this point to help grow the league, it is undeniable that katelyn has brought more atteelse in the league right now. i'm not saying she is the best player, but she is definitely the biggest star. in her spotlight is bringing more eyes to the league itself. so i think it is an entirely well-deserved honor. >> 100%. ratings are really up. very quickly, wish you cool with the fact that she was not put on the u.s. olympic team for the paris games? >> i think she desperately wanted to be on the team, and is still considering that a slight that she has to work past, but she would never tell you that she, i think of the other 12 players were undeserving. that is just not the katelyn standard. >> sabrina merchant, thanks for the chat. that's going to do it for me on this edition of alex witt reports. i will see you tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. eastern. up next, the beat weekend.

we have news about how the government will be run in this period of rising inequality and this populist anger at elites who blatantly enrich themselves. that stretches from the corporate healthcare industry to politicians giving themselves and their donors tax cuts. but, to get there, we are going to begin a little further back in history with concerns about the politicians swampy corruption. more on that swamp monster in the old movie in just a moment. i can tell you that reformers have been battling corruption in washington for a long time, and sometimes it is actually useful. especially in times like these, to go back and look from the progressive trust busters, to even some traditional conservatives like john mccain. there is actually a very long history with peaks and valleys, ebb and flow, of people, reformers trying to take on corruption in the ranks. >> we got to clean up iraq.

you are mentioning how the warner act may have hurt you. i think the biggest blow to our base was not the warner act. it was spending. going completely out of control, and the corruption. i don't use the word corruption lightly. we have former republican members of congress in federal prison. and unfortunately there is more to come. >> republicans in prison and more to come. lawmakers in trouble for corruption. that is when top republicans, mccain got his party's nomination eventually. top republicans said it was bad to be on the wrong side of the law for a corruption case, or be convicted, or go to prison. we can get into how it's a little different in this maga era, but that warning from senator mccain came from someone who saw that from within. and that unchecked corruption will grow. it does not just sit at some level where a few people are self-dealing when they get away with it. when more politicians and politicos and hangers on and

lobbyists and business types find out they can profit off of direct corruption, which, in some ways, is quote unquote easier than going out and earning an honest buck, they do more and more of it. back in the 50s come what i showed you there was the swamp monster from that movie, creature from the black lagoon. we can leave it up, you can see the special effects might be a little bit different. maybe you find that visage of that swamp monster more comical than scary area because it has been 75 years, and we have updated our ability to make scary movies and special effects. but she looks scared. the analogy, though, is how this kind of swampy corruption should be scary to all of us. there has long been concerns about abuse of power. it is as old as the studies of power. we hear about that term, for example, when it comes to politicians of using law enforcement variable was going on now, and the reason this is

the top story tonight, is that some of the richest people in the world are in a position where they can see that it's going to be open season. they will be able to police themselves or even beat up on the parts of governments, sometimes called the quote deep state, the patrols these things. they can get away with self- dealing what is sometimes what amounts to graft or corruption. which is something the founders tried to patrol in america. and one of the ways to patrol it, and i'm going to be as clear as possible, one way to patrol it is to punish it after the fact. that is the traditional policing. so when john mccain talked about members of congress going to prison, and by the way, if a member of congress under the fair order of the rule of law and fair process and fair jury is convicted of corruption or self dealings, stealing your money, abusing your power and the vote you gave them, absolutely they should go to prison. i don't care what party they are in. but that is an after-the-fact effort. we've seen that with republicans, veterans in the

recent era. they are in trouble sometimes for their business activities, which crossed the line. trump's first campaign chair in 2016, republican paul manafort. he was ultimately caught up in the investigations in the mueller probe, and he went to prison partly for those kinds of things. corruption crimes. or the current doj, got a conviction against the democrats, senator bob menendez from new jersey. the fbi literally found gold bars in his home, which he could not account for. and fair process, but he was convicted of corruption for taking those kinds of things, because he took your vote and the power you gave him, and the way that paul manafort and other republicans were found guilty, he was found guilty of abusing that. so that is after-the-fact. now i'm going to go to step two. which is you don't always have to sit around and wait for bad stuff to happen. there can be rules to prevent that kind of graft in the first place. so when you hear sometimes these things, these statements

are headlines about ethics rules, which frankly sounds a little vague or boring, or you hear about transparency, which is a word that is often misused, because we've seen a lot of people who want to do financial and political crimes talk about transparency. but the actual, honest transparency means that people are empowered through requirements, information, disclosure, and a free and open and fair press that can check in on these things, that throughout that process you find out what your government is up to. or the limits on campaign money, you probably heard about that. we've had debates over campaign finances for many decades. the supreme court over time has basically weakened those rules. all of that tries to prevent this kind of graft before it starts. that's why it matters, tonight, that the trump team is planning to further dilute ethics protections. so, before we get bogged down in the dry language of that, the reason why i'm showing you the swamp creature, showing you john mccain to remind you of the larger history, is those

ethics protections are not only good for the country, to have honest government, they are also probably good for those people who don't want to end up like democrat menendez or republican manafort. because if we can stop this stuff before it starts, we don't have the financial or corruption crime to begin with. the trump team is taking a very different tack. they want to make it easier to do self-dealing. they blatantly admit they want to take money from foreign powers, for people who are doing the government business but also might be doing business on behalf of themselves. and they are giving more power to billionaires who have ongoing interests that cut against or conflict with the general public and taxpayers. everything i just said to you is documented. i'm going to show you more detail. and everything i said to you is nonpartisan, because whether it is menendez or a trump campaign chair, manafort, whether it is elon musk, a billionaire associated with the right, or some other billionaire soros associated with the left. if these people are inside government or have their allies inside government doing things for them instead of you, well, that is a violation of the whole point of having a public

government and democracy to represent you. member, trump's first term was rocked by active scandals. i'm showing you in brief form, several big people who ran entire agencies, who are not just caught, were not just embarrassed, but remember, even in the trump world where nothing is supposed to matter, each one of them ultimately left or resigned over these ethics failures. it was too much for them, even in the first term. which brings us to the swamp. in 2019 there were protesters who actually were right to warn about this. what you are seeing on your screen, this is not a i. this was a real hearing. where the activists put on that mask to try to highlight the so- called sloppiness. the creature from the black lagoon that i showed you earlier, this was a senate confirmation for trump's pick for the very interior job which i just showed you was later forced out of her ethics concerns. you can see the creature over his shoulder.

>> just when you thought things cannot get any wilder in washington, check this out. at a senate confirmation hearing, a woman in the background stole the show, she put on a monster mask. >> a swamp creature invades capitol hill. it is just like the monster from the 1950s classic horror film creature from the black lagoon. >> one of them managed to get a prime spot right above the right shoulder, where she appeared during his opening statement and remain for an entire hour. >> there was an unexpected viewer in the crowd, a green, unblinking swamp creature, watching attentively just over bernhardt's right shoulder. just look at that stair. >> very unsettling. >> very unsettling. you can call this a type of artistic or film activism. the point was that just saying dry ethics reform, the ethics rules are delivered, can you believe there's a foreign money provision, all of that can kind of melt and blend into whatever, the ether.

but the swamp creature, in a movie that is relevant 75 years and counting, was to spotlight something actually true, the concerns about ethics violations and corruption at interior. it was a silent visual protest. we actually talked to the woman behind the mask, to learn what this was all about. she told us her goals back then. >> what was this about? and did you achieve your goals? >> this was about showing absurdity to this event that was happening with our senate. it was to let our senators know that everyone is watching you and letting you know that this is a crazy situation. i think we did set out what we were trying to do, even more so, because it went so viral. >> so viral. and those were in the simpler days of 2019.

five years later, think about that. of the things that superposed these moments. what matters about ethics in government is what matters about representative government writ large. so while what i am saying may sound like it puts certain politicians, and as an manafort and their political aides in a bad light, it is really not only about that. it is also about protecting government so that it works for all, and if you support the goals of a given administration, then you would presumably want the administration focused on those goals. i know that sounds obvious. not focused on spending a lot of time, energy, and machinations enriching themselves instead of working on your goals. i say that as a general observation, with any of the station. if you happen to be a maga supporter going into next year and you want them really focused on immigration as a general policy project, every hour or day spent doing self- enrichment is time taken away

from there. and as i just showed you, several of those people were ultimately ousted from entire agencies, losing valuable months of time and staffing up a new person. again, not parties the normal developments of staffing and government, but only because of their ethics scandals. that is the context for what we are learning this week, that trumps failing businesses want to directly capitalize on round two of the presidency with new ventures. this is not the old trump world doing whatever it is doing. we are talking about new projects built specifically because he's coming back in office, and the ethics structure basically welcomes foreign money. there is a new venture of a trump tower in saudi arabia. and they are not shy. eric trump is publicizing a mockup design this week as they get ready to return to office. trump is raising money for his donors, even though he just finished an expensive and victorious campaign. but he is having special meetings, candlelit summits, that is $1 million a person. and over in silicon valley,

which has had a long arc of evolution around many of these issues, we can see how money follows power, especially in an era where power is so ready to reward everyone with money. mark zuckerberg from facebook, ceo now of the parent company, has warmed up to trump after a very long arc. member, donald trump has threatened facebook and zuckerberg. he has talked about him using the government powers to go after him, as he has with so many other folks. but cozying up. $1 million now going to trump's inaugural fund. that donation, the general report is a departure from zuckerberg's past practice. it comes after an election in which trump threatened to punish the tech tycoon, and on it goes. now, these are individuals in the business community who are known for basically one main thing. it is not making good tech. there's plenty of good tech that does not make a lot of money. and it is not being brilliant

communicators. and it is not having some long- standing the decade policy on free speech or other big issues, that is not what they are known for. they are not the aclu, they are not the author of big tomes on first amendment jurisprudence. what do they do? we already know they are good at making money. and that's fine. that is how business works. but many people in this ethics conversation are scrutinizing these moves, because it may seem that these individuals and businesses expect a return on investment from the new administration, which i'm telling you is doing a lot of self dealing and was in trouble for graph last time. zuckerberg put trump back on facebook and ig two years after the insurrection. musk brought trump back to twitter, known as x, and he has drastically tilted the platform in very obvious ways towards his political views, which is the exact thing he said was wrong with old twitter. new twitter is a more robust, guilty, angry version of musk's

criticism of old twitter. and i will always tell you, does he have the right to do it? absolutely. in the united states, if you are a publisher and you on a social media platform or a media platform of traditional writing or video, you can make those choices. i've reported on this before and told you he has that right. but he is doing the opposite of the thing he said he would do. trump has noticed these embraces, and then you have a tech billionaire who also owns the washington post, we have on the reporters as guests, we drawn the reporting. he was reportedly pulling their endorsement of trump's opponent before the election. you may refer all that. and he is cozying up, too. jeff bezos. >> mark zuckerberg has been over to see me, and i can tell you elon is another, and jeff bezos is coming up next week. i want to get ideas from them. look, we know we want them to do well. >> we have other people here, but i don't see elon musk. he has been a good aid to you

in a lot of different things. >>'s got a lot of ideas, he's a great guy. he's a really good guy, too. i guess his talk is done pretty well. >> true. and the reference, again, what we are seeing in kind of a very blatant way is the understanding that the business plan and the political plan are one for the people rich enough to benefit this way. musk has doubled his wealth since election day. he is now the first person in world history to reach $400 million. if he has a long life they expect to be the first trillionaire ever. his ownership stakes are in spacex, a private startup worth hundreds of billions. that valuation is directly tied to the companies products, and it does succeed in its products. we are not taking anything away from that. but those products are tied to used by some of the largest government in the world. it is in business with government contracts, to the tune of billions. investors don't look at this as a conflict of interest. they look at it as an inside track. an advisory group for the

current incoming administration is named literally after one of musk's companies. so if they have this government advisory group is his bitcoin. bloomberg reports that trump will streamline the rollout of self driving cars and live in a tax credits for self driving vehicles that help tesla. trump is also topic a demonstration with other billionaires. he is not the first administration to be clear to draw on the super wealthy or connected, but this seems to be more than just a few. 10 billionaires now in cabinet level positions. this is a long ways from donald trump's claim to go after the elites and the superrich, to look out for you and drain the swamp. so, more billionaires. some who are very clearly profiting off of this. and the sloppiness. so how swampy is it about to get?

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>> the people speaking on c- span. how does donald trump look at all this and what are the avenues for reform as we think about these ethics rules? we are joined by a special guest. aaron matthews served in the trumpet administration, she resigned after the january 6 it administration and went on the sport kamala harris in the last campaign. welcome. >> great to have you back. >> i'm really curious with your insight, i was careful to say we have seen corruption offenses by members of both parties. we've seen efforts to deal with this for many decades. what we have not seen is this kind of blatant sales pitch that the billionaires will run things that they will be self and rich. that is open season. what do you see in that part of the second terminal plan? >> it is really ironic that trump is always continued to run on this idea of draining the swamp, when it looks like in the second term the swamp is going to get much larger and

murkier, in my opinion. if you have someone like the richest man in the world who has the ear of donald trump, i think the elon effect is going to be really curious to follow, how much influence he has over trump area i mean, elon has businesses and factories in china, for example. what is that going to shape up to look like, when he has the ear of the incoming president? and then with the trump organization, you noted on your program earlier they are saying that they are not ruling out doing foreign deals. they said they will not do foreign deals with foreign governments, and we know in places like authoritarian or dictatorships, that these businesses are not independent from their government. they are not independent from dictators. >> know, as you know, a lot of them have what they call a sovereign wealth fund, or something they call a company. but it is directly tied to the foreign government. so no, it won't be a check directly from the foreign government to trump, it will be from the foreign government to the foreign government controlled wealth fund and then to trump.

>> and then even something like truth social, foreign actors being able to buy shares in that. what kind of influence that can have. so there's a lot of questions about a second trump term, and the influence that foreign actors will have. >> your old boss does have some instincts, for example, while running for office he ran away from project 2025. right now, when the question is raised, are you just going to have elon musk selling out the country for his own business and billions? trump seems to have instinct as i know, that that would sound bad. here is a quote. when pressed about this, i think the issue is only going to get larger. donald trump says, quote, i think elon puts the country long before his company. if elon musk wanted to do that, he could easily resign from his companies and take a full-time position. he has very explicity done the opposite. he is a loose adviser while staying in his companies. but walk us through the mind- set of donald trump since you know how this works. do you think he is aware that the stuff looks bad if the country starts to feel that the

billionaires are robbing the coffers? >> yeah, what's so interesting about elon musk is it wasn't long ago in 2022 that elon said that trump was too old to run again, and then trump posted something about how when elon came to visit him at the white house he could've had him begging on his knees, and now they have this romance going. and it shows me that elon does not care about what the goodies for the country, as trump says, that he would prioritize the country first. no, elon reversed course on his tune on trump, because it is beneficial to his business. and kudos to him, he picked the right course. we have seen in his businesses, the value of them has just gone up even for formerly twitter, now x. so it is beneficial to him. and i think that does beg the question for trump's voters, who put him in office because they want to change. it seems like a lot more of the same when you have billionaires

who are kind of dictating a policy. i think in trump's cabinet alone, the people that he has appointed his double digits for the nominees that he has put forth who are billionaires. so it really does not seem like he is following through on this long-standing campaign promise of draining the swamp, when you have elon, who's going to be dictating a lot of policy it seems like. >> the reports, meanwhile, that an aide to rfk junior, trump's health secretary, would actually want to roll back polio vaccines. the type of news that could complicate his confirmation hearings. other trump insiders are targeting rules that are actually designed to safeguard your bank deposits. why would they want your savings and checking deposits to be in danger? we have that story coming up. put them in check with rinvoq, a once-daily pill. when symptoms tried to take control, i got rapid relief with rinvoq. check. when flares tried to slow me down,... ...i got lasting remission with rinvoq. check. and many were in remission... ...even at nearly 2 years.

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$250,000. as long as they are in a checking or savings account in one of the many big banks insured by the federal government. by the fdic. and yet now, trump officials are asking potential nominees if they could abolish that very insurance program, according to the wall street journal. the program, we should note, has never lost any funds. it is a complete and rare success since 1933. it is also why people are actually right to feel pretty confident you can leave the money in the bank account, even if there is a lot of choppiness in the markets. fdr started during the great depression, to end the kind of bank runs you might remember from it's a wonderful life. >> my husband hasn't worked in over a year and i need money! >>, going to live until the bank opens? >> i have doctors bills to pay. >> how much do you need? >> hey, i got $2000.

here's $2000. this will tide us over until the bank reopens. >> we are joined now by gene robinson, pulitzer prize winner for the washington post. seasoned, distinguished, but you weren't there and 33. >> no, no, i'm old but i'm not that old, come on. >> neither am i, and it seems to be a rare good thing. they came up with this solution . i showed the facts. what does it tell you that these kinds of things are on the table? >> well, look, this is one of the worst, stupidest, most irresponsible ideas i've ever heard. i've heard a lot. this, and fdic is something that, as you said, has worked. it has worked perfectly since 1933. it guarantees that we don't have those kinds of bank runs, and just talking about getting rid of fdic, and presumably

they would say we are replacing it with this, we're replacing it with that, people know those four letters. they know fdic. they see it when they walk into the bank. it is there on the door, fdic insured. and so, if you get rid of that, you are going to start having bank runs. any time a bank gets even a little over, has any little sort of problem, there is going to be a run on the bank. of course, no bank can withstand a run. so we are going to have ink failures. and we don't have them now, and it is largely because of fdic. >> do you think there is something happening where there are people who are very upset with the way things are and they say they want to overthrow and disrupt, and then some spaces that might make a lot of

sense. you want to disrupt the way wall street has too much power in washington, you want to disrupt the way healthcare industry works, which is something barack obama actually tried to do overtime. do you think there is something happening, at least around the trump transition, where you have people who have limited to no experience in government and they have this idea of well, disrupt is cool, no matter what. you say oh, let's disrupt the thing that actually protects regular people, red, blue, and in between. >> let's disrupt everything. that's not a good idea. let's disrupt what needs disrupting. and there is another factor, of course. because trump is planning to staff his administration with billionaires and hundred millionaires, and for them, $250,000 worth of insurance is kind of trivial. that does not really affect them. they have to watch out for their huge investments in other ways. there billions are not insured by the federal government. but for everybody else, for

normal americans, this is really important. and i think some of them just would not, they just don't get that. >> right, it's not even on the table. >> it's not important. >> it's not in their mind-set that if you are a retiree and you save all your life and you move some money out of stocks and you've got $8000 in there, that's what you are literally living on and there could be a financial crash and month-to- month, that's what you are living on, literally. >> exactly, that's what you are living on. so look, it is one of the worst ideas i have ever heard. another of the worst ideas i've ever heard is one of rfk's advisers wants to, you know, get rid of the polio vaccine. the polio vaccine. >> yeah, we have this. this was a lawyer for rfk who is helping that potential officials. previously petitioned the vaccine was a medical marvel, and protected millions from death from iron lung treatments. jean just mentioned, we wanted to show some of the facts in recent decades. mobile polio cases have dropped over 99%.

so that is just a quick fact check on that, and as you're mentioning on the bad idea carnival, this is now kicking around rfk. do you think that senators have to really that that when they look at him as a nominee? >> i think they must. look, this is a stupid, irresponsible, and deadly idea. people don't remember polio. when polio was endemic, and when kids got polio. i mean, i have a neighbor, he's older than i am, had a neighbor when i was growing up who had polio. my kids never met anyone who had polio. >> and apologies for the segment, bringing up your age over and over. >> it's quite all right, it is what it is. but you know, i am just slightly removed from the times. when there was polio. that is something that kids got

and something that parents worried about. and it is not anymore. because of the vaccine. so if you get rid of the vaccine, you're going to have polio again. >> it is the holidays, and who better to join us than tom hanks? we will hear from him by the end of the hour. but first, donald trump on pardoning the january 6th convicts. that is next. that is next. ays. so even after every flush... you know your bathroom smells amazing. ♪ lalalalala ♪ i brought in ensure max protein with 30 grams of protein. those who tried me felt more energy in just two weeks! —uh. —here i'll take that. [cheering] ensure max protein, 30 grams protein, 1 gram sugar and a protein blend to feed muscles up to 7 hours. ♪♪ to feed muscles up luis fonsi: in this family, we take care of every kid at st. jude like they are our kid. because at st. jude, we believe all children deserve a chance to live. but one in five kids in the us still won't survive cancer.

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turning to doj news, president-elect trump in the new interview at times as he will start this january 6th partizan the first hour of his presidency. one of the people responsible for that violent attack is also getting an invitation to the seat of the crime by the people that were being attacked. in other words, lawmakers welcoming back for trump's inauguration. it is a defendant named russell taylor. that puts them back at the scene of his own crime, we can show you toil or taylor making an obscene gesture capital police that day. so this anti-police, anti- congress activist is being embraced by some republican members of congress. he did not enter the building, but he did plead guilty to obstruction. according to the court documents he organized a group of what they called fighters to come lead a mob, which overran a police line on the inaugural stage, and others there stormed the capital. court images show weapons and tactical gear that he brought amma including hatchets and tasers, bear spray, and a nice

knife. these are not offensive items, and people around him were storming the capital using weapons against police. another court exhibit shows him outside the building. his expose knife there. you can see that in the red box. january 6th, unlike trump's recent claims, was a day of extreme violence. >> we've had protesters preach the line. we need backup. >> if trump issues these pardons, everyone use on your screen who was convicted will be set free. we are joined by a doj veteran, anthony coley, who is an adviser to attorney general garland. he is the author of a new piece about fbi director wray stepping down this week, saying he did exactly what fbi directors are not supposed to

do , and what autocrats want. he obeyed in advance. welcome. >> good to see you. >> could have you. the january 6 pardons send what message on day one? >> i will tell you, donald trump is trying to rewrite the narrative. he wants us all to forget exactly what he did to foment this violent insurrection. it was four years ago this month where he issued that infamous tweet. you remember that? come to d.c., will be wild, he says. and they come to d.c. by the busloads. he addressed them on the ellipse that day, and i went back and i watched that speech and read the transcript. he used the word fight or fighting almost 20 times, telling them to go down to the capital and to fight like or they would not have a country to fight for. he did that. so they do exactly that. they take the tactical vest in their weapons. russell taylor is one of them,

you mentioned him in the lead- in. and for one, 187 minutes, donald trump watched them fight area and they only stopped when he told them to stop. that is what happened on january 6th, and that is the history he is trying to rewrite by floating this, these pardons, people who did his crime and at his behest. >> what, and you serve ag garland, you have been in the senate, most of the law- enforcement reaction of this. trump also left office in bracing insurrection, while the republican party was running from it. four years later it is actually worse. the republican party leadership says they are down with these pardons, welcome the individual i just mentioned. take a look at the contrast between january then, republicans and trump. >> this failed insurrection only underscores how crucial the task before us is. >> we love you, you are very special. >> the violence today was wrong and un-american. >> that was a day of love.

>> count me out, enough is enough. >> does warriors, they were warriors. >> incited by the president of the united states. >> i will be looking at them very seriously for part of. >> this is a slap in the face to the law-enforcement officers who defended the capital that day. and it is especially so when you look at the case of russell taylor, who you mentioned in the lead-in. he was a guy who organized a mob to washington. he and this mob overran a police line, and then they took their vests, this guy took his best, donning a vest, he had this hatchet and this knife, and the key here is with this russell taylor situation, the former congressman who wrote to the judge, he did not engine any of those specific facts. and trying to get this guy the permission to attend the inauguration. that's what i was getting out earlier. they are trying to, on the one

hand, omit the facts of what happened, which is what this particular congressman did, and on the other extreme you've got donald trump, who is, as i said, trying to rewrite history. >> we've been covering the transition, but there is still sitting president joe biden, he issued the largest number of single day pardons you have ever seen. a lot of these were commutations, but using the pardon power related to the covid era. what is new pardons mean? >> well, i don't think is going enough. going far enough. i am really glad to see that this was the largest pardons or commutations issued in american history. but i look at this through the lens of race, quite frankly. and if you look at the data, there are a number of black and brown men in america who received disproportionately harsher sentence than their white counterparts. and the question is, people say why is that?

well, it is not just implicit bias. it is explicit bias. and this is why you see the naacp, the cdc both publicly and privately urging president biden to use all of his power, his pardon power, to write these types of wrongs. and what we heard from the white house today is that there may be more of these commutations coming. >> only come back, saving private ryan. forrest gump. philadelphia. we are going to get into all of it and the power and promise of film, with tom hanks. next. ♪♪ super helpful. ♪♪ [ cheering ] what are invoices? progressive makes it easy to see if you can save money with a commercial auto quote online so you can get back to all your other to-dos. absolutely not. get a quote at progressivecommercial.com.

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summit movies just seem to capture the american spirit. they interact with politics but are not political, and they tell us something about the world that we inhabit, as americans, and where we want to go. forrest gump is a unessential example. it is one of the 80 films the tom hanks has fronted. the two time oscar-winner is known for these kinds of roles, and somehow decade after decade inspiring us anew. he is a beloved actor who really needs no introduction. he is also an author, and he joins us on the beat to talk about his films, politics, and even his starring role in some songs. >> what is on your mind at this juncture where you hope we go? >> to show how far we have come. i'm 66 years old. america was an extremely different place when i was a kid. racially.

in 1964, when the beatles were on the ed sullivan show, you had to pass a test, a literacy test, in louisiana in order to vote if the registrar did not know your name or did not know where you came from. and just in order to have the right to vote, you had to answer questions that came out of, that were is confusing out of something out of lateral thinking puzzles. we as america, it is a slow process we have been on in order to perform a more perfect union. >> i wanted to go to what could be called your socially conscious, historical, or some people would call the political roles. although there is this thing, where if it is a big enough blockbuster is no longer a political movie, isn't that funny? but you put your shoulder into it, and things have evolved. but at the time, many of these were considered bold choices. you have put it to help us understand that character was marginalized at that time, or

the lawyer, who is being attacked because he is representing the unpopular accused, we were just talking about that walking in. are those not in some sense also values choices, if not political? >> i will say that they are only political choices in that, let's be transparent about what this is. there is not an editorial bent on trying to change anybody's minds. there is no saying you are wrong and i am right. you'd better figure that out. actually, trying to take the passion out of it and make it a dispassionate examination of what it is. if you've been fired from a job, for one reason and one reason the way, that you have edge, is that a right or wrong thing? let's discuss whether that is right or wrong. all the other type of stuff, even on captain phillips, the

reality is there's all these kinds of economic factors that go into the reasons that guys from somalia are willing to go off and kill people and try to take over the boats. because they are starving to death. right? wrong? no. but just understand that these are the confines in which we are all just trying to get by. >> yeah, but is that empathy itself involves some worldview? >> yes, it does. which is essentially kind of like what spike lee did with me. always do the right thing. what is the right thing? we have to get down to, sooner or later all of this comes down to essentially an individual experience, what are the rights and expectations that that individual has for the right thing to happen to them, and the expectations of him to do the right thing, as well. are we all trying here to somehow create a more perfect union? >> and one of the most celebrated themes in hip-hop is keeping it real. and there are those, as you

know, i have read you talk about this, jose forrest gump was such a hit and can't be great art. that is like a perception conversation. i mean, frank ocean, for example, and killer mike, who is a very politically conscious artist, they are not saying forrest gump is not cool. it's not trendy. it is years later and it is no, keeping it real, if you grew up on that and it means something to you, they are waiting it in and putting it in their own art. >> might be something, i think, to the fact of, let's just take forest, because that's the one. when did we make that? 94? how many years is it? coming up on more than 30 years , but it ends up speaking in that way because forrest gump was told by everybody you don't belong here. you are not smart enough, any of this stuff in order to be here.

and i think that might be speaking to a segment of the population that is often told that you are not allowed in here. you are not supposed to be in here. go off and be with your own kind. because nothing is going to translate between your life and mine, or my life and yours. and that is the antithesis of art, and it is also the opposite of community. and we are nothing unless we are part of something bigger than ourselves, which is our community. >> community, art, how art can inform our understanding of community. can't put it better than that. we appreciate it, tom hanks, who obviously only edited interviews he chooses these days. joining us for what we do here, which is setting aside time for these more in-depth discussions on our summit series. you can see some of the others joined us, and you can see all of them, they are longer than the time we had air them on television. the full, unedited tom hanks, runs about 40 minutes at msnbc.com/summit. you can see them all. thanks for watching the beat

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