union during the trump years. she has already credit as the organizer of the political talent who more than anybody else is responsible for having turned georgia blue. stacey abrams has just announced that she is officially in the running to become the next governor of georgia. that again would make georgia. that again would mak that, again, would make her the first female governor of georgia, the first black woman ever elected governor of a u.s.e state. stacey abrams will be joining us here live for an exclusive interview tonight. i am really looking forward to that conversation. if you've been watching the news unfold over the course of s the day today, it's been a little bit like watching a snowball running downhill, getting bigger and bigger and bigger. when we went to bed last night, there was one known case of the omicron variant in the united states. a person in california who had recently traveled to south africa. south africa is where the variant is thought to have originated or at least where it was first detected. public health experts and officials like dr. anthony fauci, they've been warning us

afriiseaas the omicron variant was anywhere, it was likely going to be everywhere very quickly and we should. expect to be able to keep this new variant out. well, sure enough, we went to bed with there being one case in the united states. by the end of the day today it is no longer just the one case in california. it's the case in california, a case in minnesota, a case in colorado. tonight the governor of new york kathy hochul announced there are five known cases in new york. probably since i have been th talking, that list is out of date. there will undoubtedly be more. just like they said it would be. its is definitely here, essentially instantly.ll and depending on how it competes with the delta strain, which is dominant in the united states right now, it may well be that omicron takes over and becomes our new dominant coronavirus tht variant. how will it be different than delta?

i mean, we'll learn the answers to all of these things soon enough.a?we dr. fauci told chris hayes tonight that in perhaps two to three weeks we'll have uc preliminary answers to some of the most important questions. for now, omicron is here. we really don't know any firm answers yet.y they're being worked on but we don't know. how contagious is it for one? how transmissible? also, how well do antibodies of various kinds work or not work against it? i mean, that means antibodies that we get from being vaccinated but also the antibodies we get from having been infected with covid and wee survived it. it's worth noting that when the w.h.o., the world health organization, put out their first international statement about the new omicron variant being detected, they noted explicitly in the first statement that they thought they a high degree of reinfection with the omicron variant.

that means people who had covid before and recovered were nevertheless getting covid again, this new strain of covid, as if it was a whole new thing as if the antibodies they developed against the earlier strain of the virus didn't help them with this one. now, again, that was just an initial observation from w.h.o. we don't really know yet. we also don't know at all if iais variant makes people more n or less sick, more or less likely to be hospitalized, more or less likely potentially to die. we don't know if omicron gives symptoms that are worse or less bad than we've been experiencing with delta already. we don't know if its death rate is worse or better. we just don't know those things yet and we may know those things as dr. fauci said tonight maybe as soon as two to three weeks. but we don't have two to three weeks to wait to do the research to get ready.no soo h i mean, it's here now. and so, you know, shields up once again in terms of the commonsense stuff we know we can do towe try to keep ourselves safe, to try to keep people around us safe. we have to do that again now in the face of yet another round of

worry and uncertainty about how bad this one's going to be. the white house today announced a whole bunch of new stuff they are going to try to do to get ahead of it. some of it is exactly what you'd expect.ol they announced, for example, an extension of the rule that you have to wear a mask on planes and trains and all kinds of public transportation. some cities and counties will presumably move back to mask rules as well if they had ended them before.tr that's logical, given what we know about how coronaviruses are transmitted. the white house announced they'll try to up the availability and affordability o of at-home testing kits. i'll tell you, i used one of these just the other day myself. i felt a little logie and a st little weird and i wanted to be careful and not get anybody elsl sick in case i somehow had gotten covid. so i did one of those at-home tests for the first time. i have to tell you it was kind of cool.

it is not hard to do, but it's like just complex and novel enough that it's like doing a little mr. wizard science project. it's like instead of just writing yourself a note it's like writing yourself a note using an etch a sketch.cottojin it's gadgety and cool. i enjoyed the process myself and i was happy to be able to do it at home.ad the biden administration today announced plans to make those at-home test kits easier to get and they want to make insurance cover the cost of them.n unat on paper that's good in terms of affordability.th of course, in the real world, we all know from real life dealing with insurance for any purpose is always a total pain so hopefully the white house can figure out a way to cut the costs of the test kits in a way that is more direct and easier to deal with rather than havings to get reimbursed for it from your insurance company, but even that is a good start. and it's worth noting. there's a sort of important concept buried in the middle of what the white house announced today, and it's interesting and promising. there's all this worry about omicron and thel numbers going

back up and the hospitals already overwhelmed even before omicron really gets here. there are a lot of reasons to worry, but there is also a vision here. and there's reason to be hopeful, sort of conceptually embedded in what the white house announced today. what i mean by that is i think it is important to see, to recognize, that we're having y,o this new big push from the administration for home testing kits. the at the same time that we're also able to talk for the first time about at-home effective covid h treatment as well. right?en for the first time in these announcements today about preparing for winter and for omicron, the white house was able to talk about making covid antiviral treatment pills more available as well. the merck antiviral pill and the pfizer antiviral pill aren't approved p yet, but they are coming.'t they're in the process of being approved. the white house announced today they are buying millions of

doses of the antiviral pills so they'll be available in large numbers as soon as they are approve. both of those things go together. both are at home.uy the test i did the other day, i just had it on hand. when they first came on the market this summer, susan was at the drugstore one day and saw they had them and picked up a couple boxes so we'd have them if we ever needed them just in case. that was a while ago. they've been sitting in the medicine cabinet since, but sure enough, thisce week i felt kind of, uh, it was good to have. i didn't need to make an appointment and go anywhere. i work weird hours and stay up. i did at 2:30 in the morning when it was convenient for me. had i had to go to an appointment and wait in line and all that stuff i totally would have put it off. but because i had it at home i did it at the kitchen table when it was convenient for me. basically as soon as i felt gross. it took 15 minutes. i kind of enjoyed it. it was fun. then it was done. usitd my result.i pongs ha m now, my test was negative, thank god. but if it had been positive, this is where there is a little hope here.ha

if i had been positive, think about that, how that would go ideally. if as a country we could get all of these pieces of the puzzle in place. right? i mean, first piece, first of all, you're vaccinated, right? you're less likely to get covidb tin in the first place. second of all, if you do get covid if you are vaccinated you're less likely to get really sick. that's good.ou you have those pieces in place first. that is why being vaccinated is good for you, good for your set. family, good for your community, good for your local hospital who hopefully will never have to see you for covid. it is, thereby, good for your country. being vaccinated ticks a lot of the boxes in terms of what you can do for yourself and your people and your country. let's say even with the vaou precautions in place, you start to feel sick. you think those might be covid symptoms you're having. here is the process ideally if we can make all of this work.k o

you're vaccinated, but nevertheless, you think you might be sick. sit down at the kitchen table. take your at-home test. if it is positive, what do you do? p you call the doctor. the doctor gives you a prescription for the antiviral pill.ti well, at least in the case of the pfizer antiviral pill, in clinical trials, that has shown nearly 90% effectiveness at keeping people out of the hospital. to get those amazing results from that drug, you do have to act fast and take the drug early. soon after you're diagnosed before your symptoms get serious. well, that would be a heck of ay lot easier if everybody had a home test kit around where in 15 minutes they could find out if they had covid or not. that would really increase the number of people who caught thes infection quickly right after the onset of moderate symptoms, which is exactly when you want to start your five days of

antivirals. again, at home and not in the hospital.ho u and not after you're already too sick for any of the drugs to actually work on you. i mean, you can see the pieces kind of coming together here, right? if we really did get home tests to everybody, very cheaply or freely, and then people could get these five-day courses of antiviral pills that are nearly 90% effective at keeping you oui lyve of the hospital, if that was the result of you testing positive, call and get a prescription, get your antivirals, well then that is a profile for an american covid epidemic where the hospitals stop getting overrun like they are tonight again in parts of minnesota, parts of michigan, parts of ohio, parts of wisconsin, parts of lots of other states.et a paot i mean, that's a profile for an americaro covid epidemic where stop dying at a rate of a thousand americans a day, which is still where we are right now. 80,000 new infections a day, which is roughly where we are right now. if we were able to get these pieces in place all of which were talked about by the white house today, none of which are magic, these really do seem liks the pieces that need to be in place. they're all rational. they all put our destiny more in our own hands than it has been in the past. they all offer us the prospect a of protecting our health system

so the people who really do need it can get into it and can get good care rather than places being overrun and people being unable to get a bed and unable to get transferred to more advanced levels of care when they need it.rr t these are the pieces that need to fit together. not only the people we're contending with now but particularly if this omicron thing screaming down the tunnel toward us right now turns out t be a bad one, we'll need all these things. testing at home. you do it fast. you do it right away. it is not a pain. you don't put it off. you test as soon as you have anything that you think might be a symptom. hfat if you're positive, what we need access to is treatment. as soon as those treatments are approved, treatments that you could also do at home, quickly, while it's still able to do you some good. and, of course, we need, as we have from the beginning, as much vaccination as possible.

none of that is magic. all of that is all but in our grasp. if omicron is bad, we're really going to need those things. today the white house said 2.2 million americans got a vaccine shot in the last day. 2.2 million shots in a day. that's huge. that is the largest number of shots in a single day in this country since the spring since may.ioe e.si over 2 million americans getting a shot in a single day is a really good sign that, yeah. it shows we're worried. but it also shows for the most part, we get what's going on here. we get what's needed to be done. we understand the rational steps that must be taken to protect ourselves and our country. at least most of the country does. of course, alternatively, instead, you could, you know, dip your baby in landfill mud. maybe that'll work instead. and while you're dipping your baby in landfill mud, why not eat some of that dirt yourself? just ingest a little bit every o day or ingest a lot. try baking it into your cookies.

maybe that's a better idea how to handle this whole problem. magic dirt. what?di this is a real thing that the antivax people are doing now. you are forgiven if you think i'm joking or if you're findinge it hard to keep up with what exactly the antivaccine folks are putting into themselves now. it can be hard to keep up with. there are journalists watching this stuff. we are better off for knowing what they have been able to document.te as unbelievable as some of it is, we have to know that this is what's happening even as most of the country is getting their act together. some of the country really is not, and it seems to be getting worse over there. about two and a half months ago nbc news reported on what reporter ben collins called vigilante treatments being promoted in antivaccine facebook groups where the antivaccine people were going so far as to tell people they should pull their family members out of hospitals. they should pull tricks on hospitals to even pull their

it gravely ill family members out of icu wards to instead bring il them home and treat them with ivermectin and other great ideas you can learn about from sports podcasters and on facebook. quote, some people in groups that formed recently to promotem the false cure of ivermectin, an anti-parasite treatment, have claimed extracting covid patients from hospitals is as pivotal so they can self-medicate at home with ivermectin, but as patients begin to realize ivermectin by itself is not effective, the groups have begun recommending series of increasingly hazardous at-home treatment such as gargling with iodine and inhaling hydrogen peroxide. they are calling it part of a, quote, protocol. the asthma and allergy

foundation of america recently had to put out a warning against nebulizing hydrogen peroxide. it means literally putting it in a freaking inhaler like an asthma inhaler and then -- hydrogen peroxide? really? that reporting was from nbc newa from september.ha what they were talking about ti there by november, there it was, spotted in the wild, vice news reporting on the qanon cult offshoot that sent hundreds of trump supporters to dallas, texas recently where they convinced themselves they were going to wit president kennedy and his son coming back from the dead to be king trump's new vice president or maybe kings don't need vice presidents. he would be vice king or whatever. hest astonishing stuff what cecn happened there with the qanon trump supporters in dallas. it is astonishing. med somewhat, i mean, entertaining, i guess, because it is so crazy, but it is also sad and worrying and in some cases tragic. vice's headline, quote, the qanon jfk cult in dallas is tearing families apart. quote, katy garner's sister left her family behind and drove to dallas about a month ago and has cut off almost all communication with her family. her phone calls and messages ar,

om also being monitored, according to garner, who believes her sister will never return. quote, she left her children for this and doesn't even care. she is missing birthdays and holidays for this. she truly believes this is all real and we are the crazy ones for trying to get her to come home, but she won't, garner said. i don't believe she will ever come back from this. we are in mourning. sth ll according to garner her sister has so far handed over about $200,000 to the group, and she is being forced to drink a hydrogen peroxide solution and to take, quote, biopellets to ward off covid-19. drinking hydrogen peroxide and taking biopellets to ward off covid. i should tell you the qanon jfk death cult folks are now -- their next thing they're predicting forhe dallas is tomorrow, so those folks may all

show themselves again tomorrow at dealey plaza. we'll see. last month nbc news also reported on how antivax folks were also telling each other that they could undo any vaccination they might have had, sharing information online y including with popular tiktok videos about how you can bathe in borax, the cleaning solution. you can put borax in your bathtub, and then you get in your bathtub with it, and the borax will, suck the vaccine o of you through your bath water. it'll also take care of your nanotechnologies and your radiation and stuff. what else? well, now today it is apparently magic dirt.chio new reporting today from nbc news, quote, the social media posts started in may. photos and videos of smiling ot people, mostly women, drinking mason jars of black liquid, slathering black paste on their faces and feet, or dipping babies and dogs in tubs of black water.

they tagged the posts #boo and linked to a website that sold a product called black oxygen organics, marketed as a compound derived from decayed plants that was dug up from an ontario peat bog. the company that sold it built it as an end product and smallest particle of a the decomposition of ancient, organic matter. more simply the product is dirt. 4 1/2 ounces of dirt sealed in a sleek, black baggy and sold for $110 plus shipping.4 quote, online groups are filled with true believers, acolytes who call it magic dirt. they post they are drinking, cooking, snorting, and slathering boo on their bodies and giving it to families, children, and pets. who would have thought drinkingp dirt would make me feel so good, one person said, in a

27,000-member private facebook group. she posted the statement alongside of a photo of her face nuzzling a jar of black liquid. another user posting a photo of a baby sitting in a bathtub of water colored a deep caramel. boo proponents say it protects against and treats covid-19 and can be used to detox the newly vaccinated according to posts viewed by nbc news. she goes on to describe the work of one online activist who noticed on google earth that the bog that sourced the peat for this dirt appeared to share a border with a landfill. that pushed several folks who tt are critics of the whole movement to take matters into their own hands and send bags o this stuff to labs for testing. the results of three of these tests viewed by nbc news and confirmed as seemingly reliable by r two soil scientists at u.s universities showed the dirt contained elevated levels of

lead and arsenic. nbc also arranged for its own expert test of the dirt at a trace element research lab at ohio state. that result also found dangerous levels of lead and arsenic in this dirt that people are eating. tnd and smearing all over their bodies and bathing in. but, sure, dip your baby in it.g and your dog.e, and bake it into your brownies. because you're too health conscious to take the covid vaccine. we are right now gearing up for a whole new fight with a whole new variant.fo and maybe this variant will turh out to be a pussycat. maybe nothing. even if it turns out to be a bad one, we have new and better technology than we did before -- tests and vaccines and treatments. but, you know, it's not all of us. i mean, here is the head of a ei big tv christian ministry this week who hosted anti-vaccine

conspiracy theorists on his christian tv network. he died painfully of covid this week. here is the republican official in michigan, actually one of the two officials who actually did try to block the certification of michigan's votes after the election when he got a call froi president trump encouraging that. in wayne county, michigan, he was loud and proud about the covid and the covid vaccines were a plot by the democrats co just to panic everyone and steal more elections. he died this week after a long stretch on a ventilator.re terrible way to die. we've got all the pieces. they are coming together. you can see the concept of how this could become something manageable, something we could beat, something we could get levels of transmission down low enough that this could be something that feels like history.is you can see how the pieces are coming together, right? we know what we got to do. but at the same time we've got, you know, the republican miat governor of florida hiring the state's surgeon general, one of these quacks who has been

promoting hydroxychloroquine and saying masks don't work and people don't need the vaccine.as that's who's the surgeon general of florida right now, thanks to governor ron desantis, right? i mean, we've got facebook and tiktok and all of these other online engines circulating increasingly insane fake cures and fake preventatives that people are willing to put themselves in incredible dangers to take rather than getting vaccinated. we've got all the pieces we need to put together, and we've also got a part of the country literally eating lead and arsenic laced dirt instead and feeding it to their kids. they are americans too. they are our family members in some cases. they are members of our community. c they are americans too.

they are our compatriots, and we are theirs.ey we cannot give up on them or ignore them. we have to try to understand them and there has to be some way through this. joining us now is nbc news senior reporter who covers misinformation, extremism, and the internet. thank you so much for being here and thanks for this reporting.n >> thanks for having me. >> so am i supposed to call it boo or b-o-o? >> boo. it's called boo. magic dirt. the missing miracle solution. there's a lot of words for it, but it's dirt. >> how big is the movement online that is marketing this not only as a covid cure and covid preventative but as the, you know, the magic mystery dirt you need for all your other ailments?en >> it's tens of thousands of people that are actively involved in selling and purchasing and using boo, even after health canada has recalled it, even after the fda seized it, andei they had to change it

where they had to put "not for human consumption" oven the bag. people in these groups still active on facebook are saying yes you can take it and you can take it in elevated doses and we'll just keep trudging along. there is really, at some point there is just not much more you can do. i mean, i've been covering the antivax world for a decade. what was great for so long was they were wild and they did the same things we're seeing now. the borax is old. the bleach baths are old. this is all old antivax stuff. but they were so small. now the problem is that it is catrll jdo tivaorhey just antivaccination thinking wr aley w and tactics have overwhelmed the country. >> is there an effort as you say, it's become a quantitatively, significantly different thing in terms of the number of people experimenting with this stuff and the way it is spreading.e ti is there any meaningful effort, any useful effort by social media entities to try to throttle this stuff? to throttle the misinformation

about it? >> yeah.t i mean, yes. they try, but they don't really speak the language. so, you know, you can try to put out videos by the w.h.o. or even like supercool ones with the little o cooler influencers, bu it's not going to work because, again, you have a group of people who have been putting their tendrils inside their communities for a long, long time. this covid was their opportunity,as and they've all anti-vaxxers have said it. they viewti this as an opportunity, and they took it.s they are an insurgency. they are embedded in your ptas and school boards and coffee groups and knitting circles, and that is how this message spread. so there is just no way at this point to combat that idea or

movement. it is just hard. >> it's hard when people are talking about dr. oz who is now running for senate in pennsylvania at one point was telling people vitamin c was the way they'd get over covid, right? it is hard when people are telling you that your epsom salt bath is going to unvaccinate in you.he but taking vitamin c and a bath in epsom salt isn't going to hurt you. smearing your baby with arsenic o and lead-laced dirt is -- this is harder to -- this is harder to walk away from. but we have to understand it in order to even try to start to think rationally about it. brandy, thank you for your reporting. i know you spend a lot of time in a lot of dark places to bring us this stuff but you help us understand. thanks. >> thanks, rachel. much more ahead tonight. stay with us. ek dy lks r 24-hour hydration. no parabens, dyes, or fragrances. gold bond. champion your skin.

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10:00 p.m. on december 6th, last year, a woman in cobb county, georgia a suburb of atlanta called 911. >> i've been having terroristic threats. i've been having harassing phone

calls and emails, and they came out and made a police report yesterday, and last night about ten minutes after 9:00, somebody was bamming on the door, and now somebody's bamming on the door again. oh, they screaming. they still bamming on the door. >> okay. >> they still bamming on the door. lord jesus, where's the police? >> they are on the way, ma'am. >> oh, god. >> the woman on the receiving end of those threats, that vitriol, that in-person intimidation was not a public figure. she is a 62-year-old retiree who ran a little boutique business selling fashion accessories, but then president donald trump accused her, her personally by name, of stealing the presidential election from him in georgia. that 911 call is featured in the latest installment of the

incredible ongoing "reuters" series on threats and harassment against election officials and election workers in the wake of the 2020 election. this latest reporting zooms in and tells the story of two specific elections workers, ruby freeman who is the woman you heard on the 911 call, and her daughter. ms. freeman's daughter is an elections worker in metro atlanta in fulton county and asked her mom ruby to sign up as a temp worker to help process ballots on election day. the two of them worked through that day and night with other workers processing ballots at a state farm arena. in the aftermath of the election as president trump and his supporters set to work trying to overturn biden's win in georgia, one of the things they did is they took a clip from the surveillance video that happened to show ruby freeman and her daughter just doing their jobs, not doing anything wrong, but donald trump and his lawyers started telling everybody that

really what you could see happening in that clip if you looked at it right, was you could see ruby freeman and her daughter stealing the election right there on that videotape. trump lawyers showed the video to georgia republican legislators. they gave it to right wing news outlets. they told them what was seen in the video was these two women counting suitcases full of illegal ballots. mr. sean hannity ran with the video clip on fox news and almost immediately a right wing website identified ruby freeman and her daughter by name. president trump himself played the video on a massive jumbotron at a post-election rally in georgia saying it showed these women committing a crime. and then remember that insane phone call in which trump tried to pressure georgia's secretary of state into finding just enough votes to overturn biden's win and declare him the victor? trump used ruby freeman's name in that call 18 times. he called her a professional vote scammer and a hustler. she runs a fashion accessories

business. she's a retiree. she came in as a temp worker. as an election worker. after that call, the head of the elections in fulton county said the harassment of these two women got even worse. quote, and it just kept going. well, now a new lawsuit the women have filed against the right wing website that first publicly identified them in that lawsuit they claim at least on two occasions strangers showed up at the home of one of their relatives and tried to push into the house to make a citizens also, on january 6th, at the same time trump supporters were in d.c. attacking the u.s. capitol, a crowd in suburban atlanta was attacking ruby freeman's house. surrounded her house on foot and vehicles shouting at her through

a bullhorn. by then thankfully ms. freeman herself had fled her house for an undisclosed location. she fled on the advice of the fbi and did not return home for two month. her daughter changed her appearance dramatically and avoided going out in public. ms. freeman closed her business. it's the stuff of nightmares. you're going about your life doing your civic duty and have your whole world turned upsidedown because the president of the united states and his supporters decided you'll be their punching bag, their boogie man in this effort to create a fantasy of a stolen election so he can try to cling to power. in the process fulton county, georgia became what reuters calls, quote, a hotbed of threats against election workers. how do you operate a democracy in this atmosphere of threat? fulton county, georgia is also the place where most democrats are in the state of georgia. if operating an election in fulton county is now a hotbed of threats against people running those elections how do you, i don't know, get out the vote under those conditions? how do you get people to volunteer to work at the polls?

that is the daunting task facing democrats, big d democrats and small d democrats in georgia. if there is one person whose life experience might make her uniquely suited to taking on that task it is probably stacey abrams. georgia voting rights pioneer, the woman who very nearly won georgia's governor race three years ago stacey abrams has just announced she is running for georgia governor again and is here live for her first national tv interview since her announcement, next. stay with us. stay with us make your nights anything but silent. and ride in a sleigh that really slays. because in a cadillac, tradition is yours to define. so visit a cadillac showroom, and start celebrating today. ♪ ♪

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opportunity and success in georgia shouldn't be determined by your zip code, background, or access to power. but if our georgia is going to move to its next and greatest chapter, we're going to need leadership. >> i think you'll make a really good governor. all you got to do is stay tough and stay brave. >> thank you. leadership that knows how to do the job. leadership that doesn't take credit without also taking responsibility. leadership that understands the true pain folks are feeling. and has real plans. that's the job of governor.

to fight for one georgia, our georgia. and now it is time to get the job done. [ chanting stacey ] >> part of the new campaign launch video from stacey abrams who just announced she will mount a second bid for georgia governor next year. stacey abrams narrowly, very narrowly lost the race for governor in 2018 to the guy who holds the job now, republican brian kemp. but two years later in 2020 georgia helped elect a democratic president by going blue for the first time in 28 years. georgia also flipped two u.s. senate seats to hand democrats control of the united states senate. i mean, in georgia it has certainly been a team effort and one of the biggest democratic party electoral success stories of this century. but even though she didn't do it alone, it is inarguably stacey abrams who has laid the

foundation for those victories more than any other person you could say that about. joining us now is the newly announced democratic candidate for governor of georgia, stacey abrams. ms. abrams, it is a real pleasure to have you here tonight. thank you so much for making time. >> thank you for having me. it is always a pleasure. >> people talk about you all the time. your ears must be constantly burning. you knew there was a lot of speculation and a lot of discussion as to whether or not you would mount a second run for governor in georgia or whether there was some other type of office potentially national that you might want to run or some other way you might want to compete. why did you decide that you want to make a second bid for governor? >> because i believe in our state. i believe we have the capacity to be an extraordinary place for families to grow, for people to sick succeed and thrive, and i think we have a failed leader who is currently occupying the office. my mission is service, and to serve people you have to care

about them, about all of them.mo serve people you have to care about them, about all of them. i have shown that in the three years since the last election i've spent my time doing what i can to serve georgia whether that was expanding access to vaccines, paying off 68,000 georgians' medical debt, getting thousands of pounds of food to food banks, helping families keep their incomes high by helping small business. i've tried in every way possible to serve the people of georgia, but the best way to serve people of georgia, in my estimation is to run for governor and do what we can with that job and that is to serve every georgian and create one georgia. >> when you ran in 2018 part of the reason we covered the race so intently is because the candidates are both very interesting people, present company included. but also because there was a disturbing dynamic in that race, which was that your republican opponent who went on to win the

race was secretary of state at the time and was engaged in really aggressive what appeared to be voter suppression tactics including throwing huge numbers of georgians off the voting rolls in a way that seemed to benefit his own candidacy in which he was on the ballot. when you so narrowly lost you famously were contentious about the loss saying he didn't necessarily think it had been a fair fight. stepping back now a few years out of that and seeing what's happened both in georgia and around the country around the issues of fairness in elections, how do you feel about that now looking back at it, and how do you want people to understand how that dynamic affected the race the first time? >> 2018, i'd spent more than a year traveling the state, but i had also spent ten years, 11 years in the state legislature. i had been working on voting rights since i was 17. i had watched. in fact, i had battled with the then secretary of state over his egregious and aggressive voter suppression activities. on the night on the 16th of november when i acknowledged i

would not become governor, that he had won the election, i did not challenge the outcome of the election unlike some recent folks did. what i said was that the system was not fair. and leaders challenge systems. leaders say we can do better. and that's what i declared. i could not in good conscience say in order to protect my political future, i'm going to be silent about the political present, which is that we have a system under a political leader that sought to keep people from casting their ballot that threw the ballots out that said that voter suppression was a viable tactic for winning elections. i am so proud of the work that i have been able to do in the last three years but even more i'm proud of the work georgians have done to demonstrate their capacity to have their voices heard to participate in elections to change their stars, change their futures. and i could not be prouder that i was part of that by saying on november 16, 2018, that my time would be committed to protecting

and ensuring our system, defending our democracy, and ensuring access to the right to vote. >> stacey, i think part of the reason that you've been able -- you became sort of a national figure in ways that didn't necessarily make sense on paper but did make sense as soon as you opened your mouth as soon as people started talking to you, is because of all of those years and years and years and years of organizing, and particularly the voting rights work that you did in georgia. you built a record of both being absolutely committed to issues particularly like voting rights and also being very practical and getting stuff done and having results to show for your work. i feel like at the national level right now you are one of the only people i know who holds both of those mantles. i have work -- i have results to show for my work, and i am

devoted in a lifelong way to voting rights. i think a lot of americans, particularly a lot of center and center left americans, feel very hopeless about the electoral process, about voting rights, about the way the system is being rigged basically to ensure minority rule in lots and lots of different ways. do you feel like there is a practical way forward there? certainly in washington right now it feels incredibly stuck. >> i actually do feel we are making progress and, sadly, because of the dramatization of our politics, we have come to expect these high moments of achievement, but the work is hard, and it's plodding, and it takes time. what we have watched over the last ten months on voting rights has been a shift among those who were not standing with us who are now standing and leading on the issue. we have seen changes made in the language to protect our voters, protect our election workers, protect our democracy. and we are continuing to see progress. i am very bullish on the likelihood that the freedom to vote act and the john lewis voting rights advancement act will pass because we know that

in lieu of their passage what we saw happen across the states this year is going to be redoubled starting in january. when new state legislatures come back and feel the fervor of the insurrection filling their veins again, they're going to continue to pass voter suppression legislation, and congress, especially the u.s. senate, has to understand that action is vital. and we're seeing that play out with the gerrymandering. we're seeing it play out in how election workers are under attack, and we're seeing it play out in conversations on whether we have a real democracy. i have faith in our leaders because i have faith in our people. americans will not fall for the stand -- stand for the fall of our nation and will continue to lift our voices. more importantly we have 50 senators saying time and again they'll put patriotism above partisanship. and my hope is that they'll be joined, and if they aren't joined, at least we'll see action taken because whether or

not people want it done, we know we need action to be taken. >> stacey abrams, newly declared candidate for governor of georgia. this race was a barn burner in every possible way in 2018 this year. i can guarantee it is going to be all that and more. stacey, thank you so much for being here tonight. we look forward to having you back. good luck with the campaign. >> thank you. i ask everyone to go to stacyabrams.com to learn more about our race. >> see, now that's practical. >> thanks, rachel. >> we'll be right back. stay with us. h us

president trump continues to make the same false claims about a stolen election with which he has mislead millions of americans. these are the same claims he knows provoked violence in the past. he has recently suggested that he wants to debate members of this committee. this committee's investigation into the violent assault on our capitol on january 6th is not a game.

when this committee convenes hearings, witnesses will be called to testify under oath. any communications mr. trump has with this committee will be under oath. and if he persists in lying then, he will be accountable under the laws of this great nation and subject to criminal penalties for every false word he speaks. >> the republican vice chair of the january 6th investigation, liz cheney. any communications mr. trump has with this committee will be under oath. if he persists in lying, he will be accountable under the laws of this great nation and be subject to criminal penalties for every false word he speaks. we shall see. i will tell you the -- we told you last night that the january 6th investigation had voted to hold former trump justice

official jeff clark in contempt for refusing to cooperate with the investigation. we also told you he plans to take the fifth amendment when deposed in the committee. in the rules committee they said they will hold off on making that referral to the justice department or not until after clark has his deposition and opportunity to plead the fifth this weekend. we'll tell you one other thing, though, happened at that meeting that was not expected. also announced by liz cheney at that meeting, she said at that meeting, quote, we anticipate next year we'll be conducting multiple weeks of public hearings, setting up for the america people in vivid color exactly what happened. multiple weeks of public hearings in the january 6th investigation next year. multiple weeks. really? 2022 is getting more interesting already. watch this space. pace

all right. that is going to do it for us tonight. we'll see you again tomorrow. "way too early" is up next. ♪♪ president biden announces new action against covid as cases of the new variant begin to spread across the u.s. the question is whether the president's plan will keep america safe. plus, congress averts a government shutdown after a chaotic day on capitol hill. the question, what about the other must-pass items still on his agenda like the debt creeling. >> and alec baldwin in hit first sitdown interview since the deadly shooting on the set of "rust." the question remains, who is responsible for this tragedy? it's "way too early" for this. ♪♪