y heavy they're not so simple. golo is real and when you take release and follow the plan, it works. we went through a lot this hour. some of it was a downer. i said happy new year even amidst this was the hottest and most extreme weather year on record. did you know that it's getting hotter if you can hit me at ari melber on social media. did you know it's getting hotter and should we do something about it? at ari melber on any of those platforms or visit me at arimelber.com, type in your email. we can connect that way. if you're not into the web, i'll see you tomorrow night. "the reidout" with joy reid starts now.

tonight on "the reidout" -- >> there's something dangerous happening in america. there's an extremist movement that does not share the basic beliefs in our democracy. all of us are being asked right now, what will we do to maintain our democracy? history is watching. the world is watching. >> president biden's powerful new ad on the trump threat to democracy amid new polling that shows a shocking number of americans don't believe what they saw with their own eyes on january 6th. plus, two new challenges to trump's place on the ballot. this time in florida and illinois. as a deadline looms for the u.s. supreme court to decide on his disqualification in colorado. also tonight, the scandal that the republican-led oversight committee won't be investigating. the millions of dollars trump raked in from foreign governments while he was

president. we begin tonight with the 2024 election cycle that's already under way. nearly three years after a heavily armed trump incited mob attacked not just the u.s. capitol building but also democracy and the rule of law. tomorrow, president joe biden will deliver his first major re-election speech of the new year. marking the third anniversary of the january 6th attack. the speech will amp up his warning about the fragility of america's democracy at a time when the stakes couldn't be higher. we're in a defcom one moment and the biden administration is focused on the message that american democracy would not survive another trump presidency. how the american public feels about that message, not so simple. according to a new poll by "the washington post" and the university of maryland, a quarter of americans say it is probably or definitely true that

the fbi instigated the january 6th attack on the u.s. capitol. that, of course, is a false conspiracy theories promoted by right wing media and repeatedly denied by federal law enforcement. the numbers are even more telling when you break it down by trump versus biden voters. 44% of those who voted for trump say the fbi instigated the attack, compared to 10% of biden voters. the results confirm that misinformation about january 6th is widespread, as the united states heads into a presidential election year. during a campaign in which the leading republican candidate has repeatedly expressed support for those who participated in the insurrection. it's also a stunning instance of people developing a far fetched conspiracy theory about an event we literally watched unfold for hours on live television. an event that was investigated by a bipartisan house committee that interviewed more than 1,000 people. who were witness to or involved

in the violence that day. almost all of whom are republicans. and were trump supporters or even members of his administration. this election year also kicks off as the republican front-runner is embroiled in a dizzying amount of legal trouble involving fraud, hush money, election subversion, and mar-a-lago documents that he wasn't entitled to. the cases against trump carry the possibility of significant penalties including prison time, which of course, is part of his motivation to get back into the white house by any means necessary. trump has been impeached twice, tried to thwart the peaceful transfer of power after he lost the 2020 election, and he vows to only be a dictator on his first day in office. even a sliver of these issues would rule out any other candidate from the ballot and from american public life forever, but not trump. who commands a literal cult following, who swallow his self-serving lies whole, and do not care if he committed crimes.

in fact, they are fine with him becoming a dictator. so buckle up. we're just getting started. but first on the agenda, president biden has to speak to this, so what's the strategy? joining me now is adrienne elrod, former senior aide for the 2020 biden/harris campaign, stuart stevens, senior adviser for the lincoln project, and molly jung fast. i'm going to start with you, adrienne, here at the desk with me. president biden is going to give this speech at valley forge. he's going to try to meet this moment and address this looming threat to our democracy. what do you expect him to say, part one, and part two, what should he say? >> i think first of all, it's 2024. the election is ten months away. you're seeing the biden campaign take a more forceful effort to draw contrasts with president trump, even though president trump is certainly not the nominee yet, it certainly looks like we're moving in that

direction. you're seeing more of an aggressive posture from the campaign. this campaign is also making it clear, the biden campaign is saying we're running as though democracy depends on it because it does. one of the major things i think you're going to see starting tomorrow through the end of the campaign is autocracy, do you want to live under an autocratic regime, or do you want to live in a democracy. he's really going to draw in that contrast. it's also very historic that he's going to valley forge. i think going to a place where president washington made a really historic speech also reminds voters this country was founded on democracy. and freedom. so i think he's going to a really important place to make a statement. and again, you're going to go out there, obviously, foreign policy has led the fews the past few month. you're going to see this campaign and this white house really make a pivot to drawing more of a contrast with donald trump. i think we're ready for it, i think president biden is ready for it, and we have to make the

case to the american people, because elections are about choices and this new stance from the campaign is important to draw that contrast. >> you know, the valley forge piece, stuart, is significant because of course, george washington could have been a dictator. the american public at that time revered him and would have allowed him to serve as many terms as he wanted. we did have a president who served for life, fdr, he served four terms until he was deceased. and it was only after that that the president was limited to two terms. it's a tradition every president between george washington and fdr followed. donald trump is the first president to refuse to leave office, right? that's just a thing we haven't had before. here's another thing we haven't hafore. people who liter see something, orbe we have, and just actually sayhey didn't see it. here's percentage of demoats who say that those who entered the capitol were mostly violent. 77% of democrats. i don't know about the other nearly quarter of them.

18% of republicans. only 54% of independents. we're in an age of unreality, stuart. that's also what's different. what do you expect president biden should do about it? and is there something he can say that might change that? >> look, i don't think there's anything you can say to those people. they don't believe that joe biden is a legal president. you kind of have to wrap your mind around that construct. so if you don't believe your president is a legal president, what can you say? well, you know, i did a good job on inflation but i'm illegal. these voters are unreachable. i think it's really skewing the polls. if i was polling, i would ask a screening question. do you believe joe biden won a free and fair election? if you didn't, i would toss you out of the poll. there's nothing you can say to them. you know, i think one of the great truths of campaigns is if you want voters to care about an issue, the campaign has to care about it. so i think it's tremendous that he's kicking off this campaign.

there will be a lot of kick-offs but this is one, talking about democracy. the higher the stakes are in the race, the better biden does. the majority of americans agree with joe biden on actually not just democracy but on most of these issues from abortion to gun control to ukraine. republicans are needing a minority vote to win. and that's certainly a possibility with our electoral college. but biden is going to have to win this thing by about four points in the popular vote to win the electoral college. so i never was involved in a campaign where i sat around on election night waiting for the results and thought we started too soon. so i'm glad they're getting about the business of drawing this contrast. >> you know, and the thing is, molly, the problem that joe biden has is that donald trump's 37% to 40% are solid. it's a cult. like there's nothing he could do. he could literally kill someone on fifth avenue. biden's coalition, not so much.

inflation is down, economy is good, but a lot of his voters are very enraged over gaza. a lot of young and progressive voters are saying they're not going to support him. there a lot of voters who are disappointed because he couldn't do anything on student loans. he has fractious issues, and other remembering roe v. wade was overturned and still being angry enough to vote for him, and thinking democracy really is on the line. it's not clear, there are even some democrats, i'm not sure, is democracy a strong enough argument with all of the rest of that that is fracturing his base? >> i would take you back to the midterms, the 2022 midterms when we were told by polls before that there was going to be a red wave. and biden was giving speeches about democracy. and people were like, this is never going to work. remember? he gave a big speech on democracy. everyone said, it's very nice that this lovely guy likes

democracy so much, but it's never going to work out for him, and it turned out that red wave never materialized. i just think, i don't think we are in the golden age of polling anymore. i really don't. and if you look at virginia, at those virginia state elections, people were not going along with republicans to get along, even glenn youngkin, who sold a more moderate version of trumpism, voters rejected that too. so i actually think, look, we don't know what's going to happen. we're still far out, but biden has -- again, i'm a person who didn't think he was going to win the primary in 2015. i mean, this guy keeps getting underestimated, and this guy keeps polling poorly, but the reality is, the economy is ticking up, we are like the miracle economy of all economies. our inflation is down, you know, we had this miraculous soft landing. there are definitely people who are unhappy and it's a big tent party and there's a lot of

fractions, a lot of really important issues going on. but i think he has time to bring the coalition together. >> i remember being seen as one of the loopy people with simon rosenberg saying it wasn't going to be an abortion election, and lo and behold, we were lonely in saying that, but we were right. in this case, though, on the side of abortion, in addition to that, gaza, which is again, fractious. you also have a quarter of americans believinghe following,s is a 61-year-old, an independent voter from texas. texas, we know where he's going go. the people who went there to express their views were peaceful. the government implants were the violent ones. the fbi, the antifa, hired by george soros, everybody knows that. that sounds like madness to most people, but that is the sign of a coalition that is absolutely solid behind donald trump, no matter what. biden's coalition isn't solid. you don't have anyone out there

making mad statements on his behalf. how does he keep his very fractured coalition together? >> stuart raised a really good point, you did, too, which trump has this 35% to 40% of the electorate with him, which means president biden has to work that much harder to garner independents to really rebuild the coalition and even build a new coalition compared to 2020. hillary's coalition looked different in '16 than biden's. but again, when you look at the fact that molly just said the economy is getting better, inflation is going down, the job numbers have been outstanding you combine that with the abortion issue and the fact democracy is truly at stake, truly under threat, all of those issues i do believe as we get closer to the election will start to really gel in the minds of voters. you haven't even really started the general election yet. yes, president biden is going to be the democratic nominee, more than likely, trump will be the republican nominee, but it's not definitive.

a lot of voters are saying i'm not tuned in yet. i'm going to see who the republican nominee is going to be. once it is a head-to-head, i think the contrast is going to become more clear and the minds of voters will be more made up to start to lean more into the good side of things, the pro-democracy, the pro-economy, and as long as inflation keeps going down and interest rates go down, that's going to make a big difference. >> molly, you have been critical of the media because the media has a role to play, and it has not shown itself up to the task of fighting fascism, but i'll let you elaborate on that. how the media plays this and whether they try to treat trump as this normal candidate, that is the factor, isn't it? >> oh, yeah. and actually, there was a headline from the associated press today that i saw this morning, i couldn't even believe it. it was some say, you know, january 6th was bad. others say storming the capitol is -- i mean, it wasn't quite that bad, but it was shockingly

normalizing. there are people who are in jail because of what donald trump led them to do. and we're looking at this as, you know, two sides. i mean, that was terrifying. i also think, look, republicans worked the refs really well. they continually say, you know, they are pushing and they say that their guy is not being treated fairly. he's lowered expectations in a way that's really served him, trump, and you don't see -- i mean, i wrote about this, right after the holidays, trump was truthing these insane conspiracy theories. this crazy stuff. and you had a conservative news cycle that was mad at biden for not saying his favorite food was ice cream. because he had said he had been eating a lot of chicken parm. so you have to realize, these two candidates are not being treated the same at all. and it's a real structural problem. also, these republicans lie, a

lot of them, not all of them, but a lot of them lie with impunity, so they are able to work the refs in a way that some of these democrats are not. >> and stuart, obviously, there's the other x-factor, the calendar of donald trump's trials, civil and criminal. they all are interspersed as you can see from that graphic, with things like the iowa caucuses and the new hampshire primary. this is a guy running to stay out of prison and to pardon himself. what impact do you expect his being on trial in multiple states and cases will have? >> i think this is helping him in the primary because, again, you have to get inside their minds. if you believe that donald trump actually is the legal president of the united states, it makes perfect sense that this deep state conspiracy, they have to convict him and put him in jail to stop him from returning to the white house. it's sort of like crop circles or something. once you understand that everything makes sense, aliens built the pyramids.

but i don't think this is going to be a plus in a general election. i think you have to bet on america here. i think most americans are going to see a future president, a past president, in the dock and find it unsettling. donald trump, i think this is the big dynamic in the race, donald trump is very much a candidate of the past. he's still relitigating the '20 election. on all of these issues republicans are just incredibly uncomfortable with where america is going, say what you will about joe biden's age, his best group was under 25 voters in '20. he represents a more optimistic future belief in america. and i think that's going to go for a lot. >> i love the enthusiasm. the optimism tonight. thank you all very much. keep hope alive. up next on "the reidout," a florida democracy defender joins

voters and officials in at least 30 states in challenging trump's eligibility to hold the office of president of the united states. the secretary of state from one of those states, colorado's jena griswold, joins me next.

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with the presidential primaries and caucuses about to get under way in less than two weeks, more states are facing lawsuits challenging donald trump's eligibility to be on the ballot. at least 34 states have been

asking the question of whether trump's efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss including his role in the january 6th attack on the u.s. capitol, make him ineligible to hold the presidency again. at least 20 of those challenges remain unresolv. four of them were filed just this week, in florida, illinois, virgin,nd massachusetts. colorado and maine are the only two states to have already kicked trump off the primary ballot. trump has appealed both decisions. his colorado case is set to be the first to go to the supreme court. if or when the court takes up the case is yet to be seen, but it could come as early as tomorrow when the justices hold one of their regular meetings. and joining me now is colorado secretary of state jena griswold. secretary, thank you for being here. walk us through what happens and what the timeline looks like for you? because i understand tomorrow is actually the deadline for you all to decide who is on the ballot. so how does what the supreme

court does tomorrow impact colorado? >> well, first off, always great to be on your show. thank you for having me. >> of course. >> so tomorrow is the day i certify the ballot. so that's the day that i'll tell all the counties hao can be on the ballots that they subsequently will print. we have this big appeal in front of us. but before we get to the united states supreme court, the colorado supreme court, while it did say that donald trump was disqualified, and that he engaged in insurrection, it also said that if an appeal was filed, that he should be put back on the ballot. so tomorrow, if we don't hear anything from the united states supreme court, i will certify trump's name on the ballot. and then we will wait to see whether the u.s. supreme court takes the case. >> and if the supreme court then rules that he must come off of the ballot, would you then have to reprint all of the ballots? i know colorado is a mail-in only state. would you have to reprint them

all? >> so, we're both an in-person voting, but we have early in-person voting and of course election day in-person voting, vote by mail for all state, but on top of that, overseas and military ballots will be sent out this month under federal law. so the answer to what happens in that situation really depends on the timing. we have had situations in colorado where a candidate drops out of a race after their name is already on or they somehow become disqualified, and i'll just make sure to read whatever ruling very closely and work with my team so we have a great election in accordance with the law. >> let me go through some of the arguments that donald trump is making in his appeal. so here are their two main arguments. number one is section three is inapplicable to the president of the united states because he's not an officer, takes a different oath, and donald trump did not in fact engage in insurrection. what do you make of those

arguments? >> well, you know, donald trump wants to argue he didn't engage in insurrection. as you said in your prior segment, we all saw with our own eyes what happened on january 6th. we all witnessed what donald trump did prior to the insurrection and after in trying to steal the presidency. and on top of that, two courts have looked at this question and two courts have said he did indeed engage in insurrection. >> they did indeed. let me -- including the colorado supreme court. let me let you listen to christina bobb. she's going to explain further their 14th amendment argument. she makes a rather stunning claim i would love your response to. here's christina bobb. >> the reason why it doesn't apply to the president is because the drafters of the 14th amendment realized that the president is elected by the entire nation and it should be the entire nation who determines who they want for president, whether they're guilty of insurrection or not. it's up to the people. >> whether they're guilty of

insurrection or not. the people should be able to decide. your thoughts on that? >> well, i don't want to go as far as to say she's making all of that up, but i would love to see her sources. you know, i think it's pretty clear that there should not be some carve-out in the constitution for the presidency. especially when we're talking about a carve-out that would bar insurrectionists from holding office again. we're in this situation that, you know, i think it's hard for some to imagine. we're facing an election when someone who tried to steal this country, incited insurrection that led to loss of life of police officers, could be re-elected. so i very much disagree with her. but ultimately, it's up to the united states supreme court. the united states supreme court needs to give clarity to the american people, whether someone who commits insurrection can hold the highest office in the land again.

>> what the 14th amendment section 3 is very clear about is members of congress are officers of the court who took an oath and can be barred for insurrection. i'm going to put up a nonexhaustive list of people who could be considered insurrectionists. these are people who attended a meeting to overturn the election. andy biggs, scott perry, andy harris, paul gosar, and then there's lauren boebert. a lot of people would consider a supporter of insurrection. are you surprised that no one has attempted to remove her, who has now switched district in your state of colorado or other members of congress, the same way they're attempting to remove trump from these ballots? >> we have seen some cases over the last year and a half, taeflting to remove candidates. and it has worked in the state of new mexico, where actually i believe the county commissioner was removed. these cases require proving that

someone engaged in insurrection. what does that mean? i think with donald trump, it's pretty clear his intent, his actions to incite the insurrection. other cases are not as clear. some cases become moot if a candidate, you know, doesn't win their primary or the general election. but i unfortunately believe that the use of section 3 of the 14th amendment may become a more commonplace thing, as we have seen the far right embrace trying to steal elections to hold on to power. >> yeah, but i think a lot of people would say if you're an insurrectionist, it's proper use, but we shall see what happens. jena griswold, thank you very much. and coming up, a new report from the house oversight committee finds trump's businesses received millions of dollars from foreign countries during his presidency. you know, the kind of thing republicans are accusing president biden of doing. just without the receipts. we'll be right back.

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we've never seen a presidential family receive these sums of money from adversaries around the world. and we're just talking about a couple countries today. if you look at the countries that this family was influence peddling in, china is probably

the most reputable country on the list, if that tells you anything. >> that was house oversight committee chairman james comer in may. i wonder if what he says applies to trump. today, we found out trump and his family did exactly that. according to democrats on the house oversight committee, which started an investigation into the money trump was making while he was president back in 2016, trump's family businesses received nearly $8 million from 20 foreign governments during his time in office. that is just a small sliver of what the committee members were able to uncover before comer put an end to the investigation, when he took charge of the committee. the countries that sent their money to the trump family include china, saudi arabia, kuwait, afghanistan, the philippines, and the united arab emirates among many, many others. these countries funneled their money through various trump locations in washington, d.c.,

las vegas, and new york. today, chairman comer with zero sense of irony, defended donald trump, saying, quote, it is beyond parody that democrats continue their obsession with former president trump. trump has legitimate businesses but the bidens do not. here's the one thing he did get right. president biden doesn't have businesses. the problem for republicans is they haven't got a shred of evident that biden is in any way involved in his son's businesses and he hasn't taken foreign money as president, which trump did. and that is a big problem, because the constitution literally prohibits a president from accepting money, payments, or gifts of any kind whatsoever from foreign governments unless they get permission from congress, which trump never did. of course, these days republicans see the constitution as whatever donald trump says it is, so whatever. joining me now is congressman robert garcia of california. a member of the house oversight committee, which he does care what the constitution says. >> what we uncovered and put out

today is startling. it should scare any american, and quite frankly, it shows the illegal grift that donald trump and his family have put on this country. i think first we have to take a look at the bigger picture. we uncovered a slice, like you said, of essentially the big pie. the tip of the iceberg. we were allowed to uncover about $8 million worth of illegal gifts that are barred in the constitution, certainly from any president taking from over 20 foreign countries. now, if we had full access, we would be able to uncover the likely millions more of gifts and bribes the kushners and the trump family took, but we have been able to get some information, fortunately, even though comer is trying to stop all of it from being revealed. >> they documented $5 million plus in spending at trump owned properties. the way they're getting him the money, they spend at his properties. they're basically running the

money through the properties. saudi arabia, qatar, and kuwait. china being the biggest one stands out to me. >> let's remember, we're talking about the report, we were able to get documents from four properties. donald trump has hundreds, hundreds of properties, and allied businesses all around the world. so we're getting just a small slice of an enormous corruption grift that we have to uncover, and comer is blocking every step of the way. you mentioned saudi arabia, for example, think about just the amount of corruption in saudi arabia. jared kushner gets appointed the lead person in the middle east. against the desires of his own secretary of state, from trump's rex tillerson. he's a main envoy. he puts together a $110 billion arms deal. he starts producing all sorts of deals with the saudis and let's not forget, kushner leaves the white house and two months later, has a $2 billion with a "b" investment fund paid by the saudi government. this is a grift while at the same time the government is pouring hundreds of thousands of

dollars into trump properties here in d.c. and across the globe. >> what's interesting about this and scary about it is i tend to think about donald trump wanting to get back in to the white house so desperately because he wants to stay out of prison, but the other motivation is it's a great grift. he's making money, using the prestige of the presidency and people who want to bribe him have to just swipe their cards at his hotels. >> donald trump years ago said if elected president, he would be the first person to make money off being president. >> he did. >> we should believe him. we have learned now we should know when donald trump says something, we should take him for his word. he's making money, made money off the presidency, wants to continue to make more money. >> shift for a moment, one of the ways in which he is trying to get back in is using racism, and racism against people coming in through the border is one of his go-to grifts. let me read you your own tweet. speaker mike johnson headed down to the border with all the house republicans. did a photo op. you said they are at the border

engaging in a political stunt and sham. they don't want to fix our immigration system. they only want to demonize human beings. i wonder if they'll be reading their bible verses during that visit. troy said i'm not willing to do a damn thing to help a democrat or help joe biden's approval rating. i'm not going to do it. why would i? basically saying we're not passing anything. it is just performative. >> i'm an immigrant. i came to the u.s. when i was a young kid. i gained citizenship in my young 20s. it's shameful, gross what the republicans are doing in demonizing immigrants. donald trump is doing it every single day. he did it on the day he announced his campaign for the presidency and he's pushing his racism, his attacks on black and brown people in this country, should sicken all americans. and on this issue of border security and the border, let's be very clear. we haven't had an immigration policy in over 30 years. in president biden's first day in office, he proposed a

packening, and even right now in the negotiations about foreign aid, it's been president biden who has put forward additional money for border patrol agents, for technology, nonprofits on the ground. there are solutions out there, but republicans don't want solutions. they don't want to fix anything. they want to demonize and attack immigrants. >> you combine these two stories, you have donald trump and republicans using white scare, sort of brown scare, trying to scare their mainly white base about brown people to get themselves back into power. they don't want to do anything to fix the issue. they just want the power. for donald trump, he wants the cash. >> 100%. donald trump is essentially in my opinion broke in american politics, he's demonized our institutions. he's trying to tear down our institutions. literally tried to overthrow an election, and an insurrection against our capitol. this is someone who has no core. his core value is making money off the american people. he believes he should be in

charge, not just in charge of our country for good and forever, but he should make him and his family an enormous amount of money. so this report today is a piece of just the scandal and the con that donald trump is. >> indeed, it's a grift. a giant grift, but a lot of marks falling for it. thank you very much. still ahead, if you think conservative billionaires war on progress will end with the resignation of claudine gay, think again. more on their ongoing attempts to turn back time, after this. s. i don't need a cheat day because i get to eat the foods i like any day of the week. oooohhh, it is cold outside time to protect your vehichle from winters wrath of course the hot sun can be tough on vehicles too

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the attacks that drove out harvard president claudine gay were the pruk of a concerted right wing cruse against diversity in public life that's been in the making since we're being real, theiv right act of 1964. and it won't stop with higher education. republicans are also at war with diversity, equity, and inclusion, dei programs, in corporate america. case in point, florida governor ron desantis's stop woke act, banning diversity training in the workplace. their efforts got a major boost from the far right majority on the supreme court which struck down affirmative action in higher education last year. the man who led the crusade to kill affirmative action at colleges like harvard, white attorney ed blum, who suethe university on behalf of asian students even though he had no asian plaintiffs has been at the center of the fight in corporate america as well. blum has sued venture capital

firms funding black women entrepreneurs and major u.s. law firms over their dei programs. meanwhile in the wake of the october 7th attack on israel by hamas, the anti-dei brigade is weaponizing concerns about anti-semitism to make their case to bring down dei programs everywhere. leading the crusade against gay aren't even pretending it was ever about campus anti-semitism. it was about the diversity they hate so much. take bill ackman, the billionaire harvard donor who led the charge calling for dr. game gay to resign over the plagiarism charge, now calling for the entire harvard board to resign, calling dei racist because reverse racism is racism. although it is worth noting that business insider discovered acumen's wife, an architect and designer, plagiarized her own

2010 doctoral dissertation at m.i.t. she said she's now double checking her work. i guess he's able to overlook his hard line stance on plagiarism in this case. in response to his fell throated assault on dei, today, the national action network picketed outside his praufs in protest of his acts against dr. gay. in a statement, if he doesn't think black americans belong in the c' suite, the ivy league, or any other hallowed halls, we'll make ourselves at home outside his office. joining me now is the president of the national action network and host of "politics nation," reverend al sharpton. good to see you. this was the post, there was like a 4,000-word post that he put out. he put together one up about your protest today. he said i would be delighted to sit with mr. sharpton and discuss any concerns he might

have about anything i have said or done in connection with harvard and claudine gay. i ask for him to reach out to me directly. i know you. would you like to talk to him? >> talk to him about what? he has said in plain language this is about ending dei. he called for the board of harvard, the whole board, to resign, even after they have forced the resignation of dr. gay. because dr. gay was really a pawn for them to go after dei. and as you said, they have been after diversity and after inclusion since '64 civil rights act. and >> today to make it clear to them that there is not going to be an easy fight. we're going to fight in the

streets, in the courts, to preserve the rights of people in this country, to demand diversity, equity, and inclusion, not as a hand out. if they think we're going to keep -- and keeping taxes that they enjoy tax evasion evasions -- while they have a structured bias against us, today is just -- build up. we need dvi because we had the edny, deny, deny contracts. we've been denied access to promotions. denied seats on the board. we're going to keep fighting. the and why i angie, and the keep the commitment. today we decided to throw a

punch back for our supporting organizations will be joining us in the coming weeks. if they want a fight, they've got one. >> you can tell a lot by the company that one keeps, and mr. ackman's, one of his big backers and supporters is elon musk, who won might michael recall, he said dei must die called the race he said these are propaganda. words in his own company tesla when he could create an environment to his liking, workers called teslas factory a plantation, a slave ship, especially because black workers were segregated. black air conditioning and weren't conditioning's where the most crowded. a black tesla employees is a culture of racism. i was at my breaking point in 2022. so when he had a way to run his country as he liked, he ran as lawsuits in an extremely racist. way that's an environment he

thought should exist everywhere in corporate america. your thoughts? >> how did we get -- programs in the first place? how do we give the civil rights act? by fighting. by boycotting. my putting pressure on cities and states and federal governments anyway the underpinnings that these companies that are committed to exclusion of people, black, brown, asians, women, gays. you can make all the changes you want, you cannot force us to buy your products and you cannot use taxpayer dollars to have people in elective office that say if that's what you choose then we will make life uncomfortable for you in terms of what you use city for. the city comptroller, the top jewish elective official in the city of new york, was with us today, across the board, in this today was only the beginning of the street heat.

working with the knee grow and other people to get a coalition of civil rights groups that have worked together on these issues. >> reverend al sharpton, thank you very much. much appreciated. of course we will keep an eye on this story. thank you. coming up next, starvation becomes a going concern in gaza as israel continues its assault despite the now deafening international calls for a cease-fire. we'll be right back. e-fire we'll be right back. >>

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israel-hamas war in the situation in gaza is just getting worse. according to the palestinian health ministry, more than 22,000 people have died in gaza, with more than 57,000 injured and thousands missing. israeli strikes continue to bombard gaza today. striking an area that had previously been declared a safe zone by israel according to palestinian officials. almost 2 million people have been displaced. 85% of the population. and least half are starving though the stresses that, quote, everyone is hungry and skipping meals is the norm, in a striking interview for the world food program he had never seen anything like this before in terms of severity and speed. situation is particularly bad in rafah, on gaza's border with egypt, where there are at least

1 million displaced people sleeping out in the open without adequate clothing. stunning drone video from earlier this week shows crowds of people lining up for food. this comes as far-right israeli ministers are openly calling for the displacement of palestinians from gaza, which the u.n. human rights chief commented on today, saying he's, quote, very disturbed by high-level israeli official statements on plans to transfer civilians from gaza to third countries. noting that international law prohibits forceabl transfer of protected persons within or deportation from occupied territory. u.s. secretary of state antony blinken is heango the middle east tonight on a tour expected to focus largely on easing resurgent fears that the israel hamas war could erupt into a broader conflict in the wake of attacks in the red sea, lebanon, iran, and iraq. that is tonight's reidout. all in with chris ye