tv The Rachel Maddow Show MSNBC December 7, 2021 6:00pm-7:00pm PST
6:00 pm
social media and i thought, how is people not getting arrested? it means that the border patrol is looking from a distance and saying, let it be. it's art. >> it's a fantastic piece of work. it's wonderful to have you here. "paper & glue" this friday, on 10:00 p.m. on msnbc. "rachel maddow show" starts right now. good ghevening, rachel. >> that was excellent. thank you for joining us this hour. happy to have you here.yo in april 1968, in memphis, tennessee, the reverend, dr. martin luther king jr. was assassinated. the man who killed him was james earl ray, seen here in handcuffs. james earl ray was a rabid segregationist. he was a real racist. he was kicked out of the army in the late '40s. he was at of prison for years. he escaped from prison in
6:01 pm
missouri, in 1967, the year before he killed king. he spent time in mexico. spent time in california. by 1968, he was reportedly intoxicated with the reactionary campaign of george wallace, the segregationist alabama governor, who ran for president in 1968 on an anti-civil rights, pro-segregation, white supremacist platform. james earl ray volunteered on the wallace for president campaign. even beyond that, he was just increasingly committed to the racist cause more broadly. and in the spring of 1968, james earl ray moved to atlanta. he had been living on the west coast. moved across the country to atlanta, where martin luther king lived and where he preached at ebenezer baptist church. he seems to have gone to atlanta in pursuit of dr. king. and in april of 1968, king took
6:02 pm
a trip from atlanta to memphis, tennessee. it was widely publicized he was going to do it. he wentgo to memphis to support the striking sanitation workers there. james earl ray followed martin luther king to memphis. and he killed him there. he shot and killed dr. king, as king stood on the balcony of a motel in memphis, the lorraine motel. and for much of america, it must have seemed like time stopped in that moment. part of our history absolutely did stop in that moment. but it didn't end for james earl ray. after james earl ray shot martin luther king on that balcony in 1968, he got away. he got in his car, drive away. drove back to atlanta. spent three more days driving north. he crossed the u.s. border into
6:03 pm
canada. he stayed in canada for a month. he got one fake passport there. went to europe. spent some time in portugal of all places. ended up in london. it wasn't until two months after he assassinated martin luther king that james earl ray was arrested. he was arrested at the airport in london, as he was preparing to fly on to another country. james earl ray was extradited back to the united states to face trial. he admitted he did it. pled guilty. he was sentenced to 99 years in prison for the assassination of martin luther king. then, a couple things of note happened thereafter. one thing to note that happened thereafter, he escaped from prison. he had previously been an escapee and after he was sentenced forr killing martin luther king, he escaped again. he escaped from prison in tennessee. he managed to last about three days outside before he was recaptured. that tacked another year on to his 99-year sentence.
6:04 pm
another thing to know about him, post conviction, post sentencing, after his trial, after hisng sentencing, he chand lawyers. he got himself a new lawyer. a like-minded lawyer, a segregationist, a bit of a weirdo. and his new lawyer represented him during the time he escaped from prison, but he and his new lawyer also cooked up a scheme by whiched they would recant jas earl ray's confession. even though he confessed, he pled guilty, they took it back. they said he hadn't done it. they don't know why he confessed. it was crazy. a moment of madness. he didn't do it.n' and they cooked up a scheme they would blame the assassination of martin luther king on a mysterious man named raul. who is raul? there's no raul. they made up that much about it but never got much further with that. >> james earl ray is in prison
6:05 pm
in tennessee. the last of the five men that broke out with him friday night was caught this morning. and today, ray's lawyer was on-hand. and so was eric burns to report on what the lawyer had to say. >> this is jack kershaw. he is james earl ray's attorney and he talked to ray this morning. he told reporters that ray is okay physically, exhausted mentally and sorry he tried to escape. and he said, there was no conspiracy to help ray escape. >> we can discount any outside help. if there was outside help, there would be something waiting in the backyard. >> did he plan the escape? >> no. >> who did? >> don't know. >> ray refused to talk to investigators. but he will talk to them later, kershaw says. kershaw says he has a picture of the man named raul. according to ray, raul was the
6:06 pm
brains behind the plot to kill martin luther king. kershaw says he will show this picture some time in the next two months, after he has asked the courtr for a new trial for his client. >> oh,a yes. a picture of raul, the real killer. y there was no raul. james earl ray, and his lawyer, jack kershaw, the man in the light suit and the colonel sanders hair. they didn't get james earl ray a new trial, to blame the assassination of martin luther king on some made-up guy named raul. it didn't work. he never escaped again. james earl ray died in prison in 1998. what happened to his lawyer? what happened to jack kershaw? interesting story, it turns out. around the same time that his ou client, james earl ray was dieing in prison, while serving his sentence for assassinating martin luther king, around that same time, 1998, jack kershaw,
6:07 pm
james earl ray's lawyer, sort of started a new vocation. i don't know if he got paid for it. but the self-actualized. he was the founder of the league of the south, in 1994. this confederate segregationist group. he founded it in 1994. in 1998, when his famous client was dying in prison, being sentenced for killing martin luther king, around 1998, that lawyer, jack kershaw, completed his masterpiece, his artistic masterpiece. api statue. a gigantic 25-foot-tall statue that he made maybe with bathroom
6:08 pm
caulk, household materials of some kind. i say it's his masterpiece because i think it's the best he can do. it was terrible. but it was his masterpiece. a buddy of his even said on the record, to a local news reporter, that he, too, believed that jack kershaw was a pretty terrible artist. he, too, believed this sculpture was pretty awful. but he was nevertheless proud to put it up in tennessee for the worst possible reasons. >> as an artist, mediocre. as a thinker, he was way ahead of a lot of people of his time. jack got some materials that i use to make bathtubs with and he started with a butcher knife. that's the end result, what you see out there right now. >> to a lot of people, this monument is a symbol of racism. >> any monument is a symbol of
6:09 pm
racism if you are going to make it a symbol of racism. i have been accused of being racist, if i was racist, why do i have so many blacks working for me? consider this the sixth largest nation in the world -- >> iwo still consider this, meaning ctennessee, to be the confederate states of america, says the man. that's why he explained why he put up that sculpture made from bathtub caulk and stuff, with a butcher knife. that's why he put up that t statue, that was created by the lawyer for the man who killed martin luther king. a man on a horse. there's no way you would know this, is a man named nathan bedford forest. he was a plantation owner. a very wealthy slave trader. a general in the confederate army. after the civil war was over, he became the first grand wizard of the ku klux klan. that's why, for the past 20-plus
6:10 pm
years, since roughly 1998, there has been on the outskirts of nashville, tennessee this, hideous 25-foot-tall statue of the founder of the klan. sitting on a piece of private property overlooking interstate 65. you really can see it from i-65. and local residents, local officials, have had a lot of consternation over this for the past 25 years.pa it has flags from the confederate states flying around it, plus lots of confederate flags themselves. and nathan bedford forest on his horse with a gun and a sword in the middle of it. local officials and local residents tried to persuade the state of tennessee, that the state could plant some tall trees along that part of the interstate to shield this thing from passing traffic. well, the guy on whose private property the statue sat, he said, if the state did try to
6:11 pm
occlude the view of that masterpiece from interstate 65, he had a i plan. he would put all of his confederate flags on taller flag poles and do whatever it takes to keep this thing on view. >> got some 1,800-foot flag poles. i can0- put them up starting tomorrow. they will have to build a hell of a wall and a held of a bunch of trees to block all that. slavery was the first form of social security. if you stop and think about it minute, it was a cradle to the grave proposition. they never had it so good as far as job security, to begin with. it wasn't the best of job security, but it had benefits. >> yes. slavery sure had some benefits. so, why not honor it this way, with a 25-foot-tall founder of the klan confederate statue and all of the confederate flags.
6:12 pm
that man, bill dorris, who owned the land. who put up the klan founder statue on his private property, made by his friend jack kkersha, who defended the killer of martin luther king. he died a year ago.ar his death made some oh, isn't that cute headlines at the time. in hiss will, he left $5 milli for the care of his border collie, who is an adorable dog. he left $5 million to cover the care of his 12-year-old dog if the rest of her life, which is all. he didn't have $5 million. he wrote that in his will.in but he didn't have $5 million to give to the dog or anybody else. the executor of court had to get that figure reduced. it appears that the man may have
6:13 pm
died in debt. a trailer park he owned near his home is being sold to pay off thein debts of his estate. and it seems like -- just guessing here, spitballing here, i'm guessing that maybe his three-acre parcel of land, overlooking i-65, with the nathan bedford forest statue on it, that may need to be sold, as well, to pay off the debts against his estate. and the reason i'm guessing that property needs to be sold is that because -- today, finally, thisto morning, after this thin stood there for more than 20 years on the side of the interstate, after people painted it pinkpe in 2017, they threw pk paint all over it. somebody else spraypainted the world monster on the it. after having the founder of the klan looming 25-feet-tall as the gate keeper to nashville, this
6:14 pm
morning, ntoday, finally came down. the executor of this guy's will ordered the removal of the statue this morning. whether or not that finally happened today, because i suspect, it might be hard to sell that property with a giant, hideous pink klansman on it. whether that was a property value decision in oak hill, tennessee, this morning. everyone who owns property in oak hill, tennessee, probably saw the property values get a little boost today when the pink hideous klansman came down. heidi campbell, who petitioned to get this taken down told "the tennessean" newspaper today, this has been a national embarrassment. i'm so excited. this is great news. it's just so hurtful to people. not to mention, he said, it's heinously ugly. fair enough. when the heinously ugly
6:15 pm
25-foot-tall statue of the klan founder came down today in tennessee, some local news outlets reported that the statue would be held in storage or possibly put up for sale. but yeah, no. that thing is not going up for sale. it's not even make it in the back of a pickup truck, let alone in a climate-controlled storage. it turns out, you can tell it from the way they took it down, it was made of toothpaste, it crumbled and fell apart as soon as they toppled it. now, it's gone. and you know, if you don't believe me this is still a sensitive subject for some people, look at what happened elsewhere in tennessee in the past few weeks. it was back in 2017, that another statue, actually a proper statue of the same ku klux klan grand wizard, another stat chew of nathan bedford
6:16 pm
forrest. a forrest park, named for nathan bedford forrest. the first ku klux klan grand wizard. there was a statue that memphis took down in 2017. there was one complication. nathan bedford forrest was physically buried underneath it. nathan bedford forrest's body and his wife was under that statue in that memphis park. when they started digging after they tookte down the statue, it turns out, the directions they had weren't exactly right. they weren't directly under the statue. they were kind of under the plaza in front of where the statue had been. it took them a while hunting around to find the caskets. they did finally find the remains. they made a plan to rebury them this fall, a few weeks ago. look what w they had to do to g it done. local nbc 5 in memphis, tennessee, got an exclusive look
6:17 pm
at this. this is astonishing. remember, this is the confederate general, wealthy slave trader, first grand wizard of the ku klux klan, nathan bedford forrest. >> all of it, with the remains of ahe man, reviled and revered and the weight of a city divided on his shoulders, teller ordered his staff to place the caskets in two different vehicles. >> i d had my staff leave the site, drive in different directions and i'll call you and tell you where. >> they drove around about 40 minutes to avoid anyone following them before taylor directed them to head to his mumford, tennessee, funeral home. he changed the locks on this room where he kept the remains. and he quietly reburied them in this munford cemetery. when the forrest family decided to make columbia, tennessee, the
6:18 pm
location of the sons of confederate headquarters, taylor exhumed the remains once again. the remains were tucked inside period clothing and the family decided to stop on a way to forrest battle sites. but the family attorney got a call. >> there was a security threat, that the fbi wanted to make us aware of. and they asked that we not take that route and we not do the he ceremony. >> taylor says they moved the remains in the cover of darkness september 16th, for a series of visitations, processions and the burial of the couple. ceremonies attended by 4,000 people and the fbi, with facial recognition software in tow. >> they are still looking for insurrectionists. and they felt that the funeral was a good place. >> photos show some of the 500
6:19 pm
civil war re-enactors. a rider less horse with backwards boots. >> this was taken from the balcony. this is the remains going into the mansion for the visitation. they had ladies mourning ladies dressed in all-black that carried his portrait from the mansion up to the gravesite. >> more than 4,000 people, 4,000 americans, showed up for that. that was just a couple of months ago in tennessee, at the headquarters at the sons of confederate veterans in columbia, tennessee. and if you missed what the funeral director said there, he said the fbi was there. the fbi has not confirmed this. according to the guy that ran this whole ceremony, the fbi was there with facial recognition software, looking for insurrectionists. the fbi felt that the funeral of nathan bedford forrest might be a good place to find people that
6:20 pm
were perhaps in the capitol on january 6th. the funeral, the reburial of a confederate general and klan founder, might have been an attraction, to people that might have tried to overthrow the government by o force. there'se news of the january 6 attack.at former president trump's chief of staff, mark meadows, announced he will no longer cooperate with the l investigation. he isat putting themselves thery on a course to be criminally prosecuted for contempt, if he refuses to testify and refuses to hand overdocuments on what happened to the lead-up of january 6th. one legal adviser to trump, they're already pleading the fifth in the investigation. no signs that mark med dose might be pleading the fifth. we got word tonight that another long-time adviser to former
6:21 pm
president trump, roger stone, he is reportedly saying that he, t too, will plead the fifth. we'll have more of that coming up tonight. these touchstones, the symbols of violent insurrections against the u.s. government, they are having a moment right now. just yesterday in richmond, virginia, they started dismantling the pedestal that once held the giant statue of the head of the confederate army, robert e. lee. that came down in september of this year. ralphth northam announced this weekend that the pedestal on which the lee statue stood, that pedestal will come down in richmond. they started to dismantle it yesterday. it will be gone by tend of the year. in july of thisd year, they brought down the robert e. lee statue that was pride of place in charlottesville, virginia. tall way back in 2016, high
6:22 pm
school students started a petition to have that robert e. lee statue taken down. the city council voted the following year it should be taken down. the whole question of what was going to happen to that statue was caught up in legal wrangling, neo-nazi white supremacist and confederate groups seized at the very threa of their pretext of holding the unite the right rally in charlottesville. the statue at the center of that didn't come down until july of this omyear.y since then, the klan and neo-nazi and neoconfederate groups that organized the riots in protest of that statue, having a plan to take it down, those groups were found liable to pay $20 million to the people that were hurt by the rioters in charlottesville. look at what's happening in charlottesville right now.
6:23 pm
late last night, in a meeting that stretched into then early morning hours this morning, the charlottesville council took a vote on whatvi to do with the it statue. that robert e. lee statue they finally took down this summer in july, it's 1,100 pounds of bronze. they did finally take p it down from that square in town, five years after local high school studens asked them to take it down. four years after the council said they would. four years after neo-nazis and neoconfederates converged on tho city. they finally took it down. half a dozen groups approached the city saying they wanted the statue. they had something they wanted to do with it. last night, early this morning, in a unanimous vote, the charlottesville city council decided what to do with it. they decided that 1,100-pound robert e. lee statue will be given to a local
6:24 pm
african-american heritage center that has a very, very specific plan for it. they're going to melt it. they're going to melt it down. ultimately, they say it will become aly new public artwork about what charlottesville is like today. it will be about some new idea in charlottesville. that new idea, what exactly they're going to put it down to, what they're going to turn it into, that will come later. for conow, the only plan that everybody has agreed to is melt it. change is hard. change is often so hard that it is unimaginable. until one day, you're driving down i-65 and look, it happened. one day, you're driving through the center of charlottesville, virginia, and it happened. it feels impossible. it feels unimaginable. it feels intractable. and then, it's done. los to come tonight.
6:25 pm
stay with us. s ctoome tonight. stay with us without frequent heartburn waking her up. now, that dream... . ...is her reality. nexium 24hr stops acid before it starts, for all-day, all-night protection. can you imagine 24 hours without heartburn? [uplifting music playing] for all-day, ♪ i had a dream that someday ♪ ♪ i would just fly, fly away ♪ (vo) for fourteen years, subaru and our retailers have been sharing the love with those who need it most. now subaru is the largest automotive donor to make-a-wish and meals on wheels.
6:26 pm
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. [ sneeze ] are you ok? oh, it's just a cold. if you have high blood pressure, a cold is not just a cold. unlike other cold medicines, coricidin provides powerful cold relief without raising your blood pressure be there for life's best moments with coricidin. now in sugar free liquid. want your clothes to smell freshly washed all day without heavy perfumes? now they can! with downy light in-wash freshness boosters. just pour a capful of beads into your washing machine before each load. to give your laundry a light scent that lasts longer than detergent alone, with no heavy perfumes or dyes. finally, a light scent that lasts all day! new downy light, available in four naturally-inspired scents.
6:27 pm
6:28 pm
want to save on your home internet? xfinity is proud to support the emergency broadband benefit program. for a limited time, you may be eligible to qualify for a credit of up to $50 a month toward your internet service through this program. that's right! you could qualify for a credit of up to $50 a month toward your internet service and equipment. for even more value, switch to xfinity mobile, and you could pay as little as $15 a month for wireless. click, call, or visit a store to learn more.
6:29 pm
here's some little telltale signs, that you can discern, even at a distance, that the united states may be under new management than the previous four years. before his one-on-one meeting with russian president vladimir putin today, president biden called a bunch of our allies. he called france, germany, the u.k. the leaders from all five countries got on the phone together to get on the same page to get out the concerns of putin's buildup on the border of ukraine, so biden could talk to them before he took the meeting with putin. as soon as the meeting was over, he called them back to fill them in on what happened, to make sure that the u.s. is on solid footing with our allies. as russia once again threatens to invade a country in europe.
6:30 pm
also, this is a smaller process. but perhaps it's a hopeful sign today after the biden/putin meeting was over. we, the american public, heard about what happened on that call from the u.s. government before we heard about it from the kremlin. and that shouldn't be that big a deal. but for the last four years, that never happened under president trump. under president trump, if he had any contact with the russian government, even if we had not known about it in advance, the kremlin would always give us the first word about what happened. we would find out our president had a meeting with putin, what the russians say they talked about. we would find out about it because of a press release from the kremlin. this time it was our government, it was the u.s. government, that was first to describe what happened. these are among the signs that things are being handled differently. but our white house is certainly under new management.
6:31 pm
russia's president is the same. and russian president vladimir putin does appear once again, to be relishing this moment on the world stage, when he is once again got everybody afraid of him. wondering what it is that he is going to do. is it possible right now to suss out whether russia is going to invade ukraine and expand the existing war or start a whole new level of war there. the white house made sounds today after this call there are things we can do in response, that would be crippling for russia, that would be terrible. stuff we never contemplated doing to them the last time they invaded ukraine, in 2014. is that true? is that spin? is that bluster? putin started this. he is testing the u.s. government and the international community to see what he can get away with it. he has 175,000 troops massed on theborder with ukraine.
6:32 pm
what is the right way to handle this. joining us now is fiona hill. she is the author of "there's nothing for you here," finding opportunity in the 21st century. thank you for making time to be here tonight. >> thanks so much, rachel. glad to be with you. >> let me ask you if i'm framing this the right way. it seems to me, from just the layman's perspective, that president putin has the world's attention. and he got one-on-one attention from the president of the united states today. and he has the whole world guessing whether or not he is going to do something crazy militarily toward ukraine. but he seems to be enjoying and has been seeking the attention he got from it. is it fair to portray it that way? >> look, he does want to get attention. he wants attention for a particular purpose. putin has been signaling for
6:33 pm
quite some period time, going back over several administrations, in fact, that he wants to see some kind of new security arrangement in europe. and ukraine is part of that. in many respects, coming up this month to the 30th anniversary to the dissolution of the soviet union, and parts of the soviet union. and putin is saying, we didn't solve the end of the cold war. at the end of other wars, with e had an agreement of how europe will be divided up. i want that agreement now. they've been signaling it for many years, before handing it over to different presidencies. this is the latest iteration of this. >> how does seizing parts of ukraine for russia, threatening to do even more of that now. how does that factor into that strategic pull that he has? >> well, ukraine is a critical
6:34 pm
part of this. putin has signaled many times, including recently, in a major speech, he considers ukraine to be part of russia, an extension of russia. he said that ukrainian and russian people are one of the same. ukraine belongs to russia. ukraine is in russia's sphere of influence. so, ukraine has to be part of a knew european security arrangement. he is demanding that president biden, as he has for previous presidents of the united states, sit down and thrash this out. he is hoping that today's teleconference was part of that process. >> in terms of the balance of interest, he considers ukraine to be part of russia, something that spiritually cannot be separated from russia, that ukraine and russia must be one, the united states looks at ukraine as an ally but doesn't have as much strategic
6:35 pm
connection to russia does. is he testing how far the united states and our allies will go to defend ukraine? i mean, obviously, the united states is not going to go to war with russia in order to defend ukraine. everybody keeps saying that up and down. short of war, the united states presumably has more options than we exercised in the past. do you sense that the biden administration will be willing to do things that they haven't been willing to do before to dissuade this aggression? >> you're right, rachel. you framed this in the right way. this is what putin is doing. he is probing and testing. he is making it clear that if he decides it is necessary, he will keep us guessing whether he has made that kind of a decision, that he is poised to do much more damage to ukraine. and the forces we see right there, and there's this available information from public satellite imagery, for example, we can see he might be poised to, for a major invasion
6:36 pm
of ukraine. and that's the goal he is trying to push into thinking he would do this. and again, we have to treat it seriously because he's done things like this in the past, as you say. he has annexed crimea, he has moved parts of ukraine to the region. are we ready to acquiesce in this? what president biden has done teed, you laid it out, showing that the united states and its allies, which is serious in resisting it. ukraine has been an independent country for 30 years. it has agency here, sovereignty. and the united states is not in any kind of position to bargain away europe on ukraine security. the biden administration is certainly framing things in the way that one would expect and hope and anticipate in responding to this. >> fiona hill, top russia expert, the author of "there is
6:37 pm
nothing for you here: finding opportunity in the 21st century," of every book written by anybody in the trump administration, is the one to read. thank you for your time and insight tonight. it's a real honor to have you here. >> thanks, rachel. thank you. got much more to come here tonight. stay with us. when heartburn hits, fight back fast with tums chewy bites. fast heartburn relief in every bite. crunchy outside, chewy inside. ♪ tums, tums, tums, tums ♪ tums chewy bites - oh...oh. - what's going on? - oh, darn! - let me help. lift and push and push! there... it's up there. hey joshie... wrinkles send the wrong message. help prevent them with downy wrinkleguard. feel the difference with downy.
6:38 pm
6:39 pm
6:40 pm
6:41 pm
at least 22 states have detected the new omicron variant of the coronavirus since the first case was identified last week. public health experts say that's sure to go up. we don't know much about the variant yet. it could be the most contagious, the most easily transmitted version of the virus we have encountered. we don't know. we'll see. we don't know if it causes more or less severe illness than the delta variant that dominates now. if omicron is more contagious, it will take over soon enough
6:42 pm
and we'll know soon enough about its characteristics. before omicron takes hold, though, we got about 99.9% of u.s. cases that are delta, regardless of omicron, even before omicron gets here in significant numbers. the case count from delta variant covid cases is climbing really aggressively right now, particularly in the midwest and the northeast, as winter sets in. and i want to look for a second at what's going on in michigan. this is two pieces of data from michigan that are bad in any combination but really bad in sequence. last week michigan hit its highest hospitalization ever. hospitalizations in michigan reached their highest point ever last week. the previous record was set seven months ago. highest hospitalizations ever last week. then this week, they reached the highest number of active cases ever. think about that sequencing.
6:43 pm
once you get infections, then you get reported cases. once you get reported cases, you get people turning up sick. once you get people turning up sick, then you get hospitalizations. and after that, you get death numbers. michigan is already at its highest hospitalization ever. the week after that, they get the highest numbers ever. the delta variant, before omicron gets here, is filling up hospital beds all across michigan, pushing the hospital system to its brink. the system in michigan is not good. it's as if your house at the shore was already under water and you just learned, we're under water. but it's only low tide right now. the tide is coming in. this is going to get worse. it's a bad combination of events. that's where michigan is. and part of the reason it's worth worrying about michigan, is the state is getting a huge amount of federal help. the federal government has deployed three emergency teams of health care workers to hospitals in michigan. things are still getting worse. look at the hospitalization
6:44 pm
graph again. highest it has ever been. at least one michigan doctor is saying the three federal teams are not enough to deal with the upward curve right now. according to the michigan pulmonologist, the numbers are picking up in the community and health care is bearing the brunt of that. we need the next team, meaning the next federal help team and the next team after that. went further in a call for help from his colleagues who have retired. said, quote, we need people that may have taken a hiatus from health care for their own personal, physical and emotional health. we need those people to consider a return, so they can join us on the front line to get us through this very challenging time. the glass can only hold so much water. at some point, it will overfill. it is overfilling in several hospitals across the state right now. joining us now, is dr. paul bosak. he is vice chair of the board of
6:45 pm
the michigan state medical society. it's a real pleasure to have this time with you. thank you for making time to be here. >> thank you very much, rachel. appreciate being here. >> i'm worried about the two metrics in sequence, to have michigan hitting its highest hospitalization numbers ever and immediately thereafter to have its highest reported case numbers ever. it feels -- that feels unsustainable almost on almost an immediate level. am i right to see it that way? or is there some piece of this that i'm missing or misconstruing? >> you got it exactly correct, raich. unfortunately, it doesn't seem like the trajectory shows any signs of turning around. we have seen -- back to july 1, actually, infection rate greater than one. that means one person infects one other person. and here we are in december, with infection rates as high as we have. that infection rate continues to be higher than one. we expect the numbers to continue to climb.
6:46 pm
>> how much of the case numbers in michigan is of the unvaccinated and how much in vaccinated numbers? there's breakthrough infections for sure. the good news is that people don't get as sick. they're less likely to be hospitalized and less likely to get seriously ill and less likely to die. is there some silver lining? some reason for hoping that the cases are not breakthrough infections and people are not likely to end up in the hospital? >> that's a possibility. i would tell you that 88% of michigan's population of hospitalizd patients and 88% of those that go on to die are those that are not fully vaccinated. much more risk in the unvaccinated population. we like to imagine that some of those cases that are reported as infection are not those that are going to come into hospital
6:47 pm
because they are vaccinated because they are breakthrough cases. we do see a small number of those. those are particularly prevalent to those not boosted. if you've done the due diligence of getting vaccinated, get the boost. the unfortunate reality is that 88% of folks that have to come to hospital are still unvaccinated. and we're still looking for ways to reach that population, to help them learn and make the right choices, to vaccination. >> with michigan hospitals so full, with health care staffing levels being so critical, you making that personal call today, asking health care professionals who may have stepped away from the profession, because they retired or needed to get away, they needed to take care of themselves, asking people to consider rejoining to get back on the front lines. that's caught my attention today. that's part of the reasons we called you today. with resources stretched that far, that you have to make that
6:48 pm
plea to your colleagues, what else can you do? what else can hospitals do? what else can the state do? to make resources available for people that are sick? >> first, let me say, appreciate the emergency health care workers coming to michigan. that highlights the severity of our situation right now. no question. much appreciated. we have two asks for the community because on your question of what else hospitals can do, we can control the things that we can control, which is trying to manage beds and trying to manage staffing to the best of our ability, allocate resources that we have, to optimize patient care. but beyond that, as i mentioned in the article, once the glass starts to overfill, we lose control of the situation. so, here's what my request was of the community. number one, just a personal appeal to those folks that had to step away from health care, particularly in-patient health care, who have really been the
6:49 pm
health care heroes. they were in march 2020. they still have today. there's just fewer of us at the bedside. if you have that skillset and that talent, please consider returning to help your local health care facility. and number two to the community, you can play a great role in this by doing the things that we need to do to turn down the infection rate. those are things that have been well described. those are things like vaccinating. we talked about boosting earlier. talking in indoor public spaces, avoid the public spaces to give yourself room away from other folks. right now, with the prevalence this high in the community, there's a high chance when you go out, you will encounter someone who is infected in the community. >> dr. paul bozyk, head of medicine. thank you the you and your cleelg s colleagues. this is a difficult time. thank you for taking the time to help us understand it tonight.
6:50 pm
>> thank you, rachel. appreciate it. >> we'll be right back. stay with us. . with relapsing forms of ms... there's a lot to deal with. not just unpredictable relapses. all these other things too. it can all add up. kesimpta is a once-monthly at-home injection... that may help you put these rms challenges in their place.
6:51 pm
kesimpta was proven superior at reducing the rate of relapses, active lesions, and slowing disability progression vs aubagio. don't take kesimpta if you have hepatitis b, and tell your doctor if you have had it, as it could come back. kesimpta can cause serious side effects, including infections. while no cases of pml were reported in rms clinical trials, it could happen. tell your doctor if you had or plan to have vaccines, or if you are or plan to become pregnant. kesimpta may cause a decrease in some types of antibodies. the most common side effects are upper respiratory tract infection, headache, and injection reactions. ready for an at-home treatment with dramatic results? it's time to ask your doctor about kesimpta. to see my ancestors' photos was just breathtaking. wow, look at all those! what'd you find? lorraine banks, look, county of macomb, michigan? oh my goodness... this whole journey has been such a huge gift for our family.
6:53 pm
tums vs. mozzarella stick this whole journey has been such a huge gift when heartburn hits, fight back fast with tums chewy bites. fast heartburn relief in every bite. crunchy outside, chewy inside. ♪ tums, tums, tums, tums ♪ tums chewy bites hello? gordon ramsay? this is a cold call! nfl teams are turning to cold with tide, will you? that will never work! if it works on nfl jerseys it'll work for you. seriously! just perfect! and it'll save up to $150 a year. and it's cold! so you will turn to cold? fine! i'll turn to cold! that guy needs to chill out! this was a cold call! [ sneeze ] are you ok? oh, it's just a cold. if you have high blood pressure, a cold is not just a cold. unlike other cold medicines, coricidin provides powerful cold relief without raising your blood pressure be there for life's best moments with coricidin.
6:54 pm
now in sugar free liquid. you might have seen these headlines last week. seemed like a very big deal at the time. mark meadows will appear before the january 6th panel. he agrees to cooperate in capitol attack investigation. now today, one day before he was scheduled to testify about that investigation, trump white house chief of staff mark meadows has changed his mind and decided, actually, he's not going to cooperate after all. mr. meadows said today that reversal is in part because the investigation has subpoenaed his phone records. the january 6th investigation has subpoenaed phone records from over 100 people, including trump white house chief of staff mark meadows, and numerous other trump officials. and it's not like the investigation was just asking these folks to hand over their phone records and these people have to decide what to do with the request. the investigation went to the phone companies directly.
6:55 pm
they're getting the investigation via subpoenas to the phone companies. according to this new reporting, the committee has begun receiving data from phone providers from multiple witnesses. that appears to have freaked out former officials like mark meadows who presumably don't want to answer questions about who they spoke with on the phone on january 6th and what they spoke about. one point of interest i will point out, even though mark meadows now says he changed his mind and is not going to cooperate with the january 6th investigation, he notably is not saying that he's going to plead the fifth or invoke his fifth amendment rights against self-incrimination. that's notable because that's becoming an increasingly tactic. tonight, for example, we learned longtime trump adviser roger stone will plead the fifth, in so doing, he will join john eastman and trump justice department official jeffrey clark, both of whom sought to overturn results and now told
6:56 pm
the committee they are pleading the fifth. roger stone now joining them in doing so. mark meadows is apparently not going to do that. january 6th investigators have told mr. meadows that they still expect him to tell them what he knows. the chairman, democratic congressman benny thompson, the vice chair, liz cheney, released a statement about meadows. it says in part, quote, tomorrow's deposition, which was scheduled at mark meadows' request will go forward as planned. the committee will be left no choice but to advance contempt proceedings and recommend that the body in which mr. meadows once served now refers him for criminal prosecution. in other words, they're threatening explicitly if he doesn't show up at 10:00 tomorrow for that deposition, he's likely to be the next member of trump world to be facing potential prison time after a justice department criminal prosecution for contempt.
6:57 pm
this is getting good. watch this space. sleep you reach for the really good stuff. new zzzquil ultra helps you sleep better and longer when you need it most. it's non habit forming and powered by the makers of nyquil. new zzzquil ultra. when you really really need to sleep. ♪ ♪ ♪ hey google. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪
6:58 pm
6:59 pm
this is my granddaughter...she's cute like her grandpa. voya doesn't just help me get to retirement... ...they're with me all the way through it. come on, grandpa! later. got grandpa things to do. aw, grandpas are the best! well planned. well invested. well protected. voya. be confident to and through retirement. it only takes a second for an everyday item to become dangerous. tide pods child-guard pack helps keep your laundry pacs in a safe place and your child safer. to close, twist until it clicks. tide pods child-guard packaging.
7:00 pm
mom, hurry! our show's gonna start soon! i promised i wouldn't miss the show and mommy always keeps her promises. oh, no! seriously? hmm! it's not the same if she's not here. oh. -what the. oh my goodness! i don't suppose you can sing, can you? ♪ the snow's comin' down ♪ -mommy? ♪ i'm watching it fall ♪ watch the full story at www.xfinity.com/sing2 . all right. that is going to do it for us tonight. i'll see you again this time tomorrow. now it's time for "the last word with lawrence o'donnell". good evening, lawrence. >> good evening, rachel. you were just talking about the mark meadows reaction to subpoenas. that trump gang's defiance of congressional subpoenas is once again teachi
274 Views
IN COLLECTIONS
MSNBC West Television Archive Television Archive News Search Service The Chin Grimes TV News ArchiveUploaded by TV Archive on