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estimate good morning it is saturday, november 9th i am ali velshi. politics is easier for most of us when the democratic ideals we just triumph or at least persist. to be politically engaged which you likely are if you are watching me right now is to not only risk losing an election but to be prepared and to be willing to lose. to be politically engaged is to put it all on the line knowing full well the outcome, at least

the immediate outcome, might not be the one you worked so hard for. i know the story well. i learned it at 11 years old working on my father's first campaign in canada. i learned on election night in 1981 when my dad and i in the car on the drive from our home had gone to freshen up after a grueling election day to the campaign headquarters. we expected results to take a while to come in so we were in the car when the polls closed. we turned on the radio and the host said that i would learn to say years later covering elections. it is too early to tell who will form the government but based on history and demographics and exit polling, things i was too young to understand at the time. they were able to project the results in one constituency. the one my dad was contesting. what they announced in the first minute of the broadcast was that he had lost. it was just the two of us in the car that night. little 11-year-old he was devastated.

i looked at my dad and said i cannot believe we lost. he turned his attention away from the road for just a moment to look at me. with a smile on his face he looked at me and said of course we lost. we were never going to win. i asked why did we do this? because we could he told me. we ran because we could and more people voted for the other guy that voted for me. it is okay, life goes on. that blew my mind. you see, he appreciated something i did not. he grew up in apartheid south africa where he could not vote because of the color of his skin the long run for office. he literally ran because that is what civic engagement look like to him knowing full well he would lose. he conceded his election that night. i learned what civic engagement really meant. a small postscript, if you lose later he ran again - a few years later he ran again and he won. making history by being the first of its kind to win an office anywhere on this

continent. his subsequent victory was not as significant to me as the initial loss. that loss cut deep. tuesday was different from november 8, 2016 the night trump was first elected. that felt like an accident. this didn't. this time there was so much on the line. women are dying, the earth is burning, worshiping wage, democracy really is on the right. i'm fairly certain this country will see some dark days ahead. but you know what i do not know? i do not know where we are in the effort to forge a stronger democracy and a more perfect union. just as rebel colonist did not know on april 19, 7075 when gunfire erupted in concord massachusetts september 3rd, 1783 when the revolutionary war ended with the signing of the treaty of paris. america had declared its independence from great britain seven years earlier. a date we think of as the start of the nation. on july 4th, 1776, this new

nation was not even a quarter of the way through that war. america did not know on april 11th, 1861 before the first shot was fired on fort sumter how long that fight would take. or if it would be much of a fight at all. born april 9, 1865 after three quarters of 1 million americans perished and robert e lee surrendered to ulysses s grant. we still did not know what the future of the country would hold. you can only know how these things and in hindsight, not you are in the middle of it. tuesday was not the end of anything. but things got dark. here is the thing, history is steeped with examples of people who fought through the darkness in the low of candlelight. people who knew like my father taught me, that night in 1981 that defeat paves the way for triumph. many who have fought in defense of human rights and freedom and liberty and democracy around the world did not themselves live long enough to enjoy the fruits of their labor but the seeds were planted.

they florist, in some cases, after they were gone. those people understood the fight was bigger than they were. it was important to keep going to nurture the seeds of democracy under a tree whose canopy later generations will seek shelter and whose fruit later generations will eat. we do this, we fight not simply for ourselves but for the future of democracy. susan b anthony dedicated her life to social justice, particularly a woman's right to vote. for 35 years she fought for women's suffrage with little obvious success. in 1869, just after the end of the civil war, the 15th amendment to the constitution illuminated voting discrimination - eliminated voting discrimination based on race but not dinner. the 15th amendment gave blackman the right to vote at least on paper for many years the country largely ignored the 15 amendment until the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

the overt exclusion of women was a huge blow to susan b anthony and women across america. yet, they persisted. the 19th amendment to the constitution was first proposed eight years later in 1878. it would be another 42 years after that white women would be able to vote freely. if freedom which is now normal was for 50 years after the end of the civil war considered a nonstarter. during the civil rights movement, individuals fought for years against segregation from rosa parks to ruby bridges, the little rock nine, john lewis, dr. martin luther king. what americans endured decades of discrimination, ridicule and violence. defeat after defeat along the way. it was not until the civil rights act of 1964, 99 years after the end of the civil war, that segregation was officially outlawed in public places and jim crow laws were banned. conflict often reduces change

but change is slow often not looking like change at all. in the case of this week looking a lot like a setback. today's setbacks are tomorrow's comebacks and the comeback is our work. as my father taught me all those years ago, the fact that your site did not win is not a loss it is simply a sign your work is not yet done. frankly, in 1775, 7076, 1783, 1861, 1865, 1964 our work was done. it may never be done because democracy is dynamic and norms change. we will confront issues in the future we do not know our issues today. we will continue to fight. i know that one of the toughest things to reconcile is the fact that half of america made a choice with which you inherently disagree abie found that your neighbor, your friend maybe your mother or brother voted for the guy who want to take your freedoms away and that is a tough reality to come to terms with.

as james baldwin once said, quote we can still love each other and disagree unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist. yes, votes were cast by people who would oppress and deny the humanity of some of us. that fact is not true of all of the 73 million+ people who voted for donald trump. there are people out there, good people who fell for his lies. i believe, do not wish to see pregnant women leading up in parking lots or the earth burn up or immigrants deported. those are our fellow citizens with whom we must engage. there is neither time or space for cynicism about politics today. the right to engage in politics is a privilege. one which my parents did not grow up with. it's a privilege we cannot give up and one of which we cannot tire. cynicism about politics is a luxury of those who have never had to experience life without it. if those people ever truly lost

their ability to participate in the system, they would never take it for granted again. this will be a challenge. the end of the tunnel is there but is too far away to see the light. so we will use flashlights until we get closer to the other side. we will hold them for each other. what you have, what we have is agency. our voice. america chose a republic over a monarchy 248 years ago, we still have that republic. but benjamin ticlid's admonition comes back to remind us time and again, we have a republic if we can keep it. now, that is our work. joining me now is a renowned presidential history john meacham serves as the rogers chair in american presidency at vanderbilt university. occasionally rises president joe biden on historical matters and major speeches. also the award-winning author of numerous books including, and there was light, lincoln and the american struggle. and his truth is marching on,

john lewis and the power of hope. thank you for being with us to kick us off this morning. >> i think what you just did is more than a kickoff. a remarkable both emotionally informed and historically informed essay that i think perfectly captures where we are. and the question is, i think, but now? - what now? i am privileged i do not have particular policy passions. so my view of contemporary politics, unfolding politics is that i want there to be an infrastructure of democracy. the rule of law, the constitutional arena in which we do what we are supposed to do. but folks who look like me said we wanted to be back in the late 18th century. as you so beautifully have detailed, it took so long to

actually realize that promise. that was a nation founded on ethnicity, not on nationalism but on patriotism which is different. patriotism is an allegiance to an idea. the fundamental idea of the american experiment is that incredibly, the most important sentence written by thomas jefferson we are all created equal. the truth of the matter is that, as you have pointed out, we have lived out of compliance with our own mission statement. a lot more years than we have lived within compliance. there have been 59 presidential elections, competitive presidential elections in the united states of america. only 15 have unfolded in a genuine multiracial democracy. this is a, this is an imperfect thing to begin with. one of the things i say to try to say to friends who are on

the edge of despair, history is not necessarily comforting. it should be inspirational. because fallen, frail and fallible people like you and me manage to produce a country that was more fair, more free and more just. they were not any better than we were. there was never a once upon a time in american history. and there will never be a happily ever after. this is a human undertaking. there is not a magical moment. there is not a place where there is perfection within time and space. >> right. >> what we had to do is, bear witness, i believe. to the ideal the ideal we have

what lincoln called an equal, open chance and an equal shot. it will be really difficult. it is always really difficult. i think despair is a sin. and i think that the notion that it will just work out is wrong. as you have pointed out, it would be breaking faith with the people who lived and bled and died. >> right. >> it would be breaking faith with the folks lexington concord with the people at gettysburg with the women of seneca falls with the men who went to normandy to free a continent. >> right. >> the men who went on omaha beach were there because of principles that are vital and animate this country today.

and they are the principles that cannot be abandoned because of a single election loss. >> you wrote something that was published on election day in the new york times. lavishly wrote it before we had the outcome of the election i want to read a part of it to our audience. america has always been shaped by the tension between hope and fear, justice and injustice, grace and rage. whether the good prepares national prevails over the bad weather he moved closer to the promises of the constitution are farther away from them is contingent on the habits of the heart and mind of a sufficient number of americans in power and far from it. that is what really stood out to me the last part of that. in power and far from it. the people we are talking to this morning the people who think about themselves as far from power. even really the most powerful person in america is the citizen with agency. what you say to that person who

feels like they are on the outside of this thing right now and is losing hope? >> i will answer with a dated pop-culture reference which are the only kind i make. remember the scene from animal house which came out about the time you had a remarkable change with your father when dark blue she says did we give up when the germans bombed pearl harbor? you cannot give up because what if john lewis and hosea williams and amelia boynton had decided not to cross the pettus bridge. what if the isolationists had finally and ultimately prevailed in the late 1930s and early 1940s? what if william lloyd garrison and his incredibly principled abolitionist movement, many of whom believed the constitution of the united states in the pre-

civil war era was as he put it a covenant with death and an agreement with . he wanted to move out of union with the slaveholders. it was frederick douglass who had escaped from enslavement who had far more reason than any white abolitionist to want to break away and get as far away figuratively and literally, from the american south, he said no. in fact, the constitution is a glorious liberty document. as he put it, and i think this for your audience this morning, this might be the most important quotation. frederick douglass, after the tiny court decision in dred scott which declared that black people were not did not have equal standing with human beings, frederick douglass said, there is no soil more conducive to the growth of reform than american soil.

that the commandment of let there be light has not yet spent its force. when frederick douglass in the face of a hostile supreme court, see if any of this sounds familiar, a hostile supreme court, persisted elections of president who seemed at best in different and at worst hostile to the causes that you hold dear. and the country keeps voting a way you do not understand. in that climate, frederick douglass in the 1850s, said, i for one, do not despair of this country. the fiat of the almighty, let there be light has not yet spent its force. >> let there be light. >> it will not happen automatically. >> it does not happen automatically but it is still there. thank you and we will have many

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there just 72 days until president joe biden will have the powers of the presidency over to donald trump. of that we can be sure he will do that. the stretch of time between an election and the transition of power on inauguration day is known colloquially as a lame- duck period. historically presidents have

used this term to address unfinished priorities showing up whatever initiatives might have been undone or opposed by the incoming ministration. after listening to donald trump's campaign rhetoric for nearly two years it was clear once he won the presidency in 2016 he intended to be hostile toward numerous policies that have been put forth by the obama administration. he took aim at the formal care act and environmental protections, imac goals and regulatory efforts. in his final few months in office, president barack obama took key protective actions. he designated two new national monuments to preserve roughly 1.7 million acres of land. he prohibited oil and gas drilling parts of the arctic and atlantic oceans. he made large amounts of climate criminal justice data available to the public in a strategic move to ensure continued access to information despite potential policy shifting under donald trump. he continued his clemency and pardon initiatives focusing on reducing sentences for nonviolent drug offenders and

moved to bolster the affordable care act by boosting access and enrollment numbers and by building support for it. joe biden has 72 days left in office and as we begin to get hints about what may be in store in the trump second term we are also looking at the outgoing administration and what president joe biden could possibly get done in the next 10 weeks. after the break, we will dive into this with someone who knows the biden administration as well as anyone. anyone. i'm amy grant, and i want to talk to you from my heart about the heart. i would have been the last person on the list to say this woman has a problem with her heart. so, no, there was nothing about my life that said, you have a ticking time bomb in your chest.

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s.t.e.m. for more on how joe biden may use his last 72 days in office joining me now someone who knows the biden administration as much as anyone. ms. whipple an award-winning journalist and the author of the best-selling book the fight

of his life inside joe biden's white house. good to see you thank you for being with us. in the first speech after the election president joe biden said he would make every day count in this final chapter of his presidency. what does that look like? >> on july 21st, ali the biden white house chief of staff was sitting in his west wing office the phone rang it was joe biden saying i have decided i'm going to step away. before he could even get into that with him he went on to say and i want to do a 180 day plan , i want it to be as aggressive and productive as any other period of my presidency. that is wishful thinking. there's a reason why he is called a lame-duck. he cannot possibly do, finish the job as he would have put it the way he might have in a second term. that would have, for example and dedicated to among other things, trying to pass some of

the discarded provisions of build back better the big sprawling bill. i'm sure he would love to get child care and senior care past. that will not happen. he says he wants to focus on implementing the infrastructure bill for example. engage in diplomacy with israel, ukraine, china. that will be a real problem. all of those countries are waiting for trump. >> is a first phone calls that came in. he did say they are pushing through about $6 billion in aid for ukraine. i guess the thinking once that is out the door, donald trump may wish to discontinue support of grain can't really take the money back. - ukraine you can't really take the money back. >> there is also an unofficial to do list. part of that in a way is trying to trump proof biden's

achievements. they would not put it that way but, donald trump will arrive in the oval office with a slew of executive orders ready to go to reverse as many of biden's achievements as possible. not prepared by the way by project 2025 but by the america first policy institute which is a much more private operation. they have all these executive orders ready to go. biden, there is no way to really trump proof this administration's achievements. but i think, for example, you will see a real push to implement all of the clean energy provisions of the inflation reduction act which is a big deal as you know. so john podesta, in charge of that is presumably a very easy guy right now. >> elizabeth worn talks about how the senate should use every minute of the end-of-the-year legislative session to confirm

federal judges and key regulars. he didn't say anything about regulators even though they have been diminished by the supreme court. the fact is many do not have - they have set terms. the head of the fed said he will not resign, donald trump asks him to resign. tell me how much of that can be done? is that a meaningful thing? >> yes, i think there is time to do a lot of that. i think that the main focus will be on trying to implement as much as he possibly can all of these provisions of the infrastructure act, inflation reduction act and other things to try to make some of these achievements complete. something that trump cannot reverse. trump will try to come in to your point about agencies he will come in and try to replace civil servants with loyalists who will do whatever he asks. that will be a challenge. i think it would be difficult for him. there is an unofficial to do list as i said.

one of them is, there is no meaningful transition taking place as we speak. this is a really located process. a final process because this is a moment of vulnerability in any white house term. >> it is the weakest time in america, the time between the lame-duck president leaving on the new president coming in. the place where things can fall through the cracks and national security issues can emerge. becca backing - >> back in 2000 and 2001 the 9/11 commission concluded that the delay in the transition in 2000 to george w. bush contribute it because of the supreme court litigation. educated to the bush white house being blindsided by 9/11. they were not getting the intelligence briefings. they were not up to speed, they were not repaired. that is happening right now. nothing is happening in the

trump transition. trump has refused to sign the memorandum of understanding which triggers the process. in part because he feels that he will be spied on by the deep state is he has a traditional transition. the result is, no intel briefings that is not new for trump because even when he was president he did not like them. nobody else is getting them either as we speak. this is a fraud.. >> good to see you thank you for being with us. us.

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i'm gonna go ahead and compare the different brands. that's perfect. all right, so are we happy with our selection? you're so helpful. you know, you don't know. perfect, i'm excited for you sir. thank you very much. oh, my god, that was super easy. ahhhh. see how your medicare plan stacks up with the big changes for 2025. just call this number or visit ehealth.com. compare plans with $0 monthly premiums. compare plans with allowances for dental, vision and over-the-counter health care items. compare plans from the nation's top insurance companies, including unitedhealthcare, humana and more. they pay us to help you. that's how ehealth is always a free service. how much do you think you'll be able to save using ehealth? at least $300 a month. would you say you found your medicare match? yes i did. what cham did she explain to me exactly what i needed to know? well, i have a surprise for you. cham, come on out. oh my goodness. hello cham. it's a pleasure to meet you today sir. what does it feel like to be face to face? you helped me out quite a bit.

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s.t.e.m. we took special care - we took special care into - i wanted to revisit a story of a banned book that took an unusual term joining me live in studio next hour is an actor and author you might recognize from nbc's 30 rock. his book is about a kid very much like himself a gay indian middle school or in the midwest and - lifestyle. what happened next is a rare case in the book banning arena a case in which students, teachers, community and an author came together and changed minds. today's meeting doubles as a blueprint of the next four

years of political engagement and you do not want to miss it. it takes a little planning. or, put the money towards a down-payment... ...on a ranch ...in montana ...with horses let's take a look at those scenarios. j.p. morgan wealth management has advisors in chase branches and tools, like wealth plan to keep you on track. when you're planning for it all... the answer is j.p. morgan wealth management.

when my doctor gave me breztri for my copd, things changed for me. breztri gave me better breathing, symptom improvement, and reduced flare-ups. breztri won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. it is not for asthma. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it.

don't take breztri more than prescribed. breztri may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis. call your doctor if worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain occur. ask your doctor about breztri. in the wake of the election, many of us are rightly concerned about the future of our democracy. during donald trump's first term he appointed three supreme court justices shifting the court to the right. with the support of serb

republicans he confirmed 230 federal judges. we have seen how the shift has played out on the ground in the case of women. it has literally cost lives. from overturning roe v. wade to blocking student loan forgiveness and weakening environmental agencies during the hottest here on earth, the supreme court's conservative supermajority created by donald trump has made life more, located for ordinary americans. despite trump's authoritarian impulses, the shift from democracy to autocracy is not as simple as flipping a switch. this country has been through turbulent times before and has always emerged stronger over time because of generations of americans who refuse to give in. unlike the sudden shift into authoritarianism seen in countries that have fewer democratic protections, the u.s. benefits from a decentralized government that can, possibly serve as a strong counterbalance to any single imperial style authority.

it is within this system of checks and balances that the resistance to authoritarianism will emerge and flourish. professor laurence tribe one of the foremost constitutional law experts in the country argues that the unique structure of america makes it difficult to dismantle its democratic foundations quickly. to our advantage, we have a network of international safeguards ranging from state powers and judicial independence to the press and educators all of which must be activated in defense of our democracy. a significant part of the defense will play out at the state level work governors and state attorneys general are already promising to stand up to trump and protect honorable relations including women, the ltd pq - state officials have been working for months to trump proof the state. state prosecutors have proactively written briefs to challenge the policies - called

for a special session of the california legislature to safeguard california values as the state prepares to raise legal hurdles against the neck trump administration. in new york, governor kathy hogle announced an initiative to protect new yorker rights under a plan, the empire state freedom initiative. it aims to protect reproductive rights, civil rights, immigrants the environment and the potential abuse of power. in addition to state double resistance, federal judges also retain a degree of independence. though some judges think conservative their interpretation of the law do not always align with an authoritarian agenda and is not immediately clear that conservative justices like amy coney barrett will give donald trump the free reign to do as he pleases. beyond government institutions which have disappointed us in the past, there is chiefly the role of civil society. we the people who were collectively form a crucial

bulwark against a key authoritarian weapon, historical revisionism. strongmen rewrite history to justify their abuses of power and they depend on fear to control their followers. from educators to historians to journalists and activists, we are called upon to play a critical role in keeping the public informed creating a cultural political resistance to attempts to further erase democratic norms. it can be difficult in this moment to see past our immediate despair. yet our nation's history is defined by resistance to tyranny in its many forms and history serves to remind us this fight is far from over. when we come back i will joined by the legendary constitutional scholar laurence tribe with more on what stands between donald trump's authoritarianism and our democracy. democracy. and could reactivate. shingles strikes as a painful, blistering rash that can last for weeks.

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joining me now if the esteemed legal scholar laurence tribe professor emeritus at harvard law school and the other in many ported books including american constitutional law and two in the presidency, the power of the impeachment. good to see you thank you for being with us. i wanted to talk to because you have an interesting visage you disagree say that all the guardrails are gone under a second trump term and you mean

this seriously. talking about things that exist within our legal and societal structure. what do you mean? >> thank you very much for having me on. i think your summary before the break of all of the ways in which civil society, not limited to lawyers but historians, journalists, all of us have our work cut out for us. it is not over. of course, many people, me included feared that donald trump's aspirations were authoritarian. there is no doubt that if he could do all kinds of terrible things, things that would be extremely dangerous to the safety of individuals in our society, extremely dangerous to our freedoms, he would do it. but he does not have unlimited power. when i read that the guardrails are now gone, i really wonder

where these people have been. the constitution of the united states is not just a remarkable piece of prose, unlike the largely empty constitution that some other countries have had in which there are paper guarantees against oppression. our constitution develops an architecture with a history of more than 250 years in which power has been systematically dispersed throughout society. it is not and cannot be concentrated in the hands of one leader. the states themselves have enormous power, we have seen them simply beginning in the last couple of days to flex their muscles. they are not rejecting the outcome of the election.

they are not plotting to overturn the transfer of power. what they are doing is reminding people that they are not empty vessels. they have authority, seven of them just the other day enshrined reproductive rights into their constitutions. there are powers that congress has to override what states do but, those powers are themselves limited. there is enormous reservoir of resistance and authority. that we need to now activate and there are hundreds of people, lawyers among them, who are working with state attorneys general, state governors, state lawmakers to make sure that those guardrails are activated. then, there is also federal law. the federal judiciary. of course it has turned far right on a number of issues

that are of great importance to many of us but that does not mean that core guarantees against arbitrary arrest, punishment without trial, prosecution for expression of points of view, the kinds of things that donald trump has says he would like to do to his enemies within does not mean that just happens overnight. in the intro to this piece, you talk about book censorship, burning, removing disapproved books from the library's. none of that happens without pushback, even from a conservative federal judiciary. people do not get persecuted without some reason.

if he were to do what he says he wants you to nancy pelosi or adam schiff, do you think the federal courts would say fine, go ahead? put them on trial for nothing. that is not the way the system works. we are about to see all of the institutions that preserve the core elements of freedom and democracy activated in a way that we have not had to see anymore. >> we think we have thrown everything at the wall but we have not. we thought there were other guardrails that would work but when those did not work we still have more guardrails. ruth ben-ghiat was saying last night interest any of authoritarianism that in fact the beginnings and end of authoritarian regimes are the

place in which bureaucratic and civil society resistance are most effective. in this moment you see a guy who says he wants to be an authoritarian, this is the place where the bureaucrats, the states and as you said journalists, academics and lawyers this is the moment in which to say we are going to try new defense mechanisms. >> when people try to dismiss all of that by calling it the deep state, by giving it some nasty name, what they are doing is naming the institutions of society that are framers were smart enough not to abandon. if you look back at what they wrote many fear the rise of a demagogue the charismatic would be dictator. they realize that one cannot prevent that kind of thing from happening especially in a society that evolves in

unpredictable ways. they did not simply assume that when that happened, we would have to just lie down and play dead. the system they built was a lot stronger than the systems that italy, germany, hungary, poland, venezuela, brazil, a number of other countries have had when they have had lovely sounding constitutions but not a thick, dense forest of guardrails, if you will. that hold back the ambitions of the powerful who seek to advance their own interests rather than the interests of the people. >> what you think about people who say we thought we have guardrails we just found out there are just gentlemen's agreement but there are no gentlemen left in the room. now you're telling me we have other guardrails had to convince them that we have layers and layers of guardrails we have not tested yet.

>> they will have to watch but also become actively involved. the fact is take the infamous immunity ruling. it is true, donald trump can direct his attorney general to do all kinds of criminal things without him being held criminally responsible. that is one of the bizarre and scary outcomes of the immunity decision. that does not mean that a donald trump says to his new attorney general, i want you to go and arrest congresswoman x in the night and bring her in front of a firing squad that any federal judge would simply say okay that is fine. we have been told that trump has no limits, the fact he cannot be criminally prosecuted does not mean that habeas corpus will not be available. it does not mean that people will not go to the ramparts to protect those who are made the

targets of vindictive, unwarranted persecution. i think that hopefully, the people around donald trump will remind him that it is the reality and if they don't, he will come up against the hard truth. this is an area where reality bites. >> thank you for being with us this morning it is important to get these perspectives because there are a lot of people who are not sure what the future look like and he turned to people like you for a bit of a road map. we appreciate you. lawrence tribe is professor emeritus at harvard law school, the author of many important books including american constitutional law and to end the presidency, the power end good morning.he power end it is saturday, november the 9th.

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