbery commit any crime and allowed them to go home. the video had to be leaked. the video of the killing had to be leaked for there to become a system that looked like it ended in justice today. >> you know, it speaks to the need to take a deep look at reforming the system of elected or selected d.a.s. any time you have one who is elected who then works with individuals who committed a crime, to cover up the crime, we have a problem. and across the country, d.a.s have so much discretion, you

know, it leads one to wonder whether or not they are too cozy with law enforcement or a certain perspective in the communities that they represent, and not cozy enough with representing the law and justice. i commend the prosecutors in this case. they did an excellent job with helping the jury understand the facts. and the facts is what the juries really took into consideration in this case, and not the surrounding political environment and racial intolerance. but we have a problem with our prosecution system. we have a problem with the lack of representtation for indigent defendants. and we need to look at our justice system in a way that we can remove structural barriers based on race and create a system that's just for all citizens. >> and in many cases, the support for these families of these people who are killed comes from attorneys, pastors,

leaders in the black community. a group that was called out particularly by one of the defense attorneys, what do you make of that? the idea that he called them a lynch mob, he said his client was being lynched in a case many americans who have an understanding of lynching believed it was an extrajudicial killing of ahmaud arbery who saw no trial and got no due process. >> well, it has been an effective tool, in the political environment it has been effective, and he was trying to use the tool of race to incite an outcome, because his clients, they were guilty of murder. he had no defense. so in absence of having a defense, he was trying to use the tool of raise. unfortunately in this country, until we address race, it will be continuously used as a tool. think about the law on the

books. there was a slave law. until states, particularly southern states, do an audit of their laws -- i live in the state of mississippi. i understand the tool of race and how it's used in the south. what he was doing in that -- in that community was trying to use the tool of raise. i wish there was a way that he could be sanctioned for doing that. but unfortunately, there's probably nothing to sanction under georgia's laws. it is unfortunate that he would do that. but for african americans, we are relieved that we have a decision in this case, that was just, and the families of ahmaud arbery can rest that their child, their child's murder did not go unaccounted for. those three individuals are now being held accountable. they will have years to consider what they done.

>> the question we have, and we've had this discussion after the conviction of derek chauvin. in addition to their deaths being accounted for, do these verdicts have an impact on the way others may act? did derek chauvin's verdict have an impact on how other police will act? will this change -- will the change of the citizen's arrest law and this verdict cause people to think again before they take the life of a black person in this country? >> it's a step in the right direction, albeit a baby step. we need to reform our justice system. we need police reform. we need more accountable d.a.s. there's much more work to do. for many individuals across the country, if the verdict would have been different, it would have given license for vigilante violence. fortunately, this jury halted that flood gate of individuals

having the right to commit violence and harm individuals who have committed no crimes, and they are now -- they wouldn't be held accountable. so i'm glad this decision is there, but it's a baby step. we have to do more to reform our laws, state by state, and federal. >> and federally, these men have been charged with federal offenses, as the police officers in minnesota have. both sets of men will be facing new federal trials that hold completely different sanctions with them. is that the role that you want the federal government to have? we have seen an increased role under this attorney general with these things that look to the outside like they might be racially motivated crimes. >> the naacp, 112 years ago, it was the backdrop of a lynching happening once every day. we recognize that local communities and law enforcement was participating in these

lynchings and were not being held accountable. so we were advocating for the federal government to go into local jurisdictions to investigate, prosecute, and convict those causing harm to citizens. so, yes, this is the proper role for the federal government to play. it is the role that naacp advocated for from our founding, and it's important that when mob violence, when vigilante justice is held illegally, we must, we must have a system to hold people accountable and not be persuaded by local politics or state partisanship. >> derek, good to see you again. thank you for spending time with us. derek johnson is the president and kro of the naacp. we have a lot more ahead tonight, including some welcome news for democrats this thanksgiving eve. we have a big show. stay with us. h us feel stuck with student loan debt? move to sofi and feel what it's like to get your money right. (phone chimes) ♪ ♪

♪ i jump up on the stage ♪ ♪ and do my money dance ♪ ♪ i throw some money up ♪ ♪ and watch the money land ♪ ♪ i do my, i do my i do my money dance ♪ move your student loan debt to sofi - you could save with low rates and no fees. earn a $500 bonus when you refi... and get your money right. ♪ i do my money dance ♪ (vo) for fourteen years, subaru and our retailers have been sharing the love with those who need it most. now subaru is the largest automotive donor to make-a-wish and meals on wheels. and the largest corporate donor to the aspca and national park foundation. get a new subaru during the share the love event and subaru will donate two hundred and fifty dollars to charity.

we have to be able to repair the enamel on a daily basis. with pronamel repair toothpaste, we can help actively repair enamel in its weakened state. it's innovative. my go to toothpaste is going to be pronamel repair. every day in business brings something new. so get the flexibility of the new mobile service designed for your small business. introducing comcast business mobile. you get the most reliable network with nationwide 5g included. and you can get unlimited data for just $30 per line per month when you get four lines or mix and match data options. available now for comcast business internet customers with no line-activation fees or term contract required. see if you can save by switching today. comcast business. powering possibilities.

this was the front page of

the kansas city star this morning. kevin strickland, a man wrongfully imprisoned by the state of missouri for 42 years and 4 months, finally freed. but a subhead to the story is what is questioning. exonerated man won't get a dime from the state. the story goes on to stay that unlike guilty prisoners, a parole officer will not help strickland find counseling, housing or work. and unlike others, he will not be eligible for social services, such as participating in the state's health care program. and maybe most importantly, missouri almost never c compensates wrongfully imprisoned people for time served. on the federal level, they are given $50,000 for every year they were wrongfully imprisoned. missouri's neighbor, kansas, just passed a law in 2018, making the wrongfully convicted eligible for $65,000 for each

year of wrongful incarceration. if he had been imprisoned on the kansas side, he would be eligible for $2.7 million. but he's 62 years old, locked up since he was 18 years old. so what is he supposed to do? back in june, mr. strickland sat down with abc for an interview and tried to answer that very question. >> so what do you do? how do you start over your life at 62? >> you know, i kind of jokingly talked about that recently with a friend of mine. i guess i'll get me a cardboard box and get up under the bridge somewhere. >> is that how you're going to start, you feel? >> what do i have? i mean, if they told me to roll out now, i would have to crawl out the front door. i would have nothing. >> the midwest innocence project, which worked to help

free him, has resorted to setting up a go fund me page. so far it's raised more than $450,000, which is fantastic. but mr. strickland shouldn't have to rely on a go fund me page for many. in the words oh it have kansas city star editorial -- >> reporter: the kansas city star and the midwest innocence project deserve praise for the work they have done to prove his innocence. but i fear their work may not have freed him without the efforts of this person, jackson county prosecutor gene peters baker. she took the step of not only reinvestigating the case that her office had made against mr. strickland four decades earlier, but publicly apologizing for those failures once she discovered he was innocent. she then advocated for the new missouri state law that allowed a judge to revisit mr. strickland's case, eventually winning his freedom in court. this is the prosecutor.

that doesn't often happen. joining me now is prosecutor jean peters-baker. prosecutor, thank you for joining me tonight. congratulations on an effort that you have undertaken along with others for some time. tell me what you're thinking tonight. >> a variety of things. i am grateful. it's that time of the year to be grateful, and i am so grateful that we proved, through a huge battle, but proved his innocence, so he's on the other side of prison walling tonight. so i'm grateful for that. but also some dismay in so many failures in our system. >> well, let's talk about that. you worked to fix one of them. this wasn't just a case of a prosecutor looking at something their office had done decades earlier and trying to reverse it. but you argued for a law that allows judges to directly toss out a sentence.

tell me how that compares to other places and why that law, the change in missouri law was so important to getting mr. strickland released. >> before this law passed, and it just passed in missouri august 28th of this year, before that passed, a local prosecutor, like myself, who had been in office for a while, i have a good idea of how to evaluate a homicide case. that's what i do for a living. but i had no ability to correct an old homicide case out of my own office. a county of conviction. so i was powerless before august 28th of this year. so now we have this law that allowed me to bring the claim, and then prove it before a judge. >> you did that. the governor did not -- has not pardoned mr. strickland. in fact, the attorney general challenged you in court. it seems weird. why is that happening? what's behind that?

>> i don't know how to explain that. i'll probably have to have years behind me to better understand why someone with the same duty that i have, the same oath that i have, the same prosecutorial obligations that i have, governed by the aba like both of us are as lawyers, but state lawyers. we have all of those same qualities, but only one of us went forward to free mr. strickland as the evidence directed us to. so i can't answer that. >> we're talking -- yeah, i mean, it was a reforrial question, because i don't know how you would answer why someone else would come up against you in court to fight this, given that you had established kevin strickland's, the lack of evidence to convict him.

we talked about this go fund me page that's been set up. it's up to $550,000 right now. which is great. it's fantastic that people are chipping in and they have heard his story and they believe that. but what do you think should happen in cases like this where someone is wrongfully convicted? >> it may be surprising to some that this statute that gave me power on august 28th of this year, but there are no funds to go along with it. mr. strickland's 43 years of being falsely held for a crime he didn't commit, he doesn't receive a single red cent from. now, that could be rectified, also by that same legislation that passed this law. they could follow up with changing this, so not just that small portion of those people through dna could receive a small amount of money.

but folks like mr. strickland should also be paid for this wrong that happened to him. >> there's -- the university of michigan law school has a list of the longest known exonerated incarcerations in the united states. i believe this is missouri's longest. he hasn't been added yet. but when his name is added to this scroll, he will be in the top ten. it's something. we know about wrongful imprisonment. we continue to learn of people who are wrongfully imprisoned. we have people who fight on their behalf. but this is something. when you think about 42 years. i'm always taken when i hear his voice, when i hear him talking. i wouldn't have that -- that patience around me if i were wrongfully imprisoned for 42 days, let alone 42 years. >> i have been fighting this case in quite a protracted battle since really the spring

of this year. and i'm fatigued. i'm tired. i'm fatigued, and i'm pretty angry about it. and that's -- that's been my part of mr. strickland's existence. so i can't even fathom how he must feel and how he's managed to keep his spirit and his heart the way he has presented himself to me, as a really gracious man. >> yeah, he had a bit of a smile in one of the pictures today when he walked out. that's something after 42 years. thank you for the work you did on behalf of him and the work you did and the work others did with you to see him a free man now. thank you for your time tonight. >> thank you. up here next tonight, contrary to what the beltway media may tell you, democrats may have a few things to be

thankful for this thanksgiving. i'll explain when we come back. g i'll explain when we come back the experts at safelite autoglass came right to me... with service i could trust. right, girl? >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ you've been taking mental health meds, and your mind is finally in a better place. except now you have uncontrollable body movements called tardive dyskinesia td. and it can seem like that's all people see. ♪ some meds for mental health can cause abnormal dopamine signaling in the brain. while how it works is not fully understood, ingrezza is thought to reduce that signaling. ingrezza is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with td movements in the face and body. people taking ingrezza can stay on their current dose of most mental health meds. don't take ingrezza if you're allergic to any of its ingredients. ingrezza may cause serious side effects, including sleepiness. don't drive, operate heavy machinery, or do other dangerous activities until you know how ingrezza affects you.

other serious side effects include potential heart rhythm problems and abnormal movements. shift the focus more on you. ask your doctor about ingrezza. it's simple. one pill, once-daily. #1 prescribed for td. learn how you could pay as little as $0 at ingrezza.com want your clothes to smell freshly washed as little as $0 all day without heavy perfumes? now they can! with downy light in-wash freshness boosters. just pour a capful of beads into your washing machine before each load. to give your laundry a light scent that lasts longer than detergent alone, with no heavy perfumes or dyes. finally, a light scent that lasts all day! new downy light, available in four naturally-inspired scents.

earn about covid-19, the more questions we have. the biggest question now, what's next? what will covid bring in six months, a year? if you're feeling anxious about the future, you're not alone. calhope offers free covid-19 emotional support. call 833-317-4673, or live chat at calhope.org today.

if you are a democrat, or someone who votes for democrats, or just someone who would like today's pro--trump conspiracy filled republican party not to take over congress next year, you may be having a hard time finding things to be thankful for this thanksgiving, at least as far as politics go. but it's worth taking a moment to consider some things may not be as dire for democrats as they seem. for instance, this summer the country got a string of dispiriting jobs reports from the labor department suggesting that the economic recovery was slowing down and hishing was not as robust. headlines were like, lackluster and disappointing and giant step back. but just a few days ago we learned things were not quite what they seemed. it turns out the government

underestimated job growth this summer. and once they got ahold of all the data and revised their estimate, they had missed over 600,000 jobs that were added this summer. by the way, revisions to job numbers are normal feature. unfortunately for the white house, it can't get back those months of bad press, but we know there was no summer hiring slump. we just measured it wrong. and speaking of measurement mistakes, there were howls of outrage after congressional committee ran the numbers on the social spending plan and found the legislation would give a big tax cut to millionaires. folks on the left were horrified. republicans were giddy at hammering the democrats with a populist cudgel. so democrats started fighting with each other about the tax cut. it seemed like another thing that would torpedo the whole bill. but turns out that the

congressional committee made a mistake and they had to issue a correction. the new corrected analysis shows the build back better package would raise taxes on millionaires by about 3 percentage points. and you may or may not think that's good policy. but polls show that it's very popular policy. and for democrats, this corrected analysis removes what briefly looked like a looming political disaster. not every hurdle the white house and democrat and congress are facing can be chalked up to an erroneous report. inflation and gas prices are real problems that americans are feeling right now. but in an address to the nation this week, joe biden stressed there is light at the end of the tunnel on those issues, too. the gas price spike is likely temporary. the biden administration is trying to hasten its end by releasing 50 million barrels of oiltegic reserve.

meanwhile, democrats in congress have never sounded more confident that they will pass some version of the president's build back better legislation, which they believe will add to the economic boost they already expect from the big infrastructure bill the president signed last week. and just today, we got a big helping of good thanksgiving eve economic news. this week's jobless claims by people who are newly unemployed are the lowest that they have been, not just since the pandemic started, they are the lowest they have been in the last 50 years. all of which means that as we head toward the end of the year, democrats potentially have the ingredients to make an effective case for themselves as the party that americans should want in charge of the government. but first, all of those things that joe biden says are going to happen, have to actually happen. congress has to pass the social spending bill. the supply chain has to get back in working order.

gas prices and inflation have to come down. and second, democrats have to do the one thing that seems to bedevil them more than anything else, sell their accomplishments. joe biden was vice president the last time a new democratic administration came in, and passed historic legislation and then lost the messaging war. is history going to repeat itself? self now for the first time one medication was approved to treat and prevent migraines. nurtec is the first and only option proven to treat and prevent migraines with one medication. onederful. one quick dissolve tablet can start fast and last. don't take if allergic to nurtec. the most common side effects were nausea, stomach pain, and indigestion. with nurtec odt, i treat migraine my way. what's your way? ask your doctor about nurtec to find out! ♪ ♪ cases of anxiety in young adults are rising as experts warn of the effects on well-being

caused by the pandemic. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ do i need to pretreat my laundry? nope! with tide pods, you don't need to worry. ♪ ♪ the pre-treaters are built in. tide pods dissolve even when the water is freezing. nice! if it's got to be clean, it's got to be tide. (ringing) - hey kaleb, what's up? how you doing? - hey, i'm good, guess what, i just had my 13th surgery. - really? i just had my 17th surgery. - well, you beat me. - well, i am a little bit older than you. - yeah it's true. how are you doing? - i'm doing good. i'm encouraged by seeing how people are coming together

to help each other during times like these. - kind of like how shriners hospitals for children is there for us. imagine if i couldn't get my surgery. who knows what would have happened. - same for me. i know my shriners hospitals family will continue to take care kids like us who need them most all because of caring people like you. - like me? - no, the people watching us right now at home. - oh, those people. hi people. - kaleb and i know not everyone can help right now, but for those of you who can, we hope you'll this special number on your screen right now. - you'll be making sure our amazing doctors and nurses can keep helping kids like us, who need them now and in the days to come. - your gift will make a huge difference for kids like us. - ooh, ooh, show them them the thank you gift. - okay, okay, hold on a second. with your gift of $19 a month we'll send you this adorable, love to the rescue blanket as a thank you

and a reminder of the kids you're helping with your monthly support. - so what are you waiting for? you can use your phone and call, or go to loveshriners.org to give and join with thousands of other generous people who change lives with their gifts every day. - i think that's about it buddy, good job. - my pleasure captain. please call now. if operators are busy with all the other caring people, please wait patiently, or you can go to loveshriners.org to give right away. - [alec] big or small, your gift helps us all. - [both] thank you. (giggling)

we have to be able to repair the enamel on a daily basis. with pronamel repair toothpaste, we can help actively repair enamel in its weakened state. it's innovative. my go to toothpaste is going to be pronamel repair. about once a year, we get a visit from a car-sized astroid. not impressive enough for a movie plot, but it makes a cool fireball as it enters the earth's atmosphere and burns up before it reaches the surface of the earth. every few thousand years, we get hit by an astroid the size of a football field and they cause major damage. so a group of scientists at nasa keep track of as many of those near-earth objects and today

they start admission that could help us avoid a cataclysmic scenario. earlier this morning, they launched a spacecraft that is going to be on a 10-month journey to a binary astroid 6 million miles away from earth, where luckily they pose no danger to us. if all goes according to plan, the spacecraft will crash into the smallest of the two astroids at 15,000 miles per hour, giving it enough of a nudge to kick it off course and change its speed. now, right before impact, the spacecraft will release a tiny satellite, there you go, that's going to take pictures of the collision and send them back to earth. they will use telescopes to observe how much the impact changed the astroid's trajectory in space. the point is to add this diversion method to keep

astroids out of earth's orbit. the right time to deflect ans a trois is as far away from the earth as we can. who better to talk than bill nye, ceo of the planetary society, also known as the science guy. bill, great to see you tonight in an area of deep expertise for you. let's talk about this. what is this -- what is the aim here that we're going to deflect asteroids headed for earth so that they miss us? >> so everybody, just when i was a kid nobody had a good hypothesis as to what happened to the ancient dinosaurs, but now we do. the last 30 years or so, people realize it was almost certainly an asteroid impact that finished them off. and there have been several other enormous asteroid impacts here on earth that would be catastrophic. so someday in non-science fiction fashion we're going to have to deflect one.

so this didamos binary asteroid, ditamos and bimorphous, if you're into happy naming, is an asteroid where you have an asteroid that has a wide center like this double strawberry and then you have another asteroid going around it like the blueberry. so if you can hit the blueberry with a spacecraft, like these strawberry leaves, then you can slow this smaller asteroid down ever so slightly, ever so slightly, and then when an object is closer to the -- when a smaller object is closer to the larger object, it will go around faster. that's why, for example, mercury goes around the sun much faster than our earth does. and so we'll be able to detect this tiny change in the period of the smaller asteroid.

and this will prove or disprove the hypothesis that this so-called kinetic impact, energy impact, could deflect an asteroid in the future and, dare i say it, save the world. >> well, you and i are of an era where we had some great science fiction shows and books. and in those they would have just blasted any asteroid that threatened earth to smithereens. we apparently don't have that technology? >> no. plus there's a few problems with that. you'd have to get a large, let's say, nuclear weapon on top of a rocket and shoot it into space. all your allies and adversaries would have to trust you doing that. and then it would have to work. the idea would be to get near enough to an asteroid, set off an explosion. the heat would volatize, vaporize, oblate, burn off some of the asteroid, and that

momentum of the pushed-off stuff would push the asteroid. that may work. but even simpler and more straightforward is just hitting the asteroid with something very small but going very, very fast. dart, double asteroid redirection test, is going about four miles a second. four miles a second. >> wow. >> so it has a lot of momentum. so when we hit this smaller asteroid, we are very hopeful that it will give it a nudge. now, the composition of the asteroids is not exactly known. so they're so-called xk asteroids. so we're hoping, or we're confident that when we hit it with this d.a.r.t. spacecraft it will hit it and give it a push rather than just kind of go right through it like a sieve full of gravel or something. so everybody, this is a very inexpensive test of what may one day be a planet-saving

technology. >> yes. it'll seem like a great value when it actually saves us from something. i don't flow if it's a first, bill. it's always good to see you about you this might be the first time on "the rachel maddow show" that we've had a live strawberry and a blueberry. i'll check if that's true. always good to see you, my friend. bill nye is the ceo of the planetary society. we appreciate your time tonight. there is a lot to be thankful for this year but there's one group of people that deserve extra attention this thanksgiving eve. i'll talk about them on the other side. with downy infusions, let the scent set the mood. feel the difference with downy.

with voltaren arthritis pain gel. my husband's got his moves back. an alternative to pills, voltaren is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory gel for powerful arthritis pain relief. voltaren, the joy of movement.

look, if your wireless carrier was a guy, you'd leave him tomorrow. not very flexible. not great at saving. you deserve better—xfinity mobile. now, they have unlimited for just $30 a month. $30. and they're number 1 in customer satisfaction. his number? delete it. i'm deleting it. so break free from the big three. xfinity internet customers take the savings challenge at xfinitymobile.com/mysavings. or visit an xfinity store to learn how our switch squad makes it easy to switch and save hundreds.

over the past few years journalists have increasingly been forced to question official police accounts. in june of 2020, three months after breonna taylor was killed, police in louisville, kentucky released a nearly blank report omitting that she was shot eight times by police. the month before, when george floyd was killed, minneapolis police failed to initially report that derek chauvin knelt on floyd's neck for more than eight minutes. and when ahmaud arbery was killed near brunswick, georgia last year, seasoned local journalist larry hobbs of the brunswick news knew that he needed to push for information because the police weren't sharing enough. so instead of relying on official statements hobbs filed a public records request. as hobbs told this show today, the less answers you give us, the more questions we ask. accordingly, he started to ask police, "why a young man was shot dead in the middle of a sleepy neighborhood on a sunday afternoon. why an unarmed burglary suspect is shot dead in the middle of a public street and not, say, inside a burgled home?"

also, was there a conflict of interest since one of the suspects previously worked for the district attorney? well, his curiosity paid off. the public record request that hobbs filed allowed him to obtain a police report containing the first preliminary answers as to how and why arbery was killed. he published his findings on april 2nd, 2020. it was the first time america and perhaps arbery's family got a better picture of what happened. today, almost two years since arbery's killing, the three men implicated were found guilty of his murder. hobbs' lead story tonight at the "brunswick news," "guilty. guilty. guilty." hobbs told us he usually doesn't post his stories on facebook but today reacting to the verdict he made an exception. he wrote, "on so many occasions the strange and exotic and beautiful place called the south that i love so much has come up wanting in times of reckoning. today, november 24th, 2021, in a town called brunswick on the georgia coast was not such an occasion.

tomorrow i think i'll go fishing." while today's verdict might feel like a measure of accountability, it's also one that began with a local reporter's work. so our message to you tonight is this. support your local paper. as the home page of the "brunswick news" notes tonight, "the world needs trustworthy reporting. but good journalism isn't free." amen. that does it for us tonight. i wish you all a very, very happy thanksgiving. it's time now for "the last word" with my friend jonathan capehart filling in for lawrence tonight. good evening, jonathan. >> good evening, ali. and what a beautiful sentiment to transfer from you to me as a newspaper man. yes, good journalism -- >> i know. >> -- is important. >> a local newspaper man originally. >> right. >> you were a local guy originally. >> yes. "new york daily news." ali, thank you very much. >> happy thanksgiving. >> happy thanksgiving. what happened in georgia today was not justice. justice would be if ahmaud