workers who stall out as starbucks is doing right now. the first contract, you can stall, and stall and stall. that's with the pro-act would do. secondly, i think the biden administration, and i think of those of us in congress have got to tell people like howard schultz at starbucks, jeff bezos at amazon, their behavior is not going to be tolerated. you ask what the federal government can do? well if you are a corporation that receives a federal contract and you engage in anti union, illegal anti union activity, you know what? you can lose that contract. that will wake up some of these corporations to treating the workers with respect. those of the few of the things i think we can do. >> senator bernie sanders who will be chairnig the health committee very shortly. thank you very much. appreciate it. very much. "alex wagner tonight" starts right now. good evening, alex. >> thanks, chris, another great show as always. thanks for joining us at home this hour. these are photos of a city bus

in capital city brasilia. the bus was on fire, teetering on the edge of a highway overpass. nbc news has not independently confirmed, but they say that supporters of jair bolsonaro attempted to push that bus over. last night, bolsonaro supporters set fire to car after car and caused all sorts of general havoc in the capital city. but the main focus of the violence was an attempt to storm federal police headquarters. the thing that brought the pro-bolsonaro rioters out on the streets last night was the temporary arrest of a man whose brazil's supreme court alleges summoned people to prevent the certification of officials. sounds familiar. after the candidate who beat bolsonaro, known as lula, after

he had his electoral win officially certified. it also came after outgoing bolsonaro broke his post-election silence last week telling his supporters, quote, who decide where is i go or you? who decides where the armed forces go, are you? it's been more than a month since the presidential election and bs has still not conceded. his followers have called for military intervention, a coup, to bar lula from office an keep their leader in power. so bolsonaro alluding to the armed forces here is a trar fiing prospect. now, there are a lot of comparisons we can draw from that to our own politics at home but the one i want to focus on is this one. the fuel is a conspiracy theory. the conspiracy theory that the election was rigged, that it was stolen. some bolsonaro supporters are already claiming online that last night's violence was a false flag operation by leftist

lula supporters. of course, there's no evidence of fraud and there's no evidence of a quote-unquote false flag operation. but these conspiracy theories have infected brazilian politics, from civilians, all the way up to powerful elected officials. and this is not just unique to brazil. just last week, german special forces carried out a countwide raid hitting 150 different homes and arresting 25 members of a coup plot. the plot laid out by german prosecutors was allegedly to storm the german capital, arrest lawmakers, execute the chancellor and install a descendant of pre-war nobility, a little bit of german prince as the new head of state. according to the news outlet, the group appears to have modeled themselves after the far-right missionaries in the united states. with a weakness for conspiracy theories and reject the

legitimacy of post-war germany. among those conspiracy theories was qanon. what they underline is the most surprising element of this, a surprising number of people involved in this plot, people who believe in the conspiracy theories a surprising number of them are from the upper echelons of german society. a judge who had been a former member of parliament was among them. members of the military among them. former members of germany's special forces. these conspiracy theories quinted powerful and important people which brings me back here to the united states. in advance of the january 6th committee final report which we expect a week from tomorrow, they started publishing many texts that former chief of staff mark meadows received from 34 members in a runup to the capitol. nbc news has not independently confirmed or reviews those texts and there maybe context missing

from some of them, but what talking points memo has published so far is alarming. we have known for a long time that a select handful of officials like congresswoman marjorie taylor greene has really seem to have dranked stop the kool-aid. and spelling it by the way, like the department store marshalls. what it makes clear is that marjorie taylor greene was less of an outlier than we thought. lots of people were calling for drastic measures to overturn the election and citing conspiracy theories as their reason for doing so. 34 republican lawmakers were texting mark meadows things like youtube videos explaining that identities of 50 million u.s. citizens were stolen by ukraine and used for voting in the 2020 election as part of a $100 billion plot involving illegal immigrants, blackmail and romanian officials.

that's really something that happened. not the conspiracy theory part. the fact that 34 republicans -- among the 34 republican lawmakers that were texting mark meadows, some of them believe in that. or stuff like the conspiracy theory that italian defense contractors somehow used satellites to alter the election results. the chair of the house caucus steve perry was one of the people. they say he was fixated on that italy-gate. he bombarded mark meadows setting up machines that would seize voters around the country and put them under lock and key. perry was far from alone. tpm's piece reports that mark meadows was getting similar reports about the italy-gate from a republican in georgia. these are elected members of the

u.s. government who were re-elected last month and appear to actually believe this stuff. joining me is an investigative reporter for talking points memo. josh is part of the tpm team who have teamed the mark meadow messages to overturn the results of the 2020 election. josh, good to see you. thanks for being here tonight. >> thanks for having me, alex. >> so is this why mark meadows fought the subpoena? these aren't all of the emails. these are just ones he chose to release. what can you tell us about that selection? >> in my view, italy-gate conspiracy theory, the fact that these wild, completely baseless theories were being spread among the highest levels of the government. in a sense this is what they the committee had access to. i think that in itself tells you that things out there much more

damaging. we have evidence in the texts themselves, scott perry who you just mentioned is constantly references chats on signal, the encrypted messaging app. and we even have evidence this week to suggest that the regular sms messages handed over to congress, that isn't a complete record. there's more out there. and it's hard to understand that it's the official record of what's out there. >> from what you have seen, with the caveat this is not a complete picture of the response from meadows or scott perry or others, can you describe the nature of the correspondence, when these insane, there's really no other word to describe them, when these insane paranoid conspiracy theories about the 2020 election fraud are floated to the white house chief of staff? he doesn't appear to be shooting them down. >> not at all, he's receptive, that's what's so fascinating about it. i think what i would say in this

progression, in the days and weeks after the election itself, there's a lot of vague supposition about what might have happened. we see perry talking about getting nsa involved and who knows if people believe that sincerely or if this is something he's projecting forward. as time goes on these theories, although they're completely baseless, they get more and more specific. it's not just that there's a cia connection, it's oh, italy used satellites to zap votes away. it's completely unhinged. completely divorced from reality. and by the time january 6 rolls around, you have all of these people who developed incredibly elaborate narratives about why trump lost. everything from getting less votes for biden, of course, it's all fantasy, but it develops. >> it makes the theory about dominion voting machines being rigged look tame by comparison.

do you have a sense of where -- you know, some of this stuff was on youtube. some of it appears to be concocted out of thin air. is there a source you that see the lawmakers going back to by way of a citation? i mean, and i guess i would also ask, is it your sense that meadows -- do we have any indication that he was taking this to the president? was this being circulated in the upper echelons of the oval office? >> so, to the first question, i can say they cast a wide net in terms what they're taking in. i think that's the way of putting it. essentially anything that agrees with the world view it seems they would run with it. you have paul gosar, for example, citing an article from a website called some -- told me. i can't say that on tv. you have authority outlets being a source of these people, breitbart. italy-gate in particular came

from a random youtuber named brad johnson and kind of filtered its way into republican officials and then to mark meadows. as to whether or not these are making it to trump, the evidence we have suggests that yes. there's limited evidence in the texts themselves about whether or not the information got to trump. we heard from the january 6th committee that trump was given a lot of this information. that he was bringing it up with doj officials who would shoot it down. italy-gate, people like it because it's the craziest one. also it's unclear if trump heard about it. some people who pushed it said they brought it to him. >> dominion voting machines was taken seriously enough that now there a defamation suit makes its way through court. i know it's impossible to know what's in the hearts and minds of these lawmakers. but i think it's important to stress that, a., these are lawmakers, these are not just random people on the internet trying to get in mark meadows'

ear. some have been re-elected and serving in congress. but also when you read them, at least on their face, this doesn't look like a group of people grasping for straws. there's a true believer element in this. i can't say this for mark meadows who is obviously a political operative and working towards a specific end. did you get a sense in reading all of this, that is the passion, this sort of zealotry of real conversion to this paranoid, conspiracy world? >> i think zealotry is a good word. i would draw your attention to how people reacted to january 6. there's only a brief window for trump supporters, what they thought was antifa, as weeks went on, they learned that wasn't the case, then the fbi. and ray epps, a fed, part of the cia, it doesn't really matter at any given moment.

what matters is that it's convenient. what matters it doesn't fit with the idea that it was trump supporters who were responsible for it. when you say zealotry, i think it's during that regard. i would draw a line between that line of conspiracy when it's convenient and specific claims around the election. also, specific claims launched not by members of congress or state representatives but trump's legal team. all who knew better. all of these lawyers went to defensive law schools and knew exactly what they were bringing to court and had to know the vast majority of claims they were making were complete bunk. so i would draw a distinction there. >> some of these lawyers are acting in a different way than, for example, john eastman, acted and concocted in ways to steal an election. josh, great reporting. we look forward to much more in the coming days and weeks. >> thanks for having me. >> thanks for coming on board. now, i want to bring into

the conversation colin clark the director of research at the stefon center. mr. clark, thanks for joining me. does it surprise you that this kind of paranoid, conspiratorial world view has affected a group of people who have access to security briefings? they have insider information, if you will, as members of congress. does the fact that they have bought in to something so completely fabricated surprise you? >> yeah. in some ways, in the early days, following january 6th, and it was shocking, appalling. as we've had benefit of hindsight, so much of this is deliberate. including the disinformation conspiracy theories that were spread. the difference between misinformation and disinformation. misinformation is passed along unknowingly, that it's

inaccurate. disinformation is a deliberate ability to deceive. and that's what these individuals did. >> can you talk about the difference between violent and conspiratorial world view? >> yeah, we talk about this concept of lone actors. there's a far-right ecosystem that many engage with, they engage with conspiracies like the great replacement theory. while you have lawmakers on capitol hill peddling these conspiracies, you have real people on the ground, individuals, small cells, organizations like the oath keepers and others, that are marinating in this propaganda, in these lies and deceptions and going on to commit acts of real violence. especially when the lawmakers above the fray are never held accountable so there's this sense of impunity. >> and the people who are actual violent actors, the people sort

of the grassroots part of that, it seems to have spread. we talk about intersectionality usually is a good thing. here in extremely and paranoia, and fearmongering, it seems that the intent of team has grown bigger in recent years. can you talk more about that? >> sadly, that's accurate. we see a very broad tent that includes, you know, your kind of -- what are garden variety racists. what in the government are called rem-v actors, racially, ethically motivated extremists. qanon, conspiracy theorists and actors. it's like reddit came to real life and attempted to storm the capitol, and we've seen images and videos very painful to

remind us where a day where a large group of american citizens sought to overturn a free and fair election and they were egged on, encouraged by politicians in our own government. it's shameful. >> people re-elected talking explicitly about their belief in the big lie. how does it spread? we know, of course, about social media, but it seems more insidious than just information available virtually. can you talk a little bit about the way in which this kind of stuff has become mainstreamed? and in some ways, palatable to a wider swath of the american electorate? >> yes, it has been mainstreamed. we call it mainstreaming extremism. it's done both virtually and in the physical world. virtually, it's done through rapid, continuous disinformation claims which, by the way, is exactly is the same playbook in the russians use.

there's an a mass radicalization used. like has allowed qanonspiracy t. what used to be years to move to act and as researchers, that's something that we're struggling to kundz to pick apart the different drivers, you know, personally, i hypothesized that the pandemic had quite a bit to do with this, because people were really -- their normal patterns of life were disrupted. and now as we try to emerge from the pandemic, we still see the patterns emerging and dovetailing with the violent rhetoric which is disturbing to those watching this space. >> can you clarify something that i don't understand, this extremist world view believes in large part which is hastening chaos and society-ending events

to basically overthrow the government. this belief that it all has to fall apart before it can be built back up. how is it that people in government are fundamentally supporting that theory, by basically giving voice. giving oxygen to that kind of paranoia and conspiracy and poison? i mean, how do you square that circle? >> it's very difficult to grapple with that, right, because these things are at odds with each other. and they don't seem to mind the discrepancy, right, and the fact that there's quite a bit of hypocrisy here. i don't know if that's innate to politicians more broadly or more kind of a passing fad. certainly, we've seen that in the extremist world, where we've got things, fbi director, called salad bar terrorism, where people taking bits there the left and right and all of these different pieces holding them together and not seeming to mind

that some of these ideoloies are totally opposed to each other. really toppling the system is an extreme left view from the anarchists. in any case, who suffers, is everyone else in the middle. >> yeah, someone should give a memo to mark meadows that they're coming for you, actually, in the end. that's what this is all about. colin clarke, senior research center. thanks for making time, colin. >> thanks for having me. coming up, president biden signed the respect for marriage act into law in a white house ceremony. how did we finally get here? we will talk to one of the key players this year's long battle for civil rights, moira healy, the first openly elected governor of massachusetts. who also pushed for same-sex marriage rights. she joins me, next.

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on capitol hill tonight, the subject was a new form of marriage. should gay couples be allowed to marry, receive all the benefits from insurance coverage, tax breaks that heterosexual couples do? in the united states senate tonight, the answer was a resounding no. >> invoking the bible and ancient history, senators argued allowing gays to marry would threaten not only the institution of marriage but also civilization as we know it. >> to insist that male-male or

15 mail-female relationships should have the same status as the marriage relationship is patently absurd. >> that was nbc news "nightly news" on the day that the defense of marriage act passed in 1996. the defense marriage act banned any recognition of same-sex marriage and allowed states to refuse to recognize any same-sex granted by another state. ever since, doma has been a shameful stain on our nation's past to equality. but in 1996, it had broad bipartisan support. 86 senators voted doma. and signed into law by bill clinton. much of what doma did, validated when the supreme skort struck down the law but that only applied to 13 states in 2016, the supreme court granted states

the constitutional right to marry across the nation. but that rule could be in jeopardy after justice clarence thomas indicated in the dobbs decision that he was willing to consider rolling back the clock on marriage equality which is how we got to this historic moment today, with the president of the united states, for the first time in u.s. history, signing a federal law to protect the marriage rights of same-sex couples. >> today, i signed the respect for marriage act into law. the road to this moment has been long, but those who believe in equality and justice, you never gave up. many of you standing on the south lawn here. so many of you put your relationships on the line. your jobs on the line. your lives on the line, to fight for the law i'm about to sign. for me and the entire nation, thank you, thank you, thank you. >> the law signed by president

biden today helps protect same-sex and interracial marriages but the law also goes one step further, by repealing the defense of marriage act, doma, taking that discriminatory law off the books and tossing it into the ash heap of history. now back in 2012, massachusetts was the first state to successfully challenge doma in peril court. one of the officials who brought that case was the massachusetts assistant attorney general at the time maura healey. maura healey went on to become the state's first openly gay attorney general. and was elected to be the state's first openly gay governor. one of two openly gay governors elect. massachusetts governor-elect maura healey joins me now. governor-elect healey, first of all, congratulations, how are you feeling today? >> it's great to be with you, alex. i am so happy. you know, today represents so much for our state. we were the state really through the work of so many brave

same-sex couples who came forward in the goodrich case, that was the case that established marriage equality here in massachusetts. first in the world. and then where the state that successfully challenged doma. so to see that couple today, alex, from north hampton, massachusetts, and so many lawyers, advocates, mary donato, among them, who championed this cause for so long. to see them today and to see the president sign this. and to see, also, alex, a significant move by congress. remember, this is a bipartisan rejection of threats to freedoms and protections that really are in place as a result of the bergerfeld decision, it's an important day and i'm so happy. >> as you should be. i want to talk about who voted for and who voted against it, right. in 1996, the bipartisan support to deny same-sex couples the right to marry, that was

bipartisan. i think it was 32 democrats and 53 republicans voted for doma. cut to today, when we're enshrining the right to gay marriage federally, the only people that voted against that were republicans. 37 of them. now, it is bipartisan, but the fact is that the majority of the republican caucus voted against this in the upper chamber. what do you think accounts for that? and does that number surprise you? >> you know, sadly, it doesn't given the state of politics. but i think it's important that this was bipartisan. and the fact of the matter, alex, is that most americans support letting people live their lives as they want to live them. people just want to be able to live their lives free of discrimination. and so, i think that's a win. and, again, seeing congress step up in the face of threats and provide this back stop, particularly against the supreme court who signaled so much both in the dobbs decision and then more recently, in some of itsen

opinion and commentary, this is a really, important, important measure. i can tell you when we filed the doma litigation back in 2009, we were not expected to win that case. so many people including constitutional scholars said that we were crazy to file that case. that we had no chance. at the end of the day, we were successful. and i think that's in large part, due to the fact that so many couples and families have been willing to live authentically and bravely. people understand that. they're our friends, our neighbors, our colleagues. and unfortunately, there's just some element of the republican party that's desperately out of touch with the reality and sensibility of the vast majority of americans. >> i think that point is well taken. the broad public support here. i think we can't ignore essentially on a day like today, the way the lgbtq rhetoric has been embraced by the right wing. it's become a source of violent premeditated attacks in terms of

far-right wing extremists. i mean, does that concern you? that on one level, we seem to really moving forward as a society, but on another level in a very scary way, it seems like we're being taken back, a long way back? >> it does. it's a huge concern, alex. and i think it's all the more important that we celebrate days like today. incidentally, that was a biracial couple at the white house today, one of the massachusetts plaintiffs in the goodrich case. i think that's important because justice thomas' comments raise question about interracial marriage. it's important that we call out and recognize ideologues and others who are looking to weaponize, weaponize our kids, weaponize the lgbtq community. it's despicable. we've got to be strong about that. we certainly will be strong, i will be strong as a governor about that. but we've got to be strong as a nation. unfortunately, there is this element out there looking to use

misinformation, disinformation, and to weaponize and exploit fears and we just need to be strong. i can tell you also, as a member of the lgbtq community the arc of history is long. a lot of gains, a lot of progress has been made in just the last 13 years alone. and so, we need to recognize that, while also standing up and standing strong in the face of these outrageous attacks and efforts and threats to take us backwards. that includes protections for the lgbtq community in population. also when it comes to abortion. because i think these are things that we're seeing in parallel right now in our country. and we need to be strong standing up against those threats. >> i will say this, just as a close, i think it's very poetic symmetry that you begin this fight as an assistant a.g. at the time and now you're the governor of massachusetts when this is signed into law. it's a moment when we don't want

to recognize the darkness of the fringes, but it's important to recognize the moves forward. democratic governor-elect maura healey, thank you for being here tonight. >> it's great to be with you, alex. i probably would not be here today if it were not for that case and what taught me about governance and law and making sure people in are right places to stand up and fight for people. coming up, on a new study that we learned that vaccines help to prevent 3 million covid-19 deaths. governor ron desantis decided to hold a roundtable on the alleged harm of the covid vaccines. we'll have more on this, next.

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♪♪ two years ago this week, new york icu nurse sondra lindsey became one of the first people in the united states to receive a covid-19 vaccine and she did so to a thunderous round of applause. as she sat for that shot, miss lindsey said i hope this marks the beginning to an end of a very painful time in our history. i feel like healing is coming.

the first group of people to receive their shot that december were health care workers. at the time hospitals were overturn and more than 300,000 people had already died from the virus. covid cases and hospitalizations and deaths were just surging at that point. and then starting around in january, one month into the vaccination campaign, covid cases and hospitalizations began to plummet. that was followed by a decline in daily deaths. you can see a steep dropoff beginning at the end of january here. you know what was increasing at the time? daily vaccinations. shots in arms steadily rose through the winter and spring of 2021. and that's because the vaccines worked. and importantly, they worked as the scientists who developed them predicted, and as the government doctors and the public health officials who painstakingly vetted them also predicted when they voted over and over again, to approve them in the first place. over the course of 2021 and 2022, dozens of doctors who sit

on the fda vaccine advisory committee and the cdc's advisory committee on immunization practices they bet dozens of time to analyze data from pfizer, moderna and others to address the safety and efficacy of mrna shots for americans. every single time, both panels voted, often unanimously, to recommend the vaccines for public use. they decided the benefits outweighed the risks. it was effectively a resounding yes for their safety and efficacy. two years later, the cdc says more than 1.8 million people have died from the covid viruses. today we learned from a new study that more than 3 million deaths were avoided because of vaccines. 3 million people in the united states are alive today because of vaccines. we also now know that many more of those lives saved were likely democrats, rather than republicans. in september, the national bureau of economic research,

published research, looking at hundreds of thousands of deaths in ohio and florida from 2018 to 2021. the researchers used voting records to determine their party affiliations. and they used previous death records from those states to determine the expected number of deaths in those states every month. they found the excess death rates above the expected rates for republicans in florida and in ohio during the pandemic, that rate was 76% higher than democrats in the same states. 76% higher. and looking at their graph, you can see the gap between republican excess death and democrat excess death widen for 2021. back to through 2022, meaning that republicans in that state are not vaccinating and at least some of those republicans are dying instead. there's a steep cost to playing

politics with public health. the highest cost you can pay in most metrics. which is why it's particularly surprising that in florida today, governor ron desantis and his surgeon general, joseph ladapo, they held a 90-minute discussion on the harms of taking the covid-19 vaccine. and at the end of meeting, governor desantis adds this. >> today, i'm announcing a petition with the supreme court of florida to empanel the statewide grand jury to investigate any and all wrongdoing in florida with respect to covid-19 vaccines. and that will come with legal processes that will be able to get more information and to bring legal accountability for those who committed misconduct. >> desantis didn't stop there. he also promised to create a public health integrity committee to, quote, offer

critical assessment of recommendations from the cdc and the fda. we'll have more on that coming right up next. ng right up next. to keep it together. now there's new theraflu flu relief with a max strength fever fighting formula. the right tool for long lasting flu symptom relief. hot beats flu.

in 2020, obviously, there was an increase in excess mortality because covid was there. then you had the mass introduction of then mrna vaccines in 2021. and you would think that there would be a reduction in excess mortality. and there just wasn't. >> florida governor ron desantis

is correct that there are persistent excess deaths from covid. and they tend to be among republicans. in his state. and in republican counties nationally. despite widely available mrna vaccines and variant specific boosters people are still dying of covid. people who have not gotten the vaccines because they are republican and have ingested a steady diet of partisan propaganda alleging that vaccines are somehow bad or can till you or track you or turn you into an alien. so, yes, unnecessary covid deaths are still happening. and it is because of partisanship and not bad science. which is why the injection of bipartisan is very troubling. today, governor zts empanelled a grand jury to investigate the

covid-19 vaccine. and the cdc and fda. joining to us talk about this is have gupta, a critical care pulmonologist. dr. gupta, thank you for making time for us this evening, given the data that you have now is partisan affiliation a risk factor for contracting covid at this point? >> alex, good evening, it's seeming to be. in terms of getting infected, certainly ending up in the hospital, alex, my feeling is we'll see this for more conditions over time. there's a vaccine that exists, vaccines that can prevent infection or illness, it seems that blue cities have greater prevalence and greater uptake of vaccines on the individual level. those communities are better protected. and as a result, those hospital systems are less likely to

undergo any type of stress-like condition. certainly, we're seeing that along political lines. >> are public health officials communicating this to governors like desantis who are doing things to undermine their state's vaccinations? the moral disruption of this political strategy, have a practical effect on their citizen mortality? >> you know, what's interesting is, at states, as you know, alex, fairly insulated. and governor desantis has surrounded himself with individuals like dr. ladapo, who especially puts that up for the governor. and what's happening, alex, when

it's gone under stress. governor desantis has invoked the national guard because he is ultimately the commander of the national guard. and can leverage that capability to his liking to support health systems as needed. and that tells you something. he's done it repeatedly. and when you have that ability to pull that lever at your will. when you're only listening to physicians and the medical establishment that thinks like yourself, that's only getting one side of the story. it's not giving you a holistic, scientific view. then morals come into it because that's the only reality you that know. >> i just wonder if there's not an echo effect here. you don't have to be living in the state of florida for this to affect you. i would imagine, please correct me if i'm wrong, from a public health system, just by a man who may well be a candidate for president in 2024, starting something like a public health

integrity committee to look into covid-19 vaccines has a ripple effect, right? i mean, just the mere existence of that sort of public skepticism, as voiced by someone with such a big megaphone, does that have a broader public health effect? >> yes, and as the surgeon general, somebody in this room who should know better is the surgeon general. what he's done he's conducted a study that's been posted on the internet. there's been no peer review, alex. which has created essentially the underpinnings, it's one study that is purely conducted, it's not scientific. let's talk about it, let's look at the side effects, myocarditis, inflainflammation, is a rare side effect of the covid vaccines particularly in

young men. that's something that the cdc has said this is a very rare side effect, nonfatal. goes away on its own. that is what multiple other studies, alex for all of the viewers out there and those governor desantis listening that's what multiple reviews have shown this is a mild effect, very rare. and, oh, by the way, infection with the coronavirus can cause a more severe manifestation of myocarditis, they're cherry picking and not even going to peer review. to your point, your very good point, by doing just that, they're telling people what they want to hear, they're creating a megaphone around that. a very flawed set of data. >> just so -- i mean, if you're a scientist to do this to a population is so shameful for political ends.

dr. vin gupta, critical care pulmonologist, thank you for helping us understand what's going on here tonight. appreciate it. >> sure. our final story for you tonight, it's the most wonderful time of the year. there's a new stamp coming out. guess who's on it? i will tell you, right after the break.

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georgia congressman and civil rights leader john lewis who died in 2020 received many accolades in honor of his six decades of getting into what he called good trouble for justice and racial equity. president barack obama presented him with the medal of freedom which the highest honor awarded to civilians. the city of atlanta where he lived and served in government before going to congress renamed a street, john lewis freedom parkway. and even has a ship named after him. this ship delivers fuel and

provisions to combat ships which allowed them to remain at sea. also the first of its class, all ships of this design will be of the john lewis class which is awesome. troy university, which denied his admission, that building is now named an academic building after him. and another in the works for congressman john lewis, the u.s. postal service will feature a stamp featuring his morning 30 years in congress and commitment to civil rights. unlike a ship, a building or a street, you can hold this tribute in your hands. that's it for us tonight. see you again tomorrow. "way too early with jonathan lemire" is coming up next. . ♪♪ there's no record keeping whatsoever. it's the absence of record