>> good evening and welcome to politicsnation. tonight's leader, truth and consequences. breaking news just minutes ago in nbc has learned exclusively that the january six select committee met today to finalize

plans to issue criminal referrals for former president donald trump ahead of their monday meeting. including obstructing an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the governments, and inciting or assisting an insurrection. the committee is gearing up to hold its final hearing tomorrow as it readies its final report laying out the full details of its year and a half long investigation. also breaking this afternoon, word from the white house that president biden is planning to address the nation this week, highlighting the accomplishments of his first two years in office. the president is also expected to call for unity ahead for that new year when republicans will control the house and democrats will hold the senate. we are talking about all of it

tonight, plus we're going to hear from newly-elected los angeles mayor karen bass. and secretary of housing and urban development marcia fudge. a busy day. let's get started with the latest on the january 6th probe on the eve of what could be major developments for the investigation. nbc's scott wong joins us. scott, what are you hearing at this hour? >> well, reverend, it's good to be with you. my colleagues were working all day today and this weekend on capitol hill. ali vitale, came central ease and haley talbot reporting for us that the january six committee met today and they are moving forward. they are finalizing plans and moving forward with criminal or florals that they will send to the justice department for

president trump including three specific referrals, obstructing an official congressional proceeding, conspiracy, inciting are assisting in an insurrection. that last a criminal referral, reverend, is significant, because it does, if the justice department chooses to move forward with that one, barr anyone convicted of that from serving in public office in the future. obviously, that would pertain to president trump. we also know that the committee in this meeting, specifically reference john eastman, he was an attorney that was advising president trump during this weeks-long effort to try to overturn the 2020 election, it's possible we could see a

criminal referral for mr. eastman. this was really a rehearsal, but also they were making some decisions in this meeting about how to proceed with some of these referrals. it's becoming a lot more clear, reverend, about what tomorrow's business meeting of the january 6th committee will start to look like. >> all right, thank you, and you see senior congressional reporter scott won. joining me now is the virginia center tim kaine, a democrat. thank you to the show, senator. >> thank you, reverend, great to be with you. >> senator tim kaine, first i want to start with the breaking news coming out of the hill. you just heard our exclusive nbc reporting that the january six committee met today to finalize plans to issue criminal referrals for president, former president, donald trump ahead of the monday meeting. what is your reaction first of

all? >> well, reverend sharpton, i agree with your reporter. while they are advancing referrals on three items, the most significant is the third, assisting in an insurrection against the united states. that clause of the 14th amendment, the constitution, has only been triggered once or twice since 1870. if it is triggered, it would bar any insurrection to those who give comfort or assistance to insurrectionists from ever again serving in any elected office in the united states unless that disability is lifted by congress. this is a real, i mean, it's a major, major development. nearly unprecedented. in my view, completely warranted. because of president trump's desire to invite people to washington to do something wild

to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power for the first time in american history. >> senator, president biden plans to speak to the american people this week before the christmas holiday and the new year. about what he sees as his major accomplishments since taking office. according to white house officials, what are you expecting to hear after this speech? >> reverend sharpton, this is a speech that's going to be, i hope, will be one third about the rearview mirror, two thirds about the windshield. aron the rearview mirror, you would hear him say, you know, american rescue plan, infrastructure bill, safety bill, veterans pact act, chips research act, inflation reduction act, kigali treaty, dealing with climate change. there have been so many legislative accomplishments. most of them have been

bipartisan. when we couldn't find bipartisanship, the president and the democratic majorities were willing to forge ahead on our own. i think it is bipartisanship everywhere we can, democrats lead everywhere we must. i think you will hear the president talk about that. he will probably say, because we got so many great bills done in a bipartisan way, there is no reason we should feel pessimistic and going into our 2023, where we will now have a democratic senate and a republican house. >> switching gears, the u.s. senate passed legislation on thursday, authorizing a record 850 billion dollars in annual defense spending. meanwhile, the white house is bracing for new challenges when it comes to supporting ukraine as an incoming republican house majority. it has threatened to curb funding to help ukraine defend itself against russia.

you sit on the senate arms services committee. are you confident about sustaining aid to ukraine in this congress? >> reverend sharpton, i am confident that there will be a bipartisan and bicameral consensus on this. we have to back a democratic ukraine against an illegal invasion by an authoritarian dictator, vladimir putin. we have to. we do that because ukraine as a democratic ally. we do that to send a message to dictators around the world that you cannot casually violate international law, commit human rights abuses, invade the sovereign territory of another nation and get by without a consequence. you are right, there are some republicans that are mouthing off about that they may not want to continue it. i think this is a really important thing for americans to watch, to see which party is

pro democracy worldwide. my belief, and i'm an optimist, my believe an expectation is we will continue to have a bipartisan and bicameral consensus to back ukraine in defending their nation against be illegal invasion by a dictator from russia. >> on tuesday, the senate unanimously passed legislation you introduced designating the month of september to recognize the contributions of the african the aspirant in the united states. last week, president biden held a three-day summit with nearly 15 african leaders and he is the first presidential visit to sub-saharan africa since 2015. now, as you served on the senate formulations committee, do you feel this is the start of a new era for u.s. africa relations? >> reverend sharpton, it is an

overdue start. i think it is a stark start. here is something that i've noticed. i'm an irish american white guy who continually has to be educated. when we talk about african american politics in the u.s., sometimes the needs of our diaspora, african diaspora community, are not put front and center. when we talk about immigration politics in the u.s., oftentimes we think about latinos or asian american pacific islanders, but not so much about the african diaspora. in virginia, in many states, we have a huge reset diaspora of folks from africa. obviously, we have a black history month in february. i was the co-sponsor of a bill that passed during the trump administration. to recognize 400 years of african american contributions to the nation.

this recent african diaspora is fascinating, their politics often align with african american politics, but not always. their politics often align with new american immigrant politics, but not always. we decided that we want to give them a particular spotlight, especially during this month where president biden has invited african leaders to washington, i'm really happy my senate colleagues unanimously, together with house colleagues said, let's spotlight this talented group of people that are coming to america and enriching our nation. >> of course, the 55 billion dollars announced is good, certainly that needs a lot of resources, and the united states -- as feasible. well i still have you, i want to ask you this briefly, please. i want to ask you about your endorsement of jan mckellen,

mcclellan, for the congress in the upcoming special election for the fourth congressional district. a seat that was previously held by congress -- congressman donald mccutcheon, who passed away in november. with such a slim gop house majority going into the 118th congress, what is at stake in this race, briefly, please. >> reverend sharpton, i live in that virginia for it, i'm not just like a political guy. i am like a constituent. donald kitchen was my friend of 40 years. jen mclelland has been my friend of 30 years. this was a district that the voting rights act helped create a majority and minority district. jan mclelland has been a labor in the vineyard, helping good people for 30 plus years, a member of the virginia general

assembly for 17 years. she has been my senator. i officiated at her wedding. more importantly, she has been at the forefront of every -- >> i'm going to have to leave you there, senator. thank you, we have breaking news this hour. nbc's getting some exclusive new details about those expected criminal referrals from the january six committee ahead of their final meeting happening tomorrow. i want to go to bring in nbc's ali vitale, what can you tell us? >> yeah, reverend sharpton, we overheard the committee's hearing today as they were rehearsing for tomorrow's meeting. they were discussing their final plans to criminally refer former president donald trump on multiple charges, including obstructing an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the government and inciting or assisting an insurrection. this over the course of an hour

plus long meeting, all members representing the various parts that they are going to present tomorrow. our sources tell us that these decisions that were being discussed today are finalize. members are unanimously on board for this. of course, it is the combination of many, many months of work. the results of the committee over a year and a half of investigating. of, course tomorrow we will see the public presentation of these results. and then we will move to wednesday when the full report itself is actually released. >> all right, big news, thank you, nbc's ali vitale. i want to quickly turn now to my political panel for the day to get their reaction to their breaking news on the january six committee's big plans for tomorrow. joining me now is political analyst brendan buck, and democratic strategist kurt bardella. you just heard our exclusive reporting on the committee finalizing criminal overalls to the justice department for

former president donald trump. brandon, your thoughts first, and then kirk. >> obviously this is big news politically. it is big news historically. it's also perhaps breaking news symbolically. ultimately, it is still going to be the justice department that makes a decision on whether or not to indict the former president. this committee, you know, i was happy there was a committee. i was a little skeptical they were going to be able to really do much that mattered. this committee is absolutely overperformed over and over again, finding new details, really bring to life what happened that day. i was really interested about what ally was saying, they were practicing what they're going to do tomorrow. one of the things they've been good at is the presentation of these findings. brought to life what happened that day i was going on behind the scenes that people hadn't seen before. it'll be interesting to see the final conclusion of years-long

effort, how they're going to bring it to life once again. this is a really big moment. obviously, it puts a lot more pressure on the doj and what they're going to do. >> kurt? >> yeah, the thing that i'm looking for now, rev., how will republicans react to this panel's findings? we have been talking about, ever since the midterm elections, republican party is looking for an off ramp from donald trump. republican party is finally -- there is some dense the armor of donald trump. here's another opportunity for republicans to divorce themselves from donald trump and his criminal actions, his anti-democratic actions, we will see if they actually take that off ramp. they have to make a choice. they're either going to the party that is on the side, or they're going to be the party that's fighting against democracy. this is the clearest and starkest way they can define themselves going forward. if they go out there they say they attack the committee, this is not legitimate, they say that it's partisan, they say all the things that we've heard them say up to this point, well, then they're not really changing their tune at all.

they're completely out of stuff with voters. it will continue to be a threat to democracy. >> all right, curtain brendan, we will be back later in this hour. after the break, we will talk with housing and urban development secretary marcia fudge about her plans to tackle rising rents and americas homelessness problem. later, newly sworn mayor of los angeles karen bass joins me to talk about her plans to help heal the rift between black and brown communities after a city council scandal. first, my colleague richard knew it with today's top news stories, richard? >> good sunday to you, some illustrator watching, or three or just test firing up era ballistic missiles. a potential range of striking japan on sunday, according to seoul. this just into us. it comes after tokyo's adoption of a new security strategy to push for more offensive footing against north korea and china. the launch is coming two days after north korea's claim to

have performed a key test needed to build a more mobile powerful intercontinental blitz stick missile. that is designed to strike the u.s. mainland. argentina, the big winner today, defeating france in the fifa world cup final in qatar. led by soccer icon lionel messi. the game went to overtime and ended the tie of three all. it was decided by penalty kicks in favor of argentina. messi scored two goals in one of the most exciting world cup finals. the peruvian government says it's working at the american government to evacuate -- people on a script country. trapped near the ruins of machu picchu, now, peru declaring a state of emergency after weeks of unrest following the ousted president. the holiday travel surge, well, that is well underway. millions on the road and in the air this weekend. 2.4 million passengers nationwide on friday alone. aaa expects 113 million people

to travel by car this season. more politics nation with robin al sharpton right after this break. break. ♪ from santa claus, indiana to snowflake, arizona and everywhere in between. we're holiday ready with fast and reliable delivery, serving every address in america. the united states postal service. ♪ ♪ ♪♪

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politicsnation. housing is said to be a hot button issue in 2023 with many american cities facing both a homelessness crisis and a severe shortage of affordable housing. meantime, inflation and rising interest rates are pushing rent and mortgage payments through the roof, especially in low income black and brown communities. joining me now, marcia fudge, the secondary of housing and urban development. madam secretary, it's great to have you with us, happy holidays to you and your family. let me get right into it. earlier in the show, we reported that the president, president biden, is set to

speak this week about his administration's accomplishments so far. when it comes to hud, what has been your primary focus in these first two years? you've fought all your life around these issues, as had said qatari, what do you have to say to the american public about the first two years? what are the priorities for the next two? >> first, let me thank you again for having me, it is always a pleasure to be with you. i can't thank the president, the vice president, quite frankly enough for giving us the tools to do the work we have done. reverend, we have put more vouchers on the street than at any time in recent history. more than 100,000. we kept 1 million people in their homes through our retention programs, to make sure that during the pandemic, people didn't lose their housing. we have looked at every single aspect of what we do and hug

through a lens of equity. not just equity, racial equity as well. so, we started a program called pay we take a look at the discrimination and the home appraisal markets. which has robbed people of color of value in their homes. it hurts us as we look at the income and wealth gap in the country. we have done more for public housing than any other administration recent history. we as well tackle the issues of lead and lead poisoning in our urban corps, we have done a great deal of work, maybe people don't know about it. i would say that there is one thing everyone knows, housing is a crisis in this country. homelessness is a crisis in this country. we have put all of our resources towards getting people off the streets, we have housed more than 65,000 previously homeless people. we have made sure that we are putting resources into communities to try to build and

or preserve more housing, because if we don't,, reverend their prices are not going to go down. we have to put more supply into the markets. otherwise, the demand is so high, the prices are not going to come down. i know that people are really, really getting tired of the fact that they can't afford to live in a community where they work, or they can't work, because they can't get to a place from where they live. we are really addressing this. let >> let me go right there where you just went. let's talk the economy. many americans have been feeling the impact of increased inflation in the form of higher rents. efforts to fight inflation have made it more expensive to buy a home. what role can your department play and trying to solve these problems for americans struggling just to make ends meet. >> well, i would say we're doing a number of things. we have changed the entire way that we do that at fha. so, people would come to us

with student loan debt, we would say, you know what, you have too much debt. you are not creditworthy. we have changed the way we have calculates didn't loaned up. people would come to us and have no credit history. so, now we are saying, if you have positive rental history, we are going to use that for your credit history. we are looking at how we address down payment assistance. one of the things we know about communities of color and poor communities, people who can pay their rent generally can pay their mortgage. the impediment has always been the down payment. we are looking at how we address down payment assistance. we are doing a lot of a lot of things first time -- people have no idea we are doing it. we are making sure that we has housing counseling. you can go on our website anytime and find housing counseling in your community that will help you prepare yourselves to buy a home. so, we have changed the entire way we look at home buying. i know that right now it is difficult because of the interest rates. we have ways that we can help.

so, don't think that you can't do it. we are going to help you find a way to do it. >> one of the policies center pieces of the bipartisan infrastructure act was the removal of lead based hazards from buildings and drinking water. a priority for vice president kamala harris. who announced last week the $590 million to -- protect some 400,000 american children from lead exposure. how does this lead pipe and paint action plan from hud and the administration do that? how does that work? >> what we, do we give grants to local communities to do remediation. one of the things we know, reverend, i come from the city of cleveland, ohio. we have a major problem in our core communities with lead paint. we know that any amount of lead in the blood, especially for

young people, it can be debilitating. so, we put almost $600 million into remediating not just lead paint but a paint and pipes, lead in pipes. in schools, in churches, in places where you might not think about the fact that the water might be in some way tainted. we are putting the resources and the people in place to make sure that we eradicate lead as soon as we possibly can. >> briefly, madam secretary, we are at a time, i must ask you this. your former colleague and congress los angeles mayor karen bass will join us here shortly. after issuing an emergency declaration last week to tackle rapid hole lists in her city. across several major cities are contending with the same problem. according to reporting from the new york times, it is only getting worse as inflation has driven rents to historic levels. what is the biden administration doing to improve

access to affordable housing at a national level? >> well, the administration and congress put ten billion dollars into the rescue plan to address homelessness specifically. so, there's about 70,000 vouchers just for homelessness. there is another five billion dollars just for places like -- it's happening los angeles now. they are buying hotels, they are building units of housing that come from crates. they are doing all kinds of things to find ways to get people off the streets. i would say, give credit to the mayor, mayor bass, there is, in fact, a homelessness crisis in the country. the epicenter is los angeles. i appreciate the fact that she understands the urgency with which we have to address this problem. we are here to help with the resources we have. i think we are putting a dent in it. homelessness for the first time or in a long time went down 11% just amongst veterans.

we are making a difference, reverend. it just takes all of us coming together to try to do it. >> all right, secretary marcia fudge, thank you for being with us, have a great 2023. coming up, a house divided, republicans are set to take control but can't seem to agree on who is really in charge. our political panel comes back to weigh in next. to weigh in next ugh with powering through, it's time for theraflu hot liquid medicine. powerful relief so you can restore and recover. theraflu hot beats cold. i have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. now, there's skyrizi. ♪things are getting clearer♪ ♪i feel free to bare my skin♪ ♪yeah, that's all me♪ ♪nothing and me go hand in hand♪ ♪nothing on my skin♪ ♪that's my new plan♪ ♪nothing is everything♪ achieve clearer skin with skyrizi.

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inciting or assisting an insurrection. the committee is gearing up to hold the final hearing tomorrow, as it readies its final report laying out the full details of this year and a half long investigation. a lot to talk about headed into the week. let's turn to my political panel for their insights on a few other topics and a few other stories. joining me once again, political analyst brendan buck and democratic strategist kurt bardella. let's start with republicans in the house who are set to take over in the new year. gop leader kevin mccarthy is still struggling to lockdown the votes he needs to be speaker. he holds up committee chair decisions while he had eagles with members of the house freedom caucus to win their support. now, both of you have worked with republicans in the house and you've watched the

struggles between pass republican speakers john boehner and paul ryan and far-right members of their caucus. what is ahead for mccartney, brandon? let's start with you and then kurt. >> as you said, i worked for john bittermann and paul ryan. this feels familiar. it's not a new play that these folks are running. it's the exact same play that they ran against john boehner, forming a block and saying they're not going to vote for him if they don't get something. the problem for kevin mccarthy, the majority is so small that justify people can throw this into chaos. that is what we are looking at going into january 3rd, the first day of congress. this is the first vote that you take. they have made clear that if they don't get something, they are going to take him down. and we haven't had that happen on the house floor and more than 100 years. now, i think we are still two weeks away from this. right now, it's a little bit of theater. there is no reason for anybody to show their cards. really, what they are trying to do is we can chemically. feet what they are demanding

mostly is a house rule that allows them to kick the speed or out at anytime. and that was the thing that was held over john boehner's head. so, we know that kevin mccarthy is going to have a really hard go of it even if he gets the speakership under current circumstances. what they are trying to do is make him has weak as possible when he does come in so the very few things that he has to do with democrats, they can exact revenge on him. this is not exactly how you hit the right ground running, this is not how you convinced the american people you are a serious party. unfortunately, this handful of members cares a little bit more about themselves getting into the news than they do about accomplishing anything in the next couple years. >> kurt, let's turn to a battle of the board, at the board. on friday, a federal judge denied a request by more than a dozen states to keep sweeping immigration restrictions in place that would first introduced by the trump administration at the height of the pandemic. the rules are set to expire wednesday and leaders in some

areas are predicting a crisis and blaming the biden administration. meantime, some immigration advocates have been pushing the white house to ease restrictions faster. to you expect this to become a major political flash point in the coming weeks and months? >> well, it will, rev. we've seen already from house republicans and kevin mccarthy who made a point to go to the border and use the border as a political backdrop. the one consistent issue that republicans have a bit in the united behind it for more than a decade now is the issue of immigration. it's something that always excites their base. remember, donald trump got elected on the promise of building a wall and made his campaign almost exclusively about the border and immigration. so, republicans will continue to return to that playbook. it's one of the only areas that they are actually unified. as we are talking about kevin mccarthy have this narrow majority, even if he gets to be speaker, he's going to be one of the weakest speakers perhaps

that we have ever had. he is going to look to that issue as a crutch to try to satisfy the most extreme elements in this party, who are right now holding his position hostage. so, the onus is now going to be on the white house. republicans took back the house, they talk about all these political theater, it's where are their solutions? what is their answer. where is more funding for the border? what are they going to do now that they control one of the two houses of congress to provide solutions? you just can't go forward with platitudes and rhetoric and attacks and not offer a solution. that is not the promise republicans made to voters. it's going to be their time to step up. >> president biden is planning to deliver a speech on his administration's accomplishments this week. the address is expected to include a call for unity and bipartisan ship. what would you like to hear from the president as we head into a new year of a divided government? kurt, you go first briefly and then brendan.

>> i think it starts with talking about the historic successes that president biden and democrats in congress have delivered to the american people. we need to do a better job of taking credit for the things that we have gotten done. so much of the year we spent a talking about it democrats in disarray, why can't they get stuff done. and then a short amount of time, we saw a flurry of legislative activity that's going to make a real difference in the american peoples lives. think president biden needs to make that point and make that contrast, republicans are out there talking about conspiracy theories, lining up behind donald trump, the anti democratic postures and coming off the heels of what we're going to hear from the january six committee. democrats actually deliver. they made infrastructure -- they made it a reality. they got the inflation reduction act done. they got the chips build on. they got the largest funding for climate change in history. that is a story that republicans have no answer for. i think president biden can put himself on the right side of this conversation going forward, challenging republicans to matchup and actually try to get a solution passed in the house. >> brandon?

>> it would be great if you could lay out a bipartisan agenda. i'm not so sure that exist. all those things that kurt talked about, all of the progressive agenda, it's over now. there is no more big, progressive lawmaking. i think that what i am curious to see, the president is willing to accept reality. everything is different now. i expect him to be preparing for battle, house republicans are going to be coming after him. now, this is something that he can absolutely use to his advantage. there is a very good chance that republicans are going to overreach. if you are joe biden, you have less than two years to get your numbers better for reelection. house republicans are coming after you. whoever the gop nominee escaping after you too, he still has pretty weak support out in the country. i think this is probably the reset for the next couple of years. i am hoping he at least appreciates that. >> all right, kurt bardella and brandon buck, thank you both very much. tomorrow marks the end of a former congresswoman's kara

bass's first week as mayor of los angeles. in a space of six days, the first black woman to preside over the nation's second largest city has issued a series of orders to attack its housing crisis. and the homelessness epidemic. it has proved to be a major issue in the mayoral election. bass is also facing rising crime rates, crumbling infrastructure and an ongoing controversy in the city council that has exposed a rift between black and latino communities in l.a.. joining me now is los angeles mayor karen bass. >> madam mayor, good to have you with us. thank you for joining us so soon after your first day in office. let me again extend my congratulations to you on your victory and your historic ceremonial swearing in by vice

president kamala harris. your tenure began on monday with an emergency declaration to tackle widespread homelessness in los angeles centered in part on your intention to house over 17,000 homeless people over the next year. now, it's a big number. still less than half of the 40,000 homeless residents on your streets right now. can you give us an idea of the scale of the homelessness problem in los angeles that you have inherited and what is driving it. what does this particular emergency declaration allow your administration to do differently from the one issued by your predecessor in 2015? >> first of all, rev., thank you for having me on. it was a very, very exciting week. you are right. i, mean 40,000 people on the street, if you can imagine that. which means there are tens and encampments which is several

tense together, little tent communities all through the city. the demographics are terrible. of the 40,000 african americans make up 30%. we are only 9% of the population, latinos are 49% of the city and make up 44% of the unhoused. that's 74% that are african american and latino. and on a daily basis roughly five people die who are unhoused. i don't know if there's any other way to look at it other than it's an emergency. the last time the state of emergency was actually declared for homelessness was under mayor bradley in the 19 80s. so, this was the first time this has happened in a while. what it allows me to do, if you know madden a hurricane, you suspend a lot of bureaucracy. a lot of it takes so long to

build and making it so expensive to build. so we need to fast-track building. we also need to get people off the streets immediately. on tuesday, i'm going to launch another program called inside safe which basically is taking the lessons learned from the pandemic. there are a lot of motel and hotel owners that were resistant before the pandemic to master leasing out of their entire properties. they saw that was actually a pretty good deal for them. so, we are going to look to master lease properties, motels, and hotels and then we will have out reaches workers and people who are formerly unhoused talk to the people who are in the tens. i'll, you know that there are a lot of reasons why people are unhoused. a lot of different reasons. some of the unhoused work full-time, they just can't afford rent. they can't afford first and last month, they have credit problems. some people were formerly incarcerated. some people have mental illness,

women fleeing domestic violence, there's thousands of children who are on the streets, it's a diverse population and there needs to be a diversity of strategies once you get someone off the street to address why they went wound up and housed. and these are problems, have been there, yet you chose to one and lead the city out of this and i've known you a long time, work together with you, you worked with los angeles network where mostly and others are, so i know you are a forward thinking and working with the present situation at the same time. you can walk -- at the same time. that is the karen bass i know. so other than the fight to curtail homelessness in los angeles, what would you say are the other, top two priorities of the best administration? >> sure, and you are right rev, i remember in 1993, in a community organization that i

started, we were trying to take over motels than everybody thought we were overreacting. it took a pandemic for people to realize that that is a part of the solution. but the other problems are public safety and affordability. los angeles has just become unaffordable to live here. and then public safety is an issue because there has been an increase in crime. but from my perspective all of these issues are interconnected. i mean, if los angeles was an affordable place to live, there wouldn't be so many homeless people. one of the things that we have discovered is that we have hundreds and hundreds of vacancies in city government. and so i am going to go on a campaign, of hiring people in the communities because those are good union paid jobs. so to address affordability, to address crime, to address homelessness, good paying jobs help. and then over the years we have a developed a variety of crime french and strategies that actually don't really involve law enforcement. and so in some communities in

los angeles, they want to see an increase in police presence. that is fine, we will do that. but in most of the communities that is not what people want. people want programs and policies to address why people get involved in crime in the first place. and not you know me, i am very very committed to those prevention strategies and bringing in resources. so that crimes are not committed in the first place. >> let's talk about the aftermath of the scandal that rocked the l.a. city council back in october. that -- 9% of l.a.'s population, and hold 20% of council seats. latinos are newly half of the city's population, but hold less than a third. what can be done on your watch as mayor to repair rifts between your cities black and latino communities and their political representation? >> well, first of all, i have spent my whole life doing multi racial organizing and the

organization that i started 32 years ago was built as an african american, latino organization. so i don't subscribe to the notion that there has been some big rift between black and latinos in the city of los angeles. what you heard on those tapes was absolutely, positively agree just. and those individuals could should resign and as you know they did. two of them dead. and one is resisting the other one termed out so it is out of office anyway. the bottom line, in that situation is that it is really left to the voters. because the city council, the mayor or the district attorney, do not have the authority to remove a council person. but the voters do, through the recall process. so what we did, you know three days after hearing the tapes, i convened a group of multi racial group of civic leaders and we are starting a process, having conversations around the city to look at some of the structural reforms such as redistricting. we clearly need to have been --

redistricting commission. but rev, we also need to look at what is underlying all of that. it is a about a division of assets in our city. is it about a power equation. and we need to figure out how los angeles can be a more equitable city. we have parts of the city that are very wealthy, part of the city that are very poor. that was at the heart of what those council members were fighting. >> all right. i'm going to have to hold it there. thank you so much for joining us so early in your term. los angeles mayor karen bass, thank you again. happy holidays to you. up next, my final thoughts. so stay with us. so stay with us. ♪ ♪ keep it fresh with colorful cookware. whip up holiday treats with ease. slice and dice with the best of them. and with wayfair, you can express yourself. ♪ ♪

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watching. next weekend at five p.m. eastern i am hosting politicsnation's 12th annual red via words. it is where we celebrate the best and worst of politics in 2022. and give awards to those who deserve it. you do not want to miss the show, right here on msnbc. american voices with