we will get attacked, but we will continue to fight, because that is the nature of who we are as a community. that is the nature of the naacp. >> i believe you will persevere, and ladies in german, that is why the cues run the naacp. thank you to you both. that's going to do it for me. thank you for watching, this is another episode of velshi. it comes on every weekend morning from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon. but for right now, stay where you are, because the katie phang show is starting right now. ht now. this is the katie phang show from miami, florida. a fighting chance. why donald trump says in a new nbc news exclusive interview his chances around the pentagon

still stand a shot. five years after a devastating fire, the iconic notre dame cathedral is set to open today. why president-elect donald trump will be among the guests. then as gender affirming care bans land at the front door of the supreme court, some of the united states' most important medical associations are telling those justices to keep their hands off. and later, defying gravity. wicked director on the new generation of asian story tellers on the big screen. breaking down why everyone deserves a chance to fly. all of that and more is coming up. so, pete hegseth has become the little nominee that could as he keeps chugging along in his

quest to remain donald trump's pick for defense secretary. he spent days on capitol hill meeting with senators to try to secure their support amid the allegations of drinking problems, sexual assault, and financial malfeasance, all of which he denies. but it's an uphill battle with nbc reporting as many as six senate republicans are not comfortable supporting hegseth. though president-elect donald trump publicly at least says he's still standing by his man. in an exclusive interview with kristen welker, donald trump says that he maintains his support for hegseth and through it all, hegseth remains defiant. >> looking for all of these senators' questions but this will not be a process tried in media. i don't answer to anyone in this group. none of you. not to that camera at all. i answer to president trump -- >> joining me now, democratic congresswoman jennifer mcclellan, a member of the house armed services committee.

congresswoman, always an honor to have you join our show. let's take a quick listen to more of what donald trump told my colleague, kristen welker, about pete hegseth's nomination. >> looks like pete is doing well now. i mean, people were a little bit concerned. he's a young guy with a tremendous track record. actually went to princeton and harvard. he was a good student at both, but he loves the military and i think people are starting to see it. so we'll be working on his nomination along with a lot of others. >> since you bring him up, do you still have confidence in him? >> i do. he's a very smart guy. i've known him through fox, but i've known him a long time. he's basically a military guy. every time i talk to him, all he wants to talk about is the military. >> have you gotten assurances from senators he's going to be confirmed? do you think he can make it?

>> no. i think he will, yeah. i've had a lot of senators call me up and say he's fantastic. >> you don't drink yourself. you've talked about how devastating drinking can be. >> no. >> how concerned are you that the person you picked for this top job at the defense department, at least according to those who have worked with him, has struggled with drinking? >> but i've spoken to people that know him very well and they say he does not have a drinking problem. >> i mean, congresswoman, denial is not just a river in egypt here. trump saying he's known hegseth through fox news. that should not be a qualification, but yet here we are finding ourselves having this conversation. when did competency and qualifications get kicked out the door by republicans? >> you know, that's a very good question. this appears to be a full cabinet that's more a cast of a tv show, reality show, than a cabinet that would be qualified

to run the agencies they have to run. pete hegseth is particularly concerning because he has no qualifications that show he can run an agency as large as the department of defense, that is as important to our national security as it is. that he can continue to lead in a way that keeps our armed forces ready for the problems they could face. and his allegations around sexual assault, around drinking on the job, financial impropriety in the organization he did run are all very concerning. >> i'm not sure if we still have the congresswoman. we're having some -- oh, i think we have her back. we were having some technical difficulties with the congresswoman's connection. and i'm not sure if we have her back yet. >> sorry. >> great, we do. sorry about that.

we did have a technical gremlin moment. i wanted to ask you about trump's pick for director of national intelligence. tulsi gabbard. she also faces obstacles. on thursday, nearly 100 former national security officials released a letter calling for closed door confirmation hearings to carry out a full review of information about gabbard. how concerned are you about the security of our country with someone like tulsi gabbard as dni? >> i'm very concerned. she has shown a closeness and admiration for authoritarian leaders of countries that are our adversaries. particularly russia and syria. and i have deep, deep concerns about whether she would hold our national security secrets or whether they would fall in the hands of people that should not have them. she again shows she has no

qualifications to lead this agency and particularly when you combine her with pete hegseth at the department of defense, i am extremely concerned about these two candidates. >> you know, congresswoman, we're less than two weeks away from yet another partial government shutdown. the deadline comes up december 20th. a very bah humbug moment possibly for americans. how do you see this playing out? for government funding, you need 60 votes in the u.s. senate and the gop is only going to have about 53 senators if we roll this into the beginning of 2025. >> i am hopeful we will avoid a government shutdown on the 20th and kick the can down the road yet again on funding to at least march. we need to get our act together as congress to pass appropriation bills and not these stopgap measures time and time again. going back to our national security interests, it is very

difficult for the department of defense to plan, to make its procurement decisions. when we keep kicking the can down the road like this. and state and local governments depend on stability. businesses depend on stability. the american people depend on stability. we need to pass a stopgap measure on the 20th then get down to business, passing a budget well before the deadline. >> i'm going to tell you this, congresswoman. i'm going to exclude the democrats, obviously. the 118th congress was the kick the can congress when it came to these stopgap measures. i'm praying the 119 doesn't do that. thank you for being here. a quick programming note. you can catch kristen welker's full interview with president-elect donald trump tomorrow on nbc's "meet the press." and for more on this conversation, i want to bring in

susan delpercio. susan, every cabinet, you know, always has, always is kind of subject to big question marks, but i see donald trump telling kristen welker he's got confidence in pete hegseth, but there's widespread reporting that he's considering replacing him with florida governor desantis. can you look into your crystal ball and see how this is going to play out? >> first, let me look into the past for a moment. when donald trump is really behind someone, we know it. he threatens people. he is aggressive about making sure people know he's 100% behind someone. the answers i heard in that interview with our colleague, kristen, i just don't see a very enthusiastic endorsement. donald trump doesn't like to lose, but i think he knows that you know, katie, if a week is a year in politics, then a month is like a decade when it come to a congressional, or a senatorial confirmation process. that's what we're looking at. there's a lot of time left on

the clock with when you look at hegseth and a few other of the folks that are going to come up under background investigation from the fbi. they'll do that report. i think time is against several people who donald trump has nominated and we're going to start seeing even more of a drip, drip, drip as things come out. >> you know, susan, i'm glad you mentioned that the transition team for trump did agree to actually do those background checks with the fbi when they previously did not agree to do so. they said they were going to do a private investigation. i did want to move on to an important conversation that's been going on. it's about this idea about joe biden issuing blanket preemptive pardons. some names, adam schiff, dr. anthony fauci, liz cheney among others. you see on your screen there. retired general mark milley. what are your thoughts about these? i had a great conversation with

leah lipman and kim whaley about this. and kim called them protective pardons. maybe that's the way we should be looking at them. >> i'm not a legal scholar, so i'm not, don't even have a law degree but i know at least through a political lens, it looks horrible. these are folks frankly who don't need a pardon if we know they haven't done anything wrong, they can afford or will be funded to have a legal defense if one is needed. but to do blanket pardons just shows, erodes confidence, frankly, in the doj itself. when people should not need blanket pardons in this case. frankly, i would be more worried about some lower level folks who may have been vocal against donald trump in the past than these very high profile people. i understand why president biden pardoned his son. it makes all the sense in the world to me. it was probably not great through a political lens, but as a father, of course he would do

that. but going beyond that and really politicizing the process on his way out the door i think is a terrible mistake for this country. >> susan, i want to follow up though. a doj that adhered to a rule of law doj is a different one than a perspective pam bondi doj and a kash patel fbi. i understand that maybe the, maybe the imagery of it happening is maybe not a good idea politically yet we saw jimmy carter do blanket pardons for people who did not want to serve during the war. actually the most kind of example was the one about pardoning nixon for what he did. he got something before he was even charged or indicted. isn't it time to kind of look at the situation in a different lens than perhaps the one we were using maybe ten years ago? >> i don't think so. not in this case. again, because we're basing it on what trump may do. we don't know. we haven't seen any cases

brought forward. i know you could say that's going to be too little too late, but i have more confidence in our judicial system than that and if it frankly all relies on our whole country, our whole existence and our democracy relies on two or three people, trump, patel, and bondi, we're in a heck of a lot more trouble than just having the conversation about blanket pardons. >> i think we're in trouble but that's just my take on it. good to see you. still to come, castles in the air. the legal and logistical challenges facing trump's grand promises to deport millions of undocumented immigrants and the drastic moves states are making to stop his efforts. first on the lam, the fbi announcing a new reward for the person who shot the ceo of united healthcare. keep it right here. of united healthcare. keep it right here get back tr breathing with fasenra, an add-on treatment for eosinophilic asthma taken once every 8 weeks.

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breaking news out of the new york city as the hunt continues for the gunman who killed the ceo of united healthcare. two sources familiar with the investigation saying the nypd has sent detectives to atlanta, georgia to work with that city's police after reports of the gunman possibly taking a bus from there to new york city. and overnight, the fbi announced a $50,000 reward for any information that leads to an arrest and conviction of the elusive shooter. detectives also announcing they found a gray bag in central park

that may be connected to the suspect. we'll keep monitoring the city as it develops. and like a horrible case of deja vu, donald trump continues to create fear in the minds of several thousands as his immigration plans take form. he has promised the biggest removal of migrants in american history and a new report is detailing the specifics of the plan. nbc news reporting that the incoming administration has prepared to deport migrants to countries on a list if their home countries refuse to accept them. adding quote, the plans could mean that thousands if not hundreds of thousands of migrants would be permanently displaced in countries where they do not know any of the people or the language and have no connection to the culture. joining me now is deputy director of the immigrants rights project at the aclu. lee, you guys do amazing work

always, but of course, when you've got somebody like donald trump at the helm of the oval office, you got to do even more. your organization, aclu, one of the most powerful critics of trump's first term, filing 444 legal challenges against that white house. successfully blocked the muslim ban and family separation policy, but what's being done now before he even takes office again? >> yeah, well thanks for having me, katie. we have been preparing for a year. the first time around, we had to just sort of jump in. we weren't prepared for trump winning. this time, we have been preparing with at least 15 lawyers since the wintertime for what he was promising during the campaign. having said that, i think it's going to take a whole country effort for people to push back and not just in the courts but sort of with a whole narrative that look, we want immigration reform. the people want immigration reform.

we want immigration reform, but there's lines which we won't cross. i think what's happening is everyone's talking about mass deportations in the abstract. i think when the american public sees what that looks like in practice, i think they will push back like they did with family separation. during the first term, people wanted immigration reform but when they saw little babies being ripped apart, wait, this is not what we want. it's going to look different in practice to people. >> lee, i really, i'm glad you brought that up because i think it's also important for people to understand it's not just the mass deportation that trump has promised. trump has also promised to end tps. temporary protected status. that would affect more than 860,000 immigrants in the united states. he also has indicated he's going to end humanitarian parole programs. i mean, these are things that impact tens if not hundreds of thousands of people that are here in the united states. can the aclu help these people? how is it going to happen in

terms of the rollout of these plans for donald trump? >> yeah. so, we will be doing everything we possibly can with our partners out there but i think it's going to take more than just coordination. i think it's going to take communities pushing back, states and local governments pushing back, religious organizations pushing back. to be clear, it's not just a political thing. we need to protect peoples' lives. what i saw during the first term is that people said wait, i didn't know he could come after my son's custodian in the school. my son's custodian is such a nice guy. when you talk about mass deportation, it goes well beyond national security threats or very serious criminals. i think that's what's going to happen. we will be pushing back in the court and trying to organize people on the ground as well. >> you know, lee, we've got

people like california ag saying we're not going to do this. we are going to stand strong and protect our california citizens. we're going to make sure that we adhere to the decency and to the rule of law. what are you hearing about other blue states and blue cities including sanctuary cities that are trying to protect those that are living there? >> yeah. we are hearing that states are gearing up for this. to be clear, i think they're gearing up because they think it's a public safety problem for the federal government to go after immigrants in their communities and ask local police officers to go after immigrants this their communities. remember that if the immigrant communities are too scared to come forward and report crimes or be witnesses, that's from a public safety standpoint. i think what you see is a lot of police officers and city mayors saying just from a public safety standpoint, it's not smart to terrorize entire groups of people who we need to help with

enforcement of the law and so i think that's why they're going to push back is because they don't think this is good for their public safety. >> director of the immigrants rights project at the aclu, i'm appreciative of the hard work you're doing. thanks for being here. >> thanks. still to come, their body, their choice. the supreme court appears ready to uphold a ban on gender affirming care for transgender youth. i'm going to talk with dolly libwick on why this care should not be up for debate. five years after a devastating fire that nearly destroyed it all, france's iconic notre dame cathedral rises again. a live report from paris coming up next. a live report from paris coming up next. am i just gonna take what the markets gives me? no. i can do some research. ya know, that's backed by j.p. morgan's leading strategists like us. when you want to invest with more confidence...

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where just moments from now, the notre dame cathedral is set to reopen five years after a fire severely damaged the landmark. the opening also marks the return of president-elect trump on to the world stage after a meeting between trump and the french president earlier today. first lady, dr. jill biden, will also be attending. president biden was invited to attend but declined due to his scheduling. joining me now for more and live from paris is vaughn hillyard. any insight into what was discussed during that meeting between trump and macron? >> reporter: well, the biggest development was the fact, katie, that just a little while after that meeting began, that cameras were allowed back in to the palace and president zelenskyy of ukraine was in on what appeared to be a three-person meeting between the french president, the incoming united states president, and the ukrainian president. of course, this is all, we

should note, we're just about 40 minutes away from when the reopening ceremony of the notre dame cathedral is slated to begin here and of course, president macron is going to be giving remarks as well as president zelenskyy and incoming incoming president trump are going to be attending. this is of course politically and geopolitically a huge meeting. for macron, it was a priority of him to bring president trump here and particularly around concern over the trump, incoming trump administration's threats about cutting off future financial aid to ukraine in its defense against russia's aggression. so by bringing zelenskyy, who also we should note, a surprise addition late yesterday afternoon, it was announced he would also be attending this ceremony. clearly, president macron, who is one of the few foreign leaders in europe who has now had a deep, long relationship with donald trump, used this moment, the cathedral reopening,

and at his own request to donald trump and mar-a-lago, to come here for this event, used it for the opportunity to put him in front of president zelenskyy and to at least engage in a conversation. we don't know what is happening. the meeting may still ongoing as far as we are aware. we will of course try to get a read out. the french, president macron's team has been proactive in discussing the movements and activities of president macron, so hopefully at least from their end, we could expect a read out here at a moment in time where we're over a month away from inauguration day, there's a lot of geopolitical questions about the incoming trump administration's commitment to not only nato, but ukraine as it approaches the third year of war against russia. >> a lot of unanswered questions. vaughn, i will say i'm glad you have ear muffs on because it looks cold but i'm also glad you

get to be in beautiful paris for this event. enjoy the reopening. it's good to see you. vaughn hillyard, my friend, thanks. a tennessee law that bans gender affirming care for minors is being challenged before the united states supreme court. more than half of the country has passed bans on medical care for trans youth such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy and if this week's arguments are any indication, at least four of the justices tend to be leaning towards the law to uphold the care for transgender people under the age of 18. joining me now, legal correspondent enter for slate, host of the amicus podcast and msnbc law and politics analyst. also the author of that amazing book on your screen, lady justice. let's talk about this because we obviously followed the supreme court's oral arguments very intently. i was expecting to hear, which i

thought would be the appropriate method of analyzing this law. an emphasis on whether it needs to be strict scrutiny, the fact that whether legal protection rights would be implemented here. what would be the applicable review standard. i didn't hear enough of that and it has me worried about what's going to happen in this case. >> yeah, it's so interesting that the court chose to look at this as though there's no history of sex discrimination in the country. that there's no history of protection, even for trans rights, right? in 2020 in a big case called bostic, a court in an opinion written by gorsuch, said you can't discriminate against trans

employees without discriminating on the basis of sex. so you're right to say is a slam dunk if you think of yourself as situated in existing doctrine. the court seemed to want to go back to go and have a long, meandering conversation about how they felt about the science and the constitution at neutral. that this should be a case where we know the rules, we know the test. this has been the status quo for 50 years. go. that's not what happened at all. >> and you know, what did you think about the fact that justice gorsuch who you noted offered the opinion and only opinion from the supreme court dealing with transgender rights in an employment context. the fact that gorsuch asked no questions at all during the oral argument. >> right. and katie, this was a two plus

hour oral argument. he was given ample opportunity to ask questions. he just sat silently. i think for a lot of us who thought he would double down on the reasoning in his own opinion in bostic, it was kind of distressing to see his silence. also note that chief justice john roberts who had agreed in that case came out in this instance absolutely i think emphatically uninterested in the sort of rights and vulnerability of the trans minors at risk in this case. it was as though bostic had never happened. it was very, very interesting over and above all that to hear the justices on the sort of conservative super majority block who made themselves masters of science on climate change, on covid mitigation.

they know everything there is to know about particulate matter in the ozone layer and suddenly, they were coming out saying who could know. this is unknowable science. it was really interesting to see the court decide to take a posture of neutrality as to whether they could decide science questions where they have inserted themselves into science questions overwhelmingly without having knowledge themselves. and suddenly, they were sitting there saying to us, we're just simple country lawyers. we don't know. >> well, and let's highlight some of the hypocrisy in that because brett kavanaugh though decided to show his ignorance by trying to draw an analogy between women's and girl's sports and the opportunity for transgender children to be able to participate in those sports and the idea of these trans children being able to have access to life affirming gender

affirming care. >> right. it's so important to note that that's not an issue in this case. it was an issue in the election, right. as part of the massive juggernaut that was frightening people about the sector of allowing, you know, trans kids to participate in sports and so you're right to say that you know, justice kavanaugh, who coached girl's basketball, is suddenly like this is the hill he wants to die on. the other thing that justice kavanaugh kept harping on which is so interesting is that there's going to be regret. there's this enormous regret from people who feel that they made a mistake and over and over again, you heard the advocates in this case saying people regret medical procedures all the time. infinitesimal numbers of people who have these therapies regret them? the idea that that's going to

decide this case is horrifying. >> so far fueled from the legal standards that should be applied. thank you, my friend, for being here to help us with this important case. i appreciate you. come up next, south korean chaos. the latest on the dramatic move to oust the south korean president following his botched martial law attempt earlier this week. keep it right here for an important conversation. ek keep it right here for an important conversation 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. now is the time to go back in time. and shine a light on the family journey that led to you. learn when they said, “i do.” ♪♪ when they became heroes. ♪♪ how they ruled the school. ♪♪ and what you got from your parents— the places on mom's side, and dad's side. ♪♪

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we're following the latest developments out of south korea where president yoon earlier today survived an impeachment vote led by opposition lawmakers. but they've vowed to hold another vote on wednesday of next week. yoon gave a national address where he apologized for imposing short lived martial law earlier this week. the martial law order took many by surprise including military officers and government officials. the military blocked entry to

parliament so many lawmakers were forced to scale the walls in order to achieve a quorum to vote to lift the declaration. tens of thousands of protesters gathered outside of the parliament calling for yoon to step down and those protesters continue to march in the streets of seoul. joining me now is jean h. lee, the fellow at the east west center and former associated press seoul bureau chief. a lot of attention on seoul yet south korea is no stranger to declarations of martial law. there's been two military coups in terms of leading the countries and yet it was for the purpose of cracking down on pro democracy during these military administrations. get us caught up to speed on whether you think there's going to be a successful impeachment vote wednesday. >> what a crazy week. this is a good reminder that south korea is a country that is

a very young democracy and certainly there are many older south koreans that would have remembered an era of when you saw troops in the streets, you had martial law where your rights and freedoms were restricted. i thought it was so interesting. i saw an article that said the most searched term the 24 hours after that martial law was the term martial law. in south korea. so koreans just getting online to try to understand what this meant. it's a reminder that this is a democracy that is tenacious and that people are very willing to go into the streets to defend. so it's been interesting watching the people take to the streets, standing up to the troops and really defending their right to democracy. this hard won democracy that is

very young, but very resilient. >> something that's come out recently within the last day is the following. yoon created a list of enemies and that's very familiar to us here. we've heard about a list of enemies for trump, kash patel, and others. this arrest list created by yoon, he gave it to his director of national intelligence said arrest, clean everything up and i'll give you the ability to support a counterintelligence probe with funds and personnel unconditionally. it includes the opposition party leader. we're drawing a lot of parallels in the united states to what's happening now in south korea. are those fair parallels to be drawn? >> south korea like united states has a very polarized political landscape. these two parties are always at each other's throats. i was walking up here at 4:00 in the morning when this order went

off. you immediately think something's happening with north korea. when i saw what this was, it was mind blowing. really, this is about a political fight between two leaders, between two parties, and i think what we're starting to see the people rising up and saying no, we want to have a say in this. i did immediately, so i was in seoul watching january 6th unfold in 2021. and now i'm in the united states watching this unfold in south korea. i did make that parallel because there was that moment where i thought is this the moment where the, where democracy cracks. so there are some interesting parallels i think when you have these two very polarized parties who out for blood. we're going to see that in south korea and i'm afraid this is just the, we are in the middle of massive political upheaval. of course it was a time of covid when january 6th happened. but for south korea, they have a

history of going into the streets to protest. it's almost like a party if you've seen some of those demonstrations before. they mobilize quickly and they are very organized and they are going to stay in the streets no matter how cold it is to voice their displeasure with how things are unfolding. >> always makes me proud to be a south korean. you maybe me proud to be a south korean as well. thank you so much for your insight today. we appreciate you very much. >> thank you. coming up after the break, defying gravity. my inspiring conversation with award winning wicked and crazy rich asians director and how he turned one of broadway's best musicals into one of the top grossing film s of all time. top grossing film s of all time

someone's new to the emerald city. come with me. >> what? >> to meet the wizard. >> this is your moment. i'm coming. ♪♪ >> i am oz, the great and terrible. >> the wizard will see you now. wicked is the popular movie defying gravity at the box office, becoming the highest grossing broadway musical of all time to grace the big screen. earlier this week, i had the

privilege to sit down with the man behind the curtain, director of wicked, jon m. chu. thanks for joining me, jon. the blockbuster movie musical wicked, it's a feast for the senses. frankly, all of your movies are a feast for the senses. this is the second musical you've brought to the big screen after working with lin-manuel miranda. you're actually making musical theatre accessible to people globally because sometimes i think musicals live in one space and movies live in another. do you ever get scared about making sure you honor the original work or is this a chance for you to make it your own? >> it's kind of both. i think people hope that it feels like not just the same, that it uses the expansive canvas of the cinema. i got to see wicked before it was on broadway so i'm like patient zero and i had no contact before seeing it and i was blown away by it and i've been obsessed for 20 years.

so for me, i want to protect it as much possible but at the same time, i know the tools we have this cinema to sweep the audiences away, to get the intimate performances of these two performers. i hope we made it our own by giving it our own modern context and the best seats in the house. >> there are some people on social media, they're pointing out that your art seemingly mirrors post election life here in america with some comparisons of the wizard, so donald trump, and persecution to kmubts of color. you said when the path isn't ours, we rise above and sometimes we find that we can fly. how do we keep the hope? how do we keep the believe in something good and better when sometimes it just seems really dark? >> yeah, i think that's a hard one. i think it's all of us have to decide that we want to be those people.

i think that story has a big place in our society today and i think we used to tell ourselves, we used to tell giant stories to ourselves. let's get to the moon. let's have big dreams. i think we're at a time where pessimism has maybe taken over a bit and it's hard to dream when you're just trying to get through day by day but i hope we, like elfhaba, can get to places we've never been. by doing the uncomfortable thing of listening to each other, maybe there's a path forward and stories can help set the horizon line for people. it won't fix it, but set the horse line to help guide them towards that. >> so, jon, i think the word overachiever is an understatement. your parents, your asian parents must be proud of you. my mom's proud of you and you haven't even met her. not only have you released wicked, the movie, but just a few months ago, you published a

memoir of seeing and being seen. first of all, i don't know how you did it, all of it. but how does it feel to not be the stereotype when it comes to being a first generation chinese american? you've chased your dream. you've achieved it. you continue to just move the goal post in terms of success. but when you're doing it in an industry where the aapi community remains grossly underrepresented. >> one, i want to say i think it's okay to be the stereotype. i don't think there's anything wrong with that. i just think my path was different and in a weird way, by my parents being, giving me the freedom to find my own path, allowed me to dream outside of the lines of a stereotype. so i feel very blessed that they always said we have a chinese restaurant and i'm doing homework at the bar and things like that. you think you are not, you don't have the advantages in where you are but you have the biggest

advantages. we have a restaurant so you'll never go hungry and we have a house so you'll never be homeless. that means every choice you make can be without fear of losing everything. so take advantage of that. you have the biggest advantage. and i think that really helped me and helps me to today with my children and the choices that i make and the movies i want to make give me a lot of courage to do things other people maybe don't have the privilege of doing. >> you also directed crazy rich asians, which is a huge favorite of mine. you'll have to let us know when the second one comes out. back on topic. you're carrying the banner for so many of us in the aapi community. it's just the tip of the iceberg. what can we do in terms of more to be able to really kind of uplift our community? >> well, i think that i am not leading the community, actually. i think the community really led me to where i needed to find myself. i was making movies. i was doing fine. i think it was the community

talking back. whether it was snow white or starring cho movements, gold house. it was a new generation of asian story tellers, entrepreneurs, who were saying we want to build a better world where we can have a different identity for ourselves and we get to determine that. we get to make fun of ourselves and that put the spotlight on myself to be like well, what am i doing? i'm in the movie business. i could actually do this. so i feel very lucky to have received that message then be able to execute that in a way and i think that that is the recipe that then hopefully the movie inspires someone else to say hey, i can be a story teller or do this or that or be beautiful, i am beautiful. i hope we just continue to flow of encouraging, of disrupting, and leaving it up to this generation and people out there looking at this camera right now to go and get pushed, go do that thing they've been thinking of. i know it's a great idea. i know it's going to be hard to

get through but if we could encourage them and be there on the other side like they were, like you all were during crazy rich asians coming out, it is so immensely helpful to know there's a community behind you. >> one last question because we got to go. and it's a yes or no answer from you and you'll have to come back to elaborate. step up to your first major directorial debut. that final dance scene. can you dance like that? >> hell no. i wish. at a wedding after a few drinks, maybe. you never know. >> jon m. chu, it has been a pleasure. i invite everybody who's tuning in to go to youtube, check out that final dance sustain from step untwo. i appreciate your time. thanks for being here. >> thank you. >> and thanks to all of you for joining us. remember to follow us on social

media including blue sky. you can catch clips on the show on youtube and listen to every episode of this show as a podcast for free. go ahead. scan that qr code on your screen to follow now. but don't go anywhere. yamiche is in for alex witt coming up next. r alex witt coming up next

♪ who knows what tomorrow will bring ♪ (dog whines) ♪ but as for me ♪ (knock at door) ♪ i'll wait and see ♪ ♪ and maybe it'll bring my love to me ♪ ♪ who knows ♪ ♪ who knows ♪

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