something to see, wait til you see this. ♪ ♪ you're good. -very good. okay. that's it for me. i hope everyone has a happy thanksgiving and let me say how thankful i am today an every day for the people who help put the show on. and also thankful i am for you, all of you sitting at home for letting us come into your homes each week. hope you have a wonderful holiday. the "rachel maddow show" starts right now. >> a nice way to end the show.

i feel thankful for you as a could league and thankful for these handovers on monday nights. >> i'm thankful. too. and you and susan are invited in case you want some turkey and stuffing. >> we would be leaving behind strays having thanksgiving with this year. >> they can come, too. they are invited, too. >> okay. we may show up in a caravan, my friend. thank you. have a great holiday. and thanks for joining us this hour. really, really happy to have you here. all right. so it started out as a bill about the rules for being a dentist. and it said in the title. a bill to be entitled an act making various changes to the laws of dentistry. before reading this bill today, i had never before even thought about their being laws of dentistry. but there are laws of dentistry,

apparently, and this new legislation was going to tighten up those laws, laws about, for example, letting you to your dentist exams on mannequins instead of real people. that seems nice for the real people. also laws about letting the powers that be take away your dentistry license on account of your drunkenness. lots of important ways of tightening up the laws around dentistry. that was the bill. an act making changes to the laws of dentistry. that's how that bill started. but then it changed a lot. north carolina is one of the states where republicans did not do as well as they wanted to in this past election. yes, trump still won the state of north carolina, which i think was the thing they most cared about, won by about three points in the presidential race in

north carolina. but even as trump won the presidential race there, the republican candidate in north carolina for governor, he lost that race in the state of north carolina. the republican candidate lost the lieutenant governor's race in north carolina. the republican candidate lost the attorney general's race in north carolina. the republican candidate lost the secretary of state's race in north carolina. also, the republican candidate to be state schools chief, a ray i was keeping my eye on, republican candidate lost that race in north carolina, too. the reason i was watching that one closely because a was the race where the republican candidate for schools chief said she wanted a pay-per-view public televised execution of former president barack obama. she also demanded the execution of president biden, hillary clinton, chuck schumer, anthony fauci, a former new york

governor, the current north carolina governor, and member of congress from minnesota, also she wanted to execute bill gates. i mean, honestly, it was a lot from her. but she was the republican party's nominee for superintendent of public schools for the state of north carolina this year. and she lost that election along with almost all of the republican candidates for statewide office in north carolina. so, yes, in north carolina this year trump won the presidential race, but republicans lost almost everything else in the state. heading into this election, north carolina republicans held a supermajority in the state legislature, but in this election they lost that supermajority. democrats made enough inroads in that state legislature this year in this election that republicans of north carolina no longer have a supermajority that allows them to, you know, override the veto, for example, from the governor.

but that is where the laws of dentistry come into the story. republicans in north carolina, after this election, where they did not do as well as they wanted to, know they are about to lose their supermajority in the state legislature and democrats won almost statewide elected office in the whole state. republicans know this is coming, and so in the face of that oncoming change republicans took this bill making various changes to the laws of dentistry, they took the laws of dentistry bill and they turned it into something very much not that, which is probably good news for drunken dentists, bad news for mannequins l but also big news for what republicans are apparently trying to do in north carolina on their way out the door. this is footage from the north carolina state legislature. people being cleared out of the

gallery in the state legislature for protesting against what the republicans are trying to do with this bill that started off as a dentistry bill and turned into something much more radical. republicans took this laws of dentistry bill, gutted it, took out the dentist stuff, then decided to call it their hurricane relief bill. you remember all the horrible storms in western north carolina right before the election. they said it would be their hurricane relief bill. what the bill actually does is it changes the state government in north carolina. so, all of the state government positions that are about to be held by democrats will have their power stripped away from them. the governor of north carolina, for example, will no longer be allowed to appoint judges as he sees fit under this new bill. he will literally circumstancest judges that have been approved explicitly by the state republican party. the state republican party has to approve the democratic

governor's judicial picks. the attorney general under this bill will not be allowed to oppose anything that is done by the republicans in the state legislature even if the attorney general thinks it's against the laws of the state. power over the administration of elections in north carolina would inexplicably under this bill be moved wholesale into the office of the state auditor. the state auditor? in charge of elections? why would republicans change north carolina state law so the state auditor is suddenly the person in charge of elections? oh, oh, because state auditor is the one race that republicans won this year in north carolina. >> state auditor candidate dave said i'm only in politics for you, sir. where is dave? anybody that would say -- dave, if you say that. do you mean that?

if you mean that, i'm for you all the way. he has my endorsement. >> i'm only in politics for you, sir. i'm only in politics to serve you, sir, to serve donald trump. that's the only reason i'm running for office, the only reason i'm interested in politics at all, i am here to serve you as an individual. that is the one republican that won his race in north carolina state government, in a statewide race this year. but because they have just got this one guy in statewide office, the auditor, republicans just rewrote the laws of the state so that that will be the guy who is in charge of the state's elections, even though state auditor job has nothing to do with elections whatsoever. it's like putting the dog catcher in charge of the water department. there is no connection at all. but he is the one republican and so now he'll be the elections guy.

this is what they have done with the dentistry bill. and the consequence of that, one of the consequences thus far, is that north carolinians have been turning up at the state legislature filling the gallery in the legislature, shouting down the republicans while they have been forcing through this last-minute after the election hijack the dentistry bill to try to make sure they can stay in power even after they have been voted out. to stay in power in the administration of state government and the judiciary, also to control future elections, right? because relying on the votes of the people of north carolina is leary not a winning strategy of them, so they are trying to work around that so they can stay in power without the people's consent. north carolina also elects its state supreme court justices. in this election, one democratic supreme court justice appeared to win re-election by a slim

margin, less than 700 votes. there is a recount underway in that race right now. it was such a slim margin. in that recount, republicans are trying to throw out 60,000 ballots. they are trying to have 60,000 votes not counted in that race. 60,000. that's a lot of people to take away the vote from, right? in place aggressive new restrictions on voting rights time for this election. now republicans are fighting to not count those ballots at all as a way to try to take that seat on the state supreme court. the people casting their votes thing just has not been working all that great for republicans in north carolina. so now republicans in north carolina are trying to make sure that, you know, votes aren't

everything, that there are other ways that they can keep and expand their power. and we really don't know how this is going to work out in north carolina. this a live issue right now. republicans from the western part of the state voted no on this bill. in part because they were furious this is what republicans are calling their hurricane relief bill. it's like a quarter of what the governor asked the legislature for in terms of hurricane relief dollars. it doesn't actually move money to where the hurricane hit. it doesn't actually move money to the western part of the state. so some republicans from the hard-hit western part of north carolina are balking at this so far, voting no, even though they are republicans. the democrats are against this. the protesters in the gallery of the legislature are very much against it, as are groups of north carolina clergy, faith leaders, the poor people's campaign led by the reverend william barber, the democratic

governor of north carolina, roy cooper, presumably going to veto this thing and wait to see whether the public pressure, the revulsion by some republicans about what they are trying to do will be enough to allow the veto to stand or whether republicans might be able to override that veto in the last days of their supermajority before they are pushed out. we shall see. this is a live issue right now. and i start with this tonight not because this is an important story for north carolina, right, this audacious small d anti-democratic power grab by republicans there. it's not just important for an important state. it's also kind of a test. it's a character test, right, to see if we really got the stomach right now for this kind of a fight. a fight in a very practical blunt sense for small d democracy because, obviously,

that's being messed with hear in north carolina, right. if you win an official, you winning the election means you should also get the powers of that job, right? there is no -- nothing about administering elections that should be handed to partisan actors, so that one party has a leg up in trying to win future elections. that's not the way it's supposed to work. trying to force those things is an anti-democratic, anti-small d democratic power grab. but that happening so bluntly and, obviously, causing revulgs in so many people in north carolina, that is also happening in the larger context of what's happening in the country. and we are seeing what the republican party ascending in washington, we are seeing a radical effort not to just advance and advocate for and plan to implement republican policies. we are seeing a really radical

effort to change the american system of government, to consolidate power in one man's hands, consolidate power within executive branch of government. all this talk about firing huge swaths of the federal government, wiping out whole department, firing law enforcement people, firing categories of civil servants, that is about con some dating power in the executive branch. so there is no source of authority or judgment within the federal government except for the one guy at the top, except for trump. specifically, you heard talk about them firing the fbi director, firing the chairman of the federal reserve. those are jobs that don't turn over when the presidency turns over. they are specifically designed to be independent of the political cycle so that people in those jobs at the fbi and the fed, they do what's right for the country and not just what's right for any particular president. but this insistence, this outloud insistence from the republicans that kri wray at the

fbi and jerome powell at the fed are going to be fired and replaced by trump pause is becag in as the new president is not how the american system of government is supposed to run. that's him consolidating his power over the executive branch, including the parts that are supposed to be independent from his power and control. we are also seeing even before the republicans take power efforts to consolidate power over the press. not just threatening and intimidating reporters and news organizations, but now, you know saying they will use the power of the government to do it, having their presumptive appointees saying that news organizations will be reviewed by the federal government according to their editorial decisions on news issues. we are finally now getting widespread discussion about their efforts to consolidate power also in just one man over the legislative branch of government. so over the fourth estate, the press, the executive branch prk

but also over the legislative branch, over congress. trump demanding that the senate not confirm his nominees, threatening to force the senate to shut down so he can install his nominees without any confirmation hearings or votes. that is an effort to consolidate his power in inert and unimportant the legislative branch of government, in that case the senate. it's not just the senate. with trump's austerity commission, where they are going to cut trillions of dollars out of the budget headed by eccentric right wing billionaire elon musk. they are reportedly black on seizing for themselves what is usually called the power of the purse. taking it away from congress. just unilaterally cutting and reshaping the whole federal government without congress being involved at all. so in washington as trump and the republicans are preparing to take power, trump is working really aggressively to consolidate all government power

in trump's hands. he is looking to consolidate all the power of the executive branch in his own hands, looking to consolidate all power it in the government over the legislative branch, supposed to be the coequal branch of government. trying to neuter it, make it unimportant, tell them what to do and expect them to do it. also trying to do the same thing over the fourth estate, right, the so-called fourth branch of government, the free press. there is also the judiciary, right. so far, frankly, you think he has been delighted how he is being treated by the courts, by the judiciary. so we don't yet see him moving to defy the courts or court orders but don't n't rest on th. i think it's very possible that that is coming. i mean, honestly if we're, i think, if you take a wide view of what's happening thus far with trump taking power, preparing to take power in washington, the efforts to

consolidate pow ter in the executive branch, the legislative branch, for it, intimidating the press. this is all about trying to make sure he is the only source of authority in the federal government. honestly in terms of what to watch for next, i think we need to be watching for something that they call autocratic breakthrough. it's when the party in power uses the power they have in government to make sure they can never be dislodged from government. i'll give you a concrete example. you have seen in the house of represent activity now that mike johnson is in as house speaker they change the rule in the house to make it much harder to remove him as speaker. so that's them digging in, planning to stay for long run. now we are here. you are not going to be able to get us out. you have seen trump quote joking end quote about expect to go

stay in office for a third term once the second term is up, and trump advisor his one time campaign manager steve bannon saying things in public about how they will be ruling for 50 years. there won't be any way to dislodge them from power. autocratic breakthrough when they use the powers they achieve from winning elections. so we are watching the efforts to consolidate power, watching for signs of autocratic break through, entrenching themselves in power so they can't be removed. this is how strong men rule. these are the things that they are trying. that said, so far it's not clear that their efforts are going all that great. the fact that they just want these things doesn't mean that they get them. the fact that they are trying

these things doesn't mean that they'll succeed. we have already seen terrible nominees like matt gaetz being laughed off of capitol hill and having to have his nomination withdrawn. we are seeing senate republicans not yet caving and not yet agreeing to shut themselves down so trump can have his nominees installed with no confirmation hearings. the press turning out to be, yes, weak-kneed and lilly livered as you might fear in some quarters, but also defiant and professional and aggressive and creative in other quarters. the american free press thus far, for example, has been doing a great job detailing the astonishing conflicts of interest and self-dealing and deep incompetence and lack of qualification, the salacious and allegedly criminal past dealings of the freak show lineup that trump announced as nominees for high office.

we will get to some of those this hour. so his intentions for what he wants to install and what he wants to do and how he want to consolidate power so the american government is essentially just the will of one man, those are just his intentions and it's worth being clear that those are his intentions. it's reporting on it t following it, being very clear-eyed about the fact that's what he is trying to do. just because those are his intentions doesn't mean those things are an inescapable fate for us as a country. politics still works. gravity still applies. the rules of nature still work. right? each of these things they are trying is likely to be a fight and a test and it's not just in washington. it's everywhere there is a push against democracy. everywhere there is a push against small d democracy we are seeing that there is a push for it, too. like in north carolina right now. joining us now is north carolina

state senator dan blue, the democratic leader in the senate of the great state of north carolina. senator blue, i appreciate you making type to be here tonight. thank you. >> thank you for having me this evening, rachel. >> i know the situation in north carolina i think as well as anybody watching from a national perspective, you, obviously, are watching it from inside and much closer up. what should the american people, people watching us right now, understand about what's been characterized as a power grab by republicans in your state since the election? >> well, you accurately describe grab. a power grab. i think it's a tantrum by the republican leadership and the general assembly not willing to accept the outcome of an election, and not willing to accept the fact that they lost on some of these elections. now it's consolidating power. it's taking extraordinary steps

to basically grant that power for themselves. taking it out of the judicial branch, taking it out of the executive branch. in our case, it happens to be the executive branch trying to seize the power, i mean the legislative branch rather than the executive branch. but it's the same thing that you are witnessing all over the country just led by a different group here in north carolina. >> i was struck by the footage. it didn't get a lot of national attention, but we were able to look at north carolina media, local news organizations in north carolina, bunch of social media stuff posted by different nonprofit and advocacy groups in north carolina and find what i found to be really interesting footage of the pushback by regular citizens. dozens of protesters seem to actually kind of interrupt the debate, a debate in which, as i understand it, no republican lawmaker actually was willing to speak up to defend these changes. we have seen members of the

clergy, the poor people's campaign led by reverend william barber speak against it. how would you describe the attention to this in the state and how your constituents are feeling about this and reacting to the bill? >> there is great attention to it. you described the marches led by dr. barber several years ago. those people are still around. they are watching what is happening with their government. they don't want the power seized by folk that they don't elect. one of the points that is important to this is that this legislation passed last week also takes the power away from the attorney general. so he can't intervene or get involved in certain cases unless it suits the whims of the republican leadership in the legislature. and so people know that the attorney general is supposed to protect their interests and on their half, they are protesting that, all of these powers that

are taken from the governor, all of these powers that are taken from other branches and other places that they have been for half a century or more. and so the decision last week to clear the galleries really took everybody out. people who weren't protesting, but everybody who was am coming to visit their government to see how it operate, the legislative branch of government. there was no effort to sort between those folk. but you could rest assured that people in north carolina, the state that started this whole revolution in the united states with the halifax resolves in 1776 will still be intimately involved in self-governance. ard regardless what the elected leadership in the legislature, the republican leadership, regardless what they do, that same spirit that hit north carolina 248 years ago will still prevail, and how people aren't going to take it, we believe very deeply in

democracy, and we are going to fight to preserve the institutions that were created to make sure that democracy still prevails. >> north carolina state senate democratic leader dan blue. senator blue, thank you for those closing rousing comments. thanks for making time to join us tonight. good to have you here, sir. >> thank you, rachel. it's been my pleasure. >> we have much more ahead here tonight. stay with us. re ahead here tonight. stay with us

black friday football on prime is back. an old school rivalry for a new game day. touchdown! i'm here all day! the raiders. and it's intercepted! the chiefs. all the way for the touchdown!

we got a game, boys! raiders/chiefs. black friday football. only on prime.

so here is one of the complaints filed with the better business bureau. after filling out an online form to get health insurance information, within three seconds i began getting bombarded by phone calls. when i asked the representative to stoop, she said the auto dialer wouldn't stop until i provided my information. quote, i don't know how to get them to stop after 18 calls in an hour and a half. i am 64 years old and this is causing me unnecessary stress. here is another. insurance agents repeatedly called my 86-year-old father who is deaf, has dementia and lives in an assisted-living facility. this insurance agent convinced his deaf elderly father with

dementia to dump his health insurance plan that he had more than 20 years in exchange for a plan that the person on the phone was hard selling him on in these repeated phone calls. the complaint says, quote, clearly this company is conducting fraud and financial elder abuse. the company that is the subject of these complaints is essentially a telemarketer that targets people who have medicare. so the company calls pe they should dump their medicare plan, run by the federal government, and instead switch to a private alternative. and if the telemarketer is successful in convincing or trick og or better rating the old person on the phone into doing that, into agreeing, well, then the telemarketer collects a handsome fee from the new insurance company that they have just got this new sign-up for. "new york" magazine has some great reporting on this out today. the company told the magazine they don't engage in this,

quote, kind of behavior. excuse me, kind of conduct. nevertheless, this telemarketing firm has had dozens of individual complaints waged against it with the better business bureau. tells you something about how they operate. that said, big picture, who cares about a litany of heartbreaking elder abuse complaints like that when the company also has a powerful and charismatic celebrity endorser. >> everybody, i'm here today at the medicare advantage.com health line center in charlotte, north carolina, here to meet the team helping folks like you with coverage options. >> oh, folks just like you. that of course is the tv doctor, dr. mehmet oz. and his enthusiasm for this particular company might conceivably have something to do with the fact that he personally holds hundreds of thousands of dollar in stock in some of the companies that provide in insurance if you can convince people to give up medicare in

repeated, repeated, repeated phone calls. his financial stake in this matter came to light a few years as the trump endorsed candidate for senate in pennsylvania, campaigning on a platform to privatize all of medicare. you know, that would have all been a lot of baggage to carry into the united states senate had he won that senate seat, right. campaigning to privatize medicare while he was financially benefiting from such a policy change with his own personal stock holdings, promotion of medicare privatization schemes. i mean, perhaps that is what motivated pennsylvania voters to not elect mehmet oz as their united states senator. it would be quite something to drag that with you into the senate. another thing entirely to drag all of that into the federal government because dr. oz is now going to be the person in charge of medicare for the federal government. but that of course is what

donald trump has just announced, that he is naming dr. mehmet oz for the next administrator of medicare and medicare. dr. oz is the tv doctor who once claimed that red onions can prevent ovarian cancer. green coffee beans are a miracle weightless cure. the false claim that dodging malaria medicines treat covid and he owns a mountain of stocks in related companies, including the makers of the malaria drug he was hocking for covimajor decisionmaker about health care in this country in dharnl charge of the federal government program he was planning to personally profit from if and when that happened. on the heels of donald trump picking him to run medicare and medicaid in this country, we got news on other health care picks to run the cdc. donald trump picked a former republican congressman who for years crusaded on the false

claim that vaccines must be the cause of autism to lead the national institute of health. trump's top candidate endorsed herd herd immunity as the best o address the covid pandemic. just a fancy way of saying let's get everybody sick and see what happens. cull the weak. cull the elderly. then there is trump's pick for surgeon general, the makes's top doctor. she is a tv personality herself. went to a four profit medical school in the caribbean. she has no to public health experience whatsoever. she does appear regularly on the fox. that's nothing to say of the guy who is the leading anti-vaccine crank and quack in the united states who is considered to be responsible for a totally preventible -- considered to be largely responsible for a totally preventible health care

crisis that took dozens of lives in this country. and that story is next. when the time comes to act. are you all in for the things that really matter? i am all in for racial justice. i'm all in for voting rights. i'm all in for women's rights. i'm all in for civil rights. the time is now to stand up for a future you believe in. to be all in for the rights of black communities across the u.s.. to keep advancing

the future we envision for the america we love. you can do it now by supporting the naacp®. call or go online now to become a champion for change. your donation of just $19 a month, only $0.63 a day, will help naacp® keep advancing in the fight for equity and justice. your support will help ensure that all students can learn. businesses can thrive, communities can advance, and everyone can vote. and together, we'll create a tomorrow in which all people can thrive. the naacp® is on the front line in the fight for equality. but we need your support now to keep advancing the cause of racial justice in america, because we won't go back. so please join us. call or go to keepadvancing.org and give just $19 a month. when you use your credit card, you'll receive this special i'm all in t-shirt

to show you're helping advance the rights of black americans. i'm all in for a great education. i'm all in for health equity. i'm all in to lead the fight for equality. we're all in for the naacp®. this is the moment to use your power for good. so please become an naacp® champion for change today. call or go online to keepadvancing.org right now.

it's hard to say who'll be more excited on the day after christmas. the guy who got a brand new truck from mom and dad. or the guy who got all the weathertech protection for his truck. like laser measured floorliners... the under seat storage system... no drill mud flaps... impact liner with shock absorbing rings... and top it off with the alloy cover. find these american made gifts or get a gift card instantly at wt.com. (♪♪) (high five) we are grocery outlet and we are your bargain bliss market what is bargain bliss? prices are too high, but grocery outlet has the name brands you love for way way less. that's bargain bliss. this thanksgiving budgets are stretched tight, so we are giving you a little extra help this season. $3.99 for a jennie-o 14 to 16 lb. turkey. when you spend $35.

head to your neighborhood grocery outlet today because this offer is available only while supplies last. this is the biggest increase since records began, 32 up from 25 only yesterday. >> not designed to deal with

this. the minute you get hospitals at sfwo and 300% capacity, that's incredibly serious. >> that was an australian news station reporting from samoa in 2019. if it's -- seems familiar it may sound like the kind of news reports we saw in 2020 during the global covid pandemic. but this was not about covid. this all happened before covid. this was 2019. this outbreak in samoa killed more than 80 people, many young kids. the government had to order lockdowns to try to save people's lives. charities around the world shipped children's coffins to samoa to deal with a shortage there for all the kids and babies who were dying. what they were experiencing this in 2019 was an epidemic of measles. a preventible epidemic. i say that because measles is a disease for which there has been

an effective vaccine available for more than 60 years. that entirely preventible disease outbreak in samoa in 2019 is newly relevant because one of the factors that contributed was a sudden on set of hostility to vaccination on the island and that was stoked in large part by robert f. kennedy jr. who donald trump just tapped to lead the department of health and human services. kennedy's anti-vaccine organization, children's health defense, aggressively spread anti-vaccine propaganda not only in the united states but around the world, and in samoa they claimed that the measles vaccine itself was the cause of the outbreak and not the solution to it. rfk jr. personally lobbied the governor of samoa telling the governor that vaccination caused the spread of measles, not what needed to be done to stop the spread of it.

and that's insane. as journalist brian deerites in a new op-ed for "the new york times," quote, i was in samoa during that outbreak as part of 16 years of report on the anti-vaccine movement. the cause of the outbreak was not the vaccine but an infected traveler who brought the virus from new zealand, especially among the indigenous and pacific islander communities. migration and poverty were like i factors. but as an editorial and new zealand medical journal report so too was a fatter that robert f. kennedy jr. specializes in. quote, increasing circulation of misinformation leading to distrust and reduced vaccine uptake. joining us is brian deer, a journalist and the author of the book the doctor who fooled the world. about the anti-vaccine movement. i appreciate you taking time to join us today. thank you.

>> pleasure, nice to be here. >> i think that since robert f. kennedy jr. associated himself both with his presidential election as an independent candidate and then second with donald trump e especially put forward for this powerful health post, i think americans have started to hear about his very troubling role in this deadly outbreak in samoa. but i still think that the concept of it, the idea of it is fuzzy to a lot of people. can you describe the nature of the outbreak, how severe it was and why he is associated with it and thought to be potentially partially responsible for the death toll? >> well, the plot thickens from what you were saying a moment ago in that it's almost certain that the virus got into samoa by flight from auckland. and just a little while before that friends of kennedy had been

in auckland, in new zealand, with a film which had been promoted in the united states by robert de niro and got a lot of attention in the united states suggesting there was fraud at the cdc in atlanta. there actually wasn't. but so they had been touring in auckland, south auckland, where a lot of pacific islander communities are there, which became very, very susceptible. there new zealand saw the biggest outbreak of measles in decades. so it was no surprise really that that virus did get on to an aircraft and got out to samoa. mr. kennedy really has questions to answer about his relationship with the people who made that film. it was called vaxed. mr. kennedy became the executive producer of the sequel. was a close colleague of the people who went out to new

zealand and also to australia to promote fear of vaccines. so that's where it came from. and the catastrophic consequences that i witnessed on the island, and i spent much of a week of the time i was there just simply talking to mothers about the loss of their children, and it was really awful to listen to them. and i found myself at the end of it all just sitting in a cathedral and crying. i couldn't stop crying as the accumulation of fain from these mothers really consumed me. it was awful. >> why would somebody like rfk jr. have influence in a place like samoa as to whether or not people vaccinated their kids? why would his influence in particular be something that sort of perniciously accelerated the risk there? >> well, his name opens doors much he has always known that. he is really not a lot more than

his name is he? he is not particularly a good lawyer. he pays himself $500 a year. to run children's health defense which he set up himself of he is not a particularly distinguished man in his own right. but he got out to samoa, he went to visit them, went to see the prime minister, and as you say tried convince the prime minister that was in fact the vaccine that was causing the deaths and not the measles virus. extraordinary thing to do. but, you know, he has been making this kind of miss schif for many years now. >> journalist and author brian deer, the author of the doctor who fooled the world, mr. deer, appreciate you being with us for this and i would love to have you back to talk more about this in the future. >> sure. >> thank you. we'll be right back. so i saved hundreds. with the money i saved i thought i'd get a wax figure of myself. oh! right in the temporal lobe! beat it, punks! only pay for what you need.

♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪ when i was diagnosed with h-i-v, i didn't know who i would be. but here i am... ...being me. keep being you... ...and ask your healthcare provider about the number one prescribed h-i-v treatment, biktarvy. biktarvy is a complete, one-pill, once-a-day treatment used for h-i-v in many people—whether you're 18 or 80. with one small pill, biktarvy fights h-i-v to help you get to undetectable—and stay there whether you're just starting or replacing your current treatment. research shows that taking h-i-v treatment as prescribed and getting to and staying undetectable prevents transmitting h-i-v through sex. serious side effects can occur, including kidney problems and kidney failure. rare, life-threatening side effects include a buildup of lactic acid and liver problems. don't take biktarvy if you take dofetilide or rifampin. tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines and supplements you take, if you are pregnant or breastfeeding or have kidney or liver problems. if you have hepatitis b, don't stop taking biktarvy without talking to your healthcare provider. common side effects were diarrhea, nausea, and headache. no matter where life takes you,

biktarvy can go with you. talk to your healthcare provider today. ahh, yellow! didn't pass the tissue test? buckle up! whoa! there's toothpaste white, and there's crest 3dwhitestrips white. prepare for non-stop smiles. crest.

for more than a decade farxiga has been trusted again and again, and again. ♪far-xi-ga♪ ♪far-xi-ga♪ ask your doctor about farxiga.

oh, my leaffilter? i just scheduled an appointment online and the inspection was a breeze. they explained everything. leaffilter's technology protects your gutters for good. schedule your free gutter inspection now and save up to 35% with leaffilter's black friday deals. shop etsy's cyber spectacular until december 3rd for up to 60% off all kinds of gifts carefully crafted by small businesses. save big on the perfect presents for practical parents. cute and cuddly creations for kids and other fetching finds made to make the holidays for any hard to shop for person on your list. when you want up to 60% off gifts that say i get you, etsy has it.

[clears throat] sounds like you need to vaporize that sore throat. vapocool drops? it's sore throat relief with a rush of vicks vapors. ♪ vapocooooool ♪ whoa. vaporize sore throat pain with vicks vapocool drops. about ten days ago "the new york times" published a profile of an advisor to president-elect donald trump, a guy by the name of boris epstein. the trump lawyer who wields outsized influence on the next white house. quote, there is nobody in the president-elect's orbit who at this point would doubt the level of mr. epstein's influence, quickly one of the most powerful figures in the transition, a significant gatekeeper for trump, including shaping some of the information he receives about personnel and cabinet selections.

epstein was reportedly pivoting in securing the ultimately doomed nomination of matt gaetz to be attorney general of the united states, also the nomination of trump's chosen white house counsel. now, we have been through one trump transition and one trump administration before. so what comes next is as obvious to you as it is to me, right, in the snake pit of jockeying egos that trump cultivates around himself, you know, if this guy boris is seen as ascendent in terms of his influence, then of course all of the other snakes are activated, all the other people in trump's orbit will soon come for boris. it's like the sun rising in the east. somebody's important? not for long. cue today's headline. cnn first to report on allegations flying inside the trump transition that old boris has been trying to cash in on

his proximity to trump. imagine what's described as, quote, an internal investigation by trump lawyers reportedly found that boris epstein asked potential trump cabinet nominees to pay him for his help getting them nominated, to pay him as much as $100,000 per month. among the people epstein supposedly tried to shake down was trump's ultimate nominee for treasury scott bessent, who at least according to this internal trump, quote, legal review reportedly did not cough up the cash much he reportedly did not pay boris epstein before being selected for the job. there is even a report published in a super trump friendly right-wing outlet that bessent possibly in consultation with vice president-elect j.d. vance's office participated in kind of a amateur sting operation against boris epstein in which he tried to get him op tape asking him for money in exchange for the nomination.

i should say msnbc and nbc news have not confirmed any of this reporting. boris epstein, however, tells us, quote, i am honored to work for president trump and with his team. these fake claims are false and defamatory and will not distract us from making america great again. of course, it was going be like this, right? of course the trump transition and presumably the next trump term will be a cornucopia of infighting and backbiting and trump's allies all trying to sabotage each other not only in the press, but any other underhanded way they can. of course it was going to be like this. more seriously though, these allegations that boris was collecting cash or trying to collect cash in exchange for getting people put in the cabinet raises the prospect that trump cabinet offices are for sale, right? the possibility that people would think there is a possibility of buying one

because there are at least a publish price for what it takes to get one. the internal review by trump lawyers supposedly found that epstein didn't get money from anyone, that he wasn't able to collect his price for getting anybody installed in the cabinet. that jibes with what we heard as well. but we have asked if we can see the supposed review. think they will ever make it public? think they will ever give it to us? watch this space. black friday football on prime is back. touchdown! the raiders. the chiefs. an old school rivalry for a new gameday. i'm here all day! raiders/chiefs. black friday football. only on prime.