untenable and the future is more uncertain than ever and that should alarm us all. that is all the time i have for today. i am alyssa menendez and will see you back here next weekend 6:00 p.m. eastern for more "american voices" but for now i hand it over to mehdi hasan. hi, mehdi. >> hey, alyssa. well said. we live in a country where you have a party that is pro life but not pro life in schools and pro family isn't pro family leave. it is all very weird and kind of orwellian. i am glad you raised that. >> i'm excited to hear what you have to say about it tonight. >> i've been away so i'm glad to be back. have a great rest of your sunday. >> you, too. tonight on "the mehdi hasan show" the omicron variant is popping up in states across the country so why are we not taking more action to mandate vaccines? i'll discuss the threat with the special adviser to the director general of the world health organization. plus how do we build a coalition to save democracy and

prevent trumpian authoritarianism? how do left and right come together and what compromises need to be made? i'll discuss and debate with never trumper author tom nichols. the chinese communist party's choreographed response to doubles tennis star peng shuai's sexual assault allegations. they may have back fired. we'll take a look at how she is igniting a new spark in china's me too movement. welcome to the show. ten days ago no one had ever heard of omicron. tonight the new covid variant is very much here in the united states. it is now being detected in at least 16 states across the country. some early data suggests the omicron variant might be more contagious than the delta variant. it so far reached 38 countries across the globe. here is the cdc director dr. rochelle walensky with what we know so far. >> we know it has many mutations, more mutations than

prior variants. and many of the mutations have been associated with more transmissible variants, with evasion of some of our therapeutics, and potentially invasion of -- evasion of some of our immunity. that is what we're watching really carefully. >> researchers believe it shares genetic code with the common cold which makes it more transmissible. however, initial data suggests although it is easier to catch you might not get as sick. but look, we just don't know for sure. still, world leaders aren't taking any chances, opting for a grab bag of do it yourself measures to try and stop the spread and save face. our own president is among them. >> we're going to fight this variant with science and speed, not chaos and confusion. just like we beat back covid-19 in the spring, a more powerful variant, delta, in the summer and fall. >> hold on mr. president. yes the numbers are down from summer but we are still taking a beating from delta.

we were still taking that even before we got to omicron. take a look at the numbers. hospitalizations and deaths from covid-19 are now increasing in the u.s. again. the seven day average sitting at 100,000 new cases, that is before omicron. yet you have a republican party working around the clock trying to block every possible safety measure to protect our citizens from covid whether the delta or omicron versions. the gop in fact is effectively pro covid from the federal to the state level and everywhere in between. in florida governor ron desantis is leading the charge signing antivaccine mandate laws. biden's nationwide vaccination mandates for workers are being held hostage by the courts by trump appointed judges. just this week gop defenders introduced an amendment to prohibit the defense department from penalizing unvaccinated national guard members. and all of this, remember, in the name of the republican

party's endless fight for freedom and liberty. i mean, the sheer hypocrisy of those words. to be clear, when 3,000 people were killed 20 years ago on 9/11 the republicans didn't give a damn about freedom and liberty. they cracked down on our liberties supposedly to save lives. at the height of this pandemic in february we lost 5,000 lives in a single day. on average right now, we're still losing 3,000 americans to covid twice a week. oh, no. this time it's all about freedom and liberty. this time we can't even accept the mildest of safety measures. we're not asking for americans to be surveilled or detained without trial. we're asking them to wear a mask and get vaccinated and i for one am not going to take lectures about liberty and freedom from the party that implemented the patriot act and sent people to guantanamo bay the same people who think today mandating a shot in the arm after 780,000

americans have been killed by a virus is somehow totalitarian. the great irony is the measures announced by joe biden in recent days to fight covid and specifically omicron are not tough enough. they're pretty mild by international standards. some might say too little too late. in europe by contrast multiple governments have announced tough new measures to tackle the growing wave of winter covid cases. austria has reimposed lockdown restrictions closing restaurants, hotels, bars, and museums until at least december 11th. germany has said people who aren't vaccinated cannot enter businesses, restaurants, cinemas and have basically implemented a complete nationwide lockdown for the unvaccinated while the uk has announced mandatory testing and isolation to all arivals to the country. joe biden says the white house is planning on pressuring insurance companies to reimburse americans for rapid at-home tests. rapid tests which have been readily available for free for many months now in a bunch of european countries including the uk.

one expert embarrassingly calling the u.s. a, quote, international outlier when it comes to rapid tests. i just don't get it. we are more than a year and a half and more than 3/4 million teths into this pandemic here in the united states and still not taking it seriously enough. still not doing what needs to be done. still coddling the antivaxxers. we should be escalating not de-escalating vaccine mandates. i mean, why on earth do we still not have a federal vaccine mandate for all domestic flights? why? here is what the director of the national institutes of health had when asked about it on "meet the press" this morning. >> if you tried to impose those kinds of restrictions on domestic air travel it would be extremely onerous for people trying to get around the country for things like holidays and i don't know how much we'd gain by it. >> onerous? who cares if it is onerous? are we really saying trying to protect the lives of thousands

of americans who will die from this virus in the coming weeks and months is less important than inconveniencing people at airports by asking them to show a vaccine card before they board their domestic flight? god forbid adding an extra few minutes to people's christmas travel time in the midst of a global pandemic. remember, it is a global financed. what we do here affects everyone else around the world and vice versa. in a global pandemic, no one is safe until everyone is safe. so who better to talk about omicron and the future of this pandemic with than dr. peter singer a special adviser to the director general of the w.h.o.? thanks so much for coming on the show tonight. what can you tell us as of tonight? what does w.h.o. know about omicron, virile ens, transmissibility, how worried are you? >> thank you for having me on the show, mehdi. just over a week ago the w.h.o. designated omicron a variant of concern because we were

concerned. what we've learned in the meantime is on transmissibility, this does transmit quite efficiently. omicron transmits quite efficiently. it's in more than 40 countries. it's still not completely -- on clinical severity there is a glimmer of hope that some of the early reports are mild disease but this is a little bit like the fog of war where the early reports may be unreliable so we really have to see how that unfolds. mild disease can turn into severe disease. and on vaccine effectiveness it is really too early to tell whether the existing vaccine will have diminished effectiveness so our overall message for people and governments is be prudent and raise your guard while these answers are being worked out. >> dr. singer, when will we know if the vaccines and other

treatments we have, whether they work against omicron? how soon do you think? >> days to weeks. the answers are coming in on a rolling basis. we already know quite a bit more than we knew nine days ago. regularly we get more information as the world health organization works with scientists around the world. >> as i mentioned this variant is now in at least 38 countries and yet we're seeing countries blocking people traveling from countries like south africa and a number of other african nations. have a listen to what dr. anthony fauci had to say when i asked earlier this week about the u.s. travel ban on some of the african countries. >> we didn't have any idea what we were dealing with here and because of that it was necessary to do something i hope that this ban does not last very long at all. >> do you believe what world leaders have done, what the u.s. has done by picking on african countries but not other countries that have omicron, do you believe it is basically racist? >> listen, on travel that is a

call for governments but what the w.h.o. advises is know risk based and time limited. we are advising in the context of omicron travel measures and orders so surveillance, testing, quarantine, etcetera. and on an equal basis proportionate to the risk we are not advising blanket travel bans and so even today the director general was tweeting about his disappointment about some of these blanket travel bans. >> you mentioned your boss the world health organization director general. he warned earlier this year of a vaccine apartheid around 74% of vaccine administered have gone to high and middle income countries while less than 1% have gone to the lowest income countries. do you believe this vaccine apartheid is what helped lead to the new omicron variant that if we had greater vaccine equity earlier we'd have fewer variants threatening us today? >> omicron is a wakeup call and,

mehdi, it is not as though we needed another one. let me be really plain about this. one of the best ways to keep americans or citizens of any country safe is to vaccinate the world. so it is a moral failure that 60 to 70% plus of people in high income countries are fully vaccinated compared to 7% in africa. anyone who loves justice would say that is a moral failure. but it is also self-defeating. because those low vaccination rates are a breeding ground for variants and it would be far better to prevent the next omicron, which by the way is i in the greek alphabet than to be scrambling around in response to it. we set targets of every country vaccinating 40% of their population by the end of 2021 and 70% by mid 2022. for goodness' sake let's all come together and meet those targets. this is a five-alarm blaze

around the world. we haven't sent out enough fire trucks. >> i couldn't agree more. the world health organization has received a lot of flack for poor messaging during this pandemic. your organization was late to the game on recommending masks. the w.h.o. was also adamantly opposed to admitting covid was airborne even as over 200 of the world's top scientists wrote to you to say it was. one scientist said it has eroded trust in your organization and in science more broadly at that moment. the w.h.o. only changed its guidance in april of this year and in fact shockingly, dr. singer, this tweet, is still present on the w.h.o. twitter account. it reads, fact, covid-19 is not airborne. we now know without question that is wrong. so why is the w.h.o. still putting out false information, misinformation on its twitter feed? shouldn't that be corrected, taken down? >> well, mehdi, firstly, i think

we all have a lot to learn in this pandemic. there is no shortage of external reviews of w.h.o. we have 300 recommendations and we're a learning organization. on some of your specific issues, i think the organization has been and dr. tedros has been the voice of moral clarity on many issues. on airborne issues specifically our chief scientist has said that covid is airborne and also we put the emphasis on the actual measures. it is very rare that you hear someone talking about what individuals can do without saying outdoors is safer than indoors, ventilation is important. >> agreed. so why is that tweet still up, dr. singer? why not take it down? it is completely inaccurate. w.h.o. now accepts blatantly that covid is airborne and you need to wear masks and worry less about surfaces. that tweet is still up. >> you know, there's always a

debate about historical tweets. our message is very clear. there is a lot that individuals can do. for goodness' sake if you're not vaccinated please get vaccinated because it could save your life. outdoors is safer than indoors. know in a well ventilated space. ventilation really matters. wear a mask. and use physical distancing. and as i said earlier, mehdi, people should be raising their guard in response to covid. there is a lot people can do. i think we are very clear about that message. >> last quick question, we're out of time, on the subject of misinformation when i look at a place like south africa where actually supply of vaccines out strips demand because a lot of south africans don't want to get vaccinated because of what they read on social media. how worried is your organization about the role of facebook, mark zuckerberg, misinformation when it comes to public health? >> misinformation kills, mehdi.

let me be very clear about that. we have put out through the pandemic reliable health information through tech channels, all kinds of channels, media, to billions of people and reliable information is extremely important. if there is one message i would like to leave with, it is that we are all going to need to work more closely together to vaccinate the world and not only vaccinate the world but also ensure that we end this pandemic as tedros said, the ending of the pandemic is not a matter of chance. it is a matter of choice. it's up to us. >> yes. >> about working together. >> yes indeed. >> last week the governments of the world came together and embarked on a process for a pandemic convention which does show that there is some solidarity to tackle this together. >> we're out of time but i am glad we can end on an optimistic note. dr. peter singer, appreciate you taking time tonight and taking

my questions. >> thank you very much. still ahead, he sees you when you're sleeping and he knows when you're awake. he knows if you've been bad or good so put down the guns for goodness' sake. plus, when we come back, building and maintaining a coalition against antidemocracy candidates and trump is the number one priority heading into the midterms. never trumper tom nichols thinks he knows the way to keep the coalition together. he joins me next to discuss and we may disagree. [coughing] ♪ birds flyin' high, you know how i feel. ♪ ♪ breeze driftin' on by... ♪ if you've been playing down your copd,... ♪ it's a new dawn, it's a new day,... ♪ ...it's time to make a stand. start a new day with trelegy. ♪...and i'm feelin' good. ♪ no once-daily copd medicine... has the power to treat copd in as many ways as trelegy. with three medicines in one inhaler, trelegy helps people breathe easier and improves lung function. it also helps prevent future flare-ups.

trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. do not take trelegy more than prescribed. trelegy may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis. call your doctor if worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain occur. take a stand and start a new day with trelegy. ask your doctor about once-daily trelegy, and save at trelegy.com. new vicks convenience pack. ask your doctor about once-daily trelegy, dayquil severe for you... and daily vicks super c for me. vicks super c is a daily supplement with vitamin c and b vitamins to help energize and replenish. dayquil severe is a max strength daytime, coughing, power through your day, medicine. new from vicks. (vo) t-mobile for business helps small business owners prosper during their most important time of year. when you switch and bring your own device, we'll pay off your phone up to $1000. you can keep your phone and keep your number. visit your local t-mobile store today. (vo) for fourteen years, subaru and our retailers have been sharing

the love with those who need it most. you can keep your phone and keep your number. 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. the xfinity black friday sales event is happening now on xfinity mobile. now new and existing customers can get our best wireless deal of the year - up to $1,000 in savings - for a limited time only. on the most reliable network nationwide, plus nationwide 5g. act now and save up to $1,000 with xfinity mobile. so you can go all out on gifts for the family - during our best wireless deal of the year... the xfinity black friday sales event. click, call or visit a store today.

when we started our business we were paying an arm and a leg for postage. i remember setting up shipstation. one or two clicks and everything was up and running. i was printing out labels and saving money. shipstation saves us so much time. it makes it really easy and seamless. pick an order, print everything you need, slap the label onto the box, and it's ready to go. our costs for shipping were cut in half. just like that. shipstation. the #1 choice of online sellers. go to shipstation.com/try and get 2 months free.

in case you need another reminder that fascists now feel emboldened here in america look no further than washington, d.c. where this weekend a group of white supremacists who call themselves the patriot front marched on the lincoln memorial. they held american flags, carried plastic shields, and chanted about their plans to, quote, reclaim america. hum. wonder who from.

of course there is nothing patriotic about them but it is yet another example facism is literally on the march aided and abetted by the anti-democratic authoritarians of the modern gop. in wisconsin this week the conservative majority of the state supreme court approved the gerrymandered maps drawn by local republicans which could solidify gop control, minority rule in fact, in that state for the next decade. it is just part of a nationwide effort by state republicans to secure control of legislatures ahead of the 2022 midterms even without winning a majority of the vote. this is the backdrop against which donald trump could run again in 2024. it is an environment that would make his efforts at election sub version much easier. there remains a broad coalition of voters opposed to trump and still in favor of small "d" democracy ranging from more progressive types like myself to never trump conservatives like my next guest. how do you keep that coalition together when there remains so much that we all disagree on. i'm joined now by author,

academic, and ex-republican tom nichols and he can correct me if i'm wrong here who seems to believe liberals in the left need to stop being so woke and obsessed with race issues if they want to keep anticonservatives on board and trump out of office. thank you for coming on the show. a few weeks ago when i interviewed kimberly crenshaw on the show you tweeted about that interview suggesting it didn't clear anything up and was making an anti-trump coalition more difficult. i happen to think dr. crenshaw did a great job explaining how the whole crt panic is really a front for old fashioned antiblack racism on the right. i have to ask you tom are you saying conservatives won't join a coalition with liberals to save democracy if liberals don't stop talking about racism? >> well, thanks for having me, mehdi. first of all i think that is the wrong question. the question isn't whether never trump conservatives like me are going to join you. it is implied in never trump.

never means never. i am in the tent. i'm staying. i'm not going anywhere. that is the easy call. the objection i keep raising is that if you're trying to build a coalition of ordinary voters who are not, no matter whether you think they should or not, are not going to sit through a graduate seminar in race and gender who are not as plugged in every day to the political discourse the way people like you and i might be you are going to lose elections. and the key here is to keep together a broad coalition of people by staying focused on the most important thing that's happening in the country which is the constitution of the united states is under direct threat from an authoritarian movement that will overthrow democracy in this country if we don't keep voting together, linking arms and voting together. >> i understand that point. i agree with you of course. what i don't get is how do you talk about that threat without

talking about race and gender. they seem very much part of that threat. to talk about the rise of trump or authoritarianism on the right and not talk about the white lash, not talk about the racial resentment of trump voters seems a bit bizarre. >> it is one thing to talk about tan say look, these people are racist. they are as you pointed out they want to take back the country. from whom we can all wonder. it is not that you have to avoid that kind of discussion. it is that you have to avoid turning it into the only discussion. and i think for example one of the gongs i keep banging over and over again is vote in local and state elections. this is something where i think my new friends on the left have just been -- when i was a republican we counted on democrats not to show up for city and regional and state elections. if you are worried about things

like gerrymandering or voter suppression or the thing i am most worried about which is state legislatures saying we don't care how anybody voted we'll simply send electors that are going to do what we want to do then you have to show up for those elections and you have to get people interested in this beyond this constant discussion about race that i think eventually makes people tone deaf to the threat to democracy. >> isn't the problem though that even if i were to accept your point that liberals are obsessed with talking about race and everything else which i don't accept but let's say i did isn't the reality it is not being driven by one part of the agenda, democrats as you know having an argument about something called poplarism, a lot of people in the party saying stay away from the divisive issues that help the republicans get people inflamed, focus on pocketbook issues, kitchen table issues. the problem with the argument is it imagines a world without fox news or a republican media machine that makes these issues

central to our lives. when you say race and racism, critical race theory, it wasn't liberals and democrats who ran around saying we need to talk about critical race theory. it was glenn youngkin in virginia, fox news all day long. it is not as if the right your former friends in the republican party are going to let us not talk about it. >> two things. we probably agree more than we disagree and when it comes to something like fox that could find racism on the back of a tube of toothpaste, i think we absolutely agree. the problem is that people on the left keep taking the bait and they say, well actually, crt is about this. and actually, it is -- you know, there comes a time to say, this is simply not true and we're not -- remember the old adage when you are explaining you're losing. you brought up the segment a couple weeks ago you and i sort of fenced about a bit on social media. if you are rebuilding the from uks in new york, get the credit

for it. make the case for it. tell new yorkers that you're going to make their lives better. you don't need to have a long discussion about robert moses and racism in new york in 1958. you just don't. it drowns out the message. i think the one person in the democratic party who has really been on message better than anybody is the president of the united states. the problem is that the people around him in his party keep drowning out his own message. the president just passed one of the most important infrastructure bills in america, recent american history and he just can't rise above a lot of the background noise. i agree we are not living in a world without fox news. >> to push back a little bit i would point out joe biden also turned out a huge number of black voters because he promised to take action on things like structural racism and structural issues the right don't want to hear about >> i disagree. i think joe biden turned out a lot of black voters because they knew he was the guy that was going to beat donald trump and

they were going to be better off with joe biden in south carolina >> i think again we might be agreeing more than disagreeing. i don't think it is either/or. one issue i have with never trump conservatives is this is a group that talks a good game on saving democracy but when it comes to actual legislation to ensure election rights and prevent gerrymandering a lot of you are awol. mitt romney refuses to back the freedom to vote act. i can't find a single tweet from you referencing those two crucial bills. >> actually if you check further back on twitter i've been tearing my hair out about democrats forming circular firing squads when they ought to be absolutely using their majority to ram through action on things like voting rights and i've even come around on issues like the filibuster which i think now is just a destructive to american democracy because of the way it's been deployed by

republicans. >> so you support those two bills -- the john lewis voting rights act and freedom to vote act. >> of course. one thing i say about keeping this coalition together is we have to start arguing about policy across the board. there are going to be conservative members of congress who are remarkably conservatives and not going to go in step with democrats. >> i'm not asking about tax cuts here. this is fundamental for what you and i say we care about >> i agree. >> kinzinger and cheney don't support that >> i think it has to get done. i'm sorry they don't. i also think the democrats are the party in power and they need to focus on getting this done. you can't keep pointing at liz cheney and adam kinzinger and saying but for two republicans somehow we would get this done. the democrats need to make this a focus and get their messaging and party in order. >> agreed. >> and get this thing passed instead of pointing at liz cheney.

>> we a hundred percent agree on democratic inaction. ten seconds left. would you agree the former coalition both sides have to make compromises? i feel like it is always a one way street conservatives saying you need to be nice to us otherwise we won't join with you. >> of course. as a never trumper now part of the democratic coalition i've said point blank for five years, i am not going to fight with democrats about policy. in some ways i think i am better democrat than most democrats because at this point i'm a party line democratic voter for the sake of saving the constitution because right now the democrats are the only party who can do that. >> tom nichols, fascinating conversation. thank you for joining me tonight. still ahead, republicans love obsessing over the war on christmas but one heavily armed congressman is taking that fight a little too literally for my liking. i'll explain in tonight's 60-second rant. first richard lui is here with the headlines. >> good evening. some of the stories we're

watching former senator bob dole died today at the age of 98 and led senate republicans for more than a decade with two runs as majority leader. the 1996 republican presidential nominee was one of the most prominent political figures of the 20th century. today president biden called dole an american statesman like few in our history. a war hero. and among the greatest of the greatest generation. violent clashes erupted between police and demonstrators in brussels, belgium today. tear gas and water can ons were deployed against massive crowds that formed a rally against new covid restrictions imposed by the new government. indonesian officials just increased those killed to 14 from a volcanic eruption. yesterday the count was one person. the number could still escalate as rescue workers continue to search for survivors buried under mounds of ash and debris. more of the mehdi hasan show right after this break. the p, holiday shopping at amazon. so now, they're free to become...

the party peñas. they see your ugly sweaters, and raise you some mittens. bye mom. my helpers abound, i'll need you today. our sleigh is now ready, let's get on our way.

a mountain of toys to fulfill many wishes. must be carried across all roads and all bridges. and when everyone is smiling and having their fun i can turn my sleigh north because my job here is done. it's not magic that makes more holiday deliveries to homes in the us than anyone else, it's the hardworking people of the united states postal service.

welcome back. it is time now for what i call the 60-second rant. right wing republican congressman thomas massey chose to post this christmas picture of his family posing together smiling together with an assortment of guns of what looks like machine guns, semiautomatic weaponry and with the caption merry christmas, ps santa please bring ammo. hilarious. actually sick on so many levels. a true pictorial reflection of how broken and sociopathic the modern american right is. the glorification of violence and weapons of war in a christmas picture. you really think jesus the totally nonviolent unarmed prince of peace guy love your enemies guy wants you to celebrate his birthday with guns and ammo really? worst of all the congressman posted this picture four days after the michigan shooting which massey said nothing about on twitter not a word and before the kids are even buried you think their families are chuckling at the massey family christmas photo? will they be able to celebrate the holiday with their kids? no. those kids are gone.

they're dead. because of the ridiculous gun culture and gun laws that republicans like thomas massey proudly support. from his fellow kentucky congressman to everyone in kentucky, an insensitive -- still ahead peng shuai igniting a new spark in china's me too movement. did you know the mehdi hasan show is available as a podcast? listen on the go any time for free wherever you get your podcasts. wherever you get your podcasts (tiger) this is the dimension of imagination. ♪ ♪

the new sensodyne repair and protect with deep repair has the science to show that the toothpaste goes deep inside the exposed dentin to help repair sensitive teeth. my patients are able to have that quality of life back. i recommend sensodyne repair and protect with deep repair.

♪ my songs know what you did in the dark ♪ ♪ so light 'em up, up, up light 'em up, up, up ♪ ♪ light 'em up, up, up ♪ ♪ i'm on fire ♪ ♪ so light 'em up, up, up light 'em... ♪ imagine for a moment that say serena williams suddenly went missing for weeks without a trace and then the u.s. government claimed she was totally fine and to prove it they released an image of the star in what looks like suspiciously like a proof of life hostage photo. it would raise quite a few questions would it not? that is basically what happened to china's top tennis star peng shuai who has been missing from

public life for morning a month after she accused a top communist party leader of sexual assault. an e-mail purportedly from peng was released by chinese state media several weeks later claiming everything is fine. state media then distributed images of peng attending a youth tournament in beijing on november 20th. neither the images nor e-mail could be independently verified. concern over peng's safety has been building and this week reached a breaking point. on wednesday the women's tennis association announced a suspension of all tournaments in china. the communist party's response to peng's accusations seem to have back fired spectacularly. and the fascinating piece in the "new york times" suggests they could even be fueling a feminist movement in that authoritarian country. joining me now is the author of the op-ed. thanks so much for coming on the show tonight. in your piece you write, quote, the upper echelons of the chinese communist party have been largely impenetrable to scandal and enjoyed relative respect from much of the

population but ms. peng's allegations raise a specter that not all is well within the elite ranks and maybe she is not alone. more women could speak up. floodgates could open, and the party can't have that. why is this case so different? do you really believe it poses some kind of potential existential threat to the chinese communist party? >> well, yes. thank you so much for having me first of all. so i write about this feminist movement that has been going on in china for quite a few years already actually and the me too movement has gone on for several years as well. which is extraordinary given how tightly the internet and media are controlled in china. what makes this particular case of peng shuai just so explosive is first of all she is very famous in china, a famous figure, and her lengthy accusation against a senior communist party official was up

for almost half an hour. so i think several million people at least saw it. and then she is accusing one of the most powerful men in china of sexual assault and we never hear about these senior leaders in the commune party ever. we don't know anything about them. those two, the two people involved alone make this a bombshell. >> yes. you have the reaction now internationally to this bombshell as you rightly put it. wta was applauded for their strong move in boycotting china. other organizations and figures have been far less courageous when it comes to confronting the ccp. the billionaire investor reportedly has billions invested in china. when confronted about the country's human rights abuses on cnbc this past week he said this. >> as a top down country what they're doing is it is that kind of like strict parent. they behave like a strict

parent. >> for that, he was rightly criticized by none other than mitt romney who said his famed ignorance was a sad moral lapse. you have disney afraid of confronting china. they have an episode of the simpsons i believe that refers to the tiananmen square massacre now reportedly missing from disney's streaming service in hong kong. what do you make of the impact of the american investors and corporations seemingly bowing down to china at a major moment like this? >> so this is very typical. for many years now major corporations have all silenced themselves, they are extremely reluctant to say anything remotely critical of beijing. that, sadly, is typical, which is what makes the stance of the women's tennis association really extraordinary in its

principled opposition to beijing and the fact that the wta is going to pull out all of its tennis tournaments. i mean it stands to lose millions of dollars. unfortunately, that is unusual. but it does add a lot of pressure on beijing and i would also add the fact that there are quite a few famous athletes not just tennis stars who have tweeted with the #whereispengshuai demanding the chinese government produce evidence where she is. >> one last quick question on that. everyone has been drawn to this famous tennis player understandably but you have china accused of committing crimes against humanity and possibly genocide even against the uighur population, millions of uighurs reportedly missing and a journalist had an interesting tweet this week in which he said, wait, you'll boycott china over one missing tennis star but not 3 million missing uighur muslims. i wonder what your reaction is to that the way in which we as

an international community the rest of the world react to certain cases but not others? >> yes, i mean, i think that it is natural to be drawn to the story of one human being. that is just the way our media works. so, i mean, i think that this is about much more than just one tennis player. it is a moment. peng shuai herself was probably molded by the women's rights climate, the fact that the me too movement has gained momentum in china with a lot of discussion of feminist issues in recent years. without that climate she, herself, wouldn't have posted her accusation, i think. and i say that this moment is kind of like in 2015 when the chinese government jailed five

feminist activists who were completely unknown and then there was a lot of international outcry over their case as well. i think whatever it takes to shine a spotlight on human rights abuses in china. >> it is a very fair and good argument. appreciate you taking time out tonight. >> thanks so much for having me. when we come back, pinch me. i must be dreaming because senator sinema actually sat down for a national tv interview this week. but i have a few followup questions of my own. that's next. don't go away. (vo) subaru and our retailers believe in giving back. that's why, in difficult times, we provided one hundred and fifty million meals to feeding america. and now through the subaru share the love event, we're helping even more. by the end of this year, subaru will have donated over two hundred and twenty five million dollars to charity.

this is what it means to be more than a car company. this is what it means to be subaru. such tree-mendous views. thisi'm at a moss for words.more than a car company. when a cough tries to steal dad's punchlines, he takes robitussin naturals powered by 100% drug-free ingredients. are you gonna leaf me hanging? soothe your cough naturally. to be a thriver with metastatic breast cancer means asking for what we want, and need... and we need more time. so, we want kisqali. living longer is possible

and proven with kisqali when taken with a nonsteroidal aromatase inhibitor in premenopausal women with hr+, her2- metastatic breast cancer. kisqali is a pill that's significantly more effective at delaying disease progression versus a nonsteroidal aromatase inhibitor alone. kisqali can cause lung problems or an abnormal heartbeat, which can lead to death. it can cause serious skin reactions, liver problems, and low white blood cell counts that may result in severe infections. tell your doctor right away if you have new or worsening symptoms, including breathing problems, cough, chest pain, a change in your heartbeat, dizziness, yellowing of the skin or eyes, dark urine, tiredness, loss of appetite, abdomen pain, bleeding, bruising, fever, chills, or other symptoms of an infection, a severe or worsening rash, are or plan to become pregnant, or breastfeeding. avoid grapefruit during treatment. kisqali is not approved for use with tamoxifen. ask your doctor about living longer with kisqali.

(vo) t-mobile for business helps small business owners prosper during their most important time of year. when you switch and bring your own device, we'll pay off your phone up to $1000. you can keep your phone and keep your number. visit your local t-mobile store today. - [narrator] every three minutes, a child is born with a cleft condition. you can keep your phone and keep your number. without surgery, some will die. those who do survive face extreme challenges. operation smile works to heal children born with cleft conditions. we need you. there are still millions in dire need of healing. go to operationsmile.org today and become a monthly supporter, or call.

(gentle music) on thursday, something very, very rare happened. arizona's senior democratic senator, kyrsten sinema sat down for a national tv interview and since she's certainly not doing this show anytime soon, i thought i'd take a few moments to pitch some of the follow-up

questions i'd ask her if i'd been confronted with some of her, let's say disingenuous answers. ready the receipts and roll the tape. >> what i really want to focus on is get to a solution and solve is a problem that matters to folks in arizona. >> now, senator sinema, is that really what you're concerned about, why you left the negotiations not to speak to constituents but attend a high corporate fund raiser, from cryptocurrency regulation, seem to reflect the interests not to the everyday folks of arizona but to your corporate donors? >> serving the exact way i campaigned on over the last decade i served in washington d.c. and when i ran for united states senate in 2020 i told the folks what i would do. >> senator if serving exactly as

you did for a decade, how come in 2018 you said raising minimum wage was quote, a no brainer, but you did this instead when offered with the opportunity. >> i would not promise on something i can't deliver, i think it's not responsible for elected leaders to do that. >> not deliver? are you kidding, you were promised the house and senate majority, so the only reason not to come forth on that agenda is because of you. >> you should just be honest, that's something my parents taught me when i was very young and it stuck. >> can i just ask senator, is it honest to say you support the john lewis voting rights act, a critical legislation and part of american democracy and honoring the man you call a deer friend when you block its passage through the senate blocking any form of filibuster, is that you

really being straight with the american people? >> i'm really up front when i talk to fronts about what i believe in, what i can and can't support. >> senator, how often do you even talk to folks in arizona? why are you so averse to holding town halls in your home state, to meeting with the activists who knocked on doors to get you elected, who knocked on constituents in the street as is their right and how can arizona folks be sure the senator believes in them when pulling teeth is easier than getting an interview with you. still, senator sinema, the door is open to you on this show if you would like to answer any of my questions that is on your stance on voting rights, support of the filibuster and big corporate donors. see you soon, senator. coming up, top of the hour, joining aymon to discuss what house democrats to to avoid inflation to supply chain crisis reductions, don't miss it,

9:00 p.m. eastern. don't go away. at least my shoes look good! looking good start with bounce wrinkleguard, the megasheet designed to prevent wrinkles in the dryer. (kate) this holiday, verizon has the deal that gets better and better and better. get iphone 13 pro, on us, when you trade in your old or damaged phone. better? (guy) better. (kate) hey. and up to $1,000 when you switch. (carolers) [singing] betttttter. because everyone deserves better. ♪ ♪ 'tis the season to break tradition in a cadillac. don't just put on a light show—be the light show. 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. ♪ ♪ - grammarly business turned my marketing team into rock stars. (diana strums guitar) maya swears by grammarly business because it keeps her work on brand and error-free. fast and easy. - [announcer] learn more at grammarly.com/business. why give your family just ordinary eggs when they can enjoy the best? eggland's best. the only eggs with more fresh and delicious taste. plus, superior nutrition. which is now more important than ever. ♪♪

♪ ♪ which is now more important than ever. just two pills for all day pain relief. aleve it, and see what's possible. and also try alevex topical pain relief.

thank you for watching, we'll be right back here next sunday at 8:00 p.m. eastern and you can catch me monday through thursday at 7:00 p.m. eastern on the choice of nbc's streaming channel, peacock now to hand it over to ayman but before we go, have you seen the business card

of congressmen, if the photo wasn't enough, he added to the tweet merry christmas santa, bring more ammo. >> listen, i saw your commentary on that earlier. i couldn't agree with you more, it's insensitive, it's sick, it completely goes against everything this holiday and the prince of peace represents but i'll do you one better because he's a representtive, doing that as a private citizen if you will with his family greeting card. did you see the tweet from the el paso county sheriff's office and we have it, actually. this is them showing what they say is santa coming to apply to get a handgun permit and i'm thinking like what is wrong with this country? a country that is reeling from another deadly school shooting.

kids are being buried and you have a government agency, law enforcement agency, tweeting something insensitive about both the holiday and guns. i don't understand it, mehdi. >> they seem obsessed with having an armed santa now which doesn't make sense to me. if an armed santa came down the chimney, wouldn't they say we have a right to shoot him in self defense? the angle is mad, whatever you look at, and let me be clear i do not want to shoot santa and do not want an armed santa. >> enjoy the rest of your evening, take care. welcome, so many questions still unanswered about the omicron variant. what's the answer with public health messaging, my sunday night panel here to discuss that. plus, what do democrats have on their mind