opposing views. i had completed this video before that was caught on tape, but i was thinking that maybe my future facing video didn't go far enough because it seems to already be happening. >> eric, thanks for making it and thanks for the holocaust museum of l.a. for being behind it. errish is the founder of the non-profit organization will work for change. not only is there a snowstorm outside for many of you. there's more to learn, and a fresh round of subpoenas from the january 6th committee and who is on president biden's supreme court short list? another power-packed hour of velshi begins right now. good morning to you. it is 9:00 a.m. in the east on saturday january the 29th. i'm ali velshi. president biden and his administration continue to be stymied by a series of ongoing challenges. the coronavirus pandemic still devastating the country. casers down in some cases, but

hospitalizations and deaths have gone up. that's been the pattern throughout the pandemic. more than 3,500 americans died this past thursday alone has pushed the weakly average for deaths to more than 2,500 fatalities per day. think about that. plus reports of the emergence of a new variant underscores that this pandemic is not over. and a bridge collapsed in pennsylvania yesterday, and that happened mere hours before president biden was to give a speech in part to talk about infrastructure. he took a detour to meet with the first responders on the scene. it's a sobering reminder of the country's crumbling infrastrucker. more than 3,000 bridges in pennsylvania alone are considered in poor condition and the one that collapsed is among

them. we are continuing to monitor the tense situation in eastern europe where russia is on the border of ukraine. president biden said he'll be moving u.s. troops to eastern europe, quote, in the near-term as the president believes that russia may invade ukraine in february. we'll have much more on that story later in the hour. there are also new developments in the house select committee's investigation into the insurrection. yesterday, 15 new subpoenas were issued and announced. 14 of those were issued to the so-called alternate electors from seven states who signed and submitted fake election certificates that falsely proclaim that donald trump won the presidential election in their states. the 15 subpoena was issued to judge deer who had knowledge of what donald trump was doing before and during the attack on the capitol. beale have more on that, as well. >> president biden just added

one more task to the to-do this week. nbc news broke the news that supreme court justice breyer plans to retire at the end of his term. he's poised to make a historic nomination to the supreme court. on thursday, president biden and justice breyer appeared together at the white house to formally announce breyer's retirement. the president reiterated his commitment to nominate the first black woman to the supreme court. >> no decision except one. the person i will nominate will be one with extraordinary qualifications, character, experience, and integrity and that person will be the first black woman ever nominated to the united states supreme court. it's long overdue, in my view. >> that's a pledge he made in the 2020 primaries. a number of names are being discussed including d.c. circuit courts of appeals judge ketanji brown jackson and leandra

krueger and michelle chiles of north carolina. think about these numbers. 150 justices have served on the supreme court that's 115 times that black women weren't given the consideration. >> of those, 110 have been men. 108 have been white men and only five women and three people of color have ever served on the supreme court of theunited states of america. few americans ever get to serve on the supreme court in a generation. appointing a black woman to the supreme court would be a small step in rectifying a justice system that still does not accurately represent america. joe biden's colleagues in the senate have acquired a diverse slate of federal judges. he's nominated eight black women to federal appellate judge ships which is equal to the number of

black women who have ever served in those roles in the entire history of the united states. there's no question that biden's pick will be in the minority when she joins the trump stacked 6-3 conservative majority court. it's not going to change that balance, but she will be changing the court just by being there. the other open question as we look ahead to this historic nomination is whether or not the nomination and appointment is a judge to the supreme court will have the ability to galvanize the democratic base as the midterms rev up. democrats can certainly use a jolt after the build back better fell short in the senate and president biden's approval ratings continue to dip. here with me now is kimberly atkins and a columnist for the boston globe and the co-host of the sisters in law podcast and also an msnbc political analyst. kimberly, i have so many questions for you, but the first one is on one hand historic and

huge that if biden gets his way a black woman would be a supreme court justice. on the other hand it doesn't change the math of the supreme court and what we've seen is the math seems to trump all other things. >> yes, you're absolutely right on both fronts. it will be an historic and important, but the court will still be 6-3 tilted toward the conservative side, but that doesn't mean that it won't make a difference. the very experience and lived experience that a new justice will bring in itself will bring a different perspective and the same way that it brought a different perspective to have someone who grew up in a housing project in justice sotomayor, or someone who was born in the south like justice thomas. this will bring a different perspective to the court at this time it's hugely important. as you point out, the reason

that we have not had black women throughout the federal judiciary or most courts is the lack of opportunity. it's systemic discrimination. when i went to law school my incoming class was 400 students. seven of them were black. that's less than 2%. if it's built into the system sometimes it takes actions like what the president is doing and saying. there are a lot of qualified people who are black women who have not been given the opportunity and given to prioritize given the opportunity in order to make the court look more like the nation that its decisions will affect. >> republican nominees are the process that republicans use to nominate people to the supreme court is part of a long, decades-long infrastructure that has potential candidates primed at different levels of the bench across the country. it does feel that republicans have put more thinking into this than democrats traditionally

have. >> they absolutely have. republicans have treated the court and the appointments to the courts as a top political imperative for years. they have done that ever since they were disappointed in the way that retired justice david suitor ruled after he was appointed by the court by a republican president and they vowed to never let that happen again. they see the importance of the court in carrying out their objectives the same way that it is important to have their view of republicans in the other two branches of government. democrats have not done that, they have been very late in coming to that even after the blockade with merrick garland, barack obama's nominee who never got a hearing. this nomination, right ahead of the midterms reminds voters of the importance of that. we've seen the impact of now that roe v. wade stands in the crosshairs and the nomination that is struck down next term.

we see what it means for voting rights. the impact has been clear, and i think now this is a time for democrats to really make clear the importance of this court and the results of elections and how much they matter. >> kimberly, thank you for joining us this morning. we always appreciate your time and your very specific expertise. i do, by the way, believe that you have some anniversary coming up with sisters in law. >> we do. it's our one-year anniversary this weekend. we've been doing this for a year and we love doing it and we appreciate the support we get from you, ali. thank you so much. >> it is fantastic and one of the smartest legal minds, and if you don't already listen to it, thank you very much. kimberly is a columnist with the boston globe and co-host of the sisters in law. joining me is the pulitzer prize-winning reporter with "the new york times." katie, good morning to you. we're talking about january 6th

now. the committee announced a handful of subpoenas on friday and primarily 14 out of the 15 for the so-called fake or alternate electors who tried to deny joe biden in their state. the justice department confirmed the fake electors. what do we know about the whole thing of fake electors and where it falls into the january 6th scheme to deny thor is the if i kagdz of joe biden? >> sure. you want to the separate out the committee from what the justice department is doing. they're trying to figure out what happened with the fake electors and a continuum that led to january 6th. if the justice department is investigating, the deputy attorney general cannot comment on it because it is an ongoing investigation. that is whether or not criminal charges should be brought. starting with the committee, they're looking at this because at the end of the day fake electors were submitted to the national archives.

people signed false statements saying we represent the electoring if these seven swing states and we have decided to call the election for donald trump. in fact, joe biden won in those states and yet these false documents are both created and sent to the federal government. so the questions will be, what were the motivations? who told you to do this? who came up with this? we already have some of this in the public record because rudy giuliani and others spoke openly of it after the election and going into december, so this is not actually something that was happening in secret, but i think the committee must understand the why. what in the world was going? what were you, the people who signed these document aware of? what have you been told because they're trying to build a very full narrative to give context to january 6th. the committee is saying january 6th was not a one-off incident and a random act of violence and it was the culmination of many different attempts to say that joe biden lost and that donald trump won and that it culminated

in violence. >> i think you are so good at taking something that is inherently confusing when you said let's separate what the january 6th committee is doing in establishing that important narrative and what the justice department might be doing. i want to quote from your own article in "the new york times" in which you say mr. trump's allies created the fake slate to improperly influence the election they could, in theory, could be charged with falsifying voting documents, mail fraud and a conspiracy to defraud the united states. it is unclear whether the republican party officials and others who submitted the false documents did so on their own or at the behest of the trump campaign which goes to the question of if there's legal culpability in this at all, what's your sense of who holds it? whoever was plotting this thing? these people, these 14 people many of whom are officials in the republican party in their own state or the individuals in their own capacity who signed a form that they knew to be fraudulent? >> so in a criminal party, what

the justice department will be looking at is were these fake documents sent? we know the fake documents were sent and what was the motivation? what was going on in people's minds and they will be looking at the people who did those actions first. in the investigation, the people who committed those actions say i actually did it for somebody else or at the direct orders of somebody else. i have documentation that supports that, then the department investigation could be brought in, but keep in mind the department works with the facts at hand and it starts with the facts and it moves outward only if it can, whereas, the committee can create a larger narrative that could have critical implications and damning implications and the department will not do that. they will start with the people who sent the documents and whether or not they committed a crime. >> katie, good to see you as always. katie is a pulitzer prize-winning justice reporter for "the new york times "qwest. coming up, president biden

plans to send troops to nato and eastern european countries in the near-term. 8500 soldiers are poised for deployment and now we wait. plus, more conservative censorship. dozens of books across the nation are being pulled from libraries under the pretense of protecting american kids and it seems intellectual curiosity has no place in donald trump's america. a bright spot if you can believe it. we are seeing the strongest economic growth in nearly four decades. a signal that the pandemic-induced recession could be in the rear-view mirror. this is "velshi." this is "velshi. wooo, yeaa, woooooo and, by switching you could even save 665 dollars. hey tex, can someone else get a turn? yeah, hang on, i'm about to break my own record. yeah. only pay for what you need.

♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty. ♪ (vo) for me, one of the best things about life is that only pay for what you need. we keep moving forward. we discover exciting new technologies. redefine who we are and how we want to lead our lives. basically, choose what we want our future to look like. so what's yours going to be?

we've got some positive economic news this week that's good for everyone's wallet. the gross domestic product for the united states, gdp, grew rapidly in the final three months of last year hitting an annual rate of 6.9%. those are the four quarters of

last year. that number marks the strongest year of u.s. growth since 1984. that's nearly four decades. even more crucial, it signals a rebound from the pandemic-induced recession. president biden celebrated the strong numbers in a statement, quote, we are finally building an american economy for the 21st century with the fastest economic growth in nearly four decades along with the greatest year of job growth in american history. at the same time, inflation in america is at levels not seen since the reagan administration which adds a great, big asterisk to this particular piece of good news. joining me now is someone who understands this well. caleb silver is editor in chief. good morning to you. what do you make of all this? >> good to be with you, ali. hard to believe we are almost tw years out from when the world health organization named covid-19 covid-19 and since then

the country has been on a roller coaster. gdp fell 3.5% from the prior year and swung all of the way back to growth and a 5.7% in 2021. with growth comes higher prices and comes inflation. you said it, we have the highest inflation since 1982. that's four years of the reagan administration and that's starting to weigh on consumers. we are seeing a big wage increase that's costing more for employers. they can't find enough workers and they have to pay them more when they did. it's a tricky time even though unemployment is down by 3.9%. as to inflation everyone is feeling it everywhere we go. 7% inflation and the highest since 1982. you feel it when you go to the grocery store and you feel it and consumer sentiment falling to a ten-year low just this week, ali. what's the federal reserve, and the central bank doing about it? they'll cool the economy by raising interest rates. the question is how many interest rate hikes and for how long? you started the year starting

with three to four interest rate hikes and you may have four or five interest rate hikes and when borrowing costs go up and we have a cooldown in the housing market and the cooldown in the economy and a cooldown in the stock market and folks, you probably felt that cooling of the stock market in just the last several weeks. we were at all-time highs just a few weeks ago and we've fallen in the s&p 5007%. you have the fed trying to reduce its balance sheet and take it out of the economy and that will change the temperature of the economy and the housing market, ali. >> the danger there is that it's more art than science. you can slow the economy down and if you slow it too much you get yourself into another problem. caleb, thank you for that. get information about these questions on the economy that you might not know about, caleb silver is the editor in chief of investapedia. most of us have more questions than answers when it comes to ukraine. we have a geopolitical expert to tell us why the stakes are so

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president biden said yesterday he plans to send united states troops to eastern european and nato countries in the near-term. roughly 8500 troops are on standby for possible deployment to europe as russia seems poised to invade ukraine any day. to understand what's happening here it's key to understand the role that nato plays. the north atlantic treaty organization nato is a sprawling, mutual defense alliance between north america and europe which was founded after world war ii to counter the soviet union. here's a map of what nato looked like before the fall of the soviet union. see the orange. take note of the big space between nato countries in the west and russia in the east. here's what nato looks like today. most of the countries in the

middle, the warsaw countries are western-facing democratic nato allies. ukraine, as you can see, is not a nato member, but the fear is if russia invades ukraine there could be spill over into neighboring nato countries. last night on the edition of "the last word" i spoke to admiral james stavridis about what vladimir putin wants, rebuilding the old ussr and the union of soviet republics and he's going around former republic to former republic to include azerbaijan, armenia in this case ukraine, kazakhstan, all the stans and trying to put them back into russian sphere of influence. i don't think he's going to be successful with that overall nor should we let him particularly in the case of ukraine. >> joining me now is ian bremer, president and founder of the

eurasia group with global economic and geopolitical risks. ian, a couple of things are happening here. joe biden and the americans are prepared for some kind of imminent invasion of ukraine by russia. the russians say we're not going do that. a whole lot of experts say that vladimir putin is posturing because when he flexes military muscle the world takes him seriously and even the ukrainians told the americans calm your rhetoric down a little bit. we don't think this is imminent. what's going to happen in your opinion? >> first, what's imminent? it's before putin leaves beijing and frankly, given that china is the most important friend on the planet right now it's hard to imagine that they would engage in major strikes while the

olympics are going on. furthermore, when the ukrainian president says he's imminent, when he beats the war drums he'll be under a lot more pressure from nato to back down and form some kind of an agreement with the russians. he doesn't want that pressure. he also worries that his economy will implode, his banks will have major runs and capital won't lead. privately, president zelensky is talking to all of the nato allies and begging them for more equipment as fast as humanly possible. he sounds like someone who is a hell of a lot more concerned about a potential incursion or invasion than what he's been saying publicly in the headlines. >> let's talk about that for a second. one of the goals, he wants an eastern-facing ukrainian nation. the long-standing complaint is that nato is now on his doorstep and if you take ukraine it's almost inside the door. there are differences in opinion in how the europeans want to deal with it, how the french

want to deal with it, the fact that the germans say they don't want to give lethal weapons to the ukrainians and joe biden is saying we're ready to send troops to support this. i saw a tweet from you that said otherwise. >> that's right. look, i think there are lots of reasons why putin decided to take this moment to escalate so dramatically around ukraine. let's face it. biden, after afghanistan, had particularly stressed relations with atlantic allies. they were very unhappy with the unilateralism and the debacle that occurred there. furthermore, biden is much more focused on china, asia and the quad. secondly, president macron has been talking about distancing from nato in terms of his military orientation, particularly after the debacle or msnbc. don't pick on me there. you have the new german

chancellor, angela merkel was very strong in leading, so if you were advising putin before all of this occurred, you would have been saying, hey, this is the perfect time because we're going to have a huge division between the nato allies. i will tell you, so far, ali, that has not been the case at all. the fact is olaf schultz is traveling to meet with washington after being squishy to begin with. his administration is that if there's any intervention into ukraine it is a dead letter. the french government is working with the united states closely to ensure that there are forward deployments of military systems to the baltics and to other countries of -- in eastern europe like bulgaria and romania. i've been quite surprised so far and pleasantly so that nato has been as aligned as they have in response to russian escalation,

and i can't imagine putin is happy about that so far. >> what do you make of the argument. i'll put that nato map up again to show our viewers how many nato countries are up against the russian border. the argument that putin makes and he's made it formally and written a speech about it and there are ethnically russian populations in the baltic states and the three nato countries up at the top in ukraine, in belarus and that it is russia's sort of responsibility to extend an umbrella of protection among them. >> first of all, these are democracies and they vote and the russians are minorities in these countries and lithuania is 10% and estonia is more and in the northeast it is still a majority, but these are small issues. the big issue is that these countries want to join nato. they voted against continued russian integration and alignment. putin doesn't respect that. he particularly doesn't respect

that with ukraine which he does not consider to be a sovereign country. you mentioned before the segment and you talked about what might happen if russia might go into ukraine and might it spill over into other countries. not many people are concerned about russian tanks rolling into the baltic states. i remember when the russians had cyber attacks and billions in damage occurred to maersk, and mondelez, what would happen this time around if they engaged in those attacks again and we see billions of dollars of damage to american countries. how will we respond to that? what happens if there are more infrastructure attacks like against colonial pipeline which was criminal actors on russian territory. how will we respond to that? the fact is, ali, this is not just about ukraine and there is enormous danger that if we get

into a regional power like russia, it will extend dramatically. >> ian, i can talk to you for hours about this and unfortunately, we may need to. >> ian bremer, founder of the eurasia group and g-0 media. the first time i read the dystopian classic "fahrenheit 451" i was just a kid and a world that could never, truly possibly ever exist, and now republicans are banning books of all sorts and the consequences are going to be dire. e conseques e conseques are going to be dire there's so much new in the new chicken & bacon ranch, but the clock is ticking, so we gotta hurry. there's new rotisserie-style chicken, new peppercorn ranch, new hickory-smoked bacon, new... (whistle blowing) did you just spike the footlong? sorry, i didn't want the delay of game. down? it could be a sign that your digestive system isn't working at it's best

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if i were you i would plan to keep my volume up and my tv tuned to msnbc all morning long. we still have a lot more velshi that you don't want to miss and then "the cross connection" with tiffany cross starts right after that. here she is. tiffany joins me now. good morning, my good friend, what can we expect this morning? >> good morning, ali. we kept our volume up in the makeup room so we can stay tuned to you all morning, great show, my friend. as usual we have a lot to get to on "the cross connection." one topic is something many don't like to talk about, but it is absolutely necessary. that is estate planning especially for people of color.

it's not all about wealth and it's about end of life decisions and also we will talk about latinos and latino population and it's one of the fastest growing voting blocs in this country yet the numbers don't match to those holding elected offices around the country and we'll find out why, and of course, the supreme court is set to take up how race is used in college admissions. so we'll talk about how the right is literally using the aapi community to twist this message of affirmative action. it's quite ridiculous trying to divide the communities and it will not work on "the cross connection" the comedian, "blackish actor," will join us for the final season which has talked to americans a lot about challenges in the country from race relations and all of that in the two hours. i'll have to talk like an auctioneer and get through every segment. >> i have things to do and

errands to run and i can never do them on a saturday morning. you're talking estate planning? i should have talked about estate planning on my show. you are so good at this, tiffany. >> thank you, ali. >> i'm looking forward to it. tiffany cross, stay tuned to more of what she just said right after the show. "the cross connection" starts at 10:00 a.m. eastern right at the top of the hour. i have a riddle for you. one of the books "maus," the eye, and it's not all that they are high books of literature and those are among hundred of titles that are being banned in schools across the nation right now. schools across the nation right schools across the nation right now. oh, we can help with that. okay, imagine this. your mover, rob, he's on the scene and needs a plan with a mobile hotspot. we cut to downtown, your sales rep lisa has to send some files, like asap!

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♪where everybody knows your name ♪ ♪ ♪and they're always glad you came ♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ today's phrase of the day is book banning. it's a verb defined by the free speech center as the most widespread form of censorship that occurs when books are

pulled from libraries, school reading lists or bookstores because someone objects to their content. over the last several months we've seen a wave of conservative school districts are getting rid of books on race and sexuality. minton county, tennessee is banning the pulitzer-prize winning novel "maus" which depicts the horrors of the holocaust. the book cited rough images and objectionable language as reasons to ban the book and this is the week we mark holocaust. >> "the bluest eye" about an oppressed black girl's childhood to protect kids from obscenity. tennessee banned "walk two moons" about a 13-year-old native american girl whose mother disappeared.

this one cited outrageous story telling and objectionable language. katie, texas banned "new kid" about a new black kid attending a mostly white school because parents claimed it was about critical race theory. "all boys aren't blue" about the author's experience growing up black and year due to sexually explicit material that should be, quote, investigated as a crime. and an illinois district is barring "the hate u give qwest "by angie thomas about an unarmed black kid shot by police, quote, it's cramming curse words down our children's throats in order to meet the diversity education, end quote. not included in the list i just read are hundreds of other books being targeted by parents and school boards that could potentially be ripped from library shelves because they

make parents feel uncomfortable. remember that word, it will be important in our discussion. all of these examples of change are in the wrong. they're in the wrong direction and they happened in the last three months. i am joined by eddie glon jr., from the department of african-american studies and the author of a new book called "begin again. the james baldwin america and urgent lessons of our own" and timothy snyder author of "on tyranny." thank you for joining us. tim, i want to start with you because there are historical antecedents to historical behavior and none of them end up well particularly in societies that call themselves democracies. >> the first thing is wow, books are terrific things.

when you see people trying to censor books. books are the kinds of things which refresh our minds and allow us to be citizens in a democratic country because after all, democracy is all about being surprised, learning and seeing the point of view of other people and building coalitions and having a civil society. so, of course, you're right. all of the historical examples lead in the wrong way. when i listened to the list that you just gave, what struck me most was the idea of be on 16ity. when the nazis talked about art this they wanted to ban they called it degenerate and said it was offensive to women. so this was a common theme here. if there's something you don't like politically, you pull back the idea that it's obscene and we don't like in the common sphere and that's a common element that stands out. >> eddie, i worry very much about the political implications of what tim is saying, but i want to talk about something that hit closer to home and it's

something that you wrote about in your book "begin again" and you and i talked about recently, as a young scholar of princeton you made choice bess what to study and what not to study because, studying, for instance, james baldwin would be uncomfortable to some of your fellow students. this concept of discomfort actually prevents us from studying and learning some things. i'm not quite sure why we in 2022 as americans so uncomfortable with the concept of discomfort. >> i mean, that's a great point. in my case i didn't want to manage that discomfort. i didn't want to spend my time having to, you know, perform for my colleagues that i wasn't that particular kind of plaque person that they were actually good people. there's a reason why plato bans the poets in "the republic." because the poets are the seers of our imagination. the imagination allows us to see beyond the constraints of our

current conditions. so i think more than anything, ali, there is this desire to remain permanent docked in the station, to be comfortable with the status quo with things as they are and to not imagine the world differently. it's almost the difference between being provincial between being per vengs. you happen to be born in a small town. this is what you've been exposed to. but being per oakal is you choose to be nair roechlt you choose to limit the sphere of concern. and it seems it's been a part of our history over and over again that america always chooses or seemingly in the moments of storm and strengths choose -- we choose to be narrow in our sphere of concern. >> this is just the beginning of the important conversation that i'd like to continue on the other side of the break. professors, please stay with us. i want to continue as soon as we get back.

back with me now to continue a conversation that i really hope we have more time for. we have to continue it another day, about book banning. chair of african american studies at princeton university and timothy snider from yale university, you maud a really interesting point about the fact that books expose us to a world we otherwise wouldn't be exposed to. so if you prevent readers, consumers, students, from being per have aors of that sort of information, does it soften up a population for bad things you

want to tell them or disinformation that you want to spread? you are now thinking for them as an authority as opposed to individuals. childhood, you know, young adulthood is the time when we should be thinking about preparing citizens. and a citizen is somebody who is capable of seeing someone else's point. he knows his country is not perfect and needs to be improved. the only way to instill his attitude is to have unpredictable reading, literature, and history. if you teach kids that discomfort is the guide to life, you prepare them for authoritarians. you're make them predictable and lining up minds with a political system where they're going to believe the people who tell them what makes them feel good. >> let's talk about this as a tool of oppression, right? let's go beyond the idea that

some parent may be offended by bad words in a book. that's not what this all about. when we think about the collapse of reconstruction, for example, it is in some ways parallel with a kind of history, a geographical shift. the way the willian dunning school writes about reconstruction sets the stage for the consolidation of jim crow. and so as we limit, as we seek the limit voting rights, as we see this kind of betrayal back right now, it makes sense that we have, right this attack on books, the tack on 1619, the attack on kind of telling of much broader story. it is the level of ideas to contain. as timothy said, to keep us with the status quo. there is replacement.

jews will not replace us, right? >> i was really caught by the news that virginia's new governor has established a tip line for people to call in and snitch on classes and teachers. this is critical race theory. >> the word for that is annunciation. it's how regimes work. you farm out the dirt. farm out this dirty labor and enforce these very strict norms to the population. and in doing that, you not only demoralize policies and population. you teach people it's their job

to be denouncing others. in this ok, teachers. which, of course, is incredibly sad. at every moment, especially last few years under covid-19, teachers are just among our most important citizens and the p people we should be looking out for. >> and eddie, i think back to james baldwin. he is an uncomfortable guy to read and to know b but he describes circumstances of his life as a black man, a queer black man in america. which was uncomfortable. what do you do when you silence populations by saying i can't hear your history the way you want to tell it to me because it makes me squirm? >> you secure them in their hatred and fears. you allow the hatred to fester and grow in our segregated spaces. . there is a wonderful line by jimmy baldwin, there is never a time in the future in which we can work out our salvation, the time is always now. the we have to confront the fantasy, the myths, illusions

that secure this image of america that keeps us looking at the ugliness who have we are and what we've done squarely in the face. when we refuse to do that, we refuse to become a better nation, a more democratic nation, actually. >> we are better people. we should never make that choice to refuse to do it. these two gentlemen are remarkable authors unto their own and their material is worth reading. the chair of the department of african american studies at princeton university, author of "begin again," timothy snyder is professor of history at yale university and author of "on tyranny," thank you this morning. that does it for me. thank you for watching me. catch me back here tomorrow morning from 8:00 to 10:00 a.m. eastern. the great cross connection begins right now.

>> i'm sure it will be a black woman. he has a dedication to. that we saw how well that worked out with kamala harris. >> when they say we want a black woman, that means we don't want a white male. >> you have to get someone that is african american and competent. that is a test. >> to exclude certain candidates based on race and gender is divisive. it may even be illegal. >> good morning, everyone. welcome to "the cross connection." we might be in the middle of a bomb cyclone. but you can see the snowflakes over at fox news sure seems to be having quite the meltdown over president joe biden's announcement that he is going to nominate the next judge to the supreme court in the highest land will be a black woman. take a listen. >> i made no decision except one. the person i will