♪♪ ♪♪ good evening, evening. welcome to a special edition of "the reidout." we'll introduce you to the most compelling people of 2021. white house reporter jonathan karl on the sick and twisted world of donald trump, which carl writes about in his new book. >> okay, so he's talking about how awful all these republicans were that betrayed him if mike pence had more courage and did what he wanted to do he would be a president still and the terrible things bill barr and mccarthy and mcconnell didn't

fight for him and got him excited. >> you'll hear from professor anita hill that talks about sexual harassment against women decades before the me too movement. >> what we're doing is accepting violence, accepting the precursors to violence and we're telling girls that they should accept it, too, and not complain. >> also huma abedin talks about her years at hillary clinton eastside and how abedin's life was shattered by the scandals of her husband former congressman anthony weiner. >> in every one of those instances, joy, i really tried to make the best decision for my son, for myself until i got to the point where i just couldn't do it anymore. >> and the one and only jordan klepper talks about his adventures from maga land. >> the people that think this is

a fun tailgate get in the same big ol' group and you see the iq drop, the indrop you don't have an adult in the room you see bad things happen. the serious throughout to our democracy and critical importance of passing voting rights legislation. >> if we do not take action, if we do not have minimum standards passed across this country, we know the 19 states are the tip of the spear. there are 48 states that have considered legislation and there are 400 bills floating out there. we will watch the slow motion demise of our democracy accelerate dramatically starting as early as january as legislators come back into session and see how successful their colleagues have been at undermining our democracy, we'll watch a complete collapse and here is why this isn't a partisan issue. look at the map, some of those

places don't have a large swath of voters of color or young voters but when you attack democracy, you hurt everyone and whether you're the intended target or not, when you break democracy, you break it for all voters and that's why the freedom to vote act are so essential. >> one of the things republicans are doing aggressively is gerrymandering blatantly on race. in texas they said if you're hispanic we'll reduce your, you know, your representation directly. if you are african american, we'll reduce the number of districts with the majority of your folks in it to zero. that's about as blatant racial gerrymandering as i've seen. i wonder if democrats are alarmed enough in washington about all of these developments because what it's sort of like election apartheid. they're saying we're going to make it so white voters are so advantaged we can't lose.

>> what we have seen happen is all 50 senators on board. the freedom to vote act actually expands access to the right to vote, defends our democracy and indeed addresses these extreme gerrymandering that have been green lighted by the supreme court first in the 2020 decision that permitted partisan gerrymandering and the blunt of its decision recently. what we know is that to push back against these, to unrig the maps, to guarantee access to the right to vote, we must have action. i appreciate and applaud the fact that senator mansion wanted to bring everyone together because this is not a partisan issue. this is a people issue. this is a patriotism issue. the fact they have said resoundingly they will not stand for americans, means that we have to as democrats speak up for everyone and we know that the freedom to vote act is overwhelmingly supported, that the provisions that expand access to democracy guarantee

the freedom to vote, unrig the maps, all of those provisions are uniformingly and resoundingly protected. it is a good thing if democrats have to go at it alone, do it alone you're doing it for america because that's what we're trying to push and send. >> doing it alone would involve getting all of the democrats and independents that have been clear they're not willing to do anything to touch the filibuster. angus king is nervous about getting rid of filibuster and mansion and cinema wrapped their arms around the filibuster as if it's a christmas present. they will never let it go. i'm wondering if democrats are not willing to change the filibuster. i feel like we're at an impress. what do we do? they're not willing to do anything? >> we've seen carveouts of the filler buster before. we did an op ed a carveout for democracy should be tenable but acceptable and that carveout can't happen.

we don't have -- i agree actually that we need to get rid of the entire filibuster but i understand the protective nature saying it's one of the few mechanisms we have because we have power switches in the senate but we need to restore the senate and that means restoring it to a functioning body, not held hostage by minority of minority and that is what we have to work on. when ten people can decide the future of our nation, we have to restore the functionality of the senate and i believe that the appetite is there among democrats to have the conversation about how we restore the senate. that doesn't mean getting rid of the filibuster at large or we can solve every problem but if we do not protect the basis of our democracy under attack but not only attacking voters but attacking our systems, we are watching the erosion of our democracy before our eyes and i do believe the democrats are willing to fight to restore our democracy. >> have you had conversations with senator chuck schumer and

with mansion and cinema themselves to that end and have they indicated a willingness to take action and do a carveout in order to restore democracy, in order to allow people to have the right to vote? >> my work is to talk to every single power broker and policy maker in washington to get good done and i'm going to continue to have conversations about what needs to be done. i'll also have conversations with american people. we need to keep the pressure on. that's why our freedom to vote is out there. we need folks to call 833-465-7142. 833-465-7142 and call your senators and tell them to restore the senate and you need to do a carveout for the filibuster to protect the democracy. it's not just about my voice but the voice of every american demanding our nation do its job and the leaders do their job. >> thank you to the amaing stacy abrahams. up next, my conversation

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i thought he was well protected because i had heard he was in very good shape but -- >> because you have heard those chants. >> people were angry. >> people said hang mike pence. >> it's common sense. it's common sense. >> that was donald trump telling abc's jonathan karl it was common sense for the angry maga mob to threaten the life of his own vice president. it's one of the many revelations in carl's book betrayal among other things carl reveals that trump fired secretary of defense mark esper on the recommendation of the guy that carried his bags for him, 30-year-old

mcentee. the offenses included focussing on russia and promoting diversity in the ranks of the military which were betrayal. and allies including the claim that wireless thermostats made in china might have been used to manipulate voting machines in georgia. trump actually asked his director of national intelligence to look into that and carl said during the insurrection, the official vice presidential photographer was in hiding with mike pence at the capitol however, pence refused to allow carl to publish any of the photos from during the siege despite the fact that the photographer's salary was paid by u.s. taxpayers and the images are public property. there are also unflattering details about former financial journalist and media personality of fox news maria who reportedly called attorney general bill barr to complain the justice

department wasn't interveing in the election to keep trump in office. barr told carl she called me up. i yelled back at her. she's lost it. joining me is jonathan karl author of "betrayal, the final act of the trump show." here is the book. just when you think you can't learn anything weirder about donald trump, it gets weirder but you opened the book talking about the scene and i heard this before about the way he puts himself on display at m mar-a-lago. not because he had to because he could have gone somewhere more private to have a real interview but wants to do it in public. >> first of all, this is march. this is just about two months after he's left office barely two months after january 6th so i mean, everything is raw and fresh. he invites me down to mar-a-lago to do the interview and the interview takes place in the middle of the lobby, big towering ceilings, the walls and the interview happened before

dinner time so you actually hear on the tape people coming in for dinner for happy hour and i was looking for something, i mean, you know, book interview is different than a television interview. take a step back, there is no cameras, there is a level of intimacy you can have. i wanted to see any hint of regret, any hint of remorse for what happened on january 6th and you hear it. >> none. >> absolutely none. >> you actually describe him in the opening of the book as being sort of gleeful, the sense of vengeance made him happy. >> he was in a good mood. he said if mike pence had more courage, he'd still be president and the terrible things bill barr did and mitch mcconnell had not fought for him. it got him excited. >> yeah, do you believe having sat down with donald trump and looked him in the eye and talked to him that he genuinely

believes the election was stolen or this is just an act because he doesn't want to admit he lost? >> so i believe that he has come to believe this. i don't believe it was always that way. i believe that this was an act. he knew -- it was very strategic. his brand is based on the fact i'm the guy that wins. >> yeah. >> if he loses, it's done. >> yeah. >> so he had to at least convince supporters that he had not lost but i think now, i mean, i had one final conversation with him over the phone, over the summers. i was about to go to press and he was telling me that texas was going to do an audit of the vote, too, which now we know -- i didn't even know it yet. >> right. >> doesn't make any sense. you won texas. what are you talking about? and he just got so agitated with me that he ended up hanging up the phone. >> so you think he believes it. >> i think he believes it. >> you talk about kevin mccarthy here. >> yeah. >> you write it's not clear to you and i had the same theory that kevin mccarthy would

automatically become speaker if the house were to flip to the republicans because despite the fact that the, you know, minority leader has done everything he can to kiss up to trump and make up with him, he probably really would rather have a jim jordan and it's not clear the cops would support carl. >> right. >> support mccarthy, sorry. >> look, mark meadows who is still very close to trump and doing everything he can to help trump out, mark meadows told people that he wants to bring mccarthy down. so we'll see. the thing is what mccarthy has going for him is who else is going to take -- who else can get a ma majority? >> jim jordan. >> he's even closer and so i don't think jim jordan would challenge him. >> what about this idea? because there is the assumption, you know, that a lot of people are making that donald trump is putting in place all of the pieces that he needs taking down all of the people who resisted

and as you said, he's extremely vengeful, which is a lot about what this book is about, everyone that betrayed him and didn't keep him in office and he put in all the people and flunkees in place he'll run again in 2024. you're saying you don't necessarily believe that. >> he may run people around him. some will say he's definitely running and donald trump wants us to believe he's running. that makes him relevant. i don't think he's going to run. i won't be shocked if he does. that said, he's putting in place, he's going out methodically to defeat and to destroy anybody that was not with him in his crazy drive to overturn the election. one of the moments i thought was very significant during the transition is when the michigan republican leaders, these were trump people and constituents that were solidly donald trump and donald trump summons them to the oval office and says you need to reconvene the legislature and send, take back

the biden electoral votes and send trump votes and they told him flatly no. >> yeah. >> he doesn't want those kind of people around anymore. >> and he's working to get rid of them. >> he's working to get rid of them. not with across the board success but working to get rid of them. >> you write about some of the interesting characters, the sydney powells of the world. did donald trump genuinely believe that they were capable, that this crew of people including the pillow guy and all those and rudy giuliani were actually capable of keeping him in office? >> there is a dramatic scene confronting bill barr after barr said there is no election fraud and trump is like screaming at him in this meeting in the dining room of the oval office and barr says your legal team is a clown show and if you had any chance of challenging anything, you need the best people from the start and trump says on that part you might be right. so i think he understood that but you mentioned the conspiracy theories, the thermostats. >> yeah.

>> the italian military spy satellites that supposedly switched votes and gina haspel got injured trying to control a server to control this stuff. the crazy stuff, okay? >> yeah. >> here is the thing, you can find it on qanon. you can see it in the outer fringes. this was talked about in the oval office and the president of the united states was pushing it and his chief of staff mark meadows was demanding not -- you mentioned ratcliff the director of national intelligence and told the department of justice to look into it and the pentagon. you can laugh about it. this is what was driving the top levels of the executive branch of the government. >> i guess the obvious question i have to ask you is you've talked and sat across from him. he seems to believe this stuff. did donald trump come as somebody who is rational, mentally all there? >> it's a very strange thing. he comes out.

he's got, you know, he's got a way of trying to charm you. he didn't seem like he's somebody that's completely insane at all. i mean, he conducts himself. he conducts his business but it's the lack of any sense of remorse, i think, that really comes across as there is something that is just not right. >> yeah. very clear. betrayal is the name of the book. jonathan karl, excellent job. >> thank you. up next on "the reidout" my conversation with author and legal scholar anita hill on combatting sexual harassment and assault and her place in history. "the reidout" continues after this. history. "the reidout" continues after this are you tired of clean clothes that just don't smell clean? downy unstopables in-wash scent boosters keep your laundry smelling fresh way longer than detergent alone. if you want laundry to smell fresh for weeks, make sure you have downy unstopables in-wash scent boosters. tv: mount everest, the tallest mountain on the face of the earth. keep dreaming. [coins clinking in jar]

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before the all male, all white committee about allegations of sexual harassment and nominee clearance thomas. the committee advanced the nomination to become the second black man to sit on the high court taking a seat previously held by the great civil rights icon. the impact hill's televised testimony, actual harassment in workplaces and sexual assault. 30 years later, clearance thomas still sits on the court and he's now joined by justice brett kavanaugh who during his confirmation hearing was accused of sexual assault by christine ford. there is a twice impeached disgraced former president who even after the "access hollywood" tape surfaced allowing voters to hear from himself boasting about grabbing women by their private parts faced numerous charges of sexual

misconduct, claims of sexual harassment or assault from at least 20 women, charges he denied was elected president of the united states in 2016 despite that with 74 million americans backing him a second time in 2020. so how much is really changed? i spoke to anita hill about her book "belieing our 30 year journey to end gender violence" she takes on the slow pace of change and what needs to be done for real systemic change to address gender violence as a cultural and structural problem that hurts everyone. professor hill, great to talk to you. thank you for being here this evening. >> wonderful to be on your show, joy. >> thank you. so let's just get right to i guess the main question. you know, i think for a lot of us who are young women at the time that we saw you go through what you did with now justice thomas, to see it happen all over again with the kavanaugh nomination, to see christine

blasey ford in your position to see people attacked and the way she treated, the death threat she got. feels like the only progress is the judiciary committee was not all white and all male. three people on the committee that approved thomas also voted for kavanaugh. what has actually changed in your view? >> well, there has been greater awareness of the problem of sexual assault harassment and all forms of gender violence over the past 30 years and, you know, that is tremendous. we shouldn't overlook that. however, when we witnessed the kavanaugh hearings you are correct it was just like nothing ever happened and i think what we can take away from that is that in fact when the process that we go into as victims and as survivors of gender violence, when the processes don't change,

then the outcomes and the public reaction doesn't change and so we got to work on changing our processes. simple as that. >> yeah, i mean, if we put back up the list of peel on the judiciary committee clearance thomas was approved on the top of the list is a guy named joe biden. the senator from delaware and the chairman of the committee is now president of the united states. he of course, wrote the violence against women act and responsible for that being passed and has fought for that act. have you had and had the opportunity to have conversations with the president either before he was elected president or since about this very issue, about what can be done to make things actually begin to change and if you have, can you tell us what he had to say? >> yes, well, i've had a brief conversation with him before he announced his presidency or run for the presidency and he did

apologize for the way he managed the hearing in 1991. what the american public needs to hear given his role in '91 even given his role with violence against women act and the efforts on college campuses to stop sexual assault, all of those put him in the position to be a leader for change, to be a leader that acknowledges the enormity of his problem and map that out and the pervasiveness of it in the institution. given the reality of today, it's no longer acceptable just to apologize for the past what we need to be doing is looking to the future and acknowledging the problem and putting together an agenda to eliminate it. >> you know, what i think is distressing i guess particularly

since we've had a m too movement that felt like it was going to add to the changes that came that really were launched in many ways by your testimony and your bravery at that time so you've had me too but then you've also elected a president like donald trump and somebody who is on tape said that he had the right because of being a celebrity grabbing a woman by their genitals. we have multiple candidates for governor and senator. we had all of these people you look at the history and think some of the things they've done when it comes to women or alleged to have done would be prohibited of gaining power. it feels like men like that are gaining more power. does that concern you? >> what we do know is that -- and i, again, i talk about this in my book that there is denial

of the problem even after the 19 million tweets of the me too movement, there is still remaining a culture of denial and dismissiveness and it begins when we tell children, girls, little girls that the abuse they're experiencing from a classmate or somebody else sometimes even an older child or an adult when we tell them it's not so bad or we explain to them that's just boys being boys. what we're doing is accepting violence, we're accepting the precursor to violence and telling girls that they should accept it too and not complain. we have a cultural denial and dismissiveness to the problem and it does spread to adults who will accept the explanation from someone like a governor cuomo who says, well, you know, that's just what i do instead of really

understanding and acknowledging what it is. >> or someone like sage steel a fellow woman saying to other women, it's shocking to hear from other women. thank you for being here. i hope everyone will read your book. you are one of the voices who for me as a young women i listened to to have dignity in the workplace without being harassed. thank you for your book and all you've done. anita hill, thank you. >> thank you for having me. up next, my interview with huma abedin on working side by side with hillary clinton and scandals involving her husband anthony weiner. stay with us. husband anthony weiner stay with us hes to smell freshly washed all day without heavy perfumes? try new downy light in-wash scent beads. it has long-lasting light scent, no heavy perfumes, and no dyes. finally, a light scent that lasts all day. new downy light!

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huma abedin is one of hillary clinton's most trusted advisors by her side from the clinton administration to the presidential campaigns to the

secretary of state's offices, to the secretary of state's office where she was one of the highest profile muslim americans to serve in the executive branch. you may know her from her relationship with anthony weiner but she has not told her full story until now. she shares her extraordinary personal journey from growing up in saudi arabia to being one of the most important and powerful women in the world. huma joins me now. i said this off camera say i'll say it on camera. it's shocking to think about the fact you've never done interviews or hear you because you're familiar to those following democratic politics for so long but you were the person off to the right. how did it feel to move from just off to the right to center stage telling your story? >> well, first of all, i'm so excited to be on the show with you today but i have to say, i prefer the being behind the

scenes, i prefer being invisible. everything is new to me. i'm emerging into the world where all the things i would say to somebody else, don't forget to say this and do this. i know the mechanics but being in the chair is a whole different experience. >> getting used to it and doing a brilliant job. want to talk about your family. i'm semi obsessed. it was cross culture and fundamentally american and immigrant. you lived in saudi arabia. you come from, i wrote this down, you come from free people, free women who were true to their faith but within the constructs of that faith, really insisted on education, insisted on being free. talk about what that did for you as a young muslim girl. >> joy, it is one of the reasons i start the book saying i grew up surrounded by stories.

i was raised to honor a legacy of my forefathers and foremothers and i honor the mate family. my family migrateed to pakistan after the partition and they for them, education was almost a religion and i owe it, i write the story of my grandmother 100 years ago demanding to be educated, which was not the norm for girls of her time and she was able, actually, my grandmother never went to formal school. my mother was mostly home schooled and at 21 to get a full bright or 23 to get a full bright to come to the united states. she gave up everything, her family, her people thought her parents were crazy. what are you doing sending your unmarried daughter leaving pakistan getting on an airplane and going to philadelphia? she did. she followed her dreams.

i'm so conscious of the sacrifices my parents made, my father struggled with terminal illness. he was ill most of my life. they did this for their children. they pursued the american dream and boy, did i get to live this extraordinary privileged life because of them. >> i want to talk about your relationships. it feels natural having read about your upbringing you gravitated towards these relationships. talk about hillary clinton. someone so formidable in your life she could have been in your family? >> that is an observation nobody made but it is true for me that i left, you know, one of the reasons i liked growing up in the middle east is having a strong sense of community and support and you're kind of involved in each other's lives if there is funeral, everyone shows up. if there is a wedding, everyone shows up. it's a culture where my father had to go to the hospital for his kidney transplant, our friends took us in and moved furniture for us to be comfortable and my parents really taught us, one of the

most important lessons they taught us was radical empathy. they are not parents that taught us by showed us by example. all they required is us to be educated. to live in the white house and have a boss like hillary clinton, i felt like the same culture of community, hilary land there is a whole chapter was similar. >> i'm trying to find hillary clinton staying with bill clinton. your family was so loyal, it had to be jarring for her husband to have had failings with loyalty. it was a political arrangement and she did it to launch a political career of her own. skeptics tended to rush over the explanation, she did it because she believed it was the right thing to do for her and her family. i want to set up an issue that happened in your own relationship. anthony weiner was different from you ethnically in every

way, you're married. what drew you to him initially? >> i fell in love with his exuberant -- he was smart and interesting and in publish service and it felt like our values and principles were very much aligned and i tell in the story, we met in 2001 but there was an attraction to him and i really felt like, you know, he was my friend before he was anything else and we sort of fell in love by accident. >> with all the things that happened between 2011 and -- i think you guys left -- separated in 2016. why did you stay? >> well, i think a lot of people look at our relationship now through a 2021 lens and in the moment the first time the story broke about anthony's scandal, we were newlyweds. we were living this extraordinary life. i was at buckingham palace deeply, madly in love with my husband. he was the first man i had ever been with. i was in shock but also carrying his child.

i really -- i -- we just talked about my father. i did not have a choice when my father was taken from me and knowing i was carrying his child, i knew i wanted to give my son the opportunity to be raise in a household with two parents. obviously, over the years things escalated and in every instance, joy i really tried to make the best decision for my son, for myself until i got to the point i couldn't do it anymore. >> let's talk about something that involves anthony weiner but also involves the 2016 election was so traumatizing for so many people. this is three for my producers and this is the moment james comey made an announcement. >> breaking news tonight, a bombshell from the fbi director 11 days until the election. newly discovered emails related to the hillary clinton private server case found during a sext

allegations against anthony weiner. donald trump seizing on a stunning turn of events. >> you write about your feelings in that moment toward anthony weiner but also toward jim comey. talk about that. >> well, in that moment what i felt and as i recounted in the book i walk into this restroom and it felt selfish to feel for myself. it was -- i was so shocked. i had thought i, you know, controlled the situation. i thought i figured this out. i tried to help anthony in best way as i could even though i was not capable and was not successful doing that. you know, to me, i just didn't understand why nobody had reached out to make this earth shattering revelation, 11 days before the election an unprecedented move. it's not something i'm saying. i mean, others have said in the history the past 70 years, no fbi director had done anything

like this and for me part of the shock, joy, was the fact that i would have gladly cooperated, provided whatever information that i was asked. and i write the story in the book right at the beginning of the campaign when the fbi investigate started and sitting in a conference room with hillary and saying state department aids were asked to provide information and i see my name and no one contacted me. i contacted a lawyer saying okay, i need to provide the information is why the shock at that announcement and obviously the two days before the election the second bombshell which i think helped her opponent even more. >> this is a brilliant book. it's called "both and." you get a copy because it's a truly american story. it's an international story. and it's a well told story. >> thank you. >> thank you so much huma abedin. such an honor.

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it takes a certain kind of person to enter the magaverse, troll its citizens in their natural habitat and live to tell the tale. for comedian jordan cleper, who has covered the maga faithful including during the capitol insurrection, it's a tale about cultish obsession, bonkers conspiracy theories and you guessed it, violence. none of this has stopped clepper from venturing out again to more recent rallies in iowa and north carolina to get the inside scoop on the maga psyche. here's a peek at what he found. >> who is running the government right now? >> president trump. >> he's running the government? >> and the military. >> and he's running the military? so we should blame him for what happened in afghanistan?

>> no. >> i don't co-parent with the government. >> well, you don't want to co-parent with the government, don't get pregnant in texas. >> there we go. >> they're in public school. >> so you do kind of co-parent with the government. >> in that regard i guess, yeah, if you want to say my taxes pay for that, yeah. >> but you're giving back your child tax credit? >> did you vote for school board? >> no. i don't even vote. >> you don't even vote? >> no. >> you could vote for someone who reflects your values. >> i could vote. you're right. yeah. >> but that's a hassle. >> take the time to do it. i'm sorry. >> joining me now is jordan klepper, comedian and contributor to "the daily show" with trevor noah. thank you for being here. i commend you for going out into that magaverse. i couldn't obviously do it because as a black lady i would stand out in a way that would make it uncomfortable for everyone. but you use your ability to walk in there and get them to talk to you, i think for good. and stuff like them saying i don't co-parent with the

government in north carolina when literally the public schools in loco parentis. it would be funny if lauren and boebert and madison cawthorn didn't exist. when you look at those people and talk to them, do you see people who aren't very informed or do you see future members of congress as republicans? >> well, i see people who are perhaps differently informed. everyone i talk to has their own set of sources that they get their information, and more often than not the sources are not the sources that myself or our crew walk into the spaces to discuss these contents with them. so i don't think you talk to anybody out there they're going to see themselves as misinformed. i think they just see themselves as coming from a different knowledge base. and then they meet you head on and yeah, maybe down the road you see those folks in congress. >> i mean, i think it's likely. i think about the tea party people who were thought of the

same way. and everyone laughed at their, you know, signs of, you know, calling president obama a lion african instead of an african lion and they came with monkey dolls, and that kind of person then came like a de rigueur republican candidate. and i feel like the party is moving so far to the right. do you get a sense that whenever you're going from state to state to state that you are meeting sort of the rank-and-file republican base? >> well, it's always hard to get context with this. i speak with the people who are fanatics for whoever the rally is for, predominantly trump rallies or am i meeting basic republicans? i will say this. the last rally i went to was in iowa. trump was at it. and normally when you go to these rallies you get more traditional republicans who might roll their eyes at some of the qanon theories or get frustrated when you push them on the things that the people networks to them are literally wearing on their shirts. this last rally everyone had something on their shirt that we

had to blur. our editor practically went blind the amount of time he spent blurring swear words or derogatory comments toward kamala harris. so what i started to see was that the majority of these people here were buying into the fun of these rallies but more so the conspiracy side of it all. i think once you buy in to the quote unquote big lie and you don't believe the results of the election then you're looking for what's next. what i started to see was that january 6th didn't happen or happened but it was because of the cia or it happened and it was partially because of the fbi or january 6th isn't even a date on the calendar. like once you cross the threshold of reality, you're just getting hungry for more thresholds to cross. >> 100%. look, i was in cleveland at the republican convention and was shocked at seeing people who looked like girl scout leaders and somebody's mom wearing trump can grab my starts with a p shirts and thought that was totally normal and buying them for their moms. for the grandma.

but you talk about january 6th. i want to play a little bit of a video, because this is not funny. this is what you dealt with on january 6th at the capitol. take a look. >> the rioters brought real weapons and committed real atrocities. they attacked our democracy, our police, and even our cameraman. >> hey, you assaulted me. you assaulted me! >> trump's tough guy fake military are literally throwing themselves on the ground to perpetuate victimhood. >> when i think of the fact that was a mix of hairdressers, business owners, members of congress, cops, people of military backgrounds, all mixed in with qanon people, conspiracy theorists, 3 percenters. they were all there. that says to me that we're not just talking about a fringe that is attached to the republican base, that that is the base and that is an insurgency that's inside of a political party. i cannot get away from that because i don't see that those are just some fringe people.

those are regular rank-and-file republicans who were there. does it concern you that what we're sort of laughing at and giggling at in your brilliant videos is a sign of something much darker to come in this country? >> well, i think it's both -- what i saw on january 6th, it's both completely ludicrous and absurd and frightening and depressing at the same time. i mean, what you saw was a man who was dressed in military fatigues, i would guess this is not a military man but somebody who wants to be a military man, that tended to be the people we ran into, throwing themselves on the ground and playing victim. i also interviewed a man on a segway who must have been in his 60s or 70s, attempting to drive up and overthrow the government. it was absurd. and i think you've gotten to the point where the militants and the absurd qanon folks and the people who think this is just a fun tailgate, they all get in the same big old group and when you get in a big old group i

think you see the iq drop, the inhibitions drop when you don't have an adult in the room bad things happen. it gets scary. i do think -- i think if something bad is to happen again, if america is on the threshold of anything dangerous, it's not coming through well-plotted thoughtful overthrows of the government that you would see in a fancy hollywood movie. it's coming from stupidity and dumb actions. i'm not hearing people make coherent arguments. i'm hearing people getting together and they're making dumber arguments than they would alone. >> well, that's how lynch mobs happen, right? what do you make of the fact that there are now people who oppose things like toni morrison books and biographies of reverend dr. martin luther king jr., are now talking about actually burning books. >> well, i will say i don't usually get into too many literary conversations with the folks at trump rallies.

doesn't appear as if those books are important to these folks. not big book club groups. most of them are holding constitutions on the their body. a lot of them reference the bible. although if you push on some of the tenets of the bible you realize still probably not big book club books. so this smacks of racism and trying to control the knowledge base of their -- of our students in america. at its worst and what it probably is and what it seems to me is just the politics game over and over again. it feels like people are consistently engaged in trolling and it just doesn't stop. >> and where are you going next? >> well, we have a little piece. i can't spoil it yet. but there's some place in america where people are misinformed and they're gathering and boy, when that happens i tend to find myself there. >> you just -- you're like batman. there may be like a bat signal

goes up or that's shaped like trump's hair or something and you just show up and do brilliant stuff. jordan klepper. thank you very much, man. thank you for all that you do. >> and that's tonight's "reid out." enjoy your holiday turkey, and msnbc. hi there, everyone. the blockbuster report igniting a new round of questions around the insurrection on january 6th. a massive investigation by more than 25 reporters at the "washington post" who interviewed more than 230 sources and combed thousands of pages of documents and law enforcement reports to produce what will become the definitive report of the january 6th insurrection. the events as they played out before, during, and afternoon the worst attack on our nation's capitol in centuries. their work is now