tv The Beat With Ari Melber MSNBC January 9, 2025 3:00pm-4:00pm PST
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thank you for letting us in your homes once again during these truly extraordinary times. the beat with ari melber starts right now. >> we began as we've been covering, these terrible fires in and around los angeles, catastrophic in many places, the forecasters say the winds are picking back up tonight potentially spreading, the fires that have now killed five people. one man was found dead holding
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a garden hose. 180,000 now evacuated. the satellite images show you the devastation. we've been hearing from people living through it, we've seen individual photos and videos that show one or a few houses but this here, is the before and after of that area, the neighborhood, the pacific palisades, you can see basically the entire neighborhood areas are reduced to ash. the palisades fire destroyed thousands of structures, it's an contained, it is actually the most destructive in the history of los angeles. overnight, more fires were breaking out in the hills, this is an area just above los angeles landmarks, you hear about the hollywood walk of fame, this is in the hills just overlooking there. a lot of houses, from the walk of fame all the way up to those views. people saw from hollywood what
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that looked like, those are passerby's and people on the street, looking up at what are these damaging and uncontained fires, helicopters were used, you can see the top your screen, to battle the flames, residents returning home and finding their homes completely destroyed. >> you are looking at a wagon with some of your final items. how are you feeling? >> we are sad. it's heartbreaking. we never assumed we would lose our home. >> came back this morning and, gone, just absolute, the further you go up, it is just, and absolute wasteland. >> it's gone. it's all we got. i can't believe it. >> katie has been reporting on this as a journalist and as an individual affected by this, our colleague, discussing and
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reflecting on a fire that destroyed her childhood home. >> yeah, this was the living room we put a christmas tree in this corner right here and behind that was a bathroom that my dad set up a dark room for me as i love photography. >> it's no secret some of these areas of los angeles which is a big expensive city, high cost of living and has a lot of valuable real estate of big homes, so some of these areas are rather affluent, the economic losses could reach $50 billion and again, that is different than a wildfire in a forest which has its own risk and its own problems but this area, catching fire this way could make it the costliest wildfire in american history by economic metrics.
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we've also seen residents helped out by good samaritans including local reporters. >> is there anything we can do to help you, sir. >> you can take these paintings, i guess. >> listen, i will take them for you. i work at nbc. i will make sure that you get them. >> my photographer john has grabbed the last of the chickens, it's just one, one thing we can do. here is a vita holding them. i'm glad, i'm so sorry -- >> i'm sorry -- >> anything we can do, we are able to go back there and do what we can to help. >> it's a devastation on a massive scale and we still see the human side, people doing what little or what they can for each other. jacob, tell us what you are seeing as the day goes on. >> you saw in some of the
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footage of katy visiting her childhood home, that we were there together, katy and i grew up here together not only in l.a., but the palisades, we've been friends since we were 13 years old and to walk around, yesterday i went and saw the childhood home that i grew up in, destroyed as katy has said, it's the home of my memories and that's what it's like for katy, as well, it's awful, honestly, that a community, anywhere, on planet earth could meet the fate that the one the palisades did over the course of the last couple of days. it was effectively wiped off the map of this beautiful, wonderful 430+ square mile city called los angeles, the second most populous city in the country.
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part of the most populous county in the nation, los angeles county, the idea that that could happen is one that i think is hard for people to understand or comprehend but it is the reality at this moment, i think what people heard tonight, it was heartening that the federal government will step up and fill the gaps where the municipal and state government can't. and i know you mentioned the affluence of this area, it's also, which is the reason that the recovery may cost so much money but it's also an area of many working-class families who have lived here for generations, 2 to 3 of them, and in addition, the people who come here, whose livelihoods depend on this community, are numerous, maybe as many as thousands of people that had to evacuate, people that work in restaurants and in schools and in the grocery stores, and all of the places of business here.
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even for people in their homes, so i'm thinking about them as well, as the sun starts to set on the palisades tonight. >> sometimes the sort of view people have of los angeles like new york city, it's a place that any people know from movies and coverage and depictions and not necessarily living there. tell us about how this did hit an area that people think of as spread out, they think of the hollywood sign, in many areas, these are of course communities that in some ways can also look like any other neighborhood or densely packed area, parts of lar quite spread out, but palisades, hollywood hills, you've got a lot of houses, they may be on incline and have views but together it's a lot of houses and we've seen some of them absolutely insert in -- incinerated, blocked by block. >> you hit the nail on the head, ari, these is -- this is and urban area even though it's a spread out city, l.a. is a patchwork of quilts of
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many different neighborhoods and communities that has been put together to become this big, beautiful diverse city and when these homes, the structures are built so closely together, even these big houses, remember we live amidst nature, i don't know if you can take my full shot but i want to show you, you have eucalyptus trees in the background of where i'm standing right now, the landscape is dotted with them, and they went up like matchsticks, the sycamore trees, palm trees, the oak trees here, this is a wonderful lace to coexist with nature but that's the key word, it's a coexistence and it's a fragile one, mike davis, go read any of the writers that have written about the volatility of los angeles and what you are seeing that has played out over the last couple of days is part of the complicated relationship.
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>> stay safe, thank you. we've been monitoring this across these days and msnbc and right now the l.a. sheriff's briefing on the fires, let's listen to this. >> we will continue to work on the evacuation orders as soon as we can and we will give you more specific information because a big legal part of it is we have to notify our community of what it is and how that works. and just to wrap up for us, we have increased resources for our burglary and looting suppression, unfortunately, there have been crimes out there that have been reported to us by residents who have evacuated their homes. our deputies continue to do an amazing job of conducting humanitarian missions and they've had many, many rescues, and i do want to stress that the majority of the people
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there having to rescue out of homes and vehicles are individuals that chose not to evacuate. not only putting themselves in danger, but putting the first responders in more significant danger so please, you hear this over and over, when somebody tells you to mandatory evacuate, please evacuate. preliminarily, i know we are talking about 20 arrest, preliminarily, we have about 12 arrests, related to looting and the number hasn't been confirmed, we are checking that and we are also getting the number of about 16 and that is of the impacted areas throughout the county of los angeles but we will continue to collaborate, i'm in constant contact with the california office of emergency services. that's where we made the official request for the california national guard. i've been in communication with
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the commissioner of the california highway patrol. he's offered his assistance and we have deployed with his partnership or collaboration, multiple chp officers for traffic control around the area. my last item is this. if you have any questions about current evacuation orders or warnings, or the many street closures that we have here in los angeles county. please visit l.a. county.gov/emergency for updated information. and with that, i am going to now introduce the fire chief for los angeles county, best looking fire chief, tony maroney. >> thank you sheriff luna. i will limit my comments to an update for the easton fire, here in los angeles county, that's affecting the unincorporated community of altadena, in addition to the cities of pasadena, arcadia and
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sierra madre, we remain in unified command but we have added one unified command partner, cal fire incident management team three, has been assigned to the incident, to assist with recovery operations. recovery operations consists of trying to coordinate all of our human remain detection teams that will be going house to house to make sure that we can account for anybody who's been killed in the fire, also, setting up community recovery centers, they will also be doing damage inspection coordination for us. so the eaton fire is now estimated to be 13,698 acres, it's grown since our morning press conference because the fire is making a run towards the historic mount wilson area. we are still at 0% containment, but we now have a better
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estimation of the number of fire personnel assigned to the incident. we are now at 1527 personnel assigned, and like this morning, additional mutual aid resources continued to arrive, to assist in the firefight. this morning, we did have a firefighter suffered a significant injury in a fall. that firefighter is rescued test requesting comfortably, he's in stable condition, and he is expected to make a full recovery. we now have a confirmation that we have a potential for over 4 to 5000 structures damaged or destroyed. the definition of a structure could be a single-family residence, a multi family residence, a commercial occupancy, an outbuilding or a vehicle, so this morning i reported 1000, we are now
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reporting 4 to 5000 of those types of structures. the cause of the fire remains unknown and under investigation. the reason the sheriff is going to be reporting fatality information, because the cause of the fire is unknown at this time, if it turns out that this was an arson fire, any death that relates from an arson fire is concerted -- considered a murder and that lsd investigates those types of crimes. the number of resources assigned to this fire has increased significantly, and we are in a much better posture than we were on tuesday and wednesday. out-of-state resources continued to arrive in l.a. county and we are appreciative
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to all of our firefighters from throughout the western united states for providing assistance to los angeles county in our time of need. regarding the current red flag warning condition, as i stated this morning, it is going to continue for los angeles county and much of ventura county, through friday, but i think we all realize the winds have significantly diminished, after the pbs was canceled at 4:00 p.m. yesterday, so we are hoping that the weather is going to continue to cooperate so we can get some perimeter line in on the fire. i would like to invite up the operations section chief for california inter-agency incident management team five, don. >> good day everybody, like the chief said, i represent -- >> you're listening to briefing in los angeles. we heard from the fire chief,
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just then and right before that, we heard from the police chief, so we've gotten their latest information on what they are doing. curfews, fighting these buyers -- fires and trying to give the latest information. we will monitor the rest of the briefing in case there's any new information. i want to tell you what's coming up tonight because we have some extraordinary scenes today, in the official funeral for president carter, where you see there, that something we haven't seen in public and many years, former president obama and president-elect trump sitting together, vice president harris was just a couple of seats away as were the other former presidents and first ladies, we will get into president carter's legacy and some of those scenes. also the supreme court could weigh in literally any moment if they rule tonight or tomorrow morning, about what is expected to happen tomorrow morning, the tomorrow
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mo criminal sentencing of president-elect trump in new york. the coming up, have a special report for you in 90 seconds on all this talk about government spending and a check as we rninbegin g, era. new era. directly at the source. voltaren, the joy of movement. my moderate to severe crohn's disease... ...and my ulcerative colitis symptoms... ...kept me... ...out of the picture. now... ...there's skyrizi. ♪i've got places to go...♪ ♪...and i'm feeling free♪ ♪control of my symptoms means everything...♪ ♪...to me♪ ♪control is everything to me♪ and now... ...i'm back in the picture. feel significant symptom relief at... ...4 weeks with skyrizi. skyrizi is proven to help deliver remission... ...and help visibly improve damage.... ...of the intestinal lining at 12 weeks and 1 year. don't use if allergic. serious allergic reactions,... ...increased infections or lower ability to fight them may occur. before treatment, get checked for infections... ...and tb. tell your doctor about any... ...flu-like symptoms,or vaccines. liver problems leading to hospitalization... ...may occur when treated for crohn's or uc.
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from years back where there were jokes, captions and a word a company that now famous dog and his photo. while the cryptocurrency that i mentioned your started as a joke, it became a global phenomenon, kind of an approachable alternative to bitcoin, as forbes reports. the currency is called doge, about 3 billion+ dollars trades in this dog currency, this is the digital financial world we live in. and it's in the news tonight, i'll explain to exactly why because elon musk owns a bunch of this digital currency, you don't have to know the details, you don't have to have a strong view on whether cryptocurrency will matter or not in the future, just know that elon musk owns it and he uses his platforms and fame to promote it so that it might go up in value. and if elon musk is effective in the effort and makes money by promoting this digital product to his business activities, that's fine, perfectly legal. plenty of people both risk and make money that way. especially nowadays with a lot of stuff going on the internet. but elon musk is going a lot
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further. he wants big government help to make his money, you can call trump welfare or subsidies and some watchdogs call it a government graph but i'm showing of the dog for a serious reason, musk is rushing to use his influence in this incoming trump administration to get the government to promote the dog cryptocurrency. as a factual historical matter that's very unusual. now, there are plenty of outside groups which have advised presidents or the government including on spending, i will give you just a couple of examples, there is a debt reduction commission there's advisors on science this is deliberately dry or boring, you will you will notice these advisory boards which are for the public good are named based on what they do, they are not branded exxon
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or coca-cola, you don't see an exxon commission there, that gets the word exxon running around, even if you had a former exxon official involved. but elon musk is new spending advisory group has been named, doge, to promote the dog cryptocurrency that he wants to profit from. musk made that acronym out of different words, so they call it department of government efficiency, it's not actually a federal department but they wanted to get the d in there, you have to have congress if you want to create a department, but musk is trying to get free media and promotion any time any outlet, print, digital television, have to necessarily cover this incoming administration and what he says he's going to do as an outside advisor and they end up saying doge a lot which prevents -- promotes his crypto, which he owns. we will covered the advisory group when it's advisory but other than those fact checked we are not going to be
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referring to it, now, this is a somewhat common ploy by elon musk and i'm beginning with this not because it's a cute dog, not because we are trying to make some larger point but the coast, it is telling that this whole thing doesn't begin with a focus on you or saving you money or your tax dollars, it weekends quite blatantly, by promoting elon musk and his financial interest. if you look at what he did with x and twitter, his career, where he has done some impressive things, it wasn't about aclu and free speech but he has run twitter now to promote his self and his views, the reports about censoring critics and amplifying allies, it's his company and he can do that but it breaks those vows
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he made about free speech. there's a pattern here. a lot of talk about one thing and he does the self-interested business thing. the government you should remember also has a budget and accountability office which is supposed to deal with these things that has more power than the outside group that musk and other trump allies are on about spending. a budget expert who ran a key government post noted that this musk effort is more like a think tank because they don't control the scope of government, they can brainstorm, they can control and they have begun doing that. >> we expect mass reductions, we expect certain agencies to be deleted outright. >> we will be looking at everything from government- funded media programs like npr. >> we should be able to get our way with 99 industries. >> we are on the brink of to trillions, and he just lost the
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spending class headed into the new year if you were tuned out of the news, basically, he showed a misunderstanding of certain budget details and used his power to delay of bill but then it got past, but he did get a china rule gutted from the final package which, benefits his business, note the pattern. now he's begun changing some claims, he said it won't be necessarily $2 trillion in cuts. maybe he's learning as he goes. but if you actually follow u.s. news, you might already know what elon musk appears to be learning. because you probably have watched past battles about spending, from the gingrich era to the obama era, many talk about massive cuts. when you get into it, the big- ticket federal government spending items are well, things like this, trillions right, it's big money but on safety net programs like social security and healthcare, the united states military, defense,
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and then what you have to do which is servicing interest on the debt, many governments use that model of funding so everything on your screen are things that majorities tend to value or are basically required and you can't default on the interest. administration can cut other things, vowing giant cuts will run back into what i just showed you, things that trump even vowed to protect. now, we will be hearing a lot about this in the next few weeks especially when they take office and if you take a broader view, some of this is not specific to elon musk or donald trump, there are long- running clashes about the cost of the government, so let's take a look at that. have been big jumps in spending but if you notice, well both sides come into office and spend federal government money, what you're looking at, these are just facts and numbers as the budget by year and while there are multiple factors, to be fair, you will notice the big trump jump from the tax cuts and other things and trump wants to do more tax cuts, so
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there are valid policy trade- offs here, you can go across the recent history and talk about wanting to spend what, obama wanted to do obama care and there was spending on that, trump did what he did and there was spending on that, but the idea that one side is spending and the other isn't, that's false, and if you've heard or internalized republican talking points that somehow, they are not the ones spending and the deficit, the debt is someone else's fault, the numbers don't show that. republican administrations have grown this debt which you will now be hearing a lot about as an excuse or rational, trump allies, some of them are known
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for amassing money for themselves, not for you, not caring about the federal government, i will give elon musk this, it's a proven fact, he's very good at amassing wealth and building businesses but he's done that by pocketing money from those tax cuts i mentioned, people like him will benefit the most as they make the most, and he's taken plenty of government subsidies, and yet they are the ones complaining that other people with less money should be the one tightening their belts, it's an old story actually, we just now have new methods and mediums and internet hype about it, but they are saying/the money, just not their money. >> you put $90 billion like 50 years worth into solar and wind, this gear, tesla -- >> space x has already earned more than $19 billion from its prime contract with the government. >> two of musk's companies have
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over $50 billion in contracts with nearly a dozen federal agencies. >> now, that is just the factual history, and elon musk, who likes to name and promote things and clearly is good at communicating and getting people to talk about everything but what's on your screen is that he is financially tied to a bunch of government agencies, so he's taking a lot of this money and it may be valid, there's been a bipartisan history of working with him on some of his companies, and that's fine, but he also wants to make you believe that he has the mantle of this outside advisor who will just cut all kinds of spending or he's going to bargain with these agencies that he has a business relationship with which is a latent conflict of interest. in fact, it would be illegal to do what he's doing if he took a permanent a.k.a., real, government job and that may be why musk has held back on that. these are individuals who know how a lot of things work and
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they clearly want to be outside advisors to have it both ways, make a lot of noise, have influence over the very government that subsidizes them and their tax cuts and their business dealings or their china regulations but not going in full time where you wouldn't be allowed to do the double dipping. more broadly, elon musk who we've covered here because he's influential in many ways, has achieved certain things. certainly revolutionized part of the green energy car industry in ways that a lot of governments think is positive. he also has a well-known history of overpromising. >> we are going all the way to mars, i think. >> timeframe? >> best case, 10 years. >> is there a rough date for the mars landing in your mind? >> 11 to 12 years. >> tesla car next year will probably be 90% of autopilot. >> the system worked as described which is that it's a hands on system, it is not a
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self driving system. >> what's the purpose of having autopilot if you still have to put your hands on it? >> what's supposed to be shatterproof windows but against this metal ball -- >> maybe that was a little too hard. >> try telling that to another car, the windows were not shatterproof. again, the evidence in the market and in the production of all kinds of business products shows elon musk to be effective . both things can be true, he can be effective in that realm while still overpromising and under delivering at times and not necessarily be either an expert or a good faith advocate
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for you the taxpayer and the citizen about the spending. and you don't have to be a budget expert to understand the play, you've got someone saying, he's here to cut all the spending except, any of the spending that benefits him. and if you are concerned or wondering gosh, is this new group going to be on the level? they didn't even start out on the level, they started out promoting their crypto with what they think is a clever acronym. now, the expert i quoted earlier who noted some of the actual real world limits on this power, he served in the council of economic advisers for george bush. and he notes talking to recently the new york times, there is a kind of difference here as i showed you between a think tank style bluster and the actual control of the scope of government, the size of government, quote, they have the bully pulpit musk and them but that's true it, no real power. his name was douglas, he ran an entire federal budget office and, given his expertise, we think he is an ideal guest to join us right now. president of the american
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action form, he also directed the congressional budget office for the political side we are joined by, welcome to both of you. >> thank you. >> good to be here, ari. >> douglas, you have a lot of experience on this and as i mentioned, there's good faith, long-running policy debates about spending and all of that. you served in republican administrations. but let's start with what you told the new york times explain. >> well i think the numbers people hurt at the outset, we will cut to $2 trillion out of the budget, it's important to remember that literally, this group has not authority, the size of the federal government and the scope of the federal
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government is determined by the power of the purse, the regulatory burden and the staffing and execution agencies runs out of the executive branch and the constitution put it there. and this group can advise them, cajole them, plead with them, argue they had better ideas than the ones are going on right now, that's what think tanks do. i run a think tank and i realize there's elon musk and doug, but in the end, that is what they've got, and we have genuine federal bump -- budget problems that need to be addressed and they will be addressed by elected officials and those in the administration. the other thing i would say about this effort well two things, number 1, so far, it's all talk. we heard a lot of talk and i want to see what they do, their recommendations will be delivered by july 1st 2026, well over a year away, i'm curious to see what actually
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happens. we have the grace commission, similar hype, similar funding and in the end, it accomplished valuable things but they were a relatively small ball and it didn't change the trajectory of the federal government. the second thing is, there seems to be an obsession with the headcount, how many agents we have, federal government employees we have, and social security is not expensive because it has a lot of employees, it's expensive because we have a lot of seniors and to conflate those, it misses the point. >> let me ask you, do you think that is a misunderstanding because some of these people despite their other coppersmiths, might be budget rookies or do you think that is a political thing because you have done both, right? >> it's easy politics to say
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that. it's the same as saying, like the family sitting down at the kitchen table, the federal budget, 20% of the u.s. economy, it's huge, it's complicated, and to say it's like sitting down at the kitchen table is misleading, to say it's bureaucrats is really misleading. you really have to get to the nub of the issue, quite frankly, and one of the things i've noticed about businessmen coming into government and i say this lovingly, they are not always my best allies in policy making is that they don't understand that what they view as an extra cost, set aside for veteran firms, small business, set aside for female-headed firms, those are policy goals, those are extra cost, those are things that congress has deliberately put in there, so from the private sector, they think this is all wrong but that's not a bug, it's a feature, that's what we wanted to try and accomplish.
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>> i'm just going to put the dog back up on the screen, who doesn't love a dog meme? what does it tell you that they started from the jump by trying to grant or pocket a benefit out of their advisory board for a crypto that musk owns? >> it reminds me of the famous line from the tv show succession, you are not serious people. elon musk and vivek ramaswamy are not serious. this is entirely run the same way everything that elon musk has done in politics, it's primarily a social media entertainment and it's designed to enrich him but it is not a serious attempt to cut the
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federal budget or to improve efficiency or get rid of fraud and waste. elon musk nearly shut down the government a few weeks ago. he nearly toppled mike johnson as speaker and he did it taste on lies that he perpetuated on his platform about the continuing resolution including a pay increase for members of congress, a football stadium for the washington commanders, none of that was true but he put that out there and nearly shut down the government over it. that's exactly what this is going to be. this is going to be a lot of lies and overblown statements, and things like that designed to create content for elon musk and his social media platform. >> i've got 42nd, you ran the congressional budget office. what do you say to those listening about what is practical? >> it is practical to look for genuine waste, genuine fraud, it exists in the federal government, and genuine efficiencies, they spent three
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years putting together a student loan application for financial aid and it didn't work, these two minds could fix that, do some things that genuinely improve the efficiency of the federal government, that's what they should focus on. >> this is an important subject which can be dealt with in a more serious way. so douglas, chai, thank you for being with us tonight. we will continue to bring you the latest about the l.a. fires. l.a. fires.
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powering five years of savings. powering possibilities. comcast business. democrats gearing up to confront this new trump administration but also internal debates about when to fight and went to collaborate. >> we are going to fight on stuff. >> some things you can agree or disagree. that's how d.c. works. >> that does not mean that we will not aggressively look for common ground. >> i don't want to do four more years of resistance nonsense under donald trump, okay? >> debates over how to be an opposition party are especially cute for the democrats right
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now for the reason you know, republicans control congress and the white house and remember, when a political party is in power you know who's in charge. barack obama ran the democratic party after winning his presidential campaign and also ran the country. so the person who is actually named democratic party chair back then reported into obama and his team. it was just an extension of obama's party and democrats lost to trump and nancy pelosi was speaker, she was obviously the opposition party leader the democrat with the most power but when a party is shut out of the white house and congress suddenly the party chair role is more important, it's not just reporting in, they are trying to win the majority that the party doesn't have, wielding their own type of power, it was that role that republican chair michael steele had in 2009 when his party was shut out of the white house and he grew to prominence, you might know him now from media
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and politics because he held that role in a year when it mattered more because he was the republican party leader. he wasn't taking orders like obama's chair or the current rnc chair who, takes cues from trump, she's actually in his family. so that is the core point, that's why the chair matters now and that's why the coming meeting matters when normally obscure, party members the type of people that you see at conventions or other committee members, they will decide who runs the democratic party at this pivotal time and who decides what the fixes are for what happened in 2024. and even mulling a future that could go beyond the incumbent d.c. democrats, chuck schumer as a matter of reality, is not going to be in charge forever.
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the two front runners are party officials were known at the local level, ken martin and ben winkler and they are facing off of the most pivotal dnc chair race in years coming february 1st. and tonight we are joined by ken martin, one of the front runners, currently the chair of the minnesota democratic party, welcome. >> thank you, ra, great to be here. >> one of the things that democrats are frustrated with is the feeling that d.c. is out of touch and they can't get straight answers, there wasn't full honesty from everyone over the course of the last year, so let's start with your honesty test, why did the democrats lose the last election, what did they actually do wrong in your view, specifically? >> we are still trying to figure it out. we know that we lost ground with working-class household, with women, with latino leaders, with of course a whole host of demographics and what
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we don't know is how and why and we have to get to the bottom of it. >> you don't know why you lost ground with working-class voters? >> well, i have an idea why, and part of it starts with the perceptions of their party, there was some damning research last spring that showed for the first time in american history the perceptions of the two parties have changed, the majority of americans now believe the republicans best represent the interests of the working class and the poor, democratic party is the party of the wealthy and elite. we've got to do a better job of showing working-class household that we are going to stand up and fight for them. what i mean by working-class household, it's not code for white people, it's brett, blount and white people, feeling that they can't get ahead, feeling like they can't climb the economic ladder and
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they feel like our party has forgotten them, that's part of the challenge we have is that we've got to stand up and fight for them, and it's not just being president during an election year, showing up 3 to 4 months before the election asking for their vote. that's why i support year-round organizing and i support having presence in communities well before so we are building relationships with voters and giving them a sense that we are not just using them for their votes but we actually care about their lives and their hopes and dreams for the future. >> you referred to the perception, a big question for the party is whether that is largely perceptional it seeps into reality which doesn't mean every attack or every criticism is correct but there are liberals and progressives who say, it starts with the substance, here's how bernie sanders put it. >> if you are an average working person out there, do you really think the democratic party is going to the mat, taking on powerful special interests and fighting for you? the overwhelming answer is no, and that is what is going to
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have to change. >> is the perception or the reality, i think you know sanders is talking about the idea of taking on the healthcare industry rather than subsidizing it, taking on wall street in a way that democrats haven't and the substantive things, would lead to political difference? >> i agree with bernie on this, which is, people have to feel that the changes that you're advocating for are making a difference in their lives and here in minnesota, that's what we've done with the power we had we actually focused on an agenda that would help working- class people and we passed that in a package of legislation that's making a huge difference right now in the lives of everyday minnesotans. that's what a host of democrats are talking about. it's not enough to just say that you're going to do something. you've got to deliver, you've
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got to use the power you have when you have it to make the biggest difference. i think what's happened in american politics is people are disillusioned with both parties, who say one thing to earn your vote and when they get into power, they don't deliver. there are a lot of folks that are frustrated with what they are seeing in washington when people get elected to office and don't do a thing to help improve the lives of everyday people in this country. >> i remember paul wellstone, he would be pretty fired up or passed off, but he certainly was a leader and took a backseat to no one, ken martin i say this respectfully, we will find out soon if we will hear a lot more from you on the national level. thanks for joining us and letting people hear some of your plans for the party. >> mr. martin is running
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against another front runner, ben winkler, if he wants to come on the program, we've extended an invite to him. >> why is justice alito whose already scandal plagued is calling up the president elect? making hard to so easy. swiffer. wow. the mother of all cleans. love it or your money back! upset stomach iberogast indigestion iberogast bloating iberogast thanks to a unique combination of herbs, iberogast helps relieve six digestive symptoms to help you feel better. six digestive symptoms. the power of nature. iberogast. (sneeze) (hooves approaching) not again. your cold is coming! your cold is coming!
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in the hour. president-elect trump will be sentenced tomorrow, and the new york case, this is 10 days out from the inauguration. the supreme court has not stopped this yet, trump did make a last-ditch request that they would block tomorrow sentencing but as of this hour approaching 7:00 in washington, they have not spared him, the manhattan da, also of course wants to go forward tomorrow and say the supreme court would be taking an extraordinary step to intervene and what is still a pending case. to be clear the sentencing is a mark for trump that he wants to avoid and legally the court would have plenty of time later if they wanted to review whatever happens tomorrow. take a listen to the da at this press conference. >> a jury of ordinary new yorkers returned 34 guilty verdicts. our function right now primarily is to continue to be a voice and respect as a principal, a bedrock rentable of the administration of justice that the jury's voice must not be rubbed out.
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>> we've been covering how different people are responding to the election, business leaders, some democrats talking about looking for ways to collaborate. we just heard about and approach in more working-class interest but the law is not supposed to respond and you can see the da there holding strong, he is not wavering or allowing to the fact that donald trump will in the future be president, something we know because he was not convicted while president, he was convicted as a citizen and the da argues that the rule of law holds for all citizens. another story is the ethical questions raised by justice alito deciding to call up president-elect trump, even amidst what i just mentioned to you, the story that the supreme court has to act one way or another about this request from trump and they are having this sidebar. a top judiciary member is saying that alito should recuse
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because of what is a private call that is highly unusual. we don't know exactly what they discussed because it was confidential. and then there's another big story brewing for tomorrow, remember how big a deal it was when the molar report came out? everyone is awaiting a possible release of the smith report about the january 6th who investigation. remember, we have a new president coming but he's not president yet, and right now the attorney general is still using the powers he has and merrick garland says they plan to release the report on the ku effort in the case that was going to proceed against donald trump. he has been spared that result, so that is a plan for as soon as tomorrow. the federal criminal trials were dismissed but the reports matter because we've seen a lot of evidence and facts that can come out and a reckoning for history. those are two updates we didn't get to it until now. i will close with a story
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that's been on the minds of so many americans and that really is living history, and the death of a president. the jimmy carter funeral, for the former president was held today at the national cathedral. and while many have spoken and reflected on president carter's legacy both in and after the office, what you see on your screen as part of the extraordinary visuals, this is something you literally almost never see, it takes the death of the president but look who's all seated together, you have the former presidents, bush, clinton obama and trump in a row. it's the only time that you will see that because even trump who discarded so many norms, he made the choice to come and attend the funeral. you can see and there sitting next to president obama and right in front of him, one row away, kamala harris and the second gentleman. in the row in front of trump is
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the candidate that he beat. there, you see them altogether and you see kamala harris and the second gentleman. earlier in the service we can tell you trump did something he has not done in public in a very long time, he shook hands with his former vice president, mike pence. again, that is of course the honorable thing to do at the funeral. those two men have been estranged ever since donald trump oversaw the attack on the capitol which included public calls to assassinate is vice president. president carter laid to rest tonight, in his hometown in plains, georgia. and that's where we and our broadcast honoring and saluting the former president.
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