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and it's only available to comcast business internet customers. so boost your bottom line by switching today. comcast business. powering possibilities. tonight on "the reidout" -- >> why not release the tax returns that aren't involved in the audit? >> i have very big tax returns. i'm sure you have see the picture where the returns are from the floor to up to here. tremendous cash flow. you don't learn much from tax returns. >> the house ways and means committee votes on what to do with trump's tax returns. their decision could come down at any moment. >> plus, a caucus in chaos. republican house minority leader kevin mccarthy is still struggling to land the speaker's gig, as new questions surface about the possibly made-up background of an incoming member of his caucus. >> and later, white house correspondent april ryan on her

new book "black women will save the world" profiling leaders on the front lines of social and political change. >> we begin with one of the biggest political scandals in the history of the nation. >> i did not have sexual relations with that woman. >> okay, no. not really. but it actually was the biggest scandal ever for a lot of republicans. who sunk their teeth into a chance to take down a democratic president. it was arguably the dawn of the toxic hyperpartisan republican trolling strategy with the help of right-wing talk radio and an outspoken clan of clinton enemies, not to mention a very, very thirsty mainstream media. remember president clinton came close to getting indicted over this stuff. brought his final full day in his office, he reached an arrangement with a special prosecutor to avoid being prosecuted for his misleading statements about monica lewinsky.

part of that agreement meant a five-year suspension of his bar license. so president lying about a sexual relationship? okay, i guess. but you know what feels like the bigger scandal? oh, right. pressuring elected officials and trying to intimidate the vice president into overturning an election. hyping up a deadly mob to storm the u.s. capitol and force lawmakers to hide and run for their lives, including the vice president, who they were threatening to hang. oh, and striking at the central tenant of american democracy, namely the peaceful transfer of power to a president that the people elected. seriously, what's the bigger scandal? lying about an affair or attempting to overthrow the u.s. government by force? an outrage that came with casualties. come on. and yet, here we are. waiting with bated breath to see if the doj is going to do something about trump, as those who howled over clinton remain

silent about trump's transgressions. still. this is less than a jolly holiday season for trump. and not because the so-called woke mob is canceling christmas. they're not. and not because he thinks santa claus cannot be black. he can. but because trump's luck may finally be running out. yesterday, the house january 6th committee unanimously voted to recommend that trump be criminally prosecuted, finding he likely violated at least four or maybe six federal statutes including aiding and abetting an insurrection. nbc news has also confirmed breaking news from punch bowl saying the committee is cooperating with the justice department's special counsel who is charged with overseeing investigations into donald trump. it's not the only legal headache for the former president. far from it. the doj is already criminally investigating trump for his actions after the election along with his retention of classified documents at his mar-a-lago estate after his presidency

ended. in georgia, a criminal inquiry is focused on trump's push to have the election results altered there. in new york, the attorney general is suing him for fraud. and earlier this month, a jury in new york found the trump organization guilty of all charges in a sweeping 15-year tax fraud scheme that prosecutors said was orchestrated by top executives at his company. and trump is about to take a hit on that one thing, the thing he is most sensitive about and shifty about, too, his tax returns. he's engaged in a years-long baltal with democrats to keep those returns secret. >> i will absolutely give my return, but i'm being audited now for two or three years so i can't do it until the audit is finished. obviously. >> it's under audit. >> my tax returns are very simple. they're under a minor audit, routine audit, as they have been for many years. >> at the appropriate time i

will release them, but right now i'm under routine audit. >> the only one who cares about my tax returns are the reporters. >> you dont think the american public is concerned? >> i don't think so. i won. i became president. no, i don't think they care at all. >> but his taxes. right now, the house ways and means committee is meeting on whether to publicly release them, the one thing he has never, ever wanted. joining me is andrew weissmann, former fbi general counsel and former senior member of the mueller probe, and tara setmayer, senior adviser for the lincoln project. andrew, i want to start with you. the tax thing feels in a sense like the least of trump's worries. but we're going to focus on it anyway because there has been this long-standing desire for the public and democrats to see them like every other president has shown them. here's what trump has said about flouting tax laws in the past. >> as a businessman and real estate developer, i have legally used the tax laws to my benefit.

i have brilliantly used those laws. i have a fiduciary responsibility to pay more tax than is legally required like everybody else. or put another way, to pay as little tax as legally possible. >> i mean, the thing is the fact that he admitted it means that he understood that a wealthy man, even if he is not really a billionaire because he never was, can flout tax laws and get away it. he admitted it openly. what do you think? is there some legal jeopardy at some point for the fact this man clearly has not paid taxes in a really long time? >> i actually see this like you do, joy, which is i think this is interesting. i think that there will be a political hit for the release of these returns. but i think it's not impossible but unlikely to be a legal hit.

and the reason i say that is, it's very hard to bring tax prosecutions, the mens rea, the intended standard is you have to show that the defendant knew what they were doing was illegal. that's usually not the law. and you know, there will be lawyers and accountants as corrupt as they might be, who will have blessed the tax returns. and so donald trump will be able to say, you know, i relied on that. that's just, i hate to say it, that's the game that's played. but i do think it's important to remember that we're really operating on two fronts. there's the legal front and there's sort of the public education front where it's really educating the public about what this man is about. and the beauty of the january 6th committee is they operated on both fronts. where they really changed at least for me how i thought about january 6th and saw it as this

overarching scheme, and yet, they also developed tons of evidence and that's the thing we're all going to be focusing on tomorrow, all the new pieces of evidence on donald trump and also underlings who might be able to be flipped. i do think the tax returns are important, but probably more in terms of the sort of outrage of people like you and me who are sitting there going, i pay a lot more taxes, and i certainly don't make that much money. so i think it will have that kind of effect. >> right. the last time he paid taxes is when he worked for the same company i do right now, when he was on the apprentice and they paid him a w-2. and tara, this is why i think trump, the problem is scale. he seems to have just been a crime scene walking for decades. and so the tax thing winds up being more, you know, of a humiliation, to andrew's point, because he's tried to portray himself as a billionaire. he clearly wasn't.

i think we now know that was never true. but i think what's kind of interesting and where it does sort of dovetail with the january 6th and what the special counsel is looking at is the tax returns could explain to you who he owes. it could explain to you who might have influence over him. i feel like the media and reporters are going to have a lot more interest in what comes out of these tax returns because they can then go through them, if and when they're released and i assume they're going to be because every other president has had them made public. that will be something people like yourself will be able to see because it will tell you who his influences and who his negative influences and debts are to? >> yeah, we saw this with the pulitzer prize winning reporting by "the new york times" a few years ago when they were able to delve into his taxes from previous years. and it's clear that donald trump has been a professional scofflaw his entire life. he wears it with a badge of

valor. this time, i don't think he's worried about as much where he took tax breaks or what he did. remember, he is shameless. he took a tax break after 9/11 for one of his buildings and it didn't really apply to him. it was a small tax break, but really, he's just shameless. but he's more concerned about, to your point, joy, his net worth. and how much money he actually has, because the worst thing for him is for people to know he's not as rich as he actually is, and he's actually, you know, not the $10 billion man successful businessman he claims he is, and he rode that wave of that bs portrayal of himself into the presidency. and so that's what he's the most fearful of. if you listen to what mary trump says, if you read her book, his biggest fear is being a broke loser. and so i think that's what he's more fearful of. you know, to andrew's point, i really don't think that there's going to be any legal repercussions, unfortunately. we saw what happened with the

trump organization trial in new york city. it was a slap on the wrist, really. andrew, i mean, weisselberg was willing to go to jail for a couple months. he's one of those tax accountant attorneys who signed off on things who could easily take the fall. what this really will do is just show again who donald trump is, that he really is not the successful businessman he is, and that embarrassment, i think, will hurt him more than anything because it will show he's actually weak and a loser, and that is his biggest fear. >> absolutely. i'll return to this, what my lovely rachel maddow calls the door stop coming tomorrow and it's going to be very long, our holiday reading for all of us nerds. we're going to read it. i found a couple things interesting, andrew, in what the kind of the dogs that didn't hunt. the things that don't seem to be there. axios laid out a few of them. tony ornato is an interesting figure in terms of what the

secret service knew and didn't know. he testified they had no recollection of trump being angry or physically violent despite multiple witnesses describing the president as heated, angry, and insistent. what's important about that is this question of whether donald trump wanted to physically go inside the capitol and accompany the mob into the chamber to intimidate the vice president in person. that seems important to me, and whether the secret service knew that that was his intention in advance, and whether anyone, tony ornato having been a part of that organization, do you share that interest in seeing if the larger report will give us more on that? >> yeah, absolutely. i think that is going to be, if i were jack smith and his team, they're going to be looking very closely at that. because one of the things they're going to be doing, just as you just did, is look at sort of these lesser players to see, can they be charged, and to put it in their vernacular, flipped. can they become witnesses?

if they don't, fine. they'll still be held accountable. it's pretty clear from the executive summary that the january 6th thinks ornato is a total liar. they go on and on, saying he parrots the mark meadows line in his book that, you know, donald trump was only speaking metaphorically. how mark meadows would know that, that it was definitely metaphorical beats me. he doesn't have a crystal ball. but i think there's probably going to be a lot of evidence to dispute tony ornato's views and what he said. so one of the key things that i think you look for is the sort of false statements and perjury that has been made by witnesses to the january 6th committee, because it gives you leverage to bring those charges and try to get them to tell the truth. and to your point, if he flipped and there was this direct evidence about what happened in the car that is sort of also now reluctantly, he comes to, you

know, he sees the come to jesus moment where he says okay, i'll tell you what happened, that's really bad for donald trump. it was corroborate on cassidy hutchinson and it's a really bad fact that he wanted to be there, leading the troops. it wasn't enough for him to just command it. he was actually going to be on the battlefield with them. as he said he was going to be. >> i wonder, tara, if there's any deterrent effect, if other people that were part of the scheme at a higher level, not the grunts who went into the capitol, but people who are well known names in the republican party, start getting indicted. i wonder if there is some sort of deterrent effect to getting back on that train again. he is running again for president. >> yeah, we have already seen the very muted response from republicans to the january 6th committee's recommendations and these criminal referrals. and for good reason.

especially on the house side, because there's a few house members there who were all up in it that could be in some trouble. and that makes them very uncomfortable. at least mitch mcconnell came out sort of, in his mitch mcconnell way, and said the american people know who is responsible for that day, and yet mitch mcconnell said he would still support donald trump if he war the nominee in 2024. they speak out of both sides of their mouth on this. i want to say a quick thing about tony ornato. tony ornato used to work for the secret service. he got a cushy job at the white house and a cushy job back at the secret service. this is unprecedented and he became a true believer. frankly, his inability to be truthful and forthcoming in this entire ordeal is a poor reflection of what the secret service's mission and motto is, and that is an area that needs to be delved into further, maybe an inspector general investigation into what happened with the secret service, because it really shines a terrible light on what should be an honorable organization. tony ornato is a liar. >> then they deleted their

phones. i'm sorry, but there's too many things. andrew and tara, thank you both very much. >> up next on "the reidout," will the real george santos please stand up. an incoming house republican is under scrutiny under what appears to be several fabricated aspects of his biography and resume. "the reidout" continues after this.

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the democratic party under president biden had a strong

midterm showing. i mean, they might have even maintained democratic control of the house if not for new york and florida. in new york, democrats failed to win all but one of the state's competitive house races. republicans won all four house seats on long island. including two pickups, which happens to include maga republican george santos. until this weekend, all that was really known about santos is what he told the pres and voters. he said he graduated from college with a bachelors degree in economics and finance. his perbl bio on the nrcc website claims he gained business experience working his way up through the financial industry at companies like citigroup and goldman sachs. that bio also claims he not only attended buruk college but also new york university. santos, who was gay, also claimed in an interview with public radio last month that some of his employees died at the pulse nightclub massacre in orlando, florida. well, apparently, pretty much

all of that, everything i just mentioned, might be a fabrication. on monday, "the new york times" looking to profile this rising star of the america first party could not corroborate those claims. the college has no trace of a george santos graduating from its school in 2010. nor does nyu yorx those big name banks can't seem to find a trace of him in their records either. and those employees who allegedly died in the pulse massacre, "the new york times" found that none of the 49 victims appeared to have worked at the various firms named in his biography. this will come as no surprise to the readers of the north shore leader, a local long island paper that covers part of his district, which warned voters about santos when they endorsed his democratic challenger, robert zimmerman. they wrote that santos boasted like an insecure child, but he's most likely just a fabulist, a fake. the powerful chairman of nassau county's republican committee

said that the allegations were serious and merit clarification. you know who hasn't addressed the allegations? the leaders of the house republican caucus, kevin mccarthy, who needs santos in congress. mccarthy also happens to need him if he wants to be speaker. mr. santos just happens to tweet this endorsement of mccarthy for speaker on sunday night. after the times told him they were about to publish their bombshell findings. mr. santos' lawyer claimed the article was attempting to smear his good name with defamatory allegations. what he didn't do was provide any evidence that disproves "the new york times" and their findings. i'm joined by former republican congressman david jolly, and dana milbank, author of "the destructionests, the 25-year crackp of the republican party." david, it strikes me that kevin mccarthy, he's got a margin so

thin, i just want to, just by comparison, in 2011, john boehner was a quite skilled politician, had 242 republicans in his caucus. in 2015, paul ryan, not quite as skilled but the media loved him, 247 republicans. mccarthy, it's looking like he might have 222. a razor thin caucus. he needs 218 votes. the last time he did sort of a test run, he only got 188. so he's not even in a position to criticize this guy who might have a completely made-up entire biography. your thoughts? >> yeah, that's the important subtext. i would suggest john boehner and paul ryan had one other thing kevin mccarthy doesn't. that's the respect of their colleagues and caucus. and kevin mccarthy simply doesn't have that, so he doesn't have a way to get to 218 votes. kevin mccarthy has more votes for speaker than anybody in washington, d.c. right now, but

he doesn't have enough. so you have seen mccarthy make what many are calling this corrupt bargain to try to get to 218. he had isolated marjorie taylor greene, now he's elevating her. he said the dhs secretary should not be impeached. now he says the secretary should be impeached. now things are going backwards with lauren boebert saying, well, i might have some questions. and with santos now, his entire integrity on the line and his credibility. the window wickly closing on george santos to be defined as anything but a fraud in the u.s. congress, but kevin mccarthy needs him. expect them to circle the wagons around santos at least through january 3rd or the following days to secure the speakership. >> you know what's kind of fascinating when you look at it, dana, the only reason democrats didn't hold the house outright, okay, because this -- because of the end of roe v. wade and candidate quality issues and trump, democrats are actually in a really good position this year, but those illegally

gerrymandered seats in florida, and the stupidly gerrymandered seats that pit democrat incumbents against each other in new york, that is why kevin mccarthy has a majority at all. but he's got a majority that's filled with characters, to be nice. this guy santos made up an entire life. he might as well make baseball cards like trump did, when he was an astronaut. and even trying to take advantage of the pulse nightclub massacre. your thoughts on all of this mess. >> madison cawthorn may be on his way out, but we have new fabulous coming in to replace him. and just think about it. this guy was actually in a fairly competitive race. so he was vetted reasonably well. and yes, maybe the democrats and maybe the media fell down a bit on the vetting, but a lot of this was known. it was known that the s.e.c. had gone after the company he actually did work for as a ponzi

scheme. so this sort of thing was known because it was a competitive race. but consider, there are perhaps 100 others out there who have potentially similar stories that we didn't follow because they weren't necessarily under the microscope, and that's what's happened, because so few of these seats are competitive, you can get into -- slide your way into congress without the proper vetting. another representative elect by the name of collins just tried to hire as his chief of staff, a guy who was recently arrested for kicking a dog and injuring the poor animal. you know, we know the names of marjorie taylor greene and lauren boebert, but there are many others that are yet to be known that are going to keep popping up. and the problem now, to get back to what you were saying to david there, is kevin mccarthy can afford to lose no more than four

crazies on any given vote. and the problem is, his caucus of 222 is about two-thirds crazy. >> i mean, i think at some point we have to start asking ourselves, i know there's a veneration voter thing that we're supposed to do, but there's something going on in terms of the candidate quality that voters on the republican side are willing to accept. they're winning primaries. they're getting through primaries. they're not forced upon republican voters by some elite. this guy also has issues with finance. we don't know where he got the $700,000 that he lent to his campaign, because he was so broke he apparently was, you know, getting evicted just a few years ago for not paying his rent, as recently as 2017, he was evected for skipping out on $10,000 in rent. he's going to the white nationalist luncheon with the young republicans. he's january 6th -- where did he get $700,000? it feels like there's -- he's an

ethics issue walking and there's nothing that can be done about it. this is for you, david. >> joy, look, it's an indictment of today's gop. a party that elevates the ignorant, the racist, the fabulous, and the fraud. we're seeing that. dana mentions madison cawthorn, lauren boebert and her history that we well know. marjorie taylor greene, matt gaetz, the credible charges of sex trafficking, yet these are the people, and this is important to the conversation around kevin mccarthy, that don't need kevin mccarthy because in today's republican party, they're able to create a national constituency that provides them the financing, the social media support, and the affirmation of those behaviors that ultimately allow them to succeed. this is where when people talk about the party has trump. it's not about donald trump. it's about republicanism in 2022. >> dana, the party has taken trump and gone lower. these candidates are

unbelievable. >> lower and lower. now we're seeing lauren boebert and matt gaetz are attacking marjorie taylor greene over the jewish space lasers. so just, i mean, they're saying look, she's even crazier than i am. so when you have a competition and when you keep invoking jewish space lasers, i'm a little worried that kevin mccarthy is going to get incinerated by one of those things. >> i'm just thankful herschel walker didn't enter that mix. thank you. thank you. thank you, lord. thank you. and thank you voters. david jolly and dana milbank. still ahead, jealousy, lies, and back stabbing. harry and meghan are accused of washing the dirty laundry, washing the dirty laundry of the royals in public. they say they're just trying to shine a light on the vile racism they have been forced to endure. stay with us. ur benefits at visionworks!

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if there's one thing you know about the royal family, it's that they do not like it when their dirty laundry is laid bare. the firm or the institution as it's called is very controlling of its messaging, and that became clear during the divorce of king charles and princess diana. the people's princess. flash forward to today, after prince harry, diana's youngest son, and his wife, meghan markle, released their much awaited netflix document air

series. they pull back the curtain on how their courtship was treated. aside from seeing their adorable love story up close, you also learn how needlessly cruel the institution can be. and exactly how far it will go to work with the british tabloids to elevate some members of the royal family and diminish others. that comes as no surprise to anyone who followed the tragic life of princess diana. instead of welcoming meghan with open arms, meghan, she was viewed as a threat to the future monarch. >> here is a woman who looked like most of the people in the commonwealth, and they somehow for some reason couldn't find the capacity to protect her, to represent her, to stand by her, to take on vested power in her name, to fight for her. >> anyone inside that system, whether it's my family, whether it's staff, pr, whoever it is,

have already missed an enormous opportunity with my wife and how far that would go globally. >> if the royal family needed any further evidence of the kind of misogyny, racism, and unbridled hatred meghan markle has been subjected to, they need to look no further than the sun, a tabloid owned by rupert murdac. it published a disgusting column from clarkson. he wrote he hated meghan markle on a cellular level and added he dreamt of the day when she, meghan, is made to parade naked through the streets of every town in britain while the crowds chant "shame" and throw lumps of excrement at her. the comments, which were a reference to an infamous "game of thrones" episode, were widely condoned. clarkson subsequently claimed he was horrified his clumsy words cause so much hurt, but he never

apologized. joining me is a lawyer, activist, and author of "this is why i resist" and it is always great to see you. let's talk about this. i have watched the series. i have binged the series, the meghan and harry series. i felt like i knew, my husband was born in great britain, lived there for many years. i felt like i knew that there is racism there, it's different from the racism here. but wow. i knew there was, like, jealousy and envy inside the firm to the newer sort of fresher interesting members. but wow, wow, and wow. talk about what's going on with meghan markle and the royals. >> i think first of all there is no difference, okay, between the racism that plays out in the united states and the racism that plays out in the united kingdom. there is an institutional power in place that supports the system that allows white privileged men like jeremy

clarkson to get published with such vitriol because there is a system in place that targets those that it wishes to oppress by racializing or marginalizing them. this is white privilege, everybody. welcome to white privilege. and the reality here when it comes to the royal family, my biggest takeaway aside from the beautiful love story, of course, is the real villain in the persecution of harry and meghan is the royal family. the royal family is the most powerful and oldest family in britain. right? and part of the oldest institutions, they tacitly approved, turned a blind eye to a toxic combination of misaurjany, racism, and sexism against meghan markle, a member of their own family. people, please. how am i meant to trust the king

charles, queen consort camilla or prince william or any of the senior royals when they cannot even protect their own? if they cannot stand up and support their own in times of mental health, why should i take them seriously when they talk about mental health? if they cannot address issues of racism within their own institution, their own family, why should i trust them for one second that they're looking out for somebody like me? so i think that the biggest takeaway is that the family does not want to change. but listen, this is 2022, people. and i have always questioned the relevance of the monarchy. it's outrightly incompatible with the hard fought rights that common people like me, those before me, have fought for. it makes no sense. and they keep abusing the power that they have, simply for their own use. the only good thing that the royal family have been able to achieve in all of its existence is its own survival.

>> let me play a clip. this is one of the worst things that happened during their life together. this was on the birth of their son. take a look. >> archie had just been born. media, social media starts to take on a life of its own. someone in the media posting a photograph of a couple with a chimp. and at the top it said royal baby leaves hospital. so that was one of the first things i saw. >> i think the bigger point that i really took from this is that they have a commonwealth that is 40-some odd countries that are mostly black countries and yet they didn't see the value of having a black princess to represent them. and that was what they allowed to happen to her. >> exactly. and not only that. they needed to keep her in the box. if you recall from the interview they did with oprah winfrey, when was that, last year or so.

this particular interview, one of the things you take away from that is how they take an independent, successful woman and want to break her down. that makes no sense to me. there is a reason why she had risen to the level she had risen to individually in her own personal capacity. she had shown, you know, passion. she was a campaigner. she spoke out. she's eloquent. she's strong. why not use those as assets? because it would take away from those in the royal family who couldn't match her, like they couldn't match princess diana. that is the problem. envy is deep rooted. >> and it is the same thing that happened with princess diana. a fascinating series. thank you so much for being here. >> we're going to take a quick break. before we take a break, breaking news from capitol hill. the house ways and means committee has voted to publicly release the tax returns of former president donald trump. we'll be right back.

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i must begin these very brief remarks by thanking god for delivering me to this point in my professional journey. my life has been blessed beyond measure. and i do know that one can only come this far by faith. >> history was made this year when justice ketanji brown

jackson became the first black woman to be appointed and confirmed to the u.s. supreme court. a moment made even more iconic by the fact that standing right beside her during that nomination ceremony was the first black woman vice president, kamala harris. that kind of representation after generations of black women being pushed to the sidelines of american power is something veteran white house reporter april ryan writes about in her new book "black women will save the world." in the book, ryan examines the struggles and resilience of black women as well as her tenure as the longest serving black woman white house correspondent. and joining me now is april ryan. white house correspondent for the grillo and author of black women will save the world, and also my friend. thank you for being here, april. great to see you. >> hello. thanks for having me. >> of course. let's talk about this book. you have spent so much time and such a storied career covering

the white house. that clip we just showed, what did it mean to you, setting aside just as a journalist, to see this first black woman supreme court justice standing beside the first black woman vice president? >> you know, joy, i felt seen. i felt seen, to have the president of the united states, who happened to be a white man, this nation is still very white male dominated, flanked by two black women, and the highest levels in american history, american >> the executive branch. as well as the judicial branch. i felt seen. and to listen to the words of ketanji brown jackson, and this is the humanity part. this is not journalism. that as a black woman, it's about i show. to hear her words, she sounded like you and me. we were seen that they.

and, so many people have often wanted and wondered if we would ever get to these lofty purchase. i am several generations removed from the last slave in my family. and i know that they never dreamed of this. and you think back to shirley chisholm, the late great shirley chisholm. the first to get to president in 1972. and she said, if you don't have a seat at the table bring a folding chair. black women pretty pep truly have the folding chair on their back. but next, we are convening the table. we own the table. and we are making decisions at that table, and the highest court. >> well, you know april, when i think about the title of your book. black women will save the world. i think voting, because i am obsessed with voting. but black people vote at the highest percentage of ebony americans. and it was black women who saved joe biden this current president, in south carolina.

a large turnout of black women. and then he promised that in return, he was going to put a black woman on the supreme court. he did that, but there was also a lot of advocacy black black women. or prominent black women that you and i would know. put a letter together and said you got to do this, you made this promise. so talk about black women in terms of, a lot of people say losing the vat vote, talk about that aspect of black people saving the world. >> you know, that's that letter. i want to really emphasize that letter. that letter came at a time that the biden team, the campaign was trying to figure out where to go next because it was going to be a transformational moment of george floyd. that letter really spoke to what amy said when she pulled out of the race. what the nation was saying. we were at a moment when we did not know what was up, what was down.

but we knew something had to change. because black people were on the menu. we were in the street dying. we were marching from, possibly dying for the right just to be, you know, and i also think about keisha lance bottoms, who saved the candidacy, the attempt for president for joe biden. she did it twice,, really when he was running for president. and when he was president. when his mothers were low, she came to the white house. and said yet again. boldly black women, only black women. and yet, we are so strong. and in these moments we fill them. and then we serve, and this is what i write in the book, we serve out of love. and uplift for the community. versus our male counterparts who do out of eagle and power. and that is from our friend, the democratic pollster,

belichick, but when we go to serve. when we lift our communities we do it out of love. and that is what we are seeing here. >> well, i would be remiss if i didn't ask the question about your own role as a pioneer black woman journalist. we just had the january six committee conclude that the former president of the united states, who you had some run ins with. there were some very rude moments that he directed directly at you. very specifically, and that other black women journalists in the white house. what did you think when you heard the january six committee had this final meeting? and said that that president likely committed felonies in attempting to claim some power? >> well, you know, we've seen a lot of this. and we knew it but we had to go through the process. and see what had happened. and what would stick. and now, the recommendation is going to the department of

justice. what is going through my mind? all the unlawful acts. starting around justice, is now potentially up for criminal charges. and january 6th, was the reality of what i already know. it was not empty threats. it was the reality of the ideology of donald trump to say that by any means necessary. so it is now in the hands of the department of justice, and yet again, it's a wait and see. >> and i know that you will be front and center covering that story as you do so many others. the great april ryan. you give that look in those press conferences, we were just waiting to see what you are gonna do. when you you are waiting to get that look. but when you are in those conferences. thank you very, much congratulations. conferences. thank you very, much>> i think s important. >> we have breaking news.

i'm ali velshi, congressmen -- and the chair of the house ways and means committee. he's speaking now. they voted to release donald trump's tax returns. listen in. >> a lot of big accomplishments over the house ways and means committee. but certainly what you can tell this evening, part of what we have accomplished was pretentious. i recommend that you read the two reports endorsed by the house ways and means on guy taxation. for all financial purposes, the research that was done as it relates to the mandatory audit program was nonexistent. the tax forms we are really never audited. and only by sending a letter at one point, at a review mirror response. i advise again that the mandatory program is highlighted in what you will likely get in the next few minutes or so. it was almost nonexistent.

and my point is that, that was a legislative purpose with which we won for federal court decisions and three courts. we argued for an examination of how the audit process played out. once staff went to visit the irs, and one staff had a chance to go to some of the other locations within the jurisdiction of the irs, they quickly concluded that in fact, the audit did not occur. there were no audits in a timely manner. and i think that goes for 2017, 2018, and 2019. and i am restrained by the speech and debate clause by talking about the other issue that we had on our agenda. so the mandatory admission of, it highlights the idea that it is on the two tier system. if you are at the top, you know

you have no chance of getting audit. and as steve pointed out today, in our get together. the democratic caucus on the committee, the chances of being audited, if you claim the earned income tax credit are far better than being audited for people at the very top of the economic system. so we, as i noted we made it through those substantial court decisions. they require patients. and let me say something, a personal note. this was never about being punitive. it was never about being malicious. i never omer promised, i never went over the reasonable level of expectation. and time and again, i refrain from questions in the hallway that you posed to me. because i was not about to upset a very sensitive court case. the other thing that happened, much to your dislike. was that there were no leaks that occurred from the committee. we kept this very much above board.

we went back and forth with the attorneys at the committee. and we were determined to put forward the case that would, as i noted, early on when i was asked in the hallway, right after my letter originally was sent. i was asked, what do you expect? and i said a long and grueling court case. that was my quote, three and a half years ago. that is what happened. did we have enough time to conduct a review? yes we did. these were individuals on the tax staff who were seasoned professionals, tax lawyers and accountants. they proceeded like i knew they would, with not only great professionalism, but also with great restraint. not to overdo anything. because they undertook their responsibilities. did we need more time? i do not think we did. the target, the narrow window. and we accomplish it. there was no room here for a name-calling, i must say that

even tonight, it was a fairly cordial conversation in that room. not to say that we were in agreement, but it was professionally conducted. i think that it is time for us to help to rebuild the irs, that's what we did on the democratic side with the money said that we sat aside. i thought it was kind of interesting that someone complained about the irs and then witness a 20% cut to the irs in the last decade. and now, we hope that the phones will be answered. but we also hope that, because one of the issues that has arisen in our report that we don't have the ability to hire the specialists in need to do sophisticated tax returns. so it was a very one-sided effort and the tech staff came across that information as well. as my agents were designated, they accomplish their goal. and they were energetic. and i want to point out something else that i think there's more rate. when i was approaed