tv Ayman MSNBC January 5, 2025 5:00pm-6:00pm PST
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tomorrow congress is set to formally address the win at the u.s. capitol. the same building where four years a mob of insurrectionists attempted to take control and overturn the election results by force. now, in 2025, physical reminders of that day have largely faded. inside the capitol, you won't find scars on the walls from the thousands who converged on january 6th while waving trump flags. there's no plaque or remembrance of the attack. instead, we have videos like this, many of them that came from nythe rioters themselves. we have images of protesters breaking the windows and storming the halls of the capitol, even trying to take over the house floor as lawmakers and their staff huddled for safety. we have these chilling sounds,
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this terrifying chant, targeting then vice president mike pence. multiple people died both during the and after the riot. more than 140 police officers were injured. condemnations of the attack were swift and came from members of both parties. that night, we heard this from senator lindsey graham, who had been a staunch ally of trump since he won in 2016.of >> i hate it being this way. oh, my god, i hate it. from my point of view, he's been a consequential president. but today, first thing you'll see. all i can say is, count me out. enough is enough. >> and then the next day, trump himself even shared this video to social media. >> i would like to begin by addressing the heinous attack on the united states capitol. the demonstrators who infiltrated the capitol have defiled the seat of american democracy. to those who engage in the acts
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of violence and destruction, you do not represent our country. and to those who broke the law, you will pay. >> but soon there were these little and then these big shifts in the narrative around what actually happened on january 6th, of the recent trauma everyone in this country had lived through. some republicans started floating the idea that the protesters at the capitol weren't right wing or even trump supporters at all. >> now, there were likely not all trump supporters, and there are some reports that antifa sympathizers may have been sprinkled throughout the crowd. >> i don't know if the reports are true, but "the washington times" has just reported some compelling evidence from a facial recognition company showing that some of the people who breached the capitol today were not trump supporters. they were masquerading as trump supporters and in fact were members of the violent terrorist group, antifa. >> and then another theme
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emerged, down playing the violence of the insurrection. >> it was not an insurrection, and we cannot call it that and t be truthful. >> if you didn't know the footage was a video from january 6th, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit. >> a norm -- a -- with a straight face, a normal tourist visit. and finally there was the transformation of the insurrectionists from lawbreakers to patriots and martyrs. >> we will treat those people from january 6th fairly. >> a bipartisan january 6th select committee was assembled to hold public hearings on the events of january 6th. members presented even more documentation of the violent attack in an effort to ensure accountability and transparency. special counsel jack smith was tasked with leading his own investigation of trump's role in the attack.mp the justice department also took actions against the rioters. the doj has since charged more
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than 1,500 people with crimes stemming from the attack on the capitol. but here's the thing. despite the indisputable evidence, despite these detailed investigations and prosecutions, by 2022 an nbc news poll found that less than half of americans consider trump solely or mainly responsible for the january 6th attack. the full-throated gop campaign to rewrite history largely worked. when trump began campaigning again for a second term, there was a clear talking point repeated over and over again by anyone serious about joining his administration. >> on the election of 2020, i've answered this question directly a million times. no. i think there were serious problems i in 2020. did donald trump lose the election? not by the words that i would use. >> it all went back to the big lie. do you believe donald trump won
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the 2020 election or not? that was the barometer for getting into trump's inner circle. it is a blatant erasure that we cannot stand to forget, as the new administration is just 15 days from taking power. last month, president-elect trump promised to pardon rioters in the first hour of his term. these are the same people who were already tried by the j and convicted by the government. speaker mike johnson said house republicans will set their sights on the january 6th committee itself sifor having t nerve, the audacity, to investigate an attempted insurrection that happened in front of all of us in plain sight. in a new essay for "the new york times," a former sergeant in the capitol police said he's still haunted by the events of that day, which pushed him to ultimately leave usthe force. he wrote, quote, i resent the ongoing whitewashing of the barbarity and collective amnesia
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of right wing politicians who aren't willing to hold mr. trump accountable. i can't bear to hear republicans describe themselves as the law and order party. the hypocrisy here is by design. and it not only undermines the significance of the threats to democracy that were exposed that day, it also looms over our entire political system. four years later, as republicans would love for americans to get on board with their historical rewrite or at least move on from it, we cannot sit back and allow the continued normalization of the insurrection. joining me now to discuss is white house correspondent and howashington bureau chief at th grillo as well as msnbc and author of "black women will save the world" and ryann williams. thank you for being here to kick off the second hour of "ayman." i want to start with you, april.
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your response to comments mr. biden made to a reporter this afternoon about the significance of january 6th. he said, i think it should not be rewritten, i don't think it should be forgotten, but i think we should -- you notice i reached out to -- we've got to get back to normal transfer of power. fe>> president biden is preside for the next few days, and he wants a smooth transition. he does not a want the remnantsf january 6th, the events of january 6th four years ago, to be part of his legacy. you have to remember, okay, president biden is trying to stay above the fray. but for those of us who work in washington, those of us who were there or reporting on it, remember vividly. and you cannot negate january 6th because january 6th was, in fact, an effort to keep donald
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trump in office and not let joe biden come in. if those persons who were rioting that day had done what they had planned, charles, i don't even know if we would be in these seats right now. it would look different. it would smell different. it would ittaste different. this was not a tourist attraction, tour, a visit, people with a picnic basket with those red and white checkered table cloths skipping through d the halls of congress. these were people who had bear spray, who had bats, tens of thousands of people who had backpacks who could not make it through the secret service check point because they had things in their bags, okay, when the president was speaking on the ellipse. but they moved on over to capitol hill. and president trump watched it.
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he told them to ultimately at the end of the day to go home. and he even said this defiled democracy the day after. and now the switch. it's so interesting to hear the people who were running to safety, trying to run from these people who were going to do god knows what, people who erected a gallows for mike pence, the sitting vice president at the time, because he certified the votes against his own president for a new president. i don't know what -- i just think the president is trying to move on and keep peace, this president, joe biden, until january 20th. >> very difficult to manage doing that but also keeping in mind the accurate depiction of history. speaking of that accurate depiction of history, i want to talk about some of the hypocrisy we're seeing from the gop. in the moment you have actual
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january 6th rioters who have come to the light and said, you know what? i was duped. i was there. this was a mess. you still have republicans and some lawmakers who were heralding them as heroes and patriots even against their own narratives. these are folks who were there who have been convicted and tried, who have said now, you know what, this was wrong and it should not have happened. how do you square that -- and there are other narratives as well. we saw some of the switch and change in positions of other lawmakers, including donald trump. how do republicans square that in a way that's reconcilable for anyone who's paying attention? >> so, charles, i'll tell you. i'm a southerner. and southerners know that football is religion, right? and so i think that you have a lot of these people who are actually looking at their politics like they look at their football team. well, it doesn't matter if my team cheated this year, doesn't matter if my team did this, as long as we get to a national championship football game, right? and i think the people have got
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to stop seeing something as vital as our government and the politics that operate within our government as something as silly as a team that you just can't turn your back on. there's no loyalty to a political party. the loyalty is to this country. and on january 6th of 2021, we saw a terrorist attack on our orcountry by our own fellow man. that should have been a deal breaker. that in and of itself should have been a deal breaker for americans to re-elect this man. we are in for a hell of a next four years, and i really, really hope that people remember what happened that day. they saw it with their own eyes. they have been gaslit since then by their party, but they saw it with their own eyes. so, it's going to be very important for the next four years that people go into it with their eyes open. >> ryan, that is an incredible football analogy i will be using in the future. i hope our audience was paying
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attention. i love what you did there. april, can you talk just for a moment about how significant it is in terms of keeping the narrative honest when you're talking about the preservation and the future of democracy? how much does this actually matter that the story does not become a changed myth and legend around patriots descending onto the capitol to protect our country? >> this was a modern day civil war, okay? it was a day that went down in infamy according to many historians. you cannot negate that in the cahistory books. something of this magnitude, something where you have congressional members hiding gnd running from people who had maps to plfind out where they were, they wanted to keep d the curre president. and you cannot walk away from that -- well, they wanted to keep the current president at the time. but you can't walk away from that fact. you can't whitewash it. you can't smooth it over. you can't close the -- turn your
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head and think it looks another way because it is what it is.wa that's the problem with this country right now. we're trying to down play whitewashed and changed narratives. what makes a country sfronger and a democracy stronger, according to my history books, is when people tell the truth and they're honest about what has happened in the democracy to make it stronger so you won't go back to that same situation that almost killed the democracy. >> ryan, i want to play a new ad from the lincoln project with your chief of staff and get your thoughts on the other side. >> these people have suffered long, hard, and i think it's very unfair. >> don't let one man rewrite history. we know what we saw. we know what we heard. there are no alternative facts, only the truth. >> what's the intent here in releasing this ad after this year's observance, if you will, of january 6? >> -- isn't even thinking about
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being finished with this fight, obviously. and part of releasing it now is to remind people why we're not going to embe finished with thi fight. like i said earlier, this should have been a deal breaker. this day should have been a deal breaker. i was watching it -- i was waiting for the returns of the georgia senate race. i was waiting to see if warnock was going to end up as the senator p from georgia and whetr this was going to flip the senate. and this started. and i remember when i started by political career, i started it in washington, d.c. i was just a little peon working on the hill. but every morning i would get off the metro right at the capitol station, and i would get off and i would look up that dome, and i'd get chills every morning because i had the honor of working there. and to watch people go through that building and to watch them defecate in the hallways and to watch the confederate flag fly in those hallways for the very first time in lwamerican histor broke my heart. anso, i think it's really important that americans remember what actually happened
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that meday and what it symboliz, what that building symbolizes and what happened that day, what atthat symbolizes and war on th building and on everything it symbolized. and we have, again, we have re-elected this for some reason for the next four years. it's going to take all of americans working together to try to keep our democracy whole because we are in trouble with this leadership. >> april and ryan, stay right there. i have so much more to talk to you k about. coming up, freedom of speech for me but not for thee. we're going to talk elon musk after a short break. stay tuned for more "ayman." tu" new febreze plug scent booster. ♪ lalalalala ♪
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welcome back. you're watching "ayman" on msnbc. when billionaire elon musk first purchased twitter, now called x, he positioned himself as a free speech absolutist. just days ago, he used his platform to lash out against media coverage after the much reported explosion of a tesla cyber truck outside the trump international hotel in las vegas. in response to a user suggesting musk should take legal action, musk posted, quote, maybe it is time to do so. sue them for what? reporting what happened? my panel is back with me now to
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discuss. ryan, let's start with this ridiculous threat for musk to sue outlets that are covering the cyber truck explosion. it's not like the press said, look, this is the fault of a faulty vehicle, or musk's failed engineering. this happened. it was a fact. it's truth. what should we make of this sort of threat going forward? >> oligarchs going to oligarch. i mean, this is kind of -- if you paid attention to what happened in russia under putin, this is what happens. they're going to push the buttons. they're going to push the envelope as far as they can possibly go and see what the american people are going to put up with, see how far the republicans are going to let it go, see how far the media is going to let it go. what he's seeing is that some places in the media, people bend at the knee to the new administration. what he's going to see is if they'll bend at the knee for him too. i strongly suggest the media
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does what they're supposed to do. rule number one in dealing with tyrants, you don't obey. what does he get? there's nothing for him to be doing for. this was an event. this happened. the fact it was a tesla tract wasn't surprising to anybody. the fact it blew up because fireworks and explosives and a terrorist attack may have been. i wasn't surprised it was a tesla truck. it's not something we need to worry about. i don't think it's something the press should give into because this is going to be what this administration does. this administration is going to threaten with legal actions. what they do there is try to bankrupt people who are coming out against them because they have all the money in the world to take things through court and the people they are trying to come up against do not and they know that. so, it's a bully method. it's a threat. >> april, you're one of the most seasoned journalists i know. so, i'm going to borrow a line, cars blow up every day, but
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people may not understand the significance here. and from the perspective of being a journalist, really lay it out. musk is the richest person in the world. this is a popular vehicle from a major car company that exploded outside trump hotel. this is news. is it not? and if so, are we processing that in inappropriately? >> it is news. not only is it a car that exploded from a major car company, it was a car that exploded from a car company whose owner is very close to the president-elect. and the car happened to be in front of the hotel in las vegas that had a trump sign all across it. it was news. and what the reasoning was for the explosion, you know, it's still being talked about. it's one thing or the other. but nonetheless, the connection
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between elon musk and donald trump and then to see this, that was news worthy on new year's day, especially as you were hearing of so many other things going on. that made news. and it was -- it was a fact. and i mean, we're not in apartheid south africa where elon musk grew up in. we are in the united states of america, where the first amendment is freedom of the press. to actually write facts about what has happened. and we did. and what is the grounds to see on? charles, you're a lawyer. what would be the grounds for him to sue on? >> listen, i'm glad i'm asking the questions here because i don't -- i don't know. i can't find it. i have yet to figure that out in terms of what you would actually really move forward with a suit. you're talking about reporters reporting facts. ryan -- >> unless they said something crazy or editorialized -- >> right. >> -- or did something. that's another -- none of these. but there actually was an
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explosion that we did not manufacture, that actually happened in front of the trump hotel in las vegas. >> ryan, is there any, sort of, universe in which elon musk can, sort of, try to maintain himself as a champion of absolute free speech? we've seen what the h1b fight with this tesla cyber truck blow up, a number of different instances where elon musk has essentially either silenced or threatened to silence those who critique him. so, is the narrative of him as someone who really supports absolute free speech still a thing? >> no. but it also never was a thing. i mean, elon musk bought twitter to ruin twitter, bought it so that he could silence his enemies and elevate the crazy. i mean, no. it has never been a thing for him. everyone needs to understand, he operates on a different level than the rest of us. when you are the richest person
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in the world, this is a game. where it's our lives and our freedom, this is just a game for him. no. there was never a time anything he has said has been truthful, and people need to realize that. >> april, i really want you to, sort of, bring us home here in terms of the real effect that this creates for the press. is there a concern that reporters could be intimidating? what you're talking about the president of the united states and then on the other hand also the first bro who happens to be the richest man in the world. is there a concern that this creates a degree or an atmosphere of pressure where people are intimidated into not reporting the news the way that they're supposed to? >> an honest truth, for many reporters that i've heard from, there is an intimidation factor. my fear is that there could be some genuflecting before both. we are the first line of
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questioning an american president. when the checks and balances aren't checking and balancing, we are supposed to ask the questions so the american people can find out what's true. and the question is now, you know, can reporters really do their job without fear or favor because of threats of lawsuits, because of the power, the magnanimous power, of elon musk and the president of the united states? you heard me say elon musk first, right? there is a concern. and we have to see how this all plays out. but charles, as i've said before, i think many of the real and sincere journalists need to lawyer up. that's what i'm doing. >> i ain't got a call yet. so, you know, i don't know who his lawyer is. ryan williams of the lincoln project, thank you. april, stick around. i'm going to get april ryan's take on how journalists of color
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are bracing for a second trump administration. that and more on "ayman." stay tuned. and more on "ayman. stay tuned betmgm's got your back. get your welcome offer. and play with the sportsbook born in vegas. all these seats. really? get up to a $1500 new customer offer in bonus bets when you sign up now. betmgm. download and bet today. speaker: who's coming in the driveway? speaker: dad. dad, we missed you. daddy, hi. speaker: goodness. my daughter is being treated for leukemia. [music playing] i hope that she lives a long, great, happy life and that she will never forget how mom and daddy love her. saint jude-- maybe this is what's keeping my baby girl alive. [music playing] narrator: you can join the battle to save lives by supporting st. jude children's research
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you attack black journalists, calling them a lawyer, saying the questions they ask are, quote, stupid and racist. why should black voters trust you after you have used language like that? >> well, first of all, i don't think i've ever been asked a question in such a horrible manner. >> that was then-candidate donald trump at the national association of black journalists convention last summer. it was pure unfiltered trump. the same name calling, evading of questions, and hostility that we've come to expect any time he receives a question that challenges him or makes him uncomfortable. just weeks ago, trump sued an iowa pollster and newspaper for publishing a poll that showed vice president harris was ahead of him in the state by three
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points. the president-elect would not let that go even though he eventually won iowa by 13 points. with the inauguration just around the corner, journalists, especially those who have been historically marginalized, will face a different challenge, reporting on the news despite intimidation from those at the very top. april, so glad to have this conversation with you. you sit at the intersection of a number of different things. you are a woman. you are a black woman. and you are a journalist. can you explain how, in trump 2.0, those three things impact your lens around story telling and around your safety as you're doing it? >> so, let's say this. first of all, politics is still a white male dominated space, okay? even though we've had a black president, a black vice president, you know, hakeem jeffries is over there on the hill as the minority leader. we have people like congressman
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james clyburn, but it's still a white male dominated space. so, that already puts me in a disadvantage. but when you have a president who is focused in on the other, it puts you at a disadvantage to a certain extent. in this moment, black journalists, black female journalists, or hispanic journalists, anyone that's not white male, i would say, you have to be strategic in your questions. it cannot be personal. it has to be fact-based. because if not, lawsuits, threats of jail even maybe. you really have to know what you're saying and know what you're doing when you go into this administration because we've seen -- we've seen this book before. but i think it's going to be harsher. it's 2.0. we saw -- i lived through 1.0.
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but 2.0 was harsh because this is now a president who feels that he can do what he wants to do. and journalists are no big thing to him. and right now, the way i understand it, they're still trying to figure out this dance with journalists in the briefing room with this incoming white house. >> you know, i'm reminded of the spirit of ida b. wells, as you talk about the responsibility that journalists have in this space, particularly journalists who look like me and you who are going to be in spaces that are likely hostile to them but still have to tell the truth. over the summer, you called out the decision to invite donald trump to that convention. you cited black journalists having to protect themselves from the very man they had on stage. how can organizations like nabj, nahj, the unity organizations, and others, how can they work to defend and to empower journalists over these next four years? >> and the white house
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correspondent association. don't forget that. that's the first group of the reporters, the advocacy group for reporters in the white house. what you have to do, you have to advocate. you know, you cannot genuflect, as i said before. if reporters are in trouble and it's fair, fact based, you've got to stand with them because it's not just that journalist. it's journalism at its core. if you go after one, you're going after all. if you do it to one, you do it to others. and we'll watch them fall down. this is where these organizations to include the nabj that i believe wholeheartedly in the premise of the group, has to stand for the black journalists that will be in the room. we've seen this before. i mean, even at the conversation with then-candidate trump at the nabj, you know, one of the journalists -- i'm not going to say who. you can figure it out -- got a lot of hate mail, hate email. i'm not going to go into what she was seeing, but it was a lot of hate. and she wasn't used to that.
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and she -- you know, i believe she had to get some protection at one point. but, you know, it's a very hostile environment already. but then you're going to add on the president of the united states who could say something that could incite someone who doesn't understand the process, who doesn't understand democracy and understand that journalism and journalists are just as patriotic as anyone else. it's part of the pillars of this country, the first amendment, not the second, not the third, the first. freedom of the press. >> for those who do not understand how serious an issue this is, there was recently a white man in colorado who was charged with second degree assault, biased motivated crime, and harassment for allegedly following a pacific islander journalist for 40 miles, berating and choking him while yelling, this is trump's america now. april, when you hear stories like that going into this
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administration, what steps are you taking or other journalists taking to make sure, if i'm on the road, if i'm out in public or covering a story, i am safe, my physical well being is being taken care of? >> i'm not going to get into what i do and how i deal with it. but what i will say is, you know, once the november 5th election did happen -- donald trump would be president of the united states. there was a massive number of people starting to show up at the white house gates. and especially that day when president-elect donald trump came back to the white house. a massive number of people welcomed back. this, that, and the other. people are coming up watching because many of the people who supported president trump are very much excited about him coming. but they're not necessarily excited about the media. so, secret service is watching,
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and we also have to watch as well. this is going to be a very different time to do our job. and i'm going to continue to do my job. look, charles, on january 13th, i'm 28 years in with this. ty is the longest serving black journalist at the white house. i didn't leave the first time, and i'm not leaving in 2.0. >> "how black women will save the world," i know that's right. april ryan, always a pleasure having you with us. thank you for your time on this sunday. next, chief justice john roberts' slippery slope argument is gaining attention but for all the wrong reasons. we'll find out why on the other side of the break. stay with us. f the break. stay with us my favorite babysitter is annalisa. she's pretty good, she's like my grandma. she says “hola cómo estás” and then we go skateboarding! from babysitters, to nannies, to daycare centers.
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( ♪♪ ) watch your step! with your monthly gift right now. that's why visionworks makes it simple to schedule an eye exam that works for you. even if you have a big trip to plan around. thanks! i mean, i can see you right now if that's...convenient. visionworks. see the difference. supreme court chief justice john roberts warns to judges
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nationwide. he also callsous intimidation -- while roberts rightly highlighted those threats, what he failed to do was to name one of their key sources, president-elect donald trump. for months we've seen trump repeatedly name call and target judges overseeing his mostly defunct criminal cases. and that, in turn, has appeared to inspire his maga fans to turn on him as well. reuters released a detailed report on prosecutors and judges in trump-related cases facing an uns precedented wave of threats and violence. trump's rhetoric doesn't only pose a threat to judges but also to civil rights organizations. these are organizations who rely on the justice system to present unbiased and fair rulings, free of intimidation and of threats, just as justice roberts has laid out. joining me now is the leader of one of those such organizations, janay nelson, president and
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director counsel of naacp. can you talk about in this moment how important it is to maintain an independent judiciary with everything else that is going on within government in america? >> it is of the greatest importance, and i'm so glad that we have an opportunity to talk about this. happy new year to you, charles. as we approach this second trump administration, we are reminded of the key role that the federal judiciary played in its first administration, where trump tried to enact new laws and push congress to adopt legislation. he tried to legislate by fiat through executive orders. and most of the challenges to his actions that were excessive, that were overreach, were in
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fact either overturned or somehow narrowed by the supreme court or lower federal courts. he only prevailed in about 22% of the nearly 250 challenges to some of his actions in his first term. and that means that our courts, our state and federal courts, mostly federal in that instance, played a significant role in restraining his overreach and his excess. and sadly, between that time and now, the american public has made very clear that it has lost faith in our judicial system. nearly two-thirds of the american public believe that the supreme court and our federal judiciary is not to be relied upon or they don't have faith in that system. and that means that this is a call to action for chief justice roberts to make sure that not only the supreme court but our federal judiciary in general is held to a high standard of integrity and that we not only call out what he rightly
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described as a rise in violence against the judiciary. that should not be counted in any democracy. but that we also look at the issues that are causing the american public to have doubt in the integrity and the impartiality and objectivity of our federal judges. >> janay, i want to zero in on the topic of dei and looking at not only what this administration has said about targeting that but then also using the supreme court's decision that essentially outlawed race-based consideration in admissions for higher education. these are policys that have allowed access to folks and literally with the stroke of a pen, that can be changed and people can be shut out. what are organizations like yours doing to use the courts, to use the judiciary within the next couple of years, to try and make sure that that access is maintained and those doors are kept open? >> well, we haven't given up on
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the challenges to defend race conscious admissions programs in k-12 cases and in other area of society where we know that there is historic discrimination and ongoing martyr discrimination that needs to be addressed. and the supreme court absolutely did what we think is an illogical move in overturning precedent and suggesting that you cannot consider race as robustly as you once could have in higher education admissions. but it also in more recent cases concerning military admissions and other k-12 circumstances, has not taken up those challenges. so, we hope that the court has reached a limit in how far it will go to overturn precedent that has helped make our multiracial democracy has strong as it is today. and it has created a pipeline of leadership that has given the united states the strength that it enjoys.
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and that is our diversity. so, we hope this is a stopping point. we know that the opponents to diversity, equity, and inclusion will not stop. but we hope that the court will hold firm in upholding these very lawful, race conscious policies and programs that are necessary to ensure that everyone in our society has equal opportunity and access. >> not sure whether we have the multi-racial democracy that we want, but hopefully we all continue to build it. i've got about 30 seconds for you, janay. what can you give as advice to anyone that wants to get involved in supporting organizations who are doing the work? >> well, first and foremost, please pay attention and think about the issues of disinformation and misinformation that can lead people to believe that what is right is wrong, what is up is down, and that things are not as they should be. we know what makes this country great. we know that our diversity is our strength. we know that when everyone has an equal opportunity to achieve
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that that is why we bring our best and brightest minds to solve the most difficult problems that our society and this world is facing. so, i ask that everyone get engaged. please come to the legal defense fund's website. follow us on our social channels, and get engaged. it's going to take everyone to build the multiracial democracy that we all deserve. >> and that is what you get when two civil rights attorneys get a chance to have a conversation. janay nelson, thank you. >> thank you. after the break, stacey plaskett has a voice, and she knows how to use it. you will hear her important remarks after this. her importan remarks after this -ga♪ ♪far-xi-ga♪ ask your doctor about farxiga. my name is brayden. i was five years old when i came to st. jude. i'll try and shorten down the story. so i've been having these headaches
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and the district of columbia were not called, representing collectively 4 million americans. mr. speaker, collectively, the largest per capita of veterans in this country. >> does the gentle lady have an inquiry? >> i ask why they were not called. >> that was u.s. virgin islands delegate stacey plaskett on the house story on friday. the america that many seek to make great again is one where people belonging to the territories mentioned are never given the full rights one should expect in a multiracial democracy. these territories represent a space where millions of american citizens are without real representation. the maga rights sit comfortably in their -- and that othering, they argue, makes it okay to treat nearly 4 million americans as less than full citizens by
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compromising their representation in congress and the senate. it's no coincidence that the people who inhabit these territories are largely people of color. and it's also no coincidence that most of the people booing plaskett were not interested in hearing what she had to say. without full access to government, citizens living in u.s. territories cannot access the same rights that we so often claim american democracy offers to all. the maga-nots of patriotism here it's both noticed and ironic. it's noticed in that it reeks of colonialism and broken promises like-in blaises like puerto rico, which were never intended to remain u.s. territories but have been annexed indeftly. and it's ironic in that republicans support the cry of no taxation without representation, which is the same principle that plaskett's question drives at. but at best, plaskett is asking a nuisance of a question.
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and at worst, she's un-american. because in asking, she dares to ask the question on behalf of other. thank you for making time for us. i want to thank ayman for having me in the seat. that's going to do it. you can catch ayman back here on msnbc saturdays and sundays at 7:00 p.m. you can also find us on blue sky and instagram. listen to every episode of ayman, just scan the qr code on the screen to listen wherever you get your podcasts for free and listen to other msnbc podcasts. subscribe to msnbc premium apple podcasts. starting tomorrow, my friend and colleague ali vitale is bringing her wide range of political expertise as the new host of "way too early." until we meet again, i'm charles coleman jr. shoutout to ayman's team for
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